Federation of Avonian Soccer [FAS] Domestic League

by **The Isles of Avon** » Sun Dec 11, 2022 5:32 pm

Federation of Avonian Soccer

The collapse of the Terranean League (or COTEFA as it was in later seasons) sent Avon's domestics back among their own borders. The Isles of Avon are a small archipelago off the coast of the Terranea subregion of Rushmore. Most people have probably heard of Ceni, Avon's more notable island neighbor to the north along the Afanc Strait.

For the greater part of two decades, the Isles could not afford to broadcast their league to a wider audience, nor send their champions overseas to compete in the new IFCF competitions. The last time Avon had representatives in the international domestic scene was UICA's season 71.

Hosting Copa Rushmori's 41st edition alongside Ceni gave the Isles an influx of cash from fans and a renewed interest in soccer among the general populous of Avon. It took a minute, but now F.A.S. (the Federation of Avonian Soccer) will attempt to send Avon's best and brightest to IFCF battle. Will this be a consistent fixture? Perhaps not, but we'll see how this goes.

by **The Isles of Avon** » Sun Dec 11, 2022 5:37 pm

Reserved for later use.

by **The Isles of Avon** » Sun Dec 11, 2022 6:45 pm

The Federation of Avonian Soccer returns to widespread coverage! No longer content with being constrained to laggy streams and 2am broadcast replays in Drawkland and Ceni, F.A.S. has obtained new contracts and intent to send teams to these newfangled IFCF competitions.

There have been approximately 15 seasons since the last Avonian teams saw international competition, way back in UICA Cycle 71, as part of COTEFA (otherwise known as the Terranean League). COTEFA folded in that next offseason, resulting in the Avonian teams being left to fend for themselves. Thus, FAS reformed its own league.

The new format: two leagues, the Prime Division and the Sub Division. While these are technically two separate levels with promotion and relegation involved, they still hold crossplay given the small amount of teams in the league. Each team will play home-and-away against every team in their own division, and one game against every team in the other division. This results in 22 games played in the regular season.

The top team in the Prime Division table at season's end will be declared the champion. The bottom team in the Prime Division will be relegated, and the top team in the Sub Division will be promoted. There is no pro/rel playoff.

There is also a cup held concurrently with the regular season. The format features two-legged home-away ties for each round, with seedings determined by the previous season's standings. The final round is best two of three, to prevent a virtual "dead rubber" in the championship. If the tiebreaking third game is necessary, it is held at a neutral site.

Rosters will be added to this post later, most likely after the IFCF cutoff.

by **The Isles of Avon** » Sun Dec 11, 2022 9:00 pm

Ten games out of the season, and we're starting to see the form of some teams really develop. The interleague crossplay doesn't kick in until the final third of the season, so the standings you see are based on pure in-league competition.

Fort Roy SC has never won the Avonian title, despite consistently placing in the upper half of the Prime Division ever since the "hiatus years" began. They've had some tough times since, including a four-year stint in the Sub Division, but since they got promoted back into the Prime, they've been punching hard to stay back at the top. Now they hold a five-point lead on second-placed Quayside, highlighted by a 2-5 barnburner road win against defending champions Astra Columbia. There's still a lot of season to go, but there's a lot of football yet to be played.

Speaking of our defending champions, Astra Columbia are searching for a third league title in four years. Still, their campaign started with a huge hangover. After an opening day win in front of their home crowd to celebrate their title win, they proceeded to lose four straight, only breaking that losing streak with a matchday six one-all draw against perennial contenders Strat City. Since then, they've looked like a championship squad again, winning four straight by a combined margin of 10-0.

Northampton is the largest candidate for relegation so far. They spent half the hiatus in the Sub Division, a run of seven consecutive years that they finally broke out of a couple years back. The offense has been atrocious, but they somehow managed wins against frontrunning Fort Roy and slumping Eastern Stars. Eastern Stars are second to last in the league at the moment, so maybe this win may come in handy for Northampton to avoid relegation via tiebreaker. Given Northampton's current form ... I don't think Eastern Stars will have to worry.

 # Prime Division           Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Fort Roy SC               10    7   2   1    27   11  +16    23
 2 Quayside Rangers          10    5   3   2    11    6   +5    18
 3 Astra Columbia            10    5   1   4    17   12   +5    16
 4 Strat City                10    4   2   4    12   18   −6    14
 5 William's Isle            10    4   1   5     6    9   −3    13
 6 Golden Eagles             10    3   3   4    15   16   −1    12
 7 Eastern Stars             10    4   0   6    12   20   −8    12
 8 Northampton               10    2   0   8     7   15   −8     6

How about that Sub Division? Right now it's a two horse race between Westport United and Rushmori Drawks, two teams with a combined fifteen seasons in the Prime Division since the hiatus began. Westport in particular does the heavy lifting there, accounting for thirteen of those seasons. The most recent one of those was last season, where Westport got relegated for the third time since the new FAS league reformed. Both teams are hungry for points, but they clashed directly in matchday six, an affair which ended 4-1 in United's favor. Given how the rest of the Subbies have played so far, that six-pointer may prove more crucial than any other game this season.

 # Sub Division             Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Westport United           10    5   4   1    17    9   +8    19
 2 Rushmori Drawks           10    6   0   4    17   15   +2    18
 3 New Avon Wanderers        10    3   4   3     7    7    0    13
 4 Ashbourne                 10    3   4   3    12   13   −1    13
 5 Old Avon Terraneans       10    3   4   3     8   10   −2    13
 6 New Stratford Spearhead   10    3   2   5     6    8   −2    11
 7 Sellena Cove              10    2   4   4     3    5   −2    10
 8 Lancaster City            10    1   6   3     7   10   −3     9

The Avon Shield is, ironically, the cup tournament for each FAS season. Seeding is based on the previous season's placements for each team. Each matchup in the bracket features a two-legged home-and-away tie, with the aggregate winner advancing to the next round. This is in exception to the final, which is held in a best-of-three non aggregate playoff, to prevent dead ties. If the third match is needed, it is held on neutral ground.

This is the first round, the effective Round of 16 for this tournament. The matches have been held throughout the regular season and are collated here for convenience.

Astra Columbia 4-1 Lancaster City (4-1 agg)
Lancaster City 0-3 Astra Columbia (1-7 agg)

Westport United 1-4 Golden Eagles (1-4 agg)
Golden Eagles 5-2 Westport United (9-3 agg)

Strat City 1-0 New Stratford Spearhead (1-0 agg)
New Stratford Spearhead 0-1 Strat City (0-2 agg)

Fort Roy SC 1-0 Old Avon Terraneans (1-0 agg)
Old Avon Terraneans 0-0 Fort Roy SC (0-1 agg)

Quayside Rangers 1-0 Sellena Cove (1-0 agg)
Sellena Cove 0-2 Quayside Rangers (0-3 agg)

Northampton 2-1 Rushmori Drawks (2-1 agg)
Rushmori Drawks 1-0 Northampton (2-0 AET, 3-2 agg)

William's Isle 2-0 Ashbourne (2-0 agg)
Ashbourne 1-0 William's Isle (1-2 agg)

Eastern Stars 2-0 New Avon Wanderers (2-0 agg)
New Avon Wanderers 0-1 Eastern Stars (0-3 agg)

With all of these matchups being Prime vs Sub, most were expected to be chalk matchups with the Prime squads rolling to the next round. The closest matchup is expected between the teams which were promoted and relegation the previous season, but Golden Eagles proved they were the Prime-level team by wiping out Westport United 9-3 on aggregate.

Everything else went mostly as expected. Fort Roy SC's normally solid offense had trouble against Old Avon, but Tony Flynn's lone goal in the first game was enough to get them to the quarterfinals. The only upset was Rushmori Drawks (a team used to Prime level play) outlasting Northampton. They lost on the road against Northampton 2-1, but scored a goal to tie in the second leg and managed to hang on until extra time, where Scott Collins fired home the winning goal to secure passage to the next round.

by **The Isles of Avon** » Sun Dec 11, 2022 9:32 pm

The parity in the top half of the Prime Division has turned the home stretch of the season into a dead sprint. Fort Roy SC has been keeping their lead in the table thanks to their high-scoring forwards, but it's dropped to a razor-thin margin. Quayside Rangers, buoyed by a stout defense, has fought their way back to SC's level, and look keen to steal the Federation Cup title away at the very end.

The margin for error is extremely slim, though. Last season's champions in Astra Columbia are just a point behind with two games to play, and just a point behind them stand Strat City. The end of the season features the crossplay between divisions, so each team has theoretically winnable games to go. Not all Sub Division teams are created equal, however. The winning team is probably getting six points, unless something bizarre happens, so every team is going to be playing hard for two more wins to end the year.

In particular, Fort Roy SC faces Rushmori Drawks on the final matchday. The Drawks are chasing promotion from the Sub League, so they'll be punching full strength on the final day. Quayside Rangers has the exact same dilemma as they face Westport United on the final day as well. Also facing Westport is Strat City, who then has to play an easier Ashbourne to end the year. The easiest schedule is had by Astra Columbia, who faces two bottom quarter teams to end their season.

At this point, Fort Roy SC has the inside track thanks to their superior goal differential and top spot in the table. With a tough match on the final day, they're absolutely vulnerable, though. Astra Columbia is believed to have a better chance at the league title than Rangers, but it's all speculative anyway. Strat City, two points down and with tougher opponents, would need a small miracle to go their way. Whatever, they're probably more worried about cup games right now.

 # Prime Division           Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Fort Roy SC               20   10   6   4    48   28  +20    36
 2 Quayside Rangers          20   10   6   4    19   10   +9    36
 3 Astra Columbia            20   10   5   5    30   17  +13    35
 4 Strat City                20    9   7   4    26   25   +1    34
 5 Eastern Stars             20    8   5   7    27   23   +4    29
 6 Golden Eagles             20    7   5   8    27   32   −5    26
 7 William's Isle            20    6   4  10    10   16   −6    22
 8 Northampton               20    6   2  12    15   22   −7    20

The two-horse race in the Sub Division continued all season, and it's been the story of Westport United stay ahead of Rushmori Drawks by the tightest margin throughout. Though New Avon have made a nice surge to relevance in the second half, and even have the slimmest possible chance of promotion with two games left. It's Westport's spot to lose right now, but they have back-to-back games against two teams fighting for the Prime League title. Rushmori Drawks also have a game against a Prime contender in this window, but they're only three points down and have an easier match next up.

 # Sub Division             Pld    W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Westport United           20    9   7   4    30   20  +10    34
 2 Rushmori Drawks           20   10   1   9    31   27   +4    31
 3 New Avon Wanderers        20    6  10   4    13   13    0    28
 4 Ashbourne                 20    6   6   8    25   31   −6    24
 5 Old Avon Terraneans       20    5   8   7    18   22   −4    23
 6 Sellena Cove              20    6   5   9    12   18   −6    23
 7 New Stratford Spearhead   20    6   3  11    10   17   −7    21
 8 Lancaster City            20    3   6  11    14   34  −20    15

With the Avonian Shield tournament beginning in the first half of the season, we're now starting to see higher-profile matchups in this cup. The only current Sub Division team still in at this point are the Rushmori Drawks, but even that matchup against Quayside Rangers is expected to be close.

Astra Columbia 2-4 Golden Eagles (2-4 agg)
Golden Eagles 1-1 Astra Columbia (5-3 agg)

Strat City 1-2 Fort Roy SC (1-2 agg)
Fort Roy SC 1-3 Strat City (3-4 agg)

Quayside Rangers 0-0 Rushmori Drawks (0-0 agg)
Rushmori Drawks 0-1 Quayside Rangers (0-1 agg)

William's Isle 2-0 Eastern Stars (2-0 agg)
Eastern Stars 1-2 William's Isle (1-4 agg)

Golden Eagles may have scraped back into the Prime Division for this season, but they've proven their worthy by making a deep cup run. The 2-4 away win fueled a hard-nosed defensive draw/win at home against Astra Columbia to move to the semis. Fort Roy SC and Strat City both carried away wins, but Strat City's late goal by Marcel Hayden in the second leg was enough to stave off extra time and advance to the semis.

Rushmori Drawks came to play against Quayside Rangers, but the Rangers' national team goalie, Travis Bride, denied all of the Drawks chance of going on. The Drawks held on defensively to keep it close, but the pressure and disappointment of being rejected time and time again throughout the tie eventually cracked, and the Rangers got a late winner to advance. William's Isle had a quicker time of their tie, as the Stars defense crumbled throughout the matchups.

Golden Eagles 2-2 Strat City (2-2 agg)
Strat City 4-0 Golden Eagles (6-2 agg)

Quayside Rangers 1-1 William's Isle (1-1 agg)
William's Isle 0-1 Quayside Rangers (1-2 agg)

Golden Eagles and Strat City are both teams known for their powerful offense, but Strat City's defense tensed up at the right time. After a testy first tie which ended with a 2-2 draw, City's defense shut out the Eagles with help from the home crowd and booked their ticket to the championship.

Meanwhile, the excellent Quayside Rangers defense once again proved to be the winning factor, as Travis Bride and the Rangers back line consistently broke up the William's Isle attack which carried them this far into the tournament. Defense wins championships, after all, and the Rangers are now two games away from winning just that.

by **The Isles of Avon** » Sun Dec 11, 2022 9:49 pm

Fort Roy SC took care of business just like they did all season. Needing six points to ensure they win the league title, they did just that. It wasn't dominant, but their 0-1 road win against Rushmori Drawks clinched the Federation Cup for Fort Roy, their first title win since the hiatus.

It turns out they weren't in much danger, as Astra Columbia drew and Quayside Rangers lost big on the final matchday to ensure SC stood alone atop the table. Strat City especially bottled, getting only one point in their final push. Quayside may not have gotten the title, but they did gain recognition for their league-best defense, opposed to Fort Roy's league-leading offense.

Also, Northampton had a chance to crawl out of relegation at William's Isle's expense, but instead only got one point out of a bottom of the league schedule. William's Isle even opened the door with a 1-0 loss to the worst team in the country on the final matchday, but they had done just enough earlier in the season to stay in the Prime Division for next year.

 # Prime Division        Pld   W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Fort Roy SC            22  12   6   4    51   28  +23    42
 2 Quayside Rangers       22  11   6   5    20   14   +6    39
 3 Astra Columbia         22  11   6   5    34   19  +15    39
 4 Strat City             22   9   8   5    28   28   +0    35
 5 Eastern Stars          22   9   5   8    30   26   +4    32
 6 Golden Eagles          22   7   6   9    28   34   -6    27
 7 William's Isle         22   7   4  11    12   17   -5    25
 8 Northampton            22   6   3  13    16   24   -8    21

Westport United would not be denied. One win would've been theoretically enough to assure promotion, but a 6-1 and two win stretch to end the season made them finished strong. Although they were playing an easier schedule, United earned 40 points, enough to be second in the Prime Division. Oh well, they'll have to wait until next year to prove their worth once again among the big boys.

For Rushmori Drawks, back-to-back losses would seal their fate for another year in Sub Division, but to be fair, Fort Roy SC was not to be denied on the final matchday. Even if they'd won both their games to end the season, they'd still be three behind Westport United. This season was decent for the Drawks, and with Northampton looking pretty bad this year, it's likely they'll have the best shot at promotion this year.

 # Sub Division                Pld   W   D   L    GF   GA   GD   Pts 
 1 Westport United              22  11   7   4    36   21  +15    40
 2 Rushmori Drawks              22  10   1  11    33   31   +2    31
 3 New Avon Wanderers           22   6  11   5    14   15   -1    29
 4 Old Avon Terraneans          22   7   8   7    20   22   -2    29
 5 Sellena Cove                 22   7   6   9    14   19   -5    27
 6 Ashbourne                    22   6   7   9    26   34   -8    25
 7 New Stratford Spearhead      22   6   4  12    11   20   -9    22
 8 Lancaster City               22   4   6  12    16   37  -21    18

Now the cup comes to its final legs. Home and away, then a neutral site game if necessary. Who will take home the Avonian Shield between the big-money Strat City and the defensive stalwart Quayside Rangers?

Strat City 1-0 Quayside Rangers [Strat City leads series 1-0]

Strat City predictably took home game one thanks to an Allan Santana goal, but besides that one slip on a counterattack, the Rangers defense stood strong all game.

Quayside Rangers 0-0 Strat City (2-0 AET) [series tied 1-1]

The defense shone true in this one, with the nil-all draw lasting 90 minutes. The Rangers defense had the depth, however. The tired Strat City backline got thoroughly worked in extra time, with the Rangers slotting two goals to send the game to a neutral site rubber.

Strat City 1-0 Quayside Rangers [Strat City wins series 2-1]

The Field of Gold in Gold Villa was selected as the neutral site before the season began, so both teams headed to William's Isle to decide the Shield champion. In a reversal of expectation, Strat City scored early to take a lead, and despite the Rangers defense standing strong, their front line couldn't break through the stout Strat City front. It appears Strat City let their regular season matches go in order to be most prepared for the cup final. Congratulations to them, perhaps this is a sign of things to come for next season. They have 5 league titles since the hiatus, but their most recent was half a decade ago. Does this run mean Strat City is back? We'll see next year.

Federation of Avonian Soccer [FAS] Domestic League

Federation of Avonian Soccer [FAS] Domestic League

History and Information

F.A.S. (Reboot) Season 1

F.A.S. Season 1: First Half

F.A.S. Season 1: Second Half

F.A.S. Season 1: Finale

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