Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Fairest of Them All?

http://www.streetfootballworld.org/news-center/newsfolder/football-for-hope-festival-2010-ends-on-a-high-note

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/newsid=1271673/index.html


After six days of Festival activities and six days of playing soccer, the Spirit of Soccer Cambodian Team had met just about every player, coach, delegation leader, Festival organizer, dining hall worker, security guard and volunteer involved with the Football for Hope Festival. All of these new friends were taught the Cambodian prayer and bow and some of them were able to say hello and thank you in Khmer. Every time someone passed the Cambodian team, they would bow and smile with the newly learned custom. The Cambodian team was diligent in their pursuit of “hello” in as many languages as possible and it was adorable to watch them interact with the other teams and write down all their newly learned words.

The dining hall staff repeatedly told us how well-behaved and polite the team was and what a pleasure it was to have them in the Festival. On a couple nights, Channou, one of the team social butterflies, decided to hop behind the food line and help serve rice. Despite not being able to speak more than ten words of English, Channou was able to ask players from nearly 40 countries if they wanted one or two scoops of rice.

On the field, the team continued to be the epitome of fair play, despite continuing to tie or lose most games. The other teams enjoyed playing with the Cambodians. As the tournament progressed and games got more serious, we continued to remind the team that Fair Play was more important than winning and winning without Fair Play wasn’t why we were here.

The last day of the tournament consisted of the quarter finals, semi-finals and finals for both the Alex Cup and the Festival for Hope Cup, however the Cambodian team did not qualify for the advanced matches.  The team was sad to be finished playing and wished their record had been better in the matches.  After watching two gifted, strong African teams win their respective final matches, all the teams were called to the pitch for the final ceremony.  The winners of the two tournaments were given their trophies and the coveted Fair Play Award was saved for last.

For the two competitive awards, Alex Cup and Football For Hope Cup, the reception from the teams and the crowd was lukewarm, anti-climactic.

But the mood completely changed when Spirit of Soccer Cambodia was called as the winner of the Fair Play Award, an award voted on by the 32 delegations. The applause was deafening and over 3,000 people were on their feet clapping and cheering for the team.  The team jumped for joy, hugged, smiled and went up to receive the trophy from the FIFA and Streetfootballworld Directors.  Our emotions were on high and the tears were flowing as we accompanied the team to receive the award.  As we were congratulated by the Festival organizers and other delegation leaders and coaches, they were all wiping away tears while hugging and congratulating us on the award.  According to the Steetfootballworld website, "The beloved Cambodian delegation was voted by its peers as most deserving of the Fair Play Award".  It was a definite career high for us to be part of this amazing process.

After seven months of hard work, dedication, determination and love, this award made it all worthwhile and filled our hearts with joy.  We couldn't be more proud of the team and the coaches.  They truly were the darlings of the Festival and left a lasting impression on all who they met.