This morning the U18s played their final league match against CAMIR. With 2nd place secured and no chance of reaching 1st, Casuals were bound to be in a carefree and attacking mood, and they opened the scoring after 10 minutes. Although CAMIR equalised from a well worked penalty corner, the home team went into the break with a 4-1 lead. The second half saw some better quality of passing from both teams, with the Casuals securing a 7-3 win.
This morning Casuals put out 12 U12 players for the last 2 official games of the season. They lost 4-5 against Carris, with the younger players on the field for 3 out of 4 periods. They then beat Futebol Benfica 4-2 with the younger players still playing 1-2 periods each.
Yesterday morning the U16 Mixed team won their home game against ESLFB 2-1, with all 3 goals coming from penalty corners. They followed this with another win this afternoon against Futebol Benfica. After a sluggish first half left them trailing 0-1 at the interval, Casuals turned the game around in the second half to win 5-1.
With 4 wins from 4 games, they qualify from the Regional phase in 1st place; but they will face tough competition from the north in the Final play-offs on June 8th.
After 2 teams from Madrid, 2 Casuals teams and Belenenses took part in yesterday’s Veterans 7-a-side May Tournament, Casuals this morning beat their Madrid counterparts 7-4 in a full 11-a-side game.
This afternoon the Ladies played their final league match of the season against Belenenses. They played some fine passing hockey in the first half and reached the interval 2-0 ahead, but Belenenses scored early in the second half from a breakaway goal to reduce t0 2-1. This gave them the impetus to go on the attack but, with both sides wasting numerous penalty corner chances, Casuals eventually re-established their supremacy in the game and were rewarded with a 3rd goal from a penalty corner variation.
After Sport Club’s narrow win against Lousada yesterday, it is a shame that today’s 3-1 win leaves the Casuals in 2nd place in the final league table, 1 point behind their rivals. But they can look back at a very successful season, which includes their first ever National Indoor title.
The U18s returned yesterday from their tour to Zevenbergen in Holland. After their arrival and some sight-seeing in Amsterdam on Friday, a friendly 6-a-side tournament was organised for Saturday with 15 mixed teams made up with players from the 3 clubs taking part – Zevenbergen, Chelmsford and Casuals.
On Sunday the more serious part of the weekend began, with Casuals winning both their morning matches against Zevenbergen and Chelmsford 4-0 and 3-1 respectively. Curiously the Casuals’ return games in the afternoon produced exactly the same score lines, giving them first place overall.
On the Monday the boys proved their physical fitness with a 4 hour bicycle trip to the historic city of Willemstad. After a short rest, they took on the Zevenbergen U18s in a final evening match. In front of a large crowd, the boys played some of their best hockey of the season: they went 1-0 up from a penalty corner early on, but Zevenbergen equalised from the penalty spot. From then on, the Casuals took control of the game and were 5-1 up at the interval. Their irrepressible attacking play tore through the Zevenbergen defence, with 2 goals coming from moves of 8-10 passes. This was an impressive display that earned them plaudits from those present, and the final 10-4 score line reflects a thrilling display.
A great weekend of hockey was complemented by the social side, with the 3 clubs all having great fun at the Discos and Music Quiz. A big thank you is due to Zevenbergen for their excellent organisation and their great generosity and help with anything the Casuals needed.
In yesterday’s league match against Sport Club, the Ladies were looking to extend their lead at the top of the table. But Sport took the game to them from the start and, although the first half ended goalless, the Casuals continued to be under pressure and soon conceded 2 goals. Although they pulled one back, Sport kept up their attacking play and forced a third goal to take the game 3-1.
In the following match, the Veterans also faced a strong Belenenses team. Even so they built a 2-0 lead, but by the interval their opponents had pulled back to 2-2. With Belenenses twice taking the lead, Casuals fought hard to equalise each time and, at 4-4 with 5 minutes left, seemed to have secured a draw. But Belenenses took advantage of their strong midfield control to notch a further goal for a 5-4 win.
In this morning’s U14 Tournament, Casuals won their two games convincingly 7-2 and 9-2. The team simply outplayed Futebol Benfica, the U14 runners-up in the Indoor EN.NA. Trying out different field variations (with/without a goalie), they consistently outplayed their opponents with some nice passing combinations; and when the team started to get tired and stopped passing, they listened to advice and starting to pass again and scored even more goals.
