Top Guns, So Far

Karka 8, 2078, m249

From left to right: Uday Lanka (#7 Immortals Captain), Arwa Farra (#18 Al’amal SC), and Darkeem Dennis (#7 Europa United)

Rolling into the 9th week of play, the field of top scoring players are the familiar stars from season one – with a few notable absentees including Stephen Liu (Comets) and Musaddiq Baddour (Al’amal) . With an obvious disconnect between scoring leaders and team standings, it will be interesting to observe how things play out and which players are resilient enough to stay on top.

Uday Lanka

9 Goals
1 Assist

With 240 minutes of play so far, Lanka continues to be uphold his reputation in the MAFL, despite the Immortals sitting at the bottom on the rankings. Lanka has scored 64% of all Immortal goals this season and appears on track to beat his Season 1 record of 16 goals over 21 regular season matches. If the Immortals continue to struggle, can Lanka keep scoring?

TOTAL SHOTS
31

SHOTS ON TARGET
23	78%

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Darkeem Dennis

8 Goals
0 Assists

Dennis has proven his worth after failing to get significantly contribute after joining Europa United midway through seasons one. In 8 matches, he’s already surpassed his already surpassed his 7 goals from last season. With United’s overall improvement thus far, Dennis could be bolstered for MVP contention.

TOTAL SHOTS
27

SHOTS ON TARGET
17	62.9%

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Qigang Lian

6 Goals
3 Assists

Lian has been transformed after joining Tiangong Wuji in the off-season. With a measly 2 goals all of season one, Dong Ji should have been cheering at his exit. Now sitting alongside Readale Nash as 3rd highest scorer in the league, he’s clearly found his game.

TOTAL SHOTS
21

SHOTS ON TARGET
12	57%

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Readale Nash

6 Goals
0 Assists

The young gun, Nash, continues to be the San Olympus Titans best performer despite struggling with personal demons. He is on track to equal or best his 11 goal first season, that is, if he is able to keep it together. His arrogance and tendencies to lash out at teammates hasn’t won him any friends, however, he remains the Titans best hope for getting back on top.

TOTAL SHOTS
23

SHOTS ON TARGET
16	69.6 %

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Arwa Farra

5 Goals
1 Assists

Farra is the leading female scorer and top Al’amal player, overshadowing team captain Mussaddiq Baddour who finished of 2nd top scorer behind Lanka las season. She’s contributed an incredible 7 out of the 17 goals earned by the club so far (41%), thus has been a key factor in Al’amals strong start to season 2.

TOTAL SHOTS
15

SHOTS ON TARGET
9	60%

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Ilya Petrovich

5 Goals
1 Assists

Dynamo Captain, Petrovich, has been instrumental in the club’s early domination in season 2. He is on track to crush his 7 goal first season with 5 goals in hand well before mid-point of the season. If Petrovich and his fellow forwards continue scoring, Dynamos can make a serious run for the championship.

TOTAL SHOTS
19

SHOTS ON TARGET
11	57.9%

Tale of Twin Colonies

Mithuna 18, 2078, m249

Fans in Dongj have been upended with Season 2 changes, particularly losing former Captain to Wuji Sport Club.

After a dramatic season 1 with high stakes, it is no surprise that the MAFL is going through changes.  Beyond the changes to the Aero Football rules, technology upgrades, and growing licensing deals with Earth affiliates, the players remain the key ingredient.

For most fans, the experience of seeing players change positions or getting traded is a big deal on its own, but the last minute trade activity between Tiangong and Huacheng at the tail end of the off-season, brings it to a new level.  The sister colonies have always had their differences, with Huacheng often considered the “Chinese capitol” on Mars there has always been a sense of competition, however, the MAFL can take credit for stirring it into a true rivalry.

Back in Season 1, Huacheng was devistated by Darkeem Dennis' unexpected trade to Europa. Qigang Lian's move from Dongji to Wuji has been regarded by many Dongji fans as an outright betrayal of the colony.  They have also been reluctant to accept Marcus Ekberg, a non-Chinese, with the role of Captain.  With all the moaning, the benefits of Ekberg's leadership along with gaining forward Jai Cheng, and midfielder Anne-Marije Feston, the Dongji squad is actually looking better than ever.

Ekberg, a Martian-born native of Wendland colony, is not a fluent Mandarin speaker and previously showed little interest in picking up the language.  At the last press briefing, however, Ekberg responded to local media questions in Chinese.  Although he was certainly aided by a virtual translator, the gesture was well received.  In the world of sports, the language of 'wins' is the true prize, so long as Ekberg can bring in the goals, he won't likely need to fallback on his Chinese.

As for Lian, he had been openly looking to move to the sister colony after his wife had moved to Tiangong to take a role on council.  They were living apart for most of season 1.  Had Wuji owner, Koh Chen, not encouraged the Wuji shakeup, the opportunity would not have been on the table for him.

“It’s an opportunity to continue my journey as athlete and captain,” says Lian, “I'm grateful for this opportunity and I’m excited to work with my new teammates.”

The serious drama, though, is in Lian’s usurping of Hachette’s captain title. Stanislas Hachette has been widely panned in Season 1 for ineffective leadership, lack of scoring ability, and general unawareness of the flow of gameplay. Some see his demotion as a gift to the team.

“We love Hachette though,” says his teammates, “His nickname is The Hachet. Not because he’s a sharp player, but he’s got a really sharp sense of humour. We feel bad for him, but relieved he's still on the team.”

However, to those loyal to the charismatic former captain, his demotion coupled with the cutting of Wuji’s manager Bobby Chung has fans grumbling. And even in the general fanbase, not everyone is quite warmed up to the idea of having Lian as captain, despite him leading Wuji to a solid start in Season 2. Time will tell, as play continues, whether the trades will prove a wise move for the two teams.

The first highly anticipated face off between the two clubs happens on week 6, the 17th of Cancer.