In the lead up to the 2014 Kicking Cancer’s Butt Tournament, the only action shot on the donation page showed our own Khalid Jaddou being beaten by a well struck penalty kick. Appropriately, as this year’s final came down to a penalty shoot out, it was a penalty save from Khalid that proved to be the decisive moment in a marathon shoot out.

The final between the GATcats and Il Diavolo was a tight affair, with a single goal from the GATcats looking like it was going to be enough to take the final until a speculative long shot in the dying minutes eluded everyone to nestle in the bottom corner of the GATcats net and send the final to penalty kicks.
GATcats were first to kick, but each team was perfect after their 3 regulation kicks, sending the final to sudden death. After two more successful kicks each, the GATcats goalie stepped up to take a kick, only to slide it agonisingly past the post. However he immediately redeemed himself with a great save to keep his team in the final. The very next kick saw Khalid make the save allowing Il Diavolo to convert the winning penalty and become the 4th Kicking Cancer’s Butt Champions.
The penalty shoot out wasn’t the first of the evening as 4 consecutive games on field 1 went to penalties, an odd statistical quirk as none of the other knock out games had needed PKs to separate the teams. The Myth Beasts had eliminated Killer Bees on PKs before falling to the GatCATs by the same method in the semi-final.
Both the GATcats and Il Diavolo qualified from the Friday section, and faced up against the Saturday morning qualifiers in the quarter finals. Zoo Legacy had looked like potential champions after the morning section but fell 4-2 to Il Diavolo in an excellent quarter final. Defending champions wii Still Not Fit were in trouble early on in their qualifying section, having to win their final game and rely on goal difference to sneak into the knockout section. However their run came to an end in the quarter-finals, defeated on PKs by the GATcats and ensuring that it would be a new champion and a 4th name on the Kicking Cancer’s Butt trophy in 4 years.
The afternoon section saw some titanic battles and some familiar names failed to make it out of the round robin sections. Perennial powerhouses Los Galacticos fell to Myth Beasts at the quarter final stage, and Baccardi FC to T-Dubbs at the same stage. However, neither team could match the Friday qualifiers in the semi-finals, setting up the tension filled final showdown and Il Diavolo’s final victory.
The final total raised for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation was $13,278, capping off a fantastic weekend.
Roll on Kicking Cancer’s Butt 5 in 2014!