While the rest of the world focuses on trivial matters such as the Premier League or NFL, focus in Belfield rests solely on the AIB Superleague, as UCD’s most popular sporting competition got underway for another year of thrills and spills this October.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of the Superleague, it is UCD’s internal football league, where 58 teams encompassing over 1,000 players take to the field once a week in search of eternal glory. Superleague competitors are a special breed of athlete, what they may lack in terms of fitness, they make up for with sheer passion, and as such the games are never short of entertainment. With four rounds of fixtures already over and done with, a marker has already been laid down in each of the three divisions, albeit with a long season of football still to be played.
In the Premier Saturday league, there are a number of sides that still maintain a 100% record, with early signs suggesting that the title race could go down to the wire once again. At the time of writing*, Dynamo Duncan Ferguson FC, Tuborg Rovers, Sun Sex and Carlton Cole, McCuls FC and Fruit&Vag are the early pace setters, with McCuls’ record particularly impressive owing to their +18 goal difference.
The Premier Sunday league has begun in a tighter fashion, with just two sides, SWOXI and All Priests Over 75, still with flawless points records intact. The biggest surprise of the opening rounds of this division has been the form of league champions Futbolito. The team, which controversially introduced weekly training sessions last season en-route to a comfortable title win, have failed to record a victory from their first two matches.
On a brighter note for Futbolito, their Saturday side maintains a 100% record in the Saturday Division 1, along with Dellboys FC and the interestingly named Notinyermam’s Forest. Curiously, two other sides, Show me de Mane and Ruud Man Fistaboy also still hold unbeaten records, but have each played just a single game, four weeks into the season. The reason for this inactivity remains a mystery. In other news, last year’s champions, Colonel Getafe, have a credible 7 points to their name 3 games into the season, having scored an impressive 15 goals in that period.
As many a British football pundit on television has attested to, one cannot place too much emphasis on the league table this early in the season. However, the opening weeks serve as a time for more committed sides (or at least less uncommitted) to a lay down a marker for the season, and send out a statement to the other sides that they mean business. Results aside, one thing’s for sure, The College Tribune will be keeping tabs on what is one of UCD Sport’s greatest success stories in terms of participation, and will be on hand to ensure that these athletes get the exposure that their dedication deserves.
* Accurate up to 27/10/2017
Chris Foley – Sports Editor
