2026-04-07, 04:55 PM - Word count:
(This post was last modified: 2026-04-07, 04:55 PM by xyan. Edited 1 time in total.)
Sei here, being translated to your native language via advanced electronic processing. I am new to the Sydney City Football Academy and the SSL in general. In order to better learn about the league and each of its organizations, I will be evaluating each team; majors, minors, and academy teams. The scope of details assessed include rating their kits, breaking down their recent seasonal performances, and then providing predictions for this season off of first impressions.
CA Buenos Aires - Majors
Location: Argentina
Kits: B-. The orange color is sleek and the stripe is simple, but using the yellow adjacent to the orange is a strong pairing to say the least. Using the black to break up the orange and yellow more would lead me to liking this more, but the orange and white kit is good for me.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D2,
Athenai F.C. - Minors
Location: Greece
Kits: B. Sporty with a royal blue, these kits even include representation of a warrior. Brilliant addition that breaks up the consistent coloring. The gold in the white jersey with the warrior is lovely, like a shining sunbeam, making it one of my favorites I’ve seen.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D2,
Hollywood FC - Majors
Location: USA
Kits: B+. Of course the USA kits have to include camo, but I won’t let this bias bring down the grade as much as I’d want; does keep it out of A territory though. The two blues go very well together, with the lighter being one of my favorite colors.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D1,
F.C. Kaapstad - Minors
Location: South Africa
Kits: C. The colors feel very South Africa, which is a quality representation, but it doesn’t give the kit a unique personality of the team compared to other potential teams from that nationality. Had they included more green than yellow, this grade would be improved for me.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D1
A.C. Romana - Majors
Location: Italy
Kits: B+. Along with the rich purple, each design includes a wonderful pattern, almost engraved or painted like a mural. A little more color variety to make it pop and it’s likely an A+ rating.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D2,
Inter London - Minors
Location: England
Kits: B-. The blue one feels very plain, but thankfully the others improve on this. The white design having shoulders separating the blue and yellow is my favorite way any kit has combined those colors, and its pattern on the white part is very neat. I also like the black kit more than the blue one, namely due to the pattern creating more depth of color than most kits.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D2,
Reykjavik United - Majors
Location: Iceland
Kits: A-. The first grade in A territory on this list, thanks to designs with a lot of variation in color. Despite the variance, each design shares the pleasing bright green color. I like all three of these, but there is a slight issue with how muddy the pattern gets on the green one.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D1,
North Shore United - Minors
Location: New Zealand
Kits: B-. This grade is a shame because the white and blue waves design is one of my favorites amongst all of the kits. The black has a nice pattern and quality shades of black and grey, but lacks something on the tip of my tongue. The yellow is both one of my least favorite colors and a shared pattern issue with their Major’s equivalent club.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D2,
Shanghai Dragons FC - Majors
Location: China
Kits: A. This is how you do designs with just 3 colors but have variety; each one feels quite different. At the same time, each one feels simplistic. The brown reads as bronze and goes extremely well with the black.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D1,
Rapid Magyar FC - Minors
Location: Hungary
Kits: C+. The designs started off well, as the purple is a really nice bright but rich shade. The white brings the same purple, but with a little bit awkward of a pattern. The third design seems like it's from a completely different team altogether, and reads as a diving suit more than a jersey.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D2,
Xelaju Cosmico FC - Majors
Location: Guatemala
Kits: B+. A rich darker green, almost teal, goes really well with the other colors. The white one has a brilliant pattern of a wing in the rich bright purple that I like so much. While the colors of the last one are great, the pattern is unfortunately muddied by how busy it is.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D2,
AF Masques Sacres - Minors
Location: Côte d'Ivoire
Kits: C. One of the teams with only 2 designs in their kits, but they feel appropriate. The red feels better of a color choice than the off-white, but if warmth is the theme, then it fits. The pattern fits way better with the off-white, due to it having better contrast than the color used versus the red.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D1,
Tokyo S.C. - Majors
Location: Japan
Kits: B-. The pink simple design is understandably the weakest here, but nothing inherently wrong with it. The black with two colors of confetti is a very fun design and the strongest here in my opinion. The red design with the pride flag feels like it fits with the previous pink colorations, despite being quite different in design.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D2,
Cairo City - Minors
Location: Egypt
Kits: C+. The pattern that Reykjavik had appears here with the same muddiness. The gold here also appears more yellow than I would like, compared to Shanghai’s bronze, which works well. Their third design is shared with Tokyo’s third but in blue, but I think I like it with red more. The animal patterns seem to really work in the kits seen so far.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D2,
CF Catalunya - Majors
Location: Spain
Kits: C. Like with CA Buenos Aires, I need to mention that the yellow and red need to be broken up with a 3rd color in my opinion. Their second design, with the black and red is both simple and well thought in shades of color. Only two designs for the team despite the team’s veteran status, but at least they bring a feeling of traditional design that other teams don’t have in their kit.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D2,
Seoul MFC - Minors
Location: South Korea
Kits: B+. The colors are nice, but the black doesn't do so well on the dark green as a stripe pattern. Overall, they also feel traditional in design, like CF Catalunya, but the 3 different stripe patterns beg for more variety in their designs. This is why the white and blueish colored design works the best of them, for the pattern within the pattern.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D2,
Uniao Sao Paulo - Majors
Location: Brazil
Kits: C. Another two design team, but this time with much less flair thanks to a very plain white shirt design. The stripes on both are very simple. Even just a simple texture pattern added to these designs could uplift them to a B grade easily.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D1,
AS Paris - Minors
Location: France
Kits: A-. The color splash design is one of my favorites that I have seen. More splash than just the red and white mostly on the bottom, and you have a perfect shirt. The white design has a very creative way to do a stripe (if some other team kit designs adopted this, theirs could be very elevated in grade). The only minor issue I have is that the red design could have a slightly more contrasted fleur de lis, so it stands out more.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D1,
Schwarzwalder FV - Majors
Location: Germany
Kits: C+. Each design is clean, and mixes traditional with modern between them. The main issue is that the second and third feel like they should be before the white with black stripe design on the list. Also, the red and green designs pairing so well makes the white with black stripe design feel like a different team, if it weren’t for the club logo.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D2,
Montreal United - Minors
Location: Canada
Kits: B-. Each design feels well complemented in color, and traditional in pattern. Another team that could be elevated by just including a simple pattern along with the stripes or split color. Also, like Schwarzwalder FV, the third design colors feel out of place here.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D1,
CD Tenochtitlan - Majors
Location: Mexico
Kits: B-. CD Tenochtitlan is one of the few clubs that really involve their nation’s flag colors into the kit, and they also do it in a traditional set of designs, for the most part. As mentioned before, I am not a huge fan of the bold yellows, but this feels right here with how different their designs are in main colors. The third one does big imprint on red well, unlike other clubs, and is a nice change-up compared to their more traditional designs before it.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D1,
Krung Thep FC - Minors
Location: Thailand
Kits: A-. These designs do a lot with just a few colors and various shades inbetween. The burgundy and the orange really show themselves well, and the patterns are a nice small touch of modern style. A little bit of highlight in an opposing but fitting color would really elevate these to consideration for best kit of all the teams. I think the patterns on white and orange designs could be swapped, where the zig zags would fit better on the white.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D1,
Liffeyside Celtic FC - Majors
Location: Ireland
Kits: C+. Another team of only two designs, these seem to be more bland despite having more interesting patterns included than some of the other two design teams. The black and neon green really work well together, but it's hard to make out the details of the interesting pattern within. On the grey design, the graphic really begs for a more contrasting color to make it pop.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D1,
CS Rova Mpanjaka - Minors
Location: Madagascar
Kits: B. The brushstroke design reminds me of the one design I liked so much from AS Paris. The second design pairs very well with it and contrasts with its more simple look. The problem I have is more of a question: where do the purple and yellow of the third design come from? There are other teams with a design with very off the wall colors compared to their others, but this one feels like the biggest departure.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D1,
As you can see, I stopped at the recent seasons’ results for each team before going to s23 and before. I did not know that relegation and divisions are new for the league. Not only is it more realistic for this to be the case, but I believe this change may have been asked for out of the sake of more vertical movement of standings.
After a little bit of research, it seems one of the driving factors was how few games there are in a season. Splitting into divisions makes a lot of sense here, allowing teams to play their matchups more than once. Perhaps the motivation to change rosters through trade or other means being increased by the desire to promote or avoid relegation was a factor? I would love to hear more on this topic, and am excited to be joining at such a time in the league’s history.
My predictions this season based on just my first impressions:
Shanghai Dragons FC is the top team of the season for the majors, with AF Masques Sacres for the minors.
F.C. Kaapstad has to work hard to avoid relegation, but ends up safe. CF Catalunya ends up without such luck, but leads to yet another insane promotion/relegation match for the ages.
The leading goal scorer for the Academy group is a forward Left Winger.
CA Buenos Aires - Majors
Location: Argentina
Kits: B-. The orange color is sleek and the stripe is simple, but using the yellow adjacent to the orange is a strong pairing to say the least. Using the black to break up the orange and yellow more would lead me to liking this more, but the orange and white kit is good for me.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D2,
Athenai F.C. - Minors
Location: Greece
Kits: B. Sporty with a royal blue, these kits even include representation of a warrior. Brilliant addition that breaks up the consistent coloring. The gold in the white jersey with the warrior is lovely, like a shining sunbeam, making it one of my favorites I’ve seen.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D2,
Hollywood FC - Majors
Location: USA
Kits: B+. Of course the USA kits have to include camo, but I won’t let this bias bring down the grade as much as I’d want; does keep it out of A territory though. The two blues go very well together, with the lighter being one of my favorite colors.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D1,
F.C. Kaapstad - Minors
Location: South Africa
Kits: C. The colors feel very South Africa, which is a quality representation, but it doesn’t give the kit a unique personality of the team compared to other potential teams from that nationality. Had they included more green than yellow, this grade would be improved for me.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D1
A.C. Romana - Majors
Location: Italy
Kits: B+. Along with the rich purple, each design includes a wonderful pattern, almost engraved or painted like a mural. A little more color variety to make it pop and it’s likely an A+ rating.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D2,
Inter London - Minors
Location: England
Kits: B-. The blue one feels very plain, but thankfully the others improve on this. The white design having shoulders separating the blue and yellow is my favorite way any kit has combined those colors, and its pattern on the white part is very neat. I also like the black kit more than the blue one, namely due to the pattern creating more depth of color than most kits.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D2,
Reykjavik United - Majors
Location: Iceland
Kits: A-. The first grade in A territory on this list, thanks to designs with a lot of variation in color. Despite the variance, each design shares the pleasing bright green color. I like all three of these, but there is a slight issue with how muddy the pattern gets on the green one.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D1,
North Shore United - Minors
Location: New Zealand
Kits: B-. This grade is a shame because the white and blue waves design is one of my favorites amongst all of the kits. The black has a nice pattern and quality shades of black and grey, but lacks something on the tip of my tongue. The yellow is both one of my least favorite colors and a shared pattern issue with their Major’s equivalent club.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D2,
Shanghai Dragons FC - Majors
Location: China
Kits: A. This is how you do designs with just 3 colors but have variety; each one feels quite different. At the same time, each one feels simplistic. The brown reads as bronze and goes extremely well with the black.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D1,
Rapid Magyar FC - Minors
Location: Hungary
Kits: C+. The designs started off well, as the purple is a really nice bright but rich shade. The white brings the same purple, but with a little bit awkward of a pattern. The third design seems like it's from a completely different team altogether, and reads as a diving suit more than a jersey.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D2,
Xelaju Cosmico FC - Majors
Location: Guatemala
Kits: B+. A rich darker green, almost teal, goes really well with the other colors. The white one has a brilliant pattern of a wing in the rich bright purple that I like so much. While the colors of the last one are great, the pattern is unfortunately muddied by how busy it is.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D2,
AF Masques Sacres - Minors
Location: Côte d'Ivoire
Kits: C. One of the teams with only 2 designs in their kits, but they feel appropriate. The red feels better of a color choice than the off-white, but if warmth is the theme, then it fits. The pattern fits way better with the off-white, due to it having better contrast than the color used versus the red.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D1,
Tokyo S.C. - Majors
Location: Japan
Kits: B-. The pink simple design is understandably the weakest here, but nothing inherently wrong with it. The black with two colors of confetti is a very fun design and the strongest here in my opinion. The red design with the pride flag feels like it fits with the previous pink colorations, despite being quite different in design.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D2,
Cairo City - Minors
Location: Egypt
Kits: C+. The pattern that Reykjavik had appears here with the same muddiness. The gold here also appears more yellow than I would like, compared to Shanghai’s bronze, which works well. Their third design is shared with Tokyo’s third but in blue, but I think I like it with red more. The animal patterns seem to really work in the kits seen so far.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D2,
CF Catalunya - Majors
Location: Spain
Kits: C. Like with CA Buenos Aires, I need to mention that the yellow and red need to be broken up with a 3rd color in my opinion. Their second design, with the black and red is both simple and well thought in shades of color. Only two designs for the team despite the team’s veteran status, but at least they bring a feeling of traditional design that other teams don’t have in their kit.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D2,
Seoul MFC - Minors
Location: South Korea
Kits: B+. The colors are nice, but the black doesn't do so well on the dark green as a stripe pattern. Overall, they also feel traditional in design, like CF Catalunya, but the 3 different stripe patterns beg for more variety in their designs. This is why the white and blueish colored design works the best of them, for the pattern within the pattern.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D2,
Uniao Sao Paulo - Majors
Location: Brazil
Kits: C. Another two design team, but this time with much less flair thanks to a very plain white shirt design. The stripes on both are very simple. Even just a simple texture pattern added to these designs could uplift them to a B grade easily.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D1,
AS Paris - Minors
Location: France
Kits: A-. The color splash design is one of my favorites that I have seen. More splash than just the red and white mostly on the bottom, and you have a perfect shirt. The white design has a very creative way to do a stripe (if some other team kit designs adopted this, theirs could be very elevated in grade). The only minor issue I have is that the red design could have a slightly more contrasted fleur de lis, so it stands out more.
Recent Seasons: s24 top-table D1,
Schwarzwalder FV - Majors
Location: Germany
Kits: C+. Each design is clean, and mixes traditional with modern between them. The main issue is that the second and third feel like they should be before the white with black stripe design on the list. Also, the red and green designs pairing so well makes the white with black stripe design feel like a different team, if it weren’t for the club logo.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D2,
Montreal United - Minors
Location: Canada
Kits: B-. Each design feels well complemented in color, and traditional in pattern. Another team that could be elevated by just including a simple pattern along with the stripes or split color. Also, like Schwarzwalder FV, the third design colors feel out of place here.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D1,
CD Tenochtitlan - Majors
Location: Mexico
Kits: B-. CD Tenochtitlan is one of the few clubs that really involve their nation’s flag colors into the kit, and they also do it in a traditional set of designs, for the most part. As mentioned before, I am not a huge fan of the bold yellows, but this feels right here with how different their designs are in main colors. The third one does big imprint on red well, unlike other clubs, and is a nice change-up compared to their more traditional designs before it.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D1,
Krung Thep FC - Minors
Location: Thailand
Kits: A-. These designs do a lot with just a few colors and various shades inbetween. The burgundy and the orange really show themselves well, and the patterns are a nice small touch of modern style. A little bit of highlight in an opposing but fitting color would really elevate these to consideration for best kit of all the teams. I think the patterns on white and orange designs could be swapped, where the zig zags would fit better on the white.
Recent Seasons: s24 mid-table D1,
Liffeyside Celtic FC - Majors
Location: Ireland
Kits: C+. Another team of only two designs, these seem to be more bland despite having more interesting patterns included than some of the other two design teams. The black and neon green really work well together, but it's hard to make out the details of the interesting pattern within. On the grey design, the graphic really begs for a more contrasting color to make it pop.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D1,
CS Rova Mpanjaka - Minors
Location: Madagascar
Kits: B. The brushstroke design reminds me of the one design I liked so much from AS Paris. The second design pairs very well with it and contrasts with its more simple look. The problem I have is more of a question: where do the purple and yellow of the third design come from? There are other teams with a design with very off the wall colors compared to their others, but this one feels like the biggest departure.
Recent Seasons: s24 bottom-table D1,
As you can see, I stopped at the recent seasons’ results for each team before going to s23 and before. I did not know that relegation and divisions are new for the league. Not only is it more realistic for this to be the case, but I believe this change may have been asked for out of the sake of more vertical movement of standings.
After a little bit of research, it seems one of the driving factors was how few games there are in a season. Splitting into divisions makes a lot of sense here, allowing teams to play their matchups more than once. Perhaps the motivation to change rosters through trade or other means being increased by the desire to promote or avoid relegation was a factor? I would love to hear more on this topic, and am excited to be joining at such a time in the league’s history.
My predictions this season based on just my first impressions:
Shanghai Dragons FC is the top team of the season for the majors, with AF Masques Sacres for the minors.
F.C. Kaapstad has to work hard to avoid relegation, but ends up safe. CF Catalunya ends up without such luck, but leads to yet another insane promotion/relegation match for the ages.
The leading goal scorer for the Academy group is a forward Left Winger.
![[Image: lisfor-3.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/sDzJYqYM/lisfor-3.png)
