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Cremona claims the International Open Christmas Cup
By Massimo Cremona
In-form Massimo Cremona has won the Christmas Cup International Open, organized by the Malta Table Football Sports Association, when in the final he beat Joseph Mifsud 3-0.
In the second minute of the game, a goalkeeping error by Mifsud enabled Cremona to take the lead. He then controlled Mifsud's attacks to preserve the advantage for the second half.
And midway through the second period, Cremona made certain of victory by scoring the second goal, and soon after he grabbed a third to claim the International Open Christmas Cup for the second consecutive season.
Last Thursday, Cremona was also presented the Silver Award by the Malta Olympic Committee, in recognition of and appreciation for his outstanding sporting achievement in table football during 2005.
In the semi final, Cremona had the better of Derek Conti 1-0, while in the quarter final he beat Samuel Bartolo 2-1.
For his part Mifsud eliminated Mark Gauci 1-0 in the semi final and Jean Carl Tabone 1-0 in the quarter final.
In the Veteran category Patrick Pace beat Mario Spiteri 4-1. Mauro Camilleri claimed the honours in the under-19 category on goal difference from Timothy Spiteri, while in the female category Martha Camilleri beat Tiziana Spiteri 4-1.
By Timothy Spiteri
The fourth Maltese International Open was held today at the Zabbar SC premises. The tension was rising more and more, as the participants were eagerly awaiting the tournament's start.
The competition kicked off with a sense of sportsmanship amongst almost all of the players. The group stage saw the elimination of many good players most notably Malta's top veterans, Patrick Pace and Mario Spiteri.
The barrage proved to be a slight bit more demanding and included a match of very high level between Derek Conti and Ilai Zammit Marmara', in which Conti emerged victorious by a narrow margin of 2-1.
After this we find a round of extreme intensity and each match was on the same level that a final would be on.
World number 2 Massimo Cremona defeated U19 World Cup finalist, Samuel Bartolo with a very narrow margin of 2-1, whilst Derek Conti beat Charles Aquilina by an identical score in a game between two of Malta's elite.
Another match of enormous importance was the 3-1 win of Mark Gauci over Hennuyer player, Hansel Mallia. The other Hennuyer player who was present, Joseph Mifsud, won his match against Jean Karl Tabone 1-0, ensuring his place in the semi-finals.
Only two goals were scored in the semi-final stage, one in each of the matches. In the first, Mifsud overcame Gauci with a very narrow margin of 1-0; the same happened in the other game where Cremona beat Roma star Conti.
The final was very one-sided, as Cremona beat his opponent 3-0. His current form proved to be too much for the current Maltese number 1 and several defensive mistakes gave Cremona the opportunity to strike and eventually take Gold.
The Veterans was won by Patrick Pace who, in the final beat Mario Spiteri with a large score of 4-1.
The attendance at the U19 tournament was slightly disappointing due to some no-shows, however it proved a good tournament.
The competition was played in a group format, with the participants being Mauro Camilleri, Andre Grima, Karl Camilleri and Timothy Spiteri, the only player under 15-years of age.
The tournament kicked of on a high note, with Mauro Camilleri and Andre Grima, the top two Maltese U19s, meeting in the opening match. Camilleri crushed his opposition by a 3-1 score, though this didn't seem to affect Grima as he went on to win his next match against Pembroke player, Karl Camilleri.
Camilleri failed to win any of his matches as he suffered identical 3-1 defeats against both Spiteri and Camilleri.
The tie between Timothy Spiteri and Andre Grima created an immensely big surprise when the 14-year-old Valletta youth defeated the former under-15 world number 6 Andre Grima 2-0. This in turn ensured that the final match would decide who would emerge victorious.
Firm favourite, Camilleri had many chances in the first half, however he did not make anything out of them. On the other hand Spiteri wasn't finding enough opportunities and the score at half-time was still goalless.
In the first 10 minutes of the second half both players were competing on a very equal level where each had almost equal possession and chances.
However four minutes before time, Spiteri took advantage of a lapse in Camilleri's defence and struck the opening goal.
Camilleri came out in full force and ensured that just a minute later he had brought the game level once more.
With the game ending 1-1, Camilleri eventually won the group due to the amount of goals scored, as both players had the same amount of points and the same goal difference.
In the ladies' tournament, which was played a week earlier in Pembroke, Martha Camilleri who beat Tiziana Spiteri 4-1 in the final.
The biggest surprise was that the category attracted far more players than the organisers would have ever expected. The tournament's first round was made up of 3 groups of 3.
In group 1 were Malta's number 1, Martha Camilleri, 15-year-old Rebecca Attard and the only foreign player in this category, Russian girl Vlada Kravchenko. Martha won both of her matches, beating Vlada and Rebecca, 4-0 and 3-1 respectively, and in the very heated match between Vlada and Rebecca, Vlada managed to win with a narrow 2-1 score.
Group 2 was made up of 8-year-old talent, Krista Mizzi, Yasmin Attard and last season's Malta number 2 Kelly Briffa. The latter failed to qualify, losing both matches with a dreadful 3-0 score. However Krista took advantage of her opponent's lack of training by beating Yasmin 2-0.
Tiziana Spiteri, Lara Mizzi, and Lucretia Hili made up the final group. Lucretia Hili, who only recently started playing, lost both of her games 2-0. The final match between two of Pembroke's most promising young ladies, ended 1-0 in favour of Tiziana, who after many missed chances, managed to score a goal.
After the group stage came the Barrage, which proved to be very tense after both matches were level at full time. The game between Tiziana Spiteri and Vlada Kravchenko ended after 2 minutes of extra time when Tiziana scored a long-range goal and secured a 2-1 victory.
The other match between Lara Mizzi and Yasmin Attard, did not prove to be as easy, when, after the final score of 2-2, Lara managed to win 2-1 on shots.
The semi-final between Martha Camilleri and Lara Mizzi seemed to be very one-sided, where by half time the score was already 4-0 in favour of Camilleri. Lara then defended superbly in the second half in order not to concede any more goals.
In the other semi, her sister Krista faced Tiziana Spiteri. After the game went through full time ending 1-1, and also avoiding any goals during extra-time, Tiziana managed to overcome her opponent 3-1 on shots.
As expected, the final was again won by Martha Camilleri, who beat Tiziana Spiteri 4-1. In the first half, both players were playing on fairly equal levels, scoring one goal each. This score remained until late in the second half, when 6 minutes before time, Camilleri managed to take advantage of Spiteri's poor keeping by scoring goal.
Spiteri, extremely put down by this grave mistake, conceded another two goals in the next 4 minutes, leaving the final score 4-1 in favour of Camilleri.
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