Tom Kassis’ golden goal saw Lycee Francais International Georges Pompidou claim the inaugural Emirates Islamic National School League Football title with a thrilling 4-3 extra-time victory over Al Salaf Al Saleh Private School.
LFI, who had been rampant en route to the final, looked like they would cruise to victory as they took an early 2-0 lead. Their Sharjah-based opponents, however, fought back and actually led with less than a minute of normal time remaining.
Cue LFI talisman Sacha Ziani’s tremendous free-kick crashing in off the crossbar to send the game into extra-time and, minutes into the additional period, Kassis twisted and turned in the box to send a shot beyond Al Salaf goalkeeper Abdulmalik Saeed to settle a pulsating spectacle.
For Kassis, one word stood out in a game that offered everything for those watching at The Sevens Stadium – hope.
“It was an amazing game,” said Kassis.
“We were a minute away from losing but we came back. We put that down to hope. We never lost the hope to win. Everybody wants to win so we never gave up and we came back and we won.
“We started very well but we had some trouble and then we were losing in the last moments. Then we scored the free-kick, which was ‘magnifique’, and when it went in that was amazing. Then the golden goal and I can’t say anything else.”
Kassis opened the scoring with a calm finish when put clean through on goal and he cracked in a second off the crossbar to put LFI in a commanding position at half-time.
Al Salaf showed tremendous spirit to claw their way back into the contest, Tayseer Al Saadi keeping his cool to chip into an unguarded net to give them a glimmer of hope, and it was game on when Hussain Mohammed’s rocket of a free-kick flew in from the halfway line.
Unbelievably they led minutes later when Moustafa Ali nodded in.
Playmaker Ziani, who was a menace throughout, kept his cool though with time ticking down before Kassis had the final word.
Elated head coach Fiederic Deswarte admitted his side could have made it easier on themselves, but insisted there was no better way to win a game of football.
“If we won 2-0 like the game was in the first half it is different but after a victory like this you have a lot of feelings. We’ve won a lot of games easily in the group but it is better to win like this,” he said.
Even though they could have lost having been in a commanding position, Deswarte said he was tremendously proud of the character his side showed.
“I’m so proud of my team. The way they came back means they want to fight, they don’t want to give up. This team believed in the result which is very important,” he added.
“It’s a good lesson for sport, for football and for life, never give up. It is never over.
“Whether it’s in professional football in the World Cup or the Champions League or small football with kids, it’s never finished and you have to fight. For kids aged 12 and 13 it’s very brave not to give up and fight to the final whistle.”
LFI strolled through the group phase, winning nine straight games and scoring 38 times, while conceding just five.
They had a real scare in last week’s quarter-final though when they were taken to penalties by New Academy School, eventually emerging as 2-0 winners, but Deswarte said that experience had helped his players.
“That helped us today to win this game because the boys were stronger, they learned a lot of things,” he said. “If it’s easy you don’t learn anything. As I have told you before it is never easy to win a competition and we saw that today.”
