Scores
Golukam FC 4- 3 Punjab FC
There’s nothing quite like waking up to an alarm and seeing a swath of updates about a match half way around the world. It was a wild one in the second round of India’s Hero League. Chencho Gyeltshen roared out of the gate with a first half brace to give Punjab a confident 2-0 lead (and a front runner for coolest celebration with the see/speak/hear no evil style). Rupert Nogrum added a third off Gyeltshen’s golden run before the whistle to make it 3-1. In the span of 5 minutes it all came undone as Denny Antwi and an own goal knocked in 3 goals in quick succession to unravel Punjab’s hard work. (It was especially hard after Kiran Chjempong stymied so many so many Kerala attacks, and Ashray Bhardwaj got away with a couple late tackles)
Toulouse 2 – 0 Grenoble [M]
The season’s second half continues to be a struggle for the Alpine side. This week, without talisman Jessy Bennet or most of the stalwart defense they let two goals slipped and fell further behind 2nd place Toulouse for automatic promotion.
Ross County 4 – 1 Aberdeen
The Staggies came out in a new formation with Jermaine Hylton up top and a more aggressive midfield. Sure enough it paid off with two early goals courtesy of Ollie Shaw and Charlie Lakin and two more late goals from Shaw and Hylton. The defensive line did some stout work and the offense capitalized on every opportunity they saw. A pretty great result against the #3 team in the league.
Bayern Munich 2 – 1 Freiburg [M]
Any trip to the Teutonic titans is likely to end in tears, but Nils Petersen almost got an unlikely result. A second half goal equalized once, and a late crossbar rattler nearly did again. sure it was still a defeat, but against Bayern a near tie is something to build on.
Aduana Stars 2 – 1 Legon Cities
After 767 minutes this season, Legon got a goal from open play. Francis Addo got on the end of a long ball when the keeper was MILES out of position and finished it. It wasn’t exactly a mark of talent, more just capitalizing on a MAJOR OPPONENT ERROR. But at this stage, we’ll take it. Oh, the Royals still lost.
Punjab FC 0 – 1 Churchill Brothers
Punjab reverted to a much more defensive style for this match up (shoring up the defense after seeping four goals will do that for you). While the team did vastly improve their defense, and held the opponents goalless for 85 minutes. Once again, a late winner broke their hearts.
Alebrijes 0 – 1 CD Tepatitlan de Morelos
Alebrijes is back in action at home in Oaxaca, but the results remain depressingly consistent. Once again, Oaxaca saw the home side drop a match and slide down the table
News & Notes
New Impeachment High Score
Until this week the most times any President had been impeached was 1, and the most votes any President received for his removal from his own party was 5. Wednesday Donald Trump doubled those scores! He’s been impeached twice and got 10 people to vote against him!
INCOMING!
While most teams are fine tuning in the middle of the season, others are gearing up for bigger transformations before the next season begins. Most clearly, Rosenborg who has picked up more Swedish style than a newly married couple at Ikea. First they bolstered the defense with Adam Andersson and Jonathan Augustinsson to battle for the left back spot vacated by Pa Konate. They also brought on 12 goal man Stefano Holmquist Vecchia from Sweden and brought up Ole Christian Saeter who recently racked up a hat-trick to win promotion for Ranheim.
Player of the Week
Jermaine Hylton gave us a like for his last player of the week performance. For that alone, it’s tempting to award him this again. Most of the Staggies could get a nod given their strong showing, but when it’s that much of a team effort it doesn’t feel right to single out one person. So, despite doing it in a losing effort, the sterling individual performance of Chenchyo Gyeltshen gets the nod this week.
Standings Update
Only Alebrijes dour opener lifts Grenoble off the foot of the table (see what I did there?) while Ross County rockets up to second place.
| Team | W | D | L | PPG | GFA | GAA |
| SC Freiburg | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 1.0 |
| Ross County | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1.75 | 2.0 | 1.3 |
| Punjab FC | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| Legon Cities FC | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 1.0 |
| Grenoble Foot 38 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 2.3 |
| Alebrijes de Oaxaca | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| Rosenborg BK | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – |
| Minnesota United | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – |
| Emelec | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – |
| Vozdovac FK | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – |
| University of Montana | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – |
What’s Next
Wednesday, January 20th
Clermont Foot v. Grenoble Foot [M-Cup]
1:30 Freiburg v. Frankfurt
Thursday, January 21st
Friday, January 22nd
Saturday, January 23rd
8:30 Freiburg v. VfB Stuttgart [M]
9:00 Legon Cities FC v. Ashanti Gold
9:00 Rangers v. Ross County
12:00 Grenoble v. Chambly [M]
Sunday, January 24th
7:30 Punjab FC v. Mohammedan SC
MacKenzie's Boot Room 