11 rounds have been completed, each team has played 10 rounds, due to the eleven-teams championship. It seems like we are heading into a very exciting battle for every place of the table.
Let’s start with honesty. Right before the beginning, once i’ve heard that Bashkimi will not compete anymore and only 11 teams will compete, which automatically meant that only one team will relegate directly, we thought that we are not heading into a great championship. Vardar put together great squad, proven through the years, other teams seemed pretty similar or maybe worse compared to last season. But, there was one club that didnt thought the same.
Makedonija Gjorce Petrov. Several completely correct transfers, a coach that is long time with them, excellent home matches – and completely deserved first place. Like a breath of fresh air along came one of the oldest and more succesful teams in Macedonia. They have proven that things should not be taken for granted and nothing is decided before it starts. Every realistic football fan will admit – Makedonija showed the most in the first 11 rounds.
Money isn’t everything, thank God. That is what makes the football – football! Not always the richest team will be the winning team. In our case, Vardar has the biggest budget in this season but they are not leaders, for now. I have to admit, in my eyes, they are still nr. 1 favorites for winning the title – but it looks like it wont all be as easy as 1-2-3. But, unfortunately for Vardar, they have a two-fronts-battle. On the pitch against the teams and in FFM’s labyrinth – as visitors! Plus, they have hired a patriot from Serbia as their coach who left Vardar once things started looking not as easy for him and made a funny excuse – related to Kosovo. Nevertheless, with Gjurovski as their new coach – I still rate them to celebrate at around late May.
Trouble-making and at the same time good-football-playing Renova comes as third after 11 rounds. It would be totally weird if I start this article without mentioning Georges Ambourouet. For the uninformed – no, he is not the latest Renova’s signing. He is a football player from another team who – really – made a mistake and provoked opponents fans with rude gesture – but come on! He was beaten! Literally beaten and immediately taken to the hospital. Nevertheless, hope we can leave such things behind and concentrate on the matter we are here for. Football! And yes, Renova has showed some good football so far and deservedly is in the top. They’ve managed to eliminate Vardar from the cup and just might be heading into another succesful season like the last one.
Milano. I really do hope everything non-sports related will remain non-sports. But in some cases – it is nearly impossible. Milano’s owner Bajrush Sejdiu has been arrested and although players are still not affected by that – their future is surely not shiny. Rumors are spreading fast, but not via this place – so speculations will be avoided.
Champions Rabotnicki have completed the first 11 rounds as fifth on the table. With only one defeat they are looking good, but they seem like they are keen on sharing this season. Six draws so far, but things are going up for them. They are in the cup quarter finals, have started climbing the table and can probably once again be considered as candidates for one of the spots that leads to UEFA Cup.
Pobeda are coming next in line as 6th so far. Nothing special has happened related to them so far, I believe. They really do have some future suspension over heads, but FFM’s commission for discipline has been more then active so far and I really do wait to see how much of all those suspensions will be implemented.
Pelister are closing the list of teams that have won double-digits points from the 10 played matches so far. Top news around them will surely be those about Husein’s successor, after Nedzat has been sacked by he club. Now, another funny thing that caught my eye – Pelister seems, to me – at least, that are on FFM’s blacklist as well. Four matches suspensions for Momirovski and Stepanovski over a red card might seem fair in some cases, but rewinding and rewinding those fouls I really cannot see how the two of them have been suspended on 4 matches, while Kukaj from Milano who broke a leg to opposite team’s player got 6 matches suspensions. Plus, before Husein had been sacked – he has earned a one-month suspension. But, having in mind Pelister’s new president Krume Volnarov and his history with FFM – this things are not so surprisingly.
Only 1 win in 10 rounds is probably a result for around last place, but Sileks has at the same time lost only three times, so they are 8th placed at the moment. After a series of unsatisfactory result, they have changed their coach as well – as many teams did so far. With Ane Andovski in charge at the moment, they have improved slightly but it looks like they are heading into another season where their efficiency will be the main cause why SIleks is near the bottom.
Napredok had really bad start and for rather long time were rock-bottom but as season’s tempo was speeding up, they started producing better plays, especially at home, and have started climbing up the table. Together with Sileks, Turnovo Horizont and Metalurg a fierce battle will be led in order to avoid the last place which in this season is the only place that leads to relegation. Teams with similar quality, maybe their home matches will be the decisive point. However, i must note that improvement of play by Metalurg is surely a thing we must expect after hiring Gjore Jovanovski as coach and acquiring several proven players.
All in all, we’ve saw a third from the championship so far. We’ve saw excellent matches, we’ve saw excellent players, goals etc. At the same time, problems are once again all around us and there’s still room for lot of improvement to be done.
On the second page of this article, we’ve gathered some statistics for you and a short list of players that made the biggest impression so far.