Sunday was the youngster’s time to shine and show the rest of the Maher community what they had to offer to the sports world, and it seemed the weather was on their side as the conditions were completely opposite to the day before. Regrettably there were only two teams in both the under elevens and sixteen’s category therefore the tournament was fixated on the seniors. The two teams for Under Elevens were Loughborough and London with the participant of a Luton player. Loughborough took home the winners trophy leaving London with the runners up trophies.The eleven aside tournament took place across two days beginning with the senior teams being split in to two groups. Group one included London, Loughborough and Luton and group two contained Leicester, Peterborough and Milton Keynes. Unfortunately both Milton Keynes and London didn’t make it to the semi finals. Shivam Modhawadia summed up the pair’s progress “We were off to a bad start and it just got worse and worse.”
London, Luton and Loughborough had to come together to form the second team to play Leicester in the under sixteen’s category and Leicester triumphed over the other team. With only two teams in each category it was not only dull for the few spectators but also for the players who came so far to play in the competition. Is it the job of the players to find their way to the tournaments and form teams or is it all of ours as a community?
The senior’s category was much more eventful as they played the semi-finals and finals the second day. Luton won against Peterborough in the semi-finals securing a place in the finals against Leicester who won against Loughborough after coming back from 2-0 down.
We were treated to an exciting final with the traditional superb football, amazing goals that left the spectators shocked, fouls of all kinds and loads of male testosterone. At the end of the match Luton prevailed, leaving Leicester with the Runners up trophies as Amar Odedra (Luton) scored in virtually the last kick of the game to make it 2-1.
The event was not only a success in the sense of sports achievements but also gave the players a chance to socialise with people they don’t see regularly.
Article by Sonia Suresh Modhawadia
Maher 11 a side Football Tournament
Loughborough greeted all the anxious football players with rain, wind and muddy fields, according to all the participants “Perfect football conditions” on the 1st August 2009.