Sports | Sunday 15 January, 2017 3:58 pm |

With over 100 matches played and 380 goals scored at the end the opening day of duFC in the Abu Dhabi region, the level of competition this year is proving to be fierce.

 

The highly-anticipated kick-off of the Abu Dhabi leg of the platform attracted over 2500 football enthusiasts from schools and streets teams across the emirate of Abu Dhabi.  

 

UAE Schools Cup

Fast paced matches, tactical play and strong shots on goal were the theme of the day.  Al Dhafra Private School and International Academic School from Abu Dhabi and Al Dhaher School in Al Ain were the stand out schools in the boys U16 category while Emirates Private School and Ashbal Al Quds in Abu Dhabi and Our Own English High School and Al Dhaher in Al Ain ended the day top of their group in the boys U14 category.  

 

The Girls

Aldar Academy Abu Dhabi, who’s players won the title for Yasmina School last year, were in top form scoring 9 goals to lead their group.   Other strong contenders in the girls challenge were British School Al Khubairat and Regional Sports.

 

UAE Streets Cup

Teams in the Streets Cup inspired by their football heros Messi and Ronaldo turned up the heat on the pitches as they played their hearts out driven by the prospect of being selected to join the du LaLiga HPC and travel to Spain for a chance to pursue their football aspirations.    Stand out teams after week 1 include returning Abu Dhabi Country Club and Phoenixes and new comers Khalidiya City, Al Hosani and Al Sa3eka who came away with a fantastic 8-0 win in their second match of the day.

 

Top Scorer & Man of the Match-day

Top scorer with a whopping 6 goals scored in his match against Dark Phoenix is Saleh Alamri, 16  years old from Saudi Arabia.

 

Emirati Saeed Marwan from SSFC was named man of the match-day for his ability to drive his team to a winning both matches and finishing top of their group after day 1 of matches.

 

 

What they said

Commenting on the kick-off in Abu Dhabi, Fahad Al Hasawi, CCO du said, “We are immensely pleased to start 2017 with such an incredible turnout. We continue to support the UAE youth in pursuing their biggest dreams through our football platform and witnessing the outpour of interest from schools and football players across the Abu Dhabi region is truly inspirational. We remain committed to providing our youth with the unique opportunity of pursuing their football aspirations in partnership with LaLiga.  We look forward to the progress of the teams and players across Abu Dhabi.”

 

Speaking about the talents on day 1 Championship Director Michel Salgado said, “We found some surprisingly great players across Abu Dhabi and Al Ain last year who are training with us at the du LaLiga HPC this year and we expect to find more fantastic players from this region in season 2.  Today we saw some exceptional talents and I am excited to monitor their progress in the coming weeks.”