See you next year

Subtitle: I had to cheer some of them up, told them they did a good job or played a great game. Some did, some still had the memories of their finals loss fresh in their mind as they went to the stage to receive the medal.

rI couldn’t help but notice the sour faces of the players who received their silver medals during the SunStar Football Cup, reminding me of a saying that in sports, you don’t win a silver medal, you lose the gold.

I had to cheer some of them up, told them they did a good job or played a great game. Some did, some still had the memories of their finals loss fresh in their minds as they went to the stage to receive the medal.

Perhaps, no loss was more stinging than that of the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu Magis Eagles’ in the Girls 17 finals. The five-team field used a league type format, meaning the most number of points after the games get the championship.

But not only did the Magis Eagles and eventual champion St. Theresa’s College finish with identical 10 points on three wins and a draw, they had the same number of goal difference, the first tie-breaker. The next tie-breaker is the number of of goals scored and both teams had the same number.

So the title was decided by a shootout, which STC won, 2-1, for their second crown of the day.

Some of the players were disappointed but most were smiling as they received their medals and since some of them have played together in the Palaro or PFF festivals, they were a lot of hugs and high fives from the rivals.

That’s the beauty of holding an age group tournament; the competition may be fierce but there’s no animosity. So I guess this means the SunStar Football Cup will remain an age group tournament for the foreseeable future.

It was a fun-filled two days and the weather cooperated, perfectly cool on Saturday for the younger divisions and all the girls divisions and beach-hot on Sunday for the Boys 15, 17 and 19 divisions.

The crowd too kept off the pitch, though we were forced to issue some gentle reminders from time to time. It was only when it was explained to them that the field will still be used for the next Global Cebu FC home game that they really cooperated and stayed off the pitch.

The “barricade” around the pitch—the A boards used for the PFL home games—was very useful and I hope we can still use it next year. Speaking of next year, we’re going back to our usual schedule, the third weekend, so Global and the PFL, please mark that date.

We had 136 entries--ironically, our biggest number in six years--but some still missed out due to the holidays.

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