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by **Ceni** » Thu Sep 01, 2022 3:24 pm

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FOOTBALL > AFANC STRAIT SUPERLEAGUE
Season 1: Preview, Weeks 1-25, Week 26

by **Ceni** » Thu Sep 01, 2022 3:25 pm

Afanc Strait Superleague 1 preview: Top pundits make their predictions

Ah, the blossoming of Cenian football: After the first World Cup qualification campaign in eleven cycles, a Round of 32 showing at the Cup of Harmony and a quarterfinal performance at a home Copa Rushmori, the national football team is hungry and ready for more. With the formation of the Confederation of the Afanc Strait at the supranational level, the Football Associations of Ceni and New Gelderland have decided to once again participate in a multiassociational league in this corner of Terranea. It won't be a reincarnation of the Terranean League, but rather a new entity in and of itself: the Afanc Strait Superleague.

Superleague Teams

Team			Location		Stadium					Nation
1860 Azoth		Cenial			Bicentennial Stadium			Ceni
Afanc Strait Mariners	Arrowhead Point		Bank of Terranea Park			New Gelderland
Celtic Noviodunum	Noviodunum		Celtic Park				New Gelderland
Cenial Halcyon		Cenial			Halcyon National Stadium		Ceni
Club Terranea		Gallant Fields		Gallant Fields Stadium			New Gelderland
Lexington Victory	Lexington		National Stadium			New Gelderland
Myrmidon		New Oxford		New Oxford Coliseum			Ceni
Olympic Nassau Bay	Nassau Bay		Olympic Stadium				New Gelderland
Polaris			Whitehaven		Southeastern Ceni Stadium		Ceni
Royal Queenstown	Queenstown		Queenstown Coliseum			New Gelderland
Septentrional		Santiago de Ceni	Estádio Internacional de Santiago	Ceni
Tir Snake Strike	City Centre		AT Millennium Stadium			Ceni
Vaduz Portcullis	Vaduz			Riverbank Stadium			New Gelderland
Westgreen Park Rangers	Westgreen		Westgreen Park				Ceni

Cenisport polled five football pundits for their opinions on how the new Superleague will pan out. We asked them to rank their top four teams with an explanation for their choices; we also asked them to discuss their expectations for the season as a whole.

Predictor       1st                     2nd                     3rd                     4th                				
Eren Arapai	Myrmidon		Polaris			Lexington Victory	Cenial Halcyon
Rysi Arcoum	Polaris			Lexington Victory	Cenial Halcyon		1860 Azoth
Rory Callahan	Celtic Noviodunum	Olympic Nassau Bay	Septentrional		Royal Queenstown
Moira Sunrider	1860 Azoth		Cenial Halcyon		Lexington Victory	Olympic Nassau Bay
Elliot Stephens	Lexington Victory	Celtic Noviodunum	Olympic Nassau Bay	Myrmidon

When all the predictions are aggregated, Lexington Victory is the clear victor, even though each pundit picked a different team to win the league:

Lexington Victory: 11 points
Celtic Noviodunum: 7
Polaris: 7
Cenial Halcyon: 6
Olympic Nassau Bay: 6
1860 Azoth: 5
Myrmidon: 5
Septentrional: 2
Royal Queenstown: 1

We've included each of the five pundits' thoughts and conclusions, condensed and edited for clarity:

Rory Callahan, GelderSport: Sure, the old Cenian league was one of the more offensively oriented leagues in the UICA space before the IFCF replaced it. Personally, I think that's what caused their relative stagnation on the UICA circuit: Even though 1860 Azoth had that one stunning run to the Champions' Cup final, Cenian teams with their porous defences and overly attacking mindsets could never replicate that feat. On the other hand, less aggressive (and even defensive) Gelderlish teams were much more consistent. That's why I'm going with defensive teams over offensive teams in my predictions.

Of all the defensively-minded clubs in this new Superleague, Celtic Noviodunum has the best defensive pedigree and the institutional memory to keep that defensive pedigree alive. Although Royal Queenstown also has enough defensive muscle to do well, featuring the core of the Cenian national team's defense with no less than three national team players, I also think that Olympic Nassau Bay has both the defensive skill and the offensive touch with dual Cenian-Gelderlish nationals Keir Aughertree, Niall Almorness and Jacob Temarch-Montella helming their striking team. Really, it's the defense that will sink ONB. I also will put a lot of stock in the new Septentrional program, which has a few future NTers on the defensive side of its roster.

Moira Sunrider, the Cenial Tribune: For me, the teams to watch won't necessarily be the four teams at the top of the table, but the newer teams and how they stack up against the more established teams in this new experiment. Out of the five new teams, Cenial Halcyon has the biggest legacy: They inherited Cenial Halcyon National Stadium from the old Cenial City FC, and inherit the club's association with the more upper-class elements in Cenial — putting them in a rivalry with 1860 Azoth, a team with a fan base in Cenial's working class roots.

Other teams have a less conventional fan base, but that's exactly why they're hoping they'll succeed. Septentrional (meaning "Northern" in Spanish) will play out of Santiago de Ceni, hoping to capitalize on the dearth of successful northern teams in the Cenileague and the Terranean League East. The Westgreen Park Rangers will have a brand spanking new stadium as a home base after local promoters successfully fought for the creation of the new Westgreen Park. Given that previous league incarnations had focused heavily on Cenial, WPR's backers hope they can win a new fan base from the largely overlooked southern half of Ceni.

On the New Gelderland side of things, Club Terranea will play in the brutalist planned city of Gallant Fields, while the Afanc Strait Mariners will replace the old Arrowhead Point club. Neither club has the financial backing that the three new Cenian clubs have, so it's doubtful that they'll make much of an impact on this reconstituted league.

Elliot Stephens, TBC Sport New Gelderland: Let's face it: The old Gelderlish league was always much better than the old Cenian league. I think my colleague Rory Callahan over at GelderSport will make this point abundantly, but I just want to reiterate the point. I fully expect Gelderlish sides to do better than Cenian sides: They always had better management, a better eye for possession, a tighter grip on the ball. Lexington Victory, in my opinion, is aggressive enough to do well in a league with more rough-and-tumble Cenian sides, but with just enough defensive solidity to keep their more offensive rivals at bay. But Celtic Noviodunum is a very good team as well, and their traditional strength in the defensive half will probably be enough to keep them afloat.

Rysi Arcoum, TBC Sport Ceni: This is a young league, in more ways than one. Of course, it's the first iteration of a new concept, the Afanc Strait Superleague, combining two leagues that had previously been united in the Terranean Leagues. But it's also a young league in the sense that many rosters are populated with youngsters who just emerged from Ceni's football academies just at the right time. Will this create issues for many of these clubs' campaigns in the IFCF next season? Almost certainly. Will it lead to a comedy of errors in games in the regular season? Of course. But will it also be a showcase of new Cenian and Gelderlish blood, a showcase of players ready to hit the world stage? Absolutely.

My predictions highlighted the role of youth players. Polaris has always been a youth-oriented team, and the key role that Aidan Koromin and Anthea Tyadexo-Pyeredax (what a mouthful) have played in the midfield in pre-season warmups only confirm that its youth have the drive, the energy, and the willpower to do well in this league. For reasons my colleague Eren Arapai will discuss, I also put a lot of stock in Lexington Victory's attacking midfield duo. And 1860 Azoth made the smart move of acquiring U-18-winning striker Nova Daneraj from Pinnacle Project; let's see how she plays with Athena Foyner-Evatee, the daughter of tennis icon Elaine Foyner and OG Cenian midfielder Davalei Evatee.

Eren Arapai, Cenisport: I know my colleagues will be focusing on the teams involved and trying to make predictions based on the 14 clubs in this new Afanc Strait Superleague, but I really don't think that 20-plus-odd-year-old results will be that useful in predicting results for this particular season. Realistically, every single team will have entirely new lineups from the last time that domestic football was contested in Ceni and New Gelderland. So I'll try to approach this in a different way: Looking at the major players that each team has in the lineup right now.

For me, four clubs stand out in this regard. Myrmidon has the most experienced players in this league dominated by youth: Liam Lorechian, Jasper Valaran, and Ben Lorennion — all Cenian NTers — will anchor this team. But I also like Lexington Victory because they have potentially the hottest attacking midfield combination in the league: Marco Santa Oria (who won the Galacticos Young Player of the Season with Lexington Victory) will reunify with former Lexington Victory player Asher Koromin in the midfield.

Polaris also has a strong youth contingent, including U-18 linchpin Aidan Koromin. And Cenial Halcyon has a solid mix of youth and experience: While Iain Cyn-Penzag isn't exactly a veteran at this whole football thing, he brings enough experience to anchor an attacking team that includes the vaunted young footballer Kyn Koriden and attacking midfielder Oliver Xasan, son of Cenian midfield stalwart Jacen Xasan.

by **Ceni** » Sun Sep 04, 2022 2:25 pm

Table as of Week 25

.                           Pld   W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts
 1 Myrmidon                 25   12   8   5    45   33  +12    44
 2 Polaris                  25   13   4   8    59   47  +12    43
 3 Lexington Victory        25   12   5   8    42   35   +7    41
 4 Vaduz Portcullis         25   12   5   8    37   32   +5    41
 5 1860 Azoth               25   11   6   8    42   42    0    39
 6 Cenial Halcyon           25    9   8   8    46   36  +10    35
 7 Tir Snake Strike         25   10   5  10    55   60   −5    35
 8 Septentrional            25    9   7   9    34   33   +1    34
 9 Olympic Nassau Bay       25    7  12   6    44   43   +1    33
10 Royal Queenstown         25    8   5  12    31   36   −5    29
11 Celtic Noviodunum        25    7   8  10    25   33   −8    29
12 Westgreen Park Rangers   25    7   7  11    32   38   −6    28
13 Afanc Strait Mariners    25    6   8  11    25   36  −11    26
14 Club Terranea            25    6   4  15    37   50  −13    22

5 talking points after Week 25

1. Title race heats up before final week
With twenty-five weeks of matches in the books, the title race will definitely be decided in the final week. Myrmidon is a nominal favorite heading into next week with 44 points: It will face the 13th placed Afanc Strait Mariners, but they can’t afford an upset loss at all as Polaris is nipping on their heels at 43. And Lexington Victory and Vaduz Portcullis are both within striking range of the title if results go their way: they have to win next week against Tir Snake Strike and Westgreen Park Rangers respectively, while hoping Myrmidon loses outright. So really, the ball is in Myrmidon’s court.

It's unsurprising that Myrmidon is doing so well so far: As we noted in our initial predictions, Myrmidon has three experienced Cenian internationals anchoring the team, meaning it isn't as prone to the niggling mistakes and errors that have beset many of the other teams in this league that have primarily relied upon young talent. With Ben Lorennion one of the better strikers out there, the team isn't struggling to score goals, and it isn't hemorrhaging goals on the defense like some of the other more offensive sides. But it's also not surprising that Lexington Victory and Polaris are challenging for the title: Both teams have shining talents leading their offenses in a rather offensive-oriented league.

Vaduz Portcullis is more of a surprise, though, as none of the Cenisport pundits polled before the season had picked them to be in the top four teams or contend for the title. So how did they get here? An important addition to their roster was Eilana Avith-Rose, the starting goalkeeper for Ceni's U-18 winning side; two other solid pickups were Jaina Beren and Vyn Voren, also of that U-18 side. Although they have one of the most paltry goalscoring records in the league, their defensive ability is second-to-none, and that's what's keeping them in play in this final stretch.

2. Olympic Nassau Bay underperforming despite offensive firepower
At the beginning of the season, three out of four Cenisport experts predicted that Olympic Nassau Bay would be in the top four of the Afanc Strait Superleague. As of week 25, despite having the fourth-highest goal count in the league, they're sitting in ninth. A traditional Gelderlish powerhouse is therefore headed for a reckoning, especially if it does not qualify for international competition.

So where should the team look during the upcoming Transfer Window? Likely the defensive positions: It did a poor job of recruiting for those positions during the initial stages of this league, so it seemed, and was scooped on a couple of transfers by the successful Vaduz Portcullis. Of course, all is not yet lost: They're within striking distance of the IFCF Challengers' Cup places, facing Gelderlish rival Royal Queenstown. And maybe that reckoning will be delayed.

3. What the f**k happened to Celtic Noviodunum?
If you thought Olympic Nassau Bay’s management would face a reckoning after their underperformance, you can certainly expect Celtic Noviodunum’s management to face a reckoning the likes you’ve never seen: The former Champions’ Cup-winning club is eleventh in the table, with no hope of even reaching the IFCF places at all. What went wrong for the storied club?

While it has conceded only 33 goals, the second-fewest in the league, the problem lies in the offense: It has only scored 25 goals, tied for last in the league. (An opposite problem from Olympic Nassau Bay.) And five of those goals came in a draw against 1860 Azoth, meaning that the team is scoring less than one goal a game with that outlier excluded.

In the "golden years" for the club, the club had the Bonesea international Tew Turk and scion of the Koromin family Kira Koromin pairing up effectively. But with the majority of players on the domestic transfer scene being, well, young and inexperienced, the traditional one striker model has not particularly worked for the team. True, it has managed to poach the defensive midfielder Lyra Avant and the playmaker Jasper Berenguer — two players key to Ceni's U-18 cup success — but that hasn't been enough to create enough chances on goal with a rotating cast of underwhelming strikers.

4. Newer teams lining the bottom of the table
First, the positives: While Cenial Halcyon is just about meeting expectations for a midtable performance, Septentrional is doing surprisingly well, sitting in eighth — giving it a chance for international competition in its very first season as an entity. The latter's approach of relying on local players from the Faroleran-speaking regions of Ceni has paid some dividends, with the young striker Mia Europa-Abad anchoring their offense and the 22-year-old Max Castillo Nájera coordinating a defense that is tied for fewest goals conceded in the league. And although Cenial Halcyon's predecessor clubs never really performed stunningly in the league, it's still a disappointment for the club's wealthy backers to be sitting at 6th place with a +10 goal differential, set on the back of Cenian international striker Iain Cyn-Penzag.

Now, for the negatives: The three teams at the bottom of the table vying to avoid relegation are all teams newly formed for this season. Although the Westgreen Park Rangers have a shiny new stadium to play in, and have had record attendance at home games, they haven't quite been able to match that energy with tangible results. Midfielder Eoin Vannemen is the team's linchpin, but it's been hard for him to find somebody on the other side to connect with. And the Afanc Strait Mariners and Club Terranea — well, they haven't managed to secure any promising youngsters or Cenian international players, so that's probably why they're languishing at the bottom of the table.

5. Match of the season: Tir Snake Strike 3-3 1860 Azoth, Week 23
Sure, there were higher scoring contests in the season — look to Week 7's surprising goalfest between Celtic Noviodunum and 1860 Azoth — and plenty of nailbiters, but this match stood out to us precisely because of how even it was. In fact, we very much enjoyed the roller coaster that this match presented us, keeping us on the edge of our seats: basically, the two teams traded goals throughout the match with some dazzling displays from both sides' offenses. Xavi Halagués of Farf extraction showed off his flair in scoring for Tir Snake Strike, while 1860 Azoth was a little more utilitarian with goals from their young prodigies Nova Daneraj and Athena Foyner-Evatee. Ultimately, no side could press their advantage in the final minutes of the match, another reason why we picked this match: Despite the moments of offensive splendor, we also saw enough defensive acuity in this match to keep us impressed.

by **Ceni** » Sun Sep 04, 2022 7:03 pm

Week 26
1860 Azoth 1–2 Cenial Halcyon
Septentrional 3–2 Polaris
Vaduz Portcullis 0–1 Westgreen Park Rangers
Celtic Noviodunum 0–0 Afanc Strait Mariners
Myrmidon 0–0 Club Terranea
Lexington Victory 4–3 Tir Snake Strike
Olympic Nassau Bay 1–0 Royal Queenstown

Final Table

.                           Pld   W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts
 1 Myrmidon                 26   12   9   5    45   33  +12    45  CL, CdC
 2 Lexington Victory        26   13   5   8    46   38   +8    44  CL, CdC
 3 Polaris                  26   13   4   9    61   50  +11    43  ChC
 4 Vaduz Portcullis         26   12   5   9    37   33   +4    41  ChC
 5 1860 Azoth               26   11   6   9    43   44   −1    39  ChC
 6 Cenial Halcyon           26   10   8   8    48   37  +11    38  ChC
 7 Septentrional            26   10   7   9    37   35   +2    37  ChC
 8 Olympic Nassau Bay       26    8  12   6    45   43   +2    36  ChC
 9 Tir Snake Strike         26   10   5  11    58   64   −6    35
10 Westgreen Park Rangers   26    8   7  11    33   38   −5    31
11 Celtic Noviodunum        26    7   9  10    25   33   −8    30
12 Royal Queenstown         26    8   5  13    31   37   −6    29
13 Afanc Strait Mariners    26    6   9  11    25   36  −11    27
14 Club Terranea            26    6   5  15    37   50  −13    23

Cenileague Youth Cup

Group Stage

Table

.                              Pld  W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Project +90 Ceni              7   4  2  1   10   6  +4   14
2 Pinnacle Project              7   4  1  2   20   6 +14   13
3 Apex Academy                  7   4  1  2    9   7  +2   13
4 Polaris                       7   3  3  1   14  10  +4   12
5 University of New Oxford      7   4  0  3   14  16  −2   12
6 Tomás Hernández Academy       7   2  2  3    9  15  −6    8
7 University of Cenial          7   0  3  4    1  11 −10    3
8 University of Ceni            7   0  2  5    2   8  −6    2

Semifinals
Project +90 Ceni 3–3 Polaris (3–5 AET)
Pinnacle Project 1–0 Apex Academy

Finals
Polaris 1–1 Pinnacle Project (1–1 AET) (3–4 pen.)

Afanc Strait Superleague: 7 talking points after matchday 26

1. Nothingburger against Club Terranea gives Myrmidon first Afanc Strait Superleague title
We'd normally spend more time on the Myrmidon-Club Terranea match except for the minor problem that absolutely nothing happened in the match. Well, that's a lie: Obviously the match happened, but the Superleague minnows somehow held Myrmidon to a scoreless draw. It must have been nerve-racking to be a Myrmidon player on the pitch at the 90th minute, given that a draw in and of itself didn't secure a title — a last-minute goal from Septentrional against Polaris did that for them.

And then the pitch erupted with celebration, confetti and champagne.

2. Lexington Victory ekes out a win to take New Gelderland’s CL spot
If we had seen this match last week when we published our Match of the Season (perhaps prematurely), we might have changed our minds: with international places on the line, both Lexington Victory and Tir Snake Strike put their all into the match. And with a last gasp goal by Marco Santa Oria, the precocious Cenian international, Lexington Victory managed to win the match in spite of a hat trick by the equally precocious striker Xavi Halagués. In doing so, and thanks to a Vaduz Portcullis loss to bottom-feeders Westgreen Park Rangers, Lexington Victory managed to climb to second place in the league and win New Gelderland's place in the Champions League.

3. Olympic Nassau Bay and Septentrional boot out Tir Snake Strike from ChC spots
With Tir Snake Strike's loss to Lexington Victory, both Olympic Nassau Bay and Septentrional had the opportunity to leapfrog them for a place in the Challengers Cup. Septentrional needed a draw with a Tir Snake Strike loss; Olympic Nassau Bay needed the full three points. But both teams nonetheless managed a win today to take advantage of Tir Snake Strike failing to get a point against Lexington Victory. Royal Queenstown put up a good fight, but the group efforts of Aughertree, Almorness and Temarch-Montella were enough to evade the RQ defense just one time with a tiki taka style of play. And Septentrional somehow managed to keep Aidan Koromin from scoring at a crucial moment, allowing Mia Europa-Abad to score a crucial goal for their victory.

4. Relatively even performance between Cenian and New Gelderlish teams this season, but Cenian teams edge ahead
When we set out to cover this league, most of our pundits thought that Cenian and New Gelderlish teams would be stacked relatively evenly against each other, with perhaps New Gelderlish teams edging ahead — after all, the New Gelderlish league was always much better than the Cenian league, at least as measured by its results in international competition. (And, to be fair, is there any other measurement that matters?) But the opposite was the case, as Ceni sends five teams to international competitions compared to New Gelderland's three.

Perhaps Celtic Noviodunum's fall from grace this season played a disproportionate role; if they had done better, they might have taken a space from a Cenian team. But perhaps another reason for the slight disparity came from the sheer number of aspiring footballers that Ceni's academies have put out in the last few years as Ceni has reentered the international scene. Then again, New Gelderland recently won the Olympic women's tournament in a major upset, meaning that New Gelderlish teams should have a solid player base to draw on in this next season, more solid than it expected.

5. Golden Ball goes to Jasper Valaran, Golden Boot goes to Aidan Koromin
Really, neither of these selections are too surprising — Valaran was the veteran playmaker who led Myrmidon to the title, while Koromin was the prodigal son, so to speak, who led Polaris to score the most goals in the league, by a long shot. (Polaris scored a whopping 62 goals, 13 goals more than 1860 Azoth, the second-highest-scoring side.) With a total of 22 goals, about a third of their total, Koromin has followed in the footsteps of players such as Andrew Arrowsword — who won the Golden Boot in the Terranean League West as a precocious 16-year-old. But is it enough to secure a Koromin family legacy, with siblings Kel and Kira being famous strikers from the last generation and cousin Asher also playing at a high international level? Only time will tell.

6. New format for Cenileague Youth proves successful
In the last edition of the COTEFA Cenian Youth Championships, teams played a home-and-away round robin culminating in a four-round knockout system. But the reinvention of this league system has given organizers the opportunity to rethink the rebranded Cenileague Youth championships. This year, only eight teams will contest the championships as the big clubs focus on rebuilding their senior teams before rebuilding their under-19 teams. This allows a single round robin to be played over the course of a week, with a four-team elimination bracket taking place at a neutral venue — the newly built Westgreen Park stadium, which the Cenian FA is hoping to use as much as possible in hopes of winning a WCC bid later this cycle.

And the new concept proved successful as the 42,500-seat stadium was mostly filled for the three final matches. Pinnacle Project absolutely dominated the round robin stage, although its goal tally was bolstered by two anomalous victories with eight and nine goals, respectively. Dominating the elimination rounds would be a more difficult feat, as it squeaked past Westgreen home hopefuls Apex Academy 1-0 in the semifinals and then defeated former UICA Youth Cup champions Polaris in the final on penalties. The victory made sense: Pinnacle Project has produced the plurality of young players called up to represent Ceni on the international stage so far, and they still have quite a few young talents on their roster despite having so many players pulled away on the transfer market.

7. Superleague reignites interest in Cenian and Gelderlish football, but interest in Nepharim and Euran leagues remains higher
So, beyond looking at the football and only the football, let's take a step back and look at the success of the Afanc Strait Superleague off the pitch: Has it been well received? The answer to that question is a tepid yes: Fans have largely celebrated the return of domestic football to Ceni and New Gelderland, although expectations for their success in international football are quite low; fans might choose to remain relatively disinterested in matches at the bottom rungs of the international football calendar. But interest levels in this edition of domestic football are still far from the interest once recorded for the burgeoning Terranean League, in all its incarnations.

And of course, there are the elephants in the room beyond Ceni and New Gelderland's borders: the Nepharim and Euran leagues, both of which have continued where Cenian and New Gelderlish leagues have not. In the absence of domestic football in the two constituent nations of the Confederacy of the Afanc Strait, then, many fans have transferred their fandoms over to big teams such as Directus, Bastion, Spartangrad, Brinemouth, and AFC Treason. (We couldn't name every Euran and Nepharim club that has a decent-sized fandom here in Ceni; that would take way too long). Will people add a Cenian or Gelderlish team to the teams that they support? Sure. But it will take a while to displace those looming neighbouring leagues in the average fan's imagination.

by **Ceni** » Sun Dec 11, 2022 4:11 pm

FINAL TABLE

.                           Pld   W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Celtic Noviodunum        30   19   6   5    53   30  +23    63  CL, CdC
 2 Lexington Victory        30   18   4   8    82   51  +31    58  ChC
 3 Myrmidon                 30   18   3   9    63   45  +18    57  CL, CdC
 4 Royal Queenstown         30   15   5  10    33   29   +4    50  ChC
 5 Tir Snake Strike         30   14   7   9    68   54  +14    49  ChC
 6 Polaris                  30   13   4  13    61   57   +4    43  ChC
 7 Eiran Mountains          30   12   7  11    46   48   −2    43  ChC
 8 Westgreen Park Rangers   30   12   7  11    35   40   −5    43  ChC
 9 Olympic Nassau Bay       30   12   6  12    49   47   +2    42
10 Vaduz Portcullis         30   12   5  13    57   58   −1    41
11 1860 Azoth               30   12   5  13    52   54   −2    41
12 Cenial Halcyon           30   10   5  15    49   60  −11    35
13 Septentrional            30   10   1  19    39   51  −12    31
14 Club Terranea            30    7   9  14    43   51   −8    30  R
15 Afanc Strait Mariners    30    6   8  16    51   76  −25    26  R
16 White Cliffs             30    8   2  20    48   78  −30    26  R

ASSL 2

FINAL TABLE

.                            Pld   W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Nassau Bay Lightning      30   18   9   3    69   37  +32    63  P, LBCT
 2 Archival Geese            30   15  12   3    84   65  +19    57  P, LBCT
 3 Real Zarzamora            30   14   7   9    71   57  +14    49  P, LBCT
 4 South Fairleigh           30   13   9   8    53   45   +8    48  LBCT
 5 Momentum City Centre      30   12   9   9    64   62   +2    45  LBCT
 6 Taranis Thunder           30   10  14   6    64   58   +6    44  LBCT
 7 Nova Ascea Knights        30   12   8  10    69   65   +4    44
 8 Hesperidium Gardens       30   11   5  14    22   27   −5    38
 9 Talos River Titans        30   11   5  14    58   72  −14    38
10 Lake Cenial Chimeras      30    9  10  11    59   59    0    37
11 Dynamo Dover              30   10   7  13    54   59   −5    37
12 Trethanton AFC            30   10   7  13    45   57  −12    37
13 Argi Sangüesa             30    9   7  14    54   58   −4    34
14 Flint Ridge Eagles        30    6  12  12    48   56   −8    30
15 Newmarket Mercantile      30    7   6  17    41   56  −15    27
16 Newcastle Keep            30    7   5  18    44   66  −22    26

An oral history of Celtic Noviodunum's title

Celtic Noviodunum, which had previously won the UICA Globe Cup and earned manager Austen Willoughby a second-placed finish in the Galacticos Managers' award, stumbled and thrashed about in the first season of the Afanc Strait Superleague. So at the beginning of this season, the team really needed to get its act together if it wanted to have a chance to reach international competition. And it won magnificently: it won the league by five points. Here, we talk to four key players involved in the team's success: goalkeeper and captain Charlotte Birdwhistle, striker Jacquelyn Swan-Weiss, midfielder Sofia Falcón, and midfielder Jasper Berenguer.

SWAN-WEISS: Last season was horrible for everyone, but especially me, since a lot of our problems were blamed on our failure to score goals. I was reading over the Cenisport coverage last season and I remember being singled out to the extent that I wondered if I even wanted to do this interview project at all. I mean, won't you guys just try to twist my words to make me look bad? But we won the f**ing season, so those concerns were of course overblown. But yeah, as to our mental state heading in to the ASL 2, it was pretty crap all around.

BIRDWHISTLE: I wasn't particularly confident heading into the season, to be honest. The club management had precious little success on the international transfer market — I don't know all the details, but I know we put in a few bids across the board and got rejected pretty much 100 percent. I mean, looking at the numbers, it makes sense, right? Not even seventh-tier Nepharims want to play for the eleventh placed team that won't qualify for international competition in an unranked league.

It's like the Ship of Theseus, right? Is a club that's constantly changing rosters the same club as it was when it won a UICA title? But for us, that isn't a thought experiment at all, because the answer is clearly no.

BERENGUER: I was one of the few poor sods that the club convinced to come over in the transfer window. Although I knew the club hadn't done particularly well last season, the club's pedigree convinced me to sign on. When I saw that the only other transfers in had been young Cenians or Gelderlish just like me... I wondered if I had made a mistake, because there were no world-class players here to guide me. (No offense to anyone, really!) But, with the benefit of hindsight, I did make the right decision for my club career.

The team got off to a five-match unbeaten streak to start off the season, not losing until their Week Six matchup against Royal Queenstown. It was a disappointing match for the team, who felt they could have prevented the eventual winning goal. But they still remained at the top of the table, even after the loss.

FALCÓN: Royal Queenstown is not a team known for its offense. I mean, none of the Cenian or the Gelderlish national team strikers are on the team, and with the ASL's ranking where it is right now, they're not going to attract much top foreign talent right now. And our defense is probably the best in the league — we have several Gelderlish NTers, and we have Lyra Avant from Ceni's U-18 Cup winning side, we have Charlotte [Birdwhistle] of course. So to concede a goal like that... basically it was a one-on-one between Charlotte and their top striker, man I'm trying to rack my brain for their name... to concede a goal like that hurt, especially when we worked so hard in the midfield and had most of the possession.

BERENGUER: I'm not a person to focus on the negatives, so when you ask me something like that, I want to focus on a five-game unbeaten streak. I'm certainly not complaining about that! I seemed to mesh into the midfield well, especially this Celtic Noviodunum strategy that emphasizes methodical passes, trying to make use of space... I'm a spatial thinker and the team and I seemed to get along really well. So, yeah, on two fronts, I was really happy with our start to the season. After all, I mean, you play thirty games in a season domestically, and you can't win at all.

In Week 8, the team beat longtime rivals Lexington Victory at home.

SWAN-WEISS: That was a high-scoring game. I knew when it ended that we could totally dismiss the critics who thought that we couldn't score; we absolutely could score, and against our biggest rivals, no less. I don't want to call it a scorigami, because I know that's the wrong word, but maybe a scorefest, more than we usually scored. Jasper [Berenguer] was a real big help in the midfield; he headed in a goal that I thought was remarkable. Of course, I did my part in contributing to the score, but I don't want to take all the credit. It was a team effort.

FALCÓN: Lexington Victory is a good team: They have a lot of good Cenian youngsters that I play with on the national team. Avi Renning, Marco Santa Oria, Asher Koromin. They can absolutely score goal, and I'm honestly a little surprised that they didn't score more. But we did a good job on all fronts that game: Keeping the ball, keeping it away from Renning and Santa Oria and all those threats, and actually putting the ball in the net. Because even if you have the best defensive effort in the game, you can't win without scoring goals. And we did that enough. Boy, did we do that more than enough...

At the halfway mark, the team sat at the top of the table, but with a tenuous margin at best: they were level on points with Lexington Victory, and only ahead in goal difference by a full two points.

BIRDWHISTLE: To be frank, I didn't pay too much attention to the halfway mark table. I didn't even remember we were at the top then until you asked about it. Every season, the team that's on top at the halfway point suddenly collapses. Maybe they don't totally collapse, maybe they still get to the international places, but they hadn't really won the title in the past. So that wasn't something that I concerned myself with overly. Sure, it was nice, and it was better than a kick in the shin, but I would rather take a first place finish at the end of the season than a first place finish at the half-way point and then downhill action from there.

Week 19 marked a temporary setback as they struggled to score against Eiran Mountains and notched a rare loss in their season.

BERENGUER: Eiran Mountains — where are they located again? I'm struggling to remember this game.

SWAN-WEISS: Yeah, this was not a particularly remarkable game. I'm not sure why you're asking about it; did you write a negative story here criticizing me for not being able to lead the offense effectively or something?

BIRDWHISTLE: I disagree with the characterization that this was a rare loss — we lost, what, five out of 30 matches? That's a full one out of six. If a plane crashed one out of six times, you wouldn't say that plane crashes were rare.

But the team reclaimed the top spot in Week 22 with a victory over Olympic Nassau Bay, and they never looked back from there.

FALCÓN: It was crazy, our run in the last couple of games. Of course, I'm not complaining. I would certainly rather have a streak at the end of the season rather than anywhere else, because you go out on a high note. And we certainly went out on a high note — I think because the title was in sight, everybody could smell it, and we were just motivated to keep going further and further, until we actually won the title.

BERENGUER: We did have momentum on our side. Of course, I had definitely been ensconced in the team by this point in the season. I really couldn't remember a time where I didn't live and breathe Celtic Noviodunum. We did our shit, we did it together, we did it well. I know the pundits like to say that team chemistry is everything, and I really don't disagree with them here. We had a lot of chemistry in the tail end of the season.

In Week 29, the team wrapped up the title by defeating Septentrional by what had become a signature scoreline for the club: 1-0.

BIRDWHISTLE: When we locked up the title, I only remember jubilation. After all, we locked up the title without having to worry about what everybody else was doing in the last round of matches. Sorry if it was anticlimactic viewing for all the people watching at home, but we felt great about it. We had a big party in a swanky restaurant in Noviodunum, and when I say big party, I mean we bought the place out, with everything included: caviar, foie gras, champagne, the whole works. After finishing the last season in the dumps with an eleventh placed finish, we had turned things around to finish first. Everybody had the same feelings: camaraderie and jubilation. It was a perfect ending to a pretty much perfect season.

by **The Afanc Strait** » Sat Mar 04, 2023 10:04 am

Final Table

.                           Pld   W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Celtic Noviodunum        30   14  10   6    45   33  +12    52  CL, CdC
 2 Polaris                  30   14   9   7    57   44  +13    51  CL, CdC
 3 Vaduz Portcullis         30   14   7   9    56   47   +9    49  ChC
 4 Tir Snake Strike         30   14   6  10    59   57   +2    48  ChC
 5 Lexington Victory        30   14   5  11    76   57  +19    47  ChC
 6 Myrmidon                 30   13   7  10    66   52  +14    46  ChC
 7 Septentrional            30   12   6  12    52   52    0    42  ChC
 8 Royal Queenstown         30   11   8  11    41   47   −6    41  ChC
 9 Real Zarzamora           30   11   7  12    71   68   +3    40
10 Cenial Halcyon           30   10  10  10    48   46   +2    40
11 Eiran Mountains          30   12   4  14    48   56   −8    40
12 Olympic Nassau Bay       30   10   6  14    50   55   −5    36
13 Archival Geese           30   10   6  14    59   71  −12    36
14 Westgreen Park Rangers   30    8   9  13    38   47   −9    33  R
15 Nassau Bay Lightning     30    9   5  16    52   71  −19    32  R
16 1860 Azoth               30    7   9  14    53   68  −15    30  R

ASSL 2

Final Table

.                             Pld   W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Argi Sangüesa              30   18   7   5    75   44  +31    61  P, LBCT
 2 Taranis Thunder            30   19   3   8    71   43  +28    60  P, LBCT
 3 Momentum City Centre       30   14   9   7    73   50  +23    51  P, LBCT
 4 Nova Ascea Knights         30   14   8   8    76   61  +15    50  LBCT
 5 White Cliffs               30   15   5  10    61   53   +8    50  LBCT
 6 Afanc Strait Mariners      30   13   5  12    65   67   −2    44  LBCT
 7 Club Terranea              30   12   7  11    44   47   −3    43
 8 Lake Cenial Chimeras       30   11   9  10    57   57    0    42
 9 Talos River Titans         30   10   8  12    52   59   −7    38
10 Newcastle Keep             30   11   5  14    44   59  −15    38
11 Dynamo Dover               30    9  10  11    54   59   −5    37
12 South Fairleigh            30    7  12  11    51   54   −3    33
13 Newmarket Mercantile       30    8   9  13    34   48  −14    33
14 Flint Ridge Eagles         30    6  10  14    34   51  −17    28
15 Trethanton AFC             30    7   6  17    34   48  −14    27
16 Hesperidium Gardens        30    6   7  17    13   38  −25    25

Cenileague Youth

Group Stage
Academy Path
Apex Academy 1–2 Pinnacle Project
Tomás Hernández Academy 1–3 Polaris

Pinnacle Project 3–0 Polaris
Apex Academy 2–1 Tomás Hernández Academy

Tomás Hernández Academy 0–0 Pinnacle Project
Polaris 2–0 Apex Academy

.  Academy Path                Pld  W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 Pinnacle Project              3   2  1  0    5   1  +4    7
2 Polaris                       3   2  0  1    5   4  +1    6
3 Apex Academy                  3   1  0  2    3   5  −2    3
4 Tomás Hernández Academy       3   0  1  2    2   5  −3    1

University Path
University of Cenial 3–3 Taurendil Institute
University of New Oxford 2–1 University of Ceni

Taurendil Institute 0–1 University of Ceni
University of Cenial 1–0 University of New Oxford

University of New Oxford 3–0 Taurendil Institute
University of Ceni 0–0 University of Cenial

.  University Path             Pld  W  D  L   GF  GA  GD  Pts 
1 University of New Oxford      3   2  0  1    5   2  +3    6
2 University of Cenial          3   1  2  0    4   3  +1    5
3 University of Ceni            3   1  1  1    2   2   0    4
4 Taurendil Institute           3   0  1  2    3   7  −4    1

Semifinals
Pinnacle Project 2–1 University of Cenial
Polaris 2–2 University of New Oxford (4–3 AET)

Final match
Pinnacle Project 1–0 Polaris

by **Ceni** » Sun Mar 05, 2023 5:37 pm

Relegated: How 1860 Azoth fell from grace -- straight into ASSL 2

Champions' Cup 68 marked the high water point of 1860 Azoth's club tenure as they won the whole kit and caboodle -- and catapulted then-manager Luke Longstar into the Cenian national team's manager seat.

Nowadays, the elation in those winning moments has very much faded from view.

Not only has Longstar been sacked from his position, but 1860 Azoth has been dislodged from its formerly firm place in the Terranean League East and its successor, the Afanc Strait Superleague. It finished 16th in the league -- and they will be relegated to the second tier.

For club supporters and club management, then, one question is essential: How did 1860 Azoth get to this point? And what can be done to return the club to its record of glory?

One explanation may not even implicate 1860 Azoth itself, and that's the parity in the new Afanc Strait Superleague.

Let's be honest, the new ASSL has not attracted quite the same levels of talent that the older Terranean Leagues attracted. Back in the UICA days, New Gelderland was ranked at the number two association in the world, much to the chagrin of our neighbors like Eura and Nephara. And that means that domestic teams in both Ceni and New Gelderland are reliant generally on international free transfers or on the domestic player pool... which in turn means that there aren't any teams that are clearly miles above the rest, except perhaps Celtic Noviodunum. (That's a story for another article, too.)

But we're not here for nostalgic reasons, nor are we here to litigate the reasons that international talent that earlier leagues have attracted. We're here to look at 1860 Azoth.

So what does parity in the league mean for 1860 Azoth? Well, it means that newer teams like Eiran Mountains and Archival Geese generally have similar player pools as even former CC-winning teams like 1860 Azoth. Indeed, 1860 Azoth only has two players who have some name appeal outside the club's diehard supporters: Nova Daneraj and Athena Foyner-Evatee.

Of course, Daneraj and Foyner-Evatee can't hold the club up all by themselves. And league parity also can't be the only explanation for 1860 Azoth's relegation campaign in this particular season; after all, we would like to note that 1860 Azoth did much better in the first two seasons of the ASSL, even with this type of parity. So we'd say that the league parity is a necessary but insufficient condition for explaining 1860 Azoth's losing fight against relegation this season.

Distilled down to the basics, football has two key pieces: scoring, and preventing the other team from scoring. We don't think that 1860 Azoth had a problem scoring; their "goals for" metric was about in the middle of the pack for the league, more than two teams that qualified for international competition.

That then leaves the other side of the equation: 1860 Azoth could not keep their opponents from scoring.

Unfortunately, this often happened quite comically -- and reading this will most likely produce some schadenfreude among those who root against 1860 Azoth, especially Cenial City fans who always see their team play in the Cenial Derby against their cross-town rivals. For example, in Week 25, Polaris absolutely crushed 1860 Azoth four to nil. Of course, Polaris has one of the best offenses in the league with the Quebecois midfielder Amin Horak and his partner in crime Aidan Koromin leading the way, but still, to concede four goals is quite embarrassing. And in the week before, it conceded 3 goals to Celtic Noviodunum -- a team that only has one striker!

Indeed, 1860 Azoth performed quite poorly in the last ten minutes of games, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and conceding last-minute goals to drop points when it seemed like the team had a victory in hand. Look no further than its result against Lexington Victory in week 2: despite being up 2-1 at home when injury time started, Marco Santa Oria took advantage of some sloppy defending and overconfidence on the part of 1860 Azoth's defenders to make a solo run for the goal by the end of injury time. And in week 4, Westgreen Park Rangers capitalized on poor defending in the last minutes to force an own goal for 1860 Azoth.

It was moments like those that sank 1860 Azoth's season.

So, where can 1860 Azoth go from here? Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the transfer window will be a solution. After all, how can it attract top quality talent to a club that's in the second tier of a mediocre league? That simply won't fly, even with fourth-tier Nepharim. The solution may rest in Ceni's profuse youth leagues, which haven't been having success in sending their top footballers abroad.

But ultimately, it may need some alchemy to turn its azoth into points on the ASSL table.

Note: Azoth was the material version of a panacea in medieval alchemy and the inspiration for this club name, hence the reference to alchemy at the end here.

by **Ceni** » Sun Mar 05, 2023 10:13 pm

So close, and yet so far away... Celtic Noviodunum falls to Tropicorp FC at final Associations' Trophy hurdle

Corporations have won the day yet again... but this time, it's in football --- the third Associations Trophy, to be specific. And the corporation? Tropicorp... well, it's Tropicorp FC, as that club defeated New Gelderland's Celtic Noviodunum in a thrilling final to the first Associations' Trophy to count in IFCF coefficients.

With the sea breezes drifting in through the coastal city of Langlois in Kelssek, the two teams trooped into the Stade des Pacifiques in slightly different moods. Celtic Noviodunum had played quite a bit of football in the preceding months, and they had lost a lot of football in the preceding months. They had dropped out of the Champions League to the Globe Cup, where at least they made the group stage. But then they dropped out of the Globe Cup down to the Associations' Trophy, where they finally strung together a few wins in a row.

By the time they made the final, the club was happy to be there, representing New Gelderland in its first IFCF final in the new system.

While it would be inaccurate to say that Tropicorp FC hadn't suffered the same trials and tribulations as Celtic Noviodunum -- after all, Tropicorp FC had done its fair share of losing -- they were also a different caliber of team as Celtic. The Turori league was ranked number 18; Tropicorp had players nominated for the Galacticos; they were fighting for the Turori coefficient, as well as for bragging rights in the crowded Turori club scene. Fundamentally, then, Tropicorp had much more motivation than Celtic.

And something else was clear: Tropicorp FC was certainly pegged as the better team beforehand.

Christa Vuckovic from Baker Park opened things up for Tropicorp in the 37th minute after a scrum at Celtic Noviodunum's net. Simply put, Tropicorp FC had put far too many players near the goal for the defense to accomplish anything of substance, and Vuckovic had added her name to the scoresheet by being at the right place at the right time personally. But at the club level, Tropicorp FC's communal play had most certainly benefited them at CN's expense.

Iain Cyn-Penzag launched Celtic Noviodunum's riposte just past the half-time whistle. The Cenian forward (who had moved to Celtic Noviodunum from Cenial Halcyon to shore up the Gelderlish team's offense) found a gap between Moumouni Verre’elali and Narri Sebapilo in the defense and managed to score in a relatively standard one-on-one from the goalkeeper.

Although Celtic had struggled with possession and struggled with general quality, Cyn-Penzag did indeed show that one flash of brilliance to even things up. Unfortunately, Tropicorp FC would simply outclass Celtic Noviodunum for the remainder of the match.

Indeed, it was Reyna Best who was truly best at the hour's mark with what turned out to be the winning goal. The Equestrian international threaded her way through CN's usually stalwart defense after a pass from Vuckovic managed to split said defense through the middle. It was a classy play from the Testiculo-nominated midfielder, and quite frankly, Best deserved to score the goal.

The remainder of the match proceeded rather straightforwardly: Celtic Noviodunum spent most of the match trying to rebut Tropicorp FC's possession; they really didn't have many chances on Tropicorp FC's goal afterwards.

After the game ended, the players shook their opponents' hands and shook their heads in defeat, the sad trombone sound playing in their heads.

Tropicorp FC had fully outclassed them on that day in Langlois. But Celtic Noviodunum would most definitely be back for more.

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