Kiwis Win Inner City World Cup in London

NZ took out the London Inner City World Cup. Saturday: NZ 4-1 Brazil, NZ 3-0 Morocco ; NZ 3-1 Thailand. Sunday: NZ 4-1 Ecuador, NZ 0 - 0 Bulgaria (NZ win 4-3 on peno's), NZ 5-1 Pakistan in semi. Then NZ 2-1 over Columbia in the final.

 

[Seales words]

Everybody played well and had a fantastic tournamount but some of my favourite memories were some of our stunning goals (Not including miss hit straight crosses Justin), Disco making some spectacular saves (especially in the penalty shootout with Bulgaria), Tom the baby faced assassin dishing out some punishment with his elbow, Jesse putting in the big hits, Fieldsy firing up and having 2 bouncers in commando boots run on to calm him down, Jimmy having his photo taken every five minutes, Nick playing every minute of every game and still being able to walk, and last but not least lifting the 2 tonne World Cup trophy.
Dan Ellensohn top scored for us and prob the tourney with about 7. Jimmy Hill got 4 or 5, and I was the man.

Final Squad
1. Dave Ellensohn (GK)
3. Patrick Woodlock
4. Scott Randles
5. Michael Bothwell
6. Nick Brandford
7. Stephen Betteridge
8. Matt Dockary
9. Jeremy Field
10. Justin Fredrickson
11. James Hill
12. Brad Reid
14. Sam Wilkinson
15. Tom Lancaster
16. Dan Ellensohn
18. Shane Boyle
19. Geoff Brown
20. Jeremy Seales
21. Dave Raynor
22. Jesse Koorey Slow

 

Full world cup format of hour long games, 3 x group on the saturday and second round through to the final on the Sunday.  We've always been pretty competitive but been beaten in the knock out rounds the last 4 years I believe, 2 quarters and 2 semis.  It is pretty tough so usually you need a squad of 15-20. 

 

The standard in the first round is usually pretty mixed but it gets very good later on, we lost to a very well drilled Poland team in the semi 2 years ago, they had pulled their team from an all Polish 5 a side league that has over 1000 players and had been training together.

 

The games are unfortunately often played in very bad spirits early and usually there needs to be security guards on site.  NZ seems to attract a lot of the angst - I think people roll up assuming that they will beat us and are surprised when they don't, plus we are generally relatively physical.  Some of the tackles need to be seen to be believed and the lack of sportsmanship really is quite appalling - often by the sides from the middle east (I know I am generalising but I can think of games against Iraq, Kuwait, Bangladesh and Pakistan when they have lost heavily and accused the ref of being a racist cheat).  Loads of off the ball stuff as well.  Luckily that tends to disappear by the second day and the games between the better teams are really exciting and pretty well played.

 

Jeremy Seales has been in charge of the side for as long as I have known and the bulk of the side often come from the Poly club in Chiswick, although this year he seems to have stretched his contacts far and wide!  There will be a lot of guys, like me, who have played in previous years and not gone all the way who are very proud of the lads.  It's only a small tournament but those who have played in it know that it is a very tough thing to win.  Great stuff!