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by Robert "Pennywise" Gray

As promised, we followed the Brazilian Cup Final to give you the conclusion of the tournament after Insmouth Cheetahs (3) crashed out in the Quarter-finals and failed in their defense of the trophy.

This meant there was to be a new winned and the two clubs who made it to the Final were arguably two of the top clubs in Brazilian football.

Peregrinos (7) were looking for their first major domestic trophy ever in their first appearance in the final of the competition. Manager FulchesterUnited expressed optimism after the Semi-finals win: "These are the kind of games we want to be involved in on a seasonal basis and winning cup competitions was always the target in recent years. We appreciate that we go into this game as underdogs but we are more than confident in our own ability to hurt anyone on such given day."

Red Onions (4) already had one Brazilian Cup in their trophy cabinet and manager bigtyksen_2nd was looking to add another and tie with Insmouth Cheetahs as the holder of most Brazilian Cups (we have two). Red Onions already beat Insmouth and entered the Final as the favorites.

Insmouth Gazette pundits strongly favored Red Onions. Six expected them to win (4 in normal time, 1 after extra time and 1 after pens). Peregrinos were only backed by two pundits - one for normal time win and one after penalties.

Peregrinos (7) - Red Onions (4)

The Final was played on Villans Park - and the 10,800 seater, home of Aston Villans (455), was packed to the tilt with fans of both finalists traveling from all parts of Brazil to watch their favorites.

Peregrinos started with an aggressive 4-3-3 formation and fielded the following starting eleven:
GF Danny Bramble (69)
RB Liam Talbot (62)
RCB Jefferson Faioli (57)
LCB Archie Cudworth (74)
LB Luciano Nascimento (58.)
RM Luciano Prado (70)
CM Morgan Fairchild (69)
LM Bruno De Mattos (77)
RCF Rafael Abreu (67)
LCF Rodrigo Amaral (66)
CF Vasyklo Lipko (71)

Red Onions relied on their favorite 5-3-2 formation and fielded the following starting eleven:
GK Dener Álvares (75)
RB Luciano Bernardes (78.)
RCB Grant Mawer (73)
CB Joao Paulo Veloso (61)
LCB Jonathan Cruz (75)
LB Fabio Vaz (74)
RM Luciano Lavarino (56)
CM Miro Bujas (64)
LM Andrew Partridge (73)
RCF John Nowell (67)
LCF Niou Matsui (68.)

The two sides seemed evenly match with Peregrinos having a slight edge in midfield and maybe attack while Red Onions a little better off between the posts and in defense.

The match started great for Peregrinos with an early goal by Rafael Abreu before even 2 minutes had elapsed. He had it easy after Rodrigo Amaral burst one on one with the keeper after a total lapse in concentration by the Red Onions defense and laid a selfless pass to Rafael - Abreu only had to tuck it in!

2' - GOAL!!! 1-0 Rafael Abreu (Rodrigo Amaral assist)

The bright start for Peregrinos quickly turned into a nightmare when their third striker Vasyklo Lipko reacted strongly after being held by the shirt and headbutted the culprit. The Red Onions player made the most of it by dramatically rolling on the pitch and the referee pulled the red card.

8' - Red Card! Vasyklo Lipko (Peregrinos)

Nerves took over with the trophy at stake and a lot of kicking ensued throughout this tackle-ridden first half. Peregrinos came close to losing another man when Luciano Prado went hard with studs flying high but since there was no contact in the challenge he got away with a yellow.

12' - Yellow Card! Luciano Prado (Peregrinos)

The obvious danger of being reduced to even less players on the pitch finally got in Peregirnos players' heads and they stopped with the most brutal of challenges.

The physical battle however went on. Red Onions were rather fortunate to only pick up their first booking as late as the 30th minute when RB Luciano Bernardes committed yet another foul.

30' - Yellow Card! Luciano Bernardes (Red Onions)

In terms of football the two sides hardly matched the lunging tackles in terms of spectacularity. Most of the shots were long range efforts by midfield players. Red Onions did little to make their numerical advantage count except for holding the ball slightly more than Peregrinos and had to settle with trailing a goal at half time.

That changed quickly after the break. CM Morgan Fairchild played Abreu through and the forward beat his defender before unleashing a curled shot past the keeper to make sure Red Onions no longer needed one but two goals to equalize! Abreu did the impressive feat of scoring a goal in the second minute of both halves!

47' - GOAL!!! 2-0 Rafael Abreu (Morgan Fairchild assist)

And 10-man Peregrinos were already within a touching distance from their first ever Brazilian Cup trophy!

Red Onions had no choice but to up the tempo and look for goals. They had the possession but couldn't find their edge in the box. Nowell and especially Matsui linked up well a couple times but could and should have done a lot better with their shots.

Minutes passed by and Peregrinos held on quite well. They were able to handle everything Red Onions were throwing at them. The symbolic visitors really needed their front duo to perform as they were now facing the loss and time was ticking away.

It was a little strange none of the managers made any subs, especially considering both sides could have used some fresh legs given the situation they were in.

Peregrinos were defending well and exactly when it was difficult to see how Red Onions would get a goal yet another referee decision changed the game. Matsui went down after a corner kick and spread arms claiming he was pushed. Surprisingly the ref pointed the spot. TV replays showed there was a push but it wasn't much different from the pushing and shoving that normally goes in the box during set pieces.

Matsui stepped up to take the pen and smashed it home.

78' - GOAL!!! 2-1 Niou Matsui penalty (no assist)

This goal was exactly what Red Onions needed to kickstart the match and get going in the final minutes. Peregrinos felt hard done by after doing nothing wrong since the sending off and it affected their so far impeccable performance. Nerves kicked in and each ball in the box felt like an equalizer in the making.

Red Onions did the most of those minutes and soon enough CM Miro Bujas took a wonderful volley that deflected and went straight in the path of striker John Nowell. Nowell found himself in an excellent position and tucked it in the close corner leaving keeper Bramble no chance to react!

84' - GOAL!!! 2-2 John Nowell (Miro Bujas assist)

All of a sudden the symbolic hosts comfortable two goal lead was in the past and momentum swung hardly in the visitors' favor.

Strangely however Red Onions did not push for a third and instead settled for the draw and extra time. Both teams were unwilling to take any risks in the final five minutes and this had to be resolved after 30 more minutes of football.

Red Onions were the more active side in the first half of extra time. Strikers Nowell and Matsui, who were so inefficient throughout the game but now had a goal each to their names, looked lively and constantly harassed the Peregrinos defenders in the box.

In the same time Peregrinos counted on counter attacks and one of them forced Red Onions CM Miro Bujas to a tactical foul at the expense of a card.

104' - Yellow Card! Miro Bujas (Red Onions)

It seemed Red Onions were in control and would get the winner but they just kept delaying pulling the trigger. They picked up the best opportunity to do so when Peregrinos CB Jefferson Faioli tripped Matsui in the box and the referee assigned yet another penalty in their favor! Although this one was 100% clear and Faioli was lucky to stay on the pitch and only get a yellow.

108' - Yellow Card! Jefferson Faioli (Peregrinos)

Matsui stepped up behind the spot and confidently smashed the ball against the bar... before heading the rebound that fell straight at him narrowly on the wrong side of the post!

This was too dire a miss for Red Onions and they paid for it moments later. Peregrinos CM Fairchild was deep in his own half to take over a loose pass and launch a tremendous 60 yard run before delivering a perfect ball to Abreu on the edge of the Red Onions box. Abreu had just enough strength left in his legs to go past his marker and rifle in a close range effort between the legs of the keeper!

110' - GOAL!!! 3-2 Rafael Abreu (Morgan Fairchild assist)

Red Onions found themselves trailing when everybody expected them to get the winner and did their best to go forward in the final ten minutes. This time however Peregrinos defended for their lives and made the most of various cramps throughout their team to stall play.

Time waste was so impressive the referee assigned 3 minutes of added time - but it still wasn't enough for any of Red Onion's desperate crosses to connect and they never got the goal to take this to penalties.

Final score: Peregrinos (7) - Red Onions (4) 2-2 3-2 ET (Rafael Abreu 2, 47, 110; Niao Matsui pen 78, John Nowell 84)
Man of the Match: Morgan Fairchild (Peregrinos)

Post Match Interview: we managed to get a couple of words from ecstatic Peregrinos manager FulchesterUnited after the final whistle. He made no attempt to hide his excitement: "The whole range of emotions has just traveled through my body. Early goal followed by sending off then to throw away a 2 goal lead and then what a amazing way to win your 1st League Cup in extra time." He continued with an emotional thank you and a message to the fans: "Massive thanks has to go to the chairman Leo Salomao for making all this possible and this is just the start of what we want at this football club. Verde e branco exército!"

Insmouth Gazette Pundits

Time for our pundits section. The match was very tough to predict and most of our guests favorited Red Onions and were let down. Curiously both predictions in favor of Peregrinos didn't nail the extra time win either so there weren't many points earned in this round. Even more curiously the two pundits to correctly guess Peregrinos as the winners were our joint leaders andyoz and colins70 so they continued to share the top position and extended their lead to third place wally by 2 more points. Let's see how the leaderboard looks after the Brazilian Cup Final:

1. andyoz.........__ 191pts
1. colins70............191pts
3. wally............__ 170pts
4. ironpsycho....__ 150pts
5. scotty1962..___ 148pts
6. mackfishy......._ 147pts
7. AberdeenAngels 140pts
8. jpjjpj............... 137pts
9. Tstuff......_____ 111pts
10. aknight2000__ 104pts
11. ozzymac........... 87pts

A few hours after this match the Inter Cup Platinum Cup Quarter-finals kicked off so stay tuned to see how Insmouth fared and if our pundits got more points from that round of our competition!