Lycee Francais International Georges Pompidou, Al Yasmina School and Salman Farsi School will all have double the chance for success when the Emirates Islamic National School League Football campaign resumes in January.
The trio will be among the favourites to claim glory in the competition’s inaugural season as they have teams through to the quarter-finals of both the Under-16 and Under-14 sections.
LFI have been unstoppable throughout the tournament’s group stages, with their two teams posting a combined record of 15 wins and no defeats.
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Salman Farsi have flown somewhat under the radar by finishing second behind LFI in both age groups in Dubai Pool 1.
Al Yasmina U-14’s unblemished record came to an end with defeat in their final group game, although they still qualified, along with their U-16 team who finished second in an exciting Abu Dhabi and Al Ain pool.
Al Salaf Al Saleh Private School claimed top spot in the Sharjah and Northern Emirates’ U-14 section, being one of only four sides to boast a 100 per cent record in the process.
James Turner hopes there will be combined success for Al Yasmina in the last eight as both his U-16’s and Adam Hodson’s U-14’s aim to bring silverware back to Abu Dhabi.
Turner revealed his players have been scouring the internet in a bid to be as prepared as possible for quarter-final opponents Dehli Private School Sharjah.
“The boys have been watching videos of our opponents on the NSL website, so they’ve been scouting them and telling me about them, so that shows how much it means to them,” he said.
“It’s great for the school to have two sides in the last eight and hopefully we can both do Abu Dhabi proud.”
Elsewhere in the U-16’s section, New Indian Model School head coach Ameer Ali described his players as his children and believes their teamwork will take them a long way.
“My children are dedicated and hard-working and this makes us confident,” said Ali.
“It has been our aim to win the title since our first day of practice and we will fight until the death to fulfil our aim.”
The Millennium School Dubai were on course to also have two teams in the knockout stages too, but defeat to rampant LFI and Salman Farsi in their final two matches saw the latter usurp the U-16’s in second place by just a point.
Head coach Afsal Ibrahim is confident his U-14 side can go all the way though.
“The boys are in good form and have not lost a game so we are confident and think we can win the tournament,” he said.
Abu Dhabi Indian School U-14’s 2-1 win in the final day showdown with Al Yasmina has given them supreme confidence going into the latter stages, with coach Dr SB Dey labelling his team “special”.
“We have a special and talented bunch of boys. They are playing at junior level for various different clubs which shows how talented they are,” he said. “It’s a special group. They train very hard. It will be difficult but I think we have a team good enough to win the competition.”
Striker Mohammed Shaik took that confidence a notch higher, adding: “We won’t have any tension or nerves. We’re serious about winning the competition. We will win, we know that. We’re really confident and we’re going to Dubai to get the cup. It already has our name on it.”
The NSL has provided great entertainment so far, 1,117 goals scored in more than 250 games making for an average of over four goals per game. The real excitement now begins, with the quarter-finals to be played at The Sevens on January 30, 2016.
