Original introduction as written on October 10th: I’ve promised to do this so let’s see how it pans out.
November 24th…Not great Ben…not great
Montana Grizzlies–5 W – 3 D – 0 L; GF: 10/GA: 2
The Griz were once again dominant throughout the season. As the team celebrated 30 years of being the biggest squad in Big Sky Country, they went undefeated throughout the regular season.
It looked like we could be approaching the Big Sky Tournament like a coronation in Missoula. But after a first round bye, the team ran into the stubborn Sacramento State Hornets (one of three teams to hold the Griz to a point during the regular season) and after rising to the occasion all year long Bayliss Finn was unable to stem the tide and the Griz got upset.
It’s hard to say that an undefeated regular season championship, the first ever appearance in the national rankings was a failure, but it certainly didn’t end how the Griz wanted it to. Bring on 2025!
Key Players from the Season: Ava Samuelson and Charley Boone wrapped up incredible careers in the garnet and silver with All-Conference honors. The defensive core of Boone, Maddie Ditta and Minnesota’s own contribution to the Griz: Bayliss Finn played a big part in that as well. C’mon Aurora, give the girl a start already!
Other news: The Griz also welcomed in their newest crop of recruits on official signing day. In addition to their expanding power base in the Pacific Northwest, the team continues to be a magnet for great goalies, with Jillian Miliffe of Florida and Tayla Adams of Australia stepping up to become Bayliss’ heir apparent. But perhaps best of all Liv Thorne-Thomson will carry the local born and bred banner going from Hellgate high school (the prettiest high school in all of Montana) to the U.
Ross County–2 W – 2 D-3 L; GF: 5/GA: 10
The Staggies were able to take the lead against Celtic, which is notable simply in its rarity. Of course they gave it back which is a much more common occurrence. But the Staggies were able to ratchet up the defensive pressure and held on to a scoreless run of over 240 minutes. But by making Dingwall a fortress where only the best of the best can sneak victories, they have been able to hold on to the top six. But the next month is going to feature a host of challenges. Here’s hoping we feel as good at the start of 2025.
December: AWAY v Celtic; HOME v. Rangers; AWAY v. Hibs; HOME v. St. Mirren, AWAY v Dundee; HOME v Hearts
Key Players from the Season: The defensive dynamics at play with Ryan Leak and Akil Wright (as well as our favorite namesake, goalie Ross Laidlaw) have gone a long way to helping County run their defensive streak as long as they did. The offense has struggled to keep pace, but Irishman Ronan Hale has become a reliable force up top.
Other News: Glasgow has been the center of Scottish Football forever, but Edinburgh remains the place I’d most like to live. Sadly, the two teams in Edinburgh have been floundering so sticking with our Staggies makes it worth it.
Legon Cities–W 3 – D 1- L 4; GF: 8/ GA: 11
The losses kept piling up, with late consolation goals from Mohamed Alidu not doing much in the way of consoling. There was a strong three match run at home with three unbeaten games including a win against the legendary Asante Kotko. But once again, the squad is staring down the discouraging possibility of a long hard slog stuck among the relegation scrap.
December: home v Bechem United, Away v Nations FC, Home v Aduana Stars
Key Players: Frank Akoto continues to be a strong contender for our favorite tireless workhorse, but we are certainly grateful for Rahim Yaya Abdul who has been excellent in the dying seconds to keep the squad afloat.
Other News: Legon is still in the hunt for this year’s celebratory birthday kit, but will need a perfect December to pip the other contenders, who conveniently are next on this list…
Freiburg–5 W – 1 D – 6 L; GF: 12/GA: 16
M: 3 W – 2 D- 2 L; GF: 8/GA: 5
The men’s side has not been as torrid as they were to kick off the campaign, but they are certainly still in the running for the top of the table. With Bayern Munich enjoying having the prolific striker Harry Kane, but hating the ancient curse to never win a trophy that landed on Kane’s broad shoulders, there’s plenty of opportunities afoot. (The one down side, is that Alex has fully adopted Dortmund as his German team and relished them hanging a defeat on my buddies from the Black Forest)
December: HOME v M’gladbach, AWAY v Arminia Beilefeld (1/8 Final–Cup), Hoffenheim, HOME v Wolfsburg, AWAY v. Leverkusen
F: 3 W – 1 D – 3 L; GF: 11/GA: 13
Cora Zicai’s brace against Potsdam laid the ground work for one of the team’s two wins and at just 19 there’s plenty of hope that it’s just the beginning for her. It heps that she has Selina Vobien providing a maestro’s rate of assists in the attack. But questions abound in the defense where Die Frauen have lost winning opportunities time and again in the last two months. (Though beating Bayern felt really good)
December: AWAY v Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen
Key Players: In addition to the rising starlets of Zicai and Vorbein, Freiburg has continued to appreciate a sterling men’s backline this time with Lucas Kubler, Mathias Ginter, Christian Gunter and Phillip Leinhart. (Oh and, as ever, Vincenzo Grifo is our grizzled Italian king)
Other News: Freiburg is in the lead for this year’s birthday kit, but will need a strong run in for me to make them my annual gift to myself. (That’s certainly not the most important news, but I’ve run out of Christian Streich content to savor)
Minnesota–2 W – 2 D – 1 L; GF: 8/GA: 8
The Loons wrapped up the regular season with some big showings on the road, drawing in Salt Lake City, with Dayne doing what he needs to do, and Michael Boxall standing tall despite being spat upon by Real Salt Lake’s Brayan Vera. Then we saw Hasani Dotson continue to move from a talented kid to a reliable component of team history with another win in Vancouver. With the defense dominant, the Loons banked a spot in th eplayoffs with Sang Bin Jeong hitting the net twice in the season finale. And the Loons entered the playoffs with one goal allowed in their last 500 minutes of play during the regular season.
The defense held their form throughout the first round playoff series against Salt Lake City. A pair of shootouts tested the nerves of everyone…everyone except Dayne St. Clair, who went full Vince Carter celebration in denying the last chances for Salt Lake.
We went in to the Quarterfinal against Los Angeles Galaxy full of hope…and it ended in about 90 seconds when the Galaxy pumped in the first of 6 goals. Despite some sterling shots from Kelvin Yeboah and your standard issue Michael Boxall hard nosed defense, the Galaxy crushed our dreams.
Other News: Despite the ending, the Loons had a great season and look every bit like a potential contender going forward. With the retirement of local fan favorites Clint Irwin and Zarek Valentin, and the end of Franco Frangapane’s contract we’ll need some help in midfield and defense (though not in the commentary booth where Valentin is a treat). A few additions here and there could well boost them towards the top of the Western Conference. And maybe we could just ignore the existence of Los Angeles for a year?
Punjab– 2 W – 0 D – 3 L; GF: 8/GA: 7
After a long Monsoon related layoff, the Shers of Punjab were back in action with the Slavic spine continuing to drive the team forward. Still, the wings are inconsistent and that was exploited by the best teams in the ISL to give Punjab their worst run of form in a year and dropping the squad to the middle of the table. The playoffs are still within reach, but dreams of hardware may be put on hold again.
Key Players: Nikhil Prabhu, Tekcham Singh and Khaiminthan Lhungdim (whose injury at the end of October has stung) lead the local stars while the aforementioned Slavic spine (Defender Ivan Novoselec, Midfielder Filip Mrzljak, and the Lion King himself: Luka Macjen) have focused the suqad.
December: HOME v. Mohammedan, AWAY v. Jamshedpur, & East Bengal FC HOME v. Mohun Bagan
Rosenborg–5 W – 1 D – 6 L; GF: 8/GA: 5
M: 3 W- 1 D – 1 L; GF: 8/GA: 5
Rosenborg has been out of the title conversation for a while, not finishing within 15 points of the champions since they last won the title in 2018. But this year saw the team come together nicely and will feature their closest finish to the top since that title run (even though they’ll end up in 4th or 6th place). With the Ceide twins, 19 year old Marius Broholm, 21 year old keeper Edvard Tangvik and wunderkid Sverre Halseth Nypan they truly could be up for a run at the top of the league (or they could be up for several millions of dollars if they let Nypan go join one of European’s circling giants like Man United, Chelsea, AC Milan or *Hope for Alex* Borussia Dortmund).
December: AWAY v. Kristiansund
W: 2 W -0 D – 5 L; GF 4/GA: 11
We’ve never seen things go this wrong for Rosenborg’s women side. The four straight league defeats that kicked off October were the most since May 2018. Since June they lost 10 of their last 16 league matches back to June. From a possible 48 points, they grabbed 16. By contrast, the 16 before that (including the end of the 2023 season) saw them lose twice and take 36 points from 48 possible. The reason for it? Maybe Rugile Ruyte is showing some human fallibility, maybe Emilie Nautnes is missing needed support in attack. Or maybe we just really really miss Sarah Horte.
Other News: Speaking of Sara, she did win another trophy this year…over Rosenborg in the Cup final….oof. And while the youth movement sounds great for Rosenborg, one part of it: Edvard Tagseth will be checking out and heading to Nashville where he may face off against the Loons.
Vozdovac– 2 W – 4 D – 3 L; GF: 6/ GA: 9
After running their losing streak to four games, the Dragons fired manager Dejan Celar and then pulled out a 2-1 win against Grafica and a 1-0 win versus FK Radiniki. Those results went a long way to resolving some tension for the club. After all if you fire a manager and keep losing you have to wonder what the point was.
Unfortunately for Vozdovac, the new head man, Ivan Kurtusic did not actually get to enjoy a longer winning streak as the team has managed only one goal in their last 5 matches en route to 3 ties and two losses. On top of that, they fell in the Serbian cup on penalty kicks and now sit 8th in the second division.
December: AWAY v. Sloboda Urizce, HOME v. Traya, AWAY v. Sloven Ruma
Key Players: I would say captain Nemanja Vidic at Centerback, but that would merely be click bait as the legendary national team player/international defensive standard is no relation to Vozdovac’s employee. Bogdan Petrovic seems to be the team’s only source of offence, and despite the poor record you have to acknowledge that goalkeeper Nenad Filipovic has kept clean sheets in half of his games…without which this could be a lot lot worse.
Grenoble–4 W – 2 D – 4 L; GF: 3/GA: 6
Men–1 W – 2 D – 3 L; GF: 3 /GA: 6
Jessy Benet is going to be my new go to symbol for the god Atlas as he’s been trying desperately to carry the team on his back. It’s been made harder as Papa Meissa Ba doesn’t seem to have much help up top, and the defense looks to spread thin as Loic Nestor’s legendary career winds down.
October: HOME v. Amiens, AWAY v. Red Star Paris
Women 3 W – 0 D -1 L; GF: 9/GA: 4
I’m a little worried about the women’s side. Not because their play has been lacking–far from it; they’ve been cruising towards second place behind legendary Olympique Lyon’s second team and have a good chance of being in the promotion conversation this year. No, I’m more worried about the team’s struggles to find a social media manager…I need my content Grenoble! ALLONS-Y!
December: AWAY v. Nimes, HOME v. Clermont
Alebrijes–W 0 – D 0 – L 5; GF: 3/GA: 13
It may be hard to remember, but Alebrijes were unbeaten in September. That broke once the calendar turned to October as Armando Gonzalez couldn’t lead a comeback against Tlaxcala. But things looked up again when Orlando Ballesteros opened the scoring against Celaya. But when he was removed due to injury the opponents hammered away with 5 unanswered. And from there things only got worse with three more defeats in a row left Alebrijes at the bottom of the table.
Emelec–W 3 – D 5 – L 4; GF: 16/GA: 16
M: W 0 – D 3 – L 2; GF: 4/GA 8
It has been a forgettable season for los Bombillos. They’ve struggled, often turned up winless weeks on end, and currently sit at the bottom of the Fall Season table. With one match to play, they will certainly finish lower than they have done in the 12 years of records that I could find. The team has been fortunate to find a strong showing from Washington Corozo (though sadly, it would be better if I could find any evidence that he was related to Electricas star: Kerly Corozo.
December: AWAY v. Libertad
F: W 3 – D 2 – L 1; GF: 12/GA 8
Las Electricas were unsure about the end of their campaign, a 1-1 Draw v. Atletico JBG left them in the top two but they felt like real underdogs facing Los Buhos for the regional title. They showed their mettle, coming back from down 2-0 at half time to equalize, but a late winner for the Owls ended the season without a repeat as champions.
However, it did allow them to make their way back into the promotion playoffs, and so far it has gone very well for them. Kerly Orozco found the net four times in the first leg and Melany Orobio hit it twice in the second leg to advance easily past CD Oriental 7-2 overall.
The quarter finals against Nusta FC allowed Melany Orobio to again score in a 2-2 draw away, before she delivered an assist on the winner at home, sending las Electricas to the semifinals where the dangerous Aucus (fresh from a 17-1 quarterfinal round win) awaits.
December: HOME/AWAY v. Aucus, [If possible–championship]
Other News: Just to underline how rarely we have things clearly communicated about Ecuador’s women’s league, I have yet to track down what on earth has happened to Los Buhos, who beat Emelec to the local title…then fell behind to their first round opponent Xportos. But they didn’t play when other teams did, and now have just continued not to play leaving Xportos, Buhos, San Miguel and now Orense (the teams awaiting on the other side of the bracket) waiting around for something to happen.
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