Defender Brendan Hamill, CEO John Tsatsimas and Board Member Jefferson Cheng were special guests at the Fiesta Kultura held on October 6, 2014.
On a glorious day at Fairfield Showgrounds as the Philippines Green Team defeated Nepal to win the inaugural Futsal sa Fiesta Perpetual trophy, part of the
The football standard was of a high quality as three teams from the Azkalroos Filipino football program were joined by an All-stars invitational team from the Australian Nepalese Football Association.
The format of the day was round robin style under high skill futsal rules featuring smaller fields and goals and five players on the field for each team including the goalkeeper.
The Azkalroos Green team won all three of their games to win the title but not after an epic struggle with Nepal in which the game finished in a 5-5 draw and was settled by a golden goal to Ace Garnica.
Tsatsimas presented the main trophy and addressed the players.
“Congratulations to the Azkalroos for organising today’s event and to all the teams who played hard in hot conditions,” he said.
“Days like today show the power of football to bring people together.”
Hamil watched some of the games and mingled with fans at the Fiesta Kultura which was attended by over 10,000 people while Cheng was keeping an eye out for talent in his role as the Manager of the Azkal’s U21 team.
Azkalroos spokesperson Andrew Fletcher said “A big thanks to all of the teams for competing so hard and a special thanks to the Nepalese team who played with wonderful spirit,”
“We look forward to next year’s event.”
Shawn Banos of the Philippines Green team won the Golden Boot award and the Team MVP’s were Tim Griffiths, Arlo Dimaculangan and Chris Urqueza from the Philippines teams and Ankit Thapa from Nepal.
Jim Fraser, former Socceroo goalkeeper and Hall of Football fame member and current Philippines Under 21’s coach was impressed with the talent on display.
Former Filipino national football star Leigh Gunn wowed with the crowd with some great skills and scored some spectacular goals.
Futsal sa Fiesta was organised by the Azkalroos and Philippine Australia Sports and Culture with support from Western Sydney Wanderers FC and MoneyGram.
