Welcome
to Barcelona! The stage was set for our fourteenth
Barcelona tournament and the eleventh
edition of the Barcelona Fives. This annual
event has been staged every year since 2008
and 2018 saw 23-teams assembled from England,
France, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Portugal
and Spain.
First
up on Pitch A was due to be Argon'ze versus
Black Magic AFC but the latter were running
late so we switched this game from #1 to #15.
As a result, the first two teams in action would
be Club Esportiu Llefia (Spa) and Retainers
Academy (Eng).
Club
Esportiu Llefia were our winners here in 2015
so this represented a particularly tough start
for the travelling English team. It certainly
proved to be so as the Spanish team looked to
be displaying their title winning form. They
rattled in goals from Alfred Jimenez de Andres
(2), Sergi Garcia Anguile (2) and a hat-trick
from Dani Martin Montes. Final score, 7-0 to
the former champions.
The
first phase of the 2018 Barcelona Fives would
be decided on a group basis. There were 3 groups
with 6 teams in each and 1 group with 5 teams.
Each team played each other team in their group
once and, after which, depending on their position
would progress to the Cup (teams in 1st and 2nd),
Plate (teams in 3rd and 4th) or Trophy (teams
in 5th and 6th) competition.
We
now had two teams on Campo A making their eurofootballfives.com
debut. They would have a blank canvas upon which
to paint their footballing artistry. It was Pass
To Russ FC versus TomTom United as England met
Spain for the second game in a row.
Game
1 went very much in favour of the Spanish but
it was the English here in Game 2 that got off
to a flying start. There were two goals from Russell
Dyer to set his team on their way. The game was
back in the balance when Sergio Villamizar reduced
the deficit to 2-1.
The
next goal would prove to be pivotal and it was
the English team who restored their two goal lead
thanks to a strike from Jeremy Farrar. It was
a good opening win for Pass To Russ FC.
Due
to the re-arrangement of the fixtures and Black
Magic AFC still being en route to our tournament
venue it meant Retainers Academy would be playing
for the second time in Round 1. They would meet
Argon'ze of France who would be kicking off for
the first time today.
Retainers
Academy, boasting heavy hangovers, were looking
to bounce back from that opening 7-0 defeat but
they found themselves up against another strong
side in the shape of the French team. Despite
the best efforts of Matthew Wood in the Retainers
goal, he was unable to keep out the Argon'ze attack
who were enthusiastic and hungry for goals in
their first game of the tournament.
Benjamin
Cahart provided the initial breakthrough before
Thomas Bovier, Nicolas Laharque, Alexandre Duivon
and Thomas Bovier for a second time sealed an
impressive opening win. It finished 5-0 to the
team from Paris.
