The end of season 6 extravaganza!
What many believed would be a thrilling and enticing season for fans of iLandslaget as well as fans of football everywhere seemingly ended in heartbreak when the Swedish team failed to make even one of the tournament finals for Season 6.
Pundits and experts have tried hard to pinpoint the weaknesses of this season's squad and management, and rumours abound with talk about the manager's considerable lack of interest and usual drive. Tabloid magazines have lined their pages with gossip, and the most popular talk has been regarding that of the recent birth of the manager's daughter, and what it means for his continued career.
Could it be that the illustrious team is slowly falling apart under their manager's wiltering attention. While they did manage to secure the League Title with three games remaining of the season, a spectacular failure in the Cup's preliminary rounds and a surprise defeat in the Champions League semi-finals where the manager never even showed up means that the Club's highly set expectations were far from met.
The larger betting sites have already began moving odds for a potential replacement for the Swedish manager, but experts have had a hard time predicting the Board's next move, however only time will tell what's next for the fans, the squad and the manager of iLandslaget. In the meantime all we can do is look at the season that brought us to this point.
The Season in numbers
PERFORMANCES
Most games played: Daniel Prodell, Martin Laba and Bechir Bouzgarrou 37
Most games scored: Gerailton de Souza Rodrigues 31
Most assists made: Bechir Bouzgarrou 25
Worst discipline: Daniel Prodell and P. Karademitros 3 Yellow and 1 Red
Highest earner: Bechir Bouzgarrou 390,000
Lowest earner: P. Karademitros and Viktor Hall Tennmark 160,000
Eldest player: Martin Laba 26
Youngest player: Andre Lindström, Alexandru Letos and Valentin Laskov 18
TRANSFER BUSINESS
Total expenditure: One Hundred and Eleven Million Nine Hundred and Ninety Thousand 121 Tokens
# players bought: Eleven transfers, two U21 and two free transfers 15
Total income: Eighty Eight Million Nine Hundred and Eighty Thousand 53 Tokens
# players sold: Eight listed and seven negotiations 15
Competition round-up
The League
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A fantastic seeding in the League saw iLandslaget and their fans travelling to not just one or two of their sister-clubs but 10, although an unexpected and still unsolved embittering of the rivalry between iLandslaget and spanish team R.C.D.E saw a rift between the two teams mid season. As expected we saw some fantastic matches between closely matched rivals and the 4 Champions League places were tightly contested, as well as the 7 places that mean promotion to a higher league. In the end the three of Romain FC, who missed out on a Champions League spot on a 4-goal margin, Boerlong FC and TSV Bärnau, who both missed out on Promotion on a goal margin as well, will be the ones who feel hardest done by. One small surprise will have to be that Internazionale, led by Da Qiao, only managed a 4th place as they were widely tipped to grab 2nd place.
Another shock for those involved in betting sites must have been that Gerailton proved inequal to the high demands set him by fans, rivals and teammates. The team struggled for goals for periods of the season, and while Gerailton managed 21 goals in the League he did miss out on the Golden Shoe this year around.
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Bechir Bouzgarrou has continued his great development into one of the team's concistent performer and the fan favorite provided the most assists in the League, even if his forwards were slow to find their form.
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The Players' Association's Player of the Year Award based on Form went to Fredson Alves de Moraes Martins of blankos who managed a 8.07 average over 26 games.
Another year of distasteful voting though saw only one of the other Top 5 having played more than 1 game in total for their team, this was Noah Prussmann of Internazionale who managed a 8.00 average over 4 games.
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iLandslaget and it's fans will have been widely satisfied with the team's win, going another season letting less than 10 goals while scoring more than 100. They gathered 72 points, 12 better than the 2nd placed Portuguese team Fontainhas FC and went through the whole season undefeated, winning 23 games and drawing 3.
The Cup
The less said about the Cup at this stage of the season the better. iLandslaget staggered to an early defeat and never even cleared the Qualification Rounds. The fans', and the Board's, disappointment was widely felt as the manager and his players were slated in most of the media coverage and the siege of iLandslaget's Stadium had begun.
The Champions League
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While a small number of hard-core fans and initiated still felt that the season could be saved after the disappointing Cup run many would later state this disappointment as a factor in the later semi-final defeat in the Champions League. Korpikylä CF, the Finnish team, were considered underdogs but a 2-2 draw at home meant further pressure from media and fans in the replay. When the manager failed to show up his team gave a lacklustre performance, and though the 1-0 scoreline in favor of the Finns flattered them greatly, which saw iLandslaget fall by the wayside. It will be a small comfort that Korpikylä CF went on to win the final when media reported a widespread discontent among iFirman, there were even those who clamoured for the manager's sacking. Pressure is building both in the media as well as among the ranks of the organization for the Board to come out and either publicly support the manager, or if they've lost their confidence in him replace him with someone of equal drive and ambition.
It will be a busy Silly Season where we are likely to see several high profile managers linked with the position at iLandslaget but in the end we won't know until in a few hours time.
We leave you with a brief presentation of the present squad, and the discomforting thought of someone else leading them out for the coming season.
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Season 7 - opening day extravaganza!
As we passed into the 3rd day of the Season we finally found out what Season 7 would bring in terms of League and Champions League seedings, and boy are we in for something special! For those who thought last season looked a nail-biter with iLandslaget seeded into a League carrying 9 of their 'sister-teams' this season will prove even sharper.
Betting sites and local bookies have been having a field day as the League competitors were announced, and it does look as if this will be iLandslaget's hardest challenge yet since the Club's founding back in 2012.
League Table - Season 7
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Imagine the surprise turned shock, turned horror when the final team was drawn. We will see a league that features no less than 11 of the Swedish team's 'sister-teams' and both of the previously unknown teams (a 2nd french Romain FC and Wolf FC heiring from Spain) have an estimated Team Quality well above 40.0. This year will surely be the mother of all wasps' nests!
For the first time in years iLandslaget are not the odds-on favorite for the League Title, and the biggest question remains if an underdog-stamp will help the team kick on or if it will rob them of their usual confident displays.
Leading betting site Odds-1-Out have presented the following odds for the League title:
Romain FC (2) - 2.93, iLandslaget - 3.42, thaiteam - 3.55, Fontainhas FC - 5.28, FC.UGM, A.S.Roma and Internazionale - 10.25.
While the iLandslaget manager has remained calm and composed in the press conferences held so far a brief interview with the Chairman showed that not everyone within the iLandslaget hierarchy has the fullest confidence in the squad and it's coaches and there were several hints that a few changes to the squad might well be on the charts.
Meanwhile, with the groups for the Champions League drawn and done we can also conclude that there will be no Title or Trophy given freely this season, and the Swedes will have a hard time bringing the Champions League back home to Stockholm.
The Champions League Groups
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There are no less than 4 teams in the tournament with a higher estimated Team Quality than iLandslaget; Vietnamese sister-team Hoan FC are the odds-on favorite to take the title with a Quality Rating of 54.5, German team Fc Willich have been named 2nd favorite with their average Quality Rating at 53.6, German team Schwaben Utd was named 3rd favorite with a Quality Rating of 50.5 and last but not least another German team, Sven FC, were named 4th favorites with a Quality Rating of 50.4. Fans of iLandslaget won't find their team until all the way down in fifth place with odds of 12.50 to grab the trophy.
An exciting season lies ahead, and only time can tell whose Trophy Cabinet shall be added to!