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Manattak, Phoenix leave Taipei sides in the dust

Manattak wins the Summer Cup soccer tournament in Taipei yesterday with a fierce penalty kick against Tainan Phoenix. PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES

A crowd of friends, family and exhausted players from rival teams watched a penalty shootout on Sunday that decided the two-day, 16-team Summer Cup soccer tournament.

It was an eerie repeat of last year's final shootout, only this time around, two new, non-Taipei teams competed for the title.

"We had a couple of lucky kicks, one which went underneath the goalkeeper's arm," said Luke Sims, captain of Taichung's Manattak, which eventually prevailed in the penalty shootout.

Sims said it was nice to "finally put one away" in defeating mortal rivals Taichung Compass earlier in the day to reach the finals. He added that Dajia Riverside Park was a good setting for the tournament, despite temperatures ranging around 35oC throughout the day.

Penalty kicks played a big role in the tournament because all matches except the Cup final were limited to just one period of 25 minutes.

Earlier in the day, Mark Fergus of Tainan Phoenix liked his team's chances if the championship match were to go to penalty kicks. He described his goalkeeper as being large with "go, go gadget-like arms." Phoenix had also prevailed in penalty kicks earlier in the tournament.

Unfortunately, Phoenix ran out of chances in normal time, and weren't able to rise once again from the increasingly dusty pitch when it was time for the spot kicks.

The Cup final represented the new strength of teams from southern Taiwan, a loose organization of a half-dozen sides that regularly play one another. Fergus says his squad is a loose collection of 40 expatriate soccer players who get together for regular kickarounds and for the occasional tournament. They divide themselves into two teams: Tainan Red Stars and Tainan Phoenix.

He says the same was largely true for Manattak, a new, Taichung-based team with connections to the Teletubbies side and formerly known as Teletubbies 2.

Pre-tournament favorites Taipei Animals were hampered by the absence of center midfielder Michael Christie and striker Dan Culvert, who arrived late because of youth coaching obligations with the Master Football Academy. The Animals were also missing long-time goalie Samson Ellis, who was attending the World Cup in Germany.

The depleted side left the Animals vulnerable, and they were eliminated in an early knockout round which, as with many other games, went to penalty kicks.

One team that fared better than expected was the Da'an Wanderers, which had an attack best described as a "stampede" by team captain "Gorgeous" George Kresina.

Unfortunately, its storming tactics proved ineffectual against a disciplined JFC (Japanese Football Club) squad, who prevailed over the Wanderers 1-0 in the Plate Final.

SCRAPES AND STRAINS

A first-aid tent staffed by a half-dozen nurses treated 40 individuals over the two days of competition. Most injuries were scrapes and strains, with the most serious being a potential broken thumb, said Craig Li, general manager of Life Star Medical Service.

A series of large tents for the teams, referees, medical staff, administrators and caterers kept the sting out of the midday sun, but many players suffered from minor sunburn, while tournament commentator Jeffrey Bonin implored the crowd to keep hydrated, before announcing that there was "too much cold beer left" at the end of the tournament.

In the end, organizers put some of this beer to good use, filling the 30cm Summer Cup with beer before presenting it to an enthusiastic Taichung Manattak team.
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