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Milan have their day in Brussels

If Saturday was Napoli's day in Brussels, then Sunday most clearly belonged to Milan.

Whilst Eagles Napoli - boosted by the inclusion of world champion Massimo Bolognino, whose secret entry into the tournament surprised even his own clubmates - had relatively few difficulties in winning the Grand Prix team event, Stella Artois Milano managed to provide a quarter-finalist, a semi-finalist and the champion Efrem Intra in the International Open status individuals.

Further progression for the squad from Northern Italy was only prevented by the fact that the draw threw up all-Milan ties in both the quarter and semi-finals, as Alex Iorio and Gianluca Galeazzi met in the last 8, Iorio winning 4-3 before losing 1-0 to Intra in the semis.

Having lost to Bologna Tigers on goal difference in the quarter-finals of the team event, individually steady progress was made on the Sunday as the Italian side, who made an impression at November's Europa Cup by reaching the semi-finals, despite effectively playing short-handed throughout, showed their strength in depth.

Iorio needed overtime to get past Ludovic Ponthieux in the last 64, but he then inflicted a 6-0 defeat on Anders Buhl-Hansen, who had beaten Olivier Père in a group game.

Galeazzi beat the underrated Alexandre Torré 3-2 and Henk Landzaat, on shots, before double revenge was gained over Bologna in the last 16 as Iorio beat Alberto Apollo 3-1 and Galeazzi edged out the Spaniard Fernando Gomez by the odd goal in seven.

Even lower ranked Milan player Mario Corradi managed a group stage draw against the veterans' world number 1 Martijn Bom and a 1-0 victory over Laurent Goor, a result which saw the Belgian as the only seed to fall at the first hurdle.

Meanwhile Intra was blazing a goalscoring trail towards the semi-finals.

Although the rising star of Italian table football only beat the Greek Chris Aggelinas 2-1 in the last 64, a further 17 goals followed in the subsequent three ties, with 5-2 and 4-1 wins over Hennuyer duo Delphine Dieudonné and Hansel Mallia sandwiching a phenomenal 8-3 success against the unpredictable world number 1 Eric Verhagen.

A single goal then beat clubmate Iorio to seal a place in the final, where he defeated Vasco Guimaraes - so often a key performer at high profile tournaments - with 2 unanswered goals.

Intra's presence in the final was not that great a surprise for the player who reached the last 8 of the 2005 World Cup and also won the Beausoleil Grand Prix in France last March. This though was his first tournament victory amongst such prestigious company.

It was a remarkable end to a remarkable competition as the world's top players gathered in the Belgian capital for what at times was a fiery affair.

The semi-final between Guimaraes and Nikos Beis however was in complete contrast to some of the incidents elsewhere over the weekend. The impressive Greek player was edged out 3-2 on shots - following a 1-1 draw after overtime - but he set an example to some others at the tournament, with a calm, composed and fair performance in a game played in the true spirit of table football.

Guimaraes had eliminated Portuguese compatriot Sergio Loureiro 2-1 in the last 16 and clubmate Bolognino 2-0 in the quarter-finals, though some of Guimaraes' Eagles colleagues were amongst the early departures.

Alain Hanotiaux - who had inflicted an outstanding 7-2 defeat on David Fraikin in the first main knock-out round - went out by the odd goal in seven against Fernando Gomez at the last 32 stage, whilst Gil Delogne fell victim to an in-form Kasper Bennett, losing 1-0 in the last 64.

The young Englishman's ability to raise his game and to be totally unfazed when playing the world's best was in full evidence as he played out a goalless 30 minutes against the former world champion, before hitting a winner 6 minutes into an overtime period which he had dominated, to record an outstanding victory.

Bennett's subsequent tie against Delogne's teammate Antonio Mettivieri was a game too far though, as the Italian won 5-0. At the same time, English colleague Dave Pawsey was unlucky to go down 2-1 against Loureiro.

Mettivieri's eventual exit was made in more unusual circumstances. Having beaten Carlos Flores 3-1 in the last 16, he then left the tournament, preferring instead to attend the football match between Charleroi and Genk. Beis was the beneficiary as he won their scheduled quarter-final match by default.

Napoli had shown that they were not invincible during the previous day's team event.

Though they won the competition, culminating with a 3-0 victory over Bologna Tigers in the final, they had been held to a 2-2 draw with JSC Rochefort at the group stage.

Valéry Dejardin and Olivier Saffer picked up the game wins for the Belgians, against Hanotiaux and Delogne respectively.

Greek side Roligans Ilioupolis also pushed Napoli close in a 2-1 semi-final defeat - Beis beating Hanotiaux and Christos Rikos holding Mettivieri level - but the Italian club had little trouble in defeating Bologna in the final, despite Bolognino's extraordinary 4-4 draw with Carlos Flores.

Delogne only narrowly defeated Loureiro 2-1, however comfortable wins for Mettivieri (5-0 vs Riccardo Marinucci) and Guimaraes (4-0 vs Alberto Apollo) put paid to any chance of an upset.

Bologna had booked their final place after beating AS Hennuyer on goals scored in a controversial match.

Jeff Jordan was England's last survivor as he reached the semi-finals of the veteran's tournament, before losing to Thierry Vivron in overtime. The Londoner had established a 2-0 half time lead, but the experienced Frenchman came back strongly in the second period, scoring two excellent goals to force extra time, where he eventually hit the winner.

The tricky Vivron beat René Bolte, making his first appearance outside the Netherlands in nearly a year, 1-0 in the final.

Belgium's Justin Leroy hit his cousin David Leroy for six in the U19 final, whilst the promising Danish youngster Kristian Staal Nielsen beat Italy's Mattia Bellotti 4-1 to win the U15 title.

The other winners were Belgian pair Magali Doumont in the females and Erwin Delaunoy - with a 38-0 goal difference over five games - in the under 12 competition.

England two go out of the last eight

By Matt Lishman

Sam Curtis and Matt Lishman, England's top two Under-15s, both found themselves crashing out at the quarter final stage of the Belgium International Open last weekend.

Players in the category were forced to wait three sessions before being able to flick-off, due to the competition being restricted to only 12 entrants. But that posed no trouble whatsoever for the English pair, as both began in confident fashion.

Curtis was pitted against Belgian Cédric Metens and highly rated Dane Christian Emil Christiansen in the group.

And the eleven-year-old secured a comfortable 3-0 victory over Metens, despite a frustrating first half. This meant a win over old enemy Christiansen would place him top of the group. Win he did, pulling off an excellent 1-0 result.

Lishman also enjoyed success in the group, regardless of the fact that world number 2, and tournament favourite, Kristian Staal Nielsen, had been drawn against him.

Nevertheless, Lishman flicked off in the right vain, by accomplishing a 4-2 victory over Belgian Renald Deloose. Staal Nielsen proved his deadliness on the break though, and defeated the fourteen-year-old 3-0.

Both England boys were faced with tough ties in the quarter finals. Lasse Honere, the highly experienced Dane from Odense, was Curtis' draw. Even though the Peterborough player put in a valiant effort, he was swept aside by Honere and three goals of the highest quality. 3-0 was the final score line.

The draw was also unkind to fellow Yorkshire Phoenix Lishman, who had been pitted against Italian Mattia Bellotti. Lishman played some of his finest table football and managed to notch a goal, but the difference in class showed and Bellotti won by 4 goals to 1.

Bellotti and Staal Nielsen, both highly impressive throughout the day, fought it out in the final. It was to be the day of the Dane, though, as Kristian triumphed 4-1.

VIEW FROM THE TABLES

Personal reflections of the Brussels International Open from England under-19 international Antony Collins, starting with high jinks from the night before:

We stayed in the Formule 1 hotel on Saturday night and met Thossa Büsing and his boys from VFL Kamen. They had set up a Subbuteo table in a narrow corridor. The pitch was made by Thossa about three years ago and was called the Thossa arena, Büsing pitch. It was a good pitch. We had some French geezer in one of the rooms banging on the door basically telling us to shut up!

The next day at the King Baudouin Stadium, where the tournament was held, we were given a very good sticker and a program when we signed in. Right in front was a large ProfiBase stall. There were 40 tables and only four of them were slightly different. Every pitch was at a very agreeable height, and from people talking and the one that I played on, I believe every pitch played at a good standard.

Simon Bryan deserves a mention for his group match against Alain Hanotiaux. Even though he didn't win, he was only beaten 2 nil. His goalkeeper decided to work for that game I guess. Sadly his keeper wasn't that good in his first game!

My first match in the U19s was an eventful 1-1 draw, but the game was not reflected by the scoreline. This game brought up my only problem of the tournament - the goal nets. The bar at the back of them was too high so if you shot on an angle you could make the ball bounce on the back board so it looks like it went wide. This happened in my game but I not sure if it happened to anyone else. This was too prove to be very costly.

The next game I played against Anthony Coppenolle. The first half was all my way, but with a late goal from Coppenolle. The next half was to show the pure class and consistency of the Belgian player when he banged another five. I could do nothing about it and was poor with my keeper, exposing a lot of goal scoring gaps. Final score line 6 nil to Anthony Coppenolle. The disallowed goal in the first game could have put me into the next round.

In the U15s, Matt Lishman and Sam Curtis showed a bit more class than I had done in the under 19's. Matt won one of his games 4-2 and lost the other, but had gone through as the lad he beat had lost to the other player in the group, putting him into quarter-finals. He was not so fortunate there and lost, but played some great table football. Sam done just as well as Matt in getting to the quarter-finals but not getting any more success sadly. Both had played excellently and proved that they can compete with the best players in that category again.

In the vets, Alan Collins finished second in his group losing his first game 1-0 and winning the next 3-0, to get to the barrage round, unfortunately losing 1-0 to a German player. Adrian Curtis won his game and as the other player didn't show up, he went through to the next round top of his group. He got a bye to the next round and sadly lost in the quarter-finals.

The best English player of the day was certainly Jeff Jordan. He got himself to the semi-finals and played the famous Thierry Vivron, though not famous for his abilities in playing and skill! Jeff was 2 up by the second half until Vivron came back to take the victory in extra time making it 3-2.

Well done Jeff you showed them what we are made off,

I only really took an interest in the Open competition when Kasper Bennett played Gil Delogne and took him to extra time. Kasper had the kick at extra time and played for about 6 minutes of total possession before he finally scored to deservedly go through. Also, Dave Pawsey played excellent throughout the day.

All day they had a TV linked up showing the film made about our sport, 'The Hobby', and they had a projector showing all the games for the next session. The tournament organisation was excellent and kept under control by a good few eyes. Also they had a head referee, which is always needed at a big international tournament. Alan Collins occupied the role and made good judgements. Tournaments should consider this role. If a decision is not made, the head ref makes the final one and Alan did so and stuck with that decision firmly.

Brussels muscles back onto the international scene

Brussels is gearing up for an international event this weekend that has surpassed the organisers' wildest expectations.

A fairly typical attendance had been anticipated for the tournament, the first international in the Belgian capital since 1998, but as entries to the competition continued to come in, the number of places available has had to be increased to cope with demand.

And a total of 193 players puts the competition on par with the likes of Mons for attendance.

And with quantity comes quality. All of the world's top 5 players are due to play, as well as the highly rated Carlos Flores and top Belgian duo Gil Delogne and Valéry Dejardin. Number 6 ranked David Ruelle had also entered, but has since had to withdraw.

It is rare that so many of the world's top players gather together outside of a Major or the World Cup itself.

In all 40 of the top 100 of the latest FISTF classifications will be amongst 113 entries, representing 13 countries, in the Open category, despite a clash with the Austrian National team championships.

World number 1 Eric Verhagen - a junior winner at the last Brussels international event - returns from a stay in Brazil especially for this tournament and next week's Manchester Grand Prix, but it is representatives from the Eagles Napoli team who are likely to dominate proceedings.

Antonio Mettivieri will be out to avenge final defeat against Alain Hanotiaux at the last Brussels International Open. Then an all-Charleroi affair, both now play under the colours of Napoli, and are seeded to meet in the quarter-finals this time around.

And after also being part of the Charleroi side to win the team title in 1998, the duo could on the winning team again, with clubmates Vasco Guimaraes and Delogne, another former Charleroi player, completing a formidable Eagles line-up.

Surprise Europa Cup semi-finalists Stella Artois Milano will harbour aspirations of success, with a team with no weak links, and for whom Efrem Intra will carry the best hope of individual honours.

A strong home challenge will come not just from the internationally established, and more recognisable, names such as Delogne, Dejardin and Hennuyer, but also the players of the Verviers, Stembert and Temploux clubs.

The Bologna Tigers team - and their talented Iberian duo Flores and Sérgio Loureiro in the individuals - should make an impression on the competition, as should Nicos Beis of Roligans Ilioupolis, one of three Greek sides present, along with Falcons and Atlas.

UK interest comes from the English Premier League team - who have a good record in Belgian tournaments - groups from London TFC, Yorkshire Phoenix and the East Midlands Alliance and also Cardiff's Martin Evans.

The competition has attracted plentiful media coverage in Belgian, both in press and on television, with further coverage expected during and after the competition.

The tournament is the first of three successive key events over the next weeks. The Manchester Grand Prix is shaping up to be the biggest in the UK for some time, whilst Elbeuf in Northern France hosts a Major in the first week of February.

Follow the action from Brussels live all weekend via the tournament website at http://www.brussels-sc.be/gp/gp2006

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