Dalbeider Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 200! * * * March 15th, 2014 Bayern FC München (1st) vs. TSV 1860 München (9th) (Bundesliga, 26/34) O hai Bayern, long time no see. Our neighbours had managed to catch up to Schalke and even to get a three point lead over them with a good winter season, although their form wasn't as perfect as that, with one loss three games before our meeting. Still, it would be almost impossible to get something out of this game, as almost always. *** FC BAYERN (4-4-2): Samir Handanovic (GK); Philipp Lahm (DR), Holger Badstuber (DL), Leonel Galeano (DCr), Álvaro Domínguez (DCl); Wilson Palacios (MR), Frank Ribéry (ML), Bastian Schweinsteiger (MCr), Toni Kroos (MCl); Mario Gómez (STr), Thomas Müller (STl) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Scott Sutter (DR), Sébastien Pocognoli (DL), Andriy Rusol (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Florin Lovin (DMC), Christian Demir (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Alessandro Rosina (MCl); Lucas Viatri (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl) *** With as few changes as possible from our winning eleven from last week, we faced against Bayern's very strong lineup, only missing Robben on the right wing. The game started slow, but got interesting really fast when Domínguez was sent off after fouling Viatri from behind, in a similar situation to Malonga's in Betao's red card from our previous game. Bayern kept their formation, only with three central defenders, and we started exploiting their weak flanks with focused attacks. They soon changed their minds, though, and brought Víctor Ruiz in Ribéry's place, switching to a weird-looking 5-2-2. Even then, it was Bayern who got the first chance of the game with a header by Badstuber that hit the root of the post before being cleared by our defense. But in the 25th we found a highway in the center of Bayern's defense, and after a quick combination between Moralez and Viatri the target man assisted Malonga, who beat Handanovic in the one-on-one and scored the 0-1. From then on we controlled possession of the ball, trying to find a gap to score the second. Moralez almost got there after a great elevated pass by Pocognoli, but miskicked his finish, sending the ball rolling across the byline, very far from the target. Bayern still had more than enough to see us off, though, and Palacios gave us a very nice reminder with a 30-yard piledriver that Bolat tipped over the bar. Bayern tried yet another formation, this time a narrow 4-3-2, but we still held on to our advantage until half time. HALF TIME - 0-1 Bayern wanted the draw, and they went for it from the start of the second half, with Müller getting an early shot parried by Bolat after a missed header by Béda. They were pouring forward, and we took the chance to hit on the counter through the left flank, although Malonga couldn't finish the job properly and Handanovic managed to stop his shot. Gómez wasted an even better chance for Bayern in the 55th, heading wide a fantastic cross by Lahm when he head the whole empty goal at his disposal. Kladrubsky and Uzoma replaced Lovin and Demir, both a bit unfit and in need of a rest. Viatri was next set up by Rosina inside the box, but he had to shoot with his left foot, and he couldn't find the target. Moralez was terribly unlucky not to score in the 63rd, when he sent a fantastic direct free kick into the underside of the bar, but the ball bounced just outside the goal line and was quickly cleared. Ludwig replaced Moralez with less than twenty minutes remaining, and we switched to a 4-5-1 to try and hold on to the result until the end. Bayern kept trying, and Robben sent into the second stand an attempt from twenty-five yards away. Much better was Müller's chance in the 88th minute, following a nice pass by Diego Renan, but Bolat palmed it away to keep us in the lead. Injury time came, went and the game ended, sealing our second victory in two games against Bayern in this season. *** Bayern FC München 0 (Álvaro Domínguez sent off 10) TSV 1860 München 1 (Dominique Malonga 25) --- That felt really, really good. A nice end to the winter season, with our best return in points since we promoted to the Bundesliga by far, despite some huge disappointments along the way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 [font=Courier New]========================= BUNDESLIGA AFTER 26 GAMES ========================= | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | FC Bayern | | 26 | 17 | 3 | 6 | 48 | 23 | +25 | 54 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Schalke | | 26 | 15 | 7 | 4 | 39 | 17 | +22 | 52 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Leverkusen | | 26 | 12 | 11 | 3 | 38 | 19 | +19 | 47 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Wolfsburg | | 26 | 15 | 1 | 10 | 39 | 27 | +12 | 46 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Hoffenheim | | 26 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 41 | 22 | +19 | 44 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Dortmund | | 26 | 13 | 5 | 8 | 40 | 27 | +13 | 44 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Köln | | 26 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 32 | 34 | -2 | 38 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [color=mediumturquoise][b]| 8th | | 1860 München | | 26 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 35 | 31 | +4 | 37 | [/b][/color] | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Hannover | | 26 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 34 | 32 | +2 | 35 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Gladbach | | 26 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 23 | 25 | -2 | 35 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Kaiserslautern | | 26 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 26 | 32 | -6 | 33 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Duisburg | | 26 | 8 | 7 | 11 | 22 | 37 | -15 | 31 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Freiburg | | 26 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 30 | 30 | 0 | 30 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Stuttgart | | 26 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 35 | 38 | -3 | 28 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Frankfurt | | 26 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 23 | 34 | -11 | 26 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Werder Bremen | | 26 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 18 | 38 | -20 | 22 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | HSV | | 26 | 5 | 6 | 15 | 23 | 45 | -22 | 21 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | Oberhausen | | 26 | 4 | 4 | 18 | 16 | 51 | -35 | 16 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|[/font] We survived the winter somehow, and we found ourselves in a quite decent position to tackle the final eight fixtures with something to aim for. Europe was seven points away and Hoffenheim and Dortmund were looking strong as of late. Not so much Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, though, and that could play in our favour. Depending on how the DFB Pokal went, the Europa League spots could go as far as the 6th place (in the case of a Schalke vs. Leverkusen final if both make the Champions League), so that was another bonus. Of course, the best way to get to Europe would be winning the cup, or simply reaching the final against Schalke. We had a real chance. As mentioned, Bayern had climbed over Schalke, which only managed eleven points out of twenty-seven possible in the winter. Hoffenheim and Dortmund were aiming for the 3rd place and getting very close to it, while the midtable pack awaited a slip of any of those two, plus Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, to climb into Europe. The bottom was interesting once again, with Oberhausen almost gone but with the other two places quite open. Werder's new manager would have to contend both with HSV trying to climb over them and with trying to catch up with Frankfurt and Stuttgart, avoiding the drop altogether. Duisburg, with only 5 points since the winter break, could find themselves in trouble, too. [font=Courier New]=========================== PLAYER STATS AFTER 26 GAMES =========================== [u]Average rating (min. 9 games played, league only)[/u] Mate Ghvinianidze [b]7.36[/b] ([i]17 apps[/i]) Dominique Malonga [b]7.22[/b] ([i]22[4] apps[/i]) Maximiliano Moralez [b]7.15[/b] ([i]19[2] apps[/i]) Dominic Maroh [b]7.15[/b] ([i]20 apps[/i]) Lucas Viatri [b]7.05[/b] ([i]20[2] apps[/i]) [u]Goals (league only)[/u] Dominique Malonga [b]18[/b] Lucas Viatri [b]3[/b] Mate Ghvinianidze [b]3[/b] Dominic Maroh [b]2[/b] Jiri Kladrubsky [b]2[/b] Alessandro Rosina [b]2[/b] [u]Assists (league only)[/u] Lucas Viatri [b]7[/b] Maximiliano Moralez [b]7[/b] Alessandro Rosina [b]4[/b] Dominique Malonga [b]3[/b] Tijani Belaïd [b]3[/b] [u]MoM Awards (league only)[/u] Dominique Malonga [b]4[/b] Mate Ghvinianidze [b]3[/b] Jiri Kladrubsky [b]2[/b] 6 other players [b]1[/b][/font] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted June 9, 2011 Author Share Posted June 9, 2011 March 18th, 2014 Bolat, Rusol, Béda and Viatri were selected in the Team of the Week. March 19th, 2014 Once again, no German teams in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Sigh. Dortmund and Hoffenheim could still make it in the Europa League, but both would have to overcome a bad result in the first leg. March 20th, 2014 Well, Dortmund managed it, winning on away goals against Monaco, but Hoffenheim fell 5-1 on aggregate against Sampdoria. Pretty poor showing again. Dortmund's qualification meant the postponement of our game with them, by the way, giving us some time to rest after the double meeting with Leverkusen that was about to come. March 22nd, 2014 TSV 1860 München (8th) vs. Bayer 04 Leverkusen (3rd) (Bundesliga, 27/34) Leverkusen's last two league games had been a draw (away to Stuttgart) and a defeat (at home against Freiburg!). That meant that their form wasn't exactly shining, specially considering the morale drop that losing in the second round of the Champions League against Barcelona on away goals could have meant. We had a chance to get a bit closer to them with a win, paving also the way for our upcoming cup meeting. *** 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Scott Sutter (DR), Sébastien Pocognoli (DL), Andriy Rusol (DCr), Mathieu Béda (DCl); Jiri Kladrubsky (DMC), Christian Demir (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Alessandro Rosina (MCl); Lucas Viatri (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl) LEVERKUSEN (4-2-3-1 narrow): René Adler (GK); Daniel Schwaab (DR), Michal Kadlec (DL), Stefan Reinartz (DCr), Fabrício (DCl); Denílson (MCr), Arturo Vidal (MCl); André Schurrle (AMCr), Semir Stilic (AMC), Eren Derdiyok (AMCl); Chinedu Obasi (ST) *** With Kladrubsky for Lovin being our only change, we tried to extend our run a bit further getting an early lead. Leverkusen had other plans, though, and Derdiyok got the first shot at goal with a very high and wide effort from outside the box. We struck right back with a quick combination between the two Argentinians, finished by the biggest of the two with a centered shot, easy for Adler. Obasi tried luck from the edge of the box after receiving from Derdiyok, but his finish was almost as bad as his companion's. Another chance fell to the Nigerian in a quick counterattack, but once again he wasted it with a wide finish thanks to the pressure from behind by our defenders. Next was Schürrle, following a good movement by Kadlec, but the ball ended nowhere near the target. Moralez was finding himself with lots of space between Leverkusen's defenders and midfielders, and made good use of it in the 25th, assisting Rosina with a nice through ball. Adler rushed out to deflect his shot, but Malonga half-volleyed the rebound into the net to give us the lead. Obasi wasn't having his best day, missing another clear-cut chance after breaking the offside trap by sending the ball terribly wide, even though he was unmarked and had managed to dribble past Bolat. A great cross from wing to wing by Sutter allowed Pocognoli to assist Malonga, but the forward couldn't find space to shoot, and he sent the ball clearly wide in the end. Another run through the middle followed with a subtle pass by Moralez set up the Frenchman for another chance, but this time Adler was his equal with a nice save, tipping the ball wide. Another wide finish by Malonga after the following corner kick was the last chance of a very tight first half. HALF TIME - 1-0 Two minutes into the second half Vidal remembered that no one had tried to hack anyone to pieces in that game, and resolved to fix that with a criminal two-footed tackle on Moralez. Red card and an early rest for the midfielder, leaving Leverkusen with ten men on the pitch. Viatri soon had the chance to seal the game following a great assist by Rosina, but Adler rushed out and saved, keeping his team alive for the moment. We missed that goal a lot in the 53rd, when Kadlec ran on the left flank, crossed towards the far post and found Obasi, who finally found the way to put the ball in to draw the game. Demir tried to regain our lead with a 25-yard effort, but he shot wide. He was soon replaced by Ibson, while Lovin replaced a somewhat apathic Kladrubsky. In the 64th we regained our lead in a corner kick, taken by Moralez and headed in by Rusol, who got his first goal of the season. Leverkusen almost struck right back, but Bolat performed some magic to keep out of the net a point-blank finish by Schürrle. It was time to kill the game before it got away again, and Viatri got really close after yet another defense-splitting pass by Moralez, but his great finish hit the crossbar and bounced on the ground a few inches outside the goal line. Ibson also received one of Moralez's passes inside the box, but his finish was much worse, high and wide. Adler stopped another great chance for Malonga in the 89th minute, yet again assisted by a fantastic Moralez. Thankfully, Leverkusen never gave us any trouble and we didn't have to complain about those missed chances. A solid win, and our climb upwards continued. *** TSV 1860 München 2 (Dominique Malonga 25, Andriy Rusol 64) Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1 (Chinedu Obasi 53, Arturo Vidal sent off 47) --- Yes, just what the doctor prescribed. We dominated the game against a very strong rival, and even managed to get one of their key players out of our cup meeting. Making the final wasn't just a dream anymore. We remained eighth, but our chasers dropped points and the fifth place was now Wolfsburg's, and only five points away. The third place, still Leverkusen's, was seven points away. Dream on... March 24th, 2014 Uzoma got a call-up with Nigeria, while I prepared for my first official match with Ivory Coast, a qualifying game for the African Cup against Zambia. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted June 14, 2011 Author Share Posted June 14, 2011 March 25th, 2014 Bayer 04 Leverkusen vs. TSV 1860 München (DFB Pokal semifinal) But first there was a somewhat important game with 1860 to take care off, right? Cup semifinal, coming right up! *** LEVERKUSEN (4-2-3-1 narrow): René Adler (GK); Daniel Schwaab (DR), Michal Kadlec (DL), Stefan Reinartz (DCr), Fabrício (DCl); Simon Rolfes (MCr), Néstor Ortigoza (MCl); Eren Derdiyok (AMCr), Semir Stilic (AMC), Frano Mlinar (AMCl); Hugo Rodallega (ST) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Scott Sutter (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Andriy Rusol (DCl); Jiri Kladrubsky (DMC), Ibson (MCr), Tijani Belaïd (MCc), Alessandro Rosina (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl) *** Despite the tiredness from the league game, we managed to keep most of our starters from our recent win against Leverkusen, minus the all-important Moralez, who waited on the bench. Leverkusen did the same, and key players like Derdiyok remained in the eleven. One of the new guys, Rolfes, got the first shot of the game in the very first minute, a high effort from distance. In the 7th minute Rafa Jordá started a counterattack before assisting the running Malonga, who tricked both defenders and goalkeeper by dropping towards the right wing before chipping the ball over all of them, scoring a fantastic goal to give us the lead. But after such a great start, Sutter gave us a reason to curse his name by picking two yellow cards in two minutes, plus the corresponding red card afterwards, leaving us with ten men in the 11th minute. Lovin replaced Jordá, and Kladrubsky dropped to the right back. Rolfes headed a free kick narrowly over almost immediately afterwards. We prepared for a long night of defending, and things were made a tiny bit harder in the 27th when Rosina had to leave the field injured. Uzoma replaced him. Leverkusen laid siege to our goal, but their attempts always ended being refused by the defense, a wide left-footed attempt by Ortigoza in the 37th being one of the few exceptions. Rolfes tried again from distance in the 42nd, and once again he failed to find the target. Somehow, we managed to hold on until the break. HALF TIME - 0-1 The story of our league game seemed to be repeating itself: in the 53rd minute a corner kick taken by Ortigoza was headed in by Rodallega, drawing the game. Then it got worse: a counterattack three minutes later allowed Derdiyok to win the fight for the ball against Ghvinianidze, advance into the box and shoot with power to make it 2-1, completing Leverkusen's comeback. A knock to Ibson completed the trio of bad news in the first fifteen minutes of the half, and Rolfes got close with a flat shot from outside the box that Bolat managed to hold with both hands. In the 66th, though, Rodallega headed with power a great cross from the left by Rajkovic to score the 3-1, almost sealing Leverkusen's place in the final for good. We moved to a offensive 4-4-1 with advanced wingers, bringing Moralez in Ibson's place and hoping for a miracle. Belaïd soon had a chance to shoot from a tight angle, making Adler's parry easy, and Bolat had to save another finish by Derdiyok on the counter right away to prevent the 4-1. Uzoma got really close with a low effort after a good pass by Moralez, but the ball went wide by inches. Rodallega had a turnaround shot stopped by Bolat in the 78th, and right afterwards Malonga hit the sidenetting after a good long pass by Uzoma. The back-and-forth continued until the end, but neither team scored, and the result stood. Our cup dream was over. *** Bayer 04 Leverkusen 3 (Hugo Rodallega 53 66, Eren Derdiyok 56) TSV 1860 München 1 (Dominique Malonga 7, Scott Sutter sent off 11) --- Damn you, Sutter. We could have won this easily if he hadn't been sent off so early and so stupidly. Still, this had its good side: Schalke defeated Köln in the other semifinal, and that meant that it was very likely that the Europa League spots would run down to the 6th place. That was good. The €1.789M we got for our participation in the semifinals was also good. Not as good was Rosina's injury, a fractured arm that would keep him out for 3-4 weeks. Moralez got selected in the Team of the Week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted June 16, 2011 Author Share Posted June 16, 2011 March 30th, 2014 Ivory Coast (36th) vs. Zambia (100th) (African Cup of Nations Qualifying, Group C, 3/6) My first official match as an international manager was a supposedly easy home tie against Zambia, which happened to be the toughest opposition in our qualifying group, the others being Liberia and Eritrea. Everyone expected a clear victory to make the top spot of the group ours for good. *** IVORY COAST (4-5-1): Stephan Loboué (GK); Emmanuel Eboué (DR), Siaka Tiéné (DL), Kolo Touré (DCr), Ali Soumahoro (DCl); Didier Zokora (DMC), Christian Romaric (MCr), Didier Konan (MCl), Salomon Kalou (AMR), Gervinho (AML); Didier Drogba (ST) ZAMBIA (4-4-2): Jacob Banda (GK); Kennedy Nketani (DR), Emmanuel Mbola (DL), Dennis Banda (DCr), Nyambe Mulenga (DCl); Fwayo Tembo (MR), William Njobvu (ML), Isaac Chansa (MCr), Stephen Kunda (MCl); Emmanuel Mayuka (STr), Jacob Mulenga (STl) *** A very old starting eleven, for sure, with only Soumahoro bringing some young blood to an aging Ivorian team. We were old, but good enough to destroy Zambia any day of the week, and Gervinho gave the first warning shot with a high shot only thirty seconds after the kick off. Zambia held us out well at first, and our next chance didn't come until the 13th, following a good pass by Konan towards Drogba, who ran into space before shooting narrowly wide. Another shot by Gervinho, assisted by Kalou, was held by the goalkeeper without any kind of trouble, and his third attempt, this time after a great ball from Drogba, went wide licking the outside of the left post. Kalou followed up with another weak shot, easy for Banda to gather. Our aim wasn't improving, and even Drogba kept missing chances with wide finishes. Our domination wavered a bit after the half hour, and Zambia even got a good chance in the head of Jacob Mulenga, who nodded over the bar a good cross from the left. In the 42nd another chance fell to Drobga, who shot with his usual power but found Banda's gloves in the way. Two minutes later the goalkeeper saved again, this time after a good movement through the middle finished by Gervinho. A wide shot by Jacob Mulenga was the last chance of a goalless first half. HALF TIME - 0-0 Gilles Yapi Yapo replaced Romaric at half time, trying to give us more creativity. The second half started with a piledriver by Konan that Banda managed to push wide with a good save. The Zambian goalkeeper kept performing miracles in the 57th, saving a point-blank header by Tiené that should have been a goal. Zambia kept giving us a scare from time to time, Mayuka trying luck from distance in the 61st and giving Loboué some work. Finally, in the 63rd, Konan found the way with another piledriver which, for once, Banda couldn't reach, and the midfielder scored the 1-0 to calm the somewhat restless home fans. Arouna Koné and Kader Keita came into the game after the goal, replacing Drogba and Kalou. Koné started his game with a great assist towards Gervinho, who saw his shot stopped once again by Banda. The goalkeeper took the spotlight again one minute later, saving a downwards header by Touré in a corner kick. More chances followed, first with a wide finish by Koné, then with a header by the same striker after a cross by Keita that Banda saved easily, and later with another good shot by Konan that the goalkeeper held well after a nice dive. Finally, in the last minute of the game, a clearance by Touré turned into an assist when Koné outran the Zambian defenders and placed his finish into the net for the final 2-0. Easy victory, as expected. *** Ivory Coast 2 (Didier Konan 63, Arouna Koné 90) Zambia 0 --- Easy peasy. We were five points clear at the top with three games remaining, so another win in the return leg could seal things for good. The only bad thing was that we needed twenty-six shots at goal to score only two goals, but eh. March 31st, 2014 The second round of contract negotiations was much easier than the first, and Rusol, Rafa Jordá and Lovin, who had done well in his stint replacing Battaglia as our defensive midfielder and earned a new deal in the process, signed two-year extensions with marginal wage increases or, in Lovin's case, decreases. April 1st, 2014 Talking about Lovin, he got second in the Goal of the Month award. It was the first time one of our players ever got mentioned in that award. I guess we were more used to easy finishes from close after great passes than to long distance piledrivers like Lovin's, and those are the ones who always seem to steal the spotlight in these kind of awards. April 2nd, 2014 Lovin celebrated his new deal injuring Sutter in training. Thankfully it was nothing serious, just a stubbed toe that would keep him out for 5-6 days. Since Sutter was already suspended for our next match, nothing was lost. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 Welp, this one's back, too. Time to get it rolling again! * * * April 5th, 2014 TSV 1860 München (8th) vs. VfL Wolfsburg (4th) (Bundesliga, 28/34) Target acquired! Wolfsburg were a team we had to get a result against if we were to climb up to their level on the table, and that happened to be exactly our goal. Their form had improved as of late after a rough winter, winning four of their last five, but sending offs aside, we were confident in our chances. *** 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Sébastien Pocognoli (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Dominic Maroh (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Tijani Belaïd (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Christian Demir (MCl); Lucas Viatri (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl) WOLFSBURG (4-2-3-1): Diego Benaglio (GK); Sascha Reither (DR), Fabian Johnson (DL), Emmanuel Velázquez (DCr), Simon Kjær (DCl); Ander (MCr), Didier Digard (MCl); Ashkan Dejagah (AMR), Valentin Stocker (AML), Diego (AMC); Patrick Helmes (ST) *** Battaglia and Maroh returned to the team after their suspensions. Wolfsburg went on the offensive from the start, and only 23 seconds into the game Bolat already had to tip a dangerous finish by Helmes wide for a corner kick. Our answer two minutes later was a direct free kick well taken by Moralez and even better saved by Benaglio. The game was looking interesting from the start, and another counterattack for Wolfsburg ended in another good shot by Helmes and another great save by Bolat, which Diego followed up with a weak finish that the goalkeeper held with no problems. After a brief pause, Kladrubsky crossed from the right wing for Demir to head over the bar in the 16th minute. Another header on the other goal, this time by Helmes, flew over Bolat's attempt at a save before hitting the post. In the 25th Viatri received from Moralez near the edge of the box and rifled a low, well placed shot into the back of the net to give us the lead. Ander almost struck right back for Wolfsburg, but he blasted a shot from a very good position into the third stand of the Allianz. Wolfsburg poured forward, and in the 40th Helmes showed why he was one of the best strikers in the league with an unstoppable low effort from the edge of the area, beating Bolat to draw the game. But only two minutes later Moralez controlled the ball, ran through the middle and sent a delicious through ball towards Belaïd, who cut into the box from the right wing and blasted the ball past Benaglio to restore our lead. A wide long distance attempt by Riether was the last interesting thing to happen in a very lively first half. HALF TIME - 2-1 Wolfsburg went on the attack from the beginning of the second half, but this time we managed to contain them well, and in fact the first shot at goal was ours, a narrowly high power shot by Demir in the 58th minute. Helmes had the answer for the visitors in the 61st with another powerful finish, well parried by Bolat. Our two goalscores were replaced a bit later by Rafa Jordá and Ibson, while Rusol replaced a somewhat battered Ghvinianidze. Digard blasted a ball cleared by Kladrubsky over the bar just before the substitutions took place. In the 71st a great combination between Malonga and Moralez ended with Ibson hitting the crossbar from inside the box, but with Benaglio on the floor looking for the ball, Rafa Jordá managed to outjump Kjær and head the ball into the empty net, grabbing his first goal of the season and the 3-1. Helmes could have brought Wolfsburg back into the game four minutes later, but Bolat proved his worth once again with a fantastic save in the one on one with the striker. That was the last try by the visitors, since we kept the game under tight control for the last fifteen minutes, conceding no chances and securing a great win. *** TSV 1860 München 3 (Lucas Viatri 25, Tijani Belaïd 42, Rafa Jordá 71) VfL Wolfsburg 1 (Patrick Helmes 40) --- Tremendously important win, which brought us one step closer to the European places. The table was a bit of a mess at the moment, with us and Dortmund having a game in hand which would probably decide many things. April 8th, 2014 Bolat and Moralez made the Team of the Week. April 9th, 2014 Interesting draw for us Spaniards in the Champions League semifinals: Barça-Real Madrid and At. Madrid-Juventus. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted September 18, 2011 Author Share Posted September 18, 2011 April 13th, 2014 Rot-Weiß Oberhausen (18th) vs. TSV 1860 München (7th) (Bundesliga, 29/34) Careful. Oberhausen were dead last and looking quite unlikely to save themselves from relegation, but they were in that same exact position when they visited the Allianz-Arena half a year before, and we all know how that ended (hint for those who don't: not well). We'd have to keep that in mind if we wanted a win, while at the same time saving energies for a tremendously important mid-week meeting with Dortmund. *** OBERHAUSEN (4-4-2): Stephan Loboué (GK); Flavio Pará (DR), Dedé (DL), Benjamin Reichert (DCr), Thomas Schlieter (DCl); Bernd Nehrig (MR), Heinrich Schmidtgal (ML), Hayri Pinarci (MCr), Besart Ibraimi (MCl); Ronny König (STr), Denis Alibec (STl) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Scott Sutter (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Dominic Maroh (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Tijani Belaïd (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Ibson (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl) *** Some rotation in our starting eleven to keep a few legs fresh for the Dortmund game, with Jordá, Ibson, Sutter and Faye returning to the lineup. We got to work quickly, and in the very first minute Moralez claimed for a penalty kick after a challenge by Schlieter that looked like a foul to me. Two minutes later Pinarci got the first shot at goal, from afar and wide. The game dried up very quickly, though, and many minutes passed without any chances appearing, despite Oberhausen's almost complete domination of the midfield. Ibraimi finally had the chance to shoot from thee edge of the box in the 28th, but blasted it into outer space. In the 37th Alibec managed to steal the ball from a half-asleep Maroh and shoot with power into the back of the net to give Oberhausen the lead. We had no answer, and Oberhausen kept attacking, with Nehrig shooting over the bar in the 43rd. That was all in a terrible first forty-five minutes. HALF TIME - 1-0 The players clearly deserved and needed a scolding, and they got it. They started the second half in another frame of mind, with Belaïd assisting Malonga in the first minute for the striker to shoot into Loboué's save. A narrowly high header by Ghvinianidze followed, and it looked like we could have a way back into the game if we scored quickly. We kept trying, with Moralez once again pulling the strings and sending good passes towards his companions, like the one that Belaïd turned into a centered finish straight at Loboué's hands. Oberhausen strill gave us a scare in the 55th when Ibraimi almost headed in a corner kick, but in the end the ball went over. In the 58th we got a cold shower when Reichert headed in a free kick crossed into the box by Dedé, doubling Oberhausen's lead. Demir, Ludwig and Viatri immediately entered the game, replacing Ibson, Belaïd and Rafa Jordá. Our answer was almost immediate, and in the 64th Malonga crossed from the left, Viatri headed into the crossbar and Ludwig pounced on the rebound to score the 2-1. We poured forward without any kind of care, and that allowed Nehrig a great chance in the 73rd that Bolat aborted with a fantastic block. The last ten minutes were a nervous affair, with both teams trading blows and with Milotic and Maroh heading two corner kicks very narrowly over. Another corner kick was better headed by Ghvinianidze two minutes before the end, but Loboué went down to save superbly. In injury time we had the perfect chance to get the draw after a great counterattack through the middle, but Ludwig misskicked his finish and sent it wide. We didn't get another. *** Rot-Weiß Oberhausen 2 (Denis Alibec 37, Benjamin Riechert 58) TSV 1860 München 1 (Alexander Ludwig 64) --- God damn it already. The first half was the worst thing we had played in my four years in München, plain and simple. And we had to do it AGAIN against the last-placed, almost relegated team. And throwing away most of our European hopes in the process. Fantastic. Simply fantastic. The referee didn't exactly help, either. My raging words about that not-penalty on Moralez in the first minute weren't even heeded by the FA. April 15th, 2014 And we were in takeover talks again, with the same protagonists. Third time's the charm? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 April 16th, 2014 Borussia Dortmund (4th) vs. TSV 1860 München (7th) (Bundesliga, 30/34) Our game in hand, and what a game it was. Dortmund were the most in-form team in the Bundesliga by far, having chained nine league wins in a row, and being the only German team to reach the quarterfinals in an European competition (kicked out by Rubin Kazan, by the way). Their climb had led them to the 4th place, and more interestingly, very close to the title battle, being only three points behind co-leaders Schalke and Bayern. A very, very difficult game, but one we had to get something from. *** DORTMUND (4-4-2 diamond): Roman Weidenfeller (GK); Vasyl Kobin (DR), Marcel Schmelzer (DL), Felipe Santana (DCr), Neven Subotic (DCl); Nuri Sahin (DMC), Sidney Sam (MR), Kevin Großkreutz (ML), Shinji Kagawa (AMC); Yoan Gouffran (STr), Lucas Barrios (STl) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Sébastien Pocognoli (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Andriy Rusol (DCl); Florin Lovin (DMC), Eke Uzoma (MCr), Tijani Belaïd (MCc), Christian Demir (MCl); Lucas Viatri (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl) *** Rain poured down on the almost waterlogged pitch as the game started, but we found our feet rather quickly, with Viatri firing from the edge of the box only eighteen seconds into the game and making Weidenfeller dive into the water to save. Kagawa had Dortmund's answer two minutes later with a high curving shot from outside the box. Dortmund soon started having most of the possession of the ball, although we kept them at bay for the next ten minutes, limiting them to a single long distance by Sam, which went clearly wide. An injury to Lucas Barrios removed Dortmund's main goalscoring threat from the pitch in the 18th minute, but a clear-as-water penalty by Belaïd on Kagawa a mere minute later gave Nuri Sahin the chance to score from the spot. Thankfully, he hit the root of the post instead. We kept defending, Dortmund kept attacking, and Gouffran was the next one to try luck from afar, shooting wide like the others before him. The best chance for the home team came in the 28th, a narrowly high header by Großkreutz after a great cross from the left by Schmelzer. We didn't have much of the ball, but we still managed to get a corner kick in the 32nd, and when trying to head it in, Rusol was brought down by Schmelzer: penalty kick. Kladrubsky took the responsability once again, and once again he scored, giving us a thoroughly undeserved lead. Surprisingly, that's when we really started playing well, and soon Demir had a great chance on the counter that Weidenfeller tipped wide for a corner kick. But in the 44th, when we looked likely to keep our lead until the end of the half, a lack of understanding between Ghvinianidze and Bolat allowed Gouffran to steal the loose ball, dribble past the dumbfounded keeper and pass the ball into the empty net to pull Dortmund level. Despite that, we couldn't complain too much about the result at half time. HALF TIME - 1-1 Bolat made up for his previous mistake with a great save in the first minute of the second half, denying Sam a great goal after the winger dribbled all the way into the box. In any case, the second half started much more even than the first, and we also had our share of the ball, although we struggled to create anything worthwile with it. Time passed without changes, and we introduced some new faces into the fray: Moralez, Ludwig and Lauth replaced Belaïd, Demir and Malonga. Finally, a shot on target, a 30-yard effort by Großkreutz that Bolat saved without any kind of difficulty. In the 74th Kagawa broke through and tried a chip over an advanced Bolat, but the ball went wide and the chance was wasted. Another chance fell to Bruno Meneghel three minutes later following a great movement and pass by Großkreutz, but the small forward also shot wide. In one of our rare attacks, the veterans of the squad connected to revive old times: Ludwig sent a great through ball towards Lauth, who calmly turned around inside the box and placed the ball past Weidenfeller to score the 1-2 seven minutes before full time. But it was not to be: Dortmund went forward with everything and found their prize one minute before the end, when a run and cross by Bruno Meneghel was finished by Gueye with an unstoppable header, drawing the game again. Injury time brought no changes, and both teams split the points. *** Borussia Dortmund 2 (Yoan Gouffran 44, Magaye Gueye 89) TSV 1860 München 2 (Jiri Kladrubsky pen 33, Benjamin Lauth 83) --- It's funny how both of Dortmund's goals came one minute before the end of each half. Anyway, one point was probably more than we deserved in this game, three would have been a complete steal. Not a bad result, but Europe stood at least five points away with only twelve left to play. Difficult task ahead. [font=courier new] | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Leverkusen | | 30 | 15 | 11 | 4 | 44 | 22 | +22 | 56 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Schalke | | 30 | 16 | 8 | 6 | 41 | 21 | +20 | 56 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | FC Bayern | | 30 | 17 | 4 | 9 | 49 | 29 | +20 | 55 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Dortmund | | 30 | 16 | 6 | 8 | 47 | 30 | +17 | 54 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Wolfsburg | | 30 | 17 | 1 | 12 | 48 | 32 | +16 | 52 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Hoffenheim | | 30 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 45 | 28 | +17 | 49 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [color=#40e0d0][b]| 7th | | 1860 München | | 30 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 43 | 37 | +6 | 44 | [/b][/color] | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Gladbach | | 30 | 10 | 12 | 8 | 29 | 31 | -2 | 42 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Hannover | | 30 | 10 | 11 | 9 | 41 | 38 | +3 | 41 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Köln | | 30 | 11 | 8 | 11 | 35 | 42 | -7 | 41 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [/font] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted September 26, 2011 Author Share Posted September 26, 2011 April 19th, 2014 TSV 1860 München (7th) vs. Werder Bremen (17th) (Bundesliga, 31/34) Poor Werder. Tuchel hadn't brought any answers to our favourite rival, and they sat three points behind the relegation playoff position, and six points away from salvation. They hadn't won in a long while, and looked almost ready to drop to the 2.Bundesliga for the first time since 1980. A win was a must for both teams, but we looked much more likely to get it. *** 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Scott Sutter (DR), Ibrahima Faye (DL), Dominic Maroh (DCr), Andriy Rusol (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Ibson (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Christian Demir (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl) WERDER BREMEN (4-4-2): Tim Wiese (GK); Sime Vrsaljko (DR), Petri Pasanen (DL), Naldo (DCr), Leonardo Sigali (DCl); Wesley (MR), Michal Janota (ML), Alexey Yepifanov (MCr), Diego Souza (MCl); Goran Vujovic (STr), Taufic Guarch (STl) *** We had two important absences in Ghvinianidze and Viatri, both suspended. Werder surprised us taking the initiative from the start, and Vujovic had the first shot at goal with a high attempt from distance in the third minute of the game. We improved slowly, taking the ball away from the visitors little by little and starting to build our attacks with patience. It took us twenty-one minutes, but finally Malonga managed to test Wiese's reflexes with a powerful shot that the goalkeeper palmed towards Demir, who sent the rebound over the bar. Not much more happened until Yepifanov shot wide in the 30th after a nice dribble through the center of our defense. An injury to Sutter ten minutes later forced us into a substitution, bringing Kladrubsky in his place. Bolat caught a dangerous free kick by Yepifanov one minute later, and in the 45th we finally tore down the defensive wall of the visitors in one of our favourite ways: pass into space through the center by Moralez, powerful finish by Malonga. That was all in a pretty poor first half. HALF TIME - 1-0 Werder now had even more reasons to attack, and Guarch was the first to try luck in the second half with a centered but powerful shot that Bolat saved effortlessly. We slowed the game down just enough to quench their fire, and in the 56th we went for the kill: Ibson sent a great low cross from the right towards the heart of the box, and Malonga volleyed it into the back of the net to score the 2-0. A third great pass from a third different midfielder, Demir, almost turned into a third goal for Malonga, but he found himself short on space and Wiese parried his shot with ease. Belaïd and Pocognoli replaced the exhausted Moralez and Faye. Malonga tried to turn into a goal provider with an intelligent back pass towards Pocognoli, who shot with power from the edge of the box and smashed the ball against the crossbar and over. Werder did very little in the second half, but still had a great chance to pull one goal back in the 86th when Guarch ran ahead of the defense only to shoot over. A last minute injury to Ibson overshadowed an easy win for us, which brought us a bit closer to our objectives. *** TSV 1860 München 2 (Dominique Malonga 45 56) Werder Bremen 0 --- Good enough. Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg drew their games, and that put us only three points behind the 6th place, and six behind the 5th. Dortmund climbed up to the 3rd place ahead of Bayern, and tied on points with both Leverkusen and Schalke. The Bundesliga title hadn't been this wide open with so little left to play in a long while. Sutter wouldn't play again this season after tearing his knee ligaments. That injury required a recovery period of at least 8 weeks, and at most two full months. [font=courier new]| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Leverkusen | | 31 | 15 | 12 | 4 | 45 | 23 | +22 | 57 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Schalke | | 31 | 16 | 9 | 6 | 42 | 22 | +20 | 57 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Dortmund | | 31 | 17 | 6 | 8 | 50 | 31 | +19 | 57 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | FC Bayern | | 31 | 17 | 5 | 9 | 49 | 29 | +20 | 56 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Wolfsburg | | 31 | 17 | 2 | 12 | 49 | 33 | +16 | 53 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Hoffenheim | | 31 | 13 | 11 | 7 | 46 | 29 | +17 | 50 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [color=#40e0d0][b]| 7th | | 1860 München | | 31 | 13 | 8 | 10 | 45 | 37 | +8 | 47 |[/b][/color] | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Hannover | | 31 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 43 | 39 | +4 | 44 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Gladbach | | 31 | 10 | 13 | 8 | 30 | 32 | -2 | 43 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Köln | | 31 | 11 | 9 | 11 | 36 | 43 | -7 | 42 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [/font] April 22nd, 2014 Malonga was selected in the Team of the Week. 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Elrithral Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 Dal, you remain the best reason to be a part of FMS. Cacthing up on your stories throughout the day and it's been an absolute pleasure. Good luck mate and keep up the excellent work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted September 28, 2011 Author Share Posted September 28, 2011 See that big, fat, round thing flying high overhead? That's not an OVNI, that's my ego. If someone would be kind enough to catch it and send it back I'd be eternally grateful. Thanks a lot, El. You really know how to make a man feel loved <3. * * * April 26th, 2014 Hamburger SV (16th) vs. TSV 1860 München (7th) (Bundesliga, 32/34) Another team that needed a win urgently, although their situation wasn't as desperate as Werder's. In fact, HSV had managed to climb out of the relegation zone thanks to a recent burst of good form, and now were looking at escaping from the relegation battle altogether, bringing Frankfurt, Freiburg or Duisburg down in their place. Probably the toughest game we had to face in the three final fixtures of the season. *** HSV (4-5-1): Jaroslav Drobný (GK); Pablo Pintos (DR), Héctor Moreno (DL), Joris Mathijsen (DCr), Heiko Westermann (DCl); Savvas Gentsoglou (DMC), Gojko Kacar (MCr), Tiberio Guarente (MCl), Johan Vonlanthen (AMR), Marcell Jansen (AML); José Paolo Guerrero (ST) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Jiri Kladrubsky (DR), Sébastien Pocognoli (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Andriy Rusol (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Christian Demir (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Alessandro Rosina (MCl); Lucas Viatri (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl) *** More suspensions, this time for Maroh and Ibson after their fifth yellow cards. Rosina returned to the lineup after his injury to compensate. We started well, holding the ball and trying to attack, but HSV's first counterattack brought the first goal of the game when Jansen broke through the left flank, entered the box and placed a crossed shot into the back of the net in the 3rd minute of the game. Five minutes later it got worse: Westermann took a free kick and crossed into the box, where Guerrero outjumped Rusol to head it in and double HSV's lead. We didn't look like waking up, and Jansen had another chance in the 22nd, but his shot was weak and easy for Bolat. Of course, when we finally decided to attack, we did it well: Moralez profited from a missed header by Mathijsen to run along the right edge of the box and cross low towards the far post, where Malonga calmly placed the ball in to score the 2-1 in the 27th. HSV's answer was a powerful but wide shot from the edge of the box by Kacar two minutes later. In the 32nd Malonga and Moralez inverted their roles, with the forward assisting and the midfielder finishing, with predictable results: ball wide. A good recovery by Rosina allowed us to counterattack in the 42nd, with Moralez finishing the job with a narrowly high finish. That was all for the first half, and despite trailing, we looked capable of turning the game around. HALF TIME - 2-1 Moralez started the second half with a weak free kick that Drobný saved without problems. HSV answered with a dangerous counterattack by Pintos finished by Guerrero with a good finish that went into the sidenetting, but pretty close to the post. We weren't breaking through, and the news from the other stadiums weren't good, so we went all in with three substitutions: Ludwig, Belaïd and Lauth replaced Demir, Rosina and Viatri. The immediate results weren't good, and Westermann could have sealed the game in a corner kick in the 68th, if it wasn't for Bolat's fantastic fingertip save. A cross by Jansen was headed wide by Vonlanthen four minutes later, while we looked unable to create any kind of danger to Drobný's goal. Finally Malonga had the chance to turn around and shoot inside the box after receiving from Kladrubsky, but the ball whistled past the crossbar, a few inches over. We went forward with everything we had, but no other chances appeared, and we stumbled to a defeat that brought and end to our European aspirations. *** Hamburger SV 2 (Marcell Jansen 3, José Paolo Guerrero 8) TSV 1860 München 1 (Dominique Malonga 27) --- Yep, goodbye Europe. And we threw it away in those terrible first ten minutes, otherwise the game would have been pretty much in the air. Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg won, and now we were almost physically incapable of catching up with the 6th place, and the 5th was mathematically impossible. We had to hope for two defeats in a row for Hoffenheim, two wins in a row for us, and to recover eleven goals in our goal difference. Too much to ask. [font=courier new] | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | EC | Leverkusen | | 32 | 16 | 12 | 4 | 47 | 24 | +23 | 60 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | EC | Schalke | | 32 | 17 | 9 | 6 | 46 | 24 | +22 | 60 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | EC | Dortmund | | 32 | 18 | 6 | 8 | 52 | 32 | +20 | 60 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | FC Bayern | | 32 | 18 | 5 | 9 | 53 | 29 | +24 | 59 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Wolfsburg | | 32 | 18 | 2 | 12 | 52 | 34 | +18 | 56 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Hoffenheim | | 32 | 14 | 11 | 7 | 47 | 29 | +18 | 53 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [color=#40e0d0][b]| 7th | | 1860 München | | 32 | 13 | 8 | 11 | 46 | 39 | +7 | 47 | [/b][/color] | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Hannover | | 32 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 43 | 43 | 0 | 44 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Gladbach | | 32 | 10 | 13 | 9 | 31 | 34 | -3 | 43 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Köln | | 32 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 38 | 45 | -7 | 43 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [/font] April 27th, 2014 Oberhausen were the first team to relegate to the 2.Bundesliga. Werder could follow suit shortly unless they performed a real miracle in the last two weeks of the competition. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted October 3, 2011 Author Share Posted October 3, 2011 May 3rd, 2014 TSV 1860 München (7th) vs. VfB Stuttgart (11th) (Bundesliga, 33/34) Not much to play for left, except waiting for an impossible miracle and trying to at least secure the 7th place. Stuttgart had been playing fine lately, but came to the Allianz after a 0-2 defeat against Freiburg, meaning they were vulnerable. *** 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Ronny Scholz (DR), Sébastien Pocognoli (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Dominic Maroh (DCl); Jiri Kladrubsky (DMC), Ibson (MCr), Maximiliano Moralez (MCc), Alessandro Rosina (MCl); Lucas Viatri (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl) STUTTGART (4-2-3-1): Sven Ulreich (GK); Christian Träsch (DR), Cristian Molinaro (DL), Bongani Khumalo (DCr), Yaroslav Rakitskyi (DCl); Baris Özbek (MCr), Christian Gentner (MCl); Eduardo Salvio (AMR), Lukas Schmitz (AML), Patricio Toranzo (AMC); Jael (ST) *** We took the chance to give Scholz some minutes in the first team, playing on the right back and moving Kladrubsky to his preferred position as defensive midfielder. Stuttgart dominated the early game, but we managed to hold them at bay for ten minutes before we started to hold the ball closer to our feet. The first chance fell to the visitors in any case, a daring attempt from a very tight angle by Toranzo that flew over the bar, though only just. It took us until the 25th to build our first decent-looking attack, and it came through Rosina's pass towards space that Malonga received and smashed against the post. The game was slow and the chances few. The next one was for Gentner with a very wide shot from distance in the 35th minute. Ghvinianidze got close with a narrowly high header in a corner kick three minutes later, and Jael struck right back with a shot from the left side of the box into the sidenetting. In the 43rd Malonga broke through the left after a long pass by Pocognoli, entered the box and tried to cross, but the ball hit a defender and fell limp in the middle of the box. Ibson appeared out of nowhere and hit it on the run to score the 1-0. Stuttgart had just enough time for Jael to head a corner kick over the bar before the first half ended. HALF TIME - 1-0 The visitors wanted to draw the game as quickly as possible, and Salvio got a real chance in the first seconds of the second half after an incredible show of skill and dribbling through the middle, but he couldn't find the target with his finish afterwards. Stancu followed up with a narrowly wide header after a cross by Molinaro. We finally got our chances in the 55th, first with Malonga dribbling into the box and having his shot stopped by Ulreich, then with Moralez coming in from the right and shooting over. Moralez assisted Malonga one minute later for what looked like an easy finish, but the Frenchman could only hit the side of the net instead of scoring. Faye had a chance to say goodbye to the fans as he replaced Pocognoli, while Belaïd and Rafa Jordá came in Ibson's and Viatri's places. In the 62nd Malonga left Khumalo for dead with a nice feint and ran into the box only to shoot over. But seven minutes later Stuttgart got the draw when Stancu headed in a great cross from the left by Neyra. Malonga had a chance to restore our lead in the 83rd after a good nod by Jordá, but once against blasted it over the bar. Two minutes later the French forward ran on the counterattack down the left flank and crossed towards Rafa Jordá, who headed it into Ulreich's miraculous save before pouncing on the rebound and scoring the 2-1 on his second attempt. In the 88th Moralez had to leave the field injured after a harsh challenge by Gentner, and two minutes into injury time Stancu ran on the break through the middle, got his finish parried by Bolat and the rebound fell to Baris Özbek, who passed into the back of the net without opposition to draw the game at its very last breath. *** TSV 1860 München 2 (Ibson 43, Rafa Jordá 85) VfB Stuttgart 2 (Bogdan Stancu 69, Baris Özbek 90+2) --- Bad luck with that draw, but in any case the point was enough to secure our 7th place as final, making our last fixture mostly meaningless. Werder's defeat brought with it their first relegation in thirty-four years, and the title battle was still wide open and the Bundesliga still had four possible champions with only one game left to play. Moralez's injury was just a dead leg, out for 2-3 days and back into training. [font=courier new] | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | EC | Leverkusen | | 33 | 17 | 12 | 4 | 48 | 24 | +24 | 63 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | EC | Schalke | | 33 | 18 | 9 | 6 | 49 | 26 | +23 | 63 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | EC | Dortmund | | 33 | 19 | 6 | 8 | 53 | 32 | +21 | 63 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | EC | FC Bayern | | 33 | 19 | 5 | 9 | 55 | 29 | +26 | 62 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | EC | Wolfsburg | | 33 | 19 | 2 | 12 | 53 | 34 | +19 | 59 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Hoffenheim | | 33 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 48 | 31 | +17 | 53 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [color=#40e0d0][b]| 7th | | 1860 München | | 33 | 13 | 9 | 11 | 48 | 41 | +7 | 48 | [/b][/color] | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Hannover | | 33 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 43 | 44 | -1 | 44 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Gladbach | | 33 | 10 | 13 | 10 | 31 | 35 | -4 | 43 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Köln | | 33 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 38 | 46 | -8 | 43 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Stuttgart | | 33 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 47 | 46 | +1 | 40 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Freiburg | | 33 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 38 | 41 | -3 | 38 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Kaiserslautern | | 33 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 32 | 40 | -8 | 38 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | HSV | | 33 | 10 | 7 | 16 | 32 | 49 | -17 | 37 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Frankfurt | | 33 | 8 | 10 | 15 | 33 | 45 | -12 | 34 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Duisburg | | 33 | 8 | 9 | 16 | 27 | 48 | -21 | 33 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | R | Werder Bremen | | 33 | 5 | 11 | 17 | 27 | 51 | -24 | 26 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | R | Oberhausen | | 33 | 5 | 7 | 21 | 23 | 63 | -40 | 22 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [/font] May 4th, 2010 Third time was the charm indeed. Manfred Stoffers was the new owner and chairman of 1860 München after successfully negotiating a €29.5M deal with former boss Rainer Beeck. The new chairman quickly called me to assure me that things wouldn't change too drastically, for worse or for better, and that his plans were to continue in his predecessor's succesful (thus far) patient approach. May 9th, 2010 Werder's relegation brought with it a surprise signing for us: one-time international Brazilian midfielder Wesley requested a transfer, and after having the option to choose between Hoffenheim and us, he chose us. He was 26 years old, a very technical player with lots of creativity, but also a hard worker and a good team player, a bit lacking in height but making up for it with great speed. A good purchase, even if it costed us a hefty amount: €6.75M. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted October 29, 2011 Author Share Posted October 29, 2011 May 10th, 2010 SC Freiburg (12th) vs. TSV 1860 München (7th) (Bundesliga, 34/34) Neither team had anything to play for, so the game was a good excuse to give Scholz and Demir more minutes, and to start Lauth in what would most likely become his last game for 1860. *** FREIBURG (4-2-3-1 deep): Simon Pouplin (GK); Kim Falkenberg (DR), Fabián Monzón (DL), Heiko Butscher (DCr), Pavel Krmas (DCl); Nikola Pokrivac (DMCr), Maylson (DMCl); Sodinha (AMR), Darío Bottinelli (AMC), Lilian Bochet (AML); Papiss Cissé (ST) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Jiri Kladbrubsky (DR), Sébastien Pocognoli (DL), Ronny Scholz (DCr), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Ibson (MCr), Alessandro Rosina (MCc), Christian Demir (MCl); Lucas Viatri (STr), Benjamin Lauth (STl) *** Freiburg had nothing to play either, but still went forward looking for the win, with Cissé having the first shot of the game stopped by Bolat fifty-seven seconds in. It was just a mirage, though, and the game quickly became a boring affair only broken by Rosina's great movement through the center of Freiburg's defense and his not so great finish afterwards. In the 24th Cissé had another great chance after a nice ball by Bottinelli, but Bolat was awake enough to parry his shot and deflect it wide. Seventeen (!) minutes later the striker headed over a good cross by Bochet, and that was it for a predictably boring first half. HALF TIME - 0-0 We seemed to come out of the break with another mentality, and soon Demir sent a decent chance narrowly over after a good movement through the middle. Another good run by Rosina a few minutes later ended with a good ball towards Lauth, who got his shot stopped by a very attentive Pouplin. The game was still slow and uninteresting, though, and nothing else happened until we made our substitutions: Uzoma, Belaïd and Malonga for Demir, Ibson and Viatri. We went forward a bit more seriously in the last twenty minutes of the game, and Pouplin had to parry a dangeorus shot by Malonga in the 75th to keep the goalless draw on the scoreboard. But nothing else happened, and as everyone could have predicted, the game ended without goals. *** SC Freiburg 0 TSV 1860 München 0 --- Yawn. At least the season was over already. Dortmund won the Bundesliga, sealing an absolutely fantastic second half of the season by being the only one of the four title candidates to win their last game. Specially jarring was Leverkusen's case, since their 0-1 defeat against Duisburg not only saved the visitors from the relegation playoff, but also dropped the ex-champions to the 4th place and out of the Champions League. In the end Eintracht got the 16th place, and would have to play a two-legged playoff to survive. Two of Oberhausen's five wins throughout the season were against us. Not too proud of that. We were given a nice prize of €21.217M for our final position in the Bundesliga. [font=courier new] | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | ECC | Dortmund | | 34 | 20 | 6 | 8 | 55 | 33 | +22 | 66 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | ECC | Schalke | | 34 | 18 | 10 | 6 | 50 | 27 | +23 | 64 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | ECC | FC Bayern | | 34 | 19 | 6 | 9 | 55 | 29 | +26 | 63 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | EC | Leverkusen | | 34 | 17 | 12 | 5 | 48 | 25 | +23 | 63 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | EC | Wolfsburg | | 34 | 20 | 2 | 12 | 54 | 34 | +20 | 62 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Hoffenheim | | 34 | 14 | 12 | 8 | 48 | 31 | +17 | 54 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [color=#40e0d0][b]| 7th | | 1860 München | | 34 | 13 | 10 | 11 | 48 | 41 | +7 | 49 | [/b][/color] | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Gladbach | | 34 | 11 | 13 | 10 | 32 | 35 | -3 | 46 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Hannover | | 34 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 44 | 46 | -2 | 44 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Köln | | 34 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 38 | 46 | -8 | 44 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Stuttgart | | 34 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 47 | 46 | +1 | 41 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Freiburg | | 34 | 9 | 12 | 13 | 38 | 41 | -3 | 39 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Kaiserslautern | | 34 | 9 | 11 | 14 | 32 | 41 | -9 | 38 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | HSV | | 34 | 10 | 8 | 16 | 33 | 50 | -17 | 38 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Duisburg | | 34 | 9 | 9 | 16 | 28 | 48 | -20 | 36 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | Pl | Frankfurt | | 34 | 8 | 10 | 16 | 35 | 48 | -13 | 34 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | R | Werder Bremen | | 34 | 6 | 11 | 17 | 30 | 53 | -23 | 29 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | R | Oberhausen | | 34 | 5 | 7 | 22 | 23 | 64 | -41 | 22 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [/font] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted October 31, 2011 Author Share Posted October 31, 2011 TSV 1860 München - End of season player summary Goalkeepers [font=courier new]Name Apps Conceded Clean Sheets MoM Av.Rat. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sinan Bolat 39 44 18 1 6.86 Gábor Király N/A Heinz Müller N/A[/font] Only one player to comment on here, since Bolat played every single competitive game this season. He was once again solid, providing our defense with a great last option, and had more than his share of spectacular saves. He had very few mistakes and got very close to a 50% rate of clean sheets, which is quite good for a midtable club like ours. With Király and Müller going, the new kid Eduardo was likely to become his main backup, maybe enjoying some run-outs in the first rounds of the DFB Pokal to start grabbing first team minutes. Still, it was almost a sure thing that we would look a veteran backup option too, just in case. Having only two first team goalkeepers is always risky. Full backs [font=courier new]Name Apps Goals Assists MoM Y.C R.C Av.Rat. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott Sutter 23(5) 0 0 1 7 2 6.78 Jiri Kladrubsky 21(10) 3 1 2 9 0 6.92 Sébastien Pocognoli 29(1) 0 2 0 2 1 6.99 Ibrahima Faye 9(4) 2 0 1 1 0 6.92 Ronny Scholz 3 0 0 0 0 0 7.53[/font] Almost the complete opposite of the previous season. Sutter had a terrible start, had serious discipline problems and was outperformed by Kladrubsky day in and day out. The only thing that saved him from becoming a bench warmer was that the Czech had a double role to perform as Battaglia's main backup as a defensive midfielder. For the next season, though, his main rival for first team minutes would be no other than Ronny Scholz. The youngster impressed both as a right back and as a center back, but would probably have more chances playing on the wing. The left wing was another story, and the final numbers show a very solid season for both main starter Pocognoli, already adapted to Germany, and veteran backup Faye in his last season for the club. The Belgian was anything but consistent, though, and he alternated great performances with abysmal ones. He also had some worrying stamina problems, which forced us to replace him in many games. He still looked like a solid starter, but we would be looking to strenghten that position, specially since we were going to need a new player after Faye departed. Center backs [font=courier new]Name Apps Goals Assists MoM Y.C R.C Av.Rat. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mate Ghvinianidze 25(2) 3 1 3 5 1 7.14 Andriy Rusol 16(3) 1 1 0 3 0 7.05 Dominic Maroh 27 2 0 1 5 1 7.09 Mathieu Béda 9(2) 0 0 1 2 0 6.92[/font] Solid season for all four central defenders, even for usual backup Béda, whose form was clearly worse than in past years, but still good enough to keep him inside the rotation as the fourth option. Ghvinianidze was the best once again, combining good defensive displays with a penchant for scoring in set pieces. Maroh was also really good, specially at the start, but showed some signs of mental weakness, committing stupid mistakes that cost us many goals conceded. Still, he had a good debut year all things considered. Rusol started as the fourth option but improved as the season went on, overtaking Béda in the picking order and completing a good final third of the season, turning himself into a very solid rotation option. It was unlikely that any new player would come in this line, considering Scholz's eclosion, and that would be a first since my arrival. Midfielders [font=courier new]Name Apps Goals Assists MoM Y.C R.C Av.Rat. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sebastián Battaglia 29(1) 0 3 0 8 1 6.88 Florin Lovin 3(3) 1 0 0 1 0 6.95 Ibson 23(6) 2 3 0 5 0 6.78 Eke Uzoma 14(9) 0 0 0 3 0 6.78 Christian Demir 15(6) 1 2 0 1 0 6.80 Maximiliano Moralez 27(4) 1 13 2 2 1 7.19 Alessandro Rosina 25(2) 2 4 1 1 0 6.86 Alexander Ludwig 2(11) 2 2 0 0 0 6.81 Tijani Belaïd 13(18) 2 5 0 1 0 6.86[/font] Another year with lights and shadows for our midfielders. Moralez was once again the standout, even after struggling with an early injury that kept him out of the team for a few weeks. Thirteen assists was a great number, and for once, most of them came from through balls towards the strikers instead of corner kicks and free kicks. His main backup was Belaïd, who managed a very solid season coming from the bench, grabbing a good number of assists and looking quite more lively than in his debut year, although some of his nervousness remained. The defensive midfielder role was once again Battaglia's for most of the season, and the veteran Argentinian had the best start since his arrival, profiting from a slightly more attacking role due to some tactical tweaks. Still, his form petered in the second half, and in the end he had another decent but not exactly great year. Kladrubsky and Lovin took that role when Battaglia wasn't available, and both did well, to the point that Lovin made me change my mind and earned himself a new contract in only six appearances. The side midfielders were, once again, the weakest point. Uzoma was almost useless, and looked very likely to be transferred during the summer. Ludwig did well off the bench, but at times looked out of his depth. Rosina was surprisingly good at times, and surprisingly invisible at others, but in general had a quite good debut season. The other new guy, Ibson, had it a bit tougher, and after an abysmal first half managed to get his act together near the end of the season, finally contributing with some goals and assists. The pleasant surprise was Demir, who started the year alternating the U19 team and the seniors and almost became a sure starter by the end of the year. Nothing too fancy, but he was young and had time to improve, and would surely have the first team minutes to do so. With Wesley coming in July, this line had more than enough quality to survive another year. Strikers [font=courier new]Name Apps Goals Assists MoM Y.C R.C Av.Rat. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dominique Malonga 32(6) 24 5 6 4 0 7.23 Lucas Viatri 28(3) 4 8 1 10 0 6.97 Rafa Jordá 9(4) 2 3 0 1 0 6.87 Benjamin Lauth 6(7) 4 2 1 0 0 6.78 Torben Allgöwer 1(3) 0 0 0 0 0 6.40[/font] I knew that this lad was going to be really, really good one day. Dominique Malonga set the Bundesliga alight with a fantastic season, and became the focus of worldwide praise after scoring an incredible eleven goals in three consecutive league games. His problem, as almost always, was a total lack of consistency, specially during the first half of the season: after those eleven goals, he didn't score another for months! With half Europe chasing him, keeping him in München was sure to become a struggle throughout the upcoming summer. Viatri was his usual partner in crime up front, and he did... well. With the Frenchman monopolizing the goals, the target man turned into a very good provider, most of the time assisting Malonga himself. His second half of the season was quite frustrating, though, and he had some serious discipline problems. No striker should ever pick up ten yellow cards in thirty-one games. The veterans, on the other hand, had to struggle once again with long-term injuries. Rafa Jordá had to work hard to return to the rotation after missing two months in the winter, but when he did he was solid as always. Lauth's injury was even longer and more painful, since the veteran striker looked in a decent goalscoring form before, especially in the cup. After his return he just wasn't the same, having some decent performances but nothing like what he used to be. Being 32 already, he would leave at the end of the season, and his place would be taken by either a new face, or by Allgöwer, who had very limited chances to shine this year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted November 3, 2011 Author Share Posted November 3, 2011 May 13th, 2014 Ronny Scholz's fine defensive performance in only his third game with the senior team earned him a place in the Team of the Week. May 14th, 2014 Chelsea succeded Leverkusen as the Europa League champions after defeating Sampdoria three goals to one in the final. May 17th, 2014 Schalke became the new DFB Pokal champions after defeating Leverkusen one goal to nil, goal scored by Jendrisek. Our performance in the competition translated itself into a €85k bonus being paid to the squad. May 18th, 2014 Mainz defeated Eintracht in the playoff with a 5-4 aggregate score and promoted to the Bundesliga. The other new-old teams to promote were Karlsruhe and Bochum. In the 3.Liga, Hertha managed a safe recovery from their shocking relegation last year, winning the league and returning to the 2.Bundesliga. The players gathered their second performance bonus in two days, this one being quite a bit more hefty: €825k. May 19th, 2014 Time for some yearly awards. Malonga got third in the Top Goalscorer award, with 24 goals in the league, and only behind Helmes and Barrios, both with 25, but with the Dortmund man being the winner due to having played less matches. Toni Kroos was chosen as the Footballer of the Year ahead of Derdiyok and Huntelaar and the Goal of the Year was for Frankfurt's Renatinho. Adler, Kjær, Diego and Rondón were chosen as Goalkeeper, Defeder, Midfielder and Striker of the Year respectively. Schalke's Labbadia got the Manager of the Year award, and I managed a very pleasant third place in that trophy, behind him and Wolfsburg's Schaaf. The same managers took the same positions in the Players' Manager of the Year award. With that, the squad went on holiday, expected to return the 24th of June. Unless they had international fixtures upcoming, of course. May 20th, 2014 Malonga's outbreak season had attracted attention from many big teams, and the player was feeling the pressure and starting to have itchy feet. I had a serious talk with him just before he left on holiday, and after a few harsh words about loyalty and commitment he reluctantly agreed to stay. That won't last forever, though... May 24th, 2014 Atlético de Madrid lifted the Champions League for the first time in their long history after a historical win against their local and fierce rivals, Real Madrid. Forlán and Agüero (of course) scored the only two goals of the final, which was held in the Olympiastadion in Berlin. To make it even better, the champions will host next year's edition in the Vicente Calderón stadium in the Spanish capital. May 28th, 2014 As mentioned, we were looking for a new, veteran backup goalkeeper to complement starter Bolat and youngster Eduardo. The chosen one was the eternal Uruguayan promising goalkeeper that never quite made it to the top level in Europe, despite having belonged to great clubs like Juventus and Inter, and that now was spending his thirties in México playing for Morelia. Héctor Fabián Carini, 34-year-old goalkeeper, would be ours for the next two seasons after a free transfer at the end of his contract. He was more than good enough despite his advancing years to put some pressure on the Turk, and maybe even steal some minutes from him. May 29th, 2014 Uzoma was the first player to have to cut his holidays short due to an international callup. June 1st, 2014 Some others joined him soon enough: Ghvinianidze, Király, Bolat, Kladrubsky and Pocognoli had work to do. June 4th, 2014 Gábor Király decided to call it a day at the end of his contract in June. A faithful servant of the club for all the years he had been with us, and a great keeper while he played, he would surely be missed. --- Ivory Coast (30th) vs. Liberia (154th) (African Cup of Nations Qualifiying, group C, 4/6) Liberia were not expected to be a threat at all. Their only period of glory was back in the 90's when George Weah was setting the world alight, but that was many years in the past. A win could give us the first place of the group for good depending on the Eritrea-Zambia result. *** IVORY COAST (4-5-1): Stephan Loboué (GK); Emmanuel Eboué (DR), Siaka Tiéné (DL), Souleymane Bamba (DCr), Ali Soumahoro (DCl); Yaya Touré (DMC), Thierry Doubai (MCr), Didier Konan (MCl), Salomon Kalou (AMR), Gervinho (AML); Lacina Traoré (ST) LIBERIA (4-2-4): Melvin King (GK); Gizzie Dorbor (DR), Willis Forko (DL), Jimmy Dixon (DCr), George Baysah (DCl); Dulee Johnson (MCr), Isaac Pup (MCl); Paddy Junior (STR), Anthony Laffor (STL), Sylvester Williams (STCr), Amadaiya Rennie (STCl) *** Liberia started with a 4-2-4 formation that looked taken from a history book. An old history book. We only needed three minutes to tear it apart with a long ball by Traoré towards Kalou, and the fans were already celebrating the goal when the winger smashed his shot against a defender. Gervinho picked up the rebound and volleyed it home towards an empty goal, but managed to hit the bar instead. An incredible double miss to start the game in a high note. Traoré completed a terrible third minute of the game sending wide a great one-on-one chance after a good pass by Konan. Liberia had their chances, too, and Loboué had to save a decent shot by Laffor in the tenth minute of the game. Despite Liberia's absolute lack of defensive precautions and our domination of the ball, we struggled to create danger until another long pass by Gervinho allowed Kalou to run on the break and score the 1-0 with an easy low finish in the 24th minute. Things became easier after that, and only three minutes later Touré missed the target by a few inches with his header after a corner kick. In the 33rd Doubai intercepted a bad pass in the midfield and sent the ball forward towards Traoré, who simply entered the box and placed the ball past the goalkeeper to make it 2-0. But in the 38th we gave ourselves some trouble when Tiené lost his nerve and elbowed John, earning himself an early bath. Bringing in Djakpa in Konan's place, we switched to a flat 4-4-1. The rest of the first half brought no further incidents. HALF TIME - 2-0 Five minutes into the second half we got the third: Gervinho stole a ball from a defender, sent a sideways pass towards Traoré, and the striker went one step beyond and gave the ball to Kalou, who finally blasted it in. But Liberia didn't give up, and five minutes later pulled one back in a break down the left flank by Laffor, who placed a perfect finish past Loboué to score the 3-1. We made our two last substitutions, replacing an excellent Traoré with Doumbia and giving Sagbo the chance to debut with the Ivorian national side, replacing Gervinho and swapping wings with Kalou. The debutant almost got a goal in his first action after a good ball by Kalou, but wasted the chance with a narrowly wide finish. Kalou also assisted Doumbia a minute or two later, but the striker couldn't get past King. In the 65th we wasted another great chance to get the fourth when Doubai shot wide after a great dribbling that made him unmarked inside the box. To make things a bit easier, Liberia's goalscorer was sent off in the 73rd minute, picking up his second yellow card after clattering Eboué. And still, Kicmett had a great chance for the minnows to get closer in the scoreboard after he dribbled past our whole defense, who looked like kindergarten kids trying to stop a veteran, before having his poor finish thankfully stopped by Loboué. Kalou missed the chance for a hattrick in injury time following a great pass by Sagbo, and the score didn't change anymore in the end. Another solid and easy victory, although with some worrying attitude problems in some players. *** Ivory Coast 3 (Salomon Kalou 24 50, Lacina Traoré 33, Siaka Tiéné sent off 38) Liberia 1 (Anthony Laffor 55, Anthony Laffor sent off 73) --- Not much to comment about the game, although Tiéné's red and the lack of commitment of some of our players were pretty ugly to see. Zambia won, so we still needed to win the next game before celebrating our qualification. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted November 6, 2011 Author Share Posted November 6, 2011 June 7th, 2014 Kladrubsky was the only player involved in the international friendlies, playing some minutes for the Czech Republic in a shocking defeat against Perú. June 10th, 2014 Good showing of our youngsters in the U17 and U18 Player of the Year awards, with Scholz winning the first and Demir lifting the second, with Allgöwer in third place. June 11th, 2014 Faye also decided to retire once his current contract ended. He probably still had a season or two of mid-level football in his body, but decided to call it a day while in his prime. A solid performer for us in the four seasons he spent with us, he was aiming to become a manager in the near future, so maybe we could hear from him again sometime soon. June 15th, 2014 Shareholder benefits announced, and they pocketed a grand total of €14.5M, with the total turnover being a bit over €71M. The club also announced that the income due to membership fees raised to €1.54M. June 17th, 2014 The World Cup was already ongoing, and Uzoma was the first of our players to have some participation in it, and an important one at that. Coming off the bench, he had time to set up the only goal of the game in a 0-1 win over South Korea. June 18th, 2014 Liverpool came knocking again, offering €1.2M for Demir. Nope, not gonna happen, guys. June 20th, 2014 New season started! As always, the first feature of the new season is selecting the Fans' Player of the Year of the previous one. This time there was no possible doubt, Dominique Malonga won by a landslide. The Bundesliga would start *again* with a home tie against Hoffenheim, continuing with a trip to Köln. And believe it or not, the first Münchner derby would be held at the end of October! Gods, the Bundesliga fixture generator must be the most boring program ever... TV rights incoming, €11M in the bag. The minimum expectation from the board was a top half finish, and that was my initial aim, too. But once seeing Herr Stoffers' options regarding the transfer and wage budget, my eyes bulged. The man was *much* more generous than Herr Beeck ever was! The base amount were €13.5M for transfers and €475k for weekly wages, but if we upped the ante and aimed for European qualifications, the numbers became even greater: €18M and €525k/week! I couldn't resist, and in the end we agreed that this would be the year in which 1860 would finally become a European force. Hopefully. More youngsters came from the accademy, and after last year's dud, this one had a real jewel: Pascal Koch, a 15-year-old striker that looked ready to become a worldwide star. Quick, great finisher and with good technique, if he could improve his composure he could become a deadly goalscorer, much better than Allgöwer could ever be. He wasn't the only one, though: right winger Manuel Ullrich, also fifteen, looked almost as good as him. The future certainly looked promising. June 21st, 2014 Ho-hum. The title odds for the Bundesliga were out, and they had some surprises. Bayern were favourites at 5-1, but Hoffenheim were surprisingly chosen as second favourites (8-1), followed by the current champions Dortmund (10-1), Leverkusen (12-1), Schalke (14-1) and Wolfsburg (20-1). Our rating had dramatically improved since last year, moving up to a very respectable 150-1. June 27th, 2014 Ohoho. The current World Champions, Spain, couldn't even get past the group stage four years later. They finished third of their group, behind Chile (!) and Slovakia (!!) on goals scored, after tieing on both points and goal difference. June 28th, 2014 Our newfound richness brought its first fruit: Fabián Monzón, 27-year-old Argentine left back playing for Freiburg, would join us on a transfer valued in €2.5M. The left back would compete with Pocognoli for minutes, probably sharing them almost equally, and would become our default free kick taker whenever he was on the pitch. Quick and good on the attack, his defensive skills were a bit weaker, but still sufficient. June 29th, 2014 Physio Willi Widenmayer retired, after many years taking care of the muscles and bones of our players. We went out to find someone new to help Friar on his tasks, and we found Australian-born David Harris, who would join us immediately. While we were at it, we also added 31-year-old Matthias Rudolph to our coaching staff. June 30th, 2014 Sutter played a few minutes in Switzerland's last game in the World Cup, being defeated by Uruguay one to nil in the second round. Lauth and Müller were released after their contracts ended, Király and Faye retired. July 1st, 2014 No changes in the rich list, with 1860 remaining in the 52nd place. Monzón, Carini and Wesley arrived. Eduardo would come in the 24th. We were working hard on signing a new player, most likely a quick, nimble striker. We had entered contract negotiations with 23-year-old Colombian Rubén Pérez, which was a fantastic player, but we couldn't get a deal done since he asked too much in wages. Our second option was Paraguayan 21-year-old Miguel Medina, playing for Rapid Wien. July 3rd, 2014 Demir kept attracting attention, this time from Italy, and Napoli made a €1.3M plus incentives bid which we rejected straight away. July 5th, 2014 World Cup quarterfinals: England-Mexico, Brazil-Portugal, Uruguay-Chile and France-Germany. We had a small overload of midfielders, so we needed to sell one. The chosen name, judging by last year's performances, was Eke Uzoma. Various teams came with €1.6M bids for him, including Hannover, Duisburg and Kaiserslautern. Aaand we had our new striker. In a club record transfer worth €9.5M, 21-year-old Miguel Medina joined from Rapid Wien. *Very* fast, with a great dribbling and a good finisher with decent composure in front of goal, he would become the main alternative to Malonga in our attack. Another option would be playing both together, since the Frenchman was tall and jumpy enough to work as our target man of sorts. Viatri would need to step up his game if he wanted to keep his place. July 6th, 2014 The draw for the 1st round of the DFB Pokal was held, and we got an easy pairing with Borussia Neunkirchen... wait, didn't we play against them some time in the past? Oh, that's right, in the 2011/12 season. We won that one, too. There was an interesting tie when Hoffenheim were drawn against Hertha... and would play the game at home! Season ticket sales were going well, as always. 8300 had been sold, and the 15300 final target was about halfway done. July 8th, 2014 World Cup semifinals: Brazil-Germany and England-Uruguay. July 9th, 2014 Uzoma finally agreed terms with Norwich, and would be playing in the Championship from now on in exchange for €1.6M. He was good for us while in the 2.Bundesliga, but had failed to impress in his three seasons in the Bundesliga. It was time for him to move on to somewhere else. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 July 10th, 2014 VFC Plauen vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly) We stayed home for our first friendly of the preseason this time, Plauen being a regional level squad in Germany. Five minutes into the game we were already leading, thanks to a great finish by new guy Medina after a long pass by Malonga. Another of the new faces, Wesley, scored the second with a low drive from outside the box in the 24th. We took until the 41st to increse the score even further, with Moralez taking a corner kick and Maroh heading it in. Little of interest happened in a boring second half. VFC Plauen 0 TSV 1860 München 3 (Miguel Medina 5, Wesley 24, Dominic Maroh 41) July 12th, 2014 Germany won the bronze medal in the World Cup, defeating Uruguay in the consolation final. Brazil and England (!) were to play the final the next day. --- KV Kortrijk Voetbalt vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly) Short trip to Belgium to face Kortrijk in our second friendly. We only needed nine minutes to take the lead, with Wesley finishing with style after a good assist by Moralez. The attacking midfielder also grabbed our second in the 30th, running into the box after a backpass by Malonga, and Ghvinianidze made it three five minutes later, heading into the net a corner kick. The second half was, once again, quite worse than the first, but still Rusol managed to extend our lead with another header in another corner kick. What's more, Belaïd made it 0-5 in the 64th after finishing a great counterattack with an even better chip over the keeper from twenty yards away. Seven minutes later Kladrubsky scored from the penalty spot after a foul on Viatri, sealing the final 0-6 score. KV Kortrijk Voetbalt 0 TSV 1860 München 6 (Wesley 9 29, Mate Ghvinianidze 35, Andriy Rusol 61, Tijani Belaïd 64, Jiri Kladrubsky pen 71) July 13th, 2014 Miracle! And in more ways than one. England won the World Cup, defeating Brazil in the penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw. Terry put England ahead, but Hulk pulled level one minute before the end of the game. Steven Gerrard scored the final penalty kick, with Joe Hart stopping two from Thiago Silva and Paulo Henrique, while the English only missed one, courtesy of Huddlestone. Of course, the end of the World Cup always brings lots of managerial casualties, and this time was no exception. Italy, Argentina and, more interestingly to me, Spain sacked their managers. I only applied to the latter, just in case, although my chances were almost nil. Hodgson also retired, leaving the English post vacant after winning them the World Cup. Felipao followed his footsteps, and Brazil also were in search for a new manager. July 14th, 2014 FC Brussels vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly) Still in Belgium, we travelled to the European capital to face the local team. This time we needed eleven minutes to open the score, once again thanks to a good header by Ghvinianidze in a corner kick taken by Moralez. A long ball by Monzón six minutes later allowed Viatri to dribble past the goalkeeper and score the second. But our relaxation gave Brussels the chance to pull one back in the 40th with a great header by Pochet after a cross from the right wing. Malonga restored a two-goal lead for us in the 52nd with a great right-footed finish. This time we kept attacking, and in the 81st Rafa Jordá grabbed the 1-4 with a good header after a cross by Belaïd, and five minutes later the Spaniard assisted Malonga for the fifth. That was all in another very easy preseason win. FC Brussels 1 (Sem Pochet 40) TSV 1860 München 5 (Mate Ghvinianidze 11, Lucas Viatri 17, Dominique Malonga 53 86, Rafa Jordá 81) July 20th, 2014 Torben Allgöwer was sent on loan until the end of season to Zaragoza. That should give him the chance to get many first team minutes in a high-level competition like La Liga, and hopefully turn into a better, more mature player as a result. Another update on the season ticket sales: 12033 gone, 3400 to go. Maybe more? July 21st, 2014 Oh my, here we go again. Barcelona's manager Gregorio Manzano accepted an offer to become Spain's national manager, and now the dance was on again. Ancelotti, still in Chelsea, had already presented himself as a candidate for the job. Meanwhile, England appointed Arsenal's manager Quique Flores as the new national manager, creating a bit of an uproar in the country. And to make it even funnier, Roma's manager Pierpaolo Bisoli became the new Italian boss, and the favourite to replace him in his ex-club was... me?! --- SG Dynamo Dresden vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly) Back home, we visited 2.Bundesliga side Dresden, one of the historical teams in German football. It was the first serious fixture of the summer, but we still took an early lead in the 19th minute when Moralez placed a nice low shot next to the root of the post from the edge of the box. Things slowed down after that, and no more goals were scored in the first half. After the break, Béda picked up a painful knock when trying to score after a corner kick, Rusol hit the post with a great header in another cross from the corner, Dresden defended well and we couldn't increase our lead. SG Dynamo Dresden 0 TSV 1860 München 1 (Maximiliano Moralez 19) July 24th, 2014 Since we were rich and all that, we could easily afford to offer high squad bonuses for both the league and the cup. The first would yield a €2.8M to the squad if we managed to win it, while the second would amount to €700k. --- SV Waldhof Mannheim vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly) Another local friendly, this time against non-leaguers Mannheim. We started somewhat slow, and it took us until the 17th for Viatri to rip the net with a good finish after a great individual movement. Eight minutes later Ghvinianidze grabbed his traditional goal on a corner kick and scored Moralez another assist in the process. In the 29th Wesley stole a ball in the midfield, ran on the counter and crossed towards Medina, who scored the 0-3 with an easy tap-in. The small striker only needed four more minutes to receive from Viatri and score the fourth after dribbling past the goalkeeper. In the last minute of the half Wesley sent a great through ball towards Viatri, who scored the 0-5 on the turnaround inside the box. We slowed down the pace a bit in the second half, and our next goal, by Rafa Jordá, was disallowed due to an offside position. Then their striker Cristiano was sent off after seeing two yellow cards and Pocognoli had to leave the field injured near the end of the game, which had no more goals. SV Waldhof Mannheim 0 (Cristiano sent off 68) TSV 1860 München 5 (Lucas Viatri 17 45, Mate Ghvinianidze 25, Miguel Medina 29 33) --- Pocognoli had a pulled hamstring, and would miss 2-3 weeks of training. July 25th, 2014 Eduardo, the 18-year-old goalkeeper we bought last winter, finally arrived from Bahia, costing us €120k. He would be tested thoroughly in the last two friendlies, and maybe in the cup game against Neunkirchen too. July 26th, 2014 Well, the chair game was aborted even before it started: Tito Vilanova, former assistant manager under Guardiola and Manzano, took charge in Barcelona, closing the doors to Ancelotti, now in a very difficult position in London with most of the Chelsea fans turning against him. July 27th, 2014 Season tickets again, with 14382 sold. Around one thousand left! Meanwhile, in England, Sam Allardyce, previously unemployed, took command at Arsenal. And in Italy, Javier Aguirre became the new Roma manager. Boooring! July 29th, 2014 More offers from Demir, the last one coming from Napoli. €1.3M was not even close to being enough. July 31st, 2014 TSV 1860 München vs. Rubin Kazan (Friendly) The biggest friendly of the season and our introduction to the fans in the Allianz brought Russian powerhouse Rubin to our stadium. The game started with the Russians in control and with a worrying injury to Moralez. We soon became the dominant team, but we struggled to create danger and the first half ended without goals and with Ghvinianidze also nursing an injury. The second half followed the same script, with us in control and Rubin defending well, until in the 85th Tarkhanov scored the 0-1 with an outrageous 30-yard piledriver that Eduardo couldn't ever dream of stopping. An unfair defeat in a game we should have won. TSV 1860 München 0 Rubin Kazan 1 (Mark Tarkhanov 85) --- Bad news for Moralez: hip injury. That would mean sending the player to a specialist and missing him for 8 weeks to 2 months. Painful. August 5th, 2014 USC Paloma vs. TSV 1860 München (Friendly) Despite its name, Paloma is a semi-pro club in Hamburg, Germany, and also were the hosts of our last friendly in the 2014 summer. We started dominating as expected, but our aim was a bit off that afternoon, and it took us thirty-four minutes and a high number of chances until Wesley finally opened the score with a well placed finish, assisted by Viatri. Malonga scored three minutes into the second half but saw his goal disallowed for a clear offside position. A clear penalty committed on Ludwig in the 52nd allowed Kladrubsky to extend our lead from the spot, and not much later Rafa Jordá intercepted a horrible backpass to score the third with supreme ease. With that we decided to call it a day and slowed the game down to a crawl, until Malonga scored an absolute fluke with what was intended to be a cross from the left wing in the 83rd minute. With that, the game ended. USC Paloma 0 TSV 1860 München 4 (Wesley 34, Jiri Kladrubsky pen 53, Rafa Jordá 55, Dominique Malonga 83) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 August 7th, 2014 Another bid to reject: Olympique Lyonnais wanted to buy Moralez for €3.7M. Double that and we may start thinking about it. Of course his agent came calling immediately afterwards, asking for a new deal that we negotiated quickly, raising his weekly wages from €22k to €40k and extending the deal until the end of 2019. Three of our internationals were ignored by the national managers this time around. Ghvinianidze, Kladrubsky and Pocognoli were left out, and only the last one of the three had a fitness reason for that. August 10th, 2014 The final season ticket sales figures were announced and they were... slightly disappointing. The number hadn't changed since the last update, remaining at 14382, one thousand below the initial target and only ten more than last year. August 13th, 2014 Cape Verde (89th) vs. Ivory Coast (39th) (International Friendly) A relaxed summer friendly in Cape Verde to test our squad for the upcoming qualifying match against Eritrea. What's not to like? Africa, summer, heat, humidity, mosquitos... Following the 1860 tradition, we started the game with a goal on a corner kick, scored by Kolo Touré six minutes after kick off. Cape Verde increased their pressure afterwards, but we managed to keep the game under control until injury time of the first half, when Doumbia gathered a cross by Kalou and smashes into the net from close to score the 0-2. The second half was a tranquil affair until a 30-yard piledriver by Gilson Silva made a hole in the back of Loboué's net, clawing one back for the hosts. We struggled for a bit, but Kolo Touré made his second and our third six minutes from the end of the game after a terrible mess inside the box, and the game was sealed. Cape Verde 1 (Gilson Silva 68) Ivory Coast 3 (Kolo Touré 6 84, Seydou Doumbia 45+1) August 16th, 2014 Borussia Neunkirchen vs. TSV 1860 München (DFB Pokal 1st round) Here we go again, with a repeat of our first cup tie from three years before against minnows Neunkirchen. That time we barely managed a 0-1 win, and this time we hoped for a much better and much more emphatic result. *** NEUNKIRCHEN (4-4-2): Jens Kern (GK); Tim Erfen (DR), Rene Lange (DL), Dominique Fenell (DCr), Fabian Aupperle (DCl); Martin Stahlberg (MR), Thomas Hartmann (ML), Sevdall Selmani (MCr), Andreas Schäffer (MCl); Aziz Bouhaddouz (STr), Vilaznim Dautaj (STl) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Eduardo (GK); Scott Sutter (DR), Sébastien Pocognoli (DL), Ronny Scholz (DCr), Andriy Rusol (DCl); Jiri Kladrubsky (DMC), Alessandro Rosina (MCr), Wesley (MCc), Christian Demir (MCl); Rafa Jordá (STr), Miguel Medina (STl) *** It was a day for the youngsters and the new faces to show what they were capable of, and only Monzón waited on the bench due to the limitation of 3 non-EU players in the starting eleven that the cup imposes on teams. Wesley started the game wanting to extend his great goalscoring form from the friendlies to the official matches, and shot wide after a nice run through the middle twenty seconds after kickoff. Rafa Jordá, anything but a new kid on the block, also missed a clear-cut chance four minutes with a badly wide finish after a great cross from Sutter. Scholz took a knock in a jump to head a goal kick clear, but the youngster endured the pain and kept playing. His companion in the defense, Rusol, headed a corner kick by Wesley into the crossbar in the 9th minute, as we kept looking for the quick opener. Wesley had another run-and-shot stopped by Kern thre minutes later, but then we entered a sleepy phase of the game, and we created nothing until the 31st minute. Then, Sutter broke through the right wing, running across the whole field before sending a pass towards Wesley, who assisted Medina first time for the small forward to score the 0-1 on his debut. That opened the floodgates, and three minutes later it was Rafa Jordá who sent a nice pass towards Medina, who once again finished the job with precision and grabbed his and our second goal. Jordá almost made it three a bit later after a great ball from Demir, but Kern saved with a nice hand and good reflexes. In the 38th Wesley found himself with lots of space and no one ahead, and went all the way before shooting wide. One minute later Medina had his chance for a hattrick stopped by the goalkeeper, following another nice assist by Demir. A last-minute injury for Wesley, who also looked capable to continue, closed the first half. HALF TIME - 0-2 We made three substitutions at half time, removing Pocognoli, still unfit after his hamstring injury, and the two injured players and bringing in Ghvinianidze, Monzón and Belaïd. Demir tried to join the party with a long distance shot that went clearly wide to the right in the 54th, and which became the first goalscoring chance of the second half. Medina kept looking for his third, and had a double chance in the 60th, his first shot stopped by Kern and his second going narrowly wide to the right of the target. In the 67th a very intelligent move by Belaïd sent a ball from what looked like a direct free kick towards the left wing, where an unmarked Monzón could easily cross into the heart of the box for Rosina to score the 0-3. The Italian followed up with a good pass towards Medina, who once again failed to seal his hattrick with a narrowly high shot. Rafa Jordá also wanted a goal, but his left-footed finish from the edge of the box wasn't even close to good enough to score, going high and wide. The fourth goal arrived in the 79th, when a cross by Belaïd was nodded outwards by Medina, Rosina gathered it and assisted Demir who, stepping into the box, blasted a good, powerful shot into the back of the net, completing a very good game for the youngster. There was time for two more shots by Rosina, the first saved and the second wide, before the time ran out and the game ended. Easy win, as expected. *** Borussia Neunkirchen 0 TSV 1860 München 4 (Miguel Medina 30 34, Alessandro Rosina 67, Christian Demir 79) --- Easy peasy. That's how first rounds of the cup should always be. Surprise, surprise. Our 2nd round opponent was expected to be Duisburg, thus ensuing a repeat of last year's edition of the cup, but the Bundesliga squad failed to score a single goal against the 3.Liga side Fortuna Düsseldorf, and then fell in the penalty shootout. Fortuna would be our opponents in October. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted November 17, 2011 Author Share Posted November 17, 2011 August 23rd, 2014 TSV 1860 München vs. TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (Bundesliga, 1/34) A first league fixture at home against Hoffenheim. Now where have I seen this before... Hoffenheim had reinforced themselves well in the summer, just like us, and Ignjovski was playing fine for them (and not getting any red cards!), so we were sure to have a tough time with them. Still, I was hoping for a win to put us in the right lane towards Europe from the start. Catching up is always hard to do. *** 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Scott Sutter (DR), Fabián Monzón (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Dominic Maroh (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Tijani Belaïd (MCr), Wesley (MCc), Alessandro Rosina (MCl); Dominique Malonga (STr), Miguel Medina (STl) HOFFENHEIM (4-4-2 diamond narrow): Tom Starke (GK); Andreas Beck (DR), Lautaro Formica (DL), Matthias Jaissle (DCr), Isaac Vorsah (DCl); Michal Pazdan (DMC), Carlos Eduardo (MCr), Aleksandar Ignjovski (MCl), Gylfi Sigurdsson (AMC); Salomón Rondón (STr); Toto Tamuz (STl) *** Hoffenheim hadn't changed much since last year. We started with Wesley flanked by two very attacking-minded midfielders and with the two "small" strikers pairing up front. It didn't take us long to test Starke for the first time, with Malonga sneaking behind Vorsah as the defender controlled a cross from the left by Medina, stealing the ball and shooting from point-blank range, but finding the goalkeeper in the way. Wesley was the next to try, gathering a loose ball outside the box, entering the area and shooting wide. A direct free kick by Belaïd in the 11th minute was well saved by Starke, while we kept our pressure up and kept the visitors inside their own half at all times. Their first attack came in the 14th, and ended with a terribly wide and high long range attempt by Sigurdsson. A high header by Rondón after a cross from the left by Formica followed, and it looked like Hoffeneheim were finally willing to stop defending at all times. Wesley tried to keep them trapped with a mazy run through the middle and a curving shot that missed the top left corner by a few inches. In the 24th we tried our traditional method of opening up close games, and lo and behold, it worked: Belaïd took a corner kick towards the far post, where Ghvninanidze headed it in to give us the lead. The problem was that we could only hold that lead for three minutes: Rondón broke through the middle and Bolat rushed out to save, but the rebound fell to Tamuz, and the striker simply passed the ball into the empty net to pull level again. In the 31st we had a great chance to recover our advantage when Rondón found Medina on the run towards the box, but the striker did well to sidestep Starke but couldn't put the ball into the net afterwards. Another good opportunity fell to Rosina six minutes later, and his finish was parried by Starke, while Medina was unable to get to the rebound before Jaissle cleared. A bit later Malonga tried to shoot from the edge of the box, but couldn't aim with precision and the low, powerful effort went very wide to the right. Hoffenheim's first attack since their goal ended in another terrible shot by Sigurdsson, who wasn't looking as dangerous as in previous years. With that, a very entertaining first half ended in a draw. HALF TIME - 1-1 The second half started much slower, with Hoffenheim actually challenging our control of the midfield and with Rondón blasting wide a great chance on the counter in the 55th. When ten more minutes went by without changes, we brought some of our bench players into action, with Ibson, Kladrubsky and Viatri replacing Belaïd, Battaglia and Medina. Not much changed, and time kept slipping by with zero danger being created on either side of the pitch. In the 78th, nonetheless, a good cross by Monzón was turned into a nice goal on the turnaround by Viatri, but the target man was offside according to the linesman, and the goal was quickly disallowed. Nothing else happened in the remaining minutes, and the game finished without any changes to the scoreline. *** TSV 1860 München 1 (Mate Ghvinianidze 24) TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 1 (Toto Tamuz 27) --- And we started once again with an unlucky draw at home. Now where have I seen this before... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted November 22, 2011 Author Share Posted November 22, 2011 Yay 2000 views! * * * August 30th, 2014 1.FC Köln vs. TSV 1860 München (Bundesliga, 2/34) Difficult debut, difficult continuation. Köln had started just like us, with a 1-1 draw, but they did so away and in Karlsruhe, a team they should be beating any day of the week. That gave us hope of stealing something from this match. *** KÖLN (4-4-2 defensive): Federico Marchetti (GK); José Bosingwa (DR), Stephan Salger (DL), Youssef Mohamad (DCr), Manuel da Costa (DCl); Christoph Moritz (DMCr), Alexandr Martynovich (DMCl), Martin Lanig (MR), Tom (ML); Sebastian Freis (STr), Raúl Nava (STl) 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Scott Sutter (DR), Sébastien Pocognoli (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Andriy Rusol (DCl); Jiri Kladrubsky (DMC), Ibson (MCr), Wesley (MCc), Christian Demir (MCl); Lucas Viatri (STr), Miguel Medina (STl) *** We rotated our midfield quite a little bit, giving Kladrubsky, Demir and Ibson starts. The game started slow and with Köln on command, with the first shot arriving after seven minutes and going way over the bar, propelled from distance by Martynovich. Things made a 180º turn in the 9th minute, when Wesley sent a great through ball towards Medina, Mohamad caught him by the shirt to prevent him from scoring, and the referee quickly pointed to the spot and showed the center-back a fair and straight red card. Kladrubsky had the chance to give us the lead from the penalty spot, but he adjusted the shot so much that it went wide licking the outside of the post. Köln were one man down, but Nava still managed to give us a great scare with an almost perfect direct free kick, well palmed away by an agile Bolat. The striker had another chance in the 20th, but after entering the box and dribbling past Ghvinianidze he sent the ball well over. Our first chance after the penalty kick arrived in the 25th, and it was a corner kick well headed by Ghvinianidze and better saved by Marchetti. Not only did Köln not lose possession of the ball despite being one man down, they actually created danger, and only Bolat's great work could prevent Freis from scoring in the 41st after a great break through the right flank. Wesley finally gave us a decent chance through a nice left-footed attempt that went very narrowly wide. With that, the first half ended without goals. HALF TIME - 0-0 Not much changed after the break, and Köln still had the most of the ball and the chances, with Weiser missing the target by a foot or two with a left-footed attempt from outside the box in the 53rd as the first chance of the second half. Another attempt from the edge of the area by Moritz also went wide, and it was already time to try some substitutions: Rosina and Belaïd replaced Wesley and Demir. At first, things didn't exactly work in our favour, with da Costa having another medium distance shot stopped by Bolat in the 64th, so we also brought Malonga in Viatri's place while Bolat saved a point-blank header by Freis one minute later. That worked a bit better, and in the 74th Rosina had our first chance of the half with a powerful piledriver that Marchetti managed to tip over the bar. In the last ten minutes of the game we tried a 4-5-1 with Medina alone up front, but still it was Freis the next to have a chance, and Bolat the one who had to stop it with yet another great intervention. Two last minute chances for Rosina and Medina, both well saved by Marchetti, marked the end of a disappointing match. *** 1.FC Köln 0 (Youssef Mohamad sent off 10) TSV 1860 München 0 --- Gah, what a terrible performance, and missing that penalty kick was a criminal offense. And I was also starting to feel a bit of a déjà vu at that point. Two draws in the first two fixtures, followed by... August 31st, 2014 Eight internationals once again, with new guys Carini and Medina being called up by Uruguay and Paraguay respectively. Ghvinianidze, Kladrubsky, Pocognoly, Rusol, Bolat and Belaïd also went to join their national teams. September 1st, 2014 Uh, Ludwig requested a transfer. Apparently he wasn't exactly happy with being a bench warmer, although he hadn't complained at all in the last two years of being exactly that. A shame, because he was a good player to have ready to come in the second halves and make things happen. Still, we couldn't begrudge him his dedication during these years, and he deserved to play somewhere else in his final years as a pro. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted November 27, 2011 Author Share Posted November 27, 2011 September 6th, 2014 Eritrea (186th) vs. Ivory Coast (39th) (Africa Cup of Nations Qualifying, Group C, 5/6) Not much to analyze here. We were the best squad by far, and a win against Eritrea was not only likely but an obligation. Besides, winning meant qualifying for the Africa Cup, which was the objective in the end. *** ERITREA (4-4-2): Essey Ghebremariam (GK); Fassil Zeregaber (DR), Abel Kidane (DL), Oliver Nicholas (DCr), Michael Zerastion (DCl); Essey Kidane (MR), Abraham Kidane (ML), Gol Gol Hermon (MCr), Yohannes Mehari (MCl); Wintana Abreha (STr), Daniel Ismail (STl) IVORY COAST (4-5-1): Stephan Loboué (GK); Emmanuel Eboué (DR), Constant Djakpa (DL), Kolo Touré (DCr), Ali Soumahoro (DCl); Yaya Touré (DMC), Christian Romaric (MCr), Didier Konan (MCl), Gervinho (AMR), Salomon Kalou (AML); Lacina Traoré (ST) *** As expected, we dominated from the start, and would have got the lead only five minutes in if Gervinho hadn't smashed the ball against the post after dribbling past the goalkeeper. Traoré was the next to try with a low, narrowly wide finish from just outside the box. Both forwards combined in the 16th, with the target man assisting towards the right side, Gervinho cutting in and shooting past the keeper to score the 0-1. Kalou should have made it two six minutes later after a good pass by Konan, but blasted his finish over the bar and wasted the chance. In the 29th Kolo Touré kept his great goalscoring record with the national team with a point-blank header after a cross from the right by Konan, scoring the 0-2. Only five minutes later Traoré assisted Gervinho once again, and the winger did well to place his finish next to the right post and into the net for the third of the evening. A great save by Ghebremariam prevented a fourth in the 39th after a good-looking header by Konan. Match in the bag by half time. HALF TIME - 0-3 Gervinho had an early chance to complete a hattrick after a cross by Eboué, but miskicked his finish and sent it wide. Soumahoro also got really close in another corner kick with a narrowly high header, and the goalkeeper stopped with ease an attempt by Traoré in the 61st. Three minutes later, though, he couldn't do anything as Traoré ran rampant through the middle and placed a low shot into the back of the net, grabbing the 0-4 to complete a fantastic display. Soon Drogba replaced the striker, while Sagbo came in Kalou's place and Demel replaced a tired Eboué. In the 67th Eritrea grabbed a consolation goal when Ismail headed past Loboué a free kick taken by Mehari. A wide finish by Sagbo followed, and two minutes before the end Hermon was called on a penalty over Kolo Touré, but Gervinho was unable to beat Ghebremariam, who palmed his shot from the spot away. Still, an easy and clear win to confirm our place in the upcoming Africa Cup. *** Eritrea 1 (Daniel Ismail 67) Ivory Coast 4 (Gervinho 16 34, Kolo Touré 29, Lacina Traoré 64) --- Job done. Now to wait for the real thing, passing the time with some friendlies and the last qualifying game against Zambia. Kladrubsky and Pocognoli played against each other in a 1-1 draw, while Ghvinianidze and Rusol also featured for Georgia and Ukraine. September 10th, 2014 France (6th) vs. Ivory Coast (39th) (International Friendly) Now this was a difficult friendly, and a real test of our quality or lack thereof. France hadn't done too well in the World Cup, but they still had more than enough great players in their squad to give us a hard time. We did well in the first minutes, but a defensive blackout allowed Sissoko to sneak into the box and score the 1-0 for France in the 12th minute of the game. We enjoyed good chances to pull level, and things became even better for us when Sissoko was sent off for a two-footed challenge on Yaya Touré in the 37th. Doumbia finally scored the 1-1 in the second minute of the second half after a great assist by Konan. From then on the game was even, with both teams attacking each other with everything until Sanogo gathered a cross by Benzema in a counterattack to score the 2-1. In the 73rd it was Griezmann's turn to score after a nice backpass by Ménez, and suddenly we were two goals down. Kalou got a goal disallowed due to a clear offside, and three minutes before the end Sanogo got the 4-1 in another counterattack. Raimi saw the second yellow seconds before the end of the game. Too much difference on the scoreboard given how both teams played. France 4 (Moussa Sissoko 12, Yaya Sanogo 64 86, Antoine Griezmann 73, Moussa Sissoko sent off 37, Adil Raimi sent off 90+1) Ivory Coast 1 (Seydou Doumbia 47) --- Good day for our internationals, with Medina scoring for Paraguay and Ghvinianidze for Georgia, both grabbing their first international goals. Kladrubsky, Carini and Belaïd also did well for their nations. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makonnen Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 What DB are you using for this, Dal? And, congrats on qualifying ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalbeider Posted November 28, 2011 Author Share Posted November 28, 2011 Quoting the OP, "Played in FM11, patch 11.1, no edits, large database with all international players retained", so nothing special. Aaaand I forgot to fix the, ahem, issue with the German national team beforehand, so it's permanently filled with grays, and I only noticed a season and a half into the save and with the story already going. Fail -_-. Oh, and thanks, although if I had failed to qualify from that group I should hand back my badges. Easiest preliminary stage ever. * * * September 13th, 2014 TSV 1860 München vs. FC Schalke 04 (Bundesliga, 3/34) Not the best rival to find our first win of the season against, I guess. Schalke were among the favourites for the title, and were undefeated until that point. Then again, their start had been solid but unimpressive, managing a meager 1-0 win at Stuttgart and only a goalless draw at home against just promoted Karlsruhe. We could beat them if we played like we should. *** 1860 MÜNCHEN (4-1-3-2): Sinan Bolat (GK); Scott Sutter (DR), Fabián Monzón (DL), Mate Ghvinianidze (DCr), Dominic Maroh (DCl); Sebastián Battaglia (DMC), Ibson (MCr), Wesley (MCc), Alessandro Rosina (MCl); Lucas Viatri (STr), Dominique Malonga (STl) SCHALKE 04 (4-4-2 diamond): Apoula Edel (GK); Pavle Ninkov (DR), Royston Drenthe (DL), Benedikt Höwedes (DCr), William Rémy (DCl); Nikola Pokrivac (DMC), Claudemir (MR), Erik Jendrisek (ML), Zvonko Pamic (AMC); John Guidetti (STr), Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (STl) *** Many missing players in Schalke's lineup, including Farfán, Jurado and Neuer. We got off to a good start, and three minutes in Malonga shot wide after a good play between Rosina, Monzón and Wesley. Schalke stood back, inviting us in until they were able to launch a counterattack that Guidetti finished and Bolat stopped, deflecting the ball away from danger. The game was quite slow, and only Wesley's passes could break it open, like in the 21st minute when one of his assists allowed Viatri to shoot, his finish parried by Edel and falling to Ibson, who shot wide from a difficult angle. Drenthe joined the attack in the 25th and tried to beat Bolat with a crossed shot after receiving from Guidetti, but the keeper was in the right place and held the ball with both hands without trouble. A counterattack initiated by Malonga and continuated by Viatri gave Wesley the chance to chip the ball over an advanced Edel, but although the height was just right, the direction was a bit off and the ball went wide. Another chance for the midfielder came immediately after, after a recovery by Battaglia and a great through ball by Ibson, but Edel parried his shot and the defense cleared the loose ball. Edel was having a great game in Neuer's place, and tipped wide a point-blank finish by Viatri a minute later, with Wesley providing the final pass. The goalkeeper also saved a somewhat weak header by Maroh in a corner kick in the 31st. Eleven minutes later Rosina couldn't put the ball in after a great movement on the left wing by Malonga, shooting narrowly wide after receiving a low cross from the striker. Finally, in the 43rd Malonga recovered the ball in Schalke's half, looked around and decided to do everything himself. Three dribblings and a perfect shot into the top left corner later, we were ahead. Schalke couldn't react before the first half ended. HALF TIME - 1-0 The second half didn't have any action at all in the first eighteen minutes, and when the first shot came it was a very wide attempt from distance by Claudemir that didn't bother Bolat at all. Meanwhile, Sutter, Ibson and Malonga needed a rest, and were replaced by Scholz, Demir and Medina, young blood for our team. The youngsters did well, and we kept Schalke at bay for another while, until Jurado assisted Huntelaar and the Dutch killer missed the chance with a wide finish in the 72nd. And absolutely nothing else happened until injury time, when Edel saved easily a long distance attempt by Viatri just before the game ended. A tremendously borind second half, but that was just fine for us. *** TSV 1860 München 1 (Dominique Malonga 43) FC Schalke 04 0 --- Boring but effective. Take the lead, kill the game, wait for full time. And hey, it worked. We finally broke free from that weird Groundhog Day feeling and scored an important win to put us in the right lane for the fight we wanted to be involved in. September 16th, 2014 Malonga found a place in the Team of the Week. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makonnen Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 Ah, that explains it. Ethiopia and Eritrea share very distinctive names--FM10 had them all lumped into East Africa, so the players there had all these Kenyan/Tanzanian surnames. I spent hours adding about 1200 Ethiopian names into the database for 5m1w, and have learned that, to get variety in a nation, you really need about twice that. But it did give me Ishmael Ishmael which is just about my favorite name for a regen ever. OH! There is a way to fix the gray Germans. PM me if you want it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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