The UNL winners this time around was the Japanese club Minato. They have been a very strong side since the beginning of the game from what I can recall, and they came in second place last season. The French team La Pichard came in very close in 2nd place. It was unfortunate that the first 3 positions were decided on the very last day of games. Prior to that day La Pichard was actually in first and they were playing Minato and Heidelberg was in 3rd. We could have moved up had we won our match instead of the 2x2 draw but only if La Pichard had won their match. In the end Minato creamed La Pichard 4x1 putting the Japanese side in first place with 73 points and making it so that even winning we would still only clinch the 3rd spot this season.
Some of the key players this season included our Chinese striker Zhao who managed to be the best young player this season. Despite his young age and inexperience, Zhao is slowly becoming our primary forward, usually in a Target Man role. Some other important players were Svoboda, our right winger, another young player with a great career ahead of him. Our young defensive pair Kelisson Roberto and Antonio
Jose. These two are also very young and have been playing like grown ups this entire season. As I keep saying, we've had a few struggles in the last few seasons but I feel that this was the first season where our young side full of potential is starting to blossom. We have a ton of players under 22 years of age that are replacing our veterans very often that will become superstars in a season or two, putting us in a very comfortable position. The heavy scouting and emphasis on young players will pay off in the end.
Some of the surprises in terms of the UNL final standings was the fact that Kalevipoeg really dropped quite a bit from where they were in the last few years, they actually won the UNL last season and only placed 8th this year. ASS Riga also dropped big time, being one of the teams relegated this season. This Latvian team went from being on the top of the table for quite a few seasons to a complete collapse, and I'm not sure why. Beyond these two baltic teams, we also saw the Italian team R&R, the Finnish FC Suomi and the Portuguese Atletico da Baixa, all being relegated this year. Kobenhavn and Bygdoy just missed getting relegated by a couple of points and will get to keep their UNL spot for next year. R&R were 4th place last year, which also makes it a bit of a surprise to see them drop like that. Germany will continue to have 3 teams in the UNL next year, making it the country with the most teams in the first division. I supposed if you count the UK as one nation then they also have 3 (Glasgow, London United and Londinium FC, ?or is it 4 if you count Wales too?).
