Super Cup experience
By Finlay Williamson | Posted: Thursday August 8, 2024
On Friday, 12 July the FOYDA (Football Otago Youth Development Academy) team departed for the UK. Arriving in Manchester after flying for over 24 hours we slowly started to adapt to the new time zones.
The FOYDA coaches Tim Horner, Andy Duncan, and Murray Devereux were quick to get us onto the training ground, preparing the team for our warm up game against the Blackburn Rovers. Playing Blackburn Rovers was a once in a lifetime experience as you don’t often get to play against a championship academy. Blackburn put on a quality performance against the newly formed FOYDA squad who were still understanding the different qualities of the team, unfortunately going down 6-1.
Later on in the week the team departed to Coleraine in Northern Ireland to play in the Super Cup also known as the Milk Cup. Walking down with the opening ceremony parade was a unique experience with many people questioning, “Are we American?” As we walked into the Coleraine Football Stadium, we were quickly put into the spotlight to perform the haka to the thousands of people watching from the stands to get the tournament under way.
The Northern Ireland Super Cup was founded in 1983 by famous footballers of the time. A FOYDA squad has previously taken part in the competition 12 times.
This year Otago Boys’ High School had 7 players in the FOYDA squad:
Sam Drake, Cormac De La Harpe, Fletcher Hawken, Zach Cashmore, Lochie Ing-Aram, Oliver Devereux and Finlay Williamson.
Our first game was against a technical side from Hamilton Academicals F.C. The team endured some difficulties and were defeated 4-0.
The Glasgow Rangers - one of the biggest clubs in Europe - was the FOYDA team’s next challenge. The Rangers had players that had recently signed for £250,000 earning £5,000 a week! Early on the FOYDA team showed determination and grit, holding the game out to 0-0, showing that we could play against the big teams.
On the third day we came up against County Tyrone at their home field. Two minutes after kickoff, FOYDA were able to score their first goal of the tournament from a well played through ball from Lochie Ing-Aram to Zach Tull to calmly get his name on the scoresheet. The early goal allowed FOYDA to hold out for the rest of the game to get FOYDA their first win of the tournament.
The next two games unfortunately did not go in favour of the FOYDA side as we lost 1-1 on penalties to Dundalk and 1-0 on the final day to County Tyrone. In the end, the FOYDA team placed 17th in the tournament. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience to be a part of the team and to compete in the Northern Ireland Super Cup.
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