On Saturday 15th October a mixed team of staff and students represented the Sino-British College (SBC) in the annual British Chamber of Commerce 7-a-side football tournament at Wellington College in Pudong. SBC has entered a team every year since the birth of the tournament in 2011 and it is stated to be the largest corporate football tournament in the whole of China and tallying 24 hours of football playing time across all matches.
In total 24 British Chamber members entered a team into the competition:
JLL, Wellington College, KPMG, JLR, DeVere, BISS Puxi, Michael Page, Baker McKenzie, The Sino-British College, Dyson, Candy Hoover, Elite K12 Group, Morgan Thermal Ceramics, IMI Precision Engineering, St James's Place, Sanpower Group, SIP Engineering Consulting , GKN, Driveline, ARUP, Hays, Holland & Sherry, BP, Harrow International School ShanghaI, Orion Property Services.
Tournament Report
Group A, fixture 1: DeVere 2 – 0 SBC
The competition began with SBC’s first game against deVere who were already warmed up after winning their first game. Attacking play from deVere meant that we were pressed in our own half in the opening minutes and which saw a number of good saves from Tony Ryan to keep us in the game. The deadlock broke with deVere scoring just before the half. Late in the game SBC pressed up the pitch in an effort to convert their chances but leaving the team open for a counter-attack to which they conceded to in the final minutes.
Group A fixture 2: SBC 1 – 0 Jones Lang LaSalle (Goal: Nick Zhang)
The second game saw SBC regroup and learn from their first outing. A couple of changes saw Oscar Suwandi start in goal and with Tom Chen and Otto Condliffe controlling the game at the back of the pitch, the midfield were able to press further up the pitch to create more chances. Supplied by Jack Chang, a goal came from year 4 Engineering student, Nick Zhang who executed the finish calm, cool and collectively.
Group A fixture 3: Elite K12 Group 0 – 1 SBC (Goal: Derek Male)
The third game saw the addition of two late arrivals to the team, year 2 Business Management student, Derek Male and Business Management lecturer Hyacinthe Onillon, who both made an immediate impact on the game. Hyacinthe kept the right side of the field well defended by chasing down the opposition. Whilst Derek used his pace and perseverance to scramble the ball into the back of the net. Another important one nil victory needed to help SBC progress to the final rounds.
Group A fixture 4: SBC 1 – 1 ARUP (Goal: Derek Male)
A tightly contested game, this time SBC were evenly matched by the group A leaders, Arup on the pitch. SBC went one nil up and it could have been more but ARUP were let back into the game with their one-on-one chance on goal. A fair result reflected the performance of the two sides.
Group A fixture 5: SBC 3 – 0 Hays (Goal:Derek Male, Nick Zhang, Stephen Hendrix)
SBC was in third place going into the final group game and needed to win by three clear goals to take second place in Group A to be able to progress to the semi-final of the Plate or it was go home early. Strong words of encouragement were spoken by the team before the match kicked off and the team knew it was do or die. It started slowly with chance after chance being wasted in front of goal. Despite the clock ticking down, the team kept their cool and still went for goal despite being the clock ticking down and time soon running out. The break came in the third quarter of the match from Derek Male, when it was thought that the goal was all just a constellation and too late. With surprise, a second goal came from Nick Zhang came a minute later which saw the team grow in confidence as they hunted for that final third. It took a blistering strike to send SBC into the semi-final from Stephen Hendrix, a stand in substitute who galloped through the middle of field and struck the ball from distance and shaking the roof of the opposition’s net, goal! The SBC Dragons were elated and the match was regarded as their best performance of the tournament. They knew they had to dig deep to qualify for the semi-final and dig deep they certainly did!
Plate Semi-Final, fixture 6: St. James’ Place 0 – 0 SBC (Lost on penalties 3-1)
SJP had built a reputation in their group stage as a rough and ready team. The SBC Dragons were prepared and they handled the pressure well. The two teams were evenly matched and the long day of the tournament was finally taken its toll. Cepheus Chen who put in a fine performance cut his tournament short with bruised leg. Penalties were needed to separate the two teams to determine who would reach the final. Sadly, like England, SBC were unable to convert 2 out of 3 of their chances and with SJP not missing a spot kick, they advanced to final game for silverware.
3rd/4th Place Plate Play-off, fixture 7: SBC 0-0 Orion Property (Won on penalties 7-6)
A touching end to the tournament which saw great sportsmanship and camaraderie between the two teams battling it out for 3rd Place. SBC redeemed their penalty performance which took it to sudden death. Possibly a record for the highest number of sudden death penalties in the tournament. It was down to the last penalty and it took an acrobatic save from Oscar Suwandi to deny Orion Property Services the redemption of their semi-final loss. The team celebrated their penalty shootout win with jubilation as Oscar was hoisted up in the air for his heroics.
Final Rankings:
Cup
Winner – KPMG
Runner-up – deVere
3rd Place – Wellington College
4th Place – Holland & Sherry
Plate
Winner – St James’s Place
Runner-up – BISS Puxi
3rd Place – Sino-British College
4th Place – Sanpower Group
