Sociallistic town, sociallistic club, our pride!

[Draken]

Let me present ND Gorica, fotball club from Slovenia.
ND Gorica is a fotball club based in Nova Gorica in SLovenia. Nova Gorica is a planned town, buolt after 1947 following Paris Peace Treaty which left Gorizia out of Yugoslavia in Italia. As a counterpart on Yugoslavian side, Nova Gorica (eng.: New Gorizia) was built. The town is a centre of region near Soča river, Vipava valley and Karst hills and plateau around. Town slowly grew and it currently has around 15.000 peopole, with municipality surrounding it around 31.000.
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Nova Gorica during night.

ND Gorica

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Back to fotball club, ND Grica was established in 1947 as "Gorica Physical Culture Club", in 1961 it merged with another local club and renamed into Nogometno društvo Gorica (eng.: Football Society Gorica). During its time in Yugoslavia (Up to 1991) to club mainly played in lower leagues, only in late 80s it rose up to Slovenian republic league ( 3. division). After Slovenian independence it was one of 21 football clubs that formed 1. Slovenian league. It finished in 4. place. In 1995-1996 ND gorica finished first among reduced, 10-club first league and finished Olimpija Ljubljana 4 years of reign. Following ND Gorica success, NK Maribor would follow to dominate league for 7 years before it was interupted by, guess who.... ND Gorica, who won its second tittle during 2002-2003 season. This season would also mark the start of Gorica`s domination, which would end in 2006 after 3 tittles in a row. After that Gorica would fail to win a tittle again, mostly wandering in the golden middle, finishing second during 2006-2007 and 2008-2009 campaign but falling later and almost getting relegated during bad 2014-2015 season when club finished 9th and managed to avoid relegation in playoff qualifications against Aluminij. However, despite severe financial drawbacks, club managed to kick back, becoming a talent factory under the Alps. Good work with young players led to club finishing 2nd during 2016-2017 campaign, their best result in almost 10 years.

Their good performances during last season although they were marked as main favourite for relegation inspired me to take them on a yourney and try to make them the best again. I have decide to share this story with you, as there are not many stories with clubs in smaller leagues and countries like Slovenia. I hope you will enyoy. For any grammar mistakes I apologise in advance, english is not my best side....
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[choices]

For any grammar mistakes I apologise in advance, english is not my best side....

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It's okay we all know what your best side is...coaching up small teams! I love smaller league saves.

 

[ninjaskill]

Good luck with them, Novi Gorica looks very pretty

 

[Draken]

Summertime, getting hot!

Pre-Season


Here we go. we start our pre season 14.6.2016. But we wont have much time to get 100% ready because we are in 1st round of Europa league qualifications, with first game on 30.6.. Slovenian 1. League starts in 1 month on 17.7.. Long is infront of us, so we should start.

Squad


After inspecting squad, I have come to conclusion that we have a young and very talented team but we are also very short with players on few positions. We are lacking a right back and we are short on proper central midfielders. I will be looking on improving our team with few older, experienced players but will also add younger players. Budget is not high, we have 100.000€ for transfers and 10.000€/week for salaries.

After checking with my players I have decided to go with 4-1-2-3 formations. Here are some more important players, that will have an important role in our team.

GK:

Grega Sorcan is a young, 20 years old goalkepper. Allready a 2nd goalkepper in national team (1st is Atletico Madrid`s Jan Oblak). Luckily he has long contract and I plan to build my team around him and few other players. Hopefully he can continue tradition of world class Slovenia goalkeppers, after:
-Marko Simeunovič in the 90s played more then 100 games for Olimpija and also 100 and more for their fiercest rivals Maribor. Abroad he played for Olympiakos for 4 seasons and 2 seasons for Sekerspor. He also played 57 games for national team.
- Samir Handanovic, current number 1 of Inter Milan, Udinesse before that and 81 games for National team .
-Jan Oblak, current number 1 of Atletico Madrid and benfica before that and also number 1 of Slovenian national team with 14 games so far.
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Defense:

Tine Kavcic is 22 years old central defender, ball playing defender in my formation. He is a leader and my primary option for a central defender. He will be complemented by more experienced 27 years old Miha Gregorcic and 30 years old Alen Jogan.

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Midfield:

Here we have two players worth mentioning. Jaka Kolenc is a 22 years old defensive midfielder who will play as Regista or as Anchor Man in combination with Jan Humar, 20 years odl Advanced playmakers. They are both future of this club and will have an important role this season. Other option for midfield is only Rok Grudina, also young and talented 21 years old central midfielder.

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Wingers:

Although they are operating as a part of midfield, lets make them a new group. Here we have talented 21 years old Bosnian internation Rifat Kapic on left side and 22 years old Amel Dzuzdanovic on right. But Dzuzdanovic is out for 4-5 months so he will be replaced by young 18 years old Mark Gulic. Another option is experienced, 27 years old Dejan Zigon who can play both RW and LW and will act as a joker from bench.

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Strikers:

Here we have two younger players, Tilen Nagode and Bede Osuji and also experienced, 32 years old Miran Burgic. Not that I like any one of them, unluckily my budget gives me no other chance but to play them.

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Here we are, it is sunny Tuesday and we are playing our first game against Croatian Regional league team Buje. Decent start of our pre season.

ND Gorica 2-0 Buje
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For our second friendly, 4 days later we decided to play a big club named Paris Saint Germain. Yes, players like Pastore, Cavani, Rabiot, Thiago Silva and others ...... wont be coming to Gorica. Because we play Paris Saint Germain Reserves team. Sorry

ND Gorica 1-1 Paris Saint Germain
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One week before playing Slovakian team Trnava in Euro league qualifications we played our 2nd and last friendly game. Against team full of talented players I think we played a good game.

Transfer activity in June:
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IN:


Miha Korosec -> Sampion (free)

Miha Korosec is a 24 years old right back with wast experience from first league where he played for Celje and Nafta Lendava. He will compete for minutes with our next signing.

Tjaz Polajzer -> Verzej (24k€)

This young, 23 years old right back comes in from second league Verzej with no experience from first league. He also marks the end of signing players for right back position

Derrick Appiah -> free transfer

This young talented central midfielder used to be part of Monaco for last 3 seasons and Napoli FC before that, without making any apperance for both of them. Lets hope he can show his talent here.

OUT:

Jani Curk -> SC Wiener Neustadt (Loan)

With uros Celcer and Matija Skarabot competing for left back, former Maribor player was left behind. Loan was the best option for his further developement, so he was loaned to Austrian first league team.

Rok Buzinel -> Brda (loan)

Youn and talented Attacking Midfielder Buzinel was left without a place in our team and was loaned to our affiliate and Second league participant Brda.


Next update will bring us start of first league with game against Celje and also first leg of Europe league qualifications against Trnava.
See you! (H)




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[Draken]

August is burning!

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It is playing time!

Before I start with 1. Slovenian League, let me just explain what is the league system. There are 10 teams in league. There are 36 games, every team plays with each one 4 times, twice at home and twice away. Winner qualifies for 2nd round of Champions league qualifications. 2nd and 3rd team are going into Europa league qualifications, 2nd and 1st round respectively. Cup winner also qualifies to 1st round of Europa qualifications.

10th team is automatically relegated to 2. SNL (Slovenian football league), while 9th team plays playoff qualifications with 2nd team from 2.SNL. They play 2 games, one at home and one away to determine who will compete in 1.SNL next season. 9th team from 1.SNL plays first game away.

Our official goal before the start of the season is Top Half finish, but I am aiming at one of thosefirst 3 spots to ensure at least 2 European games next season. 1st place is far far away as I think NK Maribor ar by far the most superior team in league. For other 2 places I will probably compete against NK Domžale NK Olimpija Ljubljana & NK celje. It is going to be fun.

Lets go!



Round 1
Celje 1-1 ND Gorica
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Decent show from our players and lucky result at the end of a game. Both teams were attacking, however Celje took lead in 74` minute. After that I threw everything I had in a game and it payed of when Tilen nagode score a late winner in 90` minute.



Round 2

ND Gorica 0-1 Krsko

9` Kramaric

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Its a small stadium, but it was full. Unluckily there was no victory. Nuclear boys defeated Gorica in a 2nd game of the season. We dominated the game but just couldn`t score. Well played Krsko.


Round 3

Radomlje 0-0 ND Gorica

Bad performance from my team, although the newcomers Radomlje were not much better. Painfull game to watch, as both teams played very bad. This was also last game of month July, ND Gorica are 9th with only 2 points from 3 games.


Round 4

ND Gorica 2-0 Aluminij
Guberac 19`
Burgic 39`
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Finally! A victory and thanks to our fans, Terror boys we achieved a great result to break a series od 3 games without victory in 1.snl. Hopefully we will sucessfully fight opcoming battles.


Round 5

ND Gorica 1-0 Rudar Velenje
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Second in a row! Young striker OSuji replaced Nagode on a bench and managed to score in its first game for Gorica this season. Hopefully we will see more from him this season.


Round 6

Olimpija Ljubljana 0-1 ND Gorica
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Playing away against Olimpija in capital of Slovenia, city of Ljubljana is allways great. Biggest stadium in country, 16.000 fans cheering for their favourite.... And only thing that can be better than playing in Ljubljana, is winning in Ljubljana and thats what we did. Although Olimpija were dominating the game, young Nagode scored a screamer for victory in 2nd half.


Round 7

ND Gorica 1-1 Domzale
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Although we were better team on the pich, we were struggling with the score, falling behind early in second half. Most experienced player in our team, 34 years old Sukalo score late equalizer to secure a point against Domzale.


Round 8

ND Gorica 1-0 NK Maribor
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Scalping a league`s best is allways something special. Burgic managed to put us just 2 points shy of 1st position. After pretty bad start into a season we are now on fire!!! This game also marks last league game in August, next game comes in 3 weeks.

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Terror boys showed us great support!


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ND Gorica finished last season in a 4th position, however they were victorius in a Cup Finals and they qualified to Europa League qualifications. Our goal is to reach 3rd round of qualifications, everything pass that would be excellent.

Round 1
In the 1st round draw gave us Slovakian team Trnava, with 1st game in Slovenia.


First Game

ND Gorica 1-0 Trnava
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We were clearly a better team on the field. Young Grudina scored only goal in the game and enabled us a great lead before we travel to Slovakia.

Second Game

Trnava 0-1 ND Gorica
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It was an open game, with both teams attacking and missing many chances. It was not until Nagode scored a winning goal in 2nd half and I was sure Trnava wont turn this game around. we managed to secure another two European games.


Round 2

With the next game we remained on Balkan, just moving little bit to the east, to BUlgaria`s capital Sofia to be precise. We were about to play Slavia Sofia, with first game to be played in Gorica

First Game

ND Gorica 2-1 Slavia Sofia
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Slavia were very lucky to score that goal. Before and after that goal they werent there however they managed to get them self in a pretty good position before a rematch. We on the other hand could score at least one more, however Burgic missed 1v1 chance. Nevertheless victory is a victory.

Second Game

Slavia Sofia 0-2 ND Gorica
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What we failed to achieve in a first game we managed to do in second. A great defending and fast counter attacks brought us a victory. SLavia had their chances, but failed to score past great Sorcan and we are in 3rd round.


Round 3

We are going to our neighbours, Austria. We are playing one of the best Austria teams, Austria Wien with first game to be played in Wien.

First Game

Austria Wien 1-1 ND Gorica
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Early lead from Burgic, however Austrians managed to bring themself back into the game with nice goal in 34` minute. In second half we mostly seen defending Slovenians and frustrated Austrian who were unable to score. Great result before second game and we are still very well in the game.


Second Game

ND Gorica 0-0 Austria Wien
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What can I say. Everything past 3rd will be a nice gift for us. However this gift was well deserved as we were not outplayed by richer Austrians and we are going on!
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As allways our fans were there to help us.


Round 4 - Playoff

Draw gave us pretty harsh oponnetnt, above all way richer tha we are. It is Hertha Berlin.

First Game

Hertha 2-1 ND Gorica
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I think that it is clear that we can be very happy with that result. Germans were dominating the game and we were very lucky to score that goal.

Second Game

ND Gorica 0-3 Hertha
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Unfortunatelly for us our Europena fairytaile ends here.After their first goal I opened a little bit and started attacking. This gave germans even more chances and they scored 2 more until the last whistle. Nevertheless I cant fault my boys they did their best.


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Lets check if there was any transfer activity in the summer.


IN:

Ivica Guberac -> Free Transfer
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Ivica Guberac is a 28 years old central midfielder with wast experience from Slovenian First league where he played 11 seasons for FC Koper with more than 180 apperances. He last played for Khimki in Russian premier division.

Goran Sukalo -> Free Transfer
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Goran SUkalo is 34 years old, experienced central midfielder who played last 16 seasons Second Bundesliga, appearing in more than 300 games there. He also played 34 games for Slovenian national team, scoring twice.


Aljosa Azman -> 1.000€ (Triglav Kranj)

This young, 16 years old goalkepper was signed for a better future.

Danijel Sutalo -> Free Transfer

Signed during last hours of transfer market, this young 18 years old central midfielder will train in U18 and hopefully develop into a good player.

Kang Hyun -> Free Transfer

Also signed on the last day, this young 18 years old Korean can play as Defensive midfielder but can also operat in central or attacking midfield.


OUT:

Derrick Appiah -> Cibalia (loan)
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With the arrival of Guberac and Sukalo, young Appiah would only recieve little of playing time. To continue his developement, he was loaned to Croatian 1.st league team.


Matija Boben -> Inter Zapresic (loan)
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With Kavcic, Gregorcic and Jogan my first choices for 2 CD positions Boben would be crying for some playing time. With 22 years on him he still has his whole carrer infront of him and so he wasl loaned to Croatian 1st league team.



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