Jump to content

February Challenge - African Warriors


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 188
  • Created
  • Last Reply

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Francis Cole:

Good fun, but far to hard for me icon_biggrin.gif

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I must admit, it has been far harder than I expected.

Link to post
Share on other sites

End of Season Review

Second half results

Had a pretty poor finish to the season, including a 7-0 loss to Ikapa Sporting.

Final League Table

League Positions Graph

I think this was a pretty good result, although I'm still disappointed I didn't finish higher. I think I could have finished 12th if a few results had gone my way.

Squad

Transfers

Didn't spend a penny on a player, but they did quite well.

Star Player

I think I would have been in real trouble without his goals.

Finances

Started the season in debt, finished the season in debt.

Link to post
Share on other sites

September 30th 2007

League results:

African Warriors - Maritzburg Utd: 0-3

African Warriors - Nathi Lions: 4-1

African Warriors - Witbank Spurs: 3-0

W.P. United - African Warriors: 2-2

League table

A good month, with two great home wins. Granted, they were against the teams in the relegation spots, but still.

The valuable away point, after being 2-0 down, also showed that the team has resilience.

We're nicely in the middle of the pack now, but it's early days still. We'll probably drop a few more places again once we meet a few more of the top half teams. Based on these early performances though, I think a 10th-ish place finish should be possible.

Link to post
Share on other sites

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by nick...:

How does the medals table work?

Appologies if it's obvious, I've neve played the south african league. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The medals table is an overall table to keep track of how people are doing in the monthly challenges. First place in a monthly challenge = gold, 2nd = silver etc.

Link to post
Share on other sites

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by dafuge:

Finances

Started the season in debt, finished the season in debt. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yikes, did your board start building a new stadium or something?

My finances look quite decent. Not rich, but at least we're in the black.

Link to post
Share on other sites

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by CoachFlu:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by dafuge:

Finances

Started the season in debt, finished the season in debt. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yikes, did your board start building a new stadium or something?

My finances look quite decent. Not rich, but at least we're in the black. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope, that's pretty much how I started the season.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm actually surprised that despite everyone saying it was a hard challange, i found it realtively easy icon_confused.gif I think i must have chosen the right tactics icon14.gificon_biggrin.gif anyway here is how it went...

Pre Season Review

Relatively poor pre-season, with an unconvincing 4 - 1 defeat to FS Stars, with my only goal coming from a penalty. I managed to sign about 13 players on free transfers (although, for some reason, only 6 of them show up on the transfer history?). I had a fiddle about with my tactics so that it would suit every player and match with all there abilities. Now for the proper action...

Half Way Review

I was literally amazed with how well the first half of the season went! I was top of the league after my first 2 games after hammering in a mighty 11 goals in just my first two league games! I struggled in the cup though, being knocked out by Black Aces 4 - 0, but this challenge isn't about the cup it's about the league so i wasn't that bothered. By the end of December I was still lying in 5th place and only 10 points off the leader, and one place outside the playoffs!

End of Season Review

Well.. the second half of the season.. pretty much the same as the first. Sitting in a comfortable 5th place at the end and only 1 place off a playoff place. My Star Player managed to net 25 goals in the league and basically i would have sucked without him. I don't know how i managed to get him actually seeing as if you compare him to Dafuge's star player mine seems to be a bit better icon_biggrin.gif

League Table and League Positions Graph.

5th place, with 52 points if you can't be bothered to look.

Squad

Decided to sell them all towards the end icon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gif

Transfers - Only 6 of them show up despite me signing at least 10?

Some of them were really quality players for me and were vital throughout the whole season.

In Dept But Who Cares?

I always struggle with finance but oh well it's not a long term challenge so it's all good icon14.gif

Thanks for this challenge Dafuge (especially as i'm top at the moment :p i expect somebosy will do better though icon13.gif)

Good Luck To All Others Taking Part!

Link to post
Share on other sites

October 31st 2007

League results:

Bay Utd - African Warriors: 0-2

African Warriors - Durban Stars: 5-2

African Warriors - Hannover Park: 1-1

A short but great month, as we stretch our undefeated streak to six games. Ironically we almost lost the only match for which we weren't huge underdogs, but a late goal saved the day.

League table.

Link to post
Share on other sites

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">February Challenge Leaderboard

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Username Achievements

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ridleys Finished 5th with 52 points

dafuge Finished 14th with 24 points

</pre>

Link to post
Share on other sites

November 30th 2007

League results:

Winners Park - African Warriors: 2-0

African Warriors - Black Aces: 2-2

FCAK - African Warriors: 2-3

League table.

A bad loss against then-last-placed Winners Park started the month poorly, but a great comeback against title challengers FCAK turned this into a good month after all.

Almost half-way. So far so good.

Link to post
Share on other sites

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by PoopyPants:

Will the leaderboard be based on your position or on your points? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Position first, then points.

Link to post
Share on other sites

December 15th 2007 - Mid-season.

League results:

African Warriors - Dynamos: 2-3

FC Cape Town - African Warriors: 4-2

African Warriors - Ga-Rankuwa Utd: 4-1

Mid-season table.

Two narrow losses against upper mid-table teams bumped us back down a few places. It's pretty tight above us, though, so fourth place - maybe even third place - is still within reach. Below us the gaps get bigger, so barring a spectacular collapse, we shouldn't drop down lower than 11th place.

I'll set myself a goal of 8th place.

In general, I'm quite pleased with how we're doing. This message, from after our 15th match, pretty much sums it up.

Link to post
Share on other sites

NeoAC - August 18th - It begins again......

So we're all set to go here in Qwaqwa. The swaggering young manager with a boatload of ideas and absolutely no clue on the working of the South African football system is going to see if he can work some magic.

Here we go.

As you can see, the oddmakers don't think too highly of us.

What the exchange rate for rands?

I've been busy here, trying to get a team together.

The locker nameplate guy is going to be busy.

Preseason Results

African Warriors 1 - 3 FS Stars (Moleko)

African Warriors 1 - 3 Amazulu (Ntsoane)

So, its a winless preseason, what can be expected from facing all top-flight competition. This might be a long season.

Link to post
Share on other sites

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by CoachFlu:

December 15th 2007 - Mid-season.

League results:

African Warriors - Dynamos: 2-3

FC Cape Town - African Warriors: 4-2

African Warriors - Ga-Rankuwa Utd: 4-1

Mid-season table.

Two narrow losses against upper mid-table teams bumped us back down a few places. It's pretty tight above us, though, so fourth place - maybe even third place - is still within reach. Below us the gaps get bigger, so barring a spectacular collapse, we shouldn't drop down lower than 11th place.

I'll set myself a goal of 8th place.

In general, I'm quite pleased with how we're doing. This message, from after our 15th match, pretty much sums it up. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Goals are scored as often as Drogba dives in the South African First Division, i think i was at 32 goals after my 15th game in charge and i got exactly the same message icon_biggrin.gif

Link to post
Share on other sites

February 28th 2008

SAFA Cup 1st Round:

African Warriors - Real Rovers: 4-2

League results:

African Warriors - Ikapa Sporting: 2-4

Maritzburg Utd - African Warriors: 3-1

African Warriors - Tuks: 2-2

League table

A tough start of the second half of the season, facing two teams out of the league's top three. But heck, at least we got those out of the way, then. The draw against Tuks was decent, though doesn't help us much.

As it stands now, it looks like we'll be fighting for 8th-10th place.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Halfway down the line

The first half of the season has been better than I expected. It didn't start too well as we only picked up 1 point from our first 4 games and got dumped out of the cup in the quarters at the hands of Maritzburg United. It all started to turn round with this win away to Durban Warriors, which was the start of a 5 match unbeaten run.

We had a mini-slump when star player Nombe was out injured for three games but once he was back in the team we put together another 5 game unbeaten run to bring us up to the halfway point.

We are currently 9th in the league on 22 points having scored 26 and conceded 26 icon_biggrin.gif. An 8 point gap has opened between 10th and 11th so we should be able to hold on to a top 10 spot. We are 4 points adrift of 7th however, so there's a bit of work to do in the second half of the season to improve our position.

Come on you warriors!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

After 2 defeats we finally got a win in our third game, a convincing 3-0 home win, actually used a DC as one of the strikers who ended up man of the match with 2 goals. Which was nothing but a fluke as we then went back to what we do best, LOSING!! Over the next few weeks we surprisingly lose a lot and never seem to be able to beat the 'impossible odds' given to us pre match. Somehow though we manage two 1-1 draws. Our position of 14th is a true reflection of our gross overachieving so far this season. If they don't sack me soon i may just walk and head for the nearest South African beach.

Link to post
Share on other sites

March 31st 2008

SAFA Cup 2nd Round:

Welkom Stars - African Warriors: 5-2 aet

League results:

Nathi Lions - African Warriors: 2-0

Witbank Spurs - African Warriors: 2-3

African Warriors - WP United: 5-1

Hannover Park - African Warriors: 1-2

Durban Stars - African Warriors: 2-1

League table.

After a poor February with 1 point from three matches, we started March with two more defeats (league and cup), so morale was dangerously low. Luckily we turned things around with three straight wins. A red card messed up the important match against Durban, but it was still a fairly decent month.

On the bad side, though, star striker Sisa Nombe is out for the season after picking up a torn calf muscle early in the month. He wasn't quite our top scorer, but with 11 goals and 11 assists in 23 appearances, he was an important part of the team.

7th-10th place seems to be the range we'll be finishing in. I'll be happy with 8th place.

Link to post
Share on other sites

April 30th 2008

League results:

African Warriors - Winners Park: 2-2

African Warriors - Bay Utd: 3-5

Black Aces - African Warriors: 2-2

League table

Well, at least we're consistently inconsistent. Another poor month, with only the draw against Black Aces as a decent result.

Four matches to go, two of which are against teams in the top 4, so 8th place is probably out of reach. I'll settle for holding on to 9th place.

Link to post
Share on other sites

1st September 2007

Summary:

Only 47 season tickets sold and 2000-1 to win the league. A really poor start to the season conceding 14 goals in the first two league games. The new signings haven’t seemed to gel yet and it is just taking time to cement some decent tactics.

However the only good news the board injected another £26K into the bank balance

Result :

African Warriors 0 – 4 FS Starts (Friendly)

Turks 2 – 0 African Warriors att 547 (Baymed Cup 1st Round)

African Warriors 2 – 8 Ikapa Sporting att 326 (Golden League)

African Warriors 1 – 4 Bay Utd att 244 (Golden League)

League Position:

15th

Players In:

Samuel Khumalo – Bidvest Wits - £0

Vusimuzi Tjale – Bidvest Wits - £0

Johnny Claesen – Bidvest Wits - £0

Wandille Sidaki – F.C.A.K - £0

Maxwell Phiri – F.C.A.K - £0

Allan Kamwanga – Black Leopards - £0

Keith Graydon – Durban City – Free

Samuel Lesoetsa – Kaizer Chiefs – Loan

Players Out:

Prince Motloung – Free

Mark Mthembu – Free

Staff In:

Mark Sibaya – Scout – Free

Jonas Fransman – Coach – Free

Affiliated Clubs:

Kaizer Chiefs

Hope all of this works

Link to post
Share on other sites

End of Season Round-up

A suprisingly good start to the season was followed by a dissapointing close. We were very inconsistent seemingly winning one game and then losing the next. Going into the last 5 games, 8th was still within our grasp but we completely bombed and only picked up 2 points.

Some untimely suspension and injuries exposed our lack of cover in the squad plus my defenders, most of whom were well over 30, seemed to suffer a dip in ability (I found the same thing playing MadWoodster's International Challenge - players at club with poor facilites and part-time coaching staff actually get worse over time).

We had bad luck too, especially one infyriating game against Nathi lions where we were 1-0 up on 90 mins, 3 mins were added for stoppages and our opponents scored on 93, 95 and 96 minutes icon_mad.gif. Where the extra 3 minutes came from I have no idea.

There were still some highlights though, including a well-earned 5-2 away win against Black Aces and this club record win against the hapless Durban Stars. icon_cool.gif

Here are the league table and various summaries:

Final Table

Transfer History

Squad

Finances

Link to post
Share on other sites

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by DodgeeD:

A suprisingly good start to the season was followed by a dissapointing close. We were very inconsistent seemingly winning one game and then losing the next. Going into the last 5 games, 8th was still within our grasp but we completely bombed and only picked up 2 points.

Some untimely suspension and injuries exposed our lack of cover in the squad plus my defenders, most of whom were well over 30, seemed to suffer a dip in ability </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

This was like reading a summary of my own season, heh. My EoS report should be up soonish.

Link to post
Share on other sites

May 31st 2008 - End of Season.

League results May:

African Warriors - FCAK: 3-4

Dynamos - African Warriors: 4-3

African Warriors - FC Cape Town: 4-2

Ga-Rankuwa - African Warriors: 1-0

End of season table.

A very poor final month saw us drop from 9th to 11th on the last match day. We just couldn't bounce back and completely lost morale and form.

Circumstances weren't in our favor though. A few crucial injuries and suspensions didn't help, so the two narrow 4-3 losses weren't too bad. Then all the loan signings went back to their clubs before the final two matches. Since I had quite a few of them, I was left with a minimal squad and even had to give some of the crappy youngsters their debuts.

I'm a little disappointed with 11th place. At some point a top half finish seemed possible, and even at the end we only had to pick up one win in May to hold on to 9th place, but even that went wrong.

Still, if this was the first season of a career game, I suppose I'd be reasonably pleased.

Finances

The squad. (though without a number of loan players, I forgot to take a screenie before they returned to their clubs.)

Transfer History.

Some of the better performers:

Sisa Nombe: Many people pick up this guy, and rightly so. He wasn't my top-scorer, but still a vital part of the team. Unfortunately he was injured for the last 3 months of the season, which partially explains our drop in form.

Thabo Letsoalo: (profile) (season stats) This was our top-scorer, on loan. He fitted well into the role of fast striker in my tactic.

I'd single out more players, but none of the midfielders really stood out, and none of the defenders are worth mentioning.

The veteran DCs I found (seen their names in several other people's squads as well, so you'll all know who I mean icon_smile.gif) seemed decent on paper, but on the field they were pretty clueless half the time. Especially, as DodgeeD mentioned, towards the end of the season, they seemed to get worse and worse.

Friendlies not included, we only managed to keep two clean sheets all season, both early in the season. The only plus side: most of the other teams' defenses didn't seem too secure either.

Ah well. At least I didn't get the sack this time. icon_smile.gif

Link to post
Share on other sites

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by CoachFlu:

League results May:

African Warriors - FCAK: 3-4

Dynamos - African Warriors: 4-3

African Warriors - FC Cape Town: 2-4

Ga-Rankuwa - African Warriors: 1-0 </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Corrected.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well bizarrely, I found my season to go the opposite way to most of you guys. I had a terrible first half, sitting in 15th at the halfway stage, but a good run of results in February/March actually saw me sitting in 8th for a while.

However, I was then hit by a big injury to my Goalie, and the floodgates opened again. By the end of the season I was 11th. (Seems like a common place to finish with this team!)

I'll be honest when I say I was disappointed with the finish. On paper a few of my preseason signings were by far good enough for the league, but very few performed upto my expectations.

a> <a  href=http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/8962/transfersbf8.th.jpg]Transfers

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/9419/66874810pz1.th.jpg]End of season table

Think I might have another go at this by the end of the month! http://community.sigames.com/customicons/icon14.gif' alt='icon14.gif'>

Link to post
Share on other sites

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">This was like reading a summary of my own season, heh. My EoS report should be up soonish. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Very similar indeed. You still pipped me by a point though - guess there'll be no place for me on the medals table... this time icon_wink.gif

Link to post
Share on other sites

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by DodgeeD:

Very similar indeed. You still pipped me by a point though - guess there'll be no place for me on the medals table... this time icon_wink.gif </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Don't think I'll be in the medals table this time either. Plenty of time left for others to do better than 11th.

Then again, I got a bronze by getting sacked after three months last time, so who knows. icon_smile.gif

Link to post
Share on other sites

1st of September

Well that's the first couple of games out the way. Doing quite well. I think.

First Division Cup

1st Round

This Was A Pleasant Surprise

Odds! What Odds?!

1/4 Final

African Warriors 0 - 1 Witbank Spurs

Friendly

Good Effort

Considering a lot of them were still youth. Including the scorer.

League

African Warriors 0 - 1 Black Aces

African Warriors 1 - 3 Dynamos

Reasonable start. Hope to do better though!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...