Cap U hosts prevail at Mini World Cup

By Jon Willemsen

As the 2014 FIFA World Cup continues in Brazil, the tournament hosts can only dream of a result similar to what played out for FC Capital United’s under-13 boys’ soccer team.

At their Mini World Cup event on June 15 at Leitrim Field, the home team wound up raising the World Cup replica trophy as champions.

“It’s quite neat for the hosts to win at any tournament,” says Cap U technical director Raz El-Asmar, who doesn’t remember one of his club’s ever winning their own tournament in previous editions. “It’s special for our kids to win it because they look forward to the tournament every year, and the good competition makes it hard for anyone to win.”

Popular tourney mimics World Cup
Capital United president Kumar Saha has volunteered to help run the Mini World Cup every year since its inception alongside the 2006 World Cup, and served as chair of the 2014 edition.

Saha explains that the event changes every year to model the big international competition taking place at the time. Each team assumes the colours of one of the participating countries, while each player receives that nation’s jersey.

“It’s a fun event every year,” notes Saha, “but with the real World Cup happening as we speak, the timing of it with all the best players in the world playing makes it so amazing for the kids.”

In this year’s final, the victorious Capital United U13 boys’ side represented France and beat the Russell Raiders, playing as Germany, by a 3-1 score. The Seaway Valley Blazers/Portugal rounded out the top three teams.

Wearing French colours was only natural for the Cap U boys, El-Asmar highlights, since the team had made a pre-season trip to France to compete in the globally-known Mondial Pupilles De Plomelin tournament where they matched up against a number of French youth teams.

“It’s crazy because we played against them, but now we’re playing for them,” signals Cap U player Ryan Saint-Fleur, who felt proud to wear the French colours.

Saha rates the 2014 edition a success and says he’s excited to see the event keep growing every year (a girls’ tournament alongside the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada is an idea that’s come up) and continue to provide a memorable weekend for all participants.

“This tournament keeps growing in age, sort of like a fine wine,” Saha smiles. “We keep getting better at what we do, and we get to see more kids every year get to enjoy the beautiful game here.”