JNJ Corporate 5-a-side Football Tournament Prague 2015 Tour Report Group A Round 2

Results

Leeds Two (Eng)	1	V	7	Cilag Team 2 (Swi)
GBS Reds A (Cze)	2	V	2	De Puy Synthes 1 (Eng)
JNJ Turkey (Tur)	0	V	1	GTSC (Bel)

With their first games under their belts it was Round 2 for all the teams in Group A and time to settle in to the tournament.

Leeds Two had taken to the field in Prague having made their debut in the competition at last year's 2014 Bratislava event. They competed as S & OP FC and their games provided us with more goals than any other team competing – 38 goals in 6 fixtures. It started with a 9 goal thriller they narrowly lost 5-4 to JNJ Zug before a debut win 2-0 over Gerri Hatricks FC. They went down 4-1 to JNJ Russia B before a great 3-2 win over J&J Poland. They then lost to the champions in waiting JNJ High Wycombe A. They had qualified for the Plate Semi-Finals where the champions from Budapest 2013, JNJ Russia A, accounted for them. They brought two teams to mount their 2015 challenge in Prague.

Just as in 2014, their games involved plenty of goals. This game against Cilag Team 2 continued the trend. Unfortunately for Leeds Two most of the goals were going in at the wrong end for their liking. We had 5 first half goals in this game and it was the Swiss team that claimed all of them. Dengis Sadiku opened the scoring before Fabian Mark made it 2-0. Ivica Kusanic then claimed a first half hat-trick.

In the second half things tightened up but the damage was already done. Michael McGoran scored his team's first of the day but Djemail Useni bagged two for Cilag Team 2 who ran out 7-1 victors.

Next up on Pitch A was De Puy Synthes 1 versus GBS Reds A. De Puy Synthes made their debuts in the competition at last year's festivities in Bratislava competing as Gerri Hatricks FC and Tekkers Lovakia. There was clearly a hierarchy with the two squads as their form was poles apart. Tekkers Lovakia were the first team and made up much of the De Puy Synthes 1 squad today. They won Group A with 13 points out of 15 and went on to win their Cup Semi-Final 4-1 against JNJ Zug before narrowly missing out on ultimate glory 2-1 to JNJ High Wycombe A. Could they go all the way in Prague?

They had started well enough with a 4-1 win in their opening game and if they could follow this up here they would be in pole position in Group A. It didn't quite go to plan against GBS Reds though as the Czech team found themselves 2-1 up at half-time thanks to goals from Jan Cermak and Jindrich Kyjovsky outgunning Liam Robinson's third of the tournament.

These two teams met in the opening round of fixtures in Bratislava 2014 and the match resulted in a 2-2 draw. Liam Robinson's fourth strike of the day made it 2-2 here as history looked to repeat itself. When the referee called time on proceedings we were to have “déjà vu” as the teams could not be separated for the second successive season.

To complete Round 2 we had JNJ Turkey versus GTSC. This was a game between two first round winners from Round 1. The prize on offer for the winner of this game, if there was to be one, was to go to the top of Group A. A draw would see three teams sharing the lead on 4 points.

The two teams looked evenly matched and neither could break the deadlock as we finished 0-0 at half-time. We should not have been surprised by this as both teams kept clean sheets in Round 1 and both goalkeepers could be proud of now going three halves without conceding a goal. Would this continue to the end of the game?

For Maarten Diels in the GTSC goal it would, for Celal Akgul in the JNJ Turkey could it would not. We were to have a goal in the second half and one goal would be enough to seal the points. Bram Vercauteren scored it and he now had 4 in 2 matches. He scored five goals in the 2012 JNJ Euro Soccer Tournament and was only one behind that tally today with a minimum of four more games to go.

The goal was priceless and it sent GTSC to the top of the table. For JNJ Turkey it was a set-back but there was still plenty of time for them to bounce back.

Table

Team	Pld	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Agst	Pts
GTSC (Bel)	2	2	0	0	6	0	6
De Puy Synthes 1 (Eng)	2	1	1	0	6	3	4
Cilag Team 2 (Swi)	2	1	0	1	8	5	3
JNJ Turkey (Tur)	2	1	0	1	1	1	3
GBS Reds A (Cze)	2	0	1	1	2	3	1
Leeds Two (Eng)	2	0	0	2	1	12	0

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