World Footy News

The Northern Tigers have taken out the St Petersburg Cup in Russian this weekend, outlasting both the Moscow Bears and the Baltic Hawks. The opening two matches featured the Baltic Hawks playing both the Tigers and the Bears before the final match that featured the intercity rivalry – St Petersburg up against Moscow.

The first match saw the Hawks take on the Bears. The Baltic team held a narrow three point lead at half time. Things were still tight in the second half but the Hawks held on to win by seven points. Martin Sorokhan kicked two goals for the Hawks, whilst Daniel Demain and Brad Lougheed kicked two apiece for the Bears.

Baltic Hawks 5 8 38 d Moscow Bears 4 7 31

The next match pitted the Hawks against their stable mate, the Northern Tigers. It was a huge first half for the Tigers, skipping away to a big 27-point lead at half time. The Hawks found some of their magic in the second half and matched the Tigers with three goals each. However, the damage had been done and the Tigers ran out victors by 25 points. Tiger Mike Taite was the only multiple goal kicker for the match with two.

Northern Tigers 7 7 49 d Baltic Hawks 3 6 24

The big game, and the one that would assert which was the dominant footy city in Russia, saw the Northern Tigers clash with the Moscow Bears. In a much more freewheeling match, the Tigers got away to a huge advantage with eight first half goals to four. That was always going to be a huge margin for the Bears to haul in, but the never stopped trying. In the end, the Tigers’ accuracy (5 goals 1 to 2 goals 5 in the second half) ensured they went on to win by 38 points and take out the St Petersburg Cup. Mike Taite had a huge game with six goals, whilst Pavel Samarin, Ilya Terebin and Ilya Levitskiy kicked two apiece for the Tigers. Daniel Demain and Vlad Burlak kicked two each for the Moscow Bears.

Norther Tigers 13 3 81 d Moscow Bears 6 7 43

Once again the biggest winner on the day was footy in Russia with teams from two cities putting on a show for the devoted followers in the nation, but also, gradually, winning over more fans and interested followers.




The scoreboard says it all.