No. 11 are MVPs of Marianas Football Cup

Although Team USA—the Women’s World Cup defending champions—were bounced out of Round of the 16 yesterday, the NMI women’s national team celebrated its third straight win in the Marianas Football Cup, while the NMI men’s national team celebrated its first victory.

Hence, one NMI U23 men’s and women’s national team player was announced the MVPs of the Marianas Football Cup 2023—Markus Attao-Toves and Summer Manahane—both sporting the No. 11 jersey, during the awards ceremony at the Northern Mariana Islands Soccer Training Center in Koblerville last Saturday.

With a large crowd still in attendance even with a late-night finish to the two-day tourney against Guam, the 17-year-old MVPs received their trophies for their accomplishments. 

Manahane, a winger for the women’s team who started off the momentum when she scored the first goal of the second game, said that she was not expecting the award. 

“I feel good and I was surprised. It’s a team sport, obviously I couldn’t have done it without my team.” When asked why she was surprised, she said “I feel like everyone worked hard and anyone could’ve gotten it but I’m happy it was me,” said Manahane. 

She then thanked her coaches, her team, and herself for the award.

Attao-Toves, who is also a winger, scored the second goal for the men’s team in their second game. He said about winning the award, “I feel blessed. Like honestly, given an opportunity like this, I must take it. It can take me anywhere.”

When asked how the tournament was for him, he said “It was great.” With their games against Guam, he said “First off, we wanted to see how they played in the first game, and then we noticed some stuff that we could do and added that to the second game.” He then thanked his family and God for his award.

As for the recap of the games from the team captain of the men’s team, Jireh Yobech said “It’s tough because we knew nothing about the Guam team other than that they are young with a sprinkle of international-level players—we didn’t want to take them for granted.”

When asked how he felt about the NMI men’s team finally winning the Cup, he said, “It was hard for me to hold back tears, to be honest… I’m the oldest on this team by some margin but seeing this team’s joy and the fight that they went through, it is amazing”.

NMI goalie Merrick Attao-Toves, Markus’ brother, said that he’s glad they won. “Our defense was very strong… We worked hard and trained for this,” he said. It was his first time playing in front of a large crowd and said that it got him motivated. “It made me realize how much [the game] meant also to them—not just the soccer team—but also to the whole island,” he added.

Luam Khen Koo, head coach for the women’s team, said the tournament was a very good experience for the players. “The girls did very well. They deserve to be the champion because they trained very hard,” he said. 

Koo added that with Guam’s loss in the first game, he knew Guam would come back and play harder in the second game, so he said that they just had to keep possession of the ball as much as they could. 

For Dianne Pablo, captain for the women’s team, she said the win “showcased our hard work throughout the years. It’s not just us—it’s the players on the bench, the coaches, and NMIFA as a whole. I’m really proud of these girls for the two wins that we had.”

The 23-year-old said that the strategy for their games, since they haven’t played against Guam before, was to just play at their own pace and it worked out. When asked how they felt winning the championship, she said “It feels good. It’s tiring but I feel like we’re very, very proud of ourselves for all the hard work that we did.”

The Marianas Football Club 2023 matchup was the first since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The NMI men’s team has never won the Cup since its inception in 2007, while the NMI women’s team has won their third Cup in a row. It was also the first time NMI hosted the Cup since 2018.