Blind South Africa soccer team gears up for tournament debut

Transcript

00:00In Johannesburg, these soccer players are preparing for the biggest game of their lives.

00:06The challenge is to control a ball they cannot see.

00:10They're South Africa's first official blind soccer team, and they have to overcome huge

00:14obstacles to represent their country in the inaugural International Blind Soccer Tournament

00:20in Moscow this week, hosted by the Bricks Plus intergovernmental group.

00:25Our purpose to go to Russia is to go and express that South African people, those people who

00:33are living with blindness, partially sighted, we are there for you.

00:39Blind soccer is played with eye masks and a ball with a bell, and players shout to indicate

00:44their position on the field.

00:46The South African team has two totally blind and five partially sighted players, along

00:51with one sighted goalkeeper.

00:54They will face professional and semi-professional teams from six other countries between December

00:5918th and 20th.

01:01Most of the team's members come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

01:04They struggle with a lack of resources for basic training and traveling.

01:08We are dealing with an issue of saying, do you have a toilet, do you have warm clothes,

01:13do you have shoes to wear when you are going to Russia?

01:18The Johannesburg Society for the Blind houses five of the players.

01:22Its chief operations officer Nkosana Kobeka says his group has struggled to raise funds

01:27for their trip.

01:29And he says it's not right when they now represent the country.

01:32As they are national players now, the government should come on board, recognize them, and

01:37everything should be official.

01:39Nonetheless, the team is ready to go for it.

01:42We want to play soccer also.

01:43We want to bring something to the table.

01:45I want my mother to be proud of me.

01:47Coach Mleng Yisim Sibi says he's proud of how the team has grown.

01:51The kids are really, really good.

01:53Really, really good.

01:54They're not resourced.

01:55They're not paid.

01:57We're going into a tournament where people are being paid.

01:59They play blind soccer at a professional level week in and week out.

02:02All we have is heart, man.

02:04And for me, that's enough.