The Brackett's in Transition

Faisal Cup 2010

For those of you who need a review on what the Faisal Cup is, please check out a couple of short videos which can be found in our video section here. 

This year's Faisal Cup was another HUGE event with unbelievable hours of planning.  There were over 40 teams involved this year with over 1,000 people in attendance.  This year, we even had some refugees from Afghanistan in the tournament! 

I have been training our soccer team since February and I'll be honest, it has been tough.  Some students thought they were moving to Australia (but got swindled and were sent to a detention camp) and left our school.  Other students who remained constantly struggled with commitment to the team and practicing with excellence.  Through it all though, we stuck with it and arrived at Faisal Cup.

During the tournament, I coached the Under 16 soccer team and we also had an Under 18 team and several different netball categories for the girls.  The day was overcast through most of the morning with some light rain in the early afternoon.  That was a GREAT blessing, as the Malaysian sun is not very kind during soccer tournaments. 

So how did our team fare?  Well, the Under 16 team did surprisingly well.  We advanced to the semi-final game, which needed penalites to decide the 1-1 draw.  We won the game in dramatic fashion as Ayub denied shot after shot and Farouk slotted home the winning goal. 

In the championship game, we played a taller team, but played fair, although we missed several great opportunities.  With the score tied at 1-1, the pace became frantic at the end with the other team assaulting our goal.  Ayub made 4 fantastic saves in a row, denying the opponet the victory, but injuring his ankle in the process.  The game finished at a draw which of course meant... more penalties.  But alas, it was not meant to be for us this year.  Ayub's ankle injury restricted his movement and he wasn't able to save any of the penalites, as we missed all of ours.  So, in the end, we achieved 2nd place... which honestly, is much better than I anticipated!  Next week we will begin to train again and hope to win it all next year!!