Four games in Goa. Four wins.
A summer of football away from home. Avyaan’s Vicky FA side travelled to Benaulim, Goa for the Veeran Summer Cup and won all four of their games — a run capped by a hat-trick from Avyaan in the final match against Velocita. They were flying — until the team withdrew in protest at the organisers’ poor conduct, and the cup was left unfinished.
Goals and assists are family-recorded from match reports, video and observation — grassroots tournaments don’t keep official stats. How we keep the record.
The Veeran Summer Cup is a big multi-category summer tournament — age groups from U-8 to Open — held at SAG Benaulim in Goa and run by the Veeran Football League. On paper, it was the biggest event Avyaan had travelled for. Where the Coco Cup had been mostly Kerala sides and Sporthood's own teams from Bangalore and Hyderabad, Veeran drew a genuinely national field — squads coming in from Delhi, Chandigarh, Pune, Mumbai, Siliguri, Chennai, Bangalore and beyond — and, in football-mad Goa, the promise of strong local sides too. Every team was guaranteed a minimum of seven matches across the weekend: on paper, a thrilling few days for the boys against players from right across the country. Avyaan played for Vicky FA.
The competitionPart of Veeran Summer Cup
The branding and paperwork that came with the tournament — the posters, the fixtures, the rules — kept here for the record.
Outstation tourThis one was a trip to Goa. The Goa tour page has how they travelled, where they stayed, the beach days and the full gallery.
On the listThis is the sides his team actually played, from the match record — the full tournament field fills in as it’s shared.
A 4–1 win to close — a hat-trick for Avyaan.
Match reportA clean 3–0 — Avyaan on the scoresheet.
Match report2–2, won on penalties — Gaurav with both goals.
Match reportA 5–1 opening win — Gaurav's brace, and a goal for Avyaan.
Match reportThe organisers were about the worst you could imagine. Day one was chaos from the start: the food was so bad that after one meal we decided not to feed the boys it at all; the hotel they’d booked wasn’t up to much either, so after a night we moved to another on our own. The venue itself was fine, but the pitch was tiny — too small for U-10, honestly too small even for U-7. There was no plan to any of it, the most random event I’ve seen in my life. Somehow the day ended and the boys got four matches in — four of the minimum seven every team had been promised.
Day two, we hoped they’d have learned from it — instead it was worse. We reached the ground early, around 7:30–8, and nothing was ready. The referees never turned up. When we finally asked why the matches weren’t starting, we were told there were no balls to play with — and they had no record of who had played whom. We ended up calling the police, and even they did nothing. In the end our team withdrew, and most of the other teams did the same.
The tournament itself was only two days — the 16th and 17th of May — but we built a proper week around it. We all travelled together this time and turned it into a vacation as much as a tour, with the plan to spend a week or so in Goa.
And we let the boys run it. We wanted them to have as much fun as they liked, so the planning was theirs — we only stepped in to help with the hotel and the flights.
On the pitch it could hardly have gone better: four games, four wins, five goals for Avyaan and a hat-trick to finish.
Off it, the tournament was another story. The organisation was poor enough that the team chose to withdraw in protest rather than play on — a reminder that not every football story is settled on the field, and that some stands are worth taking even when you’re winning.
The team was unbeaten and the most promising side in the league — and it was hard not to love the way they dominated throughout.
Avyaan struggled to add to his early goal in that first game, but the way he came back — a hat-trick to finish — was superb, and the intent he played with all the way through was fantastic. He did take a knock, too: after blocking so many shots one evening, he was sore enough that we had to rush him to the physio.
The coach was thrilled with the way the boys played — but even he was shocked at how badly the organisers ran the event. It turned out to be a big lesson for them too.
The other parents were happy and full of praise — they loved watching the boys play. The only disappointment was the way the tournament ended.
The off-pitch record — dashes mark what’s still to be recorded.
I loved playing at a new venue again, even in the extreme heat and humidity. The whole experience and everything around it was brilliant — everything except the way the tournament ended.
Whatever happened on the organising side, all the parents had a great time together. Those shared memories — the meals, the on-and-off-the-field chatter — were worth the trip on their own.