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Charity Match in New York Brings Out World Cup Stars
Retired World Cup players like Alexi Lalas, Youri Djorkaeff, and Frank Leboeuf laced up their boots to help "Survivor" star Ethan Zohn raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic in Africa.
Oct 2, 2008 4:17:03 PM
By Noah Davis
There are good causes and then there are organizations that make you want to quit your job and join them. Grassroot Soccer (grassrootsoccer.org), dedicated to using the beautiful game to promote AIDS awareness throughout Africa, is one of the latter.
On Thursday afternoon in New York City's Sara Roosevelt Park, in Chinatown, the group -- co-founded in 2002 by Tommy Clark, Methembe Ndlovu, Kirk Friedrich, and Ethan Zohn of Survivor-Africa fame -- held the first of what it hopes will be an annual charity soccer match.
(Goal.com was proud to be a co-sponsor of the event. Check out this video of the day!)
Former U.S. national team players Alexi Lalas and Tony Meola, 2008 Olympic gold medalist Heather O’Reilly, Scottish international Richard Gough, and French World Cup winners Frank Leboeuf and Youri Djorkaeff all took part, as did several celebrities, including tennis champion Yannik Noah, and actors Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) and Anthony LaPaglia (Without A Trace), who played goalkeeper.
The event marked the halfway point of Zohn's 500-mile quest to dribble a soccer ball from Boston to Washington D.C. (He'll arrive in the nation's capitol on December 1, World AIDS Day.)
"I'm dribbling the ball 15 miles a day and in the afternoon, we're giving speeches and programs and having games and tournaments," Zohn told Goal.com. "Whatever we can do to get in front of the most people and raise awareness about the global AIDS pandemic."
Zohn, who played professionally in Zimbabwe after graduating from Vassar, was impressed with the quality of play. "I've been playing my whole life and this is by far the best level of soccer I've ever played in," he said.
While resting on the bench during halftime, Meola agreed. "There are a lot of guys out there who can still play," he said. "Playing with Youri again is great. I thoroughly enjoyed the year and a half I played with him [in New York]. He's the best player I played with."
The game, while filled with bursts of scintillating individual skill and fine teamwork, was one-sided. Billed as a battle of East Coast vs. West Coast, with Zohn's Grassroot team, coached by U.S. international Leslie Osborne, taking on the Los Angeles-based Hollywood United, which had ESPN writer David Hirshey as its honorary coach. The left coasters dominated for most of the game, but the Grassroot side came back to earn an 8-8 draw.
"Hopefully this will be an annual thing and next year I'm going to have tryouts," Zohn said, laughing and gazing around at all the wheezing former pros. "We're going to have a couple training sessions."
There are good causes and then there are organizations that make you want to quit your job and join them. Grassroot Soccer (grassrootsoccer.org), dedicated to using the beautiful game to promote AIDS awareness throughout Africa, is one of the latter.
On Thursday afternoon in New York City's Sara Roosevelt Park, in Chinatown, the group -- co-founded in 2002 by Tommy Clark, Methembe Ndlovu, Kirk Friedrich, and Ethan Zohn of Survivor-Africa fame -- held the first of what it hopes will be an annual charity soccer match.
(Goal.com was proud to be a co-sponsor of the event. Check out this video of the day!)
Former U.S. national team players Alexi Lalas and Tony Meola, 2008 Olympic gold medalist Heather O’Reilly, Scottish international Richard Gough, and French World Cup winners Frank Leboeuf and Youri Djorkaeff all took part, as did several celebrities, including tennis champion Yannik Noah, and actors Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) and Anthony LaPaglia (Without A Trace), who played goalkeeper.
The event marked the halfway point of Zohn's 500-mile quest to dribble a soccer ball from Boston to Washington D.C. (He'll arrive in the nation's capitol on December 1, World AIDS Day.)
"I'm dribbling the ball 15 miles a day and in the afternoon, we're giving speeches and programs and having games and tournaments," Zohn told Goal.com. "Whatever we can do to get in front of the most people and raise awareness about the global AIDS pandemic."
Zohn, who played professionally in Zimbabwe after graduating from Vassar, was impressed with the quality of play. "I've been playing my whole life and this is by far the best level of soccer I've ever played in," he said.
While resting on the bench during halftime, Meola agreed. "There are a lot of guys out there who can still play," he said. "Playing with Youri again is great. I thoroughly enjoyed the year and a half I played with him [in New York]. He's the best player I played with."
The game, while filled with bursts of scintillating individual skill and fine teamwork, was one-sided. Billed as a battle of East Coast vs. West Coast, with Zohn's Grassroot team, coached by U.S. international Leslie Osborne, taking on the Los Angeles-based Hollywood United, which had ESPN writer David Hirshey as its honorary coach. The left coasters dominated for most of the game, but the Grassroot side came back to earn an 8-8 draw.
"Hopefully this will be an annual thing and next year I'm going to have tryouts," Zohn said, laughing and gazing around at all the wheezing former pros. "We're going to have a couple training sessions."
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