The Ladies were unsuccessful in their bid to defend last year’s title of Indoor Champion in Lousada. Yesterday they got off to a bad start, losing 3-5 to Sport Club: their opponents sat back to defend against the Casuals pressure, but were astute in using fast counter attacks to score at regular intervals. In the evening match against a talented young CAMIR side, the Ladies redeemed themselves with some fast and resolute attacking hockey which, despite some weak umpiring, brought them a deserved 6-4 win.
This morning they played Lousada in the last qualification match: an exciting game ended 3-3 and, in the ensuing penalty shoot-out, Casuals converted 2 of their strokes and their keeper defended all 5 of Lousada’s shots for a 5-3 win. This left three of the four teams tied on 6 points, with Casuals missing out on a place in the Final on goal difference.
Their only consolation was that they were awarded all 3 of the individual prizes:
Claudia Fidalgo won ‘Top Scorer’ and ‘Best Player’, and Andreia Rebelo won ‘Best Goalkeeper’. Inês Campos (U15) won also a place in Final-four U15 Dream Team.
Meanwhile the U15s had a tough start yesterday against Lousada (the eventual Champions), losing 1-12. But in their second match against old rivals Casa Pia, they upped their level to win a pulsating game 4-3, with the winner coming from a penalty corner in the last minute.
In this morning’s game against a difficult Juventude side they held out for the first 15 minutes, with their keeper making some fabulous saves; but they were eventually beaten 3-0. In their last game against Casa Pia for 3rd place the whole team was rotated and, despite going into the break at 1-1, they ended up losing 2-5. However the improvement in their play over the weekend was notable.
See tournament photos: