JNJ Riga Tournament 5-a-side Football Tour Report Group A Round 4

Results

Nordic Vikings (Scand)	1	V	3	JNJ Turkey (Tur)
Klopp ‘N Co (Bel)	6	V	1	Beeston Operation Leeds (Eng)
Baltic Team (Lat)	2	V	7	DePuy Blackpool (Eng)

Round 4 of Group A began with Nordic Vikings versus JNJ Turkey.

At the 2018 JNJ Euro Soccer Tournament, Nordic Vikings began with a narrow 2-1 defeat to DePuy Synthes Switzerland. They found Group A tough going but finished on a high with a 2-1 win over Ireland's EDC 1. They finished 6th of 7 teams to qualify for the Plate. In the Quarter-Finals they defeated EDC 2, 1-0. Their run came to an end in the Semi-Finals at the hands (feet) of DePuy Blackpool, 4-1.

Today it was a similar story thus far as Nordic Vikings had experienced 3 defeats out of 3. They were up against the defending champions who had 3 wins out of 3 at the top of the table.

JNJ Turkey's defence of their title had so far been exemplary. There was to be no mistakes here as they opened up a 3-0 lead by half-time. Serkan Kardesler continued his fine performance, Kartal Mustafa Yalcinkaya and Ozgur Baslilar each scored their second of the tournament.

The second half belonged to Nordic Vikings as a Mikael Lindholm goal made it 3-1. A very creditable performance from the Scandinavian team.

The next game was hugely important at the top of the table. It was third place (Beeston Operation Leeds) playing second place (Klopp ‘N Co). At the start of play there was only 1 win separating the two teams. Klopp ‘N Co needed the win to keep pace with JNJ Turkey at the top. Beeston Operation Leeds could go level with their opponents and make it a battle for second between these two sides.

This was another replay from 2018. Beeston Operation Leeds won Group A with 13 points. Klopp ‘N Co finished in fifth position but only 3 points separated the two teams.

When the teams met face to face there was a narrow 1-0 win to Beeston Operation Leeds which ultimately was the difference between the teams going into the Cup and the Plate respectively last year. Harry Jones scored the goal for Beeston last year.

This year it was Klopp ‘N Co to open the scoring with Guy Hoskens on target. Harry Jones was to score again but, sadly for him, this time it was an own goal as Klopp ‘N Co extended the lead to 2-0. Lewis Butler's 9 th of the tournament pulled in back to 2-1 and Beeston were only one behind at half-time.

Klopp ‘N Co moved up through the gears in the second half as they turned 2-1 half-time into 6-1 full-time. Jeroen Vos, Joren Mertens, Sam Kennis and Christophe Van Den Bogaert were all scorers.

To complete Round 4 we had Baltic Team versus DePuy Blackpool.

DePuy Blackpool made their debut at the 2018 edition of the tournament in Budapest last year. They opened up with a 1-0 defeat to Leeds One United (Eng) but didn't have to wait too long for their first win. In their second game they produced an excellent 2-1 win over a strong JNJ Poland (Pol) team. 1 point from the next 3 games hampered their progress but they finished Group B strongly with a 1-0 win over EDC2 (Ire) to qualify for the Plate.

Today it had been two defeats (against the top two) before a big win last time out. They were now up against the bottom team so had a chance to make it two wins out of two and join Beeston Operation Leeds on 6 points in the table.

DePuy Blackpool enjoyed the first half opening up a 4-0 lead. There was a mini comeback from Baltic Team in the second half with goals from Normunds Linkevics and Raivis Pastars. DePuy Blackpool had the situation under control though and went on to win 7-2.

Sam Duffin starred in front of goal with 4. He was ably assisted by Craig Johnston and Ben Jones.

Table

Team	Pld	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Agst	Pts
Klopp ‘N Co (Bel)	4	4	0	0	30	4	12
JNJ Turkey (Tur)	4	4	0	0	26	2	12
Beeston Operation Leeds (Eng)	4	2	0	2	15	14	6
DePuy Blackpool (Eng)	4	2	0	2	15	19	6
Nordic Vikings (Scand)	4	0	0	4	8	22	0
Baltic Team (Lat)	4	0	0	4	4	37	0

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