2025-03-29, 06:48 PM - Word count: 1019
Anytime you join a sim league, there is that first impression you get of who the big dogs are. What team is currently on top? How dominant are they? What’s their secret? So in tried and true new create fashion, let’s look at the current team who is top of the dogpile that is the Minor Division for the SSL: North Shore United.
Disclaimers: I know very little about professional soccer. Have never watched a full match or attended one. I’ve watched world cup and Olympics of course, but that makes me pretty casual. Particularly when it comes to stats or tactics, I may as well be an infant. That being said, I can still do some half assed analysis! One other thing that won’t be included in this analysis is anything to do with in-sim. No tactics analysis, lineups, etc. I don’t own the sim, so be warned these takes may be garbage.
You don’t necessarily need to be a soccer savant to understand that 5 straight championships is uh good. Five straight and appearances in six straight too! NSU finished up this season 8-2-4, which was still good enough for a third place finish in the minor division.
![[Image: slYBSRg.png]](https://i.imgur.com/slYBSRg.png)
First let’s look at how the different minor division teams are positioned according to TPE. Surprisingly NSU ranks in at about 3rd this season in both average TPE and total TPE. It seems as though Monreal and Kaapstad have the fast track to the finals over NSU. Its possible that these TPE numbers already are too lagging of an indicator of NSU’s past dominance. Players go inactive or get called up. Newly drafted prospects bring average TPE down. I guess I gotta say the TPE is inconclusive or not the issue for NSU’s dominance. We need to look into something else. Let’s try the players:
North Shore United has 3 players currently rated among the top 10 for S19, but this is only a small sample size. Let’s look back another couple seasons at a minimum. I filtered by Average Rating and only looked at the Minor Division. Each player shows in the most recent season they placed Top 10, with notes on where they finished in the other seasons.
S19
Mikko Rashford II AM – 1st, S18 1st, S17 5th
George Shaheen M – 2nd, S18 2nd
Bimitar Derbatov AM – 3rd
Kika Bahl D– 10th
S18
Zizou Lopta M – S18 4th, S17 2nd
Santos Neymarinho AM – S18 6th, S17 1st
S17
Charles-Andrew-Simon Utley-Abara-Lunga AM – S17 4th
Viktoria Snooks D – S17 7th
So North Shore had an AM placing first in each of the last three seasons by average rating. I’m willing to bet the Defenders that are also placing highly simply are benefitting from some exceptional play by the Midfielders on North Shore. Let’s look into the builds for Mikko Rashford II, George Shaheen, and Santos Neymarinho to see if this tells us anything else.
Mikko Rashford II has the most TPE into Pace, Acceleration, and Finishing. This is consistent with what we are seeing with a high performing player: go fast and put ball in net. Mikko also has a strong secondary focus on Headers.
George Shaheen has the most TPE into Pace and Acceleration. Shaheen isn’t as specialized as Rashford, with their secondary focus on Crosses, Dribbling, Agility, and Technique. Maybe George is taking care of the ball and crossing it over to Mikko or another finisher?
Santos Neymarinho looks to have a blend of both builds of Shaheen and Rashford. High Pace and Acceleration to match but also high Crossing, Finishing, Passing, Flair, Dribbling, Off the Ball, and Technique. Based on where Santos finished in the average rating it seems like you don’t need to be as specialized as Rashford of Shaheen to see excellent returns. However Neymarinho also benefitted from playing with bother specialized players in S18 and Rashford in S17.
Since my own credibility is non-existent, I thought I’d borrow a little from someone who would have much more insight into NSU’s run of success: RashfordU, Organizational Manager of NSU and Reykjavik United!
Dunkler: What would you say was one of the keys to success for NUS’s current run?
RashfordU: We made a conscious effort for both of our teams to be competing. Some teams in the past have sold off any player they thought they could get some trade value from, while we would often trade for a late career player who was willing to play in the Minors.
This allowed both our major team and minor team to compete for trophies (as I didn’t want users thinking the minor leagues was just a place where no one cared)
So our minor team (NSU) is often a mix of old players near the end of their career and new users getting their first games in. I think it creates a healthy mix within the LR and so far it’s worked for us.
Dunkler: very cool. I bet that helps the LR vibes alot. The minors isn’t just a waiting room. Everyone is pitching in for the org as a whole
RashfordU: Yeah, absolutely.
I think some teams have in the past created a vacuum in their minor team (sometimes by choice, other times due to some unlucky situations).
We’ve been fortunate, have a really good mix of users. It’s been fun to watch.
Almost all of the above media was started when only a few games had been played in S19, but here we are knowing where all the teams ended up. I’ll admit that the narrative that the teams finished 1-2-3 in total TPE order is kind of lame. If anything can be inferred, maybe Athenai got simmed this season? Finishing 7th but ranking 4th in total TPE has to be disappointing. But at the end of the day, any team that finished outside of first is carrying some disappointment anyhow. Is this the start of a new run?
Disclaimers: I know very little about professional soccer. Have never watched a full match or attended one. I’ve watched world cup and Olympics of course, but that makes me pretty casual. Particularly when it comes to stats or tactics, I may as well be an infant. That being said, I can still do some half assed analysis! One other thing that won’t be included in this analysis is anything to do with in-sim. No tactics analysis, lineups, etc. I don’t own the sim, so be warned these takes may be garbage.
You don’t necessarily need to be a soccer savant to understand that 5 straight championships is uh good. Five straight and appearances in six straight too! NSU finished up this season 8-2-4, which was still good enough for a third place finish in the minor division.
First let’s look at how the different minor division teams are positioned according to TPE. Surprisingly NSU ranks in at about 3rd this season in both average TPE and total TPE. It seems as though Monreal and Kaapstad have the fast track to the finals over NSU. Its possible that these TPE numbers already are too lagging of an indicator of NSU’s past dominance. Players go inactive or get called up. Newly drafted prospects bring average TPE down. I guess I gotta say the TPE is inconclusive or not the issue for NSU’s dominance. We need to look into something else. Let’s try the players:
North Shore United has 3 players currently rated among the top 10 for S19, but this is only a small sample size. Let’s look back another couple seasons at a minimum. I filtered by Average Rating and only looked at the Minor Division. Each player shows in the most recent season they placed Top 10, with notes on where they finished in the other seasons.
S19
Mikko Rashford II AM – 1st, S18 1st, S17 5th
George Shaheen M – 2nd, S18 2nd
Bimitar Derbatov AM – 3rd
Kika Bahl D– 10th
S18
Zizou Lopta M – S18 4th, S17 2nd
Santos Neymarinho AM – S18 6th, S17 1st
S17
Charles-Andrew-Simon Utley-Abara-Lunga AM – S17 4th
Viktoria Snooks D – S17 7th
So North Shore had an AM placing first in each of the last three seasons by average rating. I’m willing to bet the Defenders that are also placing highly simply are benefitting from some exceptional play by the Midfielders on North Shore. Let’s look into the builds for Mikko Rashford II, George Shaheen, and Santos Neymarinho to see if this tells us anything else.
Mikko Rashford II has the most TPE into Pace, Acceleration, and Finishing. This is consistent with what we are seeing with a high performing player: go fast and put ball in net. Mikko also has a strong secondary focus on Headers.
George Shaheen has the most TPE into Pace and Acceleration. Shaheen isn’t as specialized as Rashford, with their secondary focus on Crosses, Dribbling, Agility, and Technique. Maybe George is taking care of the ball and crossing it over to Mikko or another finisher?
Santos Neymarinho looks to have a blend of both builds of Shaheen and Rashford. High Pace and Acceleration to match but also high Crossing, Finishing, Passing, Flair, Dribbling, Off the Ball, and Technique. Based on where Santos finished in the average rating it seems like you don’t need to be as specialized as Rashford of Shaheen to see excellent returns. However Neymarinho also benefitted from playing with bother specialized players in S18 and Rashford in S17.
Since my own credibility is non-existent, I thought I’d borrow a little from someone who would have much more insight into NSU’s run of success: RashfordU, Organizational Manager of NSU and Reykjavik United!
Dunkler: What would you say was one of the keys to success for NUS’s current run?
RashfordU: We made a conscious effort for both of our teams to be competing. Some teams in the past have sold off any player they thought they could get some trade value from, while we would often trade for a late career player who was willing to play in the Minors.
This allowed both our major team and minor team to compete for trophies (as I didn’t want users thinking the minor leagues was just a place where no one cared)
So our minor team (NSU) is often a mix of old players near the end of their career and new users getting their first games in. I think it creates a healthy mix within the LR and so far it’s worked for us.
Dunkler: very cool. I bet that helps the LR vibes alot. The minors isn’t just a waiting room. Everyone is pitching in for the org as a whole
RashfordU: Yeah, absolutely.
I think some teams have in the past created a vacuum in their minor team (sometimes by choice, other times due to some unlucky situations).
We’ve been fortunate, have a really good mix of users. It’s been fun to watch.
Almost all of the above media was started when only a few games had been played in S19, but here we are knowing where all the teams ended up. I’ll admit that the narrative that the teams finished 1-2-3 in total TPE order is kind of lame. If anything can be inferred, maybe Athenai got simmed this season? Finishing 7th but ranking 4th in total TPE has to be disappointing. But at the end of the day, any team that finished outside of first is carrying some disappointment anyhow. Is this the start of a new run?
![[Image: oknomSSL.gif]](https://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/oknomSSL.gif)
