The final day of the 34th memorial indoor soccer tournament, ‘Buda and Civi’, brought unprecedented surprises…

First of all, apologies for the late report, but I also had to follow the war launched by the criminal Zionist coalition against Iran. Due to stress and fatigue, certain health problems arose that prevented me from following the tournament as I had done in previous years.

But let's get back to the tournament. The qualifiers were completed during the hottest part of the day. Unfortunately for the home fans, ‘Milojе Đak’ team, despite an excellent performance and two wins in the group, still did not advance to the quarterfinals, as they had the worst goal difference in the three-team round.

The audience was still patiently waiting for the excitement of the quarterfinals…

Out of four matches, two ended with minimal results. ‘Smederevo’ narrowly defeated the ‘Brazilians’ from the ‘Joga Bonito’ team in a tough match, and in this quarter-final, last year’s finalists met by chance – ‘PLG’ enjoyed a sweet revenge against ‘Fitness & Gym 300’ – 1:0!

But the most interesting and exciting match of the quarterfinals was the one between the teams ‘Center’ and ‘Auto Power SD’. The early lead of the ‘Auto Power SD’ team aroused passions and both teams seemed to have forgotten about defense…

The younger and better prepared team of ‘Center’, led by the best scorer of this tournament, Vuk Tasić, went for it all or nothing. It paid off for them. They managed to turn the score around, while ‘Auto Powers’ only managed to mitigate the result until the end of game. In the end – 5:3, to the general delight of those present!

Unfortunately for the team ‘Center’, in the semi-finals they came up against an excellent PLG team, last year’s finalists who came here with the highest ambitions. It was again a tough match with only one goal. In the second, even more exciting semi-final, the ‘Smederevo’ team defeated the ‘Enzo’ team 3:2. Until the final, the audience was entertained by the ‘Cockerels’, a young generation that will soon show what it knows in this tournament…

And the final was truly something to talk about. Such a turnaround has not been seen for a long time! It started with the players being very easy to follow – blacks (Smederevo) against whites (PLG):

The Whites implemented a strategy of strong defense and quick counterattacks in a very disciplined manner in the first half. They got off to a great start…

They took a 3-0 lead, and one team ‘Smederevo’ player was injured in a collision with the metal structure of the goal, after which he had to leave the tournament. At the end of the first half, it seemed as if the final game had already been decided. The big Winning Cup smiled on the ‘PLG’ team…

However, the ‘Smederevo’ team did not give up. Freed from psychological pressure, they played their best, and the goals started to fall, and the ‘PLG’ team’s self-confidence began to decline…

And at the very end of the match – a tie – 3:3! In this case, five-minute overtime periods are played until the final decision is made!

And then, in those five minutes, the Smederevo team shows off all their magnificent talent and scores three more goals! A complete turnaround and a more than deserved victory – 6:3!

And here are the final results of this year's tournament:

First, Miloš Jovanović presented the top scorer trophy to Vuk Tasić, the goal scorer of the team ‘Center’.

The winning team ‘Smederevo’ with the tournament organizers and their most loyal fan:

This year the tournament ended very late, and the audience largely dispersed immediately after the trophy presentation, so there was no traditional group photo. But, from each tournament we will draw experiences for the next one. The winners invite you to the 35th Memorial Tournament!

See you next year!

All photos taken with the Fujifilm X-T20 camera with the Canon EFs 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS USM nano lens adapted to the Fuji body using Fringer adapter.