Palace Casuals

[talisman]

Up and at 'em early to see the results of the League Level 22 draw for Palace Casuals.



Very strange draw, only three teams with any achievements for last Season - Graziano, League Champions; Levski, League position 4; and Palace Casuals, League Runner-up, Champions League Finalist, Cup Winner. All the other sides are ones which have not levelled up, and will therefore be playing one League game a day plus another for the Cup every other day until they get knocked out. The majority of them are also running small squads with high numbers of 6* players.

Palace Casuals are running a slimmed-down squad this Season:


Todays games started with the Champions League Group Stage, Round 1 visit of Sherif FC to a packed Selhurst Park-ish, and the combination of a 4-4-2 Classic formation of the visitors to Palace's 3N-4-1-2 produced a deadlock in which neither side gained any material advantage. Casuals switched to a more attacking 4-5-1V formation early in the second half, and although this got them more chances on goal, both defences were in miserly form and a goalless draw ensued.



The League Round 1 match at Sturm Juniors of Knittelfeld, Austria was to be more of the same, at least until the second half. Using a 3N-5-2 formation to counter a modified Narrow Diamond with a wide right midfielder, Palace Casuals defence was more than a match for the home side's attack and three of Zoltan Bieder's four saves during this match were to be found in the first 45 minutes. The home side finally found the net just after the hour through Horvath, and eventually the Palace Management decided to replace forward Andres Ramos with defender Ben De Wree to stem any further goal attempts. This seemed to free up striker Catalin Neagu, who within three minutes turned the game on its head, taking on the Sturm defence single-handed and scoring two individual goals. He nearly had a third in the 86th minute, but it took a last ditch tackle to dispossess him of the match ball. Palace Casuals escaped from a tricky match with a narrow 2-1 win. Johan Shaqiri celebrated his 50th game for the club.