A worthwhile weekend

The past two days, i have been at Ngee Ann City participating in a Futsal 4-a-side tourney organised by Ford Motors and Mediacorp jointly sponsored by Nintendo, The "Ford 4-a-side Challenge". was surprised to be included in the team in the first place. according to dhahrul, the person who heard abt this tourney, i was the first person he called as he thot i cld play as a keeper for the team.

so my recreation soccer team decided to send in one team of five players including one reserve. the best of us were chosen to play i guess n i got to play juz becos they needed a keeper. teams had to register and then 20 out of all the applicants would be drawn lots to play in the tourney. so as u already noe, my team got the luck n we were selected. The top prize was an all expense paid trip to Moscow to watch the Champions Lg Final. the catch was only 4 players got to go. being not a Man U fan nor Chelsea fan, i decided to "volunteer" 2b the one not to go.

the group stages on saturday were played and we got 2nd in the group losing out to Joga Bonitoz 3-2 in our final group game. Drew our first game 5-all, won the 2nd 3-2 and the third 4-2. oh, i forgot to mention, when the rules were explained before we bagan our games, there would be no goalkeeper. so i couldnt use my hands but played as a last man instead.

Sunday games started with the last 16 and we won 4-2, i think. then we were drawn against Joga for the quarter finals. we made quite a hoo hah abt it as both teams were from the same group. for a top and 2nd placed team from the same group meeting in the quarter finals is ridiculous. we complained to John Faulkner, the tournament director and he sportingly changed the quarter final fixtures.

At the start of the day. I also entered myself in their "King of Penalties" competition to test my goalkeeping skills. there were 32 participants for this mini competition. each player got three kicks each while his opponent wld keep goal. this mini comp was played in between the main matches. so after a whole lot of diving and shooting i got myself into the final. winner wld walk away with $500 Takashimaya shopping voucher and a Nintendo DS Lite.

Came up against Sali in the final and sadly i lost 3-2. the weird thing was, no 2nd prize. damn it.

well, in the main comp, we manage to get ourselves into the final, setting up a match against Joga Bonitoz. They were favourites for the comp judging form Glenn Ong's comments that they were the team to beat. Runner up gets $2000 cash. i didnt mind losing in the final as it means i would get $400, since i've already de-volunteered myself.

the final started at 515pm and ten minutes separated the winners from a date in Moscow. Joga had fast and skillful players. even their last man possesses an explosive shots. had a few shots whizzing past me from long range. with a lot of flicks and one touch passing, Joga managed to squeeze in a couple of shots near the D but i did manage to deflect most shots away with my shins, foot, knee and even my butt. but the inevitable came and they scored about 4 minutes into the final. i put up a lamne protest that the shot was taken inside the D but the FAS referee shooed me away. but 2 minutes later, by a stroke of luck, Fadhli chipped the ball to Khairul. he nutmegged one defender but got pulled wide to the right. from the smallest of angles, Khai blasted the ball into the top left corner. and we levelled it up at 1-1. in case u were wondering, my team's not bad too, since we were in the final. haha i gez u noe tt but juz wanted to make sure u noe.

so an intense 4 minutes were coming up. Joga with their fast football and us defending desperately. we countered smoothly getting the ball to khairul, our point man, as much as possible. With Fadhli and Boy running the wings, their silky touches created some panic in Joga's defence too. then the final whistle came.4 minutes of golden goal extra time was to follow.

the frantic pace continued with both teams defending well. time was running out fast and i was already psyching myself up for the penalty shoot-out. with a few seconds left, i made a long pass to khairul, as was rehearsed throughout the whole tourney, he trapped the ball, quickly turned his defender, and squeezed his shot past the last man at the near post. and there it was, we were Champions. i still cant belive it. We Won!! Simple effective football. Stuck to our game plan and we beat the tournament favourites.

Amidst the celebrations, i sorta regretted my decision to take myself out of the equation for the Moscow trip. Five players but only 4 tickets. what were the organisers thinking?? so during the prize giving ceremony, when the champions for the Ford Challenge, The Dirty Ballers, was announced i was elated when i saw them holding a Nintendo Wii. I went up the stage first and quickly grabbed the game console, turned to my teammates and exclaimed, "I'm keeping this!" i don't think they minded as the thot of going to Moscow to watch the Champions Lg Final for free was overpowering their emotions.

So, the Nintendo Wii costs me $106 - $20 registration fee, $54 income from tuition forego-ed, and $33 worth of two days parking fees, and two days of sweat. quite a worthwhile weekend spent i myt say.