Inaugural Nike Cup kicks off with central zone qualifying

Story by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

*SCAPE Youth Park, Saturday, June 19, 2010 — 120 teams with players aged 14-19 years old kicked off the central zone qualifying of the inaugural Nike Cup street football tournament.

In the Nike Cup, registration is free and teams of five plus one reserve pit their skills against each other in a five-minute match. The first team to score a goal wins the match and continue to play on court with the next opponent. If there is a draw after the five minutes, both teams make way for two other teams. Draws and loses do not count for anything while a win grants teams a point. Teams play as many games as possibly in the allocated playing time to accumulate wins.

The island-wide tournament is separated into four zones – north, east, west and central. Teams are split into two categories – junior and senior. Participants aged 14-16 years old play in the junior division while those aged 17-19 years old play in the senior division. The top 25 teams from each category and each zone with the most points go on to the Grand Finals on July 4th 2010.

The winning team from the senior division gets a one week all-expenses-paid football experience at Brazil national team’s training ground while teams from the junior category are playing for a special training experience with the Singapore national team and $8000 worth of Nike prizes.

Victorians and Locomotive both impressed in the senior division as they recorded 11 wins throughout their time on court. Both teams are through to the Grand Finals as the top two teams of the day. There was nothing to separate the teams, as they both played out a draw when they faced each other.

Locomotive had a slow start to their Nike Cup campaign, losing their opening match. However, they came back strongly and went on a seven-game win streak, knocking one opponent out after another. They were eventually halted when they drew with a opponent.

They eventually won another four games to go through to the Grand Finals as one of the top two teams from the central zone.

“We all really enjoyed ourselves,” said Aslam Ismail of Locomotive. “Overall, the whole tournament is well organised. I think the best part of is whole experience is playing in the middle of Orchard Road and the crowd! Right now, although we are through to the finals, it is too early to think about Brazil. But from what we’ve heard about the experience, that would be the life! ”

The team was actually only formed at 12pm that day.

“At 10am this morning, there were some members that backed out,” explained Ismail. “So we had to make a few calls to gather this team. We totally didn’t train for this at all. Although some of us stay in the east, we wanted to play in the central zone. From what I know, there are some really good teams in the east so that’s why we wanted to play here.”

Victorians, which consist of soccer players from Victoria School and Victoria Junior College, also dominated the central zone. Dressed in their typical bright yellow jerseys, they won a total of 11 games, including a six-game win streak.

“It is a lot faster than what we are used to on the field and it is a challenge to make the adjustment,” commented Shuvod Rai, one of the members of the Victorians. “But overall, this whole tournament is very well-organised. The fluidity of play is very good and we got to play a lot games. And the best part? It is free!”

When asked of their chances to go to Brazil, he said, “We’re not really thinking so far ahead, but of course, a small part of us is hoping to make it! That would really be a once-in-a-life-time opportunity!”

After stringing together a run of six games, Victorians were halted by Oranje who then went on a six-game run of their own. Oranje then won another two games to qualify for the Grand Finals as one of the top 25 teams.

Said Adam Kosnan from Oranje: “It is great to come together to play football. We didn’t really take notice of which team is on court with us — we just played our football. I think there are some good teams like Victorians and Locomotives. Coming into the competition, we didn’t really expect much or even hope to qualify for the finals, but now that we have, we want to win it!”

Registration for the other zones are still open so interested teams can still go to Singapore Nike football website to sign up.

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