First, a look at last week's season opener. The first game of the season for the Street Soccer All Stars was a chilly one with a temperature of 35 degrees at kickoff. The players may have preferred different temperatures but we didn’t let that stop us from winning our first game! The first half was a thrilling one with all 4 of our goals scored. The scoring started off with the young gun Junior who easily put away a rebound of a shot from Jose Martinez. The two continued the scoring moments later when another close range shot from Junior was put in by Jose. The opposing team came back and tallied a long distance goal, but the team was not worried. We stood our ground and put together some nice passes to control possession for the remainder of the half. After a nice combination of passes in the midfield by Danny Martinez and Pablo the ball was slotted past the goalkeeper by Matt George. The scoring didn’t stop there, Michael McGregor aka Super Sub came on strong to put away a nice shot into the back of the net!
The second half was not as thrilling as the first but we continued to control the possession game. We strung some beautiful passes together all throughout the field from back to front with the help of the Danny Martinez and the McGregor brothers, Dave, Michael and Junior. There were some chances that could have been finished, but it is the first game of the season so those will be in the back of the net by next Thursday. Our opponents did their best to try and push men forward, but with the Tyler Scott and the scorer from the first half Jose in back there was no fear in our eyes. Even in the instance where they did get passed our defense our goal keeper Tim Cummin’s came up big with many close range saves. The end of the game finished 4-2 with the Street Soccer All Stars starting off the season 1-0.
Game 2 began with two quick goals for Street Soccer and a powerful field presence. Forward Jose’s quick acceleration allowed for threatening break aways which led to multiple goals. Without goal keeper Tim, Homeless World Cup veteran Dave stepped in the first half and achieved a shutout. In the second half he contributed further, receiving a pass across the top of the penalty box and powerfully placing it in the lower right corner of the net. Team AA came out strong in the second half scoring two goals. Vocal leadership and encouragement from Daniel in the net kept SS945 fired up to play quality defense and secure the win. Despite the slick surface of the outdoor turf and the falling rain, SS945 All Stars notched their second win of the season, under the leadership of newly appointed director Pete Fink. A big thank you to fans to who bared the weather to support the team! To find out about future games in the Charlotte area and get involved, contact Brittany Larson at blarson@urbanministrycenter.org
3 comments:
Great write up. I would like to some see one of these games on day, but being on the West Coast makes it a little tricky. Thanks and keep up the good work. I would like to know how you go about getting those involved back into society. I know that I read some where 73% of the program gets back into some sort of normal life. Great numbers, but how? Thanks again.
On the west coast you can visit our program in LA or San Fran or Sacramento. We are beginning to work with a group in Portland and a group in Seattle as well.
How do we have such great success? Homelessness is symptom of the breakdown of community. We don't solve people's problems for them, we build community and that provides the support they need to overcome their own obstacles. Along the way we learn a lot and develop best practices and innovative ways to make existing services more succesfull.
Building community sounds vague, but it's not. We have a systemmatic approach, a process, and a set of principles we follow. We build a strong foundation based on trust,love (sometimes tough love), and truth, and then we start holding people accountable. We can pat all pat ourselves on the back for what we do to help people, but in the end it is the operation of a simple principle that i think plays out if we allow it to: Everyone knows its easier to run in a group than alone.
Keep in touch and keep checking back to the blog as we start posting more from around the country. As more questions and help us figure out the answers. Thanks!
Thanks for the update. We have talked about who I should reach out to here on the West Coast. I have started talking with Rob Cann and he is going to point me in the right direction here in SoCal. I do like the method you use to build community, something I would like to be a part of. I am sure I will start learning more about the how from Rob as I start talking with him. I love your program, keep up the good work.
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