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Matchday 11 – A review of the league matches

Written by Schumi-

Last week you could read in the Article that Azad had around 50% chance to take their 11th title in the Amiri League this weekend. Did they do it already, or were the celebrations delayed? At least in the Division II we have another champion now as well after IFK CastECastle last week. Also a little view on the situation regarding promotion to the Amiri League is included. The time of the season has come that gives answers to the questions raised at the start. Are you interested in answers? If yes, read the Article!

We start with our review of the Amiri League, where Azad had a chance to take the title. Winning their match was a necessity to take the title, but they were also depending on Kojak United who had to beat runner-up Desert Wolves F.C. Let’s start with Azad’s match:

#8 AL-Saidi - #1 Azad

The difference in ranking already makes a point – Azad is favorite to win this match. There were some dangers in this match though; there was a chance on overconfidence on Azad’s side, and also Azad had already shown it vulnerability against the other ‘weak’ team in the Amiri League, as number 7 Dubai heroes is the only team so far that took away points from Azad. However, experience pays off in crucial matches, and perhaps the most experienced player in United Arab Emirates is Ismail Diwanji. The ultimate top scorer of the country needed less than 10 minutes to score a clean Hattrick. After the early 0 – 3 for Azad, there was just one player left resisting: Pauli Lehtismäki (clearly no local player) scored a 1 – 3 goal halway into the first half, but got sent off with a red card 10 minutes afterwards. The loss of that controversial player for AL-Saidi led them into further trouble, as Azad scored another two goals. The 1 – 5 win means that Azad did all they could to take the title already. However, excitement continued after the final whistle, since rival Desert Wolves F.C was still in extra time, and that match clearly was a thriller. Meanwhile, AL-Saidi’s players left the field in misery – yet another loss deteriorated their chances until a marginal fraction of the already nihil chance prior to the match.

#3 Kojak United - #2 Desert Wolves F.C

As already said, the fact that this match could decide the championship raised interest, but also without that little extra, it was still the match of the week, in which two of the three main competitors had another close battle for best-of-the-rest. Desert Wolves F.C would not only keep their chances on the title alive by winning this match, also would it give them a further gap to third and fourth position. Can they take distance from other major teams such as Kojak United, Warrawong Grasshoppers and NoTax United in their first season back on the top level? The beginning of the match indicated differently – top forward for Kojak United, the South African Nkosi, scored the opening 1 – 0 goal after just 3 minutes. It took him longer to score than Diwanji for Azad, but still, the lack of focus for Desert Wolves F.C in the beginning of the match seemed to give them severe punishments. Desert Wolves obviously got more focused afterwards, but focusing on just one wing attack, they did not manage to equalize. Into the second half, frustration cam back into play, as Desert Wolves F.C took away their defensive shield and put the focus more on the central attack. That was a move with low payoff, since Kojak’s defense was focused on the centre. Weakening their own defense was the second error for Desert Wolves F.C, and once again, Kojak United needed just three minutes to punish – 63 minutes into the match 35 years old Ali Al-Khaleel seemed to close the match with 2 – 0. But Desert Wolves F.C was on a mission and did not give up. With more than 10 minutes to come, they score the closing goal… Scoring one more would delay Azad’s championship, but the final minutes did not give any more goals. Kojak United got a very important win, closed the gap to Desert Wolves F.C down to just 1 point, but attention was also directed to Azad, who secured themselves the title.

#4 Warrawong Grasshoppers - #5 NoTax United

Desert Wolves’ loss was also an opportunity for Warrawong Grasshoppers, a chance to get back into the fight for second place. To do so, last season’s runner-up NoTax United had to be defeated. With NoTax United being in a good flow with quite some victories, it would not be an easy task, especially since NoTax United started to see chances as well to end the season on a high after their terrible league start. Warrawong Grasshoppers started more safe and less agressive than Azad and Kojak United, but starting safe is not necessarily a bad thing. During the break, it became clear though that they had to put more pressure on NoTax United to get that win. Being dominant on the field did not give them any goals yet, but starting to play more offensively into the second half paid off with an opening 1 – 0 goal, but it did not lock the match up yet. Grasshoppers came with the real offensive period fifteen minutes after the opening goals as they scored 3 goals in just 3 minutes. Rumours are around that Aurélien Verdon, scorer of the 2 – 0, thought the crowd was still cheering for his goal two minutes later, when he finally came to his senses again and saw the 4 – 0 on the score board! In the end a massive win for the Grasshoppers, closing the gap to Desert Wolves and Kojak United respectively to 2 and 1 point. NoTax United drops from the fight again, with 4 points less than Warrawong Grasshoppers.

#6 Abu Dhabi Humidity - #7 Dubai Heroes

With a gap of just 3 points from Dubai Heroes to number 6 Abu Dhabi Humidity, the Heroes still hoped on a heroistic comeback, but the odds were against them in this match – generally expected was that AD Humidity would make them say farewell to their last bit of hope. But as we by now also know from Abu Dhabi Humidity, they gave themselves an extra challenge by uselessly focusing on counter-attacks. A tiny bit of research after these dozens of failures might show them that playing counter has no use if you win possession (or perhaps just read the Article, always a good thing to do of course!), and thus they just gave Dubai Heroes a chance to cancel some of AD Humidity’s home advantage. The Heroes totally focused on this match and took their chances – an 0 – 2 advantage for them in the break was breaking news, even though a match takes 90 minutes. In the second half, AD Humidity woke up, and two teams giving all they can results in great football – not always of good quality, but surely assuring a nice match to watch. Humidity closed to gap to 1 – 2, but Dubai Heroes immediately replied with the 1 – 3. But AD Humidity was still working hard, and that paid off – all of a sudden the score got turned around to 4 – 3, and Dubai Heroes were fighting to get points. A late goal (88th minute) gave them that draw. 4 – 4 is one of these mad results, and still it makes neither happy. The gap is still three points, which means that AD Humidity still seems to be heading for sixth place, but they have to wait longer to be in the safety zone. For next season, improvement is needed to end in Top 6 again.

II.1:

Leader Indian Vikings cruised to an 0 – 10 way versus bot team Al Fujairah. Los Blancos F.C. took back second place from 300 warriors as they won against them 4 to 1 in a face-to-face battle. This means that leader Indian Vikings has a 9 points gap with 3 matches yet to come. With the difference in goal balance, they seem sure of the title, but never cheer to early – a point against number 3, 300 warriors, coming week would secure their title. Al Barsha profits from the bot teams – they beat Sand Foxes 9 to 0, and climbed to fourth on the ranking due to Al Fujairah’s loss. Number 7 LaMTaRa got a crucial 3 – 0 win against Invinsibles on sixth place, so that the gap is closed to just 1 point, and also bot team Al Fujairah might drop down to that battle to avoid seventh place.

II.2:

Interestingly, none of the Division II leagues had a leader who already suffered a loss in the first 10 matches of the season. Inter AD in the II.2 changed that this week, as they lost the away match against old rival Al-Qurri 2 to 1. Injuries prevented Inter AD from taking the win, but they keep a safe lead in the series, but one can never be cautious enough. Runner-up Ottoman Empire FC wasted a chance to close the gap – their 1 – 1 draw in the away match against number 5 Dubai Rockets does not really help them. The Dubai Desert Devils keeps third place after an easy 5 – 0 win against number 7 Reza, but they feel the breath of Al-Qurri in their neck, as the gap is only 1 point there. Juve Juniors had some happy moments this week – a login of manager MOD-JC secured the future of the team, and their 4 – 0 win against AC Falcons also secured the sixth place, with some tiny hope on more left. This also means that Reza and AC Falcons will surely get direct relegation.

II.3:

Excitement for the title was gone already, but no reason for champion IFK CastECastle to lose the focus, as Awesometropolis may have hoped: 0 – 1 for the champion, and since the battle for second place is so close in the II.3, Awesometropolis drop all the way down from second to fifth. AL-MaMari makes a similar fall from third to sixth, as they lost their home match against Ibsen Glory by 2 to 4. Ibsen Glory therefore goes the other way, from sixth to third, but then who is the new number 2? That is Heart United, coming from fifth place, but winning 0 to 3 against number 7 -fc Aslansar-. In the middle of all these changes Bianconeri 4ever stays in third position after a 1 – 1 draw against The Winning 11. The Winning 11 are not yet the Winning 11, but got step closer. They had some chances already over the past week, but now they finally got their first point in Division II, and not even in an easy match. Direct relegationw as already sure to them, but still a good achievement!

For second until sixth place, the difference is just 1 point, but –fc Aslansar- seems to lose connection with a 3 points gap to sixth place now. It was already said in an earlier Article 4 weeks ago that they were most likely to relegate together with The Winning 11, and that now comes closer to reality.

II.4:

The active reader may know it already. The introduction said that at least 1 Division II had a new champion, and with just 1 league to go, it means the II.4 has their champion with 3 weeks to go. And who other than Total Tykes could be the champion here? They had the chance to get huge celebrations, because the away match against number 2 Wild Boys U.A.E. was the toughest match of the season, so if they wanted the title, they had to fight for it, and they did. A 1 – 3 win was very deserved for them, and fully leaving the fight for the title, Wild Boys U.A.E can now focus on getting second place, because Dubai Gunners closed the gap to 1 point after a 1 – 0 win against Alexa. Number 4 Emirate 2008 crushed Kolonija FC 7 to 0. That last team can be grateful for having a bot in the competition, because their seventh loss is really throwing them further down the ranking, now in sixth position. But as said, bot team Azzuri FC will rescue them, as they are in seventh and suffered an obvious 7 – 0 loss against Al Taliaa this week.

Promotion from Division II to the Amiri League?

Only two of the four champions of Division II get direct promotion, and since historically the chances on promotion of the other two teams via a Qualifier match are pretty small, that fight for these two spots is vital. Total Tykes leads that fight with 33 points over, Indian Vikings and IFK CastECastle with 31 points, while Inter AD dropped into fourth after their loss and still 30 points.

NEW Champions of Division III:

Surprise, Surprise --> Anti-Climax! A foolish error of me made me say that we had two champions of Division III already last week, but we have none yet - I really need to get glasses. We just wait a bit longer for any champions in Division III.