Tampa Bay Table Soccer Club: July 2010

The only participant of the T.B.T.S.C. at the National event was Alex Batacchi, joining the competition after months of inactivity.

He participated in the Open National tournament, in the Veterans one and in the Virginia Cup for teams and another couple of Unofficial tournaments .

The Veterans tournament was played with a group format, where the first two classified were going to play the final for the Championship, usual format of Group stage and then knock out rounds for the Open one.

He started his fourth National Championship participation with his first Veterans game vs Dewey La Rochelle winning 5-0.

In the Open category he was seeded in Group D with Andrew Brister [WTSL] - Matt Steinmuller [MSC] - Dewey La Rochelle [ WTSL], winning his group with 9 points [3wins]; 5-0 to Andrew, 5-0 to Matt and 3-1 to Dewey.

Great highlight the victory over Matt Steinmuller in a tight game that he resolved with a superb shooting performance, and honestly the result at the end did not reflect the playing on the pitch.

Alex getting ready on the purple Harchester United pitch that will see all his Open group games.

Before continuing his Open adventure he played two tough games in the Veterans Group; the first with Gregg Deinhart 1-1 and the second with Paul Eyes 2-2 coming back from a 0-2 deficit in a match full of "high class touches" from both players.

Alex and Paul in action from their Veterans Group game.

Open Quarter of Final versus Michael Tillman, as usual a great game, very tight that could have gone either way but our representant missed his chances and was defeated 1-2, Michael went on to loose the final at the Golden Goal against the Super Champ Zach Walker.

Last game for the Veterans Group so Alex beating Andrew Zunino 5-0 and waiting for the result between Paul and Gregg to see if he was going to play the final.

The second day of the Nationals saw the Virginia Cup for teams, Alex as usual was playing as a free agent, his team eliminated in the Group stage, with him playing several fantastic players:

0-0 with Stuart Russell [MSC], 0-3 with Zach Walker [WTSL] and beating 1-0 the legend Rick Wilcox [WTSL].

Last game of his National adventure, the final of the Veterans category, a fantastic game with Paul Eyes, a game that was called at "European level", great performance even though he came up short , loosing 0-1.

Paul and Alex posing with the National Trophy before the Veterans final.

Another fantastic weekend of Subbuteo with Alex adding another National Runner up finishing at his collection [ 2008 Team with SOCAL , 2009 Open individual] , so this year Vice Champion in the Team Competition with SCC United and in the Veterans Category.