Standing in the net of a soccer stadium in Tzaneen, South Africa, Belmont resident Chris Matson didn’t immediately recognize the significance of the moment.
“I had been through penalty shots before; I look at the player, I look at the ball, and I block everything else out. I am in the moment,” said Matson, 67. “So, when the second of the French players shot wide, I was still standing there, ready to walk off and let the other [goalkeeper] come in, when the ref said, ‘You won.’”
“What?” she asked.
“You won,” repeated the referee.
And then it clicked. After tying 0-0 in regulation time, her team, the New England Breakers, won 4-3 in penalty kicks, clinching the gold medal in the second Grannies International Football Tournament. It was time to celebrate.
“Afterward, I realized how many eyes were on me, just me,” Matson said, recalling her final moments in the net of the four-day tournament. “It was a little daunting.”
To top it off, Matson was recognized as the Goal Keeper of the Tournament.
“[It was] very overwhelming, very surreal,” she said.
Growing up, Matson wasn’t an athlete. In high school, she was involved in the orchestra and choir, and she prioritized academics. It wasn’t until her son’s soccer team needed a coach that she picked up a soccer ball. That was in 1994.
“I was active as a kid, but I was never in organized sport,” she said. “I never imagined I’d be on the soccer field in my 60s.”
In 1995, at 38, Matson joined a recreational soccer league for women in Belmont. She then joined a team called Purple Haze, a team in the Eastern Mass Women’s Soccer League. She played with them until 2008, when her family moved out of the area. By the time she returned, the team was younger and more competitive.
In the fall of 2010, she joined a team for older women, Bay State Breakers, which has five levels broken down by age: over 50, over 55, over 60, over 65, and over 70. The team participates in tournaments all over the country, including the Huntsman Senior World Games in St. George, Utah; Kick for a Cure in Wallingford, Connecticut; and, most consistently, the Veteran’s Cup, which will take place in Traverse City, Michigan, this July.
“We don’t take it seriously, but we try our best,” she said. “We try to work together as a team. Over the last few years, we’ve gotten a really good coach who is working really hard to improve our skills. A lot of us didn’t play as kids.”
In 2023, the team participated in the inaugural Grannies International Tournament, an event founded by Tzaneen philanthropist Beka Ntsanwisi, who, years prior, had started the Soccer Grannies league to promote women’s health in rural South Africa.
“She and a few other grannies got together and started playing soccer, and it has grown a whole lot since then,” Matson said.
According to Matson, the Grannies International was inspired by Ntsanwisi’s trip to Boston for a tournament for older women. While having grandchildren is not a requirement to participate in the tournament, proof of age is: all players must be 50 years of age or older.
This year’s Grannies International, the second to be held, featured 11 teams from South Africa, one from Togo, one from Kenya, one from Zambia, one from Mozambique, and two each from the United States and France. It took place in early April.
Two teams of Americans were sent, with players hailing from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and even one woman living in South Carolina who’d played in New England before moving away.
On the New England Breakers, the women ranged in age from 57 to 81, with an average age of 67. The other team, Soccer Sisters, ranged in age from 50 to 71, with an average age of 61. In total, 28 players plus two coaches—who happen to be daughters of players on the team—made the trek to South Africa.
Matson’s team, the New England Breakers, played five games: two matches in group play, followed by the quarter-final, the semi-final, and the final.
“[The tournament] was a big deal there,” Matson said, noting the parade, the crowds and the dignitaries in attendance. An opening ceremony was held at Nkuna Royal Palace.
In addition to traveling with their own luggage, the American players arrived at the tournament with 30 suitcases full of donations to benefit the Mama Beka Ntsanwisi Foundation. Among the donations were soccer cleats, jerseys, shorts, sports bras, and other soccer equipment. A monetary collection allowed the Americans to also donate 10 bags of food for families in a rural village.
Once there, many of the players gave up their own cleats, shin guards and shirts. Matson traded her goalie gloves for the Zambian goalie’s scarf.
According to Matson, it’s the camaraderie of the team that appeals most to her, and the support they each have to offer to women at similar stages in life to them.
“I think the movement now for soccer grannies is going to keep going full steam,” she said.
