Maastricht Football Tournament 2007.
Venue, Sportspark West in Maastricht
Weather, Bright, warm, some clouds a promise of rain.
In attendance, The Hague, Amsterdam, Brussels, Maastricht, Luxembourg.
Situation, just about a team, final Benelux tournament in 2007.
The 23rd of June was the date of the final tournament in the Benelux championship of 2007 and the first of 2 football tournaments to be held in Maastricht this year. The championship was won by Luxembourg in their home tournament 4 weeks previously and both Luxembourg and The Hague had secured the two qualification places for the European football Championship. So while there may have been little besides pride to play for it was 4 weeks to the start of the European Championship and playing a tournament is the best form of training.
Arriving down with 12 players we were stretched thin but we were all down to play football. We were helped to avoid injuries by Luxembourg, having had their national holiday the day before their team arrived too late to play us in the group stage. The first game we had to play was against Amsterdam. And this as expected was a tough test. However strong defence from Paul Galvin and with attacks coming from The Hague half back line a strangle hold was established on the game that we didn’t loose.
The second game up was against Brussels who were appearing for the first time this year. It was good to see that they were able to get a good team together and it would be good to see them getting to more tournaments. Unfortunately for Brussels we had 3 tournaments completed and as the saying goes the best form of practise is to play the game. We took a good command of the game straight and ran out good winners.
The final group game was against Maastricht. We were already into the final however this game needed to be played to figure the 3rd and 4th place play offs. We treated this game as we intended to use the tournament, to try some things out. With good support play throughout the field people were taking the time to get into space and to find people in space. Declan’s training was starting to show through and we won the game handily.
The final was against Luxembourg for the 4th time this year. Both teams were somewhat depleted from our last meeting but we saw it as a great chance to take a cup back to The Hague. The game started well however as expected the opposition was not going to lie down. Some lax refereeing decisions in a very tight game soon created a slightly niggly atmosphere which nearly blew up late in the first half. With the resumption Luxembourg launched a series of attacks which ended with awarding of a penalty which was well saved by Janwillem. Tiredness was starting to take its toll and finding it difficult to get the ball out of our half we, Luxembourg secured a few frees within kicking distance and took them well running out winners by 2 points in the end.
We did much better than hoped for when starting the day and there was some very encouraging signs for the future. Fitness is something that is improving and we are starting to play a better style of football. All in all while not in possession of any silverware yet this year in football things are looking well for the main stage of the competition.
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