Football in Russia 1

This week a deaf sports competition is going on in Ufa, Russia, and a football team from Cambodia is participating. It is the first time a Cambodian deaf team has been in a major international competition. It is significant also because the deaf people themselves organized their application to play. It is not a DDP-sponsored activity. Three of the DDP staff went along as interpreters and support staff.

Here is the Cambodian football team at the airport in Phnom Penh, getting ready for departure.
Here is the team 30+ hours later in Ufa in central Russia, taking advantage of a practice day.
Seven countries sent football teams to compete. Countries sent other teams to compete in a variety of other sports also but Cambodia’s first-time participation was limited to football.
Cambodia’s first game was against Russia and Cambodia lost 0-22. Teams from other countries were older and much more experienced and had played internationally before. The Cambodia team was definitely not at the same level. From our management point-of-view, though, the main objective was to give a different experience to Cambodian deaf people and to enable them to make friendships with deaf people from other countries. Here two Russian players pose with a Cambodian play after Cambodia’s loss.
Then it was time for a strategy session, to discuss the loss to Russia and prepare tactics for the next game with Vietnam.

[To be continued]

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