It has been a pretty amazing trip from Team Canada. Last week they departed from Brazil after prepping and practicing for well over a year. Lots has been written about the team. For a quick snapshot, check out this CNN story or take a look at one of our more recent posts.

Over the past week, Team Canada coach Alan Bates has been sending dispatches on the team’s progress to Vancouver. Here’s a run down of the past five days!

Day 1

This update is coming to you straight from the Alpha Hostel in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro (aka Team Canada Headquarters). My aim is to write daily updates about our Homeless World Cup experience.

Yesterday was a long and very memorable day for all of us. We all gathered at the LifeSkills Centre right across from Oppenheimer Park to a very warm send-off by volunteers and fans. In characteristic fashion, Kailin See, Sarah Blyth and lots of other PHS volunteers put together a great event including a hot breakfast, haircuts, and matching track suits and bags for the whole team. We were looking slick by the time we stepped on our bus.

Like a post-game Canucks dressing room, the room was filled with media from radio, TV, and newspapers interviewing players. Kurt Heinrich has done an amazing job with keeping our media contacts informed and has created a real buzz in the city about the team.

The highlight of the morning was co-team captain Patrick Oleman’s uncle Tom performing a traditional Stlaltlium ceremony to send us on our way in the perfect mindset, telling our guys it’s time to “stand and walk like men”.

We were then followed to the airport by a CTV crew from the show First Story and were met there by another TV crew from CityTV. Fortunately, everything went smoothly at all the airports that we went through. It was a very long trip from Vancouver to Toronto, Toronto to Sao Paulo, and finally Sao Paulo to Rio. Imagine doing that on your first day of air travel ever, as was the case for a lot of our guys.

The ride from the airport to our hostel was a big eye-opener for all of us. The scenes included sprawling Favelas of makeshift housing along the highways and young men dodging cars in the middle of very chaotic traffic trying to sell popcorn to motorists. It wasn’t lost on the guys that the popcorn sellers probably don’t get a cheque on the third Wednesday of every month.

We had a good team dinner at a burger joint around the corner from our hostel and everyone was ready to crash after that.

It’s now the morning after we arrived, and today has already provided lots of fun. We’ve been joined by Vancouver volunteers Daniel Errey, Sarah Blyth, and Kailin See. Wendy Perkins from Toronto is also in Rio now and we’re looking forward to getting our fresh new unis from her later today.

Team Korea is also staying in our hostel and the highlight of the morning has been an exhibition game with them at an urban graffiti-encircled soccer court nearby. I was impressed with our skill and sportsmanship in a friendly 3-0 win.

As I type, the guys are out playing again with the local kids in the alley/street outside the hostel. They’re learning a lot of sweet moves.

Day 2

Day 2 started with a meeting to comment on successes and address problems that we had on day 1. Let’s be honest, this kind of trip was never going to be without its challenges. I think we’re lucky to be here a bit early to work out little things and start to bond as a team.

If you just want to see some photo highlights from today, go to:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=490358&id=852065453&l=ac9f31afa1

After being joined by all the Vancouver-based volunteers who came a day later than the team, we decided we had to hit the beach. We played frogger across 7 or 8 highways (crosswalks seem not to have been invented yet in Brazil) to get to beautiful Botafogo beach. It’s covered in soccer nets. There’s also a great view of the Christ on the way there.

We then went for salad and pizza washed down with Guarana before returning back to the Hostel to wait for our uniforms. I can’t really describe in text how excited the guys were about the unis: home and away professional-looking jerseys, shorts, socks, new shoes, and tons of flags. Paul, Wendy, and Michelle from Street Soccer Canada did a great job getting it all together and to Rio. There were expletives and tears, both out of happiness.

After taking some pictures at the Hostel, we went to break in the new gear by playing with the kids that the players have befriended. We mixed up the teams and had a great game. The kids have awesome skill. A little more size and you could see them really tearing up a soccer field. Some other guys who were standing around joined in the game too. It was a bit like those hockey commercials we have where a ball hockey game just spontaneously erupts out of random people on the street.

We finished the night with a casual dinner at the hostel and are looking forward to finding out who our competition is in the first round tomorrow. Korea, Norway, Poland, and the US are all staying near us. The guys want to play the best teams. We all feel it’s just going to be so cool to play teams from other countries. It doesn’t really matter who the individual guys are. Just the fact that they all flew here from some other nation to compete with us is awesome.

Day 3

Daniel Errey got Day 3 off to an energetic start by taking the players to the beach for a workout. Nothing like a run on the beach and a quick dip in the Atlantic to get you going in the morning.

After the players grabbed a quick breakfast, we took the metro over to the far end of Copacabana. The metro is free for all Homeless World Cup participants. The cold rain that greeted us in Copacabana made us feel right at home. Despite the weather, we had a great walk along most of the length of the seawall. Highlights included huge waves and intricate sandcastles.

We ran into a lot of teams on our way to the match venue and enjoyed shaking hands and meeting them. Once there, we were surrounded by other teams, many of them chanting or singing. Somehow, Go Canada Go, just didn’t live up to the soccer/football chants of some of the other nations, so we had to break out both the national anthem and also a First Nations warrior chant that is totally awesome. Five of our eight guys are First Nations. We’re representing Canada old-school!

We registered and got our picture taken and then were given new shoes, shirts, shorts, socks, and a team pair of goalie gloves and a ball. This was all courtesy of Nike. There was a bit of a delay for the HWC lunch, so we decided to do our own thing and went to a buffet where you pay by weight. It was thoroughly delicious.

We then returned to the hostel to dry off a bit and get ready to go back for the draw. While most guys were getting ready, I went with our goalie Kevin to try to get him a jock/cup somewhere. This mostly involved me walking up to store clerks, pointing at my crotch and getting a lot of confused looks. I think I know what they’re called now for when we try again tomorrow.

It was very exciting to find out who we’ll be playing in the first round. On Monday, we play Ireland and Romania and on Tuesday we play Cambodia and Mexico. I think it’ll be a tough group. The other teams look good. For the full Group lists and schedule, see www.homelessworldcup.org.

After the draw, we went out on the beach to practice free kicks (we’ve got some sneaky ones), corners, and moving the ball our from our goalie. That was followed by a barefoot scrimmage and a round of coconuts.

We wandered around Copacabana a bit more, going to a street market and then watching our local team Botafogo play on TV in the Brazilian league at a cafe. It was then time for dinner at the HWC headquarters at a hostel called the Mellow Yellow. The food was actually really good. Mmmmm, butter chicken.

Since getting back home, we’ve just spent some casual time at the hostel. The guys are really coming together as a group and we haven’t even stepped on the court yet.

Tomorrow will include the parade, opening ceremonies, and the first day of games. Unfortunately we don’t play, but that will give us a chance to scout the opposition and get a feel for things.

We’re itching to get into it.

Day 4

The Homeless World Cup festivities got into full swing on Day 4 with the parade and opening ceremonies. We had a great time during the parade right down the boardwalk along Avenue Atlantica in Copacabana. We were lead by a children’s Brazilian drum group and that lead to lots of dancing, including Co-Captain Patrick Oleman busting out some traditional First Nations dancing. We also brought out the national anthem and the First Nations warrior chant that has become one of our trademarks.

At the end of the parade, everyone filed into the competition venue for the opening ceremonies. Co-captains Kevin King and Patrick Oleman both got turns waving the Canadian flag as part of the ceremony. Unfortunately, the ceremony was a bit of a bust because the sound system wouldn’t work which meant that nobody could here either Mel Young (the President of the Homeless World Cup) or another guy who I think was the Mayor of Rio. I guess I’ll never know, but I was impressed with his support for the tournament anyways.

Games got under way pretty soon after the opening ceremony. It was hard for all of us to watch games and not play. We learned a lot watching the other teams though. Fortunately/unfortunately, we learned a lot from Ireland and Mexico (both in our group) who dished out the biggest smack-downs of the day with twin 14-0 wins (vs. Romania and Cambodia respectively). The best teams have amazing skill and also have really effective systems for defending.

Even though we didn’t play on Day 4, we built on our fan-base significantly by cheering for other teams and putting on a formidable display of good cheer. Our favourite teams have included Korea, Poland, Cambodia, and the Phillipines. We’re the official cheering section for these and several other teams. Usually Canadian soccer fans are so reserved compared to in other places, but not here. We’re so loud that other countries try to recruit us to cheer for them before games.

We continued the jockstrap expedition for a brief time. I brought back-up and mostly got Sarah Blyth and Kailin See to make fools of themselves trying to ask for one. We didn’t find one despite going to many sporting goods store. Brazilians must have balls of steel and little experience with ice hockey. Anyways, our goalie decided he didn’t need one in the end.

I went to my first coach’s meeting in the evening. It’s basically where all the countries’ coaches and managers can complain about things. Some of the coaches are pretty intense about rule interpretations.

Day 5

Today was obviously very exciting because we had our first two games. After getting ready in the morning, we made our way to the venue and onto the practice pitch to get warmed up. We had a good warm-up, but the Irish looked like they really knew what they were doing. It turned out that was more than a hunch. In a result that should surely put my job on the line, we got our butts kicked 15-1 by Ireland. The HWC website says 17-1, but that’s just not true and it does make a difference. The highlight of the game was when Jeremy Isaac introduced the ball to the top corner of the Irish net off a well placed corner by Peter Chow to make it 1-1. It was almost as if we practiced it (cough – we did – cough). The TSN turning point came when Ireland went ahead 2-1, about 3 minutes into the game. Before the game, I told the guys I just wanted to feel like we left it all on the field. That’s exactly what I felt. We learned a lot, but all the strategy in the world wasn’t going to win that game for us.

Our guys are so positive that you would have thought we won our first game 15-1. Everyone saw it as a learning experience and was honoured to have played with such a good team. We had a lot of fun between games. We got to watch a lot of great soccer. I’m calling Kenya and Mexico in the final. You heard it here first. I haven’t seen many of the women’s teams, but the guys like Norway and the Netherlands. But it might not be just soccer skill that they “like” about them, gnome sayin, so they might not be the teams to put your savings down on.

What we lack in scoring finesse, we make up for in cheering dominance. I think we deserve half the credit for Poland’s win over England today for our unending “Polska! Polska! Polska!” cheer throughout the game. I’ve got to admit that as someone with English roots who also lived in Nottingham for three years, it felt wrong inside to cheer against the three lions. The English keeper didn’t like our choice of alliance either and let us know about it after the game (in a very friendly way). I’ll have to teach the guys some British football chants and make it up to England another day.

Aside from our cheering, we’ve become well-loved in other ways as well. Yesterday, one of our guys came up to me to tell me that we were giving our shoes to Italy. “What!!?” was my immediate response. Turned out they ran out of free shoes and Italy didn’t bring as many as they needed. Some of their guys were looking at starting their game in flip-flops. Now, maybe this makes me a bad person, but I’ve got to say that even after the situation was explained to me a bit, I really didn’t like the idea of us giving away our shoes. We’ve done all this planning, come all this way, tried to make everything right, and the day before we play we’re going to give away our shoes!? To Italy!? Don’t they make shoes? But, of course, the guys were right. It was absolutely the right thing to do. The Italians only wanted to borrow the shoes. So, our shoes beat Croatia 8-6 and we got them back. Until today that is, when we lent them to Italy again between our games. I’m not sure what their result was, but if they won that means our shoes are a respectable 2 and 2 after today.

It’s our player Robert Milton’s birthday today and he requested ice cream, so we shared a couple of small tubs of it with lunch. Right after that, we went for a bit of a dip in the waves and some sandcastle building. The ridiculousness included backflips, and Baywatch-style David Hassellhoff  impressions.

Having watched Romania on the first day of games, I thought they were going to be tough but that we might be able to take them. They only had four guys on the first day, so I thought maybe we would tire them out with our full team. However, there’s a little known rule at the HWC that if a team is short of players, they can request to use local “inexperienced” players from the host country. That would be fine if this was India or even Sweden or something. Try finding an “inexperienced” soccer player in Rio. So, we played most of the second-half against two Brazilians and one Romanian (the games are four-aside, three and a goalie). The end result was an 8-2 loss, but you’ve got to believe me that we learned from our Ireland experience and actually played really great defense. You have to keep one player over half all the time, so you’re always defending with two against three. It’s a high-scoring game. We also had two great goals. Jeremy Isaac is now a goal-a-game man with his second of the tournament and Robert Milton celebrated his birthday by suavely sliding it past the Romanian keeper on a penalty.

The evening has had its share of interpersonal conflicts, so that’s been a bit rough on the players and the volunteers trying to patch everything together. The best medicine would be a win against Cambodia in the morning.