🇻🇨 - Saint Vincent's soccer community lends a hand after La Soufriere eruption
How you can do the same and help SVG!
Oalex Anderson couldn’t concentrate. Could you blame him?
After several months of warning that La Soufrière, a volcano in the north of St. Vincent, was set to erupt, it did just that in mid April, twice blowing its dome and spewing ash and molten rock into the sky and on the ground. The work of scientists and preparation from the government meant little loss of life, but the World Health Organization estimates between 16,000 and 20,000 of the country’s 110,589 people are currently displaced.
Even those still living at home, like Anderson’s mom and sister, who recently gave birth, are wondering where their drinking water will come from, how long they’ll be able to keep power or if ash will irritate their lungs and eyes.
“It was bothering me,” the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines forward said last week. “I didn't sleep through the night, and I didn't eat breakfast. I wanted to do something in order to feel useful.”
He spoke to his manager with the Richmond Kickers, Darren Sawatzky, who talked to Kickers ownership about how best to help. Meanwhile, Anderson and his teammates decided to activate their own network, launching a GoFundMe with 100% of funds going to help Anderson’s native country.
“I'm really grateful for everything that my team is actually doing for me and for my people,” he said. “It makes me feel like I'm really in a great place because lately, ever since the first eruption, I haven't been in a very good place. They've had my back ever since.”
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines rarely is in the headlines for any reason, but their biggest splash on the soccer scene came back in 1996 when Vincy Heat made their only Gold Cup, getting through the long 1995 Caribbean Cup qualification process.
That run was documented by former midfielder Oronde Ash in a 2020 podcast series.
While Ash made his home in the U.S. after his playing career and currently is coaching in North Carolina, he also runs a nonprofit called ADARE360 shipping soccer gear to St. Vincent. When La Soufriere began to blow, he knew that his established connections and the confidence people have that he will get help to people on the island made him a logical choice to start getting together resources to provide relief.
“I've been collecting new and used soccer equipment from all over my area in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill,” Ash said. “People have been very kind to me over the last 10 to 12 years, so in terms of folks recognizing that I've done something for my country for over a decade, it isn't a big switch for them to go, ‘OK. He's been doing this. Now he's just transitioning from soccer stuff to how can we help a greater population,’ so that I don't think it was a tough sell for the folks that have regularly been donating.”
While he’s raised more than $8,000, there’s still plenty more to be done even as the international community looks to rally to help those who currently need help.
“The need is great,” Ash said. “Food, water, clothing, all those basic human needs are at a premium in my country.”
While we often say things like, “sports take a back seat,” or “soccer comes second,” in situations like these, and the national team’s March results clearly aren’t front of mind for those currently living in shelters wondering if their homes survived the natural disaster, Ash said there’s still a big role to be played by the soccer community.
“I'm hoping that the sport, especially the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation, can take a more proactive role,” he said. “I'm imploring the president and anybody in the executive committee to recognize that, with everything that's bad about the volcano, football is an opportunity to reset. It really is an opportunity to reset and to re-establish football and what it can do in our developing nation, as a conduit for social change.”
Ash is encouraging fellow former players to adopt their village, similar to what he’s doing through the ADARE360 program, and see what needs can be met. He also said the federation should push its local-based players to help on the front lines, overcoming whatever disconnects have existed between the national team and the everyday people in St. Vincent.
What are those everyday people like? Ash tried to put some of that in context with his podcast project, something he launched during the pandemic when he realized few outsiders were going to be interested in telling the stories of soccer in St. Vincent as the 25th anniversary of that historic Gold Cup approached.
Those small things, like taking initiatives to remind people on the island that people from St. Vincent have done great things, are important to Ash.
“Any nation who is successful, tells their story effectively, emotionally, intelligently, and they repeat it so that people are from other countries can connect. When they can't connect over politics, they can't connect over religion, they connect over human stories,” he said. “So if St. Vincent can't export anything else, damn it, I'm going to make sure we can export the stories of my country, because those things connect across the board! And when, unfortunately, disasters like this happen, then people are more apt to help because they feel like they know my country.
“Nobody knows my country. So now's an opportunity to kind of rewrite that.”
Ash plans to ship two to three barrels of whatever he’s collected every two weeks for the next several months, so the opportunity to give is still very much on the table.
Speaking of….
💸👨🏽💻 - Let’s do our part
I want to help out as the little Getting CONCACAFed community, so in addition to the knowledge you are helping displaced people in SVG when you give to Oronde’s organization or the Kickers’ fund, I want to add more incentive.
If you reply to this newsletter and show you’ve given $50 or more to those organizations, you’ll get to assign me a topic to write about in the newsletter. Maybe you want me to track down a Concacaf legend of the past, settle a bar bet you a have with a buddy about a Guatemalan right back or just think it’s time for some thoughts about Martinique.
It might not be the whole newsletter, but I’ll do it justice. (I also can’t guarantee I’ll be able to speak with anyone you want me to run down).
That’s it. $50 or more to this or this Gofundme (or $25 to each, whatever), and you’re my editor for one edition. It’s a great deal. Let’s help our Concacaf community!
🇹🇹 - Trinidad and Tobago at risk of losing points?
Trinidad and Tobago came out of the first two matches of World Cup qualification with four points after a convincing win over Guyana followed by a disappointing draw with Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico on Wednesday announced formally that they are awaiting FIFA’s response to Guyana’s petition, however, for FIFA to rule on whether or not Trinidad and Tobago fielded an ineligible player in those two matches.
A report on website Inside World Football indicated Andre Boucaud was registered as an agent with the English FA. English regulations prevent registered intermediaries from playing to avoid conflicts of interest.
TTFA officials and manager Terry Fenwick have said they’re not too concerned about potentially losing points, especially given that Boucaud didn’t play against Guyana.
“It's nothing to do with us. It is all English rules and regulations, nothing to do with TT, Concacaf or FIFA,” Fenwick told reporters.
Shifting from just giving the news to editorializing: I don’t see that a rule has been broken here, and I’m not buying that Boucaud’s inclusion on the substitutes bench distracted Guyana in any way. At least he played against Puerto Rico, but that was for five minutes plus stoppage time as Puerto Rico largely controlled the match late.
I understand the motivation for the English FA’s rule here, but the fact is that Boucaud seems to have made a pretty traditional post-playing career transition in trying to stay in the game and also has stayed fit enough that Fenwick feels he’s a good inclusion in the squad. How he would benefit as an agent from being on the T&T national team is not clear to me. And, even had he starred and scored, FIFA’s rules don’t seem to prohibit agents from suiting up in World Cup qualification. Boucaud was eligible for the Soca Warriors while playing actively. If he’s going to stay in shape such that the manager feels he’s one of the best 23 eligible players to represent the country, I don’t see a reason to prohibit him from doing so. (If T&T should perhaps have an active player better able to fill this role is a good question)
If a FIFA rule has been broken and there is a provision there against agents, that’s another story.
Cap-tie Mino Raiola.
🏆 - First night of CCL gives some sizzle
If I’d done a power rankings of CCL matches I was most excited for (and, honestly, maybe I should start doing this as a feature for the newsletter), I probably would’ve put Atlanta United vs. Philadelphia Union last. I should’ve known better.
This is a tournament in which we’ve seen way too many matches between Liga MX teams in critical moments but that often still delivers. Tuesday night’s MLS on MLS tilt was no different.
The Union absolutely have attitude, which they showed going toe-to-toe with Saprissa and then displayed again last night in a win that looked like it would be, at best, a smash and grab and then turned into a knockout.
In the other match, Cruz Azul showed just how formidable it can and should be this time around. Its defense is stout and even a second-choice attack was able to get a goal past Toronto FC before typical starters like Jonathan Rodriguez and Santiago Gimenez put in their shifts.
La Maquina’s last loss was in mid-January. Only a Cruzazuleada can keep them from lifting some sort of silverware this season, and after next week they’ll be able to shift the focus entirely back to that elusive league crown.
The nightcap tonight between the Portland Timbers and Club América would’ve topped my power rankings. We’ll talk on Friday about whether or not it delivered.