team Archives | Page 6 of 8

10 Things I Learned from Darfur United and their Refugee Community

by Gabriel | Apr 5, 2012

(in no particular order) 1. When surrounded by a crowd of hundreds of kids, if you take the time to look into the eyes of one, everything appears to calm down. 2. Sometimes you have to take one for the team and lead from behind. (Issa) 3. Humbleness and pride can go...

A True Sacrifice

by Brian Cleveland | Apr 4, 2012

We have our final team meeting with the Darfur United team tomorrow morning before we catch a flight back to N’Djamena and leave the players with the job to train themselves using the schedule Coach Mark leaves behind for the next eight weeks leading up to the...

Darfur United… “Probably the best refugee team in the World!”

by Mark Hodson | Apr 4, 2012

The team arrives every morning at “around” 5.30am. Darfuri time is not exact, if you are within 30 minutes either side, you are in good shape….though it’s usually only one side of the allotted time that things happen here! I have tried to introduce routine to the...

Soccer at Dawn

by James | Apr 3, 2012

The players and coaches must wake before sunrise for tryouts to avoid the midday heat. Every morning there’s a stillness that seems to break all at once as the camp comes to life. Over the past few days, the Darfur United hopefuls have joined that cycle. They...

“Football is not a matter of life or death…It is much, much more important than that”

by Mark Hodson | Apr 2, 2012

…was famously quoted by the late, great Liverpool Coach Bill Shankly, although I doubt whether he had a team of refugee players from Darfur in mind when he made that proclamation…but “oh boy” was he right! Football has been very kind to me and my family....