Day 4 at the Homeless World Cup in Cardiff 2019
| Image details. Image: PHOTOGRAPHER NAME [All images edited to 1500 px on longest side] [Para 2]
Men’s Competition:
Stage 2 in the men’s competition kicked off with some very competitive matches. Groups A to D are playing for a place in the top tier trophy. Topping their groups are, Mexico and Chile in Group A; Bosnia & Herzegovina and South Africa in Group B; Portugal and Egypt for Group C, and Russia Lithuania.
Host team Wales are placed fourth in Group C with three point, which puts them in sight for the qualifying on to the second-tier trophy. With three more matches to play, they are still in the running for one of the top two places in the group which would move them to the highest trophy competition.
Women’s Competition:
Today saw the end of the Group Stage, with defending champions Mexico and Chile emerging top in Group A, and newcomers Romania, followed by Peru in Group B.
Host team Wales, came fifth place in Group A, thus moving to play for the second-tier trophy.
Stage 2 Groups in the Women’s Competition:
For the top tier trophy:
Group A: Mexico, Peru, England, India.
Group B: Romania, Chile, Hungary, Austria
For the bottom tier trophy:
Group C: Wales, Netherlands, Norway, Belgium
Group D: USA, SFU, Sweden, Northern Ireland
Stage 2 will determine which quarterfinals teams will play as they progress to the Trophy Stage.
For the full results from DAY FOUR visit the Homeless World Cup website:
Daily live streams are also available on HWC YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the HWC website.
Off the pitch
The tournament, now in its fourth day, is well and truly in full swing. Welsh musical legend, James Dean Bradfield performed on the main stage before Spotify streaming stars, Alpha played their set.
Cardiff City football stars Danny Ward and Leandro Bacuna stopped by to offer their top tips and support to the Welsh team, hearing first-hand just how powerful and positive the experience has been for those taking part.
The Bevan tent played host to ‘Shreds’ – the story of the Cardiff Five. Hosted by Michael Sheen, the session explored how a miscarriage of justice destroyed families, divided communities and undermined confidence in the criminal justice system.
Some stories from the Homeless World Cup website – Day 4
“We want to kick on and bring it home”
From a young age, football is all Kristian Campbell has ever known. London-born Campbell has starred for the England team since arriving in Cardiff for this year’s Homeless World Cup.
The England squad, supported by charity Centrepoint, comprises players who have shown ‘progress and proficiency in important life skills like teamwork, commitment, positivity, organisation, and improved health and wellbeing’.
“Football is so important in helping change my life because it’s the one escape that I have. It’s hard to describe it, but I’ve always had a mad passion for the game. Any problems you have at home or at the hotel just disappear when you’ve got a ball at your feet. This is my first time at any sort of tournament like this, it’s a life-changing experience for so many and I’m enjoying every second.”
Click here to read the full story.
“When I arrived in Cardiff I became a totally different person”
As the youngest player on the Slovenia team, goalkeeper Alan Jurjevic is enjoying being able to compete for his country alongside players who are more than double his own age.
The 22-year-old, who hails from Trbovlje in the south east of Slovenia, hopes that he will be able to have the same level of fitness as some of his older teammates do in the future.
“I have all older guys in the team with the oldest being 61-years-old. One is 58 and the other is 55. I look up to them and they are really good players. I hope that when I am their age I will have the same shape that they do.”
Speaking of fitness, Jurjevic’s inclusion in the team alongside his older teammates and his participation in the Homeless World Cup has seen him change his attitude completely towards exercise.
Since arriving in Cardiff, he has been helped along via the support from his friends and family back home who are keeping tabs with his progress and that of Slovenia at the tournament…
Click here to read the full story.
“Meet the cake-baking, marathon-running South Korean supporters”
With a distance of 9000km between Seoul and Cardiff, you perhaps wouldn’t expect a huge supporters’ bus worth of South Korean support in the Welsh capital this week.
That thought in mind, a group of Korean students in Edinburgh have spent the past few months baking cakes, running marathons, and generally raising funds to come to support their countrymen and rally the crowds. Sihwan Hong, studying Sports Management at Edinburgh University, takes up the tale.
“I first heard about Homeless World Cup when Mel Young came to our classes and spoke about the foundation. As a person who believes sport can change the world, I was really inspired,” he explains.
The Edinburgh eight not only arrived on site with outstanding vocal support and some encouraging placards, but with goodie bags of Korean food, snacks, and personal care products.
Click here to read the full story.
“I like the Lion because he is a survivor”
Team Bulgaria’s Bozhidar Kostov gushes about his love affair with the game. ‘It started with watching TV for me. I love to watch football, women’s football too, and to play football.’
The now 16-year-old recalls the beginning of his football journey: ‘I remember I started to play in front of my home at the age of six. When I was eight, I went into an institution. Institution means you don’t live with your family, it means you live with social workers. Most of my time in the institution was playing football.
He goes on to explain that ‘in Bulgaria we don’t actually have a definition for homelessness in our law, so people who are part of the football team live in institutions or illegal housing in gypsy communities. We also have people who are drug addicts, or refugees, but most are from institutions or gypsy neighbourhoods.
Click here to read the full story.
“Nobody in the team knew each other before they came together here”
Johana Cardoza raises her gaze to the blue skies over Bute Park and absent-mindedly touches the tattoo on her right forearm—the word Familia with a cardiogram graphic—all she has to remind her of her birthplace. Then she grins, a huge, all-encompassing smile that belies her journey of the last four years.
A member of the all-female Street Football United (SFU) team, who hails from Colombia, is playing alongside other refugees and asylum seekers bound by the common thread of temporary statelessness.
“Nobody in the team knew each other before they came together here because everyone in the group is from a different country, including Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, and Congo,” Cardoza explains, “so we are ‘hello, hello, hello, we are the girls, we are the team, let’s go!’ All the managers around us help us to play, how to play better because I just played football when I was in college—last time was 2004—and the next time I played was one week ago!”