July 24 – Casuals players in Portuguese National teams

U16 national Team

At the end of June, three Casuals players – Diogo Lima, John Harrison and Thomas Machado – were selected for the Portuguese U16 squad which travelled to Barcelona and won 3 of their games against strong Spanish opposition.

This week 3 more Casuals players – Joe Kodde, Miguel Ralha and Philipp Wenzel – are representing Portugal in the National Senior squad at the ‘EuroHockey Championship III’ competition at Jamor.

Portugal play Italy in the first semi-final today at 16.15. Tomorrow, the 3rd place play-off is at 16.15, and the Final at 18.45.

 

June 14 – Portuguese take Cup

A fortnight ago the Casuals’ Dutch team beat the British 3-1 to reclaim the Kuiper Cup, and the Lusitanos team beat the Caravelas 7-2 for the Camões Trophy.

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Today the respective winners played each other for the Pringsheim Cup and it was the Dutch who started the better, when Tommy Hilt opened the scoring after 10 minutes with a strong strike from the top of the circle. The Portuguese came close to an equaliser 2 mins later, but they went 0-2 behind when Hans Kodde’s shot hit the post and Alexa Kodde reacted quickest to put in the rebound. Miguel Ralha kept the Portuguese in the game when he pulled back a goal with a low drag-flick at their 2nd penalty corner.

5 minutes into the second half Miguel’s short corner hit a Dutch defender on the line and he converted the penalty stroke to make the score 2-2. 10 mins later, Chris’ excellent long ball found Herman Green isolated in the Portuguese circle and he calmly rolled the ball past the keeper for 3-2. With the Dutch starting to tire, the Portuguese took a 4-3 lead from 2 excellent reverse stick shots: Miguel once again wriggling at the top of the circle before driving a low shot, and Fred Santos converting from a more acute angle on the left. With 3 minutes left, Linda Teles came agonisingly close to touching in a Dutch cross from the right, but shortly after made it 4-4 from close in.

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This took the game into penalties: with only one Dutch miss, the Portuguese converted all theirs to take the Cup. This was a really exciting game played in excellent spirit: despite Joe Kodde’s amazing work rate for the Dutch, Miguel’s previous experience against Dutch players proved the vital ingredient to the Portuguese success.

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Tony Pringsheim

Photos Here

May 16 – Vets v Casa Pia Vets

An impressive, at least in quantity, parliament of Vets turned out on Saturday to play Casa Pia. Before the match a small presentation of some hockey balls was made to Casa Pia which were gratefully received. The heat made for a sluggish start to the game and the Vets went one nil down after one of Kai Wenzel’s feet came between the ball and the goal, leading to a successful Casa Pia penalty flick. Several opportunities were created and missed by the Casuals but eventually Cat Ward managed to equalise the scoreline, flicking a rebound ball over the keeper, followed by a sweet strike from Steve Fernandes to put the Vets in the lead.

In the second half, with a little more shade, the Vets were able to take a bit more control of the game although umpteen chances went begging and only one of Herman Green’s many shots found its way over the goal-line, mistakes he made up for at the bar post-match. Some passionate play was calmly contained by the unruffleable umpires Joe Kodde and Ray Borrow. Casa Pia played with good spirit on and off the pitch. Final result 3-1.

Cat Ward

May 9 – Men end season with win

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The Men travelled to Lousada for their last league game against Juventude with exactly the same squad that played the previous week, and perhaps it was this consistency that showed in their improved performance. Although they kept possession for large parts of the opening quarter of an hour, they only opened the scoring on 20 minutes when Vitor Rosa’s injection at a penalty corner got a clean stop from Tommy Hilt and left Philipp Wenzel to put his drag-flick on target. Ten minutes later Diogo Brito put them 2-0 up, when he spun in a crowded area and smashed the ball into the roof of the net.

Juventude came out after the break in a determined mood: within 10 minutes they pulled back a goal with a beautifully worked penalty corner that gave João Miguel Freitas in goal absolutely no chance. This galvanised the home team into a more attacking mood, and the back 4 of Temwa Smit, Andrew Baird, Joe Kodde and Michael Kodde had to be vigilant to keep out some promising moves.

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The Casuals midfield of André Teixeira, Ruben Campos, Lorenzo Neuland and Hugo Jesus worked hard to regain the initiative, and 10 mins later Philipp drew the keeper and passed square for Lorenzo to make it 3-1. João Ralha then came close with an attempted tip-in, but it was Philipp who collected a pass just inside the circle, dragged the ball to his forehand and drove it low inside the right post for 4-1. With 5 minutes to go a Casuals shot hit a defender’s foot, and Joe slotted the penalty stroke safely to make the final score 5-1.

Tony Pringsheim

May 2/3 – U18 Finals

U18 Finals

The U18’s went to the Finals knowing we had a mountain to climb, as we were missing three of our players, one of which was our Goal-Keeper.

We won our first game 8-0 against Casa Pia, a team we know very well as we played them many times throughout the season.

We lost our second game of the day 5-0 against AD Lousada, but demonstrated some superb defending from Tommy as kicking-back & Bernardo as full back, both making fantastic saves. The man of the match was Diogo Brito, who gave all he had to give and played his best hockey seen to date.

The next day we played against Juventude HC and lost 6-1. For this game Thomas Machado went into the goal as Goal-Keeper for the first time in his life and actually managed to make several saves. In this match Francisco Meirinhos created many attacking opportunities up the right wing which resulted in our only goal of the match.

Our last match to decide the 3rd and 4th places was once again against Casa Pia. But after a very physically demanding weekend and going down another player, we lost 7-1 to finish in 4th place.

Congratulations to Philipp Wenzel for being voted Best Player of the tournament and being Top Scorer of the season.

Joe Kodde