Over 35s soccer team travelling to Miami to compete in FA Cup
As the football (soccer ) season draws to a close, Freeport Rugby Football Club’s soccer team are battling it out on two fronts as they bid to secure two titles for the season.
The weekends thumping of Insurance Management Lions ( 4- nil thank you very much) meant that the team are still in with a realistic shout of winning the Grand Bahama Football League Men’s title.
Equally importantly, however, the over 35s (which actually accounts for 80 % of their GBFL team) have also been invited to participate in the famous ( South) Florida Annual Challenge Cup during the weekend of May 12th to 14th. Consequently a squad of 15 players travel over to Miami with the intention of bringing back this prestigious trophy for the first time.
As a result of recent games between Miami United and Freeport FC, the Grand Bahamian team were invited to play in the tri-angular tournament which also includes Fort Lauderdale (over 35s). Freeport FCs Mark Hardy explained that discussions have been ongoing for a while concerning this tournament and after it was decided that it was impractical for us to join the Florida Over 35s league on an ongoing basis , all parties have decided that the Challenge Cup is the best way for teams to compete regularly . Subsequently Freeport FC take on Miami on Saturday afternoon followed by playing Fort Lauderdale on the Sunday in what is expected to be two tough games. The two Florida teams are then scheduled to play each other the following weekend.
Manager Tony Johns was confident that the team would perform in accordance with expectations over in Florida and was hoping to take an almost full strength squad. Unfortunately age and weight restrictions appear to have ruled out talisman Jimmy Fingers which will prove to be a big blow for both the team and floridean tavern owners. Late Rooney-esque injuries to Tony Lopez appear to be unfounded with manager Johns insisting he would pick Lopez for the tournament even if his involvement was limited to the latter stages.
Johns noted that the trip would also involve a team building exercise on the Saturday morning as Grand Bahamas oldest and finest had been invited to a sitdown breakfast luncheon at which the English FA Cup final was to beamed over live by satellite , followed by a question and answer session with local footballing celebrities.