KUIS Makuhari Sun 30th October. A new location and a new format made for an exciting days football at the 23rd Highland games. 14 teams playing 7 a side on 2 dirt pitches for the 1066 Cup in the main tournament and 7 masters teams playing 6 a side on grass for the new Magellan Cup.
With only the top teams in each group guaranteed a place in the semi finals it meant there would be some tough group matches. Previous champions Swiss kickers & BFC were the teams to watch in group 1, while Sala looked to have an easier route in group 2 up against TML Div 2 oppositions. Group 3 looked the toughest, with only 4 teams but 3 of them from TML's Div 1 and the other leading Div 2.
BFC & Swiss started in winning ways, shared the points when they met, but then came the first upset when Swiss were beaten 2-1 by Shane FC. In group 2, AFC belied their position in the TML and went about beating all teams that came their way until Vagabonds almost put a spanner in the works with a 1-0 victory against the run of play.
France and Shogun Knights took all the points in group 3 only hitting a stalemate when they met each other. So heading into the semis were BFC, AFC and Shogun knights. As one group only had 4 teams, to decide the best 2nd placed team, the other 2 groups deducted the scores against the last placed team to decide the last semi-finalist. This put unbeaten France FC back in the race sending ex-champs Swiss & Sala for an early bath.
Both semi finals were tight games, BFC taking Shogin Knights to PKs after a nil-nil draw then winning 3-2 after the final knight struck his shot over the bar. AFC went through in the other semi when Trent crashed in a voleey and a well worked free kick from Terry Welliver found the back of the net giving AFC a 2-0 Victory.
With dusk approaching and legs starting to tire, so started the match up between the David & Goliath of the TML, and just as the story is supposed to go, it was David (Um AFC) who struck the lethal blow with another of their free kicks. With Big Olly Worsfold blocking the veiw of BFC's beef jyrki in goal, Terry saw a small gap at the near post an hit his 20yard kick perfectly into it. A fantastic goal that turned out to be the tourney winner.
A great day in AFC Wanderers short history but a well deserved victory. Report from AFC.
The Masters tournament was held at a slightly more leisurly pace but there were still some reat talents on display from the vets. Tokyo Blues and Vagabonds Masters advanced as expected from group 1 but group 2 was a tighter affair with France Masters and DAFT FC just getting the better of Bud Fox FC, one of only 2 teams with ladies in them.
France led the way to the finals beating Blues 2-0 while Vagabonds had a tougher time just edging DAFT FC 2-1. It didn't happen for the French though, Vagabonds took their 2nd tiltle in a row, Chris Southam scoring the only goal of the game.
All the results...
