2009 McDonald’s Kanga Cup a “great success”
Tournament officials have labelled the 2009 McDonald’s Kanga Cup a “great success” after the week long youth football tournament culminated with finals today across the territory.
The second largest McDonald’s Kanga Cup on record saw 223 teams from across Australia, New Zealand and Chinese Taipei contested 584 games over the course of the week, including 25 finals today.
“The 19th McDonald’s Kanga Cup has been a great success with fantastic football being played from under-10’s through to under-18’s this week,” McDonald’s Kanga Cup Event Manager Sarah Body said.
“We have a reputation as ‘drought busters’ but this year has been picture perfect with Canberra turning on the blue skies and sunny days for the visitors this week.”
Everyone will go home with their own highlights from this year’s tournament but for organisers none was more special than the introduction of a dedicated Under-10 girls competition for the first time.
“It goes to show how far the tournament has come in its relatively short history with the introduction of a dedicated competition for the girls under-10,” Body said.
“Hopefully we can build on those numbers in the years to come and hopefully all those young girls that competed this year will be back in the years to come before going on to play for the Matildas.”
The committee would like to extend their appreciation to everyone involved in this year’s tournament from players, coach and managers to referees, volunteers, staff and sponsors.
“On behalf of the tournament, thank you to the four thousand directly involved in the football while a big thank you must also be made to the family and friends that battled the cool this week to show their support from the sidelines,” Body said.
“A tournament such as this wouldn’t be possible without the fantastic assistance of our volunteers who have come from as far as New Zealand and Queensland, all of whom give up their own time to make the McDonald’s Kanga Cup a special week.”
“Last but not least, a big thank you to our wonderful sponsors ACT Tourism, the ACT Government, University of Canberra, the Australian Institute of Sport, 2B, Kennard Hire, Capital Chilled Foods and particularly our naming rights sponsor, McDonald’s ACT.”
Only 353 days until the McDonald’s Kanga Cup turn 20 years old with the 2010 tournament kicking off on July, 5th 2010.
Hi,
This is Archie Santos Tankia Jr., residing in Singapore for just 1 year with my family . My former kids school, Holistic Education Center (HEdCen) in Manila, Philippines, is interested to join next year Kanga Cup slated in July 2010.
The school is both a regular school from kinder, primary and secondary as well as football school. There is no sport for the kids except Football or Soccer. We have a regular age grp team from the HEdCen starting at 8 yrs, til 16 yrs. We were informed by one of co parent who transferred and residing now in Queensland, Australia as well as Mallotte Santos from HEdCen also.
HEdcen has been competing both w/in Philippines thru RIFA ( Rizal Football Association) as well as other international tournament like ANZA Int’l Junior Soccer Cup here in Singapore for the past 2 yrs. This yr we are looking at participating at CanUKickIT Soccer cup in Bangkok, Thailand.
Hope you can provide more info here ( timing, age grp, 7 or 11 a side, cost, etc) so that we can participate for the age 10, 12, 14, 16 yrs grp next yr.
These tournament that we are participating are more on parents initiative w/ school’s approval.
Thanks.
Archie
Singapore +65-97220325 mobile phone
Mallotte email address : mallotte@hedcen.com
Congratulations on a great 2009 Kanga Cup. I followed this competition with interest from the UK, as my nephew was taking part. He was the goalkeeper for Mornington Under 13 Boys Plate. They won their competition scoring 32 goals and only conceding 1 with my nephew also scoring 2 including a penalty. I visited my sister and her family in March this year at Mornington and witnessed a couple of matches and training sessions and was very impressed with the level of commitment by players and staff. I’m sure that the future of soccer in Australia is in very good hands and I will continue to show an interest in forthcoming Kanga Cup tournaments.
All the best.
P Dacey
Great tournament (we won the U10 Plate Final), but it felt like the venue and organisation for the finals at Canberra Uni could have been run better. For example, it appeared that there were no officials available for assistance /direction. The presentation tents and stalls were set up about 400-500m metres away, yet there were multiple gounds between the allocated fields and the stalls…..we worked out ourselves that we had to walk to the stalls in order to collect the plate.
The other feedback provided by some of the parents, and I have to agree with them, is that the winners and runners-up were deserving of a trophy instead of a simple pendant. I know that the event needs to make money but given the size of the entry fee of the Kanga Cup and fact that McDonalds were sponsors, one would have thought that there would be a better momento for the kids to take home with them to remeber their achievement.
Regards,
Leo Diniotis