Munich Madness

Round 1 of the Pan-E Football Championship and Shield, Munich, July 25.

The Travelling Party
Without wanting to go on, it is quite unbelievable that over 50 people travelled from the club to Munich last weekend. Two lads teams, two girls teams and a sprinkling of supporters. All travelled at their own expense which, if you take hotel/flight/tournament fee into account then the trip cost around €12,500!! A crazy outlay but all travelled enthusiastically and by their own free will!

The Journey
Bar a couple of exceptions, most travelled by plane and I had Donal, Conan, John Q, Ruairi, Denis Crusher & Conor A on my flight. We landed shortly after 15h and headed for the hotel where we were greeted by some looper reception man and a crazy dog. The guy was off his head rambling on about Obama, Jacko and a few other things that passed over my head.

The Evening
With the sun shining down on top of us we headed for Marianplatz in search of a white sausage and mustard for Crusher. It is rare that I would be randomly tempted by pints but when you are surrounded by cafe's lashing out big fine german looking beers then it tests the will.

We kept the heads though and went about seeking some entertainment for the evening. First stop was Killian's Irish pub to check on whether they were showing the Wickla Kildare game the following evening. After confirmation and a round of cokes we headed back out only to be met by torrential rain. Rather then taking the easy option and slipping back downstairs for a pint, we held tough and waited for it to pass. It didn't so we trusted Denzer that the U bahn was just around the corner. It was and we headed for where we though a cinema may be.

Not quite sure of our bearings we took shelter again and Denzer engaged a local lady, in german, to try and get directions. After a couple of moments of his rambling she kindly put us out of our misery and suggested it may be easier for him to speak in English. Little does she know! Anyway job done but when we got there, we were greeted by a very ungerman like queue so all but Denis decided to retreat to the hotel for the night.

The Tournament
Taxi's to the pitch this morning under a suspicious looking sky. Unfortunately, as this is not a political blog and thus does not want to court controversy, I will not repeat the conversation which took place between myself, Colin and Hough with the taximan. Lets just say he was not the most open minded when it came to religion and the like.

Any pre-tournament nerves were sidelined when we learned that when Eoin Sheanon went to take his driving test.....he didn't bring a car. Once togged we went out to watch the B's debut in The Shield. It didnt go so well as Liffre pulled away towards the end. They had chances but didn't convert and were punished by some good free taking.

We lined up against Den Haag first in what turned out to be a tight game. They goaled early but it didnt rattle us and we eased our way into the game. John Quinn came forward well whilst Olof and Rochey also pulled their weight around the middle. Defensively we were fairly sound but some strict refereeing aloud our opponents stay with us through some excellently converted place balls. Our chance to seal the game came midway through the second half when we were awarded a penalty. However, Eoin's effort was saved by the keeper and we missed the resulting 45. In the end we lost 1-5 to 0-7 in a game that could have easily swung our way.

When you have a run of bad results like we've had this year, each additional one can push you further into the abyss. We were to face Paris next and it wasn't proveing easy to banish the disappointment. Without wanting to be overly dramatic, if we lost to Paris we would be stick in a 3/4 place battle at the end of the day and it would have been a potential knockout blow to our season. Lifting the troops may have been too big an ask. So we regrouped and had an energised and positive chat before the warm-up, everyone knowing the importance.

It translated into a blistering start which put our French opponents on the canvass. I goaled early with a little nutmeg on the keeper, which I unintentionally followed up with a little tap on his head as i came back out past him! Gill, Byrno and Rochey added more scores and after a few minutes it was clear there would be only one winner. We were on form, moving the ball well. Emmett followed up with a typical goal into the roof of the net and Rochey raised the green flag in the second half. It was a good performance, even if we wasted a host of second half chances.

This meant that the final group game against Luxembourg was effectively a semi-final. Again, the focus was there and we were ready for another tough battle. I don't remember the way the scoring went or who scored what but i think Gill chipped in with a few frees. We looked tight at the back and Enda was doing a great job winning ball and spraying it around. Clux made a fantastic save in the first half at a crucial stage. At half-time we held a narrow lead which was increased straight from the throw-in when Enda won the ball and pointed a great score. Then came a downpour accompanied by rising wind in our faces. It made getting out of our own half almost impossible but we were happy to set-up camp and defend, feeding the forwards some scraps to play with. We held out for a 0-7 to 0-5 win to put us through to our first final of the year.

By the time the closing games come round at these tournaments, your legs are in full rebellion mode. The only thing that will appease them is a bar stool but regardless of their physical state, they must remain active. The warm-up before the final was eased by a dose of nurofen. We were aware of our shortcomings in previous games so were fairly level headed. We knew the tinkering with positions had worked and we had a bit of belief from earlier performances. Its not difficult to get motivated to play Den Haag. They are leading the way this year and so are up there to be shot at.

It was tit for tat in the opening stages. Without intention we held the ball up instead of delivering it quickly but to the Hagues credit, they hunted in packs. Physically we were up for the challenge, maybe too up for it given the manor of the refereeing. We were failing to learn from earlier indiscrepancies on the fouling front and were punished accordingly. Again, their unerring free taking and the fact our radar wasn't locked on the posts, was proving costly. They led 0-6 to 0-3 at the break. We'd been poor and done some silly things, none more so then me.

We had a greater sense of purpose in the second half and upped the ante considerably. We were within two points of them when Sheanon went on a dribble down the endline before squaring to Olof. Gill picked and shot but the keeper had closed him down quickly and partially blocked the shot sending it onto the crossbar but then picked the rebound off the ground resulting in a penalty. Hough stood up with the chance of sending us into the lead. However, again the keeper saved and we were denied. It was as close as we got to them and a couple of more frees gave the first Pan-E title of the year to the Dutchmen on a scoreline of 0-9 to 0-6.

It was of course disappointing. We had let ourselves down in the first half. Still, there were positives from the day. We got to our first final, we moved the ball very well at times & fellas attitiudes were good. Of course we can improve our fitness further but as important is getting the confidence back in our shooting. We move to Copenhagan next and whilst Emmett, Enda & Hough will be big loses, we will have Eoghan Kelly back. Kevin Keary played but was clearly hampered by injury so hopefully he will be firing again in the coming weeks. It won't be easy now that we have given Den Hague a headstart but we may have a few aces left to play so who knows.

The B's
As mentioned earlier , they lost the first game to Liffre. In their next outing, they lost narrowly to Frankfurt before succumbing to Copenhagan in the final game. In the 7/8 place game, they defeated Vienna convincing. Its tough being the only second team in the competition and we need to be realistic. No-one gets two teams to travel to tournaments and to do so in a place as far away as Munich is a fantastic achievement. If we had everybody fit and available to travel then the expectations could be higher. Hopefully, for coming tournaments, they will be strengthened.

The Girls
They also had two teams and their A team won the tournament with plenty in the tank. They are miles above the opposition and the will be raging hot favourites to retain the title. They played really well at the weekend (and I don't give such praise lightly!!!).

The Banquet
This is a sporting blog so we will leave the banquet shenanagans for another forum. Needless to say, there was a lot of beer, no doubt a bit of drama and most did not lay their heads on their pillows until well after the sun rose.

NOTE: This blog took 9 days to write, just about the amount of time it took us all to recover. I apologise for the lack of timely update.