Looking back... 2009 A.S.A. Nationals - Ellicot City, MD

The 2009 edition of the A.S.A.  National Championship was held in Ellicot City MD , that easily could be called the home of Subbuteo in the United States thanks to the passion and hard work of Paul Eyes, and saw a  record attendance for the event of more than 60 players.

The Suncoast Table Soccer League for the first time was adding Matt Fox at the usual traveler Alex at his third National  Championship Tournament..

Fox was eliminated in the Group Stage, but scoring his first goal at the Nationals, then in the Mary Jane tournament went out on shoot-out after a 0-0 draw.


Alex started his National adventure in Group 5 winning his Group quite easily even though  he played badly : 5-0 to Andrew Brister, 6-0 to Grant Lilly and 7-0 to Evan Winter.


He approached the Round of 32 with a lot of doubts knowing that his opponent Andrew Giffen was a veteran of this competition , Semifinalist in 2005, and the guy that played with him his first Subbuteo game on American soil  while he was still learning the rules of the game.
Alex started the game in a very aggressive fashion but missing a couple of good chances, then a post and a goal disallowed for offside, the frustration was building up even though was dominating, finally after a big pressure with two corners in a row he was able to score with the very fast move at the edge of Andrew penalty box, and closed 1-0 the first half.
He dominated the second half but without adding any score to the little margin and even though Andrew did not create chances Alex was in a worry position till the final whistle.


In the round of 16 Alex met Eric Walton [ Vice National Champion in 2000 and 2001 ] -
Fantastic game that it could went either way, two big posts on a 0-0 result, one from each player, Alex was the one attacking and keeping more possession  of the ball, but Eric counter attacks were always very dangerous and effective.
Late in the second half Alex found the 1-0 with a fantastic long shot with the ball in Eric shooting zone and his player on his shooting line.....Batabomber!!!, the old scream came out! [ his classical scream after scoring a goal in his soccer times, that was also his nickname].
Alex controlled the possession and the pace of the game and in the end he found the 2-0 that closed the game in a lucky fashion: strong shot after a corner saved by Eric goalkeeper that rebounded precisely on one of Alex figures that stopped the run of the ball and had an easy shot .


Quarters of final vs Mike Byrd.
Alex started the game very resolute and closed the first half up[ 2-0],dominating the whole game that will end up 3-0 in his favour, hitting couple of posts and bars, having fantastic touches like a double curl [ left and right ]on Mike shooting zone to liberate one of his figures for the shot, he was in the Semifinal.


Semifinal vs Stuart Russell.
Stuart very good player that surprisingly  had eliminated the triple reigning National  Open Champion Zach Walker in the Round of 16, Alex started very well since the kick off with a fast action on the left wing that culminated with a bar, then Stuart pretty much dominated the half with Alex unable to create other chances, playing too slow on the attacking end to trouble one of the best defensive players in America.

Daniel in attack

First half [ 0-0 ] and the second one followed the same path till an evident mistake from Alex in defence allowed Stuart to score six minutes from time, down 0-1 and feeling already beaten and truly mad for his mistake, Alex slapped himself before kicking off  and now  it was like the " beast" woke up: super fast action on the left wing right away after the kick off and goal for tying the game taking by surprise Stuart, then the last five minutes played like in a"rage", incredibly was able to go 2-1 up and then controlled the last couple of minutes with master touches, he was in the National final.

Alex moving forward

In the Open Championship final against Daniel Cranston , Alex played quiet badly in every sector of the pitch, and the final 2-0 could have been a lot worse with his opponent dominating almost the whole game and that can be seen on our club picture site just clicking on the  blog links.
Unfortunately he arrived very close to his dream without fulfilling it.

Both relaxed after the battle



Daniel with the  National Trophy



                                                                                           

This article closes Looking back... the season 2011/12 will start on September 1st and hopefully will bring more stories about the Club, trips and games with the American Subbuteo Association.