Shropshire primary schools World Cup

28th May, 2010

On Saturday 22nd May Mr Livermore and Mr Nogues took two Under 11 football teams to the Shropshire primary schools World Cup hosted by Shrewsbury Town FC.

The school teams were each representing a country participating in the forthcoming World Cup Finals - Packwood A played as Serbia and the B team as Algeria. Each team began the tournament with three group stage matches. Algeria had a very close first match against USA ultimately losing 1-2. Their second match was against a strong England team who controlled the game from the start and took an unassailable lead. However, Algeria picked themselves up for their final game against Slovenia and ran out 3-1 winners. Sadly one victory out of three was not enough to see them progress to the later stages of the tournament.

Serbia, however, played superbly winning all three of their group matches emphatically and progressing to the last 16 where the boys defeated the USA 5-0. In the quarter final they came up against Uruguay - a really impressive team from Highley primary school. Our Serbs played with determination and commitment but were eventually beaten 2-5 by the superior players.

This was a brilliant tournament. Clearly loads of effort had gone into making the boys’ day special in terms of the tournament organisation, the stadium tour, the barbecues, the flags, the fantastic pitches, the experienced referees, the world cup footballs and the sheer number of schools entered. It was great to play different schools and to test our skills against unknown opposition. We did our best and played some lovely stuff. What a treat to get such a competitive kickabout in the cricket term. Great fun! Well done Serbia and Algeria!!