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Leave it to the "crafty"
Dolan -- maker of the giant elk -- to turn a lack of games into
a plus with his homespun deluxe version of the game. |
Danny Lewis (right) gives Dave
Bohnenberger all he can handle as the diminutive laurelist wends
his way through adult defenders. |
Bend it like Dolan?
The Street Soccer tournament was changed this year
to a MESE format to boost attendance. It was a moderate success
inasmuch as it boosted attendance by 57% over 2006. There were
two heats with the winners of each heat meeting in the Final
for the title.
Heat 1:
The Friday heat drew 22 players and was hard fought with two
matches requiring OT to determine a winner. In Roundd 2 defending
champion Canada (Lance Fogel ) was beaten in a rematch of the
2006 Final vs an Antarctica team looking for revenge. This turned
out to be the end of his championship run as he was locked into
playing in another event on Saturday and was unable to try again
to defend his title. Ireland (Jim Garvey) who learned the game
at the Demo was crushing his opponents -- scoring eight goals
in the first two rounds.
The Lewis family was well represented in both heats with Dan,
Wes and Andy all playing in both rounds. They will be a force
to be reckoned with in future years. Andy is training the lads
well and they are quite good; giving their opponents all they
wanted and more from the two youngest competitors.
In Round 2 the games got much more defensive minded with two
of the five games going into overtime.
In Round 3 Jordan Flawd's Jamaican team won a wild 7-5 shootout
over the Antarctica team, while Jim Garvey's Irish shut out the
Dave Denton Cayman Islanders 2-0
Phil White's Luxemburgers quietly advanced into the semi-finals
against the seemingly unstoppable Irish. However the Irish run
came to an end and the solid Luxemburg team went on to the Final
against Jordan Flawd's Jamaicans. Jordan won a tight defensive
2-1 victory putting him into the Street
Soccer Final on Sunday.
Heat 2:
Only 12 players appeared on Saturday for an easier chance to
play against the Jamaican Heat 1 winners for the title.
Jim Garvey was back with a team from Switzerland and he continued
his winning ways in the first round with a 2-0 win over the double
dipping Andy Lewis. At this point Dan Dolan Jr. entered his
first Street Soccer event and his Norwegian squad played
spectacular defense -- allowing only three goals in the entire
tournament. He beat the returning Dave Denton's NATO squad
and also ended Jim Garvey's second run at the title.
The Heat Final pitted the Uzbekistan squad of Dan Dolan Sr.
against the Norwegians of his son Dan Jr. There were murmurs
of possible game fixing due to the fact that Street Soccer
was the TEAM X Team Game of Dan Sr. This was put to rest quickly
when the Norwegians scored three quick goals and then held on
against a furious Uzbeki comeback for a 3-2 win. So much for
the fix.
The Championship Game:
Jordan Flawd's Jamaicans were ready and rested and they looked
to add a Street Soccer wing to the Flawd Sport
Dynasty wall. The Norwegians depended on their spectacular defense
to thwart every Jamaican thrust. When the dust settled they were
partying in the streets of Oslo as Norway won a very exciting
2-1 decision.
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