Season 112 - Are you ready?

[talisman]

Desert Rats FC pre-season review.

Desert Rats start their 37th Season at Level 30, having only won the League Championship last season, a big disappointment for a team which won 24 out of their first 25 matches and looked odds on for a treble.

A Round of 16 defeat by a -16%Q side in the Champions League was the 'highlight' of a terrible middle season weekend, when the side lost twice and drew in the League, and lost at home in the 1st Leg of the CL. A 4-2 win in the return Leg away gained a modicum of revenge but the Rats still went out on aggregate.

Later in the week, a -1 Level, -21%Q side were the visitors in the 1st Leg of the Cup Semi-Final, they took an early lead and consolidated it late in the first half. A switch to hard attack and a couple of substitutions were the key to a late comeback which resulted in a 3-2 scoreline for the home side. The 2nd Leg was more of the same, but there was no comeback this time as the opposition won 4-1 to qualify for the final with a 6-4 aggregate.

In the League, a first match defeat by one of the other three 'big hitters' was followed by a series of wins ended by a 0-4 defeat at the hands of another of the top sides, at the start of the 'middle weekend of grief'. Desert Rats then embarked on another sequence of wins to keep in touch with the top sides, and once the end of the season approached and the other contenders started taking points off each other, the Rats closed the gap and edged the League title with two wins over their closest rivals.





On the playing squad side, there was no question as to the destination of the Player of the Season, a daily recommendation offering on Day 4 who the Management couldn't resist shelling out the 54T/$110M for, having found no credible alternative in the Transfer Markets:



This season, the team are at Level 30 in the League, and have Champions League and Cup competitions at Level 30, with a few Level 29 teams included.



The playing squad at the moment is the same as that which finished last season. At the moment the Management is happy to leave any new recruitment until the full makeup of the League is known.