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FCD F07 wins 2019 Gothia World Youth Cup Silver!
9 aug 2019 1 kommentar
FC Djursholm’s Flickor 07 are the proud winners of this year’s Gothia World Youth Cup Silver medals and the best team from Sweden in the competition and the best team for the Nordic countries in the competition. The team is fresh off their gold medal win in Asia’s largest youth cup, the JSSL 7’s held in Singapore over Easter this year. At last year’s Gothia World Youth Cup FCDF07 placed first with 18 points (tied with Shanghai) in the unofficial Gothia standing.
This year’s competition was held in Gothenburg from July 15th to 20th. In the G12 group there were 27 teams including clubs from Peru, Mexico, USA, Canada, Germany, Polen, Singapore, and of course several Swedish teams.
The week long tournament was a fun time for our team even off the playing field as we explored the best Gothenburg has to offer - rib boats into the archipelago to eat at Knarrholmen restaurant, a day trip and dinner on Marstrand, and checking out the cup’s many other football related offerings at Heden. Our team is lucky in that so many parents are hands on and involved and each player had at least one family member traveling with them and/or attending matches in support.
FCDF07’s first match was against the host club, Häcken. FCDF07 won 10 - 0. Our second match was against Årjäng IF, which we won 4 - 0. Our third match against Jönköping Södra was also won 4 - 0.
In the final game for our group we played JSSL Singapore, a team that we have met a total of 5 times, once last year at Gothia, and four times in Singapore (among them the tournament final). Our team became friendly with them after last year’s Gothia Cup and they subsequently invited us to attend their cup. Our previous meet-ups with them have resulted in FCDF07 winning 4 out of 5 times. Unfortunately for us at Gothia they beat us 0 - 2, putting us 2nd in our group but still in the running for a chance to win the tournament.
Once in the ⅛ final we met Upsala IF and won handily with 6 - 0. That put us in the quarter final meeting SKF Peru, a very physically tough team with an untraditional style. FCDF07 quickly took a lead of 3 - 0 but Peru pounded back to raise the score to 3 - 2. The score stood and the match ended with FCDF07 defeating Peru 3-2 and it was on to the semi-finals against our talented Stockholm neighbors AIK!
The semi-finals played at Heden were exciting to watch as our teams have met many times before over the years but it is always a fun and high-spirited game with lots of energy with AIK. Djursholm triumphed 2-1 and it was on to the final!
The cup’s other semi-final was a tight race and our friends from Singapore lost in overtime penalty shots against Germany’s Segeberg putting us against them in the final! One couldn’t help but think of Sweden’s World Cup win against Germany and hope our team would fare the same! We had confidently beaten Segeberg 3 - 1 in last year’s Gothia. But this year was different. Since Segeberg is a composite team, taken from the best of the best players in their region, only one single player on the Segeberg team was there last year. Imagine if Stockholm had a team like that in Gothia where the top player from each club joined to form a team.
The final, played at the SKF Arena at Heden, was an incredible experience for our team. The procession into the field with Swedish and German flags flying, the national anthem of both countries playing, the giant TV screen blazing with the teams’ names, and the announcement of all the players, the tables of medals and trophies - the enormity of the event was felt by all.
The match started off quickly and unfortunately for us Germany’s nearly 180cm striker sunk two goals into our net within the first 6 minutes. While we tried to recoup and win the midfield to get our game going, they put up a strong defence and just tried to hit long balls up to the striker. We had the most ball possession and several good opportunities to score but the ball just wouldn’t go in.
In the end Segeberg won 2 - 0 and our team were the silver medalists - quite an accomplishment to be proud of of course and now we have something to look forward to for next year! Looking back at our 29 - 6 goal difference for the week we know our girls put in a fantastic effort!
If any girls are interested in joining our team please contact jonus.bartholdson@keystoneadvisers.se and come and join us at a practice!
Kommentarer
Jacob Brögger 9 aug 2019
WELL DONE!!!