The 14th Annual MKA UK National football tournament was hosted by Middlesex region in Harlington on Saturday 11th June 2011 at the training grounds of Premiership new boys Queens Park Rangers.

The tournament attracted a record 28 Khuddam teams, that formed 7 groups of 4. The tournament was also the first after the boundary changes in London and 2 new regions debuting in Tahir Region and Masroor regions.

 

Regional Qaid Middlesex, Imran Mirza Sahib and his team found the venue, pitching this to the Sehat-e-Jismani team, displaying their strong enthusiasm to host the tournament. Once the venue was secured preparation started with the set up of the tournament website, which featured an honour roll of all previous winners and runners-up.  Then the draw was filmed and put up on YouTube with a full fixture list and timings in place. Team profiles, style of play, key players and tournament predictions with some heavy doses of bravado, were put up on the website with the help of all the team captains. All that was missing was a Nike styled advert, but Middlesex region laid down the marker and themselves came up with their own viral with champions league music to boot!

 

Teams from up and down the country made the journey to arrive on the day at the opening ceremony chaired by Naib Sadr Majils Farooq Mirza Sahib. Almost every team was fully kitted out from the defending champion Bait-un-Noor in Barcelona-esque colors, the National Amila team in "parking-attendant" luminous yellow kit to the other end of the spectrum of the Ansar 'Legends' team in Real Madrid white.

 

Teams contested a total of 3 group games each, on both grass and the immaculate 3G artificial grass. With the tight pitch sizes and large goals, being a goalkeeper was always going to be a thankless task, so while a total 290 goals (which may sound a lot) were scored in the group stages spread over 42 games, the average goal ratio in the group stages was 6.90 goals per 25 minute matches. This dropped down to 6.60 goals per game ratio in the knock out stages. This showed the defensive awareness of teams has markedly improved over the years, especially considering the goal dimensions.

 

In the group stages some of the favorites won handsomely. Bait-ul-Futuh A, East A, Midlands, Masroor A, Middlesex A, North West A and Muqami were comfortable group winners. The Ansar team showed some classic

moments, rolling back the years, with some inspired goalkeeping from Abdul Qaddus and goals by Waseem Hussain and Ahmer Ahmedi who both scored classic individual pearlers to overcome North West B, who they beat 5-3, but unfortunately the Ansar still went out at the group stages.

 

Following on from the pasta lunch and namaz, teams readied themselves for the knock-out stages, which were all played on the 3G pitches. There were some tasty pairings in the last 16, since all the seeded teams did not all top their groups. Newly formed Tahir region led by the Vanderman brothers, Hamza and Yasir defeated Islamabad A 3-2 and the surprise of the tournament came early when the defending champs Bait-un-Noor A were overcome 5-4 by a rampant North West A team who with the strike pairing of Abdul Lodhi and Ata-Ul Adeel showed razor sharp finishing to put them through to the quarter finals despite a strong comeback from Bait-un-Noor to narrow the deficit.

 

Midlands faced a tricky quarter final against Tahir region (the majority of whom made up the former BF regional team that had beaten Midlands in the previous year’s Ijtema final), but a quick two goal start gave them a cushion from which their strong defence, marshaled by Ahmed Gyan were able to control the game and run out winners 3-1. In the other quarter final, East region showed all their strength and vociferous support from the sidelines to over power Baitul Futuh A in a tightly fought encounter, but only just, by virtue of a last minute free kick goal and then ultimately penalties.

 

Quietly progressing through the tournament were host region Middlesex, in between serving lunch and namaz set ups, they were able to overcome a useful, young Muqami team (possessing the talented Luqman 'Bilu' Dean)  6-4 in their quarter final and then were to set to face East A in the semis.

 

The other region that also steadily progressing was newly formed Masroor region who beat the giant-killers North West A 1-0. Masroor region, playing together for the first time, made the most of a generally young team, with lynchpin in midfield Sajeel Ahmad and organized by their efficient German Captain, Haseeb 'Ballack' Cheema. However Masroor came unstuck in the semi-final stages, where Midlands were far too strong for them taking the tie 5-1 and moving almost on auto-pilot to their 3rd National Tournament in a row.

 

The other semi-finals served up a real heavy weight cup tie, with East A and Middlesex A slugging it out. A match which see-sawed was seemingly tilted to East with a 4-3 lead (one of which included a heat-seeking strike from the kick-off by Mohsin Mirza) and only minutes to go. But as the old adage of 'when your name is on the trophy' rung true and saw a free kick won deep in the East half, to be clinically dispatched by Harris Sethi into the top right corner, forcing the game into penalties and ultimately saw the host Middlesex take their place in the final.

 

After a long day and 56 matches, the final also lived up to its billing. The tournament favorites Middlesex  inspired by winger/striker Ahmed Obeng took the early initiative, but Middlesex fought back valiantly with Waqas Ahmed shackling the Midlands attack and allowing their attacking players to get in range of the midlands goal. Middlesex then grasped the momentum back. As Midlands pushed to get back into the game Middlesex hit them on the counter with goals from the Man of the Tournament, Harris Sethi, eventually running out winners 5-3.

 

It was a fitting end to a day that the host region had helped the Sehat-e-Jismani team organize and showed commitment and endeavor for, both on and off the pitch. It may well be that other teams will also produce their own virals next year, as Middlesex had done, calling all challengers and ultimately delivering to become the 2011 National Football Tournament Winners. They will be a team to watch at the upcoming National Ijtema, as will many of the others that shone on a day filled with all that was expected on a footballing Saturday; passion, teamwork, individual skills, as well as discipline were all on show with an overall good nature despite the heat of competition. Mike Coen head of the external refs that were used on the day commented that the khuddam were "some of the best-behaved footballers we have had to manage ……They were a credit to your organization".

 

Golden Glove Goalkeeper Fahad ur Rehman (Middlesex A)  

Top Goalscorer         Nabeel ahmed (Tahir B)/Harris Sethi (Middlesex A)

 Man of the Tournament Harris Sethi (Middlesex A)