BEFC at the 2016 NSK Onsen Remembers Friendly 7s Invitational

  • Onsen Remembers 2016
  • Onsen Remembers 2016
  • Onsen Remembers 2016
  • Onsen Remembers 2016
  • Onsen Remembers 2016

This year's NSK Onsen Remembers took place in December a little later than usual to cover the Keidanren team who were all busy with Valadmir Putin's visit to Japan. In an expanded concept from last year, this time we had a 6 team 7s competition featuring --- NSK, BEFC, The Keidanren, Puma, US Embassy and Ecuador Embassy.

Onsen Remembers started in 2014 when BEFC and NSK hosted a Football Remembers event as part of the British Council and Premier League initiative to commemorate 100 years since the WW1 Christmas Truce football games. The message being that no matter who you are, where you are from, and whatever the terrible situation, human spirit will defeat adversity and come together. NSK liked this message so much, they wanted to continue the Football Remembers spirit this Christmas, and put on a similar event. Renaming it Onsen Remembers to not have it confused with the official commemoration, the onsen part is because afterwards everyone is encourage to go to the nearby onsen, socialise and relax!!

BEFC combined the Ladies and Futsal club to also fill out the US Embassy team, making effectively 2 BEFC(ish) teams and sporting the most mixed squads in the tournament.
Both teams did well but BEFC White surprised coming in 2nd and having the most mixed team of the entire tournament, made up of 3 General Futsal, 3 Ladies and a borrowed goalkeeper from the USA team. With an opening draw vs NSK, followed by an unfortunate loss to The Keidanren through an own goal, BEFC shocked the Puma team with a decisive 2 - 0 victory. This followed another loss to the overall winner's Ecuador (who seemed to miss the message it was a casual competition and brought a really serious team) before a 3 - 0 win over the USA in the final game.

No one actually cared about the scorelines though, the weather was beautiful and each game was really good fun. Also it was the first opportunity for BEFC to combine with the ladies on the pitch. It was such a good experience that immediately it was decided to look for mixed competitions that BEFC Ladies and Futsal could enter together!

Afterwards, some players from BEFC, NSK and The Keidanren headed to the nearby onsen/sento to relax and soothe their muscles.

BEFC would like to thank NSK for organising Football (and onsen) Remembers and looking forward to the next one!