Soccer Team

Posted on 19. May, 2011 in Carousel

The team

This year our team was a international one!! Fr Billy (Ireland), Daniele (Italy), Don Gianpiero (Italy), Fr Romeo (Romania), Fr Juan (Perù), Miklòs (Hungary), Marius (Ireland), Fr Antun (Croatia), Fr Efrem (Iraq), Don Matteo (Italy). Staff, priests, seminarians and deacons, united together in one great team!

 The competitions and scores  

We took part in several competitions from October 2010 to May 2011. The most important was “XV Torneo dell’amicizia” organized by ANSPI: there were 10 different colleges involved and we played a total of 10 games. We reached the Semi-finals for the first time. A second competition was at the Pontifical Scots College: 5 different teams took part in this competition and we beat the English College in the final on penalty shoot out. The last competition will be at the Irish College… we hope we will win again!

The valuation of this year from Fr Billy  

This year was the most successful season for the Irish College football team in many years. Winning the inaugural Blessed John Paul II tournament at the Scots College on 7th May represented the highlight of an enjoyable campaign that also saw us finishing fourth in the competitive ANSPI tournament that was won by the excellent aristocrats of calcetto, the Croatians. We beat the English College on penalties in the final of the Blessed John Paul tournament bringing back silverware to the College for the first time in decades. We were beaten by the classy Croats in the semi-final of the ANSPI tournament but did ourselves proud on the day and in fact had beaten them in an earlier group game.

The squad showed great improvement on recent years with the arrival of some talented players. Deserving of special mention is our captain Matteo Pucci who showed great leadership and commitment guiding the team from defence and encouraging intelligent football. Irish College teams in the past showed that heart and spirit were our best assets when pitted against teams who had the edge with greater skill and technique. This year, we combined our determined spirit with some good football which paid dividends. Confidence was high and our successful season bodes well for an improved campaign for next year.