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If this goes off without a hitch and everyone has fun I'll probably do more of these and might even set up a small tournament for next preseason where people can enter their teams and play each other on their way to the Goon Cup. It'd have to be pretty small, since it would mean some people playing multiple games, but I'm currently enamored of the idea.
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Oct 10, 2014 18:57
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habeas are my predcitions allright the way they are? E.g. does qualificaion through CL win eclipse a qualification through the league like I have it listed (although I have the alternative tipped as well. Just wanted confirmation that everything is understandable concerning it.)
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Oct 10, 2014 19:43
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You're good, but for reference the league from which the Champions League winner hails doesn't get an extra qualification spot. So when we did the double it didn't mean that the fifth placed team in the EPL got a Champions League berth.
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Oct 10, 2014 20:11
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1- Wrexham 2- Manchester United 3- Chelsea 4- Manchester City <---- Champions 5- Arsenal 6- Everton 7- Spurs <---- Europa 8- Stoke 9- Swansea 10- West Ham 11- Liverpool 12- West Brom 13- Southampton 14- Reading 15- Leeds 16- QPR 17- Watford 18- Palace 19- Burnley 20- Huddersfield
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Oct 10, 2014 20:22
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1- Wrexham 2- Man U 3- Man City 4- Chelsea 5- Arsenal 6- Everton 7- Stoke 8- Tottenham 9- Swansea 10- West Brom 11- West Ham 12- Southampton 13- Reading 14- Leeds 15- Liverpool 16- Watford 17- Crystal Palace 18- QPR 19- Huddersfield 20- Burnley Champions League: Wrexham, Man U, Man City, Chelsea Europa: Arsenal, Everton, Stoke
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Oct 10, 2014 21:48
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So I just got 2 big name players to appease my board and I put 3 older high salary players to offset the transfer costs. Teams are interested but aren't biting. How do I get them to bite?
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Oct 11, 2014 06:31
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Dreamsicle posted:So I just got 2 big name players to appease my board and I put 3 older high salary players to offset the transfer costs. Teams are interested but aren't biting. How do I get them to bite? Are you acively offering them, or dit you just transfer list them and nothing else? If only the second, you should actively offer them (from the transfer 'tab' on the player profile. If you have actively offered them and teams that are intrested don't come back with a bid the game will usually tell you why not. Generally either they think the asking price is too high, or they don't believe they can match the players salary demands. If we're talking about the high-salary players of a team like City I can imagine that being the problem. Not many teams in the world are able to match your salaries, and those who can are likely to have as good or better players already. If you haven't done so already setting your players to 'not needed' will both increase the intrest from other clubs and lower the wage your players demand to leave. Edit: I guess I'll try my hand at a contest again: 1. Wrexham 2. Manchester United 3. Chelsea 4. Manchester City 5. Arsenal 6. Stoke 7. Everton 8. Swansea 9. Southhampton 10. Tottenham 11. Liverpool 12. West Ham 13. Reading 14. Leeds 15. West Bromwich 16. Watford 17. Burnley 18. QPR 19. Crystal Palace 20. Huddersfield European Qualification in order of league standings, nu cup results messing things up. Amhazair fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Oct 11, 2014 |
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Oct 11, 2014 13:19
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i'd definately sign up for a goon cup but for know i'm trying to play some more FM14 so i can get more regens on my squad and less actual players to try and make it a bit fairer. Should'nt take too long as i have a habit of selling a player as soon as i realise they've hit 30/31, most of my players tend to be in the 21-23 range.
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Oct 11, 2014 15:08
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Wrexham Man Ut Man City Chelsea Tottenham Stoke Everton Liverpool Swansea Aresenal Southhampton Leeds West Ham West Brom Reading Watford Crystal Palance Huddersfield QPR Burnley ECC: Wrexham Man Ut Man City Chelsea EC: Tottenham Stoke Everton
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Oct 11, 2014 15:12
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The first online match has taken place. It was really good, Revenant Threshold has an excellent squad. Both sides played very positively, and any neutrals would have left delighted. The whole thing took about an hour and a half, counting the 15 minutes or so it took to set up.
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Oct 11, 2014 16:43
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It was a good game! It's interesting seeing Wrexham and all these players I've read about in the "flesh", so to speak. I also managed to gently caress up on hosting the game at the end, because I am a dumb. We did get the game finished, though, at least! It's my first time really looking at the online modes. It seems like mini-Cups and the like would be easy enough to set up for the future. Everything's a bit different - I think it gives you the Classic mode options, or some hybrid of the two, I don't know - but it's good fun. Revenant Threshold fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Oct 11, 2014 |
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Oct 11, 2014 16:56
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Amhazair posted:If you have actively offered them and teams that are intrested don't come back with a bid the game will usually tell you why not. Generally either they think the asking price is too high, or they don't believe they can match the players salary demands. If we're talking about the high-salary players of a team like City I can imagine that being the problem. Not many teams in the world are able to match your salaries, and those who can are likely to have as good or better players already. It might be a salary problem since I'm offering my players for ridiculously low asking prices (Around 1-5 Million!)
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Oct 11, 2014 17:40
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Game two is complete! A tip of the cap to InsertNameHere31 for having a really danged good Sheffield Wednesday squad.Dreamsicle posted:It might be a salary problem since I'm offering my players for ridiculously low asking prices (Around 1-5 Million!) You can also directly offer the player to clubs that are interested in him, but the interface is a bit of a hassle. On the players "offer to clubs" screen you can click "add clubs to offer" and then on the next screen right click on the club you want to make the offer and pick the "add to offer" option that comes up.
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Oct 11, 2014 20:50
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The highlights of my match with InsertNameHere are up: http://youtu.be/pDDupvPg8jg I unfortunately don't have the footage from the match against Revenant Threshold, but that was also incredibly exciting.
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Oct 11, 2014 22:06
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What's going on with the guy in the warmup shirt ?
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Oct 11, 2014 23:56
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Dane posted:What's going on with the guy in the warmup shirt ? I don't know, I don't think he was like that in the game. I might have already decided to sub him off by that point, and the highlights just didn't take into account the time difference from when I ordered it and he actually came off?
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Oct 12, 2014 01:26
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1: Manchester United 2: Wrexham 3: Manchester City 4: Chelsea 5: Spurs 6: Swansea 7: Everton 8: Stoke 9: Arsenal 10: West Ham 11: Southampton 12: Reading 13: Liverpool 14: West Brom 15: Leeds 16: Palace 17: Watford 18: Burnley 19: Huddersfield 20: QPR Champions League: Wrexham, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea Europa: Swansea, Spurs (gambling on only two making it)
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Oct 12, 2014 06:35
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Good news, everyone! After three friendlies against other real live people, I was not exposed as a clownfraud who is actually terrible at Football Manager. But we certainly didn't blow anyone away, I tip my cap to Revenant Threshold, InsertNameHere31, and Obliterati for giving me and the boys from Wales a stiff challenge.
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Oct 12, 2014 17:59
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1: Mississippi State 2: Wrexham 3: Kansas City Royals 4: Kei Nishiori 5: Interstellar 6: Hawkeye 7: Toronto Raptors 8: Arsenal 9: Matt Kenseth 10: 3-6 Mafia 11: Atlanta Thrashers 12: Demetrius "Mighty Mouse" Johnson 13: Brooklyn 99 14: The Colour and The Shape 15: Seattle Sounders 16: Angry Whopper 17: Guitar Hero 3 18: yahoo.com 19: Galactic Bowling 20: Oakland Raiders Got this one in the bag.
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Oct 12, 2014 18:43
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I have a 17 year old wonderkid Right Back and I'm wondering if giving him 14 starts and 12 subs was too much for him.
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Oct 12, 2014 18:47
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Dreamsicle posted:I have a 17 year old wonderkid Right Back and I'm wondering if giving him 14 starts and 12 subs was too much for him. If he's good enough, give him game time, IMO.
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Oct 12, 2014 19:15
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What he said, though I'd also be on the lookout for any glaring weaknesses you want to address first.
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Oct 12, 2014 19:21
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He's good enough to start against lower-end EPL clubs. I was just worried about the burnout young players get if they play too much.
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Oct 12, 2014 19:31
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Dreamsicle posted:He's good enough to start against lower-end EPL clubs. I was just worried about the burnout young players get if they play too much. As I understand it, as long as you aren't playing him tired, and give him a rest when he needs one, it should be okay, and shouldn't screw him up for good or anything.
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Oct 12, 2014 19:41
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habeasdorkus posted:Good news, everyone! After three friendlies against other real live people, I was not exposed as a clownfraud who is actually terrible at Football Manager. But we certainly didn't blow anyone away, I tip my cap to Revenant Threshold, InsertNameHere31, and Obliterati for giving me and the boys from Wales a stiff challenge. You didn't win a single match, did you... 
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Oct 12, 2014 19:56
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1) Wrexham 2) Manchester United 3) Manchester City 4) Chelsea 5) Arsenal 6) Everton 7) Tottenham 8) Stoke 9) Swansea 10) Southampton 11) Leeds 12) West Ham 13) Liverpool 14) Leeds 15) Watford 16) Reading 17) Huddersfield 18) Crystal Palace 19) Burnley 20) QPR Champions League: Wrexham, Man U, Man City, Chelsea Europa League: Arsenal, Everton, Tottenham
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Oct 12, 2014 23:04
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C. Everett Koop posted:1: Mississippi State Everything about this post is perfect and I love it.
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Oct 13, 2014 03:02
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C. Everett Koop posted:1: Mississippi State Where would John Cena be in this list? Also England won the World Cup in my save against France. Cameroon beat Germany in the 3rd Place Game.
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Oct 13, 2014 03:05
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C. Everett Koop posted:1: Mississippi State 3-6 Mafia are severely under-rated in that top 20.
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Oct 13, 2014 03:25
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KKKLIP ART posted:3-6 Mafia are severely under-rated in that top 20. Whereas the Royals are severely overrated.
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Oct 13, 2014 03:33
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GO gently caress YOURSELF posted:Everything about this post is perfect and I love it. I'm honestly tempted just to announce him the winner.
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Oct 13, 2014 15:35
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Someone will really have to explain it to me. I am confused. I get confused a lot.
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Oct 13, 2014 15:49
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Dancer posted:Someone will really have to explain it to me. I am confused. I get confused a lot. A lot of those aren't football teams. Or sports teams at all.
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Oct 13, 2014 16:30
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habeasdorkus posted:I'm honestly tempted just to announce him the winner. Do it!
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Oct 13, 2014 21:47
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habeasdorkus posted:I'm honestly tempted just to announce him the winner. I could get behind this, but I think it would be good to keep some suspense for the season. Maybe say that he gets a really good score like only 10 positions off or something that will be hard to beat, and that way only if someone predicts things almost perfectly can they beat him. e: vvvvv I quite like that idea PotatoManJack fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Oct 13, 2014 |
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Oct 13, 2014 22:44
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Easiest way would be to give him a creativity boon in the spirit of his entry, and resolve the rest of the contest as-is for suspense.
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Oct 13, 2014 23:20
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1. Manchester United 2. Wrexham 3. Chelsea 4. Arsenal ^Champions League 5. Stoke 6. Manchester City ^Europa League 7. West Ham 8. Everton 9. Swansea 10. Southampton 11. Reading 12. Tottenham 13. Crystal Palace 14. Watford 15. Leeds 16. West Brom 17. QPR 18. Liverpool 19. Burnley 20. Huddersfield Chances are I'm just as bad at this as I am March Madness and my top four will all be wrong.
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Oct 13, 2014 23:59
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Interlude: The Red Dragon's Interdimensional Preseason Tour! Somewhere Beyond Time and Space  The Racecourse Ground July 30, 2025 (A miffed WREXHAM SQUAD has been loaded onto a YELLOW SCHOOL BUS rather than their standard chartered bus for what THE COACH has called a SPECIAL FIELD TRIP)  : OK, everyone keep their arms and legs inside the schoolbus at all times. : This has been tested and confirmed safe, yeh? : I wonder if I'll meet my doppleganger!: Don't say things like that, mate. Meetin' your doppleganger always leads to either a fight to the death or sex. Everyone knows that.(The MAGIC SCHOOLBUS blips out of existence at the RACECOURSE GROUND parking lot and appears hovering over LONDON in AD 2039) : Et voila. : ¡Dios mío! : Urgh, I'm feeling a bit nauseous.vs Hednesford Interdimensional Friendly ”Revenant Threshold” posted:
You'll see why he's not so happy with Goodridge in a bit. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Quiboulaz, Laux, Loseille, Shirra, Ünsal, Taborda, Stringel, Mujkic (c), Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Hammatt, Bailey, Allan, Damgaard, Parr. The first scoring chance comes when Mujkic gets tripped up at the very top of the penalty area, both Revenant Threshold and I are very surprised that it's a free kick and not a penalty. I cavil about the refs being against me even in other worlds. Then, disaster for Hednesford. Özen, their defensive rock and brilliant right back, goes down injured when he tackles Ünsal in the 12th minute. I ask if I can bring him back to Wrexham even after the injury, but am turned down. Even down their best defender the opposition are making good when they have the ball. One of their strikers, Etoundi, scores a very nice goal at the near post to make it one-nil. Just a minute later Stringel looks to have equalized, but is called offside. I'm not sure if he was, but if so it was by bare inches. Perhaps we should have held this friendly in not just a neutral site but a neutral time. The next twenty minutes sees Loseille show what makes him such an exciting young prospect, pouncing on a rebound and pounding it home to equalize. We almost go down again when their star, Boudiaf, has a great breakaway opportunity but fires off a shot that would miss the broad side of a barn. As the first half comes to a close I'm complaining to my counterpart about poor performances from Mujkic (4.8 rating) and Taborda (non-factor), and as I'm talking Mujkic finds Taborda at the far post to give us the lead just before the end of a very even half. It's an enjoyable match for the neutrals with both sides going at it and very little time spent in the midfield despite even possession numbers. The handful of people who turned out to Wembley to see the match must be ecstatic. We give up our lead not long into the second half. Boudiaf scores another nice goal at the near post, making it twice that we've been burned by the same type of play. There's joy for Wrexham, though, when Goodridge, Özen's replacement at right back, takes an awful first touch deep in Hednesford territory, which allows a sprinting Mujkic to whisk the ball away and fire home an accurate shot. 3-2 Wrexham. We add another goal not long after when Stringel has the ball roll to his feet after a good tackle on Thiago. Hednesford's last best chance to get back into the game comes to naught when Goodridge blows a one on one that is a carbon copy of Boudiaf's miss in the first half. Wrexham takes the win, deservingly, but this could have been a much different outcome had Özen not been injured. We were very good in front of the net while Hednesford struggled, and that made all the difference. Man of the Match: Isaac Stringel Wrexham 4-2 Hednesford  : Good work, lads! Next up is a trip to 2021 to face Sheffield Wednesday!: I'm still not feeling that great, Coach.(The SCHOOLBUS phase-shifts again)  : Hey, I feel fully refreshed and rested.: Yeah, the lab coats said that the process of dimension-hopping should restore everyone to full health- even healing injuries!: Urrgh.: They also said something about "time/space motion sickness."vs Sheffield Wednesday Interdimensional Friendly  ”Insertnamehere31” posted:Now in my 7th year as manager of Sheffield Wednesday, this team has accomplished much, and with no sign of slowing down. We've now won the Premier League 3 times in a row, as well as the FA Cup twice and one each of the Europa League and Champions League. On top of that we have finished second in the FA Cup and Champions League once, the former while we were still a Championship team. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Quiboulaz, Laux, Loseille, Shirra, Ünsal, Taborda, Stringel, Mujkic (c), Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Hammatt, Bailey, Allan, Damgaard, Parr. The Dragons are in a hole real quick, with Sheffield Wednesday scoring a goal in the fourth minute when Taborda mistimes his header on a corner kick. That deficit doubles in the 22nd minute when the Iranian giant Ramenzani scores, set up by his teammate Duran. Duran gave Laux the slip, and created the room Ramenzani needed to score. Adding insult to injury, Laux gets carded a few minutes later for a tackle despite the fact that he got the ball first, and despite the ref letting Mujkic get pulled down from behind by a Wednesday defender just minutes earlier. Things continue to not go well, the only reason we're not down by four goals in the first half is because Minami has made two brilliant saves. Meanwhile Sheffield are doing a great, great job closing down our wingers and winning every cross we're able to send in. We end the half with a good goal scoring opportunity, but still go into the locker down two-nil. At halftime I sub Parr on for Taborda, who has been punchless, and try to deal with Sheffield's ability to close down our wide players by changing our tactics to play a faster paced, narrower game. Our offense won't matter much, though, when the best striker in Sheffield's world, Duran, scores after Quiboulaz misses a vital interception. 3-0 Sheffield Wednesday. I yank Quiboulaz for Hammatt, but we might be doomed. Nothing is going our way, and decisive proof of this is when Stringel finds himself three feet from the goal with the ball at his feet and freezes up. The momentary hesitation allows a panicked last minute tackle to prevent our pulling one back. Worse, we're still giving up good chances, largely because our defense seems to have determined that they should only play awful, leaden first touches whenever the Wednesday players are in the vicinity. Their sloppiness leads to the Iranian Giant sending an easy shot off target, and also allows Sheffield's fullback, Schaap, to run wild. He nutmegs Loseille and is denied a goal for a second time by another brilliant Minami save. After 80 minutes it should be 6-1, and it appears that Thiago's space/time sickness has debilitated his play to such an extent that he's barely been mentioned all game. He does manage to nab an assist in the 82nd minute with a nice pass to Parr, who beats his man and then the keeper to give us a consolation goal. Then Thiago himself scores a wondrous strike two minutes later to make it 3-2, and after 80 minutes of getting tossed about like a ragdoll we're suddenly back within a shout. The final six minutes plus stoppage time have both sides on tenterhooks, and every eye in the packed stadium is focused on Thiago. He gets another chance in the 88th minute, and Wednesday's keeper has to make a fine save to keep us from pulling level. Then he beats the keeper in the first minute of stoppage time, but his shot goes whistling past the goal, inches wide but harmless nevertheless. We can't dig out of a 3-0 hole, but we sure did make it interesting.   Wrexham 2-3 Sheff Wednesday  : Every time I start to feel better we have to get back in the bus...: I don't care how you feel. Just play the way you played for the final ten minutes of that match.: We have more of these matches?!: One more, then we get to go back home.: We can't leave this dimension soon enough. Did you know there's almost no Taco Bells in England here?! I've had to survive on Macca's instead!vs AFC Wimbledon Interdimensional Friendly I'll insert Obliterati's comments about his club when he gets a chance to talk about them. But they're a good team, former Champions League winners and full of top stars like Gareth Davies, a classic poacher with blazing speed and excellent finishing skills. Obliterati posted:Sorry this is late, Habeas! Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Quiboulaz, Laux, Loseille, Shirra, Ünsal, Taborda, Stringel, Mujkic (c), Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Hammatt, Bailey, Allan, Damgaard, Parr. Unlike the last match our wingers and fullbakcs are getting down the wings with ease, and our midfield is giving us control the match throughout the first half. Our crosses have been dangerous, but our first goal comes from precise, short passing by Reed and Taborda to get the ball to Stringel alone in front of the goal in the 21st minute. Thiago scores a minute later from a corner, and we've run out to a commanding lead in just a few moments time. A few minutes thereafter we finally get the rub of the green from the ref. Wimbledon look to be onside and clear to the goal with a great chance to pull one back, but the referee quickly whistles play dead. It's a very confusing and unfortunate sequence of events for the 'Dons, and exacerbated by the fact that outside of that one poor offside call Quiboulaz, Laux, Reed, and Loseille are doing a great job making inch perfect tackles to shut down Wimbledon's efforts to counter. Wimbledon and Obliterati continue to face refereeing adversity just before the end of the first half. Quiboulaz catches a yellow card, which could easily have been a red, for a very cynical effort where he was the last man against Meier in the 44th minute. Obliterati posted:My centre-midfield possession game fails miserably in the first half against a Wrexham team that really packs the midfield with quality players, and without possession I don't make any headway. I get punished down the flanks to boot, with what are basically a winger and a child forced into defence. We are lucky to only be two down at the end of the half. I decide to switch things up big time, partly because in multiplayer there is no teamtalk so I can't remind them how terrible they all are (they know). The second half is a wholly different game. Wimbledon come out happy to cede us possession and looking much more dangerous on the counter attack, and it pays off when Davies burns our defense and brings Obliterati back to within one. I make counter-adjustments, but our offense doesn't create as much threat getting forward as we did in the first half, Obliterati did an excellent job with his halftime adjustments. It all appears to pay off for him in the 84th minute when they put the ball in the back of the net for a second time, but it's whistled off and replays clearly show that Wimbledon's man was clearly offside. Wrexham is able to see out the rest of the match without incident, and we finish our interdimensional tour with a record of two wins and one loss. Obliterati posted:Davies manages to grab a goal of the classic poacher's variety and then we spend the rest of the game desperately trying to batter down the door for a second. We miss a lot of chances but we finally make some, and with a bit more luck we could have pushed things to extra time at least. Man of the Match: Mateo Mujkic   Wrexham 2-1 Wimbledon  The Racecourse Ground (The SCHOOLBUS rematerializes in the same spot it left, minutes after it originally disappeared.) : That was fun!: Good work, men. I knew you would prove that I was the greatest manager in all of the worlds.: Well, we did lose a game...: Ok, one of the greatest managers in all the worlds.: Going to have to do better next time.: Si, we will prove our dominance is the only constant in the infinite multiverse!: That's what I like to hear. Next match is against Chester in three days. Everyone take a break until then.: I think... I think I'm going to need a few days off...
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Oct 15, 2014 |
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Oct 14, 2014 17:43
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He also can't pass in any other way than a drilled cross. On the other hand he contributed 15 assists last season so the £550k I spent bringing him from Hibernian seems to have returned. Plus, he's the only player in history to win the European Golden Boy award twice. If he is defending we are doing something wrong (he defends in this match).
He keeps making my far more expensive and technically better strikers look terrible. His lack of England caps is the greatest crime of our era.
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These matches were a lot of fun, even more than I expected. I am definitely setting up a pre-season tournament when we get done with this year- everyone is invited. I need to figure out how best to set things up, I don't want people being forced to play too many matches, but it's definitely going to happen. Start prepping your clubs! Also, thanks to waiting to post updates until these multiplayer matches were done, I have the first half of the season played. Two updates are in the can, three more just need polishing, and the winter interlude needs writing. So updates should come roughly every day or two over the next week.
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Oct 14, 2014 17:49
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 01:13 |
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Chapter the Second: I need a vacation from my summer vacation. August 1, 2025-September 11, 2025 After all those National Team matches, I need reminding that I have a club to attend to as well. I'm actually looking forward to November, the Wrexham friendlies and season opening combined with the international fixtures means I'll have coached something like 35 matches in the last 10 weeks. If I were a player I'd have an orange status indicator saying “Tired and in need of a long rest.” As AJ_Impy demanded, Project: Arsenepunked has resulted in a net loss of £181m for the North London club. They currently sit at -£100,000,000. While this is going to hurt them a lot in the future, I'm not sure it'll have the desired effect this season. Arsenal finished only five points back of United last season, and spent £100m in June to bring in three world class players in Bayern's Johann Collin and Santiago Pedrozo, and our Matty Collett. I think they're going to be better this season than last, and they were already very, very good. The lucre has been shifted, as requested, to Reading, Southampton, and Tackleford, giving them each another £27m to play with.  Ok, I'm not quite done with the National Team. I also have the U20s to manage. Quarterfinals or bust!  City are transfer listing their unhappy players, but unwilling to accept offers for them. Castillo would be a good fit as a backup midfielder to put some steel in our spine, so I can at least play footsie with him to the detriment of his relationship with his club.  We scored so many goals that I had to combine two screenshots to get the recap all in one picture. If this were indicative of Welsh performance against the English back in the middle ages the whole of Great Britain would be speaking a different tongue.  The U20 World Cup is off to a good start, despite lacking two of our brightest young talents in Rodrigo Moctezuma and Paul Barrett we handily see off a squad of mini-Cristiano Ronaldos.  Big spending from Sky Shadowing with the Arsenal largess. Not so much the transfer fee but the whopping £120k/wk wages.  I'm not sure how we managed to keep a clean sheet, but we jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half and Morocco was never in the match. We've qualified for the knockout round with a game in hand, the next match will be as desultory and dull an affair as I can manage in order to conserve our strength.  I'm pretty sure the game is just messing with me at this point. Or someone is stalking American players and knifing them.  Hold onto Jenkins, AJ_Impy. He's got four star potential for Wrexham, and is only 22.  I sent the kids out there with instructions to waste time and take it easy from the start, and we still jumped out to a two-nil lead. We had a pretty easy group, but I'm starting to dream of a deep run after the performances thus far.  We have no business not making the semifinals, all three of the nations we faced in the group stage are superior to the Omani team. Of course, that was true two years ago when a bunch of Hondurans punked us on penalties. vs Manchester United, August 10, 2025 Community Shield  2025 has been a fallow year for Wrexham, and this is our only chance to change that. Ryan McLeod is now a “wily old” head coach, I wonder what the requirements for that epithet are. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Quiboulaz, Laux, Loseille, Shirra, Ünsal, Taborda, Stringel, Mujkic (c), Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Hammatt, Tounkara, Allan, Damgaard, Parr. It's the same old story. We show mastery over every aspect of the game but scoring goals. We have fourteen shots to United's one in the first half, but they've been low percentage efforts with only one half-chance apiece. At the hour mark I make a change, moving Stringel up top to replace Thiago and bringing Allan. That proves to be our undoing. Just afterward United hit us on the break with their third shot of the day. It wakes the Devils up, and we can do nothing but gape in response. The match will be described as a tale of two halves, we may have had fourteen shots to their one in the first half, but managed two to their seven in the second. Man of the Match: Jonathan Quiboulaz   Wrexham 0-1 Man United  Holy moley. Leinard has requested to be transfer listed four times this summer. He keeps demanding to be listed, City lists him, Juve makes an offer, and City rejects it. Last time Juventus was offering £37m. Suffice to say this blows that offer out of the water.  Ok, this is just getting silly.  This offer also gets refused. Patrick Pattison retired at just the right time, and I don't envy his replacement. Claus Damgaard  You might be wondering why I haven't been more active in the transfer market, given that we're sitting on over £100m. It's because our youth system has been paying dividends, and I'm ready to give some of them shots as backups to the first team. Damgaard is one of the three promoted teenagers, a major talent who got off on the extremely wrong foot with me almost as soon as he put his bags down upon arrival. He's no Mujkic, but he's good enough to start for most midtable teams and play a backup role for us. David Maloney  Enrique  The other two are defensive midfielders, Scotsman David Maloney and Spaniard Enrique. If one of them develops our days of yearning for a proper midfield water-carrier will finally be over. I'd say Enrique has a leg up in that department as his defensive skills are more developed than Maloney, but he's such a fraidy-cat that even the Cowardly Lion thinks he's a wimp.  That was much, much closer than I'd have liked. Oman dragged us to extra time with the score nil-nil, and after we finally took the lead were able to equalize despite being down a man due to injury. We're into the quarterfinals, something England couldn't accomplish. Next up, Holland.  : My son! They've killed my son! : Daaaad, I'm fine. Stop embarrassing me in front of the whole team! I wonder how much of our new 39,500 seat stadium we're going to fill. 28k a game isn't horrible, we rank about 15th in the league in average attendance, but a 40% increase in stadium income would be very welcome.  : Coach, I think there's something wrong with my heel.(MUJKIC's heel is clearly swollen and damaged) : Oh gently caress.At Queens Park Rangers, August 16, 2025 Premier League  Well, we won't have our best creative player back until mid-November. Taborda and Parr can handle the job fine, when they're healthy. That could be a problem, seeing as Taborda isn't exactly a brick house and Parr breaks bones punching wet cardboard. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Hammatt, Laux, Loseille, Shirra, Ünsal (c), Taborda, Stringel, Damgaard, Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Quiboulaz, Tounkara, Bailey, Allan, Parr. Our second winger goes down in as many days when Taborda is injured in the 20th minute. It looks like it might be a bad one. Parr comes in for him and scores our first goal of the season. Then Hammatt gets injured in the 34th minute, another bad looking knock, and at this rate we're going to have six players stretchered off by the time the match ends. QPR apologizes for dinging up our players by scoring an own goal in stoppage time to give us a well earned 2-0 lead. No one gets hurt in the second half, except for perhaps the ref getting blinded during the break. We have three goals disallowed in the second half, two from Stringel and one from Parr. All three were definitely onside, the ref must have put money on the under. That infelicitous refereeing merely keeps us from a greater margin of victory. Man of the Match: Steve Reed   QPR 0-2 Wrexham   We have plenty of depth at centerback to cover for the injury to Hammatt, but Taborda is going to have to grit through the next match as only Parr and Damgaard are naturals on the wings, and it's crazy to expect Parr to stay healthy for more than a week at a time. I can play Stringel out wide in an emergency, he's certainly got the attributes for it, but with two weeks off come September I feel comfortable asking Taborda to stick a needle in his rear end and play.  Speaking of injury woes, the U20 squad is through to the semifinal after nipping the Dutch despite my having to leave a spot open on our bench due to not having enough healthy players. I'm not sure how we're going to play two more matches (the Semi and then either the Final or the Third Place match) with yet another injury cropping up in this match, but we've achieved my stretch goals for the club despite pervasive poor health.  With Mujkic out for a third of the season we needed someone who could step in and fill the void, especially given how often Parr and Taborda are on the shelf, and given that Damgaard is a 19 year old who was merely supposed to get some seasoning with the senior team this year. But any like-for-like Meteor substitute would be ruinously expensive and give us the problem of not having a place to play one of them when our captain returns from injury. Mattias Mercado Attacking Midfielder  Enter four time (and reigning) Ballon d'Or winner Mattias Mercado. He's starting to fade in his old age and his skills are showing a smidgen of decline, but he was incredibly cheap because apparently Real Madrid has zero loyalty to their icons. He can play on both wings, and even though he's got huge wages the low transfer fee and short, two year contract means his contract will never become an albatross. And in the meantime we get to say we signed the best player of a generation.  Attaboy, Meteor. You know you're irreplaceable.   Allan, on the other hand...  You brat. Did you even notice where he's going to play?  I'm flabbergasted. We didn't just squeak by Uruguay, we pasted them like Wrexham pastes relegation bait. We outshot them 23-2, and both of their shots were from long range. The kids are competing to lift the U20 World Cup in three days time, by far the most impressive performance by a bunch of young Americans in soccer and a sign of a bright horizon. It's going to take some doing to get past Argentina in the final, but anything can happen in a single match.   Or not. We're now without a goalkeeper after Appleby pounded his leg so hard in celebration that the resulting charlie horse forced him onto crutches.  We're not at the point yet where we can let players leave on free transfers for nothing, and Petts was never a core part of the team like Shirra or Mujkic or Bailey that I'll keep around for sentimental purposes. Still, he was a loyal servant for six years. vs Arsenal, August 23, 2025 Premier League  Arsenal may be broke, but they haven't sold off any pieces yet. I've checked their Financial Fair Play status and it doesn't look like they'll earn a continental ban next season, so AJ_Impy might need another crack at destroying them. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Quiboulaz, Laux, Loseille, Shirra, Ünsal (c), Mercado, Stringel, Taborda, Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Tounkara, Bailey, Allan, Damgaard, Parr. The Turk is everywhere in the early going, but his efforts go unrewarded. Instead Mattias Mercado shows our kids how it's done with a very well taken goal in the 35th minute. Arsenal create chances on the break in the second half, but Minami swats them away like flies. It's looking like a confident, competent 1-0 victory built upon a well taken chance and stern defense into stoppage time, when it becomes a confident, competent 2-0 victory as Laux punctuates the finish with our second goal. Man of the Match: Matthias Laux   Wrexham 2-0 Arsenal  A decade's absence makes the heart grow fonder?  We played well, and it was a tie game with 35 minutes left. A win would have been super sweet, but I think we can call this an undeniable success.  Bah, you're just bitter because we beat Oman.  Plus, we're the kindest, gentlest kids out there. And that's what really matters.  I'm canceling those September matches. The players are pooped and need a rest.  Losing to Luton Town, AJ_Impy? Oy vey, that's even worse than Wrexham losing to Chesterfield!  Poor Rangers. I don't know that they'll take a single point. And one of us, Real Madrid, or Roma are going to be hard done by getting bounced to the Europa League. Most likely Roma, but any of us could stumble into the Europa League if we're not careful.  A simple enough task, it's unlikely the referees call off three legitimate goals twice in a row. At Tottenham Hotspur, August 30, 2025 Premier League  Hope springs eternal for Spurs. Maybe this will be the year that they finally escape the twilight zone of not quite mediocrity. Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1 Control Starting 11: Minami, Reed, Quiboulaz, Laux, Loseille, Shirra, Ünsal (c), Parr, Stringel, Mercado, Thiago. Subs: Kocsis, Cirjak, Tounkara, Maloney, Bailey, Damgaard, Allan. After 20 minutes I can say that it's official, Thiago is mired in a slump. He hasn't scored in the last two matches, and he misses an absolute sitter here. To make matters worse, Stringel has also gone cold. Between the two of them we're missing a big part of our offensive engine. We keep the clean sheet, in no small part thanks to the brilliance of Kôjirô Minami, but it's less than a month into the season and we've dropped points. This will not do. Man of the Match: James Loseille   Tottenham 0-0 Wrexham  We're already chasing United.  At least James Loseille, Le Petit Roi, looks ready to make everyone forget about Taffarel.  Turns out our emphasis on youth signings is now producing plenty of players who qualify as having been homegrown at Wrexham, including Loseille and our backup keeper Lajos Kocsis. That allows us to register all of our senior team and several youth squad players for the Champions League. I'm sure the Sun sports section is xenophobically ranting about how we have too many foreigners on the club and how we're what's wrong with soccer today.  I am going to be so happy in just over a month when my international duties are at an end. Hunter Fisher is auditioning for the role of captain, and doesn't make a hash of his first team talk.  We were execrable against South Korea. This is by no means our A team, but if we play like this at the World Cup we're going out in the group stage. Against Hungary, however, we put on an all around better performance and won 1-0.  These were very Jekyll and Hyde friendlies for the US, and the most disappointing takeaway is that 19 year old midfielder Xavier Hughes played poorly in both games. He probably won't be ready for a major role next summer. USMNT   I'm really, really happy with how we did in the U20 World Cup. We had injuries that kept all but a handful of our best young players from participating in most of the matches, and we still marched straight to the finals. I also can't complain about the senior team's split decision, with a B squad losing to the 36th ranked team and beating the 18th ranked one. Wrexham  Well, our defense is stout. We're treating good teams like chew toys. When Thiago and String find their stroke, it's going to be a bloodbath. That being said, I don't like United already up two points on us. I believe that we're the finest team in the world, but we may only be first among equals given what the Red Devils pulled off in the league last season.  
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 02:46 on Mar 9, 2015 |
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Oct 14, 2014 18:28
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