[FM13] Second Star to the Right...

[deltablue]

Dec 2040

November was a tricky one in the league, as we twice went away to the team in 3rd, at least managing to win the 1st of those. However draws in the second along with to Roma and Sampdoria (which stood out as especially disappointing) was enough for Juventus to surge ahead with a game in hand or two, though where that came from is beyond me since we've had both the European Super Cup (without a league game that weekend) and the CWC. They also faced an early exit from the cup which might help them out when things get hectic for us early next year. However I can't really complain too much about our performances, and as Juve finally started dropping points in December we managed to draw level, though still with that mysterious game in hand in their favour.

As expected, home wins over Shakhtar and Anji saw us comfortably through in the CL, what was less expected was being able to pull off an away win against Tottenham to pip them to top spot, which was useful as after a few years where the runner-up teams looked tougher that the group winners, we were back to topping the group giving us a potentially easier draw. In the CWC, LA Galaxy actually had some very good players and managed to cause us enough trouble with a late equalizer meaning we needed extra-time. Palmeiras were surprisingly much easier in the final despite needing to give a lot of players a rest and still having to play a few in far from top condition.

 

 

[noikeee]

World Champions.  Nice.

Looks like you're having kind of the same problem I'm having with Bayern - doing well in the league, but annoyingly, there's one team doing better.

That's a very exotic CL knockout round, with both Celtic and Rangers, and also the likes of Dinamo, Betis, Cesena. 

[deltablue]

1 hour ago, noikeee said:

World Champions.  Nice.

Looks like you're having kind of the same problem I'm having with Bayern - doing well in the league, but annoyingly, there's one team doing better.

That's a very exotic CL knockout round, with both Celtic and Rangers, and also the likes of Dinamo, Betis, Cesena. 

Well we beat both Celtic and Dinamo in the knockouts last year (after the Croatians knocked out Juventus) so they're just showing that it wasn't one-off. Betis were super strong at some point I remember and lost to Granada not that long ago in the final (and got revenge in the Europa League the following year), while Cesena were a strong Italian team for a while and are seemingly making a come-back after a few poor years. I'll give you Rangers though

[deltablue]

Since I'm going at least a few days in between sessions I thought it would show you guys something a little different. Denmark, otherwise known as 'Wrong Norway', 'Different Sweden', and 'That's Definitely Not Finland'.

Now you may be wondering why I'm showing you this. I decided a while ago that when I got money again at Milan, I'd fund a small club somewhere, choosing Skjold in the Danish Second Division East, and I've been doing it for 5 1/2 years now, buying a player every window for 1M, up to 2.5M last season. To keep it 'off the books' I snuck the August transfer in after all my regular activity was complete.

So far money hasn't been everything, at least not in the short-term. They actually got relegated the first season (I included the season before as a reference) and already had a wage bill a few times higher than anyone else in the league when they returned, only managing mid-table at first. They're mid table again after getting promoted to the First Division, again with the highest wage bill of just under 2M a year but only just. For reference they'd be joint 6th in the Superleague for wage spending. The January fee makes them the 3rd richest club in the country, though with a long way to go to catch up with Lyngby in 2nd.

I guess the fact that it went into massive wage bill inflation isn't surprising as though it was precisely what I hoped wouldn't happen, there isn't any realistic alternative. They wouldn't have much opportunity to spend it on transfer fees even though they could and boards don't seem to agree to facility upgrades when they already seem fine for the level the club is at, though we have now seen it happen once to take the training facilities to 'adequate'.

It'll be interesting to see how much they develop their facilities in the end, hopefully expanding from a stadium of just, 4,400 and 1,400 seats. Even with the money I'm giving them competing with Copenhagen may be hard and I might even ramp things up even further because it'll be interesting to see how far they can go and what sort of foundations they can build for the longer-term. Here are their star players at the moment, not really knowing whether they can be considered good for their level or not.

 

 

[deltablue]

AFCON 2041 - Morocco

Nigeria's 'nearly men' reputation continues as they are runners up for the 3rd time in 5, having been 3rd one of the other times. Tunisia have a smattering of 2nd and 3rd results as well and finally come out on top. Morocco continue to underperform on home soil despite a few genuine quality players, including the Juventus keeper.

[deltablue]

Mar 2041

I wasn't too disappointed by losing to Napoli in the cup, aside from the fact that it's our only home defeat in all competitions for a year and a half. In the league we seemed to be cruising in a very high gear indeed, the only blips being messing up a 2-0 lead against Fiorentina (no thanks to a Cardia mistake that gave me just the excuse I needed to give Thomas a run in the team instead, as he already got a couple of senior caps at 18 and is too good to be a mere backup) and defeat against Lazio, our first in 17 games.

When we went behind against Juventus I thought they were running away with it but turning it around to win pulled us level on points. We couldn't quite build on that however. Pescara were a surprise 3rd placed team (unlike Cesena have already established themselves as a strong side in recent years) and beat us thanks to a disallowed goal for us at 0-0 followed by a stupid Canacue own-goal to give them the lead, which summed it up really. More dropped points against Parma once more leaves Juventus clearly ahead but I don't think it's over yet.

I was surprised to beat Rangers in Glasgow as easily as we did after going behind, to the point that we wrapped the tie up and didn't feel the need to try too hard at home. Cesena join us in the quarter-finals after a shock away goals win over Real Madrid, making this the first time in 7 years (and only the second in 15) that Italy have had 2 teams at this stage, having sometimes not even had one. Juventus would have made 3 but in a remarkable tie they beat Bayern Munich 5-3 in Germany then lost 6-3 in Turin, 9-8 being perhaps the highest scoring single goal aggregate win I've ever seen. After a few easy draws in the past we drew the short straw yet again.

Betis vs Celtic
Bayern vs Milan
Man Utd vs Cesena
Man City vs Tottenham

(I forgot to take a screenshot before a couple of the other ties started and it just didn't seem right with a couple of scores showing instead of a simple unsullied matchup view)

Celtic wouldn't have been too bad, and to a lesser extent Cesena and Tottenham as well. Betis actually do have some serious quality, and have done for a while (I think I might have faced them with Bucaspor in the past), so as much as it would surprise noikeee, they'd be one of the toughest draws we could have got. Instead we have a rematch with a Bayern team who I imagine will be much tougher than they were in last year's CL final.

[deltablue]

The van den Hoogenband dilemma

I'm now going to post something none of you have any interest in. For a while it has seems strange that van den Hoogenband (with 10 caps and no goals) remains the only established player (aside from the Germans) not to have a strong international career. He's arguably at his peak, with last year's CL and the most recent 4 Serie A titles under his belt, and his goalscoring record is unquestioned so even as a matter of reputation he should have no problems. However the answer is that the Dutch only play one up front, and here is the competition.

Yep, he's good alright, especially when you look at his international record. A comparision of the two reveals two similarly good players with slightly different skills, and which one comes out on top depends a lot of how you'd want to use them, van den Hoogenband being the more lethal poacher (and far better value wage-wise, but that's not important for internationals) but Klein beating him in a couple of different areas, so he'd admittedly narrowly be my choice as well. Of course, I'm a traditionalist who sticks to 2 up front and would just put them together as a potentially excellent partnership, but that's just me.

Stats-wise van den Hoogenband is on top. He's played 10 fewer matches yet still beats his rival in Madrid for goals (especially in the Champions League where it's 8 vs 2, both in 7 matches), even if the goals per 90 minutes advantage isn't quite as good as when I first checked a couple of months ago in-game (he's had a few stinkers and is actually on his worst season at the club ratings-wise), it's still 0.89 vs 0.60. His pass completion rate is slightly better (68% vs 65%), shots on target ratio easily superior (63% to 47%), and while of limited relevance, I was struck by his 'tackles per game' ratio, at 3.35, compared to 0.80, despite being in an especially attack-oriented role (I don't know how Madrid play Klein but his partner looks like a poacher so he's probably got a more versatile and supportive role).

Even if Klein still being first-choice makes sense, it could arguably go either way so maybe van den Hoogenband is a little unlucky to still be the one missing out. That doesn't explain his lack of goals as even though his 10 caps so far would have probably amounted to a limited amount of time on the pitch, he's never been the sort of player to need a lot of time to make his mark, getting 3 goals in just 2 starts and 3 sub appearances in his first season at Milan, followed by 9 in 7 starts and 6 sub appearances in his second year, becoming a regular after that. Even now he's occasionally managed to get goals surprisingly quickly after coming on as a sub so he's still capable of having notched at least a couple so far even if he isn't getting much time per match.

[Benjoe]

On 4/7/2017 at 16:01, deltablue said:

Denmark, otherwise known as 'Wrong Norway', 'Different Sweden', and 'That's Definitely Not Finland'.

As a Dane I am greatly offended by this.

Reported.

I'm being serious.

[Benjoe]

I like the idea though, and have plans of doing something similar if I get to a stage where I am at a top club in Africa and have the money for it - especially seeing as getting affiliates seems to be difficult with African clubs for some reason, so I might use that way to get an 'affiliate'-like relation to a club. Probably a former club of that save.

Anyways, keep us updates on how BK Skjold use the money they get from you!

And the case with Hoogenband (class name), is a curious one.

[deltablue]

12 minutes ago, Benjoe said:

As a Dane I am greatly offended by this.

Reported.

I'm being serious.

It's just a reference to John Oliver's 'Last Week Tonight', as one of the lines he uses to introduce a segment from a specific country or US State. I had already used the 'Guatemala, a country you think about so little...' one on another thread months ago.

9 minutes ago, Benjoe said:

I like the idea though, and have plans of doing something similar if I get to a stage where I am at a top club in Africa and have the money for it - especially seeing as getting affiliates seems to be difficult with African clubs for some reason, so I might use that way to get an 'affiliate'-like relation to a club. Probably a former club of that save.

Anyways, keep us updates on how BK Skjold use the money they get from you!

And the case with Hoogenband (class name), is a curious one.

It's hard to do regular updates on that due to the long mid-season break and how late the season ends. But I'll be sure to mention anything important. On van den Hoogenband, it's admittedly a borderline decision and on balance I'd still actually keep Klein as first choice myself in that situation, especially as a single forward, as opposed to a poacher used to playing with a supporting partner like van den Hoogenband. Maybe it's a little tough on him though that with his record he still just behind in the pecking order.

[Benjoe]

21 minutes ago, deltablue said:

It's just a reference to John Oliver's 'Last Week Tonight', as one of the lines he uses to introduce a segment from a specific country or US State. I had already used the 'Guatemala, a country you think about so little...' one on another thread months ago.

I was - hopefully obviously - just joking.
Although I didn't catch the reference, I found it funny/ironic.

22 minutes ago, deltablue said:

It's hard to do regular updates on that due to the long mid-season break and how late the season ends. But I'll be sure to mention anything important. On van den Hoogenband, it's admittedly a borderline decision and on balance I'd still actually keep Klein as first choice myself in that situation, especially as a single forward, as opposed to a poacher used to playing with a supporting partner like van den Hoogenband. Maybe it's a little tough on him though that with his record he still just behind in the pecking order.

I get that Klein is ahead, but how is Hoogenband not the second choice then? Or a winger or amc or something? He should really be getting minutes somehow at least. Klein might retire soon enough though, and that must be Hoggenband's chance.

[deltablue]

On 07/07/2017 at 22:34, Benjoe said:

I get that Klein is ahead, but how is Hoogenband not the second choice then? Or a winger or amc or something? He should really be getting minutes somehow at least. Klein might retire soon enough though, and that must be Hoggenband's chance.

The battle just to be second choice is strong as they have a couple of other very strong veteran forwards older than Klein who were in the most recent squad instead, though that was probably due to van den Hoogenband being injured for the past couple of weeks which would have ruled him out), though Klein appears to be clearly first choice), managing to get a single sub appearance in the Euro's last summer, as for the other positions he's no winger and while he can theoretically play as an attacking midfielder, he's essentially a forward (Inside Forward at stretch), and the Dutch aren't playing with an attacking midfielder anyway.

It was just surprising to me that while so many of his other team-mates have become established internationals at this stage of their careers (or even a little younger) he still remains mostly on the sidelines. Even his backup Tahiraj got a breakthrough for Germany (the only one of our 3 Germans to have managed that) and got a couple of goals, as did the other backup Gomes for France after just 5 caps so he must be wondering what on earth is going so wrong for him.

There's also his record, as there aren't many situations where a player with 161 goals in 202 appearances for a big European club would have problems with international selection. He's not quite 24 yet but he could still probably be considered an established player at the top level for a couple of years now.  Klein will turn 32 shortly after the next World Cup and while he'll probably remain first choice up to that point at least, the door should hopefully open to van den Hoogenband after that.

Just thought I'd look up how many minutes he is getting and it's shockingly low, even when he is coming on.  His past 5 appearances (going back almost 2 years) reads... on in the 85th minute in June 2039, on in the 51st minute in November 2039, on in the 83rd minute in the warmup for last year's Euros (May 2040), on in the 76th minute during a match in the Euros (June 2040) and finally on in the 85th minute back in October (2040), so he's not just restricted to being used as an occasional sub, he's being thrown on so late it's barely worth it.

[Benjoe]

12 hours ago, deltablue said:

The battle just to be second choice is strong as they have a couple of other very strong veteran forwards older than Klein who were in the most recent squad instead, though that was probably due to van den Hoogenband being injured for the past couple of weeks which would have ruled him out), though Klein appears to be clearly first choice), managing to get a single sub appearance in the Euro's last summer, as for the other positions he's no winger and while he can theoretically play as an attacking midfielder, he's essentially a forward (Inside Forward at stretch), and the Dutch aren't playing with an attacking midfielder anyway.

It was just surprising to me that while so many of his other team-mates have become established internationals at this stage of their careers (or even a little younger) he still remains mostly on the sidelines. Even his backup Tahiraj got a breakthrough for Germany (the only one of our 3 Germans to have managed that) and got a couple of goals, as did the other backup Gomes for France after just 5 caps so he must be wondering what on earth 

There's also his record, as there aren't many situations where a player with 161 goals in 202 appearances for a big European club would have problems with international selection. He's not quite 24 yet but he could still probably be considered an established player at the top level for a couple of years now.  Klein will turn 32 shortly after the next World Cup and while he'll probably remain first choice up to that point at least, the door should hopefully open to van den Hoogenband after that.

Just thought I'd look up how many minutes he is getting and it's shockingly low, even when he is coming on.  His past 5 appearances (going back almost 2 years) reads... on in the 85th minute in June 2039, on in the 51st minute in November 2039, on in the 83rd minute in the warmup for last year's Euros (May 2040), on in the 76th minute during a match in the Euros (June 2040) and finally on in the 85th minute back in October (2040), so he's not just restricted to being used as an occasional sub, he's being thrown on so late it's barely worth it.

Those numbers are ridiculous - both his scoring in number of appearances and also the minutes he's gotten on the field, or rather hasn't gotten. 

It's a bit strange to have him in the periphery like that, but you mentioned that they have a couple of other old veteran forwards, so I guess he is just behind and will reap the benefits of his younger age soon enough. Klein's goal tally in international games is pretty scary too.

Could you upload a screenshot of van den Hoogenband?

 

[deltablue]

2 hours ago, Benjoe said:

Those numbers are ridiculous - both his scoring in number of appearances and also the minutes he's gotten on the field, or rather hasn't gotten. 

It's a bit strange to have him in the periphery like that, but you mentioned that they have a couple of other old veteran forwards, so I guess he is just behind and will reap the benefits of his younger age soon enough. Klein's goal tally in international games is pretty scary too.

Could you upload a screenshot of van den Hoogenband?

 

He might have made the squad ahead of one or both of the other veterans if he hadn't been injured, I haven't been keeping track of their squad selections.

I had already realized that maybe a screenshot of him was a good idea (especially with the previous ones no longer showing) so here it is...



I know you do get better newgens but still, he's not bad You wouldn't imagine he'd struggle getting into pretty much any team in the world. Here also his his career history...



Seems odd that he generated at Sparta Prague of all places. He's not at his best this season but we still love him even if his national team doesn't

[deltablue]

May 2041

As expected, Juventus' 5-point lead proved to be too much on their form, and despite winning all our remaining league matches (with little trouble) the title chase was over before our penultimate game as Juventus played theirs first and won, the 3-point gap combining with their superior head-to-head record to make them uncatchable after that.

I'm not that disappointed, as I gave up on my first Milan team after 7 wins in a row (and I kind of wish I had stayed to extend that run) because it was far too easy, but at least we still have some domestic competition at the moment. We were also genuinely good ourselves (even if we dropped a few more points than we could afford to), with 93 points and a gap of 28 points over surprise 3rd placed Pescara demonstrating that we were otherwise well ahead of the rest.

The Champions League was where I was really focussing and we managed to make it to the final again without too much trouble. We took the lead in Munich and while we could only draw, it set us up nicely to win in Milan thanks to a great own-goal (seriously the defender really powered it into the net) before Gomes sealed it.

The semi-finals saw a rematch with group opponents Tottenham and again we took the lead on the way to a 1-1 away draw. Cardia was injured just before the return and Thomas conceded a soft goal early on to give them the lead in the tie (though redeemed himself afterwards like he did after his mistake against Rangers) but we turned it around to eventually hammer them. Cesena also made the semi-finals to help the revival of Italian teams in Europe but lost to Betis, who will be our opponents in the final at Wembley, and easily look strong enough to make retaining our European title a serious challenge.

[Vilmar]

Good luck in the final

[deltablue]

Champions League Final 2041 - AC Milan vs Betis (Wembley)

Having not really expected to win last year, I didn't expect to retain our title this year either but here we are just one match away from doing so. Aside from failing to beat Tottenham in our home group game and defeat in Ukraine, we've sailed through pretty comfortably, even past Bayern and Tottenham again. Like last season, we have a single player out, as Mexes sustained a minor injury in the final league game against Fiorentina which leaves him unfit to feature here. However even given his late run of goals, Gomes (who will play in his place) easily out-scores him this year so I'm not too worried. Lokando (having only turned 18 in March) already looks set to replace Canacue as first-choice left back next year so gets to keep his place though Thomas has to make way in goal for the completely fit-again captain Cardia.

Milan line-up

Subs
Thomas
Canacue
Taino
Udo
Pirozzi
Rousvoal
Tahiraj

Match

Betis' had the competition's top scorer and joint second-top scorer as forwards so I expected trouble and after a speculative header from van den Hoogenband, they started to test Cardia in goal, forcing a few corners as the first team to really apply the pressure, in contrast to how tame Bayern were last year. When their goal came it was due to a moment of idiocy from our part as they intercepted a backpass from Trabelsi to Cardia, easily converting into the unguarded net. Milan 0-1 Betis!

I took a gamble. I do use all 3 subs early if things are going badly enough and this was one of those times. With Trabelsi's mistake being enough to end his participation, Carranza and Lokando (sadly not repaying my faith) looked weak enough that I needed to replace them both with Udo and Canacue to stop things getting worse. We didn't have to wait long for a reply. Gomes wasted a chance when seemingly able to get a good break, but van den Hoogenband ran in halfway across the length of the pitch into their penalty area and fired perfectly past a few defenders and the keeper. Game on! Milan 1-1 Betis.

The rest of the first half was fairly quiet but we started the better in the second half. Unfortunately van den Hoogenband could only rebound a shot off the keeper when seemingly clear again but the ball fell to Pirozzi (who is looking like a much more solid player already this season) who redeemed himself for his lacklustre performance a year ago to knock it into the unguarded net from 25 yards, giving us the lead after 50 minutes. Milan 2-1 Betis.

Afterwards things seemed to be going our way. We missed a few chances to make it 3-1 and they managed to threaten a couple of times but our dominance paid off in the 70th minute when we forced a corner. Xuxinha has flourished as a first choice in a new position this season, as well as being a regular corner taker and his delivery was headed in by Bouwhuis, nothing the Dutch defender hasn't done a few dozen times before, the only difference being the occasion. Milan 3-1 Betis.

I felt able to relax afterwards, especially after we kept peppering them with corners. They did manage a break when playing the ball over our defence on the break but Cardia was able to stop their advancing forward. We managed to finish them off with a couple of minutes of the 90 left when the ball, running free after van den Hoogenband was challenged, was met by Canacue who delivered a cross that met the head of Gomes. Milan 4-1 Betis!

Woo! I write these special Champions League Final updates 'live' so after the damp squib of last year's final (where we should have easily beaten a toothless Bayern side without having to take it to extra-time) I'm glad to have a more interesting match to report on this time, even if Betis' initially considerable threat faded after half-time. The fact that we won comfortably in the end makes it the best of both worlds but I'd still like to have a real thriller one day, as long as we win of course

Even the legendary Magical Milan never managed 3 CL titles in a row (though my FM09 Ipswich 'Golden Squad' did). Can we somehow pull it off next year?

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

40 minutes ago, Vilmar said:

Good luck in the final

Cheers. I hadn't started when you posted your comment but it's over now

[Benjoe]

On 9/7/2017 at 11:40, deltablue said:

He might have made the squad ahead of one or both of the other veterans if he hadn't been injured, I haven't been keeping track of their squad selections.

I had already realized that maybe a screenshot of him was a good idea (especially with the previous ones no longer showing) so here it is...



I know you do get better newgens but still, he's not bad You wouldn't imagine he'd struggle getting into pretty much any team in the world. Here also his his career history...



Seems odd that he generated at Sparta Prague of all places. He's not at his best this season but we still love him even if his national team doesn't

He looks perfectly shaped for a poacher.

Spart Prague is very odd indeed.

 

And great final against Betis - and great to see them in the final as well. Go get that 3rd in a row!

[deltablue]

21 hours ago, Benjoe said:

And great final against Betis - and great to see them in the final as well. Go get that 3rd in a row!

They were also in the final 3 years ago, winning the Europa League for the second time in a decade the year after, having also been runners up twice in that competition. They're not an elite side (and they haven't won the league title, only being in the top 3 a handful of times) but they're clearly a decent European side.

[deltablue]

Gold Cup 2041

Mexico didn't have the best of tournaments. They lost to USA B in the group stage and while they still made it to the final, they ended up losing to Honduras in the final in extra time after going ahead twice. I still couldn't begrudge the Hondurans their win, their first after winning 2 of the first 3 of the save, and they do have some good players. At least it wasn't St.Lucia, and yes I'm going to mention that in every single Gold Cup update because that was just hilarious.

[deltablue]

Summer 2041

Recent summers have been fairly quiet, as I've had to look very hard to find players worth signing, and struggling to find clear-cut improvements even in the areas I feel the squad still needed it. Some of those brought in were borderline or to give us some 'spare' players beyond the idea of 'two players for a position' so ended up doing very little, and I've spent more time moving those players on than anything else without a need to directly replace them in the squad. Silk and Jenkins were supposed to be the last of them, at least for now.

This year I found myself confronted by a handful of players I was genuinely excited by for the first time in a while. My scouting policy (making sure every region in the world was covered, even those I knew wouldn't turn up anyone) led to a much wider potential signing pool this time, even if all this year's signings came from the usual leagues.

We seemed to be able to cover the remaing weak spots beyond the short-term. Hajji was the central midfielder I wish I could have found last year (and his Serie A debut was fantastic). Berthomier could be the final piece to eventually settle the issue of the full-back positions being weaker than the rest of the team, while Djibo along with Mullins could push Winkler aside altogether, though admittedly right after he signed for 16M (which I think means he beats Gomes as my most expensive signing) I wasn't quite so sure of that.

I must admit that having pretty much rid the squad of excess players I found myself getting a couple more again in Neilsen and Aoki. The Dane was meant as a potential replacement for Angloma but when I looked at the latter for the first time in a while (as he hasn't had the opportunities behind Peric that Lokando has behind Canacue on the other side) he looked stronger than I thought and is still just 18 so he isn't going anywhere after all, meaning that even when Canacue is sold (and I'm actually getting 30M+ bids for the Colombian) we'll still have one full-back too many.

Aoki was a player I was going to leave well enough alone until I saw Napoli making a bid, and how little he'd cost (having a Model Pro personality helps give him a chance), meaning we're also 'heavy' on central defenders, especially when you consider that even as one of the standard backups, Udo has had barely a sniff of action over the past couple of years.

We might be in the same situation up front when Israel arrives given how Tahiraj's improved form gives us as reliable a quartet of forwards as I could hope to have but we have 2 years to work things out there. I'm surprised myself that I've hardly gone for this sort of signing given how much I've made use of making deals for young Brazilian/Argentine players in the past. In any case, all three of those players are costing just over 7.5M combined and all have what it takes to avoid being the 'losers' in their respective positions so could still be reasonable investments one way or another.

Signings

 

Future Signing

[deltablue]

CL Draw

I'm not sure it gets that much easier than this in the Champions League. Gladbach and Levadeiakos do have some reasonably good players between them but not many, and while you can sometimes get weaker teams than Young Boys (like we did with Altay not too long ago), usually that's paired alongside one or two other strong sides, not as one of a trio of relatively unchallenging opponents (though we might still be hit with a draw or two). Surely we should expect to top the group without too much trouble.

[noikeee]

18 points is the bare minimum there.

[deltablue]

Nov 2041

The season really did not get off to a good start in the lead. A positive opening day against Roma was spoilt by a late equalizer, then came the second defensive disaster in a row at Juventus, though at least the more attacking players emerged with some credit. Mexes did get it back to 2-2 after we went 2-0 down but within 15 minutes of that we were 5-2 down. After getting another goal back, van den Hoogenband missed a penalty which would have clawed it to 5-4 with 10 minutes left, and I would have really chased an equalizer had he succeeded.

Even when we did start winning again, we had to endure a few stumbles, which combined with being a match behind the rest of the league made it hard to climb back up. Meanwhile Cesena (who still had a 100% record when they beat us) and Juventus have set the bar super-high at the top of the table, just like Juventus did last year. I don't mind too much at the moment, at least as long as we're doing well in Europe. We've already had a strong run of domestic success and it's good to see Serie A remain competitive but I hope it doesn't last too long as I'm going to want more league titles soon enough.

While we've been doing as well as I expected in Europe, it hasn't been effortless. We only just beat Gladbach in Germany and had Levadeiakos gave us trouble in both matches. We had to take the lead 3 times in Greece before it finally stuck and they took an early lead at the San Siro, though we still won both games. After hammering Young Boys in the opening game, we struggled back in Switzerland and needed a late Trabelsi goal (after a Mexes injury left us a man down) to restore some pride.

Skjold were down in 8th (where they finished last season) early on but now sit in 5th, maybe eyeing a promotion challenge. They broke their transfer record in the summer with a £40k signing (shown below) from Silkeborg, though that wasn't enough to beat their record £70k total spending the previous year, as they're sticking to progressing in small steps. Their annual wage bill (I love being able to look that up) seems to be remaining steady at £1.73M, similar to last year (though still easily the highest in the league), while their average attendance is just 607, 10th out of the 12 teams in the division. They're not exactly being limited by the 4,400 Osterbro stadium, or even that it only seats 1,400.

[Benjoe]

A start to the season with ups and downs, but if you get on a good streak Cesena and Juve might be able to reach again.

A pretty decent winger for a First Division team tbf to Skjold.

[deltablue]

44 minutes ago, Benjoe said:

A start to the season with ups and downs, but if you get on a good streak Cesena and Juve might be able to reach again.

A pretty decent winger for a First Division team tbf to Skjold.

Really? I didn't think he looked like much even for that level, and they have some clearly better players. Anyway more news is coming...

[Benjoe]

18 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Really? I didn't think he looked like much even for that level, and they have some clearly better players. Anyway more news is coming...

I don't know the level overall of course, but I'd imagine the level wouldn't be that good and a winger doesn't really need much more than speed and crossing ability to be effective in my experience. Quite one-dimensional player, but if they had a need for a winger I'd say he's decent, also some fine mental stats. A steep price, though, considering his age. 

[deltablue]

Dec 2041

It was a bit of a mess for a while. We managed to beat Pescara (who qualified for the Champions League last season and were still doing alright) which seemed to suggest we were still coping but that didn't last. Crotone was meant to be our easy game in hand (at least before the CWC gave us another) only to see us lose, then fall to another defeat against Fiorentina. For context, this is the first time we've lost 2 games in a row for over two years, and our first back to back league defeats (since all occasions afterwards were a league and a European game) for almost 7 years! It didn't help that Mexes and Tahiraj (our best performing forwards so far) were both injured at the same time, along with a few full-backs leaving us short on replacements for players who were both getting tired and performing poorly.

We made it 3 defeats in a row (for the first time in almost 9 years) at the CWC against America. The North American team is probably considered the relatively short straw and having struggled to beat LA Galaxy last year, worse was to come. We went behind to a controversal penalty (though were clearly struggling to take control shortly anyway) and gifted them a second later on. Carranza messed up a long ranged headed back-pass and with Thomas (Cardia having been dropped for the second time this season) rushing out to receive it, the goal was open for the America forward who intercepted. That proved costly as van den Hoogenband converted a stoppage time penalty. Too little, too late. The Mexicans at least went on to win. Looking at the competition history I found out that it wasn't even the first time the European team had missed out on the final, let alone fail to win...

Having missed out on the chance to put a lot of goals past Naft Tehran in the final we at least managed to comfortably beat Atletico Rafaela (a surprise South American representative) in the 3rd placed playoff, helped by Mexes returning to action.

I was worried about the last CL match, played just 2 days after the win over the Argentines, as well as being our 6th match in 17 days and 8th in 3 1/2 weeks. When Gladbach took the lead I was worried we'd be on the other end of what we did to Tottenham last year, an away win snatching top spot in the group. I was therefore surprised to see how easily we won in the end, and it was the same against Parma in the last match before a Christmas break I was glad to see, as a sign that we're back to our old selves.

All teams from big nations (and PSV) in the Champions League knockouts this year, though not all necessarily the ones you'd expect. That's going to make things much tougher from this point onwards and if we'll need to be on top form to get any further, let along challenge for that 3rd European title.

One thing I forgot to mention about Skjold last update (because I hadn't looked) was how they were doing in the cup. Last season was the first time they had made the 4th round in a while so there hasn't really been anything notable so far, so I was surprised when I did decide to check and the first thing I saw was this...

They're in the semi-finals, along with 3 middling Superleague sides, having beated Ringsted, Silkeborg (who I wrongly called a Superleague side above, having been relegated last year), Skanderborg, Brondby, and Vejle-Kolding (the holders and current Superleague leaders). AGF are 5th in the Superleague, Esbjerg 7th and Randers 9th, though that means they can't get into Europe by being runners-up, which is a shame as an early European qualification would have been amazing.

[deltablue]

21 minutes ago, Benjoe said:

I don't know the level overall of course, but I'd imagine the level wouldn't be that good and a winger doesn't really need much more than speed and crossing ability to be effective in my experience. Quite one-dimensional player, but if they had a need for a winger I'd say he's decent, also some fine mental stats. A steep price, though, considering his age. 

I must admit I don't either, having never actually played in Denmark, in contrast to Sweden and Norway. However drawing on my relatively recent Swedish experience (including their equivalent level) as well as a few clearly better players they have I'm not sure he could be much better than average at best (in fact taking a brief look around the rest of the league, even some teams much further down the table seem to have a wide player or two at least as good), and probably not worth being their record signing and second-highest paid player. Certainly his performances really haven't been very good (even in previous seasons) judging by his average ratings. No wonder Silkeborg got relegated from the Superleague last season playing him in over half their matches!

[noikeee]

Uhm, bit of a small step behind this season, it looks so far? Any idea why?

[deltablue]

50 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Uhm, bit of a small step behind this season, it looks so far? Any idea why?

I've had a few thoughts. For one thing we've had a very hectic schedule for a while and I guess a few blips (especially with the injuries we had putting pressure on a few positions) were going to happen occasionally even if we usually cope. For the past couple of seasons I've moved from sticking to a settled team (which is essentially impossible anyway) to using more of the squad, which means we've not often been 'full-strength' on paper. That usually doesn't make much of  difference (I wouldn't be doing it if we didn't have the depth, or that it would benefit the team from allowing players to develop), though when things do go wrong the more established players are often at least as culpable (*coughCardiacough*)

I was also taking a closer look during matches to try and assess any tactical weaknesses, even if I don't intend to make short-term changes, especially since it's clearly been so effective for so long. I do have a few ideas though that I might store for the future. In fact I might try a change next season.

[deltablue]

Mar 2042

Curse you Inter! We have played 24 matches since our CWC defeat to America and that was the 3rd we had failed to win, and the first in the league. The other two didn't matter in the end because we sailed through the tie in both cases. We had also made up the 16-point gap to Juventus to overtake them into 2nd as well, all before their equalizer in the derby straight from a free-kick. Every silver lining has a cloud.

We actually struggled at the start only just beating Atalanta and going 2-1 behind against Cremonese after first taking the lead, but it's fair to say the kick up the backside I gave the team at half-time had an effect, as did letting the winger roam more. The full-backs get quite far enough up the pitch on the attack and so often I've essentially seen Pirozzi or Trabelsi (and Dunga before them) in a tight spot by the corner, even if they do deliver some good balls from there, something I've seen less of in favour of a more central and threatening attack pattern. Using an attacking midfielder instead is one of the ideas I have but I don't want to ditch the opportunity to have a top quality winger, especially as while Trabelsi can play in the middle (and the central midfield playmakers are well-suited to being more advanced), Pirozzi can't.

The first blip came in the cup semi-final against Cesena, where they just won in stoppage time, though we did the same to them in the following league game. They took the lead again in the San Siro, which had me worried that we would struggle to turn it around but we wiped the floor with them to set up a Milan derby cup final.

Last season in Europe we had a tendency to take the lead in the away leg, with an equalizer setting us up to win at the San Siro. We did that 3 times in Paris but after their 3rd equalizer we fell apart and conceded twice more. That was the 3rd time this season that Cardia had a shocker in goal. I had leapt on the first one (which was Juventus) to continue a policy of giving Thomas a run in the team (as he's far too promising to be stuck on the bench permanantly), though I still trusted the Italy No.1 to be a major result-saver in key games (like in the CL run-in last year, aside from when he was injured for the second leg against Tottenham). By contrast the young French keeper (already establishing himself as their No.1) has been far more consistent and while he won't unseat Cardia in the long-term any time soon, the starting spot is his on merit for now.

I still knew we could do it at home with a few away goals in the bank if we could manage a win by multiple goals, and while early on I was alarmed at a few wild chances we were taking, Mexes managed to give us the 2-0 lead on the night we needed before the break. We took the aggregate lead in remarkable style. A Mexes chance was rolling off to the side. A PSG defender was passing it back to the keeper but Canacue slid in by the near post to knock it in. A 4th goal completed an incredible result, which alongside what we did to Cesena the week after serves as a warning that it won't be easy taking us down, even when you come to the San Siro with the advantage.

There was also a very big piece of news on the international front...

It happened! It finally happened! He's had a few more late sub appearances in the past year but coming on in the 50th minute of a friendly against Cyprus gave him the time to get his first international goal on his 14th cap. Angloma made his first senior appearance at the same time with Peric having picked up a few recently and Tahiraj also establishing himself with Germany.

[deltablue]

May 2042

FM makes fools of us all sometimes, as shown by the first leg against Rennais. I guess we were bound to have a game where things went wrong, and that included things going wrong for Thomas in goal, allowing Cardia to return to favour. We could have still turned it around at the San Siro, especially after Gomes' early goal and we only needed two more, but it was the turn of the attack to mess things up as we had the chances but failed to get more than a few on target, ley alone past the keeper.

The silver lining came in between when a win over Torino took us to 4 points of Cesena, and I was wondering whether there might be a chance we could catch them after all. That seemed to have vanished after a draw against Pescara. We had only dropped 4 points since early December (scoring 63 goals in 22 matches and conceding just 7) but as we enter the final round a point behind our rivals rather than ahead, maybe that was one slip-up too many, and we face the very real prospect of beating the 90-point mark but still ending up without the title for the second year in a row, in fact we could even find ourselves faced with a CL playoff in August.

I have no worries about our match, but I don't have great confidence in the chances of either Cesena or Juventus dropping points either. However very unlikely results elsewhere have gone our way before, and this is still a lot closer to the title than I thought we'd ever get.

[deltablue]

Final day

Disappointingly for everyone aside from Juventus, they settled the title early on as they crushed Atalanta. That still left the issue of second place and when Gomes gave us a 2-0 lead at the break, everything rested on whether Cesena could do it against Fiorentina. Instead they ended up losing 1-0, having looked like winning the title reasonably comfortably for a while. Around the halfway point in the season, not being a too distant 3rd seemed like the best we could hope for so end up ahead of Cesena and just a point behind Juventus was still a tremendous effort, and I can't be too disappointed. The Cup final gives us a chance to end the season with something to celebrate.

[deltablue]

Cup Final 2042

Like the final day of the league season, this one was over pretty quickly. We took a 2nd minute lead from a van den Hoogenband penalty and just a couple of minutes later Winkler (who really is excellent when he's not suspended, having almost twice as many yellow cards this season as anyone else and all 3 of the team's red cards) played the ball for Pirozzi to fire in from reasonable range with perfect accuracy.

I had hoped we could go on to wipe the floor with them and we certainly had our opportunities to get a 3rd at least. They woke up after a while and provided more of a threat than we'd seen in a lot of our finals but we had the measure of them. That gives us a 3rd cup win (and oddly just the 8th in the club's history), giving us a major trophy this season to add to the European Super Cup, since I feel that those 'one match' trophies only really have any meaning as part of a larger haul, rather than in isolation.

The cup semi-finals didn't go well for Skjold, who lost both legs 2-0. Poor league form from April cost them a shot at the second promotion place as well. However it's still a clear improvement in the league from 9th last season and maybe a rep boost from the cup run can help them make more progress soon.

For all the considerable expansion of our pool of senior internationals (which surprisingly includes Angloma but not Lokando) recently it was mostly the usual suspects going to the World Cup in Germany. Canacue misses out as Colombia failed to qualify, while injuries in the last two league matches of the season mean Trabelsi and Milinovic respectively will have to watch on tv at home. It's especially unlucky on the Croatian as a) the last Euros is still his only international tournament and b) he would actually have been fit in time for their first game, unlike Trabelsi who might have been able to feature at the very end but otherwise would have sat out pretty much the whole thing. That denies us the chance to see him face his French clubmates in the group stage as well.

I'd really love for there to be an Italy-France match which goes to penalties one day, so we can have our keepers battle it out. Plus there would be the added bonus of Mexes (and Gomes if he gets to appear) shooting against Cardia, and though it can't happen this time, Trabelsi (and potentially a few others given our strong young French contingent, like Angloma, Lokando and Hajji) as well. Maybe Pirozzi against Thomas if he ends up being a regular Italy international.

Star Player: Last season after a few years of struggling (and he's been far from alone in this, Xuxinha, Trabelsi and Peric among others), Tahiraj finally hit some serious form. He built on that in impressive style, leaving van den Hoogenband in his shadow for a change for a large chunk of the season. We've long had Gomes as a high-performing second choice in Mexes' role and now we have the other forward position covered as well, giving us as reliable a quartet of forwards as any manager could hope to have. He's even surprisingly made more of an international breakthrough than his more established fellow Germans Peric and Winkler. It's too late for him to turn into the player I hoped he'd be when he signed but he'll do nicely as he is.

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

World Cup 2042 - Germany

]

I'm not sure quite where to start. I guess the first thing would be that England become the second team in the save to be World and Continental champions at the same time (Colombia being the first in 2022 and 2023). Of all the teams to beat in the final though. The fact that they only managed to take it to extra-time late on is very annoying, as did the fact they won on penalties, proof, if any were needed, that this really is an alternate universe. They have started to get a strong team recently at least, and that's with Mullins (who had only just turned 18) nowhere near the squad yet.

The Germans with Tahiraj looked very good for a while to retain their title, hammering 9 past El Salvador with Tahiraj scoring a hat-trick, then he managed two more in the next round against Greece, though they seemed to have run out of steam after that, only getting past Japan on penalties before losing to the mighty Mexicans. Thomas did well also, managing to take 'young player of the tournament' despite an injury in the final group game against Croatia (who after being Euro finalists 2 years ago struggled without Milinovic) ending his first World Cup prematurely. He still did better that Cardia who after getting 79 caps by the age of 28, was stuck on the sidelines for the whole thing!

van den Hoogenband is managing to pick up more regular appearances now, still as a relatively late sub but he had enough time to get his first competitive goal against Mexico, boding well for his chances of being first choice in the longer term. By contrast Bouwhuis yet again played every minute, with an especially strong performance to stop the French and Mexes in the second round, even if it wasn't enough to avoid a penalty defeat. It as Mexes' turn to have the same feeling against surprise package Russia in the next round when his goal (one of two for the tournament) wasn't enough to avoid France losing on penalties that time.

There were other points of note. North American champions Honduras were absent. Belarus made the finals for the first time, beating Slovakia in the playoff, but didn't have much better a time than El Salvador. Qatar, Iran and Japan (only the second Asian team to make the quarter-finals in-game and 3rd overall, after Iran made the semis 8 years before) made it a reasonably good tournament for Asian teams. By contrast only Algeria of all teams (they haven't been in a nations cup final since 1980) made it out of the group for Africa and they didn't last long after that. Meanwhile Spain's near invinciblility is well and truly in the past. Having gone 20 years of only being knocked out on penalties (and being 2030 champions) this is their second last 16 exit in a row, neither time on penalties.

[deltablue]

Summer 2042

For a while it seemed like there would be no signings at all, beyond the regular donation to Skjold. Instead focus was on a few big sales, with Perrot being out of the door to Switzerland for 10M to start off with. Canacue had been kept around an extra year to guard against Lokando taking time to find his feet but with Berthomier eager to get game time as well and Nielsen available in case of emergencies, he was now a bit of a 5th wheel. However waiting the extra year meant I got as little as a third as what we might have done accepting the sort of bids we previously had for him.

Jimenez was also a surprising target of interest though not accepting bids for him when I had the chance again meant we didn't get as much. Not only did we have Aoki (who wasn't that inferior despite the age gap) who would have been thankful to get closer to seeing some action but we signed another defender late on anyway, so someone had to go. Gomes was the final sale though only after a bit of a mess. I had gotten rid of players like him and Canacue before and flourished so they're not that big a risk, even if they deprive us of valuable depth in the short term, I feel I need to help clear a path for players who could be far bigger stars to develop.

The messy summer started with an intended tactical experiment in a friendly at Portman Road, though technical issues meant I couldn't play it myself and progress (and we lost 1-0 ). So instead I had to try in the Super Cup against Juventus, and it would have helped if we hadn't been wearing white, making it much harder to pick out our player positions than if we were in the classic red and black.

I was always going to restore the winger for the season itself, especially with more roaming making them more of a central attacking threat. At the same time I went ahead with moving Xuxinha/Rousvoal to an anchor man instead of a ball-playing defender, at least when we were trying to control games (we'll still have the back-5 when going defensive). Also the left-back is on attack duty instead of support (though still nowhere near being a poacher), taking advantage of having more space ahead. It's going to be hard to tell the impact it will have given we were already successful before (but not without bad patches) but while obviously we want the title for the first time in 3 years, the pressure is off relatively speaking which leaves room for innovation.

The other big mess came with which forward I was going to sell. Muller was the standout candidate to be signed and like with his counterparts in other positions, I didn't want him to stagnate as 3rd choice. Israel arriving next year meant that at least someone had to go soon anyway. I decided to take the opportunity to replace our current backups with the two newer stars this year and next. However having originally considered Muller to be van den Hoogenband's deputy, I decided to compare Muller with Israel to decide roles and changed my plans, meaning cancelling the process of Tahiraj being sold (having accepted a couple of offers) and offloading Gomes (who brought in a bigger fee as it happened) instead.

Signings

[deltablue]

Skjold Update

This has been a big summer for the Danes, working on a 4.7M upgrade to their youth and training facilities (their second). They're still not very good but improved facilities will play a major part in their long-term prospects. Even with that and before they got an the first of an increased 5M per player payment from me (which is as high as it's going to get) they easily beat their transfer records, signing 3 players for 110k each...

And they've certainly started well...

What's even more impressive is that Brondby went down last year after struggling for a while now, so you'd expect them to be dominating this division.

 

 

[deltablue]

CL Draw

The good news is that even without being holders we have shot up to be in the top group of seeds. The bad is that we still have to face Chelsea, then again I still don't think we've properly paid them back for that 9-0 aggregate defeat (including 6-0 at the San Siro!) the first time we were in the knockout rounds, even though we did beat them in London when we were in the same group before. Rangers and Krasnodar shouldn't be too much trouble, though the Russians so have some quality in their team. Dinamo Minsk, Molde or Wacker Innsbruck would have been far nicer as bottom seeds.

[deltablue]

Nov 2042

At the start of the season I was worried about what the tactical changes would do to our defence but our issue early on was the last thing I expected it do be, weak shooting in front of goal. That proved costly with early dropped points against Cesena (who sneaked a winner from a narrow angle instead) and Torino as Juventus seemed to be surging ahead (they didn't drop any points until November). However we were at least managing to stay in second, and improvement on the situation last autumn as I looked for more consistency, even if it meant not replicacing our amazing run of form from December onwards.

We seemed to find more attacking spark at the expense of consistency, with a shock Parma defeat (just after a Napoli draw that wasn't too bad) denied us the chance to take advantage of Juventus starting to slip, at least at first, though we managed to close in enough to edge ahead after beating them at the San Siro. Roma remain close, looking the strongest they've been in years (they were actually bottom of the table when we beat them in January) but otherwise it's all about 3rd time lucky in a tough race with Juventus.

Krasnodar proved to be trickier than expected in Europe, though we managed to beat them in the first game. I was disappointed with defeat in London but we recovered our position with a pair of wins over Rangers. Krasnodar actually beat Chelsea in Russia but we still just needed a draw from our own trip eastwards to seal qualification with a game to go, and despite going down twice (the second time to an absurd Carranza own goal) we managed it, and even had we won it would make no difference to the fact that we need to beat Chelsea at home to win the group.

The new tactic seems to be working a charm, though we've been far from perfect. Xuxinha (or Rousvoal) occupies a perfect position between the two central defenders and midfielders, providing someone the latter can turn to under pressure, while still acting as a defender when the situation calls for it (as we return to a back 5 in defensive mode). Lokando has complete freedom down the left but at the same time manages to avoid being caught out too far up the field (though I've spotted him in some very odd positions a couple of times) and acts like part of a back 4 when we need him to.

Trabelsi sticks wide in the build-up but offers a more central threat near the goal that he didn't before (previously ending up close to the corner flag) and it's telling that he already has 10 goals when he's only hit double figures in an entire season once before. He's actually still supposed to be a winger (like the second half of last season where an individual instruction switch was enough to make him more of a central attacking player near the goal) in case anyone was wondering why both he and Winkler are supporting advanced playmakers (and I only spotted it when taking the screenshot), maybe from when I deployed an attacking midfielder in the Super Cup (with the midfield AP turning into a DLP) before moving that position back wide, but given the results I'm just going to roll with it for now. 

It'll be interesting to try it at other clubs later on but it looks like the Mattersburg has been successfully developed into the Milan.

[deltablue]

Champions League Update

Brace yourselves, updates are coming. We managed to beat Chelsea 5-2 in the San Siro (and it should have been more, especially as van den Hoogenband missed a penalty) to take top spot in the group.

It's a more diverse line-up than last year. Ajax join PSV, Porto are back at this stage, we get the Greeks of Panathinaikos and yes, that is Dinamo Minsk, making their first appearance in the knockout rounds of either competition, not often even making the group stages. They made it through at the expense of holders Gladbach.

 

[deltablue]

AFCON 2043 - Egypt

It was a slight surprise result in Africa. Senegal win for the first time in 30 years beating Angola (and having only made it through the group in 3-way points split), in their first ever final. Cameroon were 3rd last time as well but again it's been 30 years since their previous top 3 finish. Algeria, the only African team to make it through the group stage of last year's World Cup, went out at the first round.

[deltablue]

Asian Cup 2043 - Kuwait

 

Japan's Asian dominance continues, as they win their 4th title in 5, and their 9th in 14. They actually finished behind the Saudi's in their group giving them a tough path to glory, getting revenge on the Saudis. Iran were slightly unlucky to face China in the quarter-finals for a relatively early exit.

[deltablue]

Mar 2043

 

We've been runners up the past two years with more points than all but one of our previous title wins (and even the exception was joint with the lower of our two runner-up totals) but this time we are well and truly ahead of the rest. Late in January we lost Mexes (for 3 months), van den Hoogenband and Peric to injuries but defeats to Sampdoria and Pescara haven't really knocked us out of our groove. Indeed we were arguably helped by going out to Juventus in the cup. Even when winning those earlier titles I didn't feel we were as good as the top teams of the past but now I feel we're really getting there.

We get PSG for the second year in a row, and having faced them as our first knockout round opponents last year, and in the semis when we first won, that means we're playing them in all three 2-legged knockout stages. We won both the previous times so hopefully we can do it a third.

Skjold have slowed down a bit but still managed to hold on to top spot and with a decent chance of going up. They're in the cup semis again this year but face Copenhagen.

 

[deltablue]

May 2043

And that's how we do that! We were already on the verge of winning the title in March and it didn't take long until we clinched it, followed by putting our recent Turin disasters behind us with a decent draw against Juventus. Afterwards I decided to have a little fun and stick Cardia up front in van den Hoogenband's place. He didn't score unfortunately but did get a handful of assists, and the fact that we started against Inter and still beat them easily helps make it a little more humiliating for them. I wanted to have him partner Thomas but that would leave us without a proper keeper in goaland I still wanted to have a strong finish to the season. Hopefully Cardia will score in another season and Thomas can have his go.

It was a little disappointing to be pegged back to 2-2 in Paris after going 2-0 up, but we were still in a good position for the home leg and hammered PSG at the San Siro for the second year in row. I imagine next time there'll be a queue outside their physio's office from players wanting to get out of it. By contrast things did not go well at the start against PSV. We had the early chances but they slipped one in and it all seemed to fall apart. I couldn't believe what I was seeing as we were 3-0 down at the break! Mexes and Carranza managed to make it 3-2 10 minutes into the second half, Mexes scoring twice more to complete an incredble turnaround. Though we look the lead in the return, after their equalizer I was wary as they needed just a single goal to knock us out and looked capable of getting it, but Djibo rounded their keeper to make it safe and van den Hoogenband sealed it.

On to the Champions League final in Berlin, with just Tottenham standing in the way of a 3rd European title in 4 years.

[deltablue]

Champions League Final 2043 - Milan vs Tottenham (Olympiastadion, Berlin)

It may seem strange to see teams like Tottenham and Betis (who they beat in the semis) in the final but one thing that has taken a little gloss off our European successes is that there aren't really any world-class teams around at the moment. I'm used to seeing a few devasatingly good 'superteams' (usually Real Madrid are one, along with the Manchester teams) but not this time. Tottenham do have some incredibly good players, but like most other sides, not that many of them with some surprisingly weak areas and will be without their first-choice keeper, among a few injuries.

Even when we beat Bayern they had some key players out and probably couldn't have been considered a superior side in any case. Those sorts of teams you wouldn't necessarily expect (including Cesena in an Italian context) are still genuinely strong sides but we wouldn't have had Gladbach and Granada (who can't claim to be so good) winning recently if the bar wasn't lower than usual. I just hope that doesn't devalue our own victories with a seemingly easier path, after all we can only beat the teams we face.

The team is undergoing a mini-revolution at the moment, with some clear differences from the teams that played in our previous two finals. Cardia looked rehabilitated as No.1 earlier in the season but messed up a chance to claim his place back from Thomas in the spring so the French keeper gets to take this one. Despite having just turned 20 in March, Lokando has already hit 150 appearances at left-back. Xuxinha and Trabelsi have been embracing new roles (though the latter is technically in the same position), while the previously invaluable Winkler's days are clearly numbered given how we'd managed fine with Mullins and Djibo, the latter with his nose ahead as the new first choice. Having been out injured, Peric only just reclaims his place ahead of Angloma.

Milan lineup

(Forgot to take it at the start)

Subs:

1. Cardia
20. Pirozzi
19. Mullins
18. Hajji
13. Angloma
16. Udo
29. Muller

Weakened though they appeared to be, they still provided all the early threat and took the lead in the 4th minute from a disappointingly easy tap-in, before we'd even ventured into their own half. Our players were on theirs but just didn't challenge. Milan 0-1 Tottenham.

However we made the most for our first real attack in the 17th minute. A Trabelsi corner met the head of Milinovic. The ball was knocked on to Carranza, our Argentine master of 'scoring from tap-ins at point blank range from a corner play', and he added to his collection from just beyond the far post. Just as simple as their goal had been. Milan 1-1 Tottenham.

Tottenham weren't going to go down as easily as Betis last time. They resumed their attack and soon resumed the lead. They managed to deliver a cross to their Japanese star forward Chiba who beat both Xuxinha and Thomas to get on the end of it and head it in, pretty much on the goal-line. Milan 1-2 Tottenham

They continued to threaten afterwards, while we seemed incapable of doing anything, and they struck a third (this time a powerful shot with a bit of range) for a half-time score of Milan 1-3 Tottenham. The team needed a serious kick up the backside to stand any chance.

We started the second-half on the attack and our chances soon improved when a foul on Mullins produced a sending off in the 50th minute for a second yellow card. Instead that just seemed to reignite their threat, and we were lucky it didn't get even worse. Even when we could get on the attack it didn't matter, as both Mexes and van den Hoogenband were so poor even given what relatively little they had to work with that I really don't know why they bothered turning up and even when we tried to turn up the attacking heat, it was clear it wouldn't get us anywhere.

It's been so long since I last lost a Champions League final that I'm not used to the disappointment, especially since I had such confidence going into this one and before their 3rd goal it at least looked like it was going to be an exciting one. Still, numerous times I've benefited from such a weak showing from the opposition (including Bayern for our first triumph) but while we weren't quite at that level of awfulness, I guess such an underwhelming performance was bound to happen to us eventually and I really can't have any complains about the result.

 

[deltablue]

Star Player: Trabelsi had already been good before. But this season he hit new heights, almost getting to 20 goals (and just beating van den Hoogenband to be our top scorer in the league) and setting a new record of 32 assists.

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

Skjold Update

Skjold couldn't hold off Brondby, but still managed to get promoted comfortably enough, at the 3rd time of asking. They also reached the cup final, drawing 1-1 at home to Copenhagen in the first leg of semi-final but winning 3-2 at Parken. In the final they were taught a tough lesson by Lyngby, but the fact that their opponents won the title as well means they'll be in Europe next season!

Getting up to the Superleague should open up a lot more opportunities to attract new players, especially since they should have little difficulty affording a lot of investment. Hopefully it will help trigger more upgrades in the near future as well.

[noikeee]

Ugh, losing a continental final is never a fun experience. Better luck next season!