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ARSENAL Soccer School Bahrain was represented at the recent Arsenal Soccer Schools 3v3 World Cup event held at the Emirates Stadium in London.
The boys – Cody Lancaster, 11, Kieran Hanahoe, 11, Gregor Sword, 10, and Qosai Awadat, 11 – had earlier won a 3x3 competition staged in the kingdom and enjoyed a prize weekend trip to London.
The final tournament consisted of 20 teams from England, Wales, Cyprus, Greece and Bahrain.
In the group stages the Bahrain boys beat Bedfordshire 3-0. In the second game against another English team from Gloucestershire, they comfortably won 4-0. The last group game saw the boys beat the team from Devon 3-0.
This meant they qualified for the quarter final stage finishing top of their group.
In the quarter finals they played a team from South Wales. A mistake led to an early goal for South Wales and the boys fought back to level the score at 1-1.
However, in the knock out stages the rules state that in an event of a draw the team who scored the first goal in the match would win through to the next round. Knowing this, the boys pushed hard for a winner and despite some last minute desperate attacks when the final whistle went South Wales had made it through to the semis.
The eventual winners were a local Arsenal Development Centre from London.
“It was a great event for the team to attend and they represented the Arsenal Soccer School Bahrain in the best possible way,” a spokesman said. “The boys should be extremely proud of their achievements and will hopefully have some great memories to hold on to, especially playing on the same pitch that many football stars they look up to have previously played on.”
