Triangle F.C. School of Soccer

Easter Open International Youth Football Tournament, Holland

Triangle FC Under 14's this year headed to Europe at Easter to compete in Holland Open Football Tournament. Sixteen players accompanied by coaches from Triangle Youth FC's U14 squad flew out from Dublin Airport on Good Friday 21st March to compete in the tournament. The crack Dutch competition is now in its 9th year and attracts over 220 teams from all across Europe and the UK. Triangle FC was the only Irish team to be accepted for this year’s competition in their age group.

The groups were spread over 3 sections ranging from Elite, A and B. Triangle Youths were placed in the A section which featured four groups of four. The Coleraine boys faced tough opposition in their group which features Danish league champions FC Copenhagen rated as "the best youth academy in Denmark" and English league side Rushden & Diamonds Academy along with Dutch side Halspe FC. The tournament was a  massive test for Triangle but one which the boys looked forward to. To highlight the overall standard of the competition the U14 Elite section features teams from Nottingham Forest, Motherwell, Reading and Ajax. The competition ran until Easter Monday with up to three games per day. Triangle would like to thank all the sponsors and parents who have given the boys immense backing throughout the season.

Triangle Under 14's started their group A fixtures on Easter Saturday with a 9am kick off in the Dutch town of Haps against English conference side Rushden & Diamonds. With Easter falling earlier than usual the weather leading up to the tournament had been very bad and it was actually touch and go as to whether the competition would  take place at all with freezing fog threatening to put the dampeners on the whole tournament.  The matches eventually went ahead albeit with a reduced playing time of 15 minutes each way so as not to damage the pitches which were hosting up to 10 matches each day, this pretty much meant a sudden death type scenario. Triangle held their own against the English Academy side and  if the match had of been played over the scheduled 45 minutes Triangle looked the more likely team to score, but nonetheless after 30 minutes both teams had to settle for a share of the points score 0-0. Triangle's second match was against local boys club and host of the group matches Haps FC. Triangle started nervously against a very big and physical Haps side going into the half time break at 0-0. The second half saw the boys settle  into their usual passing game and after 3 minutes took the lead through left winger Ryan "Soupy" Campbell. Triangle put the game to bed with 3 minutes remaining with a cool finish from Craig Moore.  

This result set up a winner takes all final group game  against  Tournament favorites FC Copenhagen. From the start Triangle to a man played possibly their best game of the season and were in command from the start against another big and physical European side. Jay Hamilton opened the scoring with the goal of the day from a 35 yard free kick.  After totally ignoring manager Stevie McCann's command to drop the ball on back post, Jay had only one thing on his mind 1-0 Triangle with even the Copenhagen manager clapping the unbelievably hit free kick. From that moment on their was only going to be one winner as Triangle made the so called Danish champions look very very average. Chris McNeill  finished the game off with a cool finish making the final result another 2-0 victory for the Coleraine boys.

Triangle had topped the so called "group of death" unbeaten and without conceding a goal which was an astonishing result for the boys club from coleraine against such prestigious opposition.

Triangle Youth Under 14's finish 3rd out of 16 teams in the Eindhoven Easter open tournament: