Although the league season began for all of our academy age groups last week, our U14s travelled to the Netherlands for the prestigious and unusual ‘Greenport International’ tournament, competing alongside teams such as Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Feyenoord (Netherlands), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) and Club Brugge (Belgium).
Gergely Fűzfa's players began against Dortmund, but the match had to be suspended after our excellent player Csaba Tóth suffered a serious injury early on, in the 10th minute. The mental shock clearly affected the next game against American side Atlanta United, who were also the defending champions, and the boys eventually lost 2–0. That left five matches for us on Saturday, including the postponed fixture. We beat hosts S'Gravenzande 2–0 and then also took the lead against Feyenoord before having to settle for a draw. Learning from the defeat to eventual finalists Royal Antwerp, a 1–0 win over Sweden's Hammarby IF meant the Borussia Dortmund match became a genuine winner-takes-all contest for a top-four place. In the end, a last-minute set-piece goal proved decisive against us. On Sunday's final day, Gergely Fűzfa's team played their last group match against Aberdeen, winners two years ago. We took the lead – as we did in all of the matches that ended in draws – but the scoreboard eventually showed 1–1. With 8 points (2 wins, 2 draws, 3 defeats), we finished sixth in the group.
The placement matches followed. We drew 1–1 with Sparta Rotterdam in normal time, but the Rotterdam side had the better fortune in the penalty shoot-out. In our final match we faced Denmark's Brondby. After playing ten minutes a man down and defending heroically, our team ‘rescued the match’ and took it to penalties, but once again the opposition prevailed. We therefore finished 12th in the 16-team tournament with 2 wins, 4 draws and 3 defeats.
Head coach Gergely Fűzfa:
“First of all, we would like to thank the Club for creating the opportunity for us to test and develop ourselves once again at such a prestigious international tournament! Unfortunately, a nasty injury overshadowed the start of the event. The operation is behind us, and we thank Honvéd, the organisers and a Hungarian lady living there for their help! We look forward to having you back, Csabi! We played three 1-1 draws and led in every one of them, while we were also able to finish ahead of teams such as Club Brugge, ADO Den Haag and Feyenoord. We managed to achieve a great deal of the objectives we set together with the children! It was an extremely educational tournament for all of us. We are very proud of the boys; hats off to everyone, because even in this field they played bravely, attacked the goal and showed tremendous passion! Only Kispest!
Results:
1. Atlanta Utd. - Honvéd 2-0
2. S'Gravenzande - Honvéd 0-2
G: B. Nnadi, T. Babalola
3. Feyenoord - Honvéd 1-1
G: M. Marte
4. Royal Antwerpen - Honvéd 4-0
5. Hammarby IF - Honvéd 0-1
G: G. Tóth
6. Borussia Dortmund - Honvéd 2-1
G: M. Marte
7. Aberdeen - Honvéd 1-1
G: G. Tóth
8. Sparta Rotterdam - Honvéd 1-1 (penalties: 4-3)
G: M. Marte
9. Brondby IF - Honvéd 0-0 (penalties: 4-3)
Tournament final: PSV Eindhoven - Royal Antwerp 1-0
Honvéd: Tóth Csaba Jr., Mező Milán, Orbán Barnabás, Ehmann Márton, Karácsony Zoltán, Málint Kevin, Oláh-Sebők Zétény, Gerencsér Erik, Marte Miron, Toluwa Babalola, Horváth Benedek, Tóth Gergő, Hanzély Kevin, Nnadi Benjámin, Keindl Márk, Rácz Zsombor, Kovács Botond, Palaga Bence, Oke Olivér.
Our selected individual award winners:
Best Honvéd player of the tournament: Miron Marte
Most improved Honvéd player of the tournament: Gergő Tóth
Surprise player of the tournament: Zétény Oláh-Sebők
