Difference between revisions of "Lions WC 25 Campaign"

Revision as of 06:58, 27 November 2005

After the infamous redraw which Total n Utter Insanity forgotten, the Lions were put into a difficult Group 9, which ultimately caused the qualifying campaign to end in disappointment. After an expected Matchday One victory over RyukyuDaitoKazanNampo (which the Lions won 4-1), talk about qualifying for the second World Cup in a row intensified in Nedalia. However, things started to drift out of control for the Lions.

Matchday Two saw a loss infront of the home crowd at the Kafra International Stadium to Spaam, with the final result being 2-1. Although disappointing, many Nedalians brushed it aside and hoped for better next go around. They would have to wait for a while. Matchdays Three and Four saw losses to Total n Utter Insanty and Eauz, respectively, home and away. Four games into the campaign, and the Lions were sitting at the bottom half of the group table. It wasnt until Matchday Five that they got their act together, defeating Da WhoseLine People 3-1 at home. By then, however, pressure had already started to mount on the team, and especially on the shoulders of manager Randy Gamman.

It appeared the the pressure, which the Lions never had to live with before, caused perhaps the lowest point of the qualifying campaign: a 1-0 home loss to lowly Adam Island. That had the critics, media, and the fans reeling with anger, and the Nedalian FA demanded that results improve. A 4-1 home win against Andossa Se Mitrin Vega caused some of the anger to quell a bit, but there was still a heavy sense of disappointment in the air, and things were not helped by the result on Matchday Nine. Hoping to have turned the corner, the Lions went to Hockey Canada with hopes of snatching 3 points. Instead, they conceded 3 goals and came away with nothing in a 3-1 loss. Rumors started springing up about the match costing Gamman's job, but he ended up keeping it, despite the fact that the team were heavily underachieving. The table at the halfway mark looked like this:

 Pos  Team                  P  W  D  L  F   A   GD   Pts
 1  Total n Utter Insanity  9  6  2  1  15   9    6   20
 2  Hockey Canada           9  5  3  1  13   5    8   18
 3  Eauz                    9  4  3  2  13   8    5   15
 4  Spaam                   9  3  5  1  12  10    2   14
 5  Da WhoseLine People     9  3  4  2  10  10    0   13
 6  Yafor 2                 9  3  3  3   9   7    2   12
 7  RyukyuDaitoKazanNampo   9  3  2  4  12  14   -2   11
 8  Nedalia                 9  3  0  6  19  18    1    9
 9  Adam Island             9  2  1  6   4  15  -11    7
10  Andossa Se Mitrin Vega  9  0  3  6   9  20  -11    3

It was obvious that the offense was there, but the defence was the 2nd worst in Group 9. This was highlighted in Matchday 10, when careless defending caused RyukyuDaitoKazanNampo to equalize in the final minutes in an away match, adding only more frustration to the Lions and their supporters. The frustration would not stop there, however: another 1-1 draw to Spaam in Matchay Eleven all but eliminated hope of qualification for the Lions, and all but signaled to the NFA that their needed to be some changes at the end of it all.

With a sense of desperation behind them and the feeling of fading hope taking over, the Lions rallied around their rumored soon to be gone manager, and pulled off a terrific performance infront of the home crowd on Matchday Twelve, defeating Total n Utter Insanity 2-1. This would prove to be the turning point in the Lions campaign, as they finally seem to have clicked together. Matchday Thirteen saw a solid away victory against Eauz, and all of a sudden, hope began to rise in Nedalia.

With a victory against the Da WhoseLine People on Matchday Fourteen, Nedalia now found themselves in 4th place, 7 points behind 3rd placed Eauz. Though qualification seemed to be near impossible, the Lions continued to play like the Lions of old, grabbing a 2-0 victory away to Adam Island on Matchday Fifteen.

Qualification hopes would all come to an end on Matchday Sixteen, when a draw to Yafor 2 mathematically made it impossible for the Lions to get higher than 4th place. Although expected, it left Nedalia completely gutted, and not even a 4-0 over group leaders Hockey Canada managed to cheer the nation up.

Although Randy Gamman did not lose his job, he remained under the very watchful eye of the NFA. The only manager the Lions have ever known has a long way to go if he wants to earn the trust of the fans and the FA back. The final table standings ended like this:

 Pos  Team                    P   W   D  L   F   A   GD   Pts
 1  Hockey Canada           18  12  3   3  32  18   14   39
 2  Total n Utter Insanity  18  10  4   4  26  18    8   34
 3  Eauz                    18   9  5   4  27  17   10   32
 4  Nedalia                 18   9  3   6  36  24   12   30
 5  RyukyuDaitoKazanNampo   18   7  3   8  28  26    2   24
 6  Yafor 2                 18   6  5   7  19  16    3   23
 7  Da WhoseLine People     18   5  7   6  23  27   -4   22
 8  Andossa Se Mitrin Vega  18   5  3  10  17  28  -11   18
 9  Spaam                   18   3  7   8  19  31  -12   16
10  Adam Island             18   2  4  12  10  32  -22   10