LIGA FEDERAL DE VALLADARES PRESENTED BY TRIANGLE ÉLECTRONIQUE
FORTY-SIXTH SEASON (REVIEW)
SuperCopa Valladar/Canalave Crown Match
A new season of Valladar football opened with the Canalave Crown match between last season's Liga-1 champions Marinos Metropolis and last season's King's Shield winners Fontvielle Impact. 40,005 people attended the twenty-third SuperCopa match and first of the Valladar footballing season at Dragon Stadium in Canalave, where Marineros and Bleus duked it out for the first piece of silverware of the season.
Although most recent games between these two teams have been exciting back-and-forth affairs where none of the contenders was really far superior than the other, this time Fontvielle Impact took care to make clear who was in charge since the very beginning, displaying an unexpected high pressure and high mobility on the wings, surprising Flabio Flórez and his squad. Strikers Alexandre and Adrián Bassa were truly a nightmare for the defending Liga-1 champions, who never found a way to stop them in their tracks. And both Alexandre and Bassa opened up the path for victory for l'Impact with two quick goals in the 12th and 16th minutes, respectively, giving the 11-time Liga-1 winners a deserved advantage until then. Marinos only realized they were playing for a title after they were 2-0 down, but their talismanic Quebecois star Zachary Fortin could not provide them with the key they needed to break l'Impact's defensive wall. Since Marinos were unable to trim down the disadvantage in the scoreboard, Alexandre, Bassa, and therefore Fontvielle Impact, set their foot on the accelerator once again and Marinos' terrible afternoon continued with two deadly counterattacks by those two players: first Alexandre in the 39th minute, just when the Marineros were desperate looking for a goal that would get them back into the match, and then Bassa just before the halftime whistle made it 4-0 and game over for the Liga-1 champions in just 45 minutes.
With Victor Anigo's side having razed Marinos to the ground in the first half, and a blurred and demoralized rival, the second half was only there for Fontvielle Impact to control their advantage, with Adrián Bassa putting the icing on the cake and claiming the Man of the Match Award by scoring the fifth goal in the 72nd minute, rounding up the humiliation for the Liga-1 champions in their first game of the new season.
TWENTY-THIRD SUPERCOPA VALLADAR: MARINOS METROPOLIS VS. FONTVIELLE IMPACT
Dragon Stadium - Canalave (Att: 40,005)
Marinos Metropolis 0-5 Fontvielle Impact
(Alexandre 12', 39', Bassa 16', 45+1', 72')
Liga-1 Season Review
It seems that the 5-0 battering at the Canalave Crown didn't do much harm to Marinos' morale, as the defending Liga-1 champions cruised their way to a third straight title and dominated the league from start to end, as they have done in the most recent seasons. In addition to this, victories in the finals of the Champions' Cup (on home soil, the National Stadium) and the Copa de Campeones, and an impressive showing at the Kings' Shield, rounded up what ended up being a brilliant season for the Marineros, which looked pretty grim after that poor showing at that match in Canalave. The Valladar champions ended the season with a healthy 10-point lead on runners-up Nacional, who surprised all and sundry with a young but energetic and starved for glory squad, that only sinned by inexperienced. La Academia, led by U21 NTer Cristian Arango, benefited from a fertile harvest from the Guzmán-Cress Academy, and with a team with an average age of 22.3 years managed to sneak into the Champions' Cup preliminaries. Meanwhile, Fontvielle Impact confirmed that they're still on the way back to greatness not only by utterly destroying Marinos at the beginning of the season, but also by going on to win the Cup Winners' Cup while also navigating through the different rounds of the Kings' Shield without much trouble. However, the team propelled by the two explosive men who have already consolidated their status of leading stars at the Stade de la Frontière dropped several points in the final stretch of the campaign and had to settle for third place and the last spot into the Champions' Cup.
Pradera FC have now cimented their place into the group of "contenders" in the Liga-1, and this season coincided with their move to their brand-new stadium, the Estadio de la Montaña, which became a fortress where only one team (RC Belfort) managed to win in the whole season, with all the other Liga-1 top sides (champions Marinos, Impact, MA, Nacional, and Bezieres) leaving the Antioquia state capital with no points in the bag. However, the not-so-brilliant campaign on the road, where they only won 3 games took its toll on the Verdiblancos and dashed their hopes of finishing in the podium, forcing Pradera to lead the list of Valladar qualifiers for the next Globe Cup. Metropolis Alligators, who are going through a difficult renovation period, will be also going to that competition after finishing in fifth place with 63 points in their worst campaign in seasons, whilst Étoile Verte took the last spot in the Globe Cup mostly thanks to their MD36 win over crosstown rivals Bezieres (who finished in seventh place, in a pretty poor campaign for Les Rouges), whom they kicked of Globe Cup contention in the process, and also thanks to both Marinos and Fontvielle Impact qualifying for the Kings' Shield final, in yet another final between those two sides.
Tannenberg FC and Eterna Stars both did acceptable campaigns amid their own limitations, finishing in eighth and ninth place, respectively, while Deportivo Junín became the surprise package of the season with their unexpected tenth place finish. The Granates had a great start to the season, winning five and tying three out of the first 10 matches, and they were fighting to get into the top 5 at halfway point, however, their lack of squad depth ended punishing them and making the club fall to a tenth place finish, which nevertheless is a great achievement for them. Slateport Bulls, still with Yttribian coach Cecil Herberts at the helm, couldn't really handle the fact of having to take part in three competitions at the same time: Liga-1, Kings' Shield, and Globe Cup, and went back to mid-table mediocrity this time, much to their fans' chagrin, and Canalave Dragons and Valencia did decent campaigns this time.
Going into the lower zone of the table, we see that Bohemians Metropolis managed to avoid relegation against all odds: the Gallo did so by snatching points from all of their direct rivals both at home and away, while also giving most of the favourites a scare (Marinos dropping a 2-2 draw against them in the Champions' Kick-Off being the best example of this). Disappointment was all around Olympique de Fontvielle and Real Campo Grande after their poor seasons brought them to the brink of relegation, which they ended avoiding by winning their crucial games against Belfort, Nord Energie, and Montreux in the final stretch. This was certainly not expected nor wanted in either Fontvielle or Campo Grande, where the Boards of both teams make efforts to bring together competitive squads every season. And, in the true relegation race, Ajax Carloburgo managed to reemerge as the phoenix after a disastrous first half of the season and, with Montreux losing their crucial last game plus the Immigrants beating Valencia at home, they were able to snatch the relegation playoff spot from the Hérons and will be waiting for a Liga-2 team for that last chance to survive. However, the same thing cannot be said about Montreux, Nord Energie, and Belfort, with Les Hérons blowing away their chances of survival on the last day of the season as aforementioned, and Yellow-Reds and Rouges et Noirs doing everything they could to return to Liga-2 as soon as possible, which they eventually achieved with two games to spare. Seriously, they played all the season like if they didn't want to be in the top tier...
Final Liga-1 Standings:
Team P W D L For Ag +/- Pts
1Marinos Metropolis 38 23 10 5 69 37 +32 79 CH - CC
2Nacional 38 21 6 11 65 40 +25 69 CC
3Fontvielle Impact 38 19 11 8 60 50 +10 68 CC
4Pradera FC 38 19 7 12 49 36 +13 64 GC
5Metropolis Alligators 38 18 9 11 58 49 +9 63 GC
6Étoile Verte 38 16 13 9 53 47 +6 61 GC
7AS Bezieres 38 14 16 8 56 44 +12 58
8Tannenberg FC 38 15 12 11 58 57 +1 57
9Eterna Stars 38 15 12 11 51 43 +8 57
10Deportivo Junín 38 13 13 12 54 44 +10 52
11Slateport Bulls 38 14 8 16 43 44 -1 50
12Canalave Dragons 38 14 6 18 48 50 -2 48
13Valencia FC 38 13 9 16 49 58 -9 48
14Bohemians Metropolis 38 11 10 17 47 56 -9 43
15Olympique de Fontvielle 38 9 15 14 41 49 -8 42
16Real Campo Grande 38 11 7 20 42 54 -12 40
17Ajax Carloburgo 38 11 6 21 37 60 -23 39 P-O
18AS Montreux 38 10 7 21 33 47 -14 37 REL
19Nord Energie FC 38 8 9 21 34 51 -17 33 REL
20RC Belfort 38 7 12 19 46 77 -31 33 REL
CHAMPIONS
Marinos Metropolis (4th title)
The Thirty-Sixth King's Shield:
THE THIRTY-SIXTH KING'S SHIELD FINAL
@ Alexander I National Stadium, Swangard, District of Metropolis (Att. 76,268)
Marinos Metropolis 2-1 Fontvielle Impact
(Scotti 1', Fortin 9'; Cabrera 66' (OG))
Congratulations to Marinos Metropolis, who have won their fourth King's Shield (and the League-Cup double) and qualified for the Cygnus Cup while also enacting sweet revenge on Fontvielle Impact for what happened at the Canalave Crown!
Liga-2 Final Standings
Team P W D L For Ag +/- Pts
1 AS Vaud 38 20 10 8 64 36 +28 70 CH - SBCC
2 Gatineau UC 98 38 18 10 10 49 38 +11 64 P - SBCC
3 FC Columbus 38 19 7 12 51 45 +6 64 P/O
4 FC Townsville 38 17 11 10 45 35 +10 62 P/O
5 Patriotas FC 38 17 11 10 46 31 +15 62 P/O
6 CAP 38 14 14 10 40 30 +10 56 P/O
7 Carloburgo Phoenix 38 16 8 14 46 42 +4 56
8 Edmonton United 38 14 13 11 52 50 +2 55
9 Defensores de Villafuerte 38 15 9 14 40 42 -2 54
10 Bellavista Jets 38 14 10 14 41 46 -5 52
11 AD Cerro 38 13 12 13 54 51 +3 51
12 Stanford United 38 14 8 16 38 43 -5 50
13 RC Corania 38 13 11 14 27 33 -6 50
14 Bretford Royals 38 12 13 13 31 31 +0 49
15 Alianza Antioquia 38 12 10 16 45 54 -9 46
16 AC Tallin 38 11 12 15 44 47 -3 45
17 Pumas Maldonado 38 10 14 14 45 52 -7 44 P-O
18 FC Sillimus 38 10 9 19 27 48 -21 39 REL
19 Hoxford Rovers 38 7 13 18 40 51 -11 34 REL
20 Corumbá EC 38 4 15 19 33 53 -20 27 REL
Valladar Liga-2 Final Play-Offs
Semi-Finals:
CAP (6) 0-2 (3) FC Columbus
FC Columbus (3) 1-0 (6) CAP
Agg: FC Columbus 3-0 CAP
Patriotas FC (5) 2-0 (4) FC Townsville
FC Townsville (4) 1-1 (5) Patriotas FC
Agg: FC Townsville 1-3 Patriotas FC
Final (@ Alexander I National Stadium):
FC Columbus (3) 1-1 (5) Patriotas FC (2-2 AET, 2-3 PKs)
Liga-1/Liga-2 Promotion-Relegation Play-Off: Ajax Carloburgo vs. FC Columbus
FC Columbus 1-0 Ajax Carloburgo
Ajax Carloburgo 2-0 FC Columbus (2-1 agg)
With two goals in the last 10 minutes of the return leg at Parken Road Stadium, Ajax Carloburgo managed to retain their Liga-1 membership for next season in heroic fashion, while also denying Columbus their last chance to return to the top tier of Valladar football.
Liga-3 Final Standings
Team P W D L For Ag +/- Pts
1 Real Pradera 38 18 12 8 56 34 +22 66 CH - P
2 Villaznia AC 38 19 6 13 45 37 +8 63 P
3 Atlético Nápoles 38 17 11 10 43 32 +11 62 P/O
4 Danubio FC 38 17 7 14 48 44 +4 58 P/O
5 Servette FC 38 15 13 10 66 56 +10 58 P/O
6 Hamanos Athletic Club 38 17 6 15 43 39 +4 57 P/O
7 Deportivo Aguablanca 38 16 8 14 52 40 +12 56
8 Deportivo Lomas 38 13 14 11 37 36 +1 53
9 SC Alcázares 38 14 10 14 45 45 +0 52
10 Minault United 38 15 7 16 39 44 -5 52
11 Campinas FC 38 14 9 15 50 50 +0 51
12 Northport Bears 38 13 12 13 41 43 -2 51
13 FC Fauxham 38 14 9 15 52 48 +4 51
14 Adelaide Kickers 38 14 8 16 41 52 -11 50
15 Club Osum 38 12 13 13 42 40 +2 49
16 Universitario de Maldonado 38 14 6 18 56 57 -1 48
17 AS Lausanne 38 8 19 11 33 41 -8 43
18 Neuchâtel-Sport 38 10 12 16 37 54 -17 42 REL
19 EC Comercial 38 10 12 16 43 53 -10 42 REL
20 Curzón FC 38 8 10 20 28 52 -24 34 REL
Valladar Liga-3 Final Play-Offs
Semi-Finals:
Hamanos Athletic Club (6) 4-0 (3) Atlético Nápoles
Atlético Nápoles (3) 3-1 (6) Hamanos Athletic Club
Agg: Atlético Nápoles 3-5 Hamanos Athletic Club
Servette FC (5) 3-0 (4) Danubio FC
Danubio FC (4) 1-2 (5) Servette FC
Agg: Danubio FC 1-5 Servette FC
Final (@ Alexander I National Stadium):
Servette FC (5) 1-1 (6) Hamanos Athletic Club (1-1 AET, 3-5 PKs)
Liga-2/Liga-3 Promotion-Relegation Play-Off: Pumas Maldonado vs. Servette FC
Servette FC 1-1 Pumas Maldonado
Pumas Maldonado 2-0 Servette FC (3-1 agg)
Thus, Pumas Maldonado will continue playing in Liga-2 for next season.
SUMMARY OF THE SEASON:
Champion: Marinos Metropolis
Runner-Up: Nacional
King's Shield Winner: Marinos Metropolis
Relegated Teams: AS Montreux, Nord Energie FC, RC Belfort
Promoted Teams: AS Vaud, Gatineau UC 98, Patriotas FC
Top Scorers:
1. Alexandre Costa (Fontvielle Impact): 27 goals (Golden Boot)
2. Pablo Scotti (Marinos Metropolis): 25 goals (Silver Boot)
3. Zachary Fortin (Royal Kingdom of Quebec, Marinos Metropolis): 24 goals (Bronze Boot)
4. Alan Bothroyd (Metropolis Alligators): 22 goals
5. Andy Navarro (Nacional): 21 goals
INTERNATIONAL QUALIFICATION:
Champions' Cup 61:
Marinos Metropolis - Valladar Liga-1 champions
Nacional - Valladar Liga-1 runners-up
Fontvielle Impact - Valladar Liga-1 third-placed team
Globe Cup 58:
Pradera FC - Valladar Liga-1 fourth-placed team
Metropolis Alligators - Valladar Liga-1 fifth-placed team
Étoile Verte - Valladar Liga-1 sixth-placed team
Series B Champions' Cup 58:
AS Vaud - Valladar Liga-2 champions
Gatineau UC 98 - Valladar Liga-2 runners-up
Patriotas FC - Valladar Liga-2 Final Play-Off winners
Cygnus Cup 36:
Fontvielle Impact - Cygnus Cup 35 winners
Marinos Metropolis - King's Shield winners
Marinos Metropolis 38 20 9 9 63 38 +25 69 CC
Patriotas FC 38 15 7 16 44 51 -7 52
Gatineau UC 98 38 9 13 16 36 61 -25 40 P-O
AS Vaud 38 9 8 21 40 60 -20 35 REL
Carloburgo Phoenix 38 7 13 18 34 49 -15 34 REL
FC Townsville 38 6 10 22 37 66 -29 28 REL
Edmonton United 38 12 11 15 47 49 -2 47
AD Cerro 38 12 9 17 46 57 -11 45
Hoxford Rovers 38 10 8 20 43 70 -27 38 REL
Tannenberg FC 10 5 3 2 17 9 +8 18
Deportivo Junín 10 5 1 4 18 13 +5 16
Metropolis Alligators 10 5 1 4 19 11 +8 16
FC Sillimus 10 4 3 3 16 15 +1 15
FC Columbus 10 2 0 8 8 24 -16 6
CAP 10 1 2 7 9 19 -10 5
Defensores de Villafuerte 10 6 2 2 10 6 +4 20
Real Pradera 10 5 3 2 10 6 +4 18
Stanford United 10 4 3 3 13 12 +1 15
RC Corania 10 3 5 2 10 8 +2 14
Bellavista Jets 10 4 2 4 16 16 +0 14
FC Maritime Westporte 10 4 1 5 8 11 -3 13
Minault United 10 3 2 5 7 10 -3 11
Danubio FC 10 3 2 5 8 11 -3 11
Hamanos Athletic Club 10 2 2 6 10 15 -5 8
EC Comercial 10 2 0 8 6 17 -11 6
Deportivo Aguablanca 10 1 2 7 7 18 -11 5
Metropolis Alligators 10 8 2 0 20 3 +17 26
Marinos Metropolis 10 7 1 2 15 9 +6 22
Pradera FC 10 6 2 2 16 9 +7 20
Canalave Dragons 10 6 2 2 13 9 +4 20
AS Bezieres 10 5 2 3 15 11 +4 17
Slateport Bulls 10 4 4 2 16 14 +2 16
Eterna Stars 10 4 4 2 12 10 +2 16
Real Campo Grande 9 5 1 3 11 9 +2 16
Deportivo Junín 9 4 1 4 11 8 +3 13
Bohemians Metropolis 10 4 1 5 12 15 −3 13
Ajax Carloburgo 10 3 4 3 16 13 +3 13
Fontvielle Impact 10 4 1 5 12 12 0 13
Tannenberg FC 10 3 2 5 15 15 0 11
Nacional 8 3 1 4 12 11 +1 10
Edmonton United 10 3 1 6 9 16 −7 10
Olympique de Fontvielle 10 2 4 4 12 17 −5 10
Bellavista Jets 10 2 3 5 9 19 −10 9
Carloburgo Phoenix 10 2 1 7 11 19 −8 7
Hoxford Rovers 10 1 3 6 7 14 −7 6
Danubio FC 10 2 0 8 9 19 −10 6
Gatineau UC 98 10 6 2 2 17 12 +5 20
FC Columbus 10 5 3 2 20 14 +6 18
AS Montreux 10 5 2 3 15 11 +4 17
CAP 10 5 2 3 16 13 +3 17
AD Cerro 10 5 2 3 15 10 +5 17
Defensores de Villafuerte 10 5 1 4 11 13 −2 16
Stanford United 10 4 4 2 22 18 +4 16
Hamanos Athletic Club 10 4 3 3 13 15 −2 15
FC Maritime Westporte 10 4 3 3 15 17 −2 15
FC Townsville 10 4 2 4 17 15 +2 14
FC Sillimus 10 4 2 4 15 13 +2 14
Pumas Maldonado 10 4 2 4 19 19 0 14
Nord Energie FC 10 4 1 5 15 17 −2 13
Northport Bears 10 2 5 3 11 11 0 11
EC Comercial 10 3 2 5 12 16 −4 11
Étoile Verte 10 3 2 5 16 19 −3 11
RC Belfort 10 3 2 5 12 15 −3 11
Patriotas FC 10 2 4 4 16 17 −1 10
Real Pradera 10 2 4 4 8 12 −4 10
Valencia FC 10 1 2 7 7 15 −8 5
Marinos Metropolis 10 6 0 4 16 12 +4 18
Pumas Maldonado 10 5 1 4 15 11 +4 16
Patriotas FC 10 3 1 6 10 15 −5 10
Hamanos Athletic Club 10 2 3 5 10 17 −7 9
AS Vaud 10 6 2 2 16 10 +6 20
Bellavista Jets 10 4 4 2 13 12 +1 16
Atlético Nápoles 10 3 3 4 13 13 0 12
Libertad 10 3 2 5 13 13 0 11
