2012 Valencia 5-a-side Football Tournament Tour Report Group A Round 1

Results

Team Also Ran (Ire)	0	v	1	Saga Louts (Eng)
Luminy Wolves (Fra)	2	V	0	Shahs of Sunset (Eng)
Bristol Bridge (Eng)	0	v	7	Atletico Nacional (Spa)

The Valencia Fives success continued in 2012 with our largest tournament here to date. From modest beginnings in 2009 the tournament more than doubled in size for 2010 and ever since we have had 20+ teams compete in this superb Spanish city. Without further ado, let's get this report underway…

First up on Pitch A was two familiar teams to eurofootballfives.com as Team Also Ran took on Saga Louts. Team Also Ran played in the 2011 Prague Masters finishing 4th in their 6 team group before bowing out at the Plate Quarter-Final stage to the eventual winners (Wafty Crankers).

Saga Louts are part of Bure Park Old Boys who made their eurofootballfives.com debut at the 2009 Prague Trophy and make it a hat-trick of Valencia appearances today as they compete here for the third successive year. The zenith of their achievements to date has been Plate Runners-Up medals in the 2011 Valencia tournament.

With similar pedigree in past tournaments we expected a close contest to kick the tournament off and that is exactly what we got. There was only one goal to decide it which came from the Saga Louts' Jason Carr to earn his team all 3 points.

Next up was Luminy Wolves against Shahs of Sunset. Luminy Wolves of France were expected to be contenders for the title as they have quite a history in eurofootballfives tournaments making 3 appearances in Barcelona and 1 in Budapest to date. Their record reads;

* 2009 Barca Fives: Champions – beating Goldsmith Williams (Eng) and Lozenetz City (Bul) along the way. Both teams are 2-times eurofootballfives.com champions.

* 2011 Barcelona Fives: Cup QF exit – surprisingly lost on penalties to 2008 winners Rapid Bosco Navas (Spa) despite being the best team in the tournament.

* 2011 Barca Fives: Cup SF exit – losing to eventual winners Midshires FC (Eng).

* 2012 Budapest Fives: Cup SF exit – losing to Budapest Celtic Tigers (Hun).

It was a debut for Shahs of Sunset and a baptism of fire for which they performed pretty well. They made sure Luminy Wolves had to fight hard for opening victory and had to thank Haikel Ben Khelifa for their win as he scored both goals in a 2-0 win.

The final two teams in the opening round of fixtures were Bristol Bridge and Atletico Nacional.

Bristol Bridge were making their fourth eurofootballfives.com appearance. They finished second in their group and got knocked out in the Cup Quarter-Finals at both the 2008 Barca Fives and the 2010 Krakow Trophy. A return to Barcelona in the 2011 Barcelona Fives resulted in success going 4 games unbeaten to secure glory in the Plate competition.

We didn't know much about Atletico Nacional before today as they were making their debut but we knew after this game they were a team to be reckoned with. They began their campaign like a runaway train and raced to a 7-0 win. Bristol Bridge were the unlucky side to be on the receiving end.

Table

Team	Pld	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Agst	Pts
Atletico Nacional (Spa)	1	1	0	0	7	0	3
Luminy Wolves (Fra)	1	1	0	0	2	0	3
Saga Louts (Eng)	1	1	0	0	1	0	3
Team Also Ran (Ire)	1	0	0	1	0	1	0
Shahs of Sunset (Eng)	1	0	0	1	0	2	0
Bristol Bridge (Eng)	1	0	0	1	0	7	0

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