[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

[pearcey_90]

Seem to be a consistent top 4 side. Hopefully you can push on that extra bit and finish top

[duffy89]

Seem to be a consistent top 4 side. Hopefully you can push on that extra bit and finish top

Cheers pal, we've definitely established ourself up there, like you said, we just need a little bit extra!

[GazTheDoood]

Good luck pushing for the top spot mate!

[Deisler26]

Fantastic first few seasons! Really impressive!

[duffy89]

Fantastic first few seasons! Really impressive!

Good luck pushing for the top spot mate!

Cheers guys

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 16/17

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

Pre-Season

Fixtures

As per usual, just some warm ups.

Transfers

Ok let’s get into the transfer business. First of all, who’s going out. John Mensah has now retired, thanks for all your help big man On top of that, Chis Katongo has announced his desire to retire at the end of the season so we’ll be saying goodbye to him soon too, but he can still play a part this season. Tony Tsabedze suffered a bad injury last season and has declined quite a bit, so to free up some wages I’m letting him leave on a free transfer. Again, thanks for the memories Tony Boy. A couple of others left as I constantly try to tighten up our wages, whilst keeping an eye on our foreign player limit.

So with those lads leaving I was able to bring in some fresh blood and here they are:

Robin Swartz - DL/ML – Loan – Robin comes in on a season long loan from Sundowns and can play anywhere up the left giving me some good cover.

Ousmane Coulibaly- DR/DL – Free - I think this is a great capture for the club. Ousmane is a proven international and can play either left or right back. Should help tighten up our back line this year.

Moussa Ouattara- MR/AMR - Free -With Mensah and Tsabedze leaving I had a couple of foreign spots free and will be filling one of them with this lad when he arrives in December. Still only 19, I’m very excited to see what this direct and pacey winger can do.

Welcome to the Cosmos lads!

[deltablue]

Well done keeping 3rd.

[duffy89]

Well done keeping 3rd.

Cheers delta

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 16/17

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

August & September

Fixtures

League Table

After a bit of a shaky start and a disappointing loss away to Amazulu in the Super 8, we started to find our form. We’ve not played any of the big boys yet but 6 wins from 7 in the league is fantastic and for the first time since I took on this job, we’re starting to keep some clean sheets which I’m very happy about.

As expected, Sundowns and Orlando Pirates have had made an equally good start, both are on 19 points whilst I sit 3rd on 18 points. At least no one has a 100% record, unlike last year at this stage.

In October & November we have our first games against Sundowns (H), Orlando Pirates(A) and Kaiser Chiefs(H). These are the games we usually struggle with and I think we need 5-6 points at least out of those fixtures to have a chance of winning the title.

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 16/17

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

October & November

Fixtures

League Table

These were always going to be a crucial couple of months for us. We got off to a great start, with a win over Kaiser Chiefs but I’m disappointed with the way we ended the November. Draws away to Orlando and Maritzburg are fine but we really needed to beat Sundowns at home to close the gap on them. We controlled the match start to finish but just couldn’t find that second goal as the match ran out 1-1.

Sundowns are now in a commanding position in the league and sit 8 points ahead of us. Orlando Pirates remain 1 point ahead of us in 2nd.

There is some good news, though. We’re into the final of the Knockout Cup! We’ve been the team of the tournament scoring 14 goals and conceding 3 on our way to the final. The final itself gets played next month and we’re up against…Orlando Pirates. Boo!

In all honesty, I think we’ve got a great chance of picking up our first piece of silverware and although it doesn’t help with the greater tetradecagon challenge, it’d be great to win it. Espescially as it gives us the opportunity to get a one up on one of our hated rivals!

[pearcey_90]

Won 6 of first 7 league games and you wasn't top?! Seems like a tough league South Africa. Most other leagues would have a point r two cushion early on. Sundowns seem stupidly strong Hopefully they stumble!

[duffy89]

Won 6 of first 7 league games and you wasn't top?! Seems like a tough league South Africa. Most other leagues would have a point r two cushion early on. Sundowns seem stupidly strong Hopefully they stumble!

Tell me about it! Here's hoping pal, it's starting to get a wee bit annoying

[john1]

You've come a long way with Cosmos Some cracking regens you got in the team. Good luck!

[duffy89]

You've come a long way with Cosmos Some cracking regens you got in the team. Good luck!

Cheers John, I definitely owe lot to the youth system. I've done a bit of digging and it looks like Cosmos are really pushing youth football in real life with a little help from Benfica: http://www.goal.com/en-za/news/4666/south-africa/2013/02/09/3738006/jomo-cosmos-and-benfica-partnership-paves-the-way-for

I love the Sono family

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 16/17

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

December

Fixtures

League Table

As you can see we’ve won the Knockout Cup! I’m absolutely over the moon with this and it was made even sweeter by coming from a goal down to beat Orlando who had outdone us so many times in the past. The goals of the match are well worth a watch, apologies for the poor quality but my laptop has pish graphics!

[video=youtube_share;55Dauul-aZo]http://youtu.be/55Dauul-aZo

I think we were easily the better team here and were unlucky when we went down 1-0 on the stroke of half time.In the second half I pushed up as far as we could and went into overload in hope of an equaliser before something magical happened – Ntamo picks up the ball god knows how far out and fires in an absolute beauty in the 79th minute! Where did that come from?! If that wasn’t enough Mzizi scores an equally quality goal in the 89th minute as we take the lead and the crowd go ballistic!

I’ll be putting this on the mantle:

Anyway, back to the league and we’ve managed to close the gap on Sundowns to 5 points after securing back to back wins in December. Things are starting to look up and this topped off a great month:

[john1]

Congrats on winning The Knockout Cup Good to get one over Orlando Pirates

[duffy89]

Congrats on winning The Knockout Cup Good to get one over Orlando Pirates

Just need to do the same to Sundowns and I'll be happy!

[deltablue]

Good to beat the Pirates and get ahead of them, that just leaves Sundowns.

[B.W.G]

Excellent season so far,hopefully you can takeover Sundowns at the top of the table!

[GazTheDoood]

Really hope you can beat Sundowns to the title this year mate.

[duffy89]

Excellent season so far,hopefully you can takeover Sundowns at the top of the table!

Good to beat the Pirates and get ahead of them, that just leaves Sundowns.

Really hope you can beat Sundowns to the title this year mate.

Cheers for the support lads! In the words of Kevin Keegan, I would love it if we beat them!

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 16/17

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

January

Fixtures

League Table

I should be over the moon this month after winning 4 games out of 5 but that last defeat to SuperSport Utd has left a sour taste in my mouth. We had a chance to close the gap on Sundowns to 3 points with a win but in the end we crumbled. Needless to say I went mental at the players after the match. If we’re going to catch Sundowns we can’t afford to lose games like these.

Transfers

Mamoudou Mara – DC/DR – Free – With Sarr on the decline we need a new rock at the back and I reckon this man will do the job nicely.

Sandile Sibande - MC – Free – Sandile will be arriving on a free transfer at the end of the season after signing a pre contract deal with us. Has plenty of experience with Orlando and I’m delighted to have pinched him from them.

Mandala Masango – MC/MR/AMC/AMR – Free – Another man signed on a pre contract from one of our rivals. Mandla will become our first full international South African! I think this signing as well as Sandile’s shows how far we’ve come.

Obinna Stephen Odinakachaku– ST/AMR – Free – Trying saying that after a few pints! Obinna looks like a great prospect and will add some pace to our frontline.

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 16/17

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

February & March

Fixtures

League Table

A nearly perfect couple of months for us here as we move within 4 points of Sundowns with 6 games to go. We have some HUGE games coming up, our next 2 fixtures are Sundowns (A) and Orlando (H).

Make or break time.

I also tied up a contract extension this month:

Youth Intake

No real stand outs this year, unfortunately.

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 16/17

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

April

Fixtures

League Table

Squeaky. Bum. Time.

Every game is a cup final at the moment. Somehow we find ourself top of the league on goal difference after a fantastic month. Here’s the run ins for the top 3:

Jomo Cosmos

Sundowns

Orlando Pirates

So we have the easiest run in by far and Sundowns and Orlando still have to play each other. I’m not taking anything for granted though, we neeed 6 points and we need to keep the goal difference up.

I was delighted to see this too, come on lads!!!

Amongst all the chaos, we’ve also made it to the South African Cup Semis and will play Orlando Pirates.

[john1]

Come on Duffy you can do it!

[duffy89]

Come on Duffy you can do it!

Cheers John, time to do this!

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 16/17

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

May

Fixtures

League Table

CHAMPIONE, CHAMPIONE, OLE, OLE, OLE!!!

We’ve only gone and done it! We emphatically won our last 2 Premier League games and with Sundowns losing points on the last day of the season we won the title by 2 points!

If that wasn’t enough we won the South African Cup too! Beating Orlando was the hard part before setting up a final against non-league underdogs, Maritzburg City, in which we ran out 4-1 winners!

What a season! We’ve won the treble but most importantly we’ve got ourself into the African Champions League which is the main goal for my time in Africa. The real work starts now but for now I’ll enjoy this and add these 2 trophies to my cabinet:

Players of the Year

Bongani Parker- DC - This was Bongani’s first senior season and what a season he’s had. Showed great maturity for his tender age.

Matsilele Sono – MC – Captain Fantastic himself really came alive when needed this season. 10 goals and 17 assists is a fantastic return from centre mid, he really is a wonderful player and I think he deserves this:

INDUCTEE TO HALL OF FAME

Matsilele Sono - MC - Jomo Cosmos 2013 - Present

Mxolisi Mathopa- ST - Mxolisi was top goalscorer this season bagging an impressive 23 goals in 25 appearances. Still only 19, this kid just keeps getting better. He also won this:

[deltablue]

Yes!!!!! When I saw the others had to play each other I felt you could do it.

[B.W.G]

Congrats on the title win!

[SRL88]

Brilliant work on the title.

[duffy89]

Yes!!!!! When I saw the others had to play each other I felt you could do it.

Congrats on the title win!

Brilliant work on the title.

Thanks everyone! The battle is only half won though, exited to get a taster of the CL!

It's a shame the first round doesn't start until March!

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 17/18

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

Pre-Season

Fixtures

Nothing much to report here.

Transfers

Despite having £1m in the bank now after having won our treble last season we still only have a transfer budget of 30k which is restricting who we can sign and I can only really do so once I’ve moved someone on.

I was still able to do a bit of wheeling and dealing and signed up 2 new players:

George Khozo – MC/AMC – Free - Wow! What a prospect! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when my scouts recommended this youngster to me. Needless to say I snapped him up on a free transfer from amateur side, School of Excellence, straight away.

Sibusiso Khumalo- DL - Free – Sibusiso is a left back with bags of experience and will add some great depth to our back line.

Welcome to the Cosmos boys!

[john1]

Congrats on the title Monster results in pre season George Khozo looks a promising prospect!

[duffy89]

Congrats on the title Monster results in pre season George Khozo looks a promising prospect!

Cheers mate! Haha I think it was more shooting practice for lads, for some reason its hard to arrange friendlies against decent opposition, Orlando were the only good team there.

I kknow, very excited to see what this kid can do!

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 17/18

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

August & September

Fixtures

League Table

We’ve had a bit of a slow start here and to be honest it didn’t help that we had nearly half our team out at the U20 World Cup with South Africa for most of August. I was very disappointed to lose at home to Orlando Pirates, I hope we don’t regret that come the end of the season.

That means we sit in 6th place, 8 points behind Kaiser Chiefs who have made a perfect start to the season.

This isn’t good enough and we really need to pick up the pace lest we get left behind.

On top of that Kaiser Chiefs dumped us out of the Super 8 cup in the Semis.

There was also this, shame its not a tycoon but we’ll see what happens!

[GazTheDoood]

Fantastic title win last year mate, huge congratulations. Takeover could be interesting.

[pearcey_90]

Top result winning league last season . Sundowns finally stumbled

Kasier look to be the challenge this season early on.

[efrumttr]

Congrats on getting the title! Now on to the CL.

[AK22]

Brilliant progress made with the Cosmos already

Will be interesting to see how you get on in the Champions League.

[duffy89]

Fantastic title win last year mate, huge congratulations. Takeover could be interesting.

Cheers Gaz, yeah about the takeover...

Top result winning league last season . Sundowns finally stumbled

Kasier look to be the challenge this season early on.

I was so delighted to beat that lot after so much hurt! Cheers Pearcey

Congrats on getting the title! Now on to the CL.

Thanks mate, looking forward to the challenge!

Brilliant progress made with the Cosmos already

Will be interesting to see how you get on in the Champions League.

Cheers AK, it's just a shame we won't see any CL action until February for the qualifying round!

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 17/18

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

October & November

Fixtures

League Table

This is more like the Cosmos I know! A near perfect month including a great 6-3 win away to Kaiser Chiefs see us move up to 2nd in the league. Orlando Pirates are 8 points ahead of us but we do have 2 games in hand.

We also have a chance of defending the Knockout Cup and will face Sundowns in the final next month.

So much for the takeover:

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 17/18

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

December

Fixtures

League Table

Our great from continued into December as we had a fantastic month! The gap to Orlando Pirates has been reduced to 2 points as we won our games in hand.

The game of the season will be when we play Orlando away from home at the end of January, I’m fully expecting to pay them back after they did us over earlier on this season.

On top of that we won the Knockout Cup again! A tense game against Sundowns went all the way to penalties, which we won 5-4!

This was pretty good to see as well:

[Blanco]

Shame about the takeover, looking good to catch Orlando otherwise though...

[duffy89]

Shame about the takeover, looking good to catch Orlando otherwise though...

Cheers pal, I'm not sure if it would've done much for us anyway as it was only a consortium.

I think this definitelly a 2 horse race now, the good thing is that the top 2 teams qualify for the ACL this season rather than just the winner, so that takes some of the pressure off.

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 17/18

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

January

Fixtures

League Table

Despite this incredibly frustrating month, we’re still only 2 points behind Orlando.

We should be top of the table though, we dominated Sundowns at home yet couldn’t win and surrendered a 1-0 lead to Orlando in the last 20 minutes of the match.

It looks like the board are determined to sell the club as takeover talks start up with another potential buyer:

This month also meant a new contract for myself, a no brainer as I’ll be here until we win the ACL, speaking of which, the preliminary round starts next month!

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 17/18

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

February & March

Fixtures

League Table

An absolutely fantastic month for us as we went on a winning spree. Let’s start with the league. We won 6 straight games in February & March but unfortunately so did Orlando so the gap remains 2 points with 4 games to go. We’re still in with a great shout but we need Orlando to slip up.

We’ve had our first taster of Champions League football too, we absolutely trounced Ethiopian side, Saint George, 16-0 on aggregate to get us into the first round proper. We’re up against Algerians ES Setif who will be much sterner opposition but we’ve put ourselves in a strong position by drawing 3-3 away from home in the first leg.

March also saw the start of the SA Cup, and we won our first game away to Ajax.

Plenty going on at the moment!

Youth Intake

Another pretty poor intake, I think in part it’s due to our facilities having been downgraded and the board refusing to upgrade them!

[duffy89]

[FM14] It's not you, it's me. I just can't do club monogamy anymore!

Jomo Cosmos – 17/18

duffy89 - Tetradecagon Challenge

April & May

Premier League

League Table

It was the match against Thanda Royal Zulu which lost us the league. 2-1 up at half time we ended up losing 3-2, god knows how. It meant that despite winning our last 2 games, Orlando would finish 2 points above us as long as they won their last 2 games, which, of course, they did.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, this year the top 2 teams qualify for the Champions League so we’ll still be playing on the continent next year.

As you can see we had no problem scoring goals, but you need to be able to defend a lead too and keep clean sheets to win the league too.

Takeover complete and I've still got my job! I don't think it's changed much though, the new chairman hasn't put his hand in his pocket!

Champions League

After our draw away from home we beat ES Setif 1-0 on our own turf to set up a second round tie against Ivory Cost side, ASEC. The tie was over after the first leg here, as we pumped them 5-0 away from home. This put us into the group stages:

Champions League – Group

Not the easiest group by al means, Al-Hilal should be fine but Etoile du Sahel have quality and ES Tunis are defending champions.

There are 2 groups of 4 with matches starting in July. 2 Teams go through to the semi final from each group.

It’s a weird having the competition split out over 2 seasons and we’ve only got time for a couple of friendlies before the group stages begin so match fitness may be an issue.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens at the start of next season!

South African Cup

After securing a big win away to Sundowns our run to the final was relatively straight forward setting up a match against National League side, Chippa Utd. Here’s how it played out:

So that makes it back to back SA Cup wins which means we celebrate a cup double this year, not too shabby!

Players of the Year

Mandla Masango – MC – Our new signing had an absolute fantastic season, setting up and scoring plenty of goals.

Malesela Moses- MR - Malesela Moses was an absolute assist machine this season! Has now been capped at senior level despite only being 20.

Obinna Stephen Odinakachaku- ST - This lad scores when he wants, he’s an absolute assassin in front of the goals and was our top goalscorer for the season.

[AK22]

I didn't realise they played football in Ethiopia!

Looks like the Pirates pushed hard in the league, especially as you still had a more than decent season.

[duffy89]

I didn't realise they played football in Ethiopia!

Looks like the Pirates pushed hard in the league, especially as you still had a more than decent season.

Obviously not very well!

Aye, they really stepped up, last year we won the title on 69 points and lost out with 71 points this season which says it all!

[duffy89]

Goodness me, we're struggling to get fit in time for this first CL group match! I've chosen the longest pre season possible and squeezed in a couple of quick friendlies but it hasn't really helped much To be fair, the lads haven't had much of a rest and I feel a bit sorry for them!