Dear all
To add some more details and context -
Date: 20th June 2014
Event : Youth India Sharjah, Indoor Football Tournament
With great pleasure, I wanted to share the experience of yesterdays tournament. We were invited to participate and Captain KKay gathered the troops and we headed for battle. It helped that the team has been practicing a bit even though we are off season. The challenge was that we could only name 8 players and the format was indoor, being held at Dhaid, on a smooth surface we are not familiar with.
We saw the competition and they looked like semi-pro's, and well trained. We went into the group stage game one with little time for a warm up or stretching and started off with a draw, that was our warm up and got us to come to terms with nerves, get a bit familiar with the format, the unusually soft and slow ball.
As it so happened they turned out to be the weakest team we faced and we learned what tactic will not work for goal scoring. The next rounds we faced incredibly tough opposition and managed to hold our own and eventually win every game, I have to say, every goal was a moment of magic, and we didn't get any easy ones. Sujiths goal got us into the semi finals, my goal in the semis took us into the finals. Kkay and Fasalu were defending their heart out and Abdu was called into action several times and he was alert .. kept a clean sheet throughout and well deserving of the recognition - best goal keeper of the tournament. Gautham was playing in double, no one in the team has his energy and his all round play was critical to the journey and success. Jerin came in the finals and his cameo strengthen the defense. We went a goal down, and in these short games, that usually enough for the result, but the team broke though another barrier and continued playing without being affected at all and though Dinesh we found the equalizer. And we took the decision to penalties. And that's where we lost to a team that has so much to their credit, so much reputation, and real thoroughbreds and professionals. Is commendable we went the distance with them and they had to wait and sweat unlike any other team they played.
Rajeev was injured and on standby supporting us on the sidelines, his son and along with the Manager for the tourney Sibi, Saleem, our well wisher Babu along with the youngsters Akhil, Gilson . . we had the support we needed on the sidelines. May thanks. Also, plenty of support via whats app .. Sreejith/Ajit/Akhil/Anvar ... and many more tracking the progress ..
Eventually we ended Runners up, but a sense of achievement and a belief we can see the next level of improvement is a good feeling. I wanted to share that in the group and we as the football group always feel the support and encouragement from the whole alumni family and the President Thomas and all Excom of present and past are our well wishers and have supported our efforts and we always strive to deliver.
I am attaching some pictures that were clicked before after the games, you will see no pictures of the actual action,because when play was on, no one bothered with the camera , all attention was on the field.. you could not blink and miss the action, it was quite a game !!
Personally, I played my first official veteran tournament and proud to have won it with the youth India senior team and it became a two tournament day for me and with great results from both.
Thank You !
Kind regardsPrince Joseph
'95 EEE
050 6255629
On Sat, Jun 21, 2014 at 10:05 PM, Thomas Joseph
<t...@eim.ae> wrote:
