3. Prague Cup – Prague Cup

Between days 2. – 5. of May took place already the third year of an international tournament Prague Cup, which is organized every two years by our club EWSC Jaguars Prague. Nine foreign teams were interested in participation this year. Together with other two Czech’s teams there were twelve teams in total. Twelve teams promised lots of interesting matches, but it meant more complications for organizers as well. We chose the Sports Hall Radotín as a place where the matches were played. Teams were accommodated in the rooms of Jedlička´s institute and schools, in Centrum Paraple, Hotel Slavia and in the accommodation of the Sports Hall Radotín.

Group matches were played on Friday. There were two groups – the group A: Jaguars Prague, Indians Pilsen, BISO´65 from the Netherlands, Dream Team from Italy, Rhodie from Belgium and Torpedo Ladenburg from Germany. The group B: Nording Bulls from Germany, Red Devils from Belgium, Rejnoci Zlín from the Czech Republic, Rolling Thunder from Switzerland, Star Riders from the Netherlands and Trouble Makers from Slovenia.

We played our first match against the favorite of our group – Torpedo Ladenburg. We decided to begin the tournament in high speed and the most difficult opponent should have got us ready for other teams. But our line-up counted only six players, because Michaela and Vladimír were taking final exams in their school that day. And we had a back luck, because Pavel had problems with one of his wheels, so I had to „jump“ out of my goal and changed myself into T-stick player on the field. Artur went to the goal instead of me. Fortunately it didn’t last long and I could go back to the goal. There were two well-experienced players missing in the Torpedo’s line-up, but it wasn’t hard for them to gain the game anyway. They won 9:2. Both Stanislav and Denis notched one goal up.

Just before our second match our missing players arrived so we could play against Rhodie in our full line-up. The last time we played with Rhodie was before two years on Prague Cup 2011. We managed to press our opponent in the first half, but then Belgians reached us. The match ended 4:4.

Our third opponent was an Italian team Dream Team. This team belonged to the participants of Prague Cup 2011 too. They beat us easily then. But it didn’t look so clear this time. We took a lead in the first half, but then two penalty shots came and it put us down. They won 6:4.

The last match of the day we played with well-known Indians Pilsen and we weren’t successful from the beginning. The opponent got a chance with a penalty shot and the shooter was successful. We managed to reach only a draw 1:1. Our group was full of draws so the ranking after the first day wasn’t clear there at all. Except for Torpedo Ladenburg, who led the group expectedly, the remaining three group matches on Saturday could have mixed the whole group.

There were two evident favorites in group B who separated from the rest – Star Riders and Red Devils. They were followed by Rolling Thunder, Trouble Makers and Nording Bulls and Rejnoci.

The last group matches were played on Saturday morning. But the schedule of matches of the group B had to be changed, because someone robbed a bus of Red Devils during the night, so they were late because of solving the issue with police. Fortunately only a navigation was missing, but the situation was really unpleasant.

Nothing was sure in our group A. The match with BISO´65 was waiting for us and we needed to win to gain better position in the group. And we really won the match 4:1.

The winner of the group A was Torpedo Ladenburg, the second was Rhodie, the third Dream Team, the fourth Jaguars, the fifth BISO´65 and the sixth Indians. The group B won Star Riders followed by Red Devils, the third was Rolling Thunder, the fourth Trouble Makers, the fifth Nording Bulls and the sixth Rejnoci.

There were matches for final ranking – so play-off – following. And the second and the first from both groups were going to play semi-final. We should have played with the fourth from the group B, who were Trouble Makers, for 7. – 8. place. Unfortunately, the first half was a disaster for us; we lost it 5:1. Our defense wasn’t able to find any weapons against the Slovenian long shots. But the second half meant the turn. We won it 2:0, but we didn’t manage to catch Trouble Makers anymore. They won 5:3 and we ended on the final eighth place.

The semi-final decided that Star Riders and Red Devils would play for the first place and Torpedo and Rhodie would play for the third place. The match of Torpedo and Rhodie had clear evolution and Torpedo won 11:1. They got the cup for the third place then. But the match for the first place was more equal and exciting. Red Devils are the Belgian national team, but also in Star Riders play the players of Dutch national team. Both teams performed the game on top level, but Star Riders won at the end 6:3 and they became the winners of the third Prague Cup.

The individual award for the best scorer got Marcel van den Muysenberg from the team Star Riders with 50 shots. The award for the best T-stick got Jörg Diehl from Torpedo Ladeburg, based on voting of all teams. The best goalkeeper was Jana Stárková from Jaguars Prague with the best ratio between shots on the goal and gained goals. The teams voted Davor Matijasevic as the best referee.

The farewell dinner was the last point of our schedule. All teams came to Žluté Lázně and due to the storm they had to fit in the restaurant. They managed finally. The food was delicious and everybody was hopefully satisfied finally.

Thanks all participating teams and we hope that they will come to the next, already fourth year, of Prague Cup. We give thank the officers of City Police who helped us with the timer and building of fields as usually. We give thank the fund Konto Bariéry for money they gave us to pay the rent of the Sports Hall. Thanks belong to the company Adore Prague for the money for awards. Live streaming provided the company NetRex s.r.o. for us and we give thanks. We give thank Davor Matijasevic and other referees.

Final results

1. Star Riders
2. Red Devils
3. Torpedo Ladenburg
4. Rhodie Belgium
5. The Rolling Thunder Bern
6. Dream Team Milano
7. The Trouble Makers Ljublana
8. Jaguars Praha
9. Biso´65
10. Nording Bulls Lohmen
11. Indians Plzeň
12. Rejnoci Zlín