What a surprisingly good day that the World Cup 6’ers 2006 at ISCI turned out to be last weekend. Thanks to the generosity of Greg Long and a staff of hundreds whom without nothing could have been possible, the ISCI / ESE World Cup can be pronounced a dynamic success this year.

 

24 teams with over 30 odd nationalities represented made quite an interesting get-together. Maintaining the integrity of the actual World Cup rules by enforcing the passport – citizenship rule made for a far better tournament then if we had simply allowed anybody to play with anybody else in any ol’ colors. We will enforce that rule continuously. British passport holders, because they have a possibility of four nations, are the strange one but I have a long memory. For example, Ollie Anderson chose to play for Ireland so next year that is whom he plays for as well. He can never defect to England now. We will stay with our brotherhood now and forever. 

 

Besides that, lots of new contacts and friendships were forged on Saturday. This was the intent. Even now, my new amigos Americanos – the ‘John Waynes’ as we affectionately call ourselves have planned to gather together in order to watch and support the USA when they play their World Cup venues during the next two weeks. For me, it was just fun to see the happiness of gathering a group of the same blood & cultures together. I haven’t played next to a team of fully American players since 1995 when I played a short season in the now defunct USISL in the USA. And now, when I recall that period of my life, I have fond memories of all those friends I made back then. I wonder where they are and I hope that they are doing well in life. They would have loved being here playing that tournament Saturday. I am sure that someday in the future, we will all feel the same way about each other when we recall our Jakarta days. Another effect that please me is something Marvin brought up just last night as we were discussing the Vikings and FC D's Place 0-0 draw on Wednesday evening in the JIFL. Marvin mentioned how friendly the atmosphere of the JIFL match was the night before. Everybody on both teams suddenly knows each other just a little better and that familiarity forces us to act just a little more civil and perhaps a little less aggressive in our own league matches. Again, this has always been the intent. In the end, we only have each other really and it is good when we finish our games and sit down together to enjoy a beverage and a laugh. Let's continue to seek each other out and remain 'friends' as long as life allows us.  

 

As for the action on the field, in the final and just as he predicted that very morning in an SMS to me, Jules Denis Onana (veteran of the actual World Cup ’90 – Italia and ’94 – USA) led his team of Cameroon internationals to victory over Indonesia 1-0 with a fantastic Marco Van Basten-like strike from a Cameroon forward. The ball rocketed from a first time volley off the cross and pierced the net giving the Indonesian goalie no chance.  In the other finals match (the bronze medal game) the USA came out victorious 2-1 over the United Nations team (which was made up of the selection of non-represented nations). And the US’s own Todd Showalter won the Golden Boot Award with a total of 9 goals in the tournament. Perhaps one of the highlights of the day was when the USA took out the favorites Brazil who looked like they were coasting to gold medals from the moment that they entered the ISCI pitch in the morning. Another highlight was when England met Scotland in the 2^nd round. I just thought having all of the Scottish lads in Scottish kit was grand to see. Especially since I just recently found out at the Highland Gathering two weeks ago that it was actually Scotland who really invented the modern game of football and not England as we have been erroneously led to believe. Thanks Scotland!  

 

The overwhelming feedback has been to throw the World Cup 6’ers annually rather than every four years which is understandable since if we wait for four more years then some of us will be too old by then to play while others will have moved away or back to their homelands. So, that settles it. We will throw the event every year at the beginning of June after the JIFL season has ended. Meanwhile, see you all live on the football pitches…

 

-John Wayne