Tagger 2,722 Posted May 8, 2016 Share Posted May 8, 2016 (edited) - Toronto Legion – Leicester City Outside of the shock factor of Leicester City winning the English Premier League this season (Despite Toronto’s history they were considered one of the favourites for the Continental Cup this season), this is pretty much a perfect comparison as you could get. Both teams won their league’s respective trophy after several season of anonymity. Leicester had only been back in the Premier League for their second consecutive season after eleven years of playing lower league football before winning the title. Prior to this season, Toronto had only made the playoffs three times in the last nine seasons (the joint fewest times along with Seattle) and were making their first finals appearance since Season 38, which heading into this season was the longest active wait for a finals appearance. - New York Americans – Chelsea Especially over the last two seasons, this lines up near perfectly for both teams. Both teams entered this season as the reigning champions, however they both fell some way short of their expectations this season. New York were expecting to at least make the North American Conference Finals, however they were knocked out by Seattle in the North American Conference Semi-Finals. Many experts prior to the season said that they would be very surprised if Chelsea didn’t retain their championship, however with only two games remaining it looks like they will be finishing in ninth place this season, which would be their worst finish since 1996 where they finished in eleventh place. These two teams have also had a similar story prior to this season, as the Americans had made the playoffs in nine of their last ten seasons and Chelsea, prior to this season, had qualified for the Champions League through their Premier League finish in twelve of their last 13 seasons. - Seattle Bears – Southampton I wasn’t able to find an example that really encapsulated the Bears dramatic rise and fall that saw them win in Season 43 to then go on to record the worst record in the league two years later to then make the playoffs these last two seasons, so I’ve selected Southampton mostly based on the last few seasons. Southampton have only been back in the Premier League for four seasons now and while they struggled initially, they went on to improve dramatically and have finished in the top eight the last three seasons. The Bears missed the playoffs in Seasons 44, 45 and 46, however they were able to improve dramatically in Season 47 where they made the playoffs and once again in Season 48 where they were able to beat the Americans to make the North American Conference Final. - Helsinki Titans – Manchester City This isn’t as good a comparison as the Americans or the Legion as Manchester City did not win the back to back championships that the Titans won, but both of these teams are the only teams in their respective divisions to have won twice in the past five years. Both teams last lifted up their respective trophies two seasons ago, with the Titans beating the Wranglers to lift the Continental Cup in Season 46 while Manchester City edged past Liverpool to win the Continental Cup in 2014. - Stockholm Vikings – Liverpool Over the last five seasons both of these teams have had their share of ups and downs, as the Stockholm Vikings missed the playoffs in Season 45 and 46 while Liverpool have failed to qualify for European competition through their league position three times in the last five seasons. The main reason for selecting Liverpool for Stockholm though is that, out of the teams that I’ve selected to cover, the Vikings are the team that got the closest to winning the Continental Cup in the last five seasons without actually winning it, when they lost in the Season 47 Continental Cup final to the New York Americans. Edited May 8, 2016 by YEAH!stlemania NotAVHLM-GM, jRuutu and Will 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Senior Admin Will 4,660 Posted May 8, 2016 Senior Admin Share Posted May 8, 2016 I know nothing about football but I did play FIFA for the first time the other day. It's quite fun! Tagger and Molholt 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boubabi 4,725 Posted May 8, 2016 Share Posted May 8, 2016 Everybody loves liverpool....right? NotAVHLM-GM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tagger 2,722 Posted May 8, 2016 Author Share Posted May 8, 2016 37 minutes ago, boubabi said: Everybody loves liverpool....right? I'm actually not sure what the neutral opinion of Liverpool is. I grew up supporting Man Utd and they are basically our biggest rivals (although our rivalry with Man City got comparable to that once they started competing) so I can't say I'm their biggest fan (Although I was hoping they'd win the title in 2014 when it was between them, Man City and Chelsea, though that's mainly cause I really don't like the other two). There's a lot of Liverpool fans on here (Think they're actually the most supported team on here) so maybe they are liked by those who may not have a local attachment to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evrydayimbyfuglien 600 Posted May 8, 2016 Share Posted May 8, 2016 Review: I have very limited (read as "no") knowledge of soccer but this was still very well done. Only issue I saw was talking about Toronto you said this was a perfect comparison as you could get, should be "as perfect a comparison as you could get" that was really the only issue I saw. Good work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kesler 1,514 Posted May 8, 2016 Share Posted May 8, 2016 Quebec not even considered top 5? wow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Victor 10,837 Posted May 8, 2016 Admin Share Posted May 8, 2016 Looking forward to working with Pep next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kendrick 4,741 Posted May 8, 2016 Share Posted May 8, 2016 Liverpool supporters talk about their past success though, how would Stockholm do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tagger 2,722 Posted May 8, 2016 Author Share Posted May 8, 2016 15 minutes ago, Kendrick said: Liverpool supporters talk about their past success though, how would Stockholm do that? Well I guess they can say at one point that they had more Continental Cup wins than any other team in the VHL. I was primarily basing these comparisons of this years performance, then looking at last five seasons, but I guess looking further back, Stockholm and Liverpool are similar in how long they've had to wait for a title win (Stockholm last won 22 seasons ago, Liverpool 26 seasons ago) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Victor 10,837 Posted May 10, 2016 Admin Share Posted May 10, 2016 On 5/8/2016 at 4:20 PM, YEAH!stlemania said: I'm actually not sure what the neutral opinion of Liverpool is. I grew up supporting Man Utd and they are basically our biggest rivals (although our rivalry with Man City got comparable to that once they started competing) so I can't say I'm their biggest fan (Although I was hoping they'd win the title in 2014 when it was between them, Man City and Chelsea, though that's mainly cause I really don't like the other two). There's a lot of Liverpool fans on here (Think they're actually the most supported team on here) so maybe they are liked by those who may not have a local attachment to them. I'd say based on their 2014 run that neutrals, including myself, would probably get behind Liverpool more than any other "big" team. I mean, it wasn't as unanimous as the bandwagon support for Leicester obviously but nonetheless I don't think anywhere near as many people would have wanted United, Arsenal, or Spurs to win in that situation and obviously City and Chelsea were up against Liverpool that season and unsurprisingly were not the neutrals' favourites. I mean, as was the case with Gerrard's slip, many still revert to laughing at Liverpool's ineptitude but that's probably their appeal - I imagine in the 80s and even 90s most people wanted them to lose and maybe United were the plucky "underdogs". Obviously speculating as I wasn't alive. So in actual fact an excellent parallel with Stockholm seeing the Vikings' support in S47. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kendrick 4,741 Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 Claimed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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