Global Futbol

Team USA

Special Olympics Central America Unified Soccer Tournament 

Date: May 9-16
Location: San Jose, Costa Rica
Who: Eight Special Olympics athletes and eight Unifed Partners/Sounders FC Development Players 

Fact Sheet    |    Team USA Roster    |    Game Schedule

Photo Album    |    Follow the Team   |    Team Videos

The Central America Unified Soccer Invitational will take place in San Jose, Costa Rica from May 9-17 in regional professional soccer stadiums (Cuty Monge and Coleya Fonseca). Special Olympics Team USA is made up entirely of Washington and Oregon Special Olympics Athletes as well as Unified Partners from the Sounders FC Development Team.

Special Olympics Team USA will be wearing Sounders FC uniforms and competing with 12 other teams from North and South America in 11-vs-11 play.

About Unified Sports/Soccer
Special Olympics Unified Sports brings together athletes with and without intellectual disabilities, who train and compete on the same teams. Throughout the year, in a variety of sports ranging from basketball and soccer to golf and skiing, Unified athletes build their bodies, sharpen their skills, challenge the competition and have fun. It’s a physical workout that builds friendships, character, and inspires greatness in all who participate.

MLS Team Exchange

The MLS Schedule is out and so are the proposed MLS Team Exchange dates.  Coaches, athletes and unified partners participating in high school unified soccer will be eligible to participate on the Special Olympics Sounders teams that will be playing home and away against the Special Olympics Timbers and Special Olympics Rapids.  Each exchange will include a competition, players clinic, team awareness activity and tickets to watch the MLS teams in action.  This unique opportunity is supported by the MLS and its member clubs.  Check out the 2012 Exchange trip with Colorado through our blog.

Portland Timbers @ Seattle:  August 24-25, 2013

Seattle @ Portland Timbers:  October 12-13, 2013

Bringing the Message of Hope... World Cup 2013

Special Olympics wants to bring this message of hope to more football lovers worldwide – which is why in early 2008, we created the Global Futbol Initiative. Now in 2011, professional football clubs including Inter-Milan from Italy, Manchester United, Glasgow Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur from the United Kingdom as well as Sports Club Corinthians Paulista from Brazil, Monarcas de Morelia from Mexico and Sounders FC from the USA have all enthusiastically thrown their support behind the initiative.

Special Olympics Global Football has three goals:

1.  Bring global football to a total of 1,000,000 Special Olympics athletes worldwide by the year 2015

2.  Increase the quality of coaching our athletes receive

3.  Help our athletes build skills they can use on and off the field of play

With the next FIFA World Cup taking place in Brazil in 2014, Special Olympics will use the growing attention on football to introduce individuals with intellectual disabilitiesto the world's most popular sport with a World Cup.

MLS Team Exchange Program 

2013 Competitions

SO Sounders vs SO Rapids

SO Sounders vs SO Timbers

Highlight Videos  |  2011 Photos

The Cascadia Championship Series is a competition between the Special Olympics Washington Sounders and the Special Olympics Oregon Timbers.  Teams play in conjunction with the MLS clubs Cascadia Cup competitions, playing home and away, in Seattle and Portland the same days as the MLS competitions.  Each experience includes a competitive match to determine the Cascadia Championship Series Champion and an exhibition match prior to or during the MLS clubs competition, onsite at their stadiums.  Both teams have the opportunity to view the MLS games that same day.

Partnerships between the Seattle Sounders FC and Special Olympics Washington and the Portland Timbers and Special Olympics Oregon kicked-off the inaugural competition in the spring of 2011.  The Special Olympics Sounders team is formed in collaboration with the Washington State Soccer Initiative and the student-athletes playing for their high school teams are eligible for participation on the SO Sounders team.

The Cascadia Championship Series is held during the MLS season in conjunction with the Cascadia Cup.