Cal585 Posted August 21, 2023 Share Posted August 21, 2023 (edited) Welcome to my save where I restore the Melbourne Heart identity to a team since absorbed into the City Football Conglomeration! I used to have a Melbourne Heart season ticket/membership back in the day. It was good fun getting along to live football, even if the team was rubbish and never going to win anything. We were the underdogs against our much bigger Melbourne rivals in Victory, then the City group bought out the club and everything changed. Suddenly there was money for facilities and we were linked with exciting players (David Villa being the first). But we were also no longer an independent club and there was a lot of grumbling particularly from people who supported EPL teams that were rivals of City. Then there was the change of identity with badge, name and colours all changing. First it wasn't too bad, we played in white (as opposed to red and white) for a couple of seasons with the sky blue trim and the red stripes as the away kit. But then we went full sky blue, the same as one of the other 10 teams (but we had different coloured shorts I guess). And now Melbourne City are a team constantly competing for the league title and fun to watch but almost a completely new team that just replaced Melbourne Heart. And I honestly don't know what to think about it. I've mostly stopped following them because I feel conflicted supporting a Manchester City feeder club (I also moved away from Melbourne) but there's still those years of emotional investment. In this save, I am rewriting history so that CFG still invested in the club (Heart desperately needed some cash injection to become competitive) but treated it more like their recent acquisitions, leaving the club identity alone. I briefly considered undoing the City takeover, but the fact that they have now existed longer as City than they did Heart means it would feel a little too unrealistic to completely disassociate them. Likewise, an editor forced sale to a new group reinstating the Heart identity was too complicated for me. At least this way we get the identity back and enough money for proper ice baths! I have chosen to play in FM22 mostly because I haven't bothered to upgrade to FM23 but also because we start in Melbourne City's/Heart's first championship and therefore continental qualification for the first time. It's before covid tanked Australia's Asian coefficient due to all the A-League qualifying teams withdrawing which is a nice bonus if I want to build league rep. Also I don't want to wait until FM24 and compete with the Saudi wealth in the ACL. Goal: Dominate the A League. In real life, Melbourne City keep losing out in the finals series. If possible, I'd like to try raising the quality of the league, though inbuilt restrictions make that challenging. But the main goal is to win the Asian Champions League if possible and replicate Western Sydney Wanderer's feat. Given the salary and roster restriction compared to some of the big clubs in Japan and Saudi Arabia, this will be tricky! Really though, I just want to change the way I've been playing the game by recording and interacting more with the narrative and less focus on grinding through results. Game setup: I am using the pre-game editor to reinstate the Melbourne Heart identity and adding more Asian nations to make the competition more dynamic. I have also edited the A-League itself, to encompass the expansion. The next teams to join will be in Canberra and Auckland, so I am accelerating the timeline and from 2nd season adding Canberra United and reinstating New Zealand Knights. The Auckland team is likely to be a new creation but I figured I may as well just revive the extinct club rather than create a new one to fulfil the same function. Then I rather ambitiously thought why stop there, so I have added Gold Coast back in as well as promoting Wollongong Wolves further down the line to take the competition to 16 teams. This seemed to work on my simulation tests, but we will see! Unfortunately I couldn't work out a way to increase salary cap or squad roster sizes which seem to be hardcoded. I also moved Melbourne City manager Patrick Kisnorbo to Troyes where he moved during the season (becoming the first Aussie to manage in a top 5 league just beating out Ange Postecoglou), gave Bruno Fornaroli Australian citizenship and a couple of minor player tweaks that I felt were wrong or just updated to reflect FM23. Edited September 13, 2023 by Cal585 Title Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted August 21, 2023 Author Share Posted August 21, 2023 (edited) An overview of the competitions we will be participating in and the historic targets to meet/beat: A-League Currently sitting at 11 Australian and 1 New Zealand team, this is the only professional league in either country. They have announced that teams from Canberra and Auckland will join soon, which might help with the unbalanced schedule. There are a lot of calls for a promotion and relegation system which is not really possible in the current financial state of the league, which, in addition to the NZ Knights, has also seen the North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast go bust. Essentially the A-League is MLS-lite, with all the "fun" salary cap rules and designated players. It also embraces the Australian love for a finals systems. The team that finishes first in the regular season wins the Premiers Plate, while the top 8 teams compete in the knockout finals series and the winners are crowned Champions. Which is more important is up for debate. The Champions are probably regarded as the overall winners but the Premiers are the ones who qualify for Asia (ironically the finals series is regarded as the secondary cup competition so 3rd qualifying place is given to the league runners up over the champions). Melbourne City historical result: Premiers, Grand Final runners up Historical winner(s): Premiers - Melbourne City, Champions - Western United Australia Cup Australia's version of the FA Cup. Includes all the Australian amateur and semi-pro clubs and introduces the A-League teams in the final rounds. Played in pre-season of the A-League. The winner qualifies for Asia. Frustratingly the early games start before the FM season. Melbourne City Historical result: Quarter finals Historical winner: Melbourne Victory (2021) Asian Champions League The big one, it has only been won once by an Australian team; Western Sydney Wanderers. A-League teams do not have a good showing in the competition. Historically it has been dominated by clubs from Saudi Arabia, South Korea or Japan. China, Qatar and UAE are all also better represented than Australia. Even Esteghal in Iran if you go back a little bit. It's also a bit weird as it has historically run on a different schedule to the domestic league meaning that playing squads change rather drastically for A League clubs during the campaigns. To add to the confusion, all A-League teams withdrew from the 2021 competition due to covid, though this isn't represented in game. So the 2022 version was actually the first one that Melbourne City competed in. Teams to watch: Al-Hilal (4 wins, 4 runners up), Pohang Steelers (3 W, 1 RU), Seongnam (2 W, 2 RU), Al-Ittihad (2 W, 1 RU), Jeonbuk (2 W, 1 RU), Urawa Red Diamonds (2 W, 1 RU). 2022 Melbourne City Historical Result: Knocked out in group stage Historical winner: Al-Hilal (2021) Urawa Red Diamonds (2022) The Season Ahead I have one of the best teams in the league, though simulations only gave them the odd title. Up front is Jamie Maclaren, record goalscorer. Australian international Matthew Leckie also joins, capable of playing anywhere across the front. The team has mostly played a 4-3-3 for the majority of its existence, so I plan to copy this as my base, with an alternate 4-2-3-1 variation to shake things up. I shortlist club favourites Mooy, Arzani (controversial inclusion, given the short time he was at the club and the fact he's now played for all 3 Melbourne teams) and Fornaroli in case the opportunity comes up to bring them back. I see Fornaroli is transfer listed by Perth, but unfortunately transfers are blocked between teams and not sure he'd be happy being backup to Maclaren. I also add an old club favourite of mine to the shortlist in Aziz Behich (recently re-signed in real life) and look up Paartelu to see that he's a free agent. He could provide good cover in DM but wants to be a fairly high earner. My initial tactical plan is to overload the left and see if I can get the right winger operating as a second striker for a long switch. This is what they did that season, though then they switched to the box which is all the rage. I will see how this goes in the league before worrying about what to do in the ACL next season. In real life City have just sold Marco Tilio and Jordan Bos for record transfer fees, so definitely want to develop them. Tom Glover (previously a Spurs youth) has also just gone to Middlesbrough, so he's a lock for GK. That's a decent core of youngsters and I hope I can develop some more talent in my time at the club. Up the other end Maclaren is one of the greatest ever strikers in the league with almost 150 goals to date and Leckie was the big name Aussie international signing so I will be building around them. The A League is still trying to build it's brand a bit, so I want to make a conscious effort to sign some high profile/rep players in the team. I have 1 DP slot remaining I can use for this purpose, though no immediate targets and I'm already at 23/23 roster slots (seems awfully low). I have a bunch of scholarship players as well which are youngsters that don't count towards the cap which helps. Current Designated Players: Spoiler Squad Overview Goalkeepers Spoiler Tom Glover is my undisputed #1 with a perfect name for a keeper. Still young after moving from the Spurs academy 2 seasons ago, I'm hoping he has a bit more improvement left in him. Ideally I'd like a bit more of a ball playing Keeper, but I'll take what I can get. The backup options here are young and probably not that relevant. I can't see any of them ever making the step up to first choice. Defenders Spoiler Curtis Good and Nuno Reis make an excellent CB pairing. Good is a decent left footed defender, while Reis is good at picking out a pass. Depth beyond them is a slight concern, with an ok Jordon Hall and aging DM Rostyn Griffiths playing backup. With Nuno Reis on the wrong side of 30 and taking up a foreign player slot, I'll start making succession plans for him. Kerrin Stokes looks like he might do a decent job with a bit of development. Scott Jamieson is the captain and starter at LB and one of the longest serving players. I imagine he will start fading with age (he just retired at the end of 23) but Jordan Bos behind him has huge potential and has just become the record A League transfer. RB we have Jenkinson on loan from Forest for only a quarter of his wage. Behind him we have Scott Galloway, capable of playing either flank. RB will be a target for next season once the loan ends. Midfielders Spoiler Connor Metcalfe already has a European transfer arranged for the end of the season with St. Pauli but I'll get some good use out of him before then. Always a proud moment to see a youth player move on to bigger things. The Frenchman, Florin Berenguer, is the other man I will rely on, as my best AM. Aiden O'Neill from Burnley rounds out my first choice 3, with youngster Taras Gomulka and previously mentioned veteran Rostyn Griffiths also capable of playing the DM role. Japanese midfielder Tsubasa Endoh is kinda a bit meh to take up one of my foreign slots but I'll give him the season to see how he does (he barely played in real life). He can also play on the RW which helps. Some of the youngsters have potential and they're all generally good passers which helps. Forwards Spoiler Lots of star power here with Mathew Leckie, Jamie Maclaren, Andrew Nabbout and promising youngster Marco Tillio all great players at this level. Manuel Pucciarelli is my main backup to Maclaren though he's more of an AM who thinks he should start regularly. Not convinced by some of the youngsters in these spots given they aren't on scholarships and take up valuable roster places but I'll see how they develop. This is the most specialised part of my line up. My LW will rely on linking up in a support role, while the ST will be my primary goalscorer. My RW will be the secondary striker, playing more isolated out wide and need some strength and hold up play. So I have a pretty good squad, with some versatile players that should help me go strong for the League title this season and see if any of my youngsters are ready to step up for next season when I will need to do a bit of a squad refresh. Edited August 22, 2023 by Cal585 Added Squad Overview Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted August 22, 2023 Author Share Posted August 22, 2023 Preseason: We start the journey with a number of friendlies and a few cup games already completed. No idea who The Gap or Ipswich City are, but beating Adelaide United is handy. There are a LOT of holes in the staffing roster, along with some not so great current members. Staff wages are an issue though, so I mostly keep those already in place for now (except a 2nd GK coach and 2nd AM) and offer liberal cup bonuses to try and get around max wage restrictions. Throwing the Cup is starting to sound quite tempting. It's not ideal but should help live up to my promise to improve the coaching team which I made to try and convince some of my squad to listen to me given my low starting reputation. We now have the best coaching team in the competition, so that's something. My players are still looking forward to improvements though. Apparently they refuse to settle for the best. I offer a heap of trials to high reputation players trying to fill my last Designated Player spot. I can unregister 1 young GK without consequence (delisting any others gives mutual contract terminations), giving me space for exactly 1 player. Unfortunately my 5 foreign spots are all taken with no easy way to adjust this, so most of my trials are pointless (though several are snapped up by other teams in the league who thank me for bringing the players to their attention). I do give Erik Paartelu a friendly game though and decide to offer him the last spot to return, but his other old club in Brisbane Roar beat me to his signature. Likewise Bruno Fornaroli is released on a free by Perth who seem to be hoping Daniel Sturridge stays fit but he promptly goes to Melbourne Victory instead (just like real life the traitor). My only remaining option seems to be an aging James Troisi who has just injured himself for 3 months, so I guess no signings for me at the moment! Australia Cup: First (or next) up in the cup we have new boys Macarthur FC. Based in Southern Sydney, they are the newest A-League team having just participated in their first season finishing 6th. Historically they actually win this competition in 2022 but I am hopeful of a result here despite the fact that they have already beaten Newcastle Jets, Central Coast Mariners and Perth Glory to reach this stage. They have just had a couple of their big name players retire (Mark Milligan, Adam Federici) but still have some danger men including their new captain Ulises Dávila, new CB Adrian Mariappa from Watford/Bristol City and a couple of Australian Internationals in Tomi Juric and Apostolos Giannou. They also took Craig Noone from me in the off season, so I have something to prove to him here. With players still fresh and other friendlies following this to give game time to backups, I go in with a full strength squad, minus CB Curtis Good who is out injured. Time to see if the tactic holds up against better opposition... During the first half we settle into our game and 23 minutes in Leckie picks out Nabbout at the back post to put us ahead. Sadly the lead doesn't last as Toure slots home from a well weighted cross in the 35th to equalise. Leckie and Nabbout both head over shortly after and we go into half time with the scores tied. We are dominating possession but the XG is equal due to a number of shots off target from us. My halftime talk fails to get any sort of reaction so I sit back and wait. Eventually Maclaren's complacent attitude annoys me and I drag him off for Pucciarelli. Jamieson is injured but manages to hobble through and Juric almost wins it for them in the dying minutes except for a strong Glover save. We head into extra time and almost score when their goalkeeper turns it onto the post for a corner. That's as close as we get though and it's through to penalties. At this point I realise half my team are hopeless at this, so hopefully we don't need to go deep! Then disaster strikes as Nabbout misses the 3rd penalty. Glover fails to save their 4th and up steps Jenkinson who also fails and just like that we are out of the Cup. A crushing way to lose my first competitive game in charge but the stats are promising. We managed to dominate away from home in our first game in the new system. If we continue to play like this we should be fine. 2 more friendlies, then we get the chance to set things straight with Macarthur in the opening league game. My boys will be itching for revenge! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted August 24, 2023 Author Share Posted August 24, 2023 Given my intention to immerse myself more into the unfolding story of my game world, I am reluctantly taking control of training. Normally I'm quite happy to let my assistant manager sort them for me as trying to make order out of the many choices is not normally what I enjoy spending my time on. But maybe I'll come to understand and enjoy it! I don't have long left of pre-season given the late start date and the subsequent upheaval of replacing half the coaching staff but I am planning for a bit of pre-season work before some more regular routines. I'll also tinker with coaching assignments and customising the mentoring groups to make use of some of my experienced players. Set pieces are the other area to explore. Given I only really have 1 competition this season now that I'm knocked out of the Cup, it shouldn't be too bad designing a routine for my specific player selection. I go for the classic near post routine. The rest of pre-season passes quickly and my players seem fit and ready to go, despite not fully trusting my leadership. I selected semi-pro background instead of my normal automatic tickbox and it's feeling a bit concerning when my star player states that he thinks my lack of support doesn't spread far enough through the squad. Normally I'd be offended, but I really want him to like me. Maybe I shouldn't have dragged him off in the semi and given him an official warning afterwards... We play a couple of weaker teams that we duly smash, then we come up against better opposition in fellow league competition in Western United. Another exercise in frustration, as despite a strong line up and being slightly better, we don't do enough to win and settle for another draw. The season begins: Finally we get to the opener! Just to recap, there are 12 teams in this competition and we play each team twice and then a few of them a third time. Then the top 6 teams make the finals series. Our first game is against familiar opposition, and this time victory will be mine! We played well last time, so I'll try the same thing again and hope for a better result. I suspect part of the problem last time was playing a bit more conservative after we took the lead, so I'll look to keep the pressure on here and stay on the front foot. The game plays out surprisingly similar to the cup game. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised given the short turn around and the fact that I'm doing the same thing but even the goals happen in a similar way with Nabbout putting me ahead early, then them pegging me back just over 10 minutes later! This time however, we make a satisfying breakthrough right near the end. Then seeking to take the sting out of the game we manage to get a third for a 3-1 win that looked a lot more comfortable than it felt. I'm still unsure about some of the player roles I'm using, though I've got the system roughly working. On a side note, the ground only being a quarter full for the opener seems disappointing, though it was raining and there doesn't look like much covered seating. Around the grounds, Wellington Phoenix stage an impressive 3-0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers and Western United win 4-2 away to Brisbane Roar in a high scoring fixture. Next up we play Central Coast Mariners in our first home game. Another NSW team, this time just to the north of Sydney in Gosford. Their stadium with the inflatable sauce bottles is iconic in the A League and they've brought through some quality Aussie internationals despite operating on a smaller budget than a lot of their competitors. In 2023 they just beat Melbourne City in the Grand Final, though that timeline will not be playing out in this save! They've won 1 previous finals series and finished top twice in 07-08 and 11-12, so they have some pedigree. In their last game they drew 0-0 with Newcastle Jets, so hard to read too much into it. The media peg me as strong favourites going into this one though. They played a 4-5-1 and thankfully for me, their star German RW Nicolai Muller (at the tender age of 34) is currently injured. They do have Oliver Bozanic pulling the strings in midfield though, and Jason Cummings leading the line up top (or so I thought until he was a late out). I go in unchanged and the match is quite comfortable in the end. Nabbout doesn't score the early goal this time but instead sets it up, playing a ball over the top for a beautifully timed Metcalfe run with a nice chipped finish from the top of the box. Shortly after we score from a corner routine. There's a bit of nervousness at the start of the 2nd half where they rack up the XG but we see it through and the last 30 minutes are sedate. I was a bit lucky to keep a clean sheet, but we deserved the win. And then, just for a change of pace, we play Macarthur again. Because why not? May as well play them every 2nd game. At least this time it's at home though! Once this is done I won't play them again for the rest of the season. The media predicts a close fought win for me. I make a couple of rotation changes, the biggest loss being Curtis Good, my in form defender who is not quite match fit. Thankfully we seem to have learnt from previous encounters and Nabbout gets us off to a quicks tart in the opening minutes. I am pleasantly surprised by him, he was the member of the front 3 I was least sure about but he's had the biggest contribution so far. I just wish I could get Maclaren firing but I guess that's partially due to the overload system. Nabbout adds a 2nd, then Maclaren finally gets rolling as well before Tomi Juric pegs one bag for Macarthur with a filthy chip over the keeper. O'Neill comes on for a 4th, then Leckie finally gets a deserved goal to make it 5 before Nabbout completes his hattrick. We definitely made the most of our chances, massively outperforming our XG. It's been kinda weird playing them so often but it really shows how we are starting to click. Going from losing on penalties, to a late win, to blowing them out of the water. But I do look forward to playing some new teams! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted August 26, 2023 Author Share Posted August 26, 2023 I get a bit of a wake-up shock when I find out my captain Scott Jamieson is down to the last 6 months of his contract and receiving offers to play elsewhere. It's easy to forget how late the A League season starts in the scheme of things. Crisis averted though as I convince him to re-sign with me on a slightly reduced wage. I do have to promise him 3 years with a potential for a 4th, which I'm hesitant about given his age but I figure keeping my captain and one of my leading players around while I establish myself is a lesser evil and he can be a decent mentor later on. I also see a few young players are heading into the last 6 months of their contracts as well but the fact that they have no interest yet and I haven't seen enough of them to form an opinion causes me to ignore it for now. I'm sure worrying about it later won't cause any problems. Speaking of problems, my star striker Jamie Maclaren is now being openly courted by Qatar SC and the media is excitedly following along. I really don't want to sell him if I can help it, not only because he's the arguably the best striker in the league and I have no replacement lined up but also because he's been such an integral part of this club's recent success and I am terrified of undermining my standing further by selling the club's star player. So I implacably declare he is not for sale, while silently dreading any coming offer from a league with higher reputation and much greater wages. My experiment with training is not going very smoothly. First my players were complaining to me that they weren't doing enough strength training, then too much quickness and now too much strength. And that's with me mostly relying on the suggested pre-sets. I also re-assess my playing time promises and tell my Curtis Good (one of my best defenders) that he can be upgraded from Fringe Player to Squad Player and potentially Regular Starter going forward. He's chuffed and I congratulate myself on cynically abusing the wacky playing time roles assigned at game start. Brisbane Roar Brisbane make the trip south to face us in our next game. The only current Queensland team in the league after the failures of both Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury. They were once the premier A League side under Ange Postecoglou, breaking the Australian sporting record for most games unbeaten (36). Champions 3 times and Premiers twice, they've fallen on harder times of late despite the likes of Robbie Fowler trying their hand at management. Interestingly their orange kits are a nod to their Dutch founding heritage despite Queensland normally being maroon. The media make us comfortable favourites for this one. They finally got their first win last week against Western United playing a 4231. Paartelu, who they stole out from under me, is comfortably their best player but carrying an injury for this one. Their strength is all in their midfield with the likes of Matti Steinmann and Connor Chapman, so I set up with a more defensive midfield to contest this area. Bit of a warm day, but I'll take a December under 30! To my disappointment, Tilio struggles to live up to the success of Nabbout on the RW but Berenguer puts us up with a glorious strikes from the top of the box before a corner routine sees us take a 2-0 lead into half time. Bos and Gomulka, the other 2 youngsters I brought in are doing ok but I want to see more from them in the 2nd half. Metcalfe soons puts us 3-0 up and I take the chance to give game time to 3 of my rotation options including subbing Maclaren off. He wasn't terrible but another goalless game in a comfortable win is becoming concerning. We are definitely taking our chances which is good, as the stats didn't really reflect the final result. Still, I'm happy with a weakened team getting the job done. I just hope we don't need to ride our luck too long. We set a new record for 8 games unbeaten which is nice! Central Coast Mariners We will play CCM again, which is strange. I think there is something wrong with the fixture for this season. Anyway this time we are away and the media is predicting a fairly close match. I give Pucciarelli his first start of the season. He does well up until he gets injured half an hour in. Nabbout, restored to the starting lineup scores the opener once more but we are pegged back just before the half. I try tweaking the lineup a bit to see if I can create some more favourable conditions for Maclaren which does help him get into the match a bit more but actually paves the way for Endoh to get his first club goal playing off that RW. Maclaren might not score but he sets up Metcalfe with a delightful through ball for him to smash into the net with his first time shot. I'll take that! I also take the opportunity to stick the boot into Glover for his poor effort letting that goal in. He apologises and becomes more determined. Newcastle Jets A new team finally as we travel to the northern NSW team of Newcastle. Newcastle itself is a quickly growing area as lots of people move from Sydney to the city. The Jets won the Championship (finals) in 2008 but have been largely irrelevant since. They've been a decent side but not great despite having the likes of Emile Heskey on their books. We have 5 players away with the U23 Australian side, so are a bit short on for this game. Thankfully most of the missing members are bench players, with the notable exception of Metcalfe. A close fight is predicted with the Jets also undefeated this season, coming off a 2-1 win over Western Sydney Wanderers. Their squad isn't great though, with the 32 yo Cameroonian winger Olivier Boumal being highlighted as their most dangerous player by some margin. They do have Jason Hoffman who I remember with some fondness from the early Heart days, even if he wasn't a world beater. I persist with the slight tweaks I experimented with last match and they work with Maclaren scoring in the 2nd minute. Berengeur follows up with another fine goal and we're cruising 2-0 by the 60th. Figuring we are comfortable, I decide to give some younger players a shot that wouldn't normally even make my bench. I soon regret my decision after conceding a peanlty and the end of the match is very nervy but we hold on for a 2-1 win. I honestly have no idea how we won this when you look at the XG. All I can say is that we took our small chances are our defence was brilliant. To be fair, the penalty provided most of their XG but they did have a really good chance later as well. In contrast, Berenguer scored from nothing for our 2nd! It was a first time half volley from just outside the box, past several defenders and the keeper. And he has 8 for long shots (and 8 for finishing). Central Coast Mariners Well, well, well. Look who it is again. Anyway... Unfortunately this game does not go like the others and we get our first draw of the campaign. We are the better team but still manage to give away a goal and this time struggle to convert our chances. Jamieson was terrible in this game and I was forced to drag him off early in the 2nd half. Disappointing from the club captain, but I'm sure he'll bounce back. And that brings us to the end of 2021! What a start to the campaign. I'm already sensing the limits of the A League though as I am at salary cap already without even improving my squad. I'm not sure how we will manage to compete in the Asian Champions League. But one thing at a time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted August 31, 2023 Author Share Posted August 31, 2023 Adelaide United The only South Australian team. Reasonably well supported they are a well established team. They've won the finals once in 2016 and finished premiers twice in 2006 and 2016. They've embraced the South Australian colours as their own and represent that state as much as the city with no real contenders for a local rival. Their main competitive rival is Melbourne Victory. Again, despite being away, I am slight favourites for this fixture. I rate my chances given they are yet to win and have only drawn once and currently have no manager. Though they have played both Sydney and Victory twice so that does colour things slightly. Their (club) legendary captain and midfielder, Isaias, is currently injured and my scouts tell me their 4 best players are all the over 34. They have been playing a diamond, relying on their 35 yo RB to get up and down the side. Interesting strategy. I decide to bring in a few youngsters for the battle of the 2 red teams. First half is fairly dull. I keep possession and get lots of low quality shots away. Then disaster strikes. Shortly after the restart 16 year old Irankunda puts them ahead. Nabbout, obviously offended immediately pegs them back with a flying volley at the back post. Game on. I make some changes and almost immediately Irankunda scores a 2nd. We chase but cannot equalise. First loss of the season (and their first win). A disappointing one if you look at shot comparison, but we just gave them much better quality chances. Hopefully just one of those days. Western United The third Melbourne team and the most generically named team I've ever heard. Unlike the other two Melbourne teams they have actually have a geographical region to draw from which helps. They are fated to win their first championship (finals) this season but I doubt that will happen. This is their 3rd season in the competition and they're still led by their inaugural star, Alessandro Diamanti. Apparently this is supposed to be a rivalry. Investigation shows that we are their rivals but not vice versa. Interesting, though we shall seek to put them in their place anyway. At least we are back at home! They've only lost once this season so far (to Brisbane) so this should be a tough game. They have a great striker in Aleksandar Prijovic and a tough midfielder in Rene Krhin and their defence is capably led by Leo Lacroix. So a good spine! Not to mention they have my old boys Garuccio, Kilkenny and Wales. This is personal! Of course Neil Kilkenny comes back to haunt his former club and puts them 1-0 up against the run of play halfway through the half... We play well but are unable to pierce their defence. PLayers are flagging and changes are rung. Endoh comes on at RW and equalises! Then Khrin hits back with a long range screamer. Another loss... I am still scratching my head how we lost this. We had 4x their XG. Frustrating but we still hold top spot. In more positive news, Scott Jamieson becomes the clubs most capped player! Western Sydney Wanderers The 2nd team in Sydney, they are also the only team to win the Asian Champions League. They haven't quite hit the heights of those early days since but they have a new stadium and a dedicated fan base. They finished top in the 12/13 season but have never won the finals series. They've had a bad season so far with a very thin squad. But they've still got some good players like Dimitri Petratos and Tomer Hemed. One player I've been disappointed in is Jamie Maclaren. He turns it around here though, scoring the opener and setting up the 2nd in the absence of Nabbout! Leckie scores the 3rd before they peg one back, but it's a great 1st half. Maclaren scores a 2nd in the 2nd half and we cruise to a comfortable 4-1 victory. Melbourne Victory The original Melbourne team and my main rivals. Frustratingly neither Victory nor City have any catchment area which means City have traditionally been stuck trying to sway those who haven't yet jumped on the Victory bandwagon. Didn't help that Victory were very successful when Heart were starting up. A regular in Asian competitions and normally up there in league positions, they've undertaken a bit of a rebuild since Ange Postecoglou left. They've been crowned champions 4 times and finished premiers 3 times, the 2nd most successful team in the league. Victory have had a pretty good season so far, though they come into this off the back of 2 losses (Brisbane and Newcastle). Their danger man is my old icon, Bruno Fornaroli, though he has a strong supporting cast with the likes of Jason Geria, Tommy Oar, Marco Rojas and Chris Ikonomidis. The media make me slight favourites, though my players are pretty tired playing only a couple of days after my last match. Forced into heavy midfield rotations, I decide to try playing a 4231 for the first time to match my available personnel. I can't see this backfiring! Things get off to a good start, conceding a penalty 15 minutes in which Fornaroli makes us pay for. I offer what encouragement I can, and O'Neill, playing in his new AM position brings us level. Nabbout then gives us the lead before Leckie really gets the ball rolling and we go in 3-1 at half time. 2nd half is a lot more comfortable before Jamieson smashes in a free kick for a comprehensive 4-1 win. Nuno Reis comes to me asking for an improved contract. Scott Jamieson refuses to get involved and seems offended I would ask. Reis tells me that if I don't make him a designated player then he'll kick up a fuss. As one of the squad leaders I am forced into agreeing to his demands. It is frustrating but my position is just too fragile with the squad at the moment. I hope this doesn't come back to bite me... Western United We finish off January with another game against Western United. The media make me comfortable favourites while doing all they can to spark a war of words between me and John Aloisi. In other great news, my U23 players are back! So nice to have a bench again. Compared to some of the previous games, this was a lot more comfortable. Some nice combination play saw Berengeur fire us into the lead in the first half, then rotated some of the fresh youngsters on to hold the lead in the 2nd. The media seem more concerned with my lack of transfer activity, but with Reis demanding my last DP spot, I'm not sure I have much room to do anything. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted September 1, 2023 Author Share Posted September 1, 2023 Coming up to the halfway point of the season, this seems like a good chance to take stock and review how things have begun. The tactical system I begun with has mostly worked, though I've reduced the tactical instructions a bit as time has gone on. I'm no longer trying to focus play down the left, instead relying more naturally on the roles to cause this effect. I've recently settled more on making the RW a IF(a) rather than a RMD, mostly so I can rotate players through the position easier. I still haven't settled on a striker role, having rotated through P, PF(a) and AF. Maclaren has done alright but not great and I suspect that's down to the way I'm set up which is really bringing the best out of the RW. Testing the 4231 seemed promising though as an alternative. Transfer wise I have done nothing yet except renew Reis' contract. Griffiths wants a new contract as well but as he is 33 already and wants 2 years minimum and a pay rise I will probably let him go. The good news about Reis extending is he moves to designated player and so frees up some extra wage cap. This means I could afford to get 1 more Aussie in on 2k a week wages which seems decent compared to what my squad is currently on. When Jenkinson's Forest loan ends at the end of the season, I will also free up 5k a week and a foreign player spot which will give me much more room. I haven't yet decided what to do with Endoh, who is now in the last 6 months of his contract as well. He's done a lot better for me than expected! The youngsters will also require a big review. Dynamics wise I am struggling with my lack of reputation. I am slowly winning over a couple of players, but don't have any of the leaders on board which has me in quite a precarious position. I am hoping that if I can continue on and win the league that will help my authority a bit. I also hope that my contract extension to Scott Jamieson will give me time to build a rapport with him and get him onboard. The other 2 team leaders though in Leckie and Maclaren both view me as an Acquaintance, so that's a start! Glover, Gomulka and O'Neill all have me as favoured person now, with Glover being Very Close. We maintain a narrow lead at the top while being yet to play either 2nd or 3rd. That means less easy games, but also chance of some 6 pointers! Wellington are doing surprisingly well so far and Sydney are actually undefeated. Embarrassingly, I am still the only team Adelaide have managed to beat... Western Sydney Wanderers are having a shocking season for a team initially predicted to come 3rd (though I think they may have sold half their squad and sacked their manager). Nabbout is leading the goal scoring for me, with Leckie getting in amongst it as well. I'd like to see Maclaren (4) get amongst this list as well if I can enable him more. Nabbout is also equal first in assists, so he's having an amazing season. Reis currently has 3 MotM performances, which means I was completely right to give him the new contract. Or so I tell myself! His CB partner is also up there, so my defence have been pulling their weight. Despite our 2 CBs rating highly, we've been performing about standard for XGA. Our XG is great though! We seem to be doing well in reducing the shots we face but we are average in actually keeping those shots out. Maybe they just get higher quality chances. We keep a lot of possession relatively, though we are the 2nd safest team once we have the ball. Might look at taking a few more risks 2nd half of the season. Transfers In the league, Victory have done the most, bringing Mitch Nichols back tot he league and selling Jason Davidson to Anyang in Korea. Apostolos Giannou also left Macarthur after scoring no goals in 10 games though they then spent 36k on a new CB who they immediately transferred on a free to another club?? Currently the only 2 big transfers or note happened in the pre-season window, with Macarthur bringing in Tyrese Francois from Fulham for up to 135k and Western United bringing in Gabriel Cleur from Virtus Entella for up to 275k. In the rest of the save, City have splashed some cash but otherwise not much of note has happened (maybe because of my detail level). In England, Liverpool are winning the Premier League at the midway point, with Chelsea, Arsenal and City hunting them down. United are a fair way off the pace in 7th (19 points behind Liv having played a game more). Norwich and Newcastle sit in the relegation zone. Huge fall for Newcastle who are supposed to finish 8th with their new money, not sure what's going on there. In the Championship, Peterborough have somehow managed to get below Derby despite their 21 point deduction, while Fulham and Bournemouth race back to the PL. Fulham are playing Liverpool in the League Cup final after they beat United in the semis. Bayern are cruising in the Bundesliga with Leipzig and Dortmund falling behind. Greuther Furth are falling way behind at the bottom. Paderborn, Hannover, Schalke and Darmstadt are all fighting it out for the 2 automatic promotion spots. Real Madrid are walking La Liga, 12 points ahead of Barca with a game in hand, while Atletico Madrid are down in 7th. Leganes and Zaragoza are clear in the promotion spots in the 2nd tier. Juventus and Inter are going head to head for Serie A (Venezia and Genoa circling the plug hole), while PSG are running away from Lyon in France (surprise). Barca got knocked out in the group stage of the CL against Chelsea and Milan and Ajax also struggled against Atletico and PSG. Rangers failed to qualify in the Europa League, missing out to Omonoia from Cyprus! Though they'll feel better after Celtic lost out in a tough group to Napoli and Marseille. I don't know half the other teams well enough to know if they underperformed. Union Berlin got the group of death in the Conference League though, missing out to Roma and Trabzonspor. In the Asian World Cup qualifiers, Australia managed to finish top of their group above Japan. I have both Maclaren and Leckie representing me at International level. In the AFC Champions League, both semi finals went to extra time as Persepolis (Iran) beat out Al-Gharafa (Qatar) and Kawasaki Frontale (Japan) beat Jeonbuk (Korea). In the final, Kawasaki Frontale were just too strong, winning 3-0 in Tokyo. Sydney got the furthest out of the Australian teams, making it out of the group stage before losing in the knockouts to Gamba Osaka (Japan) in extra time. In the AFC Cup, Lokomotiv Toshkent (Uzbekistan) beat Altyn Asyr (Turkmenistan) 1-0 in Asgabat (Turkmenistan). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted September 3, 2023 Author Share Posted September 3, 2023 (edited) Wellington Phoenix The only New Zealand team, they replaced the old New Zealand Knights who were based in Auckland. They participate in the distance derby with Perth, which is not really a rivalry, just a point of interest with the distance travelled between them (over 5,000km). They are notable for not being part of the Asian confederation, thus not eligible for qualification in that competition. There's been a bit of discussion about whether they should remain part of the A League as it grows given their location, but I think they're a fun addition and they're the main vehicle for improving the New Zealand team. They've only cracked the top 3 once, but things have started improving for them in recent years. For the first time this season, I am underdogs going into a game. I guess that's to be expected playing in a different country. They've won 6 of their last 7 and are undefeated in 9 playing a solid 442. Led by star striker Gary Hooper they've got some quality players in their squad. I choose a more conservative midfield and my strongest line up with Metcalfe back in after his return from the U23s. It's a hot day here! We get off to a great start with Berenguer putting us ahead 4 minutes in. Then Maclaren is played through by Nabbout for 2-0. We barely give anything away either which is promising. Leckie gets the third just after the break but unfortunately I'm forced to withdraw Nabbout through injury. Dominating going into the last half hour I decide to play a bit more cautiously and give some of the youngsters a go off the bench. None of them seize the chance but aren't horrible either. My more direct passing has an effect on playing my forwards in but my share of possession drops by a third. Which is fine by me, I don't care too much about possession anyway as long as we can control the game. Nabbout is out for about a week with a twisted knee which means he probably misses our next game vs Sydney which hurts but we will survive. Transfers Colakovski agrees a deal to move to Macedonia with Rabotnicki Skopje which is a shame to lose the 21 year old but he's nowhere near first team quality (in reality he racked up 40 appearances, so think he may be underrated in game). Tsubasa Endoh also agrees a deal to leave to Vegalta Sendai in the Japanese 2nd division which is a bigger blow. It's a shame to lose him but he was taking up a valuable foreign player spot and they're tripling his wages so can't begrudge him too much. I make the decision to sell him now with a week left in the window to bring someone in. In the end they give me 73k which is decent and bumps my budget up to 247k with 3.5k wages to spend on up to 2 players (1 foreign). It's a shame to lose him as he was in good form, but I've got plenty of youngsters to cover CM and he was fighting with Tilio to be backup to Nabbout on RW. And he's inconsistent and stats are decent but not great. But he had a better run than his real life 5 appearances! In return I offer to take Micah Hamilton on loan from Man City. He's far from the finished article, but he's 2 footed, versatile and has no wage commitments. That leaves me plenty of wages if I can find an Aussie. Problem is that all the affordable ones are already playing in the league and therefore unable to transfer. Eventually I strike true, securing Bailey Wright from Sunderland. He was going to leave on a free in 6 months time but I pay up to 55k to get him in early. Unfortunately I end up exactly on my salary cap rather than under, so am forced to release a youngster which is disappointing. But I'm hoping with Bailey Wright that I finally have proper CB depth as well as someone capable of playing a more defensive RB. Spoiler Sydney The most successful team in the league (5 championships, 4 premierships) and often accused of being the favourite child of the FFA. The recent controversial decision to sell the hosting rights of the Grand Final to Sydney for the next few years didn't help with this. They are also the original sky blue team and have had some big players like Del Piero that have helped raise the profile of the league. They are also regulars in the ACL where they look promising before inevitably sputtering out. They will be my main sporting rivals in this save and are predicted to win the league this season. They just lost their first match of the season last week in the Sydney derby, though that said, they've only won once since 7th December so it's not been a great season. They did win the Australia Cup Final though. Also playing a 442, they're led by some high quality players like Alex Wilkinson and Rhyan Grant down back, with Mustafa Amini and Luke Brattan providing creativity in the middle and Adam Le Fondre finishing up front. Old Heart goalkeeper Redmayne (The Grey Wiggle) also plays in goals for them, doing much better than he seemed to in his Heart days. My 2 new signings start on the bench for this one, while Tilio takes Nabbout's place on the right. The first half ends 0-0, though we hit the woodwork a number of times and are unlucky not to go in front. Tilio seizes his opportunity and does well on the right. The 2nd half starts with Berenguer being played through 1v1 with Redmayne twice but can't finish either chance. Then it's another one off the crossbar from O'Neill and it's looking like a long day. I bring on both new signings and Nabbout who thinks he's scored only for VAR to disallow it for offside, though when he converts in the 75th, this time it stands to much sighing of relief. And then don't you know it, they hit me with a long ball over the top to equalise in the 88th. They very nearly win the thing in the 4th minute of stoppage time but we end up with a very frustrating draw. Which I probably shouldn't be surprised with considering Sydney have now drawn 8 of 13 games. Edited September 3, 2023 by Cal585 Formatting Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted September 7, 2023 Author Share Posted September 7, 2023 With the league looking more or less under control, I will look to give the youngsters more game time against mid-table and lower teams. I will try and save my star players for the AFC CL campaign which is about to start and top table clashes against the Phoenix or maybe Sydney who have the quality to cause me problems if they ever get firing. Getting development out of Bos and Tilio is the priority, though I have several midfielders as well who have potential. O'Neill is someone who fully backs me with room to become a star player but he's already 23 so not sure how much more he will develop. But I think I will give him the regular starting DM berth and see what he can do. Griffiths has been good for me but need to succession plan him and save his aging legs for when I need to lock down the centre of the park. Brisbane Roar Our 2nd game against Brisbane, this time in Brisbane itself. They've just come off 2 losses in a row after going through January undefeated, so not sure what to expect here on a warm February day. Not a lot it turns out. We end up drawing this 0-0 while being slightly outplayed. Either team looked just as likely to score but the defences held firm. But worrying as I played a fairly strong team for this one with the intention to rotate heavily next game. But a point away from home and a clean sheet is ok. Tilio gets injured for 2 weeks though which is disappointing as I was about to give him a run of games. I sign a youngster previously released by bitter rivals Melbourne Victory on a scholarship contract. Not sure if he'll amount to anything but more young Aussies developing is always good. Canberra immediately match the contract offer. Newcastle Jets I go into this one with an entirely rotated 11 in preparation for my upcoming AFC CL fixture. They've just beaten both Adelaide and WSW so this might be a bit of a risk but gotta see what my youngsters have at some point! Things get off to a poor start where they knock one in off the upright from a corner in the 15th minute despite my defender doing his best job to slide through the post to block it (not sure why he was standing outside the post in the first place). Thanks game. At half time it dawns on me that with the players out there, my 4231 would probably work a lot better so we try that instead. We look a little better but not much, so I bring Nabbout and Leckie on to save me. Eventually Bos sets up Pucciarelli for the equaliser and his first goal for the club. I try and push for the winner but it doesn't look like it will come until O'Neill, the only player in the squad to be fully on board with my management, fires one home in stoppage time to secure us the win. A nice come from behind win to give us some confidence going into the Champions League qualifiers! Next up, our first foray into Asia! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted September 13, 2023 Author Share Posted September 13, 2023 Our first ever Asian game comes around. This is what the save is about and I'm excited to learn more about the various teams I will be playing as, despite living here, I know far less about Asian club football than I do about Europe. Unfortunately our first team is very obscure with not much information readily available. At this point I realise the value of Endoh who left me earlier, as in Asia, you're allowed 1 extra Asian player in your squad who doesn't count as foreign. Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me. Club Eagles (Maldives) - Eastern Playoff Round 1 Our first game is drawn against Club Eagles from the Maldives. They hail from the capital of Male, with a population of just over 200,000. They play in the Dhivehi Premier League, as one of the better teams but have yet to win the league. In game, half their team are generic grey players with just a few real players set in the database. I wasn't thinking about the Maldives when I set up this game! We are playing at home which helps with the travel distances. They still had 11 fans turn up though against our 22,190. Suffice to say this will not be representative of my journeys in Asia. I play my strongest 11 and we blow them out of the water. Leckie scores a brace inside 15 minutes, then Nabbout add to the score on 30. Leckie completes first half hattrick just before half time to send us in 4-0 at the break. We have had 24 shots to 0 in the first half. Understandably we take our foot off the gas and cruise through the 2nd half, giving game time to some rotation options. To add insult to injury. Leckie gets a 4th in the final 10. He becomes the highest goal scorer in the Champions League since records began (in 2021). A comprehensive 5-0 though my star striker didn't manage to get in on the act. United City (Philippines) - Eastern Playoff Round 2 Another home game, this time against United City from the Philippines. Previously known as Ceres, they won their domestic league 3 times in a row from 2017-2019 including doing the domestic double in 2019. Then they were sold during the pandemic and rebranded as United City. Unfortunately it seems they are now defunct as of this year, but they have a decent history in Asian competitions, regularly playing in the playoffs and the AFC Cup and making the Champions League group stage in 2021 and 2022. They were even in the same group as Melbourne City in 2022! They lost both group games against City 3-0, so hopefully that's a sign of things here. Mat Leckie picks up where he left off with a 14 min screamer into the top far top corner. He then adds a 2nd in the 34th minute from corner and the game starts to look comfortable. Berenguer adds to the lead in the 62nd minute and I ring the changes. Leckie, much to the media's frustration, gets brought off despite being on a hattrick due to his complacency for Tilio. To make matters worse for them, they get a red card in 71st for a 2nd yellow and any hope of an unlikely comeback vanishes. I am slightly concerned that despite 2 comprehensive victories, Maclaren hasn't managed a single goal in either game, so I dedicate the rest of the match to trying to get him on the scoresheet, changing him to a poacher and instructing him to shoot more often. This works and Maclaren finally gets a goal in the 89th and then another in the 91st. Another great 5-0 win. Unfortunately my captain Scott Jamieson picks up an injury during the game that will sideline him for 3 weeks. Not great but hopefully Jordan Bos takes the opportunity to shine. In the Eastern Playoff draw, I get paired with Ulsan. I'm not looking forward to this one but I desperately want to at least make it through to the group stage. Western United But before I play them, I have to play Western United who are suddenly 3rd in the league after a 6 match unbeaten run. While still a fair way behind me, losing here would bring them back into contention. On the other hand, I am determined to keep my key players fresh for such a crucial game against Ulsan. Nabbout gets left out completely as he doesn't even have a full heart after the last 2 qualifiers. Pucciarelli and Richards also get starts after not being able to make the bench in the last 2 due to their foreign status. Otherwise I just rotate where possible while keeping my heavy hitters in reserve on the bench if needed. This is also the first time I have played them away. Pucciarelli has a goal disallowed 5 minutes in but the chances keep coming and Tilio scores on 28 before Pucciarelli finally gets his goal on 36. A dominant first half from the second string squad, restricting them to just 1 shot and that off target. I tell the players to keep possession more in the 2nd half and send them back out. Unfortunately they score from a corner with their first shot on target in the 68th, then a 2nd one 5 minutes later that my goalkeeper palms into the top of his net. They then take the lead in the 78th and the game becomes a disaster. We get a penalty lifeline to make it 3-3 with 5 minutes to go and I push them hard to try and regain the lead but to no avail. A frustrating draw and entirely my fault. I subbed the goalkeeper and our backup Sutton was woefully inadequate. He was at fault for both their first 2 goals and ended up with a 6.3 rating. Definitely not good enough from him and I let him know. I mean look at the XG. He conceded 3 goals from an XG of 0.5... Ulsan - Playoff Final Here we go. My biggest match to date with a place in the Group Stage up for grabs.. One of the big teams from South Korea, who have one of the best leagues in Asia. They have been runners up in the K-League for 2019, 2020 and 2021 before finally winning it in 2022. They won the Champions League in 2020 for the 2nd time after winning it in 2012. I don't even know how I got drawn against them in the Playoffs. This feels incredibly unfair. But I guess you need to test yourself against the best. In game, their season has started with mixed results with a few draws leaving them in 5th. Very early stages though, compared to my league which is coming towards its end. We are playing away from home, and the media only make them slight favourites, so maybe I have a chance? I am without my captain though which hurts for such a big game. We come out firing in the first half! Pinning them back we batter at the door until eventually we are awarded a penalty on the stroke of half time. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Up steps Jamie Maclaren and coolly slots it home giving us a 1-0 lead at half time. They come out firing in the 2nd half and I drop my lines to give myself some breathing room. Leckie fires a warning shot off the crossbar, then in the 58th out jumps 2 men at the back post to make it 2-0! Our defence are superb, preventing them getting any shots of note away and our midfield drops energetically to help them out. We have a couple of chances to put the game to bed but they're not needed and we run out comfortable 2-0 winners in a game that looks a lot more comfortable than it felt. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted September 14, 2023 Author Share Posted September 14, 2023 (edited) Western Sydney Wanderers Back to our regular fixtures and an away game against WSW who have been in good form recently. A good start with Metcalfe scoring early after a nice layoff from Pucciarelli. Unfortunately then disaster strikes and Berenguer hobbles off injured. Pucciarelli gets one himself just before half with a nice free kick from the top of the D. They pull one back with 5 minutes to go but we don't falter and see it through. Unfortunately it turns out Berenguer has a long term injury which is a big blow coming up to the important end of the season at his age. On more positive news, the board, after a bit of persuasion, agrees to invest resources into improving our junior coaching. Perth Glory The final team that I am yet to play by the end of March. Wacky that it's taken this long, hopefully next season fixtures will make more sense. The only Western Australian team, the Glory are an ok side despite having only won the league once (18-19) and never winning in finals (those 2 other high points are from the old national league days). There was a recent push to turn investment into sporting success but this seems to have evaporated with several of their big name signings since moving on. They do have Brad Jones and Daniel Sturridge though! This game is made particularly hard by the fact that half my team is away on international duty, requiring a heavy use of youngsters. There are 10 players missing here (2 from injury) and I'm missing everyone capable of playing on the left! Curtis Good fills in at LB and a young striker starts on the LW. Thankfully the absences don't seem to matter. Pucciarelli puts us ahead 20 minutes in, then converts a penalty before rounding out a first half hattrick. Andy Keogh pegs one back for Perth just before half time but it's a great start. I bring a couple more youngsters on in the 2nd and give my injured captain some game time to build match fitness. Otherwise nothing much of note happens and we notch another comfortable win. Adelaide United We are miles ahead in the league, so it's a good chance for some rotation. I also have to play 3 games over 6 days, so I will need absolutely everyone for this little bit. First up, Adelaide at home who are not having a good season (they are 6 points behind the 2nd worst team). Time for revenge for last game! A very disappointing first half ensues and I seek to fire them up at half time. Typically my captain responds negatively but everyone else seems motivated (I'm beginning to think the researcher had a grudge against Jamieson and set his hidden attributes low). We mount some consistent pressure though and Tilio gets the breakthrough an hour in. Metcalfe, learning the AM position for the first time, adds a 2nd 10 minutes later and the game is looking comfortable. Hamilton threatens to make it 3 by firing off the crossbar and then provoking a good 1 on 1 save from their GK but it ends 2-0 despite a late flurry from Adelaide to try and get back into it. That win means we clinch our qualification to the finals series if it was ever in doubt. Sydney FC A quick turn around to a quality side in Sydney with the big rivalry with Victory 2 days later. I try and find 11 players who are not under heavy workload to start the game. The first half is very cagey, with neither team creating anything of note. We create a little more in the 2nd half before Bos comes off injured (thankfully just a bruised shin). Disaster strikes as Amini puts them ahead after a nice passage of play with 15 minutes to go. We push for the winner but can't break through and we lose our first match for a while. Nuno Reis also gets suspended for too many yellows. We were unlucky to lose it, they didn't create much so I'm not too upset. Edited September 14, 2023 by Cal585 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtown1414 Posted September 14, 2023 Share Posted September 14, 2023 Not always easy to "rotate" the squad, and find a starting 11, all with fresh legs. Like your career idea here. Good Luck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted September 17, 2023 Author Share Posted September 17, 2023 On 15/09/2023 at 00:34, dtown1414 said: Not always easy to "rotate" the squad, and find a starting 11, all with fresh legs. Like your career idea here. Good Luck! Thanks! I was panicking slightly when I had all my Internationals return just in time for a 3 game week (actually 4 games in 8 days) and my Medical tab is telling me that everyone is high injury risk. From this point on it's multiple games a week which should be interesting. The only saving grace is that the AI seems to handle it worse than the player! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted September 17, 2023 Author Share Posted September 17, 2023 Melbourne Victory The big derby match. I pick the strongest team that is fit to stat and away we go. Nabbout gets us off to a great start before disaster strikes and he hobbles off with an injured knee. Victory aren't faring too much better, losing 2 players to injury in the first half. I bring on 2 19 year olds and an 18 to see the game out before Victory equalise with an absolute screamer into the top corner from outside the box. Even with a full strength team, I'm not stopping that. It ends 1-1 and I'll happily take that particularly once I find out Nabbout is only gone 2 days (so around my next match). Wellington Phoenix Once we get through this, we get a couple of days rest before we have to think about Victory again. So despite Phoenix being in 3rd place and a decent side, I just want to get through this (the last of my 4 games in 8 days) without any injuries. At least we are at home and don't have to fly to New Zealand! A full XI change is required here, including the keeper. Nothing much happens in the first half and it's more of the same for the 2nd, though both team almost score around the hour with their only chances. Seemingly fired up by the near miss, a long through ball by Hamilton puts Metcalfe through in behind to finally give us the lead and a point of interest. Aiden O'Neill follows up with a beautiful long range strike to make it 2-0 and a comfortable win. Finally we are through this rough patch and actually been successful throughout! Most importantly though, due to results going our way in other games, we clinch the regular season title! Not unexpected but still nice to accomplish. The game suggests I have broken into the top 10 Aussie managers in the Hall of Fame but I am very unconvinced by that. The media suggests I have been lucky to win it (despite being media favourites) which I scoff at. The best thing is that I finally get some Manager support going now that I've actually won something. Hopefully I'll be able to hold my own in player interactions now. Melbourne Victory Unfortunately my celebrations are marred by Nabbout injuring himself in training and will miss up to 2 months which is devastating for the AFC CL group stage. Time for the loanee Hamilton to prove his worth. Tilio also complains about a lack of quickness training, to which I just point blankly at our recent fixture list. Sure, if you want to do some extra running, go ahead. Thankfully most of my best players are available for this one so I'm able to select a pretty full strength starting side. We are playing away but it's still at our home ground so that helps. Maclaren thinks he gets us off to a flying start but VAR rules him offside. That's the main thing of note from the first half, except Hamilton letting me down and being by far my worst player out there. I try to encourage him, but he sits at 6.3 and so I sub him off and give Tilio the chance to run. We end up dominating but have to accept a 0-0 draw with their GK getting MotM. Perth Glory This is shaping up as an interesting fixture! Despite sacking their manager, Perth have just brought in Adebayor as a guest player. I haven't seen anyone use the guest player slot before, so I'm quite excited by this development. He scored a goal in his debut, so this should be fun. This is also my final fixture before the CL group stage, so it's a chance to get some momentum going. Spoiler Disappointingly Adebayor doesn't start but their other big name signing if Fabio Coentrao sets them on their way with a nice assist and I've suddenly got my work cut out. Youngster Abdulahi rescues me with an equaliser on the half hour before Pucciarelli misses a glorious chance to put us ahead and the teams go in at half time 1-1. Pucciarelli this time manages to score from a beautifully timed run (I thought it was offside initially) and we pile on the pressure. At least until I bring on a bunch of youngsters for some game time. We do enough for the 2-1 win though! For some reason and despite my excitement, Adebayor never gets off the bench. Next time: Excuse the poor image skills, I thought it'd be easier than it was to edit one of the official preview images. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted September 20, 2023 Author Share Posted September 20, 2023 Kaya FC (Philippines) Kaya Futbol Club–Iloilo is a Filipino professional football club now based in Iloilo City. The club has won one league title, two Copa Paulino Alcantara, and one UFL Cup. Founded in 1996 as Kaya Futbol Club in Makati, the club's name comes from the Filipino word káya ("we can"). While in Old Tagalog, the word is defined as susi ng kapatiran ("key to brotherhood"). In 2018, they relocated from Makati to Iloilo City in somewhat controversial fashion. Their highest CL finish is the group stage in 2021. They have once made it out of the group of the AFC Cup in 2016. Kawasaki Frontale (Japan) The club was founded in 1955 as Fujitsu Soccer Club in Kawasaki, just south of Tokyo. They became professional in 1997, and changed their name – "Frontale" means "frontal" in Italian. The club old crest and colours are based on those of Brazilian side Grêmio, because both clubs have cooperated since 26 March 1997. In 2007, the club attended the AFC Champions League, and made important success, as the first Japanese club for qualifying its group stage, before Urawa Red Diamonds. At long last, Kawasaki finally won the title in 2017, coming from behind to upstage bitter rivals Kashima Antlers, then going on to win the title in 2018 as well. In 2020, they successfully won the J1 League with 83 points, staying 17 points clear of Gamba Osaka, the runners-up. They won the title with four games to spare, which was a record under the 34-match league format. The club went on to win the 2021 J1 League with a record-breaking season, which saw them winning the most points in a single J1 League season ever, with 92 points won on 38 matches and achieving the least amount of losses on a J1 League season, registering only 2 losses in total. They made it through to the QF in 2017 Champions League before getting knocked out by Urawa Red Diamonds who went on to win the competition. Muangthong United (Thai) Muangthong United Football Club is a Thai professional football club based in Muang Thong Thani, Nonthaburi province. The club plays in the Thai League 1. Muangthong United were for a period one of the richest football clubs in Thailand. The club is also known as The Kirins or The Twin Qilins. The club was founded in 1989 under the name "Norgjorg Pittayanusorn School Football Team". In 2002–2003, The club was renamed to "FC Norgjorg Black Pearl" but was then renamed again in 2003–2004 as FC Globlex Norgjorg before reverting back to its original name the year after. In 2007 Siam Sport Syndicate bought the club and changed the name to Muangthong United F.C. and moved to a new ground at Muang Thong Thani called Thunderdome Stadium. The club went on to win the 2007 Season of the Thailand Division 2 League, then won Division 1 the next year. In their first season of the Thai Premier League in 2009, they also won that, completing a remarkable rise and winning 3 leagues in a row. Muangthong qualified for the 2010 AFC Champions League and won the Thai Premier League for the second time. They then signed Robbie Fowler in 2011 who took over as player/coach when the previous manager was sacked that season. In 2012, Muangthong United became the first team in Thai Premier League to go the season unbeaten in the current 34-game format. In 2017, after winning the league for the 4th time in 2016 to qualify, they progressed out of the group stage of the Champions League before getting knocked out by the previously mentioned Kawasaki Frontale int he Round of 16. They've also previously had QF and SF appearances in the AFC Cup in 2010 and 2011. Thoughts on the draw: Some interesting teams in the draw. We play another Filipino team after our qualifying heroics, alongside a quality Japanese outfit. I am hopeful of good results against Kaya after what I did to United. Kawasaki Frontale should be the toughest opponent, though if I play like I did against Ulsan, I might do alright. I don't know what to expect really from Muangthong, though I'm predicting a 3rd placed finish for them. I am aiming for a least a top 2 finish, while optimistically hoping I can top the group given our form so far. The board expect me to get through to the next round, so no pressure! Game 1: Away to Kawasaki Frontale The toughest possible start to the group. Except for the injured Nabbout, I have a full strength and rested team though. The game starts with them on the front foot before Jamie Maclaren comes up big and fires in 2 goals to give us the lead at half time despite them having double our XG. Leckie starts and finishes a nice move with quite the shot from outside the box low into the bottom corner just after the restart and then Jamie Maclaren gets his hattrick. I take him off for youngster Sam Morrison who promptly scores what is probably the best goal of the save so far. 5-0 win My initial reaction is one of disappointment. If our toughest game is such a cakewalk, there's not much in the way of challenges. I think upon reflection though that we were just absurdly lucky. The XG scores really do not match the final scoreline. Game 2: Home to Muangthong United We lose Rostyn Griffiths to suspension and with players tired after last game I reconfigure into a 4231. Who pops up a minute in? Jamie Maclaren. He may have been struggling in the league, but he's clearly thriving on these big games! Glover makes a great 1v1 save to keep them out but they keep pushing and equalise in the 12th. Game on! Unfortunately my players don't get the message and we concede straight away again from one of those annoying corners where the ball seems to swerve around the head of the defender on the post. Bailey Wright then makes things worse after conspiring with Glover to score an OG. Even with the OG on his record he's still rating higher than most of my defence... 3-1 at half time and I decide I've had enough of the 4231. Maclaren pegs one back just before the hour mark and the 433 is looking way more solid. He goes on to chip one over the keeper onto the crossbar and it looks like the comeback just isn't on. Until he combines with the other good player, Leckie, to score the equaliser in the dying minutes. Quite the comeback and another hattrick for Maclaren! 3-3 I feel more relieved now that I've had a proper challenge. Maybe it's just my 433 tactic that's too good? I lose captain Scott Jamieson to suspension though which sucks. Game 3: Home to Kaya FC Leckie opens the scoring 15 in and we're looking dominant having gone back to our 433. Then disaster strikes and Carl Jenkinson injures his thigh. Maclaren wins and scores a penalty just before halftime to make sure he continues his record of scoring in each of these games. 50 minutes in they think they've scored from their first shot of the game but it's called back for offside. Sadly that's about as good as it gets for them and the game ends without them taking a single shot. We don't score any more either despite our high XG, probably due tot he fact that I take Leckie and Maclaren off. 2-0 Sadly it looks like Jenkinson tore his thigh muscle and is out for a few months, so he's played his last game for us. Even only covering a quarter of his wages from Forest, he's still my highest paid player so no chance I make the loan permanent. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted September 21, 2023 Author Share Posted September 21, 2023 Game 4: Home to Kawasaki Frontale They seem determined to make amends for the humiliation I inflicted upon them last time, with the offside flag all that prevents me falling behind early. We start winning control back in the midfield though and look the more likely at the break. Maclaren is struggling to have any impact on the game and looks exhausted so I break his AFC scoring streak and sub him off. Youngster Abdulahi eventually manages to tee up with the other sub Hamilton to score the opener, before Hamilton goes on to score his first goal for the club just 3 minutes later. He should have had a 2nd a bit later but misses the open goal with his header. Pucciarelli twisting his knee and losing the next week is the only downside. 2-0 Game 5: Away to Muangthong A heavily changed team travels to Thailand. We struggle to have a single shot in the first half before Sulemani, one of my youngsters, creates something out of nothing in the 2nd. An unconvincing 1-0 win in the end against the toughest team we've faced so far. Intermission: Last A League game (Wellington Phoenix home) Last game of the season and designated a fan day to celebrate our Premiership. Hopefully this is a chance to get a few more fans because my Champions League attendances have been disappointing to date. I give Sutton his last chance to impress as backup GK, and go for a very young attacking front 3. They take the lead through a nicely worked free kick routine but it's otherwise been pretty boring which is not great given it's my biggest home attendance to date. After they score around the 60 minute mark, I decide it's time for some wiser heads. Unfortunately they score a 3rd before I can get the sub to take place... Despite looking better with the changes made, I can't get any back and we lose 3-0 in our worst display of the season. 7 yellow cards are given out during the match as well. Not sure I will be renewing Sutton's contract after that GK performance. Very disappointing. Also the board tell me they're cutting 2 coaching positions next season. Not sure if that's related or just bad timing. Game 6: Away to Kaya We line up near full strength for this. A good start almost comes undone except for Glover's GK heroics and then unfortunately Jordan Bos goes down injured, though thankfully I have the (slightly weary) captain Jamieson on the bench to replace him. Curtis Good also manages to wrack up a suspension for the next game. Things keep getting worse as they open the scoring in the 65th. Leckie comes to the rescue, equalising 5 minutes later. Maclaren almost rediscovers his scoring touch, with one rebounding off the inside of the post. I'm resigning myself to another dismal performance when who rises above the defence in the 93d minute, but Mathew Leckie. He's really stood up for me since Nabbout has been out. 2-1. Thankfully Jordan Bos has just pulled some ankle ligaments and will be back within the fortnight. Group Results Job Done Also in other great news Sydney topped their group! Australia represent! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted October 2, 2023 Author Share Posted October 2, 2023 With the regular A-League season coming to a close, here are the final league standings. We ended up dominating the league with a huge GD. Sydney also ended up having a decent run once they started converting draws into wins at the end. Even with Adebayor scoring 4 goals in 4 games, Perth couldn't get close to the finals. Adelaide had a woeful season and the fact that 1 of their 2 wins was against me is slightly embarrassing. They also beat Brisbane, who finished 3rd. Moresche from CCM was the leading goal scorer by some margin, banging in 16 goals in 19(4) games. Not enough for finals though. Our leading goalscorer was Andrew Nabbout, who despite his late injury, ended up with 9 from 16(2). In the first round of finals, 3rd plays 6th and 4th plays 5th, while the top 2 get a week off. Surprisingly both the lower ranked teams triumphed, meaning all 3 Melbourne teams are through to the semis alongside the all powerful Sydney. In the first leg of the Big Blue Victory and Sydney drew 0-0, giving Sydney the edge going into the second leg at home. We faced off against Western United who we ended up with a 1-1-1 record against during the season. Andrew Nabbout wasn't ready to start this match, so Marco Tilio got the nod on the left wing with Leckie shifting right. He repaid my trust, setting up Berenguer for the opener. WU hit back quickly from a corner routine though and we went into half time 1-1. I'd had more shots but they'd fashioned higher quality chances. We were struggling to penetrate through the middle against their rather narrow 4231, but the breakthrough came with Tilio and Jamieson combining to overlap out wide and fizz a cross into Maclaren who seized his first real opportunity to score. Nabbout came on for some minutes and combined beautifully with Tilio to once again stretch the play and open space for Maclaren to score his 2nd. Then mere minutes later he threaded a ball through for Maclaren to complete his 2nd half hattrick. A cagey first half had become a dominant effort from us in the 2nd period. Nabbout's predecessor, Lachlan Wales, created their best chance of the 2nd half but Glover stood tall. In the end, we come away with a very convincing 4-1 win, meaning a comfortable 2nd leg to come. Despite the changes, we got off to a quick start through Andrew Nabbout at the back post. With the 4 goal buffer established, compalcency sets in and though we control the ball, we head into halftime with just the 1 good chance to speak of. Pucciarelli misses a few decent chances in the 2nd before they thunder one against the crossbar. They finally peg one back in the 84th to equalise this leg 1-1 and then more worryingly, Andrew Nabbout hobbles off injured. They get a 2nd against my 10 men, but I'm more concerned by the way my physios are looking at Nabbout's foot. 2-1 in this game but 5-3 overall. It turns out Nabbout will be out for a month with an ankle injury which is a big blow. In the other semi final, Fornaroli gives Victory a 1-0 win over Sydney, setting up a huge final against my bitter rivals. I load up all the temporary bonus training modules I can and away we go. We dominate the first half, not letting them get a single shot. But they also defend really well and we spend the entire half battering against their wall. After a bit of motivation at half time, we manage to seize the lead early in the 2nd half through Marco Tilio deputising for the injured Nabbout. With Victory forced to come out to try and equalise, the game suddenly opens up and comes to life. Eventually Leckie makes the most of the space and scores the 2nd in the 78th, shattering the hearts of the Victory players. Just to put the boot in, we win a penalty just after and Maclaren converts to give us a commanding 3-0 lead in the final 10 minutes. First season successfully completed! And our Grand Final win was a new record high for the club with 30,050 turning up for it, almost 4,000 higher than our previous record. The 4 losses is also a new record low. We also got 9 players into the team of the year, dominating that award. I was also formally recognised as manager of the year. Hopefully all of this helps my reputation a bit! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vara Posted October 2, 2023 Share Posted October 2, 2023 pretty dominant season, mate. well done. hopefully carry the form into the ACL latter stages Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted October 3, 2023 Author Share Posted October 3, 2023 On 02/10/2023 at 19:28, vara said: pretty dominant season, mate. well done. hopefully carry the form into the ACL latter stages Thanks! I'm hoping the challenge picks up a bit as I go, though maybe I shouldn't have picked one of the dominant teams. I'm curious to see if my expansion mods work as intended next season! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted October 3, 2023 Author Share Posted October 3, 2023 Around the world: England Spoiler Liverpool ended up convincingly winning the league. Leeds also had a great season, finishing above United under Jesse Marsch. Newcastle had a disaster of the season and were sitting in the relegation places for a long time. They might need to spend some of their new found wealth in the off season. Fulham and Bournemouth walked the Championship to win promotion back to the PL. Forest ended up joining them from 6th place which was decent. Derby were always going down with their 21 point deduction but Reading did well despite their 6 points. Portsmouth and Sunderland came back up to the 2nd tier, while Ipswich continued their fall from grace. Spain Spoiler Real Madrid walked the league. Barcelona really struggled, only winning CL due to their EL triumph. Atletico were also poor. So some shaking up of teams in Spain! France Spoiler PSG (unsurprisingly) won the league. Nothing particularly note worthy except that in my game Saint Etienne and Bordeaux have managed to hang around. Italy Spoiler Juventus managed to win their games in hand at the end of the season to overtake Atalanta and clinch the title. Atalanta managed to end the season winless in their last 3 (losing to Napoli and Udinese and drawing with Cagliari) so they only have themselves to blame. Genoa were really bad. Parma were the pick of the teams winning promotion. Germany Spoiler Bayern walked the league while Dortmund were very inconsistent despite their large GD. Schalke beat out Darmstadt on GD to win the 2nd division, while poor Hannover finished 1 point behind both but lost the relegation playoff. Europe In the Champions League, Man City won a penalty shootout against Liverpool after a 3-3 thriller after Ox and Milner missed their spot kicks. Barcelona won the Europa League 3-1 over Sporting. Spurs beat Kobenhaven 2-1 in the Conference League final. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted October 9, 2023 Author Share Posted October 9, 2023 (edited) New League additions Second season in the league we have expanded to introduce 2 new teams. This mirrors the current A League expansion plans that are currently in progress. Rather than creating brand new clubs, I have instead chosen to elevate existing clubs to the top tier. I intentionally avoided choosing any ethnically based clubs as they have been problematic in the past (even if in some cases the size and history might lend itself to playing in the top flight) and tried to go for more generic, neutral clubs. I have no idea how the finances will go trying to manually expand the competition with these new clubs, so I reserve the right to use the in game editor to boost them as needed in the name of fun and competitive balance. Canberra United Currently competing in the women's and youth competitions, Canberra United doesn't have any representation in the men's game. The obvious solution in instigating a new club was to promote the existing youth club to the A League. As the first ACT team, this should hopefully provide a point of interest going forward. New Zealand Knights A second New Zealand team based in Auckland to compete against the existing Wellington franchise also adds a fun rivalry. Rather than create a brand new club, I have decided to reinstate the defunct New Zealand Knights who were also based in Auckland. It means I don't have to create the logo or cub records in the database, and can reuse their history. I did have to invent modern kits for them though. Transfers Out: Connor Metcalfe - We bid a fond farewell to Connor Metcalfe who goes to follow his dream of playing in Europe. Though this was a transfer already locked in at the start of the game, my fans still blame me for signing off on it. I've developed a good relationship with him during his time here and will be following his career with interest. I wouldn't mind bringing him back one day if the opportunity arises. Spoiler Rostyn Griffiths - I ummed and arred a little on this one before letting him go on a free at the end of his contract. Still a solid player, he was asking for more than I wanted to give at the age of 34. His legs are starting to go and I've got decent youngsters coming through who are at a similar level so it made sense to let him walk. Spoiler Carl Jenksinon - It was a sad end to his time with me with his long term injury but I won't miss the 5k (out of 26) that he was taking up from my salary cap. I'm just thankful Forest were paying the other 15k. His Forest contract is up at the end of his loan, but I think I will look elsewhere for my RB options. In real life he joined Newcastle Jets at the end of his loan, so will be interesting to see what happens here. Spoiler Micah Hamilton - The Man City loanee did well for me and ended up developing into a nice player relative to my other options. Definitely a successful loan for all parties. I've got other priorities with my foreign player slots going forward though and am actually pretty well stocked on the wings, so renewing the loan is not something I'm looking at currently. He could potentially do a job in the midfield though, so I'll keep tabs on him. Spoiler Mathew Leckie? - I have resisted multiple bids for Leckie from Troyes and my predecessor Kisnorbo who clearly recognises Leckie's ability. He has his heart set on a big money move to the Middle East, so I'm able to use that interest to reject the concrete bids. I'm a bit worried about what will happen if any of his preferred teams bid though. Ins: Daniel Arzani - With his contract up at City, I thought I'd throw a cheeky bid in to sign him on a free. Somehow I managed to get the 23 year old on a Scholarship contact and got half reasonable terms by offering a 950k release clause. If I get anything near that for him it will be great business. He's comfortable on both sides and home grown so the signing just made sense. He ended up beating out Awer Mabil to the contract as now I have Arzani, Leckie and Nabbout with Tilio coming through all capable of playing both wings. If I do end up losing Leckie, then at least I've got a ready made replacement. Unfortunately my board won't allow me to offer more than 3.1k a week, which will presumably change once the pending delisting happen. In the meantime I have to sit still and watch the best free agents be snatched up by other clubs. But in terms of how my options look: GK - Glover comfortably 1st choice. I let the backup leave, but I have a youngster just as capable of playing backup. I could get a more established player here but it's not a high priority. DEF - LB is well set with the captain, my wonderkid Bos and Galloway capable of covering as well. CB is also looking good with Curtis Good, Nuno Reis and Bailey Wright all great options. RB is the weak area with Jenkinson leaving. Galloway is a good backup and Wright can also fill in but I want a true starter for the position. MID - Florian Berenguer is starting to age but good for 1 more season as my main AM(/Mez). Aidan O'Neill is now primed to step up as a key player in his prime. I also have a couple of good youngsters coming through who are capable of playing in the league. I might look at someone with a bit more quality for the later stages of the Asian Champions League to properly replace Metcalfe and Griffiths. FWD - I am well set on the wings and Maclaren is nailed on up front with Pucciarelli as a solid deputy and Nabbout and Leckie also decent options if I need. This is Pucciarelli's final season and I'll probably let him go at the end and free up that foreign player slot which seems wasted on a backup. So I am looking at a RB and a CM and I have 6k wage budget to spend and 2 foreign player slots. Ideally I'd like to get someone high profile from Asia for the CL eligibility but I'm struggling to find someone after Shinji Kagawa laughing me out of the room when I approached him. Edited October 9, 2023 by Cal585 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted October 11, 2023 Author Share Posted October 11, 2023 Australia Cup The next edition of the Australia Cup begins early in preseason and I'm keen to make amends for my poor showing last time out. We began against Robina City SC, based on the Gold Coast. My rotated team walks over their seemi-professional opposition 7-0 in the first game, with a goal scoring debut for Arzani before he is taken off injured at half time. We then draw Brisbane Roar in the second round. I choose a fairly full strength line up for this game as my players need to build match fitness anyway and we walk away with a comfortable 2-0 win. Squad updates With Rostyn Griffiths leaving the club, I need to appoint a new vice captain. I settle on Andrew Nabbout after his stellar performances for me last season and figuring he would be playing more regularly than Bailey Wright who becomes 3rd choice. Of course, he then manages to injure himself. My captain Scott Jamieson is also out injured for 2 months, so this is really a perfect storm. I guess the game just really wants Bailey Wright to have a chance to captain the team. I am also looking to transition away from my successful 4-3-3 that I used last season into a 4-2-3-1. This was the 4-3-3 that I will still keep for Asian games and any other tough ones: But I'd like to develop a 4-2-3-1 more to make use of the abundance of quality AM I have at the club. This means I can make more use of Pucciarelli or potentially play all of Leckie, Arzani and Nabbout. Florin Berenguer is also well suited to the role as well so it just seems to make sense to utilise it. This is my early version of it: Transfers I am successful in finding a backup GK on a free transfer who is a) A League quality, b) happy to be backup to Glover and c) Australian. I am thrilled though the fans don't share my excitement. RB is proving harder. I get a deal agreed for Gethin Jones from Bolton who is also Australian but end up cancelling it in favour of my marquee signing. I manage to bring in an Iranian midfielder for 250k (rising to 325k) to take the last DP slot and fill my Asian FP designation. It's a bit more than I would ideally spend, though the board seems happy with the valuation. Most importantly he brings some much needed quality into CM to replace Griffiths and Metcalfe and also works well in the double pivot with the 4-2-3-1. Unfortunately I am stuck waiting for a WP until after the ACL game. For the RB option, I have an older Spanish player on trial that I am interested in or potentially another Man City loanee. I also looked closely at Paulo Retre as a previous player at the club, but he's worse than Scott Galloway which is problematic for the ACL. I could also potentially give the position to Bailey Wright full time as a defensive orientated FB and find another CB. ACL We play Japanese opposition here at a very dangerous time given their competition is in full flight and we are still in early preseason and now missing our entire leadership. This round was my board expectation so it won't be disastrous to bow out now, but I'd like to push a little deeper if possible. I go for a mostly full strength 4-3-3, with Arzani taking over for Nabbout (though Leckie is the one actually playing his role). The returning captain Scott Jamieson starts on the bench as he's only capable of playing half a match and I've had too many bad experiences in this game of the team collapsing once the captain gets subbed out. With Curtis Good suspended, Bailey Wright slots into CB and Galloway takes the RB spot. The 18 year old Abdulahi starts in midfield for me as probably my weakest link. Founded in 1957 as Yanmar Diesel, they won 4 titles in their early days. They changed to Cerezo Osaka in 1993, Cerezo being Spanish for Cherry Blossom (hence the pink colours). Their first major title was the J League Cup in 2017 and then the Emperor's Cup in 2018 as well as the Super Cup. They have once made it through to the Quarter Finals in 2011 of the Champions League. The game does not go well for us in Osaka. We go a goal down and struggle to make much impact, with low player ratings across the board. With half an hour to go I take off O'Neill, Arzani and Abdulahi for Gomulka, Lesiotas and Tilio. I increase our mentality and push for the equaliser. Finally it arrives with a well taken finish from Jamie Maclaren. Then Tom Glover comes up huge with a great 1v1 save as they broke our defence and looked to regain the lead. Onwards to Extra Time. Another 1v1 chance for them playing in behind our defence but luckily this time it went wide. Tilio got a chance at the other end but his chip also missed the target. I belatedly brought the captain on for the final 15 minutes to see if he could inspire a result. Tragically they broke the deadlock and despite having a player red carded, there just wasn't enough time left in the match to get another equaliser. A gutting way to end our Asian Champions League campaign. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted October 16, 2023 Author Share Posted October 16, 2023 Revision of season plans I blame myself for my Asian exit. Missing a CM and a RB really cost me at this point. The CM has since been sorted but the RB issue is still ongoing. I figure I should be able to repeat my performances in the group stage of the CL in the next cycle, so I'm really building for this time next year when I get another go at pushing into the latter stages. So I'm going with a change of transfer strategy and going to rely more on youth this season instead of spending on experience. My team is still comfortable media favourites to win the A League again, so I will look at giving more game time to the next generation coming through. I'll probably write less detail this season as well (after this post), assuming I continue my dominance of league and cup until I get to some of the more important games. Hopefully this will allow me to get a few seasons done before FM24 comes out! Transfers Rather than spend big on limited RB options, I have agreed to take Dylan McGowan on loan from Hibernian for only 1.3k p/w. He's capable of playing CB or RB, but my plan is to use him as depth for CB and push Bailey Wright out to RB. Him and Scott Galloway are both good for the league level, so I will worry about upgrading the position next season instead. He's got a little bit of reputation after earning a international cap for Australia in the past, so he also helps build the club profile. With my last foreign player slot not going to a RB import, I instead decide to invest in a 19 year old Swiss midfielder who is available on a free. He seems highly rated with lots of potential and if I can develop him a bit this season he might turn into a key player for me or allow me to sell him for some decent funding later on. As an ex-Juventus player, he looks like he might be a great understudy for Florin Berenguer when his time comes to an end with me. Speaking of Florin Berenguer, he attains Aussie citizenship, allowing me to sign 1 more foreign import. I go for an American, capable of playing on the RW or upfront. Previously of Celtic and NY Red Bulls, he has some pedigree to him and I hope he will also develop nicely. Frustratingly I still have a significant amount left in my salary cap, but not the wage budget to actually spend it. I am starting to regret spending so big on my marquee signing. I do sign one more additional Australian free agent on the outside chance he becomes any good. I get a really good youth intake which helps though! I'm not sure if the level of the kids coming through is really impressive or the league level just really bad but my HoYD assures me its a Golden Generation. I end up signing 11 of them, including Scottish Adam Houston who is the top player coming through. He has a bunch of player traits already and is fairly professional. At 16, he's already capable of slotting into my first team. Australia Cup We get given an easy run through the Australia Cup. After our efforts last time against Brisbane, we get fellow A League team Wellington Phoenix who are brushed aside. Then an easy draw against Olympic FC from Brisbane in the final where we scored 5 in the first half and slept through the 2nd. Then there was only Western United standing between us and the trophy. Unfortunately I am without my GK Tom Glover or hero Mathew Leckie Despite my early optimism, it is WU who open the scoring early after Arzani gives away a soft ball at the edge of our box. Backup keeper Italiano manages to get a hand on it but it wriggles into the corner anyway. Jamie Maclaren has a goal disallowed in response but we go into the break 1-0 down and the inferior team, controlling possession but not much else. My entire attacking unit is rated below 6.1 and 6.4 at half time. I sub several of them off in the hope of sparking something with fresh legs. Cameron Harper, making his debut, makes a real promising impact, setting up 2 good chances and hitting the crossbar himself. With 70 minutes gone we are still struggling but actually threatening a comeback. 80 minutes pass and still nothing. Then relief as we equalise in the 87th through Tilio! The celebrations are cut short as the linesman flags for offside. Despite a few late attempts we fall short and go down 1-0, losing a final I was sure we should win. That's the 2nd big game we have lost and the season hasn't even officially started yet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted October 18, 2023 Author Share Posted October 18, 2023 (edited) Opening A League fixtures We get off to a poor start to the season, losing to Perth Glory in our opening fixture. They brought the star quality and I had to face up against both Sturridge and Adebayor. I was also hampered by losing several players to International Duty, further compounded by injuries to other experienced players. I was particularly light on up front and my scoring efficiency early suffered as a result. Thankfully the fixture scheduling was particularly kind and a couple of games against the new franchise in Canberra allowed me to get some comfortable wins under my belt and build that all important momentum and morale. By the time the likes of Maclaren and Leckie returned from national service, I was also getting injuries back and managed to finally display some dominance, making up for the Australia Cup Final defeat against WU before smashing the new Knights. Qatar World Cup The World Cup was a disappointing result for the Socceroos in what must be admitted was a tough group. They got a single point against Mali, being outshone by New Zealand who at least got a win in their group. Losses to Italy and Netherlands weren't entirely unexpected though and they still managed a 3rd place finish. Otherwise the group stages weren't particularly surprising. Uruguay was the biggest team to miss out to both Belgium and the US. Morocco didn't repeat their real life heroics either, failing to escape their group. Notable absences included Poland and Switzerland who didn't end up qualifying, while Italy did and actually had a good team! Croatia had a great run through the tournament along, as did Germany, who like Italy, seemed to have a good team in this alternate timeline. Both France and Argentina were a bit disappointing, Argentina failing to win their first knockout game, and France bowing out the round after in the Quarter Finals. So there you go, a team that didn't even qualify ended up winning the 2022 World Cup. Ciro Immobile ended up winning the Golden Shoe with 8 goals for Italy in only 6 appearances during their triumphant campaign. How's this for a Golden Ball lineup? Takeover? Rumours of a takeover have been persisting for ages, though rubbished by the board. I'm not sure how the game even handles sales of clubs that belong to group ownership? Watch this space. Asian Champions League Also buried amongst the inbox items is the news that due to our league's recent performances, we have increased our standing in Asia and earned more qualification spots. I'd like to take credit for this, but Sydney did even better than me in the most recent edition. I am somewhat consoled by the fact that Cerezo Osaka, who knocked me out, went on to win the whole thing. They weren't that far ahead of me, so it gives me hope that with a bit more squad building I should be able to compete with anyone. After beating me, they won a dramatic penalty shootout against their Osaka rivals Gamba (after scoring a 91st minute equaliser), then defeated Shanghai (my old boy Mooy scoring the only consolation) while their opposition, Al-Ittihad, defeated Persepolis 3-1. Unfortunately a very one sided final ensued following an early penalty, then a quick 2nd, before Australian striker Adam Taggart put the result beyond doubt in the 2nd half. Other Major Awards Thibaut Courtois won goalkeeper of the year despite Donnarumma's WC success, while Lewandowski ranked top of Goal 50 above Salah and Lukaku (of all people). Also looks like Ernesto Valverde is the highest profile retiree. Edited October 18, 2023 by Cal585 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted October 25, 2023 Author Share Posted October 25, 2023 (edited) A League Coming into January, I'm hoping this is where we kickstart the season. We have a full squad to choose from (once Nabbout is back) and coming off a run of 4 wins and morale high, I really have no excuses for not performing well. And we do start well, demolishing bitter rivals Melbourne Victory and limiting them to 1 shot. While they did have a player sent off for a desperate lunging tackle, we were already dominating by that point which is probably what triggered the brutal tackle. Unfortunately this proves to be a bit of a false dawn. We grind out a 1-1 draw with WSW next, before a tight win over Adelaide. Then we collapse completely against Brisbane, losing 2-0 before things get worse and we lose as well to the new Knights 1-0, giving them their 2nd ever win (helped by my squad rotation). A 1-1 draw with Newcastle follows, which, while not a loss, makes us 1 win from 5 games. I'm struggling to explain this poor run. We have a few crucial injuries with Arzani, Glover, Ribeiro and Karimi all going down for several weeks. Arzani and Ribeiro are rotation options already, but losing my GK Glover and DP Karimi hurts. Theoretically I have the squad depth to cover this but in practice we are all over the place. I decide to reluctantly return to the 4-3-3 that served me so well last season and immediately see an improvement. We outscore Central Coast Marines 4-2, then get a comfortable 1-0 win over Perth. We do then fall short of Sydney but fight back defiantly after going 3-0 down to end it 3-2. Just a shame we left that one so late to turn up (and maybe if I'd made the subs at half time they would have had the chance?). We suffer a defeat to Wellington Phoenix next to make it 2 losses in a row and I'm worried things are going back downhill. But comfortable wins against Newcastle (compared to our earlier 1-1 draw, a 3-0 was particularly pleasing) and then Western United 2-0 give me the confidence the team is going in the right direction. We again have a mostly full squad to choose from and with morale high after the recent wins, I'm hopeful of kickstarting the season... After all, it's not like history ever repeats itself. We have clawed our way back up the ladder and currently sit in 2nd place. I'm not sure if I can catch Sydney who are currently 9 points ahead of me, including having beaten me in our previous fixture. They are unbeaten in the league this season which is quite some feat! Poor Canberra have yet to win a game at the other end... Champions League: We get an interesting group in the Champions League! 2 bigger teams and 1 minnow, though I'm still hopeful of getting through. Yokohoma F Marinos Kind of a sister club, as I think they are also part of the City group? CFG made them their 4th club with a minority investment rather than outright buying the club. Really how I wish Heart had been. We took Erick Mombaerts from them, who had a successful run as Melbourne City manager before Kisnorbo took over. To replace Mombaerts, Yokohoma brought in Ange Postecoglou. Now they have their 2nd Aussie in a row, Kevin Muscat. As much as I dislike Muscat for his Victory allegiance (and enforcer role), I love to see Aussies doing well overseas. In terms of the club itself, they were originally founded as Nissan FC and are one of the most successful Japanese teams, having won the title 5 times and come runners up twice and are the current defending champions in game. They also won the old league twice as well, the Emperor's Cup 7 times and the J League Cup 4 times. Despite their domestic success, they've only gotten out of their Champions League group twice and been knocked out of the Round of 16 both times, the first time by another of our group contestants, Suwon. Suwon Samsung Bluewings Based in Suwon in South Korea, a northern city with over 1 million inhabitants, the Bluewings are another storied club. They have won their domestic league 4 times (and come runners up another 4 times), their FA Cup 5 times and their League Cup 6 times. They have also won the Asian Club Championship (the predecessor to the Champions League) twice in a row in 00/01 and 01/02. In recent years they've had some deep runs in the CL as well, making the quarter and semi finals within the last 5 years. Muangkan United FC Sadly I don't know much about The Great Bats, except that they are a Thai team. They aren't even in the top Thai league so I'm not sure what they're doing in the group stage in this game? The first cycle of games blows my expectations away! Playing our trusty 4-3-3, we manage to convincingly beat all 3 of our opponents. We open with a 2-0 win over Yokohoma Mariners, before a slightly trickier tie against Suwon. We actually go 1-0 down and I was getting quite worried but we respond brilliantly, eventually winning 4-1 and dominating the 2nd half. Muangkan is also a comfortable 3-0 win to have as cruising through the group as I predicted at the start of the season. I'm not entirely sure why these games are so much easier for me than the league is at the moment. I suspect it might be due to other teams lacking match sharpness due to their leagues only just beginning or the fact that I am playing my full strength lineup with no rotation unlike the league where I am trying to give youth a chance and my stars need rests occasionally to keep up with the schedule. Either way, we should comfortably walk this group! Transfers/Contracts: I manage to lock down my star man Jamie Maclaren, and key midfielder Aidan O'Neill to new contracts. Veterans Bailey Wright and Florin Berenguer also agree to extend on lower wages which is helpful. I'm still negotiating with several youngsters who want higher wages. I'm significantly over my wage budget which makes it tricky. The big loss is that Glover rejects my contract offer and signs on a free with Rotherham instead. Rotherham sit 1st in League 1, so should be in the Championship next season. Not quite as good as his real life move to Middlesbrough, but not far off! I have agreed end of contract signings for a couple of youngsters including a young Aussie GK, so will be interesting to see how they integrate. Speaking of contracts, I sign a new 2 year deal with the club. I'm planning to see this out and then move onto FM24 at this time. I'm hoping I can win the ACL sometime in the next 2 seasons but I'm already looking at FM24 as a much better base for this kind of save. Just having Japan in the base game removes a lot of problems when trying to activate them for Asia. But I do want to see my A-League expansion mods take effect before retiring, so I'll keep going for a little bit yet. Edited October 25, 2023 by Cal585 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted October 27, 2023 Author Share Posted October 27, 2023 A League The media want to know how confident I am of catching Sydney, knowing that I need other teams to help me out. I tell them that I'm not particularly confident and this seems borne out by the immediate results as we start our limp home. We manage draws against Macarthur and Victory and it looks like it's going to be a solid effort just to hold onto 2nd spot. A game against Brisbane threatens to go horribly wrong with us 2-0 down after an hour, but a substitute inspired fightback sees us take a point there as well for 3 draws from 3 games. Things pick up after this though, as we then gain a result beating WSW 2-0, then backing that up with a hardfought 2-1 win over Adelaide. Wins over Macarthur and Wellington follow and suddenly the media is talking about a record winning streak. How quickly things change. The last match of the season though is against the Premiers Sydney. With a break from games after this match, I play a fairly strong squad and triumph 3-1 over the best team in the competition, with Caputo becoming the clubs youngest ever goal scorer in the process. It's been a strange season. Our best has blown every other team out of the water, but we have also been capable of losing to anyone (except poor Canberra). Onwards to the finals series! Champions League: Another comprehensive win against Yokohoma F Marinos (3-0) helps establish our group dominance and shows what my team is capable of when they actually turn up. This is backed up with a 3-1 win at Muangkan, once Leckie subbed on to rescue the day (we were somehow 1-0 down at the time), and a 2-0 win hosting Suwon to complete the clean sweep of the group. Suwon end up taking 2nd place but don't earn enough points to qualify for the knockouts. Western United unfortunately finish 3rd in their group behind Kashima Antlers and Seoul E-Land who both qualify. Melbourne Victory finish dead last in their group consisting of Jeonbuk, BG Pathum United and FC Tokyo. So looks like I'm the last standing Australian team this time! I'm also the only team to win all 6 group games, though Shanghai almost match me, their only blemish is a draw to defending champions Cerezo Osaka. We are drawn against Kashima Antlers in the knockout phase and the chance to get revenge on behalf of Western United in 6 months time beckons. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted October 27, 2023 Author Share Posted October 27, 2023 (edited) A League finals series Due to our Top 2 finish, we get the first round off while we wait to see which team survives the elimination final to play us. The first round sees a tense battle between the 2 Western teams (ironically both on the east coast) to be our challenger. It takes until the 116th minute of Extra Time but Western United finally break the deadlock to qualify. Brisbane Roar easily do away with Victory in the other game. Our first finals game is also Western United's last at GMHBA Stadium before their move into their new custom built stadium next season which takes up a fair bit of the pre-match discussion. I name a fairly full strength squad but the game is rather cagey before Andrew Nabbout limps off injured around the hour mark. Prijovic has a goal ruled out for offside for WU as the only real highlight until then. But with Nabbout forcing changes, it's 2 of my substitutes that combine to open the scoring as Joel Ribeiro threads Daniel Arzani through in the 75th. Then just after that, Nuno Reis, our veteran CB, rifles a free kick in to make it 2-0 for the away leg. With us 2-0 up going into the return fixture, I decide to rotate a little, giving 17 year old Max Caputo his start up top, resting Leckie for Tilio and bringing new youth prospect Adam Houston into the line up. Max Caputo quickly repaid my trust and opened the scoring for me in the 37th minute to put me in a commanding 3-0 lead. The game kinda fizzled after that except for Nabbout injuring himself for a 2nd game in a row, along with my RB hobbling off and captain Scott Jamieson getting a run out which was nice for him as he's been usurped by Jordan Bos at LB. Caputo sealed the result with a 2nd in the 76th minute and the only remaining event of note was my old boy Rostyn Griffiths earning himself a late yellow card out of frustration as we ran out 4-0 winners over both legs. Max Caputo looks like a great understudy for Jamie Maclaren as a 2nd choice striker to develop more next season. In the other game a huge shock was on the cards with Brisbane winning the first leg 2-0. With everything to play for in the return, Sydney hung on and got the 2nd goal they needed to take it to penalties in the 90th minute! They then held their nerve to win 7-6 in the shootout. Despite Brisbane coming agonisingly close, I am relishing a chance to show up Sydney after they got the better of me in the regular season. It is a Sydney home game given they are the higher seeded team and they're playing in the newly refurbished Allianz Stadium which also serves as probably the main stadium for the national team when they're in Australia. I spend the week leading up to it throwing every kind of match bonus into training I can, particularly practicing penalties. Looking at their squad, they've been playing a 442. Up front, Patrick Wood has had a good season for a 20 year old, averaging decent ratings and 10 goal involvements alongside his Belgian strike partner Wolke Janssens (recruited this season from Sint-Truiden) who has done most of the scoring. The Dutchman Luciano Narsingh on the left is their main dangerman, though Heart old boy Anthony Caceres on the right isn't too bad either. Luke Brattan and Mustafa Amini, have done and admirable job of holding the middle and providing some creativity there. The Grey Wiggle, Andrew Redmayne, is a solid marshall of the defensive unit with Connor O'Toole playing his last match for the club before joining Perth Glory, while Rhyan Grant on the right might need to be replaced soon as well as the 32 year old's legs are going. But he's got nothing on defensive stalwart Alex Wilkinson who is still going at 38 and relying on the youthful exuberance of Brazilian Pedrao next to him. On the bench, the retiring Adam Le Fondre has also been a great striker for them this season. All in all, Sydney are a team full of big names who have been there and done it. They're all skilled players but they're aging and if I can bring the energy and exuberance, I might be able to create myself some space. With the aging legs of Sydney in mind, I choose to keep the aging legs of Jamieson and Berenguer on the bench in exchange for some youthful dynamism. The creative duo of Karimi and O'Neill should hopefully be able to control the ball in midfield, while the young Gomulka can cover the space and block the 3rd man run. With a man advantage in the midfield, I'm hoping I can control possession and drag them around a bit particularly as they are playing at home. Bos has licence to get up and overload the left, while Wright takes the RB slot ahead of Galloway. Wright is more of a wide CB, so he's primarily defensive to deal with the threat of Narsingh down the left. Unfortunately Arzani and Pucciarelli are both injured for this, but I'm planning to introduce Marco Tilio onto one of the wings in the 2nd half to provide some extra pace to run at the defence if Leckie or Nabbout struggle. I am surprised when the team news reaches me. Narsingh is a late withdrawal, not even making the bench (he's not injured so I don't know why). Amini and Caceres also drop (to the bench at least). 34 year old Angelo Corsi comes in at RB with Rhyan Grant pushing to RM. Wolke Janssens takes LM while Adam Le Fondre comes in for the final game of his career. 21 year old Patrick Yazbek has the tough job of replacing Amini in midfield, though he looks like a more mobile and tough tackling option. The opening 10 minutes are tight. I get a few shots off but none on target. Down the other end, Sydney create a decent chance for themselves but don't hit the target either. The combination of Bos to Nabbout seems to be working quite well with Nabbout winning a couple of headers in the box. Sydney then almost open the scoring with Glover making a great save. Straight back down the other end, it's only a last ditch sliding tackle that stops Maclaren racing through 1 on 1 with the Sydney goalkeeper. After half an hour both teams are getting into their groove but the defences are both playing well and preventing clear chances. Then we finally create a meaningful chance. Jamie Maclaren drops all the way back to combine with Bailey Wright at RB who plays a long through ball for Karimi to run onto. Sydney immediately appeal for offside but VAR confirms it was well timed and we take the lead! Taking advantage of the momentum and Sydney's frustration at the decision, we quickly pile on the pressure with Maclaren again dropping deep before playing Karimi through once again for our second! Worth every cent as our designated player! Then, to make matters even better, just on the stroke of half time, with Sydney apparently already switched off, Nabbout finally gets a header on target to send us in 3-0 at the break. What has felt like a cagey affair has suddenly broken open in our favour, despite me not being that far ahead on XG. It will be interesting to see how Sydney respond in the 2nd half knowing they need to attack me. The second half starts a bit wobbly with Bailey Wright getting himself yellow carded inside the first minute and giving them a promising free kick. But Glover makes another great save for the team in his final match. Heading back down the other end, we are awarded what is described as a very controversial free kick. But I don't care as from the cross in, Karimi rises to nod it home, finishing what has turned out to be a perfect hattrick (right foot, left foot, then head)! Incensed by the decision, Sydney manage to grab a goal back through Adam Le Fondre. I make a few changes to stiffen things up, replacing the yellow carded Wright and introducing Tilio for Leckie to energise the left wing further. Berenguer also comes in for O'Neill to add a bit of experience into the midfield. Sydney start throwing everything at me and it gets a bit nervy on the sidelines, particularly looking at my players confident and complacent attitudes. Edited October 27, 2023 by Cal585 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted October 30, 2023 Author Share Posted October 30, 2023 A quick review of the big events elsewhere in the world: Premier League The Premier League in this save has to be one of the strangest I've seen in my various FM22 saves. And for context I do have it on full match detail. Liverpool clinched the title over Man City on goal difference of all things, despite City having both Haaland and Mbappe (and Lautaro Martinez as a 170 mill sub). Both were way ahead of 3rd placed Man United, who finished 18 points behind under the stewardship of Zidane. Leeds of all teams took the last Champions League place, continuing their fairytale run under Jesse Marsch. Then things got even stranger with West Ham and Everton taking the Europa League spots and Chelsea sneaking into the Conference League. Arsenal, now under Viera, finished down in 9th place. They still managed bragging rights over Spurs though, who under Mancini, finished 10th. Newcastle continued struggling to use their wealth and finished 15th, though avoided a relegation battle this time. Wolves, Burnley and Forest all dropped out while Brentford, Norwich and Sheffield United were promoted. Paulo Dybala won player of the year for Liverpool. Spoiler LaLiga In contrast to the chaos of the Premier League, LaLiga was business as usual. Barcelona dominated the league, beating Real Madrid by 7 points. Atletico finished in 3rd place, while Valencia took 4th. Ligue 1 Ligue 1 was another league with exciting GD drama, this time Monaco missing out on the title to PSG based on GD. Otherwise positions were fairly normal, except Saint Etienne haven't suffered their real world issues and managed to secure Europa League in 5th. Lens unfortunately haven't had their good real world run either and were relegated along with Troyes who sacked my predecessor Kisnorbo. I will be following him with interest to see if he gets rehired elsewhere. Serie A Serie A belonged to Milan with AC finishing 7 clear of Inter at the top. Atlanta and Sassuolo rounded out the top 4 and the CL places. A poor season by Juventus (5th) led to them sacking Alegri though they still beat out the other big clubs Napoli (6th), Roma (7th) and Lazio (8th). Sassuolo should be very happy with that finish! Bundesliga 7 points seems to be a thing this season, as the Bundesliga was the 3rd league to have a 7 point winning margin at the top as Bayern finished comfortably clear of Dortmund. Koln and Freiburg got the other CL places in great seasons for them. Bochum managed to gain EL football instead of relegation, ahead of Leverkusen. Stuttgart also made it into the Conference League. Leipzig finished all the way down in 9th, while Borussia Monchengladbach were down in 10th. B2 winners Schalke unfortunately went straight back down, losing the relegation playoff. My Transfers: Daniel Arzani - 20 apps (5G, 1A) - 6.91 Daniel Arzani was ok for me. Given his level of ability I had hoped for slightly more, though with the depth I have on the wings he was rotated in and out a lot. He was a free transfer that was well received by the fans, so I can't complain too much. Scored some good goals but didn't provide much. He will probably remain backup to Nabbout next season. Lewis Italiano - 5 apps (7 conc) - 6.88 Filled in well for me when Glover injured himself. A solid backup GK, I'm very happy with him. Not good enough to take Glover's spot, he will remain on the bench. Ali Karimi - 16 apps (5G, 2A) - 7.25 Few fitness concerns and a bit of a settling period learning English, he turned out to be a great investment in the end. That perfect hattrick in the Grand Final was worth it alone. Will look to rely on him a lot in the upcoming ACL campaign. In hindsight he's a very similar profile to O'Neill and it's been a bit hit and miss playing them together which is why he hasn't had as many apps as might be expected. Dylan McGowan - 12 apps (1 A) - 7.08 Was a great low cost loan who was able to fill in. Even got an assist from CB. Not first team quality at his age but was a handy stop gap with a bit of pedigree. Isaac Danzo - 7 apps (1 A) - 6.94 Decided to give him a chance and see if I could unleash his untapped potential. Played decently in the games that I gave him but didn't seem to improve much and lost out to other young midfielders who were better that I invested in instead (Gomulka, Lesiotis, Abdullahi). Joel Ribeiro - 16 apps (2 G, 4 A) - 7.11 Was in and out a bit with injuries and struggled finding a place after I reverted back to 433. Retraining as a Mez saw him get some more game time later in the season and hopeful he will kick on and take over from Berenguer. Called up to the Swiss U21 team Cameron Harper - 18 apps (4 G, 1 A) - 6.84 Didn't improve as much as hoped. Had some great games at RW where he single handedly changed the match for me and others he was the worst player on the pitch. I have started retraining him as a Striker and will probably look to use him in this role going forward. Future Ins: Iliya Shalamanov-Trenkov 20 yo GK A young up and coming GK from CSKA Sofia in Bulgaria with dual Aussie nationality. I got him to sign end of contract for low wages which I'm happy with. Not sure he's good enough to be first choice, particularly in the ACL, so might still need a high calibre keeper to replace Glover. But will be my eventual first choice. Spoiler Callum Talbot 22 yo RB City's real life RB and another I got on a free. Not quite first team level but I'm interested to see if I can develop him a little more. A very defensive minded FB, he would rotate well with Wright and offers something different to Galloway. Spoiler Alessandro Lopane 19 yo CM Another player that has just joined City in real life, thought I'd give him a try in the game too. Not entirely sure where he will fit, but if he develops he could easily stake a spot. Spoiler Squad Depth: ST: Maclaren, Caputo Wings: Leckie, Nabbout, Arzani, Tilio, Harper Mids: Karimi, O'Neill, Gomulka, Abdulahi, Houston, Berenguer, Ribeiro, Lesiotis, Lopane FBs: Bos, Galloway, Jamieson, Talbot CBs: Reis, Good, Wright GK: Shalamanov-Trenkov, Italiano, Nieuwenhuizen Spoiler I am very loaded up top and trying to spread the playing time is challenging. Making Harper a Striker instead of a RW I think definitely helps with the balance a bit and gives me a star striker and 2 projects. Ultimately this means I have no need to keep Pucciarelli on despite his great average ratings for us. Sad times but he's a luxury use of the foreign player spot and he just doesn't get that much game time. I also probably have too many midfielders, though I'm lacking a good defensive midfielder. Gomulka has kind of been doing the job for me but he is only 20 and well rounded rather than a specialist. Lesiotis has also played there for me in the league as his strengths lean that way but at 23, I'm not sure he's going to improve enough to be a worthwhile longterm investment. I'm a little short on defence though I think. My proposed solution is to look for another BPD. This means I can keep Wright at RFB and potentially move Nuno Reis into DM where he is quite capable to solve the earlier problem. It would allow me the most versatility to swap players around. As mentioned previously I am also lacking a reliable GK. My new signing looks promising and Nieuwenhuizen has also developed massively this year but I don't want to rely on any of them for a deep push into the ACL. Italiano has been great for me, but may find himself no longer needed if my youth prospects continue to develop. Priority signing: Established GK who can mentor my upcoming talents. Needs to be embedded before next ACL game. Secondary signing: BPD Fond Farewells: Pucciarelli, Hall, Glover I just need the board to stop dithering about a potential takeover and actually release some funds. I've also been having a lot of trouble with staff members leaving and being unable to afford to renew their contracts. I think I got a few to sign with large competition bonuses but that doesn't work anymore. I've lost my Assistant Manager (after he got certified out of my pay range), my HOYD and my best scout who got poached by Spezia. I also let a couple of analysts lapse who were kinda meh anyway and wanted big pay rises. Scott Jamieson also comes to me to tell me he wants a new challenge at the end of his career. On one hand he's 34 and fallen behind Jordan Bos in the pecking order. On the other he's my club captain. I tell him he can leave if a reasonable fee comes in. Somewhere around the 100k mark. A couple of offers immediately come in but they're all around the 50k range. And apparently he wants to go to Wellington Phoenix (not even leave the league?) despite the fact that they are unable to transfer him due to the intra-league transfer restrictions. So I guess he will be staying? Asian Cup Finally the Asian Cup has been taking place in Qatar and China during the off season with several of my players representing the Socceroos. Australia won all 3 of their matches against China, Oman and Singapore to top Group A. The biggest shock of the group stage was holders and hosts Qatar failing to win a single point in their group with Lebanon, Japan and Uzbekistan. Lebanon actually finished top! China then joined their co-hosts being eliminated by Saudi Arabia in the 2nd round. Australia needed extra time to beat Uzbekistan 3-2 but made it through. The biggest result was South Korea thumping Malaysia 7-0, while in another spicy affair, Iran beat Iraq 5-0. In the quarters, Australia cruised past Lebanon while Tajikistan needed penalties to see off Kuwait. But in the semis it all came crashing down as Australia lost to South Korea in extra time. In the other game Japan walked all over Tajikistan 4-1. In the very tense final, Japan lost 2-0 to South Korea. It was fairly comfortable really. In good news, Jamie Maclaren won the Golden Boot! Spoiler 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMFC2014 Posted November 1, 2023 Share Posted November 1, 2023 Interesting concept considering how the franchise has developed over time under the City Group, enjoying the exploits in Asia and background to each opponent so looking forward to you making another Australian team champions of Asia! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sizeman21 Posted November 1, 2023 Share Posted November 1, 2023 Rough bit with your team right now. Very nice write up regardless. Enjoying your Melbourne team! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted November 5, 2023 Author Share Posted November 5, 2023 On 01/11/2023 at 20:20, SMFC2014 said: Interesting concept considering how the franchise has developed over time under the City Group, enjoying the exploits in Asia and background to each opponent so looking forward to you making another Australian team champions of Asia! On 02/11/2023 at 04:33, Sizeman21 said: Rough bit with your team right now. Very nice write up regardless. Enjoying your Melbourne team! Thank you both! I've had a bit of difficulty with the self-made Editor files and the general buginess of the A League on FM22 but I'm hoping I'll have season 3 soon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted November 7, 2023 Author Share Posted November 7, 2023 We manage to slowly fill in the vacant gaps of our depleted coaching staff. I haven't managed to replace my great assistant manager but I apparently had 2 in place previously so I at least still have 1. He's not amazing but is passable and down to the final year of his contract, so I will probably see how he does this year before deciding if he needs to be upgraded next season (if my coach wages will allow an upgrade). I spend the scout compensation fee on getting a new HOYD who seems decent, if not quite as good as my previous guy. After a while of debating about what type of coach my last staff member should be, I finally get a decent allrounder to join my staff by offering max wages and bonuses and a bit of haggling. In other news, after months of denial, my chairman finally admits to wanting to step aside. Interesting days ahead. I must say this is not shaping up to be a promising offseason. I am yet to replace my GK, I've lost 2 key staff members I'm unable to replace properly, my captain wants out and there's drama behind the scenes at board level. Guess it'd be boring if things got easier each season! He is eventually replaced by a new chairman who immediately cuts ties with New York City but otherwise keeps things the same. For preseason we head across to Japan. The original club plans were to go to the Northern Territory but I wanted a fun overseas trip instead to somewhere that actually has training camp infrastructure. Probably the first time I've overruled the default destination. Pucciarelli sneaks into the training camp despite his upcoming deslisting. He has sacked his agent and keeps looking at me beseechingly while pointing to his admittedly great ratings begging for a contract extension but I'm hardening my heart. Max Caputo is where the future is at and I really need Pucciarelli's foreign player spot back. And his wages back given he is only a squad player and the wrong side of 30. He does end up staying in the A League though, eventually joining Sydney. I try for another couple of loans from Man City and while they agree to send me the likes of Lavia and Bazuna on loan, the players themselves refuse to move across to the other side of the world. Oh well. I do strike lucky with a loan for Christian Fruchtl the Bayern Munich wonderkid goalkeeper (now at Austria Wien). Once his work permit comes through he joins and I have my Champions League goalkeeper! Hopefully in a year's time when his loan finishes my young goalkeepers should be ready to play more regularly. My new Aussie GK particularly I hope to give some minutes to in the Cup and the League to help him settle and develop. I pull out of a tentative deal to buy Maitland-Niles, the best Aussie keeper who was interested in joining. He ends up signing for Sydney for 350k which seems excessive but I guess he is one of the better Aussie GK available. Scott Jamieson also gets his move to Sweden and I bank 60k to get the 34 year old and his wages off the books. He wasn't going to be playing much in the final year of his contract anyway and I reassign the captaincy to Nuno Reis. In exchange Reis agrees to sign a contract extension on lower wages and to give up his DP status. Leckie comes to me upset about losing Jamieson's leadership but I assure him that we have plenty of natural leaders including himself and he leaves feeling satisfied. Unfortunately i don't have any more foreign player slots with Fruchtl joining and I'm really struggling to find a competent Aussie defender who is willing to join me. McGowan was good last season but ideally I'd like someone better or at least someone who can develop. Ribeiro has some interest from Dutch clubs but no offers are yet forthcoming for him and he has a lot of potential which would be nice to develop for another season. I get briefly excited when I find out Real Madrid are open to selling one of their wonderkids in Pablo Ramon who is 2 footed and could make that BPD role his own. Unfortunately things don't work out as he requires a DP contract and Reis spends too long contemplating his new contract that I can't get the slot open in time. My scouts tell me that the work permit would have been denied anyway so the whole thing was moot and he stays in Spain, moving down to the 2nd division with Albacete. I do get 23 year old Brazilian CB Gabriel Pereira though whose work permit is apparently fine. He's a great CB for the league and any further development will make him an absolute star at this level. He's arguably better than either Good or Wright and beaten only by Reis, though the downside is of course that he's taking up a valuable foreign player slot. To make room for him, Harper ends up getting cut and moves to Adelaide City in the state leagues. It's a shame as the kid has potential and had some good performances but he really wasn't developing and a bit like Pucciarelli, I just had too many better options in his positions. I still have room in the budget for more signings if I want, including a DP but I'm actually pretty happy with how the squad looks. I have a pretty strong first team for the ACL and some really promising youngsters to give gametime to in the league. Having used all my foreign slots also makes it tricky as I can only buy Aussie players and I can't buy from other A League teams nor offer competitive wages to Aussies in Europe or Saudi Arabia. I'm keeping tabs on all the big Australian Internationals in case some interest comes up but it's not something that looks likely. In the meantime the club agree that I can start on my Continental Pro coaching course. Australia Cup We get a harder draw in the Australia Cup this year, having to play fellow A League opposition instead of state teams. Not that this really seems to matter to the players at all. A heavily rotated team of younger players puts 3 past Newcastle Jets in the first round while barely giving them a sniff of goal. We then get drawn against Wellington Phoenix. As this is a week before my Champions League game, I choose to play a bit of a stronger team here to give some match sharpness to some of my key players who I will need in that. This is also Fruchtl's first game since joining the club so he plays as well. We end up absolutely demolishing the poor Phoenix 6-0. Pre-season disclaimer and all that, but they've got a fair bit of work to do to get ready for the season. Or maybe my team will just dominate this season? Max Caputo is the real winner out of these 2 games. Leading the line, he scores a fine hattrick in the rout of Wellington. For his 3rd goal he blasts one of the best volleys from outside the box I have ever seen and I already know this will be one of the goal of the season contenders. He may still be young and his stats a bit lacking in some areas yet, but on the field he is showing he is a capable deputy to Maclaren and deserving of more minutes. Asian Champions League Our next tie in Asia is against Kashima Antlers. Based in Kashima, Ibaraki, a place with only 60,000 residents, they've had to draw support from surrounding areas as well. They were founded in 1947 as Sumitomo Metal Industries Factory Football Club in Osaka and moved to Kashima, Ibaraki in 1975. After the formation of the fully professional J.League, Sumitomo, like all other clubs, stripped the corporate brand from the club's name and reformed as the Kashima Antlers. They are one of only two clubs to have competed in Japan's professional top-flight football every year since its inception (the other being Yokohama F. Marinos). The name 'Antlers' is derived from the city of Kashima, which literally translates to 'Deer Island'. The club crest not only resembles deer antlers but it also reflects the image of rose thorn as it is the official flower of Ibaraki, the home prefecture of the club. Kashima Shrine, one of the most famous shrines in Japan and located in close proximity to the club headquarters, have kept and raised deer for more than 1,300 years as spiritual symbol. Kashima have proven themselves to be by far Japan's most successful football club in terms of trophies won, having won the J.League title a record eight times, the J.League Cup a record six times and the Emperor's Cup five times for an unprecedented nineteen major domestic titles. Kashima became Asian champions for the first and most recent time as they won the AFC Champions League in 2018. To this day, Kashima has maintained strong ties with the football community in Brazil, a fact borne out of Zico's past affiliation with the club. Kashima's Brazilian connection has manifested itself in both the club's player transfer and coaching policy resulting in only three non-Brazilian foreign players and predominantly Brazilian managers signing for Kashima since the inception of the J.League. Currently their Brazilian contingent is led by their star man Arthur Caike. Going into this game I'm not really sure what to expect. Kashima are deep into their domestic season, while my players are only just rebuilding match fitness in preseason. That said, they are struggling quite badly in the league, sitting 13th after 25 games. So there is definitely weakness to take advantage of. With no injuries and all new signings embedded, I field my strongest team with quality depth on the bench as well. Playing in Japan itself for this one, the game is a nailbiter. Neither team manages to create any clear cut chances, though I seem to be edging things slightly on balance of play. I am forced to turn to my bench to replace a couple of my stars in Leckie, Karimi and Maclaren who are struggling to have much influence on the game. Still neither side is able to make a breakthrough. Nothing happens until the game is almost over and then suddenly the floodgates open. In the 84th minute, a chaotic corner leads to Nagato bundling the ball into his own net to give me a 1-0 lead and the prospect of advancing to the next round if I can just hold the lead for 5 more minutes. After that horrid luck, Kashima throw everything against me trying to equalise and finally break through with their Brazilian star Caike in the 91st minute. To be so close to seeing it out is devastating as I look on in despair, trying to encourage my boys. But there is one player out there who is not dismayed. My vice captain, scorer of clutch goals, Andrew Nabbout. Refusing to give up, he rallies the team and in the 92nd minute provides an instant response, heading home to restore the lead and scoring our first actual goal of the game. With Kashima hearts cruelly crushed, we see out the remainder of stoppage time and celebrate our progression to the Quarter Finals. In the press conference afterwards I declare that all Australian fans are behind us and that I will make them proud. 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Cal585 Posted November 20, 2023 Author Share Posted November 20, 2023 Last signing: After scouring the transfer market for a high profile Aussie to bring in, I eventually settle on Nikita Rukavytsya. Despite being born in Ukraine, he moved to Australia at 14 and has represented the national team 21 times. He played for Hertha, Mainz and Frankfurt before moving to Israel via a brief return to Australian football. While there he became the leading foreign goalscorer. He's just returned to Australia with Western United so a move to Melbourne is definitely realistic! He's planning to retire in a year's time in game and doesn't want outrageous wages, so despite not being particularly desperate for forward options, I decide to seize the opportunity. He can take Pucciarelli's spot as striker backup while Caputo continues to develop without standing in his way long term. I also considered a move for transfer listed Craig Goodwin, but he wants silly wages for what he brings to the squad. Spoiler Preseason: Not much to report on for pre-season. We smashed the semi-pro teams we played and the friendlies were more about gaining fitness than a real measure of strength. Next season I might need to plan ahead to see if I can wrangle some decent foreign teams to test myself against. As an example, take a look at this ridiculous game that ended 17-0. Australia Cup Quarter Final In the Quarter finals of the Australia Cup, we come up against Western United again. Seriously, it feels like we are always playing them at the pointy end of the cup. For some reason, the media and team talk options are to do with us being underdogs despite having a substantially higher predicted league finish. And true to expectations, the match itself poses no problems. They hold me well for the first half until Marco Tilio scores in the 3rd minute of stoppage time. The 2nd half is much more comfortable after Nabbout doubles our lead just before the hour mark, then Maclaren seals the result 10 minutes later. A handy 3-0 away from home. ACL Quarter Final For our Champions League Quarter Final match we welcome Shenzhen. With a population of 17 million to draw from, they have a bit of a larger supporter base than us but understandably don't bring many across to Melbourne. Founded in 1994, they were the first Chinese team to win all 3 divisions in 2004 but also gained the dubious honour of the first league champions to be relegated in 2011. It then took them 7 years to regain promotion. Since then they've placed 15th, 13th, 6th and 14th. Interestingly they have actually made it to the Semi Finals once before in 2005, so they're not as strange a team to appear at this stage as they might first appear, though they're not at the same level they once were. They have had some big names manage them in the past decade though including Clarence Seedorf, Sven-Goran Eriksson and Jordi Cruyff. In game they actually managed to win the league again last season for the 2nd time in a row! Though this season the defending champions are struggling badly and down in 14th. Despite their abysmal domestic run, they did manage to beat Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the Second Round of the CL 1-0. But I definitely have a chance here, particularly as it is my home game! With my strongest possible lineup (with maybe the exception of an aging Berenguer, though he definitely has the experience I want to rely on in these big games) and Shenzhen's poor form, I am quietly confident. And my confidence is not misplaced. This season's ACL star, Mathew Leckie, gets us off to a flier in the 8th minute of the game to really lift the roof. He then follows up with an absolute screamer in the 13th. Not to be outdone, Jamie Maclaren adds a 3rd goal in the 14th and the game is effectively over. Shenzhen battle back admirably but never really look like contesting the result. They create some decent chances and Fruchtl earns his keep (excuse the pun) to give us a clean sheet. We end up with an XG of 1.98 to their 0.89 and a very satisfying 3-0. ACL Semi Final A short turnaround and we go again in the semis, this time against Jeonbuk. Unlike Shenzhen, Jeonbuk have much more pedigree. Founded in 1993 as Wansan Pumas, they have won the league 9 times, including a ridiculous 5 times in a row between 2017-2021. They have also won the Champions League itself twice in 2006 and 2016 and come Runners Up in 2011. In my books, they are one of the elite Asian sides you'd expect to see at this point of the competition. That said, they're also in a bit of turmoil. Despite sitting in 3rd place, the fact that they are 13 points off the top of the league seems to be enough to have caused them to sack their manager. I guess it helps that in this game world, they also won the 2022 title so this is the first season they haven't won in 7. Honestly I can't believe my luck. Pointy end of the competition and we've somehow got a team that is in a horrible run of form and a team that is managerless. They did earn their way here though, beating fellow Korean side Seoul E-Land 2-0 in the Quarter Finals. Despite an early yellow card to Scott Galloway, things start reasonably well. But then disaster strikes. Galloway manages to get a 2nd yellow card and his marching orders in the 42nd minute, leaving me with 10 men and no direct replacement on the bench (he was covering left back for the suspended Jordan Bos). I improvise a 3-2-1-3, taking off my RB and going wide centre backs flanking a BPD with 2 DMs in front of them. Karimi and O'Neill take these positions, both of them being great creators as well as defensively reliable. I'm exposed on the flanks but I'm hoping I can at least defend the centre and get the ball forward to my potent attackers with the 3rd midfielder making late surging runs to join them. It helps also that Good and Wright are quite capable of playing in the FB positions so are familiar with their defensive duties. Then of course, 2 minutes later, Andrew Nabbout goes down injured. Thankfully I have cover for him on the bench at least, but he's been such a reliable goal scorer for me that losing him is a blow. Otherwise we get through the 1st half just fine! The 2nd half is nailbiting. Jeonbuk surge down the flanks, overlapping my narrow formation with ease. Fructhl and the defence lead a fierce resistance to prevent them gaining many clear chances though and despite the danger they pose, the stats stay relatively even. At the other end, my attackers are threatening to slip in behind their over eager players and the game could go either way. I am unsure if changing from a back 4 to a back 3 is a stroke of genius of madness. But the one element that is not working is the more attacking midfielder. Berenguer is more of a creative type at his age and just doesn't have the legs any more for the surging runs. So I use my last sub to bring on Joel Ribeiro, my 20 year old Swiss wonderkid and immediately see the difference the fresh legs bring. He manages to carve through the defence and give us the lead in the 76 minute. They pile forward, determined not to be beaten by 10 men and, as the game comes to a close, concede again to Arzani who earlier replaced Nabbout! The game finishes 2-0 in my favour and we somehow manage to come out of it with a clean sheet. They ended up with more shots and possession than us, but we edged them on XG, creating high quality counter attacks. 1.14 to 0.73 shows how close the game actually was. Somehow we are in the Champions League final! Australia Cup Semi Final After the hecticness of the Champions League games, I am quite looking forward to a relatively easy fixture where I'm drawn against Queensland state league team Peninsula Power. I expect about as much challenge from them as I did from my preseason friendlies. I was sorely mistaken. After cruising to a comfortable 2-0 lead, they surprised me with a goal against the run of play to make it 2-1. I soon restored my 2 goal cushion and was pretty relaxed. Then they scored again to make it 3-2 and suddenly they had belief and my players were faltering. Some stern words from the sidelines got us back to 4-2 but that was a lot closer than I'm happy with! A League Game 1 I failed to learn the lessons from our shaky cup game. I foolishly assumed it was because I was playing a heavily rotated squad and my players were complacent. Imagine my surprise when a much stronger XI went 2-0 down at home to Brisbane. Thankfully a couple of substitutions in Leckie and Maclaren, both on the bench due to their recent International duty travel, managed to spare my blushes. Leckie pegged one back in the 91st minute and then Maclaren equalised in the 94th. Leaving it a little late! Our next game is the Champions League final, so hopefully the players get their heads back into gear. Al-Gharafa awaits! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted November 21, 2023 Author Share Posted November 21, 2023 The Champions League Final: Here we go, the ultimate goal of the save, coming slightly earlier than expected. We have had an absolutely dream run to the final and this match is no different. Al-Gharafa, despite being a good team on paper (predicted to finish 2nd in Qatar) are having a nightmare run of form akin to Shenzhen. Struggling down in 11th place (out of 12) after 10 games they're currently on course to get relegated. The game itself has been moved to the Melbourne Cricket Ground to allow for the increased capacity. I honestly don't know if the stars could have aligned better for me to actually have a good chance at winning the Champions League. The final 3 games all at home, against 2 badly out of form teams and the other with a caretaker manager. Despite telling the media that I'm not stressing about this game too much, I absolutely am. This is the perfect opportunity. I simply have to seize it. Thankfully the media manage to lighten my mood, asking me if winning the Champions League will provide a decent springboard to go on and achieve my other objectives. I tell them not to be disrespectful to the competition because honestly I can't think of anything more prestigious I could actually compete in? Maybe the Club World Cup if I win next season? I need to be careful not to underestimate Al-Gharafa though, even if they're on a bad run of form. They did beat Al-Sadd in the semi final 2-1, though it did take extra time for the breakthrough to come. And thanks to the frustrating Champions League registration rules, I will be without either of my 2 new signings for this season (backup CB and ST). My team mostly picks itself. Rather than choosing between aging star Berenguer or up and coming wonderkid Ribeiro, I bench them both in favour of moving Reis into DM to give me that extra steel. Karimi will provide the creative guile in the middle while O'Neill pushes forward to support my deadly front 3 of Leckie, Nabbout and Maclaren. It does mean my defence is rather more boring but Wright and Good in the centre are both capable if not flashy defenders. Bos on the left has licence to get forward, while Talbot gets the nod at RB where his defensive nous should help keep things solid. Fruchtl has been brilliant for me in his limited stint in goals, so I'm hoping for more of the same here. Club background: Founded in 1979 as Al-Ittihad (a different one), they changed their name in 04/05 when the Stars league was revamped. They've won the league 7 times, though none since 09-10. They've also had some runs in Asia and have made the semi finals twice. This is the first final they've qualified for though, so is also a big occasion for them. Whatever happens, one club will be winning it for the first time! Hopefully it won't be The Cheetahs. 1st Half: We come flying out of the blocks looking to put them under immediate pressure and forcing their keeper into a good save. They've lost 4 of their last 5 games, so if I can get to them early, I am hopeful I might be able to expose some frailness. The game settles into a rather even contest, with them slightly edging possession while we have managed to get a few shots away. Then, Karimi and Nabbout combine on the right before Nabbout slices a fancy cross tantalisingly across the 6 yard box for Leckie to run in and power home! 20 minutes in and we've taken the lead! Leckie very nearly scores again straight away, beating his man and forcing their keeper into a great 1 on 1 save. A few minutes later and O'Neill also breaks through only to be denied. The momentum is completely in our favour and they're barely hanging on. Every time they try and get it over halfway our defence is their to snap into tackles and win it back. But as half time approaches, it's still only a single goal. I'd love to take advantage of this period of dominance and grab a 2nd. I think I've got it when O'Neill runs onto a beautifully weighted through ball and beats the keeper only to hit the post. Leckie then runs through 1 on 1 and puts it wide. Half time: 1-0 to us, but it really should be more. I tell the players we can definitely lift to another gear. We've only had half of our 13 shots on target but have created 1.56 XG and that was with the goal only being worth about 0.25. Most pleasingly they haven't had a single shot. My less flashy defensive set up is dominating. Pretty much the perfect first half to a final I could have asked for. Leckie is running the game up forward and really should have scored a 2nd. My Captain Reis looks inspired in DM, winning every challenge and attempt of theirs to attack. 2nd Half: They make an early sub trying to get something from the game but the 2nd half starts with more of the same. If I have an complaint, it's our finishing is the weakest part of our game and we really should be converting some of these chances. Not to take away from their Keeper who is the only one from their team who has turned up. He even pulls off a penalty save on the hour mark to keep their team in it! He flicks another onto the crossbar a minute later. Although reluctant to change too much I do bring Arzani and Berenguer on for Nabbout and O'Neill who both look exhausted. Leckie has another 1 on 1 saved and I'm dreading a sucker punch after we haven't taken any of these chances. As the game comes into the final 10 minutes, we reach 30 shots to their 0 with an XG 0f 3.79. Berenguer finally manages to beat the keeper only for their defender to come across and clear off the line. And then the moment I've been dreading. A free kick sees them drop the ball carefully behind my defence. Their striker breaks the defensive line and lines up a volley into the bottom corner. Only for Fructhl to dive desperately down and make the save! The first thing he's had to do and he keeps our lead! That was their chance and we held on. Just to rub salt into their wounds they pick up a red card and end up with 10 players. It wasn't anywhere near as comfortable as it should have been with the amount we created but we did it! We have won the Asian Champions League and brought recognition back to Australian football! Their Goalkeeper deservedly gets Man of the Match. He faced a staggering 16 shots, only conceding the 1 goal from a back post header that got in behind the defence. He very nearly gave his team the opportunity salvage a draw and I would have been terrified to face him in a penalty shootout. Unfortunately for him only 3 of their players scored above a 6.5. Their CB who cleared a goal bound shot and their 2 subs. On the other hand, every single one of my boys was absolutely fantastic. Berenguer was the weakest and he still got 6.8. We may have made it hard for ourselves not converting but we absolutely dominated the game and showed what we are about. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted November 27, 2023 Author Share Posted November 27, 2023 I have been revelling in all the (fictional) praise coming my way. The media have been quick to offer their congratulations, the board are astounded and I have made it onto the club's favoured personnel list (rightly so for the club's most successful period!). Apparently I have also cracked the top 20 Asian managers which I didn't know was a thing (I knew there was a ranking by country, but not be region). Mathew Leckie did me proud by winning the Golden Boot of the Champions League for the 2nd year in a row. I ended up with 5 players making the team of the tournament (interestingly, runners up Al-Gharafa had none), though there was no room for Leckie despite his goal scoring. In the aftermath I then set to work renewing contracts. Frustratingly moving Arzani from a scholarship to a Designated Player contract unregisters him which seems like a bug. My second league game comes up against Wellington Phoenix a few days later and I choose to play my 2nd team who are fresh and desperate to prove themselves, while my veterans are given the day off. We are at home, so it's a great day for the fans to celebrate the Champions League success and we do so in style. Despite a rocky start (1-1 in the 1st half), we cruise out to a 4-1 with the help of Rukavystya scoring his 1st league goal, alongside youngsters Tilio, Caputo and Reibeiro. Unfortunately our next game against Perth we stutter again. We go a goal down early, though Maclaren quickly restores parity. Despite a 2nd half red card for Perth, we are unable to find a winner though and end 1-1. Australia Cup Final: A trophy is a trophy, and despite being the weakest part of the potential Quadruple, this competition is quite important to me as I have yet to actually win it! After falling agonisingly short last season, I am determined to make amends this, so a repeat of my Champions League winning team is wheeled out. Theoretically they should have no trouble with this after their recent heroics, even if this is at a neutral venue (Western Sydney). Unfortunately, on paper rarely translates to actual proceedings... The entire game proves to be a struggle. We are very lucky to even keep the scores level at the end of 90 minutes, as we are incredibly fortunate to see Finotto place his penalty wide. Extra time is another nail-biting affair but in the end we go to the dreaded penalty shootout. Both teams look confident until Finotto steps up. Having missed his earlier penalty, he makes sure he gets this one on target, but Fruchtl gets across and makes the save. We end up winning the shootout 5-4! Thanks to poor Finotto who missed both his penalties. And finally the Australia Cup is mine! It wasn't convincing but we hung in there and got the win. Now we just need to get our act together in the league if we are to have a chance to exerting the dominance we should have. Complacency will be the next battle. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted December 18, 2023 Author Share Posted December 18, 2023 Been a while with the busy end of year but hoping to make a concerted effort to see this through now! The League The season starts well with the team showing their quality as one of the best in the league. Frustratingly we lose a few of our best young stars to International duty for a U23 tournament that lasts a month at the end of the year. Despite this, we achieve a 36 game unbeaten run, setting a new club record. Then disaster strikes as we lose a game to 10 men Wellington Pheonix. Suddenly we are winless for the month (after 2 previous draws) and the media is reporting how my position is under threat. How fickle the masses are. My board confidence is down to a C+. I don't really understand as I'm still tied at the top of the league, and won every other competition but I try not to let it get to me. Then things really get interesting. Transfers Jordan Bos has his release clause triggered and leaves for Borussia Monchengladbach in Germany for a club record sale of 1.2 million pounds. This is then quickly overtaken by Marco Tilio who also joins Monchengladbach for double the amount (3.2)! Both have been away on successfully stints with the U23 International team and neither return to the club at the end of their duty with the sales finalised during their absence. Realistically these would be great figures for young players for an Australian club, so it makes sense for me to accept. Tilio, despite being great player, is not a huge loss as we have ample cover on the wings. Bos on the other hand is my only senior LB at the club, and during his absence I've had Galloway filling in for him. To replace him, I first sign a 16 year old promising youngster from a Victorian state team who promptly injuries himself for 4 weeks. Unfortunately both Bos and Tilio were on scholarship contracts so it doesn't free up any of the salary cap and I'm out of both DP and foreign player slots which means I need to find an Australian, not playing in the A League (due to transfer restrictions) but willing to accept modest wages. In the end, I am quite lucky in bringing in Craig Goodwin who has been transfer listed in Saudi Arabia for some time and willing to accept lower wages to get out of his team (though still higher than I'd prefer). He is more traditionally a LW, but given my LB is my more attacking of the 2 FB positions in my team, I figure he can play the role quite well and he's a natural at the position. Unfortunately Tom Rogic becomes available as well and is keen to move to my team as a DP but I can't offer him that before next season and he moves to Greece on loan with option to buy at Panathinaikos. Would have been nice to have him in my team now that he's retired IRL but my priority is still Mooy. Frustratingly Craig Goodwin doesn't exactly hit the ground running but I'm hoping he will soon adjust. Spoiler Since the unexpected loss we haven't really been convincing. We have dominated 2 games, both times carried with a hattrick by youngsters (Caputo, then Lopane). Brisbane was a frustrating game where we conceded a stoppage time equaliser, and then the tables were flipped in the recent derby against Victory where we scored a 92nd minute goal ourselves to equalise. We are just holding onto our lead at the top, 1 point above Western United who also drew their last game, though there's a few other teams closing the gap as well. I was a bit frustrated about how poorly the 2 new expansion teams were doing, sitting in massive budgets and not spending anything, so I gave them a few free transfers to spice things up. Knights are now competitive and Canberra finally won a game with the help of Aaron Ramsey and Asier Illarramendi as free transfer marquees (not unrealistic at their ages in this league). But they've got a bit to go to turn around their -31 goal difference... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted December 20, 2023 Author Share Posted December 20, 2023 Asian Champions League Group Stage We are drawn into a relatively tough group, based solely on the fact that I've heard of all these teams before. That said, I am confident in my team at this stage of the season with my match fitness while the other teams are only just beginning their seasons. Unfortunately Andrew Nabbout manages to injure himself for the entire group stage with a hip injury. At his age, this is a big blow and it will be interesting to see how he bounces back from it. First up we play Shanghai Port from China. They are the ones that are cruelly denying me my long awaited reunion with club hero Aaron Mooy who is a star player for them alongside a now 32 year old Oscar. Initially founded as Shanghai East Asia in 2005, they've worked their way up the leagues before finally winning the Chinese Super League in 2018, then again in 2023. They also won the Super Cup in 2019. They've been a recent mainstay in the Champions League as well, though their highest finish to date is a semi finals appearance. They changed their name in 2012 from East Asia to Shanghai Port after a new big sponsorship investment from Shanghai International Port. Domestically they have a fierce geographic rivalry with Shanghai Shenua. After Shanghai Port, we come up against Jeonbuk who I faced off against last season in the latter stages. I'm hoping for another competitive match against them. Then we play Japanese team Vissel Kobe of Iniesta fame. Founded in 1966, they've got a long history compared to myself or Shanghai. Initially known as Kawasaki Steel Soccer Club, they moved to Kobe and renamed into their current incarnation in 1995. Apparently Vissel is a combination of the words victory and vessel due to Kobe's nature as a port city. They then went bankrupt in 2003 before being sold to new owners who changed their colours from black and white to crimson. In 2014, Rakuten bought the club and started their ambitious project with the club, bringing in the likes of Lukas Podolski, Andres Iniesta and David Villa. They won the 2019 Emperors Cup for their first ever trophy before winning the Super Cup in 2020. They finally crowned this by winning the 2023 J League last month. They've only qualified for the Champions League twice, but both times had deep runs to the Semi finals and Quarter finals. Ironically both times they were knocked out in extra time to Korean teams, including fellow group mates Jeonbuk in 2022. SH Port Our first game against Shanghai is a comfortable affair. Despite Nabbout's absence, the new partnership of Leckie and Arzani fired with Arzani getting 2 and Leckie the 3rd. Good value from my Designated Players. Defensively we were solid and shut them out completely, dominating the game. Jeonbuk The rematch against Jeonbuk was very cagey with neither team able to gain much of an edge. It wasn't until the substitute appearance of Rukavystya that we managed to break the deadlock, with the super sub managing 2 goals after the 80th minute to give us a scoreline that in no way reflected the actual game. Vissel Kobe 30 seconds in, Leckie played a beautiful through ball to O'Neill who chipped the keeper from the top of the box. The audacity. After that opener, it was smooth sailing with Ribeiro and Leckie adding to the scoreline. SH Port Our return leg against Shanghai was a complete contrast to the 1st leg. Leckie opened the scoring to lull me into a false sense of security but we failed to kill the game off. They managed to equalise in the 86th minute before frustration turned to elation as Leckie got his 2nd to put us back in front. Then elation turned to despair, as we conceded a 94th minute equaliser. Vissel Kobe Vissel Kobe came out firing after their poor performance in the 1st leg and soon went a goal up. We rallied strongly though, with stand in captain O'Neill equalising before who else than Leckie popped up to score 2 more! Jeonbuk The final game against Jeonbuk was a bit of a dead rubber for us as we had already won the group by this stage. With fixtures coming thick and fast and players struggling with their fitness, this game was a good chance to give some experience to squad players. Max Caputo led the line and ended up scoring the only goal of the game. In the end, our match sharpness proved decisive over our competition. Matthew Leckie was once again an incredibly valuable player for me in this competition, scoring the majority of my goals from the left IW position. Despite their apparent pedigree, none of them managed to join me in qualifying as our 2nd placed team failed to register enough points. Similarly my league competitors in Western United also did well, bettering me by winning all 6 of their games though I'd argue they had an easier group. Sadly the good fortune didn't extend to Brisbane who finished 3rd in their group despite a respectable 7 points. Next up for us is another old foe in Yokohama F Marinos! Battle of the City group teams. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted December 21, 2023 Author Share Posted December 21, 2023 A League 2nd Half We finally get on a roll in the 2nd half of the season, achieving the kind of consistent results I know we're capable of but never seem to achieve. From only 4 points clear of 5th at the end of February, we then go on an utterly dominant streak where we win every game except 1 where we concede a 85th minute equaliser at home to Newcastle. With some rotation going on due to the Champions League, Max Caputo gets a few games and scores several times which ends up with him winning the young player of the year award. We end up walking the league by 12 points thanks to that end of season run. Adelaide ends up barely hanging onto their finals place, holding off a resurgent New Zealand Knights who doubled their points tally after that mid-season transfer window. I guess Canberra kind of did too, but I was hoping for more impact with some of their free transfers instead of just a 2nd win... Perhaps not surprisingly Aaron Ramsey was injured a lot of the time and announced his retirement at the end of the season. Their star striker Tomi Juric finally scored 1 goal in the 14 league games he played for the club which kind of sums it up. It will be interesting to see how Canberra do next season against the 2 new teams. In other news Sydney had a massive fall from grace finishing 3rd last after their Grand Final appearance last season. Probably due to their old squad that needed a refresh but still a significant drop off. A League Elimination Finals Adelaide finished their fall from grace in the first round, losing 3-1 to Newcastle who were in their 6th spot at the end of February but took their 3rd spot by the end of the season. In the other game, it took extra time for the plucky Brisbane Roar to knock out Wellington Phoenix. A League Semi Finals In the other game, Brisbane came up against Western United in a battle of the other 2 Champions League teams. A shock 3-0 win for Brisbane in the first leg was too much for Western United to overcome despite scoring 2 in the return. Our first final was against Newcastle Jets. They had the home advantage for the first leg and given we were now in finals I went with my strongest team minus Nabbout who is still recovering from injury. Despite being away, we completely controlled the game with 67% of possession and 22 shots to 3, giving us an XG of 1.56 to 0.19. Arzani, having made Nabbout's old position his own in his absence, opened the scoring for us at the start of the 2nd half. Unfortunately we could not hold on, and they managed to equalise with their only shot on target in the 93rd minute. Pretty rough result to take but not the end of the world. In the 2nd leg, I made one change, Curtis Good coming back in for the managed Gabriel Pereira. Ali Karimi got us underway this time in the 2nd leg, opening the scoring in the 21st minute. Things were shaping up for a repeat of the first game (similar XG and possession) when my 3rd and final sub Abdulahi limped back off mere minutes after entering the fray. For the last 20 minutes of the game I was forced to play with 10 men and protect a 1 goal lead. In the end it didn't matter too much as Newcastle failed to register a single shot on target. We progress through 2-1 on aggregate to face Brisbane in the Grand Final. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted December 24, 2023 Author Share Posted December 24, 2023 A League Grand Final 23/24 This is it. The final trophy we need to complete our clean sweep. We won the regular season. We won the Australia Cup. And we won the biggest trophy of them all, the Asian Champions League. Against us, is plucky Brisbane, who have come from nowhere to challenge us on the big stage. They finished 4th in the regular season table, so surely this should be a straightforward game at home? The lead up to the game is slightly messy with staff contracts expiring the day before the game, including that of my assistant manager. Craig Goodwin also sadly injures himself, spraining knee ligaments which will take 2 months to heal. It's a shame as he's finally hit a run of form after I gave him an attacking duty and the freedom to get forward into his more familiar positions higher up the pitch. Young up and coming star Idrus Abdulahi also misses with injury but he may not have featured anyway. It's also the farewell game for Christian Fruchtl, Florin Berenguer and Nikita Rukavystya. Fruchtl has been absolutely immense for me and is way above my level. Hopefully he kicks on somewhere after this loan move. Berenguer has been a great club servant but is now showing his age and will make his final appearance off the bench. Rukavystya has been absolutely fantastic in his 1 season for me and hopefully gets a chance to bow out in style. Brisbane Roar actually lost their last game but the dominant 1st leg in the semis was what saw them through. They play a 4231 with some really impressive young talent ably led by the likes of Italian striker Mattia Finotto and Finnish playmaker Matti Steinmann. They've actually got quite an old backline, not helped by the fact that their LB has had their work permit expire ahead of their upcoming move back to Brazil. So they are stuck playing an older CB on the left and their youngest starter in their back 4 is 29. Plenty of experience and foreign caps though, but might have a decent chance of getting in behind. As you'd expect from a game of this magnitude, both teams start off a bit cautiously. Completely unintentionally, we manage to injure their backup LB, meaning they are now in huge trouble filling the position and forcing them to bring on a young RB for his first experience at LB. O'Neill wins a free kick in a good position but their keeper saves well. Going the other way, they intercept the keeper's throw but shoot wildly over the bar. After half an hour they are slightly edging the contest and also manage to injure my star man Leckie which is worrying. Then just on the stroke of half time a perfectly timed through ball sets them in behind and a fancy chip later sees us go in to the break 1-0 down. Not good. Lots to improve on in the 2nd half... I decide to give Berenguer his chance to wind back the clock, replacing Leckie for the 2nd half. Arzani is also firmly in my sights after a horrible 1st half. Unfortunately its Brisbane who come out firing in the 2nd half and a last ditch intervention by Pereira is the only thing that stops Finotto scoring. Rukavystya gets his farewell game, replacing Arzani who drops down to a 6.2. Then a cross gets floatet in and IVanovic scores on the hour mark. 2-0. We don't look like getting back into this, so I shift into my 4231 and bring hero Nabbout back in to see if he can spark something. Sadly not as Ivanovic scores his 2nd to put them 3-0 up. Then our day is summed up when our ever reliable goalkeeper Fruchtl manages to play the ball straight into the one player I don't want to see near my goals. Finotto. He duly buries it in the net and we are 4-0 down. I throw everything at them but the game is gone by that point. We suffer our worst performance of the season and the most embarrassing loss of the save. It's a bitterly disappointing way to end the season but I have 1 more season to make amends and go out on a high. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted December 27, 2023 Author Share Posted December 27, 2023 The rest of the world after the 23/24 season: Premier League So last season Liverpool beat Manchester City on goal difference. This year it went the opposite way with the title going to City on GD. United came 3rd again by a significant distance and West Ham took the last CL place, just pipping Chelsea and Arsenal. Leeds slumped back down to 9th, though did make the Quarter Finals in their first CL run. Newcastle finally recovered, only just missing out on Europe to Leicester. Spurs finished 11th as the biggest struggler. Down the bottom, Brighton and Palace both ended their PL runs and Sheffield Untied also went down with an abysmal 13 points. Replacing them is Blackburn, Wolves and West Brom who beat out Burnley in the Play Off Final. Federico Chiesa was the biggest transfer in, joining United for 79 mill, while Declan Rice joined PSG for 71 mill. Darwin Nunez went to Benfica for 66 mill while Chelsea bought 4 players for a total of 200+ mill (Michael Olise, Gabriel Jesus, Curtis Jones and Josko Gvardiol) LaLiga RM and Barca flipped this season with Madrid walking the league and beating Barca by 11 points. Betis surprisingly came 3rd, followed by Villareal. Atletico were all the way down in 9th. In the transfer market, Barca brought in Rodri for 61 mill, while Madrid brough in Zubimendi for 53 mill. Ligue 1 PSG walked the league this time, beating Lyon by 19 points. Monaco dropped down to 4th after last season's heroics. Nantes were the biggest team to go down. PSG had the top 3 transfers with Matheus Nunes and Hakim Ziyech joining Declan Rice. Serie A AC Milan won their 2nd title in a row, narrowly holding off Lazio. Juventus continued their slide, dropping another place down to 6th. Sampdoria, Salernita and Brescia took the step up. Andriy Lunin to Inter and Nkunku to Juventus were the biggest transfer incomings. Bundesliga Dortmund finally overthrew Bayern, pipping them to the title by 1 point! Turns out Wolfsburg managed to hold Bayern to a draw in the 2nd last match which was the crucial difference. A poor season for Leipzig who finished down in 7th. Biggest incoming was Edouard from Palace to Bayern for 48 mill, while Leipzig brought in Malo Gusto from Lyon for 40 mill. Then the next 3 big transfers were all Bayern. St Pauli and Schalke won promotion back this season. European Competitions Manchester City won their 3rd Champions League in a row, beating Liverpool in a penalty shootout. Bayern were knocked out in the QF by City, while PSG didn't even make it past the 1st knockout round against Benfica. Real Madrid and Barcelona lost to Liverpool in successive rounds on their way to the final. Dortmund added to their domestic success by beating Sevilla of all teams in the Europa League final. Chelsea finally got some return for investment beating Villarreal in the Conference League. My Transfers: Gabriel Pereira [65k] - 20 apps (1G) - 7.29 The 24 year old Brazilian was great for me in CB. Capable of playing the ball out from the back while also being solid, he is an all round defender who is great at this level. The only downside is his foreign player status alongside his hefty wage for this level but the man is the future of my defence. Nikita Rukavytsya [58k] - 19 apps (9G, 3A) - 7.04 For a 36 year old playing 1 final season before retirement, he was my super sub. Filled in very well for Maclaren when needed and scored some big goals. Was very happy with his service and wish him the best finding a new job as HoYD. Craig Goodwin [45.5k] - 14 apps (1G, 3A) - 6.91 Struggled coming into the team adapting to the LB position. Was initially very disappointing given his high wage before finally getting some form going after being given more licence to attack. His season was cruelly ended before the Grand Final and it'll be wait and see which player returns for me next season. Giannis Balafas [1.6k] - 1 app - 6.4 The 16 year old was one for the future. Due to injury only got 1 game at LB. Callum Talbot - 19 apps (1 A) - 7.01 Had a solid season at RB and performed well for me in the CL. Good free transfer on small wages. Iliya Shalamanov-Trenkov - 10 apps (10 conceded) - 6.87 The 21 year old GK got a few games in the league in what was always planned to be a transition season for him. Hoping he can be my main GK next season. Alessandro Lopane - 6 apps (3 G) - 7.23 Struggled to find a position in the team before getting loaned out to Zhejiang in the CSL for 6k and a bit of game time which will hopefully aid his development. Will return to me in 2025. Christian Fruchtl - 19 apps (21 conceded) - 6.99 Absolutely immense for me and pivotal to my Champions League success. Was one of my best loans I've ever made. Sad to see he's on the transfer list at Bayern but way too good for this league. Retirements: As mentioned above, Nikita Rukavytsya retired after 1 great season for me, alongside club stalwart, Florin Berenguer. He played 6 seasons for me and still got 14 games in his final season despite a large drop in ability. It's probably the right time for him to leave the club but he was a great servant. Hopefully he finds a good coaching job. Squad Depth: ST: Maclaren, Caputo Wings: Leckie, Nabbout, Arzani Mids: Karimi, O'Neill, Gomulka, Abdulahi, Houston, Ribeiro, Lopane FBs: Goodwin, Galloway, Talbot, Balafas CBs: Reis, Pereira, Good, Wright GK: Shalamanov-Trenkov, Nieuwenhuizen My depth has thinned out a lot, but I still have a lot of quality. Midfield is the one area I am well supplied in, yet I am determined to try and bring in Mooy for my final season at the club. His contract expires at the end of 2024, so I might have a chance on a free. Another LB would be useful as well, though the youngster Balafas is quite capable for his age of filling in. Caputo looks ready to take the step up and lead the line when Maclaren is absent. Arzani really stepped up after Tilio's departure and while Leckie and Nabbout are ageing, I am hoping they will do me proud for 1 more season. All 3 can play on either wing which is helpful and Goodwin can also cover the LW if LB cover is found. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 (edited) The Final Season (Part 1): Things get worse after our Grand Final capitulation. Aiden O'Neill requests a transfer, wanting to move onto bigger things. After some negotiation, I finally sign off on him moving to FC Tokyo for 1.1 mill. The fans are absolutely furious with me for doing so though and he leaves a sizable hole in my midfield. Then the rest of my midfielders seem to want to follow him out the door. Dual Scottish national wonderkid Adam Houston (homegrown) demands I engage with offers from Rangers and Celtic. Porto throw their hat in the ring for Joel Ribeiro. Even my other midfield wonderkid Idrus Abdulahi receives significant interest from Japan. The only midfielder who isn't interested in leaving is Karimi and that's probably because I'm paying him 5k a week to stay. The one good bit of news is that I am able to renegotiate Arzani's contract. By giving him a 1.4 mill release clause, I'm able to get him to drop his weekly wages slightly and remove his DP status which will potentially allow me to bring in a big name elsewhere. He is now effectively taking up O'Neill's salary cap space. There's some rumoured interest in him but I'm hopeful of keeping him despite the new release clause. He's taken over from Nabbout on the RW and also my primary backup for Leckie on the LW. The staff at the club also need a significant restructure. I lost one staff member who became too good for me to afford his wages, while letting go a few I thought I could upgrade. One of the positions I upgrade is the DoF as this is the last year of my contract and I'm hoping he can do a good job running the club after I leave. I also need a new Assistant Manager. Who better than my predecessor Patrick Kisnorbo? His time at Troyes did not go well, but he is skilled and has an affinity for the club. I am surprised he is willing to drop back to being an assistant after getting a taste of being the leading man but he may end up being the natural candidate to replace me at the end of my contract. Australia Cup: Our introduction to this year's version of the Australia Cup is not gentle. Instead of getting a easy state league team to walk over, we get drawn against fierce rivals Melbourne Victory. They manage to score in the opening minutes of the game and I'm left wondering what happened to our once mighty team. I needn't have worried though. We rally superbly and end up absolutely blowing them away 6-2. In the next round we get given more A League opposition in the form of Macarthur. Less dramatic than last game, we still get a comfortable win. I don't hate the cup games during preseason, it gives me a chance to gel my first team players together while they are fresh and not worried about rotation. Tom Rogic also remains on the transfer list after his last loan was not made permanent. There's interest in him for more loans but I seem to be the only team willing to make an actual permanent offer for him. He's been transfer listed for several months now and seems quite willing to take a pay cut to leave. With the help of my now freed up DP spot and their willingness to pay part of his wages, I succeed in securing his services. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with him, particularly as he's now retired in real life. He's better as an AM than a MEZ, so I might shift more fully across to the 4231, though he's quite capable of playing in CM for those tougher ACL games. He's not a like for like replacement for O'Neill, more of an upgrade on Joel Ribeiro who is still waiting for someone to offer my asking price which I've promised to accept. He's quite comfortably my best player now and I'm excited to see what he can do behind Jamie Maclaren. In other good news I succeed in tying down Houston and Abdulahi to new contracts. A couple of promising 17 year olds also join for tiny fees from state leagues. I also offer a bunch of trials out to free players and find a potential gem in a French left back, Thomas Delaine released by Metz. He takes my last foreign player spot and is the wrong side of 30 but he is happy to accept really low wages while being comfortably better than most of the team (seriously, he accepts a 1.2k p/w wage which is incredible for my salary cap). It is a bit of a risk using my last foreign player spot on a position where I already have Craig Goodwin, but in the end I decide I need to go for it. It means I don't have to rely on a 16 year old and my backup RB to cover if Goodwin is out. It also potentially releases Goodwin to cover further forward as well where he normally plays in real life. Sadly while I wait on his work permit he misses the next round of the Champions League. Asian Champions League (Second Round): Yokohoma Marinos are up next in the second round of the competition. I've beaten them before (so won't write a club summary here) but think I had a stronger team back then during my 2nd season. My team will eventually be stronger but its a bit in transition at the minute as I try and replace the likes of O'Neill, Talbot and Fruchtl. Tom Rogic is registered for this and hopefully he can hit the ground running. It's also at home which is a big advantage. The board only expected me to make it to this stage so there would be no shame in losing but I really want to try for a deeper run in my final season. As it turns out, I couldn't have asked for a better start! Maclaren plays Arzani through for the opening goal 14 seconds in (a club record). But I haven't even stopped celebrating when Yokohama equalise a minute later... Things then slow down for all of about 10 minutes before Leckie plays Tom Rogic through on goal to restore our 2-1 lead. This time the inevitable reply takes 6 minutes to come after Wright horribly slices a clearance behind him for Bautista to run onto and score his 2nd. Then because we obviously can't let this stand, Maclaren scores a 20 yard screamer from the top of the box. 3-2. Then Goodwin decides he will do one better and scores from just about the corner of the penalty area. They then look to score from kick off and only a great save by Nieuwenhuizen prevents them scoring. We finally make it into half time 4-2 and I just need to take some time to recover from that opening. They're beating us on the XG but we've scored 4 from 1.3 thanks to screamers from Maclaren and Goodwin. I try to convince my players to calm it down and control the match a bit in the 2nd half and it seems to work. Maclaren puts the ball into the back of the net for our 5th but it's ruled out for offside. The 2nd half is far calmer after that. I make some defensive changes, pushing Reis into DM and bringing Gomulka on as well to shore up the centre. They have to push against us and Maclaren takes advantage of this to score his 2nd. We end up walking away with a 5-2 win despite the same XG! A very hectic game that could have gone either way if it wasn't for 2 wonder goals that swung the match. The only downside was the attendance. I had more supporters turn up for the group games. Well their loss I suppose. Edited January 9 by Cal585 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted January 10 Author Share Posted January 10 A League Expansion: The final 2 teams of my homemade league expansion join this season, taking us to a total of 16 members. With the increased number of teams, I have reduced the overall season to playing each team twice home and away. It also means that the top making finals feels more like an accomplishment than the current system of 8 of 12 teams making it through. Sadly I did miss out on creating a Tasmanian team. Canberra and Auckland are confirmed expansion targets in the next wave so they had to be added. And in this second wave restoring Gold Coast and elevating Wollongong Wolves made a lot of sense for sensible expansion target and have existing clubs that can be used. Tassie unfortunately would need a club created from scratch. I also considered a 2nd Western Australia team, maybe from Fremantle, but again I couldn't find a good candidate. And jumping to 18 teams was a bit more than I wanted to commit to. Gold Coast United: For the first team added, I decided to bring back Gold Coast to the league. They fell out of the league some time ago but have done a good job of rebuilding and are now a quality state league team. This means that Queensland will now have 2 teams playing from the state which seems important for the league and Gold Coast made more sense than bringing back the North Queensland Fury. They are occasionally talked about as a possible expansion in real life and the only previous club that could realistically rejoin. Wollongong Wolves: Another NSW team but they are one of the biggest clubs outside the A League. Many argued they should have got a licence last time round instead of Macarthur who are a 3rd Sydney team. Wollongong are slightly south of Sydney so at least they are geographically distinct. Kind of similar to Newcastle or Central Coast as regional NSW cities outside but near Sydney. With a big fan base, they should hopefully slot straight into the fixture. Season predictions: With my off season strengthening I am favourites again domestically ahead of bitter rivals Victory and defending champions Brisbane. The 2 new teams aren't actually rated too badly for their first seasons. Better than Canberra who is still struggling to make any meaningful impact with signings. Gold Coast being rated higher than the Knights is particularly surprising as the Knights only just missed the finals last time out. Asian Champions League Draw: The draw to the Champions League throws me up against another Japanese team, this time in Gamba Osaka. In surprising but good news, Western United also made it through their Second Round fixture and if I beat Osaka, I will be playing the winner of them and Seoul in the semi final. An all Australian semi final would be great for the league but there's a long way to go before that happens as we are both underdogs in our next matches. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted January 12 Author Share Posted January 12 New Goalkeeper: I'm pretty happy with the state of my squad. The only position that isn't great is the Goalkeeper. My hope last season was that my young goalkeepers could develop while Fruchtl took the big matches. He has since moved onto Freigburg but my GKs haven't developed as much as hoped. Nieuwenhuizen is decent for the league level and normally I would put the games into him to develop him more. But he leaves a lot to be desired in the Champions League. He has started my last games in the Australia Cup as well as the Second Round of the Champions League and he struggled in both competitions. I'm out of foreign spots though, so if I was to bring anyone in they'd have to be Australian and the only solid option I can see is Mitch Langerak currently in the J League. I offer contract extensions for Leckie and Goodwin, both in their 30s. At this stage in their careers, they're happy to accept a drop in wages for career stability. It also allows me to drop Leckie off his DP contract and slot him into the wage budget. This then allows me to buy 36 year old Langerak for 750k on a DP contract up there with the Rogic and Maclaren. Am I taking short sighted decision by giving lengthy contracts to older players and giving a huge contract to a 36 year old goalkeeper? Sure. But I'm banking on Langerak being the final puzzle piece for this season at least. Gamba Osaka - ACL Quarter Finals: The second Osaka team we have come up against in the knockout rounds (the other being their fierce rivals Cerezo). Founded in 1980, they were an original J League member and won their first title in 2005. They then went on to win the 2008 Champions League, beating Adelaide United in the 2 legged final. A significant drop off after this though ended in relegation in 2012 despite scoring the most league goals. They rebounded the next season, winning the 2nd division before winning the J League the year after. They then turned this into a treble by winning the cups as well. Their more recent seasons have been a bit less successful, with the exception of the 2020 covid season (where they came 2nd) they haven't finished in the top 4 since 2016. This is probably the best time to play Osaka. While they are 3rd in the league after 29 games, they've also lost 2 of their last 3 games. Their 2 best players Wellington Silva and Leandro Pereira are both pushing to leave as well suggesting there might be some squad turmoil. I do also have the advantage of playing this game at home as well and despite a few players being tired from International duty, I at least have a full squad to choose from. It's not a great start to the game as my captain Reis gets himself a yellow card 6 minutes in. Not only does this threaten trouble for the rest of the game, it also means he misses the next round if I make it through. And my chances of that get a huge boost when Leckie opens the scoring 17 minutes in. Bit of a lucky goal as their keeper came for a cross, missed it, and it fell for Leckie to knock in at the back post. Similar scenes 4 minutes later as this time a long hopeful switch sees their defender misjudge their jump and this time Nabbout can hardly believe his luck as the ball runs through to him 1 on 1 with the keeper. 2 defensive mistakes, 2 goals for me. Just to round things off for the half, Caputo (deputising for Maclaren) scores a beauty. On the spin, he smashes a half volley into the goal. They come out firing in the 2nd half, with Panya pulling one back after my defence fell asleep and let him in behind. This seems to reinvigorate my players and a well worked overload down the right ends up with Leckie scoring a back post header at the hour mark. Caputo then seals the match with an audacious chip of the keeper from the top of the box. We end up with a very convincing scoreline of 5-1, though we only managed an XG of 1.3. It has kind of been the story of a lot of our Champions League games that our forwards massively outscore their XG. I suspect our low reputation might be playing into it a bit with teams a lot more likely to leave space in behind for us to exploit. Langerak was also great on debut and prevented quite a few goal opportunities for them. Western United - Semi Final: The inconceivable has happened and Western United actually beat Seoul to play me in the Semi Finals. It took penalties for the 2nd time in a row to make it through but they did it. It's remarkable really as they don't even have any Designated Players in their squad. It's absolutely brilliant for the league and should help with increasing our reputation. It's also great for me as I am now something like 9 games unbeaten against them. Despite trying to fire up my squad against our Melbourne rivals, the game is rather dull. There's not a heap that happens except that my CB Gabriel Periera also receives a yellow card that means he misses the final if I make it. I guess that would be a straight swap for him and Reis when my captain returns from suspension. We eventually win a penalty in the 2nd half after a clumsy tackle and Maclaren buries it. There's really not a lot to talk about other than that from this game. Both sides were clearly feeling the pressure of trying to get through to the semi final while fitness was still building at this stage of pre-season. My veteran defence proved too strong for their late search for an equaliser and they didn't get much in the way of chances. The biggest talking point for me is why this was scheduled at their home stadium that only fits 15,000? It meant I could only get 750 "away" supporters travelling to a Melbourne derby in the Champions League Semi Finals. There's no way this wouldn't be moved to the MCG in real life. Tractor - The Final: I think this is my first time playing an Iranian team! They managed to beat Al-Ittihad 1-0 in the Semi Final to make it here, so congratulations there. They are a bit of a surprise to encounter in the final though, as they've never won their domestic league or made it past the round of 16 in real life. They have won the Hazfi Cup though. Ironically this means that if they win, they will have conquered Asia before Iran. Founded in 1969 in Tabriz as part of the new Tractor Manufacturing Company, they have a long history in the top 2 divisions. There seems to be some political discussions about a pan-Turkism identity which I won't go into here but I am excited to play a team from a league I know nothing about. This was one of the reasons I made this save to explore some of the unknown teams that compete in this competition. With Pereira suspended I fall back on my old reliable centre back partnering of Reis and Good. Otherwise I have my full strength squad ready to go. We start a bit more cautiously, trying to feel our way into the game and not take any big risks on such an occasion. They're a bit more aggressive than us at home but still making sure they don't take any unnecessary risks. The biggest chance of the first half goes to Leckie who has a header tipped onto the bar. Otherwise the game passes fairly uneventfully. At half time, each team has had 3 shots, while nobody has got 1 on target yet. They've edged possession at home which is to be expected. Unfortunately my 2 team leaders in Reis and Leckie both seem to be struggling with the occasion and looking a little iffy. Arzani also looks like he's running out of puff after recent injury concerns, so there's already quite a few candidates for early changes. But I limit myself to just opening up the risk a little, see if we can take control of the game away from them and silence the home crowd. Both teams remain defensively strong in the 2nd half. Leckie gets half a chance that he blasts way over but at the 60th minute both teams have yet to hit the target. I make the first of my changes, bringing on old reliable Andrew Nabbout to see if he can do it for me again. Bailey Wright also picks up a yellow, so he gets substituted for Galloway. We still fail to conjure much and it's Tractor who start to gain the momentum. They even manage a shot on target which Langerak pounces on. My last move is to bring Caputo on for Maclaren who has struggled to touch the ball all game. Tractor keep pressing though and Langerak is forces to make a flying save to tip a powerful drive over the bar. With 3 minutes left to go they break forward and in behind my defence to go 1 on 1 with the keeper. Langerak commits, is beaten and the ball rolls forward only to go just wide of the post. At this point we are barely holding on. But we managed it. We make it to full time at 0-0. I give them a strong motivational speech about how they can reach within themselves to do better and make a change to a 4231. We've had no luck all game with the 433 so may as well give it a try. Immediately we start creating a few chances. Leckie manages to get 2 shots on target, both well held by their goalkeeper. My defence looks a lot more sure with the double pivot and Gomulka on to provide some extra screening. We start the second half on the front foot again. Caputo should have broken through the defence but for a cynical professional foul. The ref is a spineless coward and only gives him a yellow. Leckie has another shot saved, then finally Tractor kick into gear. They force a desperate diving save from Langerak who tips it around the post. The investment was well worth it, he has been amazing for me. Thanks to his heroics ET ends 0-0. Onto penalties... Outside of Leckie, Rogic and Nabbout, my team is abysmal at penalties. And of those 3 only Leckie is actually any good. I'm regretting my decision to bring Caputo on for Maclaren, as Caputo has about the same ability as my GK. Despite this, I confidently tell me players this was what the penalty training practice I carefully scheduled the other day was all about. I assure them they've got this. There's no notable reaction. Leckie scores his no problem, then Rogic blasts it into the top corner. Tractor score their 1st, but Langerak comes out with a huge save on their 2nd, picking the right way to dive. Nabbout steps up to give me the lead and goes straight down the middle to the keeper who doesn't move. They score their 3rd and it's back to 2-2. New boy Delaine scores a delightful penalty to make it 3-2 but they match his efforts. Gomulka then slots the 5th, meaning if Langerak can make the save we have won... Alas, he picks the right way but it's just out of his reach. Then my captain steps up and... misses. Well it's a save but it's a red X. I can't bare to watch as Langerak faces the last player down who has the audacity to Panenka while Langerak dives out the way. We lose 5-4 on penalties in my final season. Damn. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted January 14 Author Share Posted January 14 After much venting about the betrayal of 2 of the most important players for my team to anyone who would listen I decide to move on and focus on the next bit of silverware I have available. On a completely unrelated note I decide that Reis and Nabbout don't really need contract extensions beyond this their final season just yet. Would it negatively impact the team if both the captain and vice captain left at the same time? Maybe. But there's still plenty of time to worry about that when I feel less hostile towards them. In some small consolation, Mathew Leckie was deservedly recognised for his Champions League performances, as despite being 33, he won the top scorer and also the MVP award. Caputo, Ribeiro, O'Neill and Wright also joined him in the dream team 11. Getting 5 players into that team isn't terrible, particularly when 2 of them are under 21! Australia Cup Quarter Final - Brisbane Roar: So this and the semi final (spoiler) actually took place before the ACL final, but I didn't want to break the flow of the narrative before. The Quarter Finals drew us against Brisbane in Brisbane. Grand Final rematch and a chance to put things right after that humiliating 4-0 defeat. We had everything to play for here but it was not a good start. We went a goal behind after 6 minutes and then were 2-0 down after 16. We managed to barely hold on for the rest of the 1st half before I could make some changes and motivate them at half time. It really seemed to work and Caputo nabbed one back in the 52nd. But Brisbane weren't going to relinquish their lead that easily. Maclaren came on as my last sub and repaid my faith by scoring the equaliser in the 82nd minute to take us to penalties. This time we were fine, with all 5 of our spot kicks going in (see why I was confident in the ACL final) before Brisbane missed their 5th. It was a win, though barely a convincing one that showed we were ready to reclaim our title from them. Australia Cup Semi Final - Adelaide United: Again a slow start cost us, as Toure opened the scoring on 9 minutes. I'm not sure if my pre-match talks are just not getting the traction or what is going on there. Thankfully this time, Abdulahi had a quick response equalising after 16 minutes. After that, the game really shut down with not much happening. Eventually Nabbout snatched the lead for us in the 86th minute to avoid another penalty shootout, before Abdulahi made sure with a 91st minute sealer. A 3-1 win, courtesy of a couple of late goals. Not super convincing. A League opening match - New Zealand Knights: Of all the expansion teams, the Knights are probably the strongest. I had no doubts that this was a tricky opener, though at least I had some competitive matches under my belt thanks to Asia. Nabbout broke the deadlock on half time to really give me a lift. At this point I was cruising and pulled off a bunch of star players due to the upcoming ACL Final. Big mistake, as the Knights suddenly equalised in the 80th. A tense 10 minutes remained but neither team could break the deadlock. Not a loss, but not the start to the season I hoped for. A League Match 2 - Perth Glory: Hurting from the ACL Final loss, I wanted a reaction in this match and I mostly got it. A dominant first half saw us take a 2-0 lead at the break courtesy of Ribeiro and Nabbout. Cagalj pulled one back for Perth in the 2nd half but they never really looked like snatching anything from me. Australia Cup Final - Western United: We played them in the ACL Semis a couple of weeks ago, now another huge match in the Australia Cup final. This game at least was moved to the MCG so the fans could attend. I picked pretty much the same line up as for the ACL Final, except this time I had my best defender in Pereira available to me. Arzani almost gave us an early lead but a goal mouth scramble saw the ball stay out. But I didn't have to wait too much longer before I finally saw the play I'd been anticipating since the transfer window closed. Rogic with a beautiful through ball to Maclaren who took 1 touch then fired it past the keeper. The first half an hour was very relaxing with them failing to register a single shot. Then suddenly they got a breakaway, beat Langerak and we were only saved by the post. That seemed to sober the lads up and the rest of the first half transpired without event. The second half took a while to get going before suddenly Leckie was brought down for a penalty. His shot was straight at the keeper but he managed to get to the rebound first to make the most of it at the 2nd attempt. Despite this, Western United weren't out and they were starting to throw players forward and get chances. In an effort to shut this down, I brought on several defensive players. Thankfully the comeback never eventuated and instead they conceded another penalty. This time Leckie made sure the first time. 3-0 win and the first silverware. A huge turnout as well, with 43,000 away fans (my a league opener only got 11,000) for a total of 80,000 people packing out the stadium. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 A League Season: I would argue that the side I have assembled is the greatest to ever grace the A League. We have a lot of aging stars that are on the verge of going off the cliff, so I can't predict what will happen to the squad in a year or 2 but for now we have everyone in their peak. The biggest challenge is managing the squad with the next generation all wanting to test themselves in Europe. Langerak gets injured early for a while but this gives a good chance for Nieuwenhuizen to get some game time and further his development. He's turning into a good goalkeeper for the A League now and he's homegrown! He might not be the level for a deep Champions League push but he's still a valuable squad member. Spoiler The season itself goes really well, with us dominating the league in the early games. I'm starting to wonder if I might even go unbeaten for the whole season. The new expansion teams are all struggling except for Gold Coast who are a respectable midtable. They all seem to be slowly improving though, so there's hope for the league! Transfers: End of the year I also manage to pull off a huge transfer coup. Out goes Karimi back to Iran for 500k, freeing up his wages and his DP spot. In to replace him is club legend Aaron Mooy at the end of his Chinese contract. Despite the interest in returning to Melbourne for his final seasons, he's quite dubious about our ability to pay him sufficiently. In the end we manage to haggle him down to 14.5k a week, which is a huge drop in his previous wages but also way higher than any other contract we have ever given out before. He is a pure upgrade on Karimi as a playmaker and is an Aussie national. Him and Rogic combining in midfield is mouthwatering and they should absolutely destroy any opposition at this level. Their combined lack of legs is a concern but if I have the ball it won't matter too much. Spoiler Unfortunately Porto manage to finally steal Adam Houston away from me for a solid 2.5 mill. They also agree to loan him back for the rest of the season which is handy. Abdulahi wants to leave as well but I'm not wanting to let both homegrown wonderkid midfielders leave at the same time so I refuse to budge on his asking price despite his unhappiness. Maclaren helps talk him round. Swiss youngster Ribeiro also finally gets his move abroad after Luzern trigger my 3 mill asking price. He becomes the 2nd highest transfer in the club history after Tillio's 3.2 million transfer previously. I'm not too concerned as he was backup to Tom Rogic and I have Lopane return from his loan in China also able to cover the same role. These moves mean I have some wage budget available again and 2 foreign player slots now open but I'm honestly not sure I need to use them. The team is already stacked at every position. Except for ST as Jamie Maclaren injures his ankle and will be out for a month. A time for Max Caputo to shine with the Champions League games approaching! Spoiler I end up signing a couple of young promising Asian youngsters to fill out my squad (as the CL rules allow an extra foreign player if they're Asian). The injury to Maclaren means there's another space for a striker. South Korean Choi Jung-Hwan agrees to join in a 625k move from Gangwon in the K League. He's still a bit raw but he's got great hold up and aerial play allowing something different for the attack. Japanese youngster Hotaru Fujimoto also agrees to join for 675k from Vissel Kobe. He's got really good defensive stats and looks like an upgrade on Gomulka for a purely defensive screening role. Great anticipation, tackling and decision making along with decent positioning and work rate looks really promising. Just needs a bit more teamwork. Neither are highly adaptable which may be problematic, but worth the risk! Spoiler Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted January 31 Author Share Posted January 31 Champions League: We start our next foray into Asia with a very mixed bag in terms of opponents. Gamba Osaka is a rematch of the Quarter Final and will be challenging opponents, but Viettel FC from Vietnam and Ryomyong sports Club from North Korea are new and interesting opponents! Viettel FC (Vietnam): The Cong - Viettel Football Club, commonly known as The Cong or by its most recent former name Viettel FC, is based in Hanoi. Established in 1954, The Cong is apparently short for Physical Education and Sports Team Work and was managed by the Ministry of Defence. Their traditional colour is red, leading to the nickname Cơn lốc đỏ (Red Tornado). They are one of the most widely supported clubs and also the most successful club in Vietnamese football history, having won a record 19 national titles, including nine consecutively, from 1971 to 1979. They played in the Champions League group stage in 2021, though didn't get out of the group. In 2022 they qualified for the AFC Cup instead and this time managed to make it out of their group before losing in the first knockout round. So relatively new to this stage but starting to gather a bit of pedigree. Ryomyong Sports Group (North Korea): Ryomyong Sports Club is an association football club based in P'yŏngyang, North Korea. Ryomyong means light of the dawn in the Korean language. They've played a bit in the AFC Cup in recent years but beyond that I don't actually know much information about football in North Korea. Game 1 - Home to Viettel: Caputo deputises for the injured Maclaren and Leckie also misses but otherwise I name my strongest 11 in a 4231. Caputo shows he is more than competent at covering for Maclaren, scoring 3 times, though only 1 ends up counting. Nabbout also scores a goal, giving me a handy 2-0 lead. They have a player sent off on the hour mark to give myself a man advantage in addition. Feeling safe, I sub Caputo off and bring on new signing Jung-Hwan. The Korean striker is only on the pitch for a few minutes before he scores a scrambled goal from a corner for a dream debut. Leckie replacing Arzani also grabs 2 goals as well, staking a strong claim to be starting these games. The red card really changed the match and meant we ended up absolutely dominating in the end. 5-0 (Caputo, Nabbout, Jung-Hwan, Leckie, Leckie) Game 2 - Away to Ryomyong: We come out firing with Leckie scoring in the very first minute. A goal 3 minutes later for Caputo confirms that this will be a very long day for them. We end up walking off at the break 6-0 up. The 2nd half is much more disappointing but the game is already over so can't criticise them too much for conceding. 7-1 (Leckie, Caputo, Nabbout, Caputo, Mooy, Leckie, Nabbout) Game 3 - Away to Gamba Osaka: This is a much tougher affair. We switch to our 433 but they still get the better of us in the first half, scoring in the 41st minute. Nabbout has a shocker so he gets subbed off. Experienced heads Wright and Rogic also get dragged as the errors pile up. Unfortunately we don't get the desired response and a poor clearance from Langerak results in a turnover goal for them in the 65th. Leckie manages to pull one back straight away though to keep us in the game. We push forward but they hit us on the break to restore the 2 goal cushion. But the fight isn't over yet, with Caputo getting onto the scoresheet in the 85th minute to bring us to within a goal. Sadly we can't seem to get the final strike and the whistle blows before we find a way through. 2-3 (Leckie, Caputo) Our first loss since the Champions League final! A League: During these Champions League fixtures, I play a rotated squad and we just about manage to remain undefeated. Nieuwenhuizen manages to throw away a hard fought lead by coming way out of his box and trying to take on the opposition striker for a 3-3 draw against CCM. We manage to win the other games by a single goal though with slightly unconvincing performances. Unfortunately I am unable to agree new contracts for Bailey Wright or Nuno Reis. The downside of spending on the 2 new kids is that I can't increase wages much. Reis, at 34, wants to double his wages which I can't justify. He ends up signing a pre-contract with a Portuguese club. I manage to resign Nabbout though! Speaking of contracts, I am now down to the last couple of months of my contract and though the board has indicated they will be offering one, they haven't actually given me anything yet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted February 2 Author Share Posted February 2 The Run Home: For all the previous worry about LB, it's actually RB I'm worried about now. The bargain signing of Delaine, our new French LB, along with really promising youngsters coming through and the capability of Goodwin to fill in there means we suddenly have incredible depth for the position. Our 16 year old academy prospect has actually gotten half a dozen games he's that good. Will be a real gem for sure. RB is much more concerning. Bailey Wright is leaving at the end of his contract and I promised Scott Galloway he could also depart after the season. We don't really have the youth prospects here either that are coming through. So my focus is on trying to sign a pre-contract here to join after the season finishes. This season's new star faces in Rogic, Mooy and Langerak have all been way too good for the league and really help my cruise home. Despite some early impact, I sign off on a loan move for my new Korean striker, sending him out on loan for the rest of the season to the Korean 2nd division. With Maclaren returning from injury and Caputo in deadly form, I just don't think he will get the game time he needs at this stage and this way he can start learning English while away. I keep hold of the Japanese midfielder though, as despite my midfield options becoming crowded, I feel he's good enough to be challenging for one of the slots. Despite the hiccup against Gamba Osaka, I find myself far more focused on the A League. I am determined to give it my best shot at an invincible domestic season. Complacency is an ever present problem with such a big lead opening up at the top though. We manage to grind out the results though, even when beaten on the XG stats. My Grand Final rivals Brisbane are the closest competition to me in the back half of the season but even they can't keep up as my lead grows. Not that they aren't trying, they're miles ahead of 3rd place themselves. The new expansion teams slowly improve and get a few results but they're still mostly clustered at the bottom with the notable exception of Gold Coast who are doing what the Knights did last season and sitting in the finals places. Knights are struggling this time round, though they outplay me in our meeting and I am exceptionally lucky to get a stoppage time winner. Viessel - Away: Our return leg is far less dramatic than the first. It ends up a very comfortable 4-0 but most of those come in an end of match collapse. But we've done what we needed and no complaints! Gamba Osaka - Home: I fire up the team to make amends for this one. The group comes down to this, with both of us head and shoulders above the other 2 teams. Anything other than a win for me sees them take top spot but if I can get a win and reverse the first leg result then my superior goal difference should be enough. We get off to a great start with an early goal and from there we take control with our supporters cheering us on. In the end we run out 3-0 winners and with that win, we go top of the group with 1 game to play. Ryomyong - Home: As long as I get a victory here, the group is ours. We are at home against an outmatched team, so I think it's fair to say Complacency is the biggest fear. In the end we have nothing to fear thanks to a Max Caputo goal in the 1st minute and a 6-0 win wraps things up nicely! Unfortunately, despite an unbeaten performance, Newcastle's single win and 2nd place finish is not enough for them to qualify from their group. Western United also finish 3rd in theirs, though they were competing with Yokohama F Marinos and Ulsan so that was always going to be tough. Brisbane though succeeded in equalling my performance, winning their group on GD after 1 win and 1 loss to Seoul who I have to play in the next round! The Rest of the A League: Despite some cagey matches we succeed in completing an undefeated season! Now the next task is to continue that run through the finals series. Brisbane trail valiantly behind me, though with a respectable 29 GD themselves. The expansion teams all seem to have an increased performance in the 2nd half of the season, with even Canberra as the worst getting 4 wins (and none of those against other expansion clubs). Victory have been the most disappointing. Despite a media prediction of being my closest challengers, they ended up coming in 13th, way off the pace. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted February 3 Author Share Posted February 3 Before I launch into the Finals, I just want to quickly acknowledge a small bug in my custom league set up that extended the league (to accommodate the new teams) but didn't include those extra games in finals calculations. Which means that in contrast to the table above, Gold Coast actually made it into the finals instead of WSW who had a late surge after the "cut off". Elimination Finals: The first game saw Macarthur FC host Wellington Phoenix. Despite a remarkably even game in terms of stats (15 shots each, 1.41 XG each, 46-54% possession), Wellington ended up running out 2-0 winners thanks to a 95th minute clincher. Macarthur will feel very hard done by not to score. The other final saw Western United FC host Gold Coast United. Western United controlled this game but were just unable to convert. As the game went to extra time, they had a player sent off and Gold Coast capitalised to snatch a goal against the run of play. Western United will feel particularly hard done by that they couldn't convert from 2.44 XG. Semi Finals: The Phoenix have had a decent season but they only just snuck into finals and I'm not too worried about facing them. They have probably the best goalkeeper in the league, New Zealand international Alex Paulsen but I'm not overly concerned about the rest of their team. I go a front 3 of Leckie, Maclaren and Arzani who have temporarily pushed Nabbout onto the bench. Houston starts for me in midfield alongside Rogic and Mooy with Abdulahi some serious quality I can sub on if needed. We come out firing, hitting the crossbar inside the first minute. But it's Wellington who strike first with their first shot on target. A well taken free kick sees Nicholas Pennington get free in behind and a sumptuous first time volley fires it past the onrushing Langerak. Thankfully we get a response soon after as a practised corner routine takes effect and the outgoing captain Nuno Reis leaps at the front post to nod home. They push hard to regain their lead and also have an effort thunder off the crossbar. As we head into half time with the scores 1-1, neither side has racked up a huge amount of high quality chances but both have threatened to break things open. Maclaren has had an off day for me up front, so I might consider subbing him, while Mooy has been pulling all the strings in midfield and is probably my best player. They get an early chance at the start of the 2nd half but we see off the danger and settle down. I've instructed my players to play fairly cautiously in this one as I'm quite happy to take a draw before the decider in the 2nd leg at home. Mooy comes closest for me from a direct free kick but the game comes to a close without much more action. 1-1. In the other game, Brisbane manage to get a 1-0 win away from home against Gold Coast. Arzani pulls up injured after the last game and though he's right to go for the return leg, I move him to the bench and bring Nabbout in. Otherwise I keep the same team to go again. We start slowly this time with only the crossbar saving me from going a goal down after 40 seconds. It only counts as 0.12XG but it felt a whole lot more watching the build up. Finally on half an hour we manage to fashion a good chance ourselves, drawing a strong save from Paulsen. But he's not able to do anything a minute later after Rogic gets half a yard free at the 6 yard box to first time volley a cross home. He pops up again just before half time but this time Paulsen is prepared. A slow start but as the game has gone on we have started to assert control. Rogic and Mooy are bossing the midfield and besides a yellow card to Reis, I have no complaints about anyone. Both teams play cautiously at the start of the 2nd half, neither willing to open themselves up too much when the game itself is still on a knife's edge. Rogic does his best to break the stalemate on the hour mark but is cruelly denied by the inside of the post. Thankfully, just like the first half, this near miss is a catalyst for us to score a minute later, with Nabbout managing to get on the end of the cross just as I was making plans to replace him. He must have been motivated by the subs warming up! Instead I take off Nuno Reis, as the only worry I have now is about a potential 2nd yellow for him. Fujimoto also gets some game time to shore up the middle of the park with his no nonsense tough tackling approach. Arzani coming on for some match fitness after his recent injury returns to form in style, netting what must be the final nail in the 74th minute. Despite some early worries, we were able to seize utter control in the end and restrict them to only the 1 shot on target. We outperformed our 1.68 XG but never looked like dropping this one. A 3-0 win for 4-1 on aggregate. And we are through to the Grand Final for the last match of my reign! In the other match, Gold Coast made it tough for Brisbane despite being away from home, getting a 1-0 victory in regular time to force extra time. Unfortunately at this point Brisbane finally clicked into gear and piled on 3 goals in extra time for a 4-1 aggregate result as well. The Final Dance: The Grand Final rematch. Our chance to make amends for last season's limp finish and end my time at the club on a high. I don't want to fall into the same traps as last season where I concluded I was the superior team only for everything to unravel on the day. Brisbane have only improved since then and while I have been head and shoulders above everyone else in the league this season, they will be tough opponents with everything to play for. We go with the old reliable. Nothing too out there or aggressive, just trusting in the talent of my players to make something happen. Arzani comes back in for Nabbout as the only change. In the early stages we see a fair bit of the ball though struggle to get in behind Brisbane's defensive line. A couple of crosses flash past but we only hit the target twice and neither really looks like a good chance. But we do a great job of keeping Brisbane at bay with their limited attacks forward, preventing them getting a shot on target. I decide we need to seize the initiative and pile the pressure on. So we become more positive and look to see if we can break the deadlock. If I can score first then I can force them to come out more. But it very nearly backfires and it's only a good save at the near post from Langerak that keeps their first shot on target out. With my attackers struggling to make things happen, I turn to my reliables in Nabbout and Caputo to create something. And Nabbout has an instant impact, setting Leckie up 1 on 1 with the goalkeeper who somehow manages to keep it out. But we are pushing. Frustratingly Brisbane keep turning the ball over with my final passes and then countering but we finally manage to thread something through by just sneaking through their offside trap. Caputo races onto a through ball by Nabbout, the 2 subs combining and slots it home in the 74th! The Roar players protest but after a lengthy VAR check, the goal stands! At this point I know I should retreat a bit more but with the prospect of Brisbane opening up I sense the chance to win the game with a decisive 2nd goal. Unfortunately it backfires as Brisbane manage an equaliser in the 81st minute. But at least it doesn't have anything to do with my tactics. Instead Ivanovic runs around 2 different players into the box then somehow gets it past Langerak despite him getting a strong hand to the ball while diving. It's shockingly bad but we have 10 minutes to regain the lead and the momentum. Nabbout very nearly does so, but his header goes wide as we head into stoppage time. Suddenly it's all Brisbane and my players are panicking. Ivanovic gets a break away from a corner and it's only some last ditch defending that removes the danger and sees up through the extra time. A chance to regroup and come back strong! I've made all my subs now, so the only thing to do is reassure them that they've been unlucky and that if they keep going they can win. And guess who comes up big for me? Andrew Nabbout. The player of the save (not counting that CL shootout we don't talk about) gets on the end of a beautifully hit Delaine cross. Caputo jumps in the middle, drawing the defenders to him as the ball sails over his head, leaving Nabbout for a poachers finish at the back. I've learnt my lesson from last time and this time drop our mentality down to avoid any unnecessary risks. I don't forget this is the team that rallied to put 3 past Gold Coast in extra time last match. Brisbane pushes their line high which gives my forwards a bit of space to run into and an outlet to relieve some pressure. Despite their best efforts, my defence, brilliantly marshalled by the veteran Reis stands firm and we see out the win! A fitting way to end the save and we managed to go undefeated domestically all season! Despite Nabbout's masterful performance, it is Reis that gets player of the match and these 2 have really been key players for me and it feels so fitting that they are able to redeem themselves from the Champions League Final shootout disaster by coming up big here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal585 Posted February 8 Author Share Posted February 8 It is with a heavy heart that I walk away upon the end of my contract. As always there's the appeal to keep going, to make amends for my CL final loss and to see the development of young players but this feels like a good time. There's a few bugs starting to pop up in the save and I'm already pretty dominant in most games. The club want me to stay, belatedly offering me new terms but my mind is made up by now. I'm looking forward to trying FM24. The State of the Club: I leave the club with a lot of aging stars but still the best squad in the league and the best backroom team. I have agreed the signing of Ki-Jana Hoever from Wolves to fill the RB place. I'm actually impressed I managed to get him to sign under the player cap. There are also some brilliant young players coming through that make me wish I could keep playing to see how they develop. Abdulahi looks like he will dominate the midfield as a home grown player, at least until he forces a move through to Europe. Dimoski and Matheson are both coming through on the wings with huge potential. Collier and Balafas are brilliant young LB prospects, while Markovski was getting games ahead of Curtis Good at CB for me. Jamie Maclaren is still one of the best strikers in the league but he wants to double his wages with his current contract running down. I tried a couple of times to get something done but the board just won't allow the kind of contract he requests, so hopefully my replacement can smooth things over and escape my promise. Of the other old players still at the club, theoretically Langerak's age won't matter too much as a GK and Rogic and Mooy with their sublime technical skills should still control the midfield despite their lack of legs. Nabbout and Leckie might be on the way out but are still at a high level for the league. Caputo, Arzani and Pereira are all players in their prime that can take over and become the star players themselves. There is definitely a squad there capable of building a real dynasty. Reflections on my time: I leave as the most successful manager in the A League's history and accomplished my goal of winning the Asian Champions League. I kept things relatively simple on the pitch, relying on good transfer dealing and wage structuring to outcompete others. I mostly stuck with my 433 DM, and had very mixed results trying to swap to a 4231, perhaps as all my wingers preferred to cut inside into space that got quite crowded in the 4231. I found some of the opposing squad management was a little disappointing as they tried to balance their salary cap and often had large holes of unused wages so that I was playing opponents that were using 15/25k available. The foreign player restrictions did make things a little tricky in trying to improve the squads meaning having to compete with lesser European teams for the best Aussies but not being able to match wages. But I was incredibly excited to bring big names home, the likes of Langerak, Rogic and Mooy (the latter 2 having now retired) were my favourite parts of this save and I imagine they would have had a real effect on exciting the supporter base and helping to draw crowds and attention to the league. The Asian Champions League was also a fun occasion. I was surprised to become dominant so quickly, I was expecting it to take a lot longer to make the final, though I had some very lucky runs playing teams at bad times for them when they'd sacked a manager or similar. It was a bit weird as it really depended a bit on what time you faced opposing teams as the A League being on a different cycle changed the balance often meaning one match fit squad was playing another in preseason. I really enjoyed looking into some of the opponents though and getting a bit more of a feel for the teams in the competition. I didn't end up making a lot of use of the City links except for a couple of emergency loans for bench players so I probably could have got rid of that completely. I was actually getting several news items suggesting a takeover may end up happening in game anyway towards the end. I really enjoyed reclaiming the Heart identity though. The other expansion teams were also fun to set up, puzzle out which I'd choose and generate kits for them. The league additions I think were also a positive to the experience. The new teams struggled a lot which was frustrating and required editor help to become more competitive. I enjoyed the increased league format though, even if that did have a few bugs of its own! Editor lessons: As mentioned at the end, I found the small bug with the finals selecting the qualifying teams before the season finished. I set up the league in multiple stages to gradually expand each time new teams were added which was quite complicated. A lot of additional trouble was also self-inflicted by trying to use Canberra United who were set as a designated youth team in the DB. So in the end I'm surprised that it went as smoothly as it did! I'm not sure if the new clubs transfer issues were related to my editor use or not. They were generally unwilling to spend the money I gave them and I had to help transfer a few free agents to them to help. But they seem to finally be building up by the time I finished. I think they still had reputation and crowd attraction problems though. It's just so much harder to edit the A League than it is the MLS and both are harder than non-capped leagues without finals series. I was considering releasing the files on the workshop but I have no idea how much else may have been broken by my naivety. But I refuse to put an asterisk next to my success! Epilogue: For a bit of fun, I have simulated into the future to see how things transpired after my departure. 1 Year On: Spoiler My replacement ends up being Paul Okon (former CCM manager and Socceroo) who is struggling with Heart down in 3rd place and knocked out of the finals in the first round. Nothing notable happened on the transfer front, with only the transfers of Hoever, Reis and Wright going through and they were all organised before my departure. Mooy had another dominant year before deciding he was going to retire at the end of his 2 year contract. Markovski also had a breakout year, forming a solid defence alongside Pereira. Maclaren managed a decent 19 goals (16 in the league putting him 3 behind Brisbane star man Finotto), and Leckie and Nabbout were still firing with 12 goals each. Caputo and Arzani also made double figures. So it really seems to be an underachievement to finish 3rd with essentially the same squad that I went undefeated with. They managed to cruise past Seoul in the ACL Second Round but were then knocked out later by our old enemy Gamba Osaka in the Quarter Finals. Still a good run, as Gamba Osaka went on to win the whole thing! The writing is on the wall for this team though with many arranged transfers to take place and a (premature?) rebuild about to take place. Brisbane won the regular season, though lost out in the grand final to a WSW team that equalised in the 81st minute to take it to extra time before winning it 3-2. Looked like a classic! The New Zealand Knights also managed to finish 4th (with a better GD than Heart!) as the best of the expansion teams. Though even the struggling Canberra managed a 14th place finish above Adelaide and Macarthur showing that there's finally some parity now that the new boys have become established. In other interesting news, Inter beat Barca in a penalty shootout to win the European Champions League. 5 Years On: Spoiler Paul Okon ended up lasting 310 days, not quite making it a full year. Was always going to be a tough act to follow the legend that was me. In came Hiroshi Miyazawa who did make it a year this time. 1 year and 1 day exactly. Then the club finally settled on Ufuk Talay (former Wellington and current Sydney manager) who is now approaching the end of his 2nd year in charge and going strong. They have not managed to win the league since I left, even finishing a dismal 7th in 27/28 and missing finals completely. 2030 (the year I simmed to), sees them finally reclaim their throne and winning the Grand Final as well and it looks like the dark years of transition may be behind them. Completely unintentional that I would sim past their troubled years but very poetic. I don't really recognise the squad itself as it seems mostly newgens at this stage and quite young. Of all the expansion teams, ironically it's Canberra that have done the best, coming 2nd in the league in 28/29 but winning the Grand Final that year. They were the worst of the 4 expansion teams when I retired so I wasn't expecting that! WSW, Victory and Jets (surprisingly) are the other teams to win the regular season, though only Victory was able to win the Grand Final the same year. Brisbane were the other team (alongside Canberra) to take a GF triumph. The crowds are still building though, with a match between Wollongong Wolves and Gold Coast United only attracting 143 supporters and breaking the lowest attendance record. Transfers: The team was torn apart as predicted at the end of the 25/26 season. Tom Rogic went to Panathinaikos where he played another 3 years. Talented youngster Stuart Pudler went to Busan where his career has stagnated and he's barely featured. Giannis Balafas went to Augsburg who then onsold him to Bochum for 1.3 mill and Caputo went to Santos Laguna to sit on the bench unused there and yet to receive an International call up at the age of 24. Frustratingly they were all free transfers for some reason. At least they got a little bit of money from Curtis Good who went to Forest Green Rovers. Periera also left for free to Sao Paulo not long after in another shocking deal for the club. He's had a decent career in Brazil and Saudi Arabia though. Leckie retired, while Nabbout and Arzani both were sold as well, Arzani getting 775k from Persepolis. Langerak went to Plymouth and the 2 Asian wonderkids I had brought in were both sold; Choi Jung-Hwan for 1.9 mill to Celtic and Hotaru Fujimoto to Tokushima Vortis for 1.7 mill. So at least they got some money! Fujimoto has now gone onto Tokyo via Yokohama (for 3.4 mill then 5 mill) and earned 2 caps for Japan. Choi Jung-Hwan hasn't really had the game time he needed to develop but is now looking to kickstart his career in Portugal. In 27/28 Hoever left for 1.1 mill to Chicago, Markovski got 950k from Leipzig, Collier 1.5 mill from AZ and Abdulahi 3 mill from Stoke in some actual decent sales for the club. Hoever was brilliant across his 3 seasons for Heart, did well in Chicago and moved to Mexico. Markovski went for way below his value though as he is a regular starter for Leipzig these days and a good CL calibre player. Collier likewise got a 11 mill move to Celtic and has 31 caps for NZ at the age of 21. Abdulahi was good for Stoke and then went to Palace, also in the Championship while amassing 51 caps for Australia by 26. Maclaren finally left the club for 1 final season in 28/29 at Macarthur but failed to have much impact. Nieuwenhuizen also somehow ended up swapped to CCM and earned 14 caps for the national team which is respectable! Gomulka also finally left in 29/30 for Al-Hazem, being the last of the old guard and hanging on very well considering he was transfer listed by Okon. Spoiler So what did the club do with the 11 mill they banked on player sales? They invested 325k in one youngster and that was it outside free transfers... That player was Taylor Brooker from Dusseldorf. Respectable but hardly a replacement for 11 mill worth of stars. That said, Dimoski and Matheson remained at the club at least along with Lopane, though he's about to join CCM. Dimoski has become a pretty good RW at this level, showing what could have been for Matheson if he'd been given much game time. Spoiler Around the world: The Champions League has been dominated by Japanese teams, with Cerezo Osaka matching the feat of rivals Gamba the year before before Kawasaki Frontale upped them both by winning back to back titles. Finally Al-Shabab from Saudi Arabia broke the Japanese stranglehold in the recent season. Spain won the 2026 World Cup, making Croatia runners up for the 3rd time in a row. Germany won the Euros over Ukraine of all teams. In Europe, Barca, Chelsea, PSG and City all took the Champions League (yawn) while Arsenal dominated in the Europa winning 3 times (alongside Sassuolo and Wolfsburg). City dominated the Premier League though Newcastle snatched a first ever title in 26/27 and Chelsea the year after before City reasserted themselves. Leeds also established themselves at the top of the table over multiple seasons while Middlesbrough are the Championship team that have most been able to hold onto Premier League status for 3 seasons running. Going the other way are Brighton and Crystal Palace who have both found themselves stuck in the Championship for multiple seasons after suffering relegation. Newcastle find themselves distinctly midtable despite their wealth. PSG won every version of Ligue 1 and Bayern almost matched them except for 1 lucky win by Leipzig. Villareal though broke the RM/Barca duopoly to win the title in 29/30 in La Liga! Milan have dominated Serie A, AC winning 3 titles and Inter 2. Looking back on my old players, Adam Houston failed to break through at Porto and is now TL after failing to take the next step. Aiden O'Neill had a good career in Japan, while Jordan Bos failed to break through at Monchengladbach and moved back to Victory (the traitor) then off to Qatar. A disappointing career for him. Tilio played a bit at Schalke and Nurnberg before finally returning to Brisbane this season. Glover went to Italy briefly with Spezia before also returning to Gold Coast while Joel Ribeiro stuck with Luzern becoming a star player for them and earning 2 Swiss caps. Spoiler Of those that came through my club, Tilio, Abdulahi, Glover and Arzani are the ones that made it into the Socceroos. Looking in the editor, I see that Adam Houston and Choi Jung-Hwan both had the PA to be world class players so their lack of development is particularly disappointing. They both fell short by 60-70 points of CA. Houston looks like he could have been one of the best wonderkids to come through my academy in recent saves so I'm disappointed he didn't kick on. I look forward to the day when the big clubs know how to develop these players. Also disappointed but not surprised Houston chose Scotland over Australia! And with that I bid farewell! Time to once again retire the Melbourne Heart name. It's been a fun journey, thanks for sharing it with me if you've been reading this! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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