Living the dream

Playing in a World Cup is something that many soccer players all over the world dream of doing one day. But this dream is a feat that is commonplace in the Sarkodie household where brothers Kofi and Ofori live. Both play for the U.S. Men’s U-17 and U-20 World Cup teams, respectively. \nOfori, the older of the two and a sophomore defender for the IU men’s soccer team, said he has been trying to set a good example for his younger brother Kofi.\n“I’ve been trying to be a role model for him since he started with the 14-U,” Ofori said. “I told him to look at my mistakes and look at my successes through the past years in my career and use that to his advantage to become a better player, and he’s been amazing.”\nOfori Sarkodie was part of the U-20 U.S. Men’s National Team during their recent World Cup run in Ottawa, Canada. There he helped lead the team to wins against the likes of Poland, Brazil and Uruguay, before being defeated by Austria in the tournament quarterfinals.\nThough Sarkodie was a major contributor for IU in his freshman year and trained with the MLS team, the Columbus Crew, during the off-season for the past three years, he said he was excited to get the call letting him know he was officially on the U.S. team.\n“When I first got the official call from (men’s U-20 coach) Thomas Rongen, I was extremely excited and proud to represent my country on that level and so excited to play with such a talented group of guys,” Sarkodie said. “To get to showcase my own talents within that team was such a privilege, and to have my family come up and be able to watch me play against some of the best teams in the world at that level, it was an amazing experience.”\nSarkodie, who usually plays in 5,000-seat Bill Armstrong Stadium , competed in front of a sold-out crowd of 26,500, in America’s cup win against Brazil in the group stage. He said it was a different, but great, experience.\n“The atmosphere is unlike anything you’ve ever played in front of before,” Sarkodie said.\n“You have this feeling of pride and nationalism,and you get the tingles in the stomach. It’s an amazing experience to see so many people come out and support their country, support the players and support the game of soccer.”\nThe sense of pride and representing the U.S. that Sarkodie said he felt didn’t stop with him, as IU men’s soccer coach Mike Freitag said he was proud to see his talented defender participating in such a prestigious event.\n“When your player is on the(World Cup) team, you are proud for them and proud of the fact that they’ve been in your program,” Freitag said. “You hope that you’ve had some type of an effect on them, but ultimately, it’s them who got themselves there.”\nSarkodie’s teammate, junior goalkeeper Chay Cain , said Sarkodie will be a tremendous asset this season to the Hoosiers given his international experience.\n“He’s going play a huge role this year, because with guys we have, he’s probably one of the only guys who has that international experience,” Cain\nsaid. “We’re going need him to step up for us in tight situations and help our team get through this since he’s been through it before.” Sarkodie said what he wanted to take away from his experience was to grow as a player.\n“The main thing I wanted to take away (from the World Cup) was my development,” Sarkodie said.\n“As a player, what am I learning and where do I plan on being three months or three years down the road?\nAnd this is a step closer to being a national team player for our full team and my dreams of playing as a professional athlete either here or in Europe.”