Cup Week
Welcome to the cup week! As the highest ranked teams in the league, AJ's Bayern and GFRay's Feyenoord have byes to the semi final. All matches were played on neutral ground.
QF
Asst: none
Subs: Varela/Maylett (52') |
none
Spectral's Chelsea lives up to its expectations by beating Bolton. Getting some changes in before the cup games, the team managed to pressure Bolton into a costly defensive error, as Valoti took down Varela in the box, earning himself a red card for that foul. The rest of the game was just smooth sailing to bring the result in.
Asst: Ewolo (1) | Cahill (1), Blake (1)
Subs: none | Weinzierl/Mamede (63')
The second quarter final was a match-up between two sides in the lower half of the league table. Manchester United was taken to extra-time by the always defensively positioned Cardiff, where they scored the winner in the 120th minute.
SF
Asst: Bodmer (1) | Blake (1)
Subs: Gatti/Bender (57') | Cahill/Mamede (57')
The league winners had their first taste of the cup in a rematch of MD10 in which they surprisingly lost. Both teams fielded the same starting lineup as last week, and it was Healy who managed to open the scoring early, taking the lead in the 6th minute. Riviere got his second cup goal just before the halftime whistle to make it 1-1. Eventually it was a Marek Jankulovski free-kick that won the game for Bayern, who move on to the final.
Feyenoord - Chelsea
4 - 2
AET
1-0 Schindzielorz 37'
1-1 Brevi 48'
1-2 Robins 65' (pen)
2-2 Hutwelker 77'
3-2 Telfer 97'
4-2 Johnson 105'
Neustädter 65'
Howey 75'
stats1
stats2
Asst: Moriero (1), Hashemian (2), Hutwelker (1) | Guidoni (1)
Subs: Moriero/Hutwelker (55') | Varela/Maylett (55')
The second semi-final provided goals and chaos galore that ended in unbeaten Feyenoord's success. Schindzielorz opened the scoring following a nice run through the Chelsea defence, but Spectral's team quickly fired back just after half-time, which only started the trouble for the Dutch team. In the 65th minute, Peter Neustädter brought down Guidoni in the box, and was subsequently sent off - Mark Robins scored another penalty to put Chelsea up. Despite that, the Blues only had numerical superiority for 10 minutes, as Howey got sent off in the 75th minute. Super-sub Hutwelker then equalised just 2 minutes later. The match went into overtime, but from there on, it was a Feyenoord domination. Telfer and Johnson scored one apiece to move on to the final.
Final
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two highest ranked teams in the league met in the cup final, with the slight edge going to Feyenoord, who managed to beat Bayern both times in regular season. Bayern fielded the same team as in the semis, while Feyenoord had to replace the suspended Neustädter with Djurišić in central defence.
Feyenoord - Bayern Munich
2 - 3
PEN
1-0 Johnson 83' (pen)
1-1 Healy 87'
1-2 Healy 90'
2-2 Hashemian 90+2'
Bocchetti 57'
Dolan 83'
Shootout
Johnson |
Kryszałowicz
Moriero |
Jankulovski
Hashemian |
Healy
Troise |
Bodmer
Djurišić |
Muscat
Schindzielorz |
Gatti
stats1
stats2
Asst: Moriero (1) | Dolan (1), Jankulovski (1)
Subs: Preuß/Hutwelker (54') | Salli/Dolan (54')
It's fitting to end the season on a spectacle. Starting the game off rather slowly, it all heated up in the second half with the sending-off for Bayern's Bocchetti. Feyenoord piled on the pressure which resulted in a mistake by Bayern's substitute defender Dolan, who took down Vahid Hashemian in the box. Scoring machine Andrew Johnson then netted his 13th goal of the season in 12 matches from the spot. It was not yet over for the league winner though - Dolan was looking for redemption and found Healy in the opponent's area, who cooly equalised shortly before full time. Only three minutes later, Healy provided another brilliant finish, running into the box from the flank. It all looked to be over, but in the last action of the game, Moriero provided a fine pass to Hashemian who equalised right before the final whistle. The game moved to extra time, and with both teams playing rather carefully, we went to a penalty shoot-out. Feyenoord started with the shoot-out, and both teams' first three penalty takers slotted their spot-kicks confidently. Feyenoord's fourth kick taker, Emmanuele Troise played with fire and tried a Panenka shot, which could have misfired, but Espen Baardsen dove to his right just enough for the ball to be unreachable. Despite that, Baardsen proved to be the hero for the German team, saving Schindzielorz's penalty mid-height to his right. After Gatti scored his penalty to the lower right, Bayern celebrated their double!
