THE FOOTBALL UNITED LEAGUE CUP FINAL PREVIEW

By: Ray Porter

With both semi finals coming to a dramatic ending yesterday we are on the verge of an exciting final between Deportivo Madrid and Vienna Kontinental, a fixture which will provide headlines both on and off the pitch.

Both teams’ road to the final included a first place in the group stages. Madrid topped a group consisting of FC Berlin, Vienna’s semifinal opponent, Norden FK, who finished second in this years league, and FC Amsterdam. Vienna had to face a harder draw in a group consisting of league champions, London Wembley Wanderers, Roma SS and Zagreb NK.

This discrepancy in opposition lead to very different approaches: Madrid’s exciting attacking football saw them net 15 goals but also fail to keep more than one clean sheet. Vienna prepared a more defensively solid plan conceding only 6 goals. It will be interesting to see which of both teams can force their style onto the match today with Neutrals favoring Madrids entertaining goal fests.

With the season coming to a close after the final some important players are preparing to leave their current clubs: Vienna is losing three attackers soon in Tomas Ibanez Lopez, Pepe Lozano and Frederik Haaland who are leaving Vienna for London, Amsterdam, and Berlin respectively. One player has come out and said that they hope to be better utilized in their new team next season. In the same fashion Deportivo Madrid is about to lose three of their most experienced players. captain Jethro, who contributed 24 goals and assists in 27 games this season, is leaving for new side LP Kerberos in Greece, while Moritz Hoffmann his strike partner will join their cup final opponent, Vienna Kontinental, together with defender Tagos Agonis. Having contributed to four goals in the semi-final against Zagreb, Hoffmann’s uncertain loyalties could prove a detrimental distraction in Madrids title charge.

Viennas main protagonists today are going to be defensive midfielder Mungo Scruyazelv and the mercurial Bradley Keetch who’s two goals in the semi-final saw Vienna breeze past FC Berlin. With tension already being high, this final could go down in history as one of the biggest games of the competition.