Our youngsters got the best ever surprise this Monday when they got to meet their heroes from the Europa first team.
The photo opportunity came after the Europa Under-8s beat College 1975 after losing to St Joseph’s the week before. Also this weekend, the Under-14s Masbro team took part in a hard-fought 2-2 draw with Maccabi.
“The boys were back to winning ways again after the shock defeat by st Joseph last week,” reported Under-8 coach Dami Eyoh. “On Friday they got their mojo back and we beat college 1975. We would have score more goals but we advised the boys against it against it.
“Instead we told them to just enjoy the game by passing the ball around and at the end the game it was appreciated by the coach of the opposition team.”
“On Monday, at the end of our U8 training my players were surprised by our first team,” continued Eyoh. “They visited us after our training session and we had a photo shoot with them.
“The kids were so excited and were told they could grow up to be even greater than them and one of the best groups to represent our great Europa FC in the future.”
Europa 2004 2 Maccabi 2
“On a bitterly cold Sunday afternoon 4 goals were shared at the renovated pitch one,” said Chris Edwards, Europa Masbro Under-14 manager. “We went into the game hoping for three points but with 90 seconds to go would have been grateful for one.
“After falling behind to an early Maccabi goal after we gave the ball away, we fought back and William leveled the scores before the break, scoring for the third game on the bounce. The second half proved difficult, as the weather seemed to freeze our passing game and we gave the ball away cheaply and failed to get in behind a determined Maccabi team.
“It was a question of who could nick the winner and with four minutes to go it looked like Maccabi had done just that. A poor clearance from the back found the Maccabi number 10 whose shot deceived our keeper and settled in the bottom corner. Hands on heads turned into a wake up call as Mohamed raced to take the kick off and the fightback was on.
“At last we found a couple of passes and after some neat footwork by Adam he released Mohamed to take the keeper on one on one. With a cool head he placed the ball past him and it was 2-2. We have had a couple of close offside decisions go against us recently but after closer inspection this one went our way, so no VAR please, at least not for this game!
With 90 seconds to go a final push won us a corner, but when Alex dropped the ball into the danger zone we failed to attack the ball and snatch the win, so 2-2 if finished. It was not quite the same standard as the 2-2 draw at Anfield later in the afternoon, but an equally pulsating last five minutes. As always lots of lessons from the game and we look forward to another cold one this week.”
Mons Calpe U10 v Europa Genko Fc U10
“The boys started brightly keeping to our instructions of playing two-touch football as we had practiced in training that week,” said Glenn Cunningham. “We dominated the game from start to finish but must say that after the first ten minutes of good play the boys seemed to get lazy, and take for granted that their dominance was a forgone conclusion.
“Mons Calpe battled hard and made the game more and more frustrating for the Europa boys. Mons Calpe defended well and their confidence grew, which further frustrated our boys. Europa hit the post five times and the bar three times and were kept out by some superb saves from the stand-In Mons Calpe goalkeeper.”
All-in-all it was a good friendly game enjoyed by both teams which Europa won convincingly but for which the score is not important.
Team of the year nomination
In other news. as last season’s treble winners Europa was nominated as the Team of the Year. As the only football team to get the nod for the prestigious GBC Sports Awards held annually, fans can now vote for us by calling 8958. Calls cost 50p a minute with the full amount going into the pot for the GBC Open Day at the end of the Year. So what are you waiting for, get phoning!
