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Last year’s finalists Pepsi Max and Anarchy 99, winners of the last four tournaments, were seeded and therefore in different groups. But complications with players meant that Pepsi had to withdraw and so the two groups, A and B, therefore consisted of five and four teams respectively. In A was Anarchy 99, the last ever Sofa King Good (SKG) team, Langwith indoor footballers; Jeb Ends, newly formed Los Gypsies and Scotty’s Hotties.
Group B, immediately deemed the ‘group of death,’ consisted of the first year team Anarchy 100, Cleethorpes, PES United and possibly the strongest tournament team so far; The Three Legged Dogs of War. From the start, the dream final was set to be between The Dogs and Anarchy 99, between them they had the majority of the University first team.
Group A saw Anarchy 99 stamp their dominance as was to be expected, as they romped to three wins over SKG, Scotty’s Hotties and Los Gypsies. They only managed a draw with the impressive Jeb Ends, playing Futsal for the first time, who also beat Los Gypsies and SKG but were unable to get past an inspirational Scotty and his self-named team. The man of the group was surely Henry Smith, who having made a return to Futsal after a long break, slotted straight back into the team and helped himself to eight goals in the first four games.
Group B was far more closely contested, with only goal difference separating The Dogs and Anarchy 100 at the top. Probably the match of the tournament came when these two met, ending in a hard-fought 3-3 draw. Tiago Ogando came into his own in the group stages, displaying his unparalleled understanding of the game and the way it should be played.
The results meant that The Three Legged Dogs of War would meet Jeb Ends in the semi final of the tournament proper and Anarchy 100 would again meet rivals Anarchy 99. The third and forth placed teams in the groups met in a plate competition, which put SKG against Cleethorpes whilst Scotty’s Hotties faced PES United.
SKG disposed of Cleethorpes in a closely contested affair, with the difference between the teams being the SKG stopper Bodo. In the other semi, PES United beat Scotty’s Hotties 4-3 to set up a final with SKG. It was to be SKG’s final match before its inevitable disbandment and the players were certainly fired up for the game. The match was close throughout and eventually finished 2-2 after normal time. Extra time began and the depth of the SKG squad prevailed. Fatigue began to set in within the PES United team and SKG eventually ran away with the prize in a 5-2 win.
In the tournament proper, the Anarchy derby match ended in Anarchy 100 again suffering a semi-final defeat at the hands of Myles Preston’s team. Anton Murphy was injured in the early goings and was unable to continue leaving the first years with just one striker. The game finished 6-2 and Anarchy 99 were through to the final.
The other semi-final finished with The Dogs beating Jeb Ends 4-2, sadly a somewhat flattering scoreline for the losing team, who suffered a full on assault on their goal for the majority of the game. As anticipated, the final was between holders Anarchy 99 and the new and improved Three Legged Dogs of War.
Both teams began with their strongest line-ups and it was The Dogs that enjoyed the possession and the shots in the early goings. Jonny McWilliams, who finished as the tournaments top goalscorer with twelve, troubled the Anarchy ‘keeper from kick off and made his team’s intentions known. The Dogs came close to scoring immediately after when Godfrey tipped another McWilliams shot onto the crossbar. Four minutes into the game Anarchy 99 began to show why they had won so many times previously as they pressured The Dogs constantly. Depledge was denied twice by the excellent James Sweetman in goal, before Tiago cleared an Andrew Wakeford shot off the line.
Their persistence paid off soon after when Wakeford rounded the keeper and sidefooted the ball into the empty net. The Dogs then kept possession comfortably before Henry Smith brought down Tiago Ogando just eight yards out. He made up for it by clearing the ball out to the Dogs’ last man, who fired it back in only for it to strike Smith and deflect into his own net. The Dogs had a well deserved equaliser, but failed to capitalise on a chance to go in front by again giving Wakeford the extra yard he needed to finish from a corner. Mark McKay went close on half time, but Carl Lewis’ men went in at half time 2-1 down.
The Dogs had been making consistent changes throughout the first half while Anarchy 99 captain Myles Preston brought himself on for the final minute of the first half as his team’s only change. The second half line-ups saw The Dogs put out the same team as they did for the first half, while Anarchy changed one of their two frontmen as Ed Murrills was introduced in place of Depledge.
The Dogs again had the better chances, and this time they took them as Jonny McWilliams helped himself to a three minute hat-trick, two of which came from corners. He was also at the heart of The Dogs’ fifth goal when his shot was deflected off Depledge sending Anarchy 99 goalkeeper David Godfrey scrambling.
Laurie Swan was then brought back on for Anarchy 99 and he was twice denied by Sweetman, easily the best stopper in the tournament. The game looked beyond Anarchy 99 and with just five minutes remaining Dan Hyde was sent on to try and pester The Dogs defence. However, he was dispossessed by McWilliams who sent David Sutton through one-on-one to make it 6-2.
The player of the tournament Tiago Ogando then added his name to the score sheet with the best goal of the game when he beat his marker and punted the ball in from range. Henry Smith grabbed a consolation goal, and his tenth, in the final stages when he burst through two men and rifled past Sweetman. The game ended 7-2, and brought a halt to Anarchy 99’s twenty game unbeaten run.
We outplayed them and deserved our victory
The Dogs were crowned the new Tournament winners and captain Carl Lewis couldn’t hide his delight: “What happened today was for the good of Futsal and for the good of the club. The final has received a lot of hype, but we outplayed them and deserved our victory.”
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