Games 116 and 117 (Copa Vexanova Ordland '99) 03-14-299

Game 116: Westria-Thistland (Copa Vexanova Ordland '99)

NOVEFA announces the result of the Group E game of the first round of
the Copa Vexanova Ordland '99:

The Technical Information:

Final score: WESTRIA 4 - THISTLAND 0
Played in: Copernicus Stadium, Copernicus, Ordland
Attendance: 44,000
Referee: Richard Cordieira (Ordland)
Goals: Theunissen (WES, 9.), Vraseydenhout (WES, 27.), Vraseydenhout
(WES, 44.), Alkentorff (WES, 63.)
Yellow cards: McGill (THI, 22.), Alkentorff (WES, 31.), McGregor (THI,
62.)
Substitutions: McRae for R. McDonald (THI, 45.), Coulthard for McKenzie
(THI, 45.), Halterabal for Hasenpfeffer (WES, 45.), Dulcime for
Theunissen (WES, 65.)

Match commentary:

Westria off to the best of starts as they demolish Thistland!

Despite their good showing in the recent LSA tourney, Thistland entered
this match as the clear underdogs.  Westria had come in all its might,
with the declared goal of winning this tournament, and Thistland was not
going to be their stumbling block!  In fact, the Thistles were
considerably outmatched and outplayed all game long.  Westria never
really needed to dig deep to win this one clearly, and they even took
the luxury of taking two of their best players, goalie Hasenpfeffer, and
midfield-genius Theunissen, off the field before the end to preserve
their strength for the net match.

Thistland had all but four real goal chanced the entire match, compared
to fifty-four by Westria!  Thistle goalie J. McLeod never had a tranquil
moment, and did a good part to keep the result from getting even higher.

The Diamonds pulled ahead quickly, and were up 2-0 before long.  Another
goal just before the break had them with a comfortable cushion going
into the second half, when they switched to cruise control, and coasted
to another goal for the 4-0 total.  No major surprise in this game, a
high win for Westria was predicted by all bookies, and even expected.
Thistland must now concentrate on taking their chances versus another
Westrian team, that of IWK!  But Westria will meet them first, in a
clash of Westrians!  Westria looks strong, collected, and determined -
look out!  They will be hard to beat in this one!

NOVEFA announces the result of the Group D game of the first round of
the Copa Vexanova Ordland '99:

The Technical Information:

Final score: Bowdani 6 - Otago/TDCorp 2
Played in: The Carroussel, Galilei, Ordland
Attendance: 36,500
Referee: Peter Claris (Morania)
Goals: Bassen (BOW, 11.), Lora (OTA, 13.), Killehal (BOW, 39.), Hund (BOW, 55.), Baez (OTA, 60.), Punneratau (BOW, 77.), Killehal (BOW, 81.), Hund (BOW, 91.)
Yellow cards: Fernandez (OTA, 24.), Franchino (BOW, 60.)
Substitutions: Hund for A. Moran (BOW, 45.)

Match commentary:

Bowdani continues upwards trend with romp over TDC/Otago!

Bowdani had recently impressed a lot in the SS'99, when they defeated top-ranked teams Whitlam and Zartania, the latter impressively 4-1, so they went into tonights game as the favorites... and they sure lived up to all expectations.  Otago did fine, and kept up with them for quite a while, but eventually that Bowdanian steamroll got the better of them, and they went on to win by a quite impressive margin.  Hund and Killehal again impressed a lot, scoring twice each.

Otago was unhampered by the early goal by Bowdani, and pulled even on their very next push.  When Kilehal scored for the first time before the break, the game was still quite open.  After the halftime, however, Bowdani took firm control, and more and more outplayed the internationally  inexperienced TDC squad.  Otago is essentially represented by their club champions, inus the foreign players, so their cohesion as a team was remarkable.  Their overall depth of talent pool, however, and the superior physical condidioning of Bowdani led to their falling off the pace in the second half.

This is yet another high result in this cup, after the 5-0 by Ordland, the 4-1 by WMT and the 4-0 by Westria - there is no shortage of goals in this tourney, and the fans are loving it!  This group D is perhaps the toughest, with the much improved Bowdani, the hurricanes of NG, and Otago, who today did a good job, at least in the first half, before fading later.  Bowdani is now in great shape as they must still face NG and do reasonably well.  Otago will hope for a better result to redeem themselves.  NG will be a tough nut to crack for both of them, though!