road to capetown

The Road to Cape Town.

The road to Cape Town for a couple players like Zenas “Scythe” Fewell and Craig Holley began over a yeat ago.

For others such as Cyrus Wuor, Matt Jules, and C-White the road to Cape Town looked like it might end in Washington or New York. Rob Cann and these three were officially the first three to travel when the left Charlotte Sunday afternoon in Rob’s car. The day prior, spirits were high as the Big Ben World Cup Send Off turned out to be a great success, raising nearly 1,200 dollars the team’s travels.

It was during the Big Ben event that we could start to wrap our minds around just what a fantastic voyage we were about to undertake. Players talked of climbing mountains, of how it was it too expensive to go from South Africa to Egypt to see the Pyramids, and how far away was Mecca?

All in all Saturday was an odd day of transition. Just the Wednesday prior, Street Soccer had won it’s biggest game ever, defeating Team Austin to reach the Semi Finals of the local league championship. This was not only our first ever semifinal but our first ever time qualifying for the playoffs. The game was serious test. Our oppents came out aggressive, committing several fouls early on and sending the coaching staff into a fit. The players understood the coaches message: we will defend you, you just play the game. Play the game we did. After playing man down after a retaliation foul by coach rob, the team entered the second half down 2 to nil. Two goals by Dave Mc Cregor and leadership from Cyrus Wuor made the difference in the second half as Street Soccer kept its composure and took the lead 3-2. Then with seconds remaining Zenas Fewell who had played a great game got caught out of position as he charged a ball prematurely and left an empty net open for the oppents to level the score. The game ended in a tie but a last minute foul and 2 minute penalty meant Street Soccer would have to play a man down until the penalty was over. Before the penalty time was played, the referee told the squads that the extra time would be golden goal (first team to score wins). With just five men to to the opponents’s six, Street Soccer managed a counter attack and goal which they believed secured them victory. However,Team Austin race back and score a goal while Street Soccer celebrated. The referee ruled the game a tie and Street Soccer managed to finish the penal time without conceding a second goal. At the point the team really came together, determined not to lose. Dave’s third goal of the match on a smoothly slotted strike after throwing a fake to the goalie finally secured Street Soccer the Victory.

At times over the past few season you might have watched us lose games and walked away concluding that people are homeless because they are unlucky, no ifs ands or buts, they just can’t buy a break. Last Wednsday, the group found a way to win the instead of ways to lose the very same sort of game that always eluded them.

Could this victory speak to a change of luck for the american team in Cape Town.