Saturday 20th October 2012 - a team of footballers made up of teachers from SBC took to the field in the first British Chamber of Commerce 7 A-Side Football Tournament, held at the Shanghai Rugby Football Club. Fourteen teams in total took part in this tournament, attended by over 200 fans, who showed up to cheer on their favourite teams.
The SBC Team quickly became championship favourites after finishing undefeated at the top of their qualifying group. Powering through to the quarter-finals, the team fought a neck and neck battle with the opposing team, taking the game through to a penalty shoot-out. Putting away the first 5 penalties in the shoot-out, which is unusual for any ‘British’ team, the game moved into a sudden death, and the SBC team was eliminated after a sterling all round performance that had seen us score eight goals over four matches, only conceding one goal in the process.
In addition to the overall marvellous team performance put in by our teachers at SBC, the tournament also allowed many star players to show off their talents. Shaun Caldwell, EAP teacher, bagged four goals in four games. Ben Griffith in Business Management, scored with a memorable curved shot. Jonathan Ford, EAP teacher, scored with a bullet header. Jay Boville, in Accounting & Finance, scored with a volley from 35 yards. Terry Huang, SBC IT Engineer, confidently and coolly tucked away his penalty in the shoot-out. Tony Ryan, in Events Management, kept three clean sheets in all four games as goalkeeper and made multiple vital saves to keep the team in contention in the quarter-finals.
David Cockayne, manager of the SBC team and teacher of Events Management, said that despite the disappointment of going out of the tournament on penalties, the team’s final position of quarter-finalists for this tournament debut represented a good solid finish, and he expressed high hopes that the team could go on to win the tournament in 2013.
