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 YC&AC, Monday 22nd March.
Inspired by the boys of ’66, YC&AC ‘X’ were crowned 2010 Footy Japan Charity 7’s champions as Anthony Savage led his team to victory in a tournament which was quite simply a fantastic advert for the game.
Kitted out the same as Sir Alf’s world cup winners were 44 years ago, they managed to navigate their way through the group stages without too much fuss, two victories and a draw seeing them top the group and move safely through to the knockout stages.
In the quarter finals YC&AC ‘X’ came up against their toughest opposition so far when they faced British FC and found themselves a goal down early on.
Realising that they needed to raise their game they started to push on and equalized when Matt Wallace delved into his box of tricks to set up the on fire Danny Brand who neatly slotted home.
The game remained a tense affair and looked like it could be headed for penalties when with a few minutes to go Neil Shonhard scored the goal of the tournament as he smashed a volley into the roof of the net.
Onto the Semi final and the joint hosts found themselves against a skillful & spirited Intertane (Lions) side. Once again the reds were behind to an early goal as Intertane deservedly took the lead. They continued to have the home team under all sorts of pressure but the excellent defending of Matt Taw & “proud pomme” Mark Haley kept the Lions from adding to their lead. They were made to pay for this as Brand was there again to put YC&AC ‘X’ back on level terms.
Lions then retook the lead and seemed to be heading towards the final when Skipper Anthony Savage grabbed an equalizer taking the game into penalties. With it all square after both teams had taken 3 penalties each, Mark ‘The Cat’ Harrison lived up to his keeper of the tournament billing saving the Lions first sudden death kick. Matt Taw then smashed his pen home to put his team into a local derby final.
The final itself was another hard fought affair. ‘X’ found themselves behind yet again to an early goal as YC&AC ‘A’ scored within 30 seconds of kick off. The boys in red fought back hard and received the lucky break they needed through an own goal to make it 1-1. The game then began to flow back and forth and the “A’s” went back in front and looked to be taking the local honours until with only minutes to go a very tired Russ Philp managed to bundle the ball over the line to make it 2-2.
With literally seconds on the clock YCAC ‘A’ had a free kick from just outside the penalty box. Mikey Taw strummed it beautifully & seemed to have claimed the winner when Mark Harrison somehow managed to get a palm to the ball and push it away.
A finer save you will rarely see.
So the final went to Extra Time golden goal, but it didn't last long as Neil Shonhard used his silky skills to dance around the defender and put in a perfect cross for Danny Brand to fittingly get the tournament winner.
Charity soccer '7s Photos: Gallery 1, Gallery 2
By Russ Philp
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