ACES Youth Soccer Academy (AYSA) football team returned home recently from a tour of Switzerland where they participated in the annual Bellinzona Under-18 international tournament which had eight teams from around the world participating.
Report by Henry Mhara
AYSA finished the tournament on seventh position after posting one win, a draw and two losses.
However, they did not return empty handed. They were presented with the Fair Play Award.
The local boys were hammered 6-1 by hosts and eventual champions Basel, with Walter Musona, younger brother to Warriors striker Knowledge scoring the consolation goal.
In the second match, AYSA fell 1-0 to finalists Atletico Madrid (Spain) before drawing 2-2 with Désportivo Brasil (Brazil) in a match Emmanuel Mandiranga and Tafadzwa Mukahlera had put the Zimbabwe representatives in front until the 85th minute.
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AYSA finally found the winning formula in their last match against another Swiss club Ticino. The winning goal came from midfielder Kudakwashe Mashozhera.
They blamed the indifferent results to bad weather.
“AYSA’s progress in the tourney was severely compromised right from the start,” AYSA founder and director Nigel Munyati said.
“In our first match we struggled to cope with severe cold weather of 4 degrees Celsius, in the rain, on artificial turf and under floodlights. Given these extreme conditions, the boys never got going and the scores were reflective more of the conditions rather than player ability. The weather progressively improved and the boys responded with a progressive improvement in performance thereafter.”
Despite finishing seventh, Munyati was still happy with the overall performance of the team.
AYSA, the institution that produced national team stars such as Musona, Khama Billiat, Abbas Amidu, George Chigova and Lincoln Zvasiya is the only African team that participated at the tournament that has been running since 1940.
Big names that have come through the tournament include Johan Cryuff, Franz Backenbauer and Manchester United star striker Robin Van Persie.