Today Team International might have gathered the two best teams in the history of Taxqueña Arena games. With Mohammed the group got to know its first star player from Qatar. He just arrived to Mexico, so he is still struggling with the altitude. Something most of us can realte to.
Arturo and Kim picked the teams in the beginning. Soon it was clear that it would be a special day at Taxqueña Arena. Special, because female midfielder Majo returned after her injury about two months ago. She was managing the game from outside. Special also, because both teams had top class players that allowed a very fast game. Well, two games.
Clash of Titans between the Captains of Jakeventus FC and Mannichester FC
On October 18th, Team International traveled to the north of Mexico City to play against another international team.
The players from France (Max & Pablo), England (Josh & Jake), Mexico (Alberto & Wen) India (Manni) and Germany (Kim) were ready to confront another team to get more competitive experience.
How serious the players take those competitive games can be shown by the effort put in by Wen. Living in Xochimilco he generally has it quite difficult to reach the games. For this game, he did not hesitate to take an Uber for 60 kilometers paying 700 pesos just for the Uber! That’s what we call commitment at Team International!
The numbers are skyrocketing at the famous Taxqueña Arena. At this past Sunday casual soccer meetup of our international community close to 30 people gathered together to show off their new skills.
For the first time in the history of the games of our group “Team International“ 4 teams competed for the golden banana award at Taxqueña Arena. Here a quick summary of each team:
Team Mexico
Jakeventus
Team International
Team France
Jonny (ENG)
Edward (KEN)
Danilo (BRA)
Victor
Erick (MX)
Hazael (MX)
Tom (CA)
Ronan
Nicho (MX)
Jake (ENG)
Jesus (MX)
Hakim
Wen (MX)
Hector (SV)
Santi (COL)
Paul Baron
Irving (MX)
Come (FR)
Ruben (MX)
Antoine
Irving friend (MX)
Cesar (MX)
Josh (ENG)
Savinien
Johnnie (MX)
Danny (US)
Diego (MX)
Martin
Team Mexico
Team Mexico consisted of purely Mexican players with the edition of English midfielder Jonny, who has not missed a game since his debut 2 months ago. Veteran Wen organized the game from the back in his efficient and calm playing style. His passing statistics: 100% passes completed successfully. Erick, Nicho, Jonny, Johnnie, Irving and his female friend all were in charge for the offensive actions. Especially comebacker Johnnie seemed to show the passionate crowd at Taxqueña Arena that he has not lost his skills despite his long lasting abstinence from the games.
Jakeventus
Filled with veteran players of the original Jakventus team (Edward, Hazael, Jake, Hector), French international Côme, us-boy Danny and Mexican defender Cesar the team let some magic happen every once in a while in their tiki-taka like combinations. They started off quite hot with Hazael scoring some quick goals in the first game. Later on the level slowed down a bit with Côme and Edward occasionally firing up a ball in the direction of the opponent’s goal keeper.
Team International
Team 3 consisted of players from 5 different countries and 3 different continents, thus the prestigious name Team International. Similar to Team Mexico, Team International had a strong defender with Brazilian Danilo, who organized the team’s game from the back. Always a active member of the team was Canadian giant Tom who ran up and down on the right side going for the shot whenever possible. For the creative moments Rubinski, Diego and Jesus took charge, setting strikers Josh and Santi brilliantly up to score goals. A diverse but very effective team on the pitch!
Team France
Probably the most dangerous team of all the four teams. Team France came up with an even more complete version since their victory last weekend at Taxqueña Arena. This time, the team consisted of players 100% made in France. The team’s quality was shown in their mental capacity of always making the right decision and never giving up the ball unnecessarily. Stopping the ball and passing it to the best available team member was executed in a way Zidane could not have taught better. All team members made sure the ball was brought into the opponents half where star striker Antoine often found a way to get into a shooting position firing up a ball with his strong left foot.
Competitive Games in a Fair and Friendly Style
All teams won several games during the more than 2 hour lasting games… While the tournament style made the games a bit more competitive (of course no one wanted to have to leave the pitch loosing a game), the games always remained very fair. The referee and the players as well did a great job keeping it all friendly.
After the game some players introduced themselves to the Sport12 community in a small video clip that will be shown in the crowdfunding campaign at the end of this year.
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* thanks to Fabi for the professional photos shots and Jake for the professional and slightly biased commentary
this Wednesday the Jakeventus A Team aka Mannichester City has a competitive 6-a-side game against the soccer team of the consultancy PwC in the north of the city. The casual soccer games this weekend will take place as usual, accessible for everyone!
23 goals were scored at yesterday’s Sunday Soccer meet-up at Taxqueña Arena. Hakim’s group consisting of French teachers from the Instituto Franco-Mexicano showed up with 5 guys. Antoine and Ronan played for the first time at the Sunday soccer games and brought in some skills to the group.
The French team was complmented by Canadian Tom, Belgium Pavel and English Josh, who made his first appearance for Team International at Saturday’s 11 a side soccer game.
On the other side, team Jakeventus played with the veterans: Wen, Hector, Jake, Edgar and Hazael, complimented by Jonny from England and Santiago from Colombia. Here is the initial lineup of the game:
GK: Jonny (ENG)
Wen (MX) – Hector (SV)
Jake (ENG) – Edgar (US) – Hazael (MX)
Santiago (CO)
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Hakim (FR)
Josh (ENG) – Ronan (FR)
Victor (FR) – Pavel BEL) – Paul (FR)
GK: Tom (CA)
Subs: Antoine (FR), Andrew (US), Fer (MX)
Successful Implementation of Piramid System
The initial 3-2-1 piramid formation of team France seemed to be more effective than Jakeventus’ 2-3-1 formation. The slightly more motivated French team went with a sovereign 5:2 into half time. The defence of Jakeventus seemed to have some organizational problems in the beginning. After the half time break Jakeventus put in the effort that it takes to win a game. Newcomer Ronan was able to score the 6:2, but then Jakeventus got serious scoring two quick goals, 6:4. From that point on goals were scored on both sides every minute. After playing two times 40 minutes the teams finished exhausted due to the burning sun with an impressive 13:10 victory of team French. The defence of both teams seemed to be napping occasionally.
We are still missing our female player Majo at the games. She injured herself a few weeks ago and will have to recover 2 more months due to her severe incident. We wish her a quick recovery!
Score sheet: Team French vs Jakeventus
1stHalf
2nd Half
1:0 Hakim
6:2 Ronan
2:0 Hazael (EG)
6:3 Jake
2:1 Hector
6:4 Santi
3:1 Victor
7:4 Hakim
4:1 Hakim
8:4 Victor (golazo)
5:1 Josh
8:5 Jonny
5:2 Santi
8:6 Edgar
9:6 Antoine
9:7 Jake (solo run)
10:7 Antoine
10:8 Edgar
10:9 Tom (EG)
11:9 Josh
12:9 Josh
12:10 Edgar
13:10 Josh
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* thanks to Fabi for the illustrations of the game
At yesterday’s Sunday Casual Soccer Games at Taxqueña Arena 23 players from 11 nations in 3 teams played the Cup of Nations: Team1: UK, Team2: France, Team3: Jakeventus.
Jakeventus had a good start winning a few games in a row in the beginning. The veterans had a slight advantage since they play together for several months already and therefore know each other better than Messi and Alba. The team mates always made sure for example to play the ball into the feet of Jake instead of sending him for a run, which is of no benefit to the team.
But team France and also team UK later on showed why their countries are one of the most soccer fanatic countries. They both managed to score several goals and finished as the winner of several games.
All together the three teams played around 20 five minute games within two hours at Taxqueña Arena Culhuacanes. The winner is yet to be awarded since the jury is still counting the goals of the teams as all teams won exactly the same amount of games.
A big applause to Tom, Marcos, Hazael, Hector, Danny and of course Manni-Mourinho who participated in both games this weekend and showing a restless performance like everyone else on yesterday’s Cup of Nations!
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* thanks to photographer Fabi for the ilustrations of the game
* since everyone chipped in an extra 10 pesos after the game we will have a new Team International ball of which we will take special care in order to no loose it like the other balls that we lost in the past matches
Teams
Team 1: UK
Jon (UK), Brook (UK), Jonny (UK), David (UK), Danilo (BRA), Cesar (MX), Elias (MX), Tom (CA)
Team 2: France
Victor (FR), Hakim (FR), Marcos (MX), Pavel (BEL), Santiago (COL), Fer (MX), Paul Baron (FR)
Team 3: Jakeventus
Pablo (FR), Hazael (MX), Hector (SV), Danny (US), Jake (ENG), Manni (IN), Edgar (US)
Once again there was lots of action going on at yesterday’s Sunday Soccer Games at Taxqueña Arena. Several people from all over the world met together to have fun playing some casual soccer games. The group was split into two teams. Team Mexico-Brazil played against Team Rest of the World. With Danilo and Marcello Team International by now has a solid Brazilian base as well.
For team Mexico-Brazil Hazael voluntarily took the goal keeper position. He is one of the many guys that is slightly injured at the moment. His passion and dedication to the game did not allow him however to stay home and not come to the game. So he decided to stay in the goal for two hours. Unfortunately one of the German star players Jonas got injured just a few minutes into the game. He got to excited entering the game late making some early sprints. One of those sprints resulted in a muscular problem, preventing him from continuing. All the best Jonas!
21 Goals in 3 Games
The teams played three games. Both teams had a very equal skill level. Newcomer Marcello, who just arrived from Brazil yesterday to stay in Mexico City to work, opened the score sheet with the first goal for team Mexico-Brazil. Colombian newcomer Santiago (twice) and Manni made sure their team would win the game with their goals. Birthday kid Alberto scored a goal for team Mexico-Brazil but there was not enough time for the team to score the equalizer.
The second and the third game both finished with a draw. In the 3rdgame team Mexico-Brazil had a tremendous start. Within a few minutes they were leading 4:0. Taking the game too easy afterwards, ROW was able to make a come back. At the end both teams finished with a 5:5 draw.
GOAL SCORER
1stGame -> Mexico & Brazil 2:3 Rest of the World
1:0 Marcello
1:1 Santiago
1:2 Manni
1:3 Santiago
2:3 Alberto M.
2ndGame -> Rest of the World 3:3 Mexico & Brazil
1:0 Jake
1:1 Majo
1:2 Nacho
2:2 Jonny
2:3 Marcello
3:3 Jake
3:3 Danilo
3rdGame -> Mexico & Brazil 5:5 Rest of the World
1:0 Nacho
2:0 Danilo
3:0 Alberto M.
4:0 Nacho
4:1 Hector
4:2 Manni
4:3 Jake
5:3 Marcello
5:4 Jonny
5:5 Santiago
LINEUP
Mexico & Brazil: Hazael (GK), Wen, Majo, Cesar, Elias, Alberto R., Alberto M., Danilo & Marcello
ROW: Hector (SV), Manni (IN), Danny (US), Jonny (ENG), Jake (ENG), Santiago (COL), Nacho (ARG), Jonas (GER), Ruben (MX)
Get well soon Majo
Unfortunately we had a very unlucky situation during the second game. One of the most talented female soccer players in Mexico City got seriously injured when trying to reach a ball. Majo couldn’t stop herself before reaching the fence. She awkwardly crashed into the fence injuring her shin. Wen brought her straight to the hospital. She will be out for a few weeks. We wish her all the best to recover asap!!!
Despite the circumstances the team finished the third game and celebrated Alberto’s birthday once again with a chocolate cake arranged by non other than Manni and Fabi. Alberto invited the group to his birthday party on Friday (see picture below). Happy Birthday campeón!
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* thanks to photographer Fabi for the photo shots of the players and to Manni for providing the water and Gatorade for the whole group
We had an interested change in the lineup of our teams at yesterday’s Sunday Soccer Games. Instead of having several French players as usual, we were happy to welcome several new guys from the UK and Canada. Jon, David, Brook, and Jonny from the UK joined us as well as Corey from Canada, complementing the Canadian block of Troy-Tom-Rob. Alberto’s friend Luis was our new Mexican signing of the game.
Established player Jake gathered his UK team together while the rest played in the other team. Two games were played. The new English guys brought lots of strength into the game. Especially the first game had lots of power. The UK guys were loosing 6:2 but managed to make a come back scoring 4 more goals. Kenyan Edward scored the last two goals. The last one being assisted brilliantly by Jake who decided to go for a solo run and providing the assist for Edward at the end. The final result: 6:6!
Goals
1:0 – Jonny
2:0 – Kim
3:0 – Jonny
4:0 – Alberto
4:1 – Tom
4:2 – Tom
5:2 – Alberto
6:2 – David
6:3 – Tom
6:4 – Jon
6:5 – Edward
6:6 – Edward (solo run and assist of Jake)
Jakeventus unstoppable in 2nd Game
In the second game the teams stayed the same. In 40 more minutes Jake’s UK-Jakeventus Team scored one goal after the other. They were also able to count on the only goal keeper Troy who had some great saves. The rotating goal keepers of the opponent team did not posses those skills. At the end pretty much every player of Jakeventus scored. The final result was a shocking 10:3 defeat.
LINEUPS
Jakeventus: Jake, Jon, Brook, Corey, Troy, Edward, Tom
Opponent: Hector, Majo, Jonny, Danny, Alberto, Luis, Kim, David
* thanks to photographer Fabi for the illustrations of the game
* for next game we will start to organize someone to bring the water for everyone again
Sunday Soccer at Polideportivo los Culhuacanes. In a casual 7-a-side game Team International defeated Equipo Rojo with 6:3.
Several players were not able to attend the game due to injuries. We hope Layún, Ben and Luis will recover soon. On the other side female midfielder Majo made here comeback! Majo was in good shape making herself available whenever possible and creating chance after chance for her team. Due to her intelligent playing style and Edgar’s finishing skills Team International won 6:3 in the first game.
Day one after Jakeventus’ defeat against Mexican All Stars: In a quick warm up game Team International won 5:1 against FC PASEOS. The most active player at yesterday’s Sunday Soccer Day was Fer, who scored a hattrick. Jake and Kim scored the other two goals to make the 5:1 victory complete. For FC PASEOS playmaker Christian scored the goal.
