Shaw Field played host to world-class sport April 19 as the U.S. Men’s National Amputee Soccer Team faced off against the Olympique de Marseille (OM) men’s amputee team. The game was part of the McCourt Global Amputee Soccer Invitational, an event put on by McCourt Global LLC and Treizième Homme, Marseille’s foundation — which executes the club’s social and philanthropic objectives — alongside Georgetown University’s Disability Cultural Center.
Amy Kenny, director of Georgetown’s Disability Cultural Center, said the purpose of the event was to showcase top-quality sport and raise awareness for amputee soccer and adaptive sports overall.
“Sport is a really important part of culture and community building,” Kenny told The Hoya. “It’s one of the only places where people from different generations, beliefs, backgrounds come together to build a community, to cheer folks on and hopefully to have a great time together and build traditions together. And disability is absolutely a part of that culture.”
Lucie Venet, the executive director of Treizième Homme for two years, said that since Frank McCourt (CAS ’75) started the OM Foundation in 2017, the group has focused on implementing its mission’s pillars — education, sports, environment and solidarity — through sport.
Venet said growing the sport of amputee soccer is a vital part of the club’s mission.
“You need to have an impact to do things, to do concrete things, for the territory, for the inhabitants, for the inhabitants to maybe be strong after your communication,” Venet told The Hoya. “That’s the purpose with our project. We really want to give awareness and to put light on the discipline and help people discover it.”
That is exactly what happened Sunday afternoon, as the Amputee Soccer Invitational played out on Shaw Field. After hours of rain, the sun — and spectators — came out right as Marseille kicked the ball off to begin the gala matchup against the U.S. Men’s National Team.
Each of the four matches featured two 15-minute halves, a shortened version of a regulation World Amputee Football Federation match, which consists of 25-minute halves. The rest of the rules were consistent with regulation, played 7v7 on a reduced 60-meter by 40-meter pitch.
In amputee soccer, outfield players have a lower limb difference and use forearm crutches to move around the pitch. Forearm crutches and residual limbs cannot be used to control or direct the ball; both result in a handling violation and a direct free kick for the opposing team. Goalkeepers have an upper limb difference and play with one arm, defending a smaller goal than is used in able-bodied soccer.
In the flagship match of the day, neither OM nor the U.S. National Team broke the deadlock early in the first half. Marseille came close with a volley off a corner, which was saved, and later the U.S. goalkeeper made a brilliant save in a 1v1 with OM’s striker to keep the match scoreless.
Despite having few clear-cut opportunities throughout the half, the U.S. team was the first to score. In the 14th minute, a deep cross came in and was propelled off the bottom of the left post. The ball bounced out to the top of the penalty box before it was fired in to give the United States a 1-0 lead.
As the half wound down, the American keeper made another great save as a shot destined for the top right corner came flying in from outside the box. His save preserved the U.S. lead going into halftime.
The second half began like the first in terms of scoring. This time, the U.S. got the first feasible chance at a goal. In the 22nd minute, the U.S. National Team captain, Nico Calabria, was fouled hard at the edge of the box and awarded a free kick, which was ultimately saved.
The captain of the French national amputee team, Jérôme Raffetto, equalized for OM in the 26th minute, running through on goal before chipping the ball over the U.S. keeper to secure a draw for the French side. Raffetto played in Ligue 2, France’s second division, before he lost his right leg after being hit by a car in 2005.
After the match, Calabria, who is founder of the New England Amputee Soccer Association in addition to the U.S. men’s national team, said that amputee soccer requires a different skill set than able-bodied soccer.
“It’s a full-body sport for sure,” Calabria told The Hoya. “It’s a lot of stability training, a lot of core work, a lot of arm work, like, do dips, do parallel bars, do handstands, planks, all that stuff. And then the actual just plyometrics for the one foot is, like, that’s a lot too. So it’s really leg, arms and core.”
Calabria played able-bodied soccer growing up through the high school varsity level and continues to play able-bodied soccer today to stay in shape. Amputee soccer gave Calabria a space to play without feeling different, which he said is very valuable.
“I think sport and adaptive sport are really good ways of having people be comfortable with who they are and see a pathway, see people that look like them, that are being competitive and being athletic and wanting to be in that group,” Calabria said.
Calabria said adaptive sport is also a way to foster connection and understanding between able-bodied and disabled individuals.
“We saw the Paralympic movement grow, which really started to put disability on display for humanity in a way that wasn’t about sympathy or pity or disgust,” Calabria said. “It was about how we can celebrate the fact that disability is part of the world that we live in. Here’s how people with disabilities compete, and I think it shows a different side of the humanity of people with disabilities, that this drive to compete and be athletic and win is inside everybody.”
Kenny echoed Calabria and Venet’s views on the importance of sport and said that sport can be essential to building culture.
“Sport is a really important catalyst for social change, for bringing people into a deeper awareness of how exciting and transformative the disability community and culture can be,” Dr. Kenny said. “I think we’re just getting started on what disability and sport can do together.”
