Maro won Split 1 without dropping a series. He does not expect Split 2 to go the same way, and he says so before the question is finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cSplit two is a different league. Two legs, aggregate score, and everyone has watched every game I played.\u201d<\/p>\nMaro \u00b7 captain, EA FC<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The change in format is the one he talks about most: a home and away leg for every tie means a lead can be defended, and he has spent the summer learning to defend one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fewer hours<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
He plays fewer hours than he did two seasons ago \u2014 four a day in season, none on a Monday. \u201cThe sleep review told me what I already knew. I play better rested. Everyone does; not everyone believes it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The season opens on Tuesday against Northgate FC, the side that beat him in the last group match of Split 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The defending champion on the format change, the new club series and why he plays fewer hours than he used to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":29174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_spx_person_id":0,"_spx_fixture_id":0,"_spx_pick_id":0,"_spx_eg_facts_label":"","_spx_eg_facts":"","_spx_figure_caption":"","_spx_news_feat":"","_spx_video_url":"","_spx_duration":"","_spx_views":"","_spx_presenter":"","_spx_media_state":"","_spx_start_at":"","_spx_media_status":"","_spx_episode":"","_spx_subject":"","_spx_subject_role":"","_spx_story_year":"","_spx_duration_seconds":0,"_spx_view_count":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[166,223],"spx_comp":[],"spx_fixture_ref":[],"spx_series":[],"spx_format":[],"spx_video_kind":[],"spx_show":[],"spx_sport":[],"spx_flag":[],"class_list":["post-32219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ea-fc-26","tag-eleague","tag-maro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32219"},{"taxonomy":"spx_comp","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_comp?post=32219"},{"taxonomy":"spx_fixture_ref","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_fixture_ref?post=32219"},{"taxonomy":"spx_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_series?post=32219"},{"taxonomy":"spx_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_format?post=32219"},{"taxonomy":"spx_video_kind","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_video_kind?post=32219"},{"taxonomy":"spx_show","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_show?post=32219"},{"taxonomy":"spx_sport","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_sport?post=32219"},{"taxonomy":"spx_flag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/egaming\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_flag?post=32219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}