New record for world’s longest soccer match to be set?

It has barely been a month since English club Cambray FC and a local All Stars team set a new world record by playing for 35 hours in the south western town of Cheltenham. However a 19 year old American lad is set to grind that record into dust by going one step further and playing 40 hours non stop this August.

Steven Giordano, a Syosset High School graduate, got the idea when he saw the news about the Cambray vs the All Stars game on popular internet website Yahoo! His friends labeled him crazy, while girlfriend Anna Schiller thought he was “insane”. However Giordano got the ball rolling by contacting his local club’s co-president Don Skorka, who moved quickly to organise a place for the game.

Giordano will captain one team during the event that is expected to begin on the midnight of August 20, 2010 and go on till August 22. He is also using the attempt to raise funds for autism awareness. The English teams were also playing for charity, and managed to raise around $45,000 for the welfare of the poor Dalit community in the South Asian nation of India. They had also set a target of 40 hours, but torrential rain made the pitch unsafe, and play was called off after 35 hours, two more than the previous Guinness World Record.

Like the Cheltenham game, this fixture will have eighteen players on either side, with a five minute break between each hour of play.

Giordano however acknowledges that his target will not be easy and added that “Forty hours is not something to joke around with”.

The players, mostly friends of Giordano from several Long Island soccer clubs he has represented in his career, have already begun training for the event. A personal trainer is likely to be brought in to guide the players during the last month.

The Cambray vs All Stars game ended 293-333 in favour of the All Stars. How many goals will this fixture produce? Stay tuned to this section to find out more about Steven Giordano’s Guinness World Record breaking attempt.

More info on this record breaking event can be found here.