As we head into the second half of the season, an exciting battle for top goalscorer has developed!  See the top 5 below:

1. Seamus Lynott – 11 goals
2. Andrew Winnett – 11 goals
3. Duy Nguyen – 10 goals
4. Hadi Alnahlawi – 8 goals
5. Neil Carey – 8 goals

Last years golden boot winner was Sean Kinsella, scoring an impressive 46 goals in 23 games.  The year before it was Duy Nguyen topping the league with 43 goals in 23 games.  The larger fields at the Hangar limits the goal-scoring opportunities and that’s why Kinsella’s record of 46 goals will likely hold for a long time.

Much like Rivaldo and Ronaldo did for Brazil, Lynott and Winnett are doing for Barons.  It’s well known that Brazilians are petty and like to compete with each other, is the same true for the Lyn-Win connection?  Neither player has denied it, for the record.  In third place we find the all time leading scorer, Duy Nguyen.  Ronalduy scores goals, that’s what he does.  Another familiar face sits in 4th place tied with a newcomer.  Neither Hadi nor Neil will register many assists, but they’ll fill the net each and every week.

Note: goals scored as a loan player do not count towards the Golden Boot.  They do however count to the all time goal-scoring statistics.

The championship game saw Blue Lightning take on Maestros FC.  Blue Lightning had the edge in the season series, with 2 wins and a draw out of 4 head-to-head matches.  The Bolts got past The Black Team and then Whitewalkers while Maestros dispatched both OTPP Utd and the Bad Apples.

The game kicked off in front of a partisan crowd who threw their support behind the Maestros.  The “home” team did not disappoint and scored first, on a tricky shot from distance that was redirected by Bob Tian past Kevin Bonner.  With the crowd behind them, their confidence grew and the Maestros soon scored another.  This time it was Haddi Alnahlawi who scored after a scramble in front of the net.  Led by their 2 coop students, Maestros were on Cloud 9!  Blue Lightning were left scratching their heads after being down by 2, despite their heavy edge in ball possession.  They needed to get one back quickly and that’s what they did.  A shot from distance was saved by Murat Cokgezen but the ball fell to Derek Chan, who cut the deficit in half going into the break.

The second half started with intense pressure from Blue Lightning.  Murat was on his toes and kept denying the Bolts.  The break-through came mid-way through the half with a well executed attack.  Scott Kamins received the pass inside the Maestros half to the right of the keeper.  He played a square ball to Dale Scarlett who one-touched the ball to the on-running Ivan Gojmerac who hit it first time and beat the keeper to the bottom left corner.  The last 15 minutes of the game were intense but cautious, as neither team wanted to make a mistake.

For the second year in a row, a penalty shoot-out was needed to decide the Championship.  There were some great shots and some great saves and it was still tied after 3 penalties each.  In sudden-death, Kevin stopped the Maestros and then Julio Araujo stepped up and powered in the winner.  The 2015/16 OTPP Champions League winners are Blue Lightning!

Thanks to everyone for another successful season and see you all in 2016/17!

Three exciting matchups last night decided the final standings. Bad Apples FC clinched the regular season title with a 5-4 win over Blue Lightning who finished fourth. OTPP United held off a late push from The Black Team and maintained their spot in second place. Maestros FC pulled off a victory against Whitewalkers FC to lift themselves out of last place.

The first round will match Bad Apples against Whitewalkers, OTPP United against Maestros, and The Black Team against Blue Lightning.

Full schedule can be found here.

With only four weeks left in the regular season it’s time for teams to start looking at the playoff picture. Due to the expansion to six teams, the playoff format will be slightly modified from last season.

All 6 teams will make the playoffs. Matchups will be 1v6, 2v5, 3v4. The first round will be a two-legged playoff, with the higher ranked team playing their “home” game second. Winners of the two-legged playoff will advance as well as the best second place team. The remaining two teams will play a two-legged game for fifth place.

Tie breakers for the first round will be: goal differential, away goals for.

Teams will be reseeded for semi-final matchups. Semi finals, third-place match and championship game will all be single-game elimination. These games will end 5 minutes early to allow for penalty shots in the event of a draw.