Silver medal for BUCS

BUCS Great Britain men’s football were beaten 2-0 by Japan in the final of the 2011 World University Games in Shenzhen early this week,

Part-funded by The FA Youth Trust (FAYT), the side had to settle for silver in China after beating the likes of Brazil, Canada and Ghana along the way but goals from Mitsunari Musaka and Kazuya Yamamura secured Japan’s 23rd gold medal of the Games and their first gold in the men’s football since 2003 in Izmir.

Japan edged the game and scored through Musaka as he lobbed his header over Nicholas Jupp. Yamamura then doubled the lead from the spot after Scott McCubbin (Lynn University) tangled with Yuichi Maruyama in the area.

Team GBR had their chances to reduce the deficit but they couldn’t apply the crucial finish. Daniel Sleath (Loughborough University) headed over and hit another opportunity wide last in the second half.

Despite the defeat, GBR men’s football team will go home with their best ever finish at a World University Games and Great Britain’s Daniel Alcock (Manchester Metropolitan) was awarded goalkeeper of the tournament.

“Great Britain getting to the final is a very good thing for us," said Head Coach James Ellis. 

"We haven’t been this far in the tournament before so I’d like to congratulate my players and my staff for their effort. Finishing off with some silverware means we’re obviously very happy and the lads can be very proud of what they’ve achieved here."

“I’m feeling very happy. We started back in Sweden where we set our sights on one hurdle at a time. First hurdle was to get out of the group and we managed to do that and the second hurdle was then to try and get ourselves a medal,” added captain Gary Warren (University of Bath).

“With the group of lads we’ve got they have been outstanding all the way through. Obviously disappointed not to win a gold but we have played against some really high class nations and to come away with a silver medal in this tournament away from home in a different climate is something to be really proud of.”

“Obviously immediately after the game, I was slightly disappointed because we’d lost the game. But our target was to get a medal and we’ve achieved that and being on the podium and receiving the silver, we don’t feel like losers right now so as a group we’re proud of what we’ve done,” said Kyle Macaulay (University of Stirling).