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Summer Tournament 2006 Review

In the end it was all a big anticlimax. However, the first day provided plenty of thrills. The group of death certainly lived up to his name, and Pepsi showed that there is life without Round Dave, and SKG staring elimination in the face, battled back to draw with a disorganised Vietnam side to qualify yet again for the semi finals. The standard of Futsal certainly wasn't as high as it could have been.

However the Dogs Vs Anarchy 99 match definitely lived up to its billing as 'potential final' material. It was an intense match. After coming back from a goal down twice, Anarchy 99 countered with new signing Owen Grafham (playing in his first tournament) scoring a decisive goal past the heroic James Sweetman. The game which therefore would decide who went through was effectively Dogs vs Cleethorpes, and in an ugly encounter Cleethorpes used their physicality to win the game 2-1.
Cleethorpes would then lose 4-2 to Anarchy 99, who although nowhere near their best, went about their job to get out of a hard group in business-like fashion. ABFC, barely caused a ripple (aside from briefly leading a shambolic Anarchy 99 side 3-2) and went out in the first stage for the second successive tournament.

The other group was certainly much more open. However Pepsi were probably the team of the day on saturday, and SKG showed what a resilient side that they were by drawing 4-4 against Vietnam (which would prove to be the decisive game of their whole tournament) after being 3 goals down. Blades made up the group, and were something of an unknown quantity. After an impressive showing at the spring tournament they should be disappointed at not progressing.

After the first day the top two teams from each group (Anarchy 99 and Cleethorpes, and SKG and Pepsi) split off into a separate group to decide the overall competition, and the bottom two from each group split off to participate in the plate.

The second day of the tournament was frankly shambolic. Vietnam no showing left a sour taste on the plate competition (which Dogs won with some ease), and Cleethorpes turned up with a much weaker side than what they had done on the first day. The standard was also not aided by four Anarchy 99 players and two Cleethorpes players having participated in a College football tournament earlier in the day in the blistering heat.

However, in a mini-upset SKG once again showed their heart by beating a Pepsi team that the day before had beaten them, and also beat the much-weakend Cleethorpes side with relative ease. Pepsi put up a valiant effort against Anarchy 99, but for the third successive tournament Dan Depledge staked his claim for the tournaments best player award and caused much havoc for the Pepsi defence.

In the plate TLDOW found it beat an increasingly weakened ABFC side, and also the Blades to go some way towards making up for their first round exit the day before. However, they will surely be expecting for a better showing in all three tournaments next year.

After beating both Pepsi and Cleethorpes, SKG and Anarchy 99 went head to head again for the third successive final. After winning the first final with relative ease, Anarchy 99 won the last final with almost as much ease. Although having lost some players, SKG proved over the weekend that they were good enough to make the final. Anarchy 99, although not at their best had won every game, however the injuried of Henry Smith and Ollie Webb (who pulled out just before the final) left them with a smaller squad than their captain would have liked. The game kicked off with Anarchy 99 enjoying a lot of the possession, but SKG using the tenacity of Stansfield and the trickery of Lewis to cause much trouble on the break. However, it is Anarchy 99's attack that is their strongest element, and for three tournaments Depledge, Wakeford, and now Grafham have caused chaos for whatever defence they have been up against and this final was no different. Anarchy 99 established a decent lead in the first half, and although SKG rallied, it was maybe a step too far for them after the huge amounts of effort that they had put in during the rest of the weekend. The final score was 8-3. Let the banter commence for the next tournament, and bring on the freshers.