Date
November 20, 1999
Participants
Bruce Farrar, Jon Schultz, Wayne Smith, Giorgos Vassiliades, Greg Willey
Report
Jon Schultz beat Wayne Smith 2:1 with a golden goal 2:53 into overtime to win his first tournament in five years. It was also Wayne’s first home tournament loss, ever.
On November 20th, the last Southwestern Regional Tournament of 1999 was played. Five competitors, all from California, played to take the last ASA rating points available for 1999. The five were: 1994 US champ, Jon Schultz; 1999 Super Cup and Western States Champ, Wayne Smith; rocket shot master, Bruce Farrar; up and coming Greg Willey and in his debut in ASA tournament, Giorgos Vassiliades. Giorgos is from Cyprus and played his first Subbuteo using FISTF rules 20 minutes before the start of the tournament.
The matches opened with Willey and Smith on Table 1 and Schultz and Farrar on Table 2. Schultz started slow, but finished with two goals in the second half for a 3:0 win. The other match included what may be the goal of the tournament by Willey. With the ball just outside the center of Smith’s shooting zone and good coverage all around, Greg was forced to make an offensive from his own shooting line. He touched the ball nicely, but Smith’s defensive flick cut off his attacker. Willey then made another, almost identical flick to touch the ball over the shooting line. Smith’s defensive flick again forced Willey to look to use another attacking figure. This time he slid in a figure who was about 9” from the ball and 5” behind the ball. The flicked figure touched the ball forward about 1” making it impossible for Smith to squeeze in another blocking flick. Willey then chipped the ball over Smith’s ‘keeper for his only goal of the match. Unfortunately for Willey, one goal was not enough as Smith won 2:1.
The second set of matches consisted of Schultz vs. Vassiliades and Willey vs. Farrar. Giorgos was introduced quite rudely to his first ASA tourney as Schultz was red hot and controlled most of the game. Schultz also walked away with a 4:0 victory. “He (Schultz) controls the ball so well, I hardly ever touched it” Giorgos said after the match. Giorgos depends on speed, and when he lost the ball to Jon, Jon would keep it for maybe a dozen flicks or so. Since the FISTF rules are a very slow set of rules, they really got Giorgos off his game. At the same time, Willey used a second half goal to put him past Farrar, 1:0. Bruce was not having a good night. In fact, it would be the first ASA tournament in which he played and scored no goals and earned no points.
In the next set of games, things got worse for Bruce, as he lost 3:0 to Smith. On the other table, Giorgos’ speed caught Willey completely off guard. Willey does not transition from offense to defense very quickly, and Giorgos took full advantage. Giorgos ended up with a 4:1 victory.
In the fourth set of games, Schultz continued his clock-like precision in a 4:0 thrashing of Willey and on the other table, Giorgos and Wayne were battling it out. Giorgos scored first, but his lead was very short lived. Smith took the following kickoff and five flicks later, the score was tied. Both sides had some chances later on, but it remained 1:1 until the final buzzer.
The final games of the first round were Smith vs. Schultz for first place and Giorgos vs. Farrar for no real good reason other than it was scheduled. Smith and Schultz played another of their real tight, defensive games with opportunities few and far between. Schultz opened the scoring in the first half on a nice chip. Smith equalized in the second half with the help of a lucky long ball. With no real openings anywhere all game, Wayne knocked a clear from inside his shooting zone off of a figure he had on Schultz’ shooting line, just over the line, and Smith couldn’t miss from there, and it was 1:1, and so it remained. In the other game, Bruce’s woes continued. With the score tied at zero with less than two minutes to play, Giorgos scored twice to win 2:0.
The semi-finals It was the winner of the group stage, Schultz against the 4th place finisher, Willey and the 2nd and 3rd place finishers, Smith and Vassiliades in the other. Schultz continued his dominance over Willey with another 4:0 victory, and in a game that looked nothing like their first match, Smith exploded for four goals and took a 4:0 victory into the finals.
Smith also took an undefeated home tournament record into the final (19 wins and 3 ties). The final match resembled the first match of the day between these two-very tight, but with slightly more room available than the first game. Smith opened the scoring with a shot that not only surprised his opponent, but surprised himself, as well. From a particularly steep angle, he was trying to force a corner kick. Instead, he shot the ball hard, missing the defending figure and the rocketing it up into the far corner of the goal. Jon spent about three or four minutes after the game trying to figure out how the ball got into the net. Smith couldn’t hold the lead, though. In fact, he did not get possession until the score was tied at one. Schultz forced the ball down the field, Smith missed two defensive flicks, and it was 1:1. Great marking characterized the second half and full time ended with the score 1:1. Just like the last tournament played at Waynerstadion, the Subbuteo home of Wayne’s Werder Bremen team, the finalists were knotted at one and going into extra time. This time, however, it was the visitor that scored the game winner. After controlling most of the overtime period, Schultz got a ball down his left wing and, using a defending figure as a ramp, chipped Smith’s keeper for the championship.
Group table
| Pos | Name | Pl | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
| 1 | Jon Schultz | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 11 | 10 |
| 2 | Wayne Smith | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 8 |
| 3 | Giorgos Vassiliades | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 4 | Greg Willey | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 10 | -7 | 3 |
| 5 | Bruce Farrar | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 10 | -10 | 0 |
Group stage results
| Wayne Smith | 2 | v | 1 | Greg Willey |
| Jon Schultz | 3 | v | 0 | Bruce Farrar |
| Greg Willey | 1 | v | 0 | Bruce Farrar |
| Jon Schultz | 4 | v | 0 | Giorgos Vassiliades |
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Bruce Farrar |
| Giorgos Vassiliades | 4 | v | 1 | Greg Willey |
| Jon Schultz | 4 | v | 0 | Greg Willey |
| Wayne Smith | 1 | v | 1 | Giorgos Vassiliades |
| Giorgos Vassiliades | 2 | v | 0 | Bruce Farrar |
| Jon Schultz | 1 | v | 1 | Wayne Smith |
Knock out rounds
Semifinals
| Wayne Smith | 4 | v | 0 | Giorgos Vassiliades |
| Jon Schultz | 4 | v | 0 | Greg Willey |
Final
| Jon Schultz | 2 | v | 1 | Wayne Smith |