Well, since the start of the league has dawned upon us and also as with how I normally do things, I would like to build up some anticipation by introducing what I know about the other teams in our division. For the guys who have been away for some time due to their various reasons, do know that we have been placed in Division 2 for Season 7 of the Saturday Espzen League. There will be 4 divisions in all so I guess our decent friendly results have had a favourable impression on the Espzen league organisers. Our division is made up of 8 teams and each team will play each other twice thus we will have 14 games in our league season. This is more or less just like our D2D Season so I guess we should be pretty familiar with what to expect.
And on top of these league games, we have also put our name in the hat for the Espzen FA Cup that will see us pitted against the Sunday and Midweek Teams. Although the games are tentatively supposed to be played on sundays itself, I will try my best to reach a compromise to hopefully play them on Saturdays. Do know that our commitment in the cup is a minimum of 2 games as it is in a knock out format. If we lose in the 1st round, we will then fall into the Plate category thus explaining the minimum of 2 games. This will bring alot of exposure and I believe this is what Huseyin wants of the team as well. Do not forget that this season, we will not only be playing for ourselves, but also with the reputation of our big boss on the line. Lets hope to bring him more bragging rights as we have done with our solid victory on the floating platform and of course hope to captivate him sufficiently so that his association with the team does not end after just 1 season. =D
So here are the teams in our division and a brief outline of what to expect from them:
This team has an average age that is more or less similar to us and is mainly a chinese team. We should be expecting them to be similarly in terms of fitness so 2 tough battles with theses guys are to be expected. AFC debuted last season in the Sat league and they finished 3rd in Division 3 thus earning promotion to Div 2 this season. For the pioneering members of YSOSRS, you guys may remember this guy called Wenhao (Full back) who actually had a trial with us in our very 1st game. Well, coincidentally he plays for AFC as well. But do not be fooled, as I do have intel on these guys and they could spring a real surprise or 2 on their day.
The average of this team remains relatively unknown but from viewing their player's list, I believe that these guys are in their early to mid twenties as well. Majority of the team are malay guys and they have been in the league for 2 seasons now. The team also got promoted from Div 3 of last season by finishing in 2nd place just above AFC. Unfortunately, these guys got ousted on the final day of the season where 3 points were needed to win the league however they contrived to lose out on the title after being 3-1 up with 10 minutes to go in that final game. Unfortunate circumstances but you can be sure that they will definitely be hungry to make it right this time round. Like AFC, I'm expecting them to possess the surprise element that could hurt us if we lose focus.
Premier Football Club (Link: http://www.espzen.com/teamsdiv.asp?leagueNo=83&teamno=512)
PFC have an average age of 30 or so if I'm not wrong. More or less the seasoned campaigners as they have been plying their trade in the Espzen Sat league for a couple of seasons now. Mahdi had 1st hand experience playing with them a couple of times last season as PFC were in Division 2 as well. These guys finished 5th out of 8 teams and narrowly avoided relegation last season. They probably did not have the best of overall performances but a point of caution is that they did beat the meridian team 2-1 in one of their early meetings last season. So like the other 2 teams, PFC could be a force to be reckoned with on their ON days.
The only expat team in our Division this time round and they also happen to be champions of Division 3 last season. They muscled off the fierce competition from AFC & Dynamites as well as FC Hospitality whom we overcame in a friendly sometime back, to earn the title. The team has an average age of above 35 and from what I know, they have a certain legendary Norwegian Striker named Olai who just like his namesake (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer) scores goals by the bucketloads every season. The man is definitely one to watch out for should we come face to face with him. A big strong team and we ourselves have had the experience of playing both St Andrews as well as New Team FC in our friendly games and we know how these guys are like. Not going to be an easy ride against them for sure.
Well, we've already faced Redsaga in our 1st league game and while we did come out of the clash with a positive 2-0 win on the day, I did hear that they were not at their full strength and were missing several key players. Truth is, neither were we. These guys are mainly Chinese nationals who are PR's right now. And as those who made it for the 1st game would have known, their secret weapon is in the Kazak playmaker striker that they have. Redsaga have been playing in the Sat league for 2 seasons now and they finished 2nd in the 11 team Espzen sat league 2 seasons back whereas they finished 5th out of 8 teams in Division 1 last season. Coming from division 1 and finishing just behind St Andrews FC that we played at the MBFP recently who were 4th, my understanding of this team is that they will be right up there competing for honours this time round. We will be expecting a tough return leg against this guys.
SFC havent uploaded a team logo thus far and are till now the only team in the league who remains a relatively unknown quantity. Contrary to what Syafiq told me some time back, this isn't the same team that has featured in the Goal Arena Sunday league (Due to some serious snooping on my part) and the only thing I do know is that these guys are more or less similar in age to us and are mainly made up of malay guys. They did play a friendly game against Team Intense FC who are in Div 1 this season and who are made up of former Asian University Games soccer players (according to Yasin), and SFC lost out narrowly to them in a 2-1 defeat. Just FYI, Naranja played against Team Intense and lost 3-0. So yeah, I'd expect SFC to pose a threat to us. We will certainly need to be on our A game to beat them and we will be facing them in our next league game at Jurong stadium in a week's time.
Finally, as mentioned above for Redsaga who finished 2nd in a 11 team sat league 2 seasons back, Teamcuzz finished 3rd in that very same season in the process narrowly losing out to Redsaga on goal difference. These guys are one big family team and they did have 3 of Mahdi's meridian team mates playing for them in that season (including the nigerian guy whom we played against when we faced SOS last season). Those meridian guys are now no longer featuring for TCFC but my understanding of the team's strength would be that they would quite likely pose as much of a threat as Redsaga II FC. I'm pretty certain that they would be direct competitors for any honours this season and will be a team to watch out for. So mark those dates down on your calendars as our big games have already been planned out.
So there it is, a very brief outlook at the teams whom we will be facing and a final update on the signings for our Espzen season will see these guys featuring for us in the league.
IN:
1) Kassler
2) Jason
3) Yasin
4) Mahdi
5) Jasmond (Expected month of return: Mid to Late Feb)
Out:
1) Phileo (Unfortunately the man will be having church commitments on most saturdays from the turn of the new year and thus we will be seeing lesser of him. Damn)
In other news, young Alan has unfortunately decided to stay on with the meridian team and hopefully we will be able to have him join up with us next season instead. Cheers and all the best dude. Hope to hear from you soon!
So cheers, and I sincerely hope to see all of you guys at the upcoming events for the team. Like I said, the quicker the entire group of us bond especially with the newer guys, it would allow us to improve on the camaraderie with each other and also see us perform better on the pitch. Adios and cya peeps!
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