Inaugural Brimbank Cup kicks off 11-12 February
Published on Thursday 2 February, 2012
The inaugural Brimbank Cup kicks off on the weekend of 11-12 February at Keilor Lodge Reserve, Robertsons Road, Taylors Lakes. Altogether 27 local soccer clubs – 21 male and six female – will compete.
A tournament highlight is an exhibition match between the Victoria Police Soccer Team and an All African Team at 12 noon Saturday 11 February. Other attractions include African food, a barbecue, helicopter fly-bys and performances from the Victoria Police Band. A crowd of over 1000 is expected.
Peter Lewinsky, Chair of Brimbank City Council Administrators, will present awards to the male and female winning teams and runners-up from 3pm, Sunday 12 February. Mr Lewinsky said that the Council had teamed up with Victoria Police and the Sydenham Park Soccer Club to organise the soccer tournament.
“Brimbank is the United Nations when it comes to soccer with players, like our residents more generally, hailing from all around the world. Soccer is hugely popular in Brimbank and right across the West. Internationally, of course, soccer is the game,” he said.
“We’re delighted that every soccer club in Brimbank bar one (which is otherwise engaged) will be competing for the inaugural Brimbank Cup. This level of grassroots support augurs well for the long-term success of this initiative to put soccer more firmly on the local map,” he said.
The tournament is built on the shoulders of last year’s African Nations Tournament but has been broadened to embrace all Brimbank soccer clubs. Mr Lewinsky said it was encouraging that seven of the clubs to vie for the Brimbank Cup are informal teams used to playing casually in local parks.
“The Brimbank Cup is the perfect opportunity for players in these informal networks to catch the eye of the many talent spotters from established clubs. Most of these players are African but there are two new teams – one from the Burmese Chin community and a mixed Chin/Vietnamese side.
“There’s a push for new clubs all the time but there’s simply not enough space, facilities or resources to go around. The weekend tournament will do a lot to build new relationships between informal groups and established clubs. We hope some of the parks’ players will end up being recruited,” he said.
“The evolution of Sunshine Heights Western Tigers shows just what can happen. The club has gone from an ad hoc group of Sudanese refugees playing soccer in the park one year to being second on the ladder the next – thanks to being taken under the wing of the Sunshine Height Cricket Club and some modest financial support from the Council and the Football Federation of Victoria’s United through Football fund.”
Jonathan (T J Sherman) Thea, team manager of Victoria Thunder, a team of mostly Liberian footballers based in Sunshine, said the Brimbank Cup offered real possibilities. “Since Victoria Thunder formed in 2005, we’ve been struggling to get more organised. We’re a very good team, winning lots of games in community soccer. One of our players was recruited by Adelaide United and is now playing soccer in China,” he said.
“However, most of our players are studying or just finding it hard financially so there’s no cash to spare when it comes to getting registered.”
The Brimbank Cup is also good news for women soccer players, with six women’s teams competing.
Katarina Jusup, captain of the Sunshine-based Melbourne Knights’ Women’s Team, said she hoped the strong showing would encourage more women to consider playing soccer. “Soccer is a great way to keep fit but it does more than that. You become part of a tightly-knit team and develop as a person. A lot of things you do on the pitch translate off the pitch,” she said.
“In the US, women’s soccer is massively popular, despite not taking root there until the late ‘70s. It will be interesting to see if Australia starts to follow this trend as it does so many others which originate in the US.”
Both days of the soccer tournament start from 9am. The location and organisation of Brimbank Cup is expected to rotate annually through local soccer clubs.
Further information:
For more information call 9249 4811.