X11 season 45 - de rigueur Mortis

[Sits]

Thanks HO, excellent work.

[Various Artist]

OTF

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After fluffing a first-half penalty, Hank Hulme made amends after the break, firing home the winner for leaders Vita Mortis at home to Zeugmaspor. There were eight seasons between Mortis' first and second OTF titles, and this is the eighth season since that second success...

Hah, yes I'd clocked that temporal quirk myself HO. Did seem a wee bit early in the campaign to go mentioning it in a PR though, so was sitting on that thought for now. Our 8-season wait remains the longest in league history for any titlle-winner to successfully land a second title, as I recall – I can see I'll have to go back to the stats to try to work out what the record wait for a third one (after the second? or after the first?) might be!

Having watched 'The Game' for last Thursday, Hulme's goal (after fluffing that spot-kick) was a backheel of all things. That brought up his 100th career point (59 goals + 41 assists) in Mortis colours, an impending landmark that may have explained his earlier nervous botch from 12 yards. He's the 6th player in club history to reach three figures in combined points, but with four of those previous five having finished in the 101-110 bracket there's certainly potential to move a lot higher up towards the very top yet, fingers crossed.

[Various Artist]

Speaking of league titles, here's the situation going into today's final round of Xpert Zone action in the Season 53 top flight:


As luck would have it, my Tiree Automatic hold the title hopes of Sean's Traktor Volgograd in our hands tonight: if Traktor can win their game then they still need us to get at least a point at Juveleo Rodrigo in order to leapfrog them back to the top of the table at the last, while if Sean's team draw then they'll need us to beat JR by at least two goals.


The twist, however, is that for the second evening running Etienne finds his team occupying the last relegation spot (having also been in this same position last night in the Heineken Premiership, the results of which I haven't seen yet!) – but in each case having the opportunity to overtake at least one of a big cluster of teams immediately above to rescue safety at the eleventh hour.
In each case too my game could play a factor: in the Heineken my Royal Atlantis were safe in 3rd but were finishing against one of those rivals of Sarkanyok for the drop, while here in the XZ my Tiree Automatic are 4th yet are ourselves merely the highest-placed of four clubs that Sans Culottes could potentially overhaul.

And despite being in the best position ahead of kickoff, Tiree are in very possibly the most danger as we have much the hardest final fixture. Culottes and the two teams immediately above them are going up against three clubs already confirmed relegated, while Wakefield are the in-form side in the division and finish up against the one higher team who have nothing to play for.

If all of those games go the way of the side with something to play for, then everything hinges on Tiree's result – if we lose then all four overtake us and we go down, if we draw then two overtake us and it comes down to goals scored and/or goal difference versus the other two, including Culottes.

All of which means that if this scenario does play out tonight, I'll need at least a draw from our very tough final fixture with Juveleo to be sure of safety, Sean needs me to at least draw it but preferably beat them, but Etienne will be wishing for the opposite outcome where I no more than draw and preferably lose it...!! Best-case scenario then is that one of the other relegation candidates slips up.

The twist within the twist, meanwhile, is that not only was our draw against each other on Saturday my 3rd in a row, and 4th game without a win, it was Etienne's 4th in a row and 12th without a win. So if Culottes can conjure a victory to survive it will be their first since late August – although amazingly they can get away without it, if results elsewhere go their way...

[Various Artist]

Oh, and I've just reminded myself that in the reverse fixture on the opening day of term, Tiree's home game against Juveleo saw us 1-0 up entering the 84th minute, 2-1 down after the 86th, and 2-2 at the final whistle! If there's anything approaching a repeat it could be one of the most dramatic season finales ever seen.


...oh, and it's the 360th and final game of our 35/15 striker Sean Malin's career, our all-time leading scorer on 117*. If he plays

The stage is set.

[Various Artist]

Jeez. Twists within twists within twists – having scouted Juveleo Rodrigo's last three fixtures (as far back as I could afford to check), they've set identical tactics for all of them: same style of play, same offence and defence, same lack of preparedness for opposition formation, same playmaker, same lack of marking, same lack of win bonus even. And the same lineup, other than allowances for injury/suspension, in which case a player on the bench for the previous game has come into the starting XI without being replaced on the bench. In normal circumstances you'd assume the manager was AWOL – yet they've taken 7 points from those three games, and he's logged into them this afternoon.
Either he was away for a week or more and had just left his side to attempt to win the league basically unguided, merely popping back today in time to potentially clinch the title, or he's deliberately left those tactics unaltered in the ice-cool surety that no opponent in their concluding run will catch onto it, and/or he's just doing his absolute damnedest to psych me out ahead of their final fixture. Whichever it is it's a damn ballsy strategy.

[ad hoc]

Are you going to tell us what happens?

[Sean of the Shed]

Various Artist if you could just DM me your home address I'm coming over to give you a big, fat kiss.

[nmrfox]

Congratulations Sean.

[Various Artist]

Various Artist if you could just DM me your home address I'm coming over to give you a big, fat kiss.

Hahaha, you're very welcome Sean, though alas I fear lockdown restrictions must prevent me taking you up on that offer... I did actually watch my game – and the 'live' scores – right at 6pm GMT to see everything unfold, and it was as nerve-wracking as I imagined – apologies to ad hoc for not providing an immediate update but I didn't want to risk supplying any spoilers for a while!

The JR76 manager did indeed switch his tactics up for the last game, as I feared, but it was a double-edged sword. He changed his offence and defence so I didn''t get either, but then he didn't get either of mine. He changed his formation so that I didn't get that, but as it wasn't one he'd used lately his team would've received the minimum boost as a result. And the bastard marked Sean Malin in his final appearance, but then that allowed my entire midfield free rein – and after all that he still didn't change his playmaker, who I successfully marked. All told, despite them looking a bit lively in the first 20 minutes (when they had two yellow cards and a disallowed goal) we more than lived with them even though they should've been the stronger side, and it ended 0-0 from 2 shots apiece.

Although there was little action elsewhere for a long time, the goals eventually rained in as all the sides who looked more motivated to pull out a result did do so in the end – with one exception. Traktor Volgograd ran away with their game in the second half to hold up their end of the bargain, so to speak, meaning (as will be fairly easily divined from Sean's post above) when the final whistle went our holding Juveleo to a draw was enough to tip the title back Traktor's way.

Despite our hard-earned point, the next three sides down all skated past us with closing victories, as I surmised upthread... but the only game to go against the grain was Sans Culottes', as although they briefly levelled just after half-time at TaekwondoSoccers they quickly conceded two more and wound up losing 4-1. All else being equal, Culottes would've needed to win that one by at least 4 to send us down, but instead Tiree stay up by one place.



Etienne's recent full house of top-flight clubs has been depleted somewhat all of a sudden, as reigning Heineken champs Sarkanyok went down as well in similar circumstances 23 hours earlier – a state of affairs that baffles me as it's the exact same strong squad that won the title a season earlier. They will of course be replaced in the Premiership by... Sean's Methley Perseverance.

[Various Artist]

All told, despite them looking a bit lively in the first 20 minutes (when they had two yellow cards and a disallowed goal) we more than lived with them even though they should've been the stronger side, and it ended 0-0 from 2 shots apiece.

Oh, and just one final twist. Despite our finishing with 4 straight draws, and only one defeat in our last 9 matches (and two in our last 16), Tiree's problem all season was clean sheets – i.e. our reliably flaky veteran goalie Lukas Heligoland hadn't managed to keep a single one in 17 attempts. (His teenage understudy Richard Forties managed precisely 1, in 4 appearances.) And he entered our crucial concluding fixture on yet another red arrow and on a form of 6, something I couldn't even bear to mention in advance. Yet this evening he not only pulled off the shutout at the 18th and final time of asking, the 99th in total of his career, he secured Sean the title by doing so!

[Sits]

Congratulations Sean, let those traktors roll.

[Sits]

If anyone fancies a change in the Xpert Zone, I will shortly be sacked by Carlos06 - timing up to him, as I am hanging up my beret from one-time champs Noirs de Bigorre.

Just finished in the play-off(?) spot for promotion to the top flight. I don't know if it's a play-off or just the team with the best record which goes up. The sentimental ties are still there, but a quick glimpse at the Greatest 11 shows they are all players who have now retired. I must cull, and Los Cramados are the ones to go despite VA's superlative kits, and a logo I love.

Contact Carlos if you fancy taking them over; it's a tidy conveyor with some decent players in it.

[Wouter D]

I don't know if it's a play-off or just the team with the best record which goes up.

The latter. No playoffs in private leagues.

[Sits]

[andrew7610]

If I had room to take on another team, I would purely for the badge alone.

[Etienne]

Just a brief check in.

Congratulations to Sean and Traktor Volgagrad. Sans Culottes basically did a Newcastle with Faustino Asprilla, buying a high skill player who disrupted our play and we barely won a game afterwards. But I hadn't expected us to stay up at the start of the season, so no real surprise.

S?rk?nyok's relegation was a bit more of a surprise, like VA said, we had the same squad as won the league. But the real change was in our away form. Our home form was actually BETTER than in our title winning season : W5 D3 L3. Our away form however went from a staggering W11 D1 L0 to a terrible W1 D2 L8. Same players, same tactics. Mysterious.

On the positive side, Cardiff Dragons have sailed through the first stage of the Champions League, qualifying for the last 16 with two games to spare. One of the advantages of having a conveyor belt team is that lots of the sides are ones which won their leagues with a team of 29 year olds, and now they are a marginally past their peak.

Incidentally, my Ultimate League winning season got a feature on the Xpert Daily : http://www.xperteleven.com/xpertdail...19&S=1&lang=EN

[Various Artist]

Oh wow, I'd not seen that article Etienne – I'll read that with enjoyment. Bravo on the XCL progress so far!

There is of course a built-in factor in the game that makes some teams play relatively better at home and relatively worse away, or vice versa, across the course of a season – and it alters at random from one season to the next. I can only assume that Sark had an incredibly high home-advantage factor last time around and it then took an incredibly large (and unlikely) swing to the negative this time, because nothing else about your gulf in stats between the two campaigns makes sense otherwise.

[Various Artist]

Sniff.

[Various Artist]

OTF League roundup for 12th October: Season 60 round 7

Division 3

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A dire 0-0 at Parkhout featuring precisely zero shots on goal was enough to keep Wednesday de la Zouch just about top of D3 on goal difference, and indeed move their hosts Nieuewegein Kneebiters up a place to 4th. The only incident of note was the latest stretcher job for home defender Remy Kamstra, at the start of the second half after they had just made their defensive substitution. This brought reserve keeper Bernd Dengler into emergency action – his first appearance in four seasons. The 21-year-old’s previous 7 outings were all in the top flight during the Biters’ last relegation season there, but he was rather harshly discarded following the arrival of Jan Stolt before the next campaign, who has taken the gloves for all 60 matches since.
Tree Hill High’s 5-0 romp at bottom side Pinewood Passers brought them level on points with Weds in 2nd, though still two goals behind on GD and having played a game more – they now sit out Thursday’s fixtures. Only a point behind are OWC Albion, who saw off Brian Munchingflapjack 2-0 at home. The Flapjacks drop to 5th. No movement in the lower places, but newsworthy events at Newall Carr Road where 8th-placed Wharfedale Generals’ 2-0 win over Littlewoods Legends (6th) was their first victory in nearly 2 months, and only their second in nearly 4. That sole win in mid-August was also over the Legends, then known of course as The Blomstrands. Veni Vici Vigata (7th) took the day off and return against the Generals today.


Division 2

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An 86th-minute freekick equaliser from Tommy McConville salvaged a point and leaders Great Northern Railway’s unbeaten record at home to Athletico Deva. Deva are the only other undefeated side in D2, but this draw was only GNR’s second whereas it was the Deviants’ fifth, keeping them 5th in a wholly static table. Eriskay Expression (2nd) close up to a point behind the Railway after a one-sided 2-0 home win over The Gang Play Football (6th).
Match of the day was at New Dresden’s Netzer Park, where the hosts (8th) led 2-0 until visitors Heffron Hendecagon (3rd) pulled one back just before half-time – then equalised just after it. Dresden finally dragged themselves back in front seven minutes from time, only for Marchant Wonder Bike’s second of the game to haul Heffron level in the 88th. Then his strike partner Leo Felix popped up to head his own second in the 90th to win it 4-3 for the Hendos – who led at no other point until the last minute. The cross even came from Norman Hartnell Jnr, who was on as a replacement for the injured Jungle John.
Another exciting game saw die Ambosse (4th) and Cods of War (7th) draw 2-2 at Porridge Court, with goals in the 2nd and 84th minutes for the Anvils cancel out two in the middle of the game for the waterborne warmongers. Cods were unfortunate to lose experienced defender Stevan Saliba to a career-worst injury when leading.
The basement battle between winless duo FC Gloryhammer (9th) and Eintracht Midwest (10th) ended in a 0-0 stalemate that did both clubs a fat lot of good. The Hammers though can feel a little aggrieved at having had 6 shots to 0 without reward. They do double their points tally for the term, though, while Midwest can celebrate their very first.


Division 1

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The big summit meeting at the Stef Tolsma Arena looked like ending 0-0 for the longest time, which would’ve kept Csiki Monkeys top and Berkshire Swine 2nd. Then however a dramatic change of gear from the hosts in the last 10 minutes saw the Swine score three times without reply, two of them Cristofao Edilson freekicks, to end the Monkeys’ unbeaten start and tip them off the top of the table by 2 points.
Rejects Redux (3rd) could’ve leapfrogged the Monkeys too, but went down to a 3-1 loss at Turd Division (4th) that keeps them in front of the Turds by just a single goal on GD. It was a shocking implosion from a Rejects defence that had previously cracked just once in six whole matches, but they could not resist a Turds attack that is the most potent (16 goals in 7 games) in the division – whilst at the other end they could only penetrate what is also the leakiest defence (13 conceded) just the once.
No goals at the Meadow, where a point apiece lifted hosts Hampshire Deers to 8th and kept Saltney Drawers 5th. None either at Locomotiv Noj (7th) v Wensleydale Blues (10th). That enabled Whoft Fluffopolis (6th) to open up a four-point gap over the teams below via a 2-0 home win over Steaua Bridge, who drop to 9th.


OTF

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Shock result #1 – Vita Mortis, winless in their last 10 meetings with Croesoswallt Dragons, swept to a 3-0 win at the Host of Trophies Past that was their first against the Dragons since, er, a 3-0 win there the August before last. A bad day for the home team was compounded on the hour by a first red cross of 22-year-old midfielder Austin Kingston’s career, then to add insult to injury Hank Hulme dispatched a penalty to round off the scoring just four days after fluffing one against Zeugmaspor.
A good day for Mortis though got better as they found themselves suddenly five points clear at the top of the league after, somehow, all the rest of the top six lost. Shock #2 saw Dandy Town (2nd) go down 1-0 at second-bottom Hideous Towns, who took the lead through Eivind Junge’s thumping 2nd-minute strike then clung onto it successfully for the entire remainder. Shock #3 saw in-form Four Candles (3rd) get taken down 3-0 at out-of-form Great Ouse Town, for whom 24-year-old midfielder Lois Trundle hit a hat-trick that took his season’s tally from 0 to 3 and his lifetime one from 5 to 8 at a stroke. Ouse climb two places to 6th, whereas Candles’ bad outing ended worse as they lost lead striker Matteo De Angelo to a first serious injury of his career – in the stoppage time added on for a late knock to Trundle.
Shock #4 came at the Yeni Hach Kapisi, where winless bottom side Zeugmaspor dispatched reigning champions St Pancras Starmers 2-0 to break their duck for the campaign. The Starmers are down two places to 7th, and lost young midfielder Gino Diana to a nasty second-half injury to boot.
Maybe not quite completing the full house of surprise results, Kernow Kensa – who started the season with 5 games without a win – made it two on the bounce thanks to Noel Ferret’s 88th-minute winner at home to Banik Roystonov, which lifted them two spots to 5th. The narrow 2-1 reverse (which, to be fair, came from 10 shots to 1) was a fourth defeat on the spin for Banik, dumping the early-season leaders down into the relegation places in 8th.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Just a brief check in.

Congratulations to Sean and Traktor Volgagrad. Sans Culottes basically did a Newcastle with Faustino Asprilla, buying a high skill player who disrupted our play and we barely won a game afterwards. But I hadn't expected us to stay up at the start of the season, so no real surprise.

S?rk?nyok's relegation was a bit more of a surprise, like VA said, we had the same squad as won the league. But the real change was in our away form. Our home form was actually BETTER than in our title winning season : W5 D3 L3. Our away form however went from a staggering W11 D1 L0 to a terrible W1 D2 L8. Same players, same tactics. Mysterious.

On the positive side, Cardiff Dragons have sailed through the first stage of the Champions League, qualifying for the last 16 with two games to spare. One of the advantages of having a conveyor belt team is that lots of the sides are ones which won their leagues with a team of 29 year olds, and now they are a marginally past their peak.

Incidentally, my Ultimate League winning season got a feature on the Xpert Daily : http://www.xperteleven.com/xpertdail...19&S=1&lang=EN

That's a great article from the A Person.

[MortalJoe]

I have a stupid question.

I tried to check in XPert 11 how much left is on my VIP. And I could not find where I can check this. But I am pretty sure I saw this before. Is that gone? Or do you know where I can see what is left from my VIP?

[Antepli Ejderha]

[Antepli Ejderha]

If you click on the number of days and scroll to the bottom it'll tell you how long until you need to renew any extra teams.

The screenshot is from the home page start after logging on.

[MortalJoe]

Thank you very much Antepli Ejderha, Now I know I am not only stupid, I am blind as well. I was so sure I could find it when I click on VIP, but I totally forgot that it was really in front of me.

Thank you very much :-)

[Antepli Ejderha]

Thank you very much Antepli Ejderha, Now I know I am not only stupid, I am blind as well. I was so sure I could find it when I click on VIP, but I totally forgot that it was really in front of me.

Thank you very much :-)

Sometimes we cannot see the wood for the trees. You're neither MJ.