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Announcing the 2008 United States National Homeless World Cup Team!

Players Celebrate



The 8 person roster was chosen on the basis of soccer ability, personal achievements off the pitch, and positive spirit. In the end we wanted the best goodwill ambassadors for the tournament in Melbourne, Australia.


1 Tad Christie, Austin, TX


2.Tim Cummings Charlotte, North Carolina


3.Cornelius Cruz, Santa Rosa, California


4.Densi Diaz, Los Angeles California


5. Johnny Figueroa, Los Angeles, California


6. Loyal Hunter, Minneapolis, MN


7. Diego Vivieros, New York, New York


8. Jeremy Wisham, Atlanta, GA

HUGS

Just a sampling of the weekend's hugs.

Tournament Moments in Pictures

Okay, one more autograph!

Parade

Edwin of LifeWorks in Austin, TX

St. Louis Roadies

Top Attacker Alvin Soto and Top defender Johnny Figuerao on the Field at RFK
TEXAS!
Rob Cann gives a penalty demo

Coach Andrea of impressive LA schemes ahead of the next match
Jose of Minneapolis and the Conch

Kazam of DC
Marlin of Hot-Lanta
Live Action
Jovenes of LA
The Dragon Appeared
D-Bone in the Washington Post Column by Mark Wise.
North Cackalacki

Inside the Booth. All purpose announcing and volunteering crew . . . Patrick Wu, Lawrence Cann, Jeremy Goldberg, and Zach Leonsis
Chino is a local Street Sense vendor who filled in for San Fran. Nice Technique!
Inside the Washington DC Huddle
Host with DC FLAG

Kicking it off!

National Coalition for the Homeless ED, Michael Stoops, Ted Leonsis, Ed Foster-Simeone of the US Soccer Foundation, and Lawrence Cann and Rob Cann of Street Soccer USA symbolically kicked off the Homeless USA Cup 2008.

The ball used was the Kevin Carrol Red Ball which has come to symbolize the sports for social change movement and Kevin’s mantra, “a ball can change your life!”

Mark Ein, who hosted us in his World Team Tennis Stadium rolled out the first ball in the openning match.

We also want ot the thank NIKE whose representatives could not make it to help us kick off the tournament, but whose LET ME PLAY campaign outfitted all our players with top of the line gear for the tournament, including balls, shinguards, goalie gloves, you name it . . .

Opening Ceremonies: Big Names Show Big Support

Mayor Fenty gave a warm and inspiring welcome to the players. Mark Ein, owner of the Washington Kasltes world team tennis franchise presented him with as Street Soccer USA polo.

Ted Leonsis, Ed Foster-Simeone, president of the US Soccer Foundation, and Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, and Lawrence Cann also addressed the players and spectators.

Overall Standings: Third Place goes to Charlotte, NC

Charlotte outlasted Anne Arbor to take third place overall in the tournament

Here are the final standings. Call them the Street Soccer USA National Rankings:

1. Minneapolis, Minnesota (youthlink mn)
2. Los Angeles, CA (jovenes)
3. Charlotte, NC (Community Works 945 of the Urban Ministry Center)
4. Ann Arbor, MI, (Port)
5. Atlanta, GA (Homeless Task Force)
6. San Francisco (Spitfire Soccer Acadamy)
7. Washington, DC (Street Sense, National Coaliton for the Homeless)
8. Richmond, Virginia
9. New York, (HELP USA)
10. Austin, TX (lifeworks, the arch)
11. St. Louis, MO (peter and paul’s)

Becks VS DC United

Look how close we were to Becks. And check out the Becks' fan club--HILARIOUS.

DC United slammed the Galaxy 4-1 on Sunday. DC United gave Street Soccer USA’s Homeless USA Cup contingent 110 tickets and brought the captains of teams from 11 cities down on the field at halftime to be recognized. Meanwhile a trailer of the film Kicking It played on the jumbo tron above us. Star, Craig Holley, Producer Ted Leonsis, and director Susan Koch of Kicking It link were there will us.

Check us out on the field! Everyone was giddy with excitement and you had to think about our atheltes standing there in front of 45,000 fans---what an affirmation of the positive steps they are taking in their lives. Thank you DC United!

Ben Olsen

We got to see Ben Olsen make his return from injury Sunday at the DC United Match versus the LA Galaxy. Our seats were good, but we got a better look at Ben on Saturday when he came out and spent two hours doing drills and chatting it up with our Homeless USA Cup participants. He even stayed afterwards to watch some of the semifinal matches. I hope Ben realized what a thrill it was for our folks to train with a player of his quality, experience, and humanity. Our hats are off to this fine man and pioneer of contemporary American soccer

Fair Play Award . . . . St. Louis Roadies

It is easy to have fun when you win, but the Roadies showed great spirit when they lost. Coaches David Flomo and Keith Deisner from The Peter and Paul Community Shelter for the Homeless drove to the Cup in vans a day early in order to meet with their senator. The Roadies continued being advocates once the tournament began, showing the best in human spirit and embodying what the tournament is all about. Everyone will agree that the moment of the tournment was the final second goal scored by the smallest player in the tournament which gave St. Louis their only win in their very last game.

Please be honored, Roadies, as we view this trophy as the highest honor. We plan on seeing the Roadies next year to defend the award!

Katalyst for Positive Change Coaches Award

Jeremy Goldberg presented the Kevin Caroll Katalyst Coaches Award on behalf of Kevin Carroll to the coach who did the most to be a catalyst for positive change in the lives of his or her players.

Sara Silvanoinean, a mental health care outreach worker for the Homeless at Port (link) in Ann Arbor, Michigan researched the Homeless World Cup in 2006 and made it to our organizing conference in Charlotte in June of 2007. She immediately got to work back home and created the most developed program in country outside of the original Charlotte program. Her program has helped engage youth like Raul and Jordan who have rebounded quickly thanks to soccer from bouts of homelessness to 54 year old brain trauma victim Randal who once coached his kids soccer and now plays with Anne Arbor as means of therapy as well as of combatting depression. Congrats Sara and thank you Kevin Carroll, your personal story and tireless efforts to promote social change through sports across globe is a guiding light.

Mark Ein Presents Washington Kastles' Trophy

Mark Ein hosted the Homeless USA Cup in his World Team Tennis Stadium in the center of the City. The Washington Kastles link are a coed pro tennis team. To recognize the Kastles’ and Mark’s generosity we thought it fitting to name an award after the Kastles’ and have it be in line with their core values of gender equality and coed competition. Therefore Mark awarded a trophy to the best female player in the tournament. Our tournament is coed and we want to encourage more women to play the game.

You can see Anne Arbor’s Jordan Starr here receiving her award from Mark.

ATL Homeless Task Force takes Leonsis Family Trophy

In an exciting penalty kick finale, Atlanta edged out San Francisco to take the Leonsis Family Trophy.
Ted Leonsis was around the event all weekend as was his son Zach who was a major cog in executing tournament logistics. Ted matched his underwriting of the tournament with characteristic personal involvement. Our hat is off to Mr. Leonsis and our congratulations goes to Atlanta and their coach Boubacar Sarr who has done a tremendous job not only coaching his players on the field but in mentoring them off the field. They are deserving team of the Leonsis Family Cup.

DC Cup goes to New York

New York’s team from HELP USA coached by Chris Murray started slow, but rebounded to win the DC Cup over Austin, Texas coached by Sabelyn. The Austin team is organized out of Lifeworks and The ARCH.

We thank Mayor Fenty, the National Coalition for the Homeless, US Soccer Foundation, and Streetsense Newspaper for being such great hosts in DC!

The awared was presented by Rick Allen.

FC HARLEM VS US HOMELESS NATIONALS

Check out this poster put together by Rise Sports and Concrete2Green. Rise Sports is a brand for street soccer attire. Concrete2Green strives to build an infrastructure for urban soccer by building fields, especially ones based on the futsal model.

The poster highlights a poetry slam in addition to our featured match of the weekend between FC Harlem and our street soccer national team. The national team featured Craig Holley from 2006, Ray Isaac of 2005, and brothers Dave and Michael McGregor of 2007. Stephanie Johnson and Fred Harrel of 2005 were also at the tournament as ambasssadors. And let’s remind everyone that all these players have escaped homelessness!

We are pleased to be collaborating with these groups because like us, they want to help develop ubran street soccer, but more importantly, like us, they want to develop it responsibly such that programs that help people in life are of primary importance. Soccer while a great joy and passion is not and ends in itself but a means to a stronger, healthier community.

Here is a photo SSUSA pres, Lawrence Cann, with Concrete2Green’s Akbar Majeed and Irv Smalls, director of FC Harlem. We believe we have a big future together with these groups.

CBS Early Show

We are really grateful to CBS for turning their focus on the lives of the homeless, and in particular on our soccer program. Please enjoy this piece room the Early Show which aired on Friday the 27th of June.

Please also note that Dale Mullennix is the Director of the Urban Ministry Center, and that Lawrence Cann is the director/founder of Street Soccer USA. Lawrence who directs the Community Works 945 program was identified incorrectly as the Urban Ministry Center director.

Also, our sponsor The Leonsis Family Foundation was not included among our principle sponsors in the piece, ad we wish to recognize the foundation's central role in making the 2008 Homeless USA Cup happen.

2008 Homeless USA Cup Champions: Youth Link of Minneapolis, Minnesota!

Lots more news coming soon so check back, especially to read the official list of players selected from around the country to represent the US in the Homeless World Cup 2008 in Melbourne, Australia.