[FM18] The Tale of the Emperor, the Potato Beetle and German Quicksand

[Timetxu]

Once upon a time, in the West. Of Germany. There was a beautiful city from where once the Great Charlemagne ruled his empire. In this city, the people were happy. They were happy, because they could play sports as much as they liked. The people in the West were so good at sports, that people came to watch them play in their little valley called Tivoli. Heck, they even paid to go and see them. So many people flocked the gates to see them, that sometimes it was quite hard to see them play from the overcrowded stands. That's why they started wearing yellow and black shirts. This led to people calling them "Kartoffelkäfer", or potato beetles. That, or an unhealthy relationship with a lot of German beer.

For over 117 years, people would come to the Emperor's city to see the potato bugs play. Unfortunately, except for a period in which ABBA was considered decent music, the potato bugs were actually very bad at playing football anywhere outside of their beloved fortress. For decades, hardly any competitive football was played. Only the 2nd choice of teams would travel there for almost 50 years. Until the year 2004, when the potato bugs reached the final of the national cup and qualified for the magic land that is called the UEFA Cup. This was extraordinary, as they still played at the 2nd level. Luckily, the people of the West would finally cheer again on the date of 16 April 2006, when they promoted to the nation's best league.

Dark clouds gathered quickly though, as the rise would only last for one year. It relegated a year later. Five years later, another relegation. One year later, yet another relegation. Financial turmoil, a new castle which would suit too modern and too expensive for the people to attract. The potato beetles were thrown into the dungeons of German football. A quicksand of which very rarely clubs would return. The Regionalliga....

Nowadays, the proud potato beetle club finds itself still stuck in that quicksand. The more it has struggled, the more the quicksand has tightened its grip around the Westerners. Will they ever see daylight again?

-----

After a disappointing end to my career in Moldova, I'm heading back home. Almost home, though, as I will remain to the East of the border. However, the club I will be managing is more of a home than many other places in the Netherlands, as it's my favourite place and club to be in Germany. You guessed it, we're going to Aachen.

 

 

 

[Timetxu]

INTRODUCTION

I've visited Alemannia quite some times in real life and I know they are having some serious financial problems, but the squad that was left to me really baffled me.

Just 18 players with an average age of 23,2. With no reserve team and all our youth players under the eligibility age of 17, we really need some extra players.

Luckily:

This is going to be very hard.

Some good in the centre of the pitch. That's about it.

So, what's this year going to look like?

- We have a very small squad, will definitely need to upgrade something there
- We don't really have the money to do so, so we'll have to loan and attract some free players
- The wage budget will likely plummet after this season, so we'll probably have to rely on some of our youth players to turn 17 next summer and join the team. Luckily, our youth facilities are the best in the league (if we don't count the B sides)
- Our goal therefore is to simply survive the league this year. Heads up: the last FOUR teams will all go down to the Oberliga. The league winner will have to win a playoff against another Regionalliga champion for promotion to the 3. Liga. Our prediction should just keep us safe.
- The boards expects us to reach the final four of the Mittelrheinpokal, which is the amateur cup for teams from the southern part of the Niederrhein-Westfalen Bundesland. If we'd win it, we'll qualify for next year's DFB Pokal. With teams from the 3. Liga down to the lower leagues, this could be doable.

NEXT UP

A little preseason update on the friendlies and transfers

[Timetxu]

PRESEASON

Not too bad. Tienen plays in the Belgian 3rd tier and was very easily brushed aside. Could have been a bigger scoreline there. Gladbach played with all its big names and still managed to only beat us by 1. Chemie Leipzig promoted from last years Regionalliga Nordost to the 3. Liga, so it's good to see we can reach their standard. Though I see that division as weaker than ours.

So far we've brought two players in. Blum is an ML who is slightly better than our level. Luca Ziegler is a left back who gives us some more depth. We're still working on a third transfer, but 31 August is still far away. Mohr had too much competition on the AML spot, especially with Blum coming in, so he's going to the Oberliga for a year.

NEXT UP

We'll finish July with the first three very different league matches: Westfalia is one of the worst teams in the league, Viktoria Köln was last year's champion (but didn't get promoted) and Essen is one of our archrivals. Speaking of a must win month...

[Timetxu]

JULY 2017

Three matches to start of the league resulted in:

Westfalia very clearly is a side that will struggle this season. We were playing highly offensive and were already leading 4-0 after half an hour. We let them come back to 4-2, which was highly undeserved, but with a fifth, the scoreline resembled the dominance better. The potentially toughest match of the season was away at reigning champions Viktoria. We managed to match them in the first half, but they ran away from us in the second. Luckily some good goalkeeping from Depta secured us a point. The last match against Essen was a very good one. I was originally winning 3-2 in the 68th minute when my computer hung itself. Luckily, when I reloaded the game we managed to be winning 1-0 at the same point with more or less the same match going on. The game was relatively even, but we were very good in front of goal with some sexy offense on before that.

This leads to:

I really don't like 2nd teams within the same league structure as their first teams. That top 4 is just bull. Especially Dortmund has some ridiculously good players. Since the Bundesliga hasn't started yet, some really good players can all play for them. Luckily our first 2nd team confrontation will be in September when we face Köln, who are playing Europa League the same week.

NEXT UP

Three matches against teams more or less regarded of the same standard as us prior to the season. Good chances to get some points here.

[Timetxu]

AUGUST 2017

Three matches went as follows:

I could go over every single game and tell you how good every match individually was, but our offense has been absolutely relentless. They score virtually any opportunity they get presented. Junior Torunarigha has 4 goals and 3 assists in 5 matches so far. Newcomer Michael Blum has already scored 3 goals in 4 matches as a winger. The goals conceded have been mostly by some sloppy defending errors, so I don't see them as a structural problem yet.

It's all looking pretty good so far. Dortmund finally slipped up, so we're top of the table now.

Also:

I keep getting this message. It's a bit weird, because it implies that we've been unbeaten for over three years although it's only a 23 game unbeaten streak. Don't really get it, but it looks flashy.

NEXT UP

Two relatively easy away games and we're facing two 2nd teams at home. Curious to see what they're actually capable of.

In the meantime, we've drawn Wesseling-Urfeld in the Mittelrheinpokal First Round (Round of 32). They're one league below us and currently 8th in the Mittelrhein-Oberliga. We'll be facing them in October.

[Timetxu]

Me likey likey. Our youth facilities are already good and this is going to make that even better. Looking forward to the intakes.

[Sheriff7]

Aachen is a very historical team!!They must return in top flights!!Good luck!!!

[Timetxu]

44 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said:

Aachen is a very historical team!!They must return in top flights!!Good luck!!!

I agree  . When I was raised, many people always went to Aachen because they played 2. Bundesliga. With all the success in the beginning of the 2000's, you can't imagine the level they're at right now. Such a historical club in such a historical city. Same can be said of 1860 München as well.

[Timetxu]

SEPTEMBER 2017

Four games in the books:

Our unbeaten streak snapped at eight. The first two matches against Wuppertal and Köln were the same as the ones prior to this month. Rödinghausen was an absolute FM'ing as we missed chances left, right, under, over, top, bottom, corner, free kick. Just an inexplicable defeat really. Against Gladbach we didn't start of well, but we grew in the match until a point we absolutely dominated them. We finished with almost 20 shots, but only two goals. We actually got lucky because the 2-2 happened after this spectacular goalkeeping:

The table looks like this now:

Dortmund is running away with it. Don't you just love those 2nd teams? Luckily, we seem to be able to face them a stiff challenge. Unfortunately, the rest of the league doesn't.

NEXT UP

A relatively easy month with the Mittelrheinpokal matchup against fifth tier Wesseling-Urfeld.

 

[Deisler26]

Excellent! I'll always remember Aachen for when they had my favourite striker Andrezj Juskowiak

The very best of luck and I will be following.

[Timetxu]

Forgot to mention in the previous update that we snatched this Brazilian-born-but-German-as-second-nationality

This brings our squad to 20 players. It's not very deep, but they're pretty good.

[Timetxu]

This guy was voted the new chairman. I love democracy and all, but the previous guy was really pro youth development, so I hope I can win this guy over.

[deltablue]

Go Aachen! 

[Timetxu]

8 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Excellent! I'll always remember Aachen for when they had my favourite striker Andrezj Juskowiak

The very best of luck and I will be following.

 

15 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Go Aachen! 

Thanks guys! Are you sure Juskowiak played at Aachen @Deisler26?

 

No spoilers yet as to how October went, but:

First time this happened in FM18. I love you too guys

[BoxToBox]

1 hour ago, Timetxu said:

This guy was voted the new chairman. I love democracy and all, but the previous guy was really pro youth development, so I hope I can win this guy over.

Hate when you lose a chairman who's values are in line with your own.

[Deisler26]

D’OH! I was thinking of Aue 

[Timetxu]

5 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Hate when you lose a chairman who's values are in line with your own.

He seems to like me so far. And he doesn't really have a choice other than agreeing me about the youth philosophy, because it's the only thing that we have, really.

5 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

D’OH! I was thinking of Aue 

Potato, potato?

[Timetxu]

OCTOBER 2017

We picked up some good wins against Verl and Wiedenbrück. The loss against Erndtebrück, however, showed what I've been foreseeing after the first months of the season: we're missing waaaay too many chances now. We had 4 clear cut chances in which we had our two strikers going through on goal all by themselves, but at every opportunity they refused to lay the ball off and went for their own success. All of the shots were straight at the goalkeeper. In fact, our two strikers have scored 15 goals so far, with the rest of our team 15 as well. It's a good thing to have multiple goalscorers, but they really have to be more horny in front of goal, as St. Louis would call it.

That loss against Erndtebrück happened at the same moment Uerdingen lost and Dortmund drew. We blew a great chance to be back in it.

We've advanced to the 2nd round (Round of 16) in the Mittelrheinpokal thanks to a decent win against Wesseling-Urfeld. They actually scored a goal which was cancelled for some inobvious reason at 2-0, so we were a bit lucky, though we could've won it with a bigger margin. The draw for the next round hasn't been made yet, so I'll tell you before the next update.

NEXT UP

A very big month coming up. First against low flying Wegberg-Beeck should be an easy one, then we're playing our nemeses at the top in nr. 1 Dortmund and nr. 2 Uerdingen. Last match against Düsseldorf will decide who will be the preemptive "Herbstmeister" (as the winter break actually comes after the 19th matchday). The month will end with our Round of 16 match in the Mittelrheinpokal.

[Timetxu]

Reppin' the Alemannia colours at the Roda home game in between the FM'ing (Roda and Alemannia are big friends actually, so not a lot of trouble there). 

[Timetxu]

Our Round of 16 matchup at the end of the month will be against Bad Honnef. They're currently 10th (out of 16) in the Landesliga Mittelrhein, the 6th tier. Even a division lower than our previous cup opponent.

[Deisler26]

14 minutes ago, Timetxu said:

Our Round of 16 matchup at the end of the month will be against Bad Honnef. They're currently 10th (out of 16) in the Landesliga Mittelrhein, the 6th tier. Even a division lower than our previous cup opponent.

At least you didn't have to play Good Honnef 

[Timetxu]

11 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

At least you didn't have to play Good Honnef 

Makes me wonder what made Honnef turn into a Bad Honnef...

[Timetxu]

Call the Illuminati, this guy is onto something...

[Timetxu]

NOVEMBER 2017

A very big month in the league this time around:

I'm actually very pleased with this month, even though we didn't manage to snatch first place. The Wegberg-Beeck game was a very easy game. Against Dortmund II I didn't know what to expect, because FM doesn't really know how to process the value of these second teams. It predicted an 11-1 chance to win prior to the game even though it didn't feel there was too much difference in quality. We battled them out with an outstanding Hammel, who turns out to be quite the targetman for us. We came ahead in the 57th minute, but Dortmund scored fifteen minutes before the end. All in all a fair result and tactically we played very well. Same thing against Uerdingen, who is our other rival for the top of the league. They scored right before halftime but we managed to pull one back immediately from kickoff. Some tactical tweaks worked out really well and we won the game not entirely deservedly shots wised, but very much so tactically. The Düsseldorf II game was a tricky one. I didn't really know how to play them and they deserved their point. We didn't really manage to get into the game.

Halfway through the season we're in second position, so with a 14th place prediction, everyone's really happy. Dortmund have shown some signs of weakness the last weeks, so I'm hoping for something. We'll play them at home in the penultimate day of the season.

A very, very easy win in which I played a rotated squad sealed a spot in the Mittelrheinpokal Quarter Finals! Result of that draw follows after the next game, so in the next update.

NEXT UP

I want to end 2017 with 6 points really. Westfalia are very dire and Viktoria has mysteriously jumped its way up the table and I want to eliminate any contenders for the title who are not Dortmund or us.

[LATB]

Nice pick, hopefully Uerdingen can follow you up the tables, another club with an interesting history. I have personally visited the stadium in Krefeld! 

[Deisler26]

36 minutes ago, LATB said:

Nice pick, hopefully Uerdingen can follow you up the tables, another club with an interesting history. I have personally visited the stadium in Krefeld! 

Is the legend Marcus Wedau still there?

[Timetxu]

22 hours ago, LATB said:

Nice pick, hopefully Uerdingen can follow you up the tables, another club with an interesting history. I have personally visited the stadium in Krefeld! 

Cool! It's probably going to take quite some time with the one playoff spot for the division champion, but I can keep you posted if you like

22 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Is the legend Marcus Wedau still there?

I can only find two regen Marcus Wedaus in the game, so I looked him up. Apparently he's retired ten years ago

[Deisler26]

3 minutes ago, Timetxu said:

Cool! It's probably going to take quite some time with the one playoff spot for the division champion, but I can keep you posted if you like

I can only find two regen Marcus Wedaus in the game, so I looked him up. Apparently he's retired ten years ago

He was DoF of Uerdingen at one time

[Timetxu]

Well this should pump our merchandise sales.

[Timetxu]

Not very happy with this. Viktoria Köln is on a pretty decent form recently and they were only one of three semi-professional teams in the draw left (with four other amateur teams). At least we're at home.

[Timetxu]

DECEMBER 2017

Two games to close the year off:

Well, what just exactly happened against Westfalia?? I guess it was just one of those games in which you just don't know what to do. We were actually 0-3 down after 17 minutes and didn't have our first shot of the game until the 54th minute!! Second half was mildly better though, but let me sum up this match with these screenshots:

First half:

After 90 minutes:

These were the stats after the first half. Only our goalkeeper had a passable rating. The highlight reel was the moment I really started fearing for a glitch in my savegame, because it was failed pass after weird mistake and missed clearcut chance after a goalkeeper-standing-there-with-ball-on-his-foot-oh-woops-there-comes-the-opponent. I genuinely don't know what happened there.

Oh and we played Viktoria Köln. Very good game, same starting XI. Free-flowing attacking football, no mistakes. Great goals.

I sincerely hope that game doesn't come to haunt us.

NEXT UP

Two friendlies of which a cool challenge against FC Zürich. We'll start 2018 officially with a home game against our traditional rivals.