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Spartacus’ participation in the Ancaster Heritage Days tournament exceeded everyone’s expectations. Despite having never played a competitive 11 verses 11 game prior to the tournament, and playing against teams a year older, Spartacus completed the tournament undefeated.

Spartacus’ first game against Waterloo saw Spartacus start brightly. Despite the opposition’s physical advantage Spartacus dominated possession, and attacked using intelligent passing tactics. What was also impressive was Spartacus’ ability to consistently win tackles, as well as their ability to contain a team who preferred long ball tactics to create offence. Waterloo also mistakenly believing they could simply run the length of the field dribbling the ball. At the end of the game Spartacus was unlucky not to have obtained a better result than a 1-1 tie.

The second game saw a similar game develop. Spartacus continued to impose their tactics of passing and building an attack down the wings, while St. Catherines Roma was content to kick long balls for their forwards to chase. Despite going down a gaol in the first half Spartacus remained resolute to push forward, creating many scoring opportunities but lacking a finishing touch. However, Spartacus were rewarded for good transitional play, creativity and a willingness to pass the ball as a team, and eventually won the game 2-1.

Spartacus’ third game was against a team which relied heavily on playing very physical, and tried to stop open play whenever the opportunity arose. There were many cynical challenges by the Windsor team, yet Spartacus refused to be intimidated by such tactics.� Once again Spartacus found themselves down a goal early, but as before refused to give up without a fight. Finally Spartacus scored a much deserved tying goal.

The physical and mental demands of playing three 11 versus 11 games on the same day against older teams began to take their toll in the second half, with tired legs making it difficult to execute a successful and consistent passing game.

Therefore a tactical change by the coaches was made to allow players to support each other defensively, which proved to be effective as Spartacus saw the game out to a 1-1 tie.

Without any previous competitive 11 versus 11 experience and playing against older opposition Spartacus should be extremely proud of the fact overall Spartacus played much more attractive football than their opposition. Moreover the physical advantage the opposition had was rarely a hindrance to the tactics Spartacus set out to play.

Players, coaches and parents should feel extremely optimistic about the team as they continue the transition to playing 11 a side games on a permanent basis next fall.