A Quest For Glory.

So, few days ago my team went to join this OPEN futsal tournament. The tournament was organized by Harian Metro (a newspaper company). We usually participate in smaller tournaments. But this was huge. They have like 116 teams or something like that, joining the Harian Metro Futsal Tournament. This was the first time Harian Metro organized such a huge futsal event in Kuching. However in West Malaysia, they organized this tournament at least two times a year. This year they decided to bring the event to Kuching, just to see if people are digging the event. Obviously it was a huge success as many teams took part in the competition. Oh! they also have categories for women and teenagers.

Me and my team don't usually play big tournaments but this was totally worth a shot. After all we've been sponsored to join the tournament. I can't remember the exact fee amount, but I guess it was around RM200. We wanted to test the strength of our futsal team, to see if we are strong enough to play against tougher opponents. The price money for the champion is RM3,000, runners up RM2000, and third place RM1000 (if i remember it right). Lady luck wasn't on our side as we were drawn into the same group as the champions of Sarawak Cup, Velocity. So since there are more than a hundred teams, they divided the groups into ....... ok I'm not sure how many groups, but a lot! So each group has like 3 teams. Only 1 team from each group will progress to the next stage (obviously the team that tops the group).

Kenyalang Reds Line-Up at the Harian Metro Futsal Tournament.
Standing (from left): Ayang, Me (I am sooo skinny) , Wang, Neng, Joel
Squatting (from left): Potas, Anthony, Ian

We were defending hard for the first match. 

Ermmm.....so we went there around 2pm, because there were too many groups, so they decided to have two sessions, one in the morning, one in the evening. We were in the evening session, so we came at 2pm. We have to watch 10 matches before it was our turn to play. We were nervous, as we were facing Velocity, a force to be reckoned with. But we held our nerves, and we managed to salvage a draw, 1-1. We could have won the game, but a mistake cost us a goal. A draw means we have to win the next game with at least a two-goal margin.

Some action from the second match. 

I can't remember the name of the team we faced in the second game, but they were quite strong too. Despite their strong resistance, we managed to score two goals. I was cheering my team from the stance. I was a substitute. I don't start matches because I am too darn skinny, and if I were to start, I will definitely get crush! I am a technical player, not a physical one. The only time my team require my services is when we are leading the game comfortably and they need me to keep possession of the ball as I am quite a good passer of the ball. Now, back to the story, so yeah we fought hard and so it ended 2-0 and we topped our group. We made it to the next round. It was an unbelievable achievement. I was so proud of my team mates as they fought hard for the victory and we deserved to enter the next stage.

Last moments from the second match.

In the 4th round, we faced a team called Emmanuel. We know this team pretty well as we used to play them in smaller tournaments. They are a pretty strong team. During the game, we were out played at times as they were really fast and powerful. They have good shooting ability. But we were able to close them down quickly and managed to hold on for a 0-0 draw. This could only mean one thing, penalties. The winner of the penalty shoot out will advance to the next stage. We scored the first penalty, and missed the remaining two. Where as Emmanuel missed only one, and scored two. Technically, we lost......on penalties. We were quite disappointed to lose on penalties, but when luck goes against you, there is nothing you can do.Yes we were disappointed, but at the same time we are proud of our performances. We didn't lose a single game in the group stage. And when we did lose, it was in the 4th round, and on penalties. So nothing to be ashamed off! This tournament gave us a lot of experience simply because it was an OPEN tournament. You get good strong teams playing in OPEN tournaments. At the end of the day, we managed to test the strength of our team, and we were pretty proud about it. YNWA Kenyalang Reds!

-Ian V