After the success of our first tournament in April, many students were determined to be the next Monash International champions, and most of the entries were from the teams who took part the first time. Because of MUELC's split timetable, it was necessary to have two small tournaments on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a final round on the Friday.
We eventually received six entries (most people were too worried about their IELTS test to play football!). On Tuesday, there was Winning Five, who were the runners-up in April, Red Devils, a combination of players from All Blacks and Juventus, and Tuesday, a late Monash College entry. Wednesday's teams were Kyoho, a group of students from Bunkyo University, Monkey Pants, the new name for Naughty Corner, and, of course, our reigning champions, Arab Team.
The Tuesday competition started with a shock when Red Devils comfortably beat Winning Five and followed this with a win against Tuesday. Winning Five then also beat Tuesday before turning the tables on Red Devils. The reds were not discouraged however, and won their final game to send themselves and Winning Five through to the final stage. Tuesday's bad Tuesday was completed by a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of the white-shirted Winning Five in the last game. Unfortunately, the late entries couldn't handle the unfamiliar rules and high-pressure games.
Wednesday started badly for the champions as Monkey Pants won the first encounter, but Arab Team easily accounted for Kyoho in the second game of the day. Monkey Pants then won their second game in a row, against Kyoho, and could have booked their finals ticket early. However, Arab Team had other ideas and got sweet revenge on the Hosei Uni students. In game 5, Kyoho finally registered their first win, defeating Arab Team 4-2, and gave themselves a chance of reaching the finals. Unfortunately, Monkey Pants chose this game to put on one of the best performances of the tournament and breezed through to Friday. Although Kyoho were eliminated, their goalkeeper, Kazu, made a lot of great saves and impressed everyone.
Going into the finals, Winning Five were probably the favourites, but they failed to perform and lost every game. Red Devils did better than expected with a win, a draw and a defeat, but Monkey Pants' last round win over Arab Team meant that the reds narrowly missed out. The Grand Final was a tense affair, and the first goal didn't come until just before half-time. After a yellow card was given for a bad foul, Yasu laid the ball off for Naoki to put away. Arab Team equalised just after the break when Abdul received a long ball and scored from the edge of the area. Finally, after some clever passing, Yuu Nara scored the winner minutes from the end. When the final whistle went, there was loud cheering from the Japanese fans!
The popular winner of the Best Player award was Fahad Aldhamadi for his performances on both Wednesday and Friday.
Team of the Tournament: Kazu (Kyoho)
Yuu Nara (Monkey Pants)
Yasu (Monkey Pants)
Fahad (Arab Team)
Dongsu (Red Devils)