“El Clasico” is known to every football fan in the world. Here on Sodor, there are big rivalries as well, and they tend to be intracity. Welcome to Knapford, where things will get nasty on Sunday (2/15). (Well, as nasty as things get on Isle. Might see a slide tackle or two attempted! Remember: hard defense is considered here to be more than uncouth.)
For this year, they’ve settled on calling this the Yards-Sheds Classic. Junction & Sheds have never been known as anything but. Knapford Town changed from Knapford Yards FC when the FA came into being a year ago, wanting to differentiate themselves from the more purely blue-collar branding of J&S.
Knapford Town have had the better of things in league this season, just moved into 2nd place, five behind surprising league leaders Dryaw FC. Junction & Sheds are in a tie for 8th. Getting more than a couple positions higher will be hard for them, as the top few have some space in the table between them and the pack now.
How do the teams play? Their League campaigns have pretty much reflected their FA Cup runs from this summer.
During the inaugural FA Cup of summer 2018, Knapford Town tended to win but lose close. They made the Round of 16 before falling in the penalty shootout to E.C.D. (East Coast Diesel) of Vicarstown.
Junction & Sheds (#1 supporter Alexi Lalas) advanced just as far. They suffered the same fate in losing to eventual champion Brendam Harbor, going down at the shootout. They scored tied for second in Group Stage scoring at 17 goals over the three matches, with just tiny shocker Cabalnoo getting more (18).
Win lose or draw, J&S work hard to score and that’s about it. (They conceded 14 in that Group Stage. No team plays the classic Sudric 5-5-good luck back there! formation quite as religiously as Sheds.
Their first meeting this year ended in a 5-5 draw. Rumor has it that J&S will pull the goalie at select times and play a 6-5-void formation. When it comes to offensive-mindedness, good luck outdoing the Sudrics generally. KTFC can keep up with a lot of teams in a game like that, but probably not against J&S and they know it. They’ll look to play things comparatively closer to the vest most of the match, then try running wild if it’s tied or close late.