Stadiums

I have done a bit of research into the stadiums of the top 100 teams from Manta to see who has dared go for that big expansion or who would rather splash their cash on players. Here's what I have come up with:

Stadium size

13800 - 2 (Botev Plovdiv, Rex Mundi)

10300 - 6 (Kif Villans, Noodle FC*, Hornets, Easyfit Walsall, Roker Park Rangers*, Scudders)

9850 - 2 (Chaos Shumen*, High Plains Drifters)

9400 - 1 (Channel Four News)

8500 - 1 (Howick United)

6800 - 18 clubs

6350 - 18 clubs

5900 - 14 clubs

5450 - 24 clubs

5000 - 14 clubs

*Stadium currently under expansion

The top 100 clubs have added an extra 210 corner expansions (450 seats) and 14 side expansions (3500 seats), spending a total of 251,125,000 or approx. 250m to their stadia.

So far no-one has gone for the big 5000 seat expansion! (Hristo whats taking you so long? :p)

Manta League Cup Round 5

Eight teams are left to battle it out for a place in the IAG history books and even more importantly - the 2 million the League Cup winner will get. And unlike in the last article, I'll take a slightly more detailed look at the fixtures that determined the quarter-finalists.

Castle King FC 3-2 Bulletboys (ET)
It took 23 whole shots and 120 minutes for Castle King's offense to bring down the resilient Bulletboys. After a late equalizer by the away side, the seemingly won match was taken into extra time at 1-1 and it took only 4 minutes - between the 100th and 103rd for both teams to exchange a further 3 goals. Castle King's ace striker in this tournament Vazuez finally capitalized on the abundant free space he was given scoring the winning goal for his side and despite Vyse scoring his second of the game for Bulletboys in the following attack, the home team held on for the win and their second ever place in the quarter-finals. Credit must also be given to the other Castle King striker New who scored the first and second goals for his team.

Chaos Shumen 2-2 Botev Plovdiv (3-5 after penalties)
In it's 17th appearance, the Bulgarian derby between Chaos Shumen and Botev Plovdiv was bound to be a close and thrilling game. In their previous 3 meetings in cup competitions, Botev had always run out winners from the clash and this time it was no different. The Plovdiv team made good use of their possession and scored an early goal, which Chaos managed to cancel out as late as the 94th minute. Scorer of the first goal for Botev Lysen gave his side the lead again in extra-time, but Chaos hitman Yates leveled the score again and the game went to penalties. At that point it was all up to chance and a single miss by the home side handed the victory to Botev.

Inter Milager 2-1 Scudders (ET)
This was bound to be a close game and indeed it took a goal 4 minutes from the end of extra-time to determine the winner. And while the Inter forward Much probably had a little word with his manager for scoring once from 6 shots, then Scudders manager Guermano must have made his squad an all-shooting training schedule, as he didn't have even one player with more than a single shot registered for the whole game. This might have been enough for striker Sukova to tie the match in normal time, but nobody else could cancel out the lead given to Inter by Much in the 116th minute.

Kif Villans 1-2 High Plains Drifters
The undisputed most impressive act of giantkilling in the cup thus far. While many were already aware of Drifters manager FooQ's qualities, this away victory to the current Premiership number 1 and most probable league cup winner, showed his brilliance to the entire Manta world. The Villans' constant possession of the ball only payed off once when Hirsch tied the game in the 73rd after Burnell had opened the scoring and given High Plains the lead 5 minutes earlier. The home fans were probably getting ready for a pre-extra time pint when Berthiaume stunned the crowd with the winning goal of the game in the 87th.

North London FC 3-1 Kingriver
Who would've thought a team which played in the 1st round of the cup would reach this far? If you're one of the few who would, then surely even you had doubts as to North London's ability to win this game against 113 ranked Kingriver. Well, against all odds the Division 1 side cruised past their 600 better ranked opposition with a brace from Sumner and a 3rd by Mullen, which took both forwards to 6 goals in the cup. With no cards received in this game, North London will be certain to have their best available for the next round and man of the match right back Clavette will be looking to supply match deciding assists in the next round which is the best North London have ever achieved.

Smirnenski United 1-3 Easyfit Walsall
While not particularly impressive throughout the game, Easyfit took a 3 goal lead and only conceded 7 minutes from full time, which was nowhere near enough to stop them from winning the game. It's totti's second quarter-final in a row and he'll be having his eye on the semi-final he couldn't reached last season. Grogan's opener also was his 6th goal of the competition equaling him to 3 other players with the same tally on 2nd.

The Trumpton Riots 0-2 Rex Mundi
A 2000+ ranked team facing a former two time League Cup winner and top 100 club. Needless to say bookies weren't putting odds in Trumpton's favor. Rex went on to comfortably win the game with a goal in each half and with Noodle FC and Kif Villans out could be considered the title main contenders alongside Botev Plovdiv.

Warlords 1-1 Northbankhighbury (4-3 after penalties)
The second team ranked outside the top 500 to progress to the quarters was Warlords from Division 4. Having taken the lead against the newly promoted Premiership side early in the game, Warlords supporters were seriously disappointed to see Mann equalize for Northbankhighbury in the 91st, but the penalties went the home side's way and ensured a new record league cup performance for Warlords.


Stats of the competition after round 5

Teams
Team	Div	GF	GA	ET	Pen	H	A
Botev Plovdiv	Prem	11	5	0	1	1	3
Castle King FC	Prem	11	4	2	0	4	0
Easyfit Walsall	Prem	10	3	0	0	1	3
High Plains Drifters	Prem	12	5	1	0	1	3
Inter Milager	Prem	9	3	2	0	4	0
North London FC	Div 1	13	2	0	0	4	1
Rex Mundi	Prem	12	1	0	0	1	3
Warlords	Div 4	6	2	1	1	2	2

GF = goals for
GA = goals against
ET = games gone into extra time
Pen = games gone into penalties
H = games at home
A = games away

Top scorers
Player	Team	Goals
M Campagne	High Plains Drifters	7
B Vazuez	Castle King FC	6
E Grogan	Easyfit Walsall	6
A Sumner	North London FC	6
D Mullen	North London FC	6

This article will be further expanded with information about the other games in the next few days.

Manta League Cup Round 4

Anyone remember last season's articles I wrote about the League Cup? They're back again and for those of you reading who are still in contention, this one could provide you with a little info about what to expect or hope for.

At this point, with so many teams left (and so little time at the office before going home), I'll just wrap this article up with the basic stats:

Divisions
- 11 out of the 16 remaining teams are from the Premiership
- 2 are left from the Championship
- Divisions 1, 2 and 4 each have one last representative

Finishing power
- 4 teams claim the title of most goals scored thus far: Kingriver, North London FC, High Plains Drifters and Rex Mundi have all scored 10 goals. North London, however, have played 1 more game than the others.

Venues
- Castle King FC, Inter Milager and North London FC have had the privilege of playing 3 games at home. However, North London have had one away game, as they started from Round 1.
- Kif Villans are the only team having not had a home game so far. Doesn't look like they need on though.

Teams
Team	Div	GF	GA	ET	Pen	H	A
Botev Plovdiv	Prem	9	3	0	0	1	2
Bulletboys	Div 2	7	3	1	0	2	1
Castle King FC	Prem	8	2	1	0	3	0
Chaos Shumen	Prem	6	1	0	0	2	1
Warlords	Div 4	5	1	1	0	1	2
Kif Villans	Prem	7	1	0	0	0	3
Easyfit Walsall	Prem	7	2	0	0	1	2
Inter Milager	Prem	7	2	1	0	3	0
Scudders	Prem	6	1	0	0	2	1
Kingriver	Champ	10	3	1	0	1	2
North London FC	Div 1	10	1	0	0	3	1
Northbankhighbury	Prem	7	1	1	0	2	1
High Plains Drifters	Prem	10	4	1	0	1	2
Smirnenski United	Prem	8	2	0	1	2	1
Rex Mundi	Prem	10	1	0	0	1	2
The Trumpton Riots	Champ	7	3	0	1	2	2

Top scorers
Player	Team	Goals
M Campagne	High Plains Drifters	7
B Vazuez	Castle King FC	5
E Grogan	Easyfit Walsall	5
D Mullen	North London FC	5
G Dunlop	Bulletboys	4
A Sumner	North London FC	4
G Wilk	Rex Mundi	4
J Oscroft	Smirnenski United	4
Q Dudfield	Botev Plovdiv	3
A Tracey	Botev Plovdiv	3
J Yates	Chaos Shumen	3
T Barrett	Inter Milager	3
R Grey	Kif Villans	3
A Hirsch	Kif Villans	3
L Mike	Kingriver	3
A Henckler	Northbankhighbury	3
T Sukova	Scudders	3
W Schwarz	Scudders	3
R Nash	Smirnenski United	3

The Premiership Managers

The original idea behind this article was to go through the entire Manta to collect information on manager nationalities. I quickly realized that was quite a tedious and time-consuming task, but doing a more detailed look at manager stats from the Premiership only seemed like a good way to kill time. Here's what I ended up with:

Managers not since day 1
Manager	Date Joined
scud	12.05.2007 г.
ryanj1991	8.12.2006 г.
mobby	28.10.2006 г.

Account types
Free	9
Subscriber	7
MOD	2
ADV	1
GM	1

Clubs Managed
Manager	Current Team	Clubs Managed
scud	Norwood FC	4
Wellings88	Killamarsh FC	3
mobby	Tottis Allstars	3
totti	Easyfit Walsall	3
ryanj1991	Smirnenski United	2
FooQ	High Plains Drifters	2

Everyone else has only managed one team before.

Nationalities
UK	12
England	3
Bulgaria	2
Ireland	1
Australia	1
Spain *	1

* Guermano may be treated as a multi-national citizen :)

Transfer Rating
Value	Managers
10	11
5 – 9	5
1 – 4	2
<>	2

Games played
> 400	2
350 – 400	14
300 – 349	2
<>	2

Wins
> 250	6
200 – 249	10
<>	4

And finally the full table I used to draw these stats from:

Manager	Team	Joined	Account	Clubs	Nationality	TR	G	W	D	L
Hristoskov	Botev Plovdiv	27.10.2006	Free	1	Bulgarian	10	407	285	67	55
Haziebob	Burnthouse Surfers	27.10.2006	MOD	1	UK	8	371	178	77	116
KingOfMyCastle	Castle King FC	27.10.2006	Subscriber	1	UK	4	359	245	55	59
chaosmaster	Chaos Shumen	27.10.2006	Subscriber	1	Bulgarian	10	371	229	79	63
totti	Easyfit Walsall	27.10.2006	Subscriber	3	UK	10	361	246	67	48
DaveMc	Foresters	27.10.2006	Subscriber	1	UK	5	355	219	61	75
FooQ	High Plains Drifters	27.10.2006	MOD	2	Australia	10	360	256	49	55
ndjuk	Hornets	27.10.2006	Subscriber	1	UK	10	373	240	69	64
pleasantsurprise	Inter Milager	27.10.2006	Subscriber	1	UK	10	366	245	56	65
kifd	Kif Villans	27.10.2006	Free	1	UK	10	382	232	78	72
Wellings88	Killamarsh FC	27.10.2006	Subscriber	3	England	0	344	194	62	88
Webby	Lancaster Bombers	27.10.2006	ADV	1	UK	4	355	209	67	79
benzb	Noodle FC	27.10.2006	Free	1	England	8	404	281	80	43
NickMcG	Northbankhighbury	27.10.2006	Free	1	Ireland	5	358	257	57	44
scud	Norwood FC	12.05.2007	Free	4	UK	-1	208	143	26	39
Sainsy69	Openshaw United	27.10.2006	Free	1	England	10	355	256	53	46
Grezz	Rex Mundi	27.10.2006	GM	1	UK	10	399	284	69	46
Guermano	Scudders	27.10.2006	Free	1	Spain :D	9	375	218	78	79
ryanj1991	Smirnenski United	8.12.2006	Free	2	UK	10	292	197	37	58
mobby	Tottis Allstars	28.10.2006	Free	3	UK	10	341	222	39	80

Enjoy

Information is valid as of 12.05.2008

Season 8 Summary

Another thrilling 70 days went by and gave some of us moments of joy, while others were dissatisfied with how things turned out. In the end, despite the many twists and turns the standings are final and the wait for the new season is all we have left. So let's take a somewhat quick look at what the 38 match days gave us to think about.

The king is ... still the king. Long live king Botev!
Anyone believing Hristoskov is not the most dominant force in Manta has got to rethink his football philosophies. Three titles in a row for Botev make them the most successful Manta team in history and the 5 point gap they left behind them is a reflection of that. With 81 goals scored, which is 11 more than the second best, and only 5 points lost at home, Hristoskov was unreachable at the top yet again. And having lasted all the way to the Super Cup semi-finals, Botev have made a strong claim as to who will be the undisputed favorite for next season's championship.
Top scorer: Laurent Kodritz - 39 goals
Most assists: Joosep Impinen - 17 assists

A villain in the making
Will Kifd be the one to finally dethrone Hristoskov and take the Manta Premiership glory for himself? Looking at the Villans' success in recent times it looks like a very plausible possibility. Two League Cup finals in a row, one of which won and a constant rise in division ranking give this season's runner-up a lot of hope for a title, if not next season, then in the very near future.
Top scorer: Rob Grey - 36 goals
Most assists: Curtis Chevarie - 12 assists

Chaos theory applied
Don't be fooled by the title's reference to another popular manager's team, this is about Chaos Shumen and how their name reflects their unpredictability. One could have easily considered chaosmaster's side incapable of breaching the top 5 at the start of the season, but a League Cup semi-final, a Super Cup round 9 and the best away record of this season prove the contrary. Will 'the best season of the club', as the manager describes it, be a sign of great things to come or the zenith of the team's performance in the next several seasons? Time will tell, but any prediction is completely random.
Top scorer: Jason Yates - 36 goals
Most assists: Roger Waine - 11 assists

Botev, Kif, Chaos ... what happened to Noodle?
One of Manta's top managers had a season he'd be willing to forget quite soon. A constant contender to the Premiership title and a League Cup winner, Noodle FC finished below what most expected of them. A League Cup quarter-final and round 9 in the Super Cup may seem like good performances, but surely benzb is eager to show his team can do much much more. A title challenge could have also been issued, but a loss and 4 draws in the last 6 games of the season meant Noodle would have to settle for 4th.
Top scorer: Nigel Pelissier - 30 goals
Most assists: Nigel Pelissier - 13 assists

Whose stinger is bigger?
In the vicious fight between hornet and devil, ndjuk had the last word with goal difference giving him the edge over Grezz's Rex Mundi. Being one of Manta's last teams standing in the Super Cup, Hornets showed great form in the Premiership as well, before succumbing to a disappointing several results near the end of the season - 5 losses in the last 9 games. As for Rex, their description says it all: 'We used to be good but now we aren't. Haven't won a thing in years.'
Top scorers: Matthew Owen & Ray Tilly (Hornets) - 28 goals, Lee Logan (Rex Mundi) - 29 goals
Most assists: Jan Houghtailing (Hornets) - 13 assists, Midge Craddock & Grosvenor Dugal (Rex Mundi) - 12 assists

The most controversial team in Manta
The unlucky winner of this 'award' goes to ex-Liverpool City who are now dully named The New Team. Putting non-football circumstances aside, the 606 rated team did wonderfully to finish ahead of 8 teams higher rated than themselves. With a new manager who has had his share of Premiership football, perhaps this is the dark horse top teams should be looking out for next season.
Top scorer: Niels Holdt - 30 goals
Most assists: Gustav Caris - 13 assists

This is where I have to apologize to many of the managers whose teams I don't feel like giving summaries on, as it's quite time-consuming and I don't really have much to say about them. Perhaps if someone, even the managers themselves, have ideas of what to add, they could send them to me and I will include them in this article. As a gesture of good will, I'll post the scorers and assisters like in the previous teams:

Top scorers:
Paul Ball (Tottis Allstars) - 31 goals
Riggott Nash (Smirnenski United) - 21 goals
Malagigi Campagne (High Plains Drifters) - 24 goals
Eddie Grogan (Easyfit Walsall) - 33 goals
Liam Much (Inter Milager) - 40 goals - premiership top scorer
Bruce Vazuez (Castle King FC) - 35 goals

Most assists:
Neil Lawrence (Tottis Allstars) - 10 assists
Riggott Nash & Gazsi Kálmán (Smirnenski United) - 14 assists
Brenden Dew (High Plains Drifters) - 9 assists
Eddie Grogan (Easyfit Walsall) - 12 assists
Thomas Barrett (Inter Milager) - 12 assists
Miles New (Castle King FC) - 10 assists

The Ultimate Underdog
Despite his low finishing position, one can't simply go past Guermano's Scudders knowing their awesome feat that sealed their place in IAG History. They are after all League Cup champions! By breaking the hegemony of the top 100 teams and ex-champions Botev Plovdiv, Kif Villans, Noodle FC and Rex Mundi, Scudders have given all those teams who were discouraged by the quality of their potential opponents a very bright light that might soon guide another underdog to the immortal hall of fame of IAG.
Top scorer: Walarik Schwarz - 39 goals
Most assists: Cristos Segovia - 11 assists

The battle for survival
Words can't describe one of the most vicious and thrilling battles the Manta Premiership has ever had - the four way fight for survival. Lancaster Bombers, Burnthouse Surfers, Foresters and Sabbath Albion all went through an incredible period of suspense until finally all 4 teams finished on equal points and a single goal scored meant Sabbath would be the ones going down. With everyone scoring different points in the last 5 games it was down to luck more than anything else and Webby, Haziebob and DaveMc were the ones to draw the long straws. How this will affect their performance next season can mean the difference between a renaissance or a plummet to the Championship.
Top scorers:
Ron Stanford (Lancaster Bombers) - 26 goals
Nick Provost (Burnthouse Surfers) - 17 goals
Ian Oakes (Foresters) - 16 goals
Gregory Burns (Sabbath Albion) - 24 goals

Most assists:
Christofferson Ali (Lancaster Bombers) - 8 assists
Calum Sherwood (Burnthouse Surfers) - 9 assists
Jen Field (Foresters) - 8 assists
Jakob Lyngso (Sabbath Albion) - 8 assists

A sad, but long expected farewell
Coimbra All Stars had been on the brink of relegation for several seasons and what finally happened was no surprise. Belgicano who is one of the original Premiership managers gave all he had to hold on to the best division there is, but a constant flow of great teams from below ultimately cost him his place in the top flight. Good bye for now Belgicano and best wishes for the Championship, so you can quickly come back to the division your team was born in.
Top scorer: Janne Loiva - 13 goals
Most assists: Erminio Baciagalupo - 6 assists

Rock bottom
Karachi United never managed to cope with the Premiership and turned into the boxing bag of the division. With a goal difference of -70 and 90 conceded, their place among the best is rightfully removed.
Top scorer: Several players - 2 goals
Most assists: Alvar Larsson & Cristiano Panichella - 3 assists



Hope you enjoyed.