We wish you a warm welcome to the Netherlands and the ninth edition of the Amsterdam Fives. The 2017 edition meant it was our tenth season since our debut in Amsterdam back in July 2008 (with a brief hiatus in 2013). We had a capacity 18-team event with teams from Belgium, England, Germany, Holland, Scotland and Spain competing for glory. With our debut Amsterdam Sixes being played on the same day this was our largest single Amsterdam weekend and we couldn't wait to get started.

This tournament was a hugely successful one for English teams with victories from 2008-2011. We have since had Dutch success from 2012-2016. Could any of the travelling teams break the local hegemony of success from home teams over recent seasons?

The first two challengers to get us underway in Group A on Pitch A this year would be Naranjitos (Spa) versus JK Silvertown (Eng). Naranjitos had graced our tournaments before and we will preview their past experiences in more detail as we progress with this post-tour report. JK Silvertown were on debut.

It was our debutants who took the lead here thanks to a Jose Ferreira goal. It was a lead the English team held until the half-time break. In the second half there was a goal for each team – David Moya Aparicio (Naranjitos) and Ben Short (JK Silvertown). It was a cracking start for JK Silvertown, a 2-1 win and all 3 points.

The final two teams in Group A were FC Potsdam of England and Vieze Vu of the Netherlands.

Another year, another name for FC Potsdam who competed as ABCDE FC at the2015 Barcelona Fives and as 50 Shades of O'Shea at the 2016 Prague Tournament. They made their debut at the 2015 Barcelona Fives where they finished 2nd in their group which in many cases would qualify them for the Cup but in Barcelona only saw them into the Plate competition. They defeated the Wealdstone Raiders 3-1 in the Quarter-Finals before a narrow 1-0 defeat to Drunk Perfect in the Semi-Finals. Could they go one step further in Prague?

In Prague 2016 they had a decent group phase with 3 wins and 2 defeats that saw them finish 3rd of 6 teams. They went on to the Plate Semi-Finals where they defeated CIS Committee Juniors of Belarus, 2-1, to qualify for their maiden eurofootballfives.com final. They missed out on glory though going down 5-1 to Frank Hirth. So, a Semi-Final in Barca, Runners-Up in Prague – Plate Winners in Amsterdam?

Goals were conspicuous by their absence in this game. Since moving to our current venue, we had never had a 0-0 draw. This was a run that stretched to 49 completed fixtures before this game. The third set of fixtures of today would see that run come to an end as both defences won the day and the two teams took a point each.