[Lucky_Will]

Standings – League Play

The last few games of the season have finished and now we know the fate of each league! Only the Europa League and UEBA Champions League playoffs remain. Here’s how the races for championship trophies and Champions League places finished up:

In Spain, Barcelona lost two games in a row to Valencia while Real Madrid took two in a row against Osasuna. The Blancos from Madrid clinched the La Liga title with one game to go and finished two games up on their arch rivals.

Catania and Siena, mired in a relegation dog fight, both lose to stay tied on record, and head-to-head record. Whatever the game uses as a third tiebreaker had the Elefanti ahead, so Catania escape relegation by the thinnest of margins!

Liga Portugal’s Pacos de Ferriera swept Setubal while Rio Ave dropped two to Guimares, completing their late-season collapse to fall out of Portugal’s second Champions League place. Rio Ave have got to be gutted, on 21 September they were in first, a game ahead of eventual league winners Porto.

Belgium’s Mons needed a big series against Mechelen but could only manage one win on the last day of the season. They were up against Lokeren to avoid relegation, and although Lokeren lost all three of their games against Cercle Brugge, with only one win in their own series Mechelen was doomed by their head-to-head record against Lokeren. The teams finished with identical records but Mons goes down.

In the Scottish Premier League there’s great action at both ends of the table. Up top, it’s Celtic and Kilmarnock who have been the two teams in contention almost all year. Celtic are a game behind first place, and Kilmarnock needs a strong finish to claim the trophy and a place in the Champions League. With four games to go, Celtic loses to St. Mirren and Kilmarnock loses to Motherwell to stay tied. In the last series of the year Kilmarnock goes 1-for-3 against Hibs and Celtic takes 2 out of three from Motherwell. The table ends with Celtic and Kilmarnock tied with 47-19 records, but Celtic win the head-to-head matchup 4-2.
In the three-way fight to avoid relegation, Hearts and Dunfermline win the first of their November games to stay static in 10th and 11th place, respectively. They both lose out in the last three games of the year. All Dunfermline needed was a win, but they couldn’t muster one against Dundee United, and Hearts finish the season one game ahead of relegation.

In the Europa League, Donetsk just need to match Plzen’s record to clinch 3rd place and a trip back to the Champions League on head-to-head record. Shakhtar got a crucial win against Nordsjaelland before being swept by Astana. If Plzen could pick up three wins out of four to close the season, they’d pass Donetsk for third. But it was not to be. They play two Swiss teams in a row, losing one game to Grasshoppers and picking up 2 out of 3 from Young Boys. It’s not enough and both Donetsk and Plzen finish 91-59 but Donetsk went 4-2 against the Czech side and will head back to the Champions League in 2013.

Standings – Champions League

It’s the last series of the Group Stage and it’s down to the wire. Here’s how they shook out:

Group A – City, Villarreal, and Munich are all in contention. City face Bayern and Villarreal face Napoli. Munich took game one against City to give themselves a fighting chance at advancing. In game two, City came back from 5-1 down to tie it in the 7th. Munich put one more across in the 8th, but Vincent Kompany was the hero City needed, he hit a 2R walk off HR to clinch a trip to the Round of 16. Villarreal’s fate was now in their own hands, and against Napoli they got the job done, winning 4-1 to advance to the playoffs based on head-to-head record against Munich. An amazing finish to the group stage. The crucial game was witnessed by 17,000 people at the Etihad, which is a weirdly low attendance level.

1. Man City, 12-6
2. Villarreal, 11-7
3. Munich, 11-7
4. Napoli, 2-16

Group B

1. Inter, 16-2
2. Lille, 13-5
3. CSKA, 5-13
4. Trabzonspor, 2-16

Group C – Another dog fight here, this one for second place, where Benfica and Basel enter the last series tied at 8-8. Benfica can’t miss against Galati, crushing the Romanian minnows, while Basel are swept by Man United who don’t bother to take it easy despite clinching first place. Benfica go through.

1. Man United, 18-0
2. Benfica, 10-8
3. Basel, 8-10
4. Galati, 0-18

Group D – Ajax and Lyon start within a game of one another, with Lyon in front. But Ajax benefits from the draw against Zagreb. They sweep the Croatian side while Lyon are swept by Madrid. It’s enough to allow Ajax to leapfrog Lyon and put the Dutch team into the round of 16.

1. Real Madrid, 18-0
2. Ajax, 8-10
3. Lyon, 7-11
4. Dinamo Zagreb, 3-15

Group E

1. Chelsea, 16-2
2. Valencia, 10-8
3. Bayer Leverkusen, 9-9
4. Genk, 1-17

Group F – Arsenal and Marseille come into the last series tied at 9-7. Arsenal gets the easier draw against Olympiacos, while Marseille get group winners Dortmund. The Gooners sweep the Athenians, and Marseille narrowly lose both games to Dortmund to put Arsenal through.

1. Dortmund, 15-3
2. Arsenal, 11-7
3. Marseille, 9-9
4. Olympiacos, 1-17

Group G – Donetsk and Zenit have their fates in their own hands. The two sides play each other to get to the knockout round. The Ukrainian side wins a tight game one, 4-3, and then opens up in game two, winning 8-4. The result is Shakhtar goes through and Zenit is out of the competition.

1. Porto, 17-1
2. Donetsk, 9-9
3. Zenit, 7-11
4. APOEL, 3-15

Group H

1. Barcelona, 17-1
2. Milan, 13-5
3. BATE Borisov, 4-14
4. Plzen, 2-16

Stats & Records

With the regular season in the books, here’s a rundown of stat leaders across the top tier leagues:

Ronaldo is the overall batting leader, he ended the season .522 (1st) / .597 / 1.009 (1st). He finished fourth in HR with 51, second in RBI with 180, 3rd in SB with 100. He led all leagues with 1.606 OPS, 24.1 OWAR, 233 H, and 450 TB.

Archrival Messi was no slouch, he went .506 (2nd) / .609 (1st) / .958 (4th), 44 HR, 185 RBI, 200 R, 108 SB (2nd), 20.6 WAR (2nd). Messi had the longest hitting streak of the year, with a 48-game streak that lead all leagues. The closest competitors were Braga’s Victor Jimenez (ARG) in Portugal with 39 games, Celtic’s Willie Bernal (COL) with 37 games, Club Brugge’s Nicoli Canavaro (ITA) with 33 games, and Javi at PSG with 32 games.

Munchen’s Arjen Robben was the home run king across all leagues with 55 HR! (in 102 games!) Robben hit .471 (5th) / .560 / .983 (2nd), 169 RBI (6th), 171 R (5th), 57 SB, 16.2 WAR (T-5th).

On the mound it was Juve’s Gigi Buffon who led the most categories, despite Juve’s poor form in Serie A. He led all leagues in ERA (0.71!), Ks (411!), WAR (17.1), shutouts (6), WHIP (0.44), and K/9 (17.2).

Astana’s Devis Aliu (SRB) powered the team to the Europa League playoffs and next year’s Champions League tied as the wins leader (24, with Sal Vargas, MEX, Inter Milan) and leader in IP (234.2).

Elder Morioka (BRA) led in saves with 43 for Widzew Lodz.

Here’s your batting leaderboards:

AVG

1. Ronaldo (POR, Real Madrid) .522
2. Messi (ARG, Barcelona) .506
3. Javi (ARG, PSG) .485
4. Christian Eriksen (DEN, Ajax), .481
5. Robben (NED, Munich), .471

HR

1. Robben, 55
2. Zlatan (SWE, Milan), 54
3. Zedorik Skiba (POL, Parma), 52
4. Ronaldo, 51
5. Schweinsteiger (GER, Munich), 49

RBI

1. Messi, 185
2. Ronaldo, 180
3. Zlatan, 177
4. Gabra Kirinyaga (CIV, Milan), 174
5. Schweinsteiger, 170

Hits

1. Ronaldo, 233
2. Messi, 217
3. Javi, 213
4. Miguel Romero (ESP, Copenhagen), 212
5. Xavi (ESP, Barcelona), 206

Runs

1. Messi, 200
2. Ronaldo, 184
3. Zlatan, 183
4. Franck Ribery (FRA, Munich), 175
5. Robben, 171

Stolen Bases

1. Geoffrey Clerc (FRA, Nice), 109
2. Messi, 108
3. Ronaldo, 100
4. Alex Moors (CAN, BATE), 86
5. Gerardo Alvarez (ARG, Zilina), 85

ERA

1. Buffon, 0.71
2. Anatole Beal (CAN, Inter), 0.94
3. Ruben Gonzales (VEN, Fiorentina), 0.95
4. Alfredo Escobedo (COL, Pacos), 0.97
5. Punisa Ostrozinska (SRB, Genoa), 1.25

Wins

1. Aliu, 24
   Vargas, 24
2. Vigillio Cestini (ITA, RKC), 21
   Jose Delgado (ESP, Chelsea), 21
   Tristan Malaret (POR, Bordeaux), 21
   Oscar Veige (BRA, PSG), 21

Saves

1. Morioka, 43
2. Bernardete Tanouye (BRA, Villarreal), 40
3. Oumee Magambo (DRC, IFK), 38
4. Hendrich Fromm (GER, Liverpool), 37
5. Jorge Gonzalez (ESP, Udinese), 36

K

1. Buffon, 411
2. Aliu, 300
3. Armin Loidl (AUT, Granada), 275
4. Emmanuele Philarghi (ITA, Parma), 274
5. Emmanuel Luiso (ITA, Brondby), 268

In my next post I’ll drill down a little into each season’s results, including a comparison with the real world of European Football. I’ll get into the playoffs and award results from the top tier leagues. We’ll also look at next year’s Champions League draw.

After that’s done, it’s off to the Euros!

And then I’ll do a meta post about all the work I do between each game year to get ready for the next and then we’ll close the door on 2012 and start on the 2013 season!