US Takes 11th in First Women’s Homeless World Cup

While the US Women were unable to bring home the Homeless World Cup trophy in their very first year of competing, their play and spirit were everything that the team could have hoped for. This was the first time the US sent a men’s and women’s team. Having both teams there to support each other added a new positive element to the tournament.

The Lady Salamanders’ preliminary group at the Rio 2010 Homeless World Cup consisted of Columbia, Norway, Haiti, Argentina and the Netherlands. Their first taste of World Cup competition was a high-scoring game against the Netherlands. Unfortunately the US was unable to pull ahead in the second half and lost 8-5. The second game was also a heartbreaker. The US had the lead at halftime against Columbia, but again couldn’t finish off the game and lost 5-2. In the third game of the tournament, the Lady Salamanders were able to turn their performance around and beat Argentina 5-2, but could not keep up the momentum and lost their next game to Haiti 8-2. The team’s last game of the preliminary group stage was against Norway. The game ended in a 6-6 tie and thanks to the Lady Salamander goalkeeper the US won in PKs.

The US’s second round group stage promised a grudge match when the US was drawn into the same group as Norway. India and Uganda were also placed into the group. After the heroics of the American goalkeeper the previous day, she was called on again after the Lady Salamanders tied their first game with Uganda 2-2. Unfortunately the Americans were unable to repeat their previous PK win. The team’s second game of the round was against Norway. This time around the Norwegians were able to pull off a 7-6 win in regulation. After losing two long and closely contested games, the Lady Salamanders were looking for a positive result against India in their final game of the round. The US won the game comfortably 5-3, allowing them to avoid finishing last place in the group.

The US Women had only one game to play in the trophy round of the tournament. Their final match of the tournament was a rematch with India for third place in the INSP Cup. At the final whistle, the Lady Salamanders had taken 11^th place after another 5-3 win. Next year’s Homeless World Cup will be hosted by Paris, France and will hopefully include a larger women’s tournament. Regardless, the US will be looking to learn from their first tournament experiences to improve on their result in Rio and perhaps bring home a trophy from France.