Five youngsters were selected last weekend from the Nestlé Milo One Day Tournament for the exposure of a lifetime with a trip to FC Barcelona Camp Nou, October 16 – 18. Romaine Blake from Waterhouse, Mathieu Rose from Central Kingston, Tarick Ximinies and Kevaughn Wilson of Harbour View FC, and Shavon Salmon of Montego Bay United FC were the selected five.
The trip will most certainly provide the young players the opportunity to showcase, at the world-famous facility, their skills to coaches there.
The selection was done based on what was seen from the performances of 192 players from 16 teams of 12 players each. Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) in conjunction with Milo staged a one-day tournament for the players at the Football Factory on Shortwood Road. KSAFA, whose youth development programmes are more advanced than most, provided 15 of the 16 participating teams. However, Montego Bay United, who provided the 16th team, travelled with a 17th team, as well, and they were all allowed to make their mark.
Nestlé Milo created the pathway for the five recipients first by sponsoring the Milo One Day Tournament, during which the players got an opportunity to showcase their individual skills and how well those skills could be used in a collective sense to aid team play.
Miguel Coley, head of the technical committee and who chose the players, declared: “It was no simple task selecting the players. Getting the figure down to 15 was taxing, but we remained calm and collected. For instance, Blake did not get beyond the preliminaries, but he had shown so much while he was on the field that his display was enough to win him his place. It was a really difficult task,” he emphasized, “but in the end I thought we did a fine job.”
HVFC Dominates
Meanwhile, Harbour View FC not only had two players selected for the Barcelona experience, but dominated the tournament and defeated Real Mona FC 2-1 in the final with goals from Kevaughn Wilson and Diego McKenzie. Jon Dillon responded for Real Mona FC.
By virtue of the win over Real Mona, Harbour View were declared the Nestlé Milo/KSAFA One Day Champions, with Real Mona filling the runners-up slot and Central Kingston FC finishing third as they were beaten by winners Harbour View in the semi-finals.
Other awards went to:
• Sydney McFarlane of Harbour View as Coach of the Tournament
• Tarick Ximinies, the Harbour View captain, as the MVP
• Diego McKenzie of Harbour View FC as leading goalscorer with 6 goals
• Xavier Codlin of Real Mona as Best Goalkeeper
Special thanks to female Managers, Monica Malcolm-McFarlane and Juliet Alveranga, and the many parents who stayed the entire day cheering and helping as true supporters. Excellent leadership was recognized as Captain, Tishawn Cooper (3 goals), collected the 12 gold medals for his squad. The HVFC squad was made up of the superb goalkeeper Anthony ‘Deco’ Bennett, defender extraordinaire Malachi Sterling, key players Dujuan ‘Whisper’ Richards, Che-Daniel Gardner, Dylan Marzouca, Damaine Hardy, Denzil ‘Theo’ McKenzie, and goalkeeper Marlon Lewis.
Well done everyone, let’s go for the League Championship!
Some excerpts taken from the Jamaica Observer