Charlotte's Street Soccer 945 All Stars Improve to 2-0

Street Soccer 945 All Stars in Charlotte, NC defeated Team AA last night by a score of 5-2. The All Star team is made up of long time program participants who have taken significant steps towards achieving their life goals. Many players have participated in the Street Soccer USA Cup and the Homeless World Cup.

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

NEWS FROM CHICAGO: The Good Contagion

This message comes from Jason Holmes of our affiliate HESED HOUSE. Read to the end to see the ripple effect of positive programming.

"Things have been so great around here. I finally found a replacement at assistant coach. Mike, our new assistant coach, has a great soccer background and is also bi-lingual. He played soccer in Guatemala for a while and is well versed in the game. I’m real excited to have him on board. He’s got great spirit and is completely in line with what this program is all about. Also our team is getting a lot of support from their peers here at the shelter and a lot of our guests not on the team plan on coming to next Tuesdays game to watch and cheer our team on. We have been seeing some great results from our players and I couldn’t be more proud of them both on and off the soccer pitch. Our game next week will be covered by the Chicago Tribune and the Beacon Newspapers. I’ll be sure to get you links to the articles or send hard copies when they are available. Also I plan on getting some video footage and putting it up on the website. A church member donated a video camera to the team for filming practices and games.

Also at today’s director’s meeting I handed around a copy of the People article. I’ve been doing my best to spread the word to everyone I come in to contact with. Everyone has been so supportive of the program and a lot of people are on board with a sports-based solution to homelessness.

Hesed House is so very proud to be involved in this great program. You’ve inspired me to a new level and I can’t thank you enough. Thank you for all that you do.

One last thing….the soccer program has motivated others at the shelter to get involved in other sorts of esteem building activities. A woman here at the shelter asked me when I was going to start a type of program she’s interested in. I replied with, “What are you interested in?” She said she wanted to lose weight for the New Year. With her idea and our help, we put together this “Biggest Loser” Hesed House program and just had our weigh in Monday. We have 7 guests here at the shelter participating and 4 staff members! All of this was inspired by what the soccer team is doing! Enthusiasm is contagious!"