2024 Mallorca Veterans 5-a-side Football Tournament Tour Report Plate SF

Results

Beijing Rockets (Chn)	2	V	1	Rain Dragons (Eng)
VTF Elite (Spa)	0*	V	0	Los Guerreros (Eng)
* VTF Elite (Spa) won 3-2 on penalties.

We were down to our final 4 teams in the Plate competition with China, England and Spain represented. The first Semi-Final would see Beijing Rockets versus Rain Dragons.

Rain Dragons were bidding to reach their second Plate Final in our tournaments having also done so at the 2016 Amsterdam Fives. They had 5-2 wins in the Quarter-Finals over Mixed Up and Semi-Finals over Wizards of WhatsApp. With 3 wins over Dutch opposition on the day they would fancy their chances of a fourth over Team Koopman in the Plate Final. The game finished 4-4 and penalties would decide the Plate title. The shoot-out was one of epic proportions finishing 10-9. Sadly for the Rain Dragons they were on the wrong end of the result.

Rain Dragons also had two Plate-Semi defeats on their CV at the 2017 Budapest Fives and 2019 Gdansk Tournament but also had Semi-Final success at the 2018 Barcelona Fives en route to winning the third-tier Trophy competition that year.

Beijing Rockets were only in their second eurofootballfives.com tournament. Last time out they reached a Cup Semi-Final at the 2023 Barcelona Fives against eventual champions FC Poloboc which they lost 1-0. This was their first taste of action in the Plate.

It was Beijing Rockets who forged ahead with Steven Hutt on target for Beijing Rockets. It really was a game that could've gone either way after that but the teams changed ends with Beijing Rockets 1-0 up. The pattern continued in the early exchanges of the second half until the Rockets got the cushion they craved. Jared Bouri got the all-important goal. The cushion proved to be well needed as Tom Care pulled a goal back but Beijing Rockets had enough in the tank to see out the game and win 2-1.

The second Semi-Final saw VTF Elite meet Los Guerreros as Spain met England.

VTF Elite would come into the game as favourites as they only narrowly missed out on the Cup having finished third in Group A with 7 points. Los Guerrerros had 2 draws and 2 defeats from their group games as they finished 4 th in Group B. They had also lost 3-0 to VTF Reserves in the group phase.

On the field of play the game was much tighter than it may have appeared on paper from the group phase results. Both defences were on top with neither time able to forge a successful path to goal. The first half came and went with the scores locked at 0-0. The second half was the same and so we would need a penalty shoot-out to decide this one.

After a quick game of guess which hand the ref's whistle was in, it was decided that VTF Elite would strike the first penalty. Up stepped Aidan Lawlor to confidently make it 1-0 but Steven Gyford quickly levelled. Alex Lawless restored the lead at 2-1 before Lee Liquorish finished with aplomb to square us up at 2-2.

Captain Tom Warren made it 3-2 for VTF Elite with another coolly slotted home penalty before Pete Conway stepped forward for Los Guerreros. It was at this stage that the pendulum swung from penalty taker to penalty saver as Mark Staunton made the crucial save of the final regulation penalty. He was mobbed by his players as his save sent his team through to a maiden eurofootballfives.com final.

Sadly for Los Guerreros they were out for this year. Thank you to all the lads for joining us on tour again. It was a pleasure to host you all.