By Koh Yizhe/Red Sports
Team Blasto is the only female team in the Nike Cup. They participated in the west and east zone qualifiers and booked their spot in the Grand Finals. (Photo courtesy of Nike Singapore)
Who said football is a guy’s sport?
In a tournament that is dominated by the male gender, one team stood out. Team Blasto is an all-girl team from Seng Kang Secondary that competed in the junior category of the Nike Cup west and east zone qualifiers.
They even qualified for the Grand Finals on 4th July 2010.
“It is a great honour to be the only female team!” said Nur Sakinah of Blasto. “We feel like we are doing our gender proud. Boys should be beating us but we managed to defeat a few male teams!”
The team, consisting of 15- and 16-year-olds, had successfully qualified for the Grand Finals at the west zone qualifier at the former-Townsville Institution, but they were back for more football action at the east zone qualifier in Tampines.
“We joined just to have fun and gain experience – we didn’t really expect to qualify for the final. This week, the organisers encouraged us to come back to have fun. We thought, ‘Why not?’” she added.
“The atmosphere here is much better than the west zone qualifying,” she explained when asked to compare the two venues. “There are bands, music, and more people at Tampines. People can see you play, but over at Queenstown, it is very secluded and ‘ulu’. The pace of the game is faster over here at Tampines, which is a good thing. We definitely prefer this venue.”
“The teams here are more ‘power’ when compared to the other qualifier as well,” added her teammate, Nurul Ardilla.
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. Teams play as many games as possible 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.
“The prizes are really ‘wow’!” said Nurul Ardilla.
“I think the prizes on offer for the winners are really great! It would definitely be a total once-in-a-life time opportunity,” commented Nur Sakinah. “We don’t really expect to win but we’ll try our best.”
Team Blasto will be competing at the Grand Finals along with 199 other finalists on July 4th at the National Stadium East Entrance promenade.
Leave A Comment