Multinational soccer match enhances camaraderie prior to Exercise Cobra Gold 2012 field training

News: Multinational soccer match enhances camaraderie prior to Exercise Cobra Gold 2012 field training

Marine Corps Forces, Pacific

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Story by Cpl. Tyler Main Follow This Journalist

Tyler Main

Martial artists from a Muay Thai demonstration team performs takedowns during the halftime of an annual friendly soccer match, during Exercise Cobra Gold 2012, Feb. 7. Cobra Gold is a multinational military exercise of 31 years designed to strengthen the relationships of participating countries and promote stability in the Asia-Pacific Region.

KORAT, Thailand - Soccer players from the Japan, Singapore, Thailand and the U.S. armed forces contended in an annual friendly soccer competition here Tuesday to promote camaraderie and good relations.

Participating countries’ athletes collaborate every year to ensure a fun and competitive match can occur. This year, the teams played just before starting the field training exercise portion of Exercise Cobra Gold 2012.

“This game was about interacting with our partners,” Maj. Lai Sze Hai, infantry officer, 9th Division, Infantry, Singapore army, said. “It was a good activity to bond our relationships and it will help us in the coming exercise and way beyond. Everybody won here.”

Although the game was played with friendship in mind, the players still ensured the game was physical and entertaining. If a player accidentally fell during the game, he or she was greeted with a smile and a helping hand.

“It was hard played but good willed,” U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Mark Debauge, civil military operations center sergeant major, 364th Civil Affairs Brigade, said.

About the same time the players started to look tired, the referee called for halftime, signaling a Muay Thai demonstration team to take the field and entertain the crowd during the break. The team demonstrated the use of Muay Thai against an armed opponent and against multiple opponents during elaborately choreographed fighting.

Most of the players from both sides pulled out their cameras to catch the action before taking the field and finishing the game.
After the dust cleared, it was the combined joint team of service members from Japan, Singapore and the U.S. who were victorious.

“We played with all heart and spirit, not necessarily talent,” U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Janet Matas, team coach and non-commissioned officer in charge of the joint reception center here, said. “We didn’t practice as a team, at all, so it just goes to show you what you can accomplish when you play from the heart.”

According to Lance Cpl. Nestor D. Flores, administrative specialist, 7th Communication Battalion, III Marine Expeditionary Force, the outcome was surprising.

“I didn’t even think we would make one goal, literally, because we never practiced,” he said.

But he agreed that the score was one of the least important aspects of the game.

“The coolest thing was being able to play all together with enlisted, officers and different countries,” he said.