Bushwick Inlet Park League
Venue: BIP Date: Sunday, 29 August Kick-off: 20:00 EST Coverage: WSP Sport website

It looks like everyone is available for this match, as neither captain has reported injuries or absences.

MATCH PREVIEW

Both teams finished the regular season much lower in the standings than anyone would have expected: FC Headers at 4th and Team Hawk at 7th.

Each team also finished on the back foot. FC Headers lost its last two and Team Hawk suffered four straight losses.

The Cup Championship has brought a return to form to these squads. They're now exactly where they arguably should have been during the league title race. At the top.

In the quarterfinals, FCH buried the Badgers. In the semis, they got past Spring and Summer league title holders, Chico's Bail Bonds.

Team Hawk carried away a narrow quarter final victory against second place Berry Park, who just a few weeks before had clipped Hawks' wings 8-3. Team Hawk stepped up its game further in the semis with a soaring 5-goal performance against a normally impenetrable Scousers.

With some impressive, reeling displays in the opposition half from both sides in this season's cup, tonight's final could be a barn burner.

Hawk's strategy is usually to throw everything they have at teams and hope for their firepower to overwhelm the opposition. But they've suffered from that imprudent approach against good counter-attacking teams. And FC Headers is one of those teams.

Capable of employing a constraining defense, Hawks could very well play a similar style to their opposition.

FC Headers defend first and rely on three people to make good from turnovers on the counter attack. They're approach is much more cautious than the Hawks'. But it has led to even more goals than the Hawks have scored. And so it's by no means boring.

We're predicting a 2-2 tie after 60 minutes. Because it's an early game, we'll have time to settle things in a good old standard way - with the chance at a Golden Goal over two overtime periods.

· Team Hawk finished third in scoring (19) and seventh in goals conceded (24). The team's defense is much better, however, than the stats suggest.

· Hawks' Alex K. has faced FC Headers as a representative of three teams (Team Santos, Berry Park, and Team Hawk) in the last two years but has yet to be on the winning side. We hear he's up for this match like he hasn't been for any other in his entire soccer career.

· This is the Hawks' first appearance in a cup or playoff final.

FC Headers

· FCH finished second in scoring (22 goals) and second in goals conceded (8) - just one goal apart, in both cases, from league scoring and defense leaders.

· FCH has made it to eight finals and won four in their 3.5 years together.

· Fernando C.'s on a scoring streak of the likes we haven't seen from him since last Spring. He's told us that he's more than determined to win his first championship with FCH.