2025-02-12, 08:10 PM - Word count: 903
The Minor Leagues, the wild, wild west of the SSL. On Hercule’s first go around he skipped a stop in the lower division, but as he becomes integrated into his new organization it was recommended he play a season with Kaapstad (Cape Town) to round out his skill set and acclimate to the club. Biases on the table let’s take a look at the lay of the land in the ever changing minor league.
We’ll start by looking at the TPE of the starting XI and the number of current actives for each club. In my mind there are two tiers within the division. The top 3 consist of Montreal, Cape Town and North Shore. Montreal and North Shore are the feeder clubs for the pair of organizations that have dominated the Majors in recent years. But the stock of talent has needed to be raided; slowly, but steadily bringing them more in line with the competition. Cape Town has stockpiled a lot of young talent, and hopes are high that things start to click for the club this year. The lower 5 span a wider range of TPE, and may be more willing to experiment with extreme tactical choices. I could see the bottom 5 finish in any order, but fear the TPE gulf is too large to seriously compete for the top of the table.
![[Image: image.png]](https://i.ibb.co/hx2xQWfN/image.png)
Beyond the TPE values and the active player base which might inform their ability to grow over the course of the season, we need to consider the tactical choices each club makes. Some clubs may have the luxury to adopt a shape very similar to their major squad - leaning into well understood meta strategies. Others might choose to experiment in the lower division working on relationships between key players or trying to find a unique approach to solving the game of football. Let’s start by looking at the formations top 3 clubs employ.
![[Image: image.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/3N1RDB0r/image.png)
At this point it needs to be mentioned that while these formations were used in the friendlies, they may not be used throughout the course of the season. The minors in particular can see some dramatic shifts in strategy. But at a glance we see the top 3 clubs adopting mostly familiar strategies, not necessarily what their big league sister club runs, but something we can make sense of even if not purely a meta strategy. You might take a stance on the workability of any of these tactics, but none are clearly so extreme that I would modify my expectation of the club’s performance. Reykjavik brings a lot of attacking firepower, led by a pair of Rashfords up front with Henry Andrews available to help shuttle the ball forward. Montreal brings solid defensive structure with the most experienced minor leaguer of all, Maximiliano holding court in the defensive midfield. Along with a pair of experienced wing backs and a strong keeper I’d expect Monteral to excel at keeping scoring to a minimum. And finally Cape Town, taking a 4-1-4-1 shape will really rely on discipline and expertise from their offseason addition Hefeweizen (aka yours truly). If the Belgian can effectively connect with the team’s impressive forwards the sky is the limit for the southern hemisphere club.
The next pair I’d like to take a look at include two more avant garde strategies. Athenai differentiates themselves from this lower 5 group with an average TPE of 727, but when trying to label the shape they adopt you quickly see numbers floating around your head ala beautiful mind. They did use the same shape at the end of last season which saw them finish in the bottom half of the league, a clear step below the teams that I’m placing above them his season. Similarly, AS Paris has a bit of an unconventional shape. Two things to note with them. This is the same shape their major league club used in the friendlies, and more importantly this club is known to pull some tricky formation changes. I fully expect their major league club to revert back to the more standard 3-4-3 shape they had great success with last season. For the minor league club I’m less certain of their plans, but wouldn’t be surprised if they fell into line with their higher division structure.
![[Image: image.png]](https://i.ibb.co/PGWKvLsB/image.png)
The final 3 clubs adopt more meta shapes and or something akin to their big league brothers. But each of these clubs do face a TPE deficit compared to the rest of the league. Cairo and in particular London face an extra layer of TPE difficulty as they cannot field a field of 11 actives, limiting their possibility for growth over the course of the season. Out of this group I am actually most optimistic about the chances of the Seoul club, while the lowest in TPE to start the season they have a strong core of recent draftees that I expect to contribute right away (including a pair straight off tasting success as part of the Benelux federation in the WSFC).
![[Image: image.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/tTGtBS1X/image.png)
Given how easily things can change over the course of the season, especially in the always evolving minor leagues I would expect the unexpected going forward. But hopefully this walk through the minor league wilderness highlighted some of the stories to watch this season. I know I’ll be watching with excitement!
We’ll start by looking at the TPE of the starting XI and the number of current actives for each club. In my mind there are two tiers within the division. The top 3 consist of Montreal, Cape Town and North Shore. Montreal and North Shore are the feeder clubs for the pair of organizations that have dominated the Majors in recent years. But the stock of talent has needed to be raided; slowly, but steadily bringing them more in line with the competition. Cape Town has stockpiled a lot of young talent, and hopes are high that things start to click for the club this year. The lower 5 span a wider range of TPE, and may be more willing to experiment with extreme tactical choices. I could see the bottom 5 finish in any order, but fear the TPE gulf is too large to seriously compete for the top of the table.
Beyond the TPE values and the active player base which might inform their ability to grow over the course of the season, we need to consider the tactical choices each club makes. Some clubs may have the luxury to adopt a shape very similar to their major squad - leaning into well understood meta strategies. Others might choose to experiment in the lower division working on relationships between key players or trying to find a unique approach to solving the game of football. Let’s start by looking at the formations top 3 clubs employ.
At this point it needs to be mentioned that while these formations were used in the friendlies, they may not be used throughout the course of the season. The minors in particular can see some dramatic shifts in strategy. But at a glance we see the top 3 clubs adopting mostly familiar strategies, not necessarily what their big league sister club runs, but something we can make sense of even if not purely a meta strategy. You might take a stance on the workability of any of these tactics, but none are clearly so extreme that I would modify my expectation of the club’s performance. Reykjavik brings a lot of attacking firepower, led by a pair of Rashfords up front with Henry Andrews available to help shuttle the ball forward. Montreal brings solid defensive structure with the most experienced minor leaguer of all, Maximiliano holding court in the defensive midfield. Along with a pair of experienced wing backs and a strong keeper I’d expect Monteral to excel at keeping scoring to a minimum. And finally Cape Town, taking a 4-1-4-1 shape will really rely on discipline and expertise from their offseason addition Hefeweizen (aka yours truly). If the Belgian can effectively connect with the team’s impressive forwards the sky is the limit for the southern hemisphere club.
The next pair I’d like to take a look at include two more avant garde strategies. Athenai differentiates themselves from this lower 5 group with an average TPE of 727, but when trying to label the shape they adopt you quickly see numbers floating around your head ala beautiful mind. They did use the same shape at the end of last season which saw them finish in the bottom half of the league, a clear step below the teams that I’m placing above them his season. Similarly, AS Paris has a bit of an unconventional shape. Two things to note with them. This is the same shape their major league club used in the friendlies, and more importantly this club is known to pull some tricky formation changes. I fully expect their major league club to revert back to the more standard 3-4-3 shape they had great success with last season. For the minor league club I’m less certain of their plans, but wouldn’t be surprised if they fell into line with their higher division structure.
The final 3 clubs adopt more meta shapes and or something akin to their big league brothers. But each of these clubs do face a TPE deficit compared to the rest of the league. Cairo and in particular London face an extra layer of TPE difficulty as they cannot field a field of 11 actives, limiting their possibility for growth over the course of the season. Out of this group I am actually most optimistic about the chances of the Seoul club, while the lowest in TPE to start the season they have a strong core of recent draftees that I expect to contribute right away (including a pair straight off tasting success as part of the Benelux federation in the WSFC).
Given how easily things can change over the course of the season, especially in the always evolving minor leagues I would expect the unexpected going forward. But hopefully this walk through the minor league wilderness highlighted some of the stories to watch this season. I know I’ll be watching with excitement!
