The first official international minifootball friendly games at club level took place last weekend in the Croatian capital Zagreb. The event was organized with the support of Association Minifootball Croatia and Bulgarian Association Minifootball with the idea to promote international games at club level within Europe.
This is the next big step after the success of miniEURO 2012 competition in which the national teams of EMF members participated.
Guest in Zagreb was Bulgarian club team i:FAO Hawks, that participate in IT Championship tournament in Bulgarian capital Sofia.
The friendly games took place at Sport Center TEZ, which hosts the matches from the Zagreb League, managed by Association Minifootball Croatia. Referees of the games were Bulgarian international referee Bogomil Marinov and Croatian referee from the Zagreb League.
Special guests of the friendly games were the EMF Secretary General Bruno Alpeza and vice-president of Bulgarian Association Minifootball Plamen Bojidarov.
In the first game i:FAO Hawks played against one of the leaders in Zagreb League MNK KUSTOŠIJA. There was parity until the end of first half, when MNK KUSTOŠIJA leaded with 1:0. The Hawks had offered little in the second half, except for the goal by Veselin Skoklev. It seems i:FAO players were tired from the long traveling and were not able to demonstrate their full capabilities. On the other hand the team of MNK KUSTOŠIJA demonstrated very good technical and tactical skills and was very efficient in counter-attacks for the final 8:1.
In the second friendly game i:FAO met the Zagreb Champions for 2012 “CB CORTO SOHO”. In this game i:FAO team was very compact in defense and there were no much space for the opponent forwards. This tactics leave a chance for counter-attacks from which the fast forwards of the hawks scored several goals for the final 5:3 for i:FAO Hawks.
Fair play and friendly atmosphere was part of both games and both associations hope that next year the visit could be returned and Croatian teams could visit Bulgaria and meet some strong Bulgarian teams.