The FA Cup was not the only knockout competition seducing the eyes of the football world this weekend. Superleague teams, fresh from the Winter Break and despite testing conditions, returned to lock swords in the form of the glamorous League Cup. The competition, won by The Absolute Gents last term, has never been starved of drama and things continued in that vein with the UCD soccer astro staging scenes perhaps even more enthralling than those from Elland Road and Griffin Park this past weekend. Roebuck Rangers might have welcomed Friday evening’s encounter with Fifty Shades of Bray as a chance to turn over a new leaf after a torrid first half to the Saturday Division 1 season but the law students found themselves on the wrong end of a 10-9 penalty shoot out. Having shocked the crowd and pundits alike through Kevin Casey’s early ‘worldie’, Rangers hearts were broken when Gavin Walsh equalised for Fifty Shades to finish the match 1-1 before penalties.
The winter break may have come at a bad time for sleeping giants Bayer Neverloosin who appeared to have fallen into an even deeper slumber by Saturday afternoon ahead of their tie against Athletic Bilbao Baggins. The Neverloosin, who finished 2012 with some strong league performances, welcomed back
anchorman Conall Devlin but the Belfast man was left with little worth writing about and could do little to prevent a 0-3 loss.
Saturday Premier big boys Filbert Athletic took a day off from their bitter rivalry with Dartmouth Darts to overcome Oil Sheiks in a thrilling 5-4 encounter. Things did not go entirely to plan on the day for Filbert who had to recover from a 4-2 deficit to win the game but the season-long plan to make history maintains momentum with manager Philip “Big Ead” Dix asserting that the treble dream is “still alive”.
Elsewhere, Inglorious Basterds were forced to play with nine men for the entirety of their match against All Blacks not through sendings-off but as a consequence of injuries and alleged “international call-ups”. It was a testament to Basterds’ players that they held the All Blacks to a 2-1 lead until the 80th minute at which stage their pressing for an equaliser backfired with two late goals which secured the tie for eleven man All Blacks. CFR Clunge made routine their win over FT Ladzio with a confident 2-0 success although Ladzio will bemoan the fact that the game was denied the opportunity to be a free flowing affair given that the goal posts had to be repositioned every few minutes due to strong wind.
In brief, other games saw wins for The Dirk Kuyt Rises, Breast Homage Albion, Borussia Monchenblacksack and Sauce Pan Celtic.
