S24 – The Halfway Mark

We are at the halfway mark of Season 24. Let’s see how the races are shaping up in the league…

We’ll start in Division 5 where the spotlight rarely shines (perhaps due to D1 historically having the most active managers – though Gursi does appear to have forfeited EVERY cup match). Besiktas and Olympiacos head the table while the Italian teams in Chievo and Lazio appear to be off to a slow start. AZ should have had a “walk in the park” according to Malcolm’s stats. They sit in 9th but a lot of games left to play. Chievo appears to be struggling on both sides of the ball as they have scored the fewest and conceded the most.

Division 4 appears to have a table split in two. Five points separate the top (Bremen) from 9th. And then only 8 points separate 10th from bottom of the table. If you believe in regression to the mean, Montpellier will feel hard done to be in the relegation zone given their +1 goal differential. I don’t see too many outliers from Malcolm’s data. It should be an interesting second half as teams jockey for position in the two groups.

Division 3 is a tight race from top to almost bottom. Southampton sit top of the table with only 11 points separating 1st from 18th (that’d be me, unfortunately – more to come on this topic!). Celta Vigo and Monaco appear to be stuck at the bottom of the table for now. This is the tightest of the divisions.

Division 2 has Aston Villa 7 points atop, which is a pretty nice achievement given the initial disparity in the beginning of the season rankings that showed Genoa, Internacional, and Stoke as favorites. Those teams remain in the hunt, though Stoke appears to be underperforming thus far. The bottom of the table is pretty tightly packed with only 10 points separating 7th (Hertha) from 20th (Anderlecht). Super Samp have given up a whopping 40 goals – might need to stick Balotelli in net.

Moving to Division 1, heading into the season it looked like a 2 man race between Dortmund and Hellas Verona. Hellas is well clear of the pack and has allegedly already booked a venue for the championship ceremony! The CL places are a close race. Moving to relegation contenders, Schalke appear doomed while Benfica and Real Madrid have their work cut out for them. Still, there are only 8 points between 10th and 17th. Espanyol as always continue to outperform. I write this as I watch their legendary manager Pochettino manage the USMNT against Costa Rica.

For CSKA, it has not been a great start to the season. We sit in the relegation zone, which is disappointing for me. Some highlights are qualifying for the knockout rounds of the Cup and the Youth Cup, where we are the 14th seed and will only see one player age out (Alvaro Carreras, who put Lamine Yamal out of the game until his little dive earned a PK, but I digress). In addition to my enthralling posts, hopefully the rest of the admin team recognizes my keen eye for talent if the season continues as it has. But we have hope in Texas….