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Pits U13's in Paris for weekend tournament

Pits U13's in Paris for weekend tournament

Dave Kerr28 May 2015 - 12:02
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Pits U13's recently spent a weekend in Paris playing football and seeing the sights

A long weekend in Paris playing football against teams from Paris, Monaco, Bulgaria and Slovakia, had taken some planning and organising, but at the end everyone thought the effort was well worth it for the experiences and memories the boys had gotten from the trip.
Many, many thanks must go to Emmanuel Rodriguez for his efforts in organising the trip, logistics etc and his, Belinda Tewson and Patrick O’Donnell for their tireless efforts in keeping the group together on busy trips on trains and from stations to venues, ensuring at all times all were accounted for and kept in high spirits.
Many thanks to the host club , Club Olympique Vincennes ( COV ) for their hospitality during our stay and to their club members who accommodated the Pitshanger players. The boys were staying with host families who sometimes had a child playing in a younger age group than the Pitshanger squad.
At this point it must be said that all the host families could not praise the Pitshanger boys highly enough, for their behaviour, polite manners and consideration to the younger players they were sometimes staying with.
The President and ex President of the club, managers of host teams, as well as the other guest teams, all had nothing but praise for Pitshangers behaviour on and off the pitch. We were sometimes given quizzical looks when shaking hands before matches with the opposing team, manager and referee, but this just further endeared the team to the organisers and other guests. To say we stood out is an understatement, everyone could not but help notice a squad dressed in black and tangerine and we had to field many a question about where we were from and what did Pitshanger mean ???
An obligatory trip in to Paris to see Notre Dame, a ferry ride from there to the Eiffel Tower and a long walk to the Arch de Triumph was the highlight of our Sunday afternoon. I say a long walk because at this stage we had some very tired young men 
Football
Pitshanger were pitted against 9 teams , 4 from the host club COV 1 ( equivalent to a district team ) and COV 2, 3 & 4, Paris University Club ( PUC ) , AS Jep FC from Monaco , Montana from Bulgaria, and DAC & Komarno from Slovakia.
SATURDAY
COV 2 1 - 2 Pitshanger FC Joshua James x 2
PUC 2 – 1 Pitshanger FC Junayd Shawwal x 1 (pen)
COV 1 5 – 0 Pitshanger FC
SUNDAY
Komarno 0 – 1 Pitshanger FC Junayd Shawwal
AS Jep FC 0 – 5 Pitshanger FC Junayd Shawwal 3, Luca Piccini, Kian Moynihan
COV 4 2 – 0 Pitshanger FC
MONDAY
COV 3 0 – 1 Pitshanger FC Junayd Shawwal
Break for lunch and U13 Penalty shoot out. Rory O’Donnell was the last man standing for Pitshanger and reached the last group. Going last in the final group Rory twice had chances to win the event, but there were some fine keepers taking part, not least Nate , and twice Rory was thwarted. Eventually a player from COV 1 won the event. Nate made some outstanding saves during the event getting some deserved high 5’s and gloved fists from the other keepers.
DAC 0 – 1 Pitshanger FC Junayd Shawwal
Montana FC 1 – 0 Pitshanger FC
P 9 W 4 L 5
Pitshanger were not in Paris to win the tournament but to take part, this attitude won praise from the organisers and many in the crowd, if Pitshanger had won their last game it did indeed look as if they would make the final, but with a train to catch we would not have been able to play, I am not saying we threw our last match but we were not too concerned about not winning  .
Some sad farewells and last minute photos with hosting families and Pits were off for the long journey home, but taking many happy memories with them and leaving a very good impression behind, so much so that the organisers are very keen to have next seasons Pitshanger U13’s attend and continue the goodwill between the 2 clubs.

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