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 Hachioji Park, Sun 17th June. The 1980 Olympic Ice Hockey Finals, Buster Douglas versus Mike Tyson, Inverness Caledonian Thistle versus Celtic, and now The Footy Japan Plate Final. Sport has always been the theatre of the bizarre, the extreme and the upset.
Against the odds, and the league table, Shane FC produced an outstanding team performance to defeat the second division champions BEFC 4-2 on penalties in Hachioji Koen on Saturday.
 Having endured a torrid season, according to the league table, Shane were looking for a reprise from the habit of losing, and took on the much vaunted BEFC, hoping to win the first silverware in the team's history, thus actually requiring a trip to Ikea to purchase a reasonably priced Scandinavian trophy cabinet.
The teams took to the perfect Hachioji pitch in warm, pleasant conditions, and with the inaugural plate still being hand crafted in a shed in Australia, it was BEFC who were first to settle, with Shane keeper Aiden Wylie having to turn away a couple of well placed strikes. The expected goal-rush didn't come, however, and the strong midfield combination of Udai and Peter McGill created several decent opportunities for Shane. The first half continued in an end to end style, but defences were having the better of things, with the vociferous Dave Callaghan having a highly competitive running battle with BEFC's singularly angular #77 Steve Lidbury, in the heart of Shane's defence, and Satoshi and Mitchell's close touch and silky footwork causing problems for the well guarded BEFC back four.
With the plate at stake, tensions began to run high, and there were a few physical clashes in a fairly aggressive, but never out-of-hand game. The first half came to an end with the 0-0 score line belying a thoroughly entertaining clash.
The second half saw Shane re-jig their lineup, with centre forward Giles Mitchell donning the gloves in goals and a slightly more mobile forward taking his place. It would prove to a fruitful decision by captain Matthew Colaveccia. Ten minutes into the second half, Shane's gritty perseverance paid off. Udai and Satoshi combined to set Peter McGill through on goal, and the competitive midfielder (the Irish Rino Gattuso) curling a delicate strike in from the edge of the area. The shock was on, although the goal was hardly against the run of play. Indeed, for the second half in the main, Shane managed to get the ball down and set up several chances, most notably when the ever-industrious Satoshi rounded the outstanding BEFC keeper only to see his effort athletically cleared off the line .
And, as these things often go, especially against the good teams, if chances aren't taken, they invariably come back to haunt, and late in the second half BEFC equalised somewhat against the run of play, when their big forward made his presence known in a goalmouth scramble to force the ball over the line.
The bookmakers could relax, and pundits everywhere could rest easily, as surely the highly skilled Embassy eleven would overpower the plucky journeymen from the English school. But oh no, Shane stepped up to the plate, and for the rest of the half, and even through the extra time period, dominated their heavily favoured opponents. For all their dominance, and largely thanks to several high quality saves, Shane were unable to convert, and the dreaded penalty shoot-out came into play as the twilight descended on the Hachioji park.
 First to take were BEFC, and keeper Giles Mitchell was unable to do anything to stop the first kick. Mitchell promptly dusted himself down, and calmly bulleted away to level the scores at 1-1. BEFC then missed Giles saving well to his left, and Shane converted to take the lead.
When Mitchell made a quite staggering full length save from BEFC's third penalty, and Udai squeezed his kick into the corner, Shane led 3-1 and looked good for the upset. Although BEFC scored from their fourth, left back Ichiro, blowing kisses to his teammates, belted home the winner, giving Shane FC the trophy. He's a powerful lad, is Ichiro, but for a fleeting moment he looked a little like a rabbit in the headlights as fifteen very ugly and very happy teammates piled on top of him, leaving Shane to celebrate a momentous victory.
 In a game in which nobody in the Shane team put a foot wrong, it would be wrong to single anyone out for man-of-the-match, but the team as a whole would like to thank manager Matt Colaveccia, who was playing his final game before heading home to the frozen Tundra of Canada to take up a career in accounting, where he hopes to oversee the next Enron scandal.
His lasting memory will be of an outstanding team performance, which deservedly saw Shane FC win 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
Report by Aiden Wylie
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