Cup winners Mysa have big dreams for 2014

By Feverpitch Writer

After winning the Fifa Football for Hope Championship title, played alongside this year’s Fifa World Cup in South Africa, Mathare Youth Sports Association (Mysa) are sure to represent Kenya at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where they will defend the title.

Mysa won the first edition of the tournament held on the sidelines of the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany.

This year’s event held at Alexandra, was organised by StreetFootballWorld, a global network of sport for development organisations. It brought together 32 teams representing more than 50 organisations from 35 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Mysa had a god run at the tournament, bagging seven straight victories in their first round matches. They beat Ecuador 4-0, Chile 5-0, France 2-0, India 8-0, Paraguay 4-1, Tahiti 9-0 and neighbours Uganda 2-0.

In the second round, the local lads beat a team from Columbia 3-1 and a select national team from Argentina 7-0 before drawing 1-1 with Zambia. During the quarter-final matches played on July 10, Mysa beat France 4-0 and beat a combined team from Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia 1-0 in the semi-finals.

The team played against a side from Nigeria, drawing 0-0 at regular time to send the game into penalties, which Mysa won 3-2. Mysa had a goal ruled out three minutes to the final whistle. The matches were played without referees and players got special training on how to resolve any disputes in the spirit of fairplay.

Each team consisted of four boys and four girls aged between 15 and 18, in the five-a-side event, where a team had to field at least two girls at all times. The team played 13 matches, winning 12, drawing one and scoring 53 goals.