Sporting Memories: Winning a Silver Medal in 2017

The importance of football in uniting youths in a particular community cannot be over-emphasized. This is why there's no community (in Nigeria) you'll ever visit that you won't see youths gathering to play football on the streets. Football just has its own way of always bringing and keeping people together. It fosters oneness, unity and love. And where there's unity, there's peace, growth and development.

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For the purpose of uniting youths in my locality, a football tournament was being organized and it is usually being played during the Christmas period every year. I was opportuned and chanced to participate in the first edition of the football competition which was way back 2017. It was a really exciting and fun-filled experience. I enjoyed every aspect of it. I was part of the team with the yellow jersey and we called ourselves "CFEN STARS."

@tomlee; second person L-R on the front line)

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About the football competition, it was called "Udoekong Ekwere Street Football Tournament" and it was named after our community. The tournament was just a 5-aside game; only 5 players were on the pitch while 3 were substitutes. In general, the competition involved 12 teams of 8 players each. This 12 teams were then splitted into 3 groups comprising of 4 teams in each. From there, the fixtures came out and fortunately, my team made it to the finals.

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We started playing from the group stage where we topped the group with 7 points. We won two games (6 points) in the group stage and had a tie (1) in one game. It wasn't easy but through series of trainings we were able to amass the 7 points. With that, we qualified for the quarter-finals where we won with two goals to nil as depicted in the picture below. It was a tough game and winning it was a big thing for us.

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We then headed to the semi-final. Remember the saying that the higher you go, the tougher it becomes. The semi-final was tougher than the quarter-finals and to add to our troubles, our striker got injured. We played the first 30 minutes (half time) and lost with one goal. Coming into the second half, we were lucky to equalize and the game ended with 1-1 score line.

This then led to a penalty shoot-out. The goal post was just a not so large metallic structure with a net. A goal is counted when the ball enters the net. We started the penalty shoot-out and I found the first goal for our side. The first player from the opponents equally scored making it a tie. It continued so until my side finally won and booked a place in the finals. You needed to see the excitement on our faces and jubilation that accompanied.

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The day for the finals came and everyone was gathered to watch the game. Our opponents below were called "Tiverton FC". There were a good side as well that equally played unbeaten as us. It was a big day in the community as the village head and the state commissioner for youths and sports were in attendance. The state commissioner was one who did they kick-off and they game began after all opening ceremonies were being carried out.

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It was an interesting game as both sides were very strong. We all wanted the trophy so, we gave it our best. We played the first half which was 30 minutes without any goal and the second half was equally goalless. It couldn't ended that way without a winner. So, we headed for the 5-man penalty shoot-out. Sadly for my side, we lost after missing 3 spot kicks and fortunately for Tiverton FC, they came out as champions after scoring 3 spot kicks and missing only two.

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It was painful to us but that is football for you. Only one side gets to win the trophy so, we embraced the spirit of sportsmanship, shook hands and lined up for our silver medals. We as well got a prize for being the first runner-up so it wasn't all bad. And that's how I ended 2017 with a silver medal!

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