On 26 March, 22 U14 girls teams assembled at the Army Stadium to take part in the third such tournament, and the second sponsored by Barclays Capital. Besides teams from 6 Cambodian provinces, United World College, East Campus Singapore, sent 7 players over to Phnom Penh to play in the tournament. The balance of the UWC team was made up of girls from Andong Relocation Village; it was amazing to see how girls from completely different backgrounds had such a great day together. UWC have requested that the Andong girls play in their team next year.
The day took on a real carnival atmosphere; lots of laughter, smiling, chatter and singing. It was good to see some of the younger girls from the U16 tour of Singapore out on the field playing again.
As the day progressed, the level of on field performances impressed all the spectators. By quarter final stages there were still teams from 4 provinces involved in the tournament. It was no surprise to see Mekhala House from Prey Veng and FABBAs Tigers from Battambang battle out the final, both teams had been holding spectators’ interest all day.
The Champions....The Kangaroo Football Team!
The Kangaroo Football team (Mekhala House) took all their opportunities and won the final 3-0. This was a fantastic result for these girls who had only 12 months prior made their first trip outside of Prey Veng to play football in the 2010 Barclays Cup.
The ISF girls team made the semi finals, which was a good performance and only went down 1-0 to Mekhala House.
To Mark Stafford and Garry Hammond of Barclays Capital, thank you for all the medals, handshakes and smiles you gave out to a lot of very happy recipients. This was Mark’s second visit to the Barclays Capital Cup and both Garry and Mark want to return for the League which starts in November 2011.
Mark also honed his refereeing skills in one of the deaf football games on the day.
It should be noted that after 3 years of trying, KPR Aziza’s Place won not one but two games which was an excellent result for a non-government organisation that only has about 10 girls. The have now tasted victory, they’ll be hard to handle next year!
Peter Slater and Kew Park Rangers players (Aziza's Place)
The Barclays Capital Cup