SCORING BIG FOR UNICEF.
YC&AC Sat 21st March 2006.22 teams (6 more teams than took part in the inaugural tournament a year ago) took part in the 2nd Footy Japan / YC&AC Charity 6’s, held at YC&AC on March 21st. Many of the teams involved in this tournament were simultaneously raising urgently needed funds for UNICEF, to aid their ongoing plight of helping children in need throughout the world.
For many of the players the impetus to play hard and shoot-on-sight came from the fact that some of the event sponsors were pledging generous contributions on a per-goal-scored basis. The culmination of a fantastic day of football saw a total of 81-goals scored and the princely sum of 560,000JPY raised for UNICEF thanks to the support of the teams and a host of sponsors, including Gold Sponsor’s: Magellan, CareerCross, Barclays Capital and Coca Cola; Silver Sponsors: Robert Walters, Lloyds TSB and Crown Relocations; and Bronze Sponsors: Triangle Solutions and Stella Artois. The official receipt and acceptance memorandum from UNICEF will be posted on this site forthwith.
An eyebrow or two were raised at the beginning of the day’s events as an unknown Japanese team had arrived at YC&AC before the tournament organizers (i.e. before 7:50am) at the crack of dawn and were voluntarily putting themselves through a military-style series of drills and warm-ups, clearly in preparation for going toe-to-toe with some of the TML teams playing on the day who are renown for the physical side of their game in small-sided competitions.
From anonymity to tournament champions A.S. Azule will be a name that many TML teams won’t forget in a hurry. Their slick passing game, intelligent movement off the ball and sharp shooting, not to mention the fact that they matched brawn with brawn throughout the competition, ensured their disposal of Tokyo Hibernian FC 2-0 in the semi-final and France FC 1-0 in the final match. A.S. Azule playmaker Kazu Matsumoto also walked away with the Magellan MVP trophy, for his tenacious performance throughout the day that included a spectacular volley that Pele himself would’ve been proud of. In the plate competition a hotly contested final between the Celtic Supporters Club and AFC Wanderers saw CSC emerge victors with a 1-0 win.
“It was a fantastic day,” said event organizer Sid Lloyd. “This has probably been the biggest and best tournament that Footy Japan Ltd. has been involved in and we hope that next year there’ll be even more teams, more sponsors and hopefully a new field at YC&AC to play on! I’d like to say a special thanks to all the teams that took part, arrived on time and stayed for a beer or two afterwards, as well as the sponsors of today’s event – without them this tournament wouldn’t be possible. I’d also like to thank my partners at Footy Japan Ltd. Paco, Jon and Leigh and a big thanks to our co-hosts YC&AC for the hard work and effort that went in their end to make this day such a success.”
FJ
