Patrick Sheridan from Colorado won the 2024 Copa de la Rocha staged on January 27 by the BUSL 95 club in the Boise, Idaho, area. The Copa de la Rocha is one of the ASA’s oldest tournaments, debuting in 1997.
Sheridan, 2024 Copa de la Rocha winner
Organizer Lenny Foster reports that this Copa set a new record for participants (16) and featured three u20 and four u16 competitors. “It is rewarding to see our club’s continued growth after nearly 30 years of existence,” Foster said.
In the semifinals, Sheridan defeated Jonathan Smith 4-0 while Foster nipped Eric Garza 1-0. Sheridan claimed the title with a 1-0 victory in the final. In the consolation tournament, Eric Foster defeated Andrew Rice 3-2 on shots after a scoreless draw in regulation.
A strong field of 32 players from 10 states competed in the 2023 U.S. FISTF International Open event. The Maryland tournament organized by Paul Eyes is known as the “Holiday Silver”—a prestigious event in the U.S. table soccer calendar.
Open finalists Cranston and Tillman
Play began on Friday with a friendly Travelers Cup featuring 16 players from out of state. Michael Tillman (Minnesota) defeated Benny Nuger (Virginia) in the final match.
Saturday saw the main event take place at the Long Reach Community Center in Columbia, MD. A key match up was a semifinal clash between Daniel Cranston and Christian Filippella, the U.S. National Team captain and World Cup semifinalist. Cranston recorded an impressive 2-0 victory. He took his fine form into the final where he defeated Tillman 5-0. In the Veterans final, Alex Batacchi (Florida) defeated Gregg Deinhart (Virginia) on shots.
Batacchi (left) vs. Deinhart in Vets final
In the U20 event, Chris Belcher defeated Mason Lilly 2-1 (OT). In the final of a very competitive Mary Jane (consolation) tournament, Scott McCaulley (Outer Banks) edged out Jonathan Smith (BUSL95) on shots.
Sunday play was highlighted by a Team Event. Maryland retained the team title, defeating Tampa Bay Mountaineers in a tight final. Play concluded with an FA Cup-style knockout individual event. Cranston defeated Tillman in the final to secure his sweep of the weekend.
Morgan Croce vs Christian Filippella (right): 2022 World Cup semifinal (Traditional subbuteo), Rome
The ASA Board of Directors has selected Christian Filippella as the 2024 Team USA World Cup team captain.
Filippella returns as team Captain after leading the squad in Rome in 2022. He is a deeply accomplished and experienced player: a two-time ASA National Champion, twice World Cup semi-finalist (2018 in the Open and 2022 in Traditional Subbuteo), and a regular competitor in the Italian Serie A. He has played in the last four World Cups as a core member of Team USA and is the only ASA player to have ever won a World Cup medal.
“I’m honored to be the captain once more,” Filippella said. “I’m proud to represent a growing movement in the United States. There is a lot of enthusiasm for the game and it is great to see so much improvement in the last few years.”
The 2024 FISTF World Cup will be staged in Tunbridge Wells, the area where Peter Adolph invented the game in 1946. “I’m excited to play in England again,” Filippella said. “Last time I played there was in 2000 with Italy at the European championships at the old Wembley stadium. I reached the semifinals and it was an amazing experience.”
The USA captain tells us the World Cup squad is about to be announced. Stay tuned!
The Outer Banks Subbuteo Club hosted a tournament on August 20th in famous Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The club put on the event as their trial run for the national tournament to come in Kitty Hawk the weekend of October 20th.
Eight players competed in this Hawaii-themed tournament, which honored the victims of the fires there; money was collected as donations for those that live in and around the devastation.
Great play and fantastic strides were on show from the Outer Banks players. Special congratulations to the semifinalists, Scott McCaulley and Josh Goninan, for their great efforts.
The final was a contest between Jeremy Goninan and Bryan Arnold, which Bryan won when the final whistle blew.
A big thank-you from the ASA to the club in the Outer Banks for organizing and hosting the fun filled summer tournament.
On June 11th, the Denver Open was held with 9 players competing. The players gathered in the mile high city for the tournament; some of whom traveled great distances from the west coast and the east coast as well.
Organized by Cameron Tucker, and hosted by Tory Reed and the Colorado Subbuteo Club, the event took place on a special gamenight at the venue in which Subbuteo and Crokinole (a Canadian board game), were both on show.
Zach Walker won his group, and then beat semifinalist, Mike Thumim, to progress to the final. Bryan Arnold finished first in his group, and beat Cameron in the other semi.
In the final match of the evening, Zach Walker won the Denver Open beating Bryan, 2-0. Congratulations to Zach for his tournament win!!
Thank you to this ASA organizer, and also the host, for this enjoyable experience on the ASA calendar.
The latest tournament in Alexandria, Virginia was held on Saturday, April 29th. The field of 11 players came from far and wide to compete for the trophey. The field spanned from Avondale, PA through Maryland and Virginia, and down further south to the Outer Banks of NC.
The event was played using a Swiss Ladder of 7 rounds. There was a championship bracket with knockout rounds along with the Mary Jane bracket.
Congratulations to Daniel Cranston who emerged the winner by a score of 2-1 against Paul Eyes, and also to Andrew Zunino who won the Mary Jane final against Joshua Goninan!!
If you leave a match or a tournament feeling negative; if you become preoccupied with “bad” calls; if you have heightened self-conscious about your results leaving you shy to play again, it may be time to decide upon achievement goals. Players can orient to new goals, and experience tangible new behaviors even during the ups-and-downs of competition.
Consider for yourself the most comprehensive and self-sustaining orientation for you given the commitment you make to Subbuteo. The commitment can be considerable: training during free time, tedious travel, spending work-leave time, investment of money into multitudes of bases, etc.
Players can aim for success in the wins they achieve. They pursue an ongoing affirmation of their commitment in the victories they earn. Players who focus on wins often believe in innate ability and also that there are external measures of this innate ability.
However, there can be difficulties: players oriented in this manner can experience challenging social behaviors brought about by heightened irritability and self-criticism. Negative behaviors include shenanigans and dramatic reactions to the calls of opponents/referees. Players with this win-orientation can experience uninhibited regret and guilt, which they can negatively associate with Subbuteo. When wins don’t happen, Subbuteo can feel empty and tiresome for these players; and performance can become less effective as well.
Consider an orientation for skill development, and reinforcement of effort and ability: the task orientation. Players that organize to this orientation view success as improved performance of tasks. Rather than comparing the self to others, task oriented players compare their achievement of tasks with their own past performance (of those same tasks). The pressure in competition is not irritating but an affirming contest to improve skills, tactics, movement, thoughts process, etc. A task oriented player does not feel a sporting self-image–strongly influenced by their comparisons to others–but instead a drive to gather knowledge through work. Benefits include a sense of mastery in skills and more joy in the experience. Mastery of skills and more joy in match-play can be rocket-fuel for dealing with adversity popping up all the time in matches.
The 2023 Western States Open was hosted by BUSL95 March 10-12th. The weekend was a fantastic gathering of players from across the United States with a healthy balance of community and competition.
Overall, the weekend featured 19 players, 12 of which were from the host club, making this the largest Subbuteo tournament ever in the state of Idaho. BUSL95 would like to thank everybody for their participation, camaraderie, teaching, and learning over the weekend.
