Yorkton United Football Club (YUFC) tried something new this year: They fielded a team from Yorkton to compete in the month-long World Cup Soccer Tournament in Regina, a tournament in which Canadian players compete for and represent countries from around the world in a World Cup style tournament.
Coaches Andy Wyatt and Benno Looft led the Under 12 Boys Team Germany to the final game which took place at Regina's EventPlex indoor soccer field on Saturday, April 26 where the boys earned a silver medal against Team England with a score of 3-1.
Yorkton's Jairus Pellatt scored the lone goal for Germany in the final.
The World Cup Tournament is an exciting event for mens' and womens' teams from Under 12 up to adult.
Teams choose a country to represent based on the heritage of players and coaches (Yorkton had seven heritage players and two coaches with German heritage).
In total there were 99 teams across all categories in this year's tournament with as many as 1500 fans coming out to games. It is truly a huge event!
Team Germany, in a pool of seven teams, reached the finals with a record of four wins and two losses. England had won all six round robin games.
But while England clinched their final game spot with relative easy, Germany took a much tougher approach to the gold medal match, not clinching their spot until after their final round-robin game thanks to a 1-1 tie between Argentina and India.
The gold medal game was scoreless at the end of the first half.
Early in the second half Pellatt opened the scoring from a kick-in.
England answered back within a minute to tie the game 1-1.
Despite a great team effort and creating lots of chances, Yorkton's Team Germany could not put the ball in the net.
England scored another two to make the final score 3-1.
Coach Andy Wyatt was very proud of the way his team played. "The boys were playing a tough team without fear and were having a lot of fun. It is the kind of soccer that we love to see these boys play."
Coach Benno Looft was also impressed with the level of play he saw in the boys. "Their passes and the ideas behind the passes were excellent."
The entire game will be aired on Access Community Cable on the evening of Thursday, May First.
Also winning honours at the World Cup tournament were Hannah Adam and Sarah Nelson who were on the Silver Medal U12 Girls Team Canada.
Steven DeLong, who played on the Mens' Team Ireland, was the winner of the Mens' Golden Boot Award for most goals scored in the tournament with 14.
Yorkton's Rita Fetsch also participated in the tournament with Team Poland in the women's division, where she won the gold medal in a hard fought 2-1 finals victory over Canada.
