The 2014 eurofootballfives.com 5-a-side football tournament season kicked off in style as Valencia in Spain played host to our season opener. A great city, a great venue, great weather and a terrific atmosphere meant this tournament will long last in the memory banks.

It was Spanish team Sparta who showed their prowess from the penalty spot in both the Cup Semi-Final and Cup Final to take the glory. In both games they let winning positions slip by conceding late penalties that meant a penalty shoot-out had to be played at all. It was therefore ironic that penalties were their undoing in normal time but ultimately proved their success in the shoot-outs.

In the Plate competition there was long awaited success for Saipan FC of Ireland. Their multinational squad of Irish, Swiss, English, Spanish (and more lest we forget) had suffered final heartbreak in Prague, Barcelona and Berlin. Valencia was to be fourth time lucky in a breakthrough tournament for them.

The personal honours of the day was also a close run thing as Daniel Kerr of HMNB Portsmouth and David Sant Lopez of Penethinaikos both bagged 12 goals. The Portsmouth man took the trophy on countback though as he'd claimed his strikes in one less appearance than his Spanish nemesis.