Future soccer stars compete
In late October Ukraine traditionally hosts the “Retro Cup” International Junior Soccer Champions Tournament. So this year 36 junior soccer teams from Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, and Hungary came to Obukhiv and Koncha-Zaspa for the 10th tournament. More than 700 boys aged 9 to 14 joined a vigorous competition for numerous prizes and cups. What tremendous ardor the competitors displayed! Petro Nikolenko, the organizer of the event, told The Day that there was not a single dull game.
“However, there was plenty of tears and emotions, which is natural if you consider the soccer players’ age. The joy of the winners who received our nice awards and cups was equally infinite,” said Nikolenko. After three days of soccer battles, the cups and awards went to the following teams; Dynamo Kyiv (DUSSh-15), Mukacheve (Zakarpatska oblast), Zirka (Kyiv), Avangard (Kursk, Russia), Zimbru (Moldova), Inter (Dnipropetrovsk), Polas (Hungary), DUSSh-15 (Kyiv), Spartak (Moscow), Retro (Vatutine, Ukraine), and Neman (Grodno, Belarus).
“Each of the finalists offered their supporters a lot of exciting moments, but the most determined and exciting was the decisive duel between Inter and Polas which ended in a 1:1 draw. In the series of the post-match eleven-meter penalty kicks the Dnipropetrovsk boys were luckier than their rivals from Hungarian Debrecen and scored 5:4. They received the main prize-the Retro Cup,” said Nikolenko.
Additionally, the best players of the tournament were named: Oleksii Chub (goalkeeper, DUSSh-15), Yaroslav Kabanechev (defender, Retro, Vatutine), and David Khubayev (forward, Spartak, Moscow).
The competition was a success from every point of view, but the opening and closing ceremonies were simply marvelous. It is not always that one can see something like this even during national competitions among adults. The competitors liked both ceremonies which concluded with the launching of hundreds of multicolored balloons and splendid fireworks. One would only wish that our kids could have sports events like this more often.
