The Saturday before last BACA Internazionale took part in the UNITY CUP Festival – a football tournament based in Leicester and arranged through Refugee Action to raise awareness and promote harmony among different people groups across Leicestershire, with a focus on refugees and asylum-seekers .

The tournament was a great success with 24 teams divided into four groups taking part and lots of fans and representatives of local authorities, charities and police from across the region turning up along with the BBC. The teams came from places like Leicester, Derby, Loughborough and Coventry and  included team members who were either local lads – eg a local police team or team members who were refugees or asylum-seekers from countries like Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

From BACA Internazionale’s point of view we had a fantastic time. Our team truly had an international flavour with some European, African and Asian depth in our squad!  The boys did great despite being quite intimidated at the beginning of the day – some teams were in co-ordinated strips and many were grown men! But they showed some great spirit and determination.

Our first game saw us take on Leicester Zim FC.  Pete Temple’s pep talk before the game was very timely reminding the boys how far they had come to get to England and the tough times they had endured to get here encouraging them that the size and appearance of the opposition was not important but that what was important was having fun and remembering how well they had done to get this far.  The game started well with nerves running high and adrenalin surely pumping through everyone (I know it was for me!).  Within two minutes of the kick-off in a display of counter-attacking genius (!) facilitated by *James and *Idris, *Donald slotted in a sweetly placed shot from the right hand side past the keeper to secure our 1-0 lead. Our defence was solid and we triumphed to victory in this game. The boys seemed blown away by the victory and it was a real confidence booster.

Our next game saw us take on the side from Dreamers youth club in Loughborough – The Seven Stars -  which included lots of old BACA boys. This was a well -spirited game as the members of both teams are good friends (it was great to see in the other games how BACA Inter and the Seven Stars were really supportive of each other). The game was tight with both sides having good opportunities to score but unfortunately neither managed to turn their hard work into goals. The game ended in a 0-0 draw. At this stage, half way through the group stages BACA Inter were 2nd in the group and on course for
the quarter-finals.

Our next game saw us take on the best team in our group Derby United 2010 who had won their previous games and really were the best team in our group. Again our defence was solid and we had one great opportunity to score but
the shot was fired straight at the keeper. We sustained a barrage of attack with many shots fired at our keeper Javed, who held his own and made some cracking saves.  On top of this was the physical side which the lads endured. This team were big and skilful – hardened footballers with great upper body strength which they used against our ’smaller’ team with great effect. *James, *Gregory and *Idris all went flying at various times during the match after body-checks from opposition players. But credit to them they got up again dusted off the sand and cracked on with the task at hand.
Unbelievably we managed to hold Derby United 2010 at bay until the final whistle with a 0-0 draw to our delight and their frustration! (It turned out to be the only match they did not win in the group stage).

Heading into the final game of the whole group we needed just one more point to advance into the quarter finals as we took on Mandela FC (the 2008 Champions and runners up in 2009). This was an experienced and skilful team.
Unfortunately an early penalty gave them the initiative and in our attempts to pull one back they netted two more goals to triumph 3-0 and take ‘our’ 2nd place at the end of the group and progress into the quarter finals along with Derby United 2010.

The boys were obviously a little disappointed by the defeat but we reminded them how well they had done in the group against teams of adults who play football regularly in a competitive setting. As it turned out Derby United 2010, the team of mainly Kurdish men who topped our group and who we drew with, reached the semi-finals of the Cup only to lose on penalties to the eventual winners. Mandela FC, who came 2nd in our group, the only team we lost against, made it to the final again only to lose out to the defending champions.

Needless to say our performance was impressive and the boys displayed some real character and were pretty chuffed when hearing of how well the teams they played got on.

All in all an awesome day in blistering sunshine for the most part.  Roll on UNITY CUP 2011!

(Sadly none of our boys have been drafted into Fabio’s England squad ahead of the World Cup starting on Friday but there is still time to impress ahead of Euro 2012! )

See BBC East Midlands video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/10247067.stm

* Names have been changed to protect the identity of our boys.

By Phillip Elam – 14 June 2010