By: Janarthan Sadacharalingam
I had the honour of being the first Tamil Canadian to participate at the Canadian Soccer Association’s 2011 National Challenge Cup. This prestigious tournament dates back to 1913 and knowing I’m the first Tamil to participate in the men’s tournament and represent Ontario at the men’s level, I felt so much pride. The six day tournament (Oct. 5 to Oct. 10) was held in Brossard (South Montreal), Quebec, and I had to bring back something positive to those that supported me in getting here and to our Tamil community.
Ontario is always considered a contender for gold because of its competitive route to get to Nationals. Toronto Celtics were the winner in Ontario and had the honour to compete as Ontario against the other top clubs representing their province/territory. It’s so hard for a team to get to Nationals and having Toronto Celtics letting me participate meant so much for me.
We got out of the group stage easily against Northwest Territories and Alberta. We defeated Prince Edward Island in the quarter finals and were up against Saskatchewan in the semi finals. It was heart break for our team and I, as we lost 2-1. We got a red card to our best player that completely changed the game when it was 1-1. The ref gave out an additionally 2 reds to our players and we were out for good. We were out of the Gold medal match, but we still had the chance to win the Bronze medal.
Those red cards were really bad as we had only 15 players at the tournament. One was injured from our first group game and the other three out because of red cards. That meant we had only 11 players for the bronze medal match! Our bronze medal match was against Newfoundland which was strong physical team. Our team was not supposed to win from looking from the stands. We only had 11 on the field, and no one on the bench except for our coaches. While Newfoundland fielded their best 11 on the field and had seven substitutes on the bench.
We started out bad, letting in two goals in the first half. Playing six days in a row was demanding on our bodies, my body felt heavy and tired; and then we were down 2-0. Our coach Peter Hogg was understanding of this situation but reminded that we could do something special , something that people will talking about from years to come. We continued our play in the second half, playing a more possessive game against the run and gun style of Newfoundland. It worked well as we got one in and then another half way through the second half! The game went to extra time, this felt eerily similar to situation last year in my Ontario University Athletics finals, but I wasn’t going to let that situation happen again; we were going to take this bronze medal.
The game went to penalty kicks. It was nerve racking till the 5th kickers. Newfoundland missed theirs because of a fabulous save from our goal keeper. Our goal keeper took the last kick and buried it in the net. We went nuts and swarmed our goal keeper. Our fans rushed the field, it was a great feeling and great achievement for Ontario. It was the province’s first medal since 2006 and first Toronto based team since 2005.
This is something I’ll never forget; from the hundreds of people watching the bronze medal game to when we went up to pick up our bronze medals. I’ll never forget Celtics’ coach Peter always saying “don’t cheat, don’t cheat, I prefer to win this the hard way!” His attitude on honour and integrity resonated on the field through his players including me, which was the reason why we made it so far. I’ll never forget his pre-game talk where mentions the starting line up in the change room. He would introduce each player like Toronto Raptors line up. When it came to me he would say, “I won’t try to say his last name, but Jana’s got 100 000 Tamils back home (Scarborough) and Tamils around the world that are supporting him!” He knew what it meant to me and for our community and I’m so lucky to have played for him in Nationals and during the season.
As a member of CTYA, I hope this experience will put me as a trail blazer for our Tamil youths to achieve great success in sports. Great achievements in sports is a great way in having society have a positive outlook to our Tamil community here in Canada and around the world. I just want to thank those that supported me achieving this. A special thanks to Peter Hogg and Toronto Celtics in having me participate at Nationals. Another special thanks to teammate Jas Mangat for getting me out of the gutter and also giving me the opportunity to participate at Nationals.
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