Matchday 9 to 12 recap
In the 9th to 12th week of our league it was time to make decisions, the season after these weeks would be halfway done and that fact made alot of lower ranked teams think about their current squads.
Especially Phoenix United manager Pescado was on a tight line between getting fired from his position or being trusted the team till the end of the season but the board had not made a decision yet so they had to impress them now.
At first in the first two weeks it did not work out, despite a better preformance Amazona and Ancient Forest were too strong but against Blizzard of all teams they pulled off a great win and one week later defeated Cascade.
This would place Phoenix higher in the rankings however a far way from where they should be, but the question is whether the board was convined or not and in a following statement they made their decision public.
''In light of recent events and understanding that Phoenix needs to improve we have been in talks with various ideas and people have deemed that Ricardo Pescado is currently the best fit for the position of manager at Phoenix United.
This means his contract will not be terminated early, he will have our trust until the end of this season winning against two major teams gives hope but he has to use this positive energy now to move forward and bring the team together as a unity.''
after this captain Zaratti also spoke
''As captain of this team i can say our team supports the coach no matter what, he is a great man with a great career and being coached by him is an honour for us and we as team wish to finish this season with him aswell.
All players are behind this and we will work hard to ensure this team gets what it deserves and the fans get what they deserve because that is what we are playing for and why we are paid those high wages to give hope and joy to millions of people across the country.''
League
In the league Storm Wolves are still ahead by a small margin on second place Star Unicorn who lean on Angela Diaz and hope she can bring them a championship for the first time in the club history.
Both of them have won various matches though Star Unicorn lost one against Ancient Forest who with Kai Schulz on their team climbed back to 7th position as he seems between those world cup games to improve his game alot playing with the national team.
Equinox, Blizzard and Amazona are next all those 3 teams have worked very hard where Equinox remained consistent and kept 3rd place Blizzard and Amazona each climbed up a few spots where they look for better rankings for their top teams.
Desert Lions, Ancient Forest and Pegasus Orb are next where the Desert Lions and Pegasus Orb fell a little on the rankings Ancient Forest started actively winning game after game increasing their points.
Their team is often an outcast but they host several internationals and youth internationals who each are able to bring the team to a higher level with their experience and skill which helps them to beat better teams.
Cascade and Phoenix are top teams with less success where Cascade relatively stabilized Phoeix rose the last matches by winning important games against strong teams earning them points to challenge for a better spot.
Only time will tell if those two teams are making the correct decisions and whether they will next year look similar or see a total change it really depends on how the second half of this season will be looking for them.
At the bottom we find Rose Gryphon and Mount Olympus who each have their own issues at the moment that they need to overcome this season and the coming seasons for them to grow and advance as entire team.
Rose Gryphon currently has alot of players that are getting old or older not necessarily needing to retire but the problem is where most team has youth on the bench to replace and aid them in their latter years Rose Gryphon does not have that.
Some of their players on the reserves have the same age as those in starting line-up which makes the team not have its ideal form and the older all players become the more problematic it will become for this team.
Their older reserves are still desperate for their time to shine but next season Rose Gryphon will need to make hard choices in who they wish to keep and who they wish to say farewell to in order for youth to get a chance.
Mount Olympus has the opposite problem, a core of 5 old veterans who in some cases are even still actively playing in the national team and 6 rookies in their early 20s looking to make name and fame in the league.
Nothing inbetween this, no players in their prime years, this makes the balance in the team very disturbed and their team alot less strong then it used to be with many players in their prime a few years ago, they need to rebuild that experience.
replacing players one by one is good but Olympus went too fast and now find themselves in a very ugly situation.
. Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Storm Wolves 12 8 2 2 10 3 +7 26
2 Star Unicorn 12 7 1 4 14 12 +2 22
3 Equinox United 12 5 5 2 11 7 +4 20
4 Blizzard Academy 12 5 5 2 7 4 +3 20
5 Amazona United 12 4 6 2 9 6 +3 18
6 Desert Lions 12 4 4 4 8 7 +1 16
7 Ancient Forest FC 12 4 3 5 12 11 +1 15
8 Pegasus Orb 12 4 3 5 6 7 −1 15
9 Cascade FC 12 4 2 6 9 13 −4 14
10 Phoenix United 12 4 0 8 10 15 −5 12
11 Rose Gryphon 12 3 2 7 10 16 −6 11
12 Mount Olympus 12 3 1 8 12 17 −5 10