Round 18
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| Api V Nitro | Table Moves |
| Barnsley V Eastern | Table |
| Besiktas V Spartak | Scorers /Assists |
| AMU V Saskatoon | DPS /Performers |
| Pasmaters V Houston |
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Well the final week of the Season and there was quite a few shocks and controversies. Read on. |
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Apijarevoleada APR 1 - 2 Nitro FC M_Blanco (nit) 12' S_Spaghetti (nit) 68' P_Smegovic (api) 72' pen |
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This game was going to be a cracker!! Api had to win if they wanted a shot at snatching the div 3 championship. Nitro also had to win to make sure they were in the playoffs and because theirs was the 1st game of the weekend the other teams would be watching carefully. Blanco got Nitro the start they were looking for when he took the visitors 1 up just after 10 minutes and the home crowd went silent in shock. The Api fans slowly got over their initial horror at half time when no more goals were scored but were a little worried that were behind. The away fans were celebrating their possible promotion early when Spaghetti took the visitors another goal up in the 68th minute and Api looked rattled. A penalty just 4 minutes later gave Api a slim hope and Smegovic made sure that it counted and with just over 15 minutes to go there looked like there may be a possible Api comeback. With the fans going berserk, Nitro made sure that there was no last gasp win (or draw for that matter) for the home team and booked themselves a place in the playoffs. This Nitro win also meant that Saskatoon had finally become Div 3 Champions as a very disappointed Api had to be content with a 3rd place at best. Since these teams finished 2nd and 3rd they will have to play each other on Wednesday and again on Saturday so there will be a chance for Api to get their revenge. Unfortunately for Nitro they have lost their 2nd goal scorer Spaghetti who has been suspended for the 2 playoff matches which will not make Claudio a happy manager. The correct SL increase for Doe however will really make him happy and make the Nitro defence that much harder for Jesus and the Api lads to break down. No injuries or suspension for Api so they go into the playoffs with a full squad, however I have a suspicion Jesus would have traded some injuries for a win and the championship. Congratulations must go to both managers for getting their teams at least to the playoffs. |
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Barnsley Tykes 2 - 3 Eastern FC B_Bong (bar) 25' WT_Wong (eas) 37' C_Laudrup (eas) 55' C_Laudrup (eas) 72' B_Bong (bar) 89' pen |
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Barnsley were the 1st team relegated this season so have been playing recently for pride. Eastern on the other hand came into this game having to win so they could avoid a relegation playoff spot. As I have been saying all season Eastern have no problems scoring goals and are only matched in the goal scoring department by 2nd placed Nitro, but they do have a very leaky defence. If Barnsley were win this game they had to do something about keeping Easterns forwards from running amok. Theory is all very well but it is up to the players on the field to do the deeds and Barnsley started out looking the goods. They opened the scoring in the 25th minute with a nice goal by Ex Saskatoon oldie Bong, but that lead lasted just 12 minutes because then Eastern turned on the goal scoring and within 35 minutes had scored 3 unanswered goals through Wong and a double to Laudrup, unfortunately for Barnsley they were cruising. They were cruising so much that a sloppy incident in the 89th minute gave the home fans something to cheer about…a penalty. Bong stepped up to the mark and finished the with a double. With this win Eastern gave themselves every chance to avoid the relegation playoffs and Frank will be happy they both won and are getting a couple players back in case they do have to play. Barnsley finish the season on an unhappy note but will have a real chance at bouncing back up again after next season. |
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Besiktas 1 - 1 Spartak Haifa T_Sokota (hai) 3' Nouma (bes) 36' pen |
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Well the only thing you can say about this game is Controversy (with a capital C). Things were always going to be exciting as the final games of the season were really going to decide who was going to be here next year and who was playing off for relegation and promotion. When this game was first played it was a 2 all draw but some irregularities were found in one of the Besiktas players, he seemed to be playing below his known skill level and was sluggish and his passing was all over the shop. Investigations followed and there was evidence found that Barmbell had in fact been drugged which explained why he was wandering round the field talking to birds and such. Because of all the money that was riding on this game (and others) it was decided to play the game again (after Barmbell had sobered up of course) and it was both a very different and similar game at the same time. In the first game Besiktas got off to a 2 goal start until Spartak ran them down, in the 2nd it was Spartak who got the early goal. Sokota scored for Spartak in the 3rd minute and immediately the Spartak boys pulled as many back as they could and tried to keep the Besiktas lads from scoring, that worked…sort of. A foul by Midfielder Lotov in the Spartak Penalty box gave Besiktas a chance to get back on level terms. Spartak goalkeeper Grois was completely by Noumas Penalty kick and so when the teams went in to the sheds at halftime it was 1-1. Because of the earlier results the Spartak team and management knew that their slim chance to get into the promotion playoffs had died when Nitro beat Api they now knew what they had to do is avoid the playoffs at the other end. Not lose. Besiktas on the other hand knew that a draw was not enough for them since Eastern won so they had to win. We have seen massively outnumbered armies bunker down less than the Spartak boys did. They hardly attacked but they held against everything that Besiktas threw at them, and Besiktas chucked everything they could. So final score 1-1. Spartak miss the promotion Playoffs for the 1st time in a couple of seasons, but since there is only a points spread of 9 points between 1st and 9th Spartak Manager Lidstone is still pretty happy with the season. The same can be said for the manager of Besiktas who took him team up from Div 4 and did very well this season and only missed the promotion playoffs by 4 points and a few goals. |
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Aussie Man Utd 3 - 1 Saskatoon Wanderers S_Giggs (amu) 14' J_Lourier (sas) 30' D_Webber (amu) 63' pen D_Webber (amu) 67' pen |
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AMU went into this game knowing that they were going to be competing in the "avoid the relegation" playoffs. In fact Ian must have been tempted to rest some of his players for those games because it was going to be unlikely (even allowing for Saskatoon piss poor recent form) that they would beat Saskatoon. Obviously no one told Ian or his players that they were supposed to go down gracefully because they came out firing and Giggs got the home team ahead in the 14th minute and the fans went mad. Lourier got Saskatoon back on even terms but AMU were throwing everything they could at the Divisional Champions. It seems likely that since the Saskatoon boys already knew they were the Champions due to Api dropping the ball, there was some fairly ill disciplined play and a penalty taken by AMU striker Webber gave the home team the lead for the 2nd time in the afternoon. You would have thought giving away a penalty may have woken the Saskatoon boys up the the fact that they were still in a game but it seems not to be the case. 4 minutes after conceding 1 penalty Saskatoon do it again. Once again Webber steps up and, yes, once again he scores. At this stage Ian, the Bench, the entire damned stadium were wigging out like lunatics. It looked like the improbable was about to happen. That penalty was the last of the scoring and from then on a clean sheet was held by both sides. Even allowing for the fact that they have only picked up 2 points out of a possible 15 in their last 5 games Saskatoon just hold on and become the Division 3 Champions. Congratulations to Eugene Lin their manager and good luck in Division 2 next season. Ian and AMU still have a couple of games to go and he may end up ruing the fact that he played with some of his best players on the field. Beckham makes his return which is good news for AMU but the loss of both Stam and Blomqvist for both games is quite frankly a blow, they are going to have to be at their best to take on Besiktas who have played pretty well all season. |
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Pasmaters 1 - 1 Houston Odyssey Roy (pas) 6' TP_Cornholio (hou) 44' |
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I have to feel sorry for Cagri at Pasmaters. For much of the season he managed to keep his team in the top 3 but at the wrong end of the season they have run into some poor form that has seen them slide down the table. Iggys Houston on the other hand have done pretty much what they have done in the last couple of seasons, that is go quietly along keeping in touch with the leaders and getting ready to pounce. Cagri and Pasmaters really needed to win this game to give them a chance like Spartak to sneak back into the playoff positions via Nitro losing. Since Nitro won, the thing to do now was not lose. If Houston won on the other hand, they were into the Playoffs. Pasmaters started well with Roy scoring his 19th goal of the season in the 6th minute, but just before halftime Cornholio scored for Houston and it was now 1 apiece. I think at this stage Cagri decided that he didn't want to have to go through the risks of another relegation playoff so Pasmaters just tried to hold out, and they did. Iggy and Houston were without their monster Goalie Grobbelaar and probably didn't want to take to many risks themselves. As it was it ended with no more goals scored and 1-1 is probably a fair finish. This draw must very disappointing for Iggy since he really had a chance for Promotion and with their defensive record they were more than in with a shot, although with Aaliyah suspended for 1 game and Negro injured for 7 weeks and not to mention Grobbelaar out the playoffs could have been cruel. Cagri and Pasmaters can remember the fine work they did up until week 15 when the wheels fell off their campaign, they would probably like to forget the last 3 weeks though. |
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| Only one big jump this week which is Eastern jumping from 8th to 6th. |
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Pl Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts 1 Saskatoon_Wanderers 18 9 4 5 27 21 6 31 2 Nitro_FC 18 8 5 5 37 27 10 29 3 Apijarevoleada_APR 18 8 4 6 30 25 5 28 4 Houston_Odyssey 18 6 9 3 26 19 7 27 5 Spartak_Haifa 18 6 7 5 30 24 6 25 6 Eastern_FC 18 7 4 7 39 36 3 25 7 Pasmaters 18 6 7 5 24 26 -2 25 8 Besiktas 18 7 3 8 23 27 -4 24 9 Aussie_Man_Utd 18 6 4 8 25 35 -10 22 10 Barnsley_Tykes 18 2 3 13 12 33 -21 9 |
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| Well Saskatoon finally take the title, and congratualtions to Eugene and his boys. Bad luck to the also rans but there is always next season. |
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Pos Name Gm Gls 1 J_Hopoate (hai) 20 19 2 Roy (pas) 21 19 3 P_Vendelboe (nit) 19 17 4 P_Smegovic (api) 17 16 5 B_Bong (bar) 20 15 6 D_Webber (amu) 20 15 7 M_Medinna (hou) 26 14 8 WT_Wong (eas) 14 12 9 Alfalfio (sas) 19 12 10 Nouma (bes) 18 9 |
Pos Name Gm Ass 1 M_Saint (nit) 22 11 2 E_Chiesa (eas) 16 7 3 J_Glicic (eas) 16 7 4 G_Hendrix (hai) 16 5 5 S_Keane (amu) 16 5 6 Ieja (sas) 19 5 7 Ninainaina (bar) 14 4 8 R_Elmoor (bar) 14 4 9 K_Do (sas) 15 4 10 C_Jensen (pas) 16 4 |
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| Hoppa takes the Golden Boot but only by the skin of his teeth, the only thing that keeps him on top is the fact that he played 1 game less than Roy. | Saint is the Assists award winner, in fact won it comfortably in the end. |
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Pos Name Gm Dp 1 J_Citroen (nit) 16 38 2 C_Jensen (pas) 16 36 3 B_Molder (pas) 17 30 4 KH_Man (eas) 14 28 5 M_Close (sas) 19 28 6 Mehmet (bes) 14 26 7 Ieja (sas) 19 26 8 S_Cheung (eas) 12 22 9 S_Spaghetti (nit) 21 22 10 M_Saint (nit) 22 22 |
Pos Name Gm P.Pts 1 J_Babor (hou) 25 375 2 R_Cheng (eas) 20 374 3 P_Corn (nit) 24 342 4 J_Doe (nit) 21 323 5 M_Schneider (nit) 23 300 6 D_Kalkanou (eas) 19 288 7 H_Luther (hou) 25 288 8 M_Saint (nit) 22 283 9 B_O'Connell (nit) 22 275 10 S_Lambert (bar) 21 273 |
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| Much to my own disappointment no one managed to crack the 40 pt mark, although I imagine the managers of the players in contention are probably relieved. | Well you can't get much closer than this. Just 1 point separates 1st and 2nd meaning that Babor the Houston Defender takes out the Peformer of the YEar. Well done. |
