An Au Pair Made My Family Obsessed With Argentina’s World Cup Run

When an au pair from Argentina joined my household in 2022, I anticipated handy childcare and a cordial friendship.

I didn’t count on to get up at 4 within the morning to look at her nation play in the World Cup. In any case, my household had by no means even watched a complete soccer sport collectively.

However by the top of the match, we had been portray our faces blue and white, placing photographs of Kylian Mbappe within the freezer, and watching the video games on cellphones within the grocery retailer.

With out warning, we had grow to be Argentina fanatics.

We watched Argentina win the 2022 World Cup

The night time earlier than the semifinals, my husband, daughters, and I made a decision to show our crew spirit. We lower triangles from printer paper on the kitchen desk. Then we crammed every pennant with drawings of sky-blue stripes, golden suns, and makes an attempt at soccer balls and threaded the entire thing onto a size of sunshine blue yarn.

The following morning, we hung the bunting above the tv, guaranteeing it will be one of many first issues our au pair, Yulca, would see when she awoke.

Just a few days later, with Argentina heading for the final, Yulca rigorously packed the bunting as we traveled for early household Christmas celebrations. We draped it alongside my dad and mom’ fire mantle, hoping Santa may grant an early want.

We watched on the perimeters of our seats by means of each minute of standard play, each minute of additional time, and each kick of the penalty shootout. When Gonzalo Montiel scored the ultimate penalty, Argentina had received probably the most dramatic matches of all time.

Yulca collapsed into tears. Video calls poured in from family members celebrating within the streets again residence. My dad, who had patiently sat by means of each minute of the match, was lastly free to vary the channel.

Amid the chaos, I opened my telephone and ordered a last-minute Christmas present: an official Argentina championship jersey. The $120 price ticket was far past something I would purchase for myself, however I knew we might simply skilled a second price commemorating with stripes, embroidery, and the all-important third star.

Our au pair taught us about her tradition

Over the following 9 months, Yulca confirmed me the way to fold empanadas and taught us the many guidelines of ingesting mate. She wore the jersey on a regular basis, a logo of each her Argentine pleasure and the shut relationship she’d developed with our household.

When Yulca returned to Argentina in 2023, one thing unusual occurred: the lady who sobbed when her brother referred to as from the streets of their hometown was homesick for the USA. We exchanged messages and voice notes nearly day by day, bridging the space even once we could not go to one another. Sadly, air travel to Argentina is wildly costly.

However in 2025, a flash sale on tickets to Buenos Aires confirmed up on Instagram someday once I was feeling financially reckless. A dream journey that had all the time felt too costly was all of the sudden inside attain. The tickets even included additional baggage, which was excellent for hauling a big suitcase of Yulca’s gadgets throughout the equator.

Earlier than I knew it, my daughters and I had been boarding a airplane.

We flew to Argentina to go to our au pair

Once we arrived in Yulca’s small hometown in northern Argentina, the primary order of enterprise was to unpack the oversize suitcase. Earlier than the journey, I would searched the nooks and crannies of my home to search out every thing she wasn’t ready to slot in her suitcase when she’d returned residence.

I would packed a particular merchandise proper on prime: the do-it-yourself World Cup bunting. The recollections of watching the World Cup collectively flooded again as we hung it over her bed room window, 5,000 miles away from the place we final cheered for Argentina collectively.

However my daughters and I wanted our personal reminders of that World Cup. So, we made our strategy to downtown Posadas to buy Messi jerseys.

Now, Yulca wears her American-purchased jersey in a small city in Argentina, and I am carrying my knockoff in North Carolina. After washing mine simply a few instances, the decals are visibly cracked, and the backing of the embroidered brand would not lie flat.

However each time I put on this $12 jersey that price almost $7,000 in journey to get, I smile as I say to myself: there’s nothing extra Argentine than a pretend jersey from Paraguay.

As we get able to cheer for la Albiceleste from two completely different hemispheres, the third stars on our jerseys symbolize a long-awaited victory for Argentina.

For us, the celebs are a bodily reminder of the monthlong soccer match that cemented a friendship sturdy sufficient to span 5,000 miles.