Learning the Game (again) (26/04/2008 17:44)

What a Horrible Team!
I started the District Metro FC on the hopes that I could refresh my interest. Well it has done that, simply because the team came up so bad. Having to choose between a keeper in his prime Q53 and a poor youth Q56. I immediately went to the transfer market. What a surprise! I was looking at having to dish out 15mil for a Q70 keeper. My strategy for new managers was a little off once the new pricing setup had gone through. Back in the early days of Season 5 when I was starting Tashkent Islam United, Q70 17yr olds were pretty easy to come by and only cost 2-3mil. I was lucky to find a team dishing away an undervalued youth for a mere 10mil.

The other major disappointment was my defenders. Of the six defenders only 3 of them were in the Q60s and none of them over Q65. I couldn't fill a 4-4-2, and I wouldn't be able to play them every day in a 3-5-2. I dumped the Q52 and Q56 and decided to keep the youth Q56. That Q56 turned out to be a nice surprise if you check the highlights, but I would still need another Defender. The transfer market was tough as every bid I put out was quickly overbid. I managed to pick up an aging player cheap, he will hopefully fill in for me for a year or two.

Health - Be happy to have it because it won't last long.
St 52
Okay, I admit it, Tashkent Islam United had healthy players and enough depth to keep them healthy. Not so for District Metro FC. But having players with such low Stamina means that they get worn out faster and that they don't recover as well. It didn't take long for my new young keeper to be breathing hard by his 4th game. Toss in the fact that the League Cup started in Round 2 and that was a lot of games very fast.  I was booted from the League Cup in the second set when I lost in a PK shootout 4-3. That really helped the health of the team, but limited my teams ability to gain experience and to improve.

The other major health issue. Robot teams don't play soft. In 9 games, I think 3 of them had the opponent down to 10 men, and I watched as my players were hacked to pieces with rough play. My Gk has had to rest in training twice now, and has missed two games. Fortunately that young Q56 wasn't tested much. The defense has been tested a great deal, but they have held up well. I don't think I have had the same 3 defenders in the game for any match yet.

The beginning of the Season 35
One word: scary! The first two games ended in a 0-0 finish and I was in 8th place with only 2 points. Since I was only playing bots, I was wondering how I was going to pick this team up. The league cup match gave me some hope by picking up a single goal, but still I thought I should be doing much better. My first change was a switch from "near goal" shooting to "only when safe". That rewarded me with a 4-0 win, and gave me some hope. The next thing was to start looking over the bot teams before the match to be played. After 5 games, I was really struggling with health, but those bots had run their players into the ground. I was able to run circles around them in some places.

That was the thing that turned the league around for me. I had relatively healthy players while the opponent was running around with doggedly tired players. For those managers new to the league, anyone under 80 fitness is injured and unable to play. Anyone under 90 is in really bad shape and will be playing a good bit below their Quality-level. I try to keep the team above 95, and will even drop out good players for healthy scrubs. The benefit is that tired strikers don't strike nearly as well against a poor keeper. So far I have only given up 1 goal in 9 league matches and it was a penalty. The only goals I gave up in league cup were on penalties.

Highlights
Normally, winning against bot-teams isn't very challenging. Most of your highlights are from poor play from the bots. But I got not one, but two highlights.

It was a 3-0 game, late in the final minutes of against another bot team. The worn down team of bots brought the ball down the field, got close and took a shot at goal, missing wildly. Now, remember that young defender I decided to keep for no real reason except I might need a body on the pitch. Yea, him, Seth Gaines. The kid gets the ball and starts a dribble upfield. Now this kid is pretty bad, he has no form, poor stamina, and really no ability with the ball. But he is tall and wide and ugly enough to keep most attackers looking for the other side of the pitch. So he starts lumbering up the field with the ball. He has no speed (Sp 42) so the opposing team catches him quickly but he is big and not one to be slowed down by normal sized people and somehow manages to keep the ball in this run. And he keeps going, dribbling through the midfield and up to the penalty box, taking nearly a full minute just to get there. Then in a moment of indecision he nearly loses the ball, steps around a defender and pops the ball into net. I can hear the announcer "... he must have passed 3 defenders all by himself..." Obviously the announcer can't count because he passed 10 of them, some of them numerous times. Final score 4-0.

And if that wasn't surprising enough, after a game of rest, he did it again. But this time to lead off the scoring in the game.

4 games, 2 goals, 2 Man-of-Match awards. For an attacker, this is a nice set of numbers. But this guy is a defender. One more time and I might just have to give him both MVP and Rookie of the Year.