Neighborhood-based soccer league hit the pitch

Can soccer save Detroit? Heck no, but it's pretty sweet to bring nearly over 100 people together from different neighborhoods across the city to have a good time, celebrate the city, and have a few beers... oh, and play a little soccer.

Excerpt the Detroit Free Press:

The connection wasn't made until later, after the idea was christened with the clinking of beer glasses last fall.

Until then, ever since Sean Mann moved into the southwest Detroit neighborhood of Hubbard Farms in January 2009, he had gotten to know his neighbors through the causes they shared.

They united to protest the proposed second span of the Ambassador Bridge. They formed a block club to tackle blight, boarding up and painting dilapidated houses.

"I thought, 'What we're doing as a community is great, but there should also be more normal ways for neighbors to come together,' " Mann said.

That's how the Detroit City Futbol League was formed — an 11-team co-ed recreational soccer league representing some of the city's most historic and diverse neighborhoods, such as Hubbard Farms, the Villages, Woodbridge and Cass Corridor.

Read the entire article here.

Check out photos from a game here.