DaneBramage

FC BESCHLING - OCTOBER + NOVEMBER 2023 October was fun, with two more home wins helping us open a five point lead at the top. Matija Ceh also reached double-figures for the season in just 12 games. But November sucked. We dominated FC Schwarzach without ever looking like scoring, and then we picked up our customary loss to SV Ludesch 1b. The lead is down to just one point, and FC Hittisau 1b are looking ominous. Although we're top of the table and have scored a lot more goals than anyone else, my main striker 20c Zdravko Trupac is having a nightmare season. Just the one goal so far, ten players are outscoring him. We're being bailed out a lot by the central midfield pairing of Matija Ceh (box-to-box) and 20b Christian Appelrath (attacking playmaker).

FC BESCHLING - JULY + AUGUST + SEPTEMBER 2023 Over the summer we had a takeover. Our debt was wiped out and we were given a positive balance of £20k. I made a couple of requests to improve our junior coaching and youth recruitment, but both were rejected. I was able to take a coaching course though and now have a continental C licence. For the first time we started the season with a loss. But we didn't linger on this, as we started chalking up a lot of green with six straight wins, and a lot of goals along the way. We were also pretty leaky at the other end of the pitch, and that came back to bite us with a 2-0 loss at FC Hittisau 1b. We ended September with a couple of home matches, and a pair of comfortable wins saw us sit top of the table after ten games. SV Ludesch 1b are definitely turning into my nemesis team. That's now five times in a row they've beaten us.

FC BESCHLING - APRIL 2023 We wrapped up the season in style, with three more wins making it nine in a row. Ulf Bohner really enjoyed the run-in, with six goals in the final five games. But while we were doing this, FC Schruns 1b were also winning a bunch of games. We managed to overhaul the other sides in contention, narrowly finishing in 2nd place due to our better goal difference, but couldn't make up the difference to FC Schruns 1b and ended up four points off top spot. We have a pretty consistent first-choice 11, with seven players starting more than 20 games. We've had a different top scorer each season, this time 20c Zdravko Trupac took the honours, and he also came third in the league scoring list. AUSTRIA Red Bull Salzburg's monopoly at the top continued with a 10th league title in a row, and they added the cup as well to make it another double.

FC BESCHLING - 2023 YOUTH INTAKE Fourth in a row called a golden generation. All the supposed best players are defenders, but given the terrible personalities, terrible facilities, terrible coaches, and terrible AssMan, let's just assume they're all rubbish and won't progress. And with the lack of current ability it's unlikely many will even make the first-team given that we now have over 70 players at the club. Nationalities are all boring, not even a single player from anywhere other than Austria.

FC BESCHLING - MARCH 2023 We picked up two more wins to make it six in a row, and we're putting on the pressure at the top. With three games left promotion is probably off the cards, but it can't be totally ruled out. AUSTRIA Qualification for Euro 2024 began with a win over Latvia, but was followed up by a loss to Poland.

FC BESCHLING - JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2023 Loving this. We recovered from the heavy defeat that ended our 2022 to smash league leaders VfB Hohenems 1c. 20c Zdavko Trupac scored his second hat-trick of the season to reach double-figures. Next time out was a bit tougher, but we came back from a two goal deficit to clinch the win with two goals of our own in added time. And as we moved into February we made it four straight wins. I mentioned last time that the top few teams were pulling away, and we've managed to go with them. There's five games left to go, which is probably too little for us to make it to the top, but there's still an outside chance if we can keep this up.

FC BESCHLING - NOVEMBER + DECEMBER 2022 The FC Schruns 1b match was an absolute banger. After half an hour we were 3-0 down, but pulled it back to 3-2 by the break. Soon after the re-start we conceded again, but we kept at it before an 89th goal drew us level, and we then stole all three points in stoppage-time. The less said about the SC Ludesch 1b game the better. We've lost to them four times in a row now. The top few teams have started to pull away from the pack. We're in the inbetween position, where a couple more losses could easily see us slip down into midtable. 2c Zdvavko Trupac has jumped to the top of the list as first-choice striker, and the hat-trick against FC Schruns 1b has solidified his position. Considering he has a finishing attribute of just 2, he's performing wonders to average a goal roughly every 85 minutes. AUSTRIA The national side missed out on the 2022 World Cup, so had to settle for friendlies. Austria beat Saudi Arabia, but could only draw with Moldova.

FC BESCHLING - OCTOBER 2022 A mixed month here, as we beat two teams below us in the table, but lost to two teams above. Can't be too disappointed with that, though two convincing defeats on home soil isn't ideal. We're scoring plenty of goals, but they're coming from only two positions. Our top scorer is our left-winger, followed by whoever is filling the lone striker role, but no one else in the squad has more than a couple. So unlocking more goals from elsewhere around the pitch would help. In particular 20b Christian Appelrath and Ulf Bohner are considerably underachieving. They were the leading scorers last season, but this year they can't hit a barndoor. AUSTRIA Losses to Germany and Switzerland condemned Austria to relegation from the top tier of the Nations League.

FC BESCHLING - SEPTEMBER 2022 We've seen plenty of goals in our games this month, with a total of 22 being chalked up on the scoreboard. Luckily more of them went in our favour than against, as three wins turned this into a very strong month and pushed us up into the top half of the table. I don't think there's any chance of us shooting up the leagues with consecutive promotions, but at the same time I don't think we'll be in any trouble of relegation either. The only disappointment this month was the defeat to FC Egg 1c. It looks bad as they're in the dropzone, but in mitigation, it was our third game in a week so we did have to rotate a few players. AUSTRIA A win over Switzerland has given Austria some hope of staying in the top set of Nations League groups, but a second loss to Portugal still leaves them in trouble.

FC BESCHLING - JULY + AUGUST 2022 Welcome to tier 9! We picked up a point on the opening day against the team that have won the division for the last two years, FC Schwarzach. So that hopefully shows we'll be able compete at this level, but also begs the question why are they still here? Why haven't they been promoted? The team that won in 2019/20 got promoted. Hopefully it was just restructuring or something rather than anything being broken. After that we got a couple more draws, but also suffered our first loss of the season. A record of just three points from four games wasn't looking great, but a convincing 5-0 win over SC Hatlerdorf Juniors put us on stronger footing. The two Andres, Andre Voigt and Andre Dewald, have hit the ground running, netting six times already between them. AUSTRIA The national team made a rough start to their Nations League group, though they couldn't have asked for much tougher competition. Defeats to Germany and Portugal leave them bottom of the group.

FC BESCHLING - APRIL 2022 We ended the season with a couple of big wins, and a draw sandwiched in between. I was tempted to rotate a few players with the title already won, but stuck with the first choice players instead to try and beat the 57 points SC Ludesch 1b won with last year. We just missed out, coming one point short of equalling their total. The 16 point gap over 2nd place though shows how good we were compared to everyone else. Andre Dewald had a large impact over the last few weeks of the season, making a good shout for why he should have been involved more earlier on. I'd brought him in now as despite how many goals we were scoring not many were coming from strikers, so it was time to give him a go up top. In the last five games he scored three times, while setting up seven more. Even with this limited gametime he ended the season as the league's top creator. Seven players started every game this year, and we dominated the league's end of season awards. AUSTRIA Red Bull Salzburg made it nine title wins in a row, before adding the cup to make it a double.

FC BESCHLING - 2022 YOUTH INTAKE A third batch in a row referred to as a golden generation. Not even a single player having one full star of current ability doesn't fill me with hope though. And the top three all being right wingers is an interesting choice. 22a Benjamin Allheilig is apparently the best of the bunch.

FC BESCHLING - MARCH 2022 BOOYAH! Champions, and we've done it in style. Two big wins and we've sewn up the title with three games to go. AUSTRIA Friendly wins over Iceland and Andorra

FC BESCHLING - JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2022 We began the new year well, with 10 points from a possible 12. We've maintained our 10 point lead at the top, and with only five games left it would take a disaster to screw this up. We should have been even closer to promotion by now, but we made a mess of the FC Schlins 1b game. We were 3-0 up at half-time and bossing the match, but somehow let them get back into it. Even then we should have won, but we missed a stoppage-time penalty. 20i Alexander Borst had a cracking couple of months, with three goals and three assists from defensive midfield. The only criticism would be the aforementioned missed penalty.

FC BESCHLING - NOVEMBER + DECEMBER 2021 20b Christian Appelrath, take a bow son. Three goals in three games took him to double figures for the season, and he's now several goals clear at the top of the scoring charts. Not just for us, but the whole division. We're the only team to take full points from these two months, and coupled with the teams previously in 2nd and 3rd struggling, we've now pulled out a 10 point lead at the top. AUSTRIA Austria won't be competing at Qatar 2022. A loss to Italy pushed them down to second in the group, and they weren't one of the best runners-up.

FC BESCHLING - SEPTEMBER + OCTOBER 2021 The good times continued as three more victories took our start to the season to eight consecutive wins. The streak was snapped in dramatic fashion though, as we lost comprehensively to FC Nuziders 1b, before FC Ratia Bludenz 1b doubled our pain and inflicted another loss on us. We remain top of the league, but our 100% record is gone and those two sides have established themselves as our nearest challengers. AUSTRIA The World Cup qualifying campaign has run into a bit of trouble, as a win over Luxembourg did little to counter the damage done by losses to Bulgaria and Italy.

FC BESCHLING - AUGUST 2021 Goals goals goals! Over these three games we had a total of 80 shots, and we're banging in the goals. Only one came from a striker though, the majority were from midfield and the wings. The only setback was early on against FC Schlins 1b, when we were 2-0 down after less then 10 minutes. But those were their only shots of the game, and we were ahead by half-time before making it sure after the break. We currently have four players who are averaging at least one goal or assist per game. Matija Ceh is one of them, and this month he contributed one goal and three assists.

FC BESCHLING - JULY 2021 Most of the summer was spent offering out new contracts (with zero pay of course) to keep players at the club, as well as turning down a few job offers myself. In the end nobody left, and we went into the season intact. And we made a cracking start. The good form from the end of last year rolled over, and we picked up two wins without conceding. The 7-0 win over FC Klostertal 1b was particularly pleasing, not just due to how many goals were scored, but also because five of them came from academy graduates. Whenever my AssMan was in charge of team selection last year he always picked 20b Christian Appelrath, but he wasn't one of my favourites. The silver stars put me off. But with the change to a 4-1-4-1 line-up needing an additional midfielder he's back in the team now, and with a hat-trick he's certainly made a good claim to stay in. AUSTRIA A quirk in the World Cup qualifying group fixtures saw Austria play Northern Ireland twice within a week, and two victories saw them stay top and retain their 100% record.

FC BESCHLING - APRIL 2021 At least we ended the season well, making it four wins in a row before a draw on the final day. The new tactic seems to be working out, and three successive clean sheets was a triumph. That being said, it was too little too late. There was too much distance to make up to the next side, and we couldn't rise above 6th place. At the top SC Ludesch 1b won the title with ease. Even if we'd a much better season, we still wouldn't have beaten them. Andre Voigt ended the season as the joint-highest scorer in the division with 11 goals. AUSTRIA Qualifying for the 2022 World Cup began with wins over Bulgaria and Luxembourg. Red Bull Salzburg won the tipp-3 Bundesliga, making it eight in a row and 12 in total. But they were knocked out of the OFB-Samsung-Cup by the eventual winners, LASK Linz (second win).

FC BESCHLING - 2021 YOUTH INTAKE For what it's worth, the intake was listed as a golden generation again. I'm not sure who the potential best player in the squad is. 21i Hubert Bucklers was mentioned as the standout in the news item, but when sorted by potential, either 21a Attila Krecska or 21p Marius Lorenz is top. I see either, because everyone is apparently 5 star potential, so I don't really know which end is the top and which is the bottom. Again we had a non-EU player we can't sign, which does beg the question why they're even in our youth system.

FC BESCHLING - MARCH 2021 The month started with a mutiny, as the squad called a team meeting about the poor dressing-room atmosphere. I told them to stop whinging and suggested winning a few games might improve things. The tactic-hopping continued, and we might have stumbled on to one that works. With a 4-1-4-1 formation in place (with a holding midfielder) we snapped our losing streak with two successive wins, which propelled us back into the top-half of the table.

FC BESCHLING - JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2021 Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. What a sad state of affairs this is. We're aquaplaning out of control, I'm jumping around between various tactics and nothing is working. Against FC Thuringen 1b we led twice, but each time gave up the lead and then gave them a third for good measure. We were masters of our own downfall hosting SC Tisis 1b, with a 7th minute sending-off ending any chance we had early on. And when we visited SV Ludesch 1b an experimental 5-4-1 was a disaster, with neither wing-back knowing what they were doing. We've plummeted down the table, and I'm not sure we can rule out falling any further.

FC BESCHLING - DECEMBER 2020 We had a mixed holiday season here. After we smashed SPG Grosswalsertal 1b Christmas was a happy occasion, but any New Year's celebrations were cancelled following the loss to SK Burs 1b. We dominated the game and should have won, but our defence was back to its usual tricks and just caved in under the slightest bit of pressure. We had the best defence in the division last year. I don't understand how they've gotten so bad so quickly.

FC BESCHLING - NOVEMBER 2020 The SK Meiningen 1b game was a miserable affair. Twice we went behind, twice we pulled level, then conceded in stoppage-time. I threw a hissy fit after that and changed every training session for the next two weeks to defensive training. And lo and behold, we only went and achieved our first clean sheet of the season. SV Ludesch 1b still haven't dropped a single point and our running away from everyone else, I'm aiming now just to keep the rest of the season respectable. I had been using some of the academy graduates regularly, but they're not ready for this and I've gone back to mostly using last year's players. Andre Voigt has stepped back in and performed well, with five goals and four assists in just eight appearances. He's massively overplaying compared to his ability, where his best technical attribute is 6. AUSTRIA The Nations League was wrapped up nicely with wins over Czech Republic and Serbia, and Austria won the group with ease, finishing seven points above their nearest rival to secure promotion to group A.

FC BESCHLING - OCTOBER 2020 Is this the traffic light of hope? Our things starting to turn our way? Our defence (or lack thereof) is a disgrace, but at least we're scoring goals and that was enough to secure victory over FC Klostertal 1b. We have the best attack in the division, but the joint-second worst defence, and that's what's really hampering us. AUSTRIA Another draw with Bulgaria and a victory over Czech Republic keeps Austria top of the Nations League B group.