We
began Group C with two familiar teams to eurofootballfives.com
competition. It was tournament #7 for The Crazy
Gang and tournament #5 for Fail Madrid. The
two teams had attended the same tournament on
two previous occasions – the 2016 Riga Tournament
and the 2018 Gdansk Tournament.
In
Riga, the two teams paths did not cross although
Fail Madrid enjoyed the better of the results
and went furthest in the tournament. In 2018
they met in Group B and played out a cracker
of a game. Fail Madrid emerged victorious winning
by the odd goal in 11. Yes, 11.
A
lot of the players and a lot of the goalscorers
from that game 12 months ago were on show today.
We had another really close game but the game
was not so high scoring – testimony to the futsal
style goals rather than the junior goals in
Gdansk.
In
the end, this game was decided by the odd goal
in 1. Yes, 1. One extreme to the other. Oli
Begbie scored for Fail Madrid in Poland and
he was the match winner here in Hungary.
Match
2 in Group C saw a local derby – Budapest Celtic
Tigers versus Budapest Vikings. Budapest Celtic
Tigers were hugely experienced in these tournaments
making their 8 th appearance in Budapest plus
4 overseas tours (Barcelona, Valencia, Krakow
and Bratislava).
In
contrast Budapest Vikings were making their eurofootballfives.com
debut. As the name suggests, the team was made
up primarily of Norwegian students. They took
to the Budapest Fives like a duck to water.
Aadne
Venatne opened the scoring for the Vikings and
he quickly doubled the advantage. As the game
reached its final stages Thomas made it 3-0 and
secured all 3 points. Easy this eurofootballfives.com
lark eh?
The
next two teams to get underway in Round 1 were
Argon'ze (Fra) and Budasesh (Eng). Both teams
were used to eurofootballfives.com action with
Argon'ze being a regular feature in recent seasons.
Budasesh had made a number of appearances but
this was their first action was the 2012 Berlin
Fives. It was great to see them back on tour.
Argon'ze's
most recent appearance was a third successive
visit to Barcelona in 2018. Argon'ze did pretty
well in the group phase as they finished in second
place in the table behind 2015 champions Club
Esportiu de Llefia. They secured 3 wins, 1 draw
and 1 defeat from their 5 games to qualify for
the Cup competition. They drew 1-1 with Red Light
Runners in the QF and progressed via penalties.
They went out in the Semi-Finals to AC Mazi 996
– an outstanding Greek team. Their second team
(Ze'Argon) secured 1 win and 2 draws from their
group to finish in fourth position as they qualified
for the Plate. They went out 3-0 to Pass to Russ
FC in the Quarters. In Budapest, they concentrate
their strength into one squad.
Although
their hiatus was 7 years it was like Budasesh
had never been away. They opened up the tournament
in style with a 1-0 win. Matt Parrish was the
man to score the vital goal and earn his team
all 3 points.
