2019 Budapest Veterans Report Cup Final

Results

Elcombe Old Boys (Eng)

Budapest Celtic Legends (Hun)

The climax of the day's events had arrived - The 2019 Budapest Veterans Tournament Cup Final.

Whilst those teams who had battled hard yet departed could enjoy a nice cool beer on a warm and sunny day, there was still work to do for our two finalists. What a Cup Final we had in prospect! We had two teams who had both excelled throughout the day.

The two teams;

Budapest Celtic Legends (Hun)

Played 6, Won 2, Drawn 3, Lost 1.

Goal difference: +1 (5-4)

Group finish: 2nd

Top Scorer: Adrian Courage (3)

Clean sheets: 4

Previous honours: 2013 Krakow Trophy, 2017 Budapest Fives (both Cup)

Elcombe Old Boys (Eng)

Played 6, Won 5, Drawn 1, Lost 0.

Goal difference: +6 (6-0)

Group finish: 1st

Top Scorer: Matt Hall (2), Marcus Faure (2)

Clean sheets: 6

Previous honours: 2016 Barcelona Fives (Cup), 2015 Barcelona Fives (Trophy), 2010 Algarve Open (Plate)

If you were looking for a guide to form then these two teams had met in the group phase. It was back in Round 2, game #4 of Group B when the two teams played out a 0-0 draw – the only dropped points for Elcombe Old Boys so far.

The referee blew the whistle to kick us off in what was going to be a really tough match to call. If you look at the two teams stats then Elcombe Old Boys would be favourites but the fact the teams had drawn showed they would be evenly matched. With just 4 goals conceded between the two teams in 12 games we expected it to be tight. So, it was no surprise that we reached half-time level at 0-0.

As the game went on it looked even more clear that one goal would win this. It was the cliched moment of magic, a bit of brilliance or a mistake that would win or lose this game and with it win or lose the title. When the goal came it was a little bit of both. Elcombe Old Boys won a corner. Matthew Hall drilled the ball into the centre and it took a ricochet of the unfortunate Mark Szenes and defeated Ardalan Hamidi in goal for Elcombe Old Boys.

At the other end Andy Gartshore and his defence kept the customary clean sheet which meant he had gone through the entire tournament without conceding a goal. A superb achievement and the first time this had happened in our Veterans events.

We would like to congratulate Budapest Celtic Legends on an excellent performance over the course of the tournament and commiserations on missing out in the Cup Final. They would collect runners-up medals in the presentation.

The individual honour of the day was a close-run thing as Budapest Celtic Heroes Kevin Vernooij's six goals narrowly edged out Eric Lemoisson of World Pinteur Veterans with five. Well done to both.

Congratulations to Elcombe Old Boys - they became the second English team to claim glory at the eurofootballfives.com Veterans Tournament and the first winners of the event in Budapest. It was their second Cup title and they were the second team to have claimed both an Open Age and a Veterans title.

The September Veterans Tournament will be staged in Alicante 2020 and we hope you can all join us next year.