Act I — Wild Roses: one point, one header, one minute to spare
The margin first, because it is the smallest this newspaper has ever printed: Wild Roses Edmonton are champions of World League 1 with 78 points, one more than Bucharest Raiders. The previous narrowest title race in the top flight was three points, twice. This one came down to the ninetieth minute of the thirtieth round. Wild Roses 2-1 King Cobra: Sofyan from the spot in the 4th for the bottom club, Branko 44', and Milosz Kolasa, 29, powering in a header in the 90th minute while Raiders were finishing off a 3-0 at Imperial. A draw would have handed the title to Bucharest on 77 to 76. Kolasa — who entered last season on 99 career goals and whose 100th this column pre-wrote and then used — now has a header this column did not pre-write, and a second consecutive title.
The ledger: 25 wins, 3 draws, 2 defeats, 77 scored, 14 conceded — the best attack and the best defence in the division, again. The opening was ten straight wins, past the eight that opened last year: 6-1 at King Cobra on the first night (Uzel 10', 34', 39'; Tóth twice), 6-0 at Espada in Round 3 (Edgar in the 2nd minute), and 1-2 in Bucharest in Round 7 — Alexsandro's penalty in the 21st, Kolasa in the 45th, Tóth's penalty in the 81st. The club led from Round 3 to Round 13, lost the lead to Raiders' sixteen-match run (Act II), and got it back in the last week. The two defeats: Round 16, 0-3 at Lions — Josemar's penalty, Herrera, and a Jambrović own goal in the 79th, with Tsolakidis sent off for a second yellow — and Round 26, 0-1 at home to Sharks, Luján in the 25th. In between, Round 24, Wild Roses 2-0 Raiders: Tóth after three minutes, Uzel in the 59th. Two meetings with the runners-up, two wins, 4-1 on aggregate. Then Round 28: Sharks beat Raiders 3-0 while Edmonton beat Espada 4-0, and the lead changed hands for the last time. Round 29: 1-0 at Dacia, centre-back Tobias Faísca in the 84th minute. Round 30: above.
The household: Izzet Uzel, 29, 25 goals and the Golden Boot — hat-tricks at King Cobra, over Nordlys and at Fiko, and a number that equals his own Season 8 haul (Act IV); Roland Tóth 12; Kolasa 9; Tsolakidis 7; Benaboud and Jambrović nine assists each from the back four; Kevin Munera, the right-back who scored the decisive own goals of the last two seasons, scored ZERO own goals this year and six assists, and was booked eight times, which the club regards as an improvement. Jambrović, 32, contributed the own goal instead (Round 16), then scored at the right end at Fiko a fortnight later, and sits on 345 appearances. The frozen starting eleven was worth 5,661 — the most expensive in the division for a second year (Raiders 4,672, Sharks 4,660). The cabinet now reads three golds, five silvers, three bronzes, and for the first time in club history two of the golds are consecutive. And, because some things are structural: in the football that doesn't count, 29-3-0, 104 scored, 11 conceded — a fifth consecutive unbeaten friendly season, 178 friendlies without defeat — and fifth in the ranking (Act VII). The club has stopped asking.
Act II — Raiders: sixteen straight, and the two matches that were not enough
77 points, 25-2-3, 77 scored, 18 conceded. Second, by one. The opening read W-W-W-D-W-W-L, the L being the Wild Roses match, and then sixteen consecutive wins from Round 8 to Round 23 — the second-longest streak in top-flight history, behind only their own 22 of Season 9 — including 0-6 at Lions (Olivieri in the 4th, 7th, 39th and 62nd: FOUR, plus Ojeda and Gassama), 5-0 over Butterfly, 4-1 over Espada, 0-6 at Banatul, and a 4-1 over Lions in which both starting goalkeepers were sent off. They took the lead in Round 14 and led by four after Round 23. Then the passage that lost the title: 0-2 in Edmonton (Round 24), 2-2 at home to Pacific (Round 25, Olivieri 36', Ojeda 43'), and Round 28, 0-3 at Sharks — Fakhoury 11', Kuster 39', Luján 63', and goalkeeper Dariusz Todorovic marching out of his goal to scream at the referee in the 46th minute, straight red. Three points dropped against the eventual champions, two against fourth place, three against third. The last two matches were won 3-0 and 3-0, and it did not matter, again.
The cabinet reads 7-2-1. The blank space for an eighth title remains blank; a third frame has been hung beside it. Hector Ojeda, 33 — 19 goals, one of them in the FIRST minute at Hussars in Round 14 — sits, by the club's ledger, on 229 career goals. Elías Olivieri 15, four of them in one afternoon in Lagos, 168 for the career; Kamiya 7 goals, 8 assists and two red cards; Gassama 134 career goals; Alexsandro Perez 354 appearances and 96 career assists, four short of a hundred, a number this column has now pre-written and will keep in a drawer. Raiders, for a fourth consecutive season, played no friendlies, which means Raiders have now finished second in the football that counts twice while abstaining from the football that doesn't. The club's position on both is unchanged.
Act III — Sharks from eleventh, Pacific by a goal, and three promoted clubs with three different fates
Gold Coast Sharks were ELEVENTH after Round 7 and finished third on 69, with thirteen straight wins from Round 11 to Round 23 — equal to Wild Roses' 13, fourth on the all-time top-flight list — and the two results that shaped the title: 1-0 in Edmonton and 3-0 over Raiders. Virgilio Luján, 24, scored 20, FIVE of them in the 6-1 over Dacia in Round 13 (15', 30', 70', 81', 88'), one after 60 seconds at Kaiser, and the 15,000-credit invoice is now amortising at a respectable rate. They also beat King Cobra 5-0, Lions 5-0 and Pacific 6-1, and lost 0-1 at Hussars in Round 29 to an eighth-minute penalty by Illingworth, which is the kind of result Sharks produce when they are not producing thirteen in a row. Sharks 25-7-2 in friendlies; nobody at the club can explain the seven.
Seattle Pacific finished FOURTH on 56 — level with Dacia on points, ahead on a goal difference of +25 to +24 — having scored 76 and conceded 51, which is a season played entirely at both ends. Espada 4-7 Pacific in Round 9 (Ceesay three, Juan Leite three); Pacific 8-2 Espada in Round 22 — Calomfirescu 2', Leite 4', and Ebrima Ceesay in the 7th, 10th, 71st, 84th and 88th: FIVE; 5-0 over Black Army on the first night with Ceesay after 60 seconds; 1-6 at Sharks. Juan Leite, 20, the 6,200-credit signing of last summer's final week: 20 league goals and 33 friendlies, 53 for the year. Ceesay, 31: 20 goals, 11 assists, 135 for the career. Two five-goal afternoons in one top-flight season: last year Bekavac's five was "the most by anyone in any division"; this year it would have tied for the lead. FC Dacia, fifth: 11-1-3 at home, Aníbal Tineo 19 (a hat-trick in the 3-2 at Kaiser: 34', 67', 90+1') and past 200 career goals by Round 12; he sits on 212 at 29. The 200 club has three members and Tineo is the youngest by four years.
The three clubs promoted from the three-way tie went three ways. Kaiser Vienna sat SIXTEENTH from Round 7 to Round 11, won four in a row from Round 14 (4-0 over Black Army, Ihrig three), and finished twelfth; Ihrig scored 13. Black Army Budapest lost NINE in a row from Round 13 to Round 21, were fifteenth with ten to play, and finished eleventh; their goalkeeper Suhajda was sent off three times. And King Cobra Jakarta — one year out, straight back, straight back down: sixteenth with THIRTEEN points, 3-4-23, 33 scored, 79 conceded. Thirteen is the lowest total in top-flight history (Azure's 14 of Season 8 retires). And from Round 7 to Round 25 they lost NINETEEN consecutive league matches, the longest losing run any world division has recorded — Vesuvio's fourteen of last year lasted one season. The three wins: 5-1 over Kaiser in Round 5 (Kay three), 3-0 over Butterfly in Round 27, 2-1 over Fiko in Round 29 — two of them in the last four matches, after relegation was certain, which is either character or timing. Wout Meijer, 31, their goalkeeper, added two red cards and sits on 15 for his career (Act X). Eden Philippe, their left midfielder, was out from Round 11 for the season. Munich Butterfly, fifteenth with 16 points and three wins, went thirteen without winning; the annual outing to Bucharest ended 0-5. Fiko Tunis, fourteenth, scored 16 in thirty matches. Espada Madrid, thirteenth, conceded 71 — 21 of them to Wild Roses and Pacific in three matches — and beat King Cobra 5-4 with a Boudiaf hat-trick. Hussars drew ELEVEN, scored 25, beat Sharks, and rose from fifteenth in Round 7 to eighth; Lions, sixth, beat the champions 3-0 and lost 0-6 to the runners-up in the same season; and Banatul 5-5 Sharks in Round 7 — Crane 4' and 48', an own goal each way (Mathe, Arnorsson), Bekavac, Iliescu, Oșan, Moslehi, Fakhoury, Amann 89' — was played from the 6th minute with ten Sharks after Kuster's straight red. Ten goals, ten men, eighty-four minutes.
Act IV — The Golden Boot: twenty-five, twice
Izzet Uzel, 29, Wild Roses — 25 goals, the Golden Boot, his second: after 23, 23, 23 and 12, the number is 25, which is exactly the number he won it with in Season 8. Three hat-tricks, a penalty after 60 seconds against Fiko, the 59th-minute goal that beat Raiders, a 90+2' goal against Espada in Round 28, and 24 more in friendlies: 49 for the year, 124 for the career. Behind him Luján 20, Leite 20, Ceesay 20 — three men on twenty, two of them from the same club, two of them with five in a match — Tineo 19, Ojeda 19, Olivieri 15, Ihrig 13, Tóth 12.
Downstairs, the numbers were similar. Irfan Chowdhury, 27, Cape Town Storm — 24 goals, the World 2 scoring title: hat-tricks in the 6-0 over Atlas and the 6-3 at Tomis, 119 for the career, and a club that finished fifth by one point. James Huata, 23, Astral Amsterdam — 23, a hat-trick at Adria in seventeen minutes (71', 78', 88'), two more on the final day in a 6-0 that missed promotion by one point (Act V). Roy Prince 19 for Sipp with two hat-tricks; Hilario Cuesta 16 for Pyramids, two of them after 60 seconds, both away, both in 4-3 defeats. And in World 3, Luca Barsotti, 22, Spicey Boys — 22 goals and 11 assists, for a fee of 6,000 paid last summer, in a season with no defeats (Act VI). Sadullah Güneş, 23, Trakia — 20, FOUR of them in the 4-0 at Harimau in Round 14 (26', 43' pen, 48', 58') and a hat-trick against Dragons; sixty for the career at 23. Elías Pardo and Carlos Almeida of Hammer 17 apiece; Pardo, 22, scored three in the 7-1 at Red Kings and has 36 in two seasons. Bienvenido Canto, last year's thirty, scored 17 in 24 appearances and Bania finished fifth again. The four-goal hauls of the year, for the record: Olivieri, Luján (five), Ceesay (five), Güneş, Pacay and Sidek of Harimau, Vutov of Pokrok. Seven.
Act V — World 2: eight goals conceded, and four clubs who all won on the last day
Baltic Tallinn are champions of World 2 with 72 points — 23 wins, 3 draws, 4 defeats, 63 scored and EIGHT conceded. Eight. Wild Roses' nine, set last year and described in this space as the smallest number this newspaper has ever printed in this position, has been printed smaller. The club that missed promotion by one point last year after losing 0-1 at Arrows on the last day won this league by thirteen. Twelve straight wins from Round 12 to Round 23, top from Round 12 to the end, the title sealed in Round 27, 6-0 at Halicspor in Round 29. The four defeats were all clean sheets for the other side — 0-1 Diamonds, 0-1 Storm, 0-3 Adria with a 38th-minute red, 0-1 at Jökull to a penalty-and-red combination — and account for six of the eight; the other two were conceded in a 4-1 and a 2-1. Per Gjertsen, 33, whose rising this column has postponed twice, played ZERO league matches and is now 34. The rising is cancelled. Samir Burnić, a 22-year-old goalkeeper, was bought for 2,540 credits in Round 15, for a defence that did not need him.
Going into the final round: Pyramids 56, FC Sipp 56, Astral 55, Storm 55, two promotion places. Then: Pyramids 2-1 at Azure (Cuesta, Lastra); Sipp 3-2 at Union (Roy Prince, Verner twice) — the two clubs relegated from the top flight last year, one with 21 points and the other with 84 goals conceded, go straight back up together; Astral 6-0 Arrows — Huata twice, Wolf, Yavuz, Stevens, Ducrocq — and fourth, on 58, one point short: a six-goal final day was not enough; Storm 1-0 at Amazonia, fifth on 58. Astral scored 87, the most in the division, went 12-1-2 at home, put six past Storm, Halicspor and Arrows and three past Jalisco twice, led the table from Round 4 to Round 7, and were eleventh after Round 1. Pyramids Giza, last in World 1 twelve months ago, scored 86 — 6-0 over Halicspor, 6-0 over Union, 6-2 at Atlas, 5-4 at Storm — and were tenth after Round 14. Their season is a graph nobody could draw. Halicspor, eighth, conceded 0-6 three times: Astral, Pyramids, Baltic — eighteen goals in three afternoons. Diamonds 7-4 Amazonia in Round 29 (Zielinski three, Zomer two). Adria Split, champions of World 3 a year ago, finished sixth and beat the champions 3-0; Fabien Begin scored a hat-trick against Diamonds on the final day with two goals in the 54th and 55th minutes. Down: Jökull Reykjavik, fourteenth, who scored TWELVE goals in thirty matches and beat both Baltic and Adria 1-0 in the last six rounds; Jalisco, fifteenth, with ten red cards and one 5-1 win at Tomis; and Azure Chefchaouen, sixteenth, 15 goals, four seasons after their 14-point top-flight record was set — a record they no longer hold (Act III).
Act VI — World 3: thirty without defeat, and a promotion decided in the sixth minute by a man signed on Friday
Spicey Boys Barranco are champions of World 3 with 86 points: 28 wins, 2 draws, 0 defeats, 106 scored, 11 conceded. Every number in that sentence except the goals is a record. 86 points beats Raiders' 83 of Season 9; 28 wins beats 27; 23 consecutive wins (Rounds 3 to 25) beats 22; 30 matches unbeaten beats 27 — and it is the first unbeaten season in the history of any world division. Twelve months ago this club was registered, played no league matches, was promoted from a one-club league by winning the qualifiers, and won the Friendly Ranking. Now it has gone through a thirty-match season without losing, at home 13-2-0 and away 15-0-0 — not a single point dropped on the road. The two draws: 1-1 at home to Europe in Round 2, when Dhaene of Europe was sent off in the 22nd minute and the champions could not beat ten men, and 3-3 with Trakia in Round 26 (Boychev twice, one a penalty, Kyuchukov a penalty; Girón, Henri, Barsotti). Everything else: 8-0 over Harbour (Irigoyen three, Tweed two, Barsotti two, an own goal), 0-7 at Dragons (Irigoyen two, Nerazzurri two), 5-0 over Trakia, Ashwaganda, Hammer and Motors, 5-1 over Atlantico with a Barsotti hat-trick. Top from Round 8; title sealed in Round 24. Barsotti 22 and 11 assists, Henri 17, Irigoyen 16 and 9, Nerazzurri 15, Cezar 12 assists. Six red cards all season, two of them to Tweed: for dissent in Round 15, and for a second yellow in the 72nd minute of the final match. The 109 goals of Raiders' Season 2 survive by three. Nothing else does. The club goes to World 2 with Adria, Diamonds and Halicspor as the three most recent champions of this division to have found it difficult.
The rest of the promotion was decided in the sixth minute of the last day. Going into Round 30: Gladiator 54, Trakia 53, Motors 52, Bania 49. Then Motors 1-0 Gladiator — Fraser Johnstone, 19, a left midfielder bought from the market on the Friday for 1,111 credits, in the 6th minute on the Saturday — and Trakia 0-0 Pokrok. Detroit Motors went from fourth to second on 55; Gladiator, third on 54, still went up; Trakia Plovdiv — fifth, fifth and now fourth, with the best defence in the division two years running and the third-best this year — stayed down by a point after one win in the last eight. Somewhere in Plovdiv a purgatory has reopened under new management. Motors were thirteenth after Round 1 and tenth after Round 13, then won eight in a row. Gladiator Milan — sixteenth in World 1 two years ago, fourteenth in World 2 last year, two relegations in two seasons — go back up at the first attempt, with a 6-0 over Hammer (Kujundžić three, Cilloni in the 76th) and the two oldest passports in the game: Giuseppe Cilloni, 356 appearances, and César Figueroa, 354, the two most-capped active players in the world, both promoted at 33 and 31. Kujundžić scored 16, one of them after 60 seconds against Pokrok.
Bania fifth, five wins to finish, too late. Sea Dogs won their first seven and led for three rounds. Hammer, seventh, scored 67 and conceded 61: 7-1 at Red Kings, 6-0 at Europe, 5-0 over Harbour, and 0-6, 0-5, 0-5 on the other days; Rupprecht, a midfielder, three red cards and a hat-trick. Harimau Selatan 7-3 Bania in Round 20 (Sidek four) — and Harimau, twelfth, are relegated to a Malaysian league that did not exist until they were sent to it. At the bottom, six doors: Atlantico (eleventh, despite a 5-0 over Hammer with Bejarano three), Harimau, Pokrok, thirteenth — nine draws, the last of them the 0-0 in Plovdiv that relegated Trakia's hopes and themselves in the same afternoon, Europe (fourteenth, whose ten men held the champions), Wellington Harbour (fifteenth: 5-6-4 at home, 0-3-12 away, 18 goals scored, James Kereama out from Round 1 for the season), and Montreal Red Kings, sixteenth on 20 points, back to Canada after one year — in the same week Oxygen won the Canadian league. The Montreal derby, exported last year, is re-imported: next season Canada's league has Oxygen, Red Kings and FlyWheels, and the city that kept exactly one World League club now keeps none. Ashwaganda, tenth, lost eleven in a row from Round 9 and stayed up anyway. Tauras, ninth, in their first World League season, safe.
Act VII — THE FRIENDLIES: sixty-six percent again, and a Danish double
The census: 135 series, every one completed; 1,856 friendlies against 963 official matches — sixty-six percent of all football played this season didn't count, the same sixty-six as last year, on two hundred more matches; 4,765 goals; 60,880 credits in prize money; 90 clubs took part, up from 77; Raiders, Espada, Butterfly and Fiko did not. And a new champion: Oresund Copenhagen — 62 matches, 35-12-15, 147 scored, 96 conceded, 117 points, five series titles, 1,580 credits earned, the most. A club relegated from World 3 last year, which spent the season winning the Friendly Ranking, then spent the final Sunday winning the qualifiers (Act VIII). Julian Callejón, 29, scored 30 friendlies; Tim Munkholm, a 32-year-old centre-back, 15 assists; goalkeeper Gunner Secher was booked fifteen times. Spicey Boys' 147 stands: the champions of World 3 were too busy.
Accra Stars 107 (68 matches, 28-23-17) — second. Juventud 103, Seoul Hangang FC 100 (61 scored, 31 conceded — the returns-counter squad of last year has learned to defend), Wild Roses 90 (29-3-0), Barracudas 90, Vltava 90, Galaxy Vilnius 89 — a club registered on the Thursday that had played SIXTY-EIGHT friendlies by the Sunday, with 119 yellow cards and 17 reds, FC Leman 89. Elsewhere on the sheet:
- Sixty-eight matches, the all-time record set by Tauras, was equalled THREE times — Stars, Galaxy, Leman — and the individual 68-of-68 four times: Dela Kofi and Kingsley Barema of Stars, Gilbert Savary and Gérard Froidevaux of Leman. FC Leman conceded 162, past Esil's 140, while scoring 119 and finishing ninth. Viljandi Hundis collected 126 yellow cards, past Asteras' 121, and conceded 138. Avala and Mayab 18 red cards each.
- The unbeaten: Wild Roses 29-3-0 (104:11), Lions 26-4-0 (101:12), Nordlys 22-2-0 with EIGHT conceded in 24 — fifth, fifteenth and twenty-ninth. Pacific 27-6-3, 101 scored. Pyramids 127 goals in 38 matches. Sharks 25-7-2. Baltic 26-2-4. The ranking rewards attendance; the six best records finished 5th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 16th and 18th.
- The brutality table: Pyramids 9-0 Daymán; Barracudas 1-9 Pacific; Barracudas 0-8 Wild Roses; Hundis 0-8 Nordlys; Wild Roses 8-0 Pacific; Leman 0-8 Bania; Halicspor 8-0 Thistle; Pyramids 8-1 Toros; Liffey United 0-7 Adria; AC Vesuvio 0-7 Bania. And Mayab 3-9 Union, Motors 5-6 King Cobra, Naniwa 6-4 Hammer.
- Scorers: Clementino Contrera (Leman) 48 — after 46 last year, still five short of Canto's 53 — Josué Gruezo (Asteras, the 3,900-credit signing) 36, Paulinho Borralho (Juventud, 4,000) 34, Juan Leite 33, Marc Mendez 31, Viktor Bódis 31, Callejón 30, Mzukisi Mngadi 26 in a season he also scored 12 in the league in fifteen appearances. Assists: Kayabaşi (Pacific), Cuesta (Pyramids), Munkholm (Oresund) and Liiv (Baltic) 15 each; Jambrović's 20 stands.
- The Lead Glove: Héctor Bonachera (Stars) and Erlan Baymukhanov (Esil), goalkeepers, five friendly reds each; Wout Meijer three plus two in the league. Friendlies added 712 red cards and 1,184 VAR interventions of their own.
- Wildcards into next season's qualifiers: Juventud (third in the ranking), Toros, Union Maritime. Last year's three: Juventud and Toros returned theirs marked "qualified normally"; Aberdeen Bad Boys used theirs, and used it all the way to World League 3 (Act VIII).
Act VIII — The Qualifiers: four shootouts, a Jamaican club in the final tie, and the seed who took the bye and went home
Forty-seven entrants (a record; 45 twice), forty-two ties including one bye, eighty-three legs, and FOUR penalty shootouts, after one last year. The longest: FC Seestadt against Esil Astana — 1-0 in Haltern, 1-0 in Astana with Zhetybayev scoring in the 91st minute, Veit of Seestadt sent off in the 95th, and 8-7 on penalties after EIGHTEEN kicks. Eighteen is the number Vltava and Marsupilami needed two years ago and Al Rafidain and Mouloudia needed last year; the bracket has a preferred length and it is eighteen. Ruige beat Jelgavas 6-5 after sixteen kicks; Étoile beat Aberdeen Rovers 6-5 after twelve; Lusitania beat Vltava 5-4 after twelve, following two 0-0s. Germany's champions, out on penalties; Scotland's champions, out on penalties; Czechia's, out on penalties after 180 goalless minutes.
The bye went to Toros Sevilla, champions of Spain by eight points, the top seed. They beat Budaörs 4-0 and 1-1 (Serrano three in the first leg), and then met Kingston Barracudas: 0-0 in Seville, and 1-0 in Kingston, Bolton in the 71st, with two goals chalked off by VAR. Jamaica sends a club to World League 3; the top seed, who had a wildcard last year and returned it unused because they qualified normally, has now qualified normally and lost normally. Barracudas — 62 friendlies, sixteen friendly red cards — had removed the unbeaten champions of Italy on the way (Vittoria: 0-0 in Verona, 2-1 in Kingston). The other five: Oresund — Al Najd 5-0 and 3-3, Hundis 4-3 away and 5-0, Asteras 3-1 away and 4-1; Callejón eight goals in the bracket, and Damien Blenheim, 22, bought on the Wednesday for 8,942 credits — the fifth-largest invoice in the game's history — five goals by the Sunday. Aberdeen Bad Boys, second in Scotland on goals scored, entered on the wildcard: Juventud 0-0 and 1-0, Avala 0-1 and 2-0, Hengda 2-0 and 2-0; a club that conceded zero in the league last year and did not win it has now not won it again and is a World League club. Étoile Nantes: Garabaaley 3-0 and 0-1, Rovers on penalties, Clavins 11 1-0 and 0-0 — a bye team that lost its first tie last year goes up this one. Lusitania Lisbon: two shootout-adjacent draws and a 2-0 in Manila. Hyderabad Vikings: Waregem 1-1 and 1-0, Backgammon 5-1 and 1-1, Ruige 2-0 and 1-2. Denmark, Jamaica, Scotland, France, Portugal and India send a club each. And Guangzhou Hengda, who lost 0-3 at Leman to a Contrera hat-trick and won the second leg 4-0, then put out Japan's champions, then met the wildcard.
The domestic year: Spain — Toros 28, 9-1-2, 22:6; Trovadores conceded THREE in twelve matches, drew five, and finished second; eight 0-0 draws in a seven-club league; Toros 6-0 Real Atletico, Real Atletico 1-5 Deportivo, and then Deportivo 0-3 Real Atletico the following round. Italy — Vittoria Verona unbeaten, 8-2-0, 23 scored, 5 conceded; Béart eight, one of them after 60 seconds; AC Vesuvio, holders of the World 3 low-points record, third; LISKA, the champions, fourth. Scotland — Rovers and Bad Boys level on seven points, one win each away from home, title to Rovers on goal difference, +3 against 0; Rovers then lost a shootout to Étoile and Bad Boys went to World 3 on the wildcard. Both Aberdeen clubs, one bracket, the one that did not win the league goes up. England — Red Bulls London champions with two wins and three draws in six, then out to Cheese Whopper of Kaohsiung 0-0 and 2-3. USA — Lusby United 21, unbeaten at home. France — Étoile 13; Union Maritime 5-1 Avignon on the last day and a wildcard. Germany — FC Seestadt, then the eighteen kicks. Japan — Shachi. Canada — Oxygen 2-0 and 1-1 over FlyWheels. Colombia — Atletico Aburra 5-0 Sporting Unicosta. Argentina — Juventud, seven points, having lost 0-3 to Academicos. Mexico — Mayab. China — Hengda. Portugal — Lusitania. Plus thirty-two champions by attendance.
Act IX — Mercato: the money went away again
Eighty-two transfers, 42,011 credits — fourteen more deals than last year for less than forty percent of the money (109,922). The invoice table: Blenheim, 8,942, to Oresund (five qualifier goals in four days — see above); Yousef Tahmazov, 20, a centre-back, 4,000, to Aberdeen Rovers; Shigeharu Suijo, 3,200, to Motors (promoted); Glen Nulty, 2,760, to Galaxy; Said Al-Tauqi, 2,680, to Spicey Boys in Round 25, for a defence that had conceded ten; Danny Timmer, 2,650, to Pokrok; Burnić, the goalkeeper, 2,540, to Baltic; Robert Ferenc, 18, 2,400, to Trovadores; Daniel Lippi, 2,360, and Romulus Felecan, 1,882, to Galaxy; Mauro Pousada, 1,165, to Hammer; Fraser Johnstone, 1,111, to Motors, the best credits-per-promotion ratio on record. Galaxy Vilnius spent 7,005 on four players in the first three days of the club's existence, the most by anyone. Two owners sold a player (three last year); 22 club releases changed hands; 56 of the 82 deals were for ten credits or fewer, and Al Rafidain Baghdad signed SIX players for a combined TEN credits, which beats Hangang's six-for-34 of last year and which the accounting desk has filed under "bulk". The all-time invoice table now reads Luján 15,000, Begin 9,700, Hulme 9,661, Ostrowski 9,340, Blenheim 8,942, Chowdhury 8,450. The corrections desk reports nothing to correct; the last-week sales of Season 11 (Kamiya, Leite, Braudel, Montanía, Gruezo) were printed last year, on time, and the desk would like that noted.
Act X — Crime blotter: nineteen defeats, two keepers twice, and the chairman resumes
The season in numbers the referees would prefer we didn't print: 394 official red cards in 963 matches; 33 percent of matches featured at least one (down from 35); VAR wiped out 556 goals and penalties and downgraded 28 reds to yellows; 329 penalties awarded, 286 converted; 93 own goals; 14 outfield players in goal; 28 players stretchered off with no substitutions left; 20 mass confrontations.
Both starting goalkeepers were sent off twice: Black Army 2-2 Wild Roses in Round 12 — Suhajda for a second yellow in the 61st, Spadafora in the 89th with a penalty attached — and Raiders 4-1 Lions in Round 23, where Al-Dimashqi went in the 38th and Todorovic in the 72nd, and Raiders finished the match with Sasu withdrawn so that Riveros could put on the gloves. Two sides finished with eight men and, unlike Kaiser last year, neither won: Tomis 1-5 Jalisco (three Tomis reds) and Jalisco 3-4 at Union (three Jalisco reds, a fortnight later; the club that benefited from the arrangement was on the wrong end of it next). The goalkeepers' red-card table for the season is a four-way tie on three — Hoo (Harimau), Lisboa (Amazonia), Suhajda (Black Army), Rainha (Atlantico) — and the career table is now Kontao 16, Meijer 15, Lindsay 14, Lisboa 13, Leclercq 12, Eide 11 — still all goalkeepers. Tianjama Kontao, 30, Seattle Pacific, who spent all of last season on fifteen and "declined to add to them", has added one. The chairman is back. Meijer, relegated, added two and closed to within one; the syndicate reports its succession plan is on schedule.
Supporting features: Todorovic's 46th-minute walk in the match that decided the title (Act II); Tweed of Spicey Boys, sent off for abusive language in Round 15 and for a second yellow in the 72nd minute of the final match, two of the six reds shown to the invincibles all year; Kevin Munera booked eight times and, for the first time in three seasons, never at his own end; Bekavac sent off for foul language in Round 28, his second of the year, at 30; and the infirmary's worst official cases, Eden Philippe of King Cobra and James Kereama of Harbour, 31 rounds each. Both clubs were relegated. The correlation desk has stopped commenting.
Act XI — Births and farewells: seventeen new clubs, an empty column, and 396 gold watches
Seventeen registrations were approved during the season: Headingley FC (Leeds — England's fifth club), Adler (Kölner), Tamtranlu (Ho Chi Minh City — Vietnam's first), Focused Vengeance (Praia — Cape Verde's first, and a name this newspaper will use sparingly), New Delhi Warriors, Schelde (Antwerp), Gravesteen (Ghent), FC Meuse (Liège — Belgium now has five clubs and a league to fill), Trebević (Sarajevo), Lagune (Abidjan), FC Wouri (Douala), Galaxy (Vilnius, see Acts VII and IX), Daymán (Salto, Uruguay), Liffey United (Dublin) and Shannon Athletic (Limerick — Ireland has a league), Ras Al Khor (Dubai), and Aurora Mineira (Belo Horizonte). The obituary column is empty for a fourth consecutive season; the obituarist, promoted last year, has been given an assistant with nothing to do.
The retiring class numbers 396 — the second-largest ever, behind only the founding 486 of Season 1, and it is led by a new iron man from the champions of Italy: Oronzo Mereu of Vittoria, 34, a left midfielder with 295 appearances, 29 goals and 35 assists — past Onofrei's 271, which lasted, as every appearance record now does, exactly one season. Nazzareno Battaglini, 277, and Marius France, 254, also of Vittoria: three of the six longest careers in the class ended at the same unbeaten club in the same week. Álmos Varga of Black Army, 35, 272 appearances, 38 goals and SEVEN red cards; Philippe Jobin of Oxygen 270; Burak Erdem of Butterfly 261 with six reds; Kouhen 248, Doukkali 245 and Lahrach 230, all of Atlas, in one afternoon; Fromm (Hammer) 247; Verweij (Astral) 236 with 35 assists; Hakim (King Cobra) 223; Mirchev (Trakia) 220. Bérubé of Oxygen retires with 44 goals, the most in the class. And Sebastián Islas of Academicos retired at NINETEEN, after eight appearances, reasons not given, which the Gazette respects and, as with Peacock last year, would still like to know. Still standing: Cilloni 356 and Figueroa 354 (promoted), Perez 354 (second), Baudet 349, Skyum 347, Gordon 346, Jambrović 345 (champion), Gam 343 at 35. The gold watches were invoiced to the friendlies budget, which at 60,880 could afford them and has asked whether next year's class could be smaller.
Final standings
World 1: 1. Wild Roses Edmonton 78 · 2. Bucharest Raiders 77 · 3. Gold Coast Sharks 69 · 4. Seattle Pacific 56 (+25) · 5. FC Dacia Brasov 56 (+24) · 6. Lions FC Lagos 49 · 7. Banatul Timisoara 45 · 8. Hussars FC Warsaw 38 · 9. Nordlys IF Oslo 34 (−9) · 10. Imperial Tokyo 34 (−12) · 11. Black Army Budapest 32 · 12. Kaiser Vienna 29 · 13. Espada Madrid 24 · 14. Fiko Tunis 22 · 15. Munich Butterfly 16 · 16. King Cobra Jakarta 13
World 2: 1. Baltic Tallinn 72 · 2. Pyramids Giza 59 (+35) · 3. FC Sipp Dortmund 59 (+25) · 4. Astral Amsterdam 58 (+35) · 5. Cape Town Storm 58 (+26) · 6. Adria Split 49 · 7. Diamonds Amsterdam 41 · 8. Halicspor Istanbul 40 · 9. Amazonia Manaus 37 (−2) · 10. Tomis Constanta 37 (−14) · 11. Nottingham Arrows 36 · 12. Union Santiago 32 (−17) · 13. Atlas Marrakech 32 (−22) · 14. Jökull Reykjavik 28 · 15. Jalisco Guadalajara 20 · 16. Azure Chefchaouen 19
World 3: 1. Spicey Boys Barranco 86 · 2. Detroit Motors 55 · 3. Gladiator Milan 54 · 4. Trakia Plovdiv 53 · 5. Bania Craiova 52 · 6. Plymouth Sea Dogs 48 · 7. Hammer Hamburg 47 · 8. Cardiff Dragons 45 · 9. Kaunas Tauras 44 · 10. Ashwaganda Ahlen 34 · 11. Atlantico Porto 33 · 12. Harimau Selatan Johor Bahru 31 · 13. Pokrok Kosice 27 · 14. Europe Brussels 25 · 15. Wellington Harbour 24 · 16. Montreal Red Kings 20
Countries: Argentina — Juventud · Canada — Oxygen · China — Hengda · Colombia — Atletico Aburra · England — Red Bulls · Spain — Toros · France — Étoile · Germany — FC Seestadt · Italy — Vittoria · Japan — Shachi · Mexico — Mayab · Portugal — Lusitania · Scotland — Rovers · USA — Lusby United · plus thirty-two champions by attendance. Qualifiers → World 3: Kingston Barracudas, Aberdeen Bad Boys, Étoile Nantes, Oresund Copenhagen, Lusitania Lisbon, Hyderabad Vikings. Friendly Ranking podium: Oresund 117 · Accra Stars 107 · Juventud 103; wildcards to Juventud, Toros, Union Maritime.
Golden Boot: Izzet Uzel (Wild Roses) — 25, three hat-tricks, the champions' striker for the first time since Season 7. Record watch: points in a season 83 → 86, wins 27 → 28, consecutive wins 22 → 23, unbeaten run 27 → 30 and the first invincible season (all Spicey Boys); goals conceded, any division, 9 → 8 (Baltic); consecutive defeats 14 → 19 and top-flight fewest points 14 → 13 (King Cobra); top-flight title margin 3 → 1; retiring iron man 271 → 295 (Mereu); retiring class second-largest ever (396); qualifier entrants 45 → 47; shootouts in one bracket 1 → 4; friendly goals conceded 140 → 162 (Leman); friendly team yellows 121 → 126 (Hundis); 68 friendly matches EQUALLED three times; 25 goals for a Boot EQUALLED (Uzel, his own). Still behind glass: the 109-goal season (by three), the 10-0, the fifteen-goal match, Canto's 53, Ojeda's 38, 147 friendly points, 177 friendly team goals, Jambrović's 20 assists, Schlatter's seven reds — and Kontao's fifteen, which is now sixteen.
Season 13 opens with Wild Roses defending a title they defended, and Raiders one point from a treble of silvers; with Baltic, Pyramids and Sipp in the top flight — two of them back after one year — and King Cobra, Butterfly and Fiko out of it, one of them holding two records nobody wants; with Spicey Boys in World 2 after thirty matches without a defeat and Trakia in World 3 after thirty matches that were one point short; with Gladiator and their two 350-cap veterans going up for the first time in three years; with a Danish club that won the friendlies and the qualifiers in the same fortnight, a Jamaican club that beat the top seed, and both of Montreal's clubs back in Canada; with Ojeda on 229, Ihrig on 215 and Tineo on 212, a 20-year-old in Seattle on 53 for the year, and a goalkeeper on sixteen career reds who has resumed. Sixty-six percent of last season didn't count. The other thirty-four decided a title by one point in the ninetieth minute. Do not change the channel.
