The Amputee World Cup is very similar to the regular World Cup. Teams play round-robin within groups before top finishers advance to the elimination rounds. The US drew Group E which includes Iran, Japan, and highly regarded Turkey. I decided that today would be the best day for a team photo, anticipating that players will be increasingly banged up and sun burned with each passing day. This is the strongest team the US has ever fielded although our goalies are both rookies and late additions to the squad.

The US faced Japan in their opening match. The game was scoreless at the half with the US squad looking more dominant. Midway through the second half, our goalie was red-carded for stepping outside of the box and Japan was given a penalty kick. This infraction is unique to amputee soccer, designed to keep goalies from thwarting break away opportunities. In this case our goalie lost track of where he was, took two steps outside of the box, made no contact with the ball (which went out of bounds by itself) or any players. His excursion had no effect whatsoever on the play but the consequences were devastating. We lost our starting keeper for this match and the next one and had to play a man short for the remainder of the game (much more punitive than regular soccer with only 6 field players to a side.) Our backup keeper got his first dose of amputee soccer facing a penalty kick from 7m which he was unable to save. Despite being down a man, the US still dominated for the remainder of the match but were unable to equalize the score. Nico had a great game and Maya captured the full match on video which I will post when we return to the US.

Opening ceremonies were held in the evening and included remarks by tournament officials and local dignitaries, introduction of the teams, a performance of traditional Mexican dance, all culminating with fireworks.