Morocco win the ' Tunisia Mini World Cup for Children ' !



The Trophy!



Morocco celebrate!

 

In an exciting climax to the ' Mini World Cup for Children '  2014 tournament at Club Nautique, Les Berges du Lac,Tunis on 7th June , Morocco beat Tunisia 3-1 to win the tournament. Although the Tunisia kids had impressed everyone with their attacking football, in an earlier match they had beaten Algeria 8 - 0 , they missed the opportunity to be the first winners of this special tournament. One supporter said the Tunisian's passing and team work had been like watching Barcelona ! .





Tunisian player about to head the ball!











The Indonesians warm up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps that opening match against Canada earlier in the afternoon, which they won 5 - 0 , and the sweltering hot conditions had drained the energy out of the players.  One of the boys was tearfully overcome with sadness and disappointment at missing out on the chance to be champions. Although Morocco hadn't scored as many goals as Tunisia in the previous matches they gradually improved and in the final they showed some fast attacking football .

 

The referees!

The Lines-Women!

 The 15-minute matches were officiated by the Tunisian Premier Skills female referees and lines-women and were kept busy by the numerous matches.    
The children who played represented 20 different countries and were aged 9 - 13 years old and despite the temperature of 34 degrees they played lots of exciting football.

There was plenty of action on and off the pitch!  In the match against Tunisia ,the Turkish players were flabbergasted by the referee's decision to award an penalty to Tunisia ;which  they successfully converted to beat Turkey 1 -0.. As usual parents who are passionate about their children can get upset if their children don't play and in one case one man was really upset that his nephew hadn't played. Later on the boy, who was playing for the German team actually played in a later match and showed off his dribbling skills.

 

 

The Tunisia Mini World Cup for Children had proved to be a great success.
Perhaps Tunisia will win it the next time!

' World Cup Premier Skills ' radio programme

Today there was a special ' World Cup Premier Skills ' programme on RTCI and in the studio Hayet and me were joined by local teacher Dalel.  Apart from an update on recent Premier Skills projects there was a discussion on who would win World Cup 2014. Dalel predicted Italy but as she's from Algeria she was supporting them and hoped that they would do well.

We also discussed the qualities of a good player and what's necessary to keep in good shape.

Hayet mentioned the use of  modern technology to help the referee avoid those controversial decisions when teams have not been awarded a goal!

The ball has been redesigned so maybe the players will need time to get used to it; apparently it will aid better ball control.

During the programme Hayet mentioned some of the unusual things that the teams have requested for their hotel room ; the Ecuador team have asked for Ecuadorian bananas to be put in their rooms  ; perhaps the bananas have special qualities !

At the end of the programme I mentioned the useful resources on the Premier Skills web site.