2023-06-27, 12:07 PM - Word count:
Part 1: Set-up and teams
Part 2: The groups
Part 3: The quarter-finals
Welcome to the last article of this tournament, with this one including both of the semi-finals and of course the final. The semi finals are the following:
Asia-Oceania (A2, 12) - Southern Europe (C2, 8)
This match-up is between Asia-Oceania and Southern Europe. Both of the teams came in 2nd place in their respective groups. Asia-Oceania came from group A where it ended above the Americas and Australia but behind Africa. In the quarter-final Asia-Oceania beat the British Isles with an aggregate score of 5-0. The other team is Southern Europe who came 2nd in the group behind Scandinavia, but in front of Italy-Switzerland and Germany. In the quarter-final Southern Europe beat USA U23 with an aggregate score of 3-0.
Scandinavia (C1, 1) - Africa (A1, 4)
This match-up is between Scandinavia and Africa, both coming first in their respective groups. Scandinavia did this in a group with Southern Europe, Italy-Switzerland, and Germany being the only team which won all 3 matches in the group. Following this Scandinavia won in the quarter-finals against Western Europe with an aggregate score of 2-0. On the opposite side is Africa who won in a group consisting of Africa, Asia-Oceania, the Americas, and Australia. In the quarter-final Africa beat Eastern Europe with an aggregate score of 3-1, but do have Kofi Anshah out for this semi-final after a late red card in the final match of that quarter-final.
Onto the first semi-final match between Asia-Oceania (AO) and Southern Europe (SE). The first chance of the match comes in the 11th minute. With a few failed build-ups of both sides ending with SE getting the ball. A good through pass by Forty-Four onto Noodle made it a 1-on-1 with the goalie, with the shot getting past the goalie but getting stopped by the post. The 2nd chance of the match came quite a bit later in the 33rd minute, starting with a throw-in for SE going to the other side of the pitch via Forty-Four, and a nice one-two between Arasov and Busquets getting Arasov free on the right side to get a nice cross in on Papadopoulos to finish the chance from close to make this match-up 1-0 for SE. The next chance comes in the 40th minute with a nice passing game from Forty-Four, Busquets, and Noodle ending up with a through ball to Torres to put Torres 1-on-1 who calmly finishes the chance to make it 2-0. But then the VAR checked the goal and found it to be off-side so the score is still 1-0 for SE. A yellow card for Busquets in the 44th minute meant the so far important passer is suspended for the 2nd leg of this semi-final. A failed pass by SE goalkeeper Hall in the 50th minute gave AO their first real chance of the game. With Liang Kuai crossing the ball onto the free standing Okamoto but Hall saving the shot calmly thereafter Kroustis kicked it out for a throw-in which got easily defended. A yellow card for Forty-Four followed shortly thereafter. The next chance came in the 53rd minute with a failed goal kick for SE, which they did manage to take back but in the following build-up AO retakes the ball once again, where they decide to do some quick passing play where after 4 touches 3 of which being passes the 5th touch was a Okamoto shot to make it 1-1 in this match-up. For the next chance we need to wait until the 70th minute where Torres is on the receiving end of a Arasov cross but heads the ball against the post. A Torres run gets him 1-on-1 in the 76th minute of the match but he shoots the ball over the goal, the resulting goal kick gets Arasov booked with the 3rd yellow of this game. The next chance comes from a failed AO goal-kick ending up at the feet of Horvat who passes the ball to Forty-Four, who after a one-two with Papadopoulos gets a 1-on-1 with Roobe where he leave Roobe chanceless with a great shot into the top right corner to make it 2-1 for SE. But after a VAR check Forty-Four is deemed off-side and thus the match will end 1-1.
The 2nd match of this match-up starts pretty fiery, where before we even reach 20 minutes Vins Vins, Magic, and Jones picking up a yellow each. The free-kick resulting from the foul of this last yellow results in the first chance of the game in the 18th minute. Leading to some quick passing play for SE which ends in Torres’ shot getting saved by the AO goalie. The resulting corner ends up with a close-range header by Horvat which also gets saved by Roobe. Before the next chance we have 2 yellows, 1 for Valor, and another for Noodle. Following this in the 55th minute a quick counter from AO with a great pass by Changshan Princess to Liang Kuai ends up with Kuai in a 1-on-1 on Hall but not managing to finish the chance. A lot of pressure by AO onto SE ends up with another chance for Liang Kuai in the 58th minute but the shot goes over. Another yellow this time for Changshan Princess in the 63rd minute. The next chance comes from a SE throw-in in the 76th minute which ends up with a great Forty-Four pass to put Torres 1-on-1 with the AO goalie, but this shot goes wide. Thus we end the regular 90 minutes with 0-0 (1-1 on aggregate). The first chance in extra time comes from SE where after an easy defense by Vins Vins, and a massive mistake by the AO goalie Papadoupolos gets a great chance in front of goal to make it 1-0 for SE (2-1 Aggregate). The 104th minute has a yellow for O’Pumpernickel, with Okamoto (AO) getting injured late in the 2nd half of extra time, which also spelled the end of this semi-final and thus the end for SE in this tournament.
The next semi-final match-up is between Scandinavia (SC) and Africa (AF). The first chance comes in the 4th minute with a AF long pass from Dian ends up in a great chance for Bobby, who shoots it wide. The next chance is for SC in the 16th minute, which starts with Nesse picking up a missed pass in the midfield, with a nice pass to Söderberg who passes it via Nesse to Lind which gives it into the run of Brukspatron who shoots in the top left corner of the goal to make it 1-0 to SC. Following this goal SC tried following it up with another good chance in the 26th minute, Where a long-pass to Larsen ends up with a shot from a difficult corner which gets easily saved by Yeboah. For the next chance we need to go to the 2nd half, where tried build-up ends up with a failed pass in the defense and an easy shot and goal for Imbrimovick to put SC 2-0 up. This also marks the end of the match.
Going into the 2nd match SC is up 2-0, but AF got Anshah back from the suspension. The first chance came early in the 9th minute where some nice SC passing in the midfield ended up with a Söderberg through-ball to Imbrimovick who calmly put the ball into the net to make it 1-0 (aggregate 3-0). The first yellow of this match-up also goes to Jarrow in the 16th minute. The 44th minute had the next chance, and this one was also for SC where once again a nice passing play ended with a Tälli through ball to Söderberg who calmly finished into the bottom corner to make it 2-0 (Aggregate 4-0) for SC. The 51st minute got a Physt yellow which led to a throw-in which introduced the first AF chance of the game in the 52nd minute with a Djimrabaye Jr. through-ball going to Bobby who goes around Gunnarsson to make it 2-1 (Aggregate 4-1). SC decided it wanted to do something back quickly and got the next chance in the 60th minute where a tiki-taka style of play got the ball to Larsen to make it 3-1 (Aggregate 5-1) with another assist for Söderberg. The last chance of this game was some more Tiki-taka style play leading to a Tälli through ball to Aadnevik who shoots the ball in the bottom corner to make it 4-1 (6-1 Aggregate) in the 92nd minute, which also marks the end of this game, and with that the end to AF’s tournament.
Thus the final is Scandinavia (C1, 1) against Southern Europe (C2, 8). Will Scandinavia show why they got 1st in group C, or will Southern Europe take revenge for the earlier group-stage loss against Scandinavia.
So we go to our first and final, final of this international tournament, with on one side Scandinavia who came first in group C, being the only team who won all 3 group games, and beat Western Europe (D2, 2) and Africa (A1, 4), against the 2nd place of group C in Southern Europe who beat USA U23 (D1, 7) and Asia-Oceania (A2, 12). Which will once again be mentioned as SC (Scandinavia) and SE (Southern Europe). The first chance came for SC in the 14th minute, where a Horvat through pass ended up with a 1-on-1 for Forty-Four but the shot got saved by Gunnarsson. The resulting corner-kick gets easily defended and even leads to a SC counter where Imbrimovick gives a nice cross to Söderberg but the resulting shot gets saved by Hall. The following Nesse corner leads to a Söderberg header which once again gets saved by Hall, with the 3rd corner ending up at Lind who heads it wide. The next chance is in the 21st minute where a Arasov (SC) throw-in leads to a Forty-Four cross to Torres who heads the ball onto the woodwork, to get afterwards picked up by Gunnarsson. The 29th minute leads onto the next chance for SC this time, with a failed goal-kick ending up in an amazing pass by Brukspatron to Söderberg to give Söderberg a big chance which gets saved by Hall keeping the game at 0-0. The 45th minute at the end of the first half comes the next chance, for SE this time. With a Noodle cross to Torres who runs to the backline and passes the ball to Papadopoulos who taps it in for the score to be 0-1 for SE. The 2nd half started really uneventfully with the first thing that happened being a Papadopoulos yellow card in the 65th minute. The first chance came in the 73rd minute with a ton of passes giving Larsen a nice cross-chance to Söderberg who headed it wide. The 85th minute gives Tälli a direct free-kick but the shot gets redirected over the goal, with the following corner being easily defended. That chance ended the final.
With a 1-0 win in the final Southern Europe wins this international tournament.
Matchlist:
Semi-Final:
Asia-Oceania (A2, 12) - Southern Europe (C2, 8)
Match 1: 1-1
Match 2: 0-1 (OT)
Aggregate: 1-2
Scandinavia (C1, 1) - Africa (A1, 4)
Match 1: 2-0
Match 2: 3-1
Aggregate: 5-1
Final:
Scandinavia (C1, 1) - Southern Europe (C2, 8)
Final match: 0-1
I might make 1 more article next week going over some statistics, but for now congratulations to Southern Europe for winning this unofficial International tournament.
Part 2: The groups
Part 3: The quarter-finals
Welcome to the last article of this tournament, with this one including both of the semi-finals and of course the final. The semi finals are the following:
Asia-Oceania (A2, 12) - Southern Europe (C2, 8)
This match-up is between Asia-Oceania and Southern Europe. Both of the teams came in 2nd place in their respective groups. Asia-Oceania came from group A where it ended above the Americas and Australia but behind Africa. In the quarter-final Asia-Oceania beat the British Isles with an aggregate score of 5-0. The other team is Southern Europe who came 2nd in the group behind Scandinavia, but in front of Italy-Switzerland and Germany. In the quarter-final Southern Europe beat USA U23 with an aggregate score of 3-0.
Scandinavia (C1, 1) - Africa (A1, 4)
This match-up is between Scandinavia and Africa, both coming first in their respective groups. Scandinavia did this in a group with Southern Europe, Italy-Switzerland, and Germany being the only team which won all 3 matches in the group. Following this Scandinavia won in the quarter-finals against Western Europe with an aggregate score of 2-0. On the opposite side is Africa who won in a group consisting of Africa, Asia-Oceania, the Americas, and Australia. In the quarter-final Africa beat Eastern Europe with an aggregate score of 3-1, but do have Kofi Anshah out for this semi-final after a late red card in the final match of that quarter-final.
Onto the first semi-final match between Asia-Oceania (AO) and Southern Europe (SE). The first chance of the match comes in the 11th minute. With a few failed build-ups of both sides ending with SE getting the ball. A good through pass by Forty-Four onto Noodle made it a 1-on-1 with the goalie, with the shot getting past the goalie but getting stopped by the post. The 2nd chance of the match came quite a bit later in the 33rd minute, starting with a throw-in for SE going to the other side of the pitch via Forty-Four, and a nice one-two between Arasov and Busquets getting Arasov free on the right side to get a nice cross in on Papadopoulos to finish the chance from close to make this match-up 1-0 for SE. The next chance comes in the 40th minute with a nice passing game from Forty-Four, Busquets, and Noodle ending up with a through ball to Torres to put Torres 1-on-1 who calmly finishes the chance to make it 2-0. But then the VAR checked the goal and found it to be off-side so the score is still 1-0 for SE. A yellow card for Busquets in the 44th minute meant the so far important passer is suspended for the 2nd leg of this semi-final. A failed pass by SE goalkeeper Hall in the 50th minute gave AO their first real chance of the game. With Liang Kuai crossing the ball onto the free standing Okamoto but Hall saving the shot calmly thereafter Kroustis kicked it out for a throw-in which got easily defended. A yellow card for Forty-Four followed shortly thereafter. The next chance came in the 53rd minute with a failed goal kick for SE, which they did manage to take back but in the following build-up AO retakes the ball once again, where they decide to do some quick passing play where after 4 touches 3 of which being passes the 5th touch was a Okamoto shot to make it 1-1 in this match-up. For the next chance we need to wait until the 70th minute where Torres is on the receiving end of a Arasov cross but heads the ball against the post. A Torres run gets him 1-on-1 in the 76th minute of the match but he shoots the ball over the goal, the resulting goal kick gets Arasov booked with the 3rd yellow of this game. The next chance comes from a failed AO goal-kick ending up at the feet of Horvat who passes the ball to Forty-Four, who after a one-two with Papadopoulos gets a 1-on-1 with Roobe where he leave Roobe chanceless with a great shot into the top right corner to make it 2-1 for SE. But after a VAR check Forty-Four is deemed off-side and thus the match will end 1-1.
The 2nd match of this match-up starts pretty fiery, where before we even reach 20 minutes Vins Vins, Magic, and Jones picking up a yellow each. The free-kick resulting from the foul of this last yellow results in the first chance of the game in the 18th minute. Leading to some quick passing play for SE which ends in Torres’ shot getting saved by the AO goalie. The resulting corner ends up with a close-range header by Horvat which also gets saved by Roobe. Before the next chance we have 2 yellows, 1 for Valor, and another for Noodle. Following this in the 55th minute a quick counter from AO with a great pass by Changshan Princess to Liang Kuai ends up with Kuai in a 1-on-1 on Hall but not managing to finish the chance. A lot of pressure by AO onto SE ends up with another chance for Liang Kuai in the 58th minute but the shot goes over. Another yellow this time for Changshan Princess in the 63rd minute. The next chance comes from a SE throw-in in the 76th minute which ends up with a great Forty-Four pass to put Torres 1-on-1 with the AO goalie, but this shot goes wide. Thus we end the regular 90 minutes with 0-0 (1-1 on aggregate). The first chance in extra time comes from SE where after an easy defense by Vins Vins, and a massive mistake by the AO goalie Papadoupolos gets a great chance in front of goal to make it 1-0 for SE (2-1 Aggregate). The 104th minute has a yellow for O’Pumpernickel, with Okamoto (AO) getting injured late in the 2nd half of extra time, which also spelled the end of this semi-final and thus the end for SE in this tournament.
The next semi-final match-up is between Scandinavia (SC) and Africa (AF). The first chance comes in the 4th minute with a AF long pass from Dian ends up in a great chance for Bobby, who shoots it wide. The next chance is for SC in the 16th minute, which starts with Nesse picking up a missed pass in the midfield, with a nice pass to Söderberg who passes it via Nesse to Lind which gives it into the run of Brukspatron who shoots in the top left corner of the goal to make it 1-0 to SC. Following this goal SC tried following it up with another good chance in the 26th minute, Where a long-pass to Larsen ends up with a shot from a difficult corner which gets easily saved by Yeboah. For the next chance we need to go to the 2nd half, where tried build-up ends up with a failed pass in the defense and an easy shot and goal for Imbrimovick to put SC 2-0 up. This also marks the end of the match.
Going into the 2nd match SC is up 2-0, but AF got Anshah back from the suspension. The first chance came early in the 9th minute where some nice SC passing in the midfield ended up with a Söderberg through-ball to Imbrimovick who calmly put the ball into the net to make it 1-0 (aggregate 3-0). The first yellow of this match-up also goes to Jarrow in the 16th minute. The 44th minute had the next chance, and this one was also for SC where once again a nice passing play ended with a Tälli through ball to Söderberg who calmly finished into the bottom corner to make it 2-0 (Aggregate 4-0) for SC. The 51st minute got a Physt yellow which led to a throw-in which introduced the first AF chance of the game in the 52nd minute with a Djimrabaye Jr. through-ball going to Bobby who goes around Gunnarsson to make it 2-1 (Aggregate 4-1). SC decided it wanted to do something back quickly and got the next chance in the 60th minute where a tiki-taka style of play got the ball to Larsen to make it 3-1 (Aggregate 5-1) with another assist for Söderberg. The last chance of this game was some more Tiki-taka style play leading to a Tälli through ball to Aadnevik who shoots the ball in the bottom corner to make it 4-1 (6-1 Aggregate) in the 92nd minute, which also marks the end of this game, and with that the end to AF’s tournament.
Thus the final is Scandinavia (C1, 1) against Southern Europe (C2, 8). Will Scandinavia show why they got 1st in group C, or will Southern Europe take revenge for the earlier group-stage loss against Scandinavia.
So we go to our first and final, final of this international tournament, with on one side Scandinavia who came first in group C, being the only team who won all 3 group games, and beat Western Europe (D2, 2) and Africa (A1, 4), against the 2nd place of group C in Southern Europe who beat USA U23 (D1, 7) and Asia-Oceania (A2, 12). Which will once again be mentioned as SC (Scandinavia) and SE (Southern Europe). The first chance came for SC in the 14th minute, where a Horvat through pass ended up with a 1-on-1 for Forty-Four but the shot got saved by Gunnarsson. The resulting corner-kick gets easily defended and even leads to a SC counter where Imbrimovick gives a nice cross to Söderberg but the resulting shot gets saved by Hall. The following Nesse corner leads to a Söderberg header which once again gets saved by Hall, with the 3rd corner ending up at Lind who heads it wide. The next chance is in the 21st minute where a Arasov (SC) throw-in leads to a Forty-Four cross to Torres who heads the ball onto the woodwork, to get afterwards picked up by Gunnarsson. The 29th minute leads onto the next chance for SC this time, with a failed goal-kick ending up in an amazing pass by Brukspatron to Söderberg to give Söderberg a big chance which gets saved by Hall keeping the game at 0-0. The 45th minute at the end of the first half comes the next chance, for SE this time. With a Noodle cross to Torres who runs to the backline and passes the ball to Papadopoulos who taps it in for the score to be 0-1 for SE. The 2nd half started really uneventfully with the first thing that happened being a Papadopoulos yellow card in the 65th minute. The first chance came in the 73rd minute with a ton of passes giving Larsen a nice cross-chance to Söderberg who headed it wide. The 85th minute gives Tälli a direct free-kick but the shot gets redirected over the goal, with the following corner being easily defended. That chance ended the final.
With a 1-0 win in the final Southern Europe wins this international tournament.
Matchlist:
Semi-Final:
Asia-Oceania (A2, 12) - Southern Europe (C2, 8)
Match 1: 1-1
Match 2: 0-1 (OT)
Aggregate: 1-2
Scandinavia (C1, 1) - Africa (A1, 4)
Match 1: 2-0
Match 2: 3-1
Aggregate: 5-1
Final:
Scandinavia (C1, 1) - Southern Europe (C2, 8)
Final match: 0-1
I might make 1 more article next week going over some statistics, but for now congratulations to Southern Europe for winning this unofficial International tournament.
