Nomads at the KOEB Tournament

It was saturday morning in Sofia and there was no game at the Kolodrome Olympic stadium today as all Nomads energies were to be honed into Sofia’s version of The Champions League The KOEB Elite Continental Classic!

Chelsea, Manchester United, Man City, Barcelona, Inter Milan were all eliminated in the earlier rounds and goal-line technology was being used in this tournament for the first time as Seb Twatter was too busy telling black guys to smile and shake hands after being racially abused during matches involving footballers with IQ’s of slightly more than their shirt number.

SportCener Orlandovci was the venue and ten teams from all parts of the continent had prepared meticulously and were primed and ready to go!

Yalta closed early that evening and Toncho had at least 2 hours sleep so was feeling in better shape than most saturday mornings.

The Nomads bus was in for repair so i chose to take a taxi and after half an hour of trying to find the stadium decided the best ploy was to tell the driver he was a complete idiot and gave him 10 leva plus a few chocolate wrappers as his well earned tip.

I wondered how we were so near the stadium and yet there were no crowds gathering….this was a major event WTF! Eventually i was saved……as by pure chance Ardis the silver haired Nomad legend was driving towards me at haste. Get in said Ardis…thank the Kris your here Ardis i was lost….so am i said the great man!

15 minutes later we knew we were close as we saw a cab with Frank our coach fast asleep inside…so we followed it and hoped for the best.

Moments later we were at the arena so we woke Frank and told him to pay his taxi fare…..which was apparantly around 120 leva.

Entering the Theatre Of Dreams ‘Sofia version’ was a truly awesome moment….we were greeted to the sound of Euro pop music and an arena to rival any shoolyard playground in the world…..apparantly 300 pigs had been slaughtered there earlier in the day but there was not even a hint of death or blood!

Most of the guys were already there : Nomads 1 ‘the old and the drunk’ and Nomads 2 ‘The Italian Job’.

The scene was set…we changed into our sparkling new kits and Frank organised a 10 minute warmed up with a couple of rakias and some hot and spicy crisps. Whilst accessing the quality of the opposition and drawing cartoons on the markerboard which wasrought along to help organise tactics and positional play Frank said ok guys who can draw a better Mickey Mouse than that! At this moment i became slightly concerned.

After the first game my fears were alleviated as both Nomads teams won their respective games. For Nomads 1 Lennart and Assen tearing holes in a defence that looked as solid as dogshit in the rain…..Ivo was a lynchpin in midfield and guided his troops to victory.

After the first games we were overjoyed to see another of our main men Toncho arrive boots in hand and possibly not too worse for wear.

After 4 grueling games it appeared and it was also announced that both teams had made the semi finals Nomads 1 on 9 points and Nomads 2 on 7 points….oops hang on said Manfred the organisor this calculator is shisen Nomads 2 were third….this info was shown on the giant scoreboard and was greeted with boos from the hoards of Nomad fans.

Dario had played like a legend in his first Nomad tournament and was completly distraught so decided to have a beer and some crisps!

The semi final for Nomads 1 was a tough one but we now had Toncho plus the lightening skills of Lennart and the cool headed Toncho plus three old twats at the back…..Ivo scored Assen scored and we were through to the biggest final on the football calendar.

Oh i forgot to mention our giant striker Grigor scored two goals on the way to near glory……his shorts were a little tight and i think it may have been his inspiration!

The final was unfortunatley an anti climax but we were in the ascenency once Toncho came on in the 2nd half and could almost have sneaked a draw. We posed for the after tournament fotos then went up to the changing rooms ‘on the way throwing the music system over the balcony onto the referees head’.

Great day for the Nomads and hopefully many more to come……bad end though as Ivo kicked both me and ‘fighting sport’ Frank out of the showers….but oh what fun we had!! Viva La Nomads next time we will take the glorious prize plus hopefully a freshly culled pig!

Final standings

1. Lufthansatechnik Sofia

2. Nomads 1

3. Stadt Svoge

4. Erich Kaestnerschule Sofia

5. Weltenbummler

6. Nomads 2

7. KOEB

8. Wirtschaftsgymnasium Sofia

9. Concordia Stiftung

10. Oesterreichische Botschaft/Wirtschaftskammer WKO