Mission Accomplished?
Earning surprising accolades early in the save
Mission Accomplished?
The beginning of October was just the other day, and I had my monthly review.
I was surprised by the results.
The board gave me an A+ across the board, ostensibly because I’ve taken a team that was predicted to finish 5th and have led them to an undefeated season.
The supporters also rated my performance as an A+, giving me an uncanny double — especially considering how early in the season it is.
We’re only 13 games into the 20 game season. We’re not quite guaranteed a first place finish yet. Vaiala Tongan, the media favorites to win the whole thing and the only team we haven’t yet beaten, are 8 points behind us with a game in hand. If we’re not careful, we really could see it all slip out of our fingers.
Still, it feels like we’ve already just about accomplished all we can here in American Samoa.
Match Update
There’s actually not much to report on as far as the matches are concerned.
We had a few close ones. We barely squeaked by Royal Puma, winning by a slim 4-2 margin after a really poor defensive performance. Taputimu Youth also gave us a scare, holding back our scoring and keeping the score close. We won that one 2-1.
The rest, though, has been easy. We beat Pago Youth 4-1, and then demolished Ilaoa and To’omata by a ferocious 6-3 score.
Toa Maile now has 22 goals, and is once again the league leader. We’ve also been able to rest him, a luxury I initially thought we’d never be able to afford.
Maybe that’s why I got the A+ ratings.
Looking Ahead
We received a youth intake preview a few days ago. It looks fairly promising, I suppose. It’s always hard to tell with these amateur teams. Of course, if we had another Maile on our hands, I’d be absolutely ecstatic.
We might not need to focus on youth all that much, however. In these amateur leagues, players are very quick to sign on with you, and success is attractive. We’ve got a number of transfers lined up for the beginning of the transfer window, which takes place right after the season ends in November.
In other words, as good as we are now, we’re only going to get better in the future.
Now, I still don’t think we’re good enough to compete for the Oceania Champion’s League title, which is what our true goal is. However, if we can dominate the league and put out a somewhat decent showing in the international competition next year, I’ve got a feeling that some bigger clubs might come knocking on my door.
That’s the hexagon challenge way, after all.