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| Epic season ends with mixed success |
When I took over this team five years ago the aim was to bring back some of their former glories. This is the team that won the first ever XCL and had a lot of success in the early days of Xpert Eleven.
Whilst the team is pretty good and still developing I thought any chance of silverware was still a few seasons away given the strength of some of the teams in the league. However the cup is always a good opportunity to bag a trophy and so it came that we found ourselves in the final against Sanjurou.
We had rode our luck slightly in the run to the final avoiding the bigger teams until the semi final and getting an undeserved win against Lucid Anthropologist. Our opponents in the final had done all the impressive work including a win against my league nemesis Wolf Nation.
The final was one of those games that could have gone either way. We both rode our luck but when a chance for our opponents popped up in injury time I thought it would be game over. Somehow we continued in what was probably one of the most nervous games I have watched in my entire Xpert career. When the game went to penalties I knew we stood a great chance and so it turned out to be as we finally won a trophy 70 seasons in the making.
After the cup win we faced Wolf Nation for a chance of promotion. We had to win and knew our opponent's would shut up shop for the point the needed. It was a dull game where our opponents created nothing and we had a couple of chances which unfortunately couldn't put away. The chance of the title faded away and we found ourselves in the playoff final
FC Lule are the stronger side in the whole Hattrick league. However, we dominated the game, creating eight chances to our opponents two but after 120 minutes the game ended in a draw. Unlike the cup final I knew the penalties could go either way and unfortunately we couldn't find a way past our opponents star goalie who saved all three of our penalties and all the chances during the game too.
So it so mixed success where we are delighted with the cup win but spurred two opportunities for promotion to the top flight, which is our ultimate goal. Mayby next season but given the strength of the league this time around it will be difficult.
One benefit of playing the maximum games any team can play in the league is the dv ratings. Keeping form high has been a costly struggle all season but we were rewarded with our best ever dv results. It is disappointing we only had one double jump to show for it but fingers crossed solid skill gains for the majority of players which will be positive for next season.
A first taste of the XCL for me which sure will be a great experience whatever the outcome and at least I can say I've made it to that competition.
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