Czech Republic and Croatia - Foreign Trip

Trip Report

Twyford Spartans travelled to the Czech Republic to take part in an International tournament, which had over 100 teams representing 18 countries. On the way to the tournament Twyford had an overnight stop in the German beer festival town of Worms.   Due to the Czech Republic joining the European Market crossing the border took 10 minutes instead of 3½ hours on the last trip.

 

The tournament takes place in the southern bohemian city of Ceske Budejovice, which has an old city square dating back to the 1100s. The opening ceremony took place at the cities second major football ground and involved all participants, numerous speeches and the playing of every countries anthem. 

 

The Twyford Under 15 team played all their matches at Borek which was brand new with a playing surface as good as anything Twyford have played on. Twyford’s group was very strong, but Twyford progressed through the group stages to play a very strong Italian side in front of a crowd of over 1000 who continuingly supported the English side. The final against Norwegian professional side Valrenga was played prior to the closing ceremony. One of the Valrenga players was a Norwegian youth international and was unbelievably skilful. At the closing ceremony the national anthem of each victorious team was played before the presentation of their trophies.

Results for Under 15s:

FIXTURE				GOAL SCORERS
Twyford Spartans	2	Stockholm (Sweden)	0	Jason Manley, Danny Brown
Twyford Spartans	4	Lechia Gdansk (Poland)	0	Jason Manley, Sam Hunt, Scott Butler, Sam Stephens
Twyford Spartans	3	Hrdejovice (Czech)	0	Danny Brown (3)
Twyford Spartans	3	Hauger (Oslo)	2	Danny Brown (2) Scott Butler
Semi-Final
Twyford Spartans	2	Athletico Padova (Italy)	0	Joel Martin, Danny Brown
Final
Twyford Spartans	0	Valrenga (Norway)	3

 

The under 14’s played all their matches at different pitches and their group involved all three matches being close. They progressed to the semi final where they defeated the local team on penalties in front of a very hostile Italian crowd who were already in the final. With the under 15 lads giving tremendous support. Michael Humphreys bravely won a header which left him on the floor injured but allowed Sam Southcott to score the winner which allowed the playing of our national anthem later in the day.

Under 14s Results:

FIXTURE				GOAL SCORERS
Twyford Spartans	2	Grand Fresnoy (France)	0	Ryan Atkins, Sam Southcott
Twyford Spartans	1	B 1938 Idestrup (Denmark)	1	Tom Edworthy
Twyford Spartans	2	Locomotiva CS (Czech)	0	Sam Southcott, Michael Humphreys
Semi Final
Twyford Spartans	1	K Horovice (Czech	1	Robin Craig
Twyford won 5-3 on penalties Penalty takers - 1 Ross Seatherton 2 Jamie Colman 3 Dribbly German 4 Tom Edworthy 5 Michael Humphreys
Final
Twyford Spartans	1	Firenze (Italy)	0	Sam Southcott

 

The under 14s victory followed the only previous English victory of the Twyford Spartans Under 14s in 2002.

 

After the closing ceremony Twyford departed for their overnight stop in Salzburg, Austria and before leaving the following afternoon had a look round the very beautiful old town. Twyford travelled through Slovenia which was unbelievably poor to Croatia where they received an excellent surprise in the beauty of the seaside resort they were staying in and the high standards of the hotel. The stay in Rabac was enjoyed by all and everybody would like to return. In Croatia, the teams played two friendlies, results as follows:

 

Under 15s   8    Rasas     1    Goalscorers Danny Brown (2), Rory Williams, Scott Butler, George Rogers, Sam Stephens, Sam Hunt, Chris Baker

 

Under 15s   2    Labin      0   Goalscorers Sam Stephens, Chris Baker

 

Under 14s   5    Rasas     1   Goalscorers Dominic Carswell (3), Andy Norman, Michael Humphreys

 

Under 14s   8    Labin      0   Goalscorers Dominic Carswell (4), Alec Broom (3), Ryan German

 

Twyford travelled home with overnight stop in Munich and two nights stop in Koln where the boys visited the grounds of Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen and watched Koln play Fenebache. Lastly before travelling home they visited the theme park Phantasia Land.

 

 

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