NSA Triumphs Again with the Women's Title
21.5.08, 15:43 by Yordan Tsirov
The team of the National Sports Academy was crowned women's champion of Bulgaria for the fourth consecutive time without losing a single point in 18 matches in the process. Thus they qualified for the UEFA Women's Cup in August. LP Super sport (Sofia) and Bolyarki (Veliko Tarnovo) completed the top three. Up ahead in June lies the tournament for the Cup of Bulgaria, which is to be contested in Sliven.

The 2007/08 season championship was contested by 10 teams that formed a single group and met each other twice. Thus each team played 18 matches.

Familiar Faces on Top
The last matches of the season were played on the 17th and 18th of May at the NSA complex in Sofia. In the closing match the champions from NSA soundly defeated silver medalists LP Super sport 3:1. This was also NSA's least convincing win, with the girls scoring a whopping 119 goals, while conceding only two throughout the entire season. This is NSA's sixth title in total, but despite their current dominance on the domestic scene, the Sofia team is still lagging behind Grand Hotel (Varna), who established a 10-year long continuous hegemony on the top from 1994 to 2003.

Second place was also reserved by the same team for a fourth year in a row. LP Super sport ended the season with a comfortable lead ahead of the chasing pack, thus reestablishing themselves as one of the most stable teams in the championship. LP have one championship title and six second place finishes in the last seven seasons.

Trio Slugfest for the Bronze
The battle for third place turned out to be the most interesting part of the season. It was contested by three teams. Olimpia (Sofia) took an early lead during the fall part of the season, even challenging LP for second for a time. Poor spring showings for Olimpia however saw them ending only fifth. Bolyarki (Veliko Tarnovo) was the team to reach bronze in the end, just piping Grand Hotel to it by a single point. The Varna girls produced an exceptional spring part of the season, but a much more lackluster performance during the fall proved decisive in their battle for third.

The Great Divide
During the season, a noticeable gap between the top and bottom five teams was clearly outlined. Proof of this comes with the fact, that in all, the teams ranked 6th to 10th managed to take only two wins and two draws from the top teams. Botev (Plovdiv) were most successful in doing so, managing to beat Olimpia and draw with Grand Hotel.

In a Class of Their Own
And while NSA dominated on top, the bottom spot was also occupied with an unquestionable explicitness. The team of Silistra not only lost all its 18 games, but also managed to concede 168 goals, making for more than 9 goals on average per match. The girls from Silistra also were in danger of finishing without scoring a single goal; however they did manage to score on the penultimate day of the season in their penultimate match, thus making the 1:11 loss to LP somewhat of a historical one. Silistra were also on the wrong side of another season record – their 0:18 loss to Bolyarki was both the biggest margin of defeat and the highest scoring match. Three 0:6 losses were the best that Silistra could manage this season.

It Ain't Over 'Till It's Over
Though the championship is now over, the women's season is still not through. The teams will gather in Sliven from the 13th to the 15th of June, where they'll contest the Cup of Bulgaria.

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