Outplayed, outwitted and outsmarted the Falcons left the Czech National Cup already in the second round – a bit earlier than expected. While the Falcons will now have to do without the extra income and experience from the cup games, several youngsters will get of the bench and unto the field sooner than anticipated, increasing their training output by a week or two.

Falcon Coach João Portugal

After focussing on defending for most of the past two seasons, Brazilian coach João Portugal, starting his second season at the helm of the Falcons, has decided it is time to commence concentrating on playmaking. The change in training regime will be hardly noticeable in the team playing league games, but the Golden League midfield will be revolutionized. Three young Falcons, having recently received their BA in defending, will set a step forward and form the core of the midfield in the mid-week games, honing their skills in playmaking. The youngsters picked for the task are Abul-Aziz Al-Shamsi (17), Oldřich Páleník (20) and Sergiy Golenko (19) – or ‘The Ace’, ‘The Ghost’ and ‘The Rocket’.

Falcon fans have dubbed the new midfield the AGgRavation-line. While it is almost certain that the new, young and inexperienced midfield will aggravate coach Portugal (and fans) in the first half of the season, it is hoped that some improvement will be made and noticed at the midway point and other teams will start to be on the receiving end of some serious aggravation from the new Falcon midfield.

Coach João Portugal informed the gathered reporters at a press conference earlier today of his intentions. “Oldřich ‘The Ghost’ Páleník is already with one foot into the A-team and with added PM we expect to turn him into a carbon copy of Loke Dommergaard, our ever increasing multi-skill talent in midfield, be it in defence. Sergiy ‘The Rocket’ Golenko has also made great progress last season. We have great hopes for him out back. And as far as ‘The Ace’ is concerned, he will be as unpredictable and inexplicable as ever, but always cuddly and loveable!”

The AGgRavation Line – ‘The Ace’, ‘The Rocket’ and ‘The Ghost’

The new line will make its debut next Wednesdays afternoon – surprisingly in a non-Golden League game. While it is rumoured that the decision was made because coach Portugal wanted to first test his new strategy and line-up away from the scrutiny of GL-observers, Falcons’ manager Horus70 released a brief press statement claiming that a unique opportunity to visit Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina presented itself and was immediately accepted as the team has never visited this part of Europe before. The Falcons’ opponent, NK Gradjanski, is a former local powerhouse (having three Division II titles among many others) and played several seasons in the Premijer Liga. The team seems to be at present in a rebuilding phase, not unlike the Falcon midfield.

Witness the AGgRavation Line in its debut against NK Gradjanski on Wednesday June 27 at 14.15. Only on HT!