Memory Trigger

I can remember when I was little and my parents huddled our family around the television and we watched the U.S. womens national soccer team win the world cup against China on penalty kicks. Watching the national anthem play before the game and how the camera panned over the whole team as they stood their trying to control their emotions. After that I signed up for soccer the next fall and what first exposed me to the sport. I now have another memory and feeling that comes with hearing the national anthem play. This last spring during the state semi-final and subsequent final they played the national anthem and I felt like I imagined the U.S. womens national team felt. Having worked so hard for so long and to have all the at stake for one final game the pressure was intense. I will never forget trying to casually sing along with the anthem in an attempt to calm my nerves as an influx of adrenaline coursed through my entire body. Now whenever I hear the national anthem play before any soccer game and the camera pan across the teams my memory triggers that same feeling of adrenaline and I can hear my captain and best friend's pregame speech getting us fired up for the game.

I am curious how the other team who we played feels when the hear the national anthem. Having been the obvious favorite in the final and having lost for the first time all season I wonder if the national anthem now brings on a negative trigger for them. I have looked and thought about that game countless times and almost everything I can think of it is positive, it would be interesting to compare with a player from the losing team how they remember it and if they have equal amounts of negative feelings toward it. It was later reported by one of their players that they overlooked my team and thought they had won state by beating one of the other favored teams in the semi. My teams mentality was that we had nothing to lose and everything to gain, their mentality must have been the opposite. With being such a heavy favorite and an undefeated record they must have come in with a completely different mindset then that of my team. I hope that I get a chance to meet one of the other players again and pick their brain on the subject, although they might not be as happy to remember that game as I will.