RP street kids beat Brazil in soccer

MANILA, Philippines - Has any Filipino football team, indoor or outdoor, ever beaten a Brazilian football team in an “international” tournament?

Never – until a spunky group of street kids from Metro Manila, who flew to Durban, South Africa on the wings of several generous souls, beat the Brazilian team, 6-2, in a heart-tugging match last Thursday.

After Wednesday’s tearful 0-2 loss to Tanzania, the team, dubbed the Philippine Street Child “Miracle” team, came back with a vengeance to beat world football superpower Brazil in their final group A match of the Deloitte Street Child World Cup in Durban, an indoor international football tournament for street children. The Miracle team led 4-1 at the break.

As RP Women’s football team captain Marielle Benitez put it after hearing the news of the Pinoy streetkids’ victory, “Tinikling footwork beat Samba footwork.” Benitez, a member of Bayanihan, was one of those who gave the kids tinikling lessons for a dance presentation they did at the opening of the Deloitte Street Child World Cup last Tuesday.

Although the victory will not be enough to bring home the Deloitte-Street Child World Cup trophy, the Pinoy street kids, whose inspiring campaign is sponsored by British charity Angus Lawson Memorial Trust under the auspices of The Henry V. Moran Foundation, will now vie for the Street Child World Shield, a secondary trophy to the Street Child World Cup.

“We are a football team from a ‘basketball’ country that’s participating in a football tournament made up of teams from ‘football’ countries,” says Ed Formoso, manager of the team. “So how much of a chance do we really have in this event? It’s a question asked of me by so, so many. But when you believe so much in a project, and especially when you pray, you learn to believe that miracles might-can-will happen. So, will winning games in South Africa be a miracle? This is a team built on prayer and it has already won by getting as far as this. This far, these kids - it’s a miracle team already.”

Formoso and co-manager Craig Burrows recruited these street children from different shelters in Metro Manila. Jess Landagan, the head coach of the team, is a former street child himself. Soft spoken and humble, he knows his football and has lived the kind of life some of his players are living.

For the Deloitte-SCWC tournament in South Africa, Jess’ assistants and trainers were all former street kids and homeless players who represented the country in the 2008 Melbourne and 2009 Milan Homeless World Cup teams, two projects that were supported by The Henry V. Moran Foundation in partnership with the UOFC Foundation of American social entrepreneur Bill Shaw.

Before the kids left for South Africa, weekend football camps were held at the Tuloy sa Don Bosco Street Children Village under the supervision of Tuloy president and founder Salesian priest Rocky Evangelista.

Father Rocky played a lot of football in his youth and is a familiar footballer with many of the Filipino national players of his day. Father Rocky’s role was to turn this team into a football family. Several donors from the private sector pitched in to buy clothes, food and vitamins for the children. Practice games were sponsored at the International School and Brent School, to familiarize the street kids with taller opponents.

The Pinoys finished third in Group A, dubbed the group of death, with qualifiers UK and Tanzania ahead of them in this indoor international football tournament for street children. They were unlucky in their match against Tanzania and were thus eliminated from the main event, which is the Street Child World Cup.

Observers predict that the UK and Tanzania will meet in the finals on Sunday; both teams beat the Philippine team, 2-4 and 0-2 respectively.

The secondary semi-final crossover stage begins with the RP kids playing Ukraine in the SCW Shield while the Brazilians take on the South Africans. The winners of both games will play in the finals. - Joanne Rae Ramirez, Kathy Moran