Managerleague Champions League

Introduction
Hello everyone. I've had this idea since our beloved Spinner implemented Champions League into the game. I'm making my blog towards a MLCL "newspaper", at least i will try as good as i can. Don't expect this big entries like this one every single season as I've just got a new job and starts tomorrow. My plan is not to just come with precompetition predictions, but i've also planned to do some reports in the middle of the competition and on occations i will make entries involving 1 match alone both before and after it's played. I have made this small little function to pick out a match for me when i feel like it, so the matches will not be picked by me. This is because no teams should be more in the publisity as long as they're still in it.

As i said i've had this idea since Spinner implemented the competition, so i've also prepared since then. I've made my own little database which contains every single CL result since season 35. This is to be able to give some historical views on situations i will drop by the coming seasons, like checking past results between two teams. I hope you all will enjoy to have a little bit more publisity around Managerleagues biggest cup. Good luck to you all!

History

The Champions League competition in Managerleague is going into ti's fourth season since the implementation in season 35.
Tore Pupper, manager of Ringnesklanen, wrote history when he became the first ever manager to win the competition with a comfortable 3-1 win in the final over Deportivo Quito The very next season he was the first ever manager to participate in 2 finals when he in the end lost against the Hogwarts of Wizardry who also beated Ringnesklanen in the group stage the very same season.

In season 37 Rachael, manager of Holland 1 - A-tack, managed to become the first ever team to win the treble which included the champions league, the holland league cup and the holland division 1. This is the ultimate achievement and Rachael can be very proud of himself and his boys too manage this.

Sir_Selstø, manager of ManUtd123, did also write himself into the history books in season 37 when he beated Poker Alho with 10-0. This is the first time a team have ever scored 10 goals or more in a champions league match and also the biggest win. It will be a hard result to beat for sure.


Season 38

The coming champions league competition can become the season where an underdog wins the whole competition as many of the mayor teams are going into vacation the coming weeks. This means that some of the biggest favourites might go out in the group stage and that can open the door for some of the 12 teams that participate in the competition for the first time. I will go through every single group a little bit and also share some information i've gotten from participating teams through small interviews. The big question this season is if Holland 1 - A-tack can win for the second time in a row or if there is any teams out there that can stop him. When it comes to the interviews i have not bothered to rewrite the answers if the english is a bit bad as they all were understandeble.

GROUP 1 TanTheMan United The Robbans RO Forza Ragazzi Forza DANEZZU Hard Soccer Papillary Carcinoma GALATASARAYIM NikeNike

Interview with TanTheMan United (He's from Drammen, Norway) Q: This is your first time participating in Champions League. What are your ambitions? A: Since I wont be online during the first 2 weeks of the new season, I cant have any ambitions in CL this season... My holiday starts tomorrow, and ML wont come along Q: I see that you were the lucky manager to buy the former goalie of Hogwarts of Wizardry. How much influence do you believe he will have on your team this season? A: Hopefully he will help me get 1 or 3 points out of the even matches. Last season I lost most of those matches because my goalie wasnt very good. So when I noticed Hogwarts were selling, I just had to buy him. I will now have a great goalie for at least 10 seasons. He should also have great experience after winning the league a few times + the MLCL, so I am very pleased having this player now Q: None of the teams in your group have ever played in the 1/8 finals, so if i said you're one of the favourites to go through from the group, would you agree? A: Yes, absolutely, but since I will be away I cant agree. I need some luck to manage to enter the final 16. Q: which two teams do you believe will go through from your group? A: I would love to say my own team, but honestly I think NIkeNike and Papillary Carcinoma will go through from our group. Q: Last but not least, who is your favourite to win the whole competition this season? A: This season I really HOPE Mr Jolly G Reaper with his Spurred On wins it! He has a great team, and is a very nice person. But I THINK Skjoldar will end up as winners Q: If there's anything you would like to add besides the questions, feel free to do so. A: Just want to thank Spinner for making this great addicting game, haha! And of course thanks to all managers that have helped me out with tips and so. You know who you are!

Favourites: NikeNike and TanTheMan United
Outsiders: RO Forza Ragazzi and Papillary Carcinoma
My tip: NikeNike and RO Forza Ragazzi. TanTheMan United might make it, but he's going on vacation, so i kinda doubt it.

I have sendt a mail to every single manager in div 1 to find out about their goals for the season and who they think will end up in the top 3 section. In this post i will give out some regular facts that you all can find out about them if you bothered. I'm also gonna spoil what they all tipped for the top 3 positions. Last but not least i'm gonna try to predict how the table will look like when the season is over.
What i will not spoil to the public is what the managers goal for the season was, as I see this as "confidential" information.

Team	Vartdal FK
Manager	SirJohnny
Avg Q	84.64
Financial situation	Insanely rich
Position last season	#1, div 1
Goalie rating	9 out of 10
Defence rating	8 out of 10
Midfield rating	8 out of 10
Attack rating	8 out of 10
Comments:	Lack some replacement in every section, but a very strong first lineup. Inuries and fit loss can become vital.
Top 3 tip:	#1 The Penguin Conspiracy #2 Stovner Massive #3 Vartdal FK

Team	The Penguin Conspiracy
Manager	fjt
Avg Q	87.71
Financial situation	Wealthy
Position last season	#2, div 1
Goalie rating	9 out of 10
Defence rating	9 out of 10
Midfield rating	10 out of 10
Attack rating	9 out of 10
Comments:	Have a really strong team. All reserves can come into the lineup without afecting it too much.
Top 3 tip:	N/A

Team	Lightning
Manager	just4fun
Avg Q	83.71
Financial situation	Ridiculously rich
Position last season	#3, div 1
Goalie rating	8 out of 10
Defence rating	8 out of 10
Midfield rating	7 out of 10
Attack rating	7 out of 10
Comments:	Have a pretty strong first lineup, but a big jump down to the reserves. Ban and injuries can become vital.
Top 3 tip:	#1 The Penguin Conspiracy #2 Vartdal FK #3 Skjoldar

Team	Team Villa Service
Manager	KING KALLEMANN
Avg Q	85.96
Financial situation	Rich
Position last season	#4, div 1
Goalie rating	8 out of 10
Defence rating	9 out of 10
Midfield rating	8 out of 10
Attack rating	8 out of 10
Comments:	All his players are very close in quality which makes the team pretty much unvulnerable to injuries and bans.
Top 3 tip:	N/A

Team	Benkerns Vålerenga
Manager	benkern
Avg Q	84.51
Financial situation	King Midas
Position last season	#5, div 1
Goalie rating	9 out of 10
Defence rating	8 out of 10
Midfield rating	7 out of 10
Attack rating	8 out of 10
Comments:	Have a strong first lineup defence, but is ver vulnerable to injuries and bans in this section. Midfield is his weakest point.
Top 3 tip:	N/A

Team	Heracles Almelo
Manager	Krogzar
Avg Q	83.90
Financial situation	Ridiculously rich
Position last season	#6, div 1
Goalie rating	8 out of 10
Defence rating	6 out of 10
Midfield rating	6 out of 10
Attack rating	6 out of 10
Comments:	Have a devent first team and will probably fight hard for positions this season. A little bit small squad to become threatning in the top. Have also spoken of quit playing.
Top 3 tip:	N/A

Team	n00bi
Manager	pglee
Avg Q	84.22
Financial situation	Ridiculously rich
Position last season	#7, div 1
Goalie rating	9 out of 10
Defence rating	8 out of 10
Midfield rating	7 out of 10
Attack rating	6 out of 10
Comments:	Have a pretty strong defending team and can become frustrating for many other managers this season. Unfortunately he lack a bit forward and will not win much.
Top 3 tip:	#1 The Penguin Conspiracy #2 Vartdal FK #3 Lightning

Team	Jailhouse_gangs
Manager	Wichtom
Avg Q	83.54
Financial situation	Stinking rich
Position last season	#8, div 1
Goalie rating	8 out of 10
Defence rating	7 out of 10
Midfield rating	7 out of 10
Attack rating	8 out of 10
Comments:	Have a big gape between lineup and substitutions to fill up, but gains a little bit for having a big squad which makes him less vulnerable for injuries.
Top 3 tip:	#1 The Penguin Conspiracy #2 Vartdal FK #3 Benkerns Vålerenga

Team	Skjoldar
Manager	PlayRoy
Avg Q	86.65
Financial situation	Made of money
Position last season	#9, div 1
Goalie rating	9 out of 10
Defence rating	8 out of 10
Midfield rating	9 out of 10
Attack rating	9 out of 10
Comments:	Have a strong squad through the whole squad. His weak spot would be his goalie whom only rated to 47 last season.
Top 3 tip:	#1 Vartdal FK #2 The Penguin Conspiracy #3 Lightning

Team	fk krakra
Manager	krakra
Avg Q	85.52
Financial situation	Low wealth
Position last season	#10, div 1
Goalie rating	8 out of 10
Defence rating	8 out of 10
Midfield rating	7 out of 10
Attack rating	9 out of 10
Comments:	Will not notice to much difference if switching out 4-5 players between each match. Questioning his goalie whom only rated to 44 last season.
Top 3 tip:	#1 The Penguin Conspiracy #2 fk krakra #3 Vartdal FK

Team	Media Blitz SK
Manager	Aragorn
Avg Q	83.84
Financial situation	Ridiculously rich
Position last season	#12, div 1
Goalie rating	9 out of 10
Defence rating	6 out of 10
Midfield rating	5 out of 10
Attack rating	7 out of 10
Comments:	Have big difference in quality from player to player and will probably struggle to keep his team up in the top division. Very vulnerable to injuries
Top 3 tip:	#1 The Penguin Conspiracy #2 Vartdal FK #3 Lightning

Team	ddude
Manager	ddude
Avg Q	83.79
Financial situation	Insanely rich
Position last season	#1, div 2, dep 1
Goalie rating	9 out of 10
Defence rating	7 out of 10
Midfield rating	7 out of 10
Attack rating	6 out of 10
Comments:	Big quality differences in the lineup. Should end up fighting for a playoff spot in the end of the season. Will have to trust Jacinto Lima to put the goals.
Top 3 tip:	N/A

Team	OmenMordaciousKickers
Manager	MordaciousK
Avg Q	82.67
Financial situation	Filthy rich
Position last season	#1, div 2, dep 2
Goalie rating	8 out of 10
Defence rating	6 out of 10
Midfield rating	5 out of 10
Attack rating	5 out of 10
Comments:	Have a couple of players standing out from the others which can make the difference. The attacker, Jarle Ørmen will be vital scoring 133 goals the past two seasons.
Top 3 tip:	#1 Vartdal FK #2 The Penguin Conspiracy #3 Benkerns Vålerenga

Team	Bavaria Bulldogs
Manager	Magpie
Avg Q	83.48
Financial situation	Filthy rich
Position last season	#1, div 2, dep 3
Goalie rating	8 out of 10
Defence rating	6 out of 10
Midfield rating	5 out of 10
Attack rating	6 out of 10
Comments:	Have an even team with a couple of players standing out from the others. Will have to fight hard to avoid relegation back down to division 2.
Top 3 tip:	N/A

Team	Malmö FF
Manager	Lagavulin
Avg Q	83.64
Financial situation	Stinking rich
Position last season	#1, div 2, dep 4
Goalie rating	9 out of 10
Defence rating	5 out of 10
Midfield rating	5 out of 10
Attack rating	5 out of 10
Comments:	This team is probably the weakest squad in the entire divison although the average quality is not the lowest one. There's no players standing out from the others to take control.
Top 3 tip:	#1 The Penguin Conspiracy #2 Vartdal FK #3 fk krakra

Team	Stovner Massive
Manager	IsildurX
Avg Q	86.05
Financial situation	Ridiculously rich
Position last season	#3, div 2, dep 1
Goalie rating	9 out of 10
Defence rating	8 out of 10
Midfield rating	8 out of 10
Attack rating	8 out of 10
Comments:	Have evenly strong players in all sections and a couple of reserves that can go straight into the lineup without affecting the play.
Top 3 tip:	#1 Vartdal FK #2 The Penguin Conspiracy #3 Lightning

As you can see i have been looking pretty good on every single team. All the info you can see up here are based on the pre-season. There might happen more transfers after I picked up all my info about the teams. Actions like that will have to become some of my predictions and therefor you might see some table predictions below that doesn't make to much sense from what I've written above.
The prediction is also made in the hopes that Krogzar, manager of Heracle Almelo change minds and do not quit playing the game.

For a little comment before the prediction i just woul like to say that this probably will be one of the closest season in history of ML. Making this prediction was really hard. There's only a couple of teams left now that have a little bit to bad team to actually compete in the division. In a couple of seasons it will probably become almost impossible to predict anything in the top division as the lower quality teams are gaining pretty fast on the big clubs.

Division 1 table prediction

The Penguin Conspiracy

Stovner Massive

Skjoldar

Lightning

Vartdal FK

Team Villa Service

fk krakra

Benkerns Vålerenga

Heracles Alemelo

n00bi

Jailhous_gangs

ddude

Media Blitz SK

Bavaria Bulldogs

OmenMordaciousK

Malmö FF

I have a little favour asking you all.

In Norway there’s just now a voting called “The club in your heart”. Everyone can vote for what ever Norwegian club they like, but can only give one vote to a club from the same ip-address, but you can vote for as many clubs you want from the same ip. Just no double votes! (from same ip that is)

So my question to you all is simple. I wonder if you could help my floorball team to give a good competition in our class/group in the competition. We’re competing in the class against other clubs with 100 or fever members. If we should be so lucky to grab first or second spot we will get 25.000 or 10.000 Norwegian kroner.

Anyone can vote on this, you don’t need to be Norwegian at all. You don’t even need to have any favourite Norwegian clubs. I hope you all can give us this little help to actually make a good competition. I even hope you other Norwegians can take this little time of your life to put in a vote for my club. If there’s a specific club you want me to vote for as well, just make a comment with the desired club name you want me to vote on.
Yes Spinner, I'll even vote for your Vålerenga if you want me to. Just don’t forget to vote on my floorball team.

The only thing you need to do is to follow the link below, type in the antibot code you see on the picture and hit enter. The club name is already filled in, so no need to worry about that.

Vote here (btw webvictim, this is the link)

Thnx for the support in advance

As you might remember from my former blogs, my norwegian team, Viking FK, haven't done all to good this season. This have might come to an end.

Tom Prahl, a swedish sleepyhead, with what should be great tactical knowledge ended up putting this great team into the relegation section. After 19 matches with the record 4 wins, 5 draws and 10 loses Viking FK's board finally made the dicision to throw Tom Prahl in the mud. For my own record i can't believe a top division team can hire a manager looking as drowsy as he do. Take a look for yourself.

For most people the new football season starts 19th August 12:45 GMT when Premier League is opened with the match between Sheffield United and Liverpool at Bramall Lane. Sheffield United are playing their first Premier League match since the crucial match against Chelseas back in the 1993/94 season when they got relegated with the last kick off the season. Now they're back to give a good fight for a new Barclay Premiership contract in mid may.

If we go back about 1½ month, more spesific, 17th of June. On this date we will find my start of the season. The Intertoto first round got played. No big names on the fixture list, but the likes of Tampere (Finland), Kalmar (Sweden), Maribor (Slovenia) and Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia) all are good teams from their respective countries that had to play through the first Intertoto round. Except for Maribor all got through to the next round with a total 8-1 aggreagate from both home and away match. Maribor won with a total of 8-0.

1st of July, the second round of the Intertoto cup is played. Still not many people think about it at all though. Teams like Lillestrøm (Norway), Grasshoppers (Switzerland), OB (Denmark), Hibernian (Scotland) and Moskva (Russia) all enter the cup in this round. They're all well respected teams in the European cups, but still many haven't heard about them.

15th July is a more known date for any football lover, although it's the final and last round in the Intertoto cup which will provide the winner on aggreagate after 2 matches a spot  in the UEFA Cup. All the teams from the large leagues in Europe play only this last match. Marseille (France), Auxerre (France), Twente (Holland), Villareal (Spain), Hertha Berlin (Germany), AA Gent (Belgium) and my favorite team Newcastle Unite (England) all enter in this last round. It's kinda weird that many football lovers only associate this one match with the UEFA Intertoto Cup. Of course it's because all the big names first come into the cup in this round, but how did they all do. For instance Marseille barely got through because of the away goal rule. Newcastle played 1-1 in their first lege at home when they faced Lillestrøm, but managed to get an easy 3-0 away victory in the second leg. Also Hertha Berlin drew the first leg at home, but won their away match 2-0 to claim their UEFA Cup spot. The biggest surprise of them all was our little team from Slovenia, Maribor. Remember, they had to play the first round when they won 8-0, in the second round they won 4-1. In the third and last round they met last a year semifinalist Villareal from Spain and won 3-2 on aggregate.

So when do your new football season start? If you're Norwegian you might say that it started back at 9th april. Or you're more the classic European that says it starts when the Barclay Premiership kicks off 19th august. Anyway, here's a little list of happenings. You might find out that your not as big football fan as you tought you were.

Chilean Apertura 28th January
Peruian Apertura 4th Feruary
Copa Libertadores 2nd March
Japanese J-League 5th March
Ireland Eircom League 10th March
Russian Vischaya League 18th March
Swedish Allsvenskan 1st April                        (I don't see this as the season start, just like an appetizer for what's coming)
Norwegian Tippeligaen 9th April                     (Same as allsvenskan)
Brasilian Campeonato 15th April
Finnish Veikkaus 19th April                              (Same as above)
FIFA World Cup 2006 Germany 9th June      (Still not the start for me, more like ending of the last season)
UEFA Intertoto Cup 1st round 17th June       (This is were it all starts for me. Teams playing for spot in the UEFA Cup)
UEFA Intertoto Cup 2nd round 1st July
UEFA Intertoto Cup 3rd round 15th June
Osterreich T-Mob. Bundesliga 18th July
Danish SAS-Ligaen 19th July
Switzerland Super League 19th July
Ukrainien 1. div 21st July
Ungarien Borsodi Liga 28th July
Czechian Gambrinus League 29th July
Scottish Premier League 29th July
Turkish Turkcell Super Ligi 4th August
Argentinian Apertura 5th August
French Le Championat 5th August
English Lower divisions 5th August
Mexican Apertura 6th August
German 1. Bundesliga 11th August
Polish 1. div 11th August
Netherland Eredivise 18th August
English Premier League 19th August
Greece 1. div 19th August
Spanish Primera Division 27th August

The Italien Serie A is likely to be delayed so the starting date is uncertain. This is due to known "cheating" issues that were revealed in the end of last season.
Also the Portugese schedual is not made public yet for some reason. Last season they started 21st august, so i have no freaking idea why it aint published already.

If anyone should happen to miss Chilean Clausura, Pruian Clausura, Mexican Clausura and Argentinian Clausura i haven't put them into the list because it's kinda the second half of the season. They use 2 tables in thos countries. 1 for the first secion and another for the last section of matches played.

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WARNING ::
This blog entry was written 12 July 2006. There have been a lot of twakes and updates to the game since then, so some of the info you read here might be a bit old and out of date. - Gizmo
WARNING ::


Last week, in part 1, I made a blog about reading and understanding a match report for your own advantage. I also showed one of my most used events that you can't see in the match report. So when ever you read a match report you need to have an open mind and not just throw out that margin win is a fluke. Try to find a "hidden" event that might have changed the picture of the match.
Remember, "hidden" events contain changes on shooting, tackling and/or playstyle.

In this part i'm gonna write about the formations, tactics and picking your lineup. Much of this info will be basics for many managers, but when managers come to me and ask for an opinion many questions seem to go around from manager to manager. "How do you know what position your player gets on the field?" seem to be one of the most common questions. Thsi and maybe many more basic questions you might have can be answeared in this blog. If there's still something you wonder about don't be afraid to ask, either as a comment to the blog or you can send me a message on either the portal or ingame.



Formations and their structure:

I've made some pictures of all the formations so you can see how they look like and where your players gonna end up on the pitch. When you know the structure of the formations you might manage to make your lineup more powerful even though you're using the exact same players, but I'll get back to that later on. First i'm just putting out some small thoughts and info about the 11 formations availeble at the moment.

 (click to enlarge)
5-4-1: This is a very defencive formation, but can also be very effective. The formation needs a good attacker up front to score the goals for you. Your defence don't need to be the best since you have 5 defenders in the back line.
Playstyle: Continental should be the best one. Mixed can work, but not recommended. Longball is just plain stupidity.

Recommended use: Against teams with better average quality, where a draw would almost be the same as a victory for your team. Specially strong against formations with low amount of midfielders.



 (click to enlarge)
5-3-2: Concentrates a bit more on scoring goals, but is still a defensive formation. Watch out for teams with good midfield. You might lose because you aint getting your midfielders into the game.
Playstyle: Mixed should work best for this formation, continental comes in second and longball works a bit better in this formation then in the 5-4-1 since you got 2 attackers to aim the ball for insted of one.

Recommended use: Away matches where your opponent is about the same average Quality as you or at home against better teams then you.



 (click to enlarge)
4-5-1: Again a defensive formation. Compared to the 5-4-1 formation this is more voulnerable to opponents playing longball or mixed cause they play over your midfield so you will lose lots of defensive power. You defence need to be stronger and your attacker still needs to be good.
Playstyle: Continental should by far the best option. Mixed aint recommended as you there is to many midfielders to not use them. Longball is out of the option.

Recommended use: Against other manager playing continental with low a low amount of midfielders. Make also sure that their attackers aint too good.




(click to enlarge)
4-4-2: Most common formation used in the real life worl today. It have both good amounts of defenders, midfielders and attackers. When it comes to this game you wont see many managers in div 1 or 2 use this formation. Mostly because they find other formations to be better.
Playstyle: All three playstyles work, but i would recommend mixed or continental a bit more then longball.

Recommended use: When you aint finding any other formations that works well this is the one to use in most if the times. More rcommended against defensive formations (above formations) then attacking formations.



 (click to enlarge)
4-3-3: An attacking formation that concentrates your play in front of the opponents goal to win the match. Voulnerable against teams with many midfielders.
Playstyle: Mixed and longball should be about the same. Continental is not recommended.

Recommended use: Can be used against any formation, but your decision of playstyle can be the reason why you either win or lose. If you have low amount of good mifielders and many good attackers this could be the formation for you.




 (click to enlarge)
4-2-4: An all out attack formation that only hopes it get more goals then the opponent. Very voulnerable to teams playing mixed or continental.
Playstyle: Longball is almost the only formation to recommend as the formation only contain 2 midfielders. Mixed could maybe work but not recommended while continental is the same as digging yourself 7 feet under.

Recommended use: A large amount of good attackers is important for this formation. Also your defence and goalie needs to be excellent to win you matches. There aint many teams in divison 1 that could pull this one off. Don't use it just to try it.



(click to enlarge)
3-6-1: This a kinda odd formation in my head when thinking about real life. How would it actually be to play in a midfield as crowded as this one? Luckily this aint real life (remember that Woijteker). Normally i would say a formation with only 3 defenders is an attacking formation, but this only contain 1 attacker so it can't be that attacking.
Playstyle: I can't see any other then continental work in this one. Maybe mixed can work a little bit, but what is a lonely striker gonna do with a longball?

Recommended use: Well, although not all formations with only 3 defenders are attacking i would still recommend training up the offside-trap before using the formation. Never the less, it can still be used against teams playing mixed with a low rate of midifelders.



 (click to enlarge)
3-5-2: Yet again an attacking formation that needs excellent defenders to not let in to many goals. Voulnerable against teams playing longball with many attackers. For instance 4-3-3.
Playstyle: I would prefer mixed in this formation. Continental is of course good as well because the amount of midfielders, but since there's only 3 defenders they might get pushed by the attackers a bit much if playing continental so a couple of longballs every now and then won't hurt.

Recommended use: It's time to train your offside stat in the team training section cause playing the offside trap can help you a great deal with this formation. Also recommended against teams playing either mixed or continental with low amount of midfielders.



 (click to enlarge)
3-4-3: This is a deadly attacking formation, when it works that is. The bad part is that your opponent can easily find ways to beat it. Speaking from my own experiences, I have yet to produce a win with this formation. On the other hand i produce a smile every time i see that my opponent either change to this formation with an event or use it from start.
Playstyle: As i have no good experiences of own use with this formation i'm not to sure about the playstyle. But from my knowledge about formations and tactics i would say that any playstyle can work in this formation. Continental probably the worst choice.

Recommended use: Choose another formation is my recommendation, but of course if it works good for you, why not keep at it. Your defence need to be in very good shape compared to your opponent attackers. Also you goalie will probably get a lot to do. Again, good offside stat in team training is your friend.


 (click to enlarge)
3-3-4: The last formation is again an all out attack formation, just like the 4-2-4 formation. Remember that all these formation very voulnerable in defence so pick them with coution, not just pick to try. There are smarter offensive formations to choose.
Playstyle: Longball is the best playstyle again, while mixed should work a bit better with this formation. Continental is again to dig yourself 7 feet under with this formation.

Recommended use: Against other all out attack formation and you got the best average quality this could be a choice. In other situations than that i wouldn't recommend to use such a formation.




Picking your formation:

Everyone got their own way to pick their formation for a match. I'm gonna tell you the way i feel is best and also mention a mathematic way to decide which formation should be best. Of course mathematics might help you more in a computer game like this then it would in real life.

When i pick formation i always check what playstyle my oppoent use first. This is because playstyle can turn a match completely and you from my own experience the different playstyle options seem to work in a triangle.
Mixed seem to beat longball, longball seems to beat continental and continental seems to beat mixed.

1) So when i pick my formation i try to find out what playstyle my opponent gonna use by reading their match reports. From what they're gonna play i choose what playstyle i'm gonna use (see the triangle i mentioned above).

2) When i've decided my playstyle find the formations best suitable for that playstyle.

3) When i have a couple of formations suitable for my picked playstyle I check which formations are most suitable for my players.

My last point before choosing my formation contains some mathematics. Most times you would end up with the same choice you feel are best. At least I do. so to try explaining my mathematics in choosing formation i'll give an example.

Lets say your opponent use a regular 4-4-2 formation and you wanna find out which formation of 4-3-3 or 5-3-2 is the best suitable.
The way to do this is to divide defenders against attacker, middies against middies and attacker against defenders. After that you add all of them together so the formation getting the highest score is the best suitable. So lets check it out.

4-3-3 against 4-4-2:
Dividing your defenders against opponent attackers: 4/2 -> 8/4
Dividing your midfielders against opponent midfielders: 3/4
Dividing your attackers against opponent defenders: 3/4
Adding them together: 8/4 + 3/4 + 3/4 = 14/4

5-3-2 against 4-4-2:
Dividing your defenders against opponent attackers: 5/2 -> 10/4
Dividing your midfielders against opponent midfielders: 3/4
Dividing your attackers against opponent defenders: 2/4
Adding them together: 10/4 + 3/4 + 2/4 = 15/4

As you can see the result is marginal, but it reveals 5-3-2 as the best formation of the two to use in this situation. If you didn't understand what to do there is nothing to worry about. Youd should do finw with just the 3 first steps alone if you choose to try my way.



Lineup:

This is just gonna be basics for how to pick which player to what jersey number. Yet again lets use 4-4-2 as an example.
If you click the link you see the structure of the formation.

#1 is the goalie -- Your best goalie should play here, DuH!
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#2 is the left back  -- One of your two best passing defenders should play here. Also speed is important in this position
#3 is the left central defender -- One of your 2 best defenders beside #2 and #5 should play here. If #2 have worse speed then #5, then #3 should have better speed then #4
#4 is the right central defender -- The other of your 2 best defenders beside #2 and #5 should play here. If #5 have worse speed then #2, then #4 should have better speed then #3
#5 is the right back -- The other of your two best passing defenders should play here. Also speed is important in this position
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#6 is the left winger -- One of your two best passing midfielders should play here. If #2 have better passing then #5, then also #6 should have better passing then #9
#7 is the left central midfielder -- One of your 2 best midfielders beside #6 and #9 should play here. If #6 have worse speed then #9, then #7 should have better speed then #8
#8 is the right central midfielder -- The other of your 2 best midfielders beside #6 and #9 should play here. If #9 have worse speed then #6, then #8 should have better speed then #7
#9 is the right winger -- The other of your two best passing midfielders should play here. If #5 have better passing then #2, then also #9 should have better passing then #6
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#10 is the left attacker -- One of your two best attackers should play here. If #6 have better passing then #9, then #10 should have better shooting then #11
#11 is the right attacker -- The other of your two best attackers should play here. If #9 have better passing then #6, then #11 should have better shooting then #10


This lineup structure puts your best passers in every section on the sides because it's easier for your backs to pass to your wingers then it's for your central defenders to pass to your central midfielders. also your wingers produce more assists then your central midfielders. So the better passing they have the more goals you'll score, hopefully!

Do you have 3 middies with the same passing skill? then put the one with best shooting or best tackling into the center. The central midfielders are more likely to score goals then the wingers.


Tactics:

This should be quite simple and i guess most of you already know what to do on most of the tactics options, but I'll take my time and explain them anyway.

Captain: The best captains are usually 27 years or older and they should have good perception. Your captain also gives a little boost to the section he's playing in. So if you for some reason feel either you defence or midfield aint good enough for your upcoming match you should pick your captin to play in this section. So if your captain plays in defence your defence will get a minor boos and play better then they would have done.

Freekick, own half: This is mor simple, just put your best passing defender to take these freekicks.

Freekick, opponent half: For these freekicks you should pick a midfielder with both good passing and shooting. If the same player also got good perception it's a postive thing as he would know better when to shoot and when to pass/cross.

Corner: Your midfielder with the best passing should be taking these.

Penlty kick: Your best shooting attacker should be taking these. Also perception is good for penalties.

Playstyle: You have 3 playstyles to choose from, continental, mixed and longball. Continental passing keeps the ball mostly to the ground and play through the midfield. Works best if you have many midfielders. Longball speaks for it self. the passes is in the air and with a distance. Best with many attackers and less midfielders. Mixed also speaks for itself. Your team try to play both continental and longball at the same time so your opponent won read you all to easy.

Tackling: Your 3 options is Soft, Normal and Hard. With soft you'll lose more important tackles, but you'll keep the fouls low and suspension is rare. With normal you'll win a bit more important tackles but both injuries and suspensions more likely to happen. With Hard it again increase the chance of injuries and suspensions.

Shooting: Again there is 3 options to choose from. Shoot at will, near goal and only when safe. Shoot at will gives you more shots, but they're more likely to not hit the goal as your players will shoot from where ever they want. Near goal makes it more likely to actually score on your shots, but both shots on target and shots total might decrease. the last option, only when safe, again decrease your chances as you won't fire a shot before you feel absolutly sure you're hitting the goal. The good part is that usually about 90% of these shots ends up as a goal.

Pressure: All three options speaks for itself. Attacking should be played mostly at home and against teams with lower or same average quakity as your lineup. Normal means that you play neither defending or attacking. Can be played in any match, although usually attacking or defending is more suitable. Can be first when you play away against teams with same or lower average quality then your lineup. Defending should not be played at home, at least that is my opinion. I'll explain why afterwards. Defending shold only be used away and against teams with the same or higher average quality then your own lineup.

Offside: You can either chose to play the offside trap or not to play the offside trap. If you play a formation with 3 defenders they're more likely to have a good offside trap then a formation with 5 defenders. The less defenders, the easier to communicate. Before you play the offside trap you should also train your offside skill in the team training section.


Home matches against away matches:

Home: You should play either attacking or normal pressure because when you play at home you're getting a little boost just for playing at home. If you have bought your under soil heating in the stadium section this will also give you a small boost since you have perfect pitch all season. Both these 2 advantages should be enough to play attacking at home and put the pressure on your opponent even though your opponent might have a better average quality in his team.

Away: Away you should be more careful about playing attacking because of the same reasons mentioned above. Only play attacking if you're average quality is much better then your opponent and you feel certain to win. Else you shold choose between either Normal or Defending.

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Part 1: Reading and understanding the match report.

Well, as you see this is something I'll make as a series. This is because teaching away parts of this stuff with be to much to read in 1 blog entry. Specially this part is stuff you might not be good at right away, but i'm gonna try to explain it all as easy as possible with a spesific example from one of my matches this season. In this part 1 i will not only talk about the power of reading your next opponents match reports, but i'll try to show you how to fully understand things that might seem as a fluke, just like this match report might would look like for you before reading this blog entry. Before i start i'll just hand out a little basic.

1. Always read all match reports from your meatings against your next opponent. Not including friendlies though, cause people play defenders in goal and many other stupid things.
2.  Always read the the match reports from your opponents last 5 matches.
3. If your opponent have won all 5 last matches, go to your department result section and dig up match reports from when he have either lost or drew. If you don't know where to find your department results for every team and round in your department,  here's the location. Data -> League Results -> Department Results. Here you can navigate through every single round and look up the match reports you want to read.
4. If you opponent haven't lost yet you just need to read as many reports as it takes before you find your best suitable tactics.
   

okey, moving on to the real deal.


Part 1: Reading and understanding your opponent match reports.

This might sound very simple as i know most people only scroll down to the statistic page and then compares shots on target, freekicks, corners and ofc the formations played. They make a small conclusion about the formation worked or didn't work. Lets give a little visual example on this so it gets easier to both explain the issue and understrand the issue.

Lets say i'm your opponent and one of my match statistics gives you this;




I'm the away team using 5-4-1, longball, defending. Yes, this is an actual match report from season 11, i've just cut the lineups as they're not that important at the moment. Anyway, most people would say that the 4-3-3, mixed, defending formation certainly doesn't work since i won. Other people would say i just got lucky, but they leave it with that insted of trying to find out WHY i was lucky. As you all can see my opponent had 2 shots mor on goal then me, so lets read the match report to find out more. Like in this example we wanna find out a couple of things.

1) Was it my goalie that had a great game or was it the attackers from Team Magic that had a lousy day at work?
2) Noticed i had a penalty? Or did you only check the formation and shots on goal? Lets see how that penaty ended.
3) What about my goals. Were thwy all great efforts or just bad goaltending from Team Magics keeper?

So then we have a couple of questions to answear. Now to actually find answears on the questions from the actual report. I'll give you a couple of screenshots on those lines i find important. Remember, white lines in the report indicates that Team Magic have the ball.

Question 1)
So we're looking for those answears about my goalie and the opponent attackers. Under you'll see those lines i found to answear this issue;

Team Magic goals


My goalie saves





Lets do the basic answears we can get out of these screenshots first. If you look at both goals first. You can't see anything about a great shot or anything about the goalie having no chance to save, so this probably means there was no extraordinary to these goals. The goalie might have made a fool of himself, although Spinner haven't made match report lines that tell us that. But, when you take a look at the saves you can see both first and fourth save being important. The second one kinda explains that my goalie had to stretch as long as he was to save the shot, but it doesn't say it was a great save. This might be because the shot wasn't hard enough and any good goalie would save the shot, just not hold it.
Anyway, from what you see on both goals and saves i would conclude that my goalie didn't have any extrodinary day. Even though he had a couple of good saves, none of the goals were of any kind we could call extrodinary. When it comes to Team Magics attackers they don't seem to have had to bad a day either, specially not in the first 15 minutes at least.
So why is that actually? It does look kinda weird, doesn't it ? What could the reason of this be? Did i change my formation or anything after the 15th minute or was it just my defenders and midfielders getting into the match and stopped his strikers?

Let's go hunting some more to see what we can find. First i'm checking the 15th minute, as i know that is one of the options for event changes, along with minute 30, 45, 60 and 75.

okey, so no events seem to be the reason. At least not in the 15th minute. Let's check the other possibileties as well. Insted of showing you screenshots of them all I'll just tell you that you didn't find any. No formation changes, no pressure changing to more attacking. No events getting spilled at all. So what about my defenders and midfielders then. Does it seem they're starting to make the tackles count? Yet again, let's go hunting. In this match report you would only find 2 such tackles. Just to show you how they look like in the report i'll give you a screenshot of one of them.

Okey, so this is starting to look a bit weird. The game totally changed after 15 minutes, but there is no visual signs of why?
So most conclusions would end up with; This must have been a fluke. So we're heading on to question 2 and 3 to check if it's a fluke.


Question 2)
This was simply a question about the penalty. So lets just check it out.

Well, that looked mighty simple. Didn't it? Nothing much to find out here anyway, for christ sake! It's just a regualr penalty. About 80-90% of them ending up as a goal. Let's move on...


Question 3)
This is kinda the same as question 1, just changing the roles on the teams. Now checking my goals and their goalie. Btw, one thing before this. Remember i had 1 penalty, 4 shots on goal and 4 goals? If not just check up on the statistic screenshot. Those statistics do not count penalty shots as shots on goal. So if you didn't know that already, you do now. So that means their goalie had 1 save then. I think many people might not know that, so they would forget to hunt down the 1 save from Team Magics goalie.

My goals




Team Magic save


There we go. Even nice little highlight on the save from Team Magics goalie, Ray Clements. Just so you wont forget penalties don't count as shots on goal even though you score on them or the goalie saves. Okey, so we yet again notice that most my goals came after the 15th minute. So now we check my goals then. Both first and second goal look as any regular goal, just like both goals Team Magic scored. Third goalie is the penalty, and what a beautiful penalty it was. The goalie didn't stand a chance on that one. Last goal says it's a great header. So in my mind that counts as a bit better then any other regular goals. So my goal scorers didn't do anything spectacular to make my goals. Simply just what they had to do.
Looking at the save we see that it was a save with 1 hand, just like one of those my goalie had. Probably due to a good placed shot.

So conclusion would be that my attackers mostly just did what they had to do and Team Magics goalie maybe didn't get to good sleep the night before the match since he only managed 1 save.

The 15th minute turn over secret:
Okey, so before i go to how i would end my conclusion on this match report i'll give out a little secret of mine. Or, it probably aint just my secret. I actually know for a fact it aint only my secret, cause i've told a couple of guys. If anyone else then i have figured it out and use it to their own advantage i'm not sure of. Anyway, back to the point.
As you all remember we couldn't find any visual reasons for the 15th minute turn over. I'll show you my event for this just in the end of this text. As you might remember, my statistics told you that i played 5-4-1, defending, longball. Is there anything you find weird about this? For instance, why play longball? It doesn't cope make sence at all. I have 4 midfielders and i want my defenders to kick the ball all up to a lonly attacker and not get to use my midfielders at all. that's just plain stupid. At least i should have used mixed if i wanted some longballs into the action. Well, the answear is kinda simple, for those who is into this game.
Tactics like shooting, tackling and playstyle do not show visual in the match report. So while you are thinking that i played longball the whole match i actually only played longball the first 15 minutes and then changed it. I'm telling this secret so you will be better on understanding changes in a match report that aint understandeble. Also look after things that look totally idiotic, like 5-4-1 with longball. I kinda use this almost all the time, just changing it from match to match regarding what looks best against my opponent. This event is also one of the reasons i picked this match report in particualre cause it show you the power of it when it works. The best part is that  your next opponent will get partly confused on what he reads and wont find any answears on how you managed to turn the match over since nothing seem to make sence. The clue is not to read your opponents match reports to prepare for the match you gonna play against him, but understanding the match report is what makes it powerful. So well, here's a visual of my event used for this particulare match.



Well, that's it for now. Hope you will find this blog helpful for understanding the match reports you read better.

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Part 2 will be about formations, lineups and tactics. So stay tuned.

Germany and Dortmund stadium:
Today, thuesday 4. july 2006, Germany gonna face Italy in the World Cup. The match are beaing played at the World Cup stadium in Dortmund. The stadium holds a capacity of 65.000. The people in Dortmund live for their football and the Bundesliga team, Borussia Dortmund always play for full stadium. Tonight aint gonna be different as Germany takes on Italy. Since 1935 Germany have played 14 international matches at Dortmund stadium and only once have a team denied them the victory when the Wales from 1977 drew 1-1. They have also scored a lot of goals here. Biggest victory being 8-0 against Malta in the UEFA European Qualification 1976. On the 14 matches played at this stadium, Germany holds a terrific +52 goal difference, scoring 59 goals and only letting in 7.
If Germany only had one stadium they could beat Italy in, this one would be it.

We have now reached the semi-finals in the World Cup and all none-european teams hve been knocked out one after another.

After the group stage there was 10 out of 16 teams from Europe. So only 6 teams from other parts of the world  made it through the group stage.
Argentina
Mexico
Brazil
Australia
Ghana
Ecuador

Mexico lost to Argentina in the 1/8 finals, teams like Australia, Ghana and Ecuador followed them out of the tournament later on in the same stage. Only the big World Cup teams like Argentina and Brazil made it through to the Quarter final. Argentina faced the home team, Germany, while Brazil should get their chance to revenge there 3-0 loss against France in the 1998 final.

Argentina kept a clean sheet in the first half against Germany in the first half, but also failed to score themself.
Argentina was the big team so far in the tournament and had played the best football. Against Serbia & Montenegro, a game they won 6-0, they created a goal that will go into every football lovers heart. It might be the best goal every created in the world cup history. Early in the second half Germany would get to feel Argentinas force infront of goal. Riquelme struck a perfect corner around the 6 yard box where Ayala managed to sneak infront of Klose and headed the ball into the net.
Argentina was 1-0 up. Argentina seemed to have control, but then in the 70 minute thing started to get a bit strange. In the 71st minute their goalie had to go off with an injury, making their second goalie come onto the pitch without getting warm first. Then in the 72nd minute Jose Pekerman made his first strange move and took Riquelme off the pitch, then just 7 minutes later he made a second strange substitue and took Hernando Crespo off the field as well. Clearly Argentina got to defensive. Just 1 minute later Germany struck back with Klose and made it 1-1. Germany now had the upper hand.
The game went into extra time where no one managed to strike a winning goal and the match needed to be decided on penalties.
Jens lehmann became the hero as he saved both penalties from Roberto Ayala and Esteban Cambiasso. Germany scored on all there 4 penalties.
The big difference was a little note Lehmann had hidden in his right sock bewteen the penalties. Between every penalty kick he would take it out and read it. What was on the note? What better then who normally took Argentinas. penalties and which corner they normally placed the ball. Klinsmann had done it again. That guy thinks of everything .

In the other match where Brazil met France there was no doubt which team was the best. France had full control on the former World Champions although the only managed to win the match 1-0 after Thierry Henry struck home a 1-0 win on a freekick from Zidane in the 54th minute. Brazil never managed to threat Barthez in the French goal and France got the win rather easy.

That's how the last none-european countries got knocked out of the ongoing World Cup. Now we only got 4 european teams left in the tournament.

Germany - Italy