More than 70 schools, streets and girls teams progress to duFC knockout rounds

DUBAI // More than 70 schools, streets and girls teams from Dubai will battle it out in du Football Champions, knockout rounds next weekend.

The 72 teams comprise the top 16 teams in UAE Schools Cup Boys U16 & U14, 32 Streets Cup Teams and eight UAE Girls Challenge teams.

The announcement was made following the final day of Dubai group stages at duFC.

UAE Schools Cup

National Charity School won both their matches, scoring three 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 will battle it out next week for the final two spots in the national semi-finals.

In the U14 category Rashid Bin Saeed from Hatta beat Al Sadiq Islamic School 7-0 and International School of Arts & Sciences 2-1 to lead their group and move forward along with the likes of DESC, The French School (LFIGP), International School of Choueifat and last year’s winners Philadelphia Private School.

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 nine goals against Raiders to progress alongside Goal Diggers, Santos, Al Nujoom and m4 as part of the 32 teams going into the final Dubai knockout rounds.

Girls Challenge

Adastra beat Philadelphia Private School 6-0 and Locus 7-0 and look strong contenders for the national semi-finals where they will meet winners from Abu Dhabi and the Northern Emirates.

La Liga Scouts

Speaking about the development of talents at the du La Liga 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 La Liga 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 La Liga HPC.”

The award-winning duFC international youth scouting platform, in partnership with La Liga, is conducted in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Knowledge and Human Development Authority, Abu Dhabi Education Council, Dubai Sports Council, Abu Dhabi Sports Council and Sharjah Sports Council.

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1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.

2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.

3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.

US PGA Championship in numbers

1 Joost Luiten produced a memorable hole in one at the par-three fourth in the first round.

2 To date, the only two players to win the PGA Championship after winning the week before are Rory McIlroy (2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and Tiger Woods (2007, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational). Hideki Matsuyama or Chris Stroud could have made it three.

3 Number of seasons without a major for McIlroy, who finished in a tie for 22nd.

4 Louis Oosthuizen has now finished second in all four of the game's major championships.

5 In the fifth hole of the final round, McIlroy holed his longest putt of the week - from 16ft 8in - for birdie.

6 For the sixth successive year, play was disrupted by bad weather with a delay of one hour and 43 minutes on Friday.

7 Seven under par (64) was the best round of the week, shot by Matsuyama and Francesco Molinari on Day 2.

8 Number of shots taken by Jason Day on the 18th hole in round three after a risky recovery shot backfired.

9 Jon Rahm's age in months the last time Phil Mickelson missed the cut in the US PGA, in 1995.

10 Jimmy Walker's opening round as defending champion was a 10-over-par 81.

11 The par-four 11th coincidentally ranked as the 11th hardest hole overall with a scoring average of 4.192.

12 Paul Casey was a combined 12 under par for his first round in this year's majors.

13 The average world ranking of the last 13 PGA winners before this week was 25. Kevin Kisner began the week ranked 25th.

14 The world ranking of Justin Thomas before his victory.

15 Of the top 15 players after 54 holes, only Oosthuizen had previously won a major.

16 The par-four 16th marks the start of Quail Hollow's so-called "Green Mile" of finishing holes, some of the toughest in golf.

17 The first round scoring average of the last 17 major champions was 67.2. Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen shot 67 on day one at Quail Hollow.

18 For the first time in 18 majors, the eventual winner was over par after round one (Thomas shot 73).

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