DANA Cup 1996
The Dana Cup Experience: July 1996
It all started with a phone call from the Hailebury Centre and Stepney FC. I had taken part in a 5-a side football tournament at the centre the previous week organised by Stepney FC which my team Urban F.C won.
I was told that they would like to get a team together to go to Denmark to play in an international football tournament known as Dana Cup. The trials took place couple of weeks later and I was amongst the players chosen along with my friends Shadu, Sham, Zak and co.
There was a great buzz amongst all the players leading up to the trip. We were training hard and getting to know each other as we had never met or known some of the players chosen in the squad. It was a good team building experience throughout.
Once we arrived in Denmark we attended the opening ceremony which was a brilliant spectacle. Seeing so many people from different parts of the world taking part in this event was amazing. We represented the Bangladeshi community from Tower Hamlets (UK) therefore had the flags of Bangladesh and UK in the opening ceremony. A lot of the people we met knew we were from London but everyone seemed to ask the same question? Where were we originally from? It was nice to be able to put Bangladesh on the map as most people had not heard of this name or known where it was.
We were in a group of four teams and were very nervous before our first game as we had no knowledge of what our opponents would be like. We took part in some early morning practice sessions and were keen to get started being revved on by our captain Russel (nowadays known as Russelworks or 'Terminator').
We won our first game 8-0 and that set the tone for the rest of the tournament. Zak and Shumon each scored a hat-trick and I got two goals. Sham was very good in goal keeping a clean sheet. We progressed onto the knockout stages where we met a team from Norway. We won the game 5-1 and confidence was oozing amongst everyone in the squad.
The highlight of the tournament for me was the quarter final game against Sao Paulo and the 'Boys from Brazil'. We had watched other games involving Brazilian teams and you could see the abundance of natural talent from this region.
We realised that we were only two games away from playing in a Final at our first major tournament. By far we had exceeded all expectations and just went out to enjoy the occasion. We won the game 3-0, Zak, Shumon and I getting on the score sheet. Everyone was talking about the game afterwards as we thoroughly enjoyed it. However, we had to keep our feet on the ground and prepare ourselves for the semi-final which was to be a completely different ball game.
FC Malmo from Sweden were our semi final opponents and they were physically superior to us. The team was very solid and organised and we found it very difficult to break them up. We lost the game 2-0 but the boys gave their all. Everyone was disappointed at losing but we still felt we done very well to reach this stage. The experience was second to none and everyone enjoyed it very much. It was a good education for the players and the staff involved and set the tone for future trips to Denmark and other locations.
We had a very attacking team at our disposal and played some very fluent fast paced football throughout the tournament. This surprised a lot of teams. Our attacking play resulted in us scoring 26 goals in total which was a feat in itself.
There was a lot to talk about with friends and family when we got back and it was good to experience the limelight. A few of us signed up for Stepney FC upon our return and the rest as they say was history...
Although it was very sad to be returning after such an enjoyable experience, it was great to come back home and above all back to mum's home made curry and rice.....
Mufi - Team Captain 2007
