Once again the attempt by SACC did not bring back any medals. We LOST?? Nah! Far from that! We definitely were the winners in many aspects. We sent in 2 teams. The Youth and Veteran Teams. The Youth was the youngest team and the Veteran was the eldest team. Haha! We fought well in our own Group matches. The Youth Team drew the 1st match 0-0 and that spurred us on to take the next 2 games, 1-0 (Jason) and 2-0 (Daniel and Seng) respectively. And with our last game drawn, we took the 1st position of the Group. The Veterans had a tougher time. They were playing with bigger goal post. And even tougher was that their 1st match was against the strongest team in the Group. The Veterans took a bit longer to warm up and bowed down to the opponent 1-3. That didn’t disheartened the Veterans. Once bitten, they bite back 2 times harder. With their experience and hunger, they tore the next 2 teams apart. And little did we know that we had a David Beckham in our midst. Uncle Bryan. His free-kick was pin-point sharp. Once, it floated across the helpless wall, smashed the cross-bar before falling into Uncle Puar’s terrrorising possession. The Veterans fought a hard war. They came in 2nd of the Group. Rejoice! For the top 2 teams of each group will qualify for the quarter-final. However, the inevitable was too soon. We faced each other in the quarter-final. We were relax but we still fought with our best. The Youth took the game 2-0. And we entered into the semi-final. We had great chances but the keeper was in the right place. And they headed in the winner by sheer luck. As there wasn’t any 3rd/ 4th placing, we left before the Award giving. Haha!

After this tournament, it left a lot of after-thoughts. To be honest a lot of which are not positive but I take it as a learning moment. I suppose this is the first time the organisation is holding such a big event. I am sure they had done their best. Just that there were still areas, very visible to us, as being unprepared. The whole tournament start off way late but it wasn’t their problem. There are teams that just cannot seem to make it on time. So when we really started off, they began with a sharing and singspiraton.. This was the first thing that kinda irritated me. The person sharing was in the tent sharing while 20 Teams worth of people were in the hot sun. And to be honest, his sharing was so unprepared. And it wasn’t short to be frank. Lesson learned: You want to lead people, You have to be with where the people are. And that’s in the sun. Then the tournament’s rules were also not understood properly. I was informed earlier that a draw in the game will give a point to both teams. At the game itself, a draw leads to sudden death. I went to check with the organisor and was told that that was the rule. Fair enough if they change the rule but should have informed earlier. Then after 2 matches, the organisor and officials concluded that a draw match is still a point for each team. Haizzzz. Lesson Learned: Planning is important! Communicating is as important!

When the Youth lost at the Semi, we lost with integrity. The opponent cheated. They had 2 teams, and 1 team had already been out of the game. They combined both teams. And worst, is they had the cheek to tell us that they did it. I am not sure to compliment them for their honesty.

It seems like the whole tournament may seem like a frustrating time for me. Nope! In fact, it was so enjoyable. We played better than before. We were superb. The Youth and Veterans. We are getting stronger. The only regret is that I couldn’t play my best position – Goalkeeper. And Marcus did a great job. Clean sheet for 5 matches. Well done Marcus! I believe we have a long way to go and am sure we all will go far. All praises to God!