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Haiti's women's soccer team to make history at World Cup

Published July 17, 2023 at 8:40 AM EDT
Haiti's women's soccer team heads to the World Cup this week. (Hannah Peters/FIFA via Getty Images)
Haiti's women's soccer team heads to the World Cup this week. (Hannah Peters/FIFA via Getty Images)

The women’s FIFA World Cup kicks off this week in Australia and New Zealand. The headlines have been about the perennial favorites for the competition, headed by the U.S. team. But there are also stories of newcomers to soccer’s top global competition; one of those is Haiti.

Haiti will mark its first-ever World Cup finals appearance — men or women — this Saturday against the favored England team. It is an inspiring moment for a nation dealing with several crises at home.

Here & Now‘s Scott Tong sat down with two of the team’s young defensive stars, Milan Pierre-Jerome and Ruthny Mathurin, to talk about their excitement and their hopes of inspiring a nation.

Defense stars Milan Pierre-Jerome (second from left) and Ruthny Mathurian (third from left). (Hannah Peters/FIFA via Getty Images)

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.