We
began Round 2 with two teams who had found life
very tough in Round 1. The two teams came into
the game on the back of heavy defeats – admittedly
to two very good teams.
Drop
It Like It's Scott came from the group who have
competed in our events as ABCDE FC (2015 Barcelona
Fives), 50 Shades of O'Shea (2016 Prague Tournament)
and FC Potsdam (2017 Amsterdam Fives). 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 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. Semi-Final in Barca, Runners-Up
in Prague – Plate Winners in Amsterdam?
It
certainly looked on the cards. In a tough group
they finished 5th of 6 teams with 1 win and 1
draw but a positive goal difference showed just
how competitive they were. The goals flowed in
the knock-out phase with a 9-4 Quarter-Final win
over Purnell Youth (Eng) and a 5-1 win over Shaolin
Soccer (Hol). They then drew 3-3 in the Plate
Final before a 2-0 loss on spot kicks.
They
bounced back from opening defeat here with a 3-1
victory. Matt Berka (x2) and Joe Lazell goals
outgunned Sergio Tovar's goal for KPN Digital.
Game
#5 of Group B was due to be Melee FC versus
Madmen. As we knew, Madmen were not here and
therefore Melee FC collected their 3-0 walkover
win.
The
game that would complete Round 2 was LMH FC against
Magnum. Due to the walkover, LMH FC had waited
for their chance of action and must have been
champing at the bit to get started.
LMH
FC were currently on a run of 8 games unbeaten
in our tournaments which dated back to their final
group game at the 2016 Budapest Fives and throughout
the 2017 Vilnius Tournament campaign. The team
had won 2 and secured an incredible 6 draws over
that period. No doubt they will have liked to
turn some of those draws into wins but they would
probably have taken another draw against a rampant
Magnum team.
LMH
FC's unbeaten record was to come to an abrupt
end. David Teixeira was the top goalscorer at
our 2014 Berlin Fives tournament and was leading
the way on 11 goals at the curtailed 2015 Amsterdam
Fives. He was to smash 5 goals in this game as
the French produced a second successive big win.
Bruno Parente got the other goal for Magnum.
Billy
Henson scored his team's first goal of the tournament
although it was only to be a consolation.
