D6


S


KLMNO WORLD CUP 2010


Last South American team is ousted netherlands from D1


ed anew in Amsterdam’s Mu- seum Square, where Dutch sup- porters watched the proceedings on massive outdoor screens. Al- most immediately, according to news reports, KLM, the nation’s major airline, announced the ad- dition of three extra flights to Jo- hannesburg for the weekend’s fi- nal. Tuesday’s victory sends the


Netherlands to the World Cup fi- nal for the first time since 1978. And that history, and the defeats that resulted in 1974 and 1978, came immediately to mind for Coach Bert van Marwijk as his players celebrated their feat. “It’s quite something we


achieved after 32 years,” van Marwijk said afterward. “The thing is: We’re not there yet. There is going to be one more match.” Tuesday’s outcome surprised


few. The Netherlands is the only team in the World Cup that has yet to lose a match, its record is now 6-0-0.


And it disappointed fewer still in Africa, where hostility toward Uruguay still lingered four days after Luis Suarez’s controversial handball blocked a shot that would have sent Ghana, the con- tinent’s last standing team, to the semifinals. Cape Town shopkeepers and taxi drivers were more than hap- py to talk about Uruguay’s lack of fair play and the injustice that re- sulted in the days that followed. The local newspapers’ letters-to- the-editor sections were filled with indignant commentary, as well. Uruguay went on to defeat Ghana on penalty kicks. But with Suarez suspended for the fla- grant foul, La Celeste lacked a critical piece of its offense against the Netherlands. And Coach Oscar Tabarez conceded as much in advance, acknowl- edging that Uruguay entered the match “with modest hope and enormous faith.” Much of that faith rested on


veteran striker Diego Forlán, who wore the captain’s armband and did his best to lead Uruguay against the favored Dutch. The match got off to a meas- ured start, with each squad tak- ing the pulse of the other given that 30 years had elapsed since the nations played each other. The Netherlands struck first, 18 minutes in, with Giovanni van Bronckhorst sending a left-foot- ed rocket from 35 yards out. It was an audacious attempt. But the ball was brilliantly fired, fly- ing just past the outstretched mitt of goalkeeper Fernando Muslera into the upper right cor-


MIKE HUTCHINGS/REUTERS


Demy De Zeeuw takes one for the team, thanks to Uruguay’s José Martín Cáceres. After the win, Dutch Coach Bert van Marwijk cautioned: “We’re not there yet. There is going to be one more match.”


ner of the back of the net. Forlán replied in kind, scoring


the tying goal at the 41st minute from an equally preposterous distance. But Forlán alone was no match for the Netherlands’ height, depth and skill — partic- ularly with the Dutch finding their more fluid, creative form af- ter Sneijder put them ahead, 2-1, in the second half. Tabarez stated unequivocally that Sneijder was offside and the


goal, as a result, should not have counted.


“But there is no point in weep- ing and looking for excuses,” Ta- barez said. “We tried, but we didn’t achieve it.” The Dutch fans who dominat- ed the crowd of 62,479 at Cape Town Stadium were still cele- brating Sneijder’s goal when the towering Arjen Robben flicked in a header to make it 3-1. As the minutes ticked down,


Tabarez pulled Forlán from the lineup, explaining afterward that his star forward had developed an injury.


Roughly two minutes into stoppage time, Maximiliano Pe- reira scored for Uruguay, instant- ly turning a rout into a clock- watching nail-biter. But with Forlán on the bench, Uruguay had limited options and, as it turned out, no time. clarkel@washpost.com


YOUTH BASKETBALL


Crossover move: PeacePlayers allows conflicted groups to team up on court Program reaches out


worldwide to promote healing through hoops


by Jorge Castillo Amir Abu Dalu grew up in the


village of Beit Safafa in East Jeru- salem, skipping school and caus- ing trouble on the streets with his friends. And like the great major- ity of Palestinians, he rarely inter- acted with Israelis. “I grew up knowing that any


Jew was like an enemy of mine,” Abu Dalu said, speaking fluent English in a telephone interview. “To tell you the truth, with Jews I didn’t have a connection. It was, ‘I hate them, they don’t know about me’ and it was just no connection at all.” Now, at just 17, Abu Dalu has spent four years playing basket- ball side-by-side with Israelis and counts Jews among his friends. He also volunteers to help coach a girls’ basketball team made up of 15- and 16 year-old Palestinians and Israelis. The team will soon become one of two mixed girls teams ever to join Israel’s national basketball league, the highest lev- el of club basketball in the coun- try. Arabs have played on Israeli teams in other parts of the coun- try, but not in Jerusalem. The opportunity came via Pea-


cePlayers International, a Wash- ington-based organization that uses basketball to promote heal- ing between groups with long his- tories of conflict. In all, more than 45,000 children have been in- volved with the program since its inception in 2001. Over the past five years, 5,500 individuals have participated in the Middle East- ern program alone. The organization attributes much of its success to the simple fact that children love playing basketball — even in locations


such as Northern Ireland and South Africa, where the sport isn’t as popular as others. “At the beginning I didn’t know


what to expect, because we didn’t have any connection at all,” Abu Dalu said. “I didn’t have experi- ence with [Jews] at all. . . . I hated them just for who they are. But at the end, it was just about playing basketball and it became fun.” PPI-Middle East is the third


program established by the or- ganization, after efforts in South Africa in 2001 and Northern Ire- land in 2002 proved successful. A fourth location was created in Cy- prus in October 2006.


All four are designed to bring


together children and teens who would be unlikely to interact otherwise. In Northern Ireland, Catholics and Protestants have been put together on teams, and in Cyprus, Greek and Turkish Cypriots play basketball together. In South Africa, the program originally was intended to expose youngsters of various races to one another. But the Durbin-based program now focuses more on HIV/AIDS prevention and life skills — an issue its local leaders believe is a more immediate threat to South African youth — and socioeconomic divides, as well as racial issues. Brendan Tuohey, one of the


program’s founders, said children form bonds under the pressure of competition, because camara- derie is essential to winning on the court. “There’s a growing understand- ing of what sport can do to trans- form communities, whether we’re talking about peace-building, health education [or] leadership development,” said Tuohey, who created the program with his brother Sean.


Abu Dalu went from a trouble-


maker with no thought about his future to a high school graduate who hopes to study medicine at a school in Hungary. Growing up,


he never envisioned himself in college. “I never wanted to study any-


thing,” he said. “I just thought I was going to get any job after col- lege. After turning to basketball instead of running the streets, “I just started focusing on my stud- ies,” he said. Tensions in the Middle East


have presented the program with obstacles, but PeacePlayers con- tinues to expand in a region where basketball rivals soccer as the top sport. There currently are five programs in three cities in Is- rael and the West Bank. In three of them, participants between the ages of 10 and 17 interact with children from the other group through a concept called Twinned Basketball Clubs. A fourth is cen- tered on leadership skills; Abu Dalu is in the year-round pro- gram, which teaches 20 to 30 old- er teens to become coaches and leaders of PeacePlayers programs in their communities. The fifth, centered in Ramallah, and nearby refugee camps, is a single identity program that focuses on provid- ing youngsters with leadership and life skills. Typically, one Palestinian and


one Israeli basketball team are paired to create a “twinned club.” Prior to combining, the teams practice separately and are pre- pared for the time when they will begin playing together. “It’s important that both teams are close to the same playing level when they meet,” said Tuohey. Pal- estinian children usually face a steeper learning curve because they typically don’t have as much playing experience, he said. During joint practices and games, Palestinian and Israeli coaches run the team together. In Jerusalem, the twinned teams play in the Peace League, which was created in 2007 in partner- ship with the city of Jerusalem. When PPI partnered with the league in 2007, it was the first


WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010


Soccer titans clash for spot in the final


world cup from D1


produced 13 goals in five matches, including four apiece against both England and Ar- gentina in the knockout rounds. Typically, they have been organized and determined on defense, conceding just two goals. Germany “has undergone a


renewal with the important young players,” Spain Coach Vi- cente Del Bosque said. “And they have maintained the val- ues of German football.” The instigators have been


midfielders Mesut Oezil, 21, Thomas Mueller, 20, and Bas- tian Schweinsteiger, 25. Muel- ler, whose four goalsmatch vet- eran teammate Miroslav Klose’s total, will miss the semifinal with a yellow card suspension. Germany’s challenge is to maintain its fine attacking rhythm while properly defend- ing a Spain side that moves — with and without the ball — like no other team in the world. “It will be difficult to neutral- ize them completely,” Germany Coach Joachim Loew said. “We will continue to play our attack- ing style, precisely what has brought about our success. We won against Argentina and England very much because we always insisted, even after tak- ing the lead 1-0 or 2-0, we con- tinued playing offensively. “This is precisely where we


have got the greatest opportu- nities. This is precisely how we are going to success. Otherwise, we won’t stand a chance against Spain.”


Spain has encountered prob- lems, starting with a 1-0 upset defeat to Switzerland in the Group H opener. Aside from David Villa’s five goals, the fin- ishing has been suspect and striker Fernando Torres has been terribly out of form after returning from a pre-tourna- ment knee injury. Del Bosque declined to say whether Torres would be given another chance Wednesday.


Villa, who has scored in four


straight games, is in a “state of grace,” Del Bosque said. Added midfielder Xabi Alonso, “He’s a menace for every defense.” Between Germany’s menace and Spain’s elegance, both teams are expecting a free-flow- ing game with an abundance of scoring opportunities. “What we have seen so far at


this World Cup,” Spanish mid- fielder Andrés Iniesta said, “tells us that we will have a match that will be open, that


JUAN MABROMATA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES


Spain’s David Villa has scored five goals in five matches. Germany has allowed just two.


washingtonpost.com/soccer


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Scores For final score updates from every game, text "SOCCER" to 98999.


both teams will be attacking.” Spain might be without mid-


fielder Cesc Fàbregas, who is re- covering from a leg injury suf- fered in Monday’s training ses- sion. Loew will have to choose a replacement for Mueller and monitor a number of minor ail- ments. The teams are no strangers in


international competition. Two years ago, Spain ended a 44- year rut without a major trophy by defeating Germany, 1-0, on Torres’s strike in the European final in Vienna. While Spain’s core has re- main largely unchanged, Ger- many has evolved under Loew, Juergen Klinsmann’s chief strategist at the 2006 World Cup, when the nationalmann- schaft, as the national team is known, reached the semifinals before losing to Italy, 2-0. “Both teams are here on a


very special stage,” Iniesta said. “We face one of the great teams, not just because of the results, but also the way they play.” The way that Spain plays made it the favorite among the four semifinalists. “Time has come,” Alonso


said. The Spanish players “are linked to each other, and the collective interest is beyond the individual interest. We


can


hopefully fulfill a dream.” goffs@washpost.com


PeacePlayers’ Arbinger consul- tant. “And they then carve out these narrow exceptions. What this curriculum is doing is re- versing that process. It allows them to consider the possibility that the others can be good people too.” The program began in the Tuo-


TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST


“There’s a growing understanding of what sport can do to transform communities,” says PeacePlayers founder Brendan Tuohey, third from left, with staff members Tim Guinan, Brian Cognato and Tal Alter.


time Arab girls were permitted to play in it. Not everything comes easily,


however. Besides a language bar- rier, there is often some resistance and hesitation from family mem- bers when they first hear about the program. Those concerns are often safety-related, but are over- come by the opportunity to play basketball for free in a well-re- ceived program — an opportunity many poor children never had be- fore. “The children come to the pro-


gram to play basketball, not to meet the ‘other side,’ ” said Karen Doubliet, the program’s manag- ing director in the Middle East. “As a free program, we are acces- sible to all children regardless of socioeconomic status. As a result, we bring all kinds of people to the table, even those who may be re- sistant to mingling with the ‘other side’ in the beginning.” Currently, three of the four pro-


grams worldwide — the exception being the Middle East — have a lo- cal person in the managing direc-


tor position and the majority of each staff comprises local resi- dents. “As time went on it became quite clear that in order for the program to survive, it needed a lo- cal leadership and also needed to have a good measure of local au- tonomy,” said Sbo Vilakazi, a South African native and the site’s managing director. “When an American used to head up the or- ganization [in South Africa], they could not commit to a long time here. It was difficult for them to build longstanding relationships on the ground.” The Middle East program was


the first site to test a new curricu- lum developed with the Arbinger Institute, an international con- sulting firm devoted to helping people and communities settle their differences. The curriculum will be brought to the other three sites in September. “A lot of kids believe that one kid on the other side is a good per- son, but every other one is a bad person,” explained Chad Ford,


hey basement in 2000. Sean, a for- mer player at Lehigh University, had returned from playing profes- sional basketball in Northern Ire- land with a vision of utilizing the sport to break down barriers in communities. He pitched the idea to his brother Brendan, a former player at Colgate, and their father, Mark Tuohey, the former D.C. Sports and Entertainment Com- mission chair. PeacePlayers Inter- national, then known as Playing for Peace, was launched in South Africa in 2001, on a $7,000 budg- et.


Today PPI operates on a $2.5 million budget, a significant por- tion of which is raised in the com- munities served. Its partners now include the U.S. Agency for Inter- national Development (USAID), Adidas, the American Ireland Fund and the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which funds the new curriculum and the pro- grams in South Africa and Cyprus. A board of directors, estab- lished in 2004, includes the likes of Ford, agents Ron Shapiro and Arn Tellem, San Antonio Spurs General Manager R.C. Buford, and former NBA general manag- ers Steve Kerr and Danny Ferry. Two members of the Northern


Ireland program were recognized with the Arthur Ashe Award at the 2007 ESPYs and Brendan Tuo- hey, who took over for his brother in 2007, hopes the recognition will help the organization expand. “We’re still battling for dollars,” Tuohey said. “A key for us after this initial success that we’re con- tinuing to build on is proving what we’re doing works.” castilloj@washpost.com


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