Rangers ready for world

In just two weeks the world’s largest gay sporting event will begin. The International Gay and Lesbian Football Association World Championships will bring 50 teams from 15 countries together to compete in London over a six-day festival. Among those teams will be our own local boys, the Sydney Rangers.

We want to bring back gold, Rangers president Gavin Meares told Sydney Star Observer.

To be honest, we’re fairly confident. We’re playing in Division Two and we would be very disappointed if we didn’t make the semi-finals, and pretty disappointed if we didn’t make the finals.

Playing against teams from the UK, USA, Japan, Canada, Mexico and Uganda, Meares said there may be others who have grown up in a more soccer-oriented environment, but his team has its own advantages.

We’ve been playing together for several years now, so we know how each other plays and how to work with each other, he said.

We’ll spend the first three days of the tournament playing qualifying games and when we’re not doing that we’ll be watching the other teams play and work out how we should modify the structure of our game.

To be honest though, we’re fairly confident of our structure and we have two new strikers playing with us this year and a new goalie. I don’t think the other teams are going to be expecting that and it should give us an advantage.

The Rangers have previously taken home bronze and silver medals from the Championships and Meares says, irrespective of their results, all the team members are looking forward to taking part in the event and doing some socialising in London.

It’s serious football and we want to win, but between games we plan to have some serious fun as well, he said.

AussieBum and Eagle Leather have given us lanyards and Australian key chains to give to our competitors, so off the field we’re keen to make friends and have fun at some of the parties.
But once we’re on the field it doesn’t matter who you’ve made friends with.

You can stay up-to-date with the Rangers matches and send them support while they are overseas by joining their Facebook group. For more information on joining the team or attending their games in Sydney, head to www.sydneyrangersfc.com.au.