Team Americas captures Rice’s Mini World Cup again

Five long, chilly hours of play and a thrilling penalty shootout culminated in a first for the annual Mini World Cup soccer tournament, held Nov. 10 as part of Rice’s celebration of International Education Week. Team Americas became the only back-to-back champion since the Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS) began hosting the event in 2005.

Captain Priscilla Dias da Silva hoists the Mini World Cup soccer trophy for Team Americas.

Team Americas, captained by Brazilian graduate student Priscilla Dias da Silva, received its biggest challenge from Team Europe in this year’s tournament, which also featured squads representing Africa and Asia. Over 100 students and scholars from more than a dozen countries came out to the intramural fields to participate in one of the most popular events for the OISS.

Sid Richardson College senior Andrew Keat takes a penalty kick for Team Europe.

Jones College sophomore Brian Tumusiime, a mechanical engineering major from Rwanda, captained Team Africa alongside Martel College freshman and fellow engineering major Abdelrahman Abouzeid, from Egypt. Team Asia was captained by Chinese computational and applied math graduate student Wei Wu and Indian business administration graduate student Girish  Selvaraj. Spain’s Luis Diaz, a postdoctoral fellow in bioengineering, and Germany’s Robert Idel, an economics graduate student, captained Team Europe.

Following the tournament, a party was held on the pitch with pizza and a medal ceremony for the winning team. (Photos by Jenny Brydon)

Team Europe