Team USA Wins the 2007 World Cup in Tokyo
Heather Appel - 11/22/2007
Story and photo by Heather Appel
Courtesy of http://xAble.com

When Danny Gorman got a new foot guard for his wheelchair, the man who designed it didn’t ask for much in return—just that he score the winning goal against France in the 2007 Power Soccer World Cup.

 

Gorman, a 16-year-old from the Tampa, Florida area, was one of eight athletes chosen to play for the United States in the first ever World Cup, held in Tokyo, Japan, October 9 to 13. Gorman started playing soccer three years ago with the Tampa Thunder. Before he got into soccer, the closest he got to any kind of game action was with his video games, he said.  For the past year, he’s played with his local team and also devoted hours each week to learning dozens of plays in preparation for the World Cup. At the tournament, Team USA faced off with six other countries: England, Denmark, Belgium, France, Portugal and Japan.

 

Power soccer, known as powerchair football outside the U.S., is a rapidly developing sport played by people who use motorized wheelchairs. Four players on each side (a goalie and three forwards) kick an oversized soccer ball and maneuver it into the opposing goal. Each player has a guard attached to the front of his or her chair, which is used to kick the ball, usually by spin kicks, passing, or dribbling the ball down the court. The teams are co-ed and multi-generational, with adults in their 20s and 30s competing alongside players as young as 13 in regional and international tournaments.

 

The stakes were high at the World Cup. Not only were the teams competing for the title of World Cup champion, they were also raising the profile of the sport, not just in Japan, but internationally. Officials of FIPFA, the international power soccer association that sponsored the World Cup, hoped the tournament would set the stage for power soccer to become a Paralympic sport. At the end of the event, Tokyo certainly knew more about power soccer, and the games generated excitement in the home countries of the other teams as well.

 

Team USA went into the World Cup feeling confident, after competitive tryouts last September and then a series of four training camps between January and August. Still, the players didn’t know what to expect from the other teams, who had a range of experience. They’d be playing England, who had a reputation for playing rough, France, who had never lost in international play, and newer teams from Portugal and Denmark, where the players had only a few years or even months of experience and the rosters were thinner (only five players from Portugal and seven from Denmark). And to complicate matters, all seven teams were playing under new international rules, hashed out over the last two years at summits in Portugal and Atlanta.

 

France was seen as the biggest threat. FIPFA is headquartered there, and some players have been playing as long as 18 years. Team USA had all week to prepare for their match against France, and their game got stronger and stronger as they shut out one team after another, first defeating England 3-0, then beating three teams in one day the second day of the tournament. All eight players showed off their skills in the first four games, with a number of goals scored by Jerry Book, Danny Gorman, Elio Navarro, Jessica Lehman and Michael Archer, who also led the tournament in assists.

 

“Portugal was the easiest, Belgium was a step up in difficulty,” said Navarro, “Then we had to play Japan in front of a screaming crowd, television cameras--and the whole nation was watching--and we pulled off a 2-0 victory.”

 

The Japan-U.S. match was hot, but just as many eyes were on the matches in the following days.

 

The Belgian fans got fired up as the team beat Denmark, tied England and decimated Portugal, with an 11-0 victory, earning them the 4th seed and a spot in the semifinals. Denmark’s team had an uphill battle and didn’t make it to the semifinals, but they had a victory of their own.

 

“We won!” said Rasmus Lond, the Danish delegation leader, after their match with England. They actually tied 1-1, but for them it was a win, he explained, because the last time they faced England, Denmark was defeated 8-1.

 

For Belgium’s Manu Metens, 23, making the semifinals was a dream come true. His former teacher, Jean-Claude, who attended the World Cup, said he developed the sport at Metens’s school before he was aware that there were teams in other parts of the world. Like many power soccer athletes, he loved the sport right away and has not lost his passion for the game since he started playing at age 16. Born with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy or other degenerative diseases, Metens was not expected to live into his 20s. “Powerchair football is keeping him alive,” Jean-Claude said.

 

After losing the semifinals to the U.S., Team Belgium played Japan for third place and won, while the U.S. and France advanced to the finals.

 

The last day of play saw two intense semifinal games, followed by tension-filled third and first place matches that both ended in penalty kicks.

 

As Belgium and Japan entered overtime, tied 1-1, the gym was filled with cheers in French and scores of Japanese fans, singing “Let’s all fight together,” in Japanese. The suspense built as the overtime period ended, sending the game into penalty kicks. Belgium came out on top, winning 5-4 with penalty kicks. The players and their fans were ecstatic when they realized they had just taken third place at the first World Cup. The final game of the cup was nerve-wracking for fans on both sides, who watched as France scored a first goal on the U.S. and then saw the U.S.’s defense tighten for the rest of the first half. Team USA starters Michael Archer, Jessica Lehman, Omar Solorio and goalie JC Russo played at the top of their game, and when Gorman was subbed in for Lehman in the second half, he knew just what to do.

 

He spun and hit the ball into France’s goal, scoring the point that tied the game and took it into overtime. The U.S. crowd went wild.  

 

The teams remained tied after two five-minute overtime halves, forcing them to do penalty kicks. After four goals by each side, they went into sudden death, where the first team to stop a goal would win the game. In those last heart-stopping moments, Navarro and Gorman scored two more goals, and then U.S. goalie JC Russo stopped the next French goal, winning the game and the World Cup.

 

The team was elated and a little bit stunned as spouses, parents and friends ran onto the court to hug the players and celebrate the historic victory. Over the next few hours, the players replayed the highlights of the game in conversations with each other and their managers and coaches and speculated about what would happen next for Team USA.

 

According to USA coach and FIPFA Vice President Chris Finn, there’s some thought about keeping the team together for exhibitions and events leading up to the 2012 Paralympics in London, where they hope to have a demonstration of the game. FIPFA officials have also discussed (very tentative) possible plans to hold the next World Cup in South Africa in 2010, in conjunction with the next FIFA World Cup.

 

In the meantime, the eight Team USA athletes and three alternates are back with the cup and are recovering from two weeks of travel, arduous training and tough matches.

Gorman was exhausted but excited to return to Florida and tell the designer of his guard that his wildest ambitions came true.