Croatians: Papal Plate victors

But this afternoon,while Pope Benedict XVI was recovering from his first day of official WYDengagements, including this Papal Arrival at Barangaroo, boat-a-cade andmotorcade, hundreds of pilgrims shared their passion for soccer in the chanceto win the ‘Papal Plate’ under the Oval One  lighting at Sydney Uni.

Red and whitecheckered shirts raced around the field tonight, as the Croats made theirsuccessful tilt on the competition beating Holland in the semi-finals ahead ofdefeating Australia in the finals, who went down 0-1.

Austria were strongcontenders in the leadup to the final, drawing players from near and far.

New Zealand youngster,James Nash, 15, of Lower Hutt, is a keen soccer player, playing for a club inNew Zealand. He was originally a reserve for the NZ team but changed throughoutthe evening to join the reserves of the Austrian team, when the chance came up.

“They said they need aplayer in case someone got injured,” he says.

The chance for theseyoung Catholics to compete in a WYD soccer competition on the night of thePapal Arrival, was something that was enjoyable.

“I came to WYD justfor the whole experience of WYD – I was here for the spiritual journey. But thesoccer was here so I thought while I was here I might as well play in thetournament,” Mr Nash says.

For Belgian pilgrim, Andy Arenn's supporters, the chance to competetonight was much more serious.

“Allez, attaque,allez!” Arenn’s Belgian support crew called out from the sidelines during thesemi-final match against Australia.

“He’s [Andy Arenn] thebest boy from Belgium for soccer!” Perrine Willamme, 21, said – seriously  but jokingaround.

Interestingly, Arenntoo wasn’t playing for a home side, but rather was playing in the UN/Italy representativeside.

Arenn and Willammeare pilgrims from ‘Euregio’ – a group from Europe made up of pilgrims fromFrance, Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany. These pilgrims from Belgium hail fromLiege along with 18 other fellow pilgrims in their group.

Playing in theAustralian team were several seminarians, and just three non-seminarians. Manyof whom weren’t of Australian origin, such as 19 year-old Juan Jose Chavez ofParaguay, who joined the seminary just five months ago.

“It’s like a dream” hesays, to be at his first WYD, in the seminary, in Sydney, in Australia.

For Kieran Walton,Carnivale Christi events coordinator, the beauty of offering young pilgrimsfrom around the world the chance to participate in the 'Papal Plate', was that pilgrims could getthe chance to engage on the soccer field, sharing the same faith.

“It’s another way ofhighlighting the universality of the Church,” he says. “Maybe some of thesekids don’t speak the same language, but they don’t need to be able to, to can kicka ball around.”

“This way, they canhave the chance to engage at that international level having been broughttogether because of the faith and WYD,” he says.

"Its been great to see so many countries competing, from the non -traditional soccer playing countries such as East Timor, through to thegiants of European and South American soccer," he continued. "The competition has given the pilgrims of the world the chance to meetand compete against fellow catholics, it has been a real melting pot ofculture."

Looking forward now tothe next WYD, the question is whether this WYD International Soccer competitionwill be run during coming WYDs.

“I certainly hope thenext host city take up the opportunity to have pilgrims interact on a sportingplaying field,” says Mr Walton.

The Croatians are the custodiansof the WYD soccer competition ‘Papal Plate’ now, until the next WYD.