I was of course part of the Tochigi team, which is one of the teams that run middle of the pack, not absolutely crap but also not the best team out there. I guess the reason is some of us only play twice a year (i.e. at this tournament) and we have some pretty decent players from the Queen's country.
In the last tournament we managed to rank about 9th or 10th. Pretty decent showing, we had a large squad with plenty of subs. We made the top half of the draw for the knockout tournament on the Sunday but unfortunately lost. The Tochigi team has been strong in the past, even managing to make the finals one year. However, the squad this time was not going to repeat that effort.
This time round, we were missing a few of our English boys and we didn't have as many subs. But hey, we tried. The weather for the weekend was looking great ... sunshine abound on top of the Nagano mountains. Unlike the previous event, where it was cold and then rained on the Sunday.
The basic structure is that we play 4 games on the Saturday. The top 10 teams from the 18 teams make the top half of the draw for the following knock-out tournament on Sunday and the right to be crown Nagano champions. The other 8 teams, qualify for the bottom half knock-out tournament for a shield and a case of beer. Not bad, really.
So we played, first up loss ... through an unfortunate goal where we were caught napping, 0-1. Our next was a bit better, a 2-0 win. The third was another loss, 0-2. And the last game was a 3-1 win. So we had 2 wins and 2 losses and would wait to see where we were headed next.
The lads gathering and oozing confidence before the game!
A bit of stretching to loosen those muscles that you never use.
Allen, our goal keeper getting in some stretches.
Yep, that's me getting in some stretches too. And there were many muscles I had to stretch due to my inactivity recently.
Some warm up laps. I was buggered after the warm-up actually!
We were pretty high in the mountains. High enough, that we could almost touch the clouds.
Unfortunately, this was the theme of my tournament ... many times too slow to chase the opposition forward. Yep, that's me in the number 15. Luckily, I think that guy missed this one.
Discussing tactics. Maybe on moving me onto someone that I can keep up with!!!
We all were staying at a Ryokan nearby and had 6 boys to a traditional Japanese room. Tight fit and lots of loud snoring ... not only by me either. We found out that we had make the top of the bottom group for the next day. Some of us were grateful for this as it meant that we had competition more to our level and the potential to win a case of beer!!! And plus some teams take the tournament way too seriously ... like skipping the party that is put on in the evening just to be ready for the following day.
To the Sunday, where most of the lads felt muscles we never knew we had. Let me tell you, it was pretty painful. But we got our game faces on competed. We won our first game 3-0. Then the semi-final where we were up early, but the opposition pulled one back to 1-1 and the game had to be decided by a penalty shootout. Our keeper gave us a great start but saving the first shot. We then slammed home all of ours to make it to the final.
Our last penalty taken by the strike machine, Rob!
Unfortunately we ran out of steam in the final. Injuries to key players caught up with us and some of the boys were trying to recover from sunstroke. We lost 2-0, but gave it a good run. We finished off with a bowl of Curry and rice for lunch and then headed home.
Team Tochigi!!!
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