On Tour With The Titans...
The Titans are proud to represent the club and country playing football around the World, where we've had some fantastic memories on and off the pitch!
Here's where we've been so far...
Buenos Aires, Argentina - IGLFA World Championships 2007
London Titan's first ever foray internationally was the 2007 IGLFA World Championships, held for the first time in South America.
After a 13+ hour flight, we landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina with trepidation and excitement. We were in good company, with Leftfooters, Village Manchester and Stonewall all making the trip from England to take part.
Titans had two teams competing in the tournament with the group games being held at Parque Sarmiento on the outskirts of the city, meaning a long drive each morning - usually with stiff hangovers. But this wasn't reflected on the pitch, as both sides put in magnificent performances.
And as luck would have it, both Titans sides came head to head in the quarter finals! It seemed quite strange for the Titans squads to be playing each other in the World Cup and the searing sun of South America was a long way away from Sunday training at Richmond's Old Deer Park.
The Titans motto of "one squad not two teams" fell by the wayside for 60 minutes as both teams fiercely fought for a semi final place. Titans Red eventually won 4-0 leaving the Titans Yellow to take part in a penalty shoot out to try and secure a place in the semi final. Despite a valiant effort, they lost out to Chile.
Titans Red's opponents in the final were West Hollywood, which was played at the Estadio Capital Federal - a 9,000 seater stadium which is home to CA. Defensores de Belgrano. Usually Stonewall, Leftfooters and Manchester are our rivals, but all their players were in the stands supporting and singing for us which was a great feeling.
We played valiantly in the final, more than holding our own against an extremely good Hollywood team in scorching heat. Having taken the game to penalties, sadly we were defeated.
Despite the result, we had a fantastic time in Argentina taking home some wonderful memories.
Prague, Galibi Cup 2009
A merry band of Titans made their way to Prague over a weekend in March 2008 to take part in the Galibi Cup, a small tournament hosted by Friends of Prague, a team from the Czech capital.
The tournament was unusual in both format and rules. The games were to be played on an indoor sports hall wooden surface (which was surprisingly good, actually!), no head-height rule and kick-ins were preferred to throw-ins.
Games lasted for 24 minutes -12 mins each half - increasing to 30 minutes for the knock out stages. Pre-tournament hopes were high for the Titans, although we were weary of complacency and even more weary of the Parisian team, who are always strong and our first opponents in the group stage. Unusually for a Titans team we started brightly, racing into a two goal lead within 8 minutes.
In the second half Titans became more composed and were dominating possession. A quick kick-in from Tez led to Matt smashing home our third to put the game beyond doubt, and the game finished 3-1
In our second game, straight from the kick-off Titans didn't give away possession, played some sublime one-touch passing football, which ultimately led to us taking the lead. It was delightful stuff and Miller had grabbed his second goal. Slovakia hadn't even touched the ball yet!
However, we started playing panicky football and conceded a soft goal from a corner. It was no more then the Slovaks deserved, and at half-time the scores were equal.
We regained our composure and got back to basics thanks to Gez's pep-talk and we controlled the majority of the second half, eventually winning 3-1.
In the semi-finals we played a tough, physical Berlin side. Tiredness was creeping into the Titans side, but our spirit never diminished and we kept going with good use of sub rotation from Gez on the sideline, eventually winning after Extra-Time 4-3.
We reached the final playing against the hosts, Prague. We were quietly confident that if we maintained our work-rate and spirit from the first games, we'd do well but unfortunately with tiredness creeping ing the Prague team went into an unassailable 2-0 lead.
We worked so hard and played some really really good football, but most importantly, we didn't let our heads drop and nor did we abandon the Titans spirit. None of us could genuinely pick out a Titans "Man of the tournament" - but if there's one player who epitomises our spirit, it'd be Miller. He always plays with a smile on his face, never ever whinges or moans, but just gets on with his game. He finished as our top scorer with 4 goals. Well played Miller, well played everybody.
Of course, the drinking commenced in earnest at the after-tournament party and Titans didn't let themselves down their either – being the last team to leave the club, so I believe. Roll on Iceland!
Iceland, IcelandExpress Cup 2009
Not long after returning from Prague, Titans once again packed their bags and headed north to Iceland, to compete in the inaugural IcelandExpress Cup 2008.
Based in picturesque Reykjavík, the tournament was held in the state-of-the-art indoor 3G AstroTurf "Kórinn" stadium, used by the Icelandic National Football Team. Results for both Titans teams were nothing to write home about, but the injuries sustained to players from both teams were! Gez broke an arm and ended up in A&E, so did poor Sally who suffered a horrendous black eye, Neil Double got injured, and Scotty limped through the last few games (we had no subs left!)
Away from the pitch was a fantastic social experience for the club, our apartments had a hot-tub and the nightlife was great. We also spent an afternoon at the famous Icelandic Blue Lagoon - a geothermal spa rich with silica and sulfur. We all came out positively glowing!
The tournament will rotate each year amongst the Scandinavian countrys, with 2010 the tournament being hosted in Stockholm.
Washington DC, IGLFA World Championships 2009
Washington DC info coming soon.