The charm of cup football

Lower league and amateur football, the land of broken dreams. Every football player has grown up wishing they were the next Maradona. Sadly 90% of them turn out to only be Maradona inside their own minds. Showing up fully focused on Sunday morning to show all three spectators the most amazing performance they have ever seen on a football pitch. To go on and fully disappoint themselves and the spectators by stumbling over their own feet and totally miskick in front of an open goal. Luckily in most countries there is an extensive cup program. The last change for the mailman of your town to play against the country´s greatest players. So continue reading this blog if you are a fan of football fairytales.

Chorley FC
A very recent and still ongoing fairytale at the time of writing is the story of Chorley FC. An English team playing in the National League North, the sixth tier of professional football. After beating League One (third tier) team Peterborough United in the second round in November they had to beat Championship (second tier) team Derby County to progress to the fourth round. And they did of course! You might have seen the clips of them celebrating in the dressing room, singing to the music of… Adele. 

Jeunesse Sportive Saint-Pierroise
Imagine living on a small paradisial island in the Indian Ocean and playing for one of the few teams on the island. Sounds great enough already, but now imagine traveling 9.000 km to play in the French cup. That’s what happened to Jeunesse Sportive Saint-Pierroise. The team from the island of Réunion could compete in the French Cup, since they allow all French teams to participate, including the ones overseas. And so the local pride took a flight to France to go and play against third tier Niort and win! Sadly they lost the next game against Épinal and had to fly back across the ocean disappointed. 

VVSB
Dutch amateur side VVSB surprised everyone in the 2015/2016 season by making it to the semi finals of the Dutch Cup. They beat second tier teams Emmen and FC Den Bosch until finally meeting their match in first league team FC Utrecht in the semis. Especially the quarter final against Den Bosch was a sensational game. After being 2-0 down they snatched a last minute winner to make it 2-3. The goal scorer became famous for his interview afterwards in which he stated to head to bed early because he had to get up in the morning because of his internship at a local shop. 

Stay up-to-date
Want to be the first to know of new fairytales in cups from all around the world? Be sure to check the live scores on website with an integrated Livescore API such as Sportmonks. They will provide you with all the real time information you need, so the only thing left to do is to pick your favorite underdog to support!