[FM18] Genetically, we are behind. Can-a-di-any better?

[mjaferrie]

81st minute...

We've switched from our direct play to the same approach that saw us hammer Wales in the first leg, and two minutes later are rewarded with a howitzer from Leigh Griffiths into the top peg.  

 

Scotland are going to Russia!

 

  

[mjaferrie]

World Cup Group Stage Draw

We've been given a tricky draw, but I think we should be optimistic about this!

 

Here's the draw in full, some interesting games ahead!

  

Meanwhile, at club level, we have been drawn against Santos Laguna in the North American Champions League.  I'm not sure at all why we've qualified, as Canadian clubs can only qualify for the tournament through winning the Canadian Championship and we haven't won the competition for the last two years.  Strange.  Anyway, a chance at making a name for ourselves in continental competition!

[mjaferrie]

December Waiver Draft 2017

If I understand correctly, and please correct me if I'm wrong, then this draft is for players who have come to the end of their contracts this season.  There are two rounds.  In the first round I can select two players, and if I select any I think I would basically extend the terms of their previous deal - I'm not sure if I have a possibility to negotiate their contract terms in the first round but I might be wrong on that.  Between the first and second round, players effectively become available for the equivalent of a free transfer.  I can draft in the players, and this time I do get to negotiate their terms.

Our first pick is the 15th overall, and after a few clubs elect to pass (meaning they can't participate in the rest of the draft) we select 22 year Alex Muyl.  Hopefully he's got a bit of development left in him.

 

Only 6 players are selected between our two picks, with most teams opting to pass.  Our second option is former LA Galaxy defender Daniel Steres.

 

I'm not convinced he's actually going to survive the winter transfer window and the subsequent March draft, but he will be a good backup option if we lose any key players to LAFC in the expansion draft.

[mjaferrie]

MLS Expansion Draft 2017

With Los Angeles FC coming into the league next season we have, this year only, the expansion draft at the end of the season.  I have to select 11 players to 'protect', meaning they aren't eligible for selection.  All of my other players will be open to poaching by the league's newcomers.  They've already been aggressively targeting my right back Sheanon Williams - including a post season bid which would see me part with the player and £400k in General Allocation Money for their 1st pick in the 2018 Superdraft.  Eh... naw mate.

Fortunately, players in my team under the age of 24 who have come through our academy and are classified as 'homegrown' are not able to be drafted by LAFC.

Protected: David Ousted, Diego Chará, Matías Laba, Sheanon Williams, Bernie Ibini, Nosa Igiebor, Russell Teibert, Tony Tchani, Yordy Reyna and Marcel de Jong.
Academy Graduates: Alphonso Davies, David Norman, Tim Irving, Ian Marples, Matt Craddock, Bob McKendry, and Simon Norman.
Open to LAFC: Jordan Harvey, Bobby Boswell, David Edgar, Mauro Rosales, Brek Shea, Aaron Maund, Daniel Steres, Tim Parker, Spencer Richey, Alex Muyl, Cristian Techera, Stefan Marinovic.

Bearing in mind that LAFC can only select a maximum of 5 players from the expansion draft, we might escape unscathed.

First Pick: Orlando City's Rafael Ramos.
Second Pick: Noooo! LAFC draft in Vancouver Whitecaps' Cristian Techera.  
Third Pick: Toronto FC's Jordan Hamilton.
Fourth Pick: Portland's Bill Tuiloma.
Fifth Pick: Montreal Impact's Kyle Fisher.

 

 

I'm a bit frustrated to lose Techera - I almost placed him on the 'protect' list and at the last minute selected Marcel de Jong instead.  We've lost a cracking player, although he failed to perform for us last season I was hoping he could step up now as we lose Fredy Montero at the end of his loan spell.  Hopefully we get a decent forward in during the Superdraft in January.

[mjaferrie]

MLS December Waiver Draft 2017 - Round Two

Jings, this is exhausting.  It's been a bit of a merry-go-round in the MLS at this stage of the season and it's time for another draft.  Again, we have the 15th overall pick, and it seems like there are some new players available in this draft - so I don't know how this system works Anyway, our first pick is former New York player  Connor Lade.

 

Only two players get picked from the draft after our first choice, as most teams elect to pass.  Our second choice is former D.C. United player Patrick Mullins.

 

So in the December drafts we have brought in four new players, and lost one to LAFC.  We will also probably see Jordan Harvey leave the club as his contract comes to an end.  There's no guarantee these guys will actually be around next season as I may move them on depending on what's available in the Superdraft. For now though, the players go on holiday until preseason begins in January and we will have the Superdraft - where I have 7 picks.  Hopefully we can get some quality in.  

[mjaferrie]

Hahaha, I've jumped the gun.

Ok, so here's how it actually goes.  In December we start out with the Waiver draft, which is for the players who are coming to the end of their contracts.  We then have the first round of the Re-Entry draft, which is the one I have just documented above when we picked up Connor Lade and Patrick Mullins.  Annoyingly, I passed up on our third pick in that draft as I thought I didn't fancy bringing in any more numbers.

But now!  We actually do have the second round of the Re-Entry draft 

Surprisingly, every single team opts to pass before my pick, and I do the same.  Not a single player is picked in the whole draft!

Man, the MLS is confusing.

[mjaferrie]

Youth Intake Day 2017!

 

Four players come into our academy this season, and Declan Doughty looks like he could be a decent prospect.

 

The rest are all pretty dire.  I've also offered a contract to Pat Doughty and he'll be moved to Whitecaps 2, the others can move on at the end of next season.

[mjaferrie]

Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Brighton, Aston Villa and OGC Nice all offer me job interviews.  Needless to say, I declined all.

[mjaferrie]

MLS Superdraft - January 2018

The Superdraft is here!  Vancouver Whitecaps start the game with only three picks in the Superdraft, and given my rule of only being able to sign players via Drafts and Youth Intakes this was nowhere near high enough. 

Through trades I've managed to get up to 8 picks in this Superdraft.

Our first pick is attacking midfielder Sammy Howell

 

Second in is center mid, Danny Lisch (Only because his tactics screen name is going to be D. Lisch  ) 

 

Third in is Craig Pérez!

 

And fourth is Luis López

 

Five alive with José Alejandro Guadarrama, who I will retrain as a winger.

 

Left back Henry Smith in at six.

 

Ahmed Abdulai is our 7th pick.

 

And last but not least is Daniel González.

 

It's a whole load of new faces, and a few of these guys will go straight to Whitecaps 2.

[mjaferrie]

North American Champions League 2018 - First Round

Infuriatingly I got to the start of the second half in this game already, and was doing a write up as it went through, but around the 50th minute it crashed. The score was level at 0-0 but here we go again!

Here's the draw in full:

 

I'm not expecting to get anything against Santos Laguna, although they are struggling in the Mexican top flight with only six points from six games.  Santos Laguna kick off in a very aggressive 4-3-3.

 

This time, Santos Laguna grabbed an early strike which turned out to be the only goal of the game. 

 

The next leg is at home next week, so hopefully we can get a great result at the BC Arena.  We'll be without new signing Connor Lade though, who came off the bench to get injured 5 minutes later.  Grand

[mjaferrie]

North American Champions League 2018 Second Leg

 

Santos Laguna progress to the second round 2-1 on aggregate, and in truth they deserve it.  That man Jiménez opening the scoring again for the Mexicans.  We are the only MLS side to fall at the first hurdle, as Portland Timbers, Columbus Crew, FC Dallas and New York Red Bulls all win their ties.

[mjaferrie]

Season Preview 2018

After dropping out of the North American Champions League to Santos Laguna, we turned our focus to trimming back our roster to the 30 man limit.  Several signings had been made during the drafts in December and January, and I had some tough decisions to make on whether to let some of them go almost immediately or move on some of last season's stars.

 

Cole Seiler and Aaron Maund moved on at the end of last season, while Cristian Techera was picked up by LAFC in the expansion draft.  Youngsters Ian Marples, Pat Doughty, Simon Norman and Bob McKendry, who made the step up to the first team last season, have been moved to Whitecaps 2 for more regular game time and to continue their development.  This will be reassessed at the end of the season.  

Meanwhile we see 'big' money, or should I say actual money, departures for Kyle Greig and Deybi Flores.  Both spent last season out on loan at Cincinnati and Motagua respectively, and were not going to play a part in my team this season.  Marco Bustos was in and around the first team at the beginning of last season but his attitude was disruptive and I loaned him out to Whitecaps 2 to get him off my plate for a while.  He's made a permanent move on a free to LAFC.  Lastly, Connor Lade, who only joined us in the draft in December, was released in the March Waiver draft, where incidentally no new players joined us.

We open the season away at Chicago Fire, hopefully we can do a bit better than the 11th place the media are suggesting.

 

Here's our squad going into our second season at Vancouver Whitecaps!

 

 

[mjaferrie]

Scotland

 

We've been given a fairly decent draw in the European International League.  As you can see, we're up to 18th in the World Rankings following our recent results, and we had even been up to a new record high of 10th.  Since our playoff victory over Wales, we've recorded two draws against Serbia and Northern Ireland in which I fielded experimental lineups in a look to the future of the national team.

 

I also had to cut down our initial 30 man squad to 23 players for the upcoming World Cup, where we'll face Bosnia, Chile and Mexico in Group D.  Here's the 23 players who have made the cut:

 

Stephen Kingsley and Kieran Tierney can also move into the centre of defence if needed, while Matt Phillips, Ryan Fraser and Robert Snodgrass are all natural on the left wing as well.  We only have one striker in the squad, but Snodgrass, Burke and Armstrong can all fill in there if needed.

[mjaferrie]

Mid-Season Report 2018

I've been trying to find some kind of structure to posting about the MLS, as the drafts and registrations and waivers etc. make it difficult to find a natural structure to the season.  We've played 17 of our 34 league matches though, and next up is the World Cup with Scotland, so it feels like a good point to have a look at the season so far.

 

We started off really strongly in the league, with 4 wins in our opening 5 games seeing us at the top of the Supporter's Shield.  However since then we have been in pretty hopeless form, including conceding 12 goals in 3 matches against Seattle Sounders, San Jose Earthquakes and Sporting Kansas City.  A disappointing 5-1 defeat to Toronto FC away in the first leg of the Canadian Championship means that for the next two editions of the North American Champions League we won't be participating (Montreal next season and Toronto the following).  Things have started to pick up though, with only 1 loss in our last 7 matches, and hopefully we can get back to winning ways soon.

Here's how the conferences and the Supporter's Shield look at this point in the season.

  

The leagues newcomers, LAFC, are struggling at the bottom of the table.  We are, despite our patchy form, over-performing in terms of media expectations at the beginning of the season, but I'd like to try and put some decent results together and push up the table.  I've decided to place veteran Mauro Rosales on the waiver list to free up a spot in the squad to bring in another striker from either Whitecaps 2 or the Academy.

Next up is the World Cup with Scotland.  I'm not expecting to make waves in a difficult group, but hopefully we can get some points on the board.

[mjaferrie]

World Cup Group Stage 2018

Scotland vs Bosnia

After going a goal behind we managed to pull one back through a corner, but after Stuart Armstrong's dismissal early in the second half we just collapsed.  The worst performance of my tenure as Scotland manager so far. 

 

[mjaferrie]

World Cup Group Stage 2018

Chile vs Scotland

In the first half we were defending against an onslaught of Chilean attacks, as Felipe Mora and Alexis Sanchez ran the show.  We survived though, and went into half time 0-0.  After the break though, the aforementioned Mora finally made the breakthrough in the 51st minute before Alexis Sanchez made it two.  Two goals down and we looked to be heading home from Russia early, so with nothing to lose I threw on Robert Snodgrass to play as a second striker and brought on attack minded midfielders Ryan Gauld and Tom Cairney.  Cairney made an immediate impact, setting up Matt Ritchie who made it 2-1.  With 5 minutes left on the clock, Robert Snodgrass scored our second and we come away with a draw!

 

[mjaferrie]

Ha.  Atlanta would like to trade for my two most promising players, Luis Lopez and Alphonso Davies (who was being tracked by Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United IRL).

 

Eh... naw

Edit: This one is interesting though.

 

Sheanon Williams has been pushed out of the first team by the aforementioned Lopez and if I let him go, then I could recall Ian Marples from Whitecaps 2.  I have to check whether or not I have enough 'Reserve' slots left in the squad registration... Time for a beer and think on whether or not to go through with this switch.  It would allow us to bring in one of the better options in next January's Superdraft.  Hmm...

[mjaferrie]

World Cup Group Stage 2018

Scotland vs Mexico

We had one point from our opening two group stage games against Bosnia and Chile, so this was a match we absolutely had to win to have any chance of progressing to the next round.  After 7 minutes though, it looked to be a dismal day for the Scots as Javier Hernandez pounced on a mistake by Russell Martin to open the scoring for the Mexicans.  Just ten minutes later though, Leigh Griffiths levelled the scoring and Oliver Burke put us ahead 15 minutes later.  We went into half time 2-1 up.  I tightened up a bit tactically to try and play the game out in the second half, and Mexico were frustrated.  Oliver Burke was fouled by Carlos Vela in the box and Matt Ritchie converted the resulting penalty to put us 3-1 ahead.  We had our first win of the World Cup!

 

Unfortunately though, Bosnia's 1-1 draw with Chile in the other match meant that we finished level on points, but their 4-1 win over us gave them the superior goal difference to progress at our expense. 

 

 

Here's the draw for the second round:

 

Amazing to see Egypt, Honduras and Congo progress!  Congo came second in a group behind England, knocking out Colombia and Japan.  However, this has to be one of the shockers of the save!

 

Absolutely unreal!

In other news, I've accepted that offer from Orlando for Sheanon Williams.  It gives us the opportunity to move on a player who'd moved into a more backup role in the squad before he became unhappy, while we can bring in an extra couple of players in the drafts over the next couple of years.  

[mjaferrie]

It's post-World Cup sacking season!

 

I rejected all of them. 

After a promising group stage, the 2018 World Cup became pretty predictable, with regulars Germany, Italy (lol...) and Brazil all making the semi finals.  Shout out to @ManUtd1 - Ivory Coast made the semi final!  (And were one goal off the Golden Boot too).

 

[mjaferrie]

Cascadia Cup 2018

We've won our first silverware of the save!  It might be the meaningless Cascadia Cup, but after a trophyless first season I'll take it!

 

 

The Cascadia Cup is one of the MLS' Rivalry Cups, and it's based on our league results against Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders.  After Seattle stormed it last year, beating us in all competitive matches, we secured the trophy with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat. 

 

[ManUtd1]

5 hours ago, mjaferrie said:

After a promising group stage, the 2018 World Cup became pretty predictable, with regulars Germany, Italy (lol...) and Brazil all making the semi finals.  Shout out to @ManUtd1 - Ivory Coast made the semi final!  (And were one goal off the Golden Boot too).

 

If only they'd had Parfait to come off the bench for a late equalizer against Italy...

[andychar]

Scotland going out on Goal Difference is the most Scottish thing to ever happen. Good progress with them. Onwards and upwards (don't let me down, virtual success is all I have with Scotland!)

[deltablue]

Of all the teams to beat

[noikeee]

I'm so confused reading this. Conferences, shields, playoffs, 2 championships at once (Canadian and MLS), drafts, waivers, .... it's all alien to me!

I expect by page 10 I'll be starting to understand it!  At least I understand you took Scotland to the WC which is no small feat. Shame about the bad result against Bosnia ultimately backfiring.

[mjaferrie]

On 14/11/2017 at 10:23, andychar said:

Scotland going out on Goal Difference is the most Scottish thing to ever happen. Good progress with them. Onwards and upwards (don't let me down, virtual success is all I have with Scotland!)

Haha, tell me about it!  Craig Gordon has retired from football and Darren Fletcher and Scott Brown look to be heading in that direction so hopefully the new generation can make progress in the Euros. 

On 14/11/2017 at 12:29, deltablue said:

Of all the teams to beat

Classic Scotland

2 hours ago, noikeee said:

I'm so confused reading this. Conferences, shields, playoffs, 2 championships at once (Canadian and MLS), drafts, waivers, .... it's all alien to me!

I expect by page 10 I'll be starting to understand it!  At least I understand you took Scotland to the WC which is no small feat. Shame about the bad result against Bosnia ultimately backfiring.

Yep, as a European it takes a while to get used to the completely different system in the MLS!  The Canadian Championship is like the FA Cup for Canadian teams, and the US Cup is the same for the Americans - both of those provide a qualifier for the continental competitions and winning the Canadian Championship is the only way for a Canadian team to qualify.

The Conferences, Supporter's Shield and Rivalry Cups are all kinda the 'same' competition - as in, you play your league games and those results count for all the different competitions.  The drafts and waivers..?  Who knows  You get a bunch of free players in an elementary school-esque Team A picks 1st, Team B picks 2nd selection method.  I Just see it as "Free players, yay!"

[ThaChamp]

Always love a MLS story. Very cool story! Hopefully you are more successful that past Dutch managers in the MLS (Gullit and Winter) haha

 

FM always has had issues figuring out what "fair" trades were. I can't manage MLS teams because the trade system is always impossible to navigate fairly.

 

Good luck!

 

 

[mjaferrie]

14 hours ago, ThaChamp said:

Always love a MLS story. Very cool story! Hopefully you are more successful that past Dutch managers in the MLS (Gullit and Winter) haha

FM always has had issues figuring out what "fair" trades were. I can't manage MLS teams because the trade system is always impossible to navigate fairly.

Good luck!

Thanks for reading!  Yeah I find myself rejecting all of them unless I can use it tactically, so like with the international slots I just get rid of most of them because I don't have any international players.

Southampton have come in with a decent offer for Matt Craddock, our backup right back since Sheanon Williams left.  I managed to negotiate them up further, so I think I'm going to accept as it is around 5 times our previous record transfer fee received.  Craddock has decent potential but we have plenty of guys in the academy who could make the step up and we're coming into the close season so the drafts are coming soon.

 
 

[BoxToBox]

15 hours ago, ThaChamp said:

Always love a MLS story. Very cool story! Hopefully you are more successful that past Dutch managers in the MLS (Gullit and Winter) haha

 

FM always has had issues figuring out what "fair" trades were. I can't manage MLS teams because the trade system is always impossible to navigate fairly.

 

Good luck!

 

 

It used to be pretty easy to exploit, back in 16 I remember entering Superdrafts with like the first 5-7 picks, stolen for nothing of value, and also 3 or 4 extra permanent International slots.

[mjaferrie]

22 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

It used to be pretty easy to exploit, back in 16 I remember entering Superdrafts with like the first 5-7 picks, stolen for nothing of value, and also 3 or 4 extra permanent International slots.

I have eight picks in 2019, ten in 2020 and eight in 2021 so far.  Not so many first rounds though, so it'll probably just be scraps left.  

[BoxToBox]

6 minutes ago, mjaferrie said:

I have eight picks in 2019, ten in 2020 and eight in 2021 so far.  Not so many first rounds though, so it'll probably just be scraps left.  

That's what I mean though, you used to be able to jimmy it so you'd have 1-2-3-4-5-6-etc of the first round, which was brutally unfair.

The draft is fun, but in a way annoying, I mean you've got the opportunity to pick up potential worldies, but usually they're going to be under-developed or overaged to kick on properly. If the Europeans(usually Roma and any team I manage) haven't already hovered through the best of them back when they're 17 and on amateur contracts at college clubs.

[mjaferrie]

Season Review 2018

In the Supporters' Shield, we've finished up in 4th place having been up in 2nd in the run up to the end of the season.  Poor form in our last few games mean we drop down a couple of places but we've improved on last years' 5th place finish!  New York City lift this seasons' Shield, and in fact last seasons' top 3 of Sporting Kansas City, Toronto FC and Atlanta United have comparatively underperformed this year.  

 

 

New York City, Chicago Fire and New York Red Bulls are of course all Eastern Conference sides - which means we have come top of the Western Conference this season!

  

That means that this season we don't have to play in the Wild Card, which will be between Sporting Kansas City, LA Galaxy, Colorado and Houston Dynamo for a place in the semi final versus ourselves or Portland.

CB David Edgar, CM Russell Teibert, and GK Stefan Marinovic all come to the end of their contracts this season and will be up for grabs for other MLS teams in the December Waiver after the MLS Cup final.  They only made 3, 15 and 5 appearances, respectively, this season.

[mjaferrie]

After my confusion about last seasons' December Waiver and Re-Entry Drafts, here is some information about how it works. 

 

[mjaferrie]

MLS Western Conference Semi Final 2018

In the Wild Card, LA Galaxy put four past Colorado to set up a semi final tie with us.  The other semi final will be contested between Sporting Kansas City and Portland, after SKC beat Houston Dynamo 2-0 in the Wild Card.  The Wild Card is a one-off match, while the semis and finals are contested over two legs.

 

We lost two players to injury and despite dominating much of the match we couldn't nick the win, with Lletget earning LA Galaxy a draw in the first leg.

 

Two goals from two wonderkids in the second leg puts us through to the MLS Western Conference Final against Portland!

[mjaferrie]

Scotland

In between the madness of the MLS close season, we've had the last two games of our European League campaign with Scotland.  We've continued our incredible run of form with the national team with a clean sweep in Division C.  We've been promoted and will be competing in Division B next time around. 

 

Some tight results, with four of the six games being decided by a one goal margin.  Here's how the rest of Division C looked:

 

[mjaferrie]

MLS Western Conference Final 2018

In the first leg we travelled away to our rivals Portland and despite dominating the match with our sleek, passing, possession based football, Portland's deep 4-2-4, route one style game kicked us right where it hurts.

 

Haha, the shots/possession stats give a pretty accurate picture of the game.  Unfortunately, at home we could only manage a draw, so Portland will compete in this year's MLS Cup against either Orlando City or New York Red Bulls. 

 

The shots/possession was depressingly similar to the first leg.  We just don't learn our lessons in Canada Still, we've done one better than last season when we got knocked out at the semi final stage.  Hopefully next year we'll continue our progress and make it to the MLS Cup.  

[mjaferrie]

MLS December Waiver Draft 2018

Our priority in the drafts is to get in a decent goalkeeper, either first choice or a backup to Ousted, as Marinovic leaves us at the end of this season.  We've got the December Waiver Draft, and then the two rounds of the Re-Entry draft before the Superdraft in January where we have 8 picks.  Hopefully we can land some decent players!

Our first pick in the Waiver Draft is the 20th overall, and 12 players have already been selected by that point.  There's not really anyone left worth bringing on board by this point so I've passed up our picks.

MLS December Re-Entry Draft

A similar story in the Re-Entry Draft.  We were again the 20th pick overall and despite a few better players coming in, there wasn't really anything that was going to bring some quality into the team.

Hopefully we can get a decent 'keeper in the Superdraft in January. 

 

 

[mjaferrie]

Scotland

Here's our draw for the European Championship qualifiers:

 

Belgium and Denmark will be tricky ties, but the rest we should be getting through pretty easily. 

[mjaferrie]

Youth Intake Day!

For some reason the youth intakes are incredibly small in the MLS (or maybe it's just me).  Last season we got 4 players in, and this year only 3 have come into the Academy.

 

Hopefully they can make an impact and move up to Whitecaps 2 in a couple of years.

 

 

 

[mjaferrie]

MLS Superdraft 2019

It's Superdraft time!  We have eight picks, and as I mentioned before the priority will be to get a goalkeeper in.  I've also promoted most of the academy to the first team and loaned them out to Whitecaps 2 or Whitecaps U-23s, to see if it'll make a difference in terms of numbers coming through in the youth intake next year.

Our first pick is the 20th overall, again.  We also have the 21st and 23rd thanks to some trades.

First in is 21 year old winger Ryan Treviño.

 

Second is the only goalkeeper who looks up to anything, Jesús Escobedo.  Unfortunately his personality is crap and he only has 2 for determination, so hopefully he'll improve there with a bit of tutoring but otherwise he's only going to be a backup option to replace Marinovic.

 

Third is attacking midfielder Chris Mook.

 

Next up is Irish full back Sean Hayes.

 

Fifth in is American striker Manny Woolley.  Manny Woolley... 

I mean eh...

 

Sixth is another winger, Stephen Cusack.

 

Seventh is another goalkeeper, Marlon Puskarich.  He didn't get rated highly by our scouts in the run up to the draft but he's a backup option between the sticks.

 

And last but not least is centre back Danny Dale. 

 

I really tried to get a Sid Sloth, but no joy...

[mjaferrie]

March Waiver Draft 2019

We let Peter Iulianella, Carlo Woloshen, Francisco Ruiz, Borislav Kostic, Alessandro Somma and Adam Rosenlund depart the club, all of whom had been promoted from the academy but aren't going to make an impact here.  They'll be given the chance to find a new club in the March waiver and if not they'll be released as free transfers.

In the waiver we bring centre back Kazeem Akinade.  I'm looking to get him and Danny Dale (from the Superdraft) into the team as quickly as possible and hopefully they can develop quickly.  With Bobby Boswell at 35 we're going to need someone to replace him at the back pretty soon.

 

Here's how our squad looks going into the new season, I'm going to have to let one go to make space for Akinade.

 

 

[BoxToBox]

Akinade looks really handy.

[mjaferrie]

36 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Akinade looks really handy.

Yep, hopefully he'll get a few more games in the rest of the season as he's only made 5 appearances so far.  Got a bit of potential but probably isn't going to be much more than a backup here, a bit annoying that most players you can get in on drafts are a bit past it in terms of being able to reach their potential.

Mid Season Update 2019

We're 17 games into the 34 game season, and it's been a bit patchy this year.  I forgot to mention at the beginning of the season that we lost quite a few key players in January, so I'll have a look at that first.

One of our designated players, Brek Shea, made a £500k move to Barnsley in the English Championship.  He's played pretty much all of the rest of their games this season and while he was one of our best players, he was in the last year of his contract and was earning a fair bit from us.  I allowed him to move on and hence the influx of wingers in the Superdraft.  Meanwhile, centre back Daniel Steres, striker Patrick Mullins, and midfielder Tony Tchani, all moved on for around £1m, £1m and £4m respectively.  All three were pretty important players for us over the last couple of years, but I wanted the chance to field youngsters with more potential.

 

Form has been a bit hit and miss.  We had a poor start to the season, and a lot of the games we have managed to win have only been by a one goal margin.  We're through to the final of the Canadian Championship though, and with Montreal competing in this years North American Champions League (knocked out 5-1 in the first round) and Toronto FC competing in next years' edition, we'll have a chance to make a return to continental competition after a two year absence if we can overcome Montreal Impact in the final.

We've also just lost Alphonso Davies for 3-4 months so he's put on the Season-Ending injury list.  It's a big blow, but I might be able to get a replacement in from the Waiver List or then promote someone from Whitecaps 2 or the academy.

  

We're down in 4th in our conference and 6th in the Supporters' Shield, but we've played a couple of games less than teams above us in the table.  5 points in each direction would see us in 1st or 14th place, so it's pretty tight.  

Scotland

The U20s have just won the Toulon tournament, the future looks bright!

 

The present looks pretty bright too, as the win against Mexico in the last game of the World Cup last year has set us off on a pretty length winning streak.  We've gone 12 games unbeaten, and 11 wins in a row.  Here are our results since the unbeaten run in the European International League.

 

As expected, Denmark and Belgium are going to be our biggest competition this year.  Denmark have lost at home to Belgium and away to us, so they will have to pick up points from us in the second round of games to have a chance at qualifying for the Euros.  Belgium, and ourselves, on the other hand are both at 4 wins from 4, so the upcoming match against them could go some way to shaping up the group.

 

 

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A couple of summer transfers out:

Sam Adekugbe, a left back, has joined Santos Laguna in Mexico for £400k.  Sam was on loan at IFK Göteborg during the first season where he made 32 appearances, but has been a bit of a fringe player since coming back, only making 19 appearances for us in almost two seasons.

Alex Muyl, who joined us in the December Waiver at the end of the first season, has moved to LA Galaxy.  In return, we get their 2nd round pick in the 2021 Superdraft and their 3rd round pick in 2022.  He's another one who's been on the fringes of the squad, with 15 appearances in 18 months.  

 

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Canadian Championship 2019

We're deep into our third season now, with only eight games left to play in the league, and we've won our second trophy of the save!

 

 

 

Two narrow wins over the defending champions sees us qualify for the North American Champions League!  We don't enter next season, as for some reason it hangs over a year, so it'll be 18 months before we actually compete at continental level.

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Classic Scotland

 

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Season Review 2019

We had what is becoming our regular end of season woes again this year, with 5 games without a win at the end of the season.  That means we slipped from 2nd to 3rd, it could have been much worse!, with Minnesota winning the Supporters' Shield and Colorado taking 2nd place.  They are both of course in the Western Conference with us - so despite coming 3rd in the Supporters' Shield, our third place finish in the conference means we still have to navigate the one-leg Wild Card to get to the semi finals.

   

Incredibly, eight of our conference make up the top ten in the Supporters' Shield, showing how tight it was this year for us.  It's our highest place finish in the SS table so far in this save, but it's actually our lowest points total.  We came 5th in the first year with 60 points, 4th last year with 57 and 3rd this year with only 55 points.  This years' winners Minnesota picked up a whole 20 points less than Sporting Kansas City did in their title winning season of 2017.

Thanks to our league form against Seattle and Portland, we've also won this years' Cascadia Cup for the second year in a row.

 

We come up against San Jose Earthquakes in the Wild Card for a chance to face Minnesota or Colorado in the Semi Final.  As you can probably gather from the image of the Eastern Conference, Orlando City and New York City have already won their Wild Card ties in the Eastern Conference and progress to face DC United and New England in their semi final.

 

San Jose came at us with five defenders and only one up top, and didn't really trouble us for much of the match.  We're rewarded with a double header against Colorado Rapids in the Semi Final.  Meanwhile Houston Dynamo, who won their tie against Portland Timbers, will face Minnesota United in the other Semi Final tie.

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Season Review 2019 - Part 2

 

 

A home defeat to Colorado meant we had our work cut out in the second leg and despite dominating both matches we just couldn't make the breakthrough.  We're out at the Semi Final stage this year.  Here's our results in the 2nd half of the season:

 

We've had some really up and down form this season, and our end of season has been pretty awful with only 1 win in 8 matches.  I put that down to losing some key players at the beginning of the season and hopefully we can kick on from here now that many of our youngsters have had a lot of game time this year.  We've lifted two trophies this season, the Canadian Championship and the Cascadia Cup to add to our trophy cabinet, and we seem to be making slow progress.

Scotland

After our disappointing defeat to Moldova (#vankouvreout) we managed to beat Belgium 1-0 on their own patch in true Scottish nonsensical style.  0-0 draws to Denmark away and Israel at home means Belgium topped the group, regardless of the result of our final match against them at Hampden, but nonetheless we have qualified for Euro 2020!

  

We're up to 10th in the World Rankings and looking good for the Euro campaign next summer.

 

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We've been drawn with Moldova again, we won't be taking them lightly...

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December Waiver Draft 2019

A couple of new faces in the waiver draft.

 

 

Josh Moreno made almost 80 appearances over two seasons with New England's academy before making the step up to the first team last year.  He only made two appearances in the first team and they've let him leave on a free but he looks pretty handy.  Mark Russell comes in as a backup CB as we're pretty light in that area of the park - Bobby Boswell only made 6 appearances for us this season and most of our players who came in at CB were converted midfielders.

We didn't bring any players in during the Re-entry Draft.

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Youth Intake Day!

After only getting four and three players in during the last two intakes, I signed everybody up to first team contracts which meant our academy was pretty empty.  Lo and behold...

 

 

The two players in red here were in from last season and I've just offered them contracts to move up.  They'll be sent to Whitecaps 2 and if they don't want to go out on loan then they'll be released in the March Waivers.

But... a golden generation!  Perhaps.  This was a bit of a common occurrence during the Beta so who knows if it's genuine or not.  Here are the top 3 from this years' intake, Scott Dotson might find himself in the first team pretty soon given our lack of defensive options.