adidas +challenge spices up mid-year break for footballers

By Lee Hwee Cheng

Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza, Wednesday, May 30 2007 – "Oh, and here we have our first girls’ team up against the boys on court one!"

The Red Sports Crew arrived at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza before noon on Wednesday to check out the adidas +Challenge Tournament 2007 and it was a blazing hot day by then.  The rain earlier in the morning had threatened to mar Day One of the five-day event but had only delayed the start of the first games.

Organized as a street football competition to soothe the itching legs and alleviate the boredom of footballers now in their first week of the mid-year school vacation, 280 teams of footballers have signed up to battle it out in two categories, the Under-16s and the Under-19s. 

This year saw, for the very first time, a total of six girls’ teams who have signed up for the competition – despite the organizers not having originally planned for a separate girls’ category.  Heartened by the enthusiasm and passion of the girls, adidas chose not to disallow the girls’ registration.  Fortunately, or not, the girls got to stay in the competition – but had to be grouped together with the boys.

So the Red Sports Crew arrived just in time on Wednesday morning as well to catch the very first game of the only girls’ team participating in the preliminary rounds of Day One.  And the Crew must have been really lucky to catch – in real live action – the first upset of the boys by the girls!

The minute the whistle blew, all eyes around the court cordoned off by oil drums painted in green and black were centered on Court One.  Everyone wanted to see how the girls would hold up against the boys team known as Bolace.  The Bishan Arsenal Girls A team showed no fear and paid no attention to the scrutinizing eyes of the spectators and the overzealous live commentary of the event host.  If there was one thing obvious to the eyes of a keen observer, these girls surely did not look like a team who had come together for this event just for fun.

Dribbling past the boys and controlling the passes and attacks with skill, the girls posed more of a threat.  Ignoring the fact that the boys were bigger in size and that an unintentional body bump in a rough tackle could send them flying off their feet, the girls stuck close to the opponents in defense and stole possession of the ball numerous times.  However, the girls were finding it hard to find a way past the oppposing goalie.  But in the second half of the game, the girls sealed their victory over a slightly overpowered Bolace, and created a ruckus around the court, when 17-year-old Siti Norlela of Zheng Hua Secondary School scored the game-winning goal with a shot that went through the hands of the keeper and into goal.

Looking more exhausted than jubilant over their first win, the girls scrambled into the cool air of the shopping complex immediately after the game.  When the coolness finally chilled them out, the excitement set in.  Trying hard to contain their delight and to stay realistic about the next two games ahead, the girls were pleased to have caused an unexpected upset, but were quick to admit as well that, from their experience playing regular pick-up games with the boys on the courts, they knew that girls do tend to enjoy some on-court advantage as boys would be rather careful about physical contact and about rough play.  "The overconfidence of the boys just now probably agitated us and spurred us on too," laughed 19-year-old flame-haired Amanda Ng who is currently studying in the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

The Bishan Arsenal Girls A team comprises of Amanda, goal-scorer Siti, 19-year-old goalie Gwen Lin of ITE Simei, 19-year-old captain Siti Nurulhuda of ITE Bishan, 17-year-old Nur Afidah of ITE Simei and 17-year-old Nur Arzlin of Juying Secondary School.  The girls have been training under and playing for the club since they were thirteen or fourteen, simply because at that time, there was no inter-school girls’ football tournament, much less a girls’ football team in their respective schools.  Gwen had joined the club when she was only all of twelve years old.

Still not representing any of their schools, the girls have been part of the rise of women’s football in Singapore over the recent years, and gaining precious on-pitch experience instead with the pros and semi-pros in competitions such as the Women’s League, the Challenge Cup, and the National Street Soccer League.

The girls are still the ‘Juniors’ in their club.  A second Junior team comprising of younger teammates, Bishan Arsenal Girls B team, has also signed up for the adidas +Challenge Tournament this year.

Oh, and the girls were proud to fill me in on a trivia:  that the goal-scoring heroine Yap Xiu Huan of the Raffles Junior College Girls’ team, whose goal won the bronze medal for her school in this year’s National ‘A’ Division Girls Football tournament, plays for Bishan Arsenal and will be competing as part of the B team in the tournament.

Barely half an hour later, back under the scorching heat, watching more games beyond the oil drums, the Red Sports Crew thought they saw some rather familiar faces they’d seen just less than a week ago at the National Stadium.  When the host announced the "VJC2" team, the Crew decided to stick by Court One to check out the action.

Razzling and dazzling with their nifty footwork and amazing ball-handling skills, the VJC2 boys pounded shot after shot against the goal of Bashito FC, but just could not find the finishing touches to their almost smooth attacks.  Just as time was running out and the boys’ patience was wearing thin with all their unsuccessful shots, tall and gangly Shashi Tharan, 17, fired the game-winning goal in the very last minute of the second half and helped his team VJC2 win their first game 1-0.

Still unable to quite make up her mind if they were indeed familiar faces, the writer caught up with the boys after their game.  As suspected, the boys – Jonathan Ho, Kenneth Rene Gomez, Tan Yap Heng and Lee Yan Gen, all 17 years of age – are indeed part of the Victoria Junior College Boys’ team who had edged St Andrew’s Junior College 2-1 for the bronze medal in this year’s National ‘A’ Division Boys Football tournament.  For the adidas +CHALLENGE Tournament this year, they had roped in Shashi, a friend and student from Singapore Polytechnic, to complete the team line-up.

Relieved that they had snuck away with a win in their first game, they admitted it had been a tough game and that they were beginning to feel frustrated as their shots were not finding their way into the goal.  Having been trained only on the pitch during school training sessions, the boys had had their share of street soccer experience from their earlier days of regular pick-up games before being part of the school team.  For now, the boys are finding more enjoyment in on-pitch football as it is "more tactical, street soccer involves more personal skills".

Asked how far ahead they were gunning for in the adidas +Challenge Tournament, Kenneth chuckled, "Of course all the way lah!  But seriously, we came here for the fun, and for the love of the game."

Editor’s note: If you do recognize yourselves or any of your friends in these pictures, do drop us a note in the Comments section and we’ll update the captions accordingly. Thanks!