Street child footballers: Pakistan clinch bronze in Norway Cup

Street Children Team were edged in semi-final by Senja FC after a relentless display

KARACHI: The Pakistan Street Children team, comprising players from the 2014 Street Child World Cup, claimed bronze after winning 1-0 in the third-place play-off against Søgne FK in the Norway Cup in Oslo. 

Earlier, the team had crashed out of the semi-final after losing 4-2 on penalties to Senja FC as they drew the match 1-1 in normal time.

The semi-final loss meant that the Azad Foundation-prepared team's eight-match winning streak was brought to a halt by one of the best U16 sides in the world’s second largest international youth football competition. The Norway cup features teams from 120 countries.

Regardless of the emotionally draining experience of losing in the semi-final, skipper Razik Mushtaq was happy that everyone gave their all and was especially ecstatic that they managed to avenge last year’s quarter-final defeat against Lyn FC by defeating the Norwegian club 5-4 on penalties at the same stage they met last year.

“It was extremely difficult to see everyone cry. It feels very bad to disappoint the people in Pakistan but I am sure they know that we tried our best,” said Mushtaq, who scored the winner in the third-place playoff. “Our biggest moment came when we defeated Lyn in the quarter-final as they had defeated us last year at the same stage. I’m just happy with the fact that every player in the team, every single one, put their hearts out in the field while playing and that’s all that matters.”


Read: Pakistan Street Child team begins Norway stint with a 4-0 win

The road to semis

The youngsters started off in the tournament by winning all of their matches in Group 42 — scoring 12 goals and conceding none.
They went on to extend their winning streak in the knockout rounds by defeating Tertnes FC 4-0, Tana BK 2-0, Rahover FC 1-1 (5-3), Lørenskog 1 2-0 and Lyn 0-0 (5-4) before being beaten by Senja FC in the semi-final.

Their extraordinary performance ignited the interest of over 3,000 Pakistanis living in Norway, who came out to support the team.
Azad Foundation official Naveed Hasan Khan, who was travelling with the squad, said that other teams could not believe that the young players were not from any professional club.

Read: Norway Cup: Pakistan Street Children Football Team reaches semis

“There were around 3,000 supporters for our team,” said Khan. “We even saw a lot of them crying when the team lost the semi-final.”