Minerva Academy crowned 2022 Mina Cup champions

The club from India beat La Liga HPC in the final.

Minerva Academy clinched the 2022 Mina Cup after thrashing La Liga HPC in the final. Having convincingly topped their group with 9 points out of a possible 9, Minerva Academy was ready to take on Dubai City Football Club in the semifinals of the 2022 Mina Cup. 

Minerva Academy began with their usual high-press and won a free-kick early in the game. Thiyam, who has been exceptional throughout the tournament, stood over it and worked the goalkeeper as he was forced into making a decent save. 

Soon after, Minerva strung some neat link-up play, and Jayed rushed into the box from the right, looking to get across in. But he was tripped on his way to the byline, resulting in a penalty for Minerva, which Thiyam put away with aplomb. It was 1-0 to Minerva. 

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Minerva's second goal came five minutes later, and this time it was through a move down the left. Jayed dropped a good ball into the box, which the keeper parried away, but only as far as Thiyam, who pounced on the opportunity. He took it on the first time, finding the bottom corner to make it 2-0 to Minerva. 

Minerva were completely in control for the most part of the game, and the icing on the cake finally came in the 24th minute. Denish received the ball near the D and threaded it through to Thiyam, who instinctively struck it into the bottom corner again to complete a fantastic hattrick. 

It capped off another humongous victory for Minerva Academy, who marched into the finals. 

They faced La Liga HPC, who had gotten the better of Manchester City, in the final. Minerva and La Liga HPC had already locked horns once in the group stage, with the team from India coming out on top. 

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Minerva's game plan was clear - press and pass, as it had been throughout the tournament, and it was evident right from the first minute of the final. 

Their first opportunity came early in the game, as Thiyam had gotten away down the side of the defense, but instead of going for a shot, he tried to cut it back for a teammate, and the chance fizzled out.

Minerva opened the scoring in the 13th minute, through their most likely source. A throw-in down the left led to a bit of a scramble in the box, but the quickest to react was Thiyam, who fired the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-0. 

Thiyam was indeed unstoppable as he scored in the very next minute again. La Liga HPC was clearly hassled, and Minerva took the chance to open them up again. The ball was played to Thiyam in a similar position to where he scored his first from. He had just one thing in mind, took a touch and slotted it into the bottom corner. 

It was looking very comfortable indeed for the team from India, who held onto their 2-goal lead through long periods of the game. 

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A win was imminent, but the Minervans were hungry for more. It was Thiyam yet again, who provided the third, and his hattrick goal was his best of the evening. The ball fell for him just outside the box, and he put his foot through it first time to find the bottom corner. It was a stunning finish. 

With the trophy in the bag, there was still time for just one more goal, which came in stoppage time. An excellent move down the right culminated with Jayed getting a tap-in, which he put away to make it 4-0. 

With that, Minerva Academy snapped up the victory and indeed snapped up the 2022 Mina Cup trophy. 

Thiyam won the Man of the Tournament, as he was the top-scorer in the competition, scoring a whopping 12 goals in 5 matches. He was presented the award by Teddy Sheringham. 

Their road to the final was convincing as well. They were situated in group 2, where they faced and beat Go Pro Sports club and Barcelona Academy 6-0 and 5-0 respectively. 

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On day 2, they played their final group stage game against La Liga HPC, getting the better of them 1-0 to storm into the semifinals. 

In total, Minerva Academy scored 19 goals over 5 games, without conceding a single one. 

This is the first time ever in the history of Indian football that a U12 team has won an international competition. It is also the first time in the last decade that an Indian team has won an international tournament outside of India.

Minerva Academy's technical, high-octane brand of football was appreciated by all the opposition clubs, saying they were absolutely amazed to see Indians playing this brand of football. Teddy Sheringham, being the ambassador of the tournament, witnessed everything first-hand and congratulated the team personally. He admitted to never watching 12-year-olds playing such beautiful, technical football. 

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With the kind of quality and promise that the team from India showed at the grand stage, we are most certainly sure to see India do well in international competitions in the future and see the Indian flag wave at the 2034 FIFA World Cup. 

The 2022 Mina Cup was held across four age categories - u12, u14, u16, and u18. 

Reliance Foundation, the only other team from India to be competing in the Mina Cup (u16 category), lost in the semifinal stage to Go Pro Sports, the same team Minerva Academy beat 6-0 in their age category in the group stage. 

Across age categories, there were some giants of world football participating in the competition. The likes of English heavyweights Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester City, Spanish icons Barcelona, champions of Austria Strum Graz, champions of Mexico Pumas, and also the only other team from India, Reliance Foundation.

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