PROFESSOR DUERR >>
Friday, August 17, 2007
Unfortunately, we came up just short in our quest for the regular season championship. In our game against Richmond on Saturday, a win would have given us the title, but instead, we were unable to find a winning goal and drew 1-1. It was a disappointing end to the season (10-1-9 and 39 points) where we still had a chance to win the league after nineteen games of the season. Although to be honest, what more could you ask for from an expansion club?
Despite the agony of coming up just short, we have to congratulate Richmond for their performance this year. As a result, the Kickers get to host Charlotte in one Semifinal game and we will host third place Harrisburg City Islanders, who finished just behind us in the standings, in the other.
All four of the playoff teams separated themselves from the pack some time ago, so much of the latter half of the season was spent jostling for position. Moreover, the playoffs will likely be unpredictable and we must prepare to the best of our ability to face a very strong Harrisburg squad.
In this week’s journal, I would like to highlight the outreach presented at halftime in Richmond. Both teams joined forces to raise support for “Gifts for Gulu,” a charitable outreach that sends gifts to the children of Gulu in northern Uganda. It was yet another example of USL-2 teams joining forces to provide aid to problematic areas of the globe (Wilmington and Crystal Palace Baltimore helped out for our Haiti outreach earlier in the season).
What was more interesting about the venture with Richmond is that it did not involve the Charlotte Eagles who founded the project last year. Charlotte must be praised for their humanitarian work abroad, but the outreach between us and Richmond evidences the fact that “Gifts for Gulu” is indeed a cause in which we should all participate and has outgrown the genesis of the Eagles’ work. “Gifts for Gulu” originally derived from the Eagles outreach in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya in December of 2005 and to Uganda and Kenya in January of 2007.
The earlier trip, in December of 2005, featured a quick trip to Gulu in the north of Uganda by eight members of the Charlotte Eagles (one of which, Chris Lemons, is now my teammate at the City Stars). What is remarkable about this trip is that Gulu, at certain points, is one of the most dangerous places in the world. Yet, with all of the attention on Afghanistan and Iraq, the layperson rarely hears about problems in Africa that are deserving of greater attention.
Gulu is, essentially, the central area in which the 20-year Ugandan Civil War was fought. Granted, peace talks have been ongoing since June 2006, but conflict in these situations can easily reignite and lasting peace could remain an elusive goal to most peace loving Ugandans.
This is where projects such as “Gifts for Gulu” are extremely important. The Ugandan Civil War dates back to 1986 where a group of armed rebels engaged in an insurgency against the government of Yoweri Musevini. The insurgents, from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), demanded that Uganda be run on the principles of the Ten Commandments and provide more power to the Acholi, the majority ethnic group in northern Uganda. The conflict, despite its feigned attention to Christianity, is not religious at all really. The LRA claim to be Christian, yet, the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, is a born-again Christian also. Uganda’s conflict, therefore, is much more about ethnic domination and economics, than religion.
The LRA, regardless of their legitimacy (or lack thereof) to go to war, engages in some of the worst human rights abuses on the planet and is renowned for taking child soldiers (think of the movie Blood Diamond and multiply by two). Some sources cite the number of child soldiers to be in the tens of thousands. This is where the work of USL-2 and “Gifts for Gulu” is so important because sport has the ability to bridge all kinds of divides.
In the words of Nelson Mandela, “Sport has the power to change the world, the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else can. It speaks to people in a language they can understand. It breaks down racial barriers; it laughs in the face of all kinds of discrimination”. It is essential for the child soldiers that are recovered from the LRA to live as normal lives as possible. This includes participating in sport (likely soccer) and using some of the “Gifts for Gulu” to achieve this. They are then more likely to function normally in society and lead healthy and productive lives.
This outreach is, in my humble opinion, tremendous for the greater good of the world and showcases how effective USL has been on and off the pitch. Much praise should be given to the Eagles for pioneering this work, and to Kevin Knight (Richmond) and Chris Lemons (Cleveland) for raising awareness of this issue. Much more work is required, but a foundation has been laid to help children in Africa.
Now, after all that serious stuff, it is time to discuss the training with the City Stars this week. I have not written in almost two weeks, so it is important to go back to last week.
In the City Stars camp this past week we had just come off of the tremendous high of beating Harrisburg 1-0 at home to go top of USL-2, albeit for just one night. Nonetheless it was a tremendous statement to the league that an expansion club could be top of the heap that far into the season.
The game itself, however, almost did not happen due to inclement weather in Cleveland whereby a virtual monsoon engulfed Krenzler Field the day before as we were set to train. Hail rained down from the sky preventing all but the heartiest of souls from training. Naturally a few of the City Stars boys were up for the challenge and we started an impromptu game of ‘goalkeeper wars.’
The weather, however, did finally let up and Coach Rennie called us into the dressing room. After a short time, and thanks to the drainage of the Astroturf pitch, we were able to train in preparation for Harrisburg.
After the Harrisburg match, we faced a grueling week of practice with the coaching staff stressing preparation for the playoffs. Tuesday saw more bad weather in Cleveland and the team was forced to train indoors once again at ‘The Edge’ in Twinsburg. Because the session was indoors, the coaching staff had to improvise with the session where we did a number of things including: basketball, soccer volleyball, futsal, weightlifting and plenty of running.
Training on Wednesday and Thursday saw us return to our practice facility in Hudson whereby we continued to prepare for our final regular season game with Richmond. We worked on all facets of our game and saw it as a great opportunity to potentially win the league and succeed in the playoffs.
The team traveled to Richmond on Friday in preparation for the game against the Kickers on Saturday. Unfortunately, I was not in the 18 and did not travel to Virginia. Despite not playing, I had plenty of academic responsibilities to keep me busy over the weekend as I prepare to present a paper at a conference in Chicago at the end of the month.
I watched the game with Richmond glued to the internet on Saturday night with up to 130 people watching online in addition to the almost 2300 people who were actually in the stadium. It was disappointing to not see us claim the league title, but the regular season was certainly a successful one. We look forward to the playoffs, but understand that every game will be the most difficult game we have played all season.
‘The Professor’ Glen Duerr
