Scores

Punjab FC 3 – 3 Mohammedan SC

While Chencho Gyeltshen set up Punjab for a victory (including a good gracious slam to start the second half), ten terrible minutes in the second half allowed Mohammedan to take the lead. (Part of that was Kiran Limpu’s bad luck, part of it was Souvik Das and Hormipum Ruviah’s poor positioning.) Ashish Jah’s late equalizer preserved the draw. Luckily Churchill Brother’s dropped points to keep the Warriors alive in the title hunt.

Partizan Belgrade 4 – 0 FK Vozdovac

Over the past year Vozdovac has greatly improved, but they’re still not in the same league as Serbia’s top two. Their record against Partizan is now 4-1-14.

CSD Macara 1 – 1 Emelec

It took a while for Emelec to break through (thanks again Facundo Barcelo). Unfortunately it didn’t take long at all for Macará to equalize (through a diving header/hander that went uncalled) and end Los Bombillos winning streak.

Idaho Vandals 0 – 1 Montana Grizzlies

Alexa Coyle struck early and goalie Claire Howard notched her 28th clean sheet in a text book coach Citowicki win. Best of all the midfield was again dominant, bossing the park throughout.

Mainz 1 – 0 Freiburg [M]

The Griffins continued to struggle in the season’s later stages. They couldn’t seem to find an edge against lowly Mainz and only Florian Muller saved it from being worse than it was.

Ross County 1 – 2 Hibernian

An early Billy McKay goal set Staggies hearts a singing. However as the midfield was run ragged by Hibs, the good fortune faded and a chance to keep growing the gap against fellow relegation battlers slipped away.

Grenoble 1 – 1 Pau [M]

The first choice defensive line was almost back to full force with Jerome Mombris, Jordy Gaspar and Loic Nestor shutting down Pau for most of the match (Gaspar’s booming cross to net the opening goal was also good to see). Note, I said “most”. An injury time equalizer threaded through all those otherwise stellar defenders denied les bleus a vital 3 points.

MSV Duisburg 1 – 2 SC Freiburg [F]

After the beat down from Bayern Munich, Freiburg needed a strong showing like this to get back on track. Mia Buchele and Cora Zicai led the scoring as Freiburg continued Duisburgs winless streak.

Idaho Vandals 0-1 Montana Grizzlies

It took 9 minutes of overtime before the Griz found a way through on Rita Lang’s free kick. Though the referee initially thought the onrushing attackers had interfered with the goalie, video review showed Lang’s kick was in before hand.

TRAU 1 – 0 Punjab FC

With the attack struggling to break through, Punjab needed the defense to guard against foolish mistakes. Mohammed Irshad’s ill timed tackle was foolish. The ensuing red card and advantage goal sunk the fading title hopes of the Northwesterners.

FK Vozdovac 1 – 4 Red Star Belgrade

Red Star is the other team in Serbia’s duopoly. Against them, the Red Dragons are 2-1-15 and haven’t gotten a point since May 2017. Having the lead for 26 whole minutes in the first half was pretty sweet though.

News & Notes

Grenoble’s Gearing Up

As les Grenoblois near the business end of their season I thought it would be wise to talk about what comes next.

In two months League 2 will end, and the top two teams in the league will move up to face the top teams in France. The next three will battle each other for the chance to face a struggling League 1 side.

Grenoble sits 5 points back from automatic promotion and 7 points safe in the playoff crew. But a lot can still happen. The last 27 points of the campaign depend on les bleus showing against opponents, 5 of whom will have the same promotion goal in mind. 3 others will be battling to stay in League 2.

That means Grenoble needs to persevere through a tough final 9 games to stay in the hunt. If they do, we’ll watch some of the world’s best visit le stade des Alpes.

Royals Rumbling

Meanwhile Legon Cities spent the week preparing for their season’s second half, and welcoming in a new striker: Victorien Adebayor. The Niger international had starred in Ghana before a transfer to Europe. Family needs led him to request a move closer to home and the Royals obliged. With Hans Kwofie and Asamoah Gyan, he adds to the attacking stockpile Legon is hording.

Player of the Week

While it was a less than stellar week for most teams, it should be noted that Claire Howard racked up another pair of clean sheets. Withstanding the Vandals barrage in game 2 kept the Griz alive and helped her tie a Big Sky record for most clean sheets in a career.

Standings Update

A perfect week pushed the Griz to the top of the table, while Punjab’s struggles dropped them from 3rd to 5th. The worst news for Vozdovac…Rosenborg and Minnesota United are going to start up soon…and then there will be no one left to cushion them from the bottom.

Team	W	D	L	PPG	GFA	GAA
University of Montana	3	0	0	3	1.7	0
Emelec	3	1	0	2.5	2.3	1.0
Grenoble Foot 38	6	4	4	1.57	1.1	1.1
Freiburg	6	2	5	1.54	1.5	1.6
Punjab FC	6	4	5	1.47	1.1	0.9
Legon Cities FC	4	4	3	1.45	1.2	0.8
Ross County	5	1	6	1.3	1.3	1.6
Alebrijes	3	2	4	1.2	1.9	2.2
FK Vozdovac	1	3	5	0.7	0.7	1.8
Rosenborg BK	0	0	0	–	–	–
Minnesota United	0	0	0	–	–	–

What’s Next

Wednesday, March 17th

8:00 Werder Bremen v. SC Freiburg [F]

Thursday, March 18th

7:00 Atlante v. Alebrijes

Friday, March 19th

Saturday, March 20th

7:00 Rosenborg BK v. Staebek [F]

10:00 Berekum Chelsea v. Legon Cities

10:00 St. Johnstone v. Ross County

2:00 Paris FC v. Grenoble [M]

2:00 Radnicki Nis v. Vozdovac

Sunday, March 21st

8:30 Punjab FC v. Real Kashmir

12:00 Freiburg v. Augsburg

6:00 Emelec v. Nueve de Octubre

Monday, March 22nd

Tuesday, March 23rd

6:00 Alebrijes v. Cancun FC