The Blue Demons Beach Soccer Club was crowned the champions of Digicel Lami Regional Beach Soccer Championship after beating Sand Sational Beach Soccer Club 2-1 in the final last Sunday at FSC Beach Soccer pitch in Laucala.
Blue Demons came through, after beating Brothers Strike 6-5 in penalty kicks in the first semi-final, while Sand Sational beat United FC 5-2 in the second semifinal.
In the final Sand Sational scored the opener with a class finish from Rajneel Singh in the 9th minute while Ravneet Pal got equaliser in the 14th minute.
One minute later Aman Naidu scored the goal for Blue Demons which handed them the sweet victory.
Player and manager Avneel Kumar was over the cloud after the victory.
“This is our first taste of Beach soccer and I am so happy that we managed to win the championship,” said Kumar
Kumar said it was a memorable victory for him and his team.
“The players sacrificed a lot and winning the title is something we will cherish forever because this is the first time we played Beach soccer which was new to all of them but they sacrificed everything like beating the heat from the sand and playing for the pride of the club,”
“It was a difficult to start but the boys managed well and the victory favored us,” said first-year USP Law Student.
“Our team is made of friends from our school days and we are all from Nasinu but we have been like brothers since we started playing together which is the strength behind our success,” said Kumar
Winning captain Krisheel Ram thanked almighty God for giving them the strength to win the tournament.
“First of all I thank the man above for binding us together and giving strength to win the championship,”
“It was a very challenging tournament for us because after six months of no football and coming here,” said Ram
“Our team is made of very young boys and 80 percent are USP students,”
Ram said their loss in the final pool match was a lesson.
“We lost our final pool match 2-4 against United FC and that was our learning point as the boys regrouped and came out firing in the semi-final and final,”