The Official Happy Easter Cup Blog!!! (01/04/2007 17:17)

So, where were you then? What were you doing when the 1024 teams entered the fray at 12.30 managerleague time? Out in the sun were you? Or asleep?

 

Some people have no commitment, no drive! No wonder you didn’t win the cup!

 

Yes, for this day saw the massive, thousand team behemoth of a tournament that was the HAPPY EASTER CUP. Over the course of several hours, managers sweated, cried, bled even (if they stood on a pin or something) over their selections, their draws their results!

 

There would be man winners, even more losers, and thanks to the generous cup sponsors (to whom we bow down in equal parts admiration and envy) there would be a number of prize winners.

 

But only one team could win the cup, but who would it be?

 

Pre cup build up!

The forum was active from the moment the cup was announced, but things really kicked into gear when the Official Cup Thread started up. Predictions flew across the net like bullets in a bad mood. Some predicted their own demise, others were bold in their belief of success….

 

Torstein Krokstad, manager of Det Sugne Laget, thought he’d get as far as round 2/3, as did Sir Sten Christian of Haugesund FK and Obi of FC Rogues. Others, like Sab Sublime of Sublime Athletic, thought they would be lucky to get through the first round. Some brought grudges into the tournament, boasting (like sonofline, manager of snowstormjr) of being the best in their family. Few predicted success, can you guess who? He has a red car…

 

Official odds were posted by MordaciousK and broke down like this:

 

Vartdal FK favourites with 2 league cup wins and many custom cup successes are-2/1

Stovner Massive surprise 2nd favs due to good cup record-5/2
Blackpool despite poor record in big cups due to Q team 10/3
A-Tack as D1 leader installed at 9/2
Svenmania having threatened to promote to d1 3 seasons running 7/1
The Gremlins-led by the original tactical master but with an inexperienced team 10/1
The Evil Empire-A few really strong players but squad lacking depth 10/1
Oh yeah ofc Man U Senior is also a creator.Struggling to rebuild at the wrong end of 2:2 his odds are considered no better than Spinners at 12/1
The Spinners-Obviously as creator of the game and a decent team must have an outside shot 12/1
Fifth Season-Inexperienced and poor team,managers judgement in doubt 50/1

Banditos Not too shabby a team-expected to get by at least a few rounds maybe more with luck in the draw.However not high enough Quality and no strength in depth
22/1

 

 

 

But but but, did someone mention prizes? Aside from the reward for winning the cup (which Spinner Doubled!) there were additional prizes, worked out in the following way:

 

The team knocking out evil empire, blackpool, vartdal fk or man united senior:

5-6div 50mill+50creds
4div 35mill+35creds
3div 25mill+25creds
1-2div 15mill+15creds

The team knocking out chairman or spinner:
5-6div 100mill+100creds
4div 70mill+70creds
3div 50mill+50creds
1-2div 30mill+30creds

Biggest win against a team from same/higher div.: 25mill+25creds

best team from 3-6 div: 20mill+20creds (if there are several teams coming equally far, we'll pay up to all teams)

 

 

Now that did whet the appetite….

 

15mins before the draw the cup was full, so all 1024 would play in round one. The draw threw up some corkers…a few shots at the big time, a few high profile casualties. We may see some large hats on the ground after the opening dust ups!

Pick of the draw, had some top v bottom crackers -

Three div 6 sides faced top flight opposition, with 6/733's avenge the gates facing ddude, DLBS1STS being challenged by Xkanon of 6/735 and the mighty dwarf SMeghunters from 6/249 playing Hoynes.

Faced with just as tough a challege were teams like Torp Jentene of 5/210 playing top team lightning, and strikingly, Barcelonians (5/90) getting a crack at the prizes by drawing Vardtal. Finally, Early favourites Stovner Massive of 2/1, cruising to the divisional title, plaed The rivals of 6/706.

But the key tie, the big match of the round, saw Omen Gaming of 2/4 face Malmo FF of 1/1.

And then was the terminal, the unhappy 30minute wait for the games. At 12.30, 1024 teams entered the fray, only 512 would remain for round two…

Round 1 

There were few surprises! But few are not none!

 

Marking their territory early on, div 4 side SuperGlimt beat div 1 complacent Murdoch 7-6 on penalties. What a scalp to take in the first round!

ddude put 5 past avenge the gates, while DLBS1STS and hoynes went one better and put 6 goals unanswered past their div 6 opposition. Meanwhile Lightning demolished Torp-jentene 8-0.

Sir Johnny's defence didn't look up to it's most rigorous best, conceeding once against Barcelonians (although they did score 6 back!) Stovner massive went through too!

But Omen Gaming are out, a casualty of Malmo FF's superior attack, the div 1 side walking of with a 3-1 win.

 

Giant killing didn’t end with Murdoch, other notables were

Svenmania (2/3) losing to Ringnesklanen (4/49) 1-2
Wedda United (6/389) - Bizze (4/52) 5-4 (after penalties)
KaMpSus Fotbollar (5/93) - Firefighter (3/11) 7-2!
Team Afro (5/168) - Team Verno (3/7) 3-2
San Paulinho (5/233) - Start IK (3/10) 4-3

We had 8 teams scoring 10 goals or more with Alien Team wiping the floor with FC Okole 11-0. The div 4 team put in an early claim for the biggest win prize.

 

Round 2, and I found myself saying “Oh good god. Oh bollocks.”

I know we're supposed to be objective here, fair to one and all, but i knew I was all but out. The Evil Empire, drew me, banditos in round 2. It was a shot at the prize, but a longshot! Despite luck offered to me in the forum, I went down 2-0.

Giant Killers SuperGlimt (4/42, who put out Murdoch of 1/1 on penalties faced fellow div 4 side Max team. They walked off 5-0 winners.

 

Uslan University of div 2 made themselves a contender for the cup, storming to an 8-0 win over Sun Derland of div 6. In an all div 2 clash, Anum Primera succumbed to Kile Utd 1-2. A-tack of 1/1 looked strong, thrashing Galleywood Utd 8-0.

Krakra went one better than Alien Team, winning 12-0 against poor Fyllingen SMG1 from div6. And the first knockout prize was awarded, with Speers Finest trashing Fifth Season soundly and collect 50 mill and 50 creds!

 

There were also two official giant killings, Fjelds Mountain Goats of 4 / 47 egging off Eggs Army (2 / 2) 1 – 0, and Reduco ad Honore (3 / 11) being seen off by team-boyz (5 / 78) by the same score.

 

And we moved into Round 3…

 

I was grumpy, but I kept going...

It was hotting up in the cup....

We saw our first all div 1 clash of Hoynes v Blackpool, with Hoynes sneaking off 3-2 victors and pocketing the prize at the same time!

But that was not the only prize decided…

 

Dinamo of 3/1 beat the Evil Empire 3-1, and Spartacus of 2/1 clonked the Spinners 2-0. But in an act of power, skill and giant killing, Far East Movement found themselves 5-3 winners over Man United Senior. What a result.

 

They were rewarded as follows… Høynes United 15 mills and 15 creds
Far East movement 35 mills and 35 creds
Dinamo13 35 mills and 35 creds
Spartacus 30 mill and 30 creds

This left just Sir Johnny of the prize teams. Everyone was fair game!

 

Solrac team also won the prize for being the best div 6 team, surviving into Round 4. 20 mill and 20 creds

In non prize matches, Stovner Massive faced a tough test in Sparta Rotterdam of div 1/1 and were duly dumped out of the cup. Other tough clashes saw SOCA Lighting of 3/13 play RO Forza Rgazzi of 2/2 and walk away victorious.  Shadeyy of 3/9 put up slightly more of a defence than free scoring Uslan Uni of div d, the latter losing out 7-6. There was also one more dead giant, badekare (3 / 3) losing to FC Badaboom (5 / 185) 0 – 3.

 

And we moved into Round 4…

The round of 128 gives us few surprises, but some interesting results...

We bade farewell to the last div six team, Solrac, who were finally overcome by The Keane Team 6-0. We salute you!

Elsewhere, normal service resumed with Malmo FF casually strolling past Team Villa Servic 2-0, and Jailhouse Gangs did for Sleivspark 6-2. Finally, SOCA lightning marched on past nicks hotspur with a wopping 6-1 win.

In other matches, an all div 2 clash saw liverpudlians of div 2/2 sneak past Team Magic 2-1, while Sparta Rotterdam underlined their cup bid with another easy victory, this time 7-1 over gooners of 3/6. Only one case of Giant killing occurred, with Fryteam (4 / 34) overcoming El Zombies (2 / 1) 3 - 0

And finally, Spoons FC, everyone's favourite Spoon related team, took a legendary beating by urban legends 3-0.

 

 

Swiftly Round 5 was upon us, and the breakdown of teams left in was as follows:

Div 5 - 2 teams
Div 4 - 8 teams
Div 3 - 25 teams
Div 2 - 16 teams
Div 1 - 13 teams

DIVISION 5 WATCH!!!

The team with the best chance on paper of going through was azari team of 5/121, who played FC Mancunians of div 4/34 and only lost 1-0. A more problematic tie awaited AC Trates of 5/33, who faced A-tack of 1/1. Skills showed for a 7-0 A-tack victory.

In other games, we saw clowns facing bulldogs (who wouldn’t want to see that!) with the evil looking ones of 1/1 facing the tough Bavarian Breed of 2/1. The former pulled off a 4-2 victory. We also learned that div 1 is 17 times as good as div 2/2, with only one goal being scored by the three div 2/2 sides combined...

Speers Finest, our first prize winners were still in the mix, but came up against a strong Fystor 2/4 and lost 5-0

Elsewhere, SOCA Lighting fell by the wayside, losing out to div 3 Java Coders, while Sir Johnny's first team looked weaker than his reserves, sneaking through quietly 2-1 against div 3's RO Esperence.

 

 

Round 6 awaited…

 

Div 1 facing each other in three ties! A-tack played Skjoldar and lost, Evil Looking Clowns conceded 7 unanswered to Sparta Rotterdam and lightning failed to strike against Jailhouse Gangs.

 
And Division 3 did a little better than divison 2. Division 3 must truly be where it's at! Malmo FF, many people's outside bet for the trophy and so far a destrcutive force in nearly every round, were upstaged by Java Coders the team that were the undoing of SOCA Lighting in round 5. Who'd have preditced that!

Elsewhere we found Fystor breaking Spartacus over and over again (well, they all said they were him...) to go through 6-1 winners, and we had a win for div 3 over div 2 with Möllenborg losing out to CS Cizme Rupte, 3-1. And our final Div 4 team went out when FC Mancunians lost out to Hoynes.

 

 

The Last 16 was where it got juicy…

 

We had left 9 div 1 sides, 3 div 2 sides and 4 div 3 sides. All he div 2 and 3 sides face div one opposition, and should they all lose there will be a lot of cash paid out in prizes!!!

Well, most of them did!

 

Order was restored. We say goodbye to the last 4 div 3 sides, heros all. They had been a thorn in the side of better opposition all day and will leave quite a hole in Sir Johnny's pocket. The four were Vard Haugesund CS Cizme Rupte FC UMU and Java coders.

The one surprise of the round saw Kile Utd beat ddude 3-2, to be the only non-div 1 side left. Will they reach the semis? They'll have to get past an awkwars DLBS1STS first...

 

Quarter Finals

Plum tie saw free scoring Sparta Rotterdam face the edgy Vardtal. Sparta had scored 7 goals in three of their matches to get this far, but they couldn’t keep the pace up, losing out to Sir J 4-1.

In the other two matches, Skjoldar faced div 1 opposition again! in the form of Jailhouse Gangs and won again 3-1. DLBS1STS wiped out Kile Utd 5-0.

Finally, Høynes United face up to Sleivdal il who had quietly progressed this far. They quietly bowed out, 5-0.

 

This set us up for our semis…

 

Vartdal drew Hoynes, while DLBS1STS got Skjoldar! It was crunch time.

 

The surprise was in the scorelines, no one predicted how easily Vartdal would walk all over Hoynes. The final score was a monstrous 6-0. In the other Semi, DLBS1STS put two past Skjoldar for only one in reply…

 

Setting up the final! A repeat of the semi of the Special Vartdal Cup, where Sir Johnny walked off the winner of the match and the tournament. Would the same happen here?

 

The match began with a bang, Paul Ince getting sent of for Vartdal in the sixth minute. DLBS1STS capitalised on this and scored in the 28^th minute with Jacinto Lima. While they were still celebrating, Vartdal’s player manager Sir Johnny went up the other end and scored, to make it 1-1. The rest of the game was spent in deadlock, even shots, and we entered extra time. It wasn’t until 114^th minute that Lima popped up to score his second and take the cup for DLBS1STS!

 

A great cup, disappointment for some, for others financial and credit rewards! I’m sure the sponsors will be able to provide a list of prize winners – they can add it to the foot of this.

 

I’d like to thank the sponsors for making it possible, as well as my fellow reporter teammates T Daddy, Sir Johnny and Torstein Krokstad and The Evil Empire for not making my tem look too foolish!

 

TaTa!!