[arkhangelsk]

Well, I'm just reading off the Wiki text.

翔の熱意もあってキッカーズは強豪・南陽SCと練習試合を行うことになり、ゴールキーパー・上杉光を擁する 南陽を相手に、後半だけなら1-0で勝つものの、試合自体は1-12の大差で敗れる。

Based on it, in the first match in the first year, Kickers got creamed by 南陽SC (since it has Uesugi in it, I think that's what became "Red Devils" in English) 1-12.

決勝の相手は初戦で西山SSSを下した南陽SCで、一進一退の攻防を続けるものの、2-3のスコアでキッカーズが敗れ、全国大会出場を逃す。

They lost 2-3 in the finals again.

本郷が卒業し、新キャプテンの健太の下で活動を始めた新生キッカーズ...決勝の相手は準決勝で南陽SCを 大差で下した西山SSSとなるが

The next year (since a senior person graduated), the finals was against a "西山SSS" (南陽SC apparently got rolled) and

西山が優勢に進めるが、後半に入って翔の得点でキッカーズが勝ち越し、全国大会出場を決めるの だった。

Kickers won and advanced to the nationals. So you are right Kickers never won directly against 南陽SC/Red Devils but it is one of those "indirect win" things where you beat the thing (like KMM) that beat your rival .

And no, as depicted in the later part of the series and the climactic match in the anime, Red Devils is not that far from Kickers' reach that it's impossible or unthinkable for them to win.

I believe that, but that's not the same thing I'm talking about. Ultimately, I can't comment on how close St G is to 南陽SC/Red Devils (b/c I hadn't read or watched it). But to recreate St G, RD would have won more like 5-4 in the first match and not shown to be too dangerous.

I do understand that it is possible to "focus on the Mc-team's growth", but IMO it is still harder to culminate right with a "losing ending" because when you lose, you have to work harder to define exactly what they did manage to accomplish. While with a win, what they accomplished is self-apparent.

Originally Posted by vic-vic

IIRC in Little Army 2 Oorai also got trounced by Continuation School

Yeah, apparently, Oarai had "mechanical trouble". From the flow of events, one cannot help but speculate that LA2 was meant to be 4 books long, was then chopped to three and thus both teams lost their matches so they can bump into one another quickly in a "revival match".

And Pravda could easilly crush Ooorai when they cornered them if Katyusha didn't catch Villain Ball with all this cease-fire deal

Oh, I don't disagree with that, but IMO Pravda is a bit far from our discussion at hand. This in essence is arguing at a technical level that Oarai can lose to any of the bigs, and I don't doubt that. However, today I'm looking more at "literary" matters.