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A Christmas wish from his 11-year-old daughter turned into the trip of a lifetime for Hollister’s Edgar Arce and his family, who squeezed two FIFA World Cup matches, and a youth soccer tournament and Lake Tahoe trip into an unforgettable week this summer.
The Arces traveled to Houston, Texas, on June 17 to watch one of the first Group K group-stage matches between Portugal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo at NRG Stadium. One week later, they attended the final Group D group-stage match between Australia and Paraguay at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on June 25.
In between, the family made a stop in Lake Tahoe so their 11-year-old daughter Maliyah Arce could compete in a soccer tournament.
“This all started when my daughter asked me for tickets to the World Cup during Christmas,” Arce said. “It was on her Christmas wish list, and me being a big soccer fan, I was just finding an excuse to make that experience happen.”
He and Maliyah are big Cristiano Ronaldo fans.
“The Portugal game was definitely my favorite,” Arce said. “Watching Cristiano Ronaldo play. The vibe. It was at a stadium we’ve never been to. Houston was the best experience between the two matches we attended.”
“My favorite match was the Portugal one,” Maliyah said. “My favorite moment from the game is when I met IShowSpeed.”
Between World Cup matches, Maliyah competed in the CUFA Tahoe Summer Tournament with the Hollister Tremors from June 20-21.
“The Houston game was on Wednesday. We flew back home on Thursday, traveled to Lake Tahoe that weekend, came back home on Tuesday and had the second World Cup game on Thursday,” Arce said.
Arce said his daughter has been playing with the Tremors for five seasons, and it was the second year their family traveled to the tournament. The Tremors won the tournament, and the family traveled home with some new hardware.
“This was a peak experience for me,” Arce said. “I am a big soccer fan. I buy the new jerseys every World Cup, I follow my local Mexico team, I coach my daughters, and I played soccer when I was little and through college. Being at the World Cup was the cherry on top of the cake for me.”
Arce played soccer for Gilroy High School and Gavilan College in Gilroy.
“It was just the best experience, and I want to be able to top it at the next World Cup,” Arce said.
“I want to be able to make it happen again, and hopefully I can continue the tradition with my kids.”
“I loved being there with my family, making memories and experiencing this with them,” Maliyah said. “It was amazing.”
In addition to attending World Cup matches, Arce said he hopes to travel with his family to Guadalajara, Jalisco, in Mexico to watch his favorite team, Club América, play against its rival, CD Guadalajara, also known as Chivas.
The BenitoLink Internship Program is a paid, skill-building program that prepares local youth for a professional career. This program is supported by Monterey Peninsula Foundation AT&T Golf Tour and Taylor Farms.
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