Difference between revisions of "Bedistan Premier League, 2081 season"

Revision as of 18:06, 26 September 2005

Floral FC, under the leadership of Mike Davidson, had finally managed to win their first Bedistan Premier League title in 2080, and now hoped to repeat the feat in the 2081 season. Previous winners Alexandria were understandably fuming, having lost the league title to Floral on goals scored, and would be sure not to easily let Floral win again.

Replacing the three relegated teams from last season were New Haverford Albion, Jackson FC, and Brooklyn FC. Jackson had seen moderate success in the BPL several years earlier, finishing ninth in 2074 immediately after being promoted. New Haverford had competed in the BPL previously for only one season, 2067, which saw them go straight back down to the BFL First Division after a last-place finish. As for Brooklyn, it was their first season in the top flight.

Spring semester

After the opening weeks, the spring semester became the Alexandria-South Coast show, with a few other teams contesting third and fourth place among themselves. By the end of the semester, the top of the table looked like it came right out of a textbook: Alexandria, South Coast, Floral, and Rolestu, in that order. The relegation slots mainly held Charleston, Jackson, and Brooklyn, while newly-promoted New Haverford Albion were having a grand time, reaching as high as eighth place on matchday twelve before falling back to 15th by the midseason break.

Bedistani Cup

Early rounds

Defending Premier League and Cup champions Floral FC took on fellow BPL side Carter FC in the first round of this year's Cup. In a shocking result, Floral seemed to have shown up at the game physically but not mentally as they were immobilized in a 3-0 shutout, putting an extremely early end to their thoughts of a repeat. They weren't the only BPL side to go out at the very beginning, as New Haverford Albion fell 2-1 to San Diego. Three more BPL sides exited in the second round, Dennis and Jackson falling against lower-league opposition while at least San Solari had a tougher opponent in San Diego. Jervis and Dionte made their exits in the third round.

Round 4

Two big-name matchups in the fourth round were Rolestu v South Coast and Sokojiwa v Jamaica. Rolestu helped keep what was left of the Big Three alive in a hard-fought 3-2 victory, while Sokojiwa's Cup run seemed a shadow of its former self after a 1-0 loss to the Giants.

• Amityville FC 1-6 Brooklyn FC
• Navarre Town 0-2 Justus Loons
• Black Oasis Athletic 2-0 Hyatt Gorge FC
• Sokojiwa City FC 0-1 Jamaica Giants
• Bucks Lake Athletic 2-0 Mifflinburg FC
• Yuba United 4-0 Cisna-Ri Athletic
• High Mountain Buffalo 1-0 Delano FC
• Pine Village FC 0-1 Esto Wanderers
• Albany United 1-3 Charleston FC
• Sonovago City FC 0-1 Afton FC
• Carter FC 2-1 Spring House FC
• Cornish FC 0-4 Griffin Zebras
• Washington Tigers 3-0 Chelmsford Forest
• Alexandria Porcupines 2-1 AC Crotts
• Graceville Salamanders 1-3 San Diego Iguanas
• Rolestu FC 3-2 South Coast United

Round 5

The remaining five non-BPL clubs were eliminated in the fifth round, making an all-BPL quarterfinal. San Diego disposed of Rolestu, and 2079 cup sensations Bucks Lake finally lost...to Yuba United. Could it be that the former best club in Bedistan was finally returning to its old self?

• Brooklyn FC 3-2 Justus Loons
• Black Oasis Athletic 1-4 Jamaica Giants
• Bucks Lake Athletic 1-2 Yuba United
• High Mountain Buffalo 0-1 Esto Wanderers
• Charleston FC 3-0 Afton FC APK (2-2 FT, 3-3 AET)
• Carter FC 1-2 Griffin Zebras
• Washington Tigers 1-2 Alexandria Porcupines
• San Diego Iguanas 1-0 Rolestu FC

Quarterfinals

No more of the "Big Three" – though Alexandria fought like wild...er...porcupines, the San Diego Iguanas pulled out the extra-time win to advance to the semifinals. Another nail-biter of a match saw Yuba face Esto, and after a goal-heavy extra time period, United came out on top to see their first Cup semifinal in quite a while.

• Brooklyn FC 0-2 Jamaica Giants
• Yuba United 3-2 Esto Wanderers AET (1-1 FT)
• Charleston FC 1-3 Griffin Zebras
• Alexandria Porcupines 3-4 San Diego Iguanas AET (3-3 FT)

Semifinals

This was certainly not the expected batch of semifinalists, and at this point nobody really had any idea what to expect. One matchup was what would have seemed a clash of the titans a few decades ago, with Jamaica facing Yuba and neither particularly favored over the other. The other match also saw two clubs from the 2014 inaugural season of the original Bedistan Football League – Griffin and San Diego, though here San Diego was given the slight edge by the bookmakers. They were right about that match, with the Iguanas pulling off a 1-0 win; Yuba's resurgence was done, though, as Jamaica took the 2-0 win there.

• Jamaica Giants 2-0 Yuba United
• Griffin Zebras 0-1 San Diego Iguanas

Final

Jamaica and San Diego. Both had represented Bedistan in international club competition a long time ago, and many fans were quite happy to see them both apparently at the pinnacle of competition again, even though Jamaica's league performance didn't really reflect it. A packed Fillmore National Stadium saw a good old-fashioned attacking match in which Jamaica got to relive the glory days with an extremely well-played 4-3 extra-time victory.

• Jamaica Giants 4-3 San Diego Iguanas AET (3-3 FT)

Fall semester

As usual, Alexandria held the lead for the majority of the fall semester, but South Coast United definitely gave them a run for their money, briefly moving into first place on three separate occasions. Classic "Big Three" club Rolestu, however, didn't have the staying power this time around and would ultimately crash to a seventh-place finish. The biggest surprise of the semester was surely Griffin – even though they had in fact managed a fifth-place finish the previous season, nobody expected them to become a regular fixture in the top three. Defending champs Floral never even got close to the number one position this time, finishing third some seven points off the pace. Not that the race hadn't been close – at one point the top three clubs were all level on points with just seven games remaining. Many blame Floral's lackluster finish on an unfortunate matchday 26, where they somehow managed to lose 5-1 to 13th-place Esto; they never seemed to truly gain momentum again.

Brooklyn FC were the first club to be officially relegated, finding themselves seventeen points adrift of 17th-place Sokojiwa with five matches to go. Even though Sokojiwa had a ten-point buffer over the relegation zone at that time, their fans remained quite nervous, considering Jiwa had been nearly title contenders just a couple years previously. Charleston FC was the next club to drop, fourteen points behind Jiwa after week 34, and Jackson rounded out the trio one week later, never really putting up a fight.

Final standings

Foreign players

coming soon

End-of-season transfers

The transfer window was ordered closed by the Bedistan Football Association during the 2080-81 offseason due to internal restructuring.