Into
the Cup quarter-finals and the business end of
the tournament. Pre-tournament favourites Goldsmith
Williams had made it safely through and
their opponents in the first knock-out round would
be DHL Prague Blue.
The Czech team had made the Cup Quarter-Finals
in 3 of their last 4 tournaments now. The previous
two occasions had seen them secure 0-0 draws before
going out narrowly on penalties in the 2008 Prague
Trophy and via Golden Goal in the 2008 Barca Fives.
They
were not to get that close on this occasion as
Goldsmith Williams proved more formidable opposition
than Premier Medical and Yorvik Blades had in
those previous two quarter-finals. The defending
champions raced into a 4-0 lead by half-time thanks
to a Craig Ralph hat-trick and goal from John
Lowry. The second half was closer and DHL Prague
Blue managed to get themselves on the scoresheet
through David Plichta's 5 th goal of the competition.
Goals from Chris Williams and Michael Hughes extended
the Goldsmith Williams lead. When the final whistle
blew it was they who were through, 6-1.
Goldsmith
Williams semi-final opponents would be the winners
of the Kehar Club
versus Olympique de Johnny
Lauren match. Kehar Club with two Prague
finals under their belts were aiming to make it
three. They were on the charge and swept aside
their English opponents comfortably in this game.
They were 6-0 up by half-time due to a Jan Rakosnik
hat-trick, Josef Rakosnik double and strike from
Petr Pergler. The second half, as in the previous
game, was much closer but never threatened. The
two teams shared the two second half goals with
Josef Rakosnik completing his hat-trick for the
Czechs and John Foran scoring Olympique de Johnny
Lauren.
Lozenetz
City's performances in Group C had attracted
a lot of interest and many people were favouring
them for glory in this competiton. They met Group
B runners-up South Leam
FC who were not to be under-estimated.
They only narrowly lost to Kehar Club in what
was ultimately the group decided, 5-4. This game
therefore promised to be the hardest of the quarter-finals
of all for the group winners in this round.
The
first half was a tight half of football and whilst
the Bulgarians probably edged the play they were
finding it tough to breakdown their opponents
and certainly knew they were in a game. They took
the lead through Bojidar Gorchev and maintained
their advantage until the break. With South Leam
FC looking for an equalizer there were always
going to be chances for the team from Sofia .
Vercislav Georgiev took one of those chances to
make it 2-0 and an unenviable task for their opposition.
When Alexander Kyulev made it 3-0 it was game
over. A spirited performance from South Leam FC
but in the end Lozenetz City had that extra bit
of quality to make it through to the semi-finals.
The
final quarter-final promised to be the closest
of them all as we saw two runners-up come head-to-head.
Two times semi-finalists SK
Zelenec met debutants Pimp
My Side FC. It was the debutants who drew
first blood as Gary Lowery put the English team
ahead. They could not keep the lead until half-time
as a beautiful ball from right midfield split
the defence and goalkeeper to find Jiri Jindra
arriving perfectly to slide the ball home at the
far post. The second half was proving equally
close and as time ticked away the crucial third
goal of the game arrived. The goal came from Michal
Novak. Pimp My Side were now chasing an equalizer
and as they did Michal Novak scored a second to
all but settle the tie. SK Zelenec were on a high
and Pimp My Side FC must have been demoralized
and may be this lead to Zelenec's fourth through
Filip Esner. A 4-1 defeat was particularly harsh
for Pimp My Side but SK Zelenec deserved their
win and place in the semi-finals.
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