Where the homeless strive to kick it

Sunday's column we've put together focuses on the Homeless World Cup soccer tournament, coming up in December in Melbourne, and two Los Angeles players who will be competing in it -- representing the U.S.:

These are shots of Densi Diaz (right) and Johnny Figueroa (below), both of Los Angeles' Jovenes program, who've been picked for the eight-man U.S. team to compete in this year's tournament. We found them on the Street Soccer USA blog (linked here).

Jovenes, Inc., in Boyle Heights, the charity organization that supports the Los Angeles Street Soccer team (linked here) is accepting donations to help sent Figueroa and Diaz to Australia. There is a third L.A. player, Carlos, prepared to also go to Melbourne in case one of the other eight cannot make it.

There's a must-see primer that goes with it -- the Colin Farrell-narrated documentary, "Kicking It," which debuts on ESPN2 on Tuesday (6 p.m.) and Wednesday (7 p.m.).

A few links to go to for more information:

==The Homeless World Cup site (linked here)

==The Street Soccer USA site (linked here), sponsored by the Community Works 945 of the Urban Ministry Center in Charlotte, N.C., and run by Lawrence Cann.

==The official "Kicking It" movie site (linked here)

==The National Coalition for the Homeless (linked here)

==Above is a YouTube.com clip highlighting the 2007 U.S. team participating in last year's event.

==Also, the book "Goal! The Story of the Homeless World Cup" by organizer Mel Young, is one we recommended years ago when we first came across it. Go to this link (here) to order a copy. And a bio of Young (linked here) from the Homeless World Cup site.