Trecelunas FC
| Full name | Trecelunas Fútbol Club |
|---|---|
| Stadium |
Estadio Taturgo |
| Capacity |
45,000 |
| Shirt Sponsor | Abakine |
| Colors | gray and green |
Trecelunas FC is a football club in the city of Trecelunas, Aguazul. They were second in TakilQuip Champions’ Cup 21, and won the Liga Aguazuleña in seasons five, eleven, fifteen, and sixteen. Trecelunas also won the third MUFN title, and the first (and only) Copa Nacional.
Contents |
History
The first team from the city to make a lasting impact, Trecelunas' participation in the Liga Nacional first consisted of them playing the same attacking styles as their peers, only less well. Mid-table for several seasons, they were ironically jolted into action by the promotion of Excursionistas Pasu, the footballing branch of a ill-defined social group campaigning for indigenous rights. Indignant at the possibility of not being the best team in the city, Trecelunas FC buckled down and switched to a defensive outlook. Though fans complained, it worked, and Trecelunas became a mainstay of the top half.
Javier Moya's well-earned retirement cleared the way for Sabas Melendez to take over as manager, and he quickly took charge. Under his leadership, tactical substitutions became the order of the day; while few players could stay in a game long enough to make lasting impacts, the interchangeable parts produced season-long success. Melendez's style had a collateral advantage as well; the team didn't need lots of money to acquire or hold on to star players, as they would have seen little playing time anyway. So while other clubs and the Liga Nacional as a whole floundered, and rumors of their communism doomed the Excursionistas, Trecelunas FC thriftily survived to continue play in the MUFN.
The MUFN
It would take six matchdays for Trecelunas FC to record their first win in an unsuccessful first season. Melendez's strategy remained as "nuanced" as ever, with star Eleuterio Roldán being the only player to start all of the team's first ten matches; they lost their eleventh game 1-0, arguably on his replacement's miscue. Nevertheless, the second half of the Apertura let them climb from the basement to third place, if only on a tiebreaker. The momentum might have buoyed them in the Cupcake Cup; they won their first game and drew their second. A win in the final would have made them tournament champions, but they lost to Namiri Forest.
As in the Apertura, they'd wait until matchday six for their first Clausura victory. And as in the Apertura, they'd be last at halfway, but escape the half-season basement. Merely sixth, albeit on goal difference, in the Clausura, they came in fifth on goal difference overall.
The shuffle of players for season two brought Araceli Sert to the team, the first Aguazuleña woman to play professional football. Trecelunas FC's first four matches were 1-1 draws; ten of their seventeen Apertura and Cupcake Cup games would feature that scoreline, and five more in the Clausura. They didn't record a win until the Cupcake Cup semifinals/second matchday; their first Clausura victory would come on Matchday Six. A last-day win saw them avoid a last-place overall finish; they were fifth in the Clausura.
Season three saw the arrival of Candelariasian Debbie Nichutin, the first foreigner known to have played professional football in Aguazul. It would take Trecelunas seven matchdays for their first victory and seven more for their second. The very next matchday, however, saw them triumph in the Cupcake Cup, and they did it again to advance to the final. A scoreless draw (coupled with Deportivo Peralta being unaware of the magnitude of their own success) guaranteed Trecelunas FC a spot in the overall final.
They had little need to worry about their Clausura performance, and finished the regular season second-to-last in the overall tables (but with only twelve 1-1 draws). In the final, however, they held 12 de noviembre to a scoreless tie through extra time, and won on penalty kicks to become league champions.
The Liga Aguazuleña
The expansion draft led to plenty of roster overturn, but with Melendez still in charge it hardly seemed to matter. Trecelunas quickly became established as one of the league's most consistently successful sides, finishing third the first two seasons. They qualified for TakilQuip Champions’ Cup 8 but lost to Banks, which sent them to Globe Cup 5. Trecelunas upset Arrigo Portuguese in their first match there, but lost the second leg by the same scoreline. Their penalty shootout skill had not carried over, however, and they were swiftly eliminated.
Third once more in the following domestic season, Trecelunas overcame Wiechester FC in TQCC9 only to lose 9-0 over two matches to International of Moskva; this ranks as the third-worst defeat in TQCC history. Their stay in Globe Cup 6 was even briefer, as they lost 5-0 to Clube Imperial.
Nevertheless, their quality within Aguazul was undeniable. Undefeated at home the next year, Trecelunas came second in the league. Eliminated from TQCC10 by Tenderville United, they faced an unappealing rematch with Clube Imperial in Globe Cup 7 and lost 6-1. In the following Liga Aguazuleña, however, Trecelunas won the title with a league-record 43 points, losing only one match.
In TakilQuip Champions’ Cup 11, they edged past Bola Mine on away goals only to lose to Dover City. Globe Cup 8 saw them beaten 6-0 by Mar Sara FC. While some pundits predicted Trecelunas to be dominant the next season, they won only one match on the road to finish fourth, and were quickly eliminated from Globe Cup 9 by Grandborough FC. One of three teams to finish with 25 points in the following season, they came third and progressed to TQCC13. Three for four against their all-Rushmori preliminary round opponents, they ultimately fell short on away goals to SVV Stoedt. This sent them to the Globe Cup 10 group stage--their first international group play despite consistent preliminary-round entrances--where they finished last with just one point.
Trecelunas were sixth the next season, and slumped to eighth in the one after that. In season ten, they were involved in a three-way tie for fifth place. With the worst goal differential of the tied teams, they finished in seventh, two goals away from international qualification. But their defense's intermittent experience was slowly accumulating, and they won the league title in season eleven. Perhaps a classic 1-1 draw in the Tundra Falls Proving Grounds was a sign of good things to come in TakilQuip Champions’ Cup 17; following a 1-0 win, it paved the way for a victory over Casuals Osteria and a return to the TQCC group stage. Group C would be much more successful for Trecelunas, who topped it. They would go on to defeat Albrecht FC on penalty kicks before losing 6-1 to Qidade Savana.
Ruiberriz takes over
With another title under his belt and the greatest-yet performance by a club from Aguazul achieved, Melendez retired at last and Amílcar Ruiberriz took charge. Though Trecelunas continued playing defensively and with varied lineups under him, he's less prone to substitute than Melendez--for all that's worth. In the following Clausura, they came second, a point behind Arcrés Millos. Trecelunas lost their first TQCC18 matches to Grand Arsenal, and were shut out by Central United in Globe Cup 13.
The next season was full of draws around the league--except, oddly enough, for Trecelunas. Even more oddly, they emerged on top of a four-way tie by goals scored, finishing fifth. After splitting 2-0 victories with Redwood Forest in Globe Cup 16, Trecelunas FC lost on penalty kicks despite the overall competence on display from Ederoño Manderiaga in goal. They came second by a point in season fourteen, and then turned their attentions to competing for the national cup.
The belief that defensive teams would overachieve in such a competition had precluded said competition from arising for some time, and Trecelunas didn't placate anybody by being randomly drawn first and securing home field advantage throughout the competition. Though they needed a couple replays to get there, Trecelunas eventually defeated Arcrés to win the cup. However, they were unable to participate in the first Aeropag Football Invitational, the intended reward for victory. After dropping their first game in TQCC20 to CS Lac-Amédée, Trecelunas won their second in an uncharacteristic (4-3) fashion. The away goals weren't enough, though, and they went instead to Globe Cup 17 where they quietly exited to Eastport United.
But the next season, after Max Markov's arrival from the Malak Free State (Nichutin having retired some time previously), Trecelunas once again avoided most of the wave of draws that swept the league to emerge as champions. They topped group F in TQCC21, progressing to face Merpisms CE. Ruiberriz' preference to shake up the lineups between, rather in the middle of, matches seemed abundantly obvious when a 1-0 defeat was followed by a 5-1 victory, and it was much the same story in the quarterfinals; Trecelunas defeated Mountbatten Junction 1-0 in the first leg but 4-0 in the second. There was another 1-0 victory to begin the semifinals, against Yuba United, and Trecelunas were more than happy with a good old 1-1 draw to reach the final. That scoreline wouldn't be enough in the final, however; after 120 minutes of a 1-1 draw, Albrecht FC avenged their TQCC17 defeat, winning on penalties. Trecelunas contented themselves with winning the league again in season sixteen, despite an unimpressive road record.
Decline
They tied for first in the group stage of TQCC22, losing to Raynor City United in the first knockout round. In season seventeen, Trecelunas only beat Deportivo Peralta at home--but recorded six wins on the road to finish on top of a three-way tie for third. In Globe Cup 20, however, they lost to Avidia United. Season eighteen did see Treecelunas score one more goal than they had in the Apertura, but it wasn't enough to keep pace with the rest of the league, and they dropped to fifth place. They defeated Sembulan before losing to Iskara Daii on away goals in Globe Cup 21. In season nineteen, Trecelunas' fifteen goals were the league's second-best (defensively) and second-worst (offensively); they finished fourth. Trecelunas' participation at Globe Cup 22 consisted of losing 8-3 to Ranca Toco--no great offensive force themselves--and things just got worse.
Trecelunas FC slumped to ninth place in season twenty, avoiding the playoffs by just one point. On the paperwork side of things, they were granted special dispensation to sign a further foreigner given the Malak Free State's instability, but splurging on new talent seemed out of the question as they crashed to the bottom of the table with eight points (and just six goals scored--Lalo Santillian became the team's leader by scoring his second of the campaign on the final matchday!) They arguably rallied in the Clausura to finish eighth in that season and ninth overall by a single point (gained on the final matchday against dynastic Unión de Ciudagua, but it would come to nothing when they lost the playoff to CD Quemavilla.
They did not fit in well, coming in ninth in their first Apertura there, and only avoided another round of relegation playoffs by a single point. Their cup success came to a quick halt in the Copa del Aguazul; although Trecelunas beat Vista del Oeste in the first round, they went eliminated in the next to Alianza Ciruelas (and general acclaim).
They came eighth in season twenty-five, again going out in their second round of cup competition, and tenth in the Clausura, again a point above the playoff team. Although they needed extra time to deal with the Swifttown Excursionistas, they shut out Valle del Rio Rojo in the Copa before two extra-time goals from Piratas de Grisolon eliminated Trecelunas.
In season twenty-seven, however, Trecelunas FC snapped back to prominence. They were winless for the first five days of the season, but then hosted the derby against CSD Trecelunas. Trecelunas FC won 2-0 and began to get hot; although the second leg wouuld finish in the opposite direction, leaving the derby a tie, Trecelunas FC eventually came second in division two.
