Austria reports on last weekend's tournament:

The Austrian Sports Federation of the Disabled, ÖBSV, with support from IBSA, hosted a five-nations partially sighted football tournament in the city of Steinbrunn, Austria, from October 28th to November 1st.

What at first was billed to be a development tournament ended up becoming a high level competition with World Champions Ukraine, England and France participating alongside hosts Austria and Ireland, who returned to the international VI football scene after several years.

The higher-seeded nations had no troubles seeing off Austria and Ireland and sorted the podium between themselves. England drew with France 2-2 in a fast-paced game on the first day, where England drew first blood with 7 minutes left in the game. France still managed not only to draw but to go ahead with two quick goals in 3 minutes. With one minute left in the game England managed to equalize again.

Caption: teams and officials pose for a family photo on the pitch.

In the last games both England and France challenged the World Champions Ukraine with the tricolore going first. France scored first but Ukraine demonstrated their power and turned the match around striking 5 times in the first half. This was also the final result of the game as neither team managed to score again in the second half.

The Three Lions were next up against the Yellow-Blues. With the inferior goal difference towards France, England had to draw to guarantee at least a silver medal and they put up a great effort in an attempt to defeat the reigning World Champions.

England scored early in the game and Ukraine, still tired from the previous games, had troubles creating good scoring opportunities. It wasn’t until 30 seconds before half-time that Ukraine profited from a rare concentration mistake by the English to level the game.

Coming back from the break the Ukrainians got lucky as a deflected free kick landed at the feet of their wide open striker Shvets who easily put the ball over the line. While England still put up an impressive performance of will and heart, they did not manage to take away the win and the championship from Ukraine.

Caption: Ukraine with their medals and cup.

In the unofficial game for fourth place Austria snatched their first ever international win by beating Ireland 4-1 in a very emotional match.

Best Goalkeeper was Anton Humeniuk (UKR) conceding only 2 goals throughout the tournament, while French striker Alexis Mundubeltz was the top scorer with 9 goals. MVP was awarded to the 16-year old Luke Meeran (IRE) and goalkeeper Matthieu Bouchard (FRA) was presented with the Fair Play Trophy as he corrected an important referee decision while his team was trailing behind 1-0 in their game against England.

IBSA B2/B3 Football head referee Gerard Behan conducted a referee course during the entire tournament.

Report by Matias Costa 

Final standings

1 Ukraine
2 France
3 England
4 Austria
5 Ireland