Will There Be New Winners of Dean’s Cup This Session?

By Pelumi King

Last session’s Dean’s cup was very intense. It can be said that most teams gave their all to snap the trophies from the hands of the then defending Champions, Archaeology, and Anthropology. The group stage, quarter-finals, and semi-finals were all testaments to the fact. Most of the knock-out stages were decided in a penalty shoot-out. This goes on to show teams’ resilience, doggedness, and determination. In the Female category, breath-taking matches also took place there. There were also thrilling encounters in this category. Archaeology and Anthropology were also the then defending champions. What was spectacular about last session’s dean’s cup was the improvement of some female teams.

The significant improvements made the competition more interesting. Archaeology and Anthropology and Communication and Language arts made it to the final. This was CLA’s first appearance in the Dean’s cup final. Archaeology and Anthropology defeated CLA 1 goal to 0 to be back-to-back champions. In the male category, Philosophy defeated Classics on Penalties to win a 4TH Dean’s cup in five sessions. Philosophy and Archaeology and Anthropology are defending champions of the Dean’s cup for the male and female category. Will there be new winners this session?

To answer this question, the strengths of the other teams have to be analysed. Starting from the department of Classics, they are one of the strongest departments in terms of competition. They have been finalists of the past two editions of the Dean’s cup. They were beaten by Archaeology and Anthropology and Philosophy respectively. They lost both finals on Penalties. In the recent edition of Super 4, they also lost on Penalties to Philosophy in the Final. They however remain a very good side and a team to beat, they are surely one of the favourites of the competition. Bad luck has blighted them in the past editions so far. They might go the final stretch this time.

Archaeology and Anthropology are other teams likely to be winners. Their major strengths lie in their defense and their resilience. They were winners of the Dean’s cup two sessions ago. They were piped to the last session’s title by Philosophy. They will be hoping to reclaim the title. Archaeology and Anthropology style can be compared to Atletico de Madrid, they defend well and they defend deep. This does not however mean that they are not strong in attack. Their attack is also very standard. Their penalty-taking prowess is also one of the best in the faculty.

Communication and Language Arts, Arabic studies, Linguistics, European Studies, English, and the rest of the teams are also very strong. A mere observation of their training sessions goes on to prove this fact.

In the female category, many teams are hungry for the Dean’s cup. It can be seen from the Super 4 competition. Archaeology and Anthropology are the defending champions of the competition, as stated above, they defeated CLA 1-0 to win the title. However, it is a whole new ball game this year. Female teams in the faculty have improved tremendously. The massive improvement of the players in the teams was very significant in the faculty clinching the Inter-Faculty title for the female category.

Archaeology and Anthropology, History, Communication and Language Arts, European studies. and English appears to be favourites for the competition but they can still be pipped to the title by departments not considered to be favourites. That is how good female football in the faculty has gotten.

There will likely be new winners of this session’s Dean’s cup. All the teams are ready and hungry for the title. The defending champions are also ready to defend their title. Will there be new winners for the competition? Time will tell…