NOVEMBER 2011
November will see us play only three fixtures, the toughest one arguably being against high-flying Union Berlin.
There's only four teams left that we haven't played in the season (three if you can count the friendly against Kiel in pre-season), and from what I have seen so far I am starting to believe that we could actually achieve the unthinkable and be in contention for promotion at the end of the campaign.
I certainly don't want to jump the gun here, but so far, with the exception of the match against Essen, there was not a single team that I would consider superior to our side.
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Looking at the statistics, this game was about as even as you can get - even possession, even chances, both on and off target, and all-round a fairly balanced affair.
It doesn't take a genius to predict that an early injury to your key player can affect a team badly, and after
Robert Zeher left the pitch in pain after 15 minutes the team looked rather nervous.
Manuel Stiefler stepped up and scored a beautiful placed shot to give us the lead, and once again immediately after conceding the equalizer, but the team never looked completely confident.
So it came to no big surprise that our defense folded late in the game and let in two goals that we were unable to undo at the other end of the pitch, once more ending our winning streak.
Not only a very avoidable defeat, but our star striker being injured for three weeks made this one of the worst games of the season so far. I hope my second string strikers can step in and keep the scoring alive and well.
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Bottom-table Kiel almost proved a stumbling block for our attack, left rather toothless in a game in which we prevented even a single shot on goal at our end.
On the other half of the pitch we only managed to cause any danger with two of our over twenty-five shots on goal, and
Rodriguinho finally remembered the scoring days of last season and tucked away the only goal in a rather dull game.
With
Robert Zeher still out of contest for the next match, I was really hoping to get some momentum from a match against a rather weak opponent, but it turned out we were quite lucky to get the win at all.
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I was bracing myself for our second defeat this month, with many starters out for this match, and it didn't look good for us, being two goals down after only twenty minutes of playing time.
A slight tweak in tactics and mentality finally saw us getting more of the match, and a somewhat lucky penalty decision had us cut the deficit to only one goal by half-time.
Although we were having better chances in the second half, and limiting
Union Berlin to uncoordinated wide-shots on our end, we were almost left without any points.
Markus Felfernig eventually scored the late equalizer in extra time after coming off the bench only minutes earlier.
Ultimately, a draw was a fair result on this day.
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Not the best month for us so far, but so is football. The other teams in the run have played fairly similar performances, and so we are still stay at the top of the table, although our goal difference has shrunk considerably from only three weeks ago.
It's becoming apparent that while I believe to have a real gem of a player in my team, in the form of
Robert Zeher, the second striker and the backups are simply not quite up to the task of filling in for him when needed.
So far, my scouts have not provided me with any good addition in that area of the team, at least not one that we can afford, and although we found a great and promising young Russian striker that will join us shortly, he is not yet up to the standard of first-team duty.
It's turning out to be a very tight affair in the league, where one bad game can cause the top spot t stumble down to mid-table, but at least it looks like many strong teams in the run can keep the the ones in check without any one or two teams running of, leaving the rest of the field behind in the dust.
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DECEMBER 2011
Another short, three match month ahead to end the first round of matches before we head into the winter break.
My scouts managed to find a pretty good goalkeeper from
Vitesse,
Sebastiaan van der Sman, who has become so unhappy at his lack of first-team football that we were able to sign him for free in early January.
I'm confident he will become a great boost to my defense, with
Jan Schloesser becoming less and less reliable in recent games.
Wilmer Meza will still be my first choice in years to come, I believe, but he joined us a day too late and is as of yet unregistered, and even when we can add him to the first team in January, I do not want to run the risk of burning him out at his tender age.
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Burghausen, being predicted to win the league and struggling at mid-table, proved to be a very formidable opponent, and one that was almost too much for us to handle.
The game was mostly fought in midfield, and although we had most of the possession, we were simply unable to break down the defense.
Some deadly passing finally allowed
Josue to score for our side, but an almost identical play on the other end negated the goal only ten minutes later.
The game went on much the same as before, with very few chances, and neither side being able to make anything happen in the final third of the pitch.
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The bad run continued with this match, one we were completely outclassed in for much of the proceedings. We never looked likely to take the game, the passing was inaccurate and although we had a number of chances, the finishing was uninspired and missed the mark too often.
At least we never gave up and rolled over, and so we managed a late goal, but it did little to prevent me from screaming at my team until my throat hurt once we were back in the dressing room.
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Two more points were dropped in a fairly average game when our defense completely switched off close to the end and allowed
Osnabrueck to draw level from their only clear-cut chance of the game.
I can't really say much about the game, as there was simply not much to tell, but as far as draws go, this one will go down in my book as a loss, as we had it, and let it go.
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Our bad run continued all the way into December and on to the new year, with getting only two points from our last two matches, and dropping back out of the promotion spots.
I can only hope the rest over the winter weeks and some good results in our friendly fixtures can help us regain the form and confidence we demonstrated in the earlier parts of the season, and become contenders for the title once more.
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---------- Post added at 02:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:52 PM ----------
Well a fantastic read and no doubt an unbelievable few seasons you've had, Let's hope you continue the success eh?
Just a quick side-note. What leagues have you loaded? And have you done any database edits since just reading this story inspires me to do a game of my own, a little tired of english football at the minute.
Keep it up.
Thanks. To answer the question, I didn't do any database edits for this one, but I downloaded a custom database that adds German leagues down to tier 5, where I started.
I loaded quite a few leagues, most of Europe and select leagues from the rest of the world.
I think it's about 70 leagues altogether, so the game gets rather slow at times, but at least it allows me to get good players at a very low level that otherwise would be regens.
If you do want to try some outside England save, I can only encourage you to do so, it's the most fun I had in a long, long time. I usually play Leeds in 9 out 10 saves, s this was something special.
I particularly like the lack of any work permits I have to deal with, I can sign pretty much whoever I want, which is a great bonus.
Micky
---------- Post added at 03:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:00 PM ----------
JANUARY 2012
The old year concluded, and the new year started with yet another string of friendly fixtures.
Despite my hefty overdrawing of the wage budget I showed some goodwill to the board by arranging two more high-profile friendlies that brought in just under 400k in gate receipts.
Off course, my request for more transfer budget fell on deaf ears, but by now I only make those requests to annoy rather than hoping for a miracle.
We played some more low-profile fixtures that might very well help boost our plummeting morale, but I decided my time is better spend in the office than on the side-lines, so I let my assistant handle them.
January will also finally enable us to register
Wilmer Meza for the squad, and my new first choice keeper for the time being,
van der Sman is also set to arrive.
To reduce the wage bill a little bit I transferred
Georgiev for free, as he was playing worse by the minute, and also Tim Schwartz since I simply don't have the money to spend on someone who's not even good enough for the bench.
In case you were wondering, my new-years resolution was to scream a little less at my team and to give the referees the benefit of the doubt at least one out of three times.
Let's see how that works out....
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We started the new year just as we left off - average.
It was a match that was quite boring to watch, with none of the great play that saw us rise to the table and too much of the play that saw us sink back down.
Only
Fabio Lemes seemed up for the task today, scoring a beautiful goal after we had gone down earlier in the first half.
I was really hoping for more after some great performances from the earlier friendly fixtures, and only one new addition to the squad that could possibly upset the team chemistry.
I am still convinced that we have just a bad run, and we can return to winning ways instead of this being our real level of ability and the glimpses of brilliance we showcase earlier in the season were just a fluke.
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After the end of January, with twenty-two games being played, we are slowly dropping on the league table. It is still a very tight affair on the top, but the difference has grown to more than one game to reach the promotion spots.
Although we are in no eminent danger of falling into the relegation zone we were said to end up in I can't feel too happy about where we are at the moment.
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FEBRUARY 2012
With much of the season gone, we need to pick up our game once more.
I took the time to fiddle with our tactics, and while still playing the same formation of the last two years, I think I tweaked it to better reflect my players strengths and abilities.
It shouldn't take too long to catch on, and I can only hope we get some results sooner rather than later.
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The icy weather saw only a small crowd of just under five-thousand turn up to watch a game in which we clearly dominated almost every aspect of the game, but failed once more to make many of our chances count. A deflected ball that only hit the woodwork was the highlight of the first half, before pacey striker
Rodriguinho stepped up to score the only goal of the match.
It was no doubt a vital victory, even more so against a team higher in the table.that we were hereby able to put back behind us to climb to fifth place.
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I am starting to feel a lot better now, as we managed to record our second straight win with yet another dominant performance. We were threatening almost from the start, and rewarded when
Robert Zeher managed to score after a drought of over six games prior to today.
Many more chances were thwarted by an amazing
Kassel goalkeeper, who was ultimately beaten once more by
Rodriguinho close to the final whistle.
I'm glad to see the morale amongst the players steadily climbing back up to good levels, and the understanding I have seen between them on the pitch leaves me hopeful for the coming fixtures.
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If you were reading closely, I don't have to tell you how important this result was.
Erfurt has shaped up into one of the top contenders, sitting at the top of the table at the beginning of the match, so to win today could very well be a defining moment for what is still to come.
Although the chances were fairly evenly spread between the two teams, some impeccable goalkeeping kept the ball out of our net, or was picked up by our defense before it could even get there.
Two goals for us within the half-hour mark put the pressure on
Erfurt and allowed us to drop deeper and threaten with counters instead of going balls-to-the-wall and risking injuries.
Eventually,
Leonardo Bacci scored his first ever goal, rising above all the other defenders to direct a corner kick with his head into the corner of the goal.
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The forth victory in a row, and a return to glory for
Robert Zeher with a spectacular hat-trick in this match.
Although I was quite confident going into this fixture against a team struggling to stay out of the relegation zone, they certainly put up a good fight.
After going up by three goals in the first half they seemed like a new team after half-time and were taking the game to us. Had it not been for some fantastic saves by
Wilmer Meza, starting in his first ever league game for us, it could have easily ended in a draw, with us being confined to our own half for much of the remainder of the match.
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February was yet another great month. We were able to end our poor run of late and win all four of our games, two of them against teams higher in the table, and put ourselves back in contention. Just as poor morale was a problem before, I am afraid of over-confidence creeping in now to make us stumble.
With only twelve games left, we are looking in good shape, but with the leage table being as tightly packed as ever, I don't think we can survive another bad spell as we had late last year.
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MARCH 2012
March is yet another packed month, with six matches to be played, and my biggest worry, despite loosing of course, is that both match and season fatigue are going to wreak havok on my very small squad.
My backroom and scouting activities were relatively quiet, with the exception of a seventeen year-old Ukrainian midfielder, highly recommended by my top scout, that we managed to sign for next season.
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This was quite likely the second game of the season that we should have lost, but didn't.
The brief spell of dominance that culminated in
Fabio Lemes scoring from close range was enough to win the match for us, and only a man of the match performance by
van der Sman in goal prevented us from loosing this match, in front of yet another record crowd of
over 8000 spectators.
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This was our second lucky result in a row, being on the back-foot for much of it against a team that were really taking the game to us. It almost looked like an exact repeat of last weeks fixture, but this time we failed to weather the storm and conceded the equalizer late in the first half.
We came out more composed after half-time, but Dresden was defending too tightly for us to get anywhere near another goal.
No doubt I would have loved to keep the winning streak alive, but to be honest, we were lucky to escape with one point.
The biggest blow was undoubtedly the possibly season-ending injury to my first-choice playmaker
Obhafuoso, who fractured his wrist in the second half, a massive blow to my ambitions.
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Top-seated
RW Essen somehow managed to steal this game from us, despite us having the upper hand in almost all aspects of the game, except the most vital one - putting you chances away. Oh, and matching the asking price of the
referee, as we had a staggering
three goals disallowed. Even the
FA looked away in shame as I told the football world exactly what I felt about letting blind people officiate matches.
This game could prove to be a massive blow, as we once more dropped from the top with this result.
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Determined to prove that we can win games with only eleven players on our side, we came out to play in this match.
Ahlen is certainly not the strongest team in the league, battling relegation at the bottom of the table, but a great way to shrug of a bad match from the week before.
We were always pressing and challenging but it took over an hour to record the only goal, courtesy of
Manuel Stiefler, to get the deserved victory.
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With only four days since the last game I was forced to play a fairly weak side against
Paderborn, to rest players for the much tougher
Munster game in only three days time.
Most notably was the absence of
Zeher, who was completely spent after the
Ahlen fixture, and so our finishing left a lot to be desired.
Josue really stepped up in the playmaker role, left vacant by the injured
Obhafuoso, and got a goal and an assist to
Fabio Lemes to earn himself the man of the match.
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The third game within the space of only one week was not one for the purists. Lacking energy from my players led to some poor play and despite leading until late in the game after
Bonaventuras first ever goal for us and a great
Fabio Lemes score, we very simply too exhausted to prevent
Munster from stealing the game from us in the closing minutes.
It was a close-fought match, and I would have been content with a draw, but the loss really hurt, both in terms of on-pitch performance and in regards to the league table.
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March was a mixed bag for us, two wins, as many losses and a draw, and only fairly similar performances by our closest rivals in the league have prevented it from becoming a complete disaster.
We are still very much in the running for the title, but with only six games left, there's not much room for error in the coming month.
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APRIL 2012
April will see us play five fixtures, all of vital importance.
I hope we can bounce back from last weeks defeat, but I do believe we are still very much alive in the promotion race.
My squad is almost at full health and everybody seems quite motivated.
What is even better is that a lot of the last fixtures will see the other teams at the top play each other, nicking vital points of each other, no doubt, and allow us to overtake at least one of them if we play well in our own games.
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A sizable crowd watched us return to winning ways against mid-table
Saarbrucken.
Although they had more possession of the ball during much of the game, we didn't allow them to do anything with it.
Growing obviously frustrated at our tight defense they became careless in the back and allowed a quickfire double by
Rodriguinho to decide the match even before half-time.
We pressed even more after the break and had a number more chances in our attempt to close the gap in goal difference between us and
RW Essen, but it was not to be.
A missed spot kick by
Fabio Lemes was about the only moot point in an otherwise outstanding performance.
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No doubt that their lowly stature and our solid win in our first meeting with
Wehen caused us to think of this match as a done deal even before the kick-off.
I'm not taking myself out of this assessment as I played a rather weak team to keep my starters fit, and it cost us dearly. We never got the game under control and played rather nervously for the most part. At times we were on the brink of scoring, but ultimately it was the inexperience of my defensive line that allowed
Wehen to score the only goal of the match to end a winning streak before it got started.
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More dropped points in a match that saw us go down one goal even before the stadium announcer finished reading the line-ups. We pressed on after that, but it became apparent that
Sandhausen decided to wait this one out as good as they could, as they dropped deep and just shut up shop in the back.
Fabio Lemes was finally able to break down the tight defense with a curling shot from the edge of the area, but even a very dominant second half was not enough for us to get anything more than a draw from this fixture.
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Getting to the point where anything but a win would surely mean the end to our ambitions, I was hopeful to play
Kiel, a team who was already relegated at this point of the season, and had nothing to play for anymore.
It turned out to be just the game we needed, with a very confident and at times ridiculously dominant performance.
Robert Zeher returned to his scoring ways by getting on the score-sheet twice, and although we allowed the only shot on target to get past our keeper, it never looked much in doubt that we would emerge victorious.
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This was one **** of a game, and on that would have ended all hope if we had even been held to a draw.
Union Berlin was sitting three points ahead of us within the promotion zone, but we came out and hit them on the break when
Robert Zeher cruised past two defenders and tucked the ball in the corner of the goal.
We never let the game get out of our control after that, with a number of great chances, but without yet another outstanding performance by
van der Sman between our posts it could have turned out quite differently.
On the whole, it was a great performance, with an immeasurably important result, and I don't think my fingernails will ever be the same after this one.
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Here was another month that saw us drop vital points in our bid for the top spots, but once again, the other teams in the running performed quite similar, and so we managed to fight our way back up.
As you can see, the table is incredibly tight at the top, with any of the top teams having as much a chance at the title as for the unrewarding fourth place spot.
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---------- Post added at 05:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:36 AM ----------
MAY 2012
One last fixture to be played, one last chance at glory against a team w couldn't beat the first time around, and three points up for the taking that can make or break the season.
I can't believe that the third season in a row will come down to the very last fixture - I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.
Lucas Winck went on record rallying the team to play the best performance of their life, and everybody is itching to go.
We are expecting a record crow of over 11.000 spectators in our last fixture of the season, and the home-turf advantage could prove invaluable.
Not much left to do but hope and pray, if you are the praying kind.
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Wow, we did it again, and I am still trembling.
Although I do have to admit that this season felt a lot easier than any of the previous ones - no doubt due to the three promotion chances instead of just one - I still can't believe we did it.
After seeing my star-defender being sold off in pre-season and being once more forced to fill my ranks with free agents due to lack of funds I didn't go into this season with high hopes.
I am amazed at the improvements my squad has undergone, with last years star players performing very much up to the standard and the new additions adding more to the team than I would have ever dared asking of them.
I have to admit, after the rather poor run to end the last year I was quite tempted when
Valencia offered me a job, paying me twice in salary than what I could spend for my entire quad, but I am glad I stuck it out here in the
"Wagnerstadt".
It might be a long-shot, but I guess for now I will pass on joining a legendary club in favour of becoming a legend of my very own.
Robert Zeher, despite missing few games scored 24 goals, more than the previous league record (although he was beaten to the new record by prolific Union Berlin striker
Mustafa Kucukovic) and my new midfield stars
Josue and
Bonaventura are already showing the amazing potential I know they have.
Sebastiaan van der Sman was certainly one of the best captures we made in mid-season, an immeasurably confidence boost in the back, and
Wilmer Meza is showing he will be a future star once he gets more experience.
On the whole, it was a season that proved that early predictions about league positions where completely pulled out of the *** of whoever made them.
To show you what I mean, here's a few predicted and final results:
SpVgg Bayreuth
Predicted: 20th
Result: Champions (Promoted)
Erfurt
Predicted: 9th
Result: 2nd (Promoted)
RW Erfurt
Predicted: 19th
Result: 3rd (Lost in Promotion Play-off)
SV Wacker Burghausen
Predicted: 1st
Result: 14th
Saarbrucken
Predicted: 17th
Result: 7th
Paderborn
Predicted: 2nd
Result: 16th
As you can see, those are not even close to what really happened, and just another reason to completely ignore anything I hear from outside my own backroom.
So, time once more for the obligatory and self-congratulatory display of emails that flooded my inbox:
And the final table of the
German 3.Liga (a place I never want to see again):
With the season at an end, it's time to dish out the rewards:
I still don't get why
Robert Zeher didn't win it, playing fewer games than the winner, having a better rating and showing real team spirit by not only scoring a lot but also setting up his teammates an impressive 15 times. Well, he is the best for me, that's for sure.
And finally, the team that made it all happen:
This season ended better than I could have hoped for, and now we are really getting into a position where we can make some real money and build an even stronger squad.
TV Revenue will be a lot higher, we might tie up a much better sponsorship deal, and the best part is that even the last place in the
2.Bundesliga will be rewarded with close to
four million Euros for the final position - about twice the estimated value of our club at the moment.
I will just have enough time for a quick stay in rehab after falling off the wagon during our mid-season slump before I need to dive head first into the transfer market to sign players that will hopefully help us not to slip right back down into the lower tier come next season.
Boy, I need a drink now....
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END OF SEASON 3: 2011/2012
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