2017 Amsterdam Sixes 6-a-side Football Tournament Tour Report Group A Round 1

Results

FC Letcom (Swi)	2	v	1	FC Skackney (NZ)
Tekkerslovakia (Eng)	0	V	1	Cheesecake FC (Eng)
Bull Fossils B (Eng)	0	v	0	Tommy Hilfiger (Hol)

The 15th July 2017 would be a memorable moment in eurofootballfives.com history as it would mark our first ever Sixes tournament. After 89 successful Fives events in Europe dating back to 2007 it was great to add this Sixes event to our programme. The tournament proved to be our fastest selling event so we couldn't wait to get the action underway.

First up in Group A was FC Letcom versus FC Skackney as Switzerland took on New Zealand. FC Letcom were making their debut in our events but Skackney FC had played before – as recently as the 2016 Barcelona Fives last October.

The two teams proved evenly matched after the early exchanges and this looked to be a great contest. We reached half-time with the two teams level at 1-1. Keval Pandya scored FC Letcom's first goal in eurofootballfives competition. Sam Harris scored FC Skackney's first goal of the tournament. In the second period we were to see a decisive strike. That honour would go to Jonathan Wray of FC Letcom. His goal was the only goal of the second period and he would prove to be the match-winner for his team.

The goal would earn all 3 points and victory for FC Letcom as they made the perfect start to the tournament. There was still plenty of time for Skackney FC to make their mark in this tournament.

Next up was Tekkerslovakia versus Cheesecake FC. Tekkerslovakia were on debut so this would be our first look at them. Cheesecake FC are the most capped team here in Amsterdam – they will be making an incredible 9th eurofootballfives.com appearance.

They made their debut in the 2010 Prague Masters in a field which also featured 3 past winners – Lozenetz City (Bul), Kehar Club (Cze) and Olympic Phil Babb (Eng). They met the latter in the Cup Semi-Finals and after a fine 3-3 draw went out on penalties. They then played in the 2011 Algarve Open which also featured 3 past winners – Goldsmith Williams and 9 Nana Budds (both UK) and Dutch side and defending champions Athletico Do Hollande. They met the latter in an epic final in front of a great crowd and put in a sensational effort – unfortunately for them they were on the wrong end of a 3-2 scoreline.

In 2012 they played in the Mallorca Tournament which had 5 previous winners and they went out to the winners again with a Cup Semi-Final defeat to Cosegur Balear. In the 2013 Berlin Fives this phenomenon continued with a Cup Semi-Final defeat to Romania's ABC United.

They did also play in the 2013 Mallorca Tournament with an injury ravaged team following their Berlin exploits – as a result they had their weakest campaign to date missing out on Cup qualification for the first time but picked up Plate Runners-Up medals. They made amends at the 2014 Mallorca Tournament when 7 wins out of 7 saw them win their breakthrough eurofootballfives.com title – thoroughly deserved.

Following this success they competed at the 2015 Lisbon Tournament. A good Group D campaign saw them qualify for the Cup with 4 wins out of 5 before they met Melee FC in the Quarter-Finals. A hard fought 2-2 draw then saw them then exit on penalties.

In 2016, they returned to the Algarve Open as they looked to get back to winning ways and complete their unfinished business from 2012. In Group A they had two wins and two draws as they qualified for the Cup in second place – without conceding a goal. In the Cup group they secured 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat as they finished second to collect runners-up medals for the second time.

That experience for Cheesecake FC paid dividends here as they edged a tight game, 1-0, thanks to a first half strike from Jamie Ingley.

The final fixture in the opening round of Group A was another case of a team on debut (Tommy Hilfiger) playing against a team with previous eurofootballfives.com experience (Bull Fossils B).

Bull Fossils B participated at the 2015 Amsterdam Fives. This tournament was famous (or infamous) for being the only eurofootballfives.com event to start but not finish. Storm Zejko defeated us as we had to cancel the tournament towards the end of the group phase due to safety reasons – hurricane forces were blowing the goals over, branches from trees onto the pitch and the Dutch government issued a code red weather warning. Thankfully we had no such repeat of this and the weather was perfect for football here in 2017. Back in 2015, Bull Fossils B completed all 5 of their group games with 2 wins and 3 defeats to finish in 4 th position which would have seen them progress to the Plate competition – we can only hypothesize on how they would have done had Storm Zjekon not rudely interrupted.

On the field in 2017 they played out a very evenly contested match against Holland's Tommy Hilfiger. The referee blew for half-time with the scores level at 0-0. He blew for full-time with the scores still frozen at 0-0. It was a solid start and good opening point for both teams.

Table

Team	Pld	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Agst	Pts
FC Letcom (Swi)	1	1	0	0	2	1	3
Cheesecake FC (Eng)	1	1	0	0	1	0	3
Bull Fossils B (Eng)	1	0	1	0	0	0	1
Tommy Hilfiger (Hol)	1	0	1	0	0	0	1
FC Skackney (NZ)	1	0	0	1	1	2	0
Tekkerslovakia (Eng)	1	0	0	1	0	1	0

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