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Another loss, this time to Bukchon Hanok Stripes, sees us falling down the table. We were hoping to be getting healthier, as we've been without star midfielders Bukayo Saka and Morgan Gibbs-White, but even with Saka returning, it doesn't look like Gibbs-White or defensemen Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven will be going this week. So we head to Mexico City for the first time, and look to right the ship. This week we're featuring young forward Keane Lewis-Potter, who has really stepped up with the injuries to play some good football. #TheGoldStandard
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Wouldja look at that? All of a sudden, Atlético has built up to a 3-game winning streak, which is tied for the longest active streak in AltLiga. With one more win, we can even out our record at 5 wins and 5 losses. We'll look to accomplish that goal against Tokyo Sakura, who have scored the fewest points on the year and conceded the second-most. If we can keep playing like we have the past few weeks (and avoid playing like the first several weeks), we may well just climb into a playoff spot. One player that's rolling is ageless striker Jamie Vardy, who has scored in each of our last two and last week added two key passes, three clearances, and four aerials.
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With the GEO Cup 2024 just 3 weeks away, it's time to reveal how that will work this season! It's quite simple, really. We will have only two groups of round robin action. Every team will get a bye at some point in the GEO Cup pool play, which will be 7 weeks. The winners of each group will face off in the 8th and final GEO Cup week, with the winner getting a guaranteed spot in the playoffs. The groups are as follows:
Group A (European Group)
1. VfV 1158 Munich
Amsterdam KVV
Atlético Barcelona
FC Alfa Roma
Inter Istanbul
Olympique de Bastille
St. Mungo FC
Group B (non-European Group)
Bukchon Hanok Stripes
CF Federal
Club de Ragatas do Independencia
Eye of the Sun FC
FC Tokyo Sakura
Joburg City 94
Sydney Harbour FC
The schedule will be loaded in to Fantrax soon. Please remember that these matches WILL NOT COUNT towards your record on the table, and only count towards the GEO Cup 2024.
Next, if you're so inclined, make a GEO Cup 2024 logo! The only requirements for the submission is that it must say GEO Cup and must include the year. It is held at last year's GEO Cup winner's stadium (that is still an active team) in Johannesburg, South Africa. The deadline for submissions is Sunday, November 15th at 11:59pm Eastern! We will then vote for the winning submission for this year's GEO Cup logo. Please email submissions on a transparent background to altlb.dc@gmail.com
Last edited by Dan O'Mac (11/05/2024 12:34 pm)
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love the idea of having a european division and a rest of the world division. one suggestion: instead of two teams being on a bye every week, could those teams play a friendly? wouldn't count toward anything, but it'd give us something to do
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I don't have a problem with it, but I'd love to hear more input.
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Idle thought for those potential friendlies, the people that are involved maybe play in a neutral site game? Maybe taking a city that once was a candidate for expansion? Or maybe using one of the other franchises' home grounds.
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I like that. Let's have the teams that would've been on bye play the Global Series. Each game will be played at the stadium of a team that has never been active in AltLiga. Since that's 6 teams, we'll use the only inactive, non European city available, Santiago, Chile. Aside from Athens, I tried to ensure that every game is played on a different continent than either team in the game. Since it will be 7 games of European teams versus Non-European teams, we'll determine a winner (with no benefits) based on which group wins more of the 7. If there happens to be a tie, then the Series can end in a tie. Here are the matchups and the locations:
Game 14 - GEO Cup Game 1 - Atlético Barcelona vs Sydney Harbour FC - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Game 15 - GEO Cup Game 2 - Olympique de Bastille vs Club de Ragatas do Independencia - Lagos, Nigeria
Game 16 - GEO Cup Game 3 - St. Mungo FC vs Bukchon Hanok Stripes - Athens, Greece
Game 17 - GEO Cup Game 4 - FC Alfa Roma vs Eye of the Sun FC - Beijing, China
Game 18 - GEO Cup Game 5 - Inter Istanbul vs CF Federal - Casablanca, Morocco
Game 19 - GEO Cup Game 6 - 1. VfV 1158 Munich vs FC Tokyo Sakura - Santiago, Chile
Game 20 - GEO Cup Game 7 - Amsterdam KVV vs Joburg City 94 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
I'll update that in Fantrax soon.
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Onto the more pressing matters, this week's matchup. Eye of the Sun picked up a win last week with a much needed win over CF Federal in Mexico City. We're back at home for this one, as we welcome in Club de Ragatas do Independencia to The Pyramid. They're one of two teams The Falcons haven't gotten a win over, so we're looking to change that. We're going to be in the standard main kits this week, as we're highlighting forward Jørgen Strand Larsen who was more than twice as effective as the next best player on the team last week. #TheGoldStandard
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After accruing just three points in our first six games, Atlético has completely turned it around, rattling off four wins in a row. We've pulled ourselves back to .500 on the year, and we find ourselves back in the playoff picture, sitting at eighth in the table. We put all that on the line this weekend as we head out to the Continental Divide to play Istanbul. Inter has had the inverse of Barcelona's campaign so far, as they were tied at the top of the table through five weeks but have since fallen to sixth. Unusually for what seemed like a dominant win, our top performer was our keeper, Mark Flekken. Against Sakura, Flekken stopped the first ten shots he faced and won two high claims to keep Tokyo off the board until garbage time.
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We were so, so close to winning, coming up just a half point short of taking down Munich. We won't have much time to recuperate, now having to return back home to welcome Amsterdam KVV to the Calabash. They're just a point back on the leaders, and might see us as just the right team to leapfrog to the top. We will try to not let that happen, including featured player D Leif Davis, who managed a goal and three key passes while managing the backfield.