Under a brilliant sky, Florence Washington stood in a transformed downtown parking lot as a dozen homeless men clad in Daily Planet T-shirts warmed up to play soccer.

"I want to play soccer with my bad feet," she said. But pending foot surgery kept her on the sidelines.

Using soccer to teach teamwork and other life skills to people lacking the stability of a home makes sense, said Washington, a formerly homeless Richmonder who is still seeking a permanent place to live.

"Soccer is an exercise of the mental and the physical. Playing can teach you new things and help you stay focused," she said.

That's the attitude organizers seek as they partner with The Daily Planet to start a Richmond team to compete in the Homeless World Cup, a global soccer tournament that is the subject of a documentary called "Kicking It."

The documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and will have a limited theatrical release in the U.S. late next month.

The program aims to inspire people to improve their lives through soccer, said Lawrence Cann, who trained and took a soccer team in 2006 to the Homeless World Cup in Capetown, South Africa. There, 500 homeless men from 48 nations played.

Many of the players either improve their housing situation, employment or further their education, he said.

Yesterday, dozens of homeless men and women played soccer, many for the first time, in the parking lot of The Daily Planet at 517 W. Grace St.

"In Richmond we got some energy up [yesterday] and met some great people," said Cann, a St. Christopher's alumnus who founded Street Soccer USA. "We're looking for volunteer coaches once a week" so the team can play this summer in Washington, said Cann, adding Nike will provide uniforms.

The first Street Soccer U.S. Cup featured six cities; the second will be held in June in Washington, where the U.S. representatives for the next Homeless World Cup in Australia will be chosen.

Anyone interested in coaching should call Maureen Neal at (804) 909-7462.

It was Neal, director of development and external affairs at the Daily Planet, who got the soccer ball rolling locally.

Craig Holley, 19, from New York City, who appears in "Kicking It," ended up on the street after leaving a group home. He said soccer has changed his outlook.

"If you had seen me two years ago, you wouldn't have liked me. This is a game that stimulates your mind and changes your character," he said.

Rob Ukrop, a former professional soccer player who, like Cann, played collegiate soccer at Davidson College outside Charlotte, N.C., guided participants through some drills. He also gave the program kudos.

The homeless are "an underserved population," Ukrop said. "But everyone has value to Richmond society."

Contact Robin Farmer at (804) 649-6312 or rfarmer@timesdispatch.com.