Two five-a-side pitches in Vauxhall served as the home for the KCL European Society’s inaugural European Football tournament in early November, where dozens of age-old national rivalries were put to the test in a friendly but competitive manner.
Standing around in what felt like baltic temperatures on a grey November morning, nobody quite expected the European Society to effortlessly pull together the day-long football tournament which drew impressive numbers in the way that they did. 83 players across teams from the French, German, Italian, Romanian, Hungarian, Belgian, Polish, Spanish and Turkish national societies, as well as teams from the European Studies association (ESKA) and the European Society fought it out for the true ultimate footballing prize.
With a couple dozen more watching on as spectators teams first played each other in an intense group stage, marked by tight games between rivals like France and Germany (3-0) and goal-fests in others, such as a 6-0 thrashing of Romania by the Azzuri and ESKA’s lucky stoppage-time 5-4 win over the Turkish society.
With the bulk of fixtures settled, the semi-finals saw a high-flying Polish society (who had scored 14 goals in their first 3 games) ironically edge past the ever-consistent Germans on penalties after a 3-3 draw, before a dominant French team, with enough players on the bench to field another two squads, took apart the plucky Belgian underdogs (who cruised the group stage with a barebones squad) 6-3. In the end, Polish quality proved no match for French quantity, as les bleus made sure to maintain their claim to football supremacy on all fronts (for this year at least).
Ultimately, all credit is due to the European Society for pulling together what must have been over a hundred attendees to a small corner of Lambeth on a cold Saturday afternoon. Society president Sophie Puginier described the success as “a relief”, perhaps slightly understating the day’s success – let’s hope for more of the same next year.
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