It all started on a random weekday. I was talking with my dad about The World Cup and how I felt that this year, the game was going to be different from the others. However, I never thought that football would be capable of uniting an entire country.

To put the situation of my country into context, Argentina has been going through a big economical and social crisis which has generated a very strong political division within the country and has forced a lot of people to emigrate to other countries.

However, the day that The World Cup started, we were all one: one country, one passion. Football: that was the only thing that mattered. But the Argentinians were not the only ones who united themselves, the players also had to start thinking of themselves as a group and not only as individual players in order to win. Through social media, our players allowed us to learn more about their experiences from their everyday life as a team in order to generate empathy in Argentinians. The families and friends of the players showed us, also via social media, that they are human beings, just like everyone else. Such was the case for the former player, Kun Aguero, who was left out of the competition because of a physical problem, but, nevertheless, through live broadcasts, worked to sustain the team so that viewers could feel as though they were closer than ever to their idols.

Game by game, all of us, who had been living through a crisis, began to feel that there was hope, that this time it was going to happen. And when the final match was over, we all took to the streets to hug and sing together, despite our political differences.

What we Argentines take away from these experiences is not only the memory of a couple of football matches; we also take the values: the value of family, of being a good friend, and of working together because at the end of the day, unity makes us stronger. And above all, the pride of being Argentine is always there.