This
game was the proverbial game of two halves.
The first half saw L'Albiceleste hit the front
with goals from Cedric Castarede and a great
free-kick hit from Fateh Bekhouche. The goal
for Cedric Castarede was his 13th of the tournament
and cemented his position as the tournament
top goalscorer. It was his second top goalscorer
title after achieving the same feat at the 2013
Mallorca Fives. His team won the tournament
that day and they were looking good to win here
too.
In
the second half, for long periods L'Albiceleste
looked like they would see the game out but
in the last couple of minutes Leilupe pulled
a goal back to make it 2-1. Helder Goncalves
was the scorer with his 9th of the day. It set
up a thrilling finale and L'Albiceleste who
had been in control now had to defend vigourously
to maintain their lead.
Leilupe
equalized in the final minute of their Semi-Final
and they were to do so again in the Cup Final.
With the last kick of the game, Leilupe hit
the post the ball rebounded and hit the back
of the goalkeeper before hitting the post again
and was then bundled in by Miguel Ferreira with
the last touch of normal time. It was 2-2 and
we would need penalties to decide the title.
It
was L'Albiceleste to take the first penalty
which Cedric Castarede coolly converted as he
did in the successful Quarter-Final shoot-out.
Carlos Chillon looked to equalize immediately
but he saw his well struck shot hit the post
and bounce out. Fateth Bekhouche had the chance
to double the lead for L'Albiceleste but Pablo
Asensi dived the right way and palmed the penalty
away to keep Leilupe in it.
It
was up to Miguel Ferreira whose goal took this
game to penalties and he levelled things up
with his penalty. He struck it down the middle
as Mickael Martin dived to his right. Antoine
Loscul stepped forward and regained the lead
for the French team as he placed his penalty
in the bottom right hand corner. All the pressure
was now on Sergio Neves. Look up Chris Waddle's
penalty England v Germany in the 1990 World
Cup Semi-Final and you will get a good idea
of how this went. Waddle's was a left foot,
Sergio Neves saw his right footed effort go
high and wide. He had Rooney on the back of
his shirt isn't typical in a France v Latvia
final with players from France, Portugal and
Spain on show that it is the man with an English
name on the shirt that misses the penalty.
Our
sincere commiserations to Leilupe who had come
so close to glory but just missed out.
Our
congratulations go to L'Albiceleste on their
second eurofootballfives.com victory. They join
an elite list of 10 teams who have multiple
victories in eurofootballfives.com tournaments.
The list reads as:
4
Olympic Phil Babb (Eng): Amsterdam Fives (2008),
Algarve Open (2009), Prague Masters (2010) and
Budapest Fives (2011)
3
CIS Committee (Blr): Budapest Fives (2014),
Bratislava Fives (2014), Prague Tournament (2016).
3
Athletico Do Hollande (Hol): Algarve Open
(2010 and 2011), Amsterdam Fives (2014)
2
ABC United (Rom): Budapest Fives (2012) and
Berlin Fives (2013)
2
Goldsmith Williams (Eng): Prague Masters (2008)
and Amsterdam Fives (2010)
2
Lozenetz City (Bul): Prague Masters (2009)
and Manchester Fives (2010)
2
Rigford Seahawks (Eng): Krakow Trophy (2009)
and Berlin Fives (2012)
2
Skidmarks (Eng): Valencia Fives (2011) and
Krakow Trophy (2012)
2
FC Radbroke (Eng): Prague Masters (2011) and
Algarve Open (2013)
2
L'Albliceleste/Grant Thornton (Fra): Mallorca
Fives (2013) and Riga Tournament (2016)
We'd
like to say a big thank you to all 24 teams
who participated and a big thank you to Riga
a great host city! We will be back!
