Sporting Wicker Park Vs. Gloopy Yarbles

Route to the Final

Sporting Wicker Park

Qualified for the Champions League as: 4th Place, Premier League

Group Stage
(GW5) Sporting Wicker Park 32 – 38 Allison Wonderland
(GW6) Mighty fine feeling 42 – 60 Sporting Wicker Park
(GW7) Sporting Wicker Park 68 – 56 CG XI
(GW8) CG XI 49 – 39 Sporting Wicker Park
(GW9) Sporting Wicker Park 39 – 35 Mighty fine feeling
(GW10) Allison Wonderland 25 – 57 Sporting Wicker Park

(GW11) Quarter-Final, 1st Leg: Sporting Wicker Park 51 – 26 Fergi Time
(GW12) Quarter-Final, 2nd Leg: Fergi Time 42 – 56 Sporting Wicker Park
Sporting Wicker Park won 107 – 68 on aggregate.

(GW13) Semi-Final, 1st Leg: Sporting Wicker Park 37 – 26 Hung Like a Bony
(GW14) Semi-Final, 2nd Leg: Hung Like a Bony 33 – 37 Sporting Wicker Park
Sporting Wicker Park won 73 – 60 on aggregate

Gloopy Yarbles

Qualified for the Champions League as: Champions League Champions

Group Stage
(GW5) Gloopy Yarbles 45 – 41 Barons
(GW6) A.F.C. Chester 33 – 61 Gloopy Yarbles
(GW7) Gloopy Yarbles 46 – 63 Fergi Time
(GW8) Fergi Time 25 – 53 Gloopy Yarbles
(GW9) Gloopy Yarbles 47 – 46 A.F.C. Chester
(GW10) Barons 40 – 33 Gloopy Yarbles

(GW11) Quarter-Final, 1st Leg: Gloopy Yarbles 18 – 31 CG XI
(GW12) Quarter-Final, 2nd Leg: CG XI 40 – 53 Gloopy Yarbles
The game tied at 71 – 71
Gloopy Yarbles won the tiebreaker 4 – 1 on Goals Scored

(GW13) Semi-Final, 1st Leg: Gloopy Yarbles 41– 29 De Bruyne Trousers
(GW14) Semi-Final, 2nd Leg: De Bruyne Trousers 29 – 32 Gloopy Yarbles
Gloopy Yarbles won 73 – 58 on aggregate

The Line-Ups

Pre-Match

One of our Originals, celebrating their 10^th season in the BFFA, Sporting Wicker Park are the all-time leaders in total games played (425), all-time fantasy points scored (18,351), league games played (346), league fantasy points scored (14,825), CL/IML games played (60), most CL/IML wins (35), most CL/IML points scored (2,702) but second-most all-time wins (412, behind Smash & Grab’s 425). They have long been known as the BFFA’s nearly team. In the first eight seasons, SWP have been Runners-Up in three leagues, in the 2016 BFFA Cup and in the 2017 Champions League. That all ended for the record-breaking Park side last season when they entered the Intramural League via a CL third place finish. They went through three rounds to win the title with a 50-40 victory over Route 57 FC.

This will be the seventh meeting between Sporting Wicker Park and Gloopy Yarbles. The first four were in the Championship in Season Eight, SWP won three out of the four encounters. The next was in Gameweek 7 of this season. Sporting Wicker Park reasserted themselves as the dominant team with a 68-46 triumph. Trippier, White and Ødegaard combined for 43 FPts and SWP swipped fourth place from the Yarbles. FInally, most recent was just last week – Gloopy Yarbles returned fire with a 57-17 rout. This time it was Adingra, Salah and Martinez making the headlines.

Trippier is unavailable this weekend, but can White, Ødegaard and co. take on the in-form, high-scoring Gloopy Yarbles, or can the Champions League holders make it two-in-a-row?!

The Teams
Sporting Wicker Park have replaced both ‘keepers, two midfielders and streamed one of their strikers each week. They started with Cameron Archer in GW14 before re-signing Semenyo, then trying out Osula, then bringing in Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta.
In goal, Kelleher had been brought in in Gameweek 14 to replace the Forest ‘keepers, but was cut loose just for the Final. Fabianski was brought in to face Gloopy, and Matt Turner was recalled as back-up.
The defensive five remain unchanged. Dalot features in his ninth consecutive gameweek, he is joined by Benjamin White and Konstantinos Tsimikas in the starting line-up.
In midfield, all five are called into action this weekend. Damien Rice returns after a four-week absence from the squad, and Iwobi is signed up following Fulham’s back-to-back 5-0 victories. Mateta and Darwin start up front, facing the two Manchester sides; Nketiah sits on bench seat #1 followed by Nathan Aké. Kieron Tripper misses the game against Fulham after picking up his fifth pre-Christmas yellow card.

The holders Gloopy Yarbles have enjoyed seven straight victories in all competitions and with that they fielded a largely unchanged side from the eleven that got them to the final three weeks ago. Martinez has been starting for the Yarbles while Areola recovers from his wrist injury, and returning well – scoring 9 & 10 in the previous two weeks.
In defence, only Lascelles kept his place from the Semi-Final. Joel Matip was replaced by Konate and then Sensei. Aguerd was let go following a long spell without a clean sheet and replaced by Craig Dawson. Dawson was added to the bench, Rúben Diaz was promoted to the starting eleven.
The remainder of the Gloopy Yarbles line-up remained unchanged. Favouring the 3-4-3 formation that have served them so well over the last five weeks, Adingra and Groß lined up beside Salah and Johnson, with Isak, Jesus and Alvarez up front.

First Half

Gloopy Yarbles kicked off with Destiny Udogie, starting five days after scoring against Toon, and Brennan Johnson returning to face his former club. Unfortunately, just half-an-hour into the contest Johnson went down after a clash of heads, but thankfully was able to walk off to get treatment and was replaced by Oli Skipp. Udogie managed to see the game out, retained his clean sheet but picked up a card along the way. Friday ended with the Yarbles 6-0 up.

Saturday began with a straight one-to-one, Iwobi (SWP) v Lascelles (Yarbles). The game was turned on its head very early on when Raul Jimenez saw red in the 22nd minute and it was pretty much one-way traffic from there on out. Toon won 3-0, Lascelles got his clean sheet and Iwobi couldn’t improve on two, despite picking up a loose backpass from Joelinton; his shot was fired straight at Dubravka’s chest.

Over at the Etihad, it also looked like one-way traffic for City too. The Champions were (unsurprisingly) enjoying the vast majority of the possession, chances and attacks. Despite that, there was very little promise shown from Rodri (SWP) nor Alvarez (Yarbles). Ruben Dias on the other hand looked comfortable in securing a clean sheet and taking control of the Final for Gloopy. However, in the final twenty minutes, Crystal Palace made a breakthrough. In what was probably Palace’s first dangerous attack of the game, Jeffrey Schlupp forced a ball across the six-yard box and Jean-Phillipe Mateta got the better of Ake to put it away. No clean sheet for Dias, but a goal for Sporting Wicker Park. Suddenly the game was alive and there was a renewed fight for the fourth goal. That fight continued on into injury time and Palace kept probing the City defence. Trying to create a final chance as the clock ticked down and with the ball ratting around just inside the box, Olise tried to take on two defenders and appeared to be fouled, Mateta was the first to the loose ball, took a touch and then was brought down himself. The whistle blew and a penalty was given. Olise converted the penalty and Mateta had an assist.

Half-Time Score: Sporting Wicker Park 16 – 12 Gloopy Yarbles
Players remaining – SWP: 8, GY: 6

Second Half

All the talk on Sunday morning was about the abandoned game at Bournemouth. With Tom Lockyer responding well in hospital, the weekend was allowed to continue. The effect on the Champions League Final was that Senesi would be subbed off at the conclusion of the gameweek, and Udogie (5FPts) would be brought on in his place.

The second half kicked off at 2pm on Sunday with three games at West Ham, Brentford and Arsenal. This presented 90 minutes of five-a-side fantasy football in the Champions League Final. Both keepers were in play – Fabianski for Sporting Wicker Park against Wolves and Martinez for Gloopy face Brentford. Fabianski earned SWP a big advantage from the differential, he made the saves in the act of keeping his clean sheet and was further rewarded by bringing in a bonus point. The other match was a hot-headed affair with red cards for both sides and Martinez got embroiled in a tit-for-tat with Neal Maupay in injury time. Maupay barged into the ‘keeper after the ball went dead and seven minutes later, Martinez retaliated by giving him a piece of his mind/hand. Martinez went in the book; Wicker Park came out seven points better off.

The majority of the action played out at The Emirates. White, Rice, Ødegaard and Mitoma turned out for SWP, they were facing Adingra, Groß and Gabriel Jesus. The game started extremely well for Gloopy Yarbles. On 38′, Ben White was booked and five minutes later Mitoma was written up too. The second half was only seven minutes old when van Hecke failed to clear an Arsenal corner and it reached Jesus unmarked at the back stick. It was a goal that was worth three bonus points and Gloopy were right back in it. However, Arsenal held out against Brighton and Benjamin White collected his clean sheet points to keep SWP ahead.

The final game of the Final promised us the excitement of the old Liverpool – Man United rivalry. On one side SWP had Dalot, Tsimikas, Darwin and a 36-29 lead. On the other side, FPL’s top pointscorer – Mo Salah. If anyone could turn the game around at the death, he’s the man you’d want. However, with SWP fielding opposing defenders, you’d need both sides to concede. As it goes, despite Salah’s four shots on target, the game ended in a goalless draw, handing Sporting Wicker Park the win. The only glimmer of hope came when challenging Salah for a throw in, Diego Dalot managed to get two yellow cards within ten seconds, both for dissent. Regardless, his clean sheet remained intact and the -3 point penalty was easily swallowed up by Wicker Park’s impressive lead. Gloopy Yarbles came very close to retaining the title, but in the end they had to hand it over at the final final whistle. All hail the new Champions of the World.

Full-Time Score: Sporting Wicker Park 47 – 32 Gloopy Yarbles

Final Score and Stats

	Sporting Wicker Park	Gloopy Yarbles
Score	47	32
Goals	1	1
Assists	1	0
Yellow Cards	3	3
Red Cards	1	0
GK/DEF Clean Sheets	4	2
GK Saves	3	2
Minutes Played	963	909
Bonus Points	5	3
Total Team Rating (BPS)	179	147
Substitutions Made	0	2