Abergruama F.C.

Abergruama Football Club is an American Hattrick team previously located in Indiana (Sept. 2008-early 2010), previously known (Sept. 2008-Jan. 2009) as Slowdive FC.

The club is currently located in Missouri having been restarted in August of 2012.

Abergruama, Gaelic for 'mouth of the Dismal,' refers to a watershed in the Ozark Mountains of N.W. Arkansas near where the club's owner was raised. The club's stadium is named Gallchno, Gaelic for 'walnut,' in tribute to Walnut Creek into which Dismal Creek runs.

Abergruama is a participant in the USA Div VI Competitive Leagues initiative in which competition seeking managers throughout D VI join together in competitive series. A.F.C. has taken part in two competitive D6 series and finished 2nd or 1st in all completed seasons to this point. They are currently in USA Div VI.522 where they finished seasons 51 and 52 in 2nd place and captured the season 53 title.

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History

Season 36: The club came under control of its current owner near the end of the season. The side,under the name Slowdive FC, finished 2nd in VI.814.

Season 37: During season 37 the club established a training plan, earned 1st position in VI.814 and auto-promotion to V.217.

Season 38: The club changed its name to the current moniker and struggled against much stronger and more established sides in V.217. The season was not a success, resulting in only a single win and relegation back to VI.

Season 39: Finally, promising results from the training program began to appear as the club rebounded from an opening day loss at home to clinch the VI.309 title away at the league leaders, and opening day foe, Bothell Beer on the last day of the season. The end of season heroics against Bothell left little in the tank for Abergruama's promotion qualifier which they lost 2-1 to Duluth Raiders.

Season 40: Early runaway success in VI.309 was tempered by a competitive push from their divisional opponents Reign and Bothell Beer during the second half of the season. Abergruama eventually finished 1st and earned a qualifier against Irvington Bulldogs in which the club pulled out a 3-4 victory to win a promotion spot into V.127.

Season 41: Due to non-HT related responsibilities Abergruama began to decline in season 41. The club finished 7th in V.127 and was auto-demoted to VI.165. The club went ownerless and bot leading into season 42.

Season 49: Abergruama F.C. was resurrected near the end of season 49 when the club was re-founded in Missouri and began activity in VI.795 which they won (largely by default having been created in top spot with two weeks of the season remaining).

Season 50: Abergruama moved to VI.513 as part of the initiative to form competitive leagues in USA D VI. The club began a new training regimen and brought in several experienced players to form the backbone of the new side. The season was a relative success as A.F.C. finished 2nd in a competitive series.

Season 51: Abergruama continued their participation in the D6 Competitive Leagues initiative and moved to VI.522 alongside Statesboro FC and Boro Ham. VI.522 also included a full roster of competitive clubs including two clubs with previous D V experience. Despite the higher level of competition A.F.C. continued to develop successfully and was able to finish 2nd in the series 6 points behind the champion CUCCI and 5 points ahead of third place FC Shiloh. This was good enough to qualify for the D6CL Champions' League competition to be held during Season 52.

Season 52: Abergruama continued their success from the previous season and battled Pacquioa Pinoy Pride for the series title into the final month of the season. The final weeks turned sour as the club suffered a draw on the road against FC Shiloh and losses at home to PPP and on the road to Generic team that ended the title race. Abergruama finished in 2nd spot with a total of 31 points, 9 points behind PPP and 8 points ahead of 3rd place Generic. A.F.C. took part in the inaugural D6CL Champions League tournament which hosted the best clubs of the D6CL series in a 16 team tourney. Abergruama won their group on goal difference and proceeded to advance through the knock-out rounds with two exciting extra-time golden goal victories against Oakpool FC in the Quarterfinal, Massachusetts Massacre in the Semis and a nail-biting 2-1 win over Sandite F.C. in the final.

Season 53: The club finally broke the 2nd place curse and claimed a Div VI Competitive Leagues series title in VI.522. Abergruama topped the series table every week of the season, never dropping out of 1st place, and finished with 33 points, 2 points ahead of 2nd place Generic Team. A.F.C.'s title won them a qualifier match against Antioch Tigers of V.3. Antioch, in Div III as recently as season 49 and Div IV in season 52, proved a tad too much to handle on the road and Abergruama was sent packing after a hard fought 2-1 loss. Abergruama also competed in the second season of the D6CL Champions League where they were a bit of a disappointment and did not progress beyond the group stage.

Season 54: Abergruama finished the season in 4th place in VI.522 with 25 points and +11 GD, 10 goals behind 3rd place Boro Ham, 2 points behind 2nd place Shiloh and 5 points behind the series winner America BCN. Though a relatively poor finish compared to previous seasons, Abergruama was still competitive despite the growing age of their starting IMs and Defenders as well as the sale Edward MacPherson, a Scoring trainee since season 50 and the club's all time leading scorer. For the first time since season 51 the club advanced past the first round of the US Open Cup.

Season 55: In the US Open Cup Abergruama had their most successful campaign to date. They made the 3rd round of the Cup, bettering their progress to the 2nd round in seasons 50, 51 and 54. In the 3rd round they faced off against one time ML club Illuminati FC and lost a relatively tight match 0-2 in front of a record 34879 fans at Gallchno. The league season ended with Abergruama in 6th place on 14 points and -19 GD, 3 points and -16GD behind fifth place Roulado FC. This was the first season in which A.F.C. held a negative goal difference in league play in Div VI and the club's first finish outside of the top half of the table. These results were largely due to the club's lack of investment in new players as the midfield and defensive core of the lineup aged and slowed down. The club focused instead on training and promoted several YA players into the senior squad. Among these players were Scott Tonnozi and Justin Hawk, both of whom are likely to be long term players for the club. At the end of the season A.F.C. ended it's association with the D6CL program and moved into a bot infested series in order to gain automatic promotion to Div V in the coming season.

Season 56: The season opens with Abergruama one of two actively managed clubs in Div VI.165.

Honors

Champions VI.814 Season 37

Champions VI.309 Season 39

Champions VI.309 Season 40

Champions VI.795 Season 49

Champions VI.522 Season 53

D6CL Champions League Winners Season 52

Notable Players

Edward MacPherson: Edward was among the first trainees brought in when the club was refounded in season 49. Edward transferred to AFC during week 12 of that season and was transferred to Prostomol Uno, an Estonia Div III club, during week 12 of season 54.

Edward made his first competitive start for AFC in a 7-0 league victory in week 13 of season 49 (392087017). He scored his first competitive goal for the club the following week in a 4-0 road win (392087030). He scored two hat-tricks for AFC. The first in a home win against Violette AC in week 6 of season 53 (452366419) and the second in week 3 of season 54 when he scored AFC's only goals in a loss at FC Shiloh (467158370).

He holds the honors of having scored more competition goals (31) and league goals (29) as well as having played in more competition matches (56) and league matches (48) for A.F.C. than any other player up to his transfer.