Giuseppe Tardiota wins again in Brisbane

Six players contested the last of our winter tournaments here in the beuatiful weather of South East Queensland.The first round saw our WASPA high flyers Rik and Giuseppe make convincing wins 4-1 and 3-1 respectively. Andy R the other winner, with another comfortable win 3-0.Rik and Giuseppe went on to repeat those same scorelines in the next round, talk about consistency ! And funny enough, the other score was a 3-0 to Gus.
Something had to change, and it did in the 3rd round. Shane got his first win and the big boys played each other, Rik coming out on top beating Giuseppe 3-1.
Round four produced our first draws of the day. Shane doing really well to grab a point from Giuseppe with a 2-2 and Gus twice coming back from Riks' goals, to take a lead and then see Rik equalise. In the other game, Andy R found his shooting boots to put 6 past Gareth who managed 1 in reply.
In the last round Giuseppe and Gus sealed 2nd and 3rd spots with the exact same points and goal difference. Despite Andy R beating Rik 2-1, Rik finished top on goal difference, Andy R securing 4th spot.
So into the semi finals, and with less than 2 minutes remaining both games were 0-0. That was until Gus gave Giuseppe a penalty with a blocking flick striking a moving ball in the area. Gus guessed the right way but Giuseppe's penalty was struck too well. And so, after 30 mins, Giuseppe was through but the game between Rik and Andy R was to head into extra time. A tense 10 minutes flew past and we still had a goaless stalemate. So shots it was, and remarkably both players scored their first three shots each. Then Andy missed, after Rik had scored his fourth. Rik  missed his last shot but Andy couldn't score to level it. So our top rankers were facing each other in the final.
In the 3rd 4th play off, Andy R started the better piling on the pressure. Finally Gus managed to string a few passes together and it resulted with a goal, very much against the run of play. It was a close game, both players fairly relaxed as it was only for 3rd, however the will to win was not missing. Gus stepped his game up and score a couple of goals on the move to take a 3-0 lead. Andy R though wasn't done, and charged through with a very impressive goal late on so the game finished 3-1.

The final was the usual tense tight affair, with neither player giving much away. Giuseppe was probably edging the game and this was to pay off when he got on the score sheet first. Rik grew into the game but Giuseppe doubled his lead. Soon after Rik finally got a goal back. However, the stubborn Italian defense was not to be breached again, and so it ended up 2-1 to Giuseppe. Currently ranked 13 in the WASPA rankings, this could see him break top 10.
It was a great competition, Gareth is starting to get his tactics together, Shane is finding the net, and  getting points, Andy and Gus chased the favourites down to the wire. We played on Giuseppe's two new Exrtreme Works pitches, on great true boards from Rik, and they were truly awesome. Good to see Derek Hovell come for a look, a flicker from yesteryear who will be joining the fold soon. A big thanks to Giuseppe for being the great host as always, and we look forward to next months tournament on the 24th of September.

(Report by Brisbane SC)