JNJ Riga Tournament 5-a-side Football Tour Report Group A Round 3

Results

DePuy Blackpool (Eng)	8	V	2	Nordic Vikings (Scand)
JNJ Turkey (Tur)	4	V	1	Beeston Operation Leeds (Eng)
Baltic Team (Lat)	1	V	9	Klopp ‘N Co (Bel)

We had a number of repeat fixtures from Budapest 2018 in Group A and this was another one. DePuy Blackpool seemed to be recreating their Plate knockout phase from Budapest 2018. They had already played Klopp ‘N Co who they met in the Final last year. Now they were up against the team they defeated in the Semi-Finals – Nordic Vikings.

Both teams were looking for their first win of the tournament and it was to be DePuy Blackpool who were to be successful and in emphatic fashion. DePuy Blackpool had been unlucky in the sense that they had met the top two teams in the first two games. DePuy Blackpool won 4-1 last year and they doubled their money in 2019 with an 8-2 win.

Finbar O'Regan scored his team's first of the tournament and then Sam Duffin scored a hat-trick to make it 4-0 at the break. In the second half Wayne Turner, who scored in last year's fixture, increased the lead to 5-0. Craig Johnston added a sixth before Markus Johansson pulled one back for Nordic Vikings. Ben Jones made it 7-1 in advance of Markus Johansson's second of the game. The last goalscorer of the game was to be Craig Johnston who made it 8-2.

Game 8 of Group A was JNJ Turkey (Tur) versus Beeston Operation Leeds (Eng) which was a re-match of last year's Cup Semi-Final which JNJ Turkey won 2-1.

So far so good today for JNJ Turkey with 6 points from 6 including 19 goals scored and 0 against. Beeston Operation Leeds had won 1 and lost 1. This was going to be an incredibly difficult task for Beeston as JNJ Turkey had an impressive group record in these tournaments.

Since their debut in 2015 they had recorded 13 wins, 1 draw and 3 defeats in their 17 games. 2 of those 3 defeats came in 2015 with just 1 loss since (to JNJ Poland in 2018). Over this period they had scored 63 goals and conceded 13. In a tight first-half JNJ Turkey edged it 1-0 with Edip Efe on target.

Serkan Kardesler made it 2-0 as he kept up his record of scoring in every game. Lewis Butler scored to match that record and make it 2-1. JNJ Turkey extinguished any hopes of a comeback as Edip Efe and Serkan Kardesler each scored their second of the game. Final score, 4-1.

To complete Round 3 was Baltic Team versus Klopp & Co.

Baltic Team (Lat) competed at the very first JNJ Euro Soccer Tournament in Prague 2012. It was a tough day for the team in the group phase as they had 5 defeats from their 5 games. In the knock-out phase they went out at the Plate Quarter-Final stage with a 1-0 defeat to JNJ Pinewood. Obviously a long time has passed since that performance in 2012 and it is great to see them involved in the tournament again.

Today had been a struggle in terms of results although they appeared to be having a lot of fun and playing the game in a jovial spirit. A look at the league table suggested it would be tough against Klopp ‘N Co who had already secured two big wins.

The form book suggested a Belgium win and that is exactly what we got. Christophe Van Bogaert, Guy Hoskens (2), Sam Kennis (3), Joren Mertens, Raoul De Schutter and Bert Meeus were all on target for Klopp ‘N Co.

A Normunds Linkevics goal punctuated the Belgians scoring to make it 4-1 but it was a mere consolation in a 9-1 defeat for the Latvians.

Table

Team	Pld	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Agst	Pts
JNJ Turkey (Tur)	3	3	0	0	23	1	9
Klopp ‘N Co (Bel)	3	3	0	0	24	3	9
Beeston Operation Leeds (Eng)	3	2	0	1	14	8	6
DePuy Blackpool (Eng)	3	1	0	2	8	17	3
Nordic Vikings (Scand)	3	0	0	3	7	19	0
Baltic Team (Lat)	3	0	0	3	2	30	0

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