Den Haag GAA Club - Copenhagen Tournament 2007

Tournament report from Michaela Duffy, captain of Holland Ladies Football team, winners of the Copenhagen Tournament July 21st 2007

Holland Ladies are back on top!!! And they did it in style :o) With the bare minimum of 9 players (so no subs!) we made are way to another Paris / Holland final and this time we conquered. With a final score of 6-12 to 2-1 we outshone Paris players on every position on the pitch.

Jenny did a fantastic job in goals....getting herself in front of some excellent attempts on goal and she has the bruises to prove it. But to be fair alot of the time she was looking less than busy!!! With a solid back line of myself, Marie and Sunniva there wasnt much getting past us (maybe a few fluky ones as we fell asleep waiting for the ball to get anywhere near us!!) Marie 'the legend' Sheehan has returned to the sound of Pussy Cat Dolls and Shakira!! She did an absolutely fantastic job in centre back and for me was player of the team :o) Sunniva played excellent football as the 'Smith Cousins' played together for the first time :o) I hope the knee is going to hold out so that the Holland defence remains solid for the last 3 tournaments.

Then there was the mid-field duo of Liz and Grainne. Liz as always caught every mid field ball and played especially well with Rosie in corner forward!!!! Then there was Grainne....want to say a massive thanks on behalf of the team for coming over and playing with us...it was a pleasure to play with you and theres no doubt that you added to the score line of the final to ensure we won!!!! She would have undoubtledly won Player of the Tournament only apparently there is a new rule that wkd players cant win it!!!!

So on to the forwards. There was Rosie, Barbara and Fiona. First I'd just like to commend Fiona with her continued improvement in the sport. For someone who only started less than a year ago she continues to improve with every tournament. She played an excellent role as corner forward, keeping her player out of the way and feeding fantastic ball, under pressure, to the forwards coming through. Sometimes it feels like if you are not scoring points or holding the ball that you are not playing football but there are so many important roles on the pitch and she definitely fulfilled one of them in style. Barbara again scored some fantastic points and her free taking was on fire :o) Rosie scored a penalty that blasted through the net and both players were always in front of their markers eager for points and goals!!

Overall it was a pleasure to watch the team effort on the pitch. Everyone supported each other, looked for the free players, held possession, defended, attacked....in fact the only thing we were missing on the pitch was a demonstration of 'the twirl'!!!! Liz, im sure will bring it out in Maastrict and give the rest of us time to keep practising it!!!!

Needless to say the partying continued into the night as we danced on the tables at the "Dubliner"....drinking out of our make shift, Blue Peter Cup. For those of you who weren't there....they give us one of those trophies of the girl playing football so again we didnt have a cup that we could drink out of!!!! So we made one ourselves with the trophy, some masking tape, a plastic cup, a few straws and obviously some alcohol!!! Im sure pics will follow (Jenny?!).

Anyway this is getting very long now.....but would just like to say wohoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! Im so proud of you all and so glad that we are back on top with Paris!!!! But the key now is to stay there!! We only have 3 tournaments left, Maastricht, Paris and Barcelona. And we have a really good opportunity to go on top for the first time this year in Maastricht. We have 6 wks of training to get into tip top condition before then :o) But we need everyone out at training and we have to get in at least 3 or 4 good joint training sessions before then.

Holland Ladies team enjoying beers in the sun after winnning the Copenhagen Tournament July 21st 2007
Back row L to R: Gráinne Smith, Barbara Wynne, Marie Sheehan, Liz Hitlon & Jenny Samuels
Front row L to R: Sunniva Smith, Michaela Duffy, Fiona Mc Dermott & Rosie Finnegan