Blind Football: World Grand Prix France 2023

This WILL age well 😎

Our newly established Blind Football Women squad went through the first serious test at Schiltigheim (next to the French-German borders) for the 2023 France World Grand Prix. Did they pass? Have a look above and tell us what you think 😇🏴‍☠️

Female version of Bli-Fu may be developing in a rapid manner but it’s still a young sport (note: not officially recognized yet, with all the problems that come as result of it but let’s leave it here for now). Two the opponents in the female leg of the event (male event already in progress since June 24th, was about national teams, a few words about it towards the end), hosts SC Schiltigheim and Mälarhöjdens IK from Sweden, with squads playing each other twice (Friday and Saturday) in 2×15′ (stopping clock) matches. A very well organized streaming coverage made everything accessible to anyone interested, so early Friday afternoon (the benefits of remote working 😇) everything ready to go.

Friday 14:30: SC Schiltigheim vs FCSP 0-2

The squad: Svenja Bartels (keeper), Jana Marquart, Jenny Dabelstein, Thoya “The Beast” Κüster and Anjte Küster as guide (Dr. Frank Keiser at the edge of the bench for any medical emergency throughout the tournament – there was one). Wait, only four? Yes, due to the inability of the hosts to field a full squad at the time, something that was fixed on Saturday.

Brown white dominance all along the first half, which was sealed with the opener by Thoya on 11′, Jenny made space for Amire Schwarz immediately afterwards. Thoya (constant danger for the opponent), locked the match on 20′, after having crossed the entire pitch, getting rid of everyone on her way. As it happened after the opener, Jana made space for Katja Loffler. Thoya kept hammering the opposite defense, nothing more to give though, an easy overall win in the opening game of the tournament.

Full match below:

Friday 18:30: FCSP vs Mälarhöjdens IK 4-0

The squad: Marie Jurgens (keeper), Jana Marquart, Amire Schwarz, Jenny Dabelstein, Thoya Κüster and Karin Leidecker as guide.

Things this time were different. Hell from the dressing rooms by Thoya, 1-0 after 30″, 2-0 on 9′ and the hat-trick immediately afterwards, doing whatever she wanted with the opposite defenders. Cherry on the pie Jenny‘s first ever goal (if not mistaken) on 13’, following a Thoya assist, she wildly celebrated and she had every righto to do so 🤘🏾😁 4-0 already from the 1st half and coach Sven Gronau did the good deed, pulled Thoya off and put Katja in, giving some breathing space to the opponent. FCSP still dominant in the 2nd half, Amire and Jenny were in the mood, creating trouble for the Swedish squad, however things did not “escalate” further, 4-0 was the final score.

Full match below:

Saturday 10:30: Mälarhöjdens IK vs FCSP 0-2

The squad: Svenja Bartels (keeper), Katja Loffler, Amire Schwarz, Jenny Dabelstein, Thoya Κüster and Karin Leidecker as guide.

That was probably the less exciting out of the 4 matches we played. Two goals by Thoya in the 1st half (7′ and 12′, the second super as usual) and then mostly respect to the opponent. Highlight of the 2nd half (not a positive one unfortunately) was Jenny‘s injury on 22’. She left the pitch (Amire in, has been substituted by Jana Marquart at the beginning of the 2nd half), didn’t play a single minute in the next match, something making perfect sense, as anyone seeing her wearing a neck collar in the celebration picture on top can easily understand. Hopefully nothing serious and just preemptive measures, fingers crossed for our number 18, get well soon girl!!!

Full match below (behaves a little differently, click on it, will open on YouTube):

Saturday 18:30: FCSP vs SC Schiltigheim 2-1

The squad: Svenja Bartels (keeper), Jana Marquart, Amire Schwarz, Katja Loffler, Thoya Κüster and Anjte Küster as guide.

OK, this was unexpectedly exciting. Yes, FCSP was again the dominant squad, Thoya found again the way on 10′ but opposition was looking much more solid. We finished the 1st half leading 1-0 and got into the pitch in the 2nd, in order to lock the game as early as we can. Not only this didn’t happen but Schiltigheim equalized with the goal of the tournament on 24′! (Mireille Loeffler, lob free kick from Hell, Marie Jurgens (in for Svenja) never saw it coming, click the bloody link below, you have to see this!) Suddenly 1-1 with 6′ on the clock remaining and time for Thoya Küster to take again the matter in her own hands by scoring the winner on 27′ with Schiltigheim keeper having already saved her squad twice beforehand. No more funny surprises, final score 2-1 and 4th victory in 4 matches for the Girls in Brown ✊🏾🏴‍☠️

Full match below:

Some harvest for a single weekend! 4/4 wins, tournament trophy at home PLUS Top Scorer and MVP awards for Thoya, can all be seen deployed in the header picture. For anyone interested in the festive part, closing ceremony below.

Conclusions? Of course, Borgweg keeps cultivating talent! Anyone having watched this squad in its early stages (either as FCSP or as Germany, not much difference) can recall a squad with Thoya knowing her stuff and the rest mostly in defensive role, contributing very few things creative-wise, attacking was about Thoya doing her things and the rest more or less watching, this has drastically changed. Rest of the squad maybe not up to par with (or even close to) Thoya yet but they appear to be catching up quite fast, Thoya may be the star but she’s the leader of a proper squad, with the others able by now to contribute their share in the game too, 2nd half in the 4-0 vs Mälarhöjdens IK, where Sven decided to play an entire half without her, speaks for itself. Expect this squad to grow up and mature along with the sport itself and get ready for some spectacular stuff at Borgweg ✊🏾🏴‍☠️

Any other brown white highlights? Yes, THIS MANIAC 😁🤘🏾🏴‍☠️

I believe all of you can recognize “Hippo” Versen, Captain of our Men’s squad (in case you’re Brown White and you don’t, go to the Bli-Fu section of this blog and study a little 😇). This guy was there for the entire two days, making a guest block on his own, waving the flag non-stop and shouting for the squad non stop too. Of course, both he and his “rainbow pirate flag writing ‘St. Pauli'” drew the attention of the commentator (anyone who watched or will watch the games will understand 😉), “street says” that there were some asking “what the hell this guy is consuming”, the answer is “nothing” people, he’s a MAD Brown White Junkie, he consumes FCSP, he’s one of us, MEGA Respect to the Man 😎👊🏾🏴‍☠️

Let’s not also forget Jonas Dawid, he was also there but not “with us”, he participated as a guide for the National team of Germany, which actually didn’t do much (ended up in 7th place out of 8 squads, winning Romania 4-0 in the match for the 7th place) but none of our guys was there (Jonathan Tönsing and Rasmus Narjes still injured, no other invitations), something that, as everyone can understand, reduced dramatically the Brown White level of interest 😅

Since we’re talking about the Men, before and parallel to the Girls in Brown, a World Class tournament took place. Some extremely skillful and intense football, there was occasionally such skill, speed and strength that you were wondering whether you are watching Blind Football or Futsal. We’ll leave below the (goalless) final as a sample, if interested, feel free to check out more, the entire action can be found at the tournament YouTube channel, semi final between France and England also highly suggested.

Last few words about the organization itself. It simply kicked ass. A lovely stadium, a really nice atmosphere, a very well organized flow with stuff happening in between, full streaming coverage with English commentary (cheers to the commentator who apologized for his “horrible” (or “very bad”, not really remember) English at the end, nothing really wrong with them…except maybe the French accent that doesn’t work really well with English anyway 🤘🏾😁) and probably the best statistical coverage so far. Hats off and thank you to host SC Schiltigheim and everyone else involved in this 👍🏾

Instead of epilogue, a reminder for next weekend. Text is is from the Bundesliga Match weekend 3 post, nothing needs to be added:

Next appointment is July at…Borgweg and it’s probably the biggest weekend of the season, as we’re going to “solve our differences” with two of our three main rivals, Marburg (ahead of us, also 5/5, same points but better goal difference) and Hertha (there’s also Stuttgart trailing). These two played yesterday morning, Marburg won 1-0 after a really tight game (can be found at the beginning of the Saturday stream, SUPER Goal at 0:22:40!), both of them expected to be at least tough encounters – playing our cards right, we may win the title before even going Köln on September 😇 PACK Borgweg, let’s create some atmosphere and push the squad to the 4th (and 3rd consecutive) plate, Forza Sankt Pauli 👊🏾🏴‍☠️

Further Reading:

• Schedule/results/standings
• World Grand Prix France YouTube channel (all matches, highlights, etc, etc)
• FCSP Blind Football Home Page