CHALLENGE CUPS CONCLUDE WITH A FEW SURPRISES!
Well, it seems this year was a 50-50 split in the Challenge Cups; two countries repeated as champions while two others didn't. Although Portugal was the initial favourite to win in Europe, they didn't even make it to the finals, ending up settling for bronze against a team some thought would challenge for the Cup on home ice. Instead, it was a story of redemption from last year in the finals. It was a little more similar to last year in the Americas, but the surge of one particular nation left even the mighty Incas chewing their wake. In Asia-Pacific, a Cinderella team made it to the "ball" but lost its "glass slipper." In Africa, business as usual.
In any case, the cup final scores:
Europe: Crimea 5 Nokhchynya 4 (OT)
Americas: Jamaica 3 Inca Republic 0
Asia-Pacific: Chukotka 4 Libnan 2
Malcolm Subban was the X-factor for the "Ice Jammers" in this entire tournament, making Jamaica the first team in any Challenge Cup proper to go the entire tournament without allowing a single goal. That is, if the shots actually got through to him! Their defence was helped as well by the arrival of his younger brother Jordan; the 26-year-old team captain of Jamaica led all defencemen in plus-minus and all players in hits, and he was second in blocked shots.
Crimea made up for its disappointing sixth-place finish last year by edging the Nokhchynyans in overtime, thanks to a rare blueline goal from slap-pass expert Rustem Bekirov, who faked out Nokhchynyan goalie Alkhazur Israpilov then drilled a rocket shot past him. Mambet Khaybullayev scored twice for Crimea, while Nokhchynya's top point-getter for this game with a goal and two assists was overall scoring and assist leader Magomedbek Taymaskhanov.
As for AsPac, Chukotka did have the better run of the game, but they had to actually work for it this time as Libnan really played well. The game was finally decided with an empty-netter.
Awards
Europe
MVP -
Leading scorer - Magomedbek Taymaskhanov (NXC, 18 points)
Leading goalscorer - Abukhan Ramazanov (NXC), Andriy Sobolenko (KRM), and Cristiano Vargas (POR) (all 10 goals)
Best goalie - Conráu Xosepe Cinfuegos (AST)
Best defenceman - Ruslan Kuznetsov (KRM)
All-Star Team
GK - Cinfuegos
DF - Kuznetsov
DF - Isma'il Abubakarov (NXC)
LW - Vargas
RW - Ramazanov
C - Taymaskhanov
Asia-Pacific
MVP - Sergey Kosygin (CHK)
Top scorer - Kosygin (23 points)
Top goalscorer - Kosygin (13 goals)
Best goalie - Muqtada Muhammad al-Qadir (JOR)
Best defenceman - Yevgeny Koryakov (CHK)
All-Stars
GK - Al-Qadir
DF - Koryakov
DF - Nasréddine Aboud (LBN)
LW - Youssouf Darwiche (LBN)
RW - Kosygin
C - Jujhar Khaira (PNJ)
Americas
MVP - Malcolm Subban (JAM)
Top scorer - Stanislao Valenzuela (INC) and Chris Stewart (JAM) (16 points each)
Top goalscorer - Valenzuela (10 goals)
Best goalie - M. Subban
Best defenceman - Jordan Subban (JAM)
All-Stars
GK - M. Subban
DF - J. Subban
DF - Moreno Enriquez (INC)
LW - Valenzuela
RW - Stewart
C - Josh Ho-Sang (JAM)
See you in April, when the World Championship ladder starts up again!
SO WHO EXACTLY ARE THE BEST FOOTBALL TEAMS IN EACH COUNTRY?
A panel of former footballers and pundits met to discuss the confusion created by the new order of post-Robertian countries, which while in some countries is not as confusing, in others it makes people want to headdesk as if to say, "Huh? What do you mean that's not in [insert country here] anymore?" This is especially true of Africa, where very few mainland countries exist in exactly the same fashion anymore.
Which is why we pulled together this gang of nine - seven men and two women - to clarify matters.
Jermain Defoe, Serhiy Rebrov, Ronaldo, Rüştü Reçber, Ahn Jung-Hwan, Mark Viduka, Mia Hamm, and Christine Sinclair (the only one of the lot who is still an active player) gathered to discuss, along with our own Sasja Rodionov. The results were later broadcast by Olli Kukkonen, who is well-known for his sports articles for Reuters TV Uralica and the Associated Press of Uralica.
Here's what he had to say:
They went almost alphabetically by confederation, starting in the Americas. Of course the big one was the Unified North American Soccer System (UNASS), which has under its umbrella six different countries - Canada, the New USA, Dakota, Cascadia, Utah, and the New Confederacy. At the top level is Major League Soccer, which aside from more Canadian content is basically the same league it was pre-Dispersion.
Deciding Canada's best team was a tossup between two of the seven Canadian clubs in MLS, the Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC, both of whom have won the MLS Cup, the former last season and the latter in 2017; both have also won six Canadian championships apiece, and have each won the Supporters' Shield (regular season title) once. Going on current team strength, they opted for the 'Caps, with the caveat that Toronto "was not far behind at all." (Just for those who wonder, the other five Canadian MLS clubs are Edmonton FC, Calgary City FC, CF Montréal, Capital Region United FC from Ottawa, and Halifax Atlantic FC.) A deciding factor was Vancouver's run to the finals of the CONCACAF Champions' League this season, where they eventually lost to Mexican powers Cruz Azul.
Cascadia's top team was almost instantaneous. The LA Galaxy have won five MLS championships, four Supporters' Shields, and two CONCACAF Champions Leagues, plus their Robertian record was equally stellar, having won two North American Championships.
Dakota is better-known for hockey and gridiron football than any other sport, but in association football they have three MLS teams as well; to date, one-title wonder Sporting Kansas City is the only team to have won a title and still remain somewhat better than Minnesota United or recent expansion team St. Louis City FC.
The New Confederacy has seven MLS clubs, and in spite of the recent great play of certain other teams (Atlanta United and Inter Miami come to mind), two-time North American champs Houston Dynamo, especially per Mia Hamm and Ronaldo, have been the most consistently good team of the seven NewCon sides, even though both titles were won in the Robertian era. (They have come somewhat close a couple times since!)
As for the New USA, this was literally the only country out of the six where the top winner of titles - DC United - was not considered the best team now. That title belongs to 2019 champs the Columbus Crew, who have been "annoyingly consistent" (the words were Rebrov's but the sentiment was shared by most of the others). Finally, it was kind of a no-brainer that Real Salt Lake - the only top-tier professional football club in Utah - was that country's top team.
After finishing that system, they went to a more consistent alphabetical order, starting with the Antillean Union. Founded in 2016 and having started play in the 16-17 season, it is currently in its fifth season, and per Ronaldo it is very difficult to isolate just one team that is the best. It was an argument between CS Moulien from Guadeloupe, Club Franciscain from Martinique, Weymouth Wales from Barbados, and Avenues United from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with no ability to really come to a consensus due to all the teams having played in small insular leagues before the Robertian Era.
Even though they only finished fourth in the league last year, Nassau club Dynamos FC was the consensus pick for the top Bahamian team, although they did admit that a couple of other teams, like Bears FC and Academy AFC (the latter from the Turks and Caicos province) were also quite solid.
Costa Rica, per a couple of the pundits, has a marked "Big Three" that are almost always all near the top of the aggregate table at the end of a given season - Deportiva Alajuelense, CS Herediano, and the eventual pick for the most consistently good team of the three, Deportivo Saprissa.
Since reconvention, Cuba's top team - not even close to the overall national record but having won three out of five titles since 2016 - was decided to be "easily" FC Santiago de Cuba. The Dutch Antilles' best team was more easily decided, as Racing Aruba has had a monopoly on the titles since 2016.
In El Salvador, the current strongest team was voted to be Alianza FC, who rank third in all-time titles, simply because they have been the most consistent post-Dispersion Salvadorian football club, having taken five of a possible eleven championships in an Apertura-Clausura system. The gang had a bit of a gush session at how competitive the Hispaniolan Premier League is (and they're right - five seasons, five different champions!) but identified as the top teams Atlético Pantoja, FICA, AS Capoise, and Violette AC. There are twelve teams in the league overall.
It's business as usual in Honduras, though. While Olimpia Tegucigalpa has the country's overall record for titles and is the only Honduran club to have ever claimed a continental championship (they've done it twice), CD Motagua has taken over as the country's top dog post-Dispersion, having four titles and having failed to finish lower than third in that time span. Along with Olimpia, Marathón, and Real España, Motagua is part of Honduras' "Big Four."
While Hispaniola's league was said to be the most competitive in the Caribbean, Jamaica's was said to be the strongest, and fairly competitive in its own right. The gang eventually came to the conclusion that Portmore United was the strongest club in a photo finish over the likes of fellow Kingston clubs Arnett Gardens and Tivoli Gardens.
And speaking of strongest leagues in regional subdivisions, Central America's strongest league, incorporating Guatemala, Belize, and parts of the pre-Robertian Mexican system, is the Mayan Primera. Said to be the most competitive league as well, there are two teams that nevertheless stand out above the others - CSD Comunicaciones and CSD Municipal. In recent years, teams such as Deportivo Guastatoya and Alebrijes de Oaxaca have risen to meet their level of play, though, so all four are listed amongst the best.
Even with the loss of a few teams to the Mayan system (and even a couple to the North American United System), the Mexican system is still the continent's strongest. A very competitive system, the gang nevertheless decided that Tigres de UANL from near Monterrey has been the strongest team... barely. Not far behind are the likes of Club León, traditional powers like Cruz Azul, América, Chivas Guadalajara, and CF Monterrey, and Club Santos Laguna.
In Nicaragua... they wasted little time picking the strongest team nowadays. Having dominated the area during the Robertian Era, Real Estelí didn't let a little thing like Dispersion derail their dominance. With Nicaragua switching to an Apertura-Clausura system upon reconvention, the plucky club has won seven titles of a possible twelve, and is looking for an eighth!
Panama had three teams come up from recent years - Árabe Unido FC, Tauro FC, and Independiente La Chorrera. The gang couldn't decide which was best. As for Puerto Rico, their league system is a relatively new one, with Bayamón FC being the most consistent, having won two titles and finished second three times. Metropolitan FA from San Juan was also mentioned, but they have only finished second once, having won two titles as well.
The final independent nation's system is Trinidad and Tobago, and even post-Dispersion, army-owned team Defence Force FC takes the prize for being top dog on Trini, although W Connection isn't far behind. Each season in Trinidad and Tobago since reconvention has had a different champion, though, so it is fairly competitive.
There are also two systems from Canadian discontiguous territories, that is, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, who are still full FIFA members in their own right. With Bermuda (which isn't the highest-caliber of leagues) it's a race between PHC Zebras and Robin Hood FC, with the former having won more titles. In the Caymans, in the big picture it is either Bodden Town or Scholars International that always seems to take the title.
To South America; other than the mergers that created the Inca Republic, Amazonia, and modern-day Guyana, relatively little has changed, especially where it regards football. And speaking of Amazonia, contrary to the belief of some people outside of South America, it actually does have its own football system, with the Football Federation of the Amazon Basin being a full FIFA and CONMEBOL member; as such, it also has its own league system, albeit a small one. The vast majority of the teams in the league come from the formerly Brazilian part of the country, with a couple of outliers such as Nacional Iquitos. But the unquestionable #1 team in Amazonia is Paysandu Sporting Club - the Belém-based team had been in the Brazilian Serie A in pre-Robertian times and were invited to play in a reconstituted Brazilian system. FC Manaus is the top team that plays strictly in the Amazonian system.
Argentina hasn't changed much, either. Aside from a few anomalous seasons, Boca Juniors and CA River Plate are both consistently in the top ranks. And why not? River has won the most Argentinian Championships overall, while Boca has won three out of four championships in the post-Dispersion era and is in a close battle with its eternal archrivals for a possible fourth. But being as relatively competitive as Argentina is (behind Brazil and Mexico in the Americas, sure, but ahead of more or less everyone else), there were a whole slew of other teams that are considered "lesser powers" and outside title threats.
Now Bolivia has lost a number of its stronger teams to the west joining the Inca Republic, but its all-time record holder for championships won relocated from La Paz to Sucre. I mean sure, given the citizenship reshuffle, it's natural that strength levels have changed for a number of Bolivian teams, but Club Bolivar is still one of the top dogs, and the gang said that their main rivals Club Blooming are more or less equal with them.
And then there's the ever-competitive Brazil. Yes, there are three teams ahead of the pack - Rio-based Flamengo and São Paulo-based clubs Palmeiras and Corinthians, but there are at least half a dozen other teams with enough skill to challenge the same for titles. Not going to go through all of them.
Chile shifted to a single-season-per-year format upon reconvention in 2016, and the undisputed top team right now is Universidad Católica, having won three titles in a row (2018, 2019, and 2020) and four of the five titles since 2016, with the only other title being taken by Colo-Colo, who still has the most titles in Chilean history with 24. These two are part of the "traditional big three" alongside Universidad de Chile. They did lose a small number of teams to the new Incan Republic, but the only team that comes close to being even top-flight calibre is Deportes Iquique, who were better off in the weaker Incan system.
Even less changed in Colombia, and even though the quality of play may be a little lower that, say, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, or the UNASS, they could have the most competitive of the single-country systems, even more so than Brazil or Mexico. They could not for the life of them figure out which team was the best, as even all-time championships leaders Milionários and América de Cali, and Robertian Era juggernauts Atlético Nacional, have had just four of the last ten championships between them, and the standings have been close. Teams such as Atlético Junior, Deportes Tolima, Independiente Santa Fe, Independiente Medellin, and recent non-champions such as Deportivo Pasto and Once Caldas, are considered threats.
Now Guyana had an interesting situation - it was the merger of two countries and an overseas département, and each league had its own dominant team or pair of teams (in the case of Suriname, anyway). But it seems that, since the formation of the Guyanese Super League, which started play at the beginning of 2016, the Surinamese teams have had full run of the titles, with Inter Moengotapoe having won four of the five seasons, and all-time best Surinamese team SV Robinhood having won the other (in 2017). These two have not fallen outside of the top three in the country since the post-Dispersion merger. The top non-Surinamese team by far has been ASC Le Geldar from French Guiana, who finished as high as fourth in 2018; the teams from the Anglophone region, in spite of having the most population behind them, have struggled. Their best team has generally been Alpha United, who finished tenth last season.
The Inca Republic took the systems from Peru and Ecuador, many of the best teams from Bolivia, and even a couple top-flight sides from Chile that, quite frankly, were more at home in this system, and made a single system of it. And paradoxically, even though the former Peru makes up the heart of the Incan Republic, houses a sizable percentage of its population, and has its national-team stadium (in Lima), the best club teams are primarily from the former Ecuador! LDU Quito and SC Barcelona from Guayaquil are two of the "Big Four" along with The Strongest from La Paz and the aforementioned Deportes Iquique, none of whom have been outside the top six in the twenty-team La Liga Inca. "The Strongest" doesn't necessarily live up to its name yet as it hasn't yet won a title in the Apertura-Clausura-style system, out of ten, but they have finished second place twice, in the 2016 Clausura and in last year's Apertura. The three highlighted teams, though, have quite literally hoarded all the championships, with LDUQ having four and Barça and Iquique having three each (including the former having the 2020 Clausura). There are a couple other strong teams as well, such as CS Emelec, Sporting Delfín, Independiente del Valle (whose best finish was runner-up in the 2017 Apertura, but who also won the Copa Sudamericana the following season!), Jorge Wilstermann from Cochabamba, and ex-Peru's strongest team, Sporting Cristal, based in Lima.
But then you have the remaining South American leagues, in Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Frankly, next to nothing has changed in the first two. Even during regionals in the Robertian Era in Paraguay, it was very often either Olímpia Asunción or Cerro Porteño, and the former has won exactly half of the post-Dispersion league events (five), so it goes without saying that the gang considered them the best! Over in Uruguay, Club Nacional and Atlético Peñarol have taken three titles apiece out of ten and have finished as runners-up an equal number of times. While there are other "lesser powers," they lag well behind.
Venezuela, on the other hand, has had an interesting last five years. You look at the all-time best, FC Caracas, and they have won just a single title post-Dispersion. Second-place Deportivo Tachira actually had to shut down for a few years because of the Colombia-Venezuela war, when this club was actually in occupied territory - they finally resumed play last season but finished a rather unimpressive fourteenth (still, you have to give them credit for not getting relegated with a team completely rebuilt from the ground up). Instead, Zamora FC has led the charge - a power in Robertian regionals, they translated that to two titles and a record that has seen them not miss the top five in the league even once.
So that's the Western Hemisphere. Not too complicated, right? Oh boy, does the Eastern Hemisphere change that trend.
(OOC: For the sake of post-size limits, I will do these in another post)
Well, it seems this year was a 50-50 split in the Challenge Cups; two countries repeated as champions while two others didn't. Although Portugal was the initial favourite to win in Europe, they didn't even make it to the finals, ending up settling for bronze against a team some thought would challenge for the Cup on home ice. Instead, it was a story of redemption from last year in the finals. It was a little more similar to last year in the Americas, but the surge of one particular nation left even the mighty Incas chewing their wake. In Asia-Pacific, a Cinderella team made it to the "ball" but lost its "glass slipper." In Africa, business as usual.
In any case, the cup final scores:
Europe: Crimea 5 Nokhchynya 4 (OT)
Americas: Jamaica 3 Inca Republic 0
Asia-Pacific: Chukotka 4 Libnan 2
Malcolm Subban was the X-factor for the "Ice Jammers" in this entire tournament, making Jamaica the first team in any Challenge Cup proper to go the entire tournament without allowing a single goal. That is, if the shots actually got through to him! Their defence was helped as well by the arrival of his younger brother Jordan; the 26-year-old team captain of Jamaica led all defencemen in plus-minus and all players in hits, and he was second in blocked shots.
Crimea made up for its disappointing sixth-place finish last year by edging the Nokhchynyans in overtime, thanks to a rare blueline goal from slap-pass expert Rustem Bekirov, who faked out Nokhchynyan goalie Alkhazur Israpilov then drilled a rocket shot past him. Mambet Khaybullayev scored twice for Crimea, while Nokhchynya's top point-getter for this game with a goal and two assists was overall scoring and assist leader Magomedbek Taymaskhanov.
As for AsPac, Chukotka did have the better run of the game, but they had to actually work for it this time as Libnan really played well. The game was finally decided with an empty-netter.
Awards
Europe
MVP -
Leading scorer - Magomedbek Taymaskhanov (NXC, 18 points)
Leading goalscorer - Abukhan Ramazanov (NXC), Andriy Sobolenko (KRM), and Cristiano Vargas (POR) (all 10 goals)
Best goalie - Conráu Xosepe Cinfuegos (AST)
Best defenceman - Ruslan Kuznetsov (KRM)
All-Star Team
GK - Cinfuegos
DF - Kuznetsov
DF - Isma'il Abubakarov (NXC)
LW - Vargas
RW - Ramazanov
C - Taymaskhanov
Asia-Pacific
MVP - Sergey Kosygin (CHK)
Top scorer - Kosygin (23 points)
Top goalscorer - Kosygin (13 goals)
Best goalie - Muqtada Muhammad al-Qadir (JOR)
Best defenceman - Yevgeny Koryakov (CHK)
All-Stars
GK - Al-Qadir
DF - Koryakov
DF - Nasréddine Aboud (LBN)
LW - Youssouf Darwiche (LBN)
RW - Kosygin
C - Jujhar Khaira (PNJ)
Americas
MVP - Malcolm Subban (JAM)
Top scorer - Stanislao Valenzuela (INC) and Chris Stewart (JAM) (16 points each)
Top goalscorer - Valenzuela (10 goals)
Best goalie - M. Subban
Best defenceman - Jordan Subban (JAM)
All-Stars
GK - M. Subban
DF - J. Subban
DF - Moreno Enriquez (INC)
LW - Valenzuela
RW - Stewart
C - Josh Ho-Sang (JAM)
See you in April, when the World Championship ladder starts up again!
SO WHO EXACTLY ARE THE BEST FOOTBALL TEAMS IN EACH COUNTRY?
A panel of former footballers and pundits met to discuss the confusion created by the new order of post-Robertian countries, which while in some countries is not as confusing, in others it makes people want to headdesk as if to say, "Huh? What do you mean that's not in [insert country here] anymore?" This is especially true of Africa, where very few mainland countries exist in exactly the same fashion anymore.
Which is why we pulled together this gang of nine - seven men and two women - to clarify matters.
Jermain Defoe, Serhiy Rebrov, Ronaldo, Rüştü Reçber, Ahn Jung-Hwan, Mark Viduka, Mia Hamm, and Christine Sinclair (the only one of the lot who is still an active player) gathered to discuss, along with our own Sasja Rodionov. The results were later broadcast by Olli Kukkonen, who is well-known for his sports articles for Reuters TV Uralica and the Associated Press of Uralica.
Here's what he had to say:
They went almost alphabetically by confederation, starting in the Americas. Of course the big one was the Unified North American Soccer System (UNASS), which has under its umbrella six different countries - Canada, the New USA, Dakota, Cascadia, Utah, and the New Confederacy. At the top level is Major League Soccer, which aside from more Canadian content is basically the same league it was pre-Dispersion.
Deciding Canada's best team was a tossup between two of the seven Canadian clubs in MLS, the Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC, both of whom have won the MLS Cup, the former last season and the latter in 2017; both have also won six Canadian championships apiece, and have each won the Supporters' Shield (regular season title) once. Going on current team strength, they opted for the 'Caps, with the caveat that Toronto "was not far behind at all." (Just for those who wonder, the other five Canadian MLS clubs are Edmonton FC, Calgary City FC, CF Montréal, Capital Region United FC from Ottawa, and Halifax Atlantic FC.) A deciding factor was Vancouver's run to the finals of the CONCACAF Champions' League this season, where they eventually lost to Mexican powers Cruz Azul.
Cascadia's top team was almost instantaneous. The LA Galaxy have won five MLS championships, four Supporters' Shields, and two CONCACAF Champions Leagues, plus their Robertian record was equally stellar, having won two North American Championships.
Dakota is better-known for hockey and gridiron football than any other sport, but in association football they have three MLS teams as well; to date, one-title wonder Sporting Kansas City is the only team to have won a title and still remain somewhat better than Minnesota United or recent expansion team St. Louis City FC.
The New Confederacy has seven MLS clubs, and in spite of the recent great play of certain other teams (Atlanta United and Inter Miami come to mind), two-time North American champs Houston Dynamo, especially per Mia Hamm and Ronaldo, have been the most consistently good team of the seven NewCon sides, even though both titles were won in the Robertian era. (They have come somewhat close a couple times since!)
As for the New USA, this was literally the only country out of the six where the top winner of titles - DC United - was not considered the best team now. That title belongs to 2019 champs the Columbus Crew, who have been "annoyingly consistent" (the words were Rebrov's but the sentiment was shared by most of the others). Finally, it was kind of a no-brainer that Real Salt Lake - the only top-tier professional football club in Utah - was that country's top team.
After finishing that system, they went to a more consistent alphabetical order, starting with the Antillean Union. Founded in 2016 and having started play in the 16-17 season, it is currently in its fifth season, and per Ronaldo it is very difficult to isolate just one team that is the best. It was an argument between CS Moulien from Guadeloupe, Club Franciscain from Martinique, Weymouth Wales from Barbados, and Avenues United from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with no ability to really come to a consensus due to all the teams having played in small insular leagues before the Robertian Era.
Even though they only finished fourth in the league last year, Nassau club Dynamos FC was the consensus pick for the top Bahamian team, although they did admit that a couple of other teams, like Bears FC and Academy AFC (the latter from the Turks and Caicos province) were also quite solid.
Costa Rica, per a couple of the pundits, has a marked "Big Three" that are almost always all near the top of the aggregate table at the end of a given season - Deportiva Alajuelense, CS Herediano, and the eventual pick for the most consistently good team of the three, Deportivo Saprissa.
Since reconvention, Cuba's top team - not even close to the overall national record but having won three out of five titles since 2016 - was decided to be "easily" FC Santiago de Cuba. The Dutch Antilles' best team was more easily decided, as Racing Aruba has had a monopoly on the titles since 2016.
In El Salvador, the current strongest team was voted to be Alianza FC, who rank third in all-time titles, simply because they have been the most consistent post-Dispersion Salvadorian football club, having taken five of a possible eleven championships in an Apertura-Clausura system. The gang had a bit of a gush session at how competitive the Hispaniolan Premier League is (and they're right - five seasons, five different champions!) but identified as the top teams Atlético Pantoja, FICA, AS Capoise, and Violette AC. There are twelve teams in the league overall.
It's business as usual in Honduras, though. While Olimpia Tegucigalpa has the country's overall record for titles and is the only Honduran club to have ever claimed a continental championship (they've done it twice), CD Motagua has taken over as the country's top dog post-Dispersion, having four titles and having failed to finish lower than third in that time span. Along with Olimpia, Marathón, and Real España, Motagua is part of Honduras' "Big Four."
While Hispaniola's league was said to be the most competitive in the Caribbean, Jamaica's was said to be the strongest, and fairly competitive in its own right. The gang eventually came to the conclusion that Portmore United was the strongest club in a photo finish over the likes of fellow Kingston clubs Arnett Gardens and Tivoli Gardens.
And speaking of strongest leagues in regional subdivisions, Central America's strongest league, incorporating Guatemala, Belize, and parts of the pre-Robertian Mexican system, is the Mayan Primera. Said to be the most competitive league as well, there are two teams that nevertheless stand out above the others - CSD Comunicaciones and CSD Municipal. In recent years, teams such as Deportivo Guastatoya and Alebrijes de Oaxaca have risen to meet their level of play, though, so all four are listed amongst the best.
Even with the loss of a few teams to the Mayan system (and even a couple to the North American United System), the Mexican system is still the continent's strongest. A very competitive system, the gang nevertheless decided that Tigres de UANL from near Monterrey has been the strongest team... barely. Not far behind are the likes of Club León, traditional powers like Cruz Azul, América, Chivas Guadalajara, and CF Monterrey, and Club Santos Laguna.
In Nicaragua... they wasted little time picking the strongest team nowadays. Having dominated the area during the Robertian Era, Real Estelí didn't let a little thing like Dispersion derail their dominance. With Nicaragua switching to an Apertura-Clausura system upon reconvention, the plucky club has won seven titles of a possible twelve, and is looking for an eighth!
Panama had three teams come up from recent years - Árabe Unido FC, Tauro FC, and Independiente La Chorrera. The gang couldn't decide which was best. As for Puerto Rico, their league system is a relatively new one, with Bayamón FC being the most consistent, having won two titles and finished second three times. Metropolitan FA from San Juan was also mentioned, but they have only finished second once, having won two titles as well.
The final independent nation's system is Trinidad and Tobago, and even post-Dispersion, army-owned team Defence Force FC takes the prize for being top dog on Trini, although W Connection isn't far behind. Each season in Trinidad and Tobago since reconvention has had a different champion, though, so it is fairly competitive.
There are also two systems from Canadian discontiguous territories, that is, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, who are still full FIFA members in their own right. With Bermuda (which isn't the highest-caliber of leagues) it's a race between PHC Zebras and Robin Hood FC, with the former having won more titles. In the Caymans, in the big picture it is either Bodden Town or Scholars International that always seems to take the title.
To South America; other than the mergers that created the Inca Republic, Amazonia, and modern-day Guyana, relatively little has changed, especially where it regards football. And speaking of Amazonia, contrary to the belief of some people outside of South America, it actually does have its own football system, with the Football Federation of the Amazon Basin being a full FIFA and CONMEBOL member; as such, it also has its own league system, albeit a small one. The vast majority of the teams in the league come from the formerly Brazilian part of the country, with a couple of outliers such as Nacional Iquitos. But the unquestionable #1 team in Amazonia is Paysandu Sporting Club - the Belém-based team had been in the Brazilian Serie A in pre-Robertian times and were invited to play in a reconstituted Brazilian system. FC Manaus is the top team that plays strictly in the Amazonian system.
Argentina hasn't changed much, either. Aside from a few anomalous seasons, Boca Juniors and CA River Plate are both consistently in the top ranks. And why not? River has won the most Argentinian Championships overall, while Boca has won three out of four championships in the post-Dispersion era and is in a close battle with its eternal archrivals for a possible fourth. But being as relatively competitive as Argentina is (behind Brazil and Mexico in the Americas, sure, but ahead of more or less everyone else), there were a whole slew of other teams that are considered "lesser powers" and outside title threats.
Now Bolivia has lost a number of its stronger teams to the west joining the Inca Republic, but its all-time record holder for championships won relocated from La Paz to Sucre. I mean sure, given the citizenship reshuffle, it's natural that strength levels have changed for a number of Bolivian teams, but Club Bolivar is still one of the top dogs, and the gang said that their main rivals Club Blooming are more or less equal with them.
And then there's the ever-competitive Brazil. Yes, there are three teams ahead of the pack - Rio-based Flamengo and São Paulo-based clubs Palmeiras and Corinthians, but there are at least half a dozen other teams with enough skill to challenge the same for titles. Not going to go through all of them.
Chile shifted to a single-season-per-year format upon reconvention in 2016, and the undisputed top team right now is Universidad Católica, having won three titles in a row (2018, 2019, and 2020) and four of the five titles since 2016, with the only other title being taken by Colo-Colo, who still has the most titles in Chilean history with 24. These two are part of the "traditional big three" alongside Universidad de Chile. They did lose a small number of teams to the new Incan Republic, but the only team that comes close to being even top-flight calibre is Deportes Iquique, who were better off in the weaker Incan system.
Even less changed in Colombia, and even though the quality of play may be a little lower that, say, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, or the UNASS, they could have the most competitive of the single-country systems, even more so than Brazil or Mexico. They could not for the life of them figure out which team was the best, as even all-time championships leaders Milionários and América de Cali, and Robertian Era juggernauts Atlético Nacional, have had just four of the last ten championships between them, and the standings have been close. Teams such as Atlético Junior, Deportes Tolima, Independiente Santa Fe, Independiente Medellin, and recent non-champions such as Deportivo Pasto and Once Caldas, are considered threats.
Now Guyana had an interesting situation - it was the merger of two countries and an overseas département, and each league had its own dominant team or pair of teams (in the case of Suriname, anyway). But it seems that, since the formation of the Guyanese Super League, which started play at the beginning of 2016, the Surinamese teams have had full run of the titles, with Inter Moengotapoe having won four of the five seasons, and all-time best Surinamese team SV Robinhood having won the other (in 2017). These two have not fallen outside of the top three in the country since the post-Dispersion merger. The top non-Surinamese team by far has been ASC Le Geldar from French Guiana, who finished as high as fourth in 2018; the teams from the Anglophone region, in spite of having the most population behind them, have struggled. Their best team has generally been Alpha United, who finished tenth last season.
The Inca Republic took the systems from Peru and Ecuador, many of the best teams from Bolivia, and even a couple top-flight sides from Chile that, quite frankly, were more at home in this system, and made a single system of it. And paradoxically, even though the former Peru makes up the heart of the Incan Republic, houses a sizable percentage of its population, and has its national-team stadium (in Lima), the best club teams are primarily from the former Ecuador! LDU Quito and SC Barcelona from Guayaquil are two of the "Big Four" along with The Strongest from La Paz and the aforementioned Deportes Iquique, none of whom have been outside the top six in the twenty-team La Liga Inca. "The Strongest" doesn't necessarily live up to its name yet as it hasn't yet won a title in the Apertura-Clausura-style system, out of ten, but they have finished second place twice, in the 2016 Clausura and in last year's Apertura. The three highlighted teams, though, have quite literally hoarded all the championships, with LDUQ having four and Barça and Iquique having three each (including the former having the 2020 Clausura). There are a couple other strong teams as well, such as CS Emelec, Sporting Delfín, Independiente del Valle (whose best finish was runner-up in the 2017 Apertura, but who also won the Copa Sudamericana the following season!), Jorge Wilstermann from Cochabamba, and ex-Peru's strongest team, Sporting Cristal, based in Lima.
But then you have the remaining South American leagues, in Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Frankly, next to nothing has changed in the first two. Even during regionals in the Robertian Era in Paraguay, it was very often either Olímpia Asunción or Cerro Porteño, and the former has won exactly half of the post-Dispersion league events (five), so it goes without saying that the gang considered them the best! Over in Uruguay, Club Nacional and Atlético Peñarol have taken three titles apiece out of ten and have finished as runners-up an equal number of times. While there are other "lesser powers," they lag well behind.
Venezuela, on the other hand, has had an interesting last five years. You look at the all-time best, FC Caracas, and they have won just a single title post-Dispersion. Second-place Deportivo Tachira actually had to shut down for a few years because of the Colombia-Venezuela war, when this club was actually in occupied territory - they finally resumed play last season but finished a rather unimpressive fourteenth (still, you have to give them credit for not getting relegated with a team completely rebuilt from the ground up). Instead, Zamora FC has led the charge - a power in Robertian regionals, they translated that to two titles and a record that has seen them not miss the top five in the league even once.
So that's the Western Hemisphere. Not too complicated, right? Oh boy, does the Eastern Hemisphere change that trend.
(OOC: For the sake of post-size limits, I will do these in another post)
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(06-11-2022, 10:13 PM)Kyng Wrote: I love how [Abacab] has a track with a section named "Lurker", when the album title itself looks like Lurker's attempt to spell "Abacus" or something .
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