lukefox44
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Posts posted by lukefox44
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8 hours ago, danielclouston1 said:
I want to start by saying how much I hate managing in China. The quality is so poor out with their foreign players and any half decent Chinese player goes for too much money
Ironically, that's the reason I enjoy it so much haha. Alot of the times the foreign players are forwards and just far too good, means most games are high scoring. It does make the champions league a bit tricky though, as you can only have the 3 foreigners and one more if they're Asian. The South Korean teams have seem to have much better domestic players.
Just a quick tip as this caught me out twice now, you might already be aware but thought I wouldn't hurt to mention it.Watch out for financial fair play, there's a limit to how much you can spend as a club, regardless of how much money you make. I had my two best foreign players leave due to release clause's and I replaced them for less than half the money I sold for and still failed FFP by some margain. There's also a tax you seem to pay on transfers as well and sometimes it's a fair bit of cash, just makes it a little more difficult.
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40 minutes ago, vikeologist said:
So those of you 5 or so seasons into the save, how many Asian and African nations are manageable?
I'm only just finishing up the 4th year in game, but by the looks of it I cant see any that have disappeared. However I did take you advice on loading in all Asian international players or I imagine it would be very different.
Wasnt this issue already fixed in the 21.1.3 update? I'm sure I saw it had improvements to newgen in inactive leagues. Or is it still an issue?
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7 minutes ago, danielclouston1 said:
I started as 433 2DM at Edmonton until I signed a decent AM C. To be honest, most of my play comes from the wings, my AM L in the last three seasons has 15+ goals. Although the AM C does have around 10 too.
No mate, I play on positive most of the time unless I have a team in the league below in a cup when ill play attacking.
Yeah sorry, control was the old name, it is positive now.
Yeah I get good goal contributions from out wide as well but maybe slightly more from the attacking midfielder.
Maybe it's the positive mentality that's a bit over powered, as well as the shape. I normally find building a very good team alot easier out side the top divisions as well, so maybe its partially that as well.
I'm not sure but something feels easier than normal.
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17 minutes ago, danielclouston1 said:
A 4231 based on a gegenpress but not the preset one, just one I made based on how I like football. Its not just winning, its completely dominating teams. Having like 30 odd shots a game with 60+% possession.
Yeah the gegenpress has always been effective in game.
I think this year with the work they did in the match engine on "central play" anything with an Attacking Midfield works well. I was playing a wide 4-3-3 with a DM and was doing ok with it, when I moved him to behind the forward I instantly noticed an improvement.
Are you playing on Control as well? I get similar shots and possession as you do when I'm on control.
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@danielclouston1 that's a hell of a dominant season, congrats.
Like you I'm feeling the game is a lot easier than it normally is. What tactic are you using just out of interest ?
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12 hours ago, MShing said:
Thanks for the work around. I'll give that a try next time I am playing.
Yes our saves have had similar teams so far. Good luck in the champions League next season. Do you have any idea what leagues you want to manage in next?
Hopefully that should work, @libbyshuss seems to have the same problem/fix, so it should.
It's a strange one to come across first time, I was like you and thought this might be the end of the save haha.
Yeah hopefully will not bottle the Champions League next year and then the plan is to move on to the Northern American version or African depending on what jobs pop up. What's your next club plans?
Its 2 years until the AFCON as well and should have a good crack at that with this Nigeria side. How good of an attacking side are Nigeria by the way, pace and dribbling is nuts for everyone. Good luck with them.
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4 minutes ago, MShing said:
I have found a bug where I cannot progress past the team selection for a match for Nigeria, first time this happened was a friendly and I just holidayed past it, but now its happened again for a World Cup qualifier. So this is where my save ends for now
I have reported it in the bugs forum, wasnt sure if it was a known issue. Gutted
I had this a few times, I think it's when you're on the team selection screen and click on a player profile or just click away from the selection screen.
If it's the same issue I've been having, I just save the game to a new save slot (just incase it goes wrong so you have your original back up) and then reload the new save and dont click out of the team selection screen.
It does sound similar to the issue I've been having, hopefully this works.
Just as a side note our saves have been extremely similar, very similar teams haha
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Luke Fox
DL Pro
2023/2034
Another successful season on the whole for me in China. We won the league very easily with 4 games to go, we even rotated heavily to focus on the domestic cup and the AFC Champions League. the domestic cup turned out to be very easy, we didn't play a team that finished in the top half of the league and were never really troubled at all. We played a team who finished rock bottom of the league in the final, they only won 5 games all year in the league but somehow managed to win 4 in a row in the cup. They really were no match for us in the final as we beat them 10-1 on aggregate, our forward scored a 9 minute hattrick and after 10 mins of leg one it was over really.
The Champions League provided to be rather annoying. We started well and won 5 of 6 group games, the one we lost we had already won the group and made 11 changes. The next two rounds were again simple enough and we went through to the semi-finals with no dramas. However this is when the drama came against Ulsan Hyundai, a team relatively similar to us, but I fancied us to win. We won the first leg at home 2-1, we dominated the game and should of won by more than one. With 10 mins left and no real danger our main Centre half two footed a player in the midfield and was sent off. In the second leg we went 2-0 up early on, giving us a 4-1 aggregate lead and more away goals as well. We conceded a quick fire double just before half time, 2-2 on the day, still 4-3 up on aggregate. They took a 3-2 lead on the night in the 74th minute, meaning its 4-4 but us still ahead on away goals. We make it look even more certain with another goal ourselves, leaving Ulsan needing two goals in the last 9 minutes to knock us out. We somehow managed to concede in the 84th, the 90th and the 95th minute, we had thrown it away big time. Also look at the XG, concede 6 to an 1.23 XG, not that XG is the defining factor but still.
This is the first real set back in the whole save, but it was still super disappointing. The final would of been against Suwon Bluewings, who we beat twice in the group stages already and I thought we could of beat again, we could of been finished with Asia and onto the next part of the challenge, frustrating, but I'm sort of enjoying china so another year here isn't the end of the world.
Just a quick mention of Ryan Kent, voted player of the year in the league, the cup and the champions league. His £32m release clause is starting to look small now as a few decently sized European clubs are starting to take a look at him. Should he leave I've already agreed to sign a replacement, his former Rangers teammate Hagi, a very similar player who even if Kent doesn't move on will be starter on the other flank.
Club Update
National Update
My time with Albania was short lived, 4 competitive matches, 1 draw and 3 loses, that was enough for me to call it a day. Was hoping to have a decent Nations League, improve my rep and then move on, but it wasn't to be. I was happy without a National job for a while but after both the AFCON and Gold cup had finished loads of jobs appeared. I got offered the job who were ranked 13th in the world. Its 2 years until the next AFCON but we should have a good chance of winning it, our attacking players are exceptional.
Challenge Update
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2 hours ago, vikeologist said:
I suppose the good news is that if you really aren't very good, you'll get to stay at the clubs for longer.
Haha very true, that puts a positive spin on me managing to bottle the AFC Champions League semi final in such spectacular fashion, I suppose.
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3 hours ago, danielclouston1 said:
He's playing as W (A) on the left but he ends up on the corner of the 6 yard box when the ball comes down our right wing.
I thought about doing that but in the 18 months I've been managing Pumas I've built a very very good team (easily the strongest in North America) and I'm quite attached to them. I've made the finances very healthy too with currently having 50mil balance when it was 12mil when I took over. The u20's and affiliate 2nd team are dominating in everything too with both of them littered with 5* potential youngsters, so I think we could dominate North America for years to come. I don't actually want to leave them so when the end of the season comes I'm going to save the file and continue with Pumas once I'm done with the challenge. When Barca submitted their offer I gave him a new contract with a 20k pw wage rise and no release clause and he didn't get unset about me rejecting the bid.
Oh wow those numbers from a winger make it even more impressive, crazy amount of goals.
Yeah I know how you feel, I get attached to teams very easily. That's probably the second biggest threat to completing this challenge for me. The first obviously is me not being very good haha
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4 hours ago, danielclouston1 said:
In 37 games this season he´s scored 21 and has 27 assists with an average rating of 7.68. Turned down a 35million offer for him from Barcelona, I´m leaving Pumas at the end of the season and I needed him for the rest of my season haha.
He looks very good. What role did you play him to get those sort of goal contributions?
Something I've done a few times is if a bid comes in and I know I'm leaving, just arrange the transfer for the end of the season, that why they don't get upset about you blocking a move.
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14 hours ago, danielclouston1 said:
I couldn´t wait until the end of the season to share this with you but the AML I signed not long after taking over at Pumas just won the FIFA Best U21 Men´s player (is this the FM Golden Boy equivalent?) award. I only signed him for 525k!
That's impressive.
You got a screenshot of him?
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6 hours ago, MShing said:
Thanks mate. Just finding building my squad frustrating at the moment. With registration restrictions, I can only register 3 foreigners and I can only sign 2 players over 21 and there are not any half decent Chinese players who are under 21.
Stupidly I had arranged 3 transfers months before i had any news of our failure in ffp one of them was my quality 15 now 16 year old midfielder I signed for Supersport. Who looks like he will not be able to be registered
That kid looks phenomenal. Shame he cant be registered. In the mid season transfer window you can register two more foreign players(if you have space) Just good to know incase one of your foreign lads isn't performing, can unregister one or two and replace them.
Yeah the chinese lads are either not very good or way way too expensive.
Have a look at a guy called Li Sirong, i think it is, check my update if it's not. He's a chinese centre back who plays for Den Haag, he cost me less than 200k and is actually pretty decent,under 21 as well.
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@MShing Congrats on the new job, after initially finding it frustrating the massive gulf in quality between the foreign players and the Chinese lads makes it really fun. Anyone who is pacey or strong just dominates physically, I had Salamon Rondon up front with 16 strength and there wasnt a single chinese defender he couldnt bully.
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1 minute ago, vikeologist said:
yes. possible crap national jobs just damage rep.
Yeah I hoped we could turn the Nations league campaign around and maybe quickly boost my rep, I was so so wrong haha.
Not sure if I should stay or cut my losses with them.
I was starting to think maybe FM 21 was a bit too easy, but nothing easy about being the Albania boss.
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Luke Fox
DL Pro
2022 / 2023
After moving on from Steenberg United I took charge of DL Pro just before the league season was about to start. We were predicted to finish mid table and after looking at the squad and the rest of the league I thought that was a fair prediction. Before leaving at the end last year Rafa Benitez had managed to win the Chinese Fa Cup so we got to play Guangzhou Evergrande in the Chinese equivalent of the community shield. Guangzhou have won 9 of the last 10 league titles and were odds on favourite to win it this year, so this would be a good earlier test for the team and should give me and idea of what to expect this season. We played very well and lost on penalties but that doesn't tell the full story. We missed a penalty at 1-1 and then quickly went 2-1 down, but we fought back and took the lead 3-2 with 20 mins left. It looked like we would hold on for a decent win but in the 96th minute of only 4 added we conceded and were taken to extra time and ultimately to penalties. Boateng who missed the penalty in 90 minutes was looking confident and was our best penalty taker by a mile, so I had no choice but to ask him to take another one. He missed, we lost, however a good performance even if it was a glorified friendly. This game was maybe the beginning of the end for Boateng however, he would perform OK but when taking up one of only four I really needed more from him, more on this later.
We had a relatively slow start to the season with 3 wins, 1 loss and 2 draws, we were sat in mid table and not playing very exciting football. I made a few tweaks, went more possession based and about 8 or 9 games in it really started to click. We were climbing the table quickly and beating some good teams along the way. But we still had the problem of Boateng not really adding much to the side, so I set out to replace him. The man I settled on was Ryan Kent from Rangers for £20m and he hit the ground running, he slotted straight in with a brace and an assist on debut and that was just the start,
As you can see he was unreal, 5 POTM in only 18 games, he really turned us from a decent team into a very good one. With him playing superb we shot up the league and found ourselves in second a point behind the formidable Guangzhou. We went on a crazy unbeaten run, but that was in doubt when we went 3-0 in the first half to a team we should really be beating and it looked like the dream season was over, but somehow we managed to snatch a last minute point and our assault on the top end of the table was still on. In fact Guangzhou had lost and this magical point had put us top on head to head.
We had about 6 games left and we still had to play Beijing Guoan, who were two points behind us and Guangzhou Evergrande, so even though it was tough run in the title was ours to lose. All three of us won the next two games, it was still all to play for. We thumped Beijing Guoan 6-2, even after they had a dodgy penalty after only 3 minutes, but we fought back quickly and easily dominated them. This put us 6 points ahead of them with only 3 game left but still only level with Evergrande. With two games left we were 2 points ahead of Evergrande but now it was time to play them, with both of us having simple final day games this would be the game that decided the title, a draw for us in both the last two games would be enough to win it on head to head. In a reverse of the Beijing Guoan game it was our turn to get a dubious early penalty. We converted and then quickly made it 2-0, a score we easily held onto without much threat. We had a four point lead with a game to go, WE WERE CHAMPIONS!
The league was closely fought all the way until the end, we only lost twice all season but Evergrande kept 18 clean sheets in 30 games, it really was us being unbeaten against them and Beijing Guoan that won us the title. We were not top for the majority of the season until those crucial games. As you can see match 24 and that rescued 3-3 was pivotal to our season.
I won manager of the year, Sam Larson our shadow striker won golden boot and Li Sirong a 19 year old centre back we signed from Den Haag won rookie of the year. We also had 8 out of the 18 players in the team of the season awards. To say it was a good season would be an understatement.
Plans for next season are to stay at DL Pro, try and win the domestic cup and give the Asian Champions league a good go, we are a good enough squad to compete to win both I think. Hopefully this season wasn't a fluke.
Club Progress
International Progress
oh yeah I forgot to mention, I took the Albania job, for a reason I'm still not sure of. I think I hoped for a good nations league performance and a little boost to my rep. That worked the exact opposite, I took over after 2 games, with 4 to go, I drew 1 and lost the other 3, we were relegated and my manager rep took a hit.
Challenge Progress
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@vikeologist ah mate I'm gutted for you. I'd of been speechless at how fast it all came crashing down.
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6 hours ago, _JHTB_ said:
I was going to mention that your transfer budget wouldn't stretch that far as you'd spend most of it on players who aren't worth anywhere near the amount signed for but just because they are chinese.
I hadn't spent a single penny all save and just saw millions and got a bit carried away haha.
Trying to use the bulk of the money to upgrade the foreign lads as mine seem a bit on the average side compared to the top teams. I did just sign Ryan Kent from rangers in the mid season transfer window to cheer myself up a bit haha.
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15 hours ago, vikeologist said:
I do have an African job, South Africa obtained after the 2054 World Cup, which means that in just few short months I have the ACON, and the chance to complete the challenge. I’m adding the South African league back, which if worse comes to worse means that some African nations should eventually become playable again. I need to have at least one nation loaded, and by next summer, if the challenge goes that far, it will be just S Africa.
I have enough bad history with the ACON to be very far from confident.
One to go, good luck mate.
Hows the squad looking? You in with a chance ?
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4 hours ago, Siepe1990 said:
Funny that you state about the tactics you show half-way "We normally played a less aggressive formation, this was just chasing the game late". I can tell you: exactly that formation is my base formation I've used so far on every team - yes, even with Venezuela, although admittedly I changed to a 4-1-2-2-1 (changing a ST for a DM) after the group stage, which is the formation I use when I think I'm really going to be outclassed.
That's pretty much what I do. One of those 2 forwards is normally a DM in a tight game or AM in a game I expect to win. Whenever I've shifted to the 4-2-4 out of desperation I've never managed to get it to work to be honest.
4 hours ago, Siepe1990 said:Congrats on the new job in China, those budgets are looking mighty fine - hopefully you'll be able to pick up a league or a cup!
Cheers mate, it's not going to be as easy as I assumed when I saw the budgets though.
The 4 foreign player rule means chinese players cost an absolutle arm and a leg, I expected the prices to be inflated but it's crazy. I had to pay £15m for a 19 year old defensive midfielder who hadn't even made a first team appearance yet for a mid table side. All the half decent chinese lads are at the big clubs and wont even considerer joining.
Think this season might be a mid table finish and hopefully next year I can get rid of my ageing foreigners and bring in better quality.
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5 hours ago, vikeologist said:
@lukefox44 So I think I've missed something in your previous updates, (About to reveal how little I carefully study updates). The 1 year contract is a league requirement in South Africa? I thought that people were just saying that individual (presumably those of humble means) or ambitious players were insisting on it.
I was talking to @_JHTB_ about it and probably forgot it in updates to be fair haha. But yeah second tier in South Africa a league rule is max one year contract for every single player in the division. It makes for a crazy transfer window. I had about 20 leave on free's and the same amount in, makes it relatively simple to a title challenging side.
5 hours ago, vikeologist said:Anyway, you're in my old home of Dalian now. Do you know, I could never find their ground. Nobody in the city seemed entirely sure where exactly it was. Nobody had ever actually been to a game there. Honestly, the stadium should have been findable. I mean, it's a stadium. It's not like trying to find a tiny little shed. It's a huge stadium, but no. Simply couldn't find it. I wouldn't overstate how hard I tried. I did watch Chinese football on TV, and believe me, that can really sap the enthusiasm. The only enjoyable Chinese football is on FM.
Yeah you'd of thought someone somewhere could of pointed in the right direction. Just had a quick google and it looks look a pretty nice city as well.
To be honest I'm starting to wish I didnt find the ground in FM, the early stages are not going great. Maybe they've managed to capture the realistic feeling of dullness you had watching it.
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3 hours ago, Siepe1990 said:
The Final! Brazil, once again... I had faced them twice already, losing 0-1 and 0-2, so not that bad. However, in both matches, I had almost zero chances, so I changed my strategy, hoping for just one thing: a penalty shoot-out. Not the most attracting tactic for a final, but hey, if it works... The match itself was horrible. I had just 2 shots on target, versus 9 for Brazil. However, their xG was quite low (0.71), so I think that's what save me... I managed to hold on to the draw until the end of extra time, which meant it was time for... penalties! Gabriel Jesus took the first... and missed! I was already half dancing, until my winger struck the post, bringing everything even again. At 5-5, it was Real Madrid's Casemiro who failed from the spot, meaning my central defender Mejias had the winner on his boot.. And he struck it home! We won! Copa America 2024, the first ever for Venezuela...
A first Copa America for Venezuela is some effort.
Sounds like a tactical masterclass, set out to frustrate and take it to the lottery of penalties and managed come out on top. Congrats mate.
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Luke Fox
Steenberg United
2021 / 2022
With the good finish to last season I was excited to give our first full season at Steenberg a real good go. I planned on making a few signings but trying to keep the core of the team the same and hopefully that would carry over the momentum and atmosphere at the club.
As you can see that plan went out the window pretty quickly. The one year max contract length rule in the league made it the busiest transfer window I ever had. A combination of players not wanting to sign new deals and the sheer number of players available on free who were better than we currently had led to a massive overhaul of the squad. We released everyone other than 5 or 6 key players from the season before, there were some players I wanted to keep but the wage demands were too high and replacements at the same if not better level were available for less. As you can see it wasn't only us making a massive change to the squad, around half the teams made at least 10 transfers, admittedly we made over 20 and 8 more than the second most from a team.
With my brand new squad I was confident of a good season. The first 7 or 8 games were a real mixed bag, but with a whole new squad that was expected until we improved the team cohesion. We dominated possession in almost every game we played, sometimes having as much as 75% of the ball. However early on we drew and even lost a few games we were in complete control, we didnt seem to be able to break down teams who just sat behind the ball. We had no real cutting edge.
This was the 5th game of the season and it was the story of our early season form. (We normally played a less aggressive formation, this was just chasing the game late)
However once the team cohesion improved and we tweaked the tactic to give us more threat we looked a lot better. We then went on a really good run of form, we have won 10 consecutive competitive games (2 cup games) and were flying high. Against the teams we were expected to beat we would have 65% of the ball and win easily 3 or 4 -0 but against the other top teams it was different. We had results like 4-2, 5-3 and 6-2 against other teams at the top of the table, the increased space allowed us to create way more chances but left us more open at the back.
The league table as we went into the winter break.
We were playing incredible football and like I said had won 10 in a row, after just beating Jomo Cosmos 6-2, things were going very well in every way other than the finances .
Admittedly I was over spending on wages by a far lot, the finances in this league were not sustainable, the income is not enough and the prize money is next to nothing unless you win the league. Which I'm sure we will, but it wouldn't make a dent in the debt we would be by next season. All this whilst also trying to improve the squad to hopefully compete in the top division of South Africa. I had looked at the top flight and the step up in both money and players was huge, I think it would be very difficult to try and stay up as a newly promoted side.
So I started looking at the job market to see if anything popped up. I saw Dalian Professional Fc or DL Pro for short. They are a top flight Chinese side who had just parted company with none other than Rafa Benitez, they had an ok season last year and are predicted to finish mid table this season, interestingly they were only 2 star rep(I'm at nearly 2 star rep as well now). I decided to apply for the job but carry on at Steenberg in case nothing came of it, I was offered an interview, which is further than I get with most job and to my amazement two weeks later I was offered the job.
Those budgets already look fun, in my whole career I don't think I've ever even paid a transfer fee but now I'm trusted with £85 mil and £2 mil a week, YES A WEEK, in wage budget. Hopefully this may provide a chance to compete in the Asian Champions league a few years down the line.
Luke Fox
Dalian Professional FC
2021 / 2022
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2 hours ago, vikeologist said:
Even though I've only completed the challenge once, I've done it too many times, so I certainly don't plan to ever do it again.
I suppose if the game has become so amazingly easy it would be tempting to see if I could break the record, but once that became impossible, I'd give up.
Yeah I can see how doing this more than once takes its toll to be fair.
Even completing it once is a massive achievement.
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The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge
in Challenges, Sign-Ups & Experiments
Posted
Luke Fox
DL Pro
2024 / 2025
Another season very similar to last, we walked the league and cup, rested players in a few games we dropped points but we were never not going to do the domestic double.
The champions league has a fairly big gap during our season and heading into that we were looking good in it. However during this gap we lost our 3 best players due to release clauses. Ryan Kent and Arezo left for around £35m each on the exact same day, normally I hate release clauses but it seems the only way to get good players to join you here in China. Our third player who left was Ianis Hagi, he had a 4 month injury and I was hoping this would put off any potential buyers and that he would be fit enough to return to our champions league push. The main transfer windows in Europe were about to shut and Hagi was still out for at least 2 months, this didn't bother Fulham though as they signed him and left me with a squad very short of quality foreign players. We did manage to sign a Belgian inverted winger and Moise Kean, so going into the knock out rounds of the champions league I was still confident we had enough.
We face Ulsan Hyundai in the first knockout round, the team who knocked us out in the Semi finals last year, The first leg was away from home and went 1-0 down inside 3 minutes , it started to feel like last season all over again. However we levelled with only 5 minutes to go and were on course for a very good away draw and the all important away goal. The positivity was short lived as we conceded less than a minute later and no we had a 2-1 deficit to overturn at home. We did just that, controlled the game, scored just before half time and played out the rest of the game relatively comfortably to go through on away goals.
In the quarter finals we played a decent looking Pohang Steelers team, again the first leg was away and again we wouldn't make it easy for ourselves, we lost 2-1 again. However the home leg turned out to be very different and we destroyed them 4-0, with 64% of the ball and managed to keep them from having a single shot on goal.
We were drawn against Guangzhou Evergrande in the Semi finals, we have a really good record against them in my time at DL Pro and I was confident we could beat them over two legs. This time we played at home first and it was a crazy game, we go 2-0 inside 20 minutes but fight back to be level 2-2 with in 15 minutes, however our left back who we chased for over a season to get him to agree to leave Guangzhou and come to us goes flying in on one of his former teammates two footed, straight red. We have to play the whole second half with ten men, but are still on top and pulled ahead with 10 minutes left with 30+ yard screamer, we have a lot of the ball and feel like we will easily see out this 3-2 win. That went out the window when they levelled it up in the 89th minute, with 4 minutes added on they could sense we were on the ropes and chucked more men forward, we stuck our two quickest players upfront and everyone else just park just outside our own box. Incredibly we manage to win the ball back and just chuck it in behind and by just sheer pace we end up with a one on one and we slotted it away nicely. We snatch a 4-3 win from nowhere, 3 away goals is less than ideal though. Second leg is a different story, we take an early 2 goal lead and never look back. Onto the Final.
Al-Sadd are the other finalists, winners of the tournament in both 2020 and 2021, so not an easy game at all. Again in typical fashion for us this year, we don't make it easy for ourselves, we go 1-0 early on but level it up just after half time. Less than 5 minutes later, another two footed challenge, another red card. We were still on top though and score a nicely worked goal to give us 20 mins to hang on for a 2-1 home leg victory, Our lead lasted less than a minute, it finished 2-2 meaning we would have to win the away leg to be champions. In the second leg we started off really well creating loads of chances, but missing them all. 0-0 at halftime but we were on looking good, 2 minutes into the second half we gave away a soft penalty. We had 35 minutes to turn it around, it wasn't to be, we lost 3-1 on the night and 5-3 on aggregate. Disappointing but it wasn't to be, we have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot in this big games.
We are really close and getting closure to winning the Asian Champions League, so hopefully it wont be long until we can win it and move on.
On a personal note I've now taken top spot in the Chinese Hall of Fame, which is nice.