On 9 July, a Damen Naval football team participated ‘Het Vlissings Bedrijventoernooi’ (VC Vlissingen’s company tournament). After two years, the tournament could take place again and the Damen team eventually finished with a commendable third place in their group.

“The nice thing about such a tournament is that you experience your colleagues in a different setting and see them from another side,” says Engineer Matthijs den Boer, who played in different positions during the tournament. “We started off very well and won the first game 9-0. After that, it fortunately became a bit harder which kept it interesting. It was fun though: playing football all day long and having a drink in between.”

The team. Back row (from left): Martin Boersma, Mervin van Rijswijk, Robin van Dijke, Bartosz Sawicki, Matthijs den Boer, Ignacio Gómez Tapia, Marcel van Dalen and Tarik Boufrahi. Front row: Daniel Uzunov, Marin Pejic, Bogdan Ciugureanu and Cedric Verhaeghe. The team. Back row (from left): Martin Boersma, Mervin van Rijswijk, Robin van Dijke, Bartosz Sawicki, Matthijs den Boer, Ignacio Gómez Tapia, Marcel van Dalen and Tarik Boufrahi. Front row: Daniel Uzunov, Marin Pejic, Bogdan Ciugureanu and Cedric Verhaeghe.

The Damen team was in Pool A with seven other opponents. Because it was a seven-a-side tournament, matches lasted 20 minutes. After the spectacular result of the first match, the team won three more matches and two ended in a draw. Only one match was lost 0-1 to RehattaCouriers, the eventual winners of the tournament.

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