New Year, New Season (Almost)

OrangeStar previews the four New Years Day matches in Oceania's top flight league, the Pacific Premier. Hear all the fallout from the Christmas Day games last weekend, and join us as we take a look at how the promotion battle is shaping up in the Second Division. Our featured Pacific Premier matches today are UNPREDICTABLE DYNAMITE vs SuperBoy77 (590445317), Arms and Legs vs Candy (590445319), Pauldo Bay United vs Hewish FC (590445320) and Mascot Musketeers vs Cotchin FC (590445321). We also feature matches from the Second Division between Middle Park F.C. and cardiff tigers (590445377) and Unilaterals and Banzat (590445489).

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. With the year almost over, the world of Hattrick is preparing for the final match day of the season. Strap yourselves in, and let's get underway!

Pacific Premier
It was a Christmas to remember for dave3889 as Hewish FC secured the Pacific Premier title for Season 51. Hewish's comfortable 3-0 derby against Arms and Legs was enough to secure the title for the home side, who dominated the majority of the match and certainly could have won by more (590445316). The victory for Hewish was made even sweeter by the fact that Pauldo Bay United managed to grab a 5-2 away win against Cotchin FC, thanks to three second half goals (590445318). The visitors scored on every one of their chances, with all five coming from counter-attacks, something that will surely leave Adam_F_Duritz wondering what he had done to wrong the Match Engine. Elsewhere, SuperBoy77 made it impossible for anyone to steal fifth place from them with a crucial 2-0 win over Mascot Musketeers (590445315) while UNPREDICTABLE DYNAMITE did everything they could to stay alive in the top flight for another season with their 8-0 drubbing of Candy (590445314).

To truly stay alive this season, DYNAMITE will need to take all three points from their match against SuperBoy77 this weekend, and win it by quite a large margin (590445317). DOOZER will be hoping THE BLOW UP MATTRESS is packed for his final match of the season - the South Australian will need a huge slice of luck if his side is to get past the heavily favoured visitors. Expect to see a strong counter-attack from DYNAMITE as the tactic served them well in Week 1, leading to a 5-0 win for DOOZER. Arms and Legs have a much easier task, needing to take three points from Candy and win by at least two goals more than DYNAMITE do if they are to stay alive this season (590445319). With CandyPerfumesGirl's team giving up an average of 9.6 goals per game, we feel armsandlegs certainly has the simpler task in avoiding automatic relegation.

Although Hewish FC has secured the Pacific Premier title, dave3889 will still expect a professional performance from his side as they face Pauldo Bay United in their final match of the season (590445320). Paul_G is still locked in a three-way race for second place in the league and although his side is in the box seat at the moment, if they drop points they are likely to miss out and fall to third. Both roel22 and Adam_F_Duritz will be hoping this happens so they can take advantage, with Mascot Musketeers and Cotchin FC meeting in the Match of the Round (590445321). The best attack in the league will be looking to exploit any opportunities they can get against the second best defense in the league, after they were frustrated by Pauldo Bay last weekend. Both teams are reasonably even from a TSI standpoint, though Mascot Musketeers have not won in their last three matches. The teams cannot be separated on their history, with both managers taking two wins from the six prior meetings between the teams. The Musketeers haven't been able to get a win against Cotchin in their last four meetings, suggesting Cotchin may have a slight upper hand.

Second Division Summary
The race for promotion to the Pacific Premier kicks into top gear this weekend, as the best teams from the Second Division duke it out for a guaranteed place in Oceania's top flight next season. Yellow Ticket Ref (417994) are the only team with a guaranteed place in the Premier division after their 10-0 win last week put them four points above the automatic promotion line. Its Friday FC also sit above the auto-promote line at the moment, but a slip in their final game of the season could open the door for Middle Park F.C. or cardiff tigers to claim the II.1 crown in their match at Stadio Bokolis (590445377). Cardiff have won just one of the five league matches played between the two teams, and TSI and league position would suggest the Parkers have the upper hand.

Loz's Lovable Losers (77673) should have II.4 wrapped up, needing to win against 7th place to secure top spot and what will most likely be a Promotion Qualifier against a Pacific Premier side. II.3 has the closest race for promotion of the Second Division, with Unilaterals facing off against Banzat in a match that will determine the league champion and who gets a chance at a Promotion Qualifier (590445489). Torks will be without Vladimir Tepeshanov (370059840) who was injured celebrating his second goal in Banzat's 9-0 thrashing of 87 Paranoid FC last weekend. Tepeshanov's goal came in the 89th minute and was the final goal of the match and the Technical Wing Back will be missed by his manager. The odds are hugely in favour of Unilaterals in this one, with vasquezbt having lost just once to Banzat over the last seven matches between the two sides. This match could put the exclamation point on what has been a period of dominance for Unilaterals, having finished second or better in their last four seasons in II.3.

Slugwatch
We now turn our attention to the Last 16 of the current World Cup. Though Oceania did not qualify for the big dance, both qualifiers from Oceania's group (Croatia and Belgium) played matches during the week. Croatia still lead Group 2 after they followed up their shock 5-0 win over Italy with a 0-0 draw against Poland midweek (597051817). Both teams were firmly focused on defending, with Croatia looking to press away as many chances as possible and cling to their place in the top two. They face Germany overnight Friday in a match that will see the winner qualify for the Elite Eight at the loser's expense (597051813). Belgium will be disappointed in their 2-2 draw with Slovenia (597051829) having conceded the lead twice in their crucial fixture after losing their opening match. Belgium play group leaders The Netherlands in their final match during the early hours of New Year's Eve and will need a win and other results to fall in their favour if they are to have any chance of making the Elite Eight (597051828).

Oceania's U20 Sea Slugs are also out of contention for qualification to the next U20 World Cup, and will be blooding some new talent in their match against Senegal on Saturday morning (596051453). Senegal have beaten Oceania on four prior occasions, and we don't expect that to change this weekend. This week, we take a look at one of the Sea Slugs stars of tomorrow, Ed Bellara (419154438).

Ed Bellara	(419154438)
Age	18 years
Club	Randomisers (418555)
Youth Academy	White Horse United (77074)
Caps	3
Specialty	Quick
Position	Winger
Career Goals	3 (club) 0 (U20)

Ed Bellara was transferred from White Horse United to Randomisers at the tender age of 17 years and 4 days just over a season and a half ago. The transfer of Bellara cost seb04 $5,283,601; quite a hefty fee! Homelessdrunk, manager of White Horse United, is no stranger to that kind of cash though, having made over $519 million from player sales in his 12-year Hattrick career. Making his debut for the Sea Slugs on December 10th, it was like all of Bellara's Christmases had come early! The youngster put in a solid 90 minute effort on the left wing, and has played in both of the follow-up matches, though he failed to get on the scoresheet. Keep an eye on Ed, as he is sure to be a key player for the Sea Slugs in the future!

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 check out all the crucial Promotion Playoff matches for this season! I'd like to wish everyone a safe and happy New Year, and as always, stay tuned for the next issue!

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