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Hobby Forum Index » Sport - Table Soccer » Preview: Table Talk EURO-FOOSIN Article
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| qfoos |
 Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 11:16 am |
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Preview: Table Talk EURO-FOOSIN Article
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28 April, 2006
EURO-FOOSIN'
As I write this, the U.S. National Foosball Team is in the final stages
of preparing to compete in the International Table Soccer Federation
(ITSF) World Cup of Table Soccer. The tournament, to be held Memorial
Day weekend in Hamburg, Germany, will feature teams from 20 different
countries around the world. Each team, having selected eight to ten of
their nation's best players, will be competing in a combination of
doubles and singles events, on five different styles of tables:
Tornado, EuroSoccer, Bonzini, Garlando, and Roberto-Sport (making it a
true test of all-around foosball skills). And all 20 teams are
competing in Germany courtesy of expense-paid trips from ITSF!!
With the tournament's promotions tied directly into the FIFA World
Cup of ("real") Soccer, also taking place in Hamburg, this tournament
is specifically timed to leverage a huge opportunity for media exposure
(the World Cup of Soccer is actually the world's largest sports
event). Because an estimated 20 thousand news-sports journalists will
already be in Hamburg during the ITSF tournament, news coverage could
be huge and a big plus for the sport of table soccer especially in
terms of exposure, recognition as a sport, and future sponsorships.
(Also of interest: both Inside Foos Productions and
TableSportsRadio.com will be covering the event live!)
The U.S. Team certainly has a good news story angle, something that
most of the journalists will be actively searching for: while the U.S.
National Soccer Team has made tremendous strides in international
competition over the last 15 years (even achieving a world ranking as
high as fifth), no serious soccer enthusiast genuinely believes the
U.S. team has any real chance of winning the FIFA World Cup. However,
the U.S. National Table Soccer Team, with a combined total of well over
20 World and 100 Major tour titles, is expected to dominate the ITSF
World Cup!
In fact, those of you who attended the VIFA International/USTSA Kickoff
tournament in Las Vegas this last March may have noticed the large
number of international players competing there. This is probably no
accident, as almost all of them were there preparing for the ITSF World
Cup. They were also watching the U.S. Team members very closely, even
taking notes. So, while not every foosball player in the United States
is even aware of the World Cup in Hamburg, the rest of the world is
very serious about getting ready to take us on. (I've actually heard
of other teams buying Inside Foos videos to study our players, even to
the point of doing statistical analysis on passing and shot
percentages...)
Who is the 2006 U.S. National Foosball Team that the rest of the world
is so worried about? It is: Robert Mares (Team Captain) of Aurora, CO;
Terry Moore, Chicago, IL; Billy Pappas, Lowell, MA; Dave Gummeson, Coon
Rapids, MN; Louis Cartwright, Las Vegas, NV; Adrian Zamora, Newark, CA;
Tom Yore, Tampa, FL; Stayce Fowler, Cedar Rapids, IA; Lotus
Leong-Chesborough, Colbert, WA; and Dusty Bambenek, Canal Fulton, OH.
Stand-by players are Cindy Head and Bruce Nardoci, and the team's
Coach-Manager is Alan Cribbs. No wonder we're "the team to
beat"!!
Next, I'd like to thank everyone who has donated to, contributed to
and/or sponsored the U.S. National Team. In Las Vegas, the United
States Table Soccer Federation (USTSF) organized U.S. team fundraisers
(including a silent auction for collectable foos photos and a raffle
for wall-mounted "FoosDudes"). Special thanks go to Ron Greenwald
of Foosdude.com and to both Dave Courington and Becky Cherry for their
generous personal donations, and to Kathy Brainard for the auction
photos! The combined fundraising gathered over $1,150! And, an extra
special thanks also goes out to Brunswick and the Valley-Dynamo
division, who donated a further $1,000! 100% of these funds will be
used to help pay for required team uniforms at the World Cup, and to
help pay travel expenses for our "alternate" player(s).
Las Vegas also saw a number of players automatically qualify for trips
to the ITSF World Championships in November in St. Vincent, Italy.
Among them: first in Women's Doubles, Cindy Head and Dawn Duquette;
first in Open Doubles, Billy Pappas and Tony Spredeman, and first in
Open Singles, Frederico Collignon!
Having said all that, the ITSF World Tour continues, with more
sanctioned tournaments throughout the year. Among those coming up: the
IFP Kentucky State, the Minnesota State Championships, the Tornado
World Series tournament in Las Vegas; the Bart O'Hearn in Austin, the
Canadian Multi-Table, the Costa Rica Championship, the Monterrey Mexico
Multi-Table, and more!! Lots of opportunity for ITSF
"points-chasers" to win trips to Italy in November!! (Don't
forget that 1st thru 3rd in Open Singles and 1st in Women's Singles
at Tornado Worlds automatically win trips to Italy too!)
The very active efforts of the ITSF and USTSF to promote our sport to
the public and to sponsors are vital to the future of the sport
worldwide. Please see these websites for more information:
www.foosball.com/ustsf, and www.table-soccer.org, or contact the USTSF
to see how you too can help: ustsf@foosball.com.
Good luck to the U.S. National Foosball Team! Go USA!!
Very respectfully,
Larry "Euro-Foosin" Davis
Executive Director, USTSF
"Ask not what the sport of Foosball can do for you;
ask what you can do for the sport of Foosball." |
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