The Indoor Premier League

Here is a wrapup of the two semifinal playoff matches:

Inter Milan vs. Chelsea

In the first playoff match of the day, the second seed Inter Milan took on the third seeded Chelsea.  Chelsea was the only team to defeat the Black and Blues this season, being 2-0 against them in the regular season.  Chelsea continued their dominance of Inter with a goal from Adam Fournier to start the match.  Will Fitzpatrick would equalize to make it 1-1 and add a second to give Inter their first lead over Chelsea for the year.  Bailey Arnett would not allow this to last with a goal of his own, making it 2-2.  Cal Abadin then added two goals himself, spacing Inter's lead to 4-2 right before the half.  However, a ricochet off of Craig Taylor and a miss by goalie Andrew Sigle gave Chelsea two quick goals before the half to tie the match at 4-4.  In the second half, Will Fitzpatrick and Cal Abadin would score 6 goals on the sluggish Chelsea defense, and with a minute and a half remaining, Inter took what seemed to be the game winning lead.  But, Bailey Arnett struck to make it a 10-9 score.  Then, with 10 seconds left, Cal Abadin mistakenly booted the ball, and Jonathan Lee gave a heave to Adam Fournier who scored with under 2 seconds left.

In penalty kicks, Cal Abadin would shoot first for the Black and Blues.  He would net his shot in the lower left corner to put Inter ahead 1-0.  However, Donald Ward powered a shot past Andrew Sigle to tie the score at 1-1.  Both Will Fitzpatrick and Adam Fournier would miss the next two shots, keeping it at 1-1.  Craig Taylor then overpowered his shot, going a good 5 feet over the crossbar and into the netting.  Bailey Arnett came to shoot, and Andrew Sigle could not grab hold as it hit the back of the net, giving Chelsea a 2-1 lead.  Scott Naccari narrowly missed off the crossbar, keeping it at 2-1.  The pressure was on.  Chelsea had two chances to score once to win the match.  Nathan Cedor tried to catch Andrew Sigle on his toes by going straight down the middle but he saw it all the way.  Andrew Sigle came to the penalty spot and scored in the lower left corner to tie it at 2-2.  It was down to Jonathan Lee.  He beat Andrew Sigle all the way, but hit off the post and missed the target.

The match would then go to sudden death penalties.  Inter selected the calm and collected Will Fitzpatrick to take possibly their most important shot of the season.  He buried it past Jonathan Lee, meaning Chelsea must make their next shot or go home.  Chelsea selected Bailey Arnett to take the penalty.  The shot went a little left, and Andrew Sigle was there to keep it out as Inter Milan celebrated on the pitch, winning the match 3-2 in penalties.

Liverpool vs. Manchester United

In what seemed like a very unbalanced match, the final match was top seeded Liverpool facing last place Manchester United.  Manchester United came into the match not having won since September 12th, Week 1 of the season.  The match was goalless for the first 6 minutes until Sal Maffei made a costly mistake on the defensive side, turning the ball over where Tony Fortier-Bensen made him pay.  The outstanding keeping of Jorge Abadin could not overcome a 1-on-1 with one of the best in the league, and the Red Devils had broken the deadlock.  Shortly after, Tony Fortier-Bensen passed around Jorge Abadin and assisted Matthew Whelan to make the score 2-0.  Then, Jorge Abadin made his own costly mistake and could not corral the ball as it rolled into the back of his own net.  Man U had a lead of 3-0 going into the half.  In the second half, Corey Schneider scored quickly to make it 3-1, and the Reds looked to have life.  But, this was not so, as Manchester United would go on to dominate the second half, scoring 6 goals to Liverpool's 2.  Manchester United played like the team everyone expected, shutting down Liverpool and scoring goals almost at will.  Jorge Abadin was very impressive in the net but the Liverpool defense made numerous costly mistakes and almost gave away goals.  Matthew Whelan had his first hat trick and Tony Fortier-Bensen had his second hat trick as Manchester United downed the top-seeded Liverpool team to advance to the Final.

The Final is set: #2 Inter Milan vs. #4 Manchester United.