After ending the season with a successful Varsity win, the boys in light blue were invited to the World Elite University Football Tournament in Xi’an, China to compete against 7 other institutions from across the globe. The tournament consisted of two groups of 4, with the better halves advancing to the semi-finals – a perfect opportunity for Cambridge to grab even more silverware.

While starting their campaign unusually kitted out in Orange, as opposed to the familiar and beloved light blue, Cambridge very much started as they meant to go on. In the first game of the tournament against Xi’an Jiaotong University, star striker Cai La Trobe-Roberts managed to put 5 into the opposition’s net. Newly appointed captain Deniz Ozer joined in the fun with a stunning left-footed strike that rattled the top corner of the net, giving the blues a breezy 6-0 win to start the campaign.

“The blues were flying high going into the latter stage of the competition”

The toughest test of the group stage came next, with Tsinghua University putting up much more of a fight. It was only thanks to some lovely link-up play between Asa Campbell and Deniz Ozer off the left and a crucial goal from Ujjal Sunuwar, who vice-captained this year’s Falcons squad, that Cambridge managed to sneak a 2-1 win.

After the brief scare, however, came more Cambridge dominance. In a 5-0 win against National University of Singapore the scoresheet saw some more variety, with Harry Antill, Thomas Musie, Cam Kerr, and Mylo Michael all joining La Trobe-Roberts to put a goal past the NUS keeper. With that, the group was topped with relative ease, and the blues were flying high going into the latter stage of the competition.

“Cambridge managed to end their campaign on a high and show their true quality”

The University of Seoul awaited Cambridge in the semi-finals, providing a very different challenge to the previous opponents. Once again, Cai La Trobe-Roberts managed to find the back of the net, yet the two teams remained at a deadlock by the end of the 90 minutes. With neither side being able to muster up anything other than a 1-1 draw by the end of open play, penalties were to decide the finalists. Much of the current squad remains from the heartbreaking penalty loss in 2024’s Varsity fixture, and unfortunately those players saw the same fate as they fell to a 4-2 loss in the shootout.

This difficult loss did not mark the end of the competition, however, as the blues still had it all to play for in the bronze medal match against Peking University. It was here that Cambridge managed to end their campaign on a high and show their true quality. Jesse Tapnack managed to end his fresher season with a goal, joining familiar goalscorers Ozer, La Trobe-Roberts, Campbell, and Kerr in a thumping 6-1 win.

The blues thus didn’t fly home empty-handed, and instead have plenty to be proud of going into next season. The dominance in the bronze medal match, the narrow semi-final loss, and the fact that they had beaten the eventual tournament winners in the group stage could lead one to ask ‘what if? ’, but there is doubtless to be plenty to be excited about going into Michaelmas 2025. The China campaign was nothing short of a successful representation of CUAFC as both an established and promising club.