The 21st July 2012 saw the inaugural JNJ Euro Soccer 5-a-side Tournament kick off in the stunning city of Prague. It marked our 10 th tournament in this great destination and was arguably our best ever Prague tournament to date. With 18 teams from 9 nations set to do battle, who would emerge victorious and claim the coveted title?

First up on Pitch A was Czech side GBS Reds versus JNJ Russia. Of all the teams competing only GBS Reds had previous eurofootballfives.com experience and with so many new teams this tournament really was wide open and was going to be difficult to predict a winner.

GBS Reds were making their 9th eurofootballfives.com appearance and number 6 in Prague following excursions to Krakow, Amsterdam and Berlin. The zenith of their achievements to date had been two Cup Quarter-Finals and two Plate Final victories (2010 Prague Trophy, 2012 Berlin Fives). Before today they had entered one team in each of the tournaments but today they had three squads so for the ‘B' and ‘C' team this was very much a new experience as the GBS Reds A squad featured many of the familiar GBS Reds names and faces.

In this game it was the travelling JNJ Russia A team that struck first as Valery Shoumov scored the first goal of Group A. Captain Vladimir Doroshenkov made it 2-0 before half-time. In the second half there was more of the same from the Russian team as Valery Melnikov and two goals from Gaspar Arutyunov wrapped up victory. There was something to cheer for GBS Reds B as Tomas Dvorak found the net but it was a mere consolation in a 5-1 defeat.

The final two teams in the opening round of fixtures began their campaign with JNJ Croatia meeting JNJ Pinewood of England.

With the game underway it was JNJ Croatia who made a rapid start opening up a 3-0 lead by half-time. It was a sensational opening half of football and JNJ Pinewood must have been shocked by the onslaught they faced. There was no mercy shown by the Croatians in the second half as they were ruthless in completing a fine 5-0 victory.

There was a hat-trick for Patrik Godec and further goals from Hrvoje Glavas and Zlatko Glavas as JNJ Croatia were the early leaders in Group A. It was a disastrous start for JNJ Pinewood but the day was still young and there was at least 5 more games for the English team to recover in their search for silverware.