Saturday 03/26/08 – 4 in a row!

The Munich mens football took the road for the first time in 2008 with a fairly light load. 11 players and 1 mentor left Munich at 7.30am for the 4 hour trip to Puckersdorf, a small village 30 minutes from the host city, Vienna. Upon arrival the lads were presented with 2 problems. The goals posts that were to be attached to soccer goals to enable the superstar, Todd, to kick points were missing. The bloke delivering them had managed to slip on a David Hasselhoff disc whilst practicing his Saturday night moves apparently. Paudi and the van were commandered to rescue the situation and off they went to save the day. Meanwhile word filtered through via pigeons released from the Buda vet clinic that their mens team were stuck at the border. Rumours that the vets were trying to smuggle cloned unicorns over the border proved unfounded later in the day when they finally arrived.

The Munich lads with more time on their hands than expected somehow ignored the lure of the bar and settled into their nice surroundings to watch an underage soccer match. Archie mooted the possibility of using a few of the kids as subs but this was soon nipped in the bud once he realised that the young fellas were far fitter than the Munich lads.

Eventually Paudi arrived back with a van load of gutters and masking tape and the Vienna lads went to work setting up the posts. The Munich lads took to the pitch led by An Captain, Donal, to virtual silence to play Vienna in the first game of the day. Our very own ‘Aido Adrian Zidane Aido Patton’ having come out of self-imposed retirement led the lads in the warm up. The first half was pretty tame with Todd, Daire and Bren picking off some nice scores. The second half saw Munich take control with Matt coming of age on the football field. A couple of laid-off assists led to a well taken Aido point and a lovely team goal finished off by Daire. The score line may have flattered Munich a little as Vienna had their chances. However the Munich defence of Savo, Niall, Paudi, Charlie and Donal held tight and many misses could be attributed to the pressure applied by the lads in the back line. Final score:

Munich had barely drawn breath when they were summoned onto the pitch to play Buda in the second game of the day. Goalkeeper Paudi was caught admiring the gutters on display to his right and left as Buda blitzed forward for 2 quick goals. This left Munich chasing the game and they weren’t helped by the opposition having their very own Maurice Fitz kicking frees from all angles. Tired bodies were rallied at half-time by Archie and Munich came out stronger in the second half. A quick goal from Henno and some nice points from the midfielders brought Munich back into the game but in the end the 2 goals at the start of the game proved the downfall. Final score:

Munich then had a break as Buda beat Vienna by 2-6 to 1-3 in the men’s third group match to ensure a chance for revenge for the ‘Cilles in the final.
The break was further extended when the ladies of Vienna and Buda took to the field for their very own regional final. A close tense affair ended with a heart in the mouth score line of something like Buda, 20 goals and a load of points, to Vienna’s no goals and even fewer points. Pride was somewhat restored when the ref decided to give the Vienna goalie the Woman of the match award.

After all that excitement it was back to the mundane world of the men’s final. Vienna had obviously anticipated this problem by inviting his royal highness, the Lord Mayor of Puckersdorf, to throw the ball in for the start of the game. Having not bothered to tell the players what was going on, the game started surreally with players chasing the ball round but not really being sure if the match was on or not. A roar from the Shark to get on with it soon focused the Munich lads attention on the task in hand. Munich playing with the wind in the first half had the lions share of possession but some bad decision making led to few scores. Munich backs led by Niall Mac and Charlie had the Buda forwards in their pockets. The Gutter man in goal made some nice saves which Donal agus Savo cleaned up to good effect. The midfield of Sharkey and Daire were patrolling well and spreading the ball nicely into the giant half forward line of Henno and Aido who in turn were moving the ball along into the auslander full forward line of Matt and Todd. Half-time was reached with the score line reading 5 point to 4 in favour of Bavaria’s finest.

Archie got to work at half-time on the tired minds and bodies and the Munich boys took the pitch for what would prove to be an entertaining second half. The fun started again with the Irish Ambassador to Puckersdorf throwing the ball in to restart the game. The Cilles played the half of their lives with The Shark and Daire scoring some fine points to keep in touch with the Buda lads. The defence held tight against the wind assisted Eastern Europeans and some fine blocks and saves led to another stalemate at full-time. 8 points a piece.

And so onto extra-time, 8 minutes a half, 16 minutes that would decide a whole days ball playing. The Cilles stormed out of the blocks with Henno knocking over 2 quick points. Back came the Budapeans with 2 fine scores to leave things level again. Right on the whistle the Shark sent over another point to leave the Munich lads ahead. Or so they thought! The ref had other ideas and somehow managed to add a point onto the Buda score line to leave the teams level at 11 points a piece. Credit to the Munich lads who didn’t kick up too much of a fuss (probably due to a lack of energy) and also to the few Buda lads who approached the ref with their correct total. The ref however was not to be swayed and the second half of ET started all level again.

Munich spurned on by the grievance tore out of the blocks and notched up a couple of quick points again. Back came Buda with 3 unanswered points to lead going into the final few minutes. The Munich boys seemed to be out on their feet and surely it was only a matter of Buda keeping the ball and running out the clock. T’was not to be the case though. These Munich boys were made of sterner stuff and had been round the block too many times to give up hope.

Niall Mc made a sensational catch at centre field and sensing the tiredness in the Buda back line moved into a scoring position all ready to level things up. As Niall launched his shot the Buda backs, in awe no doubt of sharing a pitch with a former Kildare u-21 superstar, turned to stone. The effort dropped short. Henno, having moved in front of the goal, suddenly found himself 6 yards out with his back to the goal and the ball in his hands. Without hesitation he spun round and buried the ball into the bottom corner for the only goal of the game. Buda were devastated. Munich were rejuvenated. Archie went bonkers on the side-line. Henno did a gay jump to celebrate.

2 points up, 2 minutes to hold on. Would it be enough? Not content to sit back, Daire won the ball again at midfield and fed Henno who knocked the ball over the bar to give the Cilles a 3 point cushion. This led to another embarrassing gay jump from the scorer. Determined to make it three gay jumps in a row another chance went missing when he dropped the ball into the keepers hands from 20 yards out. Archie had seen enough and pulled the troops back to defend for the last minute. And how the Munich lads defended. Everything was thrown in front of the ball to keep it away from the Munich net. There was no way the lads were going to let this game be decided by a penalty shoot-out. One final block from Aido and it was all over. Munich had somehow pulled the game out of the fire and were champions for the fourth year in a row. Final score:

Players ratings.

• Paudi - goalkeeper/defender/Bauman. The gutter man returned to the Munich line-up after a long absence and acquitted himself extremely well in a number of positions . Without the navi system though he failed to make it over the half way line at any stage of the day.
• Niall Mc - goalkeeper/defender/midfielder/hoofer. Some brilliant fielding from the goal line kept the Cilles in the hunt for the trophy all day and his fetching and distribution at times were faultless. Will be remembered for his effort of a point that led to the winning goal.
• Donal - Defender/Keano. Snuffed out many a threat and even hobbled back on in the final when lesser Cork men would have been crying for their Mammies.
• Savo - Defender/Yank wanabee. His rugby style kicking was used to good effect on numerous occasions. Kept the teams spirits up all day. Made some timely interventions in extra-time during the final.
• Charlie - Defender/Chopper. Thou shall not pass unless blood is spilt.
• Daire Irwin and Brendan Sharkey – Midfield/Batman and Robin. Brilliant fielding from both men. Every point the pair scored was a contender for point of the day. Like watching Obi Wan and Luke Skywalker in action at some stages of the final. The Shark even managed to shake off an injury to lead the midfield in the final while his young apprentice never went missing at any stage during the games.
• Aido - Forward/Pensioner. Wise old head coaxed out of retirement, worked his socks off all day linking up defence and attack on numerous occasions. No longer the ‘only Donegal man in the village’ though!
• Todd - Forward/Superstar. The Bulgarian took some brilliant scores in the first game against Vienna and worked tirelessly in the final to create space for the other lesser superstars to shine.
• Matt - Forward/Governor of California. Some fancy handwork from the ‘Germinator’ led to some vital scores and his personal battle with the big lad from Buda was one of the highlights of the day. Best tournament yet.
• Henno - Forward/Poocher. The Dub was non-existent for the first 2 games but when the time came he got up off his lazy ass and knocked in a couple of scores to nab all the glory. Player of the last 4 minutes of extra-time!
• Archie - Manager/The Fan. Didn’t have much to work with but kept the minds and bodies focused all day. Was almost ready to strip off in the final few minutes to keep the Buda boys out.

Pictures can be seen here : Vienna 2008

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 10:54 am and is filed under Euro GAA, Football News, Main, Mens Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.