It was a warm breezy spring evening when the NTU Football Varsity marched into the Taipei Stadium for the most important battle the year—the University Football Association finals.

After over three months of intense competition, the team fought their way into the general division finals to compete against National Sun Yat-Sen University on April 3. While NSYSU put up a good fight, they were no match against our warriors in red who wrapped up the game with a 3-0 perfect victory.

Before the end of the first half, center half back Xi-An Chen (陳璽安, Physical Therapy senior) took advantage of a missed pass to take down the first goal of the evening. Chen successfully scored a second goal 55 minutes into the game, whereas the final score was made by our striker from the Republic of Tajikistan, Shukhrat Usmanov (龍書明, Accounting sophomore) after a successful corner kick.

In addition to winning the championship, the NTU players also took home the majority of the individual honors.

The Golden Shoe Award was handed to Usmanov for his outstanding performance during the championship as well as for scoring the most goals during the season.

The Bronze Shoe Award was given to Meng-Hong Tsai (蔡孟宏, Political Science senior), and the Golden Glove Award to goalkeeper Tian-Zhong Zhang (張添忠, Occupational Theory senior).

Both Usmanov and Zhang, who is from Malaysia, are part of the team’s diverse international community. Team coach Prof. Yuh-Long Yang (楊裕隆) stated that with nine out of this year’s 30 player lineup being non-local, NTU’s international students play an integral role in the team as well as in this year’s victory.