Round 9

Well we are half way through the season and its all very close although as we saw last season the last placed team is really struggling. There is no real way to call a clear winner yet although Saskatoon are finally starting to look the goods. we shall see though in 9 more games.

Nitro FC 2 - 1 Apijarevoleada APR
J_Citroen (nit) 29'
P_Smegovic (api) 43'
P_Donatello (nit) 76'

Nitro are now firing and looking a real threat to the championship after a very ordinary start to the season and considering the quality of their personnel they probably should be. Api on the other hand have struggled the last couple of weeks with their last win in round 6 when they hammered the league leaders Saskatoon and this is their 2nd loss in a row and they are starting to slide down the table. Nitro Manager Claudia Galleani must have been pretty please when his team went 1 up in the 29th minute when Citroen bagged only his 3rd goal of the season. Claudia would have been less then thrilled when Api Super boot Smegovic equalled just before half time. The stalemate lasted just over half an hour before Nitro other striker Donatello put away the winner.

Although losing the game Api Manager Mr Hernandez will take the fact that Kersi was spared the Monkey as at least 1 piece of good news. The loss of Harps for 1 game is going to amuse him somewhat less though. Nitro welcome back Blanco from injury and will strengthen an already impressive backline.

Eastern FC 4 - 2 Barnsley Tykes
C_Laudrup (eas) 10'
T_Samoscanec (bar) 12'
C_Laudrup (eas) 16'
R_Cheng (eas) 22'
E_Shivute (bar) 32'
WT_Wong (eas) 51'

Well this game was a bit of a goal fest with 6 goals scored in all and 5 were scored before the break with the back breaker being scored by Wong just after the 2nd half had a started. This game saw Eastern wanting to continue their good form and Barsley looking for just their 2nd scoring game and 2nd win of the season, well they got one of those. They scored in a game for the 2nd time in 9 games, unfortunately they conceded twice as many as they scored so no win for them this week. Eastern have been doing much better after a shaky start to the season and are still in 6th spot, however this win sees them just 3 points from 2nd so they are more than still in the race. Barnsley started the season badly and unfortunately for them only picked up 4pts from a possible 24 in the 1st half of the season and they are going to have to improve on that if they want to avoid the automatic drop.

Barnsley lose yet more personnel this week with Hendric and Lambert both out for a game however they do welcome back Angus who has served his suspension and will be available for their next game against Saskatoon. Frank will be very happy with his teams overall performance and the fact that Kalkanou and Cheng both avoided the Monkey this week will only improve his mood.

Spartak Haifa 3 - 1 Besiktas
A_Eltawil (bes) 6'
T_Tamakawa (hai) 11'
T_Tamakawa (hai) 64'
J_Hopoate (hai) 72' pen

Besiktas and Spartak both came into this game with the same number of wins after round 8 but Spartak were in 4th spot and Besiktas in 9th due to the fact that Besiktas either win or lose because they seem to have something against drawing. Unfortunately for Besiktas Manager Cagri this was another game got away from them. They started well by scoring first in just the 6th minute, but the Spartak youngster Tamakawa took the most of his rare chance in the 1st team lineup to pretty much win the Game for Spartak when he scored in the 11th and 64th minutes. Hopoate put the icing on the cake for Spartak when he put away a penalty in the 72nd minute to put the game out of reach of the visiting team.

Wonder Boy Tamakawa completed his own personal treble this weekend when he scored 2 goals and avoided the Shaft Monkey all together. Besiktas Nouma also avoided old Shafty and he is looking like he on track to be a real star of the future for them. Spartak Manager Lidstone will not be happy about the loss of Monday for 3 weeks with a leg injury but since they have been fairly injury free this season he can't complain really.

Saskatoon Wanderers 2 - 0 Aussie Man Utd
Alfalfio (sas) 31'
B_Bong (sas) 49'

Poor old AMU went into this game with 5 players out injured. Their biggest worry was the fact that 3 of them are their midfield stars, so they must have gone into this game with some division 5 players starting in their midfield. Not the sort of thing you want when playing Saskatoon at their place. There were no miracles and Saskatoon took the game 2-0. Perhaps the only miracle is that they didn't score more.

While the game perhaps didn't rise to the goalfest that Saskatoon Manager Eugene Lin may have hoped it sure was hectic afterwards. Many people may have been saying where is "Shafty this week?" Well he had invited himself to the Saskatoon post game party where he gave it to both Gommel and Shotdrinker, the latter really got a going over and the poor old bugger will need counselling if he is going to survive this nastiness. AMUs Neville however slipped out quickly when he saw brown simian enter the Saskatoon dressing room, and is still getting over the near miss. To make matters worse for Saskatoon both Arabic and Ieja are suspended for the next game, Ieja will miss two games. Ian will be happy this round is over and will be celebrating the return of his midfield from injury. His only downer is the loss of Webber for 2 weeks due to injury… which is admitably a big downer.

Houston Odyssey 1 - 0 Pasmaters
M_Medinna (hou) 40' pen

While Pasmaters and Saskatoon have been taking much of the limelight so far this season Iggys Houston Odyssey have been quietly going about their season and at the half way point are doing quite nicely thank you. 9 games 4 wins 4 draws and only 1 loss a very nice stat to have, plus they go into the 2nd half of the season in 2nd place. They may not be playing the most beautiful brand of football but they are getting the results. To be absolutely honest, a bit of luck has gone their way as in today's game where the winning and only goal was from a Medinna penalty, but to capitalise on that luck you have make sure the things you can control go your way. For Houston it is their defence, they have conceded only 5 goals so far this season and if they can continue this sort of defensive effort for the rest of the season it will be a very impressive achievement.

The news after game was as good with Alvarez avoiding, the dreaded Shafty who was sating his vile desires on Saskatoon arse, which I am sure Iggy and Alvarez think is only right and proper of him. For Pasmaters the only good news was that 1. They lost by only 1 goal, 2. Revivo is back from injury and 3. That Diehards injury is not as bad as was initially though and he will be available for their next game.

Pl   Team                  P    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts
1    Saskatoon_Wanderers   9    6   1   2    17    9    8    19
2    Houston_Odyssey       9    4   4   1    10    5    5    16
3    Spartak_Haifa         9    4   3   2    18   12    6    15
4    Pasmaters             9    4   3   2    17   15    2    15
5    Nitro_FC              9    4   2   3    18   11    7    14
6    Eastern_FC            9    4   1   4    21   20    1    13
7    Apijarevoleada_APR    9    3   2   4    13   16   -3    11
8    Aussie_Man_Utd        9    3   1   5    13   23  -10    10
9    Besiktas              9    3   0   6    11   16   -5     9
10   Barnsley_Tykes        9    1   1   7     5   16  -11     4

Pos  Name                         Gm      Gls
1    Roy (pas)                    12       14
2    J_Hopoate (hai)              11       12
3    P_Vendelboe (nit)            11       12
4    D_Webber (amu)               12       10
5    P_Smegovic (api)             11        9
6    B_Bong (sas)                 11        8
7    Nouma (bes)                  11        8
8    Alfalfio (sas)               12        7
9    M_Medinna (hou)              14        7
10   WT_Wong (eas)                 8        6

Pos  Name                         Gm      Ass
1    M_Saint (nit)                12        6
2    J_Glicic (eas)               11        5
3    E_Chiesa (eas)                9        4
4    K_Diehard (pas)              13        4
5    E_Beckham (amu)               5        3
6    R_Elmoor (bar)                7        3
7    K_Do (sas)                    8        3
8    G_Hendrix (hai)              10        3
9    Ieja (sas)                   12        3
10   Q_Scholes (amu)              12        3

Pos  Name                         Gm       Dp
1    G_RasZobbi (bar)             10       22
2    Ieja (sas)                   12       22
3    S_Cheung (eas)                8       18
4    C_Alvarez (hai)              10       18
5    C_Jensen (pas)               12       18
6    B_Molder (pas)               12       18
7    E_Shivute (bar)               9       16
8    J_Citroen (nit)               9       16
9    Mehmet (bes)                 10       16
10   AA_Rudi (hai)                 3       14

Pos  Name                         Gm    P.Pts
1    J_Glicic (eas)               11      200
2    R_Cheng (eas)                11      190
3    J_Doe (nit)                  12      189
4    J_Babor (hou)                14      183
5    K_Blomqvist (amu)            11      179
6    P_Vendelboe (nit)            11      177
7    P_Corn (nit)                 12      175
8    J_Agpensa (api)               9      169
9    S_Lambert (bar)              13      169
10   Roy (pas)                    12      167