IFC Soccer 9s Runner Up

KL Wednesday FC finished a remarkable runner up spot in the just concluded IFC Soccer 9s held at Club Aman on Saturday. The event was the 2nd edition where we were the inaugural tournament champion. This year, the participating teams added some international flavor with the inclusion of 4 foreign teams, making it a 16-team tourney. The tourney is one for players born before 1970 but allowing two players in the range of 35-39 to take part.
KL Weds were drawn in group D together with Home & Away, Universal and Wen Parker A (New York). We won our matches with a scoring of 1-0, 2-0, and 3-0 respectively. Our quarterfinal opponents was last year finalist, host IFC and we defeated them with a convincing score of 2-1. Waiting in the semi-final was Club Aman which did not give much of a resistance and we qualified with a 2-0 victory.
The true test and a dream final saw the two best teams in the tourney meet up. Uniplast, bosated with a host of ex-nationals like Somasundram, Jayakanthan, Reman Ragunathan, S Sivaram, Zainal Nordin also qualified with east.
The final started off smoothly only somehow affecteddue to the over eagerness of referees, Loo Wai Keong (not again, this was the guy that caused the controversial SSL FA cup semi final between TSV and Sang Chuan abandoned when he call off the match during half time). Nickname "Mastercard" Loo pulled out a yellow card to Misai Choi without hesitation, and Misai needed to sit out for 2 minutes. Batman also received his luck when he too was flashed a yellow for what seemed to be a fair challenge to the opponent. It was somehow in this situation that we lost a bit of concentration and they squeezed in a lucky shot.
Undaunted, we fight with them tooth and nail but luck was certainly not with us this time. As time progressed, the guys in green mananged to hold on for a 1-0 victory. Eventhough we lost, credit must be given to all the players for giving their best.
Weldone KL Wednesday!