Football For Life joins San Joaquin Football Festival 2019

Team FFLA U15 – Boys emerged as Champions after outwinning their competitors.

​PALO, LEYTE — Last 21-22 July, Football For Life Academy (FFLA) were invited again to took part in the annual San Joaquin Football Festival organized by the San Joaquin Football Club which was held at San Joaquin Central School Grounds, Palo, Leyte. A total of two teams across FFLA’s active sites and communities were formed to join the tournament.

 Amidst the ample time to practice, the selected players from the FFLA program showed their great team play and persistence in each of their match games.
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The boy’s team dominated all their matches making them the Champions in the U15 category. Delighted with their achievement, Daniel, Boys – U15 team captain, shared: “We had a great experience during the tournament. We meet children like us who love to play football. We also meet players who played better than us. It was fun to experience to play in a different place. Even though the weather was too hot and the football field was a little bit uneven we enjoyed every game. Because we were able to meet good players we feel challenged and it pushes us to improve. During our games, I also feel happy seeing that even though each of us is from different sites everyone showed respect and showed sportsmanship.”

While the girls’ team did not make it to the finals, but they played well and showed their willingness to win their games. Coach Da, the official coach of the girls' team during the tournament shared a word of encouragement for them:
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“Always remember that the struggles you face during the tournament will be your strengths in the future. You lose the game but you gained a lot of lessons and that is enough for you to look into to improve yourselves for future tournaments."

TSCHI players winning in their respective category.

Other FFLA players took the initiative to join the tournament, particularly players from FundLife’s partner school TSCHI (Tanauan School of Craftmanship and Home Industries), where they won champions of the Boys- U18 category.

This is not the first time FFLA joined the San Joaquin Football Festival, as well as entering other football tournaments. The Football For Life Academy programme was able to send teams which competed in Streetlight Cup, Leyte  Interschool Invitational Sports League, Thirsty Football Cup, FundLife’s own Sama-Sama Games Football Festival and international football events -- Generation Amazing National Festival and FIFA Foundation’s Football For Hope Festival.