Pakistan’s Street Children Football Team continued its stellar performance at the Norway Cup where they have not lost a single match as yet. PHOTO COURTESY: AZAD FOUNDATION
Pakistan have pulled off a stellar performance so far, having won all three of their group matches by scoring a total of 12 goals while conceding none.
After that, they defeated Norway’s Tertnes FC 4-0 in the second round to progress to the round of 128 where they continued with their form and entered the round of 64 by defeating Tana BK 2-1.
Next they outplayed Kosovo’s Rahover FC 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out to book their place among the top 32 teams out of the 120 nations competing in the U16 event. Pakistan then made it to the last-16 after beating Lørenskog 1 2-0 to make their way to the quarter-finals against Lyn Fotball.
According to team manager and Azad Foundation director Itfan Maqbool, the players have been in high spirits and surprised their quarter-final opponents despite the unfavourable weather conditions.
“The weather here is on the extreme end for us,” Maqbool told The Express Tribune. “Our players have been really brave, these children trained in Karachi where they haven’t seen rain in ages, but here they played in the tournament in heavy rain too.”
Maqbool said that the fear of injuries linger as one of the players from another country had broken his leg, but his side was going to play carefully in the cold weather.
“The temperatures here can go as low as -8 degrees, so you know our players have to struggle to do their best,” said Maqbool. “But we are proud of their achievements. They’ve really received some positive response from the crowds here who are also shocked to see Pakistanis perform so well in this weather too. Although the boy breaking his leg has affected the team a bit, they remain professional in their approach to the game.”
Pakistan will next take on another Norwegian club Senja in the semi-finals.
Last year, the squad reached the quarter-finals of the Norway Cup which is the world’s second largest international youth tournament featuring almost 1,600 teams.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 1st, 2015.
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