India picks up ethnic soccer bronze

India picked up bronze in last week’s Ethnic Soccer Club tournament held in Auckland.

Chile defeated South Africa to clinch the gold medal in a nail-biting encounter at Bill McKinley Park, in Mt Wellington.

Locked 1-1, the finalists played into extra time and Chile just manage to score the winner in the last few minutes to walk away with $1200 prize money.

India, earlier beaten 5-1 by South Africa in the semis, edged out New Zealand for the third spot.

In the other semifinal, Chile had pipped New Zealand 1-0 in a hard battle.

Kanwaljit Bakshi, list MP for National, was the chief guest along with Gul Zaman, secretary for the Council of Ethnic Affairs, at the closing ceremony and presented the trophies. Dr Ashraf Choudhary was the chief guest in the opening ceremony.

Tournament runner-up won $600 while India collected $250.

Other prizes included:

1. Best disciplined team - South Korea

2. Best manager - Alex (Macedonia)

3. MVP - Rolando (Chile)

Next tournament will be March 2010 and there will be 24 teams participating in this.  

Organising Secretary Ashwin Choy said they were looking at a bigger and better tourney next year.

“On behalf of the Fiji Ethnic Soccer Club, I would like to thank you all for participating in and supporting the Inaugural Ethnic World Cup Tournament. We had four days of fantastic soccer and witnessed the coming together of different ethnic cultures in the name of football.

Choy’s account of the final: “The final between Chile and South Africa was indeed a cracker and had all the action and drama worthy of a grand final. South Africa dominated the first passage of the game and opened the scoring in the 21st minute. After the first goal, it was an even contest with both sides unable to crack each others defence. Desperation from Chile saw them equalise in the 55th minute and take the game into extra time. With both teams locked at 1 all, Chile held their composure to score the winner 3 minutes from the end. Congratulations to Chile for winning the first ever Ethnic World Cup Tournament.

“We'd like to thank all the team managers, officials, players, supporters and spectators for making this Ethnic World Cup Tournament a success. Special thanks also to the referees and match officials. Last but not least, we would like to thank the major sponsors of the tournament Munchy Mart, Becking Tours, Krystol Enterprises Ltd, Creative Furniture Ltd and AA Coach Hire.

“See you all next year when we will host an Ethnic World Cup Tornament on a grander scale.”

* see photo gallery for more pictures