Preview: Match 2 of Revolutionary Soccer Tournament Cup Bay Area 2003

Exact Location: "Gabe's East" field (the closest field to the street) in the park at 5th St. & Harrison St. in North Berkeley (Directions below)
Kickoff time: 5.30pm

With the world's attention focused on the ensuing battle in Cancun, Mexico against the WTO, another battle will be fought on September 14 in Berkeley, California in the continuation of a centuries-old historic schism between the anarchists and the communists, in the form of a soccer tournament. The local anarchist soccer team Kronstadt FC will be facing off with the local communist soccer team, Left Wing, in a three game series of the Revolutionary Soccer Tournament Cup that began on August 17 in the bay area. Following the exciting first match that ended in a 2:2 draw after being prematurely shutdown by the Piedmont police comes this highly anticipated second match of the tournament in North Berkeley.

In theory this looks like a huge mismatch with the team made up of players who believe in self-organized societies without any centralized, hierarchical rule who will be going up against a team that adheres to the ideas of figures such as Marx, Lenin and Mao, and believe in a state-controlled "dictatorship of the proletariat". However, as the first match showed, the strategies and tactics of either team on the pitch has yet to be proven to be more effective.

Kronstadt's lineup for Sunday's match is reported to be fielding a guest player from an English anarchist team which had traveled to Chiapas to play solidarity matches with the Zapatistas. Also expected at the match is the fabulous Brass Liberation Orchestra, a jazzy ensemble of activist musicians who have tirelessly lifted numerous anti-war marches and actions with their sonic arsenal. An unconfirmed source reports that the BLO will be performing "The Internationale" to kick off the match.

This tournament has already garnered much attention within the activist communities all over the world and now has even caught the eyes of the traditional sports news media including Cybersoccernews.com who will be present at the game to report on this much hyped event.

Directions to the game:

Drivers: from 80 east, take the Gilman st exit, turn right onto gilman,
turn left onto harrison.

Cyclists: its 1.2 miles from north berkeley bart. get on sacramento
towards the hills/away from oakland, turn left on hopkins st, turn right
onto gilman st, turn right on 5th st.

Pedestrians: catch the 72 M (towards jack london square) at the el cerito
plaza bart, it drops you off at harrison & san pablo, walk a few
blocks to the park.

please feel free to double check these directions at
http://www.transitinfo.org/cgi-bin/taketransit or yahoo maps.

Related Stories:

http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/08/1634577.php

http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/08/1636041.php