MANILA, Philippines – The excitement is building for the various players who make up Far East United (FEU) that will be competing in the upcoming TST $1 Million Winner-Take-All, which will be played by 32 seven-a-side teams from all over the world at the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina from June 1-4.
FEU, mostly made up of stars from Southeast Asian nations, is flying to Las Vegas, to open a three-day camp before flying to North Carolina.
Nigerian-Indonesian Greg Nwokolo was the first of the squad to arrive from team organizer and former Philippines defender Anton del Rosario and FEU team manager Ethan Lee.
Between some workouts, Nwokolo said, “This will be a good experience for me because this will be my seven-a-side debut. So I will just go out there and try to contribute and have as much fun as possible with my teammates.”
Hanging out with the FEU team was the son of American rap star Snoop Dogg, Cordell Broadus.
“He (Broadus) isn’t a part of the FEU team, but he is a partner for all seven-a-side leagues in the United States,” shared del Rosario. “He hung out with Greg and me and we had a very good talk.”
“We are on our way to Vegas now with many of the players all arriving at the same time. We’re going to be ready for training.”
For his part, Lee, who also managed the Philippine team in the recently concluded Asia 7s Football Championships, was busy getting ready for the upcoming camp where the team will practice for the very first time as a whole with fundamentals and tactics being implemented.
“The camp will be important to us because practically all the players (save for Anton) have seven-a-side experience,” bared Lee. “It will be good for everyone to get a feel of each other’s game while understanding the game which is faster paced than the regular 11x11 match.”
Team FEU is in Group D of the tournament along with English Premier League side West Ham United, Dallas United and Culture by Mo Ali Football Club. FEU’s first match this June 1 is against the West Ham United legends with all matches televised live on YouTube.