Q2: Signs of Off-Season Disaster Showing

Just thirteen games into the season it is clearly evident that this will be a rebuilding year as the FCW Lions owner had originally said. The Royal Lions have a 7-1-5 record, and are currently sitting in 9th. They have outscored their opponents 23-14 and are a plus 9. The FC Winnipeg Royal Lions are on pace for their worst season since their first year in the league.

Trevion Collins who is acting as an assisting coach and back-up forward said "It is frustrating. There have been multiple games this season where we out-opportune, and out-play opponents in every aspect of the game and still end up losing. Unfortunately, it might take us a year or two to get back to where we were and begin clicking. With that said, we are still in the top half of the league".

The top three scorers on the team at Q2 are:
Christian Klein - 6
Pemton Florent - 3
Gerald King - 3

The top goalkeeper is Martha who has made 40 saves in 11 games. He has 6 wins on the season. "Like Collins said, it's frustrating. I haven't been playing my best. To have the ball down field all game and not score, and then have the other team get a couple rushes and put the ball in the net so easily, it just isn't right".

The FC Winnipeg Royal Lion's team owner made it clear that no one's position was concrete with another transfer window approaching. Rumors have it he is currently looking to offload one or two of his top forwards in order to get out of some money trouble.

We hope to see you at the MTS Centre for the FCW Lions next game on 2/28 Vs #17 Kahnawake starz (2-2-9).

Royal Lions Eliminated From World 90 Tournament

After dropping their first four World 90 Tournament games, the FCW Lions have been eliminated from the tournament. They will finish the tournament 2/19 @ Red Land Fusion. It was a disappointment, although no surprise after the team struggled to field a full roster for the start of the season.

In other news 30 year old Phil Digby was re-signed to a two year $52,465 p/y contract. He has played in 120 games for the FCW Lions as goalkeeper, and will be the backup to Martha. 29 year old Branddun Mendy was signed to a two year $68,444 p/y contract as a depth midfielder. Last year he scored 7 goals in 36 games for Kingston.

The FCW Lions are 3-0-2 so far this season ranked 10th.

Q1: Season 8 Preview

With season 8 approaching, the FC Winnipeg Royal Lions have managed to avoid complete disaster, and have the minimum 18 players required on the roster. They do hope to be strong competitors like every other year, and will not use the past season's confusion as an excuse.

Pemton Florent commented "It was my first year here this past season and there was great confusion. I was released to free agency but decided to come back. I did so because I know we have a competitive team, and city here, and it gives us a shot at winning".

There is a positive aura going around the dressing room, even though seven of the returning players were released to the market at the end of last season.

"It's tough for all players, those released, those not" stated Trevion Collins. "It's tough for the staff too. But the players cannot give up. If the players give up the team is lost. Kudos to the staff to get some key names resigned. All that is left is to sign some depth over the length of the season. We went from a state of panic to 'everything will be alright'. We have confidence in ourselves."

Despite the "state of panic" the team had some crucial resignings, as well as the signing of three big name scorers. The team managed to resign the following players this off-season:

27 year old - Vibert Caravallo (USA) M - $128,000 p/y 1-year

31 year old - Giovanny Church (Canada) M - $200,000 p/y (+$72,000) 1-year

31 year old - Dirk-Heijndrikse Dierckx (Netherlands) D - $150,000 p/y (+$50,000) 1-year

28 year old - Pemton Florent (Canada) M - $500,000 p/y (+$272,000) 1-year

28 year old - Herbert Hamner (Canada) D - $200,000 p/y (+$50,000) 1-year

28 year old - Gerald King (Canada) M - $165,000 p/y (+$50,000) 1-year

22 year old - Bartleah Kays (Canada) D - $75,000 p/y 1-year

The three new acquisitions the FCW Lions made were all forwards. Expect to see goals coming from:

26 year old - Elijah Barry (Canada) F - $400,000 p/y (+$167,237) 1-year

32 year old - Jamison Bault (Canada) F - $150,000 p/y (+$50,000) 1-year

25 year old - Christian Klein (Canada) F - $666,666 p/y (+$100,000) 1-year

*Signing bonus amounts are in brackets

Players let go included Kelan Corsie, Phil Digby, Ardolph Evans, Brennen Gaskins, Charlie Henry, Jeremain Kolk, Bryan Price, Sallsbury Routledge, Alex Stewart, and Silvestre Trelawney.

34 year old Charlie Henry announced his retirement shortly after and commented on his time with the Royal Lions:

"It has been great. I love soccer and I will miss playing, but most of all I will miss this great organization and town. I have no regrets and thank them for the opportunity late in my career."

Henry scored 58 goals in 119 games for the FCW Lions, and captured a league scoring title in season 3 with 25 goals.

Season 8 has a lot of questions that the Royal Lions will need to answer. No one is sure where the team will end up in the standings. There has been no mention of when the World 90 Tournament is slated to start, however the Royal Lions will be participating again this year hoping for redemption. The team will need to sign depth throughout the season and is expected to sign first and foremost a backup goalkeeper. Martha is the only goalkeeper they have currently.

"I'm fine with it" stated Martha jokingly. "I'll play all 38 games, I'd love to. However I know it is a tough sport, fatigue and injuries do occur, I'm not blind to the reasoning".

The team hopes to start off on the right foot, and answer some of the questions about their ability on 2/14 @ lets go.

Season 7: Year in Review

Coming off a World 90 Championship, and a Canadian second place finish in season 6, expectations were through the roof for the Royal Lions heading into season 7. Unfortunately, the FCW Lions crumbled under pressure, and got ousted in the second annual World 90 Tournament in a tough round robin pool. On top of that, controversy began to settle in among the staff, reporters, and players. As you know, the writers of the FCW Lions Weekly went on strike, but that was only the beginning. Many of the staff who worked for the Royal Lions also went on strike, and owner tute_fruy fired two head coaches before coaching the team himself for the remainder of the season. With an extreme lack of organization, re-negotiating expiring contracts was impossible during the season, and left the Royal Lions with only eight players under contract at season's end.

But more about that later. What we are really here to talk about is the results of season 7. The Lions finished 22-7-9 with 73 points and a +/- of 44. Although it was not their worst season statistically, it was their worst placement since the team's inaugural season. They finished sixth place, only 7 points out of second, but 25 points back of first place LJ Gang Green. Trevion Collins, one of the eight players still under contract, was named Team MVP for the second year in a row finishing in the top 5 for scoring in Canada with 23 goals. He also broke a milestone scoring his 100th career goal, currently having a total of 112 in his career. Hot prospect and starting goalkeeper Martha was also under contract at season's end. At age 20, he started in 34 out of the 38 season games and continues to develop.

The messy situation within the FCW Lions organization is under a clean-up process assures owner tute_fruy. He would not let any player comment on the matter, but did release some facts himself:

"We are taking this as a sort of rebuilding year. That is not to say we do not want to be competitive. Currently we have re-signed, and signed new players in free-agency, and are one below the roster minimum. As the season goes on, we will likely use game revenue to purchase depth players for the team. I feel we may even have a stronger starting line-up than last season, and just need to fill out the bench. I will announce the signings once we have assured an 18 player roster for the upcoming season."

Season 7 Results:

World 90 Canada - 22-7-9, +44, Sixth Place

World 90 Champions Tournament - 2-4-0, -2, 4th Group D

Stay tuned for the Q1 article: Season 8 Preview, which will list the FCW Lion's off-season acquisitions.

Strike over, article becomes quarterly

After a season long strike of the FC Winnipeg Royal Lions Weekly, it has returned in form of a Quarterly article. Articles will be posted at the pre-season mark, the thirteen game mark, the twenty-six game mark, and the post-season mark. Also, articles may be posted around important events, even if it is not the quarterly mark yet. The FCWRLQ will submit a season 7 review sometime in the near future before submitting the first quarterly article, a season 8 preview. We apologize for the inconvenience.