Homenetmen Canada's 36th Annual Games

Montreal, 2006

Homenetmen London's senior football team were once again invited by our Canadian counterparts to participate in the Homenetmen Canada Games, which this year took place in Montreal between 24th and 26th November 2006. Participation this year included the Canadian chapters, as well as chapters from Eastern and Western USA. The team arrived on Thursday evening to shockingly mild temperatures having expected to land in a snow storm as they did in Toronto 12 months earlier. After 7 hours of flying, the team were ready to check-in to the hotel and relax but the fantastically assembled entertainment committee had other plans. Whisked straight to the hotel from the airport, having had bags dropped off with no time to change, we were taken immediately for dinner and met our old friends from Homenetmen Pasadena, who were also invited back this year. Within hours of landing, the atmosphere and companionship that was created by the entertainment committee was strongly evident, and it was such a fantastic feeling to be part of this from the first day. After dinner it was back to the hotel to shower and change, and then out again to socialise with all the athletes who were arriving in their droves for the tournament. No chance of jet-lag when the social schedule is planned out as well as the games themselves! On Friday morning, London, Glendale and Pasadena were all taken to breakfast before being given a tour of the beautiful city of Montreal. Once dropped off and given an hour to walk around, the girls went shopping and the guys went to find a traditional Canadian pub to sample some cold, delicious, Canadian... err... lemonade (obviously). On Friday night, we kicked off the football tournament against the hosts. Montreal vs London was a game the team were looking forward to playing having narrowly lost to them in November 2005. Unfortunately at half time, the team went in 3-1 down, but a second half revival inspired by Mher Malerian scoring 2 goals in 2 minutes and completing his hat-trick for the match saw London come back to 3-3. Having come out all guns blazing, London took the game to Montreal, playing some fabulous football. A tense finish to the game saw Montreal take the lead at 4-3 with Armen Seridarian hitting the post with a last minute penalty. Saturday morning, and a 9:45am kick off to look forward to. Toronto vs London was a game we played last year and lost 6-1, so this time we were hoping to make a better account of ourselves. A good solid performance from the guys at the back, and another two goals from Mher Malerian saw Homenetmen London win 2-1 and through the luck of the draw, were catapulted to the semi-finals against Cambridge later in the afternoon. Cambridge would be a difficult test due to their physical strength and size of their squad. But the game started positively for London and we played our passing game well. A hard fought game saw Homenetmen London bow out of the tournament losing 5-2, with goals from John Banian and a goal at each end by Alex Katsouris. Cambridge ended up the eventual winners of the football tournament. Having no more sporting responsibilities, the team could now let Hagop's hair down and enjoy the social aspect of the Games. As luck would have it, the second biggest and official sports bar of the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team was joined to our hotel and the team embraced some Canadian sporting culture for a few hours. Later, the entertainment committee were on top of their game transporting athletes using buses, cars and people carriers, to the agoump for dinner and then to a downtown club for the celebrations. Remarkably on Sunday morning all of the athletes managed to get up and make their way back to the Homenetmen Gamk gym for the closing ceremony. Overall, this tournament was extremely well planned and executed. A remarkable achievement, and one which we have learnt from should we plan Games in London in the future. On behalf of the entire team, we would like to thank the organising committee for inviting us again and to congratulate them on such a great tournament, especially to the girls in the entertainment committee who looked after us so well that we felt like VIPs all weekend. It's tournaments like these that remind us how lucky we are to be part of the Homenetmen Family. I doubt that we will ever lose touch with the friends we made in Montreal. We look forward to Toronto 2007 (please invite us). To view official photos from Homenetmen Canada's 36th Annual Games please go to www.homenetmencanada.com Source: John Banian Homenetmen London and Homenetmen Cambridge Football Teams