A Big Welcome Back!
It’s so good to be back here again. We’ve had some good drama across the summer with EPL players featuring in the major summer tournaments, we’ve had a good build-up and yes, we had an explosive start to the season. Six-goal games, a hat-trick, a controversial penalty or two, a handful of bad tackles and some off-the-line clearances too. Here’s how the Leagues look after the first set of games.
Premier League
The Premier League came back with an almighty clash between the 2019 Champions and the current BFFA Cup holders. Vanishing Spray won the opening fixture against the Brits by just a single point, with both teams passing the 60-point mark. The only time that has happened before is when Sugar Daddies beat Glentoran FC 65-64 in the penultimate week of 2018. This was the first time that Spray had beaten the rebranded Drafty in their last eight meetings – Bigger than Brolin had won all five of those fixtures last season and also the two immediately before that.
Elsewhere, the Premier League title holders Smash & Grab went down by 9pts to last season’s Championship Champions Route 57. The two sides that finished second & third in both divisions were re-matched again this week – Premier League runners-up MFF lost out to Money, and Championship runners-up SB Town lost to perennial rivals GoFys. Finally, FC Santa Barbara got the better of All Star Gunners to get their season off to a winning start. FCSB had lost to ASG the last time the two met by a similar score, 38-24, in the Premier League last season.
So Vanishing Spray begin their campaign to retrieve the PL title with a massive score and all three points. Drafty have to settle for the consolation of having a terrific FPts total to build on. Route 57 also made a statement in their first ever Premier League match, à la Brentford, and The Money Team begin where they left off – in third place. Former Champions GoFys also begin with a win on the board and FCSB tie them for fourth; they too are looking to regain the Premier League top spot.
Next up:
Route 57 meet Drafty for the first time; leaders Vanishing Spray take on third-placed Money; MFF are reunited with GoFys after losing to the Wisconsin side in the IML two years ago; SB Town will look to get off the mark at home against FCSB; and ASG play Smash & Grab with both teams playing for a first win.
Championship
The league was absolutely lit up by AC Reykjavik this week, topscoring with an almighty 65 despite only having seven men take to the pitch! We are nought but mere amateurs in comparison. Three fantastic performances from Fernandes, Alonso and Richarlison took the headlines in the only 100-point game in the Championship and stole any hope of a win away from four-goal StilluvQPR.
Double-figures for Pereira and Benrahma gave AFC Chester a comfortable victory over Gloopy Yarbles. Webuiltthis City and East Loop United exchanged blows with both sides taking turns holding a lead; Web City held out in the end in spite of a late threat from ELU’s City duo of Mahrez and Jesus. Sporting Wicker Park have not won an opening day fixture in the last seven seasons and the jinx continued against Barons FC, who had also beaten them in GW1, 2018.
Boss look to bounce back to the Premier League this season and began with a seven-point win over Wijnaldum Leviosa in the first of five unprecedented encounters.
That outstanding score of 65 gives AC Rey an impressive lead at the top, with only AFC Chester close behind on FPts scored. Boss, Web City and Barons all collected three points too, but average scores like that don’t win titles.
In the lowest-scoring bottom-half of the four leagues, only StilluvQPR collected an above-average tally, one that would have beaten any three of the teams above them.
Next up:
Only one game in the Championship next week puts two GW1-winners up against each other. Boss (43FPts) play Web City (42) in what should prove to be a tight affair.
The two GW1-losers that will meet are StilluvQPR and Sporting Wicker Park. The two shared the Championship last season; StilluvQPR won three of those four meetings and finished one place & seven points above SWP. Similarly, Gloopy and Barons shared League One last season and it was Barons who won 3-of-4 and finished one place above, but in this case they finished just two League Points above Gloopy after a final-day 18-16 win over C&BS.
Wijnaldum and AFC Chester have also met in the League a few times before, and once in the Cup; Wijnaldum knocked Chester out in the First Round in 2019, but Chester got three wins over Wij in the League that season on their way to promotion. AC Reykjavik and East Loop United last faced off in the BFFA Cup last season; ELU won 42-37 in the Second Round of the Winter Cup, but were knocked out in the following round by Gloopy Yarbles.
League One
The League One team of the week was your very own admin and many a housewives’ favourite – Housewives Favourite. Starting as strongly as they finished last season, the team from north of the wall nearly doubled Hung Like a Bony‘s effort and they hit the ground running. Taking second place after one game was another promoted side, Ole’s at the Wheel, who returned from the summer break with a personal best-matching 58 FPts at the very start of their third season.
One fantasy point behind them, Chicken and Bacon Sane, hadn’t passed 50FPts since mid-way through Season 5, and hadn’t hit 57 since Season 4. Banana Swans also passed the half-century mark for a win this week and Cornballers took the other game in their first meeting with BattleVAR.
As noted above, Housewives Favourite top their League on either side of the offseason, followed closely behind by Ole’s at the Wheel and Chicken and Bacon Sane. About to get Messi put in an above-average score to mark their new name and start the season top of the bottom half. They and Goleta may feel a little hard done by with good scores, but can expect better things to come.
Next Up:
In some early season drama, the current top two will play off next for the top spot, but the golden seat could also be claimed by Chicken and Bacon Sane or two of the relegated teams that also started the new season with wins – Banana Swans and Cornballers.
League Two
After the first five games of last season Jaysokker remained the only team with a 100% record, and they’ve started very strongly again this year. The winning margin perhaps unfairly reflects Fergi Time‘s opening haul of four goals as they became the first team to score 50+ in their first BFFA match and lose. Harambe lost three of their four games against Sugar Daddies in League One last term, but trounced them this week and narrowly missed out on going top of the League due to Grealish’s late, late yellow card in the final game of the weekend.
Newbies Peltier saw off Atletico Topo Chico in a one-point thriller away at ATC, with a big hand from the bonus points system. A pair of 3BP’s for Pereira and Richarlison tipped the balance in favour of the rookies and kept ATC in the lower half of League Two. Ardoyne Aardvarks also secured a narrow win in a game where both teams struggled to field many players.
Bruno Fernandes was a #3 pick in League Two for Jaysokker, but his hat-trick+ gave them the edge over Harambes who had Salah (#2 pick) and Pogba (#35) hitting double-figures for them. Peltier profited from Richarlison’s 11 (from pick #50) and a Pereira dozen (#86). The Average Team claim fourth place this week with a narrow win over Cumberland and new boys Ardoyne took the final win in that low-scoring game over The Globes.
Next Up:
The next side to face the Average Team will be Peltier, who would’ve edged a win out of it this week. Ardoyne Aardvarks, who had the lowest winning score of the week, will play fellow rookies Fergi Time who had the highest losing score in League Two. Jaysokker and Harambe will both be facing sides who lost, and The Globes will face Cumberland FC for the first time.
Gameweek 2:
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