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Australia at the 2022 World Cup

By Eliot Kennedy and Steve Dettre

Eliot:

Fabrizio Coco, Eliot Kennedy, Oli Ollnow, Hermann Kruse

Fabrizio Coco, Eliot Kennedy, Oli Ollnow, Hermann Kruse

It’s hard to know where to start in reporting on what was an amazing and, in some ways, overwhelming experience! Overall, it was a really great few days, with some impressive individual and team results, some disappointments and a few lessons learned. The Aussie team spirit was tremendous, and it was particularly lovely to see Hermann and Oli again, and to have great support from Fabrizio’s dad Vince throughout and, on the Sunday, Eliot’s wife Jutta.

The organisation by the Italian federation (FISCT) was in some ways brilliant, but in other ways could have been even better. The “room” was amazing (never seen 48 boards set up before with heaps of room around each board!), while the tables, boards and pitches (Astrobase) were very good. The pitches did slow down a little as the venue got warmer each day, but were consistent and of course the same for every player. A late morning start meant a very late finish on the Saturday…the Aussies bailed at around 7.00pm while the top flickers were still going. Just too tired. Getting to and from the venue was not easy either, but we managed in the end. All in all, though, well done FISCT!

WARM UP – Friday
We headed to the venue at around midday on Friday. As well as some flicking amongst ourselves, we managed to arrange international team friendlies with Gibraltar and the Republic of Ireland (ROI) on the Friday afternoon, which was both great in and of itself (our first internationals since the friendlies against Singapore in February 2020, and first against these two countries) and very good preparation for what was to come. Both matches were close, and were played without referees and in a really good spirit. After a narrow loss to Gibraltar, we managed a narrow win over the ROI – our first against European opposition since the 1994 World Cup versus Norway.

The full scores were as follows:

Australia v Republic of Ireland

Australia v Republic of Ireland

AUSTRALIA (1) vs GIBRALTAR (2)
Eliot Kennedy 1 Joe Bonavia 1
Fabrizio Coco 1 Lawrence Alvarez 0
Hermann Kruse 1 Daniel Baldichino/Richard Berllaque 2
Oliver Ollnow 1 Joseph Sanchez 2

AUSTRALIA (2) vs REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (1)
Fabrizio Coco 3 Brandon Rodgers 0
Oliver Ollnow 3 Oisin Mac Eo 0
Eliot Kennedy 1 Gary Moore 1
Hermann Kruse 0 Andy Fitzpatrick 1

INDIVIDUAL EVENTS – Saturday
I can say that even at 60, and with many events behind me, I was still very nervous! But the Friday flicks had helped and once I got into it the nerves mainly faded. Unfortunately, we all tended to play our matches at the same time or had to referee when others were playing, so we did not get to watch each other much.

Leroy Justin v Fabrizio Coco

Leroy Justin v Fabrizio Coco

The results:
Open
Fabrizio
v Leroy Justin (BEL) 1-6
v Alberto Di Maggio (GRE) 0-6
v Bennet Kaspar (ENG) 2-4

Veterans
Eliot
v Stefan Sandner (AUT) 1-3
v Lazaros Papakonstantinou (GRE)0-3
v John Marshall (SCO) 5-0

Hermann
v Frank Stiller (GE) 1-7
v Cesare Santanicchia (ITA) 1-7
v Luis Abreau (POR) 0-6

U20
Oli
v Cristian Antùnez (ESP) 2-2
v Christos Hitas (GRE) 0-4
v Francesco Vezzuto (ITA) 0-1

Steve:
Some fun facts:
• For the second time at a world cup, Eliot won a match (1994: Miroslav Sulc (CZE) 2-1) and 2022 (John Marshall (SCO) 5-0), and in the process was the first Australian player to score more than 2 goals in a game in the FISTF era.
• He joins an elite group with Peter Thomas (2014, Rochefort) and Raffaele Lombard (2016 Framerie) [and himself in 1994] to win a match and thus not finish bottom of his group.
• Eliot’s win was our first since 2016.
• This was the first world cup since 2016 where all players scored at least one goal in their group.
• Oli was our first representative in an ‘Under 20’ to get a point since Will Johncock in 1994.
• His 2-2 draw matched that of Will, who drew 2-2 with Pavel Novak (CZE).
• The coach of the Italian youth team said after Oli’s narrow 1-0 loss to Vezzuto: “If he spends a month at my club, he becomes a top player in England!”

Eliot:
Some quick observations:
• Fab was drawn in one of the toughest groups, against three world class players. He did really well to score in two of his matches, and to push Kaspar Bennett to a 4-2 result (Kaspar drew 2-2 against Italian opposition in the team event on Sunday and is a top, top player on his day).
• My first match was critical. Stefan deserved to win but at 1-2 down, I managed to hit the post 3 times in the one shot…30 seconds later Stefan scored! But even with a draw, I would have gone out on goal difference. Happy to get a big win though, even though I should’ve scored more!
• Hermann, by his own admission, struggled to play his best, and to strike a balance between trying to be relaxed and trying to play hard. I think his (and Oli’s) lack of regular competition in Berlin makes it tougher for them. He had tough opponents though and did well to score in two of his matches.
• Oli acquitted himself really well in a tough group. Getting a point was well deserved.
• The standard of the top players was, as expected, unbelievably high. In particular, the speed with which players both attack and defend is amazing.
• Play goes so fast it is hard to tell, but I still think that there were lots of times when a defender had two flicks when they only should have had one (because the attacker had taken two flicks in very quick succession). I don’t recall it being pulled up even once.

TEAM EVENT – Sunday
Being drawn with Belgium (who made the final), England (very strong) and Northern Ireland, we had realistic expectations about qualifying, but did target the NI match as the one we wanted to win. We had Steve down as a sub for each match, but his FISTF Presidential and media duties unfortunately meant he was unable to flick in anger.

We played England first up. They were too strong for us, as expected. I had the pleasure (and misfortune!) to play Chris Thomas, Peter’s brother. What a great and fair player he is! My only regret was not scoring a consolation goal near the end, but truth be known my keeping kept the score down (as did Chris’s very nice decision not to go for goal when I missed a forcing flick with my spare keeper). And well done Fab and Oli at least scoring in their matches.

Full results were as follows:

Australia 0 England 4
Oliver Ollnow 1 Elliott Bellefontaine 5
Fabrizio Coco 1 Kaspar Bennet 5
Kruse Hermann 0 Darren Clark 5
Kennedy Eliot 0 Chris Thomas 4

Australia v Northern Ireland

Australia v Northern Ireland

Next up we had Northern Ireland, who had gone down 0-4 to Belgium. This was the one we wanted to win, and we came very close to doing so. We were up 2-0 at half time (with Fab and me leading), but NI did well to fight back and make it 2-2. We were well in front on goals overall, but unfortunately it still counted as a draw in a group match. In retrospect, we should have done more research on our opponents, as I think with a different match-up of players we would have won. But fair play Northern Ireland.

Full results were as follows:

Australia 2 Northern Ireland 2
Eliot Kennedy 4 Watson Lawrence 0
Fabrizio Coco 8 Adams Eoin 0
Hermann Kruse 1 Bradley Martinog 3
Oliver Ollnow 0 Stewart Simon 1

Next up were Belgium. Uh-oh!! They were pretty relaxed and I think took it easy on us, but were still way too good. The scores:

Belgium 4 Australia 0
Christophe Dheur 3 Oliver Ollnow 0
Bessim Golger 4 Hermann Kruse 0
Rémy Huynh 5 Eliot Kennedy 0
Florian Giaux 7 Fabrizio Coco 0

Northern Ireland managed to lose only 1-3 to England in the final round, with Simon Stewart having a fine 2-0 win over Bob Varney, meaning that they pipped us for third in the group. That was disappointing, but it was still a great day and we were very proud to fly the Aussie flag!

I stayed for the knockout rounds and witnessed some amazing and very close matches. The passion levels were high – sometimes too high for this Aussie – but most of the matches were played without too much controversy.
In sum, it was a brilliant few days and I hope to experience it again in 2024, rather than waiting 28 years for my next World Cup.

Steve:
Final observation:
• I was impressed by the spirit of the team, despite losses. All the guys responded admirably, shaking hands, and congratulating opponents. There was no petulance from any of our lads (that I saw!)

Australian World Cup Squad 2022

This year’s World Cup will take place in Rome, Italy in September, 2022. ATFA is proud to announce our squad for the tournament.

Veterans
Eliot Kennedy
Hermann Kruse

Opens
Fabrizio Coco

Under 20s
Oli Ollnow

Open Team
Fabrizio Coco
Steve Dettre
Eliot Kennedy
Hermann Kruse
Oli Ollnow

ATFA would like to wish our competitors all the best for the tournament. We are very proud of our representatives and will be following their progress with great anticipation.
27 eliot kennedy 28 hermann kruse 34 oliver ollnow 36 steve dettre 49 fabrizio coco

Australian National Team Qualification Tournament

australian table football association subbuteo national team wc trials poster 600px
2020 sees the FISTF World Cup of Table Football take place in Italy in September. Players who are thinking of traveling to Italy for the event are invited to compete in a qualification tournament next month. Please use the entry form below if you would like to compete in the tournament to qualify to represent ATFA at the World Cup. We will also be holding a WASPA tournament on the same day at the same venue – it would be great to have as many players coming along to create atmosphere! So please also enter on the form below if you’d like to play in that WASPA tournament (this will help the Northern Falcons TFC know how many pitches to set up for the day).

Saturday, March 7, 2020
Willoughby Park Bowling Club – 13 Robert St, Willoughby East, NSW
Registrations on the day will be open from 9:00AM.
Flick-off is at 10:00AM sharp.

A tournament held to determine places for Australian table footballers who wish to represent the country at the 2020 World Cup in the Open Individual Event and the Veterans’ Individual Event. There will also be a WASPA tournament held simultaneously, for those not wishing to compete at the World Cup but who’d like to be part of the atmosphere on the day of the qualifying tournament.

Entry to the World Cup qualifying tournament(s) on the day is $20 per player.
Entry into the WASPA tournament is $5 per player
Entry fees payable on the day.

All games will be played on Extremeworks astropitches.

A BBQ lunch will also be available on the day.

World Cup Squad Announcement

WC2018Today the Australian Table Football Association announced the players who will represent Australia at the upcoming FISTF World Cup to be held in Gibraltar from September 1-2, 2018.

5 Australians will compete across three Individual Categories on Saturday the 1st with two players (Robert Green and Fabrizio Coco) possessing previous World Cup Experience.

On Sunday the 2nd Australia will compete in the teams event for the first time since the 1994 World Cup with Robert Green captaining the team.

Robert Green in Action at the 2014 World Cup

Robert Green in Action at the 2014 World Cup

Preparations for the tournament are well underway with the players training hard in their respective states in the lead-up to the to tournament. The team will assemble in Gibraltar in the days prior to the tournament and will play an International Friendly against the USA to complete preparations on Thursday August 30.

The ATFA would like to wish all the players the very best of luck for the tournament and we look forward to updating you all with the teams progress as they prepare for and compete in the tournament.

Team Australia at the 2018 FISTF World Cup:

Individual Categories:

U19:
Benji Batten (Melbourne TFC)

OPEN:
Fabrizio Coco (Sydney TFC)
Paul Mercer (Northern Phoenix TFC)

VETERANS:
Robert Green (Northern Falcons TFC)
Hugh Best (Subbuteo Perth)

Teams Category:
OPEN TEAM:
Benji Batten, Fabrizio Coco, Paul Mercer, Robert Green (C), Hugh Best

Team Officials:

Steve Dettre (Northern Falcons TFC)
Vincenzo Coco (Sydney TFC)

Australia At The 2017 World Cup

IMG_3724Best wishes go to our two representatives at this year’s World Cup in Paris, being held this weekend (Sept 2-3). Rob Green will be competing in the Veterans tournament and Daniele Lombard will be competing in the Opens tournament.

To keep up to date with all the results and proceedings, as they happen, go to the official FISTF World Cup site by clicking here.

Press Release – 2016 FISTF World Cup

FISTF STAGES A SUCCESSFUL WORLD CUP AS TABLE FOOTBALL CONTINUES ITS REEMERGENCE ON THE WORLD SPORTING STAGE

Frameries, Belgium – 2, 3, 4 September 2016

Austria’s Wolfgang Leitner broke a seven-year Latin domination of the table football world when he won the Open category of the 2016 FISTF World Cup in the Belgian city of Frameries over the weekend.

Almost 500 competitions – men, women, veterans and youth categories — competed to find out who is the best in table football, historically known as “Subbuteo”.

The Federation of International Sports Table Football (FISTF) was founded in 1992 and is the governing body of sports table football.  Among its many functions it provides oversight for international competitions, produces the world rankings, organises the official world cup, and determines the playing rules for the game.  FISTF President Alan Collins was on hand to present trophies, chair the organisation’s AGM, and liaise with official guests from local government, manufacturers and national table football federations.  These included the newly formed Russian federation who were participating in their first World Cup.

“It’s great to have the Russians, Australians, Japanese and Americans here,” said Collins.  “The game is going through a global regrowth and it’s great to see more and more countries getting on board.”

Collins also thanked Olivier Pere and the local organising committee.  “Putting on events of this size for our sport is a mammoth task.  Olivier and his team have done a smashing job.”

In the Open final, Leitner beat Italy’s Luca Colangelo 2-1 in an exciting match, to break the stranglehold of Italy and Spain on the title, who had dominated the category since Dutchman Eric Verhagen’s win in 2008.

Nevertheless, the tournament was a gold mine for Italian table football, with the Azzuri picking up four out of six individual titles, including a clean sweep of the U19, U15 and U12 categories.  Italy also won four of the six teams’ events with Belgium picking up the other two.

RESULTS

Men’s Open

Round of 16
Juan Manuel Noguera (ESP) 2 d. Maikel de Haas (NED) 1
Sebastien Scheen (BEL) 3 d. Alexander Haas (AUT) 2 (sudden death)
Wolfgang Leitner (AUT) 4 d. Luca Zambello (ITA) 1
Daniele Bertelli (ITA) 2 d. Remy Huynh (BEL) 1
Luca Colangelo (ITA) 4 d. Axel Donval (FRA) 2
Christophe Dheur (BEL) 3 d. Sami Targui (BEL) 1
Massimo Bolognino (ITA) 2 d. Spyros Hatzaras (GRE) 1
Derek Conti (MLT) 2 d. Wolfgang Haas (AUT) 1

Quarter-finals
Juan Manuel Noguera (ESP) 4 d. Sebastien Scheen (BEL) 1
Wolfgang Leitner (AUT) 4 d. Daniele Bertelli (ITA) 3
Luca Colangelo (ITA) 5 d. Christophe Dheur (BEL) 1
Derek Conti (MLT) 2 d. Massimo Bolognino (ITA) 1

Semi-finals
Wolfgang Leitner (AUT) 4 d. Juan Manuel Noguera (ESP) 3
Luca Colangelo (ITA) 3 d. Derek Conti (MLT) 2

Final
Wolfgang Leitner (AUT) 2 d. Luca Colangelo (ITA) 1

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Veterans Final
Gianfranco Calonico (ITA) 6 d. Massimo Cremona (MLT) 2

Ladies Final
Carolina Villarigues (POR) 3 d. Victoria Büsing (GER) 0

U19 Final
Matteo Ciccarelli (ITA) 3 d. Nicola Borgo (ITA) 0

U15 Final
Leonardo Giudice (ITA) 3 d. Claudio La Torre (ITA) 2

U12 Final
Giorgio Giudice (ITA) 3 d. Kristian Silagiev (ESP) 2

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Teams

Men’s Open Teams Final
Italy 4 d. Spain 0

Women’s Teams Final
Belgium 2 d. Italy 2 (goal difference)

Veteran’s Teams Final
Italy 3 d. Belgium 1

U19 Teams Final
Belgium 3 d. Germany 1

U15 Teams Final
Italy 3 d. Austria 1

U12 Teams Final
Italy 2 d. Belgium 0

 

AUSTRALIAN REPRESENTATIVES READY TO MAKE THEIR MARK AT TABLE FOOTBALL WORLD CUP

Australian table football stars will take on the world’s best at the Fédération Internationale de Sport Table Football de Table (FISTF) World Cup to be held in Italy this weekend.

Robert Green and Raffaele Lombardi will join competitors for more than 30 countries in the table football festival in San Benedetto.

Green, from the Northern Falcons club in northern Sydney, is ranked number two in Australia and will compete in the veterans category, while western Sydney’s Lombardi from the Subbuteo Parramatta club is ranked five in the nation and will compete in the open category.

For Green, this will be his third World Cup appearance while Lombardi is appearing for the first time.

Green, originally from Artarmon on Sydney’s north shore, now lives in Sweden, and competes regularly on the European table football circuit. He’s a past national champion of Australia in 1995 and was the Asian Cup runner-up in January of this year.

Lombardi, born in Italy is an Australian citizen, has made a big impact on the local scene since resuming playing in 2013 after a long hiatus. While living in Berry on the Southern Highlands, he plays for the Subbuteo Parramatta club, and has been a key representative for club and country with his best result of the season being a quarter-final placing in the Singapore International Open in June.

The participation of Australia at the World Cup is a key part of the Australian Table Football Association’s plans to revive competition around Australia. There are clubs currently in action in all mainland capital cities, and an international event will be held in Melbourne in October, closely followed by an International Grand Prix leg, attracting players from around Asia and Europe scheduled for Sydney in late January.

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Rochefort 2014 012b

Australia at the 2014 FISTF World Cup – tournament report

 

Robert Green V Thomas Vulpes at the FISTF world cup.

Robert Green V Thomas Vulpes at the FISTF world cup.

It has been an incredible twelve months of growth for table football in Australia, with both new players arriving and big names from the past re-emerging. We have had multiple WASPA tournaments taking place in both Sydney and Melbourne, we have established a new association which has been recognised by the world governing body FISTF. We have also developed exciting plans for the next season including FISTF tournaments and an Asian Cups event. To cap this great season for Australian Table Football off in style, Peter Thomas and Robert Green represented Australia at the 2014 FISTF World Cup in the delightful Belgium town of Rochfort. Continue reading

Media Release – Australians at the FISTF World Cup

MEDIA RELEASE – SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

by Steve Dettre – ATFA Vice President

The Socceroos will not be the only ones in action this weekend in Belgium, with two Australians competing in the Table Football World Cup in the Belgian town of Rochefort.

Peter Thomas from Canberra, and Robert Green from Sydney, will compete in the Open and Veteran categories at the 18th Federation of International Sports Table Football (FISTF) World Cup. Continue reading