Alea Iacta Est have played in 6 previous events of ours but only one of them was a Veterans tournament. This was September 2022 in Krakow. They made a superb start with 3-0 wins over Bure Park Seniors and Podgorze. It got even better when they defeated FC Dad's Club, 7-1. They ended the group campaign with a 2-1 defeat to Thursday Veterans. It meant 3 teams were locked on 9 points but Alea Iacta Est had the best goal difference and claimed the Group B victory. They drew Galbarnia in the Semi-Finals and secured a superb 3-1 victory to set up an all-Poland Cup Final versus Thursday Veterans. Alea Iacta Est went 2-0 up before finding themselves 3-2 down. They recovered to level the match at 3-3 and then secure a last gasp winner to take the title, 4-3.

They had already begun well today with a 4-1 win and they continued their form into their second fixture against Mitre FC Vets. Michal Sklodowski scored for the second game running to make it 1-0 and then added a second to make it 2-0. Lewis Ball became the first man to score against Pawel Sztmanski today to make it 2-1 and it was game on.

Pedro Silveira extended the Polish lead to 3-1 before Piotr Malenczak's goal sealed a 4-1 victory. Alea Iacta Est were looking good with 2 wins out of 2.

FC Tpaktop were competing for the fourth time in our tournaments. They joined us for the first time at Open Age level at the 2021 Barcelona Fives. They opened up with a 1-1 draw against eventual Plate winners FC Maroon before a narrow 2-1 defeat to eventual group winners FC Maresmex of Spain. A 1-1 draw followed against 2019 Amsterdam Fives winners Epsilon Rovers. They then finished the group off with a 3-2 win versus The Basemen who were Cup Semi-Finalists at the 2022 Lisbon Tournament earlier this month. They finished in second place in the league table to qualify for the elite Cup competition. They were the only travelling team amongst three Spanish teams in the Cup Semi-Finals. That's where their challenge ended as they narrowly missed out on the Cup Final, 3-2.

In 2022, they competed at our inaugural Sevens event – the Amsterdam Sevens. The team got off to a sticky start with consecutive 3-0 defeats to Turn Down For Watford and Colonel Getafe. They put their first win on the board with a 1-0 victory over Murder on Zidane's Floor before a narrow defeat to eventual champions Humble Goats, 2-1. They finished off the group with a 2-1 win against JK Silvertown that secured fourth place in the table and qualification for the Plate tournament. They met a strong Milner Street team who ended their day on the pitch, 3-0. Their third appearance was in Mallorca 2023 (see earlier in the report for details).

FC Tpaktop I lost their opening game but responded with a victory last time out. They were up against a Southgate Tourists team who had just secured their first point of the day. Both were looking to build on those results and what followed was an extremely close contest. There was to be just the one goal to separate the two sides. Cometh the hour, cometh the man and that man was Konstantin Shirokov whose goal earned all 3 points for his team. FC Tpaktop I were up to third place in the table (joint top on points).