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By DAVID PENCEK; Times Leader Sports Writer
Thursday, September 17, 1998     Page:

NANTICOKE- Finding a pickup soccer game in Santaulo, Brazil, was never hard
for Andri Singer. Like most Brazilians, Singer began playing the game almost
as soon as he could walk.
   
The same was true for Hatim Ouladelhadjahmed, who grew up in Tangiers,
Morocco.
    “I’ve played ever since I can remember,” Ouladelhadjahmed said.
   
Ray Osegueda, who went to high school in Washington, D.C., spent four years
in Germany and became the first American to play for the league in Illeshiem.
   
These players, who have competed in some of the world’s hot spots for
soccer, have somehow ended up on the humble fields of Luzerne County Community
College where they are making history.
   
They are part of LCCC’s first men’s soccer team, which started its
inaugural season last week. The team also includes Matt Soucy, who grew up in
Paris, and Daja Njie who is originally from Ghana, West Africa.
   
Trying to put together a first-year program can be hard enough. Trying to
do it while mixing a melting pot of nationalities just makes the job more
interesting.
   
“The guys all have a love for soccer,” head coach Tom McCormick said.
“Every country has a different style. It can be hard getting them to work
together.
   
“Some of the American guys that are here never played with anyone who is
from a different country. It can be hard just getting used to the style of
passing and how they make their own plays. But the whole team has adjusted to
each other.”
   
Players such as Singer and Ouladelhadjahmed have had to do most of the
adjusting since they’re in the minority.
   
Of the 24 players on the Minutemen roster, 19 are from the
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area. Osegueda went to high school in Washington, D.C.,
before he joined the Army and was stationed in Germany. The other four come
from three continents.
   
“American people like more passing,” Singer said. “Brazilians like one guy
to play for the whole team. Here, they share a lot. That’s a little different
than the way Brazilians play.”
   
While Singer uses his quickness and enjoys going one-on-one against
opponents, Ouladelhadjahmed plays a more controlled, “thoughtful” style and
Osegueda plays a more physical style that he learned in Germany.
   
“I learned there that hard work pays off,” Osegueda said. “The more skilled
players, they used to beat them into the ground.
   
“(Ouladelhadjahmed and Singer) have shown they’ve played a lot of street
ball. We’re coming together but it takes a little while.”
   
The paths Ouladelhadjahmed and Singer took to LCCC are as different as
their playing styles.
   
Ouladelhadjahmed, whose father was a professional soccer player in Morocco,
came to the United States six years ago after he graduated from high school.
He went to New York City where he took a couple of years off from studying.
   
It was there that he met his future wife, Carla Kuznicki, who is from West
Nanticoke. The two married in 1996, and soon after, Ouladelhadjahmed became a
citizen of the United States.
   
They settled in West Nanticoke and are expecting their first child, a son,
in a few weeks.
   
Coming from a country where soccer is the sport, Ouladelhadjahmed enjoys
being part of the first LCCC team.
   
“I just like to play,” Ouladelhadjahmed said. “It doesn’t matter who I play
with, we have fun. As long as we work hard, that’s all I care about. Winning
is important for everybody, but the most important part for me is to just be a
good teammate.”
   
Four years ago, Singer came to Dunmore as an exchange student. He has
continued to live with the same family as he studies to be a professional
pilot and engineer.
   
He’s not sure if he’ll go back to Brazil after he graduates or remain in
the United States.
   
“Maybe I’ll go back. Maybe I’ll stay. That’s a big question mark,” Singer
said.
   
Singer, Ouladelhadjahmed and Osegueda not only use the soccer they’ve
learned from other countries to help them, but the languages they’ve picked
up. All three know a limited amount of Portuguese and might use that to their
advantage during a game.
   
“We have our own vocabulary,” Ouladelhadjahmed said. “It works good if
during the game we use that. The other team won’t know what we’re talking
about.”
   
No one knows how LCCC’s first-year team with its mix of nationalities will
play out on the field. McCormick has seen signs of his team coming together.
   
When McCormick took his son back to Bloomsburg to start college, he
canceled practice. Most of the team still showed up and played anyway.
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