Match Report

June 17th-18th 2006, Eight go mad in Luxembourg


Report by Katie (who cheated by flying so any words relating to events on the road trip are purely from hearsay. Or any other pop band founded on a reality TV show)

The explorers - Katie, Caz, Kirsty, Toby, Paul, Simon, Clive and super-coach James


Us!

This was the first ever Milton Keynes trip abroad on the playing front (last year's World Games extravaganza being only a spectator sport) and was perfectly timed that England would not be playing a World Cup match on any of the days we were away. The advance party set off at the painful time of Kirsty and Toby picking up teammates at 8am on the way to the car-ferry, while the frequent flyers chilled out in City airport on Friday afternoon instead. Once a certain member of the party who shall remain anonymous had convinced customs officers that an out-of-date passport is perfectly valid if accompanied by a UK driving licence, we all finally met up at the Luxembourg City Yoof Hostel. Here, six of us shared one deluxe room, while Toby and Simon hoped to have another room to themselves but then found that it was shared with a Belgian referee, with whom they were trying their best to give an accurate portrayal of English people :-) In the meantime, we were deciding whether to hit the town in our matching tour T-shirts, complete with updated spelling of the country we were visiting (yes, from now on, it's "Luxemburg", OK?)


Our humble abode.

Friday night

Luxembourg City is small enough that you can walk between absolutely all the bars and restaurants, so we started off at an open-top trendy restaurant, then moved on to one bar, then another Moroccan-themed one with strange cusions for seats, where it was compulsory for the whole team to try a selection of the wide range of cocktails available. Having completed the cocktail menu, those of us who chose to stay out further moved on to yet another bar, which proved to be a gayyy-barrr-gayyy-barrr-gay-bar (just imagine that Electric Six song playing, OK?). At this point, all the beer and straqberry daquiris finally decided to take their effect, and we realised that maybe bedtime might be a good idea, if we were actually going to make it by 10am the following day to a tournament venue on the other side of Luxembourg, travelling on foot!

Saturday matches

We did then manage to find the venue...out of the old town, into a land of astroturf and barbeques with strange spicy sausages.

MK 1 Grasshoppers (not of Zurich) 4
Having come to the conclusion that our first opponents were not Swiss but actually the champions of Luxembourg, we were hoping that since there are only actually three teams in Luxembourg, we might have a chance here. However, the team had a couple of big blokes collecting everything in sight, and by the time we got on the scoresheet through a long-shot from Stuart from Bec (playing for us while Clive was still psyching himself up for the prospect of playing a match wearing shorts not tracksuit bottoms) we were 3-0 down. Not to mention the fact that we soon realised that the astroturn pitches we were playing on were all approximately twice the size of our regular indoor venues! I knew people were rich in Luxembourg, but they're obviously big landowners as well.

MK 1 Meervogels (good Dutch team who ended up as runners-up) 8
This lot were good, and we also found ourselves playing them on a pitch with the previously unseen-in-MK plastic baskets, and the opposition explained that they "always practise with these". So that's our excuse! After most of our few shots bouncing out of the dreaded plastic things, Katie finally managed to get a shot from the side of the post to go all the way through the basket with practically the last shot of the match, to get us on the scoresheet. I think it may have been at this point that James ordered his first beer of the day.


Pass the Dutchy on the left-hand side

MK 3 German team 7-ish
Now this is more like it. 3-0 up in the first half! And three long-shots as well! (Two from Katie and one from Clive). Damn - they're starting to pull back. Hmmm - they seem to have made a few substutions. Aargh - we're now several goals behind. Oops.

MK 1 Belgian team 6-ish
After this time picking Elaine (who Simon already knew) as the latest of a string of Bec girls to fill in for us, the cunning team selection paid off as she promptly opened the scoring. This spurred the Belgians into action, with one girl with bright red hair doing a lot of the damage. Despite the scoreline, we actually played well in this match, with plenty of strong defence in this and other matches. We also decided to settle on this set of divisions for the rest of the tournament.

MK 2 Bec II 4
Aha - British opposition! Bec had three teams here, and as our performances continued to improve, this game was neck and neck. Our initial attacking division created lots of chances but the ball would just not go in, and Bec eventually scored the game's first two goals. However, we fought back with some strong defence and with Katie scoring two running-in shots to level the scores. However, we could not force the winner and Bec scored two late goals.

Saturday night!

After kicking off the night with some youth hostel beers, our choice of eatery for Saturday night was not the tournament-site "pasta party" since the pitches seemed a bit far out of the centre, but instead a rather nice Chinese restaurant back in the centre of Luxembourg City. And it was here that we came across "Robo-Toilet" - yes, the space-age self cleaning toilet!

We then decided to try a Swiss-themed bar (yes you are reading that correctly. A Swiss-themed bar!) in which we found that the only other drinkers were English lads there for the World Cup. This was followed by a trip to another bar with strange metal things on the wall and strange candles on Paul's head. More beer later, the last man standing was James, who took advantage of not having to play by staying out later than anyone else with some other youth hostel residents and finally returning at 4:30am.


It's not his real hair

Sunday matches

MK 2 "Putting it in now" (aka more Bec) 1
We opened the second day against another Bec team, spurred by having worked out that "if we win this match we're guaranteed to not finish last"! Since Bec had now decided to mix up their two "second teams" we found ourselves facing half the players we had played in the last match on Saturday. We got off to a flying start, and were 2-0 up at half-time through an opportunistic goal and a veering-off shot both from Katie. Then we switched, and there were no more goals for a very long time indeed, with plenty of heroic defence. Bec finally scored a long shot a couple of minutes from the end of the match to make it a VERY nervous finish, but we held on. Bec, who had been clubbing, accused us of not staying up late enough or drinking enough. I guess we're just hardened drinkers who are immune to hangovers! (If only...)

MK 3 Bec II 2
Now playing for 13th-15th place, we got revenge for the first day's defeat with a battling performance against Bec II. Paul scored a running-in shot early on, althougn Bec then equalised. Kirsty then managed to turn her defender to score under the post, but Bec pegged us back again. Clive then turned on his ankle, but decided to stay on the pitch and his bravery was rewarded as he then sunk a long-shot a few minutes later, which turned out to be the winning goal. Some strong defence, especially by Simon and Toby against the dangerous Bec boy pairing of Liam and Damski, enabled us to close out the match.

With a couple of hours before the next match, we completed the first MKKC whist championship (I think it might have been Kirsty who won) while Clive finished off the job of consuming the Luxembourg share of the EU chocolate cake mountain, which he had started the previous day.

MK 3 KCL II 1
Our final match of the tournament was against the host club's second team, with a slightly higher average age than our own, and who had been reduced to six players due to injury. We were also down to six of our own due to Clive's injury, and had lined up a Grasshoppers boy to play for us, but werre still unable to find a girl, with Bec, Club Sandwich and several other teams now having departed. However, the Luxembourg oldies suggested that instead of a match due to their injuries, we held a penalty shoot-out.

Knowing what normally happens when the phrases "English team" and "penalty shoot-out" are put together (and that sentence was planned before the World Cup quarter finals), we politely declined, and negotiated a compromise solution of playing a shorter six-a-side match. This worked out perfectly, as our three players yet to score all got onto the scoreheet in this last match. Caz kicked things off with a long shot, then Simon converted a penalty. After the hosts pulled a goal back, Toby then wrapped things off with a long shot with a few minutes left to secure the win.


The dream team

So that was that on the playing side, except for Caz and Katie who then got to play an extra half game each for the Belgian team we had played on the first day but who had since picked up a few injuries...the two of us earning a free beer in the process!


Caz becomes a famous Belgian

Then we picked up a nice trophy for finishing in 13th place out of 18 - our first ever foreign trophy! And we were the second highest British team which is pretty cool.

Big thanks to all the Bec girls who played for us over the weekend (I can remember at least Tamara, Corrinne, Chanette, Jackie, Elaine and Annie but there were probably more) and also Nadia from Club Sandwich, plus John and Stu in the very first game and also the Luxembourg bloke who was up for playing for us but didn't get to. And massive thanks to the hosts for organising it (we like tournaments where there are no reffing committments!) and to Toby for getting us all there in the first place.

After the tournament

Caz, James, Kirsty, Paul and Simon then decided that the best way of returning to the youth hostel was via the scenic route. Which comprised trying to follow the river, realising that the river then flowed in the wrong direction, visiting one of Luxembourg's picturesque industrial estates and finally coming across an Irish bar owned by ex-pats and meeting some fellow Milton Keynes residents! And then narrowly missing a big rainstorm after the weather had previously been perfect all weekend.

With me and Clive bailing out at this stage and leaving on a jet plane, I believe that the final night and Monday trip back involved some of the following....going to a meat market (well I think Toby said that the restaurant was called that and was not referring to Essex-stylee nightlife), finally getting into "Urban" bar after it had been too jam-packed on the Friday and Saturday, going down "the tube" for more beer, strange ball games on the French beach and the English customs proving just as friendly when it came to passportless travel, finally returning to MK at about 10pm on Monday night.


Kirsty shows off the prize

Overall, a fab weekend, and hopefully the first of many tournaments abroad! Luxembourg is a really top place to visit, whether you're more into nice-looking sights or nightlife within a walkable space. (Hopefully someone from VLM Air will read this and give us all money off a future flight). In fact, we might even go back next year!