Ramadaan soccer tournament a huge success
EMMARENTIA – Marks Park Sports Club concludes its successful Ramadaan tournament.
The Urban Sports, a sporting arena located within Marks Park Sports Club in Emmarentia hosted its last late-night five-a-side soccer tournament on 1 July.
The tournament was geared mostly towards the Muslim community to provide a social sporting event for the youth during the month of Ramadaan.
It was formed to run from 10pm to 3am as this accommodated players who would be up early on a Saturday morning for prayers. “Teams from five to eight players signed up, braved the cold, came out in numbers, showcased some amazing skills and made some new friends in the process,” said Urban Sports partner, Pedro Tocha.
Tocha said the turnout from the local and neighbouring communities was great, and that they had between eight and 10 teams join for three Fridays in a row, ending on 1 July with over 100 spectators each night who came out to support their friends and family. He said all goals scored during the tournaments were recorded online using the action replay system, which takes the last 20 seconds before the goal and uploads it directly to YouTube for the players to watch over and over.
Each night, R1 500 was awarded to the winning team. The format was pool games of 10 minutes with the top two teams from each pool progressing into the semi-finals, which were 15-minute games. The winners went through to the final game, which resulted in one winning team.
“We thank everyone who took the time to come out and make these mini tournaments a great success and we hope to extend the reach of this tournament,” said Tocha. He concluded that the sports club looks to host 16 or more teams in a much bigger tournament with big prizes for competing teams, next year.
On the last day of the tournament, a total of eight teams took part. “It was a thrilling final match up, which saw both teams tied 4–4 at full time, an incredibly close game,” said Tocha. He said that penalties decided the winner, with Athletico taking the win 3–2 in an epic penalty shootout against The Face Offs, winning R2 000 in prize money.
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