Former Navua rep Patrick Wise slotted in a 10th minute sizzler to give Melbourne a 1-0 victory against Sydney Nadi in an all-Aussie final of the veterans’ soccer tournament at Bill McKinley Park in Auckland on Monday.
The win helped Melbourne collect a $3000 prize cheque and also the SM Singh Memorial Trophy in the New Zealand Fiji Veterans Soccer Association tournament’s over-35s competition played under mostly fine weather conditions. They were also awarded gold medals, and the runners-up collected a $1000 cheque and silver medals.
The over-40s competition for the Billy Singh Memorial Cup was won by Hamilton Nadroga 5-3 following a penalty shootout against Sydney Nadi.
Sydney Nadi’s Avinesh Prasad (Mircha), who scored nine goals in the tournament, was awarded the Most Valuable Player trophy.
The tournament, which attracted more than 2000 for the final, brought out some of the biggest stars of the yesteryears, including players such as Hendry Dyer, Arjun Pillay, Lorima Batiregega, Jope Lomu, Afroz Ali, Esala Masi and Shailendra Lal.
Melbourne bundled out defending champions and favourites Sydney Ba 1-0 in the quarters before gunning down Jet Set 3-1 in the semis (shootout) on their way to the final. Sydney Nadi downed Sydney Combined in the other semi.
The success of the tournament left one of its key organizers, Ayaaz Khan of the NZ Fiji Veterans Soccer Association, beaming at the end.
“It was the biggest and the best tournament organised so far and we are pleased with the way things have turned out,” Khan told the Indian Weekender.
Although the tournament was organized the NZ Fiji Veterans Soccer Association, the rival NZ-Fiji Soccer Inc had come on board with their teams as they did not have enough teams to hold the tournament on their own.
Khan said the end result was a bigger and better tournament enjoyed by all. A total 33 teams took part in the tournament, with a total 71 games played over six days.
Before the main final, all participants observed a minute’s silence to remember the veterans who were no longer with us, namely: Simon Peters (Labasa), Solo Junior (Tavua), Nikka Dean (Lautoka) and Leone Rakoroi (Suva).