2016 Riga Tournament 5-a-side Football Tournament Tour Report Trophy Final

Results

Aliance (Lat)	0*	v	0	FC Maroon (Eng)
* Aliance (Lat) won 3-2 on penalties.

Our ninth ever Trophy Final now awaited us and we had been treated to some superb Finals before.

The first ever Trophy Final in eurofootballfives.com history took place in Berlin 2012 and was a dramatic affair as Hertha Beerlin versus FC Cobaltslautern went all the way to penalties. In Valencia 2012, Sporting Abeergut held off a late rally from FC Dad to win it 3-2. At the 2013 Barcelona Fives we needed another penalty shoot-out as Spain's Drunk Perfect and Ireland's Deportivo Dooradoyle drew 1-1. The Irish team then won 2-1 on penalties. Then, earlier this year at the 2014 Budapest Fives, Contejus Hurricanes (with a man sent off) holding on to a close 2-1 win over Cava Sundays.

They had all been close affairs until 2014 when we saw Ziar Crew beat Fireball 5-1 in Bratislava and El Combe Old Boys beat SV Zoo 5-0 in Barcelona.

Since then we had a 1-1 draw in the 2015 Lisbon Tournament before Frank Hirth A defeated Red Cow Belgrade 3-1 on penalties. Our most recent final was Equipo de Christian 3-0 FC Atwood at the 2015 Barcelona Fives.

The stage was now set for Aliance and FC Maroon to set their own little piece of history. Both teams came into the game on a remarkable run of form – FC Maroon were now 4 games unbeaten with 1 draw and 3 wins. Aliance can consider themselves unlucky in the group phase with 3 draws and 2 1-goal defeats. They followed this up with a thumping 8-1 win in the Semi-Final.

The two teams had been free scoring leading up to this final – FC Maroon had scored 18 in 4 games whilst Aliance had scored 8 in their last game alone. This game was at complete odds with those statistics as it was a tight affair with defences on top. Half-time came and went with the teams locked at 0-0. Full-time also came and went with the teams still at a 0-0 impasse. A penalty shoot-out would be required for the fourth time in nine Trophy finals.

The toss of the coin dictated that it would be FC Maroon who would take the first penalty. Brett Zimmerman made the walk forward towards the penalty spot with 5 goals to his name already today. He confidently put his team 1-0 up.

The first man to shoot for Aliance would be Matiss Spaile and he made no mistake for 1-1. Up next for FC Maroon was James Alawi, the goalkeeper Uldis Aliks, got his hand to the penalty but he was unable to keep it out. All three penalties had gone to the top left from the striker's perspective so far.

Arturs Miezaitis was up next and he broke with tradition by powering his penalty down the middle, slightly to the right but it was past Ed Brangwin in the FC Maroon goal in a flash. It was 2-2 and we were effectively in sudden death.

Rich Mason was up next for FC Maroon and his penalty went to the same corner as his previous two colleagues. Uldis Aliks went the same way and this time he got a strong hand to the penalty and pushed it away to safety. Edgars Polkovs was the man who had the chance of winning it for Aliance. He coolly slotted it into the corner as Aliance celebrated in style.

Our commiserations go to FC Maroon who gave it a real go and went on to collect Runners Up medals. We look forward to seeing them return to action in the future and maybe the medals they pick up will be of the winning variety next time.

For today though, we present you the 2016 Riga Tournament Trophy Winners– many congratulations to Aliance.

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