The best of 2023

The year 2023 has been moderately good for most of the teams we are dealing with. The two teams which play in the top league of their country, Bourj FC (Lebanon) and Cusco FC (Peru), had a good season, classifying in the first half of the table. 

Bourj FC finished the 2022-2023 season in fifth place, not exactly what they wanted, losing the fourth place after being defeated in the last round by their archrivals, Shabab Sahel. This is a slight decline from the third place they had in 2021-2022, but still a good performance overall. They also had the opportunity to play in an international competition after almost 30 years, as they qualified to the first preliminary round of the Arab Club Champions Cup (King Salman Cup). However, they lost both legs to the much stronger team Al Wahda of the United Arab Emirates, but one should point out that both matches were played away, in Abu Dhabi. Bourj FC started the 2023-2024 season very well and qualified to the play-offs for the third time in a row, in third place.

Cusco FC came back to the Peruvian First Division (Liga 1) in 2023, after one year spent in the Second Division (in 2022). They finished the season in ninth place in the aggregate table, missing the eighth position for a single point, after being defeated 3-1 in the last round by Universidad César Vallejo, which took their place and therefore qualified for the next year Copa Sudamericana. From this point of view, the 2023 season ended disappointingly. Nevertheless, they started very well and finished the Apertura (first half of the season) in fourth place. In Clausura, they had a rather poor performance, and manager Pablo Peirano was sacked with six rounds to go before the end of the season. The change did not bring the expected results. A new manager, Argentinian Miguel Rondelli has been appointed manager for 2024, and transfers are ongoing, as almost the entire 2023 squad vanished.

At the beginning of the year, the only team which competed in the second tier was Fayoum SC, of the Egyptian Second Division. However, due to structural changes in the Egyptian Second Division starting with 2023-2024, Fayoum lost their place in the Second Division. They needed to be in the top five or six in their group to qualify for the new Second Division, but instead they finished the 2022-2023 season only in 12th position in Group A and were therefore relegated to the Second Division B, the newly-created third tier in Egypt. They have not lost a single game so far in the 2023-2024 season, but they are far from the top spot in Group B of the Second Division B, which would allow them to promote to the Second Division.

In the second half of the year, former Pepiniere FC enrolled in the 2023-2024 Rwandan Second Division (Group A), under the new name of Kamonyi FC, after two years in which they did not compete officially. So far their results are good, and they are in the first half of the table.

By far, the best performance this year belongs to Total Soccer of Medellín (Colombia). Once again, they succeded to win the Colombian nation-wide Primera C, defending the title they clinched last year, in 2022. This time, it looked even easier, as they won both legs of the final over Ciamen FC of Cúcuta. It is a pity that the winners of Primera C are not allowed to promote to the professional Primera B, and Colombia is unfortunately one of the few countries in the world which does not have a proper football pyramid, and the only one in South America (and Europe) which completely separates professional football from amateur football. As long as this remains like this, Primera C would be the highest level where Total Soccer are allowed to compete as an amateur team.

In Slovakia, 1. FK Svidník are struggling to remain in the Third League (East Group). They had a fairly good first half of the year, finishing the 2022-2023 season in 10th place, with manager Vladislav Palša. Numerous changes were made in summer, including a new manager, but performance dropped in 2023-2024 and they are currently in bottom position, and if nothing changes for the better, they might expect relegation at the end of the season.

FK Tryavna 1922 won the Gabrovo Regional League in 2022-2023 but they eventually did not enroll in the 2023-2024 Bulgarian Third League (North-West Group), although they were entitled to promote and everything seemed to point in that direction. They remained in the Gabrovo League for 2023-2024, where they are of course involved in the fight for the top spot.

Two teams, Maardu Linnameeskond II (Estonia) and Maaraba SC (Syria) saw no action this year.

 

Best team 

Total Soccer

Best performance 

Ciamen - Total Soccer 1-2 (second leg of the Primera C final)

Best manager

Juan Gabriel Sepúlveda (Total Soccer)

Best player

Felipe ”Felucho” Rodríguez (Cusco FC)