We were at the 2022 Amsterdam Sevens Cup Semi-Finals stage and from the 12 teams who signed up for the tournament we were down to the final 4. We had two teams from England looking to take the prized trophy on the return flight home. We also had two Dutch team looking to keep the aforementioned trophy within the borders of the Netherlands.

The first Cup Semi-Final would be contested by Colonel Getafe and The Gentleman's Club. Colonel Getafe had been superb in Group A this morning, they had picked up 4 wins from 4 before a 0-0 draw in the top of the table clash versus Humble Goats (a draw was all they needed to win the group). They were the joint top scorers in the group phase with 12 goals and had the joint best goal difference (+10).

The Gentleman's Club had been good this morning with 3 wins, 1 draw and a defeat. With 8 goals scored and 5 conceded they were underdogs for this tie in terms of raw statistics. In cricket they say you should never judge the pitch until both teams have batted on it. In a similar vein, it is difficult to judge group phase stats as it is hard to tell the relative strength of each group until teams emerging from different groups play each other.

What was clear after the early exchanges here was that we had two good teams who were pretty well matched. In fact, there was nothing to separate the two teams at the break. In the second half we were to get a breakthrough and it was a vital breakthrough. There was to be only the one goal in the game. Who would grab the goal? Cometh the hour, cometh the man and that man was Albert de Leeuw – it was his second of the day and what a crucial goal it was.

The day was over for Colonel Getafe on the pitch at least. It was a great debut and on another day they could easily have gone a step further into the final.

So, who would take their place in the Final from the second Semi-Final? The two teams set to do battle were City FC against Humble Goats.

Both teams were on debut and both could be proud of their group record as they were both unbeaten. City FC were better than unbeaten as they took the Group B title with a 100% record. They were the highest ranked team after the group phase as a result and with 12 goals were joint highest scorers.

However, Humble Goats were not far off. They were 4 wins from 4 and only a 0-0 draw against the Group A winners prevented them matching their opponents with a 100% record. They actually had a better goal difference (+10 v +9) than City FC having conceded just 1 goal this morning with 4 clean sheets to their name.

The teams had scored 23 goals between them today but goals were conspicuous by their absence in this one. The first half came and went with the teams locked at 0-0 with the second half going the same way. A penalty shoot-out was needed to decide this tie.

City FC would have the honour of going first as Nathan Leather stepped forward to give his team the lead. Guillermo Darson quickly levelled things up. Ben Kaye then saw his penalty go astray before Jazz Prins took full advantage to put Humble Goats 2-1 up. Charlie Simpson's miss meant it was all over as Humble Goats went through 2-1 on pens.

Wearing England 2002 World Cup kits, City FC showed they had true England DNA by exiting the tournament via a penalty shoot-out. We had to say farewell to City FC – this final match should not take anything away from their efforts today. A magnificent debut.