El Paso’s Segundo Barrio Futbol Club scores U.S. Soccer Foundation award for impact

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The U.S. Soccer Foundation this week honored an El Paso program based in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods for making a difference in sports-based youth development. The Segundo Barrio Futbol Club was presented the 2019 Urban Soccer Symposium Award for Impact at the foundation’s 13th annual Urban Soccer Symposium March 18 in Washington, D.C. Awards for organizations or individuals were presented in three categories: influence, innovation, and impact. Related: Love of Segundo Barrio leads Englishman to form soccer club

“It is with great pleasure that we present the third annual Urban Soccer Symposium Awards to We Can Kick It, Segundo Barrio FC, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel,” Ed Foster-Simeon, President and CEO of the U.S. Soccer Foundation said in a press release. “It is because of the innovations of organizations and individuals like these that we continue to grow as a community and, in turn, are able to positively impact more and more young lives through sport.”

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel received the 2019 Influence Award, which was awarded to an individual holding public office who has leveraged his or her position to support, advocate for, and champion sports-based youth development efforts in underserved communities. We Can Kick It received the 2019 Innovation Award for using soccer as a tool to inspire and empower children and their families affected by cancer. 

Segundo Barrio FC received the Impact Award for its work using soccer as a tool for social change by developing programs that foster the physical, mental, and emotional growth of youth in the El Paso, Texas neighborhood, Segundo Barrio. Founded in 2011, Segundo Barrio FC is a volunteer-run organization and started with just one team.

Las malas condiciones de los campos de fútbol en El Paso afectan la práctica del deporte

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Con el crecimiento de ligas amateur de fútbol en El Paso, también hay una creciente preocupación entre jugadores y entrenadores respecto a las malas condiciones de los campos en los que se practica este deporte. “Hay muchos campos que si están en mal estado y los jugadores corren muchos riesgos, sobre todo los jugadores que trabajan, tienen su familia, chavos que juegan en la escuela”, dijo Joel García, de 36 años, entrenador y jugador de fútbol en la liga Del Valle Soccer League. “Y, sí, es muy riesgoso jugar en esos campos.” Esta es parte de la razón por la que varias de las ligas amateur locales, requieren que sus jugadores sean mayores de edad. Estas ligas estan conformadas por 18 a 22 equipos, cada uno con un promedio de 15 jugadores.

El Paso’s new arena soccer team ready to start season

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EL PASO – This Texas city will soon have another professional sports team, the El Paso Coyotes. This time the opportunity will be for an arena soccer team from the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL), an international league for the United States and Mexico. Founded in 2008, the MASL has 21 teams. The El Paso Coyotes inaugural season officially starts on Saturday October 29th when they travel to Allen, Texas to face the Dallas Sidekicks. Their first home game is November 9, when the Dallas Sidekicks travel to the El Paso. The Coyotes will play in the 5,250-seat El Paso County Coliseum, 4100 East Paisano, in the South Central area.

#SomosTodosMacacos #WeAreAllMonkeys

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EL PASO — “There is no racism [on the field], but maybe there is a word or gesture that is not correct. The one affected by this should say this is a game and shake hands.”
That is the answer to racism that Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, proposed when interviewed by CNN back in 2011. Not only did he deny that racism exists, which is not the only time he (or FIFA) has denied racism, he proposed a preposterous solution to battle racism when two high profile cases of racism were going on in England. Barcelona star Daniel Alves, who is Brazilian, along with his teammate and compatriot Neymar Santos have decided to not battle racism with something as simplistic as a handshake. They have taken to social media to spread their message, “Somos todos macacos”, Portuguese for “We are all monkeys.”
It started during a Spanish league game, when Barcelona FC were playing a game in Villarreal and in the 77th minute a fan from Villarreal threw a banana at Alves, who was about to take a corner kick.

Remembering the Indios de Juárez

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EL PASO, Texas – Sergio Villasenor often worries for his relatives across the border in his home city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Members of his family have dealt with four assaults at their place of business in a city still wracked with drug cartel-related violence. It isn’t as bad as it was even a couple of years ago, when the city of more than a million people recorded 3,103 murders. But Juarez is still unsafe territory for the El Paso Patriots midfielder who works across the international border from where he lives. “The truth is that it’s really hard to live in Ciudad Juarez, so I’m trying to find ways to bring them here (to Texas),” Villasenor said, “for a better state of being.”

One must pay the cartels for the right to operate a business in town, or perhaps be forced to close, or have their establishment burned down, Villasenor explained.

(Justin Anthony Monarez/Borderzine.com)

Soccer at the centerline en español

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EL PASO — Juarenses revered and dubbed him “Superman” during his tenure as a soccer star. “I had the opportunity of being one of the most popular players in that team, said César Sosa. “In Juárez everybody knows me. They say ‘Supermán Sosa’ and they know who he is.”

Although it’s been two decades since the delantero suited up for the beloved Cobras de Ciudad Juárez, Sosa said his relationship with Juárez during his early 1990’s career has continued and garnered support for his new team now in El Paso. “They relate him to that special team and maybe to that time where Juárez was really nice, peaceful and everything,” said Teresa Sosa, César’s wife.

El fútbol atrae a estudiantes internacionales al área del noreste de Tennessee

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Traducido por Cristina Arellano

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Un grupo de jóvenes corre por el campo de fútbol en Bristol, Tennessee, gritando jugadas y palabras de aliento a los demás. Lo que están diciendo es comprensible, pero su acento no suena igual. Eso es porque este grupo de varones es un crisol de estudiantes de todo el mundo. Muchos jóvenes de todo el mundo vienen a los Estados Unidos cada año para asistir a la universidad, una oportunidad que no es una hazaña fácil.

The Floppers — A bad call awakens the US to the thrill of world soccer

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EL PASO, Texas — Many have often wondered why soccer (football in the rest of the world) popularity in the United States has never been the same as that of the world. I lend a theory to this. Low scores, no real off-season, too many events already happen here that do not happen elsewhere and flopping. Americans like entertainment, they like high scores and dramatic finishes. The bottom line comes down to the fact that soccer’s simplicity may be the contributing factor to its lack of popularity and exposure in the United States.