Results tagged “Soccer” from Intelligent Travel Blog

While wandering D.C. the other day during my lunch break, I picked up a copy of Street Sense, our local street paper. Its cover story caught my eye: a homeless street soccer tournament held July 31-August 2nd, in D.C. The tournament was a play-off to select the U.S. team to attend the Homeless Street Soccer World Cup this September 6-13, in Milan, Italy.

The seventh annual Street Soccer World Cup will attract 48 nations and 500 players from around the world. Homeless men, women, and youth age 16 and up are eligible to play. During their time at the tournament, players are provided with food and housing; a respite from homelessness. Plus, they get the chance to represent their country and see a bit of the world. The first Street Soccer World Cup was held in Graz, Austria, in 2003.

You might ask, but how does a street soccer World Cup help ameliorate homelessness? Street Sense's recent issue and the U.S. Street Soccer website help me answer this by explaining that most shelters positioned to work with the homeless are generally only able to address individual's basic needs: temporary housing, food, medical care, clothing, mental health and addiction counseling, and the like. Street Soccer goes beyond those important basic needs to give players a hobby, a place to release tensions, give play to passion, build self-esteem, work on trust, improve communication, beat addiction, and facilitate cooperation. In fact, Street Soccer USA asserts that 75 percent of homeless players move off of the streets within a year of joining a street soccer team.

D.C.'s team, the Knights, is comprised of about 15 Spanish-speaking players from Neighbors Consejo, a service organization helping Hispanic men with mental health and addiction issues, and others from throughout the city. They practice weekly in town.

To learn more about the Homeless World Cup, view shocking stats about homelessness (there are one billion homeless worldwide; 3.5 million in the U.S. alone), check out a map of participating nations, and see how you can help, stop by the World Homeless Street Soccer World Cup site here.

Also, don't forget National Geographic magazine's super feature on soccer, "The World's Game," from its June 2006 issue here. Finally, if you've got a moment, check out a documentary all about the Homeless World Cup, Kicking It.

Photo: Daniel Gangur

For you die-hard Olympic and soccer fans out there, it's not too early to start making travel plans if you dream of heading to Vancouver for February's 21st Winter Games or journeying to South Africa for next summer's FIFA World Cup.
   
In the Practical Traveler column in this weekend's New York Times, Michelle Higgins details the best options for both big events along with handy links and thought-through strategies. She asserts that despite the bad economy, demand is still quite high for both events and the best way of getting tickets and a place to stay is to work with a tour operator.
   
For the Vancouver Games, the third hosted by Canada and the first for the province of British Columbia, only one company, CoSport, is authorized to sell tickets in the U.S. and they're already sold out, though more tickets may be released for sale this fall.

Steve Nash - 'The Player' from meathawk on Vimeo.

My football-fanatic fiancé (that's European football, mind you) tipped me off to a great charity event happening this afternoon in New York City's Chinatown. The second annual "Showdown in Chinatown," which is coordinated by the Phoenix Suns' Steve Nash, pits international pro soccer players against an assorted group of NBA all-stars, all in the name of raising money for Football-for-Good, Nash's charity. Football-for-Good helps bring team sports to war-ravaged countries in Africa, and aims to "develop world-class youth football (soccer) academies that are sustainable, community-centered social businesses in regions that have been ravaged by war." They're working to support "human rights and child protection, and a committed global advocate for African players, families and their communities."

This year, in addition to Nash himself (who famously plays soccer in NYC during the off-season to stay in shape), star athletes expected to attend include Claudio Reyna, Thierry Henry, Tony Parker, Javier Zanetti, Raja Bell, Adrian Mutu, Chris Bosh, Ivan Cordoba, Grant Hill, and Giovanni van Brockhurst. And there's a rumor that Yao Ming may swing by. Check out the video that Nash put together to "recruit" the players, it's a whirlwind of travel, and must have been a blast to shoot.

Kickoff starts at 6 p.m. today in Chinatown's Sarah D. Roosevelt Park and it's free to watch. But I can't help but think it's already packed, so maybe you can sit on Yao Ming's shoulders.

Video: Football-for-Good