An excited Spirit of Soccer delegation set off from Phnom Penh, Cambodia on July 21 for the journey to the Peace Cup in Augsburg, Germany.  The four member team traveled from Phnom Penh to Bangkok to Paris to Munich where they were reunited with friends from the Peace Team and Football Friends delegations before caravanning to Augsburg.  The team was excited to check into the Augsburg Youth Hostel, their home for the next six days, but were exhausted from the nearly 24 hours of travel.

Goodbye rice, hello bread!
The team had a farewell dinner in Cambodia the night of departure with plates piled high with rice because they knew this would be the last time they would eat Cambodian rice, the lifeblood of the country and a staple eaten three times a day, for almost two weeks.  A travel mantra was developed at dinner, “Goodbye rice, hello bread” or in Khmer, “Lee-hi bai, suis’die paing”.  Included in the six bags of luggage, was a case of instant noodles, dried mangoes and Cambodian sweets to ward off homesickness and picky palates. 

While three of the four team members had been on an airplane before, only one had traveled outside of Asia.  Yem Vith, who was part of the Football for Hope team in South Africa and the Peace Cup team captain, shared some stories with his teammates about long flights, food in countries where rice is not a staple food and interacting with teams from around the world.

The tournament begins
With the tournament beginning on Friday, the teams had a few days to see Augsburg and interact with each other.  Augsburg is one of the sites for the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Peace Cup delegations had the unique opportunity to have a guided private tour around the stadium, which is the home of FC Augsburg.  The delegations also visited the Peace Cup stadium in the center of town with the backdrop of the beautiful Renaissance-style Rathaus.  Visiting both stadiums helped the team have a better understanding of the Women’s World Cup and the upcoming Peace Cup.

Thursday afternoon was spent training and getting to know the three German players who would be joining the Cambodian team.  The Peace Cup has eight teams in total, with four of the teams coming from the local area and four international teams.  Each international team had two to three local players join their teams for the 4 v. 4 tournament.  After training and meeting the local German teams, all the teams were welcomed to Augsburg in a ceremony with the Mayor in the Rathaus.  The teams enjoyed a German-style bbq, complete with an oompah band and all the sausages you could eat.  The Cambodians and their new teammates, Danielle from Ghana, Fantal from Iraq and Onur from Turkey, all recent immigrants to Germay, were excited to receive their Peace Cup football kits from the organizing committee.  They were ready to play, but a little intimidated by the size of some of the players and still a little unsure about the German food.

Cambodian superstars
Spirit of Soccer took to the field in the opening match of the Peach Cup against the Westside Soccers, a local German club team, on Friday afternoon.  Spirit of Soccer dominated the game.  All of the Cambodian players scored multiple times resulting in a final score of 13-3. The team was ecstatic and wanted to be called ‘superstars’ for the rest of the night.  

Team Cambodia was experiencing homesickness, sore throats from the cold weather in Germany and being overmatched against stronger, bigger teams.  To cheer up the team, we skipped the group meal and went to a local Asian restaurant.  There is nothing like a big plate of rice and vegetables to help your problems go away.  The team cheered up after dinner and enjoyed a stroll around the beautiful center of Augsburg.

Yem Vith ended up spending two days in the hospital for observation, sharing a room with an old German man who smelled as if he hadn’t showered in weeks.  He missed the final game of the tournament, but was released with a clean bill of health.  Spirit of Soccer played its final game on Sunday in the loser’s bracket against the Peace Team.  Since Spirit of Soccer was down a player with Vith in the hospital and because one of the German players was unable to play on Sunday, the Peace Time generously ‘loaned’ a player to Spirit of Soccer.  It was a great match with both sides displaying good soccer and fair play. The Peace Team won the game 2-1.

And the winner is: Spirit of Soccer!
Football Friends and La Masia played an incredible final ending in penalty kicks, with Fooball Friends winning the Peace Cup.  Spirit of Soccer won the Fair Play award and was presented with a beautiful trophy in front of a full stadium.  The team was overjoyed at the award and proudly displayed their trophy for all to see.  Winning the Fair Play award was Spirit of Soccer’s goal for the tournament and it was satisfying to reach the goal.  Spirit of Soccer is now two for two in winning Fair P lay awards after being declared the Fair Play winner at the Football for Hope festival in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2010.