S9 Theme Week

[Tiktaalik]

A few seasons ago, but I can replay the moment clear as day. The final minutes of the match. Inter London need to not concede to help in their fight against relegation. The match has been a tight affair. And now. The ball was hit high, and long. Not so much a wicked, precision throughball with intention, as a hit and hope, get the ball nearer to their goal and maybe something might happen ball. Sure. Something might happen.

The centreback, Bob Divesinalot - my player - saw the ball was going over the top. He read the arc, quickly doing one of the thousands of geometric calculations any athlete does subsconsciously every match, and saw the ball would land behind him. He turned, expertly guiding the onrushing striker behind him, interposing his body to make sure there was no way past. The ball drops over his shoulder. He slows, leaning back against the striker, and controls the ball before it bounces. A step forwards, and then another one. He looks up to knock the ball back to the keeper. Everything is under control. Everything.

Everything but his own body. As he pulls back his foot to play the ball, his leg cramps. Or maybe the dirt underneath his standing foot crumbles slightly and he loses his balance. It's hard to say. It's a ridiculously unlikely and unlucky moment. Instead of making contact with the ball he falls to the floor. The striker rushes past and slots the ball past the keeper.

Inter London are relegated at the end of the season.

[RussDrivesTheBus]

Let me transport you back to Season 6. Intern London are fighting for promotion out of Division 2. The squad is feisty and helmed by some powerful youngsters coming up, Tata Youre included. But, one of the more unsung heroes had yet to really write his name in the history books as one of the bigger names in London's history. Enter Jerry. Jerry had been a positive factor in the team's outings but had struggled to put everything together when it mattered most. However, he was determined to set that notion to rest with his performance in the 2nd leg of the SSL Cup Quarterfinal.

Inter London were squaring off with Division 1's Sydney. They had managed to nick a point in a 1-1 opening tie that gave them life in the decisive leg. London felt they not only could hang with this Division 1 squad, but could come out and prove that they belonged in that league with the big players. And so they did, Jerry opened his account in the 33rd minute with a poacher's finish off a rebounded effort from London's star striker, Clamence. But he wasn't done. And t turned out that London needed more as Sydney equalized less than 2 minutes later. At the half it was knotted at 1-1, and Jerry came alive. In the 53rd minute he played a lovely corner into the head of Clamence who made no mistake with his finish. But the moment that will live forever would come in an almost identical moment in the 76th.

Jerry stands over the ball at the left corner flag. He takes a couple steps back, raises his hand and sends a perfectly arced bal to the back post. Miller separates from his man at the back stick and buries the header to put London up 3-1 (4-1 agg) with 15 minutes to play! Jerry had bagged a hat-trick of goal contributions in the club's biggest game to that point and sealed the first ever victory for a Divison 2 squad over a Division 1 squad! On that day, Jerry cemented himself as an Inter London legend.

[SFresh3]

Theme Week Pass

[Shnitzl]

The scene I want to talk about today happened only a few weeks ago. In a match between two teams from the bottom half of the second division, Accra hosted Red Star Laos in what promised to be a close game as both teams are looking to avoid being the worst team in the game.

However, the game was close for all but five minutes. After a promising Laos chance - a brilliant pass had sent their striker through, but his shot got blocked by Accras defenders after the Goalie had already been beat - Accra scrambled to control the ball right at their own box. That's when my scene occured.

Karl Schenkinger would later go on and tell everybody who didn't want to hear it that it was totally on purpose, that he had seen Tucker start a run and that he saw the opposing centre backs standing too far from one another. We will never truly know if it was a moment of brilliance for the usually offensively uninspired Schenkinger, or if he simply hoofed the ball away from danger and was hoping for the best, but his long ball landed brilliantly in the wide open space behind the opposing defenders, and perfectly timed for Tuckers run. Tucker rounded the keeper and effortlessly put it away, giving Accra the 1-0 lead after 6 minutes of gametime.

This event marked the beginning of a game where everything fell Accras way. At halftime, they were up 4-0 after basically scoring on every opportunity. In the second half, Laos missed sitter after sitter and only managed to score once. The end result was 4-1 for Accra, but the xG rating showed that both teams had around equal opportunities.

[FuriousChicken]

Theme week pass

[Thunfish]

Theme Week Pass. I'd write it but I gotta do my last week's check on that exam I got next Sunday...

Y'know what? Screw it. I'll write something.

I believe that the key moment that would represent Tokyo's turn into its current state of a strong, challenging side came when we won the first season's Cup. What happened was that we were up against Inter London and they had just been granted a pen. Our goalie, Nootazuki was very much done with everything at that moment and we were sort of manning the fort until things consolidated properly.

Speaking as someone who helped out with the draft, that moment where the inactive goalie not only managed to save the pen but also save a shot that came right after with the game nearly close to its finish... that was just a delicious sight, you know. Ever since then, I think it's the one victory we cherish above all else since it's the one that really started everything.

I like to think we gave his spirit justice or something.

[BUM®]

It may not be significant to the entire SSL, but taking a moment to celebrate a personal milestone for Jean-Claude.

[ulaire]

While not being really important for SSL history itself, for Felix Arasov it was the moment of coring his first, and so far only career goal. Scoring a goal is a great moment any soccer player, and for a wingback, it is an achievement that holds even greater significance. It came in a cup match against Catalunya, the second leg of S6 quarter finals. Cairo lost first match with 5-2 score and we had very small hope hope of going further in the cup. But then somehow Felix received a killer pass, and went one on one with the keeper. For him as a primarily defensive player, that's tasked with marking opposition wingers and shutting them down it was really surprising. While he was expected to contribute to the team's attacking efforts, he was training much more for assisting, not scoring by himself. But there was no one to pass the ball too, and Arasov went to chip the keeper, which surprisingly worked, albeit it looked like it was going to hit the crossbar all the way. The chip itself was not very beautiful and looked more like a cross. But it went in and Felix sees that score as the reward for his hard work and dedication. It helped the team to end the match with 5-2 score, but ultimately Cairo lost on penalties, so it's a little obscure and pretty irrelevant moment in SSL history, albeit the match itself was great from emotional and spectating standpoint.

[C9Van]

When I liked the SSL I think outside of building a team that my friends wanted to be a part of that scared the league the in game things I remember the most is probably the final against struggling Cairo.

Now Cairo had a good motivated team at the time but they just survived relegation by i think 1 or 2 games/points. They wanted this cup to prove they were building something for the future. Big bad evil Sydney were terrifying in terms of actually building players well, activity, fun active LR and had just pulled off winning the league and now were going for the double.

This was the cores last game before we gave up on this league so leaving on top meant a lot to a handful of our players and I wanted to make sure we left on top before we let Hollywood just win everything.

Cairo played amazingly throughout. The fact this went to extra time probably just built the tension since I doubt either team wanted pens since most peoples would be 5. The moment came up and Owen Forty-Four scored the winning goal for the beblos and we ended up winning the double.

I have treasured that moment so much and we celebrated in style in the LR. If that was an FA Cup final or real football final the tension for a neutral would've been amazing for a neutral and I have always remembered that goal out of the 100+ I have.

Good times :)

[248 words]

[liamcowboys]

I remember this game like it was yesterday when Seoul beat Laos in my first season which was s7 matchday 14 now you could say I remember it because it’s my best game of my career which is partially true but the game was just insanely entertaining I think the final score line was like 7-2 but the thing that made the game entertaining was Laos ability to pick weird tactics but I respect the reasoning as all the talent was up front. I remember in this moment aloiosi had an absolute blinder I think with a brace to his name. Although having close to no promotion implications Seoul were hungry to finish the season strong and that’s a compliment to Seoul I think for caring so much about the so called irrelevant match if there’s no playoff implications for the team. Seoul were clinical in this game which I think set the horizons up for a d1 for the following season to which they got promoted the hunger saw in this game from Seoul was they were told by a man believe in yourself which is an important moral to have. At the end of the day Seoul were to good for Laos but it was good to see them competing