Soproni VSE - Building a new powerhouse in Central Europe.

[ErikHe]

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Soproni Vasutas Sportegylet
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After years of mediocrity, and no recent silverware to show, the board of Soproni VSE is wanting some change. They have never played a single season in Hungarian 1st division, and now, their patience has ended. The city of Sopron, near the Austrian-Hungarian border has been waiting for 5 years, ever since their Sopron FC was dissolved due to financial reasons. It was only 8 years ago, when they saw European football in their town, now they've been reduced to domestic lower levels for far too long. They have summoned a bunch of different managers, all across Europe to find a new, ambitious manager for the ambitious team. Among them, an unknown young manager, from an irrelevant footballing country, whose only experience of managing a real football team is from a video game. But somehow, he is the front-runner, and the favorite to sign the contract. That shows an unbelievable out of the box and unorthodox thinking from the board, which might backfire.

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[ErikHe]

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Soproni Vasutas Sportegylet
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The chairman of the board Jakub Skala and club director Akos Sziszar are happy to announce, that a 20-year old Estonian manager, Erik Hermanson, has been signed to a 1-year €575 p/w contract. The press conference will follow shortly.

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Press conference​

Journalist: Hello, Mr Hermanson, well... who are you?

EH: I'm just a bloke, who has been playing a lot of Football Manager, and thought, hey, I should try to run a real team. I am very happy that VSE have given me a chance, I really hope to grow with the team and prove to everyone, that I can do it.

Journalist: There have been talks of very ambitious plans with this club all around Sopron. What are your long- and short-term expectations for this club?

EH: Well, first of all, I want us to become a relevant force in Hungary, which means we have to get promoted as soon as possible. Me and the board both agree, that with the squad available for me, that could be done at least by the end of next season, if not this one. After that, I would like to bring as much silverware to Sopron as possible, and hopefully we could even grow to a team, that might one day be featured in continental competitions as well.

Journalist: You have only been given a one-year deal here in VSE, what if the board decides to go another way and not re-sign you?

EH: The one year deal is something both of us wanted. They wanted it to be an insurance, if the results aren't there and they don't see any progress. I wanted it, so I'd have an escape route, in case I couldn't manage this team.

Journalist: Well I would like to thank you for answering some of my questions, thank you, and the best of luck for the upcoming season!​

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[ErikHe]

June & July

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Soproni Vasutas Sportegylet
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JUNE & JULY
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I wanted to really see my team, and give everyone a chance, so I booked a few too many friendlies. The good thing is that I saw all of my players and everyone got match fit, the bad thing, some of them got so tired, that I had to rest them. I also hosted a friendly cup, just something I like to do every offseason, that really took the wind out of most of them.

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26.06 vs Soproni VSE U21 (Friendly) 8-1 ​Liptak OG, L.Szabo x3, Maraczi, Balazs x2, Sifter
1.07 vs ZTE (Friendly) 2-1 Bognar, P.Szabo
5.07 vs Sparta Prague B (Sopron Cup) 2-1 Erdelyi, Balazs
6.07 vs Sopron VSE U21 (Sopron Cup) 6-2 Z.Szabo x4, Bali, Fazakas
7.07 vs Veszprem (Sopron Cup) 5-2 Gaal x2, Z.Szabo, Pados, Soos
10.07 vs Tatabanya (Friendly) 3-0 Fazekas, Petö x2
13.07 vs Puskas Akademia (Friendly) 0-3 -
16.07 vs Veszprem (Friendly) 4-5 Nyilasi, Fazekas, Fazakas, P.Szabo
21.07 at Grad (Friendly) 0-1 -
24.07 at Verzej (Friendly) 1-1 Balasz
28.07 vs Spartak (Friendly) 1-2 Bali

So I played a total of 11 games in a little bit more than a month, my new players must love me. Atleast I found out quickly, what do I need to improve, and that was defence. When I took over this team, I had 4 RB's and 2 CB's, no left backs. Luckily, one of the RB's could play CB, and one of them's natural role is Complete wing back, which is the role for my LB, so I put him on special training, and he played really well there. Still, I needed a lot more depth and balance, so I signed couple of players.

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Norbert Kallai

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Dragomir Kaurin

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Aaron Kircher

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Alex Szeleczky

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[ErikHe]

August

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Soproni Vasutas Sportegylet
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Real challenges begin...

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... well, not right away, I still had a few friendlies to finish up, until the regular season started. Fewer, than last month, but still a lot, all just to get to know all of my players and give them enough playing time.

1.8 vs Varazdin (Friendly) 3-2 Erdelyi, Balasz, L.Szabo
5.8 vs Gyirmot (Friendly) 2-2 Bali x2
8.8 vs Honved - MFA (Friendly) 6-2 Deme, Bali, Baranyai, Sifter x2, Varga
11.8 at Mor (Friendly) 4-1 Nyilasi, Gaal, P.Horvath
15.8 vs Csorna (Friendly) 5-2 Bali x3, Balasz x2


Unfortunately, getting to know your squad better does have a price, as both my first choice goalkeeper and striker both got injured. (Well the goalkeeper got injured at the end of last month, just forgot to mention before)

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But still, even with these two huge losses I had a clear First 11 in mind for my competitive debut. All of the players in my eleven had had a chance to shine in the offseason, and as the last three games had shown, we were up and running. My season opener was Hungarian Cup 2nd round game away against a non league team Mako, everything is set for a great and an entertaining debut...
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21.8 at Mako (Hungarian Cup 2nd Round) 0-2

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What was that? We were in great shape, we were creating an incredible amount of CCC's, but still, we managed to lose to a non-league team and end our Hungarian cup season with my debut. Looks like an awesome start to the season.


A few days later, after I had yelled my throat sore to my complacent Second division starlets after they had managed to lose in my debut, we were looking forward to the first game of the league season. I benched my "star players" who didn't find enough motivation to win against a smaller team. Luckily we had a home-opener, and a whopping mass of 569 people game to see the next big thing in Europe.

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25.8 vs Szolnoki MAV (Division II) 2-1 Fazakas, Z.Szabo

Well, atleast it's a victory and 3 points is 3 points, but still it didn't feel like a great game. I was hoping I'd be miles ahead of other teams in the league at this point, because of my more extensive offseason, but no, Szolnok controlled most of the match. Only positive thing I saw in that one, was that they actually didn't manage to score on me, I had to help them with a dumb own goal.

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31.8 at Gyirmot (Division II) 1-1Bali

Besides the result, that game was a lot better than the last one. We played great football all game, and after they were a man down, we really riled on the pressure, which unfortunately never materialized into another goal. Instead they got a quick counter attack which they flicked in. I opted to play Mark Heinrich behind the sticks, who had just recently returned from an injury, so he is still not in full form, I'll forgive him that.

The game saw me lose my only 'pure' leftback to injury, young loanee from Austria Aaron Kircher, and it seems he might be out for a while...
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League table

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