Krakow 5-a-side Football Tournament Tour Report Group A Round 1

Results

The A Team (Fra)	7	v	0	Its Back FC (Eng)
Budapest Celtic Lions (Hun)	6	v	1	Saga Louts (Eng)
IFC (Pol)	3	v	1	Awiw (Pol)

The eurofootballfives.com tour hit Krakow for the 8th time on the 21 st September and it was our largest tournament ever in Poland with 18 teams assembled in the hunt for glory.

To start we had The A Team of France playing It's Back FC of England. It's Back made their debut in the 2010 Barcelona Fives where they finished second in their 6-team group before being knocked out 2-1 by eventual champions Magic Monkeys. In the 2011 Prague Masters they reached the Plate Semi-Finals before going down 2-0 to Ireland's Saipan FC. Their 3rd appearance was in the 2012 Budapest Fives where they claimed 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat in their group to qualify for the Cup. They went out in the Quarter-Finals to 2009 Barca Fives winners Luminy Wolves of France.

It is therefore maybe ironic they began with French opposition here in Krakow. The A Team visit Krakow from Paris and are on debut but feature a very experienced player in Fateh Bekhouche. He is a regular member of the Grant Thornton squad who regularly travel from France to our competitions. He was a member of the Grant Thornton team who took Cup victory in the 2013 Mallorca Fives earlier this season.

The A Team were impressive from start to finish leading 4-0 at half-time and going on to win 7-0 at full-time. The goals came from Abdelinho, Dydynho (3), Charly (2) and You (Youcef Torchoune).

Next up was Budapest Celtic Lions of Hungary against Saga Louts of England. Budapest Celtic entered the eurofootballfives.com fold in 2011 on home soil at the 2011 Budapest Fives with two squads – the most successful of their teams (the “Tigers” squad) lost on penalties in the Cup Final. They made a bid for glory at the 2012 Barcelona Fives and 2012 Budapest Fives. In Barcelona they had 2 teams reach the Cup Semi-Finals but both the Lions and Pumas squads missed out on the Final on penalties and Golden Goal respectively. In Budapest last year they came very close again with the Tigers squad getting to the Cup Final but again settling for Runners-Up medals as Romania's ABC United took the winning trophy. Earlier this year in the 2013 Budapest Fives, they were Quarter-Final specialists with the Lions and Pumas departing the Cup and the Tigers departing the Plate at this stage.

Saga Louts is one of the trading names of Bure Park Old Boys . They made their eurofootballfives.com debut at the 2009 Prague Trophy before making a hat-trick of Valencia appearances from 2010 to 2012. Their achievements include a Plate Runners-Up medals (as Karma FC) in the 2010 Valencia Fives, the 2011 Wooden Spoon title (as Karma FC), claiming the 2012 Valencia Fives Trophy title (as Sporting Abeergut) and also a Cup Quarter-Final (as Saga Louts) in the same tournament before losing to the eventual winners – FC Miracle of Hungary.

Introductions over and it was time to do the talking on the pitch. Budapest Celtic Lions talked louder as goals from Neil Evans (2), Leo Kronberger (2), Heike Bult and Peter Hegedus contributed to a 6-1 win. Matt Johnson claimed a consolation goal for the Saga Louts.

The final two teams to begin their challenge in Group A were IFC versus Awiw with both teams representing Poland. The latter were on debut so would be an unknown quantity to us but IFC were making their second eurofootballfives.com appearance.

IFC made their debut 12 months ago and were successful in the group stages as they qualified for the Cup behind Cracow United in Group B. In an epic Cup Quarter Final they drew 1-1 with Dancing Horses III before being knocked out on Golden Goal. Could they go further this year?

The day started off well for them as they began their campaign with an opening game victory. They ran out 3-1 victors over their fellow countrymen as Tomasz Korpusinski and Bartosz Miskiewicz (2) scored. For Awiw, it was Miroslav Miro Duszyk who found the net.

Table

Team	Pld	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Agst	Pts
The A Team (Fra)	1	1	0	0	7	0	3
Budapest Celtic Lions (Hun)	1	1	0	0	6	1	3
IFC (Pol)	1	1	0	0	3	1	3
Awiw (Pol)	1	0	0	1	1	3	0
Saga Louts (Eng)	1	0	0	1	1	6	0
It's Back (Eng)	1	0	0	1	0	7	0

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