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Sunday, December 4, 2016

FOR THE RECORD: ARCTIC WINTER GAMES 2016 FUTSAL RESULTS - JUNIOR MALE

The Arctic Winter Games' Junior Male Futsal competition has traditionally been dominated by Greenland; they had won seven editions prior to this year's competition and were a good bet to lift their eighth title in this age range on home soil.

Six teams took part in this edition, one more than in Fairbanks in 2014, when Greenland defeated NWT 6:2 in the final. Bronze medallists Yukon were aiming for higher, while Alaska were hoping for better than the fourth place they achieved two years ago. Nunavut, meanwhile, conceded 36 goals in four games in Alaska, and were not really expected to do much better this time, either. 

Joining the five were Alberta North, returning to competitive action in this age group for the first time in six years, and it was to turn into something of a struggle for them. They looked to have acquitted themselves well after earning a draw against the Northwest Territory, but came unstuck in their next match, losing 4:0 to Alaska, with Jack Green scoring a hat-trick. They then defeated Nunavut 2:1 before shipping seven against Greenland. Greenland had already scored seven against Nunavut, who later let in another seven goals against Yukon and finished bottom of the group after being thrashed 9:0 by Alaska. 

Green had scored in every game so far for Alaska, including their 4:1 defeat to Greenland, and bagged another hat-trick in this game; he was to be outdone by team-mate Drew Rizk, who scored five. Sebastian Szweda Mittelstadt completed the scoring; he had also found the net a couple of times in the previous group games to help propel his team to second in the final group table.

Greenland topped the group with ease, having been scoring profusely, and several players had been showing off their prowess in front of goal. Lucas Sørensen scored a hat-trick against Nunavut, whilst team-mates Bastian Hindby Rosing and Marco Geisler each scored twice. Aputsiaq Nathansen also got a hat-trick for the hosts in their 7:0 victory over Alberta North, but Hindby Rosing and Marco Geisler had scored goals between them in every group game; Geisler scored in every group game. 

As expected, Nunavut finished bottom and were at the end of some very severe defeats, but they never gave up and were rewarded with goals in a close game against Alberta North (who finished fifth) and against NWT, who ended the group in fourth place and in the semis due to the fact that they scored more goals than Alberta North whilst conceding fewer. Also entering the semi-finals with the minimum of fuss were Yukon, who had not been scoring many goals but had also been conceding few.

Unfortunately for them, they came up against Alaska in the semi-finals, for whom Rizk scored his seventh goal of the tournament in a 3:1 win. Nathan Dickhaus had given the Alaskans a 14th-minute lead before Green - his tenth of the competition - and Rizk scored twice for Alaska in the space of 45 seconds four minutes into the second-half. Ewan Halliday scored Yukon's consolation goal four minutes before time, but Alaska were deserving of their place in the final.

In the other semi-final, Greenland continued their goal-spree when they dispatched the Northwest Territory by 8 goals to 0. Marco Geisler and Hindby Rosing had put the hosts 2:0 up inside the first 3 minutes, and the score remained unchanged until the fourth minute of the second half, which saw Hindby Rosing complete his hat-trick either side of a brace from Aputsiaq Nathansen and a Malik Mølgaard Lennert goal. Geisler nabbed his second in the last minute to complete the rout and set up a final against Alaska in which they would be favourites, especially after their 4:1 victory against them in the group.

First, though, was the small matter of the third-place play-off between Yukon and Northwest Territory, and the Yukon team were favourites to land the bronze Ulu due to their 5:2 victory over their eastern neighbours in the group stage. They did not disappoint, and blitzed NWT with four goals in the first ten minutes of the match. Tyler Milton put them in front after three minutes, and added a second with just under six minutes on the clock. Ewan Halliday made it 3:0 in the ninth minute and Cody Amaral put the result beyond doubt with the fourth forty-five seconds later. Ewan Campbell scored a fifth for Yukon with ten seconds to go in the second half to put the seal on an emphatic victory and to give his team a thoroughly deserved third place.

One could have been forgiven for thinking that the final between Greenland and Alaska, the penultimate match in the entire AWG Futsal schedule, would have been nothing short of a goal-fest, especially when the first goal was scored after just 46 seconds, and it fell Greenland's way. Goalkeeper Rene Abelsen-Petersen collected a wayward Alaskan pass, threw the ball to team-mate Bror Geisler, who passed to Aputsiaq Nathansen. Nathansen went on a run down the middle and passed the ball back out to Geisler who had advanced up the right; Geisler delivered the perfect first-time ball across the face of the Alaskan goal to Lucas Sørensen at the far post to tap in the simplest of goals and set Greenland on their way to their first gold Futsal Ulu of the Games. Or, so you would have thought.

Nathansen shot just wide for Greenland in the fifth minute, and then Jack Green and Drew Rizk were denied for Alaska in the space of seconds by a Bror Geisler goal-line clearance and a block by Abelsen-Petersen. But, an equaliser wasn't long in coming. in the tenth minute, Ethon Raygor was allowed to wander unopposed into the Greenland half, where he had more than enough time to steady himself, thread across a pass between three Greenland players to Drew Risz, who had ambled forward and found himself out on the right. Risz received the ball and threaded it between Abelsen-Petersen's legs to level the scores.

The rest of the first half was mostly a case of Alaska patiently trying to find a way through the Greenland defence; the Greenlanders, in turn, favoured a more direct counter-attacking approach. Mind you, Marco Geisler almost put them in front at the culmination of a period of pressure when his long-range shot crashed against Alaskan goalie Paul Kopp's left-hand post. In a slice of end-to-end action, Kopp saved from Nathansen before the ball was eventually passed out to Rizk, who carried the ball to the edge of the Greenland penalty-area and into a one-one-one situation with Abelsen-Petersen, but the keeper spread himself to keep out Rizk's shot. Just before the half-time whistle, Bror Geisler rampaged into the Alaskan half and passed to Hindby Rosing, who shot on the turn from six yards out only for Kopp to tip his shot over the bar.

The second half started with the home side in the ascendancy. Within two minutes of the restart, Lucas Sørensen, Bastian Hindby Rosing and Marco Geisler all had shots which came within inches of troubling Kopp in the Alaskan goal. With 20 minutes gone, Sørensen fashioned a shooting chance for himself, only to see Kopp block his shot with the inside of his thigh and gather the ball at the second attempt just as it was about to creep over the line. The pressure on the Alaskan defence was becoming more sustained now, and with four minutes left, Sørensen weaved his way through once again to shoot, but Kopp saved well.

Seconds later, the Alaskan defence was finally breached. Marco Geisler, just inside the Alaska half, passed to Aputsiaq Nathansen, who shimmied his way inside a defender and shot. His shot was heading well wide but for Raygor to inadvertently divert the ball with his head past the wrong-footed Kopp to give Greenland the lead. Raygor was distraught, but tried to make amends with a run and shot which, unfortunately for the young Alaskan, went wide. Rizk and Sweda Middelstadt both had headers which went agonisingly close as the end of the match approached, but it was all just a little too late as far as Alaska were concerned.

At the final whistle, it was hard not to sympathise with Alaska and the hapless, inconsolable Raygor in particular; they had played well and were well worth their place in the final, but lost to an unfortunate own-goal to the better team. Not just Jack Green and Drew Rizk deserve praise, but players such as Sebastian Szweda Mittelstadt and Paul Kopp - the whole team, in actual fact - should be given credit for their performances.

There was considerable joy as well as relief among the hosts; this was Greenland's third Futsal final of the day, and they had expected to win them all. Instead, this was the country's sole Futsal gold Ulu at their home Games and it meant a lot; it was, of course, Greenland's third win in a row in this category and the second time they had achieved that distinction. 

This Greenland side was a well-oiled unit, and this bears testament to the work carried out by the GBU and the GIF over the past few years to bring the country up to speed as far as Futsal is concerned. Bastian Hindby Rosing, Marco Geisler, Lucas Sørensen and Aputsiaq Nathansen all stand out because of their goalscoring prowess, but others such as Bror Geisler deserve praise. And you can't be a bad goalkeeper if, like Rene Abelsen-Petersen, you concede just two goals throughout a tournament.

The future of Futsal in Greenland looks bright, with the full national team finally coming up against opposition of the calibre of the Faroe Islands, Denmark and the Czech Republic and gaining sometimes painful experience in doing so, but representing their country is something for those playing in the Junior and Juvenile Male age-ranges to aim for. For their Alaskan counterparts, however, just like most of those playing the game across the Arctic, the Arctic Winter Games will probably be as far as they will progress due to a lack of inter-regional adult Futsal competition. Perhaps the Arctic Winter Games International Committee can find a way to, at the very least, create an Intermediate Male category in future tournaments. Otherwise, as things currently stand, there is nowhere for the region's potential talent to go and it will be lost for good. Judging by the standard of Futsal displayed in the Junior Male category, that would be a great shame.


RESULTS      

GROUP STAGE   

07/03/16 Alaska 2:0 Yukon (Green, Szweda Mittelstadt)
07/03/16 Alberta North 1:1 Northwest Territories (Gorman; Elms)
07/03/16 Greenland 7:0 Nunavut (Sørensen (3), Hindby Rosing (2), Marco Geisler (2))
07/03/16 Alaska 4:0 Alberta North (Green (3), Norberg)
07/03/16 Northwest Territories 2:5 Yukon (Simon (2); Maltais(3), Halliday, Weir)
08/03/16 Alberta North 2:1 Nunavut (Couture, Lawrance; Tagoona)
08/03/16 Alaska 1:4 Greenland (Green; Marco Geisler (2), Nathansen, Markussen)
08/03/16 Nunavut 0:7 Yukon (Hönisch (2), Weir (2), Milton, Halliday, Kishchuk)
08/03/16 Alaska 4:0 Northwest Territories (Rizk, Norberg, Green, Szweda Mittelstadt)
08/03/16 Alberta North 0:7 Greenland (Nathansen (3), Sørensen, Marco Geisler, Hyndby Rosing, Bror Geisler)
09/03/16 Alberta North 0:1 Yukon (Amaral)
09/03/16 Greenland 5:0 Northwest Territories (Hindby Rosing (2), Marco Geisler, Markussen, Sørensen)
09/03/16 Alaska 9:0 Nunavut (Rizk (5), Green (3), Szweda Mittelstadt)
09/03/16 Greenland 2:0 Yukon (Marco Geisler, Hindby Rosing)
09/03/16 Nunavut 1:4 Northwest Territory (Voisey; Simon (2), Kearley, Grimes)


TEAM
P
W
D
L
GF
GA
PTS
GD
GREENLAND
5
5
0
0
25
1
15
24
ALASKA
5
4
0
1
20
4
12
16
YUKON
5
3
0
2
13
6
9
7
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
5
1
1
3
7
16
4
-9
Alberta North
5
1
1
3
3
14
4
-11
Nunavut
5
0
0
5
2
29
0
-27
 


SEMI-FINALS  

10/03/16 Greenland 8:0 Northwest Territories (Hindby Rosing (3) Geisler (2), Nathansen (2), Mølgaard Lennert)
10/03/16 Alaska 3:1 Yukon (Dickhaus, Green, Rizk; Halliday)

THIRD-PLACE PLAY-OFF   

11/03/16 Northwest Territories 0:5 Yukon (Milton (2), Halliday, Amaral, Kishchuk)

FINAL   

11/03/16 Alaska 1:2 Greenland (Rizk; Sørensen, Raygor (OG))

TEAMS  

ALASKA: 5 Paul KOPP, 2 Jack GREEN, 3 Nathan DICKHAUS, 4 Sebastian SZWEDA MITTELSTADT, 6 Samuel TWENHAFEL, 7 Jackson NORBERG, 8 Nathaniel WALSH, 9 Drew RIZK, 10 Ethan RAYGOR

ALBERTA NORTH: 1 Marshall FISCHER; 3 Kobe SPAIDAL, 4 Ryan THIBAULT, 5 Mitchel GORMAN, 6 Austin COUTURE, 7 Kobi POIRIER, 8 Mark LAWRANCE, 9 Judah LEGAREE, 10 Rylee WHITE

GREENLAND: 1 Rene ABELSEN-PETERSEN; 2 Lucas SØRENSEN, 3 Bastian HINDBY ROSING, 4 Aputsiaq NATHANSEN, 5 Lars MARKUSSEN, 6 Nikki PETERSEN, 7 Malik MØLGAARD LENNERT, 8 Bror GEISLER, 9 Marco GEISLER

NUNAVUT: 1 Colin McGOWAN, 10 Michael ILLNIK, 11 William CAMPBELL, 12 Mackayle BUCKLER, 13 John VOISEY, 14 Ryan EEGEESIAK-MacINTOSH, 15 Favour OMOLE, 16 Jon TAGOONA, 20 Tyler SABOURIN

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES: 2 Joshua KEARLEY, 6 Isaac SIMON, 7 Benjamin GRIMES, 8 Chidiebube "Obed" DURU, 10 Michael ELMS, 11 Darien COMIN, 13 Darryl BALSILLIE, 15 Mitchell PORTER, 17 Ixaka NEWKIRK

YUKON: 1 Seth CAREY; 3 Felix MALTAIS, 4 Ewan CAMPBELL, 4 Simon KISHCHUK, 10 Tyler MILTON, 11 Dawson WEIR, 14 Ewan HALLIDAY, 18 Cody AMARAL, 42 Matthias HÖNISCH

HONOURS-LIST   

1990 Greenland
1994 Magadan
1996 Greenland
1998 Greenland
2000 Northwest Territories
2002 NOT HELD
2004 Yukon
2006 Greenland
2008 Greenland
2010 Greenland
2012 Yamal
2014 Greenland
2016 GREENLAND 

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many thanks to Doris Landry, the recently-retired secretary of the Arctic Winter Games International Committee, for kindly allowing the reproduction of the above statistical information for the 2016 AWG, which is available via the following website, and for her general assistance:

http://awg2016.gems.pro/Default.aspx

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