If the first edition is anything to go by, then future installments of the Emirates Islamic NSL Football competition have a lot to live up to.
Football is renowned as being the beautiful game and that beauty was portrayed week in, week out by the 65 teams that graced the fields of Dubai’s The Sevens Stadium and Abu Dhabi’s New York University over the course of nearly four months of enthralling competition.
There was so much to savour, from the tremendous mix of tactical acumen and precision shown by Lycee Francais International Georges Pompidou’s Under-14 and Under-16 teams, to the tireless work ethic and dedication to crack-of-dawn training sessions attended by Afsal Ibrahim’s young The Millennium School (TMS) charges.
There was the grace and poise displayed by the likes of mercurial LFI string-puller Sacha Ziani and Abu Dhabi Indian School’s Hadhi Bashir, who showed big things come in small packages as he was the heartbeat of his team.
Both players showed indications that they have bright futures.
On the other side of the ball, there was the sheer determination and will of Al Yasmina School’s dual team goalkeeper Will Blackmore, who drove both his teams on throughout the tournament and into the latter stages.
Bashir and Blackmore arealready on the books of top UAE clubs Al Wahda and Al Jazira and it’s easy to see why.
There was the brilliant goalscoring individualism combined with the awareness of mind to unselfishly pick out team-mates displayed by both Our Own English High School striker Ali Alaa and Salman Farsi School hotshot.
Zahedi Fardin, who finished joint top of the individual standings with a combined 19 goals and assists.
Fardin found the net 15 times to lead the scoring charts in all age groups, while it was a shame not to see Alaa, who bagged 11 goals but even more impressively laid on seven assists, in the knockout stages after Our Own failed to emerge from a brutally competitive Abu Dhabi and Al Ain U-16 group.
Goals were registered at a phenomenal rate, with the nets bulging 1,165 times in total, an average of 4.6 goals scored each game.
The big winners in that department were Fardin’s Salman Farsi who scored 48 goals in total.
LFI topped the goalscoring charts in the U-16 section with 44, 11 of them coming in three knockout stage games en-route to their march to the final.
Fiederic Deswarte’s boys also conceded the least goals in the whole competition, with their net breached just four times in nine matches.
Two goals were conceded in the group stages, while they also had their line breached once in a 6-1 quarter-final triumph against Alkamal American School and once more in the final as they recorded a 2-1 win against Delhi Private School Dubai.
TMS went out meekly to LFI in the semi-finals of the U-14 competition while ADIS also went out at the last four stage to Al Salaf Al Saleh Private School, but both teams could at least comfort themselves with the joint best defensive record in the age group, both teams shipping just seven goals in 10 and nine games respectively.
In the end, it was a double delight for LFI, whose French flair carried them to glory in both age groups.
Their U-16 team was without question the best in the older category while the U-14s battled to prove themselves to be the cream of the crop, even if Salman Farsi, Al Salaf Al Saleh, ADIS, Al Yasmina and New Academy School would all have been worthy champions.
With the likes of Yahya Iraqi, Lucas Tetart, Youssef Gomaa and Laurent El Halal in the U-16 side and Tom Kassis, Luis Perez, Hedi Hbaleb and Ziani in the U-14 ranks, LFI are the benchmark for their opponents to aspire to.
If next season’s NSL can ascend anywhere near the heights of the inaugural tournament, we’re in for something special.
