Palace Casuals

[talisman]

League Round 25, home vs Daniel FC of Cartes, Spain. Level 22, AQ -0.1
Palace Casuals' last home game of the season was an evenly-matched affair with a team whose position in the table belied their AQ, thanks to a mid-season slump that they are having difficulty recovering from. Again facing a Narrow Diamond formation, the Management decided to stick with what worked yesterday, but restored the now-eligible left winger Omar Hansen and striker Catalin Neagu to their positions, in place of Valentin Ndjengue and Claude Pinto, respectively. Suspended Freddy Jones was replaced by club captain Anurak Arma.
The first half was all Casuals attack, but the visitors' defence repelled all efforts to find a breakthrough and one had the feeling that it wasn't going to go to plan, particularly when the usually reliable Hansen was given a chance from a set piece, but completely missed the target with the free kick. At the other end, Vukasovic was given a similar opportunity and was only thwarted by a brilliant save by Zoltan Bieder. From the resulting corner, however, Sifonios beat the home defence to Cygal's kick and Daniel had the lead. Despite all efforts in the remainder of the match, Casuals could not find the back of the net and suffered their second home defeat of the season.
The deep disappointment felt by the team and fans in the stadium at the missed chance at the League Championship was turned to restored wild hope when the results of the matches of the other two challengers were revealed to be defeats and that Palace Casuals had not lost ground at all; indeed the other defeats were worse and the goal differentials between the sides were more in Casuals favour.




Palace Casuals' Annual Dinner and Awards were held after the match, and the following players nominated for Player of the Year:

Left winger Omar Hansen (44 matches, 3 MoM, 25 goals (4 penalties), 3 assists)
Central defender Ben De Wree (37, 4, 1, 0)
Right back Juan Sebastian Garcia (44, 3, 4, 0)

With a season that relied heavily on defence and with important contributions from all other outfield players, it is not surprising that two of the nominees were defenders, and the other the really standout player of the rest. Both the defenders have made important contributions to the stingiest defence in the League in terms of goals conceded, and Hansen (the current PoY holder) has taken the vast majority of the on-field set pieces, and has stats to prove it. The great pity is that the main strike force has not been as potent as in previous seasons, and when this is the case then over-reliance on one man distorts the analysis one can make of the team overall. So it came down to stats or contribution and the committee debated long and hard before deciding on Juan Sebastian Garcia as the Player of the Year.