ArsenalMetro Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 2018-19 Second Half Report UEFA Champions League Barcelona 2 - 3 Sparta Prague Knockout Bracket And another win makes three. We’re the first team to win the Champions League three consecutive years since Bayern Munich achieved the feat from 1974-1976. The win has propelled us up the UEFA coefficients, and with our poor European runs about to be taken off the record, we’ll be going up much higher in the coming years, assuming we keep up these good performances. That same philosophy applies to the Czech Republic as a whole, with the league now up to 11th in Europe, with future results giving us a reasonable shot at moving into the top 6. Gambrinus Liga The league was simply a formality, once again. We slipped up a couple of times (our loss came after grabbing a 2-0 lead, too), but a 16-point win is a comfortable one. Because we won the Champions League, and with it, an automatic spot in the group stage, league runners-up Mlada Boleslav grabbed the league’s automatic bid. Slovan Liberec will enter in the best-placed third qualifying round, where no one expects them to make much of an impact. Hopefully they and the three teams qualified for the Europa League manage to do well in the lower competition. We also had a great result against Mlada Boleslav, handing them a club-record loss. Czech FA Cup Slovacko 0 – 3 Sparta Prague We waltzed through to another FA Cup triumph. Slovacko were certainly our toughest draw, but with the Champions League final coming up later than usual, we were able to put our full squad out there for the final, and we dominated Slovacko en route to a 3-0 victory. 2018-19 Season Review UEFA Champions League – Winners Gambrinus Liga – Winners Czech FA Cup – Winners Club World Cup – Third Place European Super Cup – Winners (3-1 v. Man City) Czech FA Cup – Winners (3-0 v. Slovacko) Award Winners Player of the Year - Marcus Balstrup (Sparta Prague) - 16 appearances, 2 goals, 16 assists, 7.72 average rating Top Goalscorer - Ange Diallo (Slovacko) - 28 appearances, 23 goals, 5 assists, 7.61 average rating Best Foreigner - Paulo Nogueira (Sparta Prague) - 15 appearances, 1 goal, 9 assists, 7.29 average rating Young Player of the Year - Mike Mitchell (Sparta Prague) - 18 appearances, 5 goals, 0 assists, 7.59 average rating Manager of the Year - Michael LeClair (Sparta Prague) Team of the Year Sparta Prague Fans’ Player of the Year - Sebastian Vicente Moya Overall Sparta Prague Best XI Final 2018-19 Squad – Stats (only players with 15+ appearances listed) Vincent Aboubakar Mike Agu Kevin Arnold Marcus Balstrup Cristian Botti Michael Brandner Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain David Frydrych Sebastian Garcia Ronny Kaiser Aaron Lennon Manoel Fabio Mazza Mike Mitchell Sebastian Vicente Moya Paulo Nogueira Habib Onana Soren Ostergaard Marc Pelosi Pablo Salguero Frederik Serwin Ahmed Shawky Gerard Shields Soe Min Win Pablo Salguero again led the Sparta goalscoring charts, with 27 goals in 26 appearances. Habib Onana was right behind him with 22 from 26. Marcus Balstrup provided a massive 26 assists, but he certainly would have been surpassed by David Frydrych, who suffered a serious injury that kept him out for a long time. Despite that, Frydrych registered 11 goals and 21 assists in his 24 appearances. A number of other players had great seasons, so just glance through the stats to pick them out. Notes I celebrated my 400th game in management this spring, in a league match against cross-town rivals Dukla Prague. My achievements are finally being noticed by other clubs, and I was offered the job at Stamford Bridge after Gus Poyet led them to a very disappointing 9th in the Premier League. It's a little bit tempting, but I really hate Chelsea, so I turned them down. Prague is my club of choice, for sure. Prague is not the premier destination for good youth players, however, as our youth intake was once again poor. Jan Buzek looks like he could be a solid contributor eventually, but no other players have any chance of sticking with the club past the end of their youth contract. Former Club Update New York Red Bulls New York have settled in at their usual third-place spot in the Eastern Conference. Backstopped by John O’Rourke, a Columbus Crew academy product, the defense has been quite solid. In the CONCACAF Champions League, New York went out in the quarterfinals – as too did all four United States representatives – losing to Chivas, 5-1 on aggregate. As MLS Cup winners from last year, they will enter next year’s tournament in the group stage, in a group with L.A. Firpo (El Salvador), Plaza Amador (Panama) and Xolos Tijuana (Mexico). The U.S. Open Cup once again ended early for New York, as they went out to amateur club Westchester Flames in the third round, 4-2 on penalty kicks. The Open Cup, to be fair, has become a lower-division tournament, in effect, with just one MLS club reaching the quarterfinals in D.C. United, who lost there to 2017 winners Fort Lauderdale Strikers on penalties. Reputations Czech Republic – 11th in UEFA Coefficients – Up 1 Gambrinus Liga – 13th in Europe (3 stars) – Up 4 Sparta Prague – 18th in UEFA Coefficients – Up 9 Sparta Prague – 20th richest in world (€172 million) – Up 18 Sparta Prague – 4 stars – No change Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArsenalMetro Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 United States Spring Friendlies March 30 - France 3 - 1 United States June 5 - United States 0 - 0 Scotland 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup United States Squad After our pre-tournament friendly against Scotland, we embarked on our CONCACAF Gold Cup campaign, hoping to claim the title for the first time in six years. We were drawn against El Salvador, Jamaica, and Cuba - a very straight-forward group. Group Stage Final Group Stage Tables June 10 - El Salvador 3 - 0 United States - Things got off to an awful start for us against El Salvador. Miguel Alas put the Salvadorans up 1-0 within eight minutes, and they dominated the rest of the proceedings. Rodolfo Zelaya doubled the advantage just before halftime, and they closed us out with a goal from Osael Romero in the second half. It's difficult to overstate how much of an upset this was, and how angry I was with the team after. Still, two wins against Jamaica and Cuba would likely see us through - a third-place finish in the group, however, would likely end my tenure as United States manager. June 14 - United States 2 - 0 Jamaica - A much better result, more fitting of the United States. Still, it was an awful performance, and we could only grab the opener from a set piece. Mark Orozco's corner found the head of Gale Agbossoumonde, who headed home to give us a 1-0 lead. The rest of the game was pretty tense before Orozco popped up to give us a 2-0 lead late on, a result that was absolutely essential for our progress. June 17 - United States 6 - 0 Cuba - Going into the final match of the group stage, we needed a big result to ensure that we would go through as at least runners-up. Jamaica held the advantage over us on goal differential (assuming we both won our matches), as did El Salvador. We got off to a great start, going into halftime up 4-0, thanks to goals from Jozy Altidore, Ernest Nungaray, Brek Shea, and Soe Min Win. Still, we needed a couple more in case Jamaica topped El Salvador. It ended up being a moot point with El Salvador's win, but goals from James McElroy and Michael Hoyos gave us a goal differential of +5, which would have been enough to give us the group win with an El Salvador slip-up. Still, a 6-0 result is a great one, and we progressed into the tournament quarterfinals, where we were drawn against North American rivals Canada. Canada had topped Group A with 7 points. Quarterfinals Bracket June 22 - United States 3 - 1 Canada - While we feared a slip-up against Canada, with the El Salvador result still fresh in our minds, it was not to be today. Mark Orozco continued his great run with the United States, giving us the lead in the 24th minute. Brek Shea made it 2-0 after halftime, before Canada threatened to make a game of it when Leozinho brought it back to 2-1 in the 70th minute. Jaime Frias, with a pending move to Gladbach, made sure the comeback was not to be, making it 3-1 in the 74th minute - his first international goal. That set up a comparatively easy semifinal against Trinidad and Tobago, who had beaten Honduras in shocking fashion in their quarterfinal Semifinals Bracket June 26 - Trinidad and Tobago 0 - 2 United States - Any ideas that Trinidad had of pulling off an upset were erased in remarkably quick fashion, as Brek Shea put us 1-0 up within the first minute. His goal was the fastest ever recorded in United States history - just 27 seconds into the match, besting Jozy Altidore's previous record of 47 seconds. It was Shea who came up again 10 minutes later, staking us to a nearly insurmountable 2-0 lead. Trinidad rarely threatened the rest of the way, booking our progress to the final for the first time since winning it in 2013. There, we would play Mexico. Who else could it have been? Final Bracket June 29 - United States 2 - 3 Mexico (aet) - Frustrating barely begins to describe the final result here. Going in, I had no illusions of lifting the trophy - Mexico are simply a better side than us right now, and there isn't a whole lot to do about that. But we dominated the match early on, and our dominance was rewarded late in the first half. Jozy Altidore and Mark Orozco scored within four minutes of each other, giving us a stunning 2-0 halftime lead. Mexico made it 2-1 immediately from the second-half kickoff, but we maintained our advantage. Late on, Mexico started generating chance after chance, and they had a chance to level things with a penalty in the 83rd minute. Zac McMath stepped up to deny the Mexican shooter, but we never retained possession after the penalty miss. Mexico kept pushing, and grabbed the equalizer two minutes later, in the most annoying fashion. Our defenders, any time the ball came in, insisted on clearing the ball out for a corner. Mexico had four corners in two minutes, so a goal was obviously coming. That sent us to extra time, where we continued to dominate possession and restrict Mexico's chances...until the last few minutes, again. Their winner was a carbon copy of their equalizer, with our defense utterly failing to cope with corner kicks. So, Nestor Araujo's header in the 120th minute gave Mexico the title, and condemned us to the most aggravating of defeats. Winner 8th title Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArsenalMetro Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 2019 Copa America United States FIFA Ranking: 33rd Following the Gold Cup failure, we were invited to take part in CONMEBOL's Copa America in Chile, along with Mexico. The USSF expectations were low - they expected us to reach the group stage...I think I can achieve that. We were drawn against world #2 Argentina, Colombia, and Paraguay. As far as Copa America groups go, this wasn't awful. I expected us to beat Colombia and Paraguay, and at least put in a respectable performance against Argentina. Group Stage Final Group Stage Tables July 11 - Colombia 1 - 2 United States - A great start to the tournament for us. Though we didn't put in anything resembling a dominant performance, we got the three points, and that's certainly more important. A penalty from Brek Shea put us up in the 24th minute, but Nelson Cortes leveled the score for Colombia on the stroke of halftime. It was a nervy second half, with Colombia generating a number of good chances. Michael Hoyos turned hero at the end though, heading in a Brek Shea cross at the far post in the 87th minute. Colombia were left with little time to come back, and the final whistle gave us a nice, solid, 2-1 victory. July 14 - United States 2 - 1 Argentina - The shock of the tournament came in our second match, against Argentina. West Brom's Omar Gonzalez gave us a shock lead from a corner in the 10th minute. Brek Shea, who had been terrific in both tournaments to this point, made our task incredibly difficult, earning a straight red card for a horror tackle in the 26th minute. As is the signature of this US team, we allowed Argentina back into the match, and Lionel Messi equalized just before halftime. I think everyone expected Argentina to dominate the second half, and they certainly did. They were, however, incredibly wasteful in front of goal, registering just five shots on target from 27 attempts. The second-half goal that everyone expected eventually came - but not for Argentina. Sparta Prague's Marc Pelosi made a brilliant diagonal run between the Argentine central defenders, flicking a header in off the post to give us an unbelievable 2-1 lead. Somehow, the defense did just enough to keep Argentina out (two goalline clearances certainly helped), and we walked off the pitch as 2-1 winners again. July 17 - Paraguay 1 - 1 United States - Our progress to the quarterfinals already assured, we just needed a draw against Paraguay to give us the group win. Marc Pelosi buried a penalty in the 31st minute, and the win seemed assured, as Paraguay were simply impotent in front of goal. Matthew Xaba, however, had other plans for us. The South African-born left back followed in the footsteps of Brek Shea, and was shown a straight red card in the 35th minute for just an awful tackle. Paraguay seized the advantage, and grabbed the equalizer early in the second half. They could not muster a second goal, however, and we claimed a solid 1-1 draw. With the draw, we won the group, despite being at 11 men for just 151 minutes of the 270 in the round. Quarterfinals July 21 - Chile 0 - 5 United States - The quarterfinal draw saw us paired with hosts Chile, who finished third in Group A. One would have expected them to really come out flying in front of their home fans, but that was certainly not the case today. Jozy Altidore put us in front in the 24th minute, and added two more before halftime to give him a first-half hat-trick, staking us to a huge lead. A Chile own goal early in the second half added to the embarrassment, before Alberto Casanova sealed the win with a header from a corner in the 90th minute. 5-0 to the United States, and on to the semifinal we went. We had a potential semifinal set up with Mexico, but to our delight, they were eliminated by Colombia, 1-0, in their quarterfinal. Semifinals Bracket July 24 - United States 2 - 0 Colombia - Group B was clearly the best group in the tournament. In addition to this rematch, Argentina were set to face Brazil in the other semifinal. We were confident going into this match, given our earlier win against Colombia, and the confidence was well-placed. Jozy Altidore continued his torrid form from the last match, making it 1-0 to the United States early on. Colombia barely had a sniff of our goal throughout, registering just three shots on target, along with just 36% of the possession. Mikkel Diskerud made our dominance count late on, his 85th-minute goal putting us up 2-0, sending Colombia out of the tournament after a very respectable run to the semis. Argentina crushed Brazil in the other semi, 4-1, but lost Lionel Messi to a suspension for the final due to yellow card accumulation. Final July 27 - United States 2 (1) - 2 (3) Argentina - Gahhhhh. So close to another trophy, yet so far. This was always going to be a tough match, as there was no chance that Argentina would again underestimate us. They were the dominant side, but we still managed to grab the lead in the early goings - a Brek Shea penalty putting us on the scoresheet. Sparta Prague's Pablo Salguero drew Argentina level just three minutes later, however, and Sergio Aguero put them up in the 60th minute. Somehow, we found an equalizer, with Gale Agbossoumonde heading in a trademark corner kick goal. That sent us to extra time, where Argentina threatened time and time again, but they couldn't find the back of the net. We had some pretty solid penalty takers lined up, but dear god, did they ever choke. Paul Manuel blasted his opening spot kick over the bar. Mark Orozco gave us hope when he buried his chance, but Marc Pelosi crushed those hopes when he hit nearly the exact same penalty as Manuel. Jozy Altidore ended our chances when he hit a horrible penalty directly at the Argentine keeper, sparking wild celebrations on the Argentina bench. Well, we never expected to get this far, but still, what an awful way to go out. On the bright side, our FIFA ranking is now up to 27th, much improved from the 64th place we found ourselves in when I took over the job. Winner 15th title Final Bracket Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArsenalMetro Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 Sparta Prague Summer 2019 Summer Transfers Preseason Friendlies Czech Super Cup Club Overview Facilities Finances Transfers in July 1 – Stephane Philippe Simo (Free – Little-Foot) July 1 – Domico Delgado (Free – Olympique Lyonnais) July 1 – Florian Tissot (€7 million – Olympique Lyonnais) July 1 – Rinaldo (€4.3 million – Liverpool) July 1 – Vaclav Zlamal (€525,000 – Sigma Olomouc) July 8 – Josip Grubisic (€2.5 million – Braga) July 8 – Neno Saric (€600,000 – Osijek) July 8 – Michael Keller (Free – Karlsruhe) July 14 – Mihajlo Vukomanovic (€5 million – Fiorentina) July 17 – Fernando Martinez (€40 million – Sporting Gijon) July 22 – Reagan Ndlovu (€700,000 – Thanda Royal Zulu) August 4 - Marek Stech (Free - West Ham) August 19 - Rolando Martinez (€625,000 - Xelaju) August 30 - Abdelouadoud Maouche (€1.5 million - AS Monaco) Transfers out June 20 – Manoel (€5 million – Fluminense) June 30 – Aaron Lennon (Free - Birmingham) June 30 – Lukas Zima (Free – Ceske Budejovice) July 6 – Stanislav Mracek (Loan – Zlin) July 6 – Petr Nespor (Loan – Zlin) July 6 – Cristian Botti (€2.5 million loan fee – Roma) July 6 – Mike Agu (€15 million – A.C. Milan) July 6 – Lukas Pospech (Loan – Zlin) July 7 – Joao Fernandes (Loan – FC Utrecht) July 9 – Patsy Byrne (€100,000 – Cowdenbeath) July 9 – Andreas Gronberg (Loan – FC Utrecht) July 9 – Jiri Nitriansky (Loan – AlbinoLeffe) July 9 – Christopher Gordon (Loan – Genoa) July 10 – Sandile Mdluli (€500,000 – Nacional de Madeira) July 11 – Alexandre Mane (€5,000 loan fee – Vizela) July 13 – Johan Hartock (€12,000 loan fee – Rapid Bucharest) July 20 – Alex Richards (Free) July 20 – Marek Vagner (Free) July 20 – Ladislav Cihlar (Free - Ceske Budejovice) July 22 – Fernando Ocampo (Loan – Zlin) August 8 – Vincent Aboubakar (€15 million – Juventus) August 18 – Michal Kubic (Free) September 2 - Abdelouadoud Maouche (Loan - Zlin) Mike Agu and Vincent Aboubakar saw their stays in Prague come to an end this summer. Agu never quite fit with the team, so we sent him out in order to help generate the funds to bring in Spanish starlet Fernando Martinez, who looks set to become a world superstar...and for that transfer fee, he'd better be. The rest of the players are prospects who will add some good depth to the side, and will hopefully challenge the entrenched starters in the coming years. Expected squad Preseason Matches/Czech Super Cup Mlada Boleslav 0 - 3 Sparta Prague It was a poor preseason by our standards, but we come out of it with yet another trophy - the Czech Super Cup. Hopefully we can get things going once the season starts. UEFA Champions League Perhaps our easiest draw yet. Porto is a good team, having reached last year's Champions League semifinals, but Copenhagen and Dynamo Kiev shouldn't provide much in the way of resistance. I expect us to coast to the knockout rounds as group winners. Board Expectations UEFA Champions League – Semifinal Gambrinus Liga – Winners Czech FA Cup – Not important European Super Cup – Winners Czech Super Cup – Not important Club World Cup – Winners Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArsenalMetro Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 September 2019 World Update World FIFA World Cup – Russia (2018) FIFA Confederations Cup – Russia (2017) FIFA U-20 World Cup - France Summer Olympics – Argentina (2016) FIFA Club World Cup – Liga de Quito (2018) Europe European Championship – Spain (2016) European U-21 Championship - Italy UEFA Champions League – Sparta Prague UEFA Europa League - Tottenham UEFA Super Cup - Sparta Prague South America Copa America - Argentina Copa Libertadores – Boca Juniors Copa Sudamericana – Velez (2018) North America CONCACAF Gold Cup - Mexico Central American Nations Cup - Guatemala Caribbean Championship – Trinidad and Tobago (2018) CONCACAF Champions League – Club America Asia Asian Cup - Qatar AFC Champions League – Tianjin (2018) Africa African Cup of Nations – Ghana CAF Champions League – Zamalek (2018) Oceania Oceania Nations Cup – New Zealand (2016) O-League – Waitakere United Argentina Primera Division Clausura - Velez Primera Division Apertura – Boca (2018) Brazil Serie A - Internacional Czech Republic Gambrinus Liga – Sparta Prague Czech FA Cup – Sparta Prague Czech Super Cup - Sparta Prague England Premier League - Liverpool FA Cup - Liverpool League Cup - Liverpool France Ligue 1 – Paris Saint-Germain Germany Bundesliga – Bayer Leverkusen Italy Serie A - Juventus Mexico Primera Division Clausura - Monterrey Primera Division Apertura – Chivas (2018) Netherlands Eredivisie - Ajax Portugal Primeira Liga – FC Porto Russia Premier League – CSKA Moscow Turkey Super Lig - Besiktas Ukraine Premier League – Shakhtar Donetsk United States Major League Soccer – New York (2018) Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup – Minnesota Stars (2018) Award Winners 2018 Ballon d’Or – Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 2018 World Player of the Year – Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 2018 Czech Player of the Year – Dusan Holub (Mlada Boleslav) 2018 Czech Young Player of the Year – Petr Kostal (Slavia Prague) 2018 USA Player of the Year – Andy Najar (Al-Sadd) 2018 USA Young Player of the Year – Roberto Castillo (AaB) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rancer890 Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 FM12 is too easy for you! And the only thing not going your way really are those youth intakes of all things... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 And Mexico are too strong even for you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArsenalMetro Posted December 15, 2011 Author Share Posted December 15, 2011 And Mexico are too strong even for you. Yep. But it was a lot closer than I ever expected. Hopefully we can reclaim the title in 2021, and do better than them in World Cup qualifying. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArsenalMetro Posted December 20, 2011 Author Share Posted December 20, 2011 2019-20 Midseason Report Winter Transfer Window Winter Friendlies 2019 Award Winners UEFA Champions League Group Table First Knockout Round Draw What I thought would be our easiest group yet was anything but. We were hugely disappointing away from home, only earning a point courtesy of a 3-3 draw in Porto. We needed a home win in our final match against Copenhagen, and despite dominating throughout, we were down 2-1 early in the second half. Luckily, the team really kicked into gear at the most crucial of times. Sebastian Vicente Moya brought us level in the 55th minute with his second goal of the match. Habib Onana scored a huge goal in his final Sparta Prague appearance in the 70th minute, putting us up 3-2, before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain sealed our progress with a goal in the third minute of added time. At the same time, Dynamo Kiev earned a shock win against Porto, so despite our horrible campaign, we progressed as group winners. For that, we were rewarded with a knockout tie with...Barcelona. Porto, for their trouble, were drawn up against CSKA Moscow, a tie that should see the tremendous Russian side progress. Barcelona have restored themselves to power in Spain, having qualified for the Spanish Cup final against Atletico Madrid, and they sit atop La Liga by a pretty hefty margin. They finished runners-up in a tough group to Bayer Leverkusen, and only progressed thanks to a 1-1 draw between Leverkusen and Olympique Lyonnais on the final matchday (A Lyon win would have seen them go through as winners, with Leverkusen advancing over Barcelona on head-to-head results). Russian club Anzhi finished bottom of the group. Still, Barcelona are always a tough test, but given our history against them, I'd put us as slight favorites to go through to the quarterfinals. Gambrinus Liga The season got off to a great start, when Pablo Salguero scored the first goal of the campaign just 16 seconds into our first match against Mlada Boleslav. Despite the start, we've been quite poor in the league thus far - two losses and four draws have left us just a point above the chasing pack. It's not for lack of quality, however; when we win, we still usually win big. It's really just been a matter of a lack of consistency. I'm really hoping that we find our footing as the season enters the second half. Czech FA Cup Reaching the FA Cup quarterfinals has again been a pretty easy task. We got our tournament started against an amateur side, and the reserves put them to the sword. Ahmed Shawky contributed four goals in a 10-0 rout, which is a club-record win. Club World Cup Final: Boca Juniors 0 - 5 Sparta Prague We finally cracked the Club World Cup. It was a frustrating opening match against Tehran's Esteghlal, but a late second half goal sent us through to the final against Copa Libertadores holders Boca Juniors. In the final, Mike Mitchell grabbed the opener, latching on to the end of a flicked header to slam the ball into an open goal. Pablo Salguero added a double before halftime, before Ronny Kaiser closed out the scoring with two of his own in the second half. Boca, it has to be said, tried to come out and actually play against us, rather than cowering in a defensive shell like Esteghlal. It proved a poor decision, however, allowing us to walk off as 5-0 winners. UEFA Super Cup I forgot to take a screenshot of the Super Cup final, but suffice it to say: Tottenham were wildly disappointing. They showed no attacking initiative, only registering one shot on target. We dominated the match, and claimed the Super Cup for the second year running. Squad Stats We've gone deep into the squad for some of our matches, as evidenced by the sheer number of players who have suited up for Sparta Prague so far this season. The notable performers are led (obviously) by Pablo Salguero, who has scored 18 goals in 20 appearances, despite a recent loss of goalscoring form. Big-money signing Ronny Kaiser has also done well for the club, reaching double-digits in goals before the halfway mark. Production has been pretty well-spread throughout the squad, which is both good and bad. It's good in that any player can pop up at any time to make a big impact. It's bad in that, outside of Salguero, we haven't really had any dominant players, which I feel has contributed to our poor start in the league, as well as our heart-stopping Champions League campaign. Winter Break Transfers in January 1 – Zac McMath (Free – Tromso) January 25 – Craig Holness (€20,000 – Frazers Whip) January 25 – Roberto Castillo (€2 million – AaB) Transfers out January 1 – Habib Onana (€17 million – Olympique Lyonnais) January 28 – Yu Jian (Loan – Dnipro) January 29 – Jiri Nemec (€1.6 million – Rapid Bucharest) February 3 – Reagan Ndlovu (Loan – Dnipro) February 4 – Gerard Shields (Loan – Dnipro) February 4 – Yona Banda (Loan – Dnipro) February 4 – Florian Tissot (Loan – Dnipro) February 7 – Stephane Philippe Simo (Loan – Dnipro) Winter break was productive for the club. We were invited to a two-match tour in China, which we accepted, and we played in front of some decent crowds while we were there. Next up was a tour of the United States, but we decided to have a quick stop-over in Japan. In America, we started out with a (personally) hugely satisfying win over the Los Angeles Galaxy, absolutely crushing them, 8-0. Colorado proved a sterner test, holding us to just the one goal. New York were just a shell of the team they were in my time there, and rolled over for us, 5-0. All in all, the American tour was a huge success, both financially and on the pitch. The American fans got to see four American internationals on the pitch with the European Champions (Soe Min Win, Marc Pelosi, Zac McMath, and Roberto Castillo), and we won our three matches by a combined 14-0. In the transfer window, we dove into action in the Caribbean and Scandinavia. From Jamaica, we signed left midfielder Craig Holness, who has some potential. What we're really hoping to do, however, is develop him and get him some first-team action out on loan, so we can sell him on for a nice profit. Zac McMath, the #1 goalkeeper for the United States, comes to us to serve as the backup to Henk Jan de Haas. I really wanted him to be playing for a better club than Tromso, and I figure that he'll still get a solid amount of playing time in Prague. That move made Gerard Shields expendable, so we loaned him out to our new Ukrainian affiliate. The other American coming to the club is central midfielder Roberto Castillo. For us, Castillo will be a Champions League specialist, as we play with a central midfielder only in that competition. On the domestic front, he'll see some spot duty as a left midfielder. January saw Habib Onana's time at Sparta Prague come to an end. Coming off of a long-term injury, Onana just hadn't recovered the way we had hoped. He scored just one goal in the first half, coming in his final match at the club, the 4-2 win over Copenhagen in the Champions League. Onana was an icon among Sparta supporters, and his pace and amazing goalscoring ability will certainly be missed. We were very happy, however, to get the fee for him that we did. Former Club Update New York Red Bulls Add another to the trophy case – with a shootout win over Seattle at MLS Cup 2019 in Bridgeview, Illinois, New York laid claim to their second consecutive league title, and fourth overall. The Red Bulls have also progressed to the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions League, where they were drawn against Chivas de Guadalajara. Robbie Rogers left the club in January, bringing the number of holdovers from my tenure to just three: Sheanon Williams, Freddy Adu, and Joao Paulo. United States Friendly Results World Cup Qualifying August 14 – Ghana 3 – 2 United States September 7 – Qatar 2 – 1 United States October 12 – United States 4 – 0 Senegal November 16 – United States 0 – 0 Spain November 20 – United States 3 – 1 Croatia It was a mixed bag of results for us in fall friendly matches. Losing to Ghana was expected - they're consistently a top-5 team in the world. Losing to Qatar, despite the fact that they won the Asian Cup in January, was hugely disappointing for us. Still, we came home and grabbed three nice results in a row. We dominated Senegal en route to a 4-0 win, played Spain well enough to draw, and downed Croatia. Mark Orozco, who is quickly becoming a star in the United States, was great throughout, scoring seven goals in the five matches. We have just one more friendly before our run-up to World Cup 2022 begins, and these are the teams that lie in our path: This is certainly the toughest draw we could have gotten. El Salvador showed us that they're a good side at the Gold Cup, and Canada and Panama always have the potential to spring a surprise. I still expect to top the group, with El Salvador coming in second, but this will be a difficult test. Either way, the top two sides get through to the Hex, so we're still in good shape. Upcoming fixtures June 6 – Switzerland (H) August 12 – El Salvador (A) September 5 – Panama (H) September 9 – Canada (H) October 10 – El Salvador (H) October 14 – Panama (A) November 14 – Poland (H) November 18 – Canada (A) World Update Award Winners 2019 Ballon d'Or - Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 2019 World Player of the Year - Lionel Messi (Barcelona) 2019 World Team of the Year 2019 Czech Player of the Year - Patrik Vacek (Rosenborg) 2019 Czech Young Player of the Year - Richard Nemec (Slask) 2019 USA Player of the Year - Fabio Salvigni (Real Salt Lake) 2019 USA Young Player of the Year - David Caldwell (San Jose) That's like, 10 Golden Balls in a row for Messi. I really want him to get knocked off of his perch, because it's quite dull. I've left him completely off of my ballot every time, hoping to make the difference in a close race, but it's been for naught. In the United States, Argentine-born Fabio Salvigni claimed the Player of the Year award, while young rightback David Caldwell grabbed the Young Player of the Year award. Caldwell is just beginning to feature with the senior national team, and is looking to stake his claim to the backup spot there over James McElroy, who currently plays in Cyprus. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
City2000 Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Nice work adding the Club World Cup to your list of honours and also the Super Cup Looks like things are going along relatively nicely so far this year although as you say maybe not as much consistency as you would like, good luck against Barca! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.W.G Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Looking very good so far,good luck against Barca in the Knockout stages.Unlucky with missing out on international victories,it will just make the moment when you win one even more sweeter! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArsenalMetro Posted December 29, 2011 Author Share Posted December 29, 2011 Update: The new patch has slowed my game to an absolute crawl, to the point where it was taking 20 minutes to get through a match. So, if anyone has any suggestions to improve my game's performance, short of playing on commentary-only mode, let me know. As it stands, FM12 is hardly even worth playing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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