CONCAFA Nations Cup 2020 Preview

CONCAFA Nations Cup 2020 | Tournament Preview

This summer’s tournament bring eight of the ten CONCAFA nations together, with Panduras and Djaratia regrettably failing to pass through the Nations League stage, which served as qualifiers of sort.

Hosts Aguador lead off Group A, with Marida, who two years ago were in the final four of the WEFA World Nations Cup. Debutants Targaria, the Hungarian speaking nation, were newly formed out of the split with Djaratia.  Réisha were caught up in civil war just a few years back, so this is a time for them to try to gt things ‘back to normal’ in a footballing sense.

Group B has holders Eboria paired with Nations League winners Latania, always dangerous Anderland, plus a rising giant in Saint Louis. It is definitely seen as the harder group.

GROUP A

Clockwise from Top left- Aguador, Marida,  Targaria and Réisha.

Hosts Aguador have a good starting eleven, good enough to match anyone, but do they have a good enough squad for the five games? Luis Velasquez leads the line, with Emilio Alcaraz, Santi Ramon and Saul Blanco all supporting the attack. Home support will be vital in getting them through the knockout phases. They kick off with Marida, so it will be interesting to see how they start. Falling in game one does not by any means rule them out of contention.

Marida finished third in Spain & Portugal two summers ago. Having lost the semi-final to Brazil then, and losing the CNC final in 2016 to Eboria- they feel the time is now to win something. Their last tournament victory was back in 2008, with Felipé and Carlosinho. The next generation of Carlos Ricardo, Rolando, Lieira, Xavi Rodrigues and co. need to win gold- now! Youth has been added with the excellent Césaro, Felix and Costinho. This only enriches the squad. Hard to bet against taking the trophy home.

Réisha are back. The Dragon Warriors have been playing for two years to get to this point and are ready to fight for their nation. Fighting spirit is one thing, but do they have the talent to pull off something of a coup and get out of the group? Talismanic playmaker Matheo Zalas is their great hope, but he can’t win it all by himself. Although they are far from a one-man team, third in the group would be an acheivement.

New nation Targaria are ready to fly the flag at their first ever tournament as a sovereign nation. There will be great joy and pride in leading the men out in Aguador. The front four all have ESL experience – Andras Féher (Hallas), Szabo at San Andreas, Balasz Nagy on the flanks at NC United and István Kovacs at FC Coratia.  If they can beat Réisha, they will have a chance to sneak through.

Predicted order: 1- Marida, 2 – Aguador, 3- Targaria, 4- Targaria

GROUP B

Clockwise from top left- Anderland, Eboria, Saint Louis and Latania

Anderland’s front three of Overgaard, Heinz and Mulder should strike gold (or goal-ed) for the Andutchmen. The defence may be their Achilles heel. If they can keep things tight at the back, they should be able to oust either Eboria or Latania for a top two spot . They know three into two won’t go and they don’t want to be the odd ones out.

Holders Eboria have a great squad and must be considered co-favourites. Although Aaron Johnson, Daniel Ayandele, Buckhalter and Scott Bradshaw have retired from international football, the replacements- Mark Vladic, Troy Walker and Danny Marshall have all stepped up to fill any void. Add in Jordan Wilcox, Aslan Burakgazi and Eddie Brown III and you have a stacked squad to retain their crown.

Latania won the Nations League with goals from their ex-European based players. Paolo Alzari, Mauro Bellatoni and Mario Lotti  were on fire as a collective.  Italy-based holding midfielder Massimo Galante provides the engine in midfield and he is now well accompanied by either Foscarelli or Tosi. A solid back four makes them difficult to break down. If their form holds, expect them to at least be in the final four.

Saint Louis are the underdogs in this difficult grouping, possibly the worst for the french-speaking republic. Adelphia’s Lilian Diane is looking for a new home as he wants to start up front- he has been a tremendous striker in the past two months. Grandeau, Ettiene Kamara  and Sasa Lucic are great players also. The Saint Louisiens are a top-heavy side and are prone to leaking goals. Hard to see them anywhere but bottom, especially as winger Jacques Marceau has pulled out of the squad due to a hamstring injury suffered in the ESL finale.

Predicted order: 1-Eboria, 2 – Latania, 3- Anderland, 4- Saint Louis

Predicted semi finals- Marida to beat Latania, Eboria to beat Aguador.

Predicted winner: MARIDA

Report: Eborian Super League to rebrand for 2020-21

Eborian Super League → Eborian Premiership

Following the culmination of the 2019-20 season, the ESL’s 32nd season in its current form, the league will rebrand as the Eborian Premiership. The league also announced its sponsorship deal with Ntel- Eboria’s National Telecom. As a result, Ntel’s sponsorship deal with New Jorg United will terminate early at the end of May.

The new logo

Angel crowned Christmas/Winter Champions

Eborian Super League | Halfway stage/ winter break

Blanco, Bartlett, Costinho and Makamalé are key parts of this excellent team.

As the Eborian Super League moved into its customary winter break, one team stood head and shoulders (and at least 9 points ahead) of everybody else… Angel FC

Bryan Mason’s side have won 15, drawn and lost only once. with goals aplently coming from Makamalé, Kané, Blanco and Costinho. The holding players Moses Muamba and Marcos Aurelio have allowed wing backs Hilario and Gary Bartlett to zoom forward, allowing Kané and Blanco to interchange and cut inside. Makamalé makes so many unselfish runs that are being used properly this season. The tweaks have turned this team into a machine of excellence.

With no Champions League to distract, and only a minor interest in the Unity League and Copa, it will be interesting to see how much they invest in finishing off the job. In short; a delight to watch and the strongest team we’ve seen in the ESL for a few years now. Truly dominant!

CONCAFA Nations Cup 2020 draw held

CONCAFA Nations Cup 2020 | CONCAFA HQ | Finals Draw

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Following the CONCAFA club competition draws, the draw for next summer’s CONCAFA Nations Cup tournament has also been made at the CONCAFA HQ. Djaratia and Panduras failed to qualify from the recent qualifying tourney, so eight teams were placed into two groups for the summer showdown:

POT A held Aguador, Marida, Latania and Eboria.
POT B held Anderland, Réisha, Saint Louis and Targaria

They also held the draw for the position in group for places 2-4, with the first two teams out being number one in groups A & B respectively.

GROUP A	GROUP B
AGUADOR	EBORIA
MARIDA	ANDERLAND
RÉISHA	SAINT LOUIS
TARGARIA	LATANIA

Hosts Aguador will entertain WNC semi-finalists Marida, a returning Réisha side  and Targaria (debutants) in Group A.

Group B has defending champions Eboria locking horns with heavily-favoured Latania, and exciting young Anderland side and a competitive Saint Louis squad.

The tournament kicks off in Aguador in June 2020, with fixtures ordered as follows.

Group A
Aguador v Marida, Réisha v Targaria;
Aguador v Réisha, Marida v Targaria;
Aguador v Targaria, Marida v Réisha

Group B
Eboria v Anderland, Saint Louis v Latania;
Eboria v Saint Louis, Anderland v Latania;
Eboria v Latania, Anderland v Saint Louis

Semi-Finals
1-A1 v B2
2- B1 v A2

Final
Winner 1 v Winner 2

New Chester United win the Super League on final day

Eborian Super League | Final Round

NEW CHESTER UNITED 4-0 MAYONA CITY

Goals from Peter Aguba, Aron Mulder, Mario Kranic and Hugo Martens meant that NC United were very safely crowned champions of the Eborian Super League. Sasa Lucic bagged another three assists, to give him the assists crown with a total of 26.

2018 World Nations Cup Finals Draw

WEFA | World Nations Cup | 2018 Finals Draw

The draw for the World Nations Cup Finals was made at the WEFA Executive meeting today. All 30 nations that had successfully completed their way through qualifying joined joint hosts Spain and Portugal in the draw. The teams were selected from four ‘pots’. The only proviso being that teams from the same confederation could not be drawn together, apart from the European teams.

Notably absent from the list were the defending champions, the Netherlands. They had such a dismal campaign and became the first team not to be able to defend the cup at the finals tournament. Russia, Panama and New Zealand will also feel they were unlucky, also losing in play-offs. In North America, the US national team failed to progress.

Hosts Portugal headed Group A, along with Uruguay, Egypt and Iran. Group B, headed by highly-fancied France, also holds super-underdogs Iceland, unpredictable Ghana and Saudi Arabia.

Argentina will play in Group C, with Switzerland, Croatia and Morocco. England will play the seeds Chile, Sweden and Senegal in Group D.

As the groups were forming, Eboria and Marida’s representatives were getting nervous, as groups with Brazil, Germany and Spain had vacancies.

Marida were drawn into Group E, with cup favourites Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria. Spain head group F, joined by Colombia, Denmark and South Korea.

Eboria’s name finally came up in Group G, headed by Belgium, former world champions Italy and Australia, who will want revenge for their beating in the IC3 last summer.

Germany were the last seed drawn into Group H. They, once again, have drawn Poland in competitive play!  Costa Rica and Japan round out the group.

Marida and Eboria both have difficult draws, both perhaps can be a little bit miffed that they weren’t seeded, especially as Eboria did so well in the IC3 last summer. Even with this ‘new’ WEFA, Euro-Latin influence is still prominent. Argentina and Spain will be quite happy with those draws.

Then again, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the rest of the best. This will be on, come the summer!