Statesville Crew claims world soccer championship

By: Adam Houston | Statesville Record & Landmark
Published: January 16, 2012

The members of the 2000 Statesville Crew took a celebratory dip in an Orlando, Fla., hotel pool on Monday. It was a celebration of the accomplishment that was five years in the making for the six-man soccer team of 11- and 12-year-olds.

The Crew has finally won the world championship of the 2000 Elite Invitational Division in the Kick It 3v3 World Championships.

“This just feels great,” said Chuck Nantz, coach of Statesville. “It’s exciting and a relief. We’ve been so close before.”

The Crew lost one match, going 7-1, in a round of group play and five matches in the bracket. Statesville went 2-1 in group play, earning wins over teams from Tennessee and Florida.

It scored 24 goals in its first three matches in the playoff and beat the Florida Fire, the tournament’s two-time defending champion, in back-to-back games to claim the title.

It was the fifth straight year Statesville qualified for the three-on-three world championship tournament. This is the sixth year the Crew has played three-on-three soccer.

“We’ve come down here a lot, and it was a neat experience winning this,” said forward Julian Eldridge, a Statesville resident. “I was excited that we won it, and we were really glad we did.”

The 2000 Statesville Crew is made up of six players who, for the most part, have played together since the team was formed. Nic Nantz, Julian Eldridge, Jake Gusler, Sam Johnson and Tony Pineda all live in Statesville. Nantz, Eldridge and Johnson play club soccer for the Iredell County Recreation Department.

Jaylin Lindsay lives in Charlotte and plays for Charlotte Soccer Academy.

Three-on-three soccer is a smaller version of soccer. It is played on a smaller field with two teams of three players on the field at one time. There is no goalkeeper.

“It is very fast and great training for regular soccer because everyone gets so many touches,” Chuck Nantz said. “It’s really become huge.”

More than 600 teams in five divisions spent the weekend in Orlando at the Kick It 3v3 Soccer World Championships.