International soccer world cup kicks off study abroad fair
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Move over Italy - the new "World Cup" champions are here.

The Chile-Mexico soccer squad defeated the Dutch team 3-2 with a last second goal in the makeshift World Cup championship game yesterday behind Malcolm X Plaza.

"This is David and Goliath," Chilean-Mexican team organizer Chris Carey told his players in the huddle before winning the event's ultimate prize: a homemade trophy. "We are few, but we are a hell of a team."

Chile-Mexico's Christian Claymore scored the game-winning goal when he threaded the ball between two mini-orange goal cones. The play gave his team the victory.

"This is just fulfilling," said Claymore. "This completes me."

The World Cup event was part of the larger Study Abroad Fair coordinated by the International Education Exchange Council. The idea was conceived at an IEEC meeting in planning the Fair.

"The IEEC is all about diversity," Stephanie Fox, an IEEC publicist who made the trophy out of newspaper, paper-mache and a glass jar. "We thought a World Cup would be a good way of showing that."

The Dutch international students honored their country's 1988 European championship team by wearing orange polo shirts with names of the team's players in black marker ink.

Anetey Abbey, an international relations major from the Netherlands, wore R. Koeman on his back and helped his team advance to the finals.

Chile-Mexico made it to the finals defeating Korea and coming back from a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3.

Several students from different countries participated in the event and made up seven diverse teams.

Other teams featured were Japan, Korea, France, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom.

The competition kicked off with the Netherlands edging Saudi Arabia in penalty kicks on the improvised grass field in front of Malcom X Plaza. The intense play loosened the grass and forced SF State's groundskeepers to move the 10-minute matches to the concrete block behind the plaza.

Carey, a double major in BECA and Spanish, was an exchange student in Chile for a year and helped organize the team, which was comprised of students studying abroad from Mexico and Chile.

"We won and we all got to play," said Carey. "That is the most important thing."

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PHOTO
Nitai Vinitzky | staff photographer
Bas Roeviwk (right) of Team Netherlands defends against Abod Abudayah (left) of Team Saudi Arabia. Roeviwk's team won the game in a shoot out.

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