Green Street Hooligans

After the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Elijah Wood could've opted for further big budget epics, but took a sharp left turn with this better-than-average B-movie. Released just after Everything is Illuminated, another offbeat entry, Wood plays journalism student Matt Buckner. In the prologue, he's expelled from Harvard when his over-privileged roommate sets him up to take the fall for his own misdeeds. With nowhere to go, Matt decides to visit his sister, Shannon (Claire Forlani), in London. He's already got a chip on his shoulder when he falls under the sway of Shannon's brother-in-law, Pete (Charlie Hunnam), head of West Ham's football "firm," the Green Street Elite. Matt soon gets caught up in their thuggish antics—to tragic effect. In her feature debut, German-born Lexi Alexander makes a mostly convincing case for the attractions of violence to the emotionally vulnerable, as opposed to the emotionally numb pugilists of the more satirical Fight Club. Unlike David Fincher (by way of Chuck Palahniuk), she plays it straight, except for the stylized fight sequences. Consequently, humor is in short supply, but the young Brit cast, especially Leo Gregory as the surly Bovver, is charismatic and Wood makes his character as believable as possible, i.e. he may seem miscast, but that's the point. Although there's no (direct) correlation between the two, Green Street makes a fine taster for Bill Buford's Among the Thugs, the ultimate dissection of the hooligan mentality. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Street Soccer is helping enable homeless man's life around-W * USA 9

Players compete for the Cup USA Soccer Street

WASHINGTON DC (WUSA)--Why do you play sports? For most of us, the answer is, "is for fun, exercise, the comraderie with friends and fellow competitors." But for a group of athletes who have spent time with this week, play sports, because they have nowhere else to go.

"When I'm here I live all the time," DC Knights Captain Milton Marquez said.

The Milton Marquez, is merely lucky alive. Drug and alcohol use from an early age, Milton came to the United States from El Salvador seeking a new life. Instead, he found himself at a gymnasium addicted to cocaine and living on the streets.

The situation changed when introduced to Street Soccer USA and Joined the Knights DC.

Street Soccer USA helps take people off the streets and using sport to provide skills training and life work.

"When you bring together a group you can create a Community, you can create a support structure, you can create trust ... bonds you trust what missing a life homeless persons, "said Omar Abdul Baki, who is the Programme Director for DC Knights.

Be surprised by the good that sport between the community homeless.

"This program brought back in the world," he said.

For players such as Milton, this weekend is more than just bragging rights. Eights players will be selected to participate in the World Cup in Paris. For Milton Marquez, who is a dream.

"Something when I was a kid I always wanted to play professionally, ' Marquez Shared Milton.

Thanks to the program, Milton has been clean for a year, has his own place to live, a full-time job and a new family.

The Panhellenic Championship Street will take place every weekend in the new stage that Kastles on coastal Southwest.