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Yuwa lands third in Gasteiz Cup|Today's Feature | Indo-Japan News Services | Press Release | Syndication | 24 hours | Worldwide Coverage from Tokyo and India | Japan?s First Indian Daily News and Media Services | Indian Business, Social and Community
Chennai, July 17 (RDI IBNS): The under 14-years all women soccer team, Yuwa from Jharkhand which flew to Spain on June 29 has won the third position by winning the Gasteiz Cup.
The 18-member Yuwa soccer team led by Franz Gastler, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the organization toured San Sebastian for the Donosti Cup and Victoria Gasteiz for the Gasteiz Cup.
In Donosti Cup in San Sebastian, Spain´s biggest football tournament had over 400 teams participating from across the globe, Yuwa soccer team girls made it out of the group phase with wins against Anorga KKE B (Spain) and Amara Berri KE (Spain), and a loss against Wisconsin International (USA) before falling to Santa Teresa (Spain).
The two teams which defeated Yuwa -- Santa Teresa and Wisconsin International were placed 2nd and 3rd, respectively, out of 36 teams in the Under 14 years girls category.
In Gasteiz Cup in Victoria-Gasteiz, Yuwa girls were placed 3rd out of ten teams from Spain in the girls´ category, with two wins, two losses and a draw.
The Yuwa team also played a pre-tournament friendly match against teams from Spain leading to a win and a loss.
Another write up
Few days back, as a billion plus India slept, a handful of tribal girls proudly held aloft a trophy they won in their maiden entry in a football tournament in far-flung Spain.
It was the night of July 13. Hundreds of fire crackers lit the skies as the girls screamed Vande Mataram – their battle cry – for being placed third in the Gasteiz Cup, the world’s best testing ground for teenager football in Victoria Gastiez, also popular as Europe’s Green Capital.
They were the same girls who were slapped, kicked and made to sweep floors by arrogant bureaucrats in Jharkhand when the girls asked for birth certificates, a necessity to apply for passports.
But they eventually managed their passports, thanks to a strapping American, Franz Gastler, who pushed the cases of the girls with mandarins of the Ministry of External Affairs in the Indian Capital.
He was a lone ranger in his efforts.
The girls were lovingly titled the Supergoats by the organizers in Spain the moment they saw the girls playing barefoot in practice matches on arrival.
Why?
The girls had limited football gear and could not take the risk of tampering it before the tournament. They were overawed by international teams in the first tournament, the Donosti Cup, but came to their own in the second tournament.
Offering a consolation prize for the third team – winner of a match between losing semi-finalists – was a mere formality for the organizers.
But for the girls, it was a giant leap into global soccer from their impoverished Rukka village near Ranchi, considered one of the world’s epicenters of child marriage and human trafficking.
As soon as the announcement was made for the prize distribution ceremony, the girls rushed into their dressing room and returned, some barefoot, wearing red-bordered white saris, their traditional festive dress. Many had their plastic flowers in their hairs.
And when they huddled together after the mandatory photo session, some wept inconsolably because they had almost given up their hopes to participate in this tournament.
“They were over the moon. It was their night,” said Gastler of the girls, who subsist on less than a dollar a day.
For a country low on soccer, this was - arguably - good news for the mandarins of the game. But no one cared. All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Praful Patel was not aware of the girls’ superlative achievement, nor was the country’s new sports minister Jitendra Singh.
“We could not sleep that night (July 13),” says Rinky Kumari, 13, captain, Supergoats. Once she bunked her school helped her mother do household chores. Today, thanks to football, everyone knows her name in the village.
She says she remembered the days she was slapped and sweep floors when she went to the Panchayat Office get birth certificates for her passport.
“That is the pain of being a tribal girl in India. I do not remember the slap, I remember the Cup,” says Rinky.
For her, and her teammates, it means a lot.
Yuwa lands third in Gasteiz Cup|Today's Feature | Indo-Japan News Services | Press Release | Syndication | 24 hours | Worldwide Coverage from Tokyo and India | Japan?s First Indian Daily News and Media Services | Indian Business, Social and Community
Chennai, July 17 (RDI IBNS): The under 14-years all women soccer team, Yuwa from Jharkhand which flew to Spain on June 29 has won the third position by winning the Gasteiz Cup.
The 18-member Yuwa soccer team led by Franz Gastler, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the organization toured San Sebastian for the Donosti Cup and Victoria Gasteiz for the Gasteiz Cup.
In Donosti Cup in San Sebastian, Spain´s biggest football tournament had over 400 teams participating from across the globe, Yuwa soccer team girls made it out of the group phase with wins against Anorga KKE B (Spain) and Amara Berri KE (Spain), and a loss against Wisconsin International (USA) before falling to Santa Teresa (Spain).
The two teams which defeated Yuwa -- Santa Teresa and Wisconsin International were placed 2nd and 3rd, respectively, out of 36 teams in the Under 14 years girls category.
In Gasteiz Cup in Victoria-Gasteiz, Yuwa girls were placed 3rd out of ten teams from Spain in the girls´ category, with two wins, two losses and a draw.
The Yuwa team also played a pre-tournament friendly match against teams from Spain leading to a win and a loss.
Another write up
Few days back, as a billion plus India slept, a handful of tribal girls proudly held aloft a trophy they won in their maiden entry in a football tournament in far-flung Spain.
It was the night of July 13. Hundreds of fire crackers lit the skies as the girls screamed Vande Mataram – their battle cry – for being placed third in the Gasteiz Cup, the world’s best testing ground for teenager football in Victoria Gastiez, also popular as Europe’s Green Capital.
They were the same girls who were slapped, kicked and made to sweep floors by arrogant bureaucrats in Jharkhand when the girls asked for birth certificates, a necessity to apply for passports.
But they eventually managed their passports, thanks to a strapping American, Franz Gastler, who pushed the cases of the girls with mandarins of the Ministry of External Affairs in the Indian Capital.
He was a lone ranger in his efforts.
The girls were lovingly titled the Supergoats by the organizers in Spain the moment they saw the girls playing barefoot in practice matches on arrival.
Why?
The girls had limited football gear and could not take the risk of tampering it before the tournament. They were overawed by international teams in the first tournament, the Donosti Cup, but came to their own in the second tournament.
Offering a consolation prize for the third team – winner of a match between losing semi-finalists – was a mere formality for the organizers.
But for the girls, it was a giant leap into global soccer from their impoverished Rukka village near Ranchi, considered one of the world’s epicenters of child marriage and human trafficking.
As soon as the announcement was made for the prize distribution ceremony, the girls rushed into their dressing room and returned, some barefoot, wearing red-bordered white saris, their traditional festive dress. Many had their plastic flowers in their hairs.
And when they huddled together after the mandatory photo session, some wept inconsolably because they had almost given up their hopes to participate in this tournament.
“They were over the moon. It was their night,” said Gastler of the girls, who subsist on less than a dollar a day.
For a country low on soccer, this was - arguably - good news for the mandarins of the game. But no one cared. All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Praful Patel was not aware of the girls’ superlative achievement, nor was the country’s new sports minister Jitendra Singh.
“We could not sleep that night (July 13),” says Rinky Kumari, 13, captain, Supergoats. Once she bunked her school helped her mother do household chores. Today, thanks to football, everyone knows her name in the village.
She says she remembered the days she was slapped and sweep floors when she went to the Panchayat Office get birth certificates for her passport.
“That is the pain of being a tribal girl in India. I do not remember the slap, I remember the Cup,” says Rinky.
For her, and her teammates, it means a lot.