Feb.15 – U15 Unbeaten

Last weekend the U15 returned to the outdoor competition, maintaining their unbeaten record. The Casuals started the game with one player short and half of the team away due to school holidays. As a result they were trailing 1-3 against Belenenses Ladies at the interval, their only goal coming from a short corner struck by John Harrison. However, the Casuals came back strongly in the second 30 minutes with a goal apiece from Vicente Mourão, from a short corner, and Michelle Green with a tip in, combining with John. John then showed his increasing maturity as a player, presenting the audience with 2 amazing field goals combining with Vicente both times. Belenenses got one back, but John converted a penalty stroke in the last minute to make it a 6-4 win for the young sun warriors.

João Miguel Freitas

Feb 7/8 – U13s National Indoor Finals

The U13s went to the Indoor Finals in Lousada with a young and inexperienced team, with the veterans of 5 campaigns, John, Vicente and Ioio, having all moved up to the U15/18. Nevertheless, three players with U15 experience were able to go with the team, 2 time Dream Team winner Maarten in goal, Casuals’ newcomer Martim and Fleur (captain) in the field. The first game against Viso on the Saturday showed just how little the team had trained together at this level (something to remedy next season) and the slower pace made it difficult for the goalie Maarten to adapt at first. Nevertheless they held their own to be only  0-2 down at the interval. Martim then got a goal back in the last minute to make it 1-2. The second game was against the 3 time winners Lousada, who as expected showed no mercy; but captain Fleur managed to slot in a consolation goal five minutes from the end – result 1-12.

On the Sunday morning, after a well deserved Pizzeria outing the night before, the team came out fighting against Espinho, with Fleur getting her second tournament goal to keep it level pegging at the first half time-out. However, the strength of the Espinho team proved too much and the final result of 1-6 belied the increasing confidence the team was gaining in working the ball up the hall. The final game against, Casa Pia AC, favourites to be the ones to take a championship title off Lousada, showed just how much they had learnt during the tournament (the main purpose of going). Maarten by then had adapted to the conditions of U13 (fewer high balls, less pace) and defended all the attacks tirelessly to help the team hold their long-time hometown rivals to a 0-1 lead right into the fourth period. Casuals threatened to equalise several times but in the end Casa Pia’s greater experience and depth gave them the inevitable win – final score line 3-0 to CPAC. Maarten Green won his third Dream Team place and the Casuals’ coaching staff unanimously voted Karlijn Vorsteveld most promising young player of the tournament.

James Harrison

Feb. 8 – U18s National Indoor Finals

No passado fim de semana decorreu em Lousada a Fase Final de Hóquei de Sala dos S18, o plantel da equipa foi composta por André Teixeira (capitão), Tomas Hilt (sub-capitão), Bernardo Paredes, Francisco Meirinhos, Diogo Brito, Henrique Santos, Thomas Machado e Gonçalo Brito. O James foi o nosso delegado.

O primeiro jogo foi contra a Casa Pia, onde o LC foi a equipa dominante na primeira parte com o Diogo Brito a marcar dois golos. Na segunda parte do jogo a Casa Pia começou a atacar mais e marcaram o último golo da partida, terminado 2-1 para o Lisbon Casuals.

A ADL foi a segunda equipa que defrontamos no sábado e os mesmos marcaram no primeiro minuto do jogo por desconcentração nossa, mas o André Teixeira consegue marcar logo a seguir e equilibrar o marcador. A ADL volta a marcar e entramos no intervalo a perder 2-1. A segunda parte do jogo viu o melhor hockey jogado pelo LC em toda a época de Sala, onde o Gonçalo Brito faz inúmeras defesas e o Bernardo Paredes impede um golo em cima da linha da baliza. Tomas Hilt consegue acertar no poste da baliza lousadense, mas nos últimos dois minutos do jogo o ADL marca novamente. Substituímos o nosso GR por um jogador com privilégios de GR à procura de um golo, mas a ADL consegue um contra-ataque e acaba por marcar outra vez, terminando o jogo com um derrota por 4-1.

No segundo dia o nosso primeiro jogo foi contra a Juventude, que foi sem dúvida o nosso pior jogo, onde perdemos 12-2 contra uma equipa claramente superior à nossa.

O nosso último jogo foi novamente contra a Casa Pia para decidir o 3º e 4º lugar. Fomos superiores o jogo inteiro, com os primeiros dois golos do Diogo Brito. Casa Pia consegue converter um golo, mas Thomas Machado marca o último golo, terminando assim o jogo com uma vitória de 3-1 e acabar a Fase Final em 3º lugar.

Joe Kodde

Feb. 1 – Men at the National Indoor Finals

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The Men’s first match against Sport Club was always going to be crucial to Sunday’s play-offs, so it was galling to be beaten by a dubious penalty. A tight first half ended without either side able to score, but 4 minutes in, Philipp Wenzel took the ball off a defender, rounded the keeper and squared the ball for João Miguel Freitas to open the scoring. Within 10 minutes Sport had taken a 2-1 lead from two penalty corners, but a great pass from Nicolas Wenzel let in his brother Philipp to make it 2-2. On balance a draw would have been a fair result but, with 50 seconds to go, Sport converted a frankly erroneous penalty stroke for a 3-2 win. In their evening match Casuals took on a strong Carris team, and were 0-7 down at the interval. Although they were always going to struggle against the eventual National Champions, a much closer second half saw them score 3 goals through João Ralha, João Miguel and Nicolas with a lovely lob over the keeper.

The 9am start on the Sunday for their last group match against Juventude did not seem to suit the Casuals, and they ended the first half 2-3 down, despite Miguel Ralha scoring twice to add to his impressive midfield work. Three minutes after the break, Philipp intercepted just inside the opposition half to take the ball past the last defender and the keeper for a tremendous equaliser. Miguel scored from a penalty corner for the Casuals to take the lead but, when a nasty head injury sidelined João Miguel, the team could have lost their focus: instead, 2 more goals from Miguel and 1 from Hugo Jesus sealed a great 7-4 win.

The play-off game against Lamas was a very tight and evenly contested match. At the interval only 2 penalty corner conversions by Lamas separated the teams. After half an hour Joe Kodde, whose defending throughout the weekend had been tremendous, finally pulled one back with a clever tip-in at a penalty corner. But, in pushing for the equaliser, Casuals left themselves open to the 3rd Lamas goal which sealed a 1-3 defeat. Their final placing of 6th out of 8 does perhaps not do justice to the progress in their indoor game that this young Men’s team has shown over the last 2 weekends under João Miguel’s leadership.

Tony Pringsheim

Jan. 25 – Men Win 3 of their 4 Indoor Matches

At the Intermediate Indoor Tournament this weekend, the Men showed some serious improvement in their level of play. They began on Saturday with a 7-3 win against Futebol Benfica. 2-3 down at the break despite two goals from Miguel Ralha, they stormed back with 4 goals including a penalty corner from Philipp Wenzel and another from Miguel. In the evening they suffered their only defeat against União de Lamas, but the final 2-5 score line belied a very tight game.

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Sunday saw them beat Juventude 7-3. With João Miguel Freitas and Joe Kodde switching to man marking in defence, their opponents found little space to attack in. But even so, they managed to wipe out an early 2-0 Casuals lead to reach the break all square at 2-2. In the second half Casuals again pulled away, scoring 5 more goals for a strong win. In the evening’s play-off game, they exacted revenge against Lamas with an excellent 7-5 victory. Next weekend they travel to Espinho for the Indoor Finals.

Tony Pringsheim