Written by Mr Dales

St Christopher’s travelled to make their debut in the Dubai Winter Cup Football Tournament during the last weekend of November. Nine boys were selected as the inaugural representatives of not just the school but the country of Bahrain in this multi-national event. The group stage began on Friday afternoon with St Chris facing Japan’s Amanecer who had flown eleven hours to compete. An outstanding free kick from distance by Zeid brought the first victory in the first game. Next was a Dubai-based Spanish Football Academy playing at their home ground and despite working very hard, St Chris could not prevent a loss. A last minute equaliser for 2-2 in the final group game against GC United, also of Dubai, meant the day finished with a complete collection of results – a win, a loss and a draw – but a semi-final beckoned.

Up against St Chris in Saturday afternoon’s knock-out stages was a determined Hopians FC from Bangladesh. The boys had begun to fuse their hard work with increasingly better passing moves and it brought immediate domination via a huge 9-1 victory to put St Chris in the final, five different players notching the goals. The Soccer Academy from Uganda were the opponents and another 2-2 draw resulted, Aaron and William scoring for St Chris. This brought the game to penalties and unfortunately, the boys couldn’t quite repeat their PSL penalty shoot-out success. Nonetheless, an exhausted team returned to Bahrain with their heads held high. Both Mrs Lodwig and Mr Dales could not have been prouder of each player’s effort and determination.

St Chris: Zeid, William, Danny, Oscar, Travis, Faisal, Zayed, Zayd, Aaron