Subject: Champions Cup

It was a really good game to watch. Your team played admirably considering they were down a man most of the match.

The Macharski sub smacked of desparation, but turned out to be brilliant. Despite the loss, that tieing goal may well be a highlight of the season.

I'm not doing quite so well on the form front. Sebrango and Zanardi are rockin', but it takes a team back there and I have a few defenders I'm really worried about, and my keeper is decidedly mid-ling.

The Vittek injury is really going to hurt. I wasn't able to find a player I liked sufficiently (for the price) to replace him. So it all rests on Amado's shoulders. Not sure how many more chance he'll get to add to his mystique - getting a good opportunity tonight. :)

Amado injured in the 7th minute. Game over. :) My fault for not having enough strikers. I may watch the rest of the match later, but I'm regretting the 2 hrs I spent prepping the match. :P

the Macharski sub is usually in my orders, his tackling can be leathal to tired defenders and when he is on form he is still quite capable of being the 'pitbull' :) As long as he keeps scoring pretty much every time I sub him in he will keep getting subbed in!

wow chippy match there, five injurys!

Disappointing.

The game was lost the first time with the Vittek injury. My opponent is a bit of a one-trick-pony tactically, using the high wall in any meaningful match. Vittek is the perfect striker to shred that, with divine tech and very strong tackling.

The game was lost the second time with the Amado injury. Ashworth is a midfielder - I'm surprised we even got one on the board. More importantly, Ashworth could not apply any pressure to the defense, so there was no breaking the high wall. (I assume - didn't actually watch past the 7th minute).

The game may have been lost the 3rd time with my tactic which was a bit of a gamble. Playing deep when you know the opponent is going to play high is a risk, but I wanted my defenders behind the beastly striker. Not playing your WBs even with your CBs is another risk - really have to get the passing lanes locked down, or you are screwed. I'm guessing I didn't get those guys positioned quite right given the 3 assists from wide middies.

It's good that kind of match doesn't come along that often. When you put the effort into scouting & planning, and then get crippling RNG right off the bat - it's really hard on the spirit.

Both Canadian teams in tough today. Valiant plays perennial English champs Mcoi, while Partizan faces the Swedish champs in a very even matchup. Both should be great games!

Tough loss for Partizan in a tight game. If you are still trying to go all Canadian then I could release a quality Canadian defender for you. Mail me with what type of player you want.

Valiant won 2-1 against a world class team, mcoi. Mcoi pulled his defence way too deep and spread out his whole team; they game Valiant too much respect. Valiant did fantastic shutting down Mcoi's wing attack.

next game for Seca is vs a team that made it to the semi-finals last season, will be very tough. Also noticed that his opponent has our country's best striker on his team...have fun shutting down Leopold Seca :)

edit: and good luck of course!
(edited)

Thanks. :) Tough may be an understatement. Their average mark last match was a 76. I only had one player get 76 or better in round 1, and that was my keeper. ;)

Catching a bit of a break with Leopold out injured, but it's still a very stiff uphill climb.

I'm forced to use some poor form defenders. That along with the skill gap is a recipe for cards.

Really over-matched in midfield, so I've loaded up midfield to try and compensate. Attack is going to suffer some.

Even with them only fielding 10, not much hope.

My striker positioning was very poor. Tried to get a little too cute with it.

1st goal kinda sucked the wind out of the sails. Pretty cruel of the central defenders to make the keeper go after that ball.

Vittek injury spells the end (again), but the result was already decided. Amado won't trouble that defence.

The bugger only played 10 players! That is cruel.
I cant believe that you played Amado at 34 in weak form. You are too sentimental about your players.

Heh. Well #3 on the striker depth chart is Bell. :)

Playing with 10 players is actually good if your 11th is utterly wretched. You wouldn't want service going to a striker pulling a 30 rating and taking balls away from your star with an 80.

The end result wasn't that bad. The game would have been better if I hadn't made a hash of my striker positioning.

Ultimately you can't expect to get very far when your team has an average rating of 60. If I can't get a better team together, I'll be hoping someone else takes that spot next season.

Possibly the easiest draw possible for HL in the first round, playing a team from cameroun that happens to be a bot lol. Partizan has a much tougher match against a team from Ukraine with about the same marks as Deja's team.

Good. Is the only way to have a hope to past the round.

well, that was quick :(

really unfortunate loss for my team, once again goaltending cost me in CC, though I am not sure that the goal we allowed would have been saved by a better keeper, perhaps at least one of the penalties would have been

might throw a few more weeks of training at Ellison again this year, but I really don't want the salary of a divine+ keeper

oh well, the window for my team to have success at this level is closing fast