Nagano ALT Soccer Tournament, June 2007

My face is red with sunburn. My legs are stiff and painful. There's a nasty whiff of sweat hanging around my apartment. And I can feel a coldsore coming on. Today is the day after another ALT soccer tournament. Once again, we came away from the Nagano tournament without the top trophy (Niigata ALT FC has managed to win every other tournament except this one) but once again it was a great weekend out with the footy lads.

The tournament had the same format of the group stage on Saturday to decide overall rankings in seedings for Sunday's knockout tournament. Our squad was pretty much the same as the one that qualified for Saitama in October. Will and Glen were absent (attending his brother's wedding or teaching in Norway respectively), but we had two newcomers, Colin and Kaz. Also, we had Pete and Faz returning to the side. So, a bigger squad than October, albeit one that hadn't played much together.

The games on Saturday went really well, winning two, drawing one (but losing on penalties) and losing one. This put us fifth out of fourteen teams and in line for a 9.30 kickoff. After the games we headed back to the hotel, had dinner, took an onsen and headed down for the party. We had some beers but I think a lot of us were tired and headed to bed early.

Sunday morning, we had breakfast and took the shuttle bus to the pitches. We started getting ready and warmed up for the match against Gifu. We started with 3-5-2 with a view to scoring goals early but that plan back-fired. We struggled on a slippery pitch and conceded two goals in the first ten minutes. We switched back to 4-4-2 and tried to get back in the game, but Gifu scored another before the whistle. Half-time talk and we all knew that we could play better than we were. We started the second-half with a bit more spark and tried to get ourselves back in the game. We managed to score two goals as we spent more and more time in their half, but Gifu also scored two which put the game beyond us. 5-2 to Gifu and we were out of the tournament. Gutted.

We didn't go home straight away though. The Niigata girls were still competing in their tournament so we stayed to cheer them on. They played well but didn't win enough matches to win their tournament.

So we all had one final onsen before heading back to Niigata empty handed. Maybe if we'd had those other tournaments, we'd have been better organised an could have done better. But we have four months to fix that before the next tournament. Come on Niigata!!


How those games went:

• Saturday, Group Match 1 - Niigata vs Nagano
  We gelled together quickly in our first game against Nagano, passing the ball around comfortabley and snuffing out Nagano's attacks. Cam put us firmly in the driving seat scoring with a beautiful dipping from outside the box. Second half was pretty much the same until we started to get a bit tired. We eased off and let Nagano push forward. Nagano came close to scoring a few times but our offside trap kept them out. Final score, One-Nil.


• Saturday, Group Match 2 - Niigata vs Shonai.
  Our second game was against Shonai and a lot tougher. They were organised and fast and we did well to keep up with them. My lack of pace was exposed more than once as their left-midfield worked together and knocked balls over my head for on running wingers. We managed to hold on to a 1-1 scoreline in this fast paced game as the game went to penalties. The shoot-out ended 3-2 to Shonai after one of our penalties hit the post. Still, four points from two games was a good start.


• Saturday, Group Match 3 - Niigata vs Gunma
  Third match was against Gunma. We changed to a 3-5-2 formation to see if we could make better use of the space down the wings. And the change worked a treat. Our pressure from the packed midfield resulted in four goals in the first half. I came on in the second half at left wing and had a couple of chances to score. Both times I kept my head and tried to place the ball. Both times I hit the goalkeeper or a player on the line. Gutted. We did manage to score two other goals and the game ended 6-0 to Niigata.


• Saturday, Group Match 4 - Niigata vs Saitama
  Final match on Saturday was against Saitama. Worried that we might be caught short with three at the back, we switched back to 4-4-2. The game was evenly matched with neither team looking stronger than the other. The deadlock was broken by the most bizzare looping chip shot that went almost vertical, but managed to clear Pete and sneak under our crossbar. Niigata pushed for an equaliser but it never came. The game ended 1-0, the third time Saitama have beaten Niigata with a looping shot.


• Sunday, Knockout Tournament Round 1 - Niigata vs Gifu
  On Sunday, our first match was at 9.30 against Gifu. We started with 3-5-2 with a view to scoring goals early but that plan back-fired. We struggled on a slippery pitch and conceded two goals in the first ten minutes. We switched back to 4-4-2 and tried to get back in the game, but Gifu scored another before helf-time. Half-time talk and we all knew that we could play better than we were.
  We started the second-half with a bit more spark and tried to get ourselves back in the game. We managed to score two goals as we spent more and more time in their half, but Gifu also scored two which put the game beyond us. 5-2 to Gifu and we were out of the tournament. Gutted.