YA GOTTA HAVE WA!
Wednesday, 2 August
CANTONIGROS, Spain _ Ya gotta have wa (team spirit), the Japanese say. It took some of that by the bothers Mangone, Matt and David, and Luke Bencie to win the E3 3-v-3 tournament, especially after losing all their preliminary round games.
Divided into six teams of three (well, five of three and one of four -- a weak fourth, your humble reporter) for the round-robin phase, the Mangones and Bencie lost all five of their six-minute games, but then won three straight once the knockout stage started -- including the title game 3-2 over Seumas Trull, Dan Greb and Jon Majoros.
(David Mangone strips the ball from Seamus Trull)
The strongest teams through the round-robin suspiciously were that of Jorge (Laura Greb and Casey Doyle) and Paul (Kyle Roach, Jack Willoughby and your all-but-useless scribe -- I mostly chased balls), hmmmmmm, but both were eliminated in the semifinals.
(Colin Hayes' header goes wide as Oliu's Red Barons pack the goal)
Celebrations were muted, either by the fact of playing eight games in a little over an hour or that they were suprised themselves. But the training sessions continue to draw more and more locals!
