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Season 28 review

Written by HF2004

Another season has passed and so it's time for us to look back at what happened this season. We'll have a look at what happened in the leagues and in the cups. There were many highs and many lows this season, read all about it in this article:

The Kampuchea Cup:
As usual 128 teams started of in this cup in week 1, the Premier League teams all started off against a bot team but the further we got, the more interesting the cup became.

The first Premier League team that went out was Tulcea Lions, they went out in round 3 against CsabaGyöngye Account-Team (a third division team) and this was considered a stunt, but for CsabaGyöngye Account-Team this wasn't even their biggest cup-achievement this season, in round 4 they faced the best team in the history of HT-Kampuchea: Rangoon Dragons, it was the most interesting cupmatch we've seen this season and CsabaGyöngye Account-Team managed to win it 6-4 after extra time, a real stunt! For the ones who want to take a look at this game: (554411068).

This offered hope and opportunities for the other teams who were still in the cup, with Rangoon Dragons eliminated many teams started to believe in their chances to win the cup. In the quarter finals the last non-premier league teams were kicked out of the cup: CsabaGyöngye Account-Team was finally eliminated by DLM Cambodia, Siam Pirates got kicked out by BH-Kaay and Mondulkirin Kiri faced defeat against Bowrain Batta (after penalties), the last quarter final saw 2 premier league teams face each other, Chez Caro & Fred won against Somnang stars to become the 4th semi finalist.

The Semi finals were pretty interesting too, BH-Kaay won against Bowrain Batta to reach the final for the first time in their history, and DLM Cambodia managed to eliminate Chez Caro & Fred in a very even match, penalties decided DLM Cambodia would go through to the final.

The final prooved to be an interesting match between 2 teams who would give anything to take their 1st Kampuchea Cup and the masters ticket that comes with it. In a match that could have gone either way DLM Cambodia turned out victorious and will represent us in the masters in season 29.

The other cups:
Let's start with the emerald challenger cup: In this cup the teams who went out in round 1 of the main cup face each other up untill round 5, in round 6 the 2 last teams from this face the 2 teams who got eliminated in the main cup semi-finals. Both SiemReapTeam and 1.FC Kam-Bod-Schaschlik got knocked out by the premier league teams in the 6th round and we saw a final between Chez Caro & Fred and Bowrain Batta. In the final Bowrain Batta easily won and so they took the Emerald Challenger Cup home.

The Ruby challenger cup is the cup where teams who go out of the main cup in round 2 face each other and the 4 survivors will face the teams who go out of the main cup in the quarter finals. In the quarter finals of this cup Kaoh Kong Pirates and Hangover Dissidents went out against Somnang stars and Siam Pirates, however ssc -273.15 and Zeitgeist still went through. In the final we saw ssc -273.15 and Siam Pirates. It was a weird game and the match engine clearly showed interest in Siam Pirates who took the cup after a lucky win.

The Sapphire challenger cup is the cup where teams who go out of the main cup in round 3 and 4 will fight each other untill there's only one left. 2 Premier League teams participated in this cup this season and allthough 1 of them showed little interest in this side cup: Rangoon Dragons went out directly against Bayer 04 Cambodia, the other one (Tulcea Lions) went all the way to the final where they won the cup against Corrupt Kickers Cambodia.

Finaly we have the Kampuchea Consolation Cup, the cup where teams who go out in the first round of the Emerald and Ruby challenger cups have their own cup. Both finalists (Tiwaz and Cambodian Checkers) came from the Ruby challenger cup. In the final Cambodian Checkers prooved themselfs stronger than Tiwaz to win the cup.

The Premier League:
The Premier League was an exciting league this season (at least for 4 teams in it). Rangoon Dragons showed themselfs once again the best in Cambodia winning all their games and becoming again Cambodian Champions, Tulcea Lions wasn't good enough to endanger the Dragons but was better than the rest so a logical 2nd place was their part. At the bottom of the league we saw Somnang stars (for whom training is more important at the moment then results) and Manta Divers 2nd Edition (who claimed the promotion last season came to soon), although Manta Divers 2nd Edition came close to the 6th place in the end these 2 teams would face relegation. The other 4 teams were very close together throughout all the season, these 4 semi-finalists of the Kampuchea Cup battled a heroic battle for places 3 to 6 up untill the last day. In the end Chez Caro & Fred and Bowrain Batta reached safety and DLM Cambodia and BH-Kaay were doomed to play in a relegation battle for survival against 2 champions from the 2nd division.

Division II:
At the top of Division II we saw some very interesting battles for the championship, only in II.3 it became clear early on that Mondulkirin Kiri would take the title, in the other leagues the decision would fall on the last day. In II.1 we saw a match for the title at the last day between Nac Mac Feegles United against Ya Wee Dafties and Corrupt Kickers Cambodia, in case of a draw even Kantsun Kondiittorit could still become champion. But Nac Mac Feegles United against Ya Wee Dafties won the game and crowned theirself champions. In II.4 we saw another decisive match for the title on the last day: Barang Tuk-Tuk hosted this game against their opponents AlterTeam Romania, AlterTeam Romania won the match and took the title. In II.2 4 teams! could still take the title on the last day. Wall.E Tigers, Rutbeek Humbelbees FC, Siam Pirates and De Ridders van Parsifal all still had their chances. In the end Siam Pirates took the title on goal difference. Mondulkirin Kiri and AlterTeam Romania would get automatic promotion while Nac Mac Feegles United against Ya Wee Dafties and Siam Pirates would play a promotion battle.

At the other side of the tables their was less excitement and most teams knew early on what to expect.

Division III:
Division III has become a league with overall 50% of botteams so the most excitement we see here is who will become champions, in most of the 16 leagues we saw a champion who was just alot better than the rest but there were some exceptions: In III.3 Kaoh Kong Pirates kept (mathematical) possibility to win the league untill the last day, but it was Balds as a coot who took the title. In III.7 the title was decided on the last day, in a game between number 1 and number 2 in the league FC Quintien Reservas managed to win against TheGuardian and to hop over them to take the title. In III.13 two teams were equal on points before the last day, but only Phanterize won their last game (against a bot) to win the title.

The champions of division III are: Hangover Dissidents, Bichos colorados de Kampuchea, Balds as a coot, Maban Legacy, CsabaGyöngye Account-Team, Tiwaz, FC Quintien Reservas, FC Bayern Riem II, Cambodian Spartans, SIEM REAP FC, KIMHBJAW, ssc -273.15, Phanterize, Bayer 04 Cambodia, Muay Poan CF and Cambodian Checkers (the underlined teams took automatic promotion, the others would play a promotion battle).

The promotion/relegation battles:
In hattrick half of the champions of the lower leagues have to play numbers 5 and 6 of the league above in a promotion/relegation battle to decide who will play where the next season. These battles took place 1 week after the final game day. The team from the higher division always has the home advantage in these battles.

For the 2 remaining places in the Premier League we had thus the following 2 battles: DLM Cambodia (5th) vs Siam Pirates (champion II.2) and BH-Kaay (6th) vs Nac Mac Feegles against Ya Wee Dafties (champion II.1). DLM Cambodia didn't have much problems with Siam Pirates and was pretty fast sure to stay in the Premier League, BH-Kaay however needed extra time to get past Nac Mac Feegles against Ya Wee Dafties.

In the 8 battles between divisions II and III we saw 6 times the hometeam win, only 2 champions from division III managed to take promotion through a promotion battle: KIMHBJAW won against Potato Jack Cambodia (6th from II.2) and ssc -273.15 won against FIF Batdambang (6th from II.3)

The UCCC Belt:
The UCCC (Unofficial Clubteams Cambodian Championship) Belt is an unofficial title for the best team in Cambodia, to win this title you have to beat in an official match (main cup or league) within 90 minutes the current holder. This season there isn't much to say about this Belt seeing Rangoon Dragons already was the champion before the season and still is the champion, in the Premier League they won all their matches and their defeat in the cup was after extra time which means they didn't loose the belt. The side cups don't count for this championship so their defeat there didn't affect there champ-status either.

The U20 and National Team of Kampuchea:
It's less clubrelated, but still a very important part of HT-Kampuchea: the U20 and NT. For the U20 team it was friendly season so not much to tell about them, but the NT has been very interesting to follow this season. With their new manager Rastelli the NT has blossomed this season and are still (up untill the last day of the qualification campaign) in the race for a place in the World Cup. Which is a remarkable achievement and deserves being mentioned in this review, we will all be following whether or not the team makes the world cup, the final game day is now friday at 20h HT-time. To qualify Kampuchea has to win away at Jamaica and Cabo Verde must win at home against Česká republika. The odds are against us but this is hattrick and anything is possible. It would be an amazing achievement!

I hope you've all enjoyed my season 28 review, if I have left something out, please let me know so next time I can do better ;)