The spirit of street soccer is back on display in Spain
| Teams celebrate at the opening ceremony of the tournament in Fuenlabrada Image: Adrian Za
High levels of footballing skill and ability were on show on Day One at the tournament in Fuenlabrada, but the most noticeable thing was the smiles as the players celebrated being back on the pitch together.
It was a competition of firsts for many; the first outing for new Spanish partner Dragones de Lavapiés, the first time many players were representing their country and also some refereeing debuts for players who completed the referee training course the day before.
A tight fight for the top spot in Group B will offer an exciting set of fixtures in tomorrow’s quarter finals. Italy finished top of their group on goal difference, after drawing with France and Spain Ubuntu on six points. Ukraine, despite three well fought matches, finished the day without a win.
|Spain Ubutu Dragones in action against Portugal. Image: Adrian Za
In Group A, Bosnia finished top after winning all three matches. In second place was Romania, who beat Portugal and Spain Ubutu Dragones to finish with six points, while Portugal beat Spain Ubutu Dragones to finish in third with three points. As Spain Ubutu Dragones were unable to win today, they go into the finals tomorrow in fourth place in the group.
Bosnia will take on Ukraine in the first quarter final on Sunday. Other quarter finals will be between Italy and Spain Ubuntu Dragones, Romania and France and Spain Ubuntu and Portugal.
Despite the competition being fierce, Homeless World Cup founder Mel Young was quick to praise the “fabulous football, which was played at a very high level with a fantastic spirit of fairness. Some of the goalkeeping has been world class and it’s great to see men and women playing together.”
He added, “It was moving to see all of the players on the pitch enjoying themselves after such a long break.”
During the opening ceremony Councillor for Sport from Fuenlabrada City Council, Agustin Dominguez addressed the players and the crowd speaking about the importance of integration and bringing the community together.
|Spain in action against Romania. Image: Adrian Za
Mel Young thanked everyone who made the event possible: “I salute all the teams and volunteers who made this possible. It’s a smaller event but it has the same ingredients as our main tournament, and without everyone playing their part, it wouldn’t be able to go ahead.
“It was brilliant to see the new Spanish partner playing and absolutely fabulous to see Ukraine, who travelled such a long way to be with us and have overcome so much in the last year.”
|Team Ukraine travelled from Odessa to compete at the tournament. Image: Adrian Za
As the final whistle blew after a tightly contested first day of competition, the heavens opened, and a tropical storm rolled in. Running for cover, the teams, volunteers, and everyone behind the scenes got out of the elements. Once we’ve all dried off, we’ll be back and ready for another day of action tomorrow, when we will find out who will take the title.
But as Mel Young said; “We might find out the winners of the competition tomorrow, but at the Homeless World Cup everyone is a winner, to even be here, you’ve already won.”
Find out more about the event in Fuenlabrada here