League Banter - The Matchday thread

Trains away at Los Halcones Locos tonight.

grrr rivals

so tonight I have adopted the heavily disputed tactics of out national team - mainly through a lack of a dent LB and RB and an injury to my OM.

if I lose again I'm going to have to find a couple of full backs quickly.

With my addition of a 4.5 star OMR to add to my 3.5 star MR, I'm playing the rare 4-3-1-2, with the 1 acting as an OMR. We'll have to see how that expierment goes, but it's fun having such a quality player in the team

2-1 just after the first half - hope is almost restored

so a 3-2 win for my lads gets us back into 7th spot - my young gun Horacio Sumner who played his first game in the big leagues got man of the match with two goals and a rating of 9.1. He impressed me so much that I'm putting Svetoslav Sakaliev up for sale to allow Sumner into the starting lineup - at 20mill the 30 year old still has a few good years left in him and is still scoring goals.

The Trains have gone mental in the last 2 games... 6 - 2 and 7 - 1 wins.

Expecting some 0 - 0 draws now that I have commented on it.

After losing 6-1 to Battle Hill last year, the Whips got revenge in the best way with a near club-best 7-0 thrashing, new signing Shane Renton scoring a hat-trick. Superb win, loving it.

10 - 0 victory last night in what I believe must be a club record. 

David Kereselidze's 5 goal haul certainly set the bar pretty high - especially considering it opened his account for the season but was closely followed by Brett Rance's 4 goal effort in the same game. Two 10.0 performances from the strikers. Can't complain about that.

It was only a B side but still nice to put one away convincingly for once and move back into the top half of the table.

The two defender lineup seemingly doesn't work! They have a decent keeper too so 10-0 certainly overachieving. 

My B team went down 8-0 with the five defender tactic not working either when they are all 2 stars and you have no midfield. 

damn 2-1 loss. Early days so no need to panic, but could do better finding the back of the net!

Had a dodgy 3-1 loss at home followed by a 2-1 away win over the last 2 games in Kiwi 1.13. I don't really know the in's and out's of how different formations and tactics work for or against you vs opponents. One thing I do know is that I seem to get results when I just leave the tactics as Balanced/Normal and when I muck around with that, and the formation not so much. Does continuity in team selection, formations and tactics play a part in the performance of your team? Or does it not have an effect and the team just does as per the tactics each game?

3-2 win last night which is good news although I'm $20mill in the hole which is going to be tough recoup each week.

Steam Engines play the Halcones-ettes tonight...

Seems to have been a big server crash yesterday. But once back online the boys had a smashing 5-1 away win (albeit against the team coming last in kiwi 1.13). Seem to have settled on a starting team and formation. Sitting 5th at the moment, pretty happy with how things are going.

4-0 win, keeps me in the top four.

3rd vs 4th tonight, need to win to really make a stand for top 4

a good win at home, 3-0 courtesy of a Mauro Verna hat trick in front of 30,000+ spectators :)

Yes, pleased with a 2 - 2 draw. The Steam Engines have been struggling...

3-0 win, the squad is in top form.

0-2 home loss :/

3-0 win v AD Fafe at home

so head to head is now 5 won, 2 drawn, 3 lost.

Mauro Verna put away another two, seems to be having a good start to the season

1-3 Away win vs direct mid-table competition.  Away form has been good so far but lost my last game at home which was a head scratcher.  Should be 3rd now in Kiwi 1.13.  Although I had another DC sent off in the 2nd half again which could have been worse, on a different day.  Luckily I was up 0-3 already :D

Another 2-1 win away to put me into 5th. Had a good start and still seem to be doing ok considering 2 of my CB are injured and my star DM too

I so need a Goalkeeper.

Played 10, won 2, drawn 7, lost 1 in the league. 30 goals for, 21 against.

*sigh*

there will be plenty of keepers around at a decent price at the moment - most of the big spenders will have blown the funds too.

Ten league games in a row undefeated for the Trains after a 2 - 1 win last night.

I got home and joind the game in the 67th minute to find us 0 - 1 at home and outshooting the opposition 16/12 to 4/2. I couldn't believe it. We came back to win 2 - 1 with goals to Charlie Tree and Soren Kofoed, and a final stats tally of:

69%       Possession          31%

25          Shots                        6

16          Shots On Target       4

7            Set Pieces                4

So we started the season poorly

1-3 at Zavbro

2-2 vs Richmond

1-4 at Halcones

1-1 vs Melchester

1-2 at Gore C

1-2 vs Bay of Few

3-4 vs ANE2

3-3 at Trains

Then we made some signings adding a new DC, MC & DM

The league form turn around has been great

3-0 vs R.AKL

4-0 at Otautau

3-1 vs Woodend

Much better run of form to try and climb back up the table.

think this season is going to be another "transition" for my guys, really struggling to get the tactics right and keep my 3 CB's on the field, gonna have to go bafck to four at the back which is annoying as I don't have an LB or RB or the funds to buy them in.....plus I have to get rid of my CM as he is aging and stats are falling

Thanks for the offer, but Paul Rufer who is starting in goal at the moment is probably a preferable option, especially since he is only 22...

Almost landed a 25,000 SI Keeper for around 15 million this morning but last minute interest took him out of that price range, and at 33 he wasn't worth it.

Come from behind 2-1 win for the Whips, my record signing Bagg scores the winner off the bench then hobbles off injured.

Oh, and the B's scored another goal! And now due to CB suspensions I'm playing the rare 3-3-2-2 formation for the next encounter.

GD over 60 from 10 rounds is pretty impressive for the Whippersnappers (Oh wait it's -60 :P)

Looks like a good place for some youngsters, but man it's gonna be a hard season for them.

I pretty much only have that B team for about 4/5 players, the rest are all filler/will be sold when they reach 3 stars. 

My 5 star prospect is now at 2 stars and he's not even 16 yet, so at worst I'm hoping he gets to 4.5 at some point in his career, he'll be getting some massive routine and hopefully he'll end up with 400+ games in Whips teams.

Trains won 1 - 3 away last night. Now Played 12, won 4, drawn 7, lost 1 and undefeated in 11 games in the league. 9th on the table now, 5 points adrift of second.

Decided to pump thirty-odd million into my stadium/facilities after a crap start and since then have been unbeaten in 4 matches (3 wins) and sitting in 3rd. Weird... not keen on promotion though - hope to improve my players next season and then have a good crack at going up!

Drew 2-2 with Mt Maunganui Saints away. Was up 2-1 then they equalised late on. Pretty happy with anything but a loss away. I've got a pretty young 3 DC setup (23, 22, 22 and sub is 22 years old) is doing enough to keep teams at bay so far in my league. I've got a couple of great strikers and a really good MC, but my wide players are very lacking, but have OK important stats i.e. pace, crossing, passing, technique. Was up to 2nd prior to this round, down to 5th now only 1 point outside the top 4. No more recruiting either, will just make do with what I got for the rest of the season!

...oops.

my match against Sky Valley was a 3-0 loss by default.

I'd transferred some players to my reserved team and forgot to move some back up, two of my players on the bench had red cards :/ 

"forfeit due to being unable to field a full squad of 16 players"

tad embarrassing.

2-1 win at home.  Was looking pretty comfortable until they pulled one back in the 88" minute.  Neeeeed mooooore moneys!