Giuseppe Tardiota makes it again

Woody Point, 9am on October 28th.
32nd Brisbane Subbuteo WASPA Tournament

We started the day with ten competitors, thanks to a couple of fly ins from Sydney. Herman and his son Oliver flew up specially for the tournament, and both were to do very well.
Because of the numbers we had two groups of five, of which the top two from each would meet in the semi finals. Our two under 12’s Oliver and Wil were paired with Rik, Gus and Gerry.  The second group had Herman, Giuseppe, Gareth, Andrew R and Shane. Both groups looked tough, with no garuntees for anyone.

The first round saw Oliver storm home, scoring three in the last five minutes to win the U12 battle 3-0. Gerry started shakily against Gus, who capitalised with some fine goals and lost 5-0. Hermann started his away day with a 1-0 win over last months finalist Andrew whilst Gareth and Shane finished up 2-2. The two U12’s then faced serious opposition in Rik for Oliver and Dad for Wil. Dad won 4-1 and Rik won 2-1, and the shrewed Oliver picked up that Rik was playing with 12 men (we’ll be keeping a closer eye on Rik from now J ). Andrew got to winning ways beating Gareth 3-0 and a very close battle between Giuseppe and Hermann saw the Italian come out on top with a 2-1 win. Hermann had a penalty saved at the end of the first half, and saw a shot rebound out from the inside of the post.
Midway Gerry managed to a narrow 1-0 win over young Oliver, Hermann making up for his previous misses beat Shane 4-0 whilst Andrew and Giuseppe fought out a 0-0 draw.

The fourth round saw the big upset of the day, Gerry over turning Brisbanes #1 3-0. The other game in this group was a eye brow lifter too, Oliver drew 0-0 with last months winner Gus. Oliver’s defence play was really top notch.  Giuseppe narrowly beat Shane 3-2 and Hermann still on a rampage beat Gareth 4-0.

The last round in group 1 saw Rik play Gus with a loser heading out of the competition, Gerry topping the group with 9 points. Gus only needed a draw. 9 seconds into the game and Gus was 1-0 up after a quick attack and finish. Rik did get one back and pressed hard, but his normally deadly shooting didn’t turn up, the game finished 1-1 and was probably the first tournament in Brisbane where Rik missed the semis. Giuseppe secured his spot in the semis with a 4-0 win over Gareth, Andrew beat Shane 2-0 but it wasn’t enough for him to progress.

So Giuseppe and Gus lined up in the first semi, the only unbeaten players thus far, and Gerry faced our visitor Hermann.  Giuseppe playing in his penultimate Brisbane comp before moving back to Europe was determined to do well, and his determination payed off. Playing the better Subbuteo, he won 2-0 to seal his place in the final. The other semi also finished 2-0 to set up a rematch between Italy and Germany.

It was a very tense final, as they often are,  Giuseppe though making the breakthrough and scoring well. Hermann was not to be out done and roared back within 2 minutes to equalise. The first half though finished 2-1 to Giuseppe scoring another great goal just before the whistle. Hermann pushed hard but it was Giuseppe who got the next and last goal to win the final 3-1. Hermann hit the post at least twice in the second half, never giving up.

It was a great competition and great to have visitors from other clubs. Sadly our next competition is the last for  Giuseppe, but we are hoping to make a special occasion of it.