UNDER 9’s Xmas EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS 6th December 2008
The Under 9’s Xmas Bash was held at The Zone, Huddersfield on Saturday 6th December 2008. The main event at The Zone was the European Championships being contested by England, Holland, Republic of Ireland and Spain. These four countries made it through to the Finals after 6 years of gruelling group matches. (How the devil England managed it, I do not know)
The squads were made up as follows:-
ENGLAND: Dominic Ramsden, John Webster, Giles Church, Jonathan Brook, Paul Beaumont, Simon Milligan and Dean Rayne.
HOLLAND: Elliott, Henry, Ben M, James O, Matt, George and Brandon.
SPAIN: Jacob, Ben R, Liam, Ethan, Josh, Joe and Bradley.
REP OF IRELAND: Edward, Amos, Harry, James W, Johnny, Declan and John.
QF1 ENGLAND 2 v.1 HOLLAND Simon, Dean Elliott (pen)
QF2 SPAIN 0 v. 1 REP of IRELAND
Johnny
QF3 SPAIN 1 v. 1 HOLLAND
Jacob Ben M
QF4 ENGLAND 2 v. 0 REP of IRELAND
Paul 2
QF5 ENGLAND 1 v. 3 SPAIN
Giles Ben R Bradley Dominic (og)
QF6 HOLLAND 1 v. 1 REP of IRELAND
Henry James W
England 3 2 0 1 5-4 6
Spain 3 1 1 1 4-3 4
Rep of Ire 3 1 1 1 2-3 4
Holland 3 0 2 1 3-4 2
SF1 SPAIN 0 v. 1 HOLLAND
Henry
SF2 ENGLAND 1 v. 1 REP of IRELAND
Paul Amos
FINAL HOLLAND 0 v. 1 REP of IRELAND
Declan
The first game of the Quarters was between the hosts England who were up against a much younger squad in the shape of Holland. In fact you could say that Dean was old enough to be Elliott’s father. England took an early lead with a miss-kick by Simon which just scraped over the line. Holland began to put pressure on England’s defence and desperate defending by England resulted in desperate tackling in the area and the inevitable happened when Holland were justly awarded a penalty which Elliott smashed into the net for the equaliser. A lucky, hotly disputed goal by Dean gave the match to England 2-1.
Even Fabio agreed, after the match, that England did not deserve the victory.
Next up were the youngsters of Spain and Republic of Ireland. Johnny gave the Republic the three points with a 1-0 victory.
Holland were up against Spain in the third game. Ben M gave Holland the lead but a well deserved draw was on the cards when Jacob equalised.
England took the field again, this time against Republic of Ireland but all the empty seats in the arena showed that the public were not behind the home team. Two lucky goals by Paul gave them a 2-0 victory but the Irish can be proud of their team which should have come away with at least a point. The referee should shoulder a lot of the blame for not spotting the underhand tactics used by the old men of England.
Doing a back to back, England faced Spain in the next match and two games after one another was too much for the Over 50’s of England. (Maybe they are not over 50, but they played like it!) They did manage to take the lead when Giles fell over in the area through sheer exhaustion but with his legs flying in the area managed to connect with the ball and put it into the net. ( I do not think he knew much about it!) This spurred on Spain and goals from Ben R and Bradley gave them a 2-1 lead before the GOAL OF THE CHAMPIONSHIPS from Dominic into his own net gave Spain 3-1 victory.
The old men of England walked off the pitch puffing and blowing thinking that was their last game but there were moans and groans when they discovered they still has another game to go as somehow they had scraped into the semi finals.
The fist semi was Spain taking on Holland and it was ‘Powerhouse Henry’ who gave Holland a route into the Final.
The Second semi final was delayed for a few minutes whilst the England Physio, Chris, did all he could to encourage the England team to take the field against the Republic of Ireland. They game eventually got underway and it was a lucky strike by Paul that put the old men 1-0 up but Amos showed them how to do it with a blockbuster for the equaliser. The teams being level at full time should have gone to extra time but when Simon The Referee saw the England players on their backs, gasping for breath, he was of the opinion that they could not continue and so awarded the tie to The Republic because they had more shots at goal. As soon as this was announced the England team got off their backsides and trotted off the field amid boos and whistles and rubbish being thrown onto the pitch. Most of the rubbish was picked up and eaten by the ravenous England squad.
The final was a close encounter between the Republic of Ireland and Holland with Declan giving the Republic the honours and Cup with a 1-0 victory.
It may now pay for Fabio to start looking at younger players and in particular look at the squads of Ireland, Spain and Holland to see if their great great grandfather's mother had a sister who married an Englishman to see if the qualify to play for The Three Lions instead of The Three Stooges (or was it seven) that disgraced the hallowed turf of The Zone.
The Management the took the whole squad to watch Hudersfield Town to see how the great game of football should be played (i.e. score a penalty and get the winner in injury time)
A great day was had by all, many thanks to Simon and Chris.
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