Bedese Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 Youth Intake Day! With this, another keeper throws his hat into the ring to be our starter. He's smaller than I'd like a keeper to be, and he definitely needs tutoring, but we haven't had a 5* PA player come through in a long time, so I'm very excited about him. Holy ****! 16 tackling! He looks unbelievable. If he can improve on his physicals, we've just hit the jackpot. 16 tackling! He's not superb, but with our CM trio getting older we need some replacements, and so I've tagged Del Carlo just in case. I need to remove that PPM ASAP though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 Season Review Campionato Sammarinese: Table Schedule A good league campaign, topped off with an emphatic win in the final. Coppa Titano: Table Schedule I'm perfectly fine to let Virtus keep winning this, as long as we get the victories where it counts in the league. Squad Key Players: Highest Average Rating:Mattia Molinari (YP90) - 8.16He's so good, but he's nearly 30.Top Goalscorer:Paolo Muccioli (YP89) - 24He's hit 30, and with so many talented young strikers in our squad he's going to get phased out soon in favour of one of them.Manager's Player of the Year:Davide Volpi (YP93)If he hadn't been injured for a few months with a damaged Achilles he would have been our top scorer, so I'll give him this to make up for it. Aims for next season: I love where our squad is at right now. Some of the players we're getting through are more technically gifted than we've ever seen. Are we ready to take on the big boys of qualifying? Probably not, but I'm hopeful we can sneak into the groups anyway. Other teams: League Winners: Cup Winners: Virtus beat Faetano 2-0 in the final. How the team in CL qualifying did: Olympiakos beat us 3-0 in the Third Round. How the teams in Europa qualifying did: Villareal beat us 7-2 in the Playoff. Virtus lost 3-1 to Shakhter Soligorsk from Belarus, Murata lost 6-0 to Aberdeen and Fiorentino lost 1-0 to Slovenians Olympija. San Marino National team: 2081 Results -- 2082 Results We should be beating Malta, but a draw against Greece makes up for that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 I like their name, but the Northern Irish Champions shouldn't give us much bother. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 Malmo, I'd be delighted with. Cluj or Haifa, I'd be happy with. Red Star and Dinamo, no thank you. Dinamo especially. Just **** off. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 They're our arch nemesis. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 It's so frustrating. We defended like heroes for the entire game (Pietro Bacciocchi (YP101) in particular was immense in goal after I decided to name him the #1 GK for us this season) but one badly defended corner ruined all of that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 By the time we actually woke up, it was too late. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 Not only do they usually make the group, but they often progress through it as well. Sigh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 We need to get some better players in midfield to replace the older ones who just aren't at the same level they used to be. We also need to learn how to defend (and attack) set pieces, which is something I'm going to be taking a close look at to see if we can improve in those areas. I did change the tactic slightly, swapping the Target Man for a Poacher, using Claudio Lopez (YP100) as my Advanced Forward and Davide Volpi (YP93) as my Poacher. I don't like playing with two small strikers, but we don't really have a choice. Lopez was disappointing in Europe, but his stats look great, and I'm going to give him a lot of gametime to see if he can develop into the player I think he can. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyyImRyan Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Awful draws the past couple of seasons! Is it not surprising how poorly the other sides seem to do in qualifiers though? Virtus seem to be consistently good in the league but never seem to progress at all in the Europa League quals... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Pity you appear to be stuck in a pattern year on year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Awful draws the past couple of seasons! Is it not surprising how poorly the other sides seem to do in qualifiers though? Virtus seem to be consistently good in the league but never seem to progress at all in the Europa League quals... I've been pretty disappointed with Virtus. I'd say they're not that much worse than we are, but they just can't seem to do it in Europe. It would be so useful to have two teams in San Marino doing well in qualifying to help the league's coefficient, but they haven't made a mark so far. They're the only Sammarinese team that I'm hopeful for - none of the others are good enough in my mind to ever win a European game unless it's an easy draw for them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Pity you appear to be stuck in a pattern year on year. I'm going to try tweaking some things to try and break the pattern, because I agree - right now we win by a few goals in the Second Round, get destroyed away from home in the Third Round and get battered in the Europa Playoff. We've been conceding a fair few goals from set pieces and strikers getting in behind us, so I'm going to drop our defensive line and tinker with our defensive set piece routines. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Youth Intake Day! Stupidly, I forgot to take a picture of the entire team, but here's the only notable player anyway: He looks pretty good. He needs tutoring, and I need to get him natural as a CM, but he looks like he could be my BWM for the future, which is great. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Season Review Campionato Sammarinese: Table Schedule I didn't expect my new corner tactic to pay dividends so soon, but two goals from corners in the final means we staved off Virtus for another title. Coppa Titano: Table Schedule A... a double? Squad Key Players: Highest Average Rating:Mattia Berti (YP87) - 7.72As good as he was, his legs are going.Top Goalscorer:Davide Volpi (YP93) - 24He wasn't bad, but with so many good young strikers coming through he's got a job on to keep his place in his team.Manager's Player of the Year:Claudio Lopez (YP100)Here's one such player. He took a while to get going, but he was on fire before his injury. Aims for next season: Groups? Other teams: League Winners: Cup Winners: How the team in CL qualifying did: Dinamo beat us 4-0 in the Third Round. How the teams in Europa qualifying did: Brugge beat us 8-1 in the Playoff. Tre Fiori lost 3-1 to Estonians Levadia, Virtus lost 3-2 to Armenians Banants (really?) and Fiorentino lost 2-1 to Slovan Bratislava. San Marino National team: 2082 Results -- 2083 Results Cyprus won the group with 6 wins from 6, but we should have easily beaten Gibraltar twice. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Lester Connor (YP83) wanted too much money to stick around considering he's now a shell of his old self, and so he's left the club on a free transfer (the same actually happened to Gabriele Muraccini (YP84) last season). It's a shame that these guys won't play their entire careers for us, but we can't afford to waste money on people who we have no use for anymore. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 The Macedonian Champions did actually make it to the Third Round the last time they were in the CL, but that was 14 years ago. I expect a win. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Haifa or Cluj. Red Star wouldn't even be a nightmare. Just don't give me Salzburg or Dinamo. Yes! They're probably going to beat us, but they're a lot easier than Dinamo or Salzburg. If we want to make the Groups, we're not going to get a much better chance than now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 I know we've beaten them the last two times we met, but that was back in 2056 and 2058. I'm under no illusions that they're still a very good team who often make it to the Groups (they did last season, as a matter of fact), but they're not as strong as the teams we usually get, so we need to take this opportunity. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 I'm so disappointed. We took the lead but threw it away when Pietro Bacciocchi (YP101) completely misjudged a cross, letting it go straight past him. They followed that with a scrappy rebound, a corner goal and another rebound to all but knock us out. We should have done so much better. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 2 of their goals were from set pieces. That's not why we lost, but we really need to work out how to defend them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 They're Ukranian, and they're more likely to make it to the Knockout Rounds than they are to not make the Groups. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 I might have underestimated Haifa - they just beat Dinamo 2-1 to make the Group Stages. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 A poor away leg meant that we were never going to go through, but a draw at home to Zorya is a very respectable result. We need to be able to start performing away from home, and I think I'm going to try out having our BWM play as a DM again, just to give us an extra body in the defensive ranks as oneronaldo suggested earlier. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Youth Intake Day! I need to retrain him to WB ASAP, because there's no way I'm wasting someone this good. If we can use him as a RWB with the freedom to run with the ball (I love that he already has the PPM 'runs with ball often'), he could be a huge threat for us. His defensive stats aren't terrible either. He's got some good mentals, and I love that he's two footed, but his technicals aren't that great. My assistant clearly rates him, and I think he's decent, but currently I don't think he deserves 2* CA for us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Season Review Campionato Sammarinese: Table Schedule Another good win. Coppa Titano: Table Schedule They always seem to beat us in the cup, but I don't mind as long as we win where it counts. Squad Key Players: Highest Average Rating:Orazio Landini (YP94) - 7.94He had a good year, but with Andrea Manca (YP106) coming through our latest intake, he's probably lost his starting spot. Football is a cruel game sometimes.Top Goalscorer:Davide Volpi (YP93) - 37He was back to his best, and I'm hoping he's got one or two more years left in him.Manager's Player of the Year:Claudio Lopez (YP100)I love him. He's so fun to watch play. Aims for next season: The Haifa games definitely dented my confidence, but I'm still hopeful we might be able to get to the Groups. Other teams: League Winners: Cup Winners: Virtus beat us in the final. How the team in CL qualifying did: Maccabi Haifa beat us 8-3 in the Third Round. How the teams in Europa qualifying did: Zorya beat us 5-2 in the Playoff. Folgore lost 5-0 to Slovakians Trencin, Fiorentino lost 6-0 to Jabonlec from the Czech Republic, and Virtus lost 3-1 to Cukaricki from Serbia. San Marino National team: 2083 Results -- 2084 Results 11-0... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 The Northern Irish Champions shouldn't give us much, if any trouble. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Muccioli was a good striker for us for many years, but was always 'the other guy' in his partnership with Volpi upfront. He leaves us with 195 goals in 295 games, 53 assists, 49 MOTMs and an average rating of 7.56. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 The other pot is a lot easier (it has Celtic, Copenhagen, Malmo, Cluj and Lech), and there's no-one here that I see us beating. I want another shot at Haifa, though. God damnit. Not them again... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 They just beat Valletta 17-0, so yeah. They did lose to Haifa in the Playoff last year, though, so maybe they aren't as good as we've previously made them look... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 We actually played pretty well, but they took their chances (more because of terrible defending/goalkeeping than anything else) and we squandered some real golden ones. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 I'm absolutely delighted with this. For the first time ever, our play actually matched Dinamo's over the two legs. We not only created chances but we created good chances, as evidenced by the four goals we managed to get away from home. They were definitely the better team overall, but they weren't that much better, and that's huge. If we can keep this level of play up, we have a real chance of making some noise in Europe in the near future. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 This is a really interesting pot. If we get Astra or Vorskia, I think we might actually be able to make the groups. Game on! In fairness, they almost always make the group when they qualify for Europa, but I don't think they're anywhere near as strong as some of the teams we've faced in Europe before. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 We just couldn't hit the target (although we did have a goal ruled out for offside) and now we've got a very tall order at home if we want to progress. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 We just didn't get in behind them as much as I'd have liked. We did pretty well in Europe this year, but we need to keep this same kind of play going next season. I'm going to stick with having my BWM as a DM rather than a CM in Europe, because it seemed to help us out in breaking down attacks and giving us another passing option when building from the back. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherwinriga Posted April 23, 2016 Share Posted April 23, 2016 I missed the thread because of busy things to accomplish. So, I looked at the updates and San Giovanni are really looked good on the domestic results, but not the international competitions. I'll going to ask questions again. 1.) Is Paolo Muccioli and Roberto Tini are still playing or retiring to join politics? 2.) What are the fates of your opponents from 2079 to 2084? 3.) What are the accomplishments of the random small nations like Cyprus and Liechtenstein? 4.) Are any other Sammarinese best players in this year? 5.) Is San Giovanni's finance were good or bad? I hope that this challenge will last for almost 100 years. Good luck on the next season! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 1.) Is Paolo Muccioli and Roberto Tini are still playing or retiring to join politics? Muccioli currently doesn't have a club, but he hasn't retired just yet. Roberto Tini has joined Faetano, but he's only played once for them so far. 2.) What are the fates of your opponents from 2079 to 2084? 2079: Zurich made it to the CL groups but only picked up one point. Galatasaray made it through the groups, but got knocked out in the First Knockout Round by Standard. 2080: Roma made it to the First Knockout Round, but lost to FC Twente. 2081: Olympiakos came third in their CL group, making it to the First Knockout Round of the Europa League where they lost to Benfica on away goals. Villareal made it to the First Knockout Round, but lost to Club Brugge. 2082: Dinamo made it to the CL groups and came third, but got knocked out in the First Knockout Round of Europa by CSKA Moscow. Brugge didn't make it through a tough Europa group, with Tottenham, Lille and Dinamo Bucharest in. They beat Bucharest twice, but got no points against Lille or Spurs. 2083: Haifa beat Dinamo to make it to the CL groups, but got just one point in them (a draw against Shakhtar). Zorya got three points in their Europa group, only beating Plzen once. 2084: Dinamo came bottom in their CL group, although they did beat Chelsea 2-1 at home. Vorskia came bottom of their Europa group with just one point. 3.) What are the accomplishments of the random small nations like Cyprus and Liechtenstein? Unfortunately, no small nations seem to have progressed to the finals of any major tournament lately. 4.) Are any other Sammarinese best players in this year? Nope. The best players for the NT are all ours. 5.) Is San Giovanni's finance were good or bad? It's bad, and it's my fault. After we made the Europa Group stage I upgraded my training facilities because I thought we easily had enough money to do so, forgetting that we aren't politicians and so we have to pay tax. We're currently on -179k, and we'll probably be 400k in the red by the end of the season. It's not disastrous, but it's not great. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 Youth Intake Day! He looks like a decent keeper. He's going to find it tough to get gametime with the amount of keepers we have in the squad, but it's worth keeping an eye on him. He could be a decent depth striker, although I don't like his PPMs. He's undersized, but he looks like a decent depth CB. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 Season Review Campionato Sammarinese: Table Schedule We needed penalties to get past Virtus in our first game, but after Faetano knocked them out in the Sixth Round it was plain sailing for us. Coppa Titano: Table Schedule Not fussed. Squad Key Players: Highest Average Rating:Andrea Manca (YP106) - 7.76He doesn't want to renew his contract, so we might be losing him in a few years.Top Goalscorer:Davide Volpi (YP93) - 34We might be able to get two years out of him before he declines too badly.Manager's Player of the Year:Claudio Lopez (YP100)He doesn't score loads, but he's a vital part of our team. Aims for next season: We played well enough in Europe last year to make me hopeful we might be able to sneak into the groups, but it's not that likely. Other teams: League Winners: Cup Winners: Virtus beat Murata in the final. How the team in CL qualifying did: Dinamo beat us 6-4 in the Third Round. How the teams in Europa qualifying did: Vorskia beat us 2-0 in the Playoff. Virtus lost 3-2 to Norwegian side Aalesund, Fiorentino lost 4-2 to TNS and Juvenes Dogana lost 3-0 to Norwegian side Valerenga. San Marino National team: 2084 Results -- 2085 Results We should have done better in the Nations League. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 Another Northern Irish team wants to try their luck against us in the Second Round. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 Brilliant. That's going to make our European journey a lot harder. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 This is a ridiculously hard pot, considering the other one has Malmo, Haifa, Young Boys (who've really dropped off lately), FC Midtylland and Legia. Cluj are the only one I'd be happy with, but as long as we avoid Olympiakos and Celtic I won't need to punch my computer. Get in! I don't think we're ever going to get a weaker team than Cluj, so this is a golden chance for us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 After a 10-1 win at home, we heavily rotated our squad for the second leg. They were knocked out in the Third Round by Sparta Prague last year, but usually make it to the Playoff. They haven't made the groups since 2067, though, and they're definitely weaker than teams like Dinamo. We were close to beating them in 2055 and 2067, although they beat us 9-4 ten years ago. It's not going to be an easy game, but it's the easiest one we could have had. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 What a ridiculous way to lose. After 4 minutes, they got a penalty for... I don't know. I can't tell you what it was for, because I haven't worked it out yet. It got Luca Amici (YP107) booked for dissent anyway, and they scored it. We equalised but in the 34th minute they scored from a corner, as a header went straight through the hands of Mirco Casali (YP102). Amici then got a second booking for a foul, and they scored off a cross from that free kick. All three goals were from stupid dead ball situations, and I'm really not happy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 We might have had bad luck and some big injuries, but we were still poor over the two legs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 Cluj are technically better than Steaua because Cluj are the ones winning the league, but Steaua are usually even harder to play against. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 I'm going to try and make some tactical changes if I can, because this just isn't working at the moment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 Youth Intake Day! No-one even close to being worth a tag this year. It's a shame, but I can't complain after the intakes we've had recently. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 Season Review Campionato Sammarinese: Table Schedule I don't know why Virtus seem to always beat us initially in the playoffs, but I'm glad they choose to do it there rather than the final. Coppa Titano: Table Schedule Don't care. Squad Key Players: Highest Average Rating:Claudio Lopez (YP100) - 8.14I tweaked my tactic a bit, moving him down to CAM as a Shadow Striker, and he thrived there.Top Goalscorer:Davide Volpi (YP93) - 26He was pretty poor in truth, and I'm expecting one of our younger strikers to take over that role next season.Manager's Player of the Year:Andrea Manca (YP106)I want to see him do it in Europe for us next season. Aims for next season: I was really disappointed with our performance in Europe last season, and I want to see us improve this year. Other teams: League Winners: Cup Winners: Fiorentino beat us in the final. How the team in CL qualifying did: Cluj beat us 5-1 in the Third Round. How the teams in Europa qualifying did: Steaua beat us 7-1 in the Playoff. Domagnano lost 6-0 to Polish side Gornik Leczna, Virtus lost 2-1 to Slovakians Ruzomberok, and Faetano lost 8-0 to Thun from Switzerland. San Marino National team: 2085 Results -- 2086 Results Drawing twice with Iceland is pretty respectable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted April 23, 2016 Author Share Posted April 23, 2016 They're Icelandic, and it's just the second time in their history that they've made it to the CL. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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