Before a crowd of half a dozen at the Powerleague Amsterdam, two finalists warmed the chilly December air with a scintillating brand of football. Team Textron in the white shirts took on defending champions, Vestergaard & Friends Utd in the blue.
Much of the pre-match build up centred on Team Textron’s superior training and infrastructure in the run up to the finals. After finishing third last year, Messrs Brad Compton, Frauk Zahirovic, Feroz Majid, Justin Brennan and Willie Martinez had eloped to a gruelling trainingcamp this autumn to master false nine formations and fitness levels for the trophy push. Team Textron also added Ivan Jakovljevic of Ink Innovation and Scott Burton of Power Stow to their side.
Vestergaard Utd meanwhile had seen a mass departure of their 2021 winning squad. Only captain and talisman, Lars Barsoe remained. The shrewd Dane set to work in the transfer market recruiting Sascha Hoffmeister of Miles GSE, Yuri Nadezhdin of Flight Consulting Group, Sebastien Hoyos of Charlatte Manutention and Max Gosney & Tim Willoughby of GHI.
A ferocious start saw Vestergaard Utd settle quicker with some sublime possession football. The pressure told in the fifth minute with goals from Nadezhdin, Hoffmeister and Gosney. Hoyos threaded the passes like Michel Platini while Barsoe marshalled the back like his countryman, Lars Olsen. Team Textron weren’t to be perturbed. Inspired by the ‘Spanish Messi’, Martinez they struck back before half time. It could have been more bar the reflexes of Tim ‘the Cat’ Willoughby in goal.
A second half revival saw Team Textron narrow the lead with a beautiful instinctive effort from Compton. But did he mean it? However, the Vestergaard team eventually stretched their lead and ran out winners. However, a World Cup wouldn’t be complete without a nerve-jangling penalty shootout. So despite the game not being tied, we held one anyway.
Team Textron converted all of their spot kicks while only an Englishman netted from 12 yards for the Blues. What is the world coming to? Thank you to all of our players and football was most definitely the winner.
