Dutch win second Football Cup
05 Oct 2010
The second Nuffic Neso & NCM Football Tournament has been won by the Dutch. In an exciting finale they beat the Russian alumni with a biting score of 5-4.
The football tournament took place on Saturday 25th of September. It was opened by supporting words from the Ambassador of the Netherlands, Ron Keller, followed by the Dutch and Russian anthems. After his speech the Ambassador made a kick off in the middle of the football field and the first match began.
This year four teams participated in the event: two teams from Nuffic Neso Russia in orange t-shirts played against two teams from NCM in white t-shirts. NCM is the Netherlands Club Moscow, the club almost all Dutch expatriates living and working in the Russian capital are members of.
Like last year Nuffic Neso was represented by a team of Russian students and a team of Russian alumni who have studied at Dutch Higher Education institutions. For NCM a team of Dutch expats played together and the second NCM team was a mixed team of Dutch and Russian people working for the financial company Lage landen. The latter mentioned team finally took the Cup back to its office.
In total four games were played in the football hall of USZK RGUFK – the Sport Complex of the Russian State University of Sport where football players and supporters enjoyed beautiful decorations, Dutch music and Dutch cheese sponsored by Uniekaas.
How it went down…
In the beginning it seemed that this year the Russians would exact their revenge upon the Dutch business people who were the winners of last year’s football tournament, and bring the cup away with them. The first match ended with a shattering 0-6 score line - the Russians scored their first goals in just 28 seconds. The Dutch team failed to score even one goal against the Russian alumni.
The second match however destroyed all illusions of an easy path to victory and made the Russian players worry about the outcome of the game. The first half of the second match began with a goal to the Dutch side after five minutes of play. In spite of having glimpsed failure the Russian students’ team had equalized at 1:1 by the end of the first half. But in the end the Russian team couldn’t resist the pressure of the Dutch company team and lost 5-2.
The third match was to define who would take the third place and receive the bronze medals. Now it was the Dutch expat team and the Russian students playing against each other. Almost immediately after starting the game the Russian students’ team scored two goals and some minutes later added two more. Winning two goals back by the end of the first half didn’t help the Dutch to save the situation: the Russian students eventually won with the score 5-3.
The final
promised to be interesting: everybody was curious – could the Russians steal a
win from the Dutch? The start of the game was not so successful for the Russian
alumni’s team; they let four goals pass through their goal line without
striking any back at the Dutch company side. Nevertheless the second half of
the final showed a tough struggle for victory: the Russian team managed to
score four goals and almost had a hope of winning this year. In the end though
the Russian alumni didn’t have their day and sadly for them the Dutch company
team proved to be the winners finishing the game 5-4.
Three teams took to the medals table during the prize ceremony of the Second Football Tournament Nuffic Neso & NCM: the bronze medals went to the Russian students’ team, the silver ones to the Russian alumni team, and the Dutch NCM & Lage landen team topped the victory podium by receiving gold medals and the Golden Nuffic Neso & NCM Cup.
After the tournament there was an informal Dutch-Russian reception in Grand Café Probka where participants of the matches could discuss their impressions of the games and think out tactical strategies to secure wins in next year’s tournaments!
Nuffic Neso – NCM Football Tournament
First match
Nuffic Neso Russian Alumni –Dutch NCM Expat team: 6 – 0
Second match
Nuffic Neso Russian Students –Dutch company “Lage landen” team: 2 – 6
Third match
Nuffic Neso Russian
Students – Dutch NCM Expat team: 5 – 3
Final
Nuffic Neso Alumni – Dutch company “Lage landen” team: 4 – 5