TopParken Tournament U14 great success!

TopParken Tournament U14 big success!

On Friday 31 May and Saturday 1 June, the international football tournament TopParken Tournament U14 took place at Football Club Lunteren for the 25th time. A prestigious tournament with top under-14 teams from home and abroad, including the Dutch under-14 champions FC Utrecht (Netherlands), Standard Liege (Belgium), Everton (England), Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) and Randers FC (Denmark).

Despite being the 25th time this prestigious tournament was organised, it was the first time that, apart from the home team vv Lunteren, only Professional Football Organisations (BVOs) were present. This therefore visibly improved the level of the entire tournament.

For the first time since its inception, it was a multi-day tournament, 2 days of top-class football! As all teams came from far away, the participants all slept at TopParken, 3 teams at Landgoed de Scheleberg and no fewer than 6 teams at Recreatiepark 't Gelloo (the other teams slept in host families or at home). We received many compliments from both the organisation and the participants about our parks and accommodations, great to hear!

As proud main sponsor of the tournament, we were of course present on both tournament days. Read a report of the TopParken Tournament U14 below.

Day 1

The TopParken Tournament started at 11.00 a.m. The tournament was played in 3 pools of 4 teams, so each team played 3 matches. The first 2 matches played were between FC Utrecht and Randers FC (2-2) and between Club Brugge and vv Lunteren (3-0). Followed by:

sc Heerenveen - Royal Antwerp (1-3)
Sparta Prague - Crystal Palace (1-1)
Vitesse - Standard Liege (0-0)
Fc Dordrecht - Everton (0-0)
After a few matches it was already clear that the level of the tournament was tremendously high. This resulted in great matches throughout the day. The first day of the tournament was dominated by the pool phase. The numbers 1 and 2 of each pool played on day 2 for the tournament win, supplemented by the top two numbers 3. The remaining four teams played in the 'loser's pool' for places 9 to 12.

Surprisingly

Surprisingly, the two English teams, Crystal Palace and Everton, both finished in the 'loser's pool'. Several members of the organisation tipped them as potential tournament winners. FC Dordrecht and vv Lunteren also ended up in the losers' pool, Randers FC and Sparta Prague finished as the best number 3 and thus remained in the race for the title.

After a wonderful first tournament day, it was time for a communal dinner (no less than 450 people in total) and then all participants were transported to the 2 TopParken.

Day 2

The day started at 09.30 with two matches from the losers' pool. The English teams immediately showed that they did not actually belong in the losers' pool, Everton winning 8-1 against vv Lunteren and Crystal Palace beating FC Dordrecht 4-0. Everton eventually also beat FC Dordrecht (3-0) and Crystal Palace (4-0) to finish in 9th place.

Meanwhile, the battle for the coveted title had also begun. After several thrilling matches, FC Utrecht and Standard Liege eventually reached the final. FC Utrecht showed several times that they are not Dutch champions for nothing. They successively beat Vitesse (1-0) and Sparta Prague (3-0). However, Standard Liege showed that FC Utrecht were not going to win the tournament for nothing, they beat sc Heerenveen 3-0 and Royal Antwerp FC 2-1. The battle for the 3rd and 4th spots was going to be played between Sparta Prague and Royal Antwerp FC, the Czechs eventually taking the bronze through a 3-0 victory.

The final

The moment everyone was looking forward to, the final, FC Utrecht - Standard Liege. Soon Standard Liege took a 1-0 lead through a penalty. For a long time it seemed that this was also the final score, until 1 minute before time. An awesome free kick by FC Utrecht ended brilliantly in the top corner, the most beautiful goal of the tournament!

Because of this fantastic goal, penalties had to be taken. Standard Liege won the first penalty series, but a substitute player scored one of the penalties and the whole series had to be redone. Once again, the Belgians were the best.

Winner TopParken Tournament 2019

Standard Liege

Best player and goalkeeper

Every year, an award is also given to the best player and best goalkeeper of the tournament. In the past, the likes of Vurnon Anita (Ajax) Youness Mokthar (PSV) and Pablo Rosario (PSV) have already been named best player of the tournament. This year, this honour went to Club Brugge player Kyriani Sabbe, but there were at least 10 other players running around who would have deserved this award. Never before has it been so difficult to choose a winner. Best goalkeeper of the tournament was Tom Poitoux of Standard Liege.

Proud main sponsor

It was a fantastic tournament with football of the highest level. As TopParken, we are happy and proud to still be a sponsor of this wonderful tournament in the years to come!