The players of the Men’s Open began their Soccer7sSeries journey with outstanding performances, plenty of goals, passion and tactical battles across the initial Group Stage. Shanghai Shenhua matched their women’s team by winning all three of their group games to head into the quarter-finals as the strongest team on paper. However, stunning displays from fellow qualifiers Hashtag United, Coventry City, Taichung Rock, Vasco da Gama, Corinthians, QPR and Selangor FC showed there will be plenty of competition and one slip could make or break a team’s chances in the knockouts. In fact, all teams who finished in their group’s top two to qualify for the Cup competition remain unbeaten outside of Corinthians who Shanghai defeated in their Group D match-up. Corinthians’ looked an early team to beat as they ran out 4-0 winners against COSMO Select in the opening round of fixtures early Saturday morning. But they couldn’t get past Shenhua who took an early led through a lovely swept finish from He Xin at the edge of the area. The Chinese side showed great resilience with some last ditch defending and late saves as the Brazilians just couldn’t find a way through. But Corinthians came back hard in their next match, easing their frustration by dominating PERSIB 4-1 and look a good bet as a wildcard in the knockout stages. English teams Coventry City and QPR were both able to earn two wins and a draw in their groups – Coventry the benefits of a last-minute own goal to beat Ratchaburi FC and drawing a great battle against Taichung Rock who were one of the teams of the day to win Group C. The team from Chinese Taipei also boast the Men’s top scorer so far with three goals for Jun-Sheng Tsai. But he is only one goal ahead of seven more players, leaving the golden boot very much up for grabs. Having drawn their opening game 0-0, Hashtag United came roaring back in the second half of the day - looking comfortable in duel 3-0 victories to top Group A. Vasco da Gama will join them from Group A after a pair of draws either side of a thumping 5-0 win against Albirex Niigata FC. Malaysian side Selangor FC round out the qualifiers for the Cup competition after the produced their own five-star five-goal display against Japan’s Setagaya United. QPR will face Hashtag United in the opening quarter-final, followed by Selangor FC against Vasco da Gama, Taichung Rock taking on Corinthians and Coventry City versus Shanghai Shenhua.