2018 Barcelona Fives 5-a-side Football Tour Report Group C Games 1 to 5

Results

Expats FC Paris (Fra)	2	V	1	CTMB Pumas (Eng)
LT United (Ltu)	2	v	0	Dragons (Eng)
Team Beefcake (Eng)	0	v	5	Expats FC Paris (Fra)
CTMB Pumas (Eng)	0	V	2	LT United (Ltu)
Dragons (Eng)	7	V	0	Team Beefcake (Eng)

We move on in the report to Group C. On the eve of the tournament we were rocked by the news that one of the teams – Michael Collins (Spa) – had to withdraw from the tournament. At 8pm in the evening there was not sufficient time to pull in a replacement so we needed to re-arrange the group from a 6-team fixture list to a 5-team one. We lengthened the games so that each team would have the same amount of playing time overall.

Group C kicked off with Expats FC Paris (Fra) versus CTMB Pumas (Eng). France had seen 2 previous winners in this event – Luminy Wolves from Marseille in 2009 and L'Albiceleste from Paris in 2017. England had produced 3 winners with Magic Monkeys (2010), Midshire FC (2011) and Elcombe Old Boys (2016) all victorious.

In the curtain-raiser for Group C it was the English team who opened the scoring thanks to Tom Farrar. It was a lead CTMB Pumas would hold until half-time. In the second half Expats FC Paris equalised through Nathan Tracey. They then went ahead thanks to a Tristan Blundell strike that earned the Parisians all 3 points. Final score, 2-1.

In Game 2, we had LT United versus Dragons.

LT United made their debut at last year's 2017 Barcelona Fives and it was an impressive debut. They won 5 of their 7 group games and registered 15 points from a possible 21 – scoring 18 goals and conceding just 4. Such was the quality in the group they only finished 3 rd which meant they qualified for the Plate. In the knock-out phase they defeated Fylingdales FC (2-0) in the Quarter-Finals. They then drew 2-2 with FourInTina in the Semi-Finals before progressing 2-1 on penalties. They were then sensational in the final as they defeated Fiorentina Turner 1, 5-1.

Dragons were on debut so this was our first glimpse of them in action. They held their own to a certain extent but LT United had the edge. There was a solitary goal in each half for the Lithuanians. Linas Vaiciukauskas in the opening period, Edgaras Buzas after the break.

Dragons slipped to opening game defeat but more importantly they lost their goalkeeper for the day with a cut above the eye-brow. It was an unfortunate start for the Dragons to say the least.

The last team to get their campaign underway was Team Beefcake as they took on Expats FC Paris.

Team Beefcake come from the stable of Tommie's Guns for Luke Materacki's stag weekend. As Tommie's Guns, there were three sorties into European competition with eurofootballfives.com. The debut was at the 2014 Bratislava Fives. They drew a tough group that featured 2014 Budapest Fives and eventual 2014 Bratislava Fives winners CIS Committee of Belarus. It also featured a Fireball team that finished joint top of their group at the 2015 Bratislava Fives and a Spider Mans & Eagle team that have reached the Cup Semi-Finals at the 2015 Budapest Fives and were runners-up at the 2016 Krakow Trophy. They went on to the Trophy competition where they defeated The Never Tarps 3-0 in the QF before a 7-3 defeat to Ziar Crew (who won the Trophy) in the SF.

They then appeared at the 2015 Berlin Fives where they had a slow start losing their first two games. They then got on the winning trail with 2-1 and 3-0 wins before a final group game against the eventual winners Pink Flamingos A who finished the tournament with 7 wins and 1 draw. Tommie's Guns ran them close and lost narrowly, 1-0. Tommie's Guns came alive in the Plate competition with a 1-0 win over Hangover96 and a penalty shoot-out win over Fail Madrid to qualify the Plate Final. They won the Plate with a 3-2 win over Rayford Athletic to lift the trophy in the presentation.

An injury hit 2017 Lisbon Tournament campaign saw Tommie's Guns struggle. They finished 8th in their group with just a draw to show for their efforts – they did have to drag in non-players from their group just to compete though. They were unable to take up their place in the knock-out phase as a result. Hopefully no such injury worries in Barcelona!

Expats FC Paris were on top in this game but only had one goal to show for their efforts at the break – Nathan Tracey scoring for the second game in a row. In the second half they moved through the gears. Tristan Blundell also scored for the second match running before Nathan Tracey struck twice to complete his hat-trick. Captain Michael Walne nabbed a goal for himself as his side ran out 5-0 winners.

CTMB Pumas were next in action on Pitch C as they entertained LT United.

CTMB Pumas were technically a team on debut but they did have Tom Farrar in their ranks who played here 12 months ago for Fiorentina Turner. Fiorentina Turner has 2 teams in the tournament and Fiorentina Turner 1 played LT United twice in the competition. There was a 3-1 group win and a 5-1 Plate Final win for the Lithuanians. Although Tom Farrar was in the Fiorentina Turner 2 squad, no doubt he would have known what to expect from the LT United team. Could his CTMB Pumas squad fare any better?

The short answer to that is no in the sense that it was a loss for the English side. It was a relatively close contest though. Similarly to LT United's opening game, they scored a goal in each half with Edgaras Buzas and Linas Vaiciukauskas scoring the goals – the same two men who scored in their first game.

LT United lead the way at the top of Group C with Expats FC Paris.

The game that took us to the halfway stage of Group C was to be Dragons (Eng) versus Team Beefcake (Eng).

Dragons were another team technically on debut but featuring previous eurofootballfives.com experience. Paul Taylor had already toured and won on the eurofootballfives circuit in 2018 as his 9 Nana Budds team were victorious at the Algarve Open in June. Paul Taylor was also part of the 9 Nana Budds squad that won the 2009 Valencia Fives.

Following on from the 2-0 loss to LT United in their opening game, they turned their fortunes around in the second fixture. Aled Williams had the honour of scoring his team's first goal in our tournaments before Steven Blight made it 2-0.

The second half kicked off at 2-0 and the goals continued to flow. Craig Dobson and David Spriggs each opened their personal account before a late hat-trick from Aled Williams sealed a comprehensive 7-0 victory that moved Dragons up to third in the table.

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