Coach vows to defy odds

tournament, designed for the homeless, which will be held in Mexico City from October 6 to 14.
The tournament’s draw will be conducted next week and more than 70 countries are expected to go into the hat as the countdown begins.
Team Zimbabwe’s players for this year’s Homeless World Cup were mostly drawn from Hartcliffe Extension — a holding camp for Operation Murambatsvina victims (Operation Clean-Out), which left thousands of people homeless in June 2005.
The team has already been selected and seven of their players are from Hatcliffe while the other two are from Mbare and Mutoko respectively.
While confident of bringing the trophy home, coach Mweta is concerned about lack of proper training facilities as they prepare to take part in the Mexico City tournament.
“We wanted to have been in camp by now but financial constraints have affected our plans.
“There are still a lot of things which needs attention for instance players are still training without soccer boots and uniforms. The challenges might be there but I am still confident we can bring one of the trophies home because we are working with a talented group of players who are hungry for success.
“We want to go and lift our Zimbabwean flag high out there,”  Mweta. said
The annual Homeless World Cup literally brings soccer to the streets.
Its stars are not pampered prima donnas; all have experienced homelessness in the past years, or are part of the drug or alcohol rehabilitation schemes.
Zimbabwe made their inaugural appearance at the Homeless World Cup in 2006, when the street football showcase was hosted by South Africa in Cape Town.
The Homeless World Cup is open to males or females aged over 16 years, who have been homeless at some point or making their main living income as street paper vendors or asylum seekers.
A maximum of four players per team, comprising the three outfield players and a goalkeeper, take to the pitch.
There are also four substitutes and a “flying” or “rolling” substitution system is applied at this tournament.
The Homeless World Cup matches are two halves of seven minutes each plus one-minute interval in-between each half.
The match starts when the referee throws the ball into the court. When a goal is scored, the team that has conceded the goal receives the ball and the goalkeeper is allowed to bring the ball back into play immediately after the referee’s whistle.
A goalkeeper must not score goals and is also not allowed to leave the penalty area. The winning team receives three points. If a match ends in a draw, it is decided by a sudden-death penalty shoot-out until one team has a one goal lead after both teams have taken the same number of penalty kicks.
In matches decided by a penalty shoot-out, the winning team gets three points and the losing team gets one point.
By participating at the Homeless World Cup the youths have fresh motivation for life and have a reason for living.