Rockford
Illinois Subbuteo Club hosted a mid-west regional tournament
on November 16th and 17th. 12 players from across the mid-west
competed and made for an exciting weekend. Two clubs from the
SLSL made the trip north. Michael Keller (Shaw United) and Tim
Boone (Florissant United) represented St. Louis. The Rockford
tournament was a success not only for the St. Louis players
but for the mid-west and ASA. Being located aproxiamately 4
hours from everywhere, Rockford was a convenient location and
also had an excellent venue (The Sportscore) with good eats.
Mike
Keller (Shaw United) and Tim Boone (Florissant) where in seperate
groups in the 1st round, both finishing with a 4-1 record. This
made them the #2 rank for the knock-out round. Both Mike Keller
and Tim Boone made it through the quarterfinals decisively.
In the semifinals Mike Keller faced Zach Walker from Minnesota
(a rematch of the Iowa finals). Both teams were not at the top
of their game, playing poorly at times. But Zach Walker managed
to score two goals before it was over for a 2-0 win to place
him in the finals. Tim Boone played Marco Silva (1997 U.S. National
Champion) in the other semifinal game. Tim Boone score 5:00
minutes in and never looked back. Holding on to a 1-0 win by
playing possession-minded subbuteo.
This
set up Zach Walker (MSL) and Tim Boone (SLSL) in the finals
of the Rockford Classic. Zach Walker scored two in the first
on some quick "east and west" movement and one in
the second for a 3-0 lead. Tim Boone could not seem to get that
final touch to set up quality scoring opportunities until it
was too late. Tim scored a goal late in the second to make it
3-1, but Zach held on for the Championship.
