Soccer,+The+National+Sport+of+Bolivia

= SOCCER =

Soccer is Bolivia's national sport and is played everywhere from the park to the street corners. Bumper stickers and team shirts allow citizens to show their pride for their favorite team. Some games are played at the stadium in La Paz, where the Bolivian teams often have the advantage due to the altitude. However, they have lost the majority of their games at the international level. (2) "In the 1994 World Cup qualifying tournament, the Bolivian team notched up a whole series of good results. They beat the Brazilians 2-0, Uruguay 3-1, and then traveled to Venezuela, where they hit seven goals past the home team. These victories helped Bolivia become one of the 24 nations to qualify for the World Cup finals in the United States. Just getting to the World Cup was a great achievement, and successes on the soccer field was seen as a symbol of the new mood in the nation." (2)

Soccer is not played just on the professional level. Many men play for recreation, but very few women do. The more advanced players belong to local teams that have uniforms and fields of mud and sand. The less serious players tend to just have kick around games in the park. These games are generally played on concrete the size of a basketball court with 4-5 players a team. The game ends when someone scores and the winners stay on to play the next opponents.(2)