Skidmarks
were making a historic 10th appearance in our
tournament. Their return of 1 point from 2 games
represented their slowest start to a campaign
to date. With 6 games for each team in Group
A there was time to recover but they needed
to get a win on the board soon. It would be
a tough task against Budapest Celtic Lions,
representing the defending champions.
When
these two teams met in 2014 it was a tight affair.
The two teams drew 0-0 and finished joint top
of their group on 11 points (Skidmarks won the
group on goal difference). So far today, Budapest
Celtic Lions were also looking for their first
win having lost 1-0 to Deportivo Dooradoyle
in Round 1. The Hungarian team had a game in
hand as they sat out Round 2.
Although
relatively early in the day this was a big game
and Skidmarks rose to the challenge. Iain Congdon
and Luke Hatfield each scored their opening
goal of the tournament whilst Paul Mulvey kept
his first clean sheet of the day. The 2-0 result
was just what was required for Skidmarks who
kept tabs on the leaders but remained in fourth
position.
Game
8 of Group A was Expats FC Paris versus Tom's
Mum Is A Tramp FC.
Expat
FC Paris debuted at the 2018 Barcelona Fives.
They had a great start to the tournament picking
up a 2-1 win over CMTB Pumas and a 5-0 win over
Team Beefcake. They then met a strong LT United
team of Lithuania and lost 3-1 (the Lithuanians
went on to reach the Cup Final). The team from
France finished off with a 1-0 win over Dragons
to finish second in the table. They qualified
for the elite Cup competition and ran into a rampant
AC Mazi 1996 of Greece. Expat FC Paris FC left
the tournament as the Greeks went on to win it.
With
a win here they could go top of the table (temporarily
at least) and they made no mistake. Tristan Blundell
and Nathan Tracey (x2) put them 3-0 up. Joshua
Jones then scored his team's first goal in Europe
but it didn't stop Expats FC Paris storming to
victory. Aleks Kostov, Julien Guillot and Mike
Walne increased the lead to 6-1. It was Expats
FC Paris's largest victory to date in our tournaments.
To
complete Round 3 was Deportivo Dooradoyle versus
New Wave Funk. Both teams had a 100% record –
Deportivo Dooradoyle had an enviable CV today
of 2 wins from 2 games. New Wave Funk had played
2, lost 2. On paper this looked like a banker
home win.
However,
New Wave Funk had other ideas though. Nick Moore
opened the scoring for New Wave Funk with his
second of the tournament. He then bagged his second
of the game and third of the day to double the
advantage. Although comfortable at 2-0 New Wave
Funk should not count their chickens just yet
as Deportivo Dooradoyle came back from 2-0 down
to win 3-2 last time out.
Could
Deportivo Dooradoyle repeat the dose here? It
looked highly unlikely when Nick Moore completed
his hattrick and seal a superb 3-0 victory. New
Wave Funk were the big gainers in the round as
they rose from 7th to 5th in the table. Deportivo
Dooradoyle were the big losers of the round as
they slipped from top spot down to third.
