2024-11-26, 02:14 PM - Word count:
This season was expected to be a rough one for us. We started the season as the projected 4th place academy team, with 400-1 odds to be the champion of the academy (if I’m reading it right), behind Stockholm IK (the favorites), Victoria Falls, and Atletico Medellin (both of whom had 50-1 odds, much better than us). On top of that, our team was tiny (I will conveniently ignore that all the other teams are the same size) and we only had 4 players, one of whom isn’t even in the discord. I walked into this season fully expecting it to be like my first season in the DSFL, where my team, the Bondi Beach Buccaneers went 5-9, securing the #2 draft pick for the upcoming draft, a season filled with overcoming struggles and facing challenges through the team, but most importantly having fun, regardless of whatever the simulation gods dictated was to be our fate.
Our first match of the season was against Atlético Medellin, the team I would most consider to be our rivals. You see, out of their four members, I know and would say I’m good friends with three of them, mystic (who I brought into the league :)), sconnie, and Ice. More than anything, Sconnie played the exact same position as me, and I was determined to show all three of them up.
This was expected to be a close game, with home-field advantage giving us the slight edge over Medellin, with us having 5-4 odds of winning, 5-2 odds of a draw, and Medellin having 2-1 odds of a win. While it was expected for us to win, I was still nervous but also excited to see Flip play. My only previous experience with sim leagues is the ISFL, in which the simulation runs a bunch of dots, and this would certainly be a new experience, getting to watch an actual render of my player play.
As the game started, we got off to an extremely early lead, scoring within the first minute of the game, a shot by Callan Johnson after Artista stole the ball from Dewitt and drove it down, passing the ball to Johnson for the assist. We tried another scoring drive, but the ball stayed around midfield with them playing excellent defense to ensure we couldn’t find any gaps or openings. Eventually, we get an opening and bring the ball right to the goal, but Artista barely misses the shot, over-kicking it just slightly, leading to a goal kick and no longer having the opportunity. They start to find gaps, passing the ball around well to ensure we can’t defend, leading to a beautiful combo where Cod launches it to Minion who taps it in towards Energz, who scores the go-ahead goal to tie the game. We try driving but get intercepted, and they come close to scoring but end up missing, leading to a goal kick. The game continues on without much action for a while and ends up 1:1 at halftime. After halftime, we keep it back, eventually moving it forward but get cornered, somehow managing to move it out and almost scoring a huge goal that would put us ahead. Thankfully, although it goes over, it ends up as a corner kick, but they manage to save it and move it out of the crowd of people. Skipping ahead, we keep playing really well but falling short. Off of a throw we manage to move the ball all the way to the goal, but they end up blocking the shot and saving it. After the corner, they header it away, and although we recover it, they end up driving the ball towards our side, with everyone back near their goal. They keep it close, almost scoring but it goes out of play for a goal kick. This however, leads to (in my opinion) the worst play from us (mainly me) this game, with the goal kick immediately being intercepted and taken for an easy goal to put them up 1:2. The ball moves back and forth for a while, but we put together a nice drive, making space by passing and ending up with a nice goal by Artista, assisted by Cahill, tying up the game. We maintain a load of action, with both teams getting extremely close to scoring, but finally manage to put together yet another scoring drive to put us up, this time with Hermit sending it over to Jebaseelan for the lead, and eventually the last goal of the game. A bit more defensive play occurs, however, in the 83rd minute, and although it gets close this ends up as the final score.
This was a huge defining win to start the season. Although we had one huge erroneous play, across the entire game we had the chance to prove that they were wrong to rank us as the underdogs, and we did just that. As a whole, our offense consistently put together drives, and if not for their amazing defenders, we’d have had a lot more points. As for the defense, if not for that one play, we would’ve held an excellent team to one point, and as a whole, we played well, while we no doubt have room to improve, I’m excited for this season and all that it entails for us. That’s all for now, and cya!
Our first match of the season was against Atlético Medellin, the team I would most consider to be our rivals. You see, out of their four members, I know and would say I’m good friends with three of them, mystic (who I brought into the league :)), sconnie, and Ice. More than anything, Sconnie played the exact same position as me, and I was determined to show all three of them up.
This was expected to be a close game, with home-field advantage giving us the slight edge over Medellin, with us having 5-4 odds of winning, 5-2 odds of a draw, and Medellin having 2-1 odds of a win. While it was expected for us to win, I was still nervous but also excited to see Flip play. My only previous experience with sim leagues is the ISFL, in which the simulation runs a bunch of dots, and this would certainly be a new experience, getting to watch an actual render of my player play.
As the game started, we got off to an extremely early lead, scoring within the first minute of the game, a shot by Callan Johnson after Artista stole the ball from Dewitt and drove it down, passing the ball to Johnson for the assist. We tried another scoring drive, but the ball stayed around midfield with them playing excellent defense to ensure we couldn’t find any gaps or openings. Eventually, we get an opening and bring the ball right to the goal, but Artista barely misses the shot, over-kicking it just slightly, leading to a goal kick and no longer having the opportunity. They start to find gaps, passing the ball around well to ensure we can’t defend, leading to a beautiful combo where Cod launches it to Minion who taps it in towards Energz, who scores the go-ahead goal to tie the game. We try driving but get intercepted, and they come close to scoring but end up missing, leading to a goal kick. The game continues on without much action for a while and ends up 1:1 at halftime. After halftime, we keep it back, eventually moving it forward but get cornered, somehow managing to move it out and almost scoring a huge goal that would put us ahead. Thankfully, although it goes over, it ends up as a corner kick, but they manage to save it and move it out of the crowd of people. Skipping ahead, we keep playing really well but falling short. Off of a throw we manage to move the ball all the way to the goal, but they end up blocking the shot and saving it. After the corner, they header it away, and although we recover it, they end up driving the ball towards our side, with everyone back near their goal. They keep it close, almost scoring but it goes out of play for a goal kick. This however, leads to (in my opinion) the worst play from us (mainly me) this game, with the goal kick immediately being intercepted and taken for an easy goal to put them up 1:2. The ball moves back and forth for a while, but we put together a nice drive, making space by passing and ending up with a nice goal by Artista, assisted by Cahill, tying up the game. We maintain a load of action, with both teams getting extremely close to scoring, but finally manage to put together yet another scoring drive to put us up, this time with Hermit sending it over to Jebaseelan for the lead, and eventually the last goal of the game. A bit more defensive play occurs, however, in the 83rd minute, and although it gets close this ends up as the final score.
This was a huge defining win to start the season. Although we had one huge erroneous play, across the entire game we had the chance to prove that they were wrong to rank us as the underdogs, and we did just that. As a whole, our offense consistently put together drives, and if not for their amazing defenders, we’d have had a lot more points. As for the defense, if not for that one play, we would’ve held an excellent team to one point, and as a whole, we played well, while we no doubt have room to improve, I’m excited for this season and all that it entails for us. That’s all for now, and cya!
