April 19, 2014-It was an all exciting and thrilling Saturday at the SGAM Futsal Tournament 2014 held at Sports Planet Ampang. This year’s tournament saw the participation of 24 teams, each one with a mission to battle for an exclusive spot as the ultimate champion among SGAM members. The draw for grouping was conducted at 8am as scheduled, attended by the respective team captains.
The preliminary round kicked-off at 9.15am. For approximately 180 minutes, audience that consists of family, friends and colleagues of the players was served with 15 heart-thumping round robin knock-out matches. The atmosphere at the pitch was hot as if Sports Planet was hit by El-Nino! The players were on top of their game and audience were cheering for their favourite teams.
8 teams made it to quarter final after bashing their opponents to the ground. Michelle X (IBM), Bank Islam (Bank Islam), Dimension Data FC (Dimension Data), Maybank Tiger (Maybank), JTM EPF (EPF), MILO HIDUP BOLA (NESTLE), AIA IT & IT INFRA (AIA) and EKTECH (EKTECH) were the 8 that survived the preliminary round. By now, the players were already sweaty and tired but still looked sharp and determined to ensure their teams’ survival to the next round.
By 1pm, Michelle X, Dimension Data, Milo Hidup Bola and EKTECH have already been denied the hope to continue the battle by Bank Islam, Maybank Tiger, JTM EPF and AIA IT & INFRA but of course it was not without a fierce fight.
Moving on to the semi-finals, were Bank Islam versus Maybank Tiger and JTM EPF versus AIA IT & INFRA. Maybank Tiger might not have scared Bank Islam enough when the latter grabbed the tiger by its mouth out of the competition with a 3 – 0 score. AIA IT & INFRA almost made it to the finals but JTM EPF beat them with an advantage of 1 goal.
Bank Islam and JTM EPF made it to the finals. It looked like both teams refuse to budge in order to win the title but when the referee blew his whistle Bank Islam emerged as the champion by viciously destroying JTM EPF motionless with 3 – 0, hence earning the bragging rights for the whole of 2014! It was certainly a victory worth to be celebrating!
The overall results were as follows:
- Champion – Bank Islam
- 1st runner up – JTM EPF
- 2nd runner up – Maybank Tiger & AIA IT & Infra
All in all, it was a cheerful and successful event, and all participating teams have shown a tremendous show of sportsmanship! Thank you very much for participating and being such a good sport. See you next year!
