Our U12 team was drawn in a group with Italian sides Ragusa Boys, Invictus Catania, Reggina and Giovanilie Rocca. Our academy players finished the group stage with three wins and one defeat. According to our head coach, the players showed no signs of being overawed: they played with an excellent mentality, courage and initiative. Their confident, team-first football paid off, as in the final group match Szabolcs Földi's side beat Giovanile Rocca by sixteen goals and went all the way to the final. In the final, after a 1–1 draw with Benevento in regulation time, our opponents won the penalty shootout 6–5, so our team returned home with the silver medal. The organisers named Dániel Kovács the best player of the tournament, while Krisztofer Knobloch was the top scorer with 15 goals in 7 matches.
Group matches
Ragusa Boys (ITA)–Budapest Honvéd FC 2–3
Scorers: Knobloch Krisztofer (2), Alnajjar Emir Milán
Invictus Catania (ITA)–Budapest Honvéd FC 1–2
Scorers: Becz Milán, Knobloch Krisztofer
Reggina (ITA)–Budapest Honvéd FC 4–3
Scorers: Becz Milán (2), Knobloch Krisztofer
Giovanile Rocca (ITA)–Budapest Honvéd FC 0–16
Scorers: Knobloch Krisztofer (7), Becz Milán (2), Szijjártó Patrik, Somogyi Miklós, Alnajjar Emir Milán, Nagy Milos, Dobos Szabolcs, Pintér Gábor Zalán
Quarter-final
Budapest Honvéd FC–New Eagles 4–1
Scorers: Becz Milán (2), Somogyi Miklós, Knobloch Krisztofer
Semi-final
Budapest Honvéd FC–Ragusa Boys 4–0
Scorers: Knobloch Krisztofer (2), Becz Milán, Kovács Dániel
Final
Budapest Honvéd FC–Benevento 1–1, 5–6 on penalties
Scorer: Knobloch Krisztofer
Individual awards:
Best player of the tournament: Kovács Dániel
Top scorer of the tournament: Knobloch Krisztofer
Szabolcs Földi, head coach:
“We were able to gain international experience in Italy in an excellent environment and with very good organisation. It was good to see that the children were mentally balanced and, alongside a huge desire to win, made fully conscious decisions in every phase of play during most of the matches. We had to defend against long balls in behind many times. Playing on a full-size goal demanded much more concentrated individual defending from our players, because fouls in our own half created an immediate threat to goal, so we had to pay much closer attention to the timing of winning the ball, and we performed well in that area too. The team cohesion produced several outstanding individual performances, and it was a great joy for us to see that we could genuinely celebrate our shared successes. We would also like to thank the parents for travelling with and supporting the team!”
Coaching staff:
- Földi Szabolcs
- Fehér Zsolt
- Pókos Csongor
- Fehérvári Anna
- Kovács Árpád
- Horváth Csaba
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