2021 Championship Division Preview

The prez's home division is once again a very competitive race for the playoffs. See how much he overrates his own team here.

2021 Championship Division Preview

 

Championship Division Overview:

 

Before I do these I generally reread all my columns from the previous years to get a sense of how I did and what I was thinking. In 2019 I called the Championship the worst it had been from a talent stand point in a while. In general it seemed a bit stale. Thankfully the 2021 season has refreshed the division. There are 5 new teams here in the Champo that several clubs made plenty of moves to change things. But do these changes make it better? Ehhh I guess we’ll see when the season ends but I’m not totally sold.

 

Championship Burning Questions:

 

Who of the new teams are you most excited about?

Come on. It’s Olean of course. I’ve been singing this team's praises since they joined the BDSL and I am not ready to jump off. Back to back promotions already bagged they look here now to make the jump into the top flight and they still have a very strong team led by Cody Winchell up top and a solid supporting cast. It seems like they lose one major contributor each year and this year it was Waclawski, who is trying his own hand as a manager with Southern Tier, but nothing seems to fully slow the Roughnecks. I’m pretty sad that our game got cancelled but am happy that I’ll now be able to make the trip down to Olean to play them this year. This is a promotion contender again. 

 

What about those two bozos we saw on the podcast?

Borussia Bees come into the division with a fair amount of attention to themselves despite never playing a single game in BDSL yet. This club stirred the pot in Sahlen’s Cup and kept that up in the lead up to 2021. And they have reasons to with a talented roster that is young and hungry. They have an interesting opening run of games to open the year and I think by the end of May we’ll be able to see if they are truly legit or not. I think they are a playoff team but hesitate if I think a promotion is in order.

 

Which Lykan is the true lion?

A very good question. I think early on this off season I woulda told you that United, the Lykan OG’s if you will, were looking like the better of the two clubs. They made some good additions to the squad with Fuccillo, Correa, and Johnson. They have very good defensive options and solid goalkeeping. Seemed like more than enough to over take their brethren. But as we’ve come closer to kickoff Lykan FC showed they are not to be forgotten. Bringing in Will Smith who is criminally underrated is a great move. Kozak gives them a playmaking offensive player they’ve lacked. Ryan Schamber is a proven Championship striker. Both teams are solid here and it's a really close call on who might be the better team. Week 1’s match up should be great. 

 

Can Los Chupacabras rebound from a dismal 2019 season? 

The only ones preventing them from doing so in my opinion is themselves. This team learned some harsh lessons from their first year in the Championship. In previous years they may have been able to coast by and sometimes just show up and win but that is much harder to do in Champo. This team seemed to get rattled too easily and when they did they turned their frustrations on each other and the refs. If they can get back to basics maybe here they can turn their fortunes. The roster by and large is very similar and I’ve never had questions about the talent so it's really about mentality here for me and this club. 

 

Will Wolves be sober enough to realize they have soccer games to play?

It’s unclear.

 

Who is in the most trouble for relegation?

I’m struggling to find a way to keep West Side FC in this division. Losing Kovan Menr removes half of their goals from 2019 and there is no real obvious replacement for that offensive output. They chose to redo the defensive line with CB’s Fleck Dashkivitz and Carr and new GK Callum Christie. That's all fine and dandy but the best you can do is tie when you can’t score. They come how got older with their moves which is curious too. Yes Rangers were saved from the drop from 2019 but this WestSide roster is flat not not better than that one. Unless they have a surprise lurking it's going to be tough sledding for the guys in grey.

 

 

Is East Aurora FC alive? 

This is also unclear. But when you can’t out chug the league president who is far removed from those prime days, then I’m never going to like your prospects. For real here this team is thin right now and I’m never a fan of that. I hope I’m wrong on them but i’d like to see some more players here for me to feel better about them surviving Championship

 

Go ahead now. It’s time.

Another year another Roos revamp. Our Championship final roster was largely gutted (again) but we’ve once again found our way back to hopefully play the same style of soccer RFC expects to play. Our ads this year focused on offense and ways to compliment Tor up top. I’m most excited to see what Brady Reinagel and David mack can add to our club. Defensively we had to rebuild it entirely but thankfully we have Slabyk back in the net. Sure Kyle Cunningham is known as a keeper but I have no doubts he’ll quickly make a name for himself as one of the better defenders in the division. The biggest questions for us will be can we be able to cope with the losses of Matt Brehem & Austin Tom, and will we still get big seasons from our vet leaders? We may not be a favorite but I think we’ll be just fine. 

 

 

Championship Tiers:

 

Relegation Zone: West Side FC, Rangers, East Aurora FC

Pretenders:  Niagara FC, Los Chupacabras,, Roos FC, Cavalucci Marini, Lykan FC, Lykan United

Contenders: Borussia Bees, Wolves FC

Favorites: Olean 1854 FC

 

Championship Division Table:

  1. Olean 1854 FC

  2. Wolves FC

  3. Borussia Bees

  4. Roos FC

  5. Lykan FC

  6. Los Chupacabras

  7. Lykan United

  8. Niagara FC

  9. Cavalucci Marini

  10.  East Aurora FC

  11.  Rangers

  12.  West Side FC

 

3) Borussia Bees over 6) Los Chupacabras

4) Roos FC over 5) Lykan FC

 

1) Olean 1854 FC over 4) Roos FC

3) Borussia Bees over 2) Wolves FC

 

1) Olean 1854 FC over 3) Borussia Bees