Fareham IFFF World Cup Qualifier - Tournament Review

17th June 2004

Fifteen Teams from three countries took part in the first international World Cup Qualifier to be ever played in England. Teams from France, the USA and the host nation all participated in the IFFF tournament, which offered 5man No Contact on Saturday and 9Man Ineligible format on Sunday.

The qualifer is a part of an educational process to help the international teams properly prepare for the World Cup tournament slated for the USA in Feb of 2005. All 9 players on Team USA?s squad had played for Team USA at this past years World Cup Event in the Dominican Republic.

The tournament provided a great opportunity for many of the English sides to take on foreign opposition for the first time, as Team USA and the French League leaders, Troyes Pygargues, both travelled over to compete.

In the 5man No contact Saturday contest, 9 teams were split into three groups in the round robin competition to determine rankings for the knockout competition. Bournemouth Raiders led the rankings (even ahead of Team USA) after their two games through virtue of a stingy defense that conceded just 6 points in those matches. North Devon Dogs, the ESFL league leaders, had had a tough draw with defeats against both the USA and Troyes, but bounced back to defeat Andover Hawks B in the wild-card eliminator. The Dogs took on the Raiders in the first quarter-final, but after falling behind 13-0 at the break, could only muster 1 TD in the second half to go out 13-6. The two French sides drew each other, and it was no surprise to see their A side win 27-0. Andover Hawks A (in their first tournament), put up a great fight against USA. They led briefly before going down 38-18. The match of the round saw Derby Dream Team reverse their round robin defeat (7-18) to the Chichester Sharks, by winning 14-12 after being behind for most of the game.

The semi-finals saw Team USA struggle a bit with the Derby Dream Team, as the Dream Team led 7-6 at halftime. The Dream Team was playing with mostly offensive lineman but played a strong zone defense with Team England players Butch Ebo, Austin Bradshaw and JP to keep the Americans in check for the first half. In the second half Team USA scored three touchdowns for the win, two from Brian Backman and one from James Mayo. The resurgence of the Bournemouth Raiders was ended by the Troyes Pygargues though. After a close first half with Bournemouth down by 13-6, the French side led by QB Flavien Charles and his star receiver Eric Pierre (who scored 3 times) pulled away to win 27-6. The final saw a great contest by the two sides from overseas. Troyes took the lead, and led 6-0 at half-time, but the USA came out in the second half with all guns blazing. QB & MVP Pat Connolly connected with Adam Desanctis for two scores and one each to James Mayo and Mike Hawff to round out the scoring in a 25-6 victory.

In 9Man Ineligible action it was all USA dominance as the team went 4-0 only giving up 12 points. Team USA was short handed, so they picked up two French Players Albin Notteau and Carole D'attoma. Albin played a solid offensive line, while Carole was a standout on offense as she scored five touchdowns and four extra tries in the afternoon's play.

Six sides took part to form 2 three team groups in the round robin section. In group A, the Andover Hawks battled in vain against both the French and English no.1 sides. Troyes winning 32-0, and Leicester Eagles (English champions in 1998, 2002 and 2003) winning 33-0. This set up the group decider between the two champion sides. In a thrilling match, nothing could separate the sides in a 6-6 tie.

In the other group, Team USA had an easy time of things as they ran riot 28-6 over a combined Derby/Chichester team, and then 26-0 against a combined Bournemouth/Birmingham/Fen team ("The Raiders" as they were known). D/C then defeated The Raiders 12-0 with a TD from Nick Watson and a catch from Pete Steele.

In the wild-card matches, Andover surprisingly turn over the Derby/Chichester side with a 12-0 win, and Leicester ground out a 6-0 win over The Raiders on Ryan Melbourne's 1 yard run.

In the semi-finals, Leicester put up some resistence against Team USA with some great tackling, but fell to a 14-0 loss. In the other semi-final, Troyes met Andover again, and again prevailed, this time 14-0.

In the Championship game, Team USA's Adam Desanctis started off the scoring on a 60 yard scamper, Jim Zimolka then caught a 15 yard pass from Pat Connelly to give the USA a comfortable 13-0 lead. Troyes scored on a 10 yard pass from QB Flavien Charles to WR Eric Pierre to pull the French side within a point. The games final score came on Desanctis?s 60 yard TD jaunt, as USA ran out 20-6 winners. Adam Desanctis scored six touchdowns on the day as he was awarded MVP Honors.