The 2009 Prague Masters saw us welcome back many friendly faces (including both previous winners) to eurofootballfives.com competition in the form of Goldsmith Williams, Kehar Club, DHL Prague, Reading Royals, SK Zelenec and South Leam FC (formerly known as IFC Stella).

In addition to our valued returning teams we were delighted to welcome Pimp My Side FC, Aon Top Guns, Real Sociable Lads and Olympique de Johnny Lauren who were making their international debuts with eurofootballfives.com.

We also had the pleasure of welcoming the first team from Bulgaria to play in eurofootballfives.com competition. That team was Lozenetz City.

The debutants were an unknown quantity for us but what can we tell you about the experienced returning teams though?

Goldsmith Williams were the defending Prague Masters champions. They won the tournament on their eurofootballfives.com debut last year and were bidding to become the first team to defend a trophy in the 15 tournaments we have had to date. Goldsmith Williams were sure to be amongst the pre-tournament favourites for the 2009 challenge.

We do not wish to scare the other but we also had the winners of the inaugural 2007 Prague Masters, Kehar Club, participating in this year's tournament. The team had a disappointing performance in the 2008 Prague Masters with a depleted squad due to injuries. They bounced back to form in the 2008 Prague Trophy though reaching the final and coming so close to victory until they came unstuck to an extra time Golden Goal and thus finishing runners-up.

DHL Prague are one of the most experienced clubs in our tournaments. They have taken their challenge to Krakow and Barcelona as well as targeting glory on home soil. DHL Prague entered two squads in the form of DHL Prague Blue and DHL Prague Red. The story for them started in the 2007 Prague Trophy where they finished runners-up. The DHL Prague Red squad then finished runners-up in the 2008 Prague Trophy Plate before going on to win the 2008 Barca Fives Plate. They were in action again as recently as the 2009 Krakow Trophy in April when the DHL Prague Blue squad reached the Plate Semi-Finals.

Reading Royals were making their second eurofootballfives.com appearance this year following their debut in the 2008 Premiership In… Portugal . They proved to be a solid side and finished 6 th in the tournament notching 1 win and 3 draws along the way. They found goals hard to come by in the Algarve so if they bring their shooting boots to Prague we anticipate improvement from the Royals.

SK Zelenec made it a hat-trick of Prague appearances when they took to the field on the 11th July. They made their debut 12 months ago and reached the Cup Semi-Finals before going out to eventual champions, Goldsmith Williams. In the 2008 Prague Trophy they won their group with a 100% record before going out in the Cup Semi-Finals once again. Again, they went out to the eventual winners East Germany. SK Zelenec were looking to go at least one step further this time around.

South Leam FC switched their challenge from Amsterdam in 2008 to Prague in 2009. They found themselves unlucky in the Dutch capital being drawn in the group of death and then drawn against the eventual Plate winners in the knock-out phase. They have since changed their name from IFC Stella so were hoping the change of name also represented a change of luck.

As well as those mentioned above we saw some Czech teams making th eir debuts. The local Czech challenge also came from JNJ Global Services, Hays and Harp Haspoda .

So, the tournament was perfectly set-up. Please read on to see how the action unfolded over a great day of competition.