72 schools, streets and girls teams from Dubai will battle it out in the du Football Championships knockout stages next weekend. The teams comprise the top 16 teams in UAE Schools Cup Boys (U16 & U14), 32 Streets Cup Teams and 8 UAE Girls Challenge teams.
The announcement was made following the final day of Dubai group stages at duFC, home of the nation’s official UAE Schools & Streets Cups. The competition was heated as teams played hard to earn a spot in the knockout stages, inching them closer to the national semi-finals.
UAE Schools Cup
National Charity School played and won two games today scoring 3 goals against both English Private School and Al Safa Secondary School to join the ranks of AIS, The French School (LFIGP), International School of Choueifat Dubai, Dubai International School Garhoud and others who battle it out next week for the final two spots in the national semi-finals.
In the U14 category Rashid Bin Saeed from Hatta played like young pros beating Al Sadiq Islamic School 7-0 and International School of Arts & Sciences 2-1 to lead their group and move forward along with DESC, The French School (LFIGP), International School of Choueifat and last year’s winners Philadelphia Private School amongst others.
UAE Streets Cup
Ultimate XL beat Nike Academy 2-1 in a close match making it to the next round while Victorious scored an incredible 9 goals against Raiders to get through along with Goal Diggers, Santos, Al Nujoom, m4 and others to make 32 teams going into the final Dubai knock-outs.
Girls Challenge
Top girls team Adastra played two solid matches beating Philadelphia Private School 6-0 and Locus 7-0 and looking like fantastic contenders for the national semi-finals where they will meet winners from Abu Dhabi and Northern Emirates. Other teams moving forward include Go Pro Sports, Fusion FC, St Mary’s Catholic School and PSG among others.
LaLiga Scouts
Speaking about the development of talents at the du LaLiga High Performance Centre (HPC), head coach Rafael Sanchez said, “The talents we are looking for at duFC are those who possess technical and physical skills combined with maturity and intelligence, able to set up play and work as a team – in other words, who can play football LaLiga way.
"We have seen many youth with great potential this season from across the UAE and we are especially looking forward to welcoming the U14 age group to join the older age group at du LaLiga HPC.”
The award-winning duFC international youth scouting platform, in partnership with LaLiga, is creating an ongoing pipeline of pro-football players for both national and international clubs and teams who are being groomed for pro-careers at the du LaLiga High Performance Center in the UAE.
In recognition of its valuable contribution to nurturing talent at a national level, duFC is conducted in partnership with the Ministry of Education, KHDA, ADEC, Dubai Sports Council, Abu Sports Council and Sharjah Sports Council.
Full games results are posted on www.dufc.ae
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