{"id":965488,"date":"2024-04-12T20:59:46","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T16:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ipna.ir\/?p=965488"},"modified":"2024-04-12T20:59:46","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T16:29:46","slug":"moretti-it-was-absolutely-crazy-how-the-us-discovered-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/?p=965488","title":{"rendered":"Moretti: It was absolutely crazy how the US discovered me"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 21-year-old New Yorker set off for a dream trip to Perugia with her family. Cynthia Alston\u2019s mind raced with excitement during the 12-hour flight from JFK to San Francesco d’Assisi Airport. She fantasised about seeing the Holy Trinity \u2013 frescoes by Renaissance painters Raphael and Pietro Perugino \u2013 at the Cappella di San Severo; sipping Garibaldi and Negroni cocktails in enchanting piazzas<\/em>; visiting the Etruscan Arch, Galleria Nazionale dell\u2019Umbria and Rocca Paolina; and tasting the Baci chocolates, black truffles, cave-aged Pecorino cheeses, cured meats and Stringozzi pasta for which the region is renowned. The last thing in her thoughts \u2013 especially given that she was accompanied by her parents \u2013 was romance. Then her eyes met with those of a medical student from Jesi, a medieval town outside Ancona. It was love at first sight. In the blink of an eye, she swapped single life for marriage and \u2018The Big Apple\u2019 for the boot-shaped peninsula. Cynthia and Carlo Moretti have been blissfully bonded for the 53 years since. Andrea and Diego, the couple\u2019s two sons, grew up wanting to spend time in their mother\u2019s birthland. The former did. He completed a master\u2019s degree at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and went on to live and work in New York for seven memorable years. Diego\u2019s target was to finish a political science degree in Bologna and then go on to do a sporting scholarship in the States. Just as it had for his mamma<\/em>, however, one dream transformed into another. He abruptly ended his education, and hopes of living in the USA, by accepting an offer from a professional futsal club when he was 19. For the next 18 years he enjoyed an admirable career as a goalkeeper in Italy\u2019s top division. \u201cI always felt I made the right decision,\u201d he said, \u201cbut there was a part of me that was sad that I never got to live in the States.\u201d Then, in 2020\u2019s infancy, he got an out-of-the-blue alert on Messenger that would shake his world and relieve his regret. It was enquiring to whether he had an American passport. The response was affirmative. Astonishingly, 15 minutes later, Dusan Jakica, the coach of USA\u2019s relaunched futsal team, was on the phone. Moretti would go on to heroically inspire USA to their first FIFA Futsal World Cup\u2122 since 2008 and captain them at Lithuania 2021. The 42-year-old tells FIFA<\/strong> his mind-blowing story, and discusses Team USA\u2019s hopes at the upcoming Concacaf Futsal Championship, which offers four tickets to the global finals in Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n

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FIFA: Growing up, you always wanted to live in the USA for a period, right?
\nDiego Moretti: My mother\u2019s two sisters live in New York. I have a lot of cousins across the States. My brother studied there, did a master\u2019s degree and worked in New York for seven years. I always thought I would end up there for a while. My passion is sport. I used to play up front in soccer, as a wing in handball, and I played tennis. I thought the States would be a great opportunity for me to play and study sport. But I started playing futsal when I was 17 and when I was 19, I got a call to play for a professional team in the top division. I was studying political science in Bologna at the time, but I had to give it up. I think I made the right decision, but I was always a little bit sad I never got to go to the States. Getting called up by the US was the perfect way to make up for it. I feel very lucky.<\/p>\n

It was a crazy situation. There was a guy I didn\u2019t know called Nicholas Silvestri. He has a futsal academy. He contacted me on Messenger saying, \u2018You have an American passport, right?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yes. Who are you?\u2019 He explained, asked if he could pass on the information to the US head coach, and asked if I had a video I could send him. I asked if he knew the coach. He said no. So I\u2019m thinking, \u2018There\u2019s absolutely no chance anything will come of this\u2019, but I sent him the video anyway. Fifteen minutes later the phone rings. To my disbelief, it was Dusan Jakica, the US head coach. He said, \u2018Do you really have an American passport?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yes, but it\u2019s expired, I need to renew it.\u2019 He said, \u2018Send me all the information and I\u2019ll sort it. We have a camp in Croatia in the next 20 days.\u2019 It was crazy. Can you imagine playing futsal for 20 years and, 15 minutes after sending a video to a random person, you get a call from the US national team coach? It was absolutely crazy.<\/p>\n

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\n

At your first tournament, the Concacaf Futsal Championship, you helped USA return to the World Cup for the first time since 2008 and finish runners-up up in the region\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

When I first got called up, I was playing for Padova in the Italian first league. I got to the camp and I was the only professional futsal player. Then COVID came. We ended up jumping into the Concacaf [Futsal] Championship with no experience. I didn\u2019t know any of my team-mates. We had no idea what level we were at, no expectations. It was incredible because we qualified for the World Cup and reached the final against Costa Rica. We lost 3-2 but the whole tournament was magical, amazing.<\/p>\n

\n

What was your Lithuania 2021 experience like?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

It was one of the most emotional things in my life. Two years earlier I couldn\u2019t have even imagined I would be playing at a World Cup. It was hard to believe. Being in the US jersey, hearing the national anthem was a huge honour. We got beat heavily in our first game, but what do you expect? We were mainly indoor players and we were playing against the world champions. That World Cup is something I\u2019ll remember for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

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\n
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You\u2019re now in Nicaragua for the Concacaf Futsal Championship. Is USA\u2019s aim to simply to qualify for Uzbekistan 2024, or do you want more?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

Personally, I want to take revenge against Costa Rica. That\u2019s what I\u2019m here for. I know that opportunity will only come in the semi-final or final, so first I\u2019m only thinking about our opening game against Trinidad & Tobago. Our first objective is to get out of the group, and then to win the quarter-final, which is like a final because there\u2019s a place at the World Cup on the line. If we can get to the semi-finals, we want to go for the title. It will be very difficult because Costa Rica and Guatemala have professional leagues. They practice every day. Most of our players play indoor soccer, which is a completely different sport. You don\u2019t have kick-ins, corner kicks, set-pieces. Thirty per cent of goals in futsal are scored from set-pieces. In Europe it\u2019s 35 to 40 per cent. It\u2019s because professional teams work very hard on mastering them. If you don\u2019t have this benefit, imagine how much you lose? I\u2019m a good futsal goalkeeper. Do you think I could go and play indoor? No. I would need time to transition. I would need to practice every day. Then, maybe, after a while I could be able to play that sport. That said, if we can secure qualification for the World Cup, we\u2019ll give it our all to win the title.<\/p>\n

\n

Do you feel USA are better than you were three years ago?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

Yeah, without doubt. The roster is completely different from three years ago. There are only four players here who were with me in Guatemala. We\u2019re not sure what level we\u2019re at. But it\u2019s the same for the other teams \u2013 they have a lot of new players as well. We have to adapt quickly, get our confidence, but I\u2019m sure we have a lot more quality than we had three years ago.<\/p>\n

I knew Lucho because he plays in Italy. When I found out he had an American passport, I started asking friends who had played with or against him what he is like. So I kind of discovered him together with Dusan Jakica. When we saw Lucho at the first camp, we were very excited. When you see a player who knows how to play the game and has Lucho\u2019s ability, you know how much he is going to improve the team. Now he’s 29. He\u2019s now got a lot of experience to go with his talent. He also has a good personality.<\/p>\n

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\n

Luiz Morales has been in fine goalscoring form\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

He’s a very well-rounded pivot. He can turn right, left, shoot with both feet. He makes the game look easy. He plays at a high intensity, has a good mentality. We also have [David] Ortiz, Sebastian [Mendez]. These players can make a big difference for us.<\/p>\n

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What do you think USA have the potential to achieve in futsal?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

I think futsal has huge potential in the United States. I\u2019ve been to Portland, Dallas. They have impressive academies, great infrastructure. Kids start playing futsal when they are really young, which is so important to grow the sport. However, the most important thing is to create a league. You might have talented players, but if you don\u2019t have a league, they\u2019re going to go and play another sport. You can\u2019t play futsal now and again and compete against players who play all the time. But I believe they\u2019re going to create a league. They love sports like basketball where a team is losing with only seconds to go and they can turn it round and win. I think they\u2019ll love futsal here once it catches on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 21-year-old New Yorker set off for a dream trip to Perugia with her family. Cynthia Alston\u2019s mind raced with excitement during the 12-hour flight from JFK to San Francesco d’Assisi Airport. She fantasised about seeing the Holy Trinity \u2013 frescoes by Renaissance painters Raphael and Pietro Perugino \u2013 at the Cappella di San Severo; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":965502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,26798],"class_list":["post-965488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-ipna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=965488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/965502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=965488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=965488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=965488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}