Day 1

Day 1

Matt secures his passport in DC and Rob and C-White find out that their document quest was not as much of a sure bet as their research had promised them: C-White’s birth certificate could not serve as proof of citizenship because he was born in Korea. The solution, track down C-White’s dad with whom he hadn’t spoken in two years to secure his adoption papers, and have them fedexed overnight to DC.

The high spirits of the previous week had risen up up and away. With C-White’s status doubtful, Matt and the coaches had to make the difficult decision together that Matt would not travel past D.C., but return to Charlotte and resume his job and Corinthian Construction instead of heading on to Cape Town. This was tough news, especially after two Street Soccer players who were slated for spots on the national team, had to forfeit their positions just two weeks earlier. One was stopped by the police after an altercation with an old man,. An old warrant from 8 years earlier that had never turned up during the passport application process showed up on the policeman’s computer screen and landed him in jail. As if this wasn’t hard enough to swallow, another player who had made tremendous personal strides and who went from someone without a chance to make the national team, to a traveling member of it with passport in hand, suffered a costly lapse of judgement. Thieves will often seek out peope in need on the street to try to cash checks they have stolen or forged, and in turn for taking the risk, receive a small percentage of the toatal. Instead of earning some quick spending money for Cape Town, our player watched hi scheme and his whole dream vanish before his very eyes.