Barcelona Football Festival is an international youth football tournament for boys, held in Salou and Cambrils area in the south of Barcelona. A high quality tournament designed to provide unforgettable days of football and fun – on and off the field. Our Year 8 student Peter Whitehouse took part and wrote about his experiences:
Barcelona Tournament May 2017
We fundraised for a year so that Whitley Bay Sporting club U13 Blues could join in with one amazing tournament; the Barcelona Football Festival 2017.
We arrived in the Whitley Bay team bus and immediately looked at the perfectly cut grass of the academy of Salou. We turned up overheated and needed twenty 2 litre bottles each day, whereas our rivals (The Indonesia National Team) had their under armour on in 28 degrees; it must have been chilly for them!
Our first clash was the Indonesian team but unfortunately we had the disadvantage of being a year younger so every tackle they won. Our next match was a French team that we beat with a comfortable win of 4-0. Barca had brought some of their own physios down and they’d set up a tent for free massages down the back of your legs. Very welcome!
We all then looked at Iceland who we were due to play next and thought back to the Euros when Iceland managed to beat England. We got out onto the pitch and got into our huddle as always and our captain suggested we stay strong. With some aggressive tackling, we got shown two yellow cards before smashing the ball for a goal; 1-0. Two minutes after second half it was 2-0 and we were winning every 50/50. We won the stamina race as well scoring another after a wild free kick that went out of the ground. With the result of 3-0 it was clear that at least one English team can beat Iceland.
Next day we turned up for the quarter finals. We were warming up passing the ball around when we saw a band of drummers wearing neon yellow and they were drumming for the home team. We passed the ball around the back four to tire the other team out until our left back saw me running up the wing. I was through, on-side and one on one with the goalkeeper until their defender took a lunge at my ankle and took me off my feet. At first I thought the ref hadn’t given anything but he gave us a free kick. Our free kick went wide and we got back into formation, then our goal came from a straight kick from our goalkeeper and I took a touch and drilled it across the ground to our striker’s feet. 1-0!
At half time the drums were drumming an anxious beat as they knew we were the better team at 1-0. Their tactic was to take it to penalties at full time. They scored with a few minutes left and we thought they’d achieved their aim; but an amazing goal from our striker straight from kick off muted those drums that had been going for the full 40 minutes. 2-1.
Indonesia won and we came in 4th place in the Under 14s tournament. It was the best experience of my life – Barcelona Football Festival!
Peter Whitehouse, June 2017
