Amsterdam Curse Buried

The lack of blog entry preceding last week’s tournament in Amsterdam was probably a good hint at my mood leading up to it. Aside from the team disappointment in The Hague hurling tournament, I was also pissed off that my back had shown no signs of recovery.

Early in the week I was fairly certain I’d pull out. I had a bit of acupuncture but again a bad reaction to it at training on Thursday. You get totally sick of it but the problem is, you also know a couple of nurofen will get you through the day and there in lay the inevitable solution for Amsterdam.

There was a feeling floating around that the year has got off to a bad start. However, in the football in Lux, we had split the panels, reducing our chances and in the Hurling there was literally only a puck of the ball between ourselves The Hague and Zurich.

Still, we needed a good showing in the Dam. I’ve this ongoing fear that we are losing our drive and moving towards being more of a social club, happy to turn up, rather than a competitive one, driven to win.

On Saturday, the teams were more in the direction of A and B but still with different guys given opportunities. Eoin’s team, which I was on beat Amsterdam B and lost to The Hague but still qualified for the semi by virtue of coming second. The big worry was the performance against The Hague though; totally lacking in bite and belief. We lost 1-5 to 0-4 and it’s the kind of margin that has been between the teams since they broke our winning streak in September.

Johnny’s charges had a tougher group, facing Lux and Amsterdam A. The first half performances were good in both games, especially the Lux game when they were level at half-time. However, on both occasions, we fell away in the second half. There were some big performances to catch Eoin’s attention with Alec, Mul and one are two others showing well. Duffer’s three points in the 5th/6th game will have been especially pleasing to the Mayo man.

In the semi’s, we faced off against Lux who were coming off their home tournament victory. There had been no indication during the day that we would deliver the performance we did. One positional switch which paid off massively was switching James into the corner and bringing Timmy out. James delivered a hat-trick in a game that produced eight goals, five of which went to us and they were enough to separate the two teams.

Our defence was looking ropey for a lot of the day and despite an improved showing, the goals we conceded were poor. We had also lost Kevin at this stage, although Collie B was growing into his more unfamiliar role of wing-back.

I was delighted to see The Hague qualify for the final, not because I have anything against Amsterdam but because The Hague have set the benchmark in European football over the last two years and you always want to beat the best.

They had a couple of new arrivals so were a stronger team than we played earlier in the day. There wasn’t too much shouting and roaring or huffing and puffing before the game. We knew that they had been swatting us away in the previous tournaments and that we needed to show more will to win the game.

It was a typical Hague-Belgium affair; a war of attrition. With a day’s football and a long journey under your belt, the final can often be a case of who can stay standing the longest. Each blow carries more weight as your legs begin to seize up.

Olof and Darragh had set the tone in the first half with some assertive midfield play. Our defence was much improved with Bob pulling the strings from goal. We were struggling to convert up front though and the 0-1 to 0-1 half-time score was a reflection of this.

The decisive score would come early in the second half when a long sideline ball found its way to Timmy. He did what we always ask him to do and backed his pace to split their defence and rattle the net. It was a goal our opponents wouldn’t claw back and enough to give us a badly needed victory.

The satisfaction of winning a tournament is up there with the feeling of winning any Championship game at home, especially in Benelux where all the clubs are strong. We saw that again on Saturday with Amsterdam. They’ve found it tough to break through in the last few years but look to be very organised Saturday. The set-up for the tournament was unreal, with two magnificent pitches. They had two full panels too and I didn’t see too many tyre-kickers on their B’s either. They’ve had an influx of new lads and obviously have a good set-up to be able to attract them and keep them.

Back to the final and beating The Hague is always a good feeling for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Also, in my head at least, they are our main rivals. I’m not sure if the rest of our team agree or how The Hague feel about us but that’s how I feel. Their best quality is their ability to dig in and grind out a victory. It’s a trait I believe I possess but not one which has been seen enough out of me since last summer. Hopefully Saturday went some way to addressing that.

It was good to see the final score of the game go to Ciaran Hudson. It was a great point after a break up the right wing. Hudson fell away unbelievably during his homeless summer in Plux last year. On Saturday he was very good, especially late in the day. However, he never fails to bemuse me. After one of the games, he asked me was I going to thank him for a pass he gave me! I just looking at him and reminded him that passing was one of the main elements of Gaelic Football.

Mike Lucey delivered big time on Saturday too. Last summer, he arrived over with Andrew and Ricky but the shift he was working was not conducive to playing football. He looked average on the C team in Maastricht despite having hinted at possessing good skills at training. This year he has trained very well and has integrated well into the group. He showed excellent on Saturday and kicked some great scores. Mike is the perfect example for everyone looking to break into the A panel.

Olof won player of the tournament and you could not begrudge him the honour. Darragh and Crusher would not have been far behind him either. Guys were naturally very happy on Saturday evening but Olof and the team’s reaction in the coming weeks is important. We’ve put a string of bad performance together so one doesn’t in itself guarantee anything. The performance on Saturday was better but if that’s how you think you should be judged, you must not just do it once, you must do it over and over again.

A win lifts all and training should benefit from guys’ increased desire to get their hands on a medal of their own. That’s a good place to be heading into the summer.