2022 Lisbon Tournament 5-a-side Football Veterans Tour Report Cup SF

Results

FC Dad (Eng)	1*	V	1	AFC Shooters 1 (Eng)
FC Mahou (Eng)	2	v	1	Les 5 Salopards (Fra)
* FC Dad (Eng) won 8-7 on penalties.

We were at the 2022 Lisbon Veterans Tournament Cup Semi-Final stage and from the 11 teams who started the day we were down to the final 4 – already an achievement for those who were still in the hunt for glory. The first Cup Semi-Final would see FC Dad versus AFC Shooters 1.

This was going to be a hard game to call on paper as both teams had played superbly this morning. FC Dad were unbeaten with 3 wins and 2 draws and had looked very good. AFC Shooters 1 had three wins out of three with that sole defeat against the 2017 champions, FC Mahou.

FC Dad had met AFC Shooters 2 earlier in the day and had drawn 1-1. Different Shooters team, same result here. FC Dad took a first half lead through Stuart Leslie before AFC Shooters 1 equalised through Kaleem Aftab in the second half. A penalty shoot-out would decide the first Cup Semi-Final.

FC Dad had only appeared in a shoot-out once in our tournaments before and it was a successful one at the 2020 Warsaw Tournament where they defeated Dragon Balls. AFC Shooters had 3 previous shoot-outs in our events with 1 win (2015 Algarve Open Plate SF versus Lacey Green FC) and 2 defeats (2015 Algarve Open Plate QF v Mavericks & 2017 Vilnius Tournament v VSG United).

This one would go on to be an epic shoot-out. We needed a total of 16 penalties to decide it and 15 of those were scored. At the end of it FC Dad emerged victorious 8-7 to reach a first ever Cup Final in our events.

So, who would take their place in the Final from the second Semi-Final? The two teams set to do battle were FC Mahou (Eng) against Les 5 Salopards (Fra).

FC Mahou would no doubt be favourites as their overall record in our Veterans tournaments read played 24, won 18, drawn 5, lost 1 with 68 goals scored and just 10 conceded. Today they had conceded precisely 0. That 1 loss we mentioned came at this stage of the 2019 Alicante Veterans Tournament. They also went out at this stage of the 2018 Algarve Open on penalties to FC Miracle after a 0-0 draw. They would be hoping to avoid a third successive exit at the Veterans Cup Semi-Finals.

Les 5 Salopards were hoping for something similar. At the 2013 Budapest Fives they reached the Cup Semi-Finals where they lost 2-0 to Rigford Seahawks Omega. They were bidding for a first Cup Final in our events. They had started off well with 2 wins before a blip with 2 defeats. When it mattered though they picked up a third win to qualify for this stage, 3-0.

FC Mahou forged ahead in this one with Michael Brandon's sixth goal of the tournament. He was on 5 goals for the tournament and hunting down a fourth top goalscorer award at our event. Yanick Jista equalized for Les 5 Salopards with his fifth goal of the tournament. Jista was was now joint top in the goalscorer charts and he was hunting down a second golden boot after individual success at the 2013 Budapest Fives.

The battle of the goalscorers continued as Michael Brandon restored the FC Mahou lead at 2-1 and it was enough to send his team into the final.

Commiserations to Les 5 Salopards – a second Cup Semi-Final exit in as many tournaments. There are rumours we may see the French team at our Krakow Veterans event later in the year. If that turns out to be the case we look forward to seeing them then.

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