Our Academy boys had a brilliant time in Munderkingen taking part in the Vereins Service Cup 2017. We would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to VFL Munderkingen and to the people of Munderkingen, especially Max who was our guide for the weekend and to Felix Schelkle, the tournament organiser for welcoming us so well to the tournament.

As stated in our previous post, we had a tough group with 5 times winners, FC Luzern and 4 time winners Schalke 04 in our group. We arrived in Munderkingen on the Friday afternoon and had time to play a couple of friendlies in the arena that evening before the boys were introduced to their host families. That set our boys up for the tournament as it got them used to their surroundings and to the pace of the 5-a-side game.

We began our tournament with a game v Schalke 04. We competed really well against the pre-tournament favourites and impressed many of the 1000 plus crowd with how we played but in the end Schalke proved too strong for us. Our next game was a 2-2 draw v SV Vaihinghen from Stuttgart. The boys battled out a hard fought draw having been 2-0 down. Joe Fogerty scoring both goals and unfortunately breaking his arm while scoring the second. A brave and typical performance from our captain.

The third game of the day was against FC Luzern from Switzerland. Again, we were up against quality opposition who played some fantastic football at times. As before, we battled hard and fought for every ball but Luzern were worthy winners. This result meant that we needed to win our final fixture to be in any chance of qualifying for the next round of the competition. We played SSV Ehinghen the next day needing to win by 5 clear goals. We got off to the perfect start with Sam Muhall getting us off the mark. Ehinghen equalised before Josh Anderson and Sam Mulhall again scored to give us a well deserved 3-1 win. Unfortunately this wasn't enough to see us through and we were eliminated on goal difference. 

Schalke 04 ultimately went on to win the tournament for the 5th time in their history beating Slavia Prague on penalties in the final. Our lads performed bravely and played with plenty of heart and passion. Typical of an Irish team you might say.