■ Veterans -vs- Muubaan Kumar 2010 fiber_new
■ Veterans -vs- Francophones 2009 fiber_new
■ Veterans World Cup 2009 fiber_new
■ Vets League @Pataya 2009 fiber_new
■ Vetserans -vs- Japanese 2009 fiber_new
■ Vetserans -vs- Thailand Seniors 2008 fiber_new
■ Veterans -vs- RBSC 2008
■ List of all previous annual Traditions
Report Date: 15/Aug/2010
This was just an idea — an idea that got kicked around for years. At the end, it finally came true, holding Bangkok’s monthly Vets League somewhere outside of Bangkok.
We were successful in holding the “first-ever” non-Bangkok edition of the Vets League on the Eastern Seaboard, in Pataya — albeit, an annual one!
After a flurry of activity in the cyberspace, we finally settled on 7 teams:
■ Modern Access
■ Horseshoe Point
■ Sunbelt United
■ Pataya City
■ Muubaan Kumar
■ Crossbar Southerners
■ Pataya Jamesons, plus
■ Team-X Volunteers <== to fill in as the 8th team
Among those teams, Team-X Volunteers was a filler team to make it 8 teams, and Sunbelt United and Crossbar Southerners made the trip all the way from Bangkok for a nice long vacation weekend in Pataya for themselves.
Group Stage:
With a bit of delay, the day started with fast action football, having a lot of Vets demonstrating some slow-mo Vets moves. Nevertheless Group-A, with Sunbelt United, Horseshoe Point, and Pataya City, seemed to be where the real competition was.
In fact, it was so contentious that all 4 teams finished the Group Stage earning 4 points each! Sorting out the rankings of the teams was a real mess, and required penalty-shootouts between the Top-2 and Bottom-2 teams — another “first-ever” in Vets League history.
Group-B was pretty clear-cut. There was no stopping Muubaan Kumar, and nothing in the universe would change this. Seeing the hodgepodge Team-X Volunteers, always picking the best players from each team, finish the group in the 2nd place was also a surprise to many.
Then again, all that hoopla on which team will be 1st and which team will be last in their groups did not make much difference, since the tournament fixture dictated that all 4 teams in all groups enter into the Quarter Finals anyway 🤷, which meant the top billed team, Sunbelt United, finishing 3rd in their group, could live to see the rest of the tournament.
Quarter Finals:
After a bruising battle in the QFs, as expected, 3 of the 4 teams from Group-A won their clashes against the Group-B teams.
Notable amongst the 4 QFs, were the 4-1 thrashing of Crossbar Southerners and Team-X Volunteers in the hands of Horseshoe Point and Sunbelt United respectively. This is when we saw the giants, Sunbelt United, awaking from their escapades in town the night before .
Semi Finals:
The 2 SFs were momentous. In SF1, Horseshoe Point -vs- Pataya City ended the regular time in 0-0 draw, which allowed Pataya City to take it’s place in the Grand Final after a lengthy 4-3 penalty-shootout
And, in SF2, Muubaan Kumar -vs- Sunbelt United had plenty of chances to score, and they did score to see Sunbelt United edge on a narrow 3-2 scoreline.
In the Plate Division (i.e., 2nd Division 😊), Bangkok boys Crossbar Southerners got their slight 1-0 result against Pataya Jamesons, and Modern Access finally started playing football with a 4-1 clinical finish against Team-X Volunteers, which, at this point in the proceedings noone real was volunteering for 😊).
BadCup! Final:
The BadCup! of the “first-ever” Vets League in Pataya was a fight between the midgets, and Pataya Jamesons, having had a long day, preferred to take their showers and head back downtown for a nice-&-cool pint of beer, no less, at Jamesons. Team-X was elated to evade yet another BadCup! in their volunteering history.
Plate Division Final (for 5th Place):
It was fitting to see these 2 bottom-enders of the Group Stage, not to fight it out for the BadCup!, but for, slightly more prestigious, Plate! (for 5th place). A cordial encounter between these 2 friendly teams saw Crossbar Southerners at least bring back some silverware back to Brian at Crossbar in Bangkok, relegating Modern Access to an “also ran” status on the day.
3rd Place Match:
The chance of salvaging some pride on the day for the Semi Final loser teams were left to Horseshoe Point and Muubaan Kumar, in which Muubaan Kumar were a narrow 1-0 victors to bring some form or pride back to the village.
Grand Final:
It couldn’t have been more ironic to have the very first game of the tournament to finish with the very last game of the tournament. At the beginning of the day, Sunbelt United and Pataya City went up against each other, and settled their differences with an amicable 0-0 draw.
But, at this point in the tournament, in the Grand Final match of the day, a draw was not an option. So, they battled it out the whole 17 min of it. There had to be one and only 1 victor, and that victor, with a closely fought 1-0 score, was the visitors from Bangkok — Sunbelt United.
Congratulations!
Overall:
Overall, happy to see that we can do the Vets League at other locations, away from Bangkok, outside of our comfort zone.
The who day was quite friendly, no major arguments, and all the teams and players firmly stuck with what we fondly call fun & friendly “Vets Spirit”.
Many thanks to all those who helped to put the event together, and that includes big genuine help from Liam, Fernando, Oscar, Pablo, and the whole Horseshoe Point crew, from Kh. Jate and Kh. Itthikorn.
Sincere thanks!
Eagerly looking forward to the 2nd edition in 2010.
Kind regards,
-Eralp
Picture 1 — Sunbelt United, under the shade, getting ready to kick the day off.
Picture 2 — Eralp the Organizer together with Horseshoe Point crew and the honorable Referees.
Picture 3 — Captains at their beginning-of-the-day photo-op.
Picture 4 — Pataya City Captain Fernando and Sunbelt United Captain Anders shaking hands to get the tournament underway.
Picture 5 — Modern Access Captain Wanlop and Horseshoe Point Captain Tri shaking hands to get the tournament underway.
Picture 6 — Pataya Jamesons taking it easy in between the games.
Picture 7 — Muubaan Kumar brought a formidable squad from their village in Chonburi.
Picture 8 — Modern Access, in their Celtic hoops, had a good time throughout the day.
Picture 9 — Eralp the Organizer gets chance for a photo-op with Modern Access elders, Wanlop and Promyat (who is ready for a snorkel dive in the Gulf).
Picture 10 — All the silverware, raring to go!
Picture 11 — Crossbar Southerners, all the way from Bangkok, look thin on the ground, yet heavy on the mid-section.
Picture 12 — Sunbelt United chilling out in between games, sizing the opposition in the Knockout Stage.
Picture 13 — Pataya City gathered a strong squad for this “first-ever” Vets League @Pataya.
Picture 14 — Kh. Jate leading massive squad from Horseshoe Point.
Picture 15 — Sunbelt United’s Chris looking for that long-awaited goal.
Picture 16 — Pataya City and Sunbelt United take their time for a friendly post Grand Final photo.
Picture 17 — Jorge, with 2 kids to manage, is fulfilling his fatherly duties as well.
Picture 18 — Sunbelt United raise their cup for a well deserved victory.
Picture 19 — And, the trophy ceremony gets underway.
Picture 20 — Liam steps up to take Pataya Jameson’s BadCup!, as he will head to Jamesons in Pataya right after.
Picture 21 — Steve and Ben-10 (the Preben), who never missing a photo-op, are proud to receive Team-X Volunteers’s 7th place trophy.
Picture 22 — Modern Access’s remaining Captain is all smiles picking up their 6th place trophy.
Picture 23 — . . . and, ready to down the full contents of the trophy.
Picture 24 — All those who played for Crossbar Southerners, and their siblings, fill up the frame to accept their Shield! (5th place) trophy.
Picture 25 — Kh. Itthikorn receives Horseshoe Point’s 4th place finishing trophy.
Picture 26 — Kumar and his son are joyful to receive Muubaan Kumar’s 3rd place trophy.
Picture 27 — Fernando step ups to pick Pataya City’s 2nd place trophy.
Picture 28 — . . . and also downs the full contents.
Picture 29 — Full team Sunbelt United gather one more time to lift championship trophy.
Picture 30 — Too down the contents of the championship trophy is left upto the Captains Anders.
Picture 31 — A final salute to football from Eralp the Organizer.
Picture 32 — Ben-10 and Vern specially ask for a final picture together to cap the night off with their well earned trophies to bring back to Bangkok.
From: Eralp
Team: Veterans League
Date: 19/Sep/2010
Dear Vets,
I just wanted to drop this note to thank those who showed up at the inaugural "Vets League @Pataya" at the Horseshoe Point last Saturday.
It was a good day of football with everything going according to the plans.
The 7 Founding Father teams were complemented with Team-X Volunteers, spearheaded by their namesake Ben (the Preben :), to make a a nice and cozy 2 groups x 4 teams tournament.
After a slow start and coming 3rd in the Group Stage (only after a penalty shootout) at the risk of dropping to the lower Shield Division (wait, there is no Shield Division with 8 teams), Anders and Sunbelt found their feet in the Knockout Stage and brought the inaugural trophy back to Bangkok, despite a valiant and respectable opposition from Pataya City and Muubaan Kumar.
When the dust all settled, the following were the final rankings:
■ [1st] Sunbelt United (Anders)
■ [2nd] Pataya City (Rick, Fernando)
■ [3rd] Muubaan Kumar (Kumar)
■ [4th] Horseshoe Point (Itthikorn)
■ [5th] Southern Crossbars (Craig, Vern)
■ [6th] Modern Access (Liam, Wanlop)
■ [7th] Team-X Volunteers
■ [8th] Pataya Jamesons (Brian)
Leaving the BadCup! with Pataya Jamesons as Brian's birthday gift was the ultimate joy (Happy Birthday, Brian :)
Sincere thanks to all the team Captains for dragging their teams to this new annual event in Pataya, and also to Kh. Itthikorn at Horseshoe Point for setting up the venue beautifully.
Last, but certainly not least, great many thanks to Liam and his company, Modern Access, for sponsoring the beer on the day.
Looking forward the 2nd edition in 2010.
Kind regards,
=EG=
http://www.vetsleague.com/
Feel free to e-mail to me (contacts at the footer), if you would like to voice your take on the above event report, or have more photos from the event to be posted on this page.
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Legend: “(3B)” means finished 3rd in Group-B