2019 Alicante Tournament 5-a-side Football Tour Report Veterans Plate Semi Finals

Results

CT1 (Spa)	1*	V	1	AC Motxo International (Spa)
The Blackouts (Ire)	1	V	0	The Warriors (Eng)
* CT1 (Spa) won 1-0 on penalties.

Plate Semi-Final time and things were getting interesting. We were guaranteed a Spanish team in the Plate Final as we had CT1 versus AC Motxo International in the first Plate Semi-Final.

AC Motxo International had experienced an incredible day on the pitch. This was their 12th match of the day! This was the second most appearances in a day ever at our tournament. The record is 15 by Toros/Vieze Vu who reached the Cup Final at both the Amsterdam Fives and Amsterdam Sixes in 2017.

AC Motxo had a great experience in the Plate competition at the 2018 Algarve Open – they won it! Today they pulled off a great 3-2 win over Turn Down For Watford in the Quarter-Final of the Open Age section and almost reached another Plate Final. Only 3x eurofootballfives.com Cup winners L'Albiceleste stopped them and only then with a late winner. Could AC Motxo get to another final here in the Veterans tournament?

The short answer to that is no. They fell behind to a Felix Vazquez Decas goal in the first half but had enough in the tank to equalize in the second period thanks to a Luis Ricardo Denche Pulido strike. The game would be decided by penalties.

AC Motxo would take the first penalty and go on to miss all three. Maybe it was just one match too far – tired minds as well as bodies. CT1 missed their first penalty but scored their second which was sufficient to see them reach the Plate Final.

We would like to offer many thanks to AC Motxo International. They helped us out a lot by replacing Leyendas Sport in the Veterans draw after Leyendas cancelled last minute. AC Motxo played a lot of matches and we are most grateful to them.

Who would meet CT1 in the Plate Final? Would it be The Blackouts or would it be The Warriors. It was Ireland versus England in Spain.

The Blackouts had a 100% record from two Cup Semi-Finals in our tournaments. They defeated Westfield Wanderers 5-1 in Mallorca 2014 and Belfast Space Monkeys 2-1 in the Algarve 2015.

The Warriors had appeared in 3 previous Semi-Finals in our tournaments. 2 at Plate level, 1 at Cup level. They had a 100% record in the Plate contests beating Ashtead Vets (1-0) in the Algarve 2015 and WEEDS Youth (2-1) in Mallorca 2017. For the record, they lost their Cup Semi in Lisbon 2016 to eventual champions Sago. The Warriors were hunting down a second Plate victory to add to the title they won in Mallorca in 2017.

That was the history. Let's look at the here and now in 2019. The two teams played out a 0-0 first half. We spoke to The Warriors camp at half-time and they felt they shaded it in general play but mentioned that there was little in the way of clear cut chances for either team.

The second half would prove decisive. The Blackouts had been involved in three 1-0 results today (2 for, 1 against) and this was to be another match where a solitary strike would win it. For the Irish, they were on the right side of the score again. Eoin McCormack was the match-winner for the second time today.

Huge congratulations to The Blackouts on a fine win. Commiserations to The Warriors – great to see them on tour again.

Open Age