Homeless World Cup
Team coming home with 6th place medals
Melbourne 1 – 7 December 2008
Follow Victor’s progress from Oldham to Melbourne to compete in the Homeless World Cup
Victor Andre was homeless in Oldham when he was referred to Threshold’s supported housing scheme in Spring Street, Oldham. During his stay he took part in our Learning Project which is designed to help single people gain the skills needed for living independently. His talent for football was spotted by staff member Lee Wilds who encouraged Victor to take part in trials for the Homeless World Cup. Victor’s journey to become selected as one of eight players on the England team has been highlighted in our News section on the website.
Victor has achieved his dream of representing England. He is accompanied by Lee on this trip of a lifetime. Lee and Victor’s daily experiences on the trip are shared below.
Many thanks to New Charter Housing Group and Marsden Metal Products for sponsoring Lee’s journey to accompany Victor.
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You can find out even more about the event on:
www.homelessworldcup.org/content/melbourne-2008
18 November
Victor and the rest of the England Team went to the Manchester United v Stoke game on Saturday 15 November in their personalised England training kit. At half time they were invited onto the pitch and introduced to the crowd. There was a full page report and photo of the team in the match day program. It was a fantastic afternoon with hundreds of people in the crowd wishing us well and talking to the players. We were treated like celebrities all day.
Whilst training at Carrington on Friday, Sir Alex Ferguson came to meet the players and wish them well in the upcoming world cup. He was joined by 2 first team players, Wes Brown and Michael Carrick who also took time out to come and meet the team.
20 November
VIctor and Lee are on the way to Melbourne! Jason McKenna and Stephanie Cook from Oldham Floating Support and Janet Nadin from Central Support were there to wave them off as they catch a train to London for the flight on to Melbourne. Good luck boys!
Monday 24 November
Victor and Lee arrived safely in Australia on Saturday morning . They were met by by the Homeless World Cup organisers at Melbourne airport and taken to their apartments in the city centre.
They spent the day visiting an animal sanctuary and saw kangaroos and koalas etc. An early night was had on Saturday and on Sunday Victor and Lee went for an early morning run through Melbourne city centre and later they went up to Federation Square where the tournament will be held. Victor and Lee met media and talked with the Australian public about the upcoming world cup.
On Sunday afternoon they played in a friendly match (including Lee who scored a goal!) against a local charity, Mission Australia, who are supporting them during their visit and England won the game 5-3.
On Monday they visited two local schools in Melbourne and have done coaching sessions with the kids. The kids loved taking part and even asked for their autographs at the end! Victor and Lee are going to be carrying out more coaching sessions throughout the week and have been guaranteed massive support in Federation Square when they kick off next Monday.
Find out more about how Mission Australia works with homeless people by clicking on the link to their website. Threshold's strapline is Pathways to Independence - note the similarity.
www.missionaustralia.com.au/community-services/53-pathways-away-from-homelessness
Wednesday 26 November
Victor and Lee were met at a local zoo by the press who took lots of publicity photographs. Victor and Lee got the chance to hold a Koala bear, which apparenty was very cute, in Lee's words, it was "Koality"!
Victor and Lee attended a training session where they met the Scotland and Australian teams and had a few practice matches and training with them. Judging by what they saw, England have nothing to fear.
Victor showed off his cooking skills by making tea for everyone which was a very tasty chicken and rice seasoned with garlic and coriander - maybe Victor has other skills yet to be discovered!!
Friday 28 November
Lee writes:
"We have been doing a coaching session this morning at Moorabin school in Melbourne, near St Kilda beach. The kids had all done cards and posters wishing us well in the tournament next week. They had us signing autographs for about an hour after the coaching. The head teacher said the kids were "stoked" to have us there. That's Aussie slang for happy.
We have been sent loads of England shirts and balls, etc to give out whilst we are here and during the tournament, so we have been giving them to schools and other people that have helped us out. Phil from Mission Australia and Julie from the Homeless World Cup have been so helpful, doing all sorts to make our stay as enjoyable as possible. Phil bought me a corked hat today so that’s another thing off my list of things to do before I come home.
We went down to Federation Square where they have started building the main stadium. It looks really cool (see picture).
We have also been for dinner to a Greek restaurant in Southbank. The guy who owns the restaurant invited us down for a meal to show his support to England. I hope he's done the same for Greece as they are here also.
It's gonna be good and we have a night in tonight, Victor is off out because the team coach has given them Saturday off - so they can stay up a bit later.
Sunday 30 November
Lee writes:
The team has been out all day at the opening ceremony where the main draw took place. The England team has drawn in a group with Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Ethiopia and New Zealand. We are not sure of the schedule of matches yet, but we will be having the team parade tomorrow and playing at least one match, maybe two.
Tonight was really good. There was entertainment on the main stage with Aboriginal dancers playing the didgeridoo, and a Brazilian salsa band to which the whole England and Kenyan squad got up and danced to on the stage; closely followed by hundreds of players from other countries.
More pictures to follow soon.
Monday 1 December
Lee writes:
We took part in the opening parade today through Melbourne today. It was a fantastic experience with all countries meeting each other and taking photos etc. We decided that we needed to make our presence known so we sang and danced all afternoon. All the primary school children we had coached during last week turned up to support us wearing the England shirts we gave them last week.
Our first game was this afternoon against Sweden in the main stadium in Federation Square. We trounced the Swedes 14-1 with some fantastic football, and finishing with our Victor scoring three of the goals as a second half substitute. Since the match, everyone has been talking about us as early favorites for the competition.
We are playing Poland and Ethiopia tomorrow and if we win both we will be virtually qualified for the next round.
On another note, we met Kim Morten Neilson last night, the referee who famously sent off David Beckham in the 1998 World Cup. He is refereeing in this year’s tournament. He did actually apologise for the sending off and admitted he made a mistake ten years too late.
Victor writes:
It’s great to start with a win and we need to carry on the same for the rest of the week.
Tuesday 2 December
Lee writes:
Today was a bit of a reality check as we were beaten 5-3 by a very physical Poland side, there were some very dubious refereeing decisions! After this we won 11-4 against Ethiopia.
We should be OK to qualify for the second round and stay in contention as long as we can get past New Zealand and Hungary tomorrow.
Tonight we were invited to a 20/20 cricket match between North Melbourne and Melbourne Uni, they put a BBQ on for us and at half time we had a game of footie against them.
Tuesday 2 December
Lee writes:
Today we completed our group matches. We beat New Zealand 14-2 and Hungary 8-4. The Hungary match was very close, with about one minute left we were winning 5-4 and Hungary were getting closer and closer to an equalizer, but then entered Victor with a superb 3 goal spell to finish them off. We have qualified for the next stage finishing 2nd in the group behind Poland.
We are now in a new group with Ireland, Holland, Zimbabwe, Italy and Ukraine. The competition will now get a lot harder as the better teams are left in the competition so we will have to work hard to get through.
We went on the MCG tour today (Melbourne Criket Ground) or the 'G' as it is known here. It is the biggest and most famous cricket ground in the world. Victor and all the other players decided that they didn't want to come so we went on our own. It is amazing.
Wednesday 3 December
Lee writes:
Today's results are as follows, we beat Italy 7-5, then dispatched Ireland 8-4, and then we got a bit complacent and lost 6-5 to Zimbabwe! We are now in the secondary stage and still have to play Holland and the Ukraine. We should qualify OK and then be in the quarter finals.
We are working on Steve's challenge to include the Threshold logo in a picture and we will manage it soon.
Friday 5 December
Lee writes:
Today we completed our seconary group matches and we needed to finish in the top two to go through to the quarter finals.
First we played Holland who were bottom of the group and we beat them 9-1. Then, as a result of other matches, we needed to beat Ukraine (who were top of the group) to get second place and gain a place in the quarter finals. We were leading 5-4 and had a player sent off, Ukraine then equalised and with seconds left we were heading out of the tornament. Then, our super captain Ryan smashed home a long range shot and we won the game 6-5. It felt a bit like we had won the competition! We had amazing support from the Australian crowd and spent about an hour after the match having photographs taken and signing autographs.
Victor writes:
It was amazing and I think we are going to win the Homeless World Cup. Me and the lads are having an early night tonight to make sure we are ready for whoever we get in the quarter finals.
Monday 8 December
Lee writes:
The dream of winning the World Cup was finished today as we were beaten in the quarter finals by Scotland. With seconds left we were winning 7-6, then Scotland equalised and we lost the penalty shoot out 2-1.
This meant we went into a knock out with the teams who lost their quarter finals to determine 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th places. We played Brazil first and beat them 9-5 which was a great performance by the lads. We now play Kenya on finals day to finish in either 5th or 6th place overall. After the initial disapointment of losing, the lads are all OK now and recognise the fantastic acheivement they have earned. They are all aware that the main reason for this tournament is to change peoples lives for the better and raise the awareness of homelessness throughout the world.
The players conduct has been impeccable throughout the 2 weeks. We have made friends with people from all over the globe and shared experiences with them all. We know the affect we have had on over 600 school kids in Melbourne as so many have come to support us after the coaching courses we did with them last week.
Victor writes:
I have had the best time ever and love Melbourne and Australia in general. I am obviously devastated after today, and just annoyed at losing because I know we are a better team than when we arrived and we fell at nearly the last hurdle.
Finals Day:
Lee writes:
We had the finals day today and we lost to Kenya which means we have finished in 6th place in the tournament.
Afghanistan won the final against Russia 6-5 in a fantastic final. The England team were presented with their 6th place trophy after the Kenya match and we stayed as a team to watch the final. We then headed up to Melbourne University for the closing ceremony which was amazing.
We are now getting ready to leave for the airport on Monday afternoon. Mission Australia staff have kindly offered to take us to the airport after all their fantastic support throughout the last 2 weeks.
We have had the most incredible experiences whilst in Melbourne and made some great friends. It was unbeleivable to hear and see the effort that some teams had been through to get to Melbourne to take part. This certainly made us all realise how lucky we are and put our own problems into perspective.
