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Christmas Cheer Comes to Pacific Premier

Written by OrangeStar

OrangeStar previews the four Christmas Day matches in Oceania's top flight league, the Pacific Premier. Hear all the team news and predictions ahead of what could be a Title Winning weekend for Hewish FC (417981). Matches covered include Candy vs UNPREDICTABLE DYNAMITE (590445314), SuperBoy77 vs Mascot Musketeers (590445315), Hewish FC vs Arms and Legs (590445316) and Cotchin FC vs Pauldo Bay United (590445317).

Hello and welcome to The Oceanic News! OrangeStar here, I'll be your guide through the biggest news across Oceania's Pacific Premier and the Slugs and Sea Slugs, Oceania's National Teams. We have a special Christmas edition in store for you today as we enter Week 13 of the Pacific Premier season, so strap yourselves in and we will get underway!

Pacific Premier
The Pacific Premier Christmas Day Extravaganza (TM) kicks off at 2 pm AEDST Sunday with UNPREDICTABLE DYNAMITE visiting Candy (590445314). CandyPerfumesGirl has closed up the candy shop this season, and is guaranteed relegation in the new year. DOOZER's team is currently in seventh and will need a big win this weekend to stand a chance of staying in the Pacific Premier next season, as sixth-placed Arms and Legs face Candy in the final match of the season.

Mascot Musketeers will be looking to remain in the hunt for second place this season as they travel to New Zealand to play against SuperBoy77 (590445315). SuperBoy77 is not entirely safe from relegation, and will need his side to put in a much better performance this week if they are to avoid a repeat of the 4-0 drubbing they received in the reverse fixture.

Hewish FC are favourites for the 'Best Christmas Present' award this season, as they will look to win dave3889 his first ever Pacific Premier trophy on Christmas Day against Arms and Legs (590445316). Staff at Zambora Memorial Stadium are expecting a sell out, but know that anything but a win would prevent Hewish from sealing the title. armsandlegs has been busy on the transfer market this week, selling 33 year old midfielder Marco Duran (340029997) for a tidy $10 million after bringing in 26 year old Samuele Grotto (390967097) from Italy as a replacement for just over $9 million. The two sides drew 2-2 in the reverse fixture, but dave3889 will be hoping home advantage will get his side across the line for a convincing title win.

The Match of the Round for Week 13 sees Cotchin FC playing host to Pauldo Bay United in a decisive match in the race for second place (590445317). This match between Oceanic superstars sees the reigning Pacific Premier champion hosting the winner of this season's Oceanic Cup and the league's top scorer, Ernest Tatupu (347501265) will be paying another visit to Cloud Nine. Despite scoring 10 league goals this season, Tatupu has only scored one against Cotchin, which came in the reverse fixture. Tatupu enjoyed no luck at Cloud Nine last season either, watching from the bench as his side conceded six goals. Cotchin are considered hot favourites after averaging five goals per game against Pauldo Bay in their past three meetings. Adam_F_Duritz will be eager to take all three points and a boost to his side's goal difference to give Cotchin the best chance of going back-to-back for the title if Hewish were to slip up against Arms and Legs.

Don't forget to add these matches to your HT-Live viewer and head over to the dedicated TeamSpeak 3 Server to listen to BrinChaser call the Pacific Premier matches live (16816851.1)!

Slugwatch
It has been a slow week on the international front, with the Slugs, Oceania's Senior National Team, playing their friendly season after their World Cup Qualification campaign ended with the team finishing 6th in Group 13. The Third Round of the World Cup has just gotten underway, where both of the qualifiers from our group feature. Croatia started strongly with a 5-0 win over Italy, who finished as Runner-Up in World Cup 24 (597051818). It was a defensive smash and grab from the Croatians, who posted ratings above divine in every defensive sector and completely shut out the Italian attackers. Croatia took their chances on the break to secure an incredible win that featured three counter attack goals and two goals from special events. In the other match featuring a Group 13 qualifier, Belgium were defeated 2-1 by Finland (597051824). Belgium were very focused on attacking through the middle of the park, but that cost them in their wing defense sectors. Finland were able to capitalise on this, focusing their attacks down the flanks and scoring a goal from each of the wings.

The Sea Slugs, Oceania's U20 National Team, have been met with some severe bad luck throughout their current qualification campaign, losing five of their 11 matches so far by just one goal. With all hopes of qualification gone, manager Jaidyn (13040187) blooding a host of 18 year old talent for the overnight match against Ecuador, which finished 7-0 in favour of the visitors (596051449). There are still four weeks to go in the U20 World Cup Qualifiers, so we will be highlighting some of the special talent that awaits us in the years to come over the following weeks.

That's all we have time for in today's issue of The Oceanic News! Thank you so much for reading the article, and hopefully you will join us again next week as we bring in the New Year in style! I'd like to wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas, and as always, stay tuned for the next issue!