The U20 Boys Football team recently participated in the ACAMIS championships in Chengdu, China.
On the first day of the tournament, DC was up against Yew Chung International School Chongqing (YCIS) in their only game of the day. DC got off to a good start going 1-0 up early on, and despite incredibly hot conditions and having travelling all day, DC won 3-0. The scorers were Che van Raad, Nahum Bhavnani and Robert Neale.
On the second day, DC played their second game against BIBA. They were no real threat to DC as we ran out 9-0 winners. The scorers were Shakoor Abdullah, Sean Taylor, Che (3), Rob (3) and Kazuya Kai-Olowu. DC’s second game of the day was against IIS, and this was a particularly hard game as DC did not have their shooting boots on and despite at least 20 shots on goal, they were only able to win the match 1-0 through a lucky goal from Shak with the help of their goalkeeper’s mistake.
Three wins from 3 meant that DC topped their group with maximum points with 13 goals scored and none conceded. This put DC through to the semi-finals against YCIS HK. In last year’s tournament DC lost to the same team 2-1 and therefore missed out on a final. This year was to be different as DC ran out comfortable 4-0 winners. An amazing team performance meant that YCIS could not penetrate our defence with solid performances from Sean in goal, Rob, William Tiller and Cyrus Tse at the back, complemented by an utterly dominating performance in midfield and attack by Kaz, Nahum, Che and Shak. The scorers were Che (3) and Nahum. Our coach Jordan Brown said it was the best football he had seen us play all season, a truly perfect all rounded performance. This saw DC progress to the final of the competition against YCIS Shanghai, last year’s champions.
In an extremely even final match, where both teams had few chances to score, it was clear to see that both teams were struggling with fitness due to the amount of games played in such a short period of time. The score at the end of the 2nd half was 0-0, and on to extra time they went. Extra time was two five-minute halves and then penalties. DC had a chance to score near the end of these 10 minutes but it went just wide. The game was tied due to good defence on both sides and some last ditch tackles from defenders and a couple of good saves from Sean in goal. The game went on the penalties. Shak was put in goal for the shootout and DC were going into the shootout confident off the back of their HKSSF Challenge Cup victory on penalties too. YCIS SH scored their first penalty while Shak converted DC’s first penalty as well. The next penalty fell to YCIS and Shak stepped up to save it. Che neatly tucked away his penalty giving the match point to DC. YCIS missed their penalty due to another fantastic save by Shak and the celebrations began as DC claimed the ACAMIS football title for the first time. An all round amazing tournament as DC racked a total of 17 goals scored and none conceded. It was a true team performance which got us through to the final and won us the tournament, along with determination and hard work.
– Shakoor Abdullah, Y12