Soccer enthusiasts from around the region paid homage to the World War I Christmas Truce on Thursday by participating in the seventh annual Truce Tournament hosted by Sporting Club, the National WWI Museum and Memorial and The Soccer Lot.
Approximately 150 participants from 24 teams in the area competed in a 3v3 soccer tournament, while hundreds of additional soccer fans attended the English Premier League Boxing Day Watch Party on large screens inside the National WWI Museum and Memorial, Kansas City, Missouri.
MWFC Reserves claimed the Truce Tournament title in the competitive division for the second year in a row. In the recreational civision, Air Billikens won the title with Team Sal taking the Beer Division crown.
The Truce Tournament is a tribute to the Christmas Truce of 1914 in which the battles of World War I on the Western and Eastern Fronts temporarily subsided. Members of both sides laid down their arms in a time of war to celebrate a day of peace by venturing out to “No Man’s Land” to exchange gifts, sing carols and play soccer.
“The Christmas Truce was a remarkable event during the world’s first truly global conflict,” National WWI Museum and Memorial president and CEO Dr. Matthew Naylor said. “There are substantial lessons to be learned from those soldiers who displayed an unbelievable amount of humanity in the midst of horrific warfare and the Truce Tournament allows us to recognize and understand how the Great War continues to effect the global community to this day.”