(Louisville KY) The No. 2 Denver Bulldogs (9-1) won the 2007 Coopers USFooty National Championship. Defeating No. 1 San Diego Lions (9-1) by just 6 points. It was a beautiful day for footy in Louisville's Champions Park. Bright and sunny with little breeze and temperatures in the 80s. Very warm for mid-October in the mid-West. The pitch was flat but dusty as Kentucky's blue grass hasn't seen water in a very long time.
The No. 1 San Diego Lions made it to the Grand Final by easily accounting for the No. 4 New York Magpies, while the No. 2 Denver Bulldogs easily accounted for the No. 3 Baltimore Washington Eagles. As befitting a Grand Final, the pre-game ceremonies included national anthems from the USA, Australia and Canada. In the commentary box were Rod "Grilla" Grljusich and AFL Fullback of the Century Steven "SOS" Silvagni giving special comments.
At the bounce, San Diego game out hard and were dominant all over the ground. Despite the great defense from Denver Coach Tom Ellis and former Revo Jim Baldwin, San Diego was able to put on two goals and take a solid lead in a short (two-twenty minute half) game. JJ Cisneros was great up forward and the Lions were doing well with their leaders Jake Cameron and Adam Cannane and Brendan McDonald. In defense, the Lions were completely stopping big Denver Full Forward Matt Daniuski. The Lions went into half with two goals on the board but a solid lead. But things had started to change towards the end of the first half. According to Denver's Tom Ellis, "you could start to feel a difference in the attitude of the players." Things certainly turned around in the second half. Early on, Daniuski went out with a leg injury, but the new forward line was able to cobble together a goal from sheer will. Denver's All-Star utility, and new USFooty President Rich Mann started to put his stamp on the game. The Denver boys started getting first to the contest and moving the ball. Rich snapped an amazing goal to give Denver a 5 point lead. Denver was again able to get the ball into the forward line and into the every capable hands of Matt Daniuski. Unfortunately, Big Matt's kick went over the post giving the Bulldogs a 6 point lead in the dying minutes. At the siren the San Diego Lions marked but it was too far out to score. It was a very exciting, very hard game of footy that saw the Denver Bulldogs give the Lions their first loss in 2007 and win the 2007 USFooty National Championship 3.3 (21) to 2.3 (15).
After the game, Tom Ellis was awarded with the John Harrell Memorial Cup making him the first American to coach a National Championship team. Tommy said that it was a great game put up by the San Diego boys and there was just a lucky bounce between the two teams. It is hoped that 2008 will see the teams battle in a full-length game sometime during the year.
The No. 9 Minnesota Freeze won the Division 2 National Championship over the No 10. Seattle Grizzlies. The Freeze were led by another American coach, Revolution Assistant Jason Becker. Jason also led on the field winning a best on ground performance in the tournament and the in the Grand Final. One of the truly exciting things about the performance of the Freeze was that 9 members of the team came through the exchange program between St John's University in Minnesota and the University of Notre Dame in Perth WA. USFooty's Executive Director of the Australian Advisory Board, Tony Fairhead organized a program in which American exchange students go through a footy bootcamp put on by a number of clubs in Perth. The last year also saw a couple of the players travel into WA's country leagues to play footy on the weekend. Tony's efforts truly paid off with a fabulous effort by the Freeze. The St Louis Blues won Division 3, the Denver Bulldogs Reserves won the reserves competition and the Atlanta Lady Kookaburras Threepeated for the Women's National Championship.
(Photo By C.J. Adams - BWE vs Denver 10/14/07)
