Dear Kids,

Score another one for the bad guys.

When your mom went on a special trip with her friends a few weeks ago it was time for an OPA celebration (Owen, Papa, and Alex). We did some special stuff that I’m much more likely to encourage: we ate a lot of meat, practiced burping, and watched pro wrestling.

I have a soft spot for the not remotely subtle science, and I can’t help but want to share it with you particularly when my favorite match of the year, the Royal Rumble, is in season. So, we watched, and Owen discovered a new hero: The Boogeyman (also known as Martin Wright).

Owen has long had a soft spot for the bad guys: the Sanderson Sisters, Scar, the Saja Boys, so I’m not overly shocked that a monstrous, worm-eating, figure of fear is the wrestler who sticks with them. What it made me realize though, is that, in sport (and sports-entertainment) there isn’t really one bad guy and one good guy. There are just favorites and foes.

Take the case of Ecuador’s biggest rivalry where our side (Emelec) faces their neighbors (Barcelona) in El Classico del Astillero (the battle of the shipyards). Emelec is vaunted, celebrated, and successful. But they’re widely seen as interlopers, funded by a wealthy foreigner (American George Capwell) and ignoring their actual community.

I will still cheer for Emelec, but I can fully acknowledge that others never will. In the same way, I’m actually delighted to hear that Owen’s selected champion is a spooky-wooky monster. Who cares if everyone else responds with fear, disgust, or opposition. Your favorite is your favorite, O. Enjoy it…just like I cheered until Andre the Giant was bodyslammed by Hulk Hogan and everyone else screamed in joy.

It can be tempting to think that we only cheer for the good guys, or that our opponents deserve to lose. But that’s not a fair way to view the world. I can see well reasoned arguments that there are absolute rights and absolute wrongs in some particular areas (treatment of other humans for instance). But shows, entertainments and sports aren’t one of them. So feel free to like who you like, and respect that others will disagree.

Results

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Freiburg

Herren: W 2- D 1- L 3; GF: 4/GA:7

Frauen: W 1 – D 1 – L 2; GF 4/GA: 8

Grenoble:

Hommes: W 1 – D 2 – L 0; GF: 3/ GA: 2

Femmes: W 2 – D 0 – L 2; GF 5/GA: 5

Legon Cities:

Premier Team: W 0 – D 0 – L 3; GF 0/GA: 8

Divison 1 Team: W 0 – D 0 – L 3; GF: 6/GA: 12

Ross County

Lads: W 0 – D 1 – L 2; GF 1/GA: 3

Lasses: W 1 – D 1 – L 3; GF 8/ GA: 8

Alebrijes

W 1 – D 2 – L 1; GF: 5/GA: 4

Punjab

W 0 – D 0 – L 1; GF 0/GA: 1

Vozdovac

W 0 – D 2 – L 0; GF 0/GA: 0

Minnesota

W 0 – D 1 – L 0; GF 2/GA:2

Notable Players

All around it was a rougher month for the teams, with most teams struggling to win more than a single game (though, to be fair, several teams only just got off the line…or in the case of Vozdovac forgot to score, or in the case of Emelec, got postponed).

Once again, Noah Atubolu is the biggest name in the conversation, (goal)keeping Freiburg in matches where the rest of the defense struggles to hold a consistent line. Jessy Benet, long a favorite of this website, seems to have a new midfield running partner in Yadala Diaby who is creating lots of chaos and lining up some impressive shots from distance. But the men’s undefeated month really owes a lot to Loris Mouyokolo and Clement Vidal who have stepped up to the vital Center Back positions with ease.

The other team with the most points this month is Alebrijes! Julio Cruz has been more of a super sub this year than his usual lead attacking self, but it’s been working with Hector Mascorro running the show. (I very much want to heap praise on the Ur-Royals’ Forward Makhmud Bansi Isaak who netted twice more than the top division team this month…but the second division Royals also lost 3 games despite scoring 6 goals….oof)

The women’s sides continue to play a strong team game, with Freiburg’s defenders Julia Steirli and Lisa Karl running both sides of the ball, Melanie Charbonnier and Laurine Baga serving the attack in a big derby win against Thonon Evian. And I’m choosing to believe that Ross County’s four goal deluge to notch their first win of 2026 was inspired partly by the goalkeeper “Sofia” who also helped them stem the tide against Arbroath. I’m rooting for her to start a trend of one-named Scottish wonders like “Ederson” or “Marta” only colder.

Looking Ahead

In the rush of the end of the year I missed some major news out of Missoula where Chris Citwoicki (the superb Griz coach) chose to take his talents to the higher profile and better funded Washington State University up the road in Pullman Washington. Genuinely, Citowicki is a very nice guy and an excellent supporter of his players. It seemed inevitable that he would be going on to bigger things so we wish him well. But this month the Griz got a new coach in Stuart Gore. Gore came to the US from England for college and then as a coach won a lower level national championship in Ohio, a conference championship in Louisiana (with the Northwestern State Demons–an old favorite logo of mine) then Troy in the dangerous Sun Belt conference. We hope he continues what’s going well and continues supporting the toughest team in Big Sky Country.

Sadly, I won’t be attending the World Cup this summer as your uncles and I did not with the lottery, but Alex did try out for his team again so I’ll be having fun regardless.

Emelec will kick off their new campaign in early March after an unexpected stadium related delay (that’s been going around as Punjab had the same issue on their first match day). While Rosenborg hopefully won’t have any such problems as both the men and women start fresh.

Finally, our fondness for Tottenham Hotspur is being tested by something approaching gross incompetence, but our beloved Julie Blakstad is now on their women’s team, so we’re committed again.

Standings

Team	W	D	L	PPG	GFA	GAA
Grenoble	6	3	4	1.62	1.08	1.23
Freiburg	7	3	7	1.41	0.88	1.29
Minnesota	0	1	0	1.00	2.00	2.00
Alebrijes	1	3	2	1.00	1.00	1.33
Vozdovac	0	2	0	1.00	1.00	1.00
Ross County	3	2	8	0.85	1.00	1.25
Legon Cities	3	0	11	0.64	1.14	2.64
Pubjab	0	0	1	0.00	0.00	1.00
Montana–b	0	0	0	—	—	—
Rosenborg–b	0	0	0	—	—	—
Emelec–b	0	0	0	—	—	—