San Francisco soccer league Girls Got Goals ready for World Cup in Bay Area

With the World Cup coming to the Bay Area, local youth players say they’ve been waiting for this moment their whole lives.

For 13-year-old Aaliyah Prieto, soccer is more than just a game. It’s a feeling. Watch her play and you just might feel it too.

“I love soccer. It’s such a good sport. It’s the ball, when you’re running, when you’re kicking – almost like a rush,” she said.

When she plays, Prieto is all business. Just minutes into practice she scored a rather impressive goal. Prieto is part of a free after-school league in San Francisco’s Mission District, aptly named Girls Got Goals, where many come from lower-income families.

But right now, it’s not the championship that has her all fired up. It’s something bigger.

“I’m pretty excited about the World Cup,” Prieto said. “Me and my dad love watching it. If we could go in person, we would. It’s really expensive though.”

Soccer fever is sweeping the country. And nowhere more than in the Bay Area, host to six World Cup games.

If history is any indicator, this summer could give the sport just the kick it needs. The last time the World Cup came to the United States in 1994, it literally helped create Major League Soccer. The league started with ten teams. Today there are thirty.

In the Mission District, where soccer has always been more religion than recreation, the buzz is at a whole other level.

Ariel Esqueda, who’s run Girls Got Goals for nearly two decades, said for these players, many from families who came here from Latin America where soccer is everything, the World Cup landing in their backyard gives them something they don’t always get: a leg up.

“Statistically, girls who plays youth sports they perform better academically. Their confidence skyrockets,” she said. “It’s definitely a catalyst. They knwo there’s potential out there, whether it’s scholarships, whether it’s being able to have access or connections,” she said.