Crapola, Revisited... Now what.

[thealmighty]

To refresh anyone's memory,

I have reached 1st place alone after 3 weeks, having PASTED 2 of the 3 teams I thought would be good by a combined 13-1 or so.

My next opponent, Ultra Ballers is a mystery team who has been around quite a while (3-22-02). He puts up 18-19 stars on defense alone, but his midfield has always sucked so bad he lost all the time (I beat him 7-2 aggregate last year). I figure it will be easy again as he has lost twice already this year.

Well. I go to check on him and he FINALLY sold one of his defenders for $2 MILLION. Shit, if he uses that much in our series, he will RULE easily.

Then I look at his match and he didn't even bother to replace the player he sold in his lineup, so he played with 10.

WTF is the deal. Has played for 20 months and still in D V- and losing? He should be KILLING all of us- and now he may be, starting with ME.

Guess what, he has finally awoken. Spent lots of money on a few players, including a 6.5 star one. Put up a 75 NSI and 37 stars- with a 0 star keeper due to injury, which he has money to resolve.

Anyway, I am still in first place, 3 points ahead of 2nd place (who has already gotton to play Ultra both times ).

I play Ultra AWAY this Sunday. Even if I MOTS, since it is away, I don't know if that will do it for me.

Should I PIC for the TS and get over it. I will still be tied for 1st, ahead on goal differential (unless I lose 15-0 or something) with a date against that #2 team the last game of the year?

Should I MOTS and hope (maybe play CA or something)?

If I lose, I will fall below the auto-promote line possibly (undefeated so far). I need to do what's best to at least have a promotion game to get out of this series if Ultra has finally decided to win. Don't wanna be stuck in V for 2 more years.

I would appreciate any comments, advice, or someone with more knowledge than I (most of you) checking the stats and game summaries to give me some helpful hints or what-have-you. BTW, I have about $1 million I could spend if needed.

Thanks for listening/helping.

[thealmighty]

dola...obviously he did nothing and I beat him the first time, not that that means anything at this point.

[RPI-Fan]

If you have one glaring hole in your lineup that could be upgraded, now would be as good a time as any to fill it. Else, I'd just PIC this week and go for broke in the last match + qually game.

[Mr. Wednesday]

If you want to keep differential down, pressing seems to be the tactic to do it as long as you have the players.

Last season, teams with one loss autopromoted, at least some of them did. If your differential is good enough, you can probably afford it, especially with the potential bloodbath in the final week as all the 1 vs 2 matchups play out.

[KevinNU7]

I'd PIC, one loss shoud still get you autopromotion.

[MacroGuru]

PIC and save the MOTS.

[Vikas]

You're quite lucky his 4.5* goalkeeper is still injured for another 3 weeks approx.
You're also quite lucky he plays a 4-4-2 lineup with 2 Inner Mids.

I'd say if you're willing to spend the Mil on a new Inner Mid, you have a shot at winning. It's a pretty tough choice though, I agree on that