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Homeless World Cup Wrap Day 8: Ukraine Crowned Champions
Goal.com's Fiona Crawford reviews the final day of action from the Homeless World Cup in Milan.
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Sep 15, 2009 4:37:00 AM
Ukraine were crowned the Homeless World Cup champions after defeating Portugal 5-4 in a thrilling goal-for-goal grand final.
It was an action-packed culmination of eight days of football played between 500 homeless and marginalised players from 48 nations with the motto that one ball can change the world.
And while both teams proved incredibly fast, passionate, and talented, and the final could have gone either way, it was not the primary focus of the event, nor even its highlight for this writer.
It was instead the teams who embodied the Homeless World Cup spirit of fair play which stood out and which spoke volumes about the triumph of the human spirit and of the Homeless World Cup’s groundbreaking use of sport to create social change.
The South African team’s 32-year-old captain has been on the streets since he was five, and has experienced more adversity than most.
He didn’t make it to Melbourne last year due to lost paperwork and bureaucratic errors, yet exuded nothing but positivity and a determination to seize every opportunity to improve his life.
The South Africans also proved to be one of the most supportive, cheering teams on all week. They performed an impromptu and hauntingly beautiful a cappella song after their win, which left more than a few people choked up.
The Welsh might have added comedic value with a red dragon mascot, with cartoon-like head, wings, and fluffy dragon feet that didn’t even have to do anything to be funny, but they proved they had plenty of ticker too by cheering on other teams and performing guards of honour for their opposition as they exited the court after each game.
The diminutive Chileans, with their football played with equal doses of passion and panache and with their wit and warmth off the field, absolutely stole my heart.
They started each match with their customary chant, which goes along the lines of ‘Chi, chi, chi, le, le, le. Chi-le, Chi-le, Chi-le!’ and sang their national anthem with proud gusto.
They defeated England 6-3 in the final of the Dignitary Cup, which was played between the teams ranked 9-16 after the secondary stage, and exploded into joyous cheers, jumps, hugs, and gracious thank yous when the full-time whistle went.
Likewise the likeable Australians embodied the fair play spirit from start to finish, sharing court time and possession. They defeated Japan 4-3 in a play off for third in the INSP Networking Trophy, which secured them 43rd position overall, but played the final as they had every other game throughout the week.
The Street Socceroos gave their only female player, Nicole Brennan, the two penalties of the match, while spectators chanted ‘Hey Nicky, you’re so fine. You’re so fine you blow my mind. Hey Nicky.’
Ric Oldridge lifted up a Japanese player to congratulate him on scoring a great goal, and the Street Socceroos finished it, as they did every match, with an inclusive rendition of Waltzing Matilda and cheers for their opposition.
For Street Socceroos coach, George Halkias, it was such moments, as well as meeting teams with similar fair play philosophies, that were his highlights. Assistant coach Jarrod Gunn pointed to Brennan’s first goal and the team’s euphoric, supportive, team-spirited reaction to it.
The lowlight of the event was perhaps the game against India, where the team which had not won a match and which the Street Socceroos were looking forward to playing fairly and squarely instead fielded—under the auspices of injury—two much more talented Italian reserve players who almost single-handedly scored all 14 of the Indian’s match-winning, Street Socceroos-trouncing goals.
Halkias says that the match, with the unsporting, win-at-all-costs attitude was his lowlight in five years of Homeless World Cup experiences, but then also makes an incredibly valid point: the Homeless World Cup is a great experience, but it’s but one week.
The focus of the Australian street soccer programs, of which there will soon be about 30 spread around the country, are the other 51 weeks of helping homeless and marginalised people improve their lives.
It’s an understatement to say that the organisation of the Milan event leaves a little to be desired.
I was personally manhandled by overzealous and completely unnecessary security while attempting to go to the bathroom one day, had to repeatedly prove that I was media and, therefore, allowed to use one of the two disgusting toilets they had for hundreds of people, and had to—on Day 5—implore the organisers to clean the toilets and stock them with toilet paper and soap.
They added some toilet paper and some intermittent cleaning, but never once in the entire eight days organised soap.
They didn’t have lights in the media centre and then didn’t even have a media centre at all.
Nor did they have scoreboards, match reporters, or commentators, and when they did, they were intermittent at best.
They brought Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton to the event for a photo opportunity, but left representatives from the Homeless World Cup teams sitting outside in the heat while they kept Hamilton indoors for a press conference.
And that’s not even noting the fact that the event was held in an isolated location, which had no through traffic, and that the city of Milan either didn’t know about it or completely failed to embrace it.
It’s no slight on the Homeless World Cup itself, with, I’m certain, its founders as mortified as I was at how badly the Italian organisers missed the point of it, which is to change perceptions of homelessness and inspire change in lives.
But it is galling, inexcusable, and quite incredible that they couldn’t have stuffed it up more if they had tried.
The advertising slogan goes something like, ‘The weather is beautiful, wish you were here,’ but the apt—and slightly more printable—version than the suggestions I’ve had or devised myself is perhaps, ‘The weather is here, wish you were organised.’
Halkias and Gunn are more diplomatic, saying that the issues we all experienced helped put things in perspective and reminded the Street Socceroos of the opportunities Australia offers.
And it’s clear that the Street Socceroos are taking some positives from the experience, with Scott Endersby, in particular, planning to help his young son seize such opportunities when he returns to Australia.
The 2010 Homeless World Cup is in Rio de Janeiro and, despite the less-than-ideal Milan experience, I can’t imagine not heading over to participate and am already devising travel plans and brushing up on my non-existent Portuguese.
Here’s to looking forward to more fair-play football and more football changing lives.
Fiona Crawford, Goal.com
It was an action-packed culmination of eight days of football played between 500 homeless and marginalised players from 48 nations with the motto that one ball can change the world.
And while both teams proved incredibly fast, passionate, and talented, and the final could have gone either way, it was not the primary focus of the event, nor even its highlight for this writer.
It was instead the teams who embodied the Homeless World Cup spirit of fair play which stood out and which spoke volumes about the triumph of the human spirit and of the Homeless World Cup’s groundbreaking use of sport to create social change.
The South African team’s 32-year-old captain has been on the streets since he was five, and has experienced more adversity than most.
He didn’t make it to Melbourne last year due to lost paperwork and bureaucratic errors, yet exuded nothing but positivity and a determination to seize every opportunity to improve his life.
The South Africans also proved to be one of the most supportive, cheering teams on all week. They performed an impromptu and hauntingly beautiful a cappella song after their win, which left more than a few people choked up.
The Welsh might have added comedic value with a red dragon mascot, with cartoon-like head, wings, and fluffy dragon feet that didn’t even have to do anything to be funny, but they proved they had plenty of ticker too by cheering on other teams and performing guards of honour for their opposition as they exited the court after each game.
The diminutive Chileans, with their football played with equal doses of passion and panache and with their wit and warmth off the field, absolutely stole my heart.
They started each match with their customary chant, which goes along the lines of ‘Chi, chi, chi, le, le, le. Chi-le, Chi-le, Chi-le!’ and sang their national anthem with proud gusto.
They defeated England 6-3 in the final of the Dignitary Cup, which was played between the teams ranked 9-16 after the secondary stage, and exploded into joyous cheers, jumps, hugs, and gracious thank yous when the full-time whistle went.
Likewise the likeable Australians embodied the fair play spirit from start to finish, sharing court time and possession. They defeated Japan 4-3 in a play off for third in the INSP Networking Trophy, which secured them 43rd position overall, but played the final as they had every other game throughout the week.
The Street Socceroos gave their only female player, Nicole Brennan, the two penalties of the match, while spectators chanted ‘Hey Nicky, you’re so fine. You’re so fine you blow my mind. Hey Nicky.’
Ric Oldridge lifted up a Japanese player to congratulate him on scoring a great goal, and the Street Socceroos finished it, as they did every match, with an inclusive rendition of Waltzing Matilda and cheers for their opposition.
For Street Socceroos coach, George Halkias, it was such moments, as well as meeting teams with similar fair play philosophies, that were his highlights. Assistant coach Jarrod Gunn pointed to Brennan’s first goal and the team’s euphoric, supportive, team-spirited reaction to it.
The lowlight of the event was perhaps the game against India, where the team which had not won a match and which the Street Socceroos were looking forward to playing fairly and squarely instead fielded—under the auspices of injury—two much more talented Italian reserve players who almost single-handedly scored all 14 of the Indian’s match-winning, Street Socceroos-trouncing goals.
Halkias says that the match, with the unsporting, win-at-all-costs attitude was his lowlight in five years of Homeless World Cup experiences, but then also makes an incredibly valid point: the Homeless World Cup is a great experience, but it’s but one week.
The focus of the Australian street soccer programs, of which there will soon be about 30 spread around the country, are the other 51 weeks of helping homeless and marginalised people improve their lives.
It’s an understatement to say that the organisation of the Milan event leaves a little to be desired.
I was personally manhandled by overzealous and completely unnecessary security while attempting to go to the bathroom one day, had to repeatedly prove that I was media and, therefore, allowed to use one of the two disgusting toilets they had for hundreds of people, and had to—on Day 5—implore the organisers to clean the toilets and stock them with toilet paper and soap.
They added some toilet paper and some intermittent cleaning, but never once in the entire eight days organised soap.
They didn’t have lights in the media centre and then didn’t even have a media centre at all.
Nor did they have scoreboards, match reporters, or commentators, and when they did, they were intermittent at best.
They brought Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton to the event for a photo opportunity, but left representatives from the Homeless World Cup teams sitting outside in the heat while they kept Hamilton indoors for a press conference.
And that’s not even noting the fact that the event was held in an isolated location, which had no through traffic, and that the city of Milan either didn’t know about it or completely failed to embrace it.
It’s no slight on the Homeless World Cup itself, with, I’m certain, its founders as mortified as I was at how badly the Italian organisers missed the point of it, which is to change perceptions of homelessness and inspire change in lives.
But it is galling, inexcusable, and quite incredible that they couldn’t have stuffed it up more if they had tried.
The advertising slogan goes something like, ‘The weather is beautiful, wish you were here,’ but the apt—and slightly more printable—version than the suggestions I’ve had or devised myself is perhaps, ‘The weather is here, wish you were organised.’
Halkias and Gunn are more diplomatic, saying that the issues we all experienced helped put things in perspective and reminded the Street Socceroos of the opportunities Australia offers.
And it’s clear that the Street Socceroos are taking some positives from the experience, with Scott Endersby, in particular, planning to help his young son seize such opportunities when he returns to Australia.
The 2010 Homeless World Cup is in Rio de Janeiro and, despite the less-than-ideal Milan experience, I can’t imagine not heading over to participate and am already devising travel plans and brushing up on my non-existent Portuguese.
Here’s to looking forward to more fair-play football and more football changing lives.
Fiona Crawford, Goal.com
| Sign up with 188BET for a FREE bet up to £25 – Great Prices, Every Game |
|
| Open an account with Sportingbet today and get up to £100 in free bets! |
|
| Sign up with William Hill for a free bet up to £25 |
|
| Sign up with bet365 for a free bet up to £200 |
|
| Sign up with Paddy Power for a free bet up to £50 |
|
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