Well…except for the fact that I started these in August and it’s now mid-September…so I’ll need to do another one to capture all the results for teams I recapped back before the fall started.
I’m going to do it…seriously…I promise you random reader who clearly doesn’t open the link in their email notifications of posts…I’ll be better!!
Match Results: 10 W – 7 D – 6 L ; 22 GF / 19 GA
Men: 8 W – 7 D – 6 L; 21 GF/ 20 GA
While they were in sixth for the first half of the 2024 campaign. It might have been better, but the team suffered a downpour of draws, including three match ups against teams who finished ahead of them in the standings. One goal in each of those matches, and they would have finished tied for first place.
The fall season however, has not been nearly as productive with twice the number of losses as the spring in half the games.
Women: 2 W – 0 D – 0 L; 4 GF/ 1 GA
Electricas just kicked off, which is frankly a relief as Ia dearth of news, posts and updates meant the season had been cancelled, or worse, the women’s team had folded.
Instead, absence simply made the heart grow fonder. While it’s still early going, the women’s side has picked up where they left off, dominating the local league with two wins from two matches, including goals for old friend Kerly Corozo, new friend Angela Suarez, and a pair of goals for Alison Ochoa who seems to have the most effective leaning shot imaginable. (Also, thank you Emelec for posting highlights!)
Did you know that Emelec welcomed back club legend Miller Bolanos last year? It’s true…I know because I posted about him approximately every time I wrote a post.
Well, that’s done now. Bolanos made a move across town to Guyaquil City in February…and then watched helplessly as they dropped to the second tier.
Star Players:
Aside from our usual favorites (Alison Ochoa (obviously), Goalie Pedro Ortiz, and full back Romario Caicedo), Facundo Castelli stepped up as the goal scoring target in the spring. Marcelo Meli served as the fulcrum for the attack (when it was clicking) and I’m also keen on Ronny Borja who, at just 19, is holding down at defensive midfield.
I fully and freely admit when I have fallen down on the job…and while I did in general this spring, with Vozdovac I feel extra guilty.
But rather than turn away or ignore the reality, let’s take a moment to dig in to what happened, and what’s next for the shopping mall Dragons
Match Results: 7 W – 7 D – 15 L; GF 32//GA 37
To begin, you have to know the club’s position coming in to 2024. Vozdovac was never the top dogs, despite playing on the roof of the Stadion Mall, but…they had become a reliable fixture in Serbia’s top flight. Over the first half of the season (Fall 2023) they had 28 points, good enough for 7th place out of 16 teams. Not awe-inspiring…but not out of the usual for the Dragons.
Then…just…oof.
The team said goodbye to the deeply valuable Borisav Burmaz who left for Romania and raked in a million pounds for young Nikola Zeceviv. While the transfers make sense as part of Vozdovac’s long term strategy, they did put a big strain on the team coming into the final stretch of the season…a strain doubled by players having to learn a brand new system when the club parted ways with manager Marko Savic right before the season resumed….and the strain showed.
Suddenly, the steady mid-table side became consistently bad. They netted only two points from 10 matches after getting 28 from the first 20. If they had done what they did before, they’d be back up in the race for European spots…but the bad times just got worse as they faced other relegation teams.
The back breaker was a May defeat to Zelznicar Pancevo. The decisive goal may well have been an own goal incurred by Vozdovac’s midfielder Matija Mitrovic: that goal lost the game…that loss left them one point behind Zelznicar at season’s end…that ended Vozdovac’s run in the top flight (but not Mitrovic, who signed with…[checks notes] Zelznicar…who also hired [checks notes] former Vozdovac boss: Marko Savic (sigh)).
Without the hope (however faint) of European football, Vozdovac ended up having to cut back on players and couldn’t rely on other teams sending players on loan to their team. And yet, the squad looks to be in good shape as they start their season in the second division (aka the Prva Liga Srbija). While the tickets haven’t been great yet (200-300 per game so far), they have won 3, drawn 1 and lost 1 putting them in 4th place (scoring 9 and only ceding 1). Keep this up and the Dragons may soar back into the top flight next year.
Other Stories:
Obviously, relegation really captures the main thrust of the season, but its’ worth noting that Vozdovac continues to raise eyebrows with their strong support for young players, training up talents…who then go on to play well for other clubs not named Vozdovac. But after a year that saw them bring in loanees from France and England…only to drop down…the incoming players were once again: local, and free, but in an effort to bounce back to the top tier they also brought in veteran talent and an old friend in coach Dejan Celar (who had spent 2 years as an assistant coach back in the 2010s).
Star Players:
This is Junior Flemmings…not a Serbian man with many surprising ‘J’s in his last name.
Jamaican international (and French league loanee) Junior Flemmings was easily the brightest spot during the spring slog. But there were solid showings from Mihajlo Neskovic (winger), and Bogdan Jovic (midfielder) as well as Nikola Djurcic and Vurkasin Djurdjavec in defense. But don’t get too excited…none of them are back for this season…about the only returning players for the dragons are newly deputized strike team of Bogdan Petrovic and Milan Koleravic so…fingers crossed for that.
I never wanted to exercise during the long Indian summers, but I’m not a professional football player. So, let’s catch up with men who were paid to be in good shape and play well: Punjab Football Club.
Match Results: 7 W – 3 D – 5 L; GF 29/ GA 21
The fall of 2023 was a clear step up for the Shers (big cats…like Lions…but…I’m gonna keep saying Tigers). Throughout their first four months in the Indian Super League, Punjab did not play like the team of old. Try as Luka Macjen might he could not be everywhere on the field and the team looked like it would be heading for an ignominous end to a splendid opportunity.
Then came the new year, and French born Madih Talal joined the club immediately exploding with assists and inventive play. Almost instantly the squad doubled their prior win total, and before the season ended they came away with 5 wins in 11 matches, after just 1 in their first 14.
Though the team finished outside of the playoff spots, their huge improvement led to a much needed boost in confidence and set them up for another run. Though Talal and old standby Juan Mera left the team, Luka Macjen returned to be the club’s talisman and buoyed the squad to a tremendous showing in the Durand Cup. (Last year as their first taste of top tier soccer, the Shers looked outclassed: this year they won their group handily, before bowing out to bogey team Mohun Bagun in a penalty shoot out.)
Other Stories:
As mentioned above, the Sher’s said a lot of goodbyes at the end of last season. Rather than recap them, here’s the team’s Instagram goodbye
Punjab also shuffled their coaching staff, but kept things Greek bringing in Panagiotos Dilmperis to lead the squad. And in a moment that just tickles my personal fancy, they also signed Mushaga Bakenga who was formerly in the EliteSerien and started his career with Rosenborg Ball Klub, making him the (I think) second player to wear the kit for two of our favorite eleven teams!
Star Players:
It’s no great surprise that Luka Macjen is at the top of this list…he is talismanic to the point of being Punjab’s most bankable (and memeable asset)
We also want to shout out the obviously impressive Juan Mera, and the supremely influential Madih Talal but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the defensive stalwart Nikhil Prabhu.
Ok, I’ve said it plenty of times by now: but I really struggled to keep up daily writing routines when I was teaching full time. That’s what happens to me when I spend most of the day supporting 70 other people’s writing, and the rest of it trying to be a parent.
So rather than write one post covering six months of eleven teams in action, I’m going to break it up with posts as best as I can, I’ll fill you in on how the games have gone, who has excelled and any other news and stories worth knowing.
Match Results: 20 W – 8 D – 12 L ; GF: 103 GA: 49
Minnesota United: 10 W – 6 D – 11 L; GF: 40 GA: 41
The Loons have veered between world beating confidence and inexplicable distress. At the season’s start, there were some excellent showings despite upheaval in the roster and confusion on the coaching search (more on that in a little bit). But the team came together after the introduction of new manager Eric Ramsay and came into May as one of the top three teams in the Western Conference.
And then the wings fell off the high flying Loons.
That’s not fully accurate: the wings fell off the Loons and caught on fire and crumbled into ash and then got vacuumed up by a strangely aggressive cleaning crew who took them out and spat on them and called them names.
Just in case you think I’m being hyperbolic, please consider that over the first 14 games of the Loons schedule they won 8, drew 4 and only lost twice. But in June and July the Loons only won and drew 2, which means they quadrupled their loss total by dropping 9!
Minnesota Aurora: 10 W – 2 D – 1 L; GF: 63 GA: 8
To the south of St. Paul, Minnesota Aurora continued to light up their competition. They poured in 21 goals over two matches with Kenosha, and another 26 in the four matches against Chicago Dutch Lions and Bavarian United (a side out of Milwaukee).
Once again Aurora seems to be a proving ground for talented young players en route to the professional ranks as they dominate the games and share the love in racking up goals. But, once again, heartbreak awaited them in the knockout stages. Fortunately, instead of getting to the final match before the suffering began, the Minnesota side was dropped out with a sudden shocking twist of fate against Indy Eleven.
Other Stories:
There were a few shifts in personal in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Nicole Lukic, who oversaw the first two supremely successful Aurora seasons left before things got started to take over youth squad recruitment for the US Women’s National Team. The USWNT is arguably the most prestigious soccer program in the country (many World Cups/Gold Medals will do that for you), and Lukic had a tremendous run bringing in great young players to the Twin Cities, so she should be superb there, while Aurora barely missed a beat in the league with Colette Montgomery taking over.
The men’s situation was a bit more…uh…chaotic. You may recall that Sean McAuley was going to be in charge temporarily…then left to get rid of that “temporarily”. Cameron Knowles stepped up, but was still labeled as an “interim” manager even after the squad looked strong for the first few matches. Finally, the Loons landed a high profile manager from the other MUFC (Manchester United Football Club). Ramsay is young, but has a bright future…provided these summer doldrums don’t undo him.
As if coaching upheaval wasn’t already chaotic, Minnesota United had to deal with some transfer sagas as well: Kervin Arriaga has been a great defensive midfielder the last several years, and now he’ll get to try to show the same thing in Europe (albeit for Partizan Belgrade…against our pals at Vozdovac). But Kervin’s upward trajectory is nothing in comparison with the death spiral of the supremely talented Emmanuel Reynoso. From the fulcrum of the club who could demand his heart’s desire, Reynoso has spent two years preferring to hang out back home in Argentina rather than training with teammates. I don’t blame him, I’m a home body too…but when you hang out with guys who attack random teenagers with guns …uh…that’s not so cool. Ultimately Minnesota moved Reynoso to Mexico just to be rid of the discomfort…even though dropping him probably didn’t help the squad get better…but it did make the club less violent so…I’ll take it as a win.
Star Players:
Sophie French and Cat Rapp once again dominated defensive lines all throughout the uppermidwest. This year they were helped by newcomer Sage Wimes, and midfield maestros Katie Duong, Addison Weichers and Mariah Nguyen.
Adorable DSC pictures, just because.
The Loons seemed happy to give up the “hope for Reynoso to do something magical” strategy and found a good balance in their team. Tani Oluwaseyi has emerged as another goal scoring threat (even while the boys’ favorite Bongi struggles with lingering injuries). Oluwaseyi even managed to make the Canadian national team alongside permanent highlight reel goalie: Dayne St. Claire. St. Clair had help from Joseph Rosales’ very good defense in the backline and the all around creation and goal scoring accumen of Robin Lod and Hasani Dotson.
Ok, I’ve said it plenty of times by now: but I really struggled to keep up daily writing routines when I was teaching full time. That’s what happens to me when I spend most of the day supporting 70 other people’s writing, and the rest of it trying to be a parent.
So rather than write one post covering six months of eleven teams in action, I’m going to break it up with posts as best as I can, I’ll fill you in on how the games have gone, who has excelled and any other news and stories worth knowing.
Match Results: 0 W – 0 D – 0 L; 0 GF / 0 GA
Okay, I’m taking a bit of a cheap route to start out, especially as the Griz have yet to play a match. But they will kick off their season this week, and as the reigning Sippy Cup Winners, they have a lot to play for.
Other Stories:
While they weren’t playing any matches, the Griz continued training all spring and summer…oh and they continued going to classes and pursuing their academic goals with aplomb. The team once again bosted a 3.7 graded point average and several student athletes with a 4.0 (or perfect GPA). Sydney Haustein led the charge in the classroom and was named the Montana scholar athlete of the year before graduating alongside Kathleen Aitchinson, Charley Boone, Molly Quarrey, and Maysa Walker.
The coming season is a big one for the Griz as they will be celebrating the program’s 30 year anniversary come October. It’ll be a great opportunity to celebrate the long legacy of Montana’s premier soccer side, and they’ll follow it up by hosting the Big Sky Conference Soccer tournament and hopefully cinching another trip to the NCAA tournament.
The journey there starts with another non-conference gauntlet with the team facing former Pac-10 teams Oregon State and Washington State plus Rocky Mountain rivals Air Force, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Boise State. The Griz do start out as a pre-season favorite (per a poll of college coaches) and bring back All-American Forward (and Flathead high grad) Skyleigh Thompson for her Senior season.
Star Players:
Obviously Thompson stands out as a rising star to watch, but she’ll be following team captains Charley Boone (yeah for Graduate studies!) and Ally Henrikson. Plus, we’re obviously holding out hope for Minnesota’s own Bayliss Flynn.
MacKenzie's Boot Room 