Houston Hippopotami at Hattrick (Alliterative, isn't it?) [Archive]

sterlingice

02-02-2003, 03:51 AM

CURRENT ROSTER
After a few early changes, this is our current roster. We probably will not be adding to it for a little while, at least until we are back in the black which should be in 3 weeks. We may not do a whole lot of transferring this year since we are in debt and 3 of our last 4 games are on the road.

Note, for ratings
Bold Italic is for any rating above Solid
Bold is for passable, solid
Italic is for weak, inadequite

THE NUMBERS
The Hippopotami have a rich three-day old tradition of following a numbering scheme. Like NFL teams, where recievers wear 80s and offensive linemen wear 60s and 70s, so, too, do the Hippopotami have a numbering scheme.
1-3 Goalies - Our franchise goalie will always wear #1
4-9 Defenders - Any other single digit is a defender or defensive wing
10-19 Midfield - Middies and Wings wear numbers that start with 1
20-24 Forwards - The offense starts with a 2

COACH
We got exceedingly lucky with a great coach after only my second try to replace the old coach. Ricky Braden is young, but with great experience and is a solid coach. We couldn't have asked for a better coach! Coach is now and ever will be number 25 unless we change the numbering system.

Ricky Braden (7583297) #25
33 years, wretched form, healthy
A solid coach who goes all out
A controversial person who is calm and upright.
Has brilliant experience and weak leadership abilities.
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 0 US$
Wage: 500 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: disastrous
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: disastrous
Passing: disastrous
Winger: wretched
Defending: disastrous
Scoring: disastrous
Set Pieces: disastrous

Goalkeepers
Raduli is the man for years to come and Lopes is a decent trainee but will see limited playing time as long as Raduli is healthy. There is a reason I paid nearly $100K for him and plucked him from his native Polska- he's our future and a damn fine goalie. Speaking of an international flavor- Lopes is from Portugal.

Dawid Raduli (5973248) #1
19 years, weak form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is fiery and upright.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.
Nationality: Polska
Assessed value: 144 000 US$
Wage: 1 608 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: poor
Goaltending: passable
Playmaking: disastrous
Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous
Defending: disastrous
Scoring: disastrous
Set Pieces: disastrous

Augusto Almeida Lopes (7722984) #2
18 years, inadequate form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is calm and honest.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.
Nationality: Portugal
Assessed value: 31 000 US$
Wage: 816 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: disastrous
Goaltending: weak
Playmaking: disastrous
Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous
Defending: disastrous
Scoring: disastrous
Set Pieces: weak

Defense
Of all the places on our team, this needs the most work. We really only have one guy I'm happy with and another I'm satisfied with. Hebert is here to stay, especially after he bumped up to "passable" defense last week. Slingerland is competent, especially if I can bump his defense up to passable but he seems best suited to backup. I desperately need a shutdown solid middle defender. Also, I would love to get another middie so I can play a 4-5-1.

Klaas Slingerland (5914816) #4
24 years, inadequate form, healthy
A sympathetic guy who is calm and upright.
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities.
Nationality: Nederland
Assessed value: 53 000 US$
Wage: 1 056 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: poor
Passing: inadequate
Winger: passable
Defending: inadequate
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: poor
Career Goals: 1
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 0
Cup goals this season: 0

Zlatko Koch (3837419) #6
26 years, inadequate form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is calm and honest.
Has wretched experience and wretched leadership abilities.
Nationality: Österreich
Assessed value: 60 000 US$
Wage: 1 152 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: passable
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched
Passing: weak
Winger: weak
Defending: passable
Scoring: inadequate
Set Pieces: wretched
Career Goals: 4
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 1
Cup goals this season: 0

Hugh Hebert (7555483) #7
22 years, solid form, healthy
A controversial person who is temperamental and honest.
Has disastrous experience and disastrous leadership abilities.
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 39 000 US$
Wage: 680 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 2
Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: wretched
Playmaking: weak
Passing: poor
Winger: inadequate
Defending: passable
Scoring: wretched
Set Pieces: weak
Career Goals: 0
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 0
Cup goals this season: 0

Thomas Rosenthal (7232432) #8
28 years, inadequate form, healthy
A nasty fellow who is temperamental and dishonest.
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities.
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 76 000 US$
Wage: 1 020 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 1
Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: inadequate
Passing: disastrous
Winger: wretched
Defending: passable
Scoring: [/b]passable[/b]
Set Pieces: inadequate
Career Goals: 2
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 1
Cup goals this season: 0

Wingers
Mick Starks is our captain and star. Typically he plays an offensive wing on one side or the other. I like to switch it up to keep defenses guessing. Crespo is a pretty good number 2 and he is the set pieces man. Eventually I will have to upgrade and he will get older but for now, he's definately our second best option. Balbuena is a trainee but his periphery stats mean he doesn't have much of a future with no other nice skills. Storm Jordan has our coolest name and is a decent veteran backup. I could stand to get a legit winger trainee who can score opposite Starks but that is off in the future.

Mick Starks (7555487) #13
24 years, inadequate form, healthy
A nasty fellow who is balanced and honest.
Has poor experience and passable leadership abilities.
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 184 000 US$
Wage: 1 600 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: weak
Passing: passable
Winger: solid
Defending: weak
Scoring: passable
Set Pieces: inadequate
Career Goals: 0
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 0
Cup goals this season: 0

José Alberto Balbuena (7793123) #14
19 years, inadequate form, healthy
A controversial person who is temperamental and infamous.
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities.
Nationality: Argentina
Assessed value: 13 000 US$
Wage: 672 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: weak
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: weak
Passing: disastrous
Winger: passable
Defending: wretched
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: weak
Career Goals: 0
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 0
Cup goals this season: 0

Alfredo Crespo (7555478) #16
27 years, weak form, healthy
A controversial person who is balanced and honest.
Has poor experience and weak leadership abilities.
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 90 000 US$
Wage: 1 100 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: weak
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: weak
Passing: solid
Winger: passable
Defending: weak
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: solid
Career Goals: 0
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 0
Cup goals this season: 0

Storm Jordan (7555477) #19
26 years, weak form, healthy
A sympathetic guy who is calm and honest.
Has poor experience and weak leadership abilities.
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 30 000 US$
Wage: 720 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: weak
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched
Passing: inadequate
Winger: passable
Defending: wretched
Scoring: inadequate
Set Pieces: wretched
Career Goals: 0
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 0
Cup goals this season: 0

Middies
It always bugs me that we seem to get wretched ratings on middies. We have four main middies and three are solid with the fourth at passable for playmaking. Also, they all tend to have either decent passing, scoring, or defense, as well. Stamina is lacking a bit but these next couple of weeks, we will be working on it. Typically, I start Acker, Connors, and Benito. Benito's passable playmaking is more than made up for by his strong stats at scoring, defense, and passing. With some stamina improvement, Paz might see some more playing time. Paige is pretty good and pretty young so he makes the perfect trainee. Ideally, Paz and Benito will eventually be sold to get an uber #1 middie to play alongside Acker and Connors who are a fine #2 and #3.

Kyle Paige (7555474) #10
20 years, inadequate form, healthy
A nasty fellow who is temperamental and honest.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.
Speciality: Quick
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 11 000 US$
Wage: 540 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: disastrous
Goaltending: wretched
Playmaking: passable
Passing: weak
Winger: weak
Defending: weak
Scoring: wretched
Set Pieces: inadequate
Career Goals: 0
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 0
Cup goals this season: 0

Stephen Connors (7555486) #12
23 years, passable form, healthy
A controversial person who is calm and upright.
Has disastrous experience and passable leadership abilities.
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 65 000 US$
Wage: 860 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: solid
Passing: weak
Winger: poor
Defending: inadequate
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: inadequate
Career Goals: 1
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 1
Cup goals this season: 0

Carlos Alberto Benito (7555476) #15
21 years, passable form, healthy
A popular guy who is calm and honest.
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities.
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 146 000 US$
Wage: 1 220 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: wretched
Playmaking: passable
Passing: solid
Winger: wretched
Defending: weak
Scoring: inadequate
Set Pieces: poor
Career Goals: 0
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 0
Cup goals this season: 0

Julius Acker (7555485) #17
21 years, inadequate form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is temperamental and infamous.
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities.
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 121 000 US$
Wage: 1 120 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: poor
Goaltending: wretched
Playmaking: solid
Passing: passable
Winger: passable
Defending: poor
Scoring: weak
Set Pieces: disastrous
Career Goals: 0
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 0
Cup goals this season: 0

Pedro Villavilla Paz (7555488) #18
27 years, inadequate form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is balanced and upright.
Has weak experience and weak leadership abilities.
Speciality: Powerful
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 47 000 US$
Wage: 720 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: wretched
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: solid
Passing: poor
Winger: wretched
Defending: weak
Scoring: inadequate
Set Pieces: inadequate
Career Goals: 0
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 0
Cup goals this season: 0

Forwards
We are fortunate to have 3 quality forwards, two of which I got cheap on the transfer market. Solomonm and Phelan lead the team with 3 goals. Phelan and Chang will be front line starters for us for years, hopefully. I'd love to see #22 and #23 there for into the future. It would be nice to get one more young trainee for offensive formations and to replace Solomon in a couple of years.

Derrick Solomon (2651563) #20
29 years, inadequate form, healthy
A sympathetic guy who is calm and honest.
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities.
Speciality: Technical
Nationality: Oceania
Assessed value: 29 000 US$
Wage: 936 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: solid
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: weak
Passing: inadequate
Winger: poor
Defending: wretched
Scoring: passable
Set Pieces: solid
Career Goals: 10
Career Hattricks: 1
League goals this season: 3
Cup goals this season: 0

Edwin Phelan (7555484) #22
20 years, passable form, healthy
A sympathetic guy who is calm and upright.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.
Speciality: Technical
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 135 000 US$
Wage: 1 060 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: passable
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: poor
Passing: passable
Winger: inadequate
Defending: weak
Scoring: passable
Set Pieces: poor
Career Goals: 3
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 3
Cup goals this season: 0

Defoe Chang (6110091) #23
20 years, inadequate form, healthy
A controversial person who is fiery and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.
Nationality: England
Assessed value: 39 000 US$
Wage: 852 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: passable
Goaltending: wretched
Playmaking: poor
Passing: weak
Winger: wretched
Defending: weak
Scoring: passable
Set Pieces: disastrous
Career Goals: 1
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 1
Cup goals this season: 0

The Team
Well, there's the current team as well as some of the changes I would like to make. If I get those done, I could be a pretty competent IV team but that will take time and money to get there.

SI

sterlingice

02-02-2003, 04:18 AM

Friendly
The Morrisville Morrisvillians, NevStar's team, was kind enough to challenge us to a home friendly next weeks. Next week, I'll likely be working on stamina and then a week of general to regain some form and then another pair of weeks on stamina and general to help build up my

Stadium!
Anyone coming to our house will now have the pleasure of playing in the new, expanded Hippodrome. I doubt we will be making changes for quite a while. We have a posh setup with extra VIP Boxes for everyone. We hope to have all of these seats filled tomorrow:

Arena: The Hippodrome
Belongs to: Houston Hippopotami
Country: USA
Region : Houston
Last improvement: 1/29/2003
Total capacity: 15692
Terraces: 9702
Basic seating: 3850
Seats under roof: 1740
Seats in VIP boxes: 400

Staff
Youth Squad: weak
Investment in the Youth squad: 5 000 US$ / week

Goaltending Coaches: 1
Assistant Coaches: 2
Sport Psychologists: 0
Spokepersons: 2
Economists: 0
Physiotherapists: 1
Doctors: 1

Not a huge staff and not much in the youth squad at the moment. That will all change in a couple of weeks. I want to get out of debt before I go all out with expenses, tho.

Training
Training Level: 90%
Training Type: Stamina
Coach: Ricky Braden
Team Spirit: composed
Confidence: decent

Formation experience
4-3-3: disastrous
4-5-1: poor
3-5-2: solid
5-3-2: disastrous
3-4-3: wretched
5-4-1: disastrous

(The experience with 4-4-2 is always excellent, which is the highest level of experience that can be attained.)

I'd like to work on a 4-5-1 but I just don't have the defenders for that. I think I may work on a 3-4-3 so I can have an offensive formation to go along with my defense. As I said above: the next few weeks will be Stamina, General, Stamina, General so I can improve my stamina and, ultimately, my midfield game. I have solid middies but never seem to get a good rating there and stamina is probably the reason.

League Standings

Series: V.62 (8435)
Country: USA
Level: 5 out of 5


Team G Goals Pts
1. The Darksiders 7 36 - 4 18
2. CC's Dragons 7 31 - 9 18
3. Atlanta United 7 20 - 12 15
4. The Flying Midgets 7 12 - 13 9
5. Houston Hippopotami 7 10 - 15 9
6. backflips 7 6 - 24 6
7. Tea Stealers 7 5 - 22 4
8. Metal Mulisha 7 4 - 25 4


Youth Pull
This week's youth pull isn't great but at least he's servicable for now. I don't have to fire him immediately but he'll likely find his way to the wire soon. At least he's 17 so there is hope for him.

Jack Foster (8062230)
17 years, passable form, healthy
A sympathetic guy who is balanced and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.
Speciality: Head
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 5 000 US$
Wage: 520 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: weak
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: weak
Passing: weak
Winger: poor
Defending: wretched
Scoring: weak
Set Pieces: wretched

SI

vex

02-02-2003, 10:31 AM

Do NOT train general!

Poli

02-02-2003, 10:37 AM

I like training general occassionally. Why would you say NOT to do that?

vex

02-02-2003, 10:40 AM

Because once you stop doing it, I have noticed, it's almost like you have to keep training it because if you stop, your form takes a nosedive. I trained it the first week I played and switched to stamina the week after that and I'm just now recovering.

Poli

02-02-2003, 10:53 AM

I haven't seen that. I have often trained form. I feel it really helped propel me out of v.92. I trained form for 4 weeks straight. Maybe I would have been better off training something else, but I doubt it. With the team I was given, it's not like I had a wealth of young talent that would become all stars after a few weeks of training. I feel superior form is what got me over the top amongst a bunch of teams with similar talent.

illinifan999

02-02-2003, 11:36 AM

I trained General for about 2 weeks. I saw improvements in form right away. Victor BRown who was at wretched moved up to weak. After two weeks, I trained playmaking. Still increases in form. Brown has moved up almost 50,000 in value, and his form is at inadequate I think now.

DataKing

02-02-2003, 01:51 PM

Originally posted by sterlingice
My second supporter spot will be given to Dataking's Screamin' Seamen as he is the reason I found my way to these boards. I've never even played FOF, but I was regaled with tales of the board and many of its interesting dynasties. Before long, I found myself reading and writing here. So the quick and dirty moral of the story is that any hate mail directed at me should also include a tomato his way as well.

Gee thanks, I think. :D

Press Announcements: There is a drop-down box on the right hand side of your main team page. One of the options there is 'Change Press Announcement.' You only get 500 characters for each announcement, though, so you'll need to keep it short.

General Training: I have read mixed reviews regarding General training. Some people think it is a complete waste of time, while others seem to get good results from it. My take on it is that it can help your team form out a little bit, especially if a player's form curve is already on the rise. However, once you develop a good training program, it can be a waste of time. For my team, benefits to form does not compare with a lost week of training for 8 defenders. I use it sparingly. I only consider it if my starters' forms are lagging and I have a big match coming up.

I hope this helps.

sterlingice

02-02-2003, 04:22 PM

Well, how about this for another training issue:

Is it best to stick with training the same thing or is it ok to rotate around while training. I don't really want to concentrate explicitly on one facet of the game (say, defending or playmaking) but if I could do something like a 6 week rotation where I do Stamina -> Defending -> Scoring -> Winger -> Playmaking -> Passing (and repeat), that would be idea. Which would mean I use the 3-5-2 and 4-5-1 for defending, winger, and playmaking weeks while I use 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 for scoring and passing weeks.

Or should I just concentrate on one or two things (say playmaking and defending) and run my team based on that where I look for guys on the transfer wire who have high stats everywhere else because I know I'll be training those couple of things. Also, this would involve running 3-5-2 (fixture) and 4-5-1 (friendlies) to maximize the number of people who get trained a week.

SI

DataKing

02-02-2003, 04:54 PM

Here is my thinking regarding training strategy, though I'd be very interested in hearing what others have to say.

I have a long-range training strategy. By that I mean that I train the same thing (currently defending) for three or four seasons at a time, rather than doing some sort of rotating training program. The primary reason for this is because of the way training is handled in Hattrick. I will use defending as an example, because that is what I am most familiar with.

John Defense is a 17 year old player (the youngest possible) with a passable rating in defense. Given the best possible training program (a solid coach and 8 or 9 assistant coaches), it takes John 10 weeks to go to solid in defense. However, for every year that a player is over 17 years old, you add 1 week to the necessary amount of time to raise a level. If John were 20 years old, it would take him 13 weeks to improve.

With the rotation idea that you mentioned, John would only receive six weeks of training out of 30 possible weeks (approximately two seasons), so he would be a passable defender (about halfway to solid) by the time he reached 19 years of age. He may reach solid in his next 6 week rotation, but will then be 21 years old before he gets more training. Now, it will take him 14 weeks to reach excellent level. The older a player gets, the more diminished the returns you get on his training.

All of this is academic, of course, unless you take into account the way that the transfer market works. As you go up in skill levels on the transfer market, the price of a player increases geometrically, not arithmetically. Look at the approximate sale values of 21 year old defenders:

Passable (I just sold one): $25,000
Solid: $150,000
Excellent: $400,000
Formidable: $1,000,000 (at least)
Outstanding: $2,000,000 (at least)

If using a rotation system, you could raise 22 players from passable to solid skill level in two seasons, the net increase would be about $2,750,000 (22 * $125,000).

Using a system devoted to one skill, in my example defending, you could potentially train 10 players from passable level to excellent level in 2 seasons. The resulting value increase would be $3,750,000 (10 * $375,000).

And that is only at the low end of the scale. If you're talking about starting with solid trainees, then the numbers are even more weighted.

This system assumes that all of the players that you are training are 17 or 18 years old. It's a lot easier (and less expensive) to get 10 17 or 18 year olds in the first place, than it is to field a team of 22.

Well, this post has certainly become a lot longer than I originally intended. Allow me to say one thing more. After four seasons of training defending (of which I am in the middle of the second), I intend to keep the 3 best young defenders I have, sell the rest off for a truck load of cash, and use that money to improve the general quality of my team elsewhere, as well as buy trainees for whatever I will train next (leaning towards playmaking or winger).

Personally, I think the rotation system would be a long hard road before any sort of payoff was seen. But the decision is yours to make, naturally. :D

And like I said, I would be very interested in hearing what others thoughts are on the matter.

sterlingice

02-02-2003, 06:27 PM

Training
I'll still be considering this over the next few days. But today is the day for some less formal information about the team.

Team Colors
As Hippopotamuses are only grey/black, I figured I could go with pretty much any color I wanted but I wanted something with a dark look. At first, I kindof liked the idea of dark red and black as those seem like Hippo colors but then I decided on purple and black. Also thought dark green socks sounded like a good idea even though they look like black to me. Our color schemes are as follows: (any thoughts?)

Match Kit
Shirt: Black
Shorts: Purple
Socks: Dark Green

Reserve Kit
Shirt: Purple
Shorts: Black
Socks: Dark Green

Fan Club
I have no idea what to call my fan club so at the moment, they are the other grammatically correct version of Hippopotamus, Hippopotamuses.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hippopotamus

hip·po·pot·a·mus
n. pl. hip·po·pot·a·mus·es or hip·po·pot·a·mi (-m)

Club Logo
Do you know how hard it is to find a hippopotamus graphic that isn't cute? I don't want a "cute" Hippo picture- geez! Anyone know where I can find some Hippo graphic art outside of standard channels (excite, google, etc).

Why Hippopotami?
I'm sure most people have asked "Why have the 'river horse' as a mascot for a soccer team? It just doesn't make sense unless this person has an unhealthy fascination with the animals?" First, I leave the unhealthy obsessions with animals to my girlfriend who has over 100 stuffed cows (she's from Iowa- go figure). I have no crazy fascination with the animals but a few years ago I was trying to come up with some sort of large, offensive-lineman-type animal for my team and thus the Houston Hippopotami were born.

Reminder
Anyone in FOFC who hasn't signed my guest book is welcome to. In the next couple of days, I hope to be making the rounds to all of the FOFC teams and getting to their books but with homework calling today it will probably have to wait.

SI

sterlingice

02-02-2003, 10:50 PM

Preview
A win today puts us in fourth, four fixture wins in a row after taking over the team, putting that 0-4 and no goals from when I took over a bad memory. Our game last week was close, 3-2, but we are in the new Hippodrome so hopefully we can win by a more comfortable margin. Also, let's see if we can fill the new statdium completely up.

Game Summary
Date: 2/3/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 4591296
Arena: The Hippodrome
Crowd: 15174

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and The Hippodrome saw a crowd turnout of 15174. Hippopotami tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Raduli - Hebert, Koch, Rosenthal - Starks, Benito, Acker, Connors, Crespo - Solomon, Phelan.

Midgets started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Ram - Kearney, Lugo, Bond, Roca - Stern, Griffith, Kok-Chong, Storey - Blombom, O'Keeffe.

Hippopotami were very close to putting themselves one up in the 12th minute as Alfredo Crespo got through, but failing in concentration, he shot the ball wide. Midgets made a substitution in the 14:th minute. Curtis Bond limped off the field and was replaced by Thomas Aastrup. Hippopotamis Derrick Solomon gave, after 22 minutes, the home team a 1 - 0 lead after an attack coming in from the right. A bit later, a magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Hippopotami´s Edwin Phelan putting the lead up to 2 - 0. By now Hippopotami were drawing the troops back in order to defend their lead. Halftime score was 2 - 0. Hippopotami, bringing the final ball possession rate to 57 percent, dominated the battle.

After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, Hippopotami´s Hugh Hebert got himself booked. Midgets will have to do without Chu Kok-Chong for a time due to a bad foot injury. He was substituted by Trent Greenfield. Julius Acker behaved like an inexperienced youth player in the 52nd minute as he gave the ball away to an opponent. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. In the 52nd minute Hippopotami put themselves up 3 - 0. The visitors defenders lost the ball to Stephen Connors coming up from the left, who proceeded to cooly round the goaltender and knock the ball home. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 71 percent possession rate.

The most dominating Hippopotami player was without a doubt Edwin Phelan. Julius Acker on the other hand, had a terrible day. Midgets´s best player was Svarg Ram. Trent Greenfield was a disappointment, however. The match ends 3 - 0.

Stadium

SOLD SEATS

Terraces: 9594 (9702)
Basic seats: 3850 (3850)
Seats under roof: 1373 (1740)
VIP seats: 357 (400)
Total: 15174 (15692)

Not quite a sellout but very close. I guess a few less terraces and rich seats would have been better but still pretty good. Also, if I get a crowd like this every week, I'll be perfectly happy. I got nearly $80K with only $10K in upkeep.

Team Ratings

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: poor
Right Side Defence: inadequate
Central Defence: inadequate
Left Side Defence: inadequate
Right Side Attack: solid
Central Attack: solid
Left Side Attack: passable

The Flying Midgets
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: solid
Central Defence: excellent
Left Side Defence: passable
Right Side Attack: inadequate
Central Attack: weak
Left Side Attack: weak

Player Ratings
GK Dawid Raduli **
DW Hugh Hebert **
DM Zlatko Koch **
DW Thomas Rosenthal **
WI Mick Starks (off) **~
MI Julius Acker *~
MI Stephen Connors **
MI Carlos Alberto Benito (off) **~
WI Alfredo Crespo *~
FO Derrick Solomon **
FO Edwin Phelan **~

Total player experience: wretched

Game Summary
Not to say I was taking this game for granted, but this game and the next should be relatively easy and then the real games begin. As ho-hum a game as there is. Thankfully my players are computer simulations instead of little people inside the computer or else they would probably be looking ahead, too.

Future Games
A game against the Metal Mulisha is the last of the easy ones against likely dead teams. Then the big boys come along: home against Atlanta and then an away against the Darksiders. If we can go 2-0, we're in the midst of a "playoff" hunt. If not (which is more likely), it's wait until next season when the team will be completely mine and I'll probably have a couple of new weapons at my disposal. Both Atlanta and the Darksiders are probably good enough to move up but Atlanta just took over even after I did and the Darksiders and CC will be slugging it out for the chance to advance.


Team G Goals Pts
1. The Darksiders 8 38 - 4 21
2. CC's Dragons 8 37 - 11 21
3. Atlanta United 8 24 - 13 18
4. Houston Hippopotami 8 13 - 15 12
5. The Flying Midgets 8 12 - 16 9
6. backflips 8 8 - 30 6
7. Tea Stealers 8 6 - 26 4
8. Metal Mulisha 8 4 - 27 4


Economy
Will make nearly $60K this week after the game. Without the game, however, it would have been a $25K defecit. This is all with only a $5K youth contribution. I may sell a player before too long to get on the happy side of positive. Then again, I may just work on playmaking instead of stamina and try to bump one of my four solid middies up to excellent and then sell one of the more dispensible ones. As you can see below, our supporters are up to "high on life"! Since hiring a spokesperson this past week earned another $3K for only her $1500 salary, I will be hiring another this week, bringing the count up to 3 and also, another assistant coach to help out with training.

Cash funds: -121 482 US$ (-63 454) US$
Sponsors: satisfied
Supporter Club: 601 members
Supporters: high on life

SI

NevStar

02-02-2003, 11:23 PM

Wow, nice attendence. I knew there was a reason I challenged you at your stadium. I need to get me one of those shiny new stadiums.

sterlingice

02-03-2003, 01:19 AM

Wow, nice attendence. I knew there was a reason I challenged you at your stadium. I need to get me one of those shiny new stadiums.

Unfortunately it plunged me into debt for about a month since I don't want to sell any of my good players and I really won't be able to spend much until next season as my schedule isn't very favorable for home games. As for friendlies- unfortunately I still only got 600 supporters at last week's home game against the Bees. Then again, the two weeks before that we had 700 for a rainy game and 1400(!!) against ardent's North County Raiders- but those were both away from here.

SI

Poli

02-03-2003, 01:42 AM

My fans aim to please.

I totally support DK's thoughts on training. I just wish there was some way for me to get more forwards on the stinking field.

I like your color setup, btw.

Maybe The Hungry, Hungry, Hippos could be your supporter club and I'd think there would be a picture of the cartoon hippo from the commercial somewhere out there...

sterlingice

02-05-2003, 04:28 AM

The Club and Logo
You know, ardent, you had a good idea. The club has been renamed the "Hungry Hungry Hippos". As for logo, I haven't had much of an opportunity to look. Ecko's logo would be great (with some color changes)... except that it's a rhino. Oh well. For coming up with the nickname, the North County Raiders will gain "honorary" sponsorship, meaning I'll sponsor you until I get a nice bribe to change my mind.

Finances
"14 new supporters signed up and paid 420 US$ in fees."
Also, despite the money drain, I think I'm going back up to $10K per week for the youth squad. Ideally, that could take care of all of our money troubles so a little investment goes a long way.

Training Dilemna
I need to isolate the players I will eventually transfer and those I want to keep. But that requires determining two things: what second formation I want to play and what I want to train. For this week, however, I will be training stamina as many of my players need help with that.

Friendly
As soon as I finish typing this up, I'm heading over to hattrick to figure out my formation for tomorrow's game. From our "second" team, I know Paz, Chang, and Paige will likely play. I may also throw our backup goalie Lopes in, as I have not played him since acquiring him off the transfer market and he needs to keep his form up. Don't think I'm letting up on you, Morrisville: Paz is still a solid playmaker, Chang a passable scorer, and Paige is a servicable wingbacker (weak/weak) with solid playmaking but no stamina. Lopes may not be Raduli but he's no slouch, either- he's young and wants to play.

Until next time, my Hungry Hungry Hippos.

SI

Poli

02-06-2003, 12:44 AM

Originally posted by sterlingice
The Club and Logo
You know, ardent, you had a good idea. The club has been renamed the "Hungry Hungry Hippos". As for logo, I haven't had much of an opportunity to look. Ecko's logo would be great (with some color changes)... except that it's a rhino. Oh well. For coming up with the nickname, the North County Raiders will gain "honorary" sponsorship, meaning I'll sponsor you until I get a nice bribe to change my mind.

Until next time, my Hungry Hungry Hippos.

SI

Thank you. Good ideas only come so often, I have to share them rather quickly or I forget what the idea was about.

Good luck in your search. I hope no one is able to bribe you to change your mind although I wouldn't doubt it if a certain Frog met your price. :)

sterlingice

02-06-2003, 02:39 AM

None as of yet, ardent- I think your spot is safe for quite a while.

As for today's game- I think I'll do a writeup tomorrow. Kindof looking for sleep tonight.

SI

sterlingice

02-07-2003, 04:03 AM

Preview
You know, the 4-5-1 and a couple of subs against a relatively new team sounded like a good idea before game time. Needless to say, some impulses are better left not acted upon...

Game Summary
Date: 2/6/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 4984644
Arena: The Hippodrome
Crowd: 633

633 spectators had come to The Hippodrome this cloudy day. Hippopotami had chosen a strategic 4-5-1 formation. They fielded: Almeida Lopes - Hebert, Koch, Slingerland, Paige - Crespo, Acker, Starks, Villavilla Paz, Jordan - Chang.

Morrisvillians had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Negron - Bladin, Little, Lund - Sifres Belenguer, Stewart, Miller, Minton, Ribelles - Felton, Andersen.

Greger Bladin of Morrisvillians received a yellow card in the 2nd minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Hippopotami had obvious problems in finding their positions. After a fine move down the middle Defoe Chang nearly gave the home side one up in the 22nd minute. The finishing shot went just wide, though. The referee showed Hippopotamis Hugh Hebert the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Hippopotami seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion about the organization of the team. One of many good passes from Gabriel Ribelles at the wing was recieved and skillfully taken care of by Alan Felton, scoring for Morrisvillians to 0 - 1. The visitors Greger Bladin took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side´s goalie and full backs in the 38:th minute. 0 - 2 for Morrisvillians. In the game's 40:th minute Hippopotami´s Alfredo Crespo limped slightly after a late challenge, but he was able to continue. The teams went for a half-time break at 0 - 2. Morrisvillians, bringing the final ball possession rate to 58 percent, dominated the battle.

During the break Hippopotami´s coach went through the teams new tactics yet again. Ethan Miller came close to extending the visitors lead as he, completely unmarked in front of the goal, lifted a ball over Augusto Almeida Lopes, hitting the bar. Morrisvillians seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion about the organization of the team. The visitors Richard Stewart took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side´s goalie and full backs in the 74:th minute. 0 - 3 for Morrisvillians. After this Morrisvillians lowered the tempo in order to concentrate on their defensive efforts. The visitors Søren Andersen took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side´s goalie and full backs in the 75:th minute. 0 - 4 for Morrisvillians. Buster Minton behaved like an inexperienced youth player in the 76:th minute as he gave the ball away to an opponent. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. Buster Minton could have put his team up another one in the 77:th minute, after a rush down the left, but his closing shot hit the post. Hippopotami appeared unsure on how to play. Morrisvillianss Victoro Sifres Belenguer got himself booked after a foul. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Morrisvillians, with an impressive 59 percent possession of the ball.

Hippopotami´s best player was Hugh Hebert. Pedro Villavilla Paz was a disappointment, however. Most important Morrisvillians player was Alan Felton. However, Ethan Miller made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 0 - 4.
Stadium

SOLD SEATS

Terraces: 409 (9702)
Basic seats: 151 (3850)
Seats under roof: 57 (1740)
VIP seats: 16 (400)
Total: 633 (15692)

I hate to say it but I disappointed Morrisville. Just couldn't deliver that big of a crowd, even for a friendly.

Team Ratings

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: weak
Central Defence: inadequate
Left Side Defence: inadequate
Right Side Attack: inadequate
Central Attack: poor
Left Side Attack: weak

Morrisville Morrisvillians
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: passable
Central Defence: passable
Left Side Defence: weak
Right Side Attack: passable
Central Attack: inadequate
Left Side Attack: weak

Player Ratings
GK Augusto Almeida Lopes *
DW Hugh Hebert **
DM Zlatko Koch **
DM Klaas Slingerland *~
DW Kyle Paige *~
WI Storm Jordan *
MI Julius Acker *~
MI Pedro Villavilla Paz *
MI Mick Starks *~
WI Alfredo Crespo *~
FO Dafoe Chang **

Total player experience: wretched

Game Summary
Great game played by Morrisville left our subs in the dust. Hopefully some of this experience sinks in so the game isn't a total loss. Lopes was very disappointing. It may be time to get a backup inadequite goalie. Chang and Hebert were the only good signs. We need more backups to give them some quality experience time.

Economy
Ok, I think I have a new idea. While debt isn't so great, I need to get some guys in to train. I'm selling off Paz, who is a 27yo solid middie. I put his starting price at $50K, hopefully I can get that or I may have to just keep him. Also, 14 new supporters signed up to bring us to 629.

Friendly
Stockbridge Panthers FC from Michigan challenged us to a friendly. Since the Consolation Cup doesn't start for another week and I didn't have a game, I accepted and will be traveling to his place to play a game.

Training News
After that debacle, at least our 4-5-1 is up to passable now. I've decided to train playmaking since it plays best to our strength with 3 solids on our team (plus the one I am selling) and the 3-5-2 lends to training 3 guys well per week. I wanted to do scoring and 3-4-3 but I think that would be very detrimental to my team with the emphasis the game places on middies.

As for weekly changes. This is the second week in a row with no stat bumps. Oh well. At least now I have an idea what I want to do. For form, 7 went up and 6 down, 4-4 for my starters. As for value, I fared a bit better at 11-6, for starters it's 6-4. Hopefully next week will bring us better training.

New Hippopotamus
Along that vein of looking for new talent to train, I ran across a German midfielder for $16K who I think I can train to be pretty competent and either sell or keep. He doesn't have great periphery stats but a solid midfielder of 19 should fetch a handsome sum on the open market.

Philip Friedländer (7895342)
19 years, inadequate form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is balanced and honest.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.
Speciality: Technical
Nationality: Deutschland
Assessed value: 29 000 US$
Wage: 792 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: weak
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: passable
Passing: poor
Winger: inadequate
Defending: poor
Scoring: weak
Set Pieces: poor

SI

sterlingice

02-09-2003, 02:51 AM

It's the Economy, Stupid
Well, I'm down to 82K in debt after last week. However, we have an away game and are still losing 26K this week even with only a 10K youth contribution. I think that is the way it will always be: lose money during the off weeks, make it during the on. I'll be hiring 2 more spokespeople as they have been increasing sponsor money more than $1500 per week.

FYI, one of our expenses was the purchase of midfielder trainee, Philip Friedländer. He was assigned the number 11, as it was the only midfielder number left.

Youth Pull
The good news: our youth squad is up to inadequite. The bad news: our youth pull doesn't show it. He has since been sacked.

Al Sawyer (8184955)
19 years, passable form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is calm and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and passable leadership abilities.
Speciality: Powerful
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 2 000 US$
Wage: 500 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: disastrous
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched
Passing: poor
Winger: poor
Defending: wretched
Scoring: weak
Set Pieces: weak

Tenative Posting Schedule
This is more for me than anyone else but I think I will do the following on a weekly basis:

Sunday/Monday: Fixture Writeup
EDIT: Tuesday: Player of the Week, Where are they Now
Wednesday: Friendly Writeup
Friday: Training Update
Saturday/Sunday: Economy, Youth Update
Also, I will probably put up occasional posts about my roster and, of course, any breaking news will be posted as it happens. I really should do a player of the week profile but my team is still in flux somewhat so I don't want to do that until I'm on a bit more solid footing.

SI

DataKing

02-09-2003, 04:36 AM

A Player of the Week profile is a damn good idea. I might just steal that one. :)

Poli

02-09-2003, 11:24 AM

Sounds cool to me as well, but I'm not sure I'll take the time to do that...although Jerome Bettis needs more press.

vex

02-09-2003, 06:28 PM

I'm just too lazy to do something like that.

sterlingice

02-10-2003, 01:06 AM

Preview
This may be really dangerous, but I decided to do "Play It Cool" since the Mulisha are downright awful and I have two huge games coming up. This team is awful so hopefully we can still pull it out. We whooped them 4-0 a couple of weeks ago but that was at home. Still, they are last place and haven't had a new owner so I doubt they will turn it around.

Game Summary
Date: 2/10/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 4591300
Arena: Metal Mulisha Arena
Crowd: 4914

A scorching day at Metal Mulisha Arena, where 4914 spectators were in place for today´s match. Mulisha had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Mcduffie - Cardenas, Singh, Labranche, Lang - Hannah, Forcier, Newcomb, Tharp - Rowland, Landry.

Hippopotami had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Raduli - Slingerland, Koch, Rosenthal - Starks, Benito, Acker, Connors, Crespo - Solomon, Phelan.

The 6:th minute saw the home team take a 1 - 0 lead after a leak in the visitors right side defense. Scorer for Mulisha was Reed Landry. Alfredo Crespo of Hippopotami received a yellow card in the 15:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Alfredo Crespo was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the enemy box - Edwin Phelan managed to kick one of them into 1 - 1 in the 19:th minute. After 29 minutes Hippopotami put themselves up by 1 - 2 as Derrick Solomon finished off a strike from the left with a real cannon placed at the far post. After 32 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for Edwin Phelan who increased Hippopotami´s lead to 1 - 3. By now Hippopotami were drawing the troops back in order to defend their lead. Julius Acker behaved like an inexperienced youth player in the 35:th minute as he gave the ball away to an opponent. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. Mulisha reduced the score in the 38:th minute to 2 - 3 when Gustavo Singh got the best of a ball floated in from the left. Halftime score was 2 - 3. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Hippopotami, with an impressive 66 percent possession of the ball.

In the 48:th minute the visitors put themselves ahead 2 - 4 as Derrick Solomon finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick. Derrick Solomon came close to extending the visitors lead as he, completely unmarked in front of the goal, lifted a ball over Corey Mcduffie, hitting the bar. In the 53rd minute Hippopotami put themselves up 2 - 5 after an attack from the right, caused by a defensive blunder. Scorer was Derrick Solomon. This third goal made a hat trick for Derrick Solomon. The game had been on for 73 minutes when Thomas Rosenthal broke through to the right, upping the score to the home crowd´s dismay. Hippopotami´s were up 2 - 6. Hippopotami, bringing the final ball possession rate to 80 percent, dominated the battle.

The most dominating Mulisha player was without a doubt Corey Mcduffie. Tony Tharp was a disappointment, however. Hippopotami´s best player was Edwin Phelan. Julius Acker on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 2 - 6.

Stadium

At their stadium. Miserable turnout.

Team Ratings

Metal Mulisha
Midfield: disastrous
Right Side Defence: passable
Central Defence: passable
Left Side Defence: passable
Right Side Attack: weak
Central Attack: weak
Left Side Attack: poor

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: weak
Central Defence: weak
Left Side Defence: inadequate
Right Side Attack: excellent
Central Attack: solid
Left Side Attack: passable

Player Ratings
GK Dawid Raduli *~
DW Klaas Slingerland **
DM Zlatko Koch **
DW Thomas Rosenthal *~
WI Mick Starks (off) **
MI Julius Acker *~
MI Stephen Connors **
MI Carlos Alberto Benito (off) **~
WI Alfredo Crespo **
FO Derrick Solomon **
FO Edwin Phelan **~

Total player experience: wretched

Game Summary
Started off a bit rough, but with our superior talent, we pulled away. Solomon got our first hattrick. I wanted to sell him, as he should be, by all statistical indications, our 3rd string guy but he has played really well since I got him off the transfer wire back when I got my team. He has 7 goals in the time he's been with the team. Unfortunately he's 29 so he will just be warming the seat long enough for Chang to train.

Future Games
Ok, my easy run of 5 games is over. Next week: home against Atlanta and then an away against the Darksiders. I guess I overestimated how good Atlanta was as he got upset this week and I already thought we had the upper hand next week with the game in our house. I'll worry about the Darksiders next week. I have been playing Starks and Benito offensive but I think I'll change that up to normal next week and then switch their sides for the week after that so the Darksiders don't know what to expect. BTW, a 3 goal win next week gets us to 3rd. Still, I don't think there is any way we can win our league this year short of a complete collapse by the Darksiders and Dragons. There are 5 games left and 3 are against the top 5. Unfortunately only 2 of those are at home and they aren't the games against the Darksiders and Dragons.


N Team P Goals Pts
1. The Darksiders 9 42 - 4 24
2. CC's Dragons 9 43 - 11 24
3. Atlanta United 9 24 - 17 18
4. Houston Hippopotami 9 19 - 17 15
5. The Flying Midgets 9 14 - 17 12
6. backflips 9 9 - 32 6
7. Tea Stealers 9 6 - 32 4
8. Metal Mulisha 9 6 - 33 4


Economy
I wanted to sell Paz and set him up with a pricetag of $50K, which I wasn't sure he would go for. Thankfully, a team from Argentina and one from Denmark got in a bidding war for the 27yo solid playmaker and he went for $72K despite his value of only $47K. Provided I make no more purchases this week, the home game next week will put us very close to even. Unfortunately as I said, 3 of the last 5 games are on the road and I would like to snag another passable backup middie to train so I have 3 starters and 3 backups.

Cash funds: -82 955 US$ (-43 573) US$
Sponsors: delirious
Supporter Club: 629 members
Supporters: high on life

Team Spirit: calm
Confidence: strong

Other Notes
I'm going to raise my training percentage to 92% as a test. If I start seeing more injuries, I'll just knock it back down to 90% but this is three weeks of training and only one bump to show for it. I guess I'm just impatient.

Unfortunately, after this past game, but 4-5-1 is back down to inadequite so I'll be quite confused again during my friendly.

Lastly, I played it cool in this last game so will there be a huge effect if I go "Match of the Season" in 2 games? I think I'm going to have to go norm-MotS-norm-PIC-MotS the last 5 games of the season. Is this going to kill my team?

Until next time, Hungry Hungry Hippos.

SI

vex

02-10-2003, 01:29 AM

Going MOTS lowers your team spirit 2 levels.

Going PIC, however, only raises your team spirit 1 level.

So your team spirit isn't going to be too pretty if you go MOTS in 2 games.

JMO, but I say don't MOTS your game with Atlanta, because if you don't beat them, then you're not going to be able to beat the Dragons and the Darksiders and you can't MOTS ever match.

So see where your team stacks up next game and then see if going MOTS is logical against the Darksiders. JMO though, probably better wait for Ardent or someone though to tell you that I'm wroong:)

sterlingice

02-10-2003, 01:51 AM

Well, apparently Atlanta United has played the same formation all three games. So time to put some of that strategy 101 to work. Critique, please.


G
O X
L Raduli

D
E X X X
F Slingerland Koch Hebert

M X X X
I Benito (OFF) Acker (XTRA) Connors
D X X
Starks (OFF) Crespo (DEF)
F
O X X
R Solomon Phelan

F
O X X
R NORMAL NORMAL

M X X
I NORMAL OFFENSIVE
D X X X
DEFENSIVE EXTRA NORMAL
D
E X X X
F CENTER CENTER WING

G
O X
L GOALIE


Basically, I put Crespo at defensive to counter their offensive wing. Typically I played Benito and Starks offensive and with Starks at the left as above but Benito at right center middie. But I moved Benito over to the left with Starks so they can take full advantage of the hole on the left side. If he decides to switch things up, I could be in some serious trouble, but I do have superior talent so hopefully that will win out.

norm-MotS-norm-PIC-MotS

So your team spirit isn't going to be too pretty if you go MOTS in 2 games.

JMO, but I say don't MOTS your game with Atlanta, because if you don't beat them, then you're not going to be able to beat the Dragons and the Darksiders and you can't MOTS ever match.

So see where your team stacks up next game and then see if going MOTS is logical against the Darksiders. JMO though, probably better wait for Ardent or someone though to tell you that I'm wroong

Well, I was planning on going normal for Atlanta then MotS for Darksiders, normal for an easy game, PIC for an even easier game then MotS for the last game of the year versus CC.

EDIT: Also, as much as I would love to continue training playmaking, stamina is a real issue with my team (my 5 starting middies range from inadequite to poor) so I will be training it this week and possibly the next (or back to playmaking) in an attempt to ramp up my team's midfield performance in the next couple of games. Also, I have hired two more assistants which puts our total at 5.

SI

NevStar

02-10-2003, 10:54 AM

From what I've read on the hattrick forums, do NOT train stamina for more than a week at a time. The hit to form is just too much to manage.

Also, regarding your formation, I'd suggest playing Crespo normal/offensive & playing Hebert defensively. Since Hebert's better defensively & Crespo has decent winger/passing ratings, this would give you more bang for the buck.

You could also consider playing Slingerland offensively, because hey, it worked for me. :) Good luck!

Poli

02-10-2003, 11:02 AM

I'd be iffy about playing MOTS as we near the end of the season. The tricky part is that spirit gets reset at the end of the year. So, MOTS in the last week, possibly two wouldn't hurt you. However, you have to look at it from a couple of different angles.

Will MOTsing early hurt your spirit enough to effect your team? I have MOTsed early in my first season, and my spirit dropped...but to be honest, other than the game saying the spirit dropped, I saw no noticeable change. We went ahead and won our next game. However, that wasn't with five games left.

My suggestion? I'd play normal. I've talked with Horned about these type of situations before. If you can't win playing normal, maybe it wouldn't hurt to kick the ball around some more in D5. It is a long shot that you would finish first this season...and that's without number crunching. I definitely see you finishing third this season. I'd focus on putting the best team out there, without concern for the bonus of MOTS. Improve your team to the point where a team can't beat you even if they MOTS, and you're golden.

Hope I've helped.

sterlingice

02-12-2003, 12:32 AM

New Hippopotamus
I was just playing on the transfer wire inbetween studying and I ran across this little gem as a trainee. I threw out a token 1K bid and lo and behold, he's going to be starting tomorrow at middie. Since he's a middie, he has been assigned 18 since it's the only midfielder number I have (it was Paz's until he was transferred). Unless a really cheap passable/passable wingback, a solid young scorer, or solid goalie drops into my lap (yeah, right), the only trainees I'm looking for are cheap wingers to replace 26yo Storm Jordan and 27yo Vernon Talbert. Anyways, back to Jeremy, he's only 20 and has 4 inadequates. If I can train him up quite a couple of levels in playmaking and stamina as I have been lately- he definately has a spot on the team with that inadequate defense and scoring.

Jeremy Rumbold (5670922) #18
20 years, poor form, healthy
A sympathetic guy who is calm and honest.
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities.
Nationality: Oceania
Assessed value: 17 000 US$
Wage: 756 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: weak
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: inadequate
Passing: poor
Winger: wretched
Defending: inadequate
Scoring: inadequate
Set Pieces: inadequate

EDIT:
New Hippopotami
Looks like I've added more ethnicity to my team. Rumbold was from Oceania while our other new transfer wire bargain is Patrik Jonsson from Sverige, or Sweeden for those of you who don't speak hattrick or international. That sounded like a Dubya sentence if ever there was one. Anyways, I have a couple of other bids floating out there that I didn't figure would take, but I just got an amazing 18yo wingback trainee for $7K. He is inadequate 4 of the 5 stats you could hope for from a wingback: defense, winger, passing, and stamina. Patrick will be sporting the number 5 and playing wingback in tomorrow's game. :eek:

Patrik Jonsson (8193638) #5
18 years, passable form, healthy
A popular guy who is temperamental and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.
Nationality: Sverige
Assessed value: 45 000 US$
Wage: 864 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: poor
Passing: inadequate
Winger: inadequate
Defending: inadequate
Scoring: weak
Set Pieces: wretched

Closing Notes
Somehow I doubt my other token bid of $23K for the passable scoring, solid winger, inadequate defender will go through. But even without the services of one Rickard Blomtorp for Sverige, I have made two great, cheap pickups tonight who will be great trainees. The best part is that I didn't break the bank to get them and they will immediately step in as second team trainees. Beware (or don't), anyone who is in the FOFC Consolation Cup because these guys will be coming at you. ;) Then again, it should make it that much easier since I'm not playing my starters. Still, training guys like this will help my team a lot in the long run.

SI

sterlingice

02-13-2003, 01:33 AM

Preview
We have been beaten quite soundly in our last couple of friendlies, riding a 3 game losing streak and 16-1 goal margin. Fortunately we have a couple of new subs in here but they are still inadequates and need some training. I got challenged out of the blue by someone named Stockbridge Panthers FC and we will go to Michigan.

Game Summary
Date: 2/13/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 5006918
Arena: Stockbridge Panthers FC Arena
Crowd: 761

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 761 to Stockbridge Panthers FC Arena. Stockbridge had chosen a strategic 3-4-3 formation. Lineup: Walton - Bajo Fernández, Jackson, Coleman - Tapia, Winters, Enriquez, Livingston - Eddy, Cannon, Stringer.

Hippopotami had chosen a strategic 4-5-1 formation. Lineup: Almeida Lopes - Hebert, Koch, Rosenthal, Jonsson - Starks, Rumbold, Paige, Friedländer, Balbuena - Chang.

Hippopotami´s Defoe Chang gave the visitors a 0 - 1 lead in the 2nd minute with a superb strike from the right. The referee showed Stockbridges Edwin Livingston the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Hippopotami appeared unsure on how to play. Hugh Hebert was, after 25 minutes, almost able to extend the visitors lead with a well placed diving header but home side keeper Archie Walton saved. Hippopotami appeared unsure on how to play. Hippopotami came close to extending their lead as Jeremy Rumbold delivered a long range shot from the right but the angle was to sharp, and the shot hit the side of the goal. In the games 36:th minute Hippopotami´s Hugh Hebert fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee booked Hugh Hebert for taking a dive. Stockbridge´s Gabriel Enriquez made an attempt at equalising in the 41st minute, coming in from the right, but the ball hit the post, the defense clearing the rebound. Halftime score was 0 - 1. Stockbridge held the ball, with a clear 52 percent possession rate.

The Hippopotami players spent the half-time break getting a rerun of the teams tactical organization. After 47 minutes, Edwin Livingston managed to intercept a pass intended for the opposing keeper and flip it in, making the score 1 - 1. Hippopotami appeared unsure on how to play. The referee showed Stockbridges Esteban Bajo Fernández the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. In the games 55:th minute Patrik Jonsson almost gave the visitors the lead, as he clipped a spectacular scissors shot just past the bar. The referee showed Stockbridges Herman Coleman the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. In the 80:th minute cheers broke out as Rex Stringer found his way through the guests central defense line, clipping the 2 - 1 goal in for Stockbridge. Hippopotami had obvious problems in finding their positions. A speedy charge from the left side of the field put Stockbridge lead up with 3 - 1. Gregory Jackson finished that one off competently, firing from an acute angle. When Herman Coleman made yet another studs first tackle, in the games 88th minute, the referee was obliged to book the Stockbridge player for the second time, sending him off the pitch. Possession of the ball saw an equal split between the teams during the fortyfive minutes. Stockbridge´s best player was Rex Stringer. Bruno Winters on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important Hippopotami player was Hugh Hebert. Kyle Paige was a disappointment, however. The match ends 3 - 1.

Stadium

At their place. 761 showed up and we made nearly 2K.

Team Ratings

Stockbridge Panthers FC
Midfield: disastrous
Right Side Defence: excellent
Central Defence: solid
Left Side Defence: passable
Right Side Attack: solid
Central Attack: solid
Left Side Attack: inadequate

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: inadequate
Central Defence: passable
Left Side Defence: inadequate
Right Side Attack: weak
Central Attack: poor
Left Side Attack: poor

Player Ratings
GK Augusto Almeida Lopes *
DW Hugh Hebert **
DM Thomas Rosenthal **
DM Zlatko Koch **
DW Patrik Jonsson **
WI Mick Starks **
MI Philip Friedländer *
MI Jeremy Rumbold *
MI Kyle Paige ~
WI José Alberto Balbuena *~
FO Dafoe Chang *~

Total player experience: wretched

Game Summary
This is another game which goes to show that midfield is very overrated in hattrick. They only held a 51-49 possession advantage despite beating me in every other facet of the game. Our completely trainee only managed 2.5 stars but our wretched beat their disasterous. Lopes is gone as soon as I have 20K to get a backup inad goalie. At least the defense all got ** unfortunately 3 are starters but newly acquired Patrik Jonsson also showed up for the game.

A Look Ahead
Next week, we will be traveling to Aviators Arena in Ohio to play the Aviators in the FOFC Consolation Cup. I fear we will be making a first round exit since they probably would beat us even with all my starters. As it is, they will probably pound my team sprinkled with subs.

Our fixture this week is a doozie. If we win by 3, we will take over 3rd in the league, which is probably where we would finish. After that, 2 of our last 4 games are against the top two who are far and away the class of our division sandwiching games against pushovers. A strong finish gets us some good cash and a nice spot for next year when we can hope to win the league. Lots of bookkeeping coming up in the next post.

SI

sterlingice

02-13-2003, 09:09 PM

BOOKKEEPING EXTRAVAGANZA
Yes, that's bookkeeping with three sets of double letters. This was pointed out in an Encyclopedia Brown book quite a while ago, if anyone remembers those. As I said, this would be quite a large update. Anyways, without further adieu

Supporters
I have now filled up my five supporter spots. They are all in the USA, FYI.

ausonny's Bees in V.41 - I have played the Bees twice. Neither time was pretty as we have lost by a combined 15-2 score. We'll beat that team one day.

NevStar's Morrisville Morrisvillians in V.93 - Our second match-based supporter. We only lost to them 4-0. Hopefully our B-Squad will keep getting better.

ardent's North County Raiders in IV.43 - Lastly, way back when we were starting out, I beat ardent's Raiders (b-team) back when I was playing starters for friendlies because I didn't know any better. Despite not being a reciprocal supporter, he gets our support for naming our fan club the "Hungry Hungry Hippos".

dataking's Screamin' Seamen in IV.49 - He's on the list for numerous reasons listed in some post a while ago.

vexroid's NE Oklahoma Sidekicks in V.111 - We added the Sidekicks today after he pledged support for us. Hopefully, in the next few weeks after the FOFC Consolation Cup is over for me and before the FOFC Cup starts back up for him, he can administer a beating, thus elevating this to onfield rivalry status like the Bees and Morrisvillians.

FOFC Consolation Cup
Speaking of the Consolation Cup, our match for next week has been booked at the Aviators home field. The Aviators play in IV but his second squad is somewhat worse than our starters. This will probably be another painful beating, tho. At least I have some trainees to make the beatings worthwhile instead of having no purpose.

Financial Planning
Here is a possible 2-Week budget for next season. If numbers remain the same, then there will only be one, if they change from week to week, that will be shown by 2 numbers

This week

Revenue
Crowd: 2000 (82000)
Sponsors: 35000
Financial: 0
Temporary: 0
Two Week Revenue: 154000

Expenses
Arena: 10300
Wages: 24000
Interest: 0
Temporary: 2000
Staff: 27000
Youth squad: 20000
Two Week Expenses: 166600

Two Week Gross: -12600

The sponsorship numbers are a little above what I get now but so are the wages. Everything else is more or less set in stone (the temp cost is for youth pulls). I may have to pare back the staff some. Although our sponsorship should increase as we keep getting supporters (and possibly our stadium revenue) while our wages have a lot of room to grow. Unfortunately, what this means is that I don't have much cash sitting around for transfers so I'll have to snag my trainees and rely on homegrown training to get new players. Then again, I could get rid of 4 staff members and it would be even. I wish I had a little more cash- I'd love to do a few international friendlies for the added training.

Anyways, a current FYI:
Value: 1409000
Wages: 19040

Staff Update
Speaking of staff, as of this past week, we bulked up our assistant coaching staff considerably since we are getting closer to a full compliment of trainees. I plan on keeping these numbers stable for quite a while, except maybe to add a doctor or two should I need it.

Goaltending Coaches: 2
Assistant Coaches: 8
Sport Psychologists: 1
Spokepersons: 5
Economists: 0
Physiotherapists: 1
Doctors: 1

Youth Squad Update

Youth Squad: inadequate
Investment in the Youth squad: 20000 US$ / week

Unfortunately, we have yet to pull anyone worth more than $5K but we just moved up to inadequate this week so hopefully we can start pulling some trainees or someone to sell. Hell, as nice as selling a pull would be, getting a trainee would be even better.

Training Update

Training Level: 95%
Training Type: Playmaking
Coach: Ricky Braden
Team Spirit: calm
Confidence: strong

Formation experience
4-3-3: wretched
4-5-1: excellent
3-5-2: solid
5-3-2: wretched
3-4-3: poor
5-4-1: wretched

Now, with a full compliment of coaches, our training should speed up some. Also, I raised the training level to 95% but if more injuries crop up, I'll roll back to 90-92%. Our main focus will be playmaking and that will be what we train this week and next leading up to our two big games. I had wanted to train some stamina but I can't afford the form drop until we get to the creampuffs in our schedule.

Oh, I should mention that has changed as well. One of our creampuffs, the backflips, got scooped up: "The club changed owner asjay25 took control and renamed it Vermont Catamounts". I sent him a welcome message yesterday but no response yet.

Also, since I'm only playing a 3-5-2 every other game, it's now bouncing back and forth between solid and excellent. This could get annoying. I thought they were changing it so you could do more forms, not less.

Lastly, team spirit is a concern. We are constantly at calm. Which is just not that good. My coach is solid so I'm not canning him: he goes all out but is only a weak leader and more towards this case, he's controversial. Also, my two team leaders with passable leadership, Starks and Connors are nasty and controversial so alternating between them doesn't help my team spirit at all...

Which is why I will now be shopping for a clown ever since I found out about them. Solid/popular at $100K is way too steep, but I could desperately use a solid/sympathetic guy at $10K. For those who are unaware- the player on your team with the highest leadership (or multiple, as is my case with Starks and Connors) affect your team spirit. You want people who are sympathetic or popular to raise your team spirit as those who are nasty and controversial will lower it. I have a double whammy currently but they will no longer be the team leaders if I get a guy with solid leadership. This is not to be confused with the Team Captain during games- that is completely different. FYI, to technically be considered a clown, the player should have crappy skills and sit the bench because the team leader can affect differences from the bench without even playing.

Wish List
Once I get some nonexistant money, I have a short list of needs and a very long list of wants. Topping the needs list is a young, inad backup goalie for under $20K. Also, as I stated above, I'm looking for a clown to help with my team spirit problems. Problem is that so is everyone. For instance, earlier today, I scoured all of the transfer wires for guys under $30K and ran across a solid/popular guy with no bid on him at 15 mins left. I put down a $1K bid but before I dropped out, it was at $70K less than 10 mins later.

Trainees Want List (all young)- After I get these five, I'll have a complete second squad so they are at the top of my want list.
1. Inadequate goalie
2. Pair of soild winger trainees
2. Passable defender
4. Quality inner middie ($$$)

Secondary List - These are more changes I'd like to make for the future but are less urgent since I'm not wasting training time if I don't do them.
1. Fire Foster (recent crappy youth pull)
2. Sell/Fire Talbert, Jordan, Lopes, Balbuena
3. Sell Rosenthal for a younger, passable defender
4. Sell Paige for a better inner middie once he reaches solid playmaking

International Flavor
I know it's a bit more expensive to pay the extra 20% wages but I kindof enjoy the extra flavor and international players tend to be cheaper on the transfer wire.

USA:12, coach
Oceania: 2
Argentina: 2
Österreich: 1
Portugal: 1
England: 1
Nederland: 1
Polska: 1
Deutschland: 1
Sverige: 1

Where are they Now
Typically I don't do daytrading except for a small stint of 4 players which netted me a pretty decent profit. Other than that, players who I sell have just outlived their usefulness on my team. This will be on a new Monday/Tuesday feature.

Current News
Oh, bloody hell. Too many windows open and I accidentally paid $25K for a player who is on the transfer wire at the moment or will, more likely, be fired. This sucks- lets this be a lesson, kiddos- don't accidentally hit the bid button in the wrong window =(

Anyways, I did get a new "clown" but he's temporary and cost 1K. He is only solid/pleasant but that's much better than nasty or controversial: welcome our new #24 Ildefonso Besteiro Saiz (5688467) from Argentina.

For Sale:
Talbert
Jordan
Rosca (the accidental purchase)
Balbuena
Foster

I figure if I get just $1K that makes it worth it to sell someone instead of fire them and there are odds that someone overpays stupidly so it's worth it to try. Talbert will be up Feb 15th and the others will be up on Feb 17th.

What's Left
Training updates tomorrow and a huge game this week! It could get us 3rd in division. Then the FOFC Consolation Cup game on Wednesday. That's all for now.

SI

sterlingice

02-14-2003, 01:30 AM

TRAINING UPDATE
Well, there's good news and bad news.

First, the bad news: starting goalie Dawid Raduli has plummeted in form. I was a little concerned but now it's reached crisis stage. His value has gone from $140K to $104K but even worse is that his form has gone down 3 of the last 4 weeks and he's down to wretched. The only thing I can do is hope he plays his way out of it.

Now, for the good news- we got a bump this week for the first time in three weeks. Alfredo Crespo, starting winger, has been bumped up to inadequate in playmaking. It's not a great bump but it's a bump and it's even more impressive since he's 27yo. Onto the stats.

Form
Starters: (+1) (-2)
Entire Team: (+4) (-6)

Value
Starters: (+8) (-2)
Entire Team: (+12) (-6)

Team Stats
Value: 1460000 (+51000)
Wages: 20260 (+1020)

TRANSFER WIRE
In case you missed the news, five guys have been sent to the transfer list as part of spring cleaning. Check the Hattrick classifieds on the general discussion board or here to see if you're interested.

José Alberto Balbuena
12 000 US$, 19 years, weak form
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities
Stamina: weak Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: disastrous
Winger: passable Defending: wretched
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: weak

Jack Foster
5 000 US$, 17 years, inadequate form
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities [Head]
Stamina: weak Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: weak
Winger: poor Defending: wretched
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: wretched

Matei Rosca
27 000 US$, 24 years, poor form
Has wretched experience and weak leadership abilities
Stamina: passable Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: weak Passing: wretched
Winger: inadequate Defending: poor
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: wretched

Storm Jordan
38 000 US$, 26 years, inadequate form
Has poor experience and weak leadership abilities
Stamina: weak Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched Passing: inadequate
Winger: passable Defending: wretched
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: wretched

Vernon Talbert
32 000 US$, 27 years, passable form
Has poor experience and poor leadership abilities
Stamina: weak Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: weak
Winger: inadequate Defending: poor
Scoring: inadequate Set Pieces: weak

SI

vex

02-14-2003, 01:35 AM

Oh, just put your Keeper up for sale, let him go somewhere else, and then his form will go up. Worked like a charm for me.

sterlingice

02-14-2003, 01:37 AM

Oh, just put your Keeper up for sale, let him go somewhere else, and then his form will go up. Worked like a charm for me.

Saw that and offer my condolences. Then again, he's definately my best option- a passable in any form is better than my weak backup goalie.

SI

vex

02-14-2003, 01:41 AM

That's exactly the situation I was in. I sold the weak Keeper first, then the Passable one who was in bad form. So at this moment, I have no Keeper. I'm puting everything on this one Keeper I've bid for.

Poli

02-14-2003, 08:05 AM

Glad to see I'm not the only one trying this suicide tactic of selling their keepers.

sterlingice

02-14-2003, 10:39 AM

New Hippopotamus
Just got another cheap recruit. Our newest comes from België for the whopping price for $1K and will serve as a wingback trainee. What, of course, piqued my interest is the inad/inad at defense/winger and the weak passing isn't too bad. I need to work on his stamina among other things but we have stamina training scheduled for the week after next. He will sports the number 9.

Gérard Longis (8249084)
19 years, passable form, healthy
A controversial person who is balanced and honest.
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities.
Nationality: België
Assessed value: 12 000 US$
Wage: 672 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: poor
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched
Passing: weak
Winger: inadequate
Defending: inadequate
Scoring: wretched
Set Pieces: poor

SI

sterlingice

02-15-2003, 09:52 PM

Youth Pull
As I so often do, I will use a Simpsons quote to best describe this one. Heck, maybe I should have the "Simpsons Youth Pull Quote of the Week"

"Joblessness is no longer just for philosophy majors." -Kent Brockman

Henry Heck (8315266)
17 years, passable form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is fiery and honest.
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities.
Speciality: Powerful
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 2 000 US$
Wage: 500 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0
Stamina: weak Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: wretched
Winger: wretched Defending: poor
Scoring: wretched Set Pieces: wretched

Darn, and I like his name, too. Too bad he plays worse than my coach.

Weekly Finance

This week

Revenue
Crowd: 0
Sponsors: 35 400
Financial: 0
Temporary: 0
Total revenue: 35 400

Expenses
Arena: 10 286
Wages: 23 260
Interest: 4 313
Temporary: 2 000
Staff: 27 000
Youth squad: 20 000
Total expenses: 86 859

Total: -51 459

Last week

Revenue
Crowd: 1 974
Sponsors: 33 300
Financial: 0
Temporary: 71 580
Total revenue: 106 854

Expenses
Arena: 10 286
Wages: 20 224
Interest: 4 148
Temporary: 42 000
Staff: 13 500
Youth squad: 20 000
Total expenses: 86 859

Total: -3 304

Unfortunately, our accidental 25K purchase last week set us back in the hole. Right now, goal is to be at -0- by the beginning of next year. If we make third, that's an option we should have without having to sell anyone else. If we finish below 4th, we will have to make a personnel move. I'm hoping I can get a couple of our youth guys trained in the next couple of weeks so I can sell some of our starters and/or youth squad guys.

Also, one of my players did not garner any bids, so Vernon Talbert has now been issued a pink slip. We wish him well but he really has no place on a team with a youth movement like ours. Harsh business when a player making only $680 gets fired, but we are in belt tightening mode to try and get back in the black.

Someone want to verify this theory? From what I understand, in the two weeks between seasons, cash is scarce and thus players should be somewhat cheaper than normal? If that's the case, I may look into some "strategic" debt because at the beginning of next year, teams will have more cash to throw around and will be more desparate to compete.

SI

sterlingice

02-16-2003, 11:50 PM

Preview
This game will more or less define our season. Even if we win, we have to go 3-1 the rest of the way to secure 3rd place, most likely. If we lose, we're pretty much relegated to 4th. They had used the same odd formation every game leading up to this so we're hoping to take advatage of this and run them over. They had some weird asymetrical lineup with lots of odd offensive and defensive switches so check out the previous message in this thread if you're interested.

Game Summary
Date: 2/17/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 4591306
Arena: The Hippodrome
Crowd: 13444

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 13444 to The Hippodrome. Hippopotami started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. They fielded: Raduli - Slingerland, Koch, Hebert - Starks, Benito, Acker, Connors, Crespo - Solomon, Phelan.

Atlanta had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Daugherty - Craig, Ramsey, Anderson - Foote, Hummel, Speer, Chaney, Morales - Whiting, Moore.

Julius Acker received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 9:th minute and almost caused an opponent to score. In the 9:th minute Derrick Solomon almost put the home team one ahead on a cross pass coming in from the right, but the shot went wide. Some beautiful plays on the left side of the field resulted in a 13th minute goal by Julius Acker for Hippopotami, putting them ahead 1 - 0. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, Hippopotami´s Alfredo Crespo got himself booked. Atlantas Dennis Ramsey got himself booked after a foul. The teams went for a half-time break at 1 - 0. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Hippopotami, with an impressive 64 percent possession of the ball.

Things were going to get worse for the visitors. Klaas Slingerland squirmed himself through the central defense line in the 60:th minute, asserting the lead to 2 - 0. A bit later, a magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Hippopotami´s Alfredo Crespo putting the lead up to 3 - 0. Mick Starks of Hippopotami received a yellow card in the 72nd minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. A speedy charge from the left side of the field put Hippopotami lead up with 4 - 0. Edwin Phelan finished that one off competently, firing from an acute angle. Hippopotami put themselves up 5 - 0 when Edwin Phelan broke through on the right, leaving the entire defensive box behind him. After this Hippopotami lowered the tempo in order to concentrate on their defensive efforts. After 86 minutes Hippopotami´s Julius Acker contracted a slight foot injury, but could finish the game. In the 87:th minute of the match the visitors central line of defence had to look on as Carlos Alberto Benito dashed through, knocking home 6 - 0 for Hippopotami.

Stadium

Terraces: 7981 (9702)
Basic seats: 3850 (3850)
Seats under roof: 1295 (1740)
VIP seats: 318 (400)
Total: 13444 (15692)

Kindof a low turnout for a team who had won 5 in a row and in the battle for 3rd place against a quality team. Not only that but I keep gaining support and weather was pretty good. Oh well.

Team Ratings

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: poor
Right Side Defence: weak
Central Defence: inadequate
Left Side Defence: inadequate
Right Side Attack: excellent
Central Attack: solid
Left Side Attack: inadequate

Atlanta United
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: inadequate
Central Defence: passable
Left Side Defence: weak
Right Side Attack: solid
Central Attack: passable
Left Side Attack: passable

Player Ratings
GK Dawid Raduli *
DW Klaas Slingerland **
DM Zlatko Koch **
DW Hugh Hebert **
WI Mick Starks (off) **~
MI Stephen Connors **
MI Julius Acker *~
MI Carlos Alberto Benito (off) **~
WI Alfredo Crespo **
FO Derrick Solomon **
FO Edwin Phelan **~

Total Stars: 22
Team Attitude: Normal
Total player experience: wretched

Raduli's slump is reaching critical. Benito's stat improvement last week gets us our third consistent **~ in our lineup. Woo!

Game Summary
Another slow start but we poured it on in the end. We only needed to win by 3 to take 3rd and we just annihilated Atlanta. We had a great all around game and Raduli's slump didn't cost us. He desperately needs to improve by next week because the Darksiders will not be as forgiving.

Future Games
Six in a row and if we can win number seven, that makes us a prohibitive favorite to win next year because the Dragons will likely move up and we will have beaten the Darksiders at their place. I'm toying with the idea of MotS next game but I don't think our team spirit can take that. As for the Darksiders, the last two games they have gotten 22 and 23.5 stars. He likes to morph his lineup so I think it's time to switch things up and put Starks and Benito on the opposite side he thinks they will be on. This is the fun little X's and O's matchup I've been waiting for.

Aside from our huge game with the Darksiders, we have our first, and hopefully not last, FOFC Consolation match against the Aviators. I still haven't decided if I'm going to go with any starters or if he gets to annihilate my B-squad like my last 4 weeks of friendlies.


N Team P Goals Pts
1. The Darksiders 10 45 - 4 27
2. CC's Dragons 10 45 - 11 27
3. Houston Hippopotami 10 25 - 17 18
4. Atlanta United 10 24 - 23 18
5. The Flying Midgets 10 14 - 19 12
6. Vermont Catamounts 10 11 - 33 9
7. Metal Mulisha 10 7 - 35 4
8. Tea Stealers 10 6 - 35 4


Economy
Sorry, Hippopotami faithful, but we had to say goodbye to Storm Jordan. We just don't have enough spots on our team for players who aren't starters or trainees. I am now on the lookout for a young trainee by the name of Storm or Max or something cool. We picked up 71744 from the match and another 6380 from the sale of our three players. We're down to 21 players. The ideal is 11 starters, 11 second team, a clown, and a coach. Right now, we are lacking a pair of wingers and a pair of middle defender trainees (FYI: we have a forward, three middies, two wingbacks, and a goalie). After our game and selling income, we are at -63094. I have decided to sell our last non-veteran starter: Thomas Rosenthal. He's 28 but a passable scorer and defender so I should hope he can fetch some cash on the open market, starting at $25000. Lastly, I just snagged a new clown/backup goalie named Silviu Radu and issued him the number 2, the backup goalie's number. He's 20 and weak skill but he has solid leadership and is sympathetic so both our backup goalie Lopes and our old clown will be out on their arse.

Other Notes
Now we have both 4-5-1 and 3-5-2 up to solid. Hopefully alternating between those two for our frienly and fixture will keep it there. Confidence is up to wonderful. I've heard if it's here for too long, it will hurt your team immensely as they will be overconfident. I'm not liking our chances next week so that might change our confidence. If we do win next week, I'm up for a pair of PIC games after that against creampuffs and then a game against the Dragons. Stay tuned for our FOFC Consolation Match on Wednesday.

SI

DataKing

02-17-2003, 01:11 AM

Originally posted by sterlingice
Someone want to verify this theory? From what I understand, in the two weeks between seasons, cash is scarce and thus players should be somewhat cheaper than normal? If that's the case, I may look into some "strategic" debt because at the beginning of next year, teams will have more cash to throw around and will be more desparate to compete.

SI

There tends to be a little less money floating around during the off-season because, aside from qualification matches, there are no large crowd incomes. However, player prices are not necessarily that much lower than normal. This is because of a couple of things:

1. Teams that finished in the top four spots in their series receive prize money.
2. Teams also receive money from annual supporter dues. Supporters pay $30 per season, not just $30 the first time they sign up.

Players may be a little less expensive during the off-season, but not by much.

sterlingice

02-18-2003, 04:34 AM

PLAYER NEWS
Hopefully on either Monday or Tuesday I will give everyone a more intimate glimpse into the world of the Hippopotami with two regular features. The first is ripped straight from NevStar's Morrisville dynasty (http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4578&perpage=50&pagenumber=1) and we hope this shameless plug will allow us to continue without the lawyers getting involved. Basically, we will check in on a couple of former Hippopotami and see how they are doing now. The other feature is a Player of the Week column where we get "inside the jock" with one of the players on the team and that will be appearing tomorrow, possibly. Our first feature will be one of the following: Coach Ricky Braden, Goalie Dawid Raduli, or Team Captain Mick Starks.

Where are they now?
What follows is a list of former Hippopotami who were sold on the transfer wire. Each week, we will look at a few of the players and where they are now. This week, we will look at the 4 players from the initial purge. Next week, we will look into my brief forray into daytrading, then who knows.

1/12/2003 Sold (Fired player) to Rednecks 1 000 US$ (0 US$)
1/12/2003 Sold Hayden Hanks to C.A. Daedra (B.Bca.) 20 000 US$ (82 000 US$)
1/16/2003 Sold Rodney Walters to Brookland Cayce 16 000 US$ (100 000 US$)
1/16/2003 Sold Alvin Yeager to Sporting Milwaukee 145 000 US$ (98 000 US$)

1/26/2003 Sold Alvarado Lanza to Metaguacha 12 000 US$ (21 000 US$)
1/26/2003 Sold Ben Magnusson to Gringos 12 000 US$ (17 000 US$)
1/26/2003 Sold Søren Andersen to Morrisville Morrisvillians 13 000 US$ (31 000 US$)
1/27/2003 Sold Tommy Lyhling to Hawkeye F.C. 50 000 US$ (54 000 US$)

2/9/2003 Sold Pedro Villavilla Paz to Los N° 1 72 000 US$ (47 000 US$)

2/17/2003 Sold Matei Rosca to Racing Mexico 2 000 US$ (30 000 US$)
2/17/2003 Sold Storm Jordan to Racing Mexico 4 000 US$ (35 000 US$)
2/17/2003 Sold José Alberto Balbuena to K-Wings 1 000 US$ (12 000 US$)

Oh, and FYI:
Total Purchases 381 000 US$
Total Sales 348 000 US$
Difference -33 000 US$
Average (bought) 18 143 US$
Average (sold) 29 000 US$
Average (bought + sold) -1 000 US$

Frankly, I don't remember who the first player was. I think it might have been defensive backup Rod Land. Whoever it was, he was sold for $1K and is no longer with the Rednecks.

Initially, I was looking for an inadequate goalie before I was set straight here. Hayden Hanks was a 20yo inadequate who I bought for $25K from the Pooks Grizzlies. However, after buying passable keeper and current starter Dawid Raduli, Hanks became expendable and I sold him for only $20K to division IV team C.A. Daedra (B.Bca.) in Español. Not long after, he was sold for only $13K to division V Polska team ziperiada. He is bruised at the moment but appears to be their starting goalie and averages *~ per game.

Along those same lines, we signed 26yo inadequate goalie Rodney Walters as our first transfer purchase at $22K. My, the foolish mistakes we make. Then again, my first day on the transfer wire, I almost bid $50K for an inad goalie and then my face would really have been red. Anyways, much like Hanks, after Raduli arrived, he became expendable and went for $16K to another division V team in the good ol' US of A named Brookland Cayce. He then sold for $17K to a team in Español div IV named suellen who sold him to another team in Español div V named Motril C.F. Now, this is where it gets weird. I'm guessing Motril C.F. trains goalies because his value went up $20K and he was sold to another Español team, div V Paketones for a whopping $90K where he is backing up *** goalie Stefan Olofsson- yet another part of this mystery I just don't get.

Lastly, was super sub Alvin Yeager who might as well have had the Hippodrome named after him. His $145K sale to div V USA team Sporting Milwaukee gave us enough capital to ultimately lead to stadium renovations. He currently gains *~ or ** as a starting middie for that team and he has scored one goal for them.

That's all for now but check out next week when daytrading was our flavor here and we made a quick buck on a couple of players. We will look in and see how they are doing.

SI

sterlingice

02-21-2003, 01:35 AM

Preview
Riding a 4 friendly losing streak, we were looking to turn our luck around in the FOFC Consolation Cup. The Aviators would be a tough match as they average about 23 stars a game and our starters rarely get that high. However, since it's a friendly, we'll be lucky to get 20. I mixed in a healthy number of trainees because we can't just slow or stop training because of the cup. I definately wanted Raduli in there so he can play out his slump. I'm essentially going with a 4-5-1 with my starting middle defenders and wingers but trainee middies, wingbacks, and forward, who is a damn fine player, anyways.

Game Summary
Date: 2/20/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 5023433
Arena: Aviators Arena
Crowd: 371

371 spectators arrived at Aviators Arena, where weather conditions were pretty good for football. Aviators had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Noguerol - Hanley, Mccurdy, Broussard - Baez, das Almas, Sweet, Akins, Ennis - Nelson, Schulte.

Hippopotami had chosen a strategic 4-5-1 formation. The following players had been chosen: Raduli - Longis, Koch, Hebert, Jonsson - Starks, Rumbold, Paige, Friedländer, Slingerland - Chang.

In the 13th minute the home side managed to get a 1 - 0 lead as Blaine Baez flipped the ball after a cross pass from the right. In the games 19:th minute the visitors levelled to 1 - 1 as Defoe Chang struck home on a bar rebound, following a shot from the right. Gérard Longis of Hippopotami received a yellow card in the 19:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Man, what a shot by Darwin Nelson! Firing from 35 yards he didn't give the enemy goalie a chance and it was 2 - 1. In the 21st minute Aviators put themselves up 3 - 1. The visitors defenders lost the ball to Alberto das Almas coming up from the left, who proceeded to cooly round the goaltender and knock the ball home. In the games 25:th minute Hippopotami´s Philip Friedländer fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee booked Philip Friedländer for taking a dive. The visitors got a chance of pulling one back in the 26:th minute, due to a defensive blunder leaving Kyle Paige completely unmarked. His strike was pathetic though, easy prey for the home side´s keeper. Kyle Paige of Hippopotami received a yellow card in the 32nd minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. 3 - 1 was the half-time score. Aviators, bringing the final ball possession rate to 60 percent, dominated the battle.

After an industrious effort down the middle Darwin Nelson could have closed the game off in the 55:th minute, but his finishing shot hit the post. Clayton Ennis of Aviators was able to make an impressive rush past the sluggish Gérard Longis, which resulted in the 4 - 1 goal. The structure of the game started to change as Aviators decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. In the 85:th minute Defoe Chang, after an opportunist attack from the right, scored the reducer for Hippopotami making it 4 - 2. In the 86:th minute Aviators´s Joel Schulte tried to nail the coffin shut, but the shot rebounded off the bar to fall behind the net. In the to 87:th minute a very unfortunate collision in the home teams penalty area led to Aviators´s Donnie Broussard being carried off the pitch and replaced by Walter Shook. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Aviators, with an impressive 66 percent possession of the ball.

The most dominating Aviators player was without a doubt Darwin Nelson. Johnny Sweet on the other hand, had a terrible day. Hippopotami´s best player was Mick Starks. Kyle Paige on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 2.

Stadium

At their place. Really sparse crowd in the 300s that only netted us $983.

Team Ratings

Aviators
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: poor
Central Defence: weak
Left Side Defence: weak
Right Side Attack: inadequate
Central Attack: weak
Left Side Attack: weak

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: inadequate
Central Defence: passable
Left Side Defence: inadequate
Right Side Attack: passable
Central Attack: poor
Left Side Attack: weak

Player Ratings
GK Dawid Raduli *
DW Gerard Longis **
DW Hugh Hebert **
DM Zlatko Koch **
DW Patrik Jonsson **
WI Mick Starks **~
MI Philip Friedländer *
MI Jeremy Rumbold *
MI Kyle Paige ~
WI Klaas Slingerland **
FO Dafoe Chang *~

Total player experience: wretched

Game Summary
We got beaten pretty bad in possession but I'm not sure why, looking at the ratings. We must have gotten a low wretched at the highly overemphasized middie while he got a high wretched. Our defense beat him across the board, 2 of the 3 spots by 2 ranks. Our attacks were even (pass + poor + weak vs inad + weak + week). I just don't get it. Speaking of our defense, it was stellar, literally- all of the guys, trainees, even, getting **. Our rookie midfield killed us with **~ between the three.

Oh well, I didn't expect to win this game but it would have been nice. Now we have to turn around and get ready for our big game with the Darksiders.

SI

sterlingice

02-21-2003, 01:59 AM

TRAINING UPDATE
Again, a good news-bad news scenario and this is all about Raduli. He didn't lose any more form but his value continues to fall. He's now down to a low of 90. Again, this week, we trained playmaking at 95%. Next week, we will be going to stamina and dropping down to 92% to avoid some injury.

Also, Mick Starks is our first player to break 200K in value and weighs in this week at $216K.

Lastly, we had a bump, tho a really insignificant one. Trainee wingback Gérard Longis saw his playmaking go from wretched to poor. It's better than nothing, certainly.

Form
Starters: (+2) (-1)
Entire Team: (+4) (-5)

Value
Starters: (+6) (-3)
Entire Team: (+9) (-7)

Team Stats
Value: 1427000 (-33000)
Wages: 18480 (-2180)

Staff Change
To save a little cash, I'm cutting back on two staff members. First, I'm going to drop by 7th and 8th assistant coaches. I doubt they are helping that much. Also, I'm going to get rid of my sports shrink since our confidence is wonderful and I don't want us pushed to overconfidence.

Supporters
They're high on life to go along with our delirious sponsors. I've gotten another 14 twice this week and I'm up to 685 in the club so things are going well. Then again, I haven't lost since taking over this team and that may not continue this week with the top team in the league.

Sales
Well, I tried to sell off Lopes and Rosenthal but I had no takers at their prices. I'll set them out for $1K each tomorrow and take what I can get. Also, we picked up another $600 as Storm Jordan was sold again, this time from Racing Mexico to luv united in Deutschland. So why did I only get $4K and someone turned around and got $12K for him? It's just not right.

Fixture
Another big game this week before two easier games. This guy has a goal differential of 45-4 this year. He has 22 stars this past game as did we. I would feel a lot better about this game if it was our goalie getting **~ per game and his getting * but life doesn't always work out that way. Hopefully Raduli can come up clutch even in a slump.

Friendly
We're looking for a team to play in a friendly next week. Anyone interested, challenge me. For expenses sake, I'd like to stay in the US, tho- my place or yours.

SI

sterlingice

02-23-2003, 03:42 AM

Youth Pull
Despite his cool looking dreadlocks, Davis is another in the long line of garbage pulled out of our system. Oh well.

Davis Forman (8436047)
19 years, passable form, healthy

A sympathetic guy who is balanced and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 1 000 US$
Wage: 500 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: weak
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: disastrous
Passing: poor
Winger: wretched
Defending: wretched
Scoring: weak
Set Pieces: wretched

Economy
Thomas Rosenthal, Ildefonso Besteiro Saiz, and Augusto Almeida Lopes are all up for sale and two have bids already despite about 36 hours between now and their end. Our sponsors and supporters are both up to "high on life" at least until tomorrow. Supporters up to 685, FYI. Unfortunately 3 of our last 4 are on the road so we will probably be $150K in the hole to start next season. Hmm... I'm not sure how to fix that currently. I'm open to any ideas but I don't have anyone who I can sell without crippling my team. I'll just continue to train and hope I can get a sellable player or two.

Friendly
I set up a friendly against another Houston team, Woodlands Elite. If you're not from Houston, the Woodlands is a rich part of town filled with spoiled brats and people who refuse to pay metro taxes because they are outside the county. If we can win this one, it will be satisfying.

Wrapup
And remember, huge huge huge league game tomorrow against the 1st place team in our league. I want to see if we can actually win against high quality competition going all out.

SI

sterlingice

02-23-2003, 10:38 PM

Preview
After our huge fixture last week, we had a big game this week against the team that will probably no longer be in V next year. This should be a great barometer for next year. We want to win and if we can beat them, it's likely we will be a favorite for next year along with another power team, CC's Dragons, and the division IV team which drops.

Game Summary
Date: 2/24/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 4591308
Arena: Darkside Dome
Crowd: 28400

28400 spectators had come to Darkside Dome this cloudy day. Darksiders tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Hudson - Plesu, Williams, Blalock - Thomas, Kjellsson, Eubanks, Miller, Delaney - Soto, Strong.

Hippopotami tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Raduli - Hebert, Koch, Slingerland - Crespo, Benito, Acker, Connors, Starks - Solomon, Phelan.

Darksiders were very close to putting themselves one up in the 8:th minute as Sean Soto got through, but failing in concentration, he shot the ball wide. In the 16:th minute the home side managed to get a 1 - 0 lead as Nicusor Plesu flipped the ball after a cross pass from the right. Darksiders put themselves up 2 - 0 when Ralph Kjellsson broke through on the right, leaving the entire defensive box behind him. The structure of the game started to change as Darksiders decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. The referee showed Hippopotamis Hugh Hebert the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. A couple of quick and successful challenges, followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area after 28 minutes might have resulted in another goal for Darksiders. However, Dawid Raduli made a spectacular save. After 30 minutes Hippopotami´s Hugh Hebert contracted a slight foot injury, but could finish the game. Halftime score was 2 - 0. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Darksiders, with an impressive 66 percent possession of the ball.

Darksiders put their lead ahead another goal as Ralph Kjellsson struck home the 3 - 0 goal, after an attack from the left setting him up unmarked with the keeper. The game was close to savage at times, and Hippopotami`s Hugh Hebert received a second yellow card in the 64:th, his ticket out of the game. The referee showed Hippopotamis Julius Acker the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Nicusor Plesu the unlucky victim, couldn´t continue the game. A speedy charge from the left side of the field put Darksiders lead up with 4 - 0. Sean Soto finished that one off competently, firing from an acute angle. Mick Starks of Hippopotami received a yellow card in the 86:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. With 87 minutes played Ralph Kjellsson could have brought this one home for Darksiders, had his hooked ball gone in, but it went just a bit too high. Darksiders held the ball, with a clear 80 percent possession rate.

The most dominating Darksiders player was without a doubt Christopher Thomas. Harvey Strong on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important Hippopotami player was Mick Starks. Dawid Raduli on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 0.

Stadium
Wow! He pulled in 28400 at his stadium. ON A CLOUDY DAY! This guy belongs in IV, easily! Good thing we have another week before our next home game because we'll need to help our sponsors, supporters, and team's shattered confidence. Actually our sponsors are still "high on life" but our supporters dropped to content and team confidence down from "wonderful" to "poor"- that's a 4 level drop for anyone counting at home.

Team Ratings

The Darksiders
Midfield: weak
Right Side Defence: inadequate
Central Defence: passable
Left Side Defence: passable
Right Side Attack: solid
Central Attack: weak
Left Side Attack: passable

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: weak
Central Defence: weak
Left Side Defence: weak
Right Side Attack: solid
Central Attack: passable
Left Side Attack: formidable

The attack looked awesome but their defense was pretty good. However, like every game we have lost, it's all boiled down to the midfield. Then again, losing Hebert early in the 2nd half crushed our defense.

Player Ratings
GK Dawid Raduli *
DW Hugh Hebert KICKED OUT
DM Zlatko Koch **
DW Klaas Slingerland **
WI Alfredo Crespo **
MI Stephen Connors **
MI Julius Acker (wing) *~
MI Carlos Alberto Benito **
WI Mick Starks (off) **~
FO Derrick Solomon **
FO Edwin Phelan **~

Total Stars: 20
Team Attitude: Normal
Total player experience: wretched

Except for Raduli and Hebert, everyone was at the top of their game. Well, Acker may have to go but we have no way to replace him right now. He looks good on paper with solid playmaking, passable winger, and passable passing but never seems to play well. It's probably all about his bad stamina. Well, that should change as we are going to hit stamina at least two of the next four weeks. Benito should probably stay towards the offensive side of things from now on- he gets ** normal but **~ on offense.

Game Summary
Ow. Ow. Ow. Granted, we are starting to look like a 2nd half team (odd, considering our crappy stamina) and Hebert getting kicked squelched any longshot of a comeback. The drop of confidence seems a bit severe. The star count was 23 (him) to 20 (us) but that's a little misleading as Hebert typically pulls down 2 a game. We still weren't going to win down 1 star and on the road, but it looks like we just weren't meant to win today and I'm glad I didn't MotS it.

Future Games
Two easy games the next two weeks against two recent replacements who have yet to hit the transfer wire. But, we have a problem. This loss drops us back into 4th, 3 points behind Atlanta. This really hurts because, like us, they have 2 easy games against the bottom half and only 1 game against a hard team so unless we can beat CC's Dragons (who will be our main competition to moving up next year), we will probably finish 4th. The 0-4 hole the team was in when I took over just might prove too tough to overcome for 3rd. Atlanta took over for one of the better teams in the league (3rd at the time, I believe) so he just had too far of a head start. Don't worry- next year, he'll be sucking my tailpipe.


N Team P Goals Pts
1. The Darksiders 11 49 - 4 30
2. CC's Dragons 11 51 - 11 30
3. Atlanta United 11 30 - 23 21
4. Houston Hippopotami 11 25 - 21 18
5. The Flying Midgets 11 15 - 20 13
6. Vermont Catamounts 11 11 - 39 9
7. Tea Stealers 11 7 - 36 5
8. Metal Mulisha 11 7 - 41 4


SI

sterlingice

02-25-2003, 06:39 PM

Where are they now?
Time for the second installment in "Where are they Now?" We sold three players between last time and now. They will be in the 4th groups of reviews which should be 2 weeks from now.

Last Week
1/12/2003 Sold (Fired player) to Rednecks 1 000 US$ (0 US$)
1/12/2003 Sold Hayden Hanks to C.A. Daedra (B.Bca.) 20 000 US$ (82 000 US$)
1/16/2003 Sold Rodney Walters to Brookland Cayce 16 000 US$ (100 000 US$)
1/16/2003 Sold Alvin Yeager to Sporting Milwaukee 145 000 US$ (98 000 US$)

This Week
1/26/2003 Sold Alvarado Lanza to Metaguacha 12 000 US$ (21 000 US$)
1/26/2003 Sold Ben Magnusson to Gringos 12 000 US$ (17 000 US$)
1/27/2003 Sold Tommy Lyhling to Hawkeye F.C. 50 000 US$ (54 000 US$)

For the Future
1/26/2003 Sold Søren Andersen to Morrisville Morrisvillians 13 000 US$ (31 000 US$)
2/9/2003 Sold Pedro Villavilla Paz to Los N° 1 72 000 US$ (47 000 US$)

2/17/2003 Sold Matei Rosca to Racing Mexico 2 000 US$ (30 000 US$)
2/17/2003 Sold José Alberto Balbuena to K-Wings 1 000 US$ (12 000 US$)
2/17/2003 Sold Storm Jordan to Racing Mexico 4 000 US$ (35 000 US$)

2/24/2003 Sold Ildefonso Besteiro Saiz to JOB Squad 1 000 US$ (0 US$)
2/24/2003 Sold Augusto Almeida Lopes to snomus cf 2 000 US$ (33 000 US$)
2/24/2003 Sold Thomas Rosenthal to BACARDI C.F 21 001 US$ (74 000 US$)

Total Purchases: 381000 US$
Total Sales 372001 US$
Difference -8999 US$
Average (bought) 18143 US$
Average (sold) 24800 US$
Average (bought + sold) -250 US$

Today, We delve into my brief forray into daytrading. I bought 4 cheap players who were young and had passable in their main attribute(s) and then turn around and sold three of the four for a decent profit. They were all on our team for less than a week so we will do three of these guys as a group. Next week, we will look at the fourth, Søren Andersen, who was sold to another FOFC team.

Chilean Alvarado Lanza
Chilean Alvarado Lanza plays for the Argentina team Metaguacha, # 1 in V.21. He starts about 1/3rd of all of their games at forward. He has 5 goals this season including a hat trick on 2/9/2003 in a 7-0 victory against Juventud de Saavedra.

Ben Magnusson
Ben Magnusson from Norge is now on the French team "C N team" which is # 4 in IV.5 and was just sold in the last week from the team I sold him to, the Gringos # 2 in VII.230 in Sverige. He has both a cup and league goal this season. In the last game for C N team, he played center midfielder.

Tommy Lyhling
Lastly, Tommy Lyhling from Sverige was sold to Hawkeye F.C., # 4 in V.75 and he went for a good $50K. He has started everywhere for that team, best playing at offensive winger last week for *~. But he has also played defensive winger and middie. He has three goals and currently sports a yellow card.

Weekly Press Release

2/24/2003
Darksiders Slam Hippos Back into 4th
In an ugly game, the Darksiders, the leading team in the race for promotion, crushed Houston 4-0. Ralph Kjellsson had 2 goals for the Darksiders and goalie Dawid Raduli's slump continued. The game got ugly in the second half as the Hippo's star defender Hugh Hebert was shown the door. Soon after, Julius Acker took down Nicusor Plesu and he will be out for a couple of weeks. After the Darksiders put the nail in the coffin, Houston Captain Mick Starks was carded for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Economy News
Thankfully, the sales brought up another $26K and change and our supporters are forgiving enough to still keep coming after our loss, even in a smaller number. I guess 6 straight wins prior builds up some good faith. I'm up to 691 and hoping to break 700 before season's end. The 5 spokeswomen (part of our committment to diversity in the workplace or some such nonsense) are clearly paid with money well spent.

EDIT: Minor Formatting Changes

SI

sterlingice

02-26-2003, 01:13 AM

HIPPO SPOTLIGHT
Now for a new occasional feature entitled "Inside the Jock". And then the publicity team wisened up and decided to call it "Hippo Spotlight" instead. Basically, we take a profile of a player who will likely be with our team for quite a while. This inagural edition looks at our hotheaded leader who's value tops our charts.

Player: Mick Starks (7555487)
Number: 13
Age: 24 years

Current Status: passable form, healthy
Temperament: A nasty fellow who is balanced and honest.
Leadership: Has poor experience and passable leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 216 000 US$
Wage: 1 600 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 2

Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: weak
Passing: passable
Winger: solid
Defending: weak
Scoring: passable
Set Pieces: inadequate

Career Goals: 0
Career Hattricks: 0
League goals this season: 0
Cup goals this season: 0

Height/Weight: 6'1"; 180
Appearance: Crazy, short-haired redhead

Personal Bio: Mick Starks is the team leader on the field and off. A hothead with a really short fuse, Mick is never one to back down from a fight as is evidenced by the incident last year where he threw an overzealous fan through the bay window of a liquor store. Still, the native San Antonian is respected by all of his team as he is often first to rush into a fight by his teammates side. He is married and has two kids, Max and Julie.

Fun Fact: Mick's favorite movie is "Revenge of the Nerds 2"

Player Bio: On the field, Mick Starks is the official team leader game in and game out ever since Braden took over as coach. While he doesn't have any goals yet, he leads our wing attack and has set up many of Solomon's and Phelan's goals. Since moving to offensive wing, he has gotten **~ 6 out of 7 games. At 24, he is the 4th oldest player on this young team. During friendlies, if he plays, he is typically both the team captain and designated for set pieces as our two best set pieces guys rarely see time in friendlies (Crespo and Solomon are 27 and 29 and not worth training).

New Hippopotamus
Got a new backup goalie for $13K. He's American, 19yo, and inadequate. Welcome our new #3, Sidney Buckley.

Sidney Buckley (7898678)
19 years, poor form, healthy

A pleasant guy who is tranquil and upright.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 52 000 US$
Wage: 920 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: wretched
Goaltending: inadequate
Playmaking: disastrous
Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous
Defending: disastrous
Scoring: wretched
Set Pieces: weak

SI

sterlingice

02-27-2003, 02:51 AM

Preview
Well, now we are carrying a 5 game friendly losing streak. Not only that but since Raduli is still struggling, I'm going to get him in the game to try and play his way out of it. Our newly acquired inad backup, Sidney Buckley will be starting friendlies as of next week. Our two goalies have awful form: wretched or poor. Our goalie coaches have their work cut out for them. We still have 6 trainees in there, basically because that is how large our second team is. Also, we went with the 3-5-2 since I was tired of having our 3-5-2 slip to solid from excellent after friendlies so there might be a chance of confusion during fixtures that count. Anyways, about the other team, for those of you who don't know, the Woodlands are a rich suburb just outside Harris County and about 2 hours north of Houston. Those bastards refuse to pay metro taxes and are just rich snobs and yuppies, in general, so a win would feel nice and sweet.

Game Summary
Date: 2/27/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 5054503
Arena: The Hippodrome
Crowd: 542

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 542 to The Hippodrome. Hippopotami had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Raduli - Longis, Koch, Jonsson - Starks, Rumbold, Paige, Friedländer, Slingerland - Chang, Phelan.

Woodlands tactics involved an interesting 3-4-3 combination. The following players had been chosen: Rojas - Mills, Ryder, Durant - Lively, Torres, Taylor, Drake - Power, Castle, Dominguez.

The 2nd minute saw the home team take a 1 - 0 lead after a leak in the visitors right side defense. Scorer for Hippopotami was Jeremy Rumbold. Mick Starks struck a 30 metre free kick home in the 11th minute. 2 - 0 for the home team. The referee showed Hippopotamis Kyle Paige the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. A speedy charge from the left side of the field put Hippopotami lead up with 3 - 0. Edwin Phelan finished that one off competently, firing from an acute angle. Woodlands appeared unsure on how to play. Things were going to get worse for the visitors. Edwin Phelan squirmed himself through the central defense line in the 31st minute, asserting the lead to 4 - 0. The structure of the game started to change as Hippopotami decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. 4 - 0 was the half-time score. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 66 percent possession rate.

The Woodlands players spent the half-time break getting a rerun of the teams tactical organization. A bit later Woodlands´s Morris Power easily reduced to 4 - 1 after a misunderstanding in the home sides central defense line. Woodlands had made all their substitutions when Barry Rojas had to leave the game in the 74:th minute because of a pulled tendon, leaving the team a man short. In the 79:th minute Hippopotami put themselves up 5 - 1. The visitors defenders lost the ball to Defoe Chang coming up from the left, who proceeded to cooly round the goaltender and knock the ball home. Woodlands seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion about the organization of the team. Hippopotami put themselves up 6 - 1 when Philip Friedländer broke through on the right, leaving the entire defensive box behind him. Woodlands fought on and, in the 85:th minute Andy Castle was able to reply with 6 - 2 after some excellent moves on the right side finished off by an incredibly clever chip. Woodlands seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion about the organization of the team. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 57 percent possession rate.

The most dominating Hippopotami player was without a doubt Mick Starks. However, Kyle Paige made a disastrous appearance. The most dominating Woodlands player was without a doubt Gary Mills. Morris Power on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 6 - 2. The match ends 6 - 2.

Stadium

Terraces: 340 (9702)
Basic seats: 138 (3850)
Seats under roof: 51 (1740)
VIP seats: 13 (400)
Total: 542 (15692)

Ok, I really need to stop playing these teams with hardly any supporters.

Team Ratings

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: poor
Central Defence: weak
Left Side Defence: inadequate
Right Side Attack: solid
Central Attack: inadequate
Left Side Attack: inadequate

Woodlands Elite
Midfield: disastrous
Right Side Defence: wretched
Central Defence: poor
Left Side Defence: poor
Right Side Attack: inadequate
Central Attack: passable
Left Side Attack: passable

Player Ratings
GK Dawid Raduli *
DW Gerard Longis *~
DM Zlatko Koch **
DW Patrik Jonsson **
WI Mick Starks **~
MI Philip Friedländer *~
MI Jeremy Rumbold *~
MI Kyle Paige ~
WI Klaas Slingerland **~
FO Dafoe Chang *~
FO Edwin Phelan **~

Total player experience: wretched
Team Attitude: Normal

Game Summary
Again, it's all about the midfield. Even my mediocre guys had it and his subs didn't today. It's good that Friedländer and Rumbold are up to *~ but Paige is still only getting ~ so I think as soon as he gets solid, he's getting sold. We jumped on them and buried them and it felt good!

Notes
Well, we are back to a couple of easy games in league so that's great. Anyone looking for a friendly for next week- just message me! I have a pretty uneventful two weeks until we go to play the 2nd place team in division the last week of the season. Next up: training improvements. We did stamina this week and probably will one of the next couple as well. It should drastically help our midfield play which will make us a force next year.

SI

sterlingice

02-28-2003, 04:28 AM

TRAINING UPDATE
I never knew training stamina could be so much fun. While I doubt the team love the wind sprints Coach Braden had them do all week, it really paid off. Even coach got into the act as his stamina is up from disastrous to wretched; I'm guessing Mrs. Braden will be pleased. ;)

Anyhoo, 10 of our 11 starters went up in stamina. The lone exception was starting forward Edwin Phelan. He was already at passable so no huge loss. Grizzled 29yo vet Derrick Solomon, from Oceania, showed those whippersnappers how it was done, as he became the first guy on our team to get an excellent in anything, bumping his stamina from solid.

For the second team, 4 of our 6 guys bumped in stamina. Unfortunately 2 of our 3 middie trainees did not bump and Kyle Paige remains at his disastrous status. He would be a halfway decent middie except for that. FYI, neither of the backup goalies increased in stamina.

Form wasn't hit too hard, thankfully, as you can see below. Unfortunately, Raduli is still at wretched. Nothing I can do but let him play through his slump and get him ready for next year.

Form
Starters: (+1) (-4)
Entire Team: (+5) (-6)

Value
Starters: (+9) (-2)
Entire Team: (+15) (-4)

Team Stats
Total Wages: 17200 (-1280)
Total Value: 1473000 (+56000)
Avg Value: 77526
Avg Age: 21
Avg Form: inadequate
Avg Experience: wretched
No of players: 19
Nationalities: 10

Future Training
Ok- can someone help me out on how form changes work in between seasons? What resets at the start of the next season? Anything? Also, how many weeks do we have to go? Right now, I'm looking at going back to training playmaking this week. Then stamina again, the week after that. Then playmaking again before the tough game. Then stamina most, if not all, of the offseason.

Supporters
Just thought I'd like to give a shout out to our loyal supporters and supportees. Also, I'd like to thank everyone who stopped by and posted in the guestbook (in order): Ardent, NevStar, ausonny, dk, hornedfrog, vexroid, ravenhawk, Doug5984, and PilotMan. Thanks guys. Also, if I haven't stopped by and dropped a line in your guestbook, just message me in game!

We Support
ausonny's Bees
dk's Screamin' Seamen
NevStar's Morrisville Morrisvillians
ardent's North County Raiders
vexroid's NE Oklahoma Sidekicks

In return, vexroid, NevStar, and ausonny support the Hippos and get to use the executive washroom and attached uber luxury suite in the Hippodrome with it's palatial marble interior, fine dining, and other "services".

Friendly
We were challenged out of the blue by a team from Sverige called Gurras BK. Normally, I don't take international friendlies (I just can't afford the trip) but he challenged me to cup rules at my place so who was I to decline a friendly with an international team on my field! It doesn't appear that he draws too many fans to his home friendlies (100-300) but he went on the road and drew 1200. Plus, the Hippo faithful will definately turn out for an international friendly, weather permitting. Hopefully the B squad can extend our friendly winning streak to 2 games. I'll be looking for a couple of wingers to replace Starks and Crespo so our starters don't have to start friendlies and our new backup goalie, Sidney Buckley will be in the net.

SI

NevStar

02-28-2003, 11:18 AM

Originally posted by sterlingice

Nationalities: 10

Future Training
Ok- can someone help me out on how form changes work in between seasons? What resets at the start of the next season? Anything? Also, how many weeks do we have to go? Right now, I'm looking at going back to training playmaking this week. Then stamina again, the week after that. Then playmaking again before the tough game. Then stamina most, if not all, of the offseason.

That's a lot of international flavor you have there.

I don't think form changes on the change of season. I'm not positive, but I think these things do:

Team spirit
Team confidence
Supporter mood (maybe?)
Sponsor mood (maybe?)

There's 2 more weeks of league games. The next Sunday is the qualifying game, you can schedule a friendly on that Wednesday. The following Sunday there are no games, on that Wednesday the Cup starts. Then the next season starts.

sterlingice

03-01-2003, 05:56 AM

The Great Goalie Debate

Ok, I just happened across a passable goalie last night on the transfer wire and just happened to bid on him and now I have a new passable keeper for less than $80K so I'm looking to make a quick buck either in terms of an upgrade or cold hard cash. During the days in the USA, you can sell a passable goalie for between $100K and $120K. But I need to decide which one of these 19yo passable goalies to sell:

Dawid Raduli (5973248)
19 years, wretched form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is fiery and upright.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.
Nationality: Polska
Assessed value: 78 000 US$
Wage: 1 608 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Stamina: weak Goaltending: passable
Playmaking: disastrous Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous Defending: disastrous
Scoring: disastrous Set Pieces: disastrous

Chiritã Vochin (8194780)
19 years, inadequate form, healthy
A controversial person who is fiery and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities.
Nationality: România
Assessed value: 146 000 US$
Wage: 1 656 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Stamina: wretched Goaltending: passable
Playmaking: disastrous Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous Defending: disastrous
Scoring: disastrous Set Pieces: disastrous

Dawid was to be our goalie of the future but his form has been in the crapper for quite a while. Chiritã has a bit higher value (ie Dawid was still only at $140K when he had passable form) so it would certainly be in my best interest to keep him. However, will I get significantly less for Raduli because of his form now? Or do people not care because they'll be getting a passable goalie? Tell me what you think.

SI

ausonny

03-01-2003, 09:27 AM

I would sell Raduli. It appears that his hidden form, the one he will naturally gravitate to, is pretty low, and he may always struggle with form. He may not bring in as much money, but then again he may. Vochin is an unknown, of course. You could wait a little bit and see what his form does.

Poli

03-01-2003, 11:57 AM

I'd expect all teams don't check form when considering their purchases, I know I didn't early on. I know I was one of those that scoured the market looking for passable in the one skill that I knew a player had to have.

I believe you could put Dawid up for his value and you'd have one or two bites.

vex

03-01-2003, 01:54 PM

I say sell Dawid.

sterlingice

03-02-2003, 03:55 AM

Youth Update
Youth Squad: passable
After less than a full season and with $20K, our youth squad is up to passable! Granted, we have yet to pull anyone better than my grandmother, but at least the chances of a bigger pull are coming. Despite, having a name that just rolls off tongue, our new youth pull, Zachary Coronado is not a part of our future plans.

Zachary Coronado (8581305)
17 years, passable form, healthy

A controversial person who is fiery and honest.
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities.

Speciality: Head
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 3 000 US$
Wage: 500 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: poor
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: poor
Passing: poor
Winger: weak
Defending: wretched
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: inadequate

Weekly Attitude Update
Team Spirit: composed
Confidence: decent
Sponsors: high on life
Supporter Club: 697 members
Supporters: content

Our sponsors didn't have their spirit dampened by last week's loss but that is about it. Our team spirit is up to composed but our confidence and supporters got knocked down a couple of pegs, which is to be expected after the 4-0 whitewashing we suffered. Thankfully the supporters continue to come out and support us as we gained another 12 this week and barring a major catastrophe tomorrow, we will break 700 by next week.

Weekly Economy Update
If not for the sale of Dawid, we would be looking at hiring an accountant. We will probably end the year around $150K in the hole, or maybe closer to $200K after the couple of weeks between season. Next year will be tons of run, trying to dig out from under this economic mess. Hopefully our youth squad can come through now that it's up to a nice level. Officially, we will be at $225K at the end of the week, tho I'm hoping that with an international team coming in for a friendly and with Dawid's sale, we can drop back to around $100K by the end of the week. The good news is that our sponsorship money grew another $900 last week even with a loss.

However, even without the interest on our debt, we will lose $40K a week on non game weeks. Although, looking at a revised budget with current numbers for crowds, wages, sponsors, and everything else, we should get really close to breaking even- I mean within $1-3K per 2 weeks so that's a good sign, much better than my old projection of being about $12K off per two weeks. Well, here's to hoping for a good youth pull or a couple of bumps on guys I'm looking to sell because once we get out of debt, I can run this team with a profit and compete for our league lead.

SI

sterlingice

03-02-2003, 11:57 PM

Preview
After a bunch of huge games in a row, we get to relax and breathe. Unless I'm mistaken, by the end of the day, we should be back in 3rd. We have an easy game and Atlanta will be playing one of the two elite teams in our division. Unfortunately, I think we will be locked into 4th because if we want to move up, we will have to beat that team, CC's Dragons, the last week of the season at their house.

Game Summary
Date: 3/3/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 4591312
Arena: Tea Stealers Arena
Crowd: 4163

Due to an all-day shower, 4163 paying spectators got to see a match on a pitch-turned-bog at Tea Stealers Arena. Stealers had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Foreman - Tze-Yeung, Cavazza, Beaulieu, Roby - Goodwin, Oneil, Champagne, Henning - Jackson, Gilmore.

Hippopotami had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Vochin - Jonsson, Koch, Slingerland - Starks, Benito, Acker, Connors, Crespo - Solomon, Phelan.

Derrick Solomon surprised the home team with a free kick aimed at the wrong post in the 6:th minute. 0 - 1 for Hippopotami. After 8 minutes Hippopotami´s Patrik Jonsson contracted a slight foot injury, but could finish the game. The visitors Derrick Solomon took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side´s goalie and full backs in the 16:th minute. 0 - 2 for Hippopotami. The away team´s Stephen Connors took advantage of a mistake to the home side´s right in the 37:th minute increasing Hippopotami´s lead to 0 - 3. The structure of the game started to change as Hippopotami decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. Hippopotamis Patrik Jonsson got himself booked after a foul. The teams went for a half-time break at 0 - 3. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Hippopotami, with an impressive 64 percent possession of the ball.

The game was close to savage at times, and Hippopotami`s Patrik Jonsson received a second yellow card in the 48:th, his ticket out of the game. The player down was Olivier Champagne. The Stealers bench looked worried a while but in the end he managed to get up. After 52 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for Derrick Solomon who increased Hippopotami´s lead to 0 - 4. This third goal made a hat trick for Derrick Solomon. The referee showed Stealerss Todd Roby the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Deng Tze-Yeung had a good opportunity to reduce in the 76:th minute but wasn´t cool enough. The ball went miles over the bar. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 67 percent possession rate.

Most important Stealers player was Jeremy Goodwin. Steve Beaulieu on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important Hippopotami player was Mick Starks. Zlatko Koch on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 0 - 4.

Stadium
Tough luck for the Tea Stealers as the rain chased away a good 3K people.

Team Ratings

Tea Stealers
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: passable
Central Defence: passable
Left Side Defence: weak
Right Side Attack: poor
Central Attack: poor
Left Side Attack: wretched

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: poor
Right Side Defence: weak
Central Defence: weak
Left Side Defence: inadequate
Right Side Attack: excellent
Central Attack: solid
Left Side Attack: passable

Another excellent on the right side. Mick Starks and Derrick Solomon are a bona fide pair of badasses over there. Looks like our stamina training paid off. We're up to poor for the midfield and another week of stamina training should help some more.

Player Ratings
GK Chiritã Vochin **
DW Patrik Jonsson KICKED OUT
DM Zlatko Koch *~
DW Klaas Slingerland **
WI Mick Starks (off) **~
MI Stephen Connors **
MI Julius Acker (extra) **
MI Carlos Alberto Benito **~
WI Alfredo Crespo **
FO Derrick Solomon **
FO Edwin Phelan **

Total Stars: 20.5 (10 players)
Team Attitude: Normal
Total player experience: wretched

Vochin off to a good start with **. Koch dropped down to *~ but I'm guessing (hoping) it was just a weekly glitch. Benito and Starks are the only two guys who ran **~ this week after Phelan dropped his form to inad last week and is down to **. With Hebert, this is at least a 22.5 again so I don't feel so bad aout this score.

Game Summary
A yawn to get us back on track. If we had been in the league the entire season, Solomon would probably be in the race for league leader in goals. As it is, he's in 3rd with a player from the Darksiders and CC's ahead of him. With a little improvement in form, Vochin could be pulling down **~ for us in net and that would be great. Raduli only got ** when he was in passable form.


N Team P Goals Pts
1. The Darksiders 12 56 - 4 33
2. CC's Dragons 12 57 - 12 33
3. Houston Hippopotami 12 29 - 21 21
4. Atlanta United 12 31 - 29 21
5. The Flying Midgets 12 18 - 20 16
6. Vermont Catamounts 12 11 - 46 9
7. Tea Stealers 12 7 - 40 5
8. Metal Mulisha 12 7 - 44 4


CC's logged 25 stars this week! Next week, at the Darkside Dome, the team that will move up to IV will be decided as CC's Dragons go to play The Darksiders. We have another pretty easy match next week against Vermont, our final home game of the year.

Wrapup
Another easy one next week against the Catamounts before the game against the Dragons. A friendly against an international foe should be fun. Raduli is up for sale at a starting price of $80K. I'm also toying with selling super winger Alfredo Crespo for a cheaper, younger one and towards paying off my debt. We really need to stop putting people out of games because we're going to run out of card subs.

So, that begs the question: Say you were a team from Houston, in 3rd place and needing cash towards building, how much would you put Crespo up for if you were not entirely sure you wanted to sell him?

Alfredo Crespo #16
115 000 US$, 27 years, inadequate form
Has poor experience and weak leadership abilities

Stamina: inadequate Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: inadequate Passing: solid
Winger: passable Defending: weak
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: solid

SI

DataKing

03-03-2003, 12:21 AM

If I were in your shoes, with the same economic situation, I would try to get six figures for Alfredo. I'd say right around the $100,000 mark.

If someone pays that much for him, then (along with your other activities) your debt is pretty much taken care of. But if no one is willing to pony up that much cash, you still have a damn fine offensive winger on your club.

And you'd be surprised what some teams are willing to pay for decent wingers. That's because they're so hard to train, with a few different primary skills.

sterlingice

03-04-2003, 01:52 AM

Sorry, Hungry, Hungry Hippos but due to a mass of work the next two days, this week's edition of "Where are they Now?" and "Hippo Spotlight" have been moved until later in the week, after the friendly.

FYI, Raduli has already had a $80K bid placed on him. Alfredo Crespo is up for sale at $92K but has recieved no bids as of yet.

SI

sterlingice

03-04-2003, 03:02 AM

New Hippo
I try and try to keep from falling into debt but I just can't help myself when something like this falls into my lap. Not only that but I was about to do homework when this little (evil) voice inside my head said "check the USA transfer market before you head to sleep- there tend to be bargains there late at night".

Lo and behold, I run across a passable/passable winger/defender whose coach kept putting him at winger instead of wingback. Not only that but he's only 22. His stamina needs work, but he's in luck since we're working stamina during the offseason. The reason he came so cheap is that he is out 3 weeks with injury. However, I didn't plan on playing him either of the next two weeks anyways. Then he can get put through the stamina wringer the next week with the rest of the troops this offseason and I'll have my 2nd passable/passable wingback for next year.

Elmer Bush (7098202) 3
22 years, poor form, injured (3 weeks)

A sympathetic guy who is temperamental and upright.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 14 000 US$
Wage: 660 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: wretched
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: weak
Passing: disastrous
Winger: passable
Defending: passable
Scoring: wretched
Set Pieces: wretched

This move along with the awesome ** play of my inad/inad phenom wingback trainees, 18yo Patrick Johnsson and 19yo Gerard Longis, makes Zlatko Koch, the last of our players over 24 (except for scoring machine Derrick Solomon), expendable. He'll be put on sale tomorrow and for the last two weeks of the season and I'll finish up with our star defender, Hebert, in the middle with Johnsson (when he finishes serving his red card) or Longis on the wing he formerly occupied. Also we will probably sell our other wingback, Klaas Slingerland, next week once Johnsson gets his head out of his arse and can play.

Zlatko Koch (3837419)
26 years, weak form, healthy

A pleasant guy who is calm and honest.
Has wretched experience and wretched leadership abilities.

Nationality: Österreich
Assessed value: 57 000 US$
Wage: 1 152 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: solid
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched
Passing: weak
Winger: weak
Defending: passable
Scoring: inadequate
Set Pieces: wretched

Klaas Slingerland (5914816)
24 years, passable form, healthy

A sympathetic guy who is calm and upright.
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Nationality: Nederland
Assessed value: 70 000 US$
Wage: 1 056 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: solid
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: poor
Passing: inadequate
Winger: passable
Defending: inadequate
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: poor

More exciting moves to come from your favorite Hippos.

SI

daedalus

03-04-2003, 03:53 AM

Oooh. Nice pickup. Plus, it never hurts to have an Elmer on the team. :)

sterlingice

03-05-2003, 12:46 AM

Oooh. Nice pickup. Plus, it never hurts to have an Elmer on the team.
Amen to that. We welcome Elmer with open arms.

Lament of a Team in Debt
I was about to snipe to pick up a winger to replace the soon-to-be-departed Crespo but I didn't have the $18K to put down on him. "Him" being an 18yo solid winger with inad passing, passable form and that unpredictable skill I really wanted to try out. Yet, I couldn't scrape together $18K to get him. :mad: Unlikely I'll find another guy like him this cheap since today is a bit flooded with youth pulls and guys kicked off due to youth pulls. Oh well.

SI

daedalus

03-05-2003, 03:41 AM

I dig Unpredictable forwards. Wouldn't touch an Unpredictable defender with YOUR 10-foot pole, though. Winger might be very interesting, though. If you play 'em offensively, I can see how they'd have the same wild effectiveness as a forward might.

sterlingice

03-06-2003, 05:40 PM

Preview
Looking to build off our one game friendly win streak against the Woodlands Rich Kids or whatever, Gurras BK, a team from Sverige division VI comes to the Hippodome to take in some Americana. I don't know why I got challenged by an international team and it wasn't even a home-and-away series but we could use some spare fans. Then again, he doesn't bring a lot of fans to the game and maybe he's seen our home attendance numbers, which are huge. He doesn't look too tough, but this is the two b-teams facing off so who knows. It turned out to be quite the exciting game, as you will see...

Game Summary
Date: 3/6/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 5069780
Arena: The Hippodrome
Crowd: 937

937 spectators had come to The Hippodrome this cloudy day. Hippopotami started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. Lineup: Buckley - Hebert, Koch, Longis, Jonsson - Starks, Rumbold, Paige, Friedländer, Crespo - Chang.

Gurras started off with a 4-3-3 lineup. Lineup: Cronsten - Hansson, Nilsson, Månsson, Bengtsson - Torsson, Stensson, Persson - Möllering, Kjellind, Irwin.

Gurras had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially in the 6:th minute when Mikael Kjellind came up alone against Sidney Buckley who managed a block. The referee showed Gurrass Bengt Månsson the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Hippopotami appeared unsure on how to play. After a fine move down the middle Defoe Chang nearly gave the home side one up in the 26:th minute. The finishing shot went just wide, though. Hippopotamis Defoe Chang gave, after 35 minutes, the home team a 1 - 0 lead after an attack coming in from the right. Gurras´s Michael Irwin left the field after 39 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was Stig-Arne 'Plattis' Månsson. The teams went for a half-time break at 1 - 0. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 64 percent possession rate.

Hippopotami -coach had an extra briefing during the break, and after that his players looked a lot more organized. Gurras's Fredrik Bengtsson scored 1 - 1 by shooting accurately and hard from a long distance, leaving the opponent goalie no other option than to pick up the ball from the net. Hippopotami were very close to putting themselves one up in the 70:th minute as Kyle Paige got through, but failing in concentration, he shot the ball wide. In the 80:th minute the home side managed to get a 2 - 1 lead as Kyle Paige flipped the ball after a cross pass from the right. Gurras made a substitution in the 84:th minute. Dan M. Stensson limped off the field and was replaced by Gunnar Falland. Gurras´s Conny 'Robbas' Persson refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon in the 84:th minute. Some brilliant football from the visitors right wing resulted in a 86:th minute levelling of scores as Gurrass Mikael Hansson equalised to 2 - 2. Gurras held the ball, with a clear 64 percent possession rate.

After the regular 90 minutes, the agonizing of overtime followed. The home side put themselves ahead 3 - 2 in the 106:th by a breakthrough from Philip Friedländer, who unaided came in out of the right wing hooking the ball over the visitors keeper. With that Hippopotami had won the game in extra time. Most important Hippopotami player was Mick Starks. Sidney Buckley on the other hand, had a terrible day. Gurras´s best player was Mikael Kjellind. Conny 'Robbas' Persson on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 3 - 2.

Events and Stats
Ok, I'm trying out a new section here, designed to give you a better feel of what went on. I saw something similar to this on NevStar's Morrisville Morrisvillians and it makes reading his game reports easier. Mine is a bit between his and DK's summaries for stats- less elaborate than NevStar's great work but moreso than DataKing's goals and cards (then again, his summaries are much better than mine- damn creative writing major; we engineers can't keep up *grumble grumble*).

See, boys and girls, this is what reading other threads does: it allows you to rip off good ideas in exchange for merely giving credit :D Seriouly, tho, I give tons of extra credit to NevStar, DataKing, and vexroid. I try to catch most everything hattrick posted on this board, but those three dynasties, in particular, really are things I try to read, or at least skim, every time something is posted. If you have a hattrick team and have somehow not read any of those three, do it now. There's a ton of hattrick to learn from them and they all write well about their team.

A few notes:
1. Our score will always be first, whether we are ahead or behind
2. The (F) after the names would have a goal number if it were a fixture
3. "xx" means the time of the goal was not specified
4. Cards and injuries will only be for our team

Formations

HH: 4-5-1
GBK: 4-3-3

Events Summary

1st Half
HH: 35: Defoe Chang (F); 1-0

Halftime
Score: 1-0
Possession: 64%

2nd Half
GBK: xx: Fredrik Bengtsson; 1-1
HH: 80: Kyle Paige (F); 2-1
GBK: 86: Mikael Hansson; 2-2

Regulation
Score: 2-2
Possession: 36%

Overtime
HH: 106: Philip Friedländer (F); 3-2

Final
Score: 3-2
Possession: 50%

Cards
We were lucky to not pick up any more today as we already have more cards than a riverboat casino right now

Injuries
Again, we were fortunate today: no injuries.

Stadium

Terraces: 572 (9702)
Basic seats: 248 (3850)
Seats under roof: 92 (1740)
VIP seats: 25 (400)
Total: 937 (15692)

Cloudy day, which kindof stunk up the crowd some but I figured I'd break at least 1000 with an international team in town. I guess he has hardly any supporters at all.

Team Ratings

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: inadequate
Central Defence: weak
Left Side Defence: poor
Right Side Attack: passable
Central Attack: poor
Left Side Attack: inadequate

Gurras BK
Midfield: disastrous
Right Side Defence: poor
Central Defence: poor
Left Side Defence: wretched
Right Side Attack: inadequate
Central Attack: passable
Left Side Attack: weak

Player Ratings
GK Sidney Buckley *
DW: Hugh Hebert **
DM Gerard Longis *~
DM Zlatko Koch *~
DW Patrik Jonsson **
WI Mick Starks **~
MI Philip Friedländer (wing) *~
MI Jeremy Rumbold (off) *
MI Kyle Paige *
WI Klaas Slingerland **~
FO Dafoe Chang **

Total player experience: wretched
Team Attitude: Normal

Paige is up from ~ to * finally! Longis went down to *~ from ** but that's because he was put in the middle instead of on the wing. Hebert was on the wing for a friendly because he had too many cards to his name to play last week in the fixture *shakes finger scoldingly*. Dafoe Chang is also back up to ** as his form increased last week.

Game Summary
Like the Seamen from Chicago, we, too, had our first OT game in a friendly this week. We edged out a team that was more game than we expected but a win is a win. Our friendly winning streak is up to 2. I somehow doubt we will have a good friendly winning streak, tho. As soon as early next year rolls around, I don't want a single starter in friendlies (Starks, Koch, Crespo) except if they get a little too carded.

Notes
Next up for us is another seemingly easy game. Still, I'm not going to PIC it as we could use the points. A win this week clinches us 4th place and some cash. Third is still probably a pipe dream but we can hope. Tonight or tomorrow, I'll be posting training summaries and other assorted news. Where are they now might also make an appearance. The next Hippo profile won't be until late next week, at the earliest, since I have a pair of difficult tests next week.

So what do you think about the new formatting for the match summaries? Keep it, dump it? Was it worth the extra 10 minutes of my typing and formatting? *points* You make the call.

SI

sterlingice

03-07-2003, 04:09 AM

Not just a training summary this week. Have some business to attend to. I know I promised another installment of "Where are they now" but I ran out of time. Hopefully next time I'll get to it and some great material on one of our players who was sold to another FOFCer.

It's a Game of Numbers
After Raduli's sale, our new stud goalie 19yo Romanian Chiritã Vochin will be sporting the number 1 befitting his position as starting goalie.

Our new wing defender Elmer Bush will take the number 8 and will be busting his arse out there as soon as his injury (which I can't track down the origin of) is healed.

Sales and Other Marketing
Kindof like numbers, only really different. Much like everyone else's experience, Dawid Raduli's form got a shot in the arm when he was sold but he's still only poor. We make $75600 off that sale which more than offset the $43000 we paid for Elmer. The bad news to go along with this is that veteran winger Alfredo Crespo didn't even get a nibble at $92K so I relisted him at $75K. If I don't get a buyer now, I'm just going to keep him until his stats change or something. Defender Zlatko Koch already has had someone meet his $5K minimum bid and he still has a couple of days to go. Also, after our small bump in the road last week, we are back to getting 12 supporters twice a week. I guess success breeds popularity as we are now up to 721 supporters :D

Training
We have an excellent: First time I have an excellent on the team in anything but stamina!!! Middie Julius Acker is up to an excellent playmaker which gives me an interesting quandry. I've never liked Julius and he never seems to get very many stars (** max) but he is young (21yo) and has great stats: now excellent playmaker with passable wing, passable passing, and now passable form. So what is the deal with Mr Acker? With such great stats, why does he suck so hard? I think I'm going to see if it's all a stamina problem: keep him for the offseason, train his stamina, and then try him out next year. If he's up to **~ or ***, he stays on the team, but if not, he gets sold.

We had a great week and two other bumps. Acker also bumped his experience to wretched which isn't great but it's something. Lastly, wingback Patrik Johnsson's playmaking bumped from poor to weak. A couple of othre things of note involve form. Our recent injured wingback pickup raised his form but starting goalie Chirita Vochin, starting wingback Hugh Hebert, and starting forward Edwin Phelan all dropped. I'm worried about Vochin- we have two goalie trainers and I've decided to hire a third because form was a problem with our previous goalie as well. Also, I hired a regular trainer to give me an even 10.

Form
Starters: (+5) (-3)
Entire Team: (+9) (-4)

Value
Starters: (+8) (-3)
Entire Team: (+15) (-4)

Team Stats
Total Wages: 17900 (+700)
Total Value: 1622000 (+149000)
Avg Value: 81100 (+3574)
Avg Age: 21
Avg Form: inadequate
Avg Experience: wretched
No of players: 20 (+1)
Nationalities: 9 (-1)

Future Training
Looks like we will be on playmaking this week and next. Then the offseason and a couple of weeks of stamina. Then maybe start a regimen next year of something like Stamina, PM, PM, PM, Set Pieces, PM, PM, PM, Stamina...

Supporters News
I regret to inform ardent that I will be dropping from his ranks of millions (at last check) of supporters. Instead, we will add reciprocal support to our newest supporter, Doug5984's Louisiana Cyclones who play in "Nawlans", or so the person from his office claimed. We think it is close to New Orleans, but are unsure. Like ausonny, NevStar, and vexroid, I hope he enjoys the executive washroom and attached suite and I hope the girls play nice with him and all of our supporters.

We Support
**ausonny's Bees
dk's Screamin' Seamen
**Doug5984's Louisiana Cyclones
**NevStar's Morrisville Morrisvillians
**vexroid's NE Oklahoma Sidekicks

** = Hippo supporters

Friendly
Woo! Another FOFC friendly. This time, we will go to Qwakers Arena in Philly to take on Qwikshot's Qwakers in the battle for earth. Ok, just seeing if anyone was paying attention. If you didn't know, the Qwakers are in a heated race for V.140 which will come down to a game between them and the Cthulu Servants the last week of the season. We look forward to a great game in the land of liberty and cheesesteak.

SI

daedalus

03-07-2003, 04:49 AM

Out of curiosity, do you play Acker at middie or on the wing? What instruction do you use with him?

sterlingice

03-07-2003, 05:08 AM

Out of curiosity, do you play Acker at middie or on the wing? What instruction do you use with him?

I almost exclusively play him inner middie with no specialization. I suppose I could play him towards wing or offensively to take advantage of one of his passable skills but I don't really want to weaken my midfield like that.

SI

sterlingice

03-09-2003, 03:43 AM

Youth Pullll... and FIRE! (think skeet)
Youth Squad: passable
With another 20K into the youth fund, we remain at passable. That's the good news. Unfortunately, we got another guy not worth the bytes it took to come up with him. He has been summarily shot. Oh, oh, I mean fired. Yeah, that's it. Ignore all of my men and what they say about the one called "el presidente".

Mikey Field (8720365)
18 years, passable form, healthy

A controversial person who is calm and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and disastrous leadership abilities.
Speciality: Head

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 2 000 US$
Wage: 500 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched
Passing: poor
Winger: weak
Defending: disastrous
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: poor

Weekly Attitude Update
Team Spirit: composed
Confidence: decent
Sponsors: high on life
Supporter Club: 721 members +24
Supporters: delirious (up from content)
Yay! We crushed the 700 supporter barrier and are on our way to 800. Our supporters are back to being their usual cheerful selves and our team spirit is still in the doldrums, as always, and I'm hoping our confidence can rebound after a win this week.

Weekly Economy Update
We're hanging out at just above debt level thanks to a sale or two last week (Zlatko Koch is no longer with us and, while his passable defending will be missed, the $23K we get from him will be accepted. Crespo is still out on the transfer wire with a $75K price tag which ends about 18 hours from now tomorrow afternoon. We picked up a new wing trainee should we need to replace him or not. At this point, we are $50K in the hole for the week but should pull down $70-$80K for the game tomorrow depending on the weather so we should be digging slightly further out from under our debt hole.

New Hippo
I love bargains. To all of you teams who I keep saying there are great winger bargains out there: more proof. 18yo Bjorn Magnusson will be joining us as a new trainee winger. He's a passable winger with weak playmaking that we can work on raising. He cost a grand total of $7500.

Björn Magnusson (8582470)
18 years, passable form, healthy

A sympathetic guy who is temperamental and honest.
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities.
Speciality: Powerful

Nationality: Sverige
Assessed value: 24 000 US$
Wage: 744 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: wretched
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: weak
Passing: poor
Winger: passable
Defending: poor
Scoring: weak
Set Pieces: weak

SI

daedalus

03-09-2003, 04:55 AM

Originally posted by sterlingice
I almost exclusively play him inner middie with no specialization. I suppose I could play him towards wing or offensively to take advantage of one of his passable skills but I don't really want to weaken my midfield like that.

If he can't get past the 2* threshold and his ratings definitely lends itself to wing, it might be worth giving him a shot or two out there unless you already have a superior winger out there. I play my wingers on 'offensive' but that's mainly because none of them have achieved the passable+ playmaking/winger combination yet. With his ratings, you might be able to just play him straight up (although if his defense isn't any good, then putting him on offensive doesn't hurt any). As you said previously, his stamina might definitely be hurting him inside so once his stamina is up to the passable level, that may be worth revisiting.

Just, uhh, food for thoughts. :)

sterlingice

03-09-2003, 02:18 PM

If he can't get past the 2* threshold and his ratings definitely lends itself to wing, it might be worth giving him a shot or two out there unless you already have a superior winger out there. I play my wingers on 'offensive' but that's mainly because none of them have achieved the passable+ playmaking/winger combination yet. With his ratings, you might be able to just play him straight up (although if his defense isn't any good, then putting him on offensive doesn't hurt any). As you said previously, his stamina might definitely be hurting him inside so once his stamina is up to the passable level, that may be worth revisiting.

Just, uhh, food for thoughts.
You know, that's not a half bad idea. Right now I have a **/**~ winger in Crespo but he's 27 and I'm looking to sell him. Then I was going to grab a winger on the market because they're so cheap but this may be a good answer. We'll see- I may just end up selling Acker to get out of debt early next year but it does seem like it would be a waste to sell a 21yo excellent playmaker. I think he might deserve a look at winger in one of the friendlies inbetween season. Thanks for the idea.

SI

sterlingice

03-09-2003, 09:26 PM

Economy
Alfredo Crespo has been sold for $77K to Havoc in V.174. I'm guessing he'll be very pleased with his contributions as Crespo was a good player but just didn't fit in our youth movement. We wish Alfredo and Havoc well. From the sale price, $70840 went towards our economic recovery and another $65K from the game puts our debt for the week at under $90K.

Preview
Our second easy game in a row before what will probably be a loss next week. Vermont took over his team a few weeks ago but hasn't played a friendly or made a transfer so this may be as easy as they come. With the sale of Crespo, Friedlï¿½nder will be playing wing in his place while we take Acker's excellent playmaking for a spin although it probably won't be worth too much until I improve his stamina. I had forgotten I had PIC'd this game. As you will see- it didn't matter.

Game Summary

Date: 3/10/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 4591317
Arena: The Hippodrome
Crowd: 12227

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 12227 to The Hippodrome. Hippopotami started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Vochin - Longis, Hebert, Slingerland - Starks, Benito, Acker, Connors, Friedlï¿½nder - Solomon, Phelan.

Catamounts tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Wylie - Gooden, Anderson, Lune, Coronado - Curran, Crenshaw, Goetz, Fontenot - Yi, Kline.

In the 1st minute cheers broke out as Edwin Phelan found his way through the guests central defense line, clipping the 1 - 0 goal in for Hippopotami. Things were going to get worse for the visitors. Carlos Alberto Benito squirmed himself through the central defense line in the 18:th minute, asserting the lead to 2 - 0. In the 36:th minute of the match the visitors central line of defence had to look on as Derrick Solomon dashed through, knocking home 3 - 0 for Hippopotami. Catamounts made a substitution in the 38:th minute. Dwight Fontenot limped off the field and was replaced by Casey Conway. In the 39:th minute Hippopotami put themselves up 4 - 0. The visitors defenders lost the ball to Stephen Connors coming up from the left, who proceeded to cooly round the goaltender and knock the ball home. The structure of the game started to change as Hippopotami decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. Philip Friedlï¿½nder was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the enemy box - Mick Starks managed to kick one of them into 5 - 0 in the 40:th minute. Hippopotami put their lead ahead another goal as Derrick Solomon struck home the 6 - 0 goal, after an attack from the left setting him up unmarked with the keeper. The referee showed Catamountss Austin Kline the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. The teams went for a half-time break at 6 - 0. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 76 percent possession rate.

A bit later, a magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Hippopotamiï¿½s Carlos Alberto Benito putting the lead up to 7 - 0. Mick Starks of Hippopotami received a yellow card in the 57:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Gï¿½rard Longis of Hippopotami received a yellow card in the 63rd minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. In the 70:th minute Hippopotamiï¿½s Carlos Alberto Benito tried to nail the coffin shut, but the shot rebounded off the bar to fall behind the net. Gï¿½rard Longis of Hippopotami got sent off for kicking the ball after the whistle, a completely uncalled for move, earning him his second yellow card of the game. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Hippopotami, with an impressive 77 percent possession of the ball.

Most important Hippopotami player was Mick Starks. Chiritï¿½ Vochin on the other hand, had a terrible day. Catamountsï¿½s best player was Ivan Curran. Alva Wylie was a disappointment, however. The match ends 7 - 0.

Events and Stats

A few notes:
1. Our score will always be first, whether we are ahead or behind
2. The (F) after the names would have a goal number if it were a fixture
3. "xx" means the time of the goal was not specified
4. Cards and injuries will only be for our team

Formations

HH: 3-5-2
VC: 4-4-2

Events Summary

1st Half
HH: 01: Edwin Phelan(9); 1-0
HH: 18: Carlos Alberto Benito(2); 2-0
HH: 38: Derek Solomon(11); 3-0
HH: 39: Stephen Connors(4); 4-0
HH: 40: Mick Starks(1); 5-0
HH: xx: Derek Solomon(12); 6-0

Halftime
Score: 6-0
Possession: 76%

2nd Half
HH: xx: Carlos Alberto Benito(3); 7-0

Final
Score: 7-0
2nd Half Possession: 77%
Final Possession: 77%

Cards
HH: 63: Gï¿½rard Longis (yellow: unsportsmanlike behaviour)
HH: xx: Gï¿½rard Longis (yellow: kicking the ball after the whistle)

Injuries
None on our side

Stadium

Terraces: 7047 (9702)
Basic seats: 3715 (3850)
Seats under roof: 1191 (1740)
VIP seats: 274 (400)
Total: 12227 (15692)

Still only 12K which is 3K under what we can seat. We are well over 700 supporters so I just don't get it. That's barely 17:1 fans to supporters. And it's fairly good weather not rain or anything.

Team Ratings

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: poor (3)
Right Side Defence: weak (4)
Central Defence: inadequate (5)
Left Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Right Side Attack: formidable (9)
Central Attack: passable (6)
Left Side Attack: inadequate (5)
DKI: 40

Vermont Catamounts
Midfield: disastrous (1)
Right Side Defence: weak (4)
Central Defence: weak (4)
Left Side Defence: poor (3)
Right Side Attack: weak (4)
Central Attack: poor (3)
Left Side Attack: poor (3)
DKI: 23

Yet again, the right side attack is amazing with Mick Starks and Derrick Solomon. The midfield remained at poor. I'm torn between training stamina or general next week but I think we could use some form training so we may just go general which should help us out more.

Player Ratings
GK Chiritï¿½ Vochin **
DW Gï¿½rard Longis KICKED OUT
DM Hugh Hebert **
DW Klaas Slingerland **
WI Mick Starks (off) **~
MI Julius Acker (extra) **
MI Carlos Alberto Benito **~
MI Stephen Connors **~
WI Alfredo Crespo **
FO Derrick Solomon **
FO Edwin Phelan **

Total Stars: 21.5 (10 players)
Team Attitude: Play it Cool
Total player experience: wretched

Yes, we PIC'd this game. You are reading that correctly. This is the first game we've gotten everyone with ** or **~ and that makes me very, very happy. Unfortunately, Longis getting kicked out kept us from an all time high of stars, but with his ** he always gets, we would have had 23.5. Vochin continued with ** and Acker at ** which had better improve with his stamia, lest I sell him. Starks, Benito, and Connors with **~ across the middle makes me happy.

Game Summary
A nice healthy obliteration and now I think we even have a slim chance of beating CC's Dragons. We PIC'd this past game so it's time to MotS against CC's Dragons. It was great to see Starks with a goal as well as Solomon churn out two more. That 4 goal blitz in the last 7 minutes of the 1st half was amazing. Our confidence is back up to wonderful. I enjoyed the ho-hum nature of this match. It's a far cry from next week.


N Team P Goals Pts
1. The Darksiders 13 63 - 5 36
2. CC's Dragons 13 58 - 19 33
3. Houston Hippopotami 13 36 - 21 24
4. Atlanta United 13 33 - 31 22
5. The Flying Midgets 13 20 - 22 17
6. Vermont Catamounts 13 11 - 53 9
7. Tea Stealers 13 9 - 40 8
8. Metal Mulisha 13 7 - 46 4

Two huge suprises this week. The Darksiders devistated CC's Dragons 7-1 while Atlanta tied the resurgent Flying Midgets with their excellent/outstanding/excellent defense and *** goalie. They could be a team to worry about next year if they fix their wretched midfield. Atlanta was up 2-0 but pulled back and The Flying Midgets tied them- I am really thankful for my "all out" coach who wouldn't let up even in a 7-0 obliteration. Derek Solomon and Edwin Phelan remained at 3 and 5 in the goal scoring race for our league. It looks like Sean Soto from the Darksiders has the race locked up.

Wrapup
Next week, we have a game against CC's Dragons which will be brutal. He'll be looking for some revenge after being brutalized at the hands of the Darksiders. Perhaps we can beat them- they lost worse to the Darksiders than we did. If we win or tie, we get 3rd. A loss puts us in 4th.

SI

sterlingice

03-10-2003, 02:12 AM

Notes
I missed two notes about team captain Mick Starks this week. He actually got ***, making him the first player ever on our team to get that many stars. The second note is much more dire: I forgot to mention a yellow card he picked up in the game and, along with Longis, who was ushered out of the game, Starks will miss next week's crucial fixture against 2nd place CC's Dragons.

Press Announcement for the week
3/10/2003 at 07:32 Hippos Crush Catamounts, 2-3 Battle Next Week
After rolling through Vermont, the Hippos are looking to finish strong this year against CC's Dragons next week. Carlos Alberto Benito and Derek Solomon both scored twice and new goalie Vochin threw his second shutout in a row. A win or tie nets us 3rd place but a loss will likely drop us to 4th. FYI, The Hippos have also created a new logo befitting their division V status: not very intimdating.

More Numbers
New winger trainee Björn Magnusson has the midifield number 14, which he will be sporting in our friendly this week.

In the Market
Ok, I've decided what I need to fill my entire team and a team of trainees. I'm planning on selling 24yo wingback (inad/pass) Klaas Slingerland. Then I'll need to find a middle defender for my main team who is passable or solid, if I have more cash.

For my trainee team, I need the following:
Middle Defender (inad def, inad playmaking)
Winger (pass winger, inad playmaking)
Middie (pass playmaking, good peripherals)

End of Season
Dataking said (in another thread):
Team spirit, team confidence, supporter attitude, and sponsor attitude all reset during the off-season (right after qualification matches, if memory serves).
This is just for my own edification just so I remember.

New Logo
I have a creepily cute logo befitting my team's status as not even able to win in division V. Maybe I'll find some scarier images once my team improves. The image came somewhat from the cover of a book called "Hippos Go Berserk" by Sandra Boynton. I've never heard of it or read it before but it had a picture that fit. Here's a link to the book:Hippos Go Berserk (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0689834349/qid=1047280181/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_3/104-5290038-7352763?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) And here is our new, ultra-intimidating team logo:
http://www.sunflower.com/~sterlingice/hippo.jpg

SI

DataKing

03-10-2003, 02:35 AM

That logo is high entertainment!

LMAO!

:D

daedalus

03-10-2003, 04:40 AM

A few questions about the whole "clown" thing . . .

1) If I have a solid/sympathetic and a solid/pleasant, who counts?

2) Does the "clown" have to be a non-player?

sterlingice

03-10-2003, 05:04 AM

A few questions about the whole "clown" thing . . .

1) If I have a solid/sympathetic and a solid/pleasant, who counts?

2) Does the "clown" have to be a non-player?

If two (or more) players on your team have the same leadership level, then it is random as to which acts as the "team leader" that week. So odds are half the time you get the sympathetic and half of the time you get the pleasant.

For a player to be considered a "clown", they do not play. But "clown" is not the technical term- it is a name given to a team leader who never plays and just occupies a space on the bench. If you have a solid/popular guy who also is an excellent playmaker or something like that, then consider yourself lucky- you don't need a "clown", per se, because your team leader is good enough to play.

SI

Vince

03-10-2003, 06:00 AM

Good stuff SI...yours is the first dynasty report I have read. I'll get to the others soon...I want to soak up as much hattrick knowledge as humanly possible :)

Good luck against those Dragons...looks like you could do it, but it'll be tough.

NevStar

03-10-2003, 10:37 AM

Originally posted by sterlingice
New Logo
I have a creepily cute logo befitting my team's status as not even able to win in division V. Maybe I'll find some scarier images once my team improves. The image came somewhat from the cover of a book called "Hippos Go Berserk" by Sandra Boynton. I've never heard of it or read it before but it had a picture that fit. Here's a link to the book:
[/B]

Awwww... :retch: :D

If two (or more) players on your team have the same leadership level, then it is random as to which acts as the "team leader" that week. So odds are half the time you get the sympathetic and half of the time you get the pleasant.

Are you sure about that? I thought that leadership was like any other skill, there's many different levels of leadership within the tag "solid." This means that whoever has the true highest leadership (which we have no way of knowing) will be the team leader.

sterlingice

03-10-2003, 05:48 PM

New Hippo
Brought in a new trainee central defender for the "huge" cost of $12K. Say hello to Rickie Stepp, our new #6. He's only 20 and his passable defending along with inadequate playmaking (which we hope to raise) will serve us well. I can tell he's perfect for us: "A newly bought player got a really bad start when he arrived in the club. The team spirit fell when he initially turned out not to get along very well with the other ones." Wow, we're just a team of miscreants and bastards. Maybe if I stopped bringing in such great character guys, we would actually finish games with all 11 players.

Rickie Stepp (5939343)
20 years, passable form, healthy

A controversial person who is temperamental and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 28 000 US$
Wage: 590 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: weak
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: inadequate
Passing: wretched
Winger: weak
Defending: passable
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: poor

We are now 2 trainees away from a full youth squad. Hopefully I can snag those in the next couple of days. I want to get them before the end of the season so they benefit from our stamina and general training. Speaking of which, I've decided to go with playmaking this week. Then stamina, general, stamina, and playmaking before the first game next week.

Are you sure about that? I thought that leadership was like any other skill, there's many different levels of leadership within the tag "solid." This means that whoever has the true highest leadership (which we have no way of knowing) will be the team leader.

No, I'm not 100% sure on that. I think I just remember reading that on the hattrick conferences. Then again, My team spirit is poor so maybe I'm not best to give advice- it's been "calm" ever since day 1 ;)

SI

The Afoci

03-10-2003, 07:09 PM

Just a quick question, does it inform you when your player go up with training, or do you just have to look?

sterlingice

03-10-2003, 09:56 PM

Just a quick question, does it inform you when your player go up with training, or do you just have to look?

Unless you have a nice little program like HAM, get out your pen/pencil or spreadsheet. Unfortunately, it does not tell you when a player goes up or down.

As you probably already know, it can only happen after weekly training (Thursday evening if your team is in the USA). So you only need to check once a week.

SI

robbgmaier

03-11-2003, 12:56 PM

FWIW - older players may see their rating go DOWN on mondays, according to the hattrick rule book

sterlingice

03-12-2003, 02:02 AM

New Hippo
Thomas Strömlius (8733970)
19 years, passable form, healthy

A controversial person who is balanced and honest.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.

Nationality: Sverige
Assessed value: 47 000 US$
Wage: 888 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: weak
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: inadequate
Passing: weak
Winger: poor
Defending: passable
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: poor

It has been decided that I cannot count. I said I was 2 players away before but I was actually 3. I run a 3-5-2 for fixtures and 4-5-1 for friendlies so I forgot I needed an extra middle defender. The counting problem came in with me either counting my coach or clown (more likely). That or some of the changes I'll go into detail about below.

Thomas comes to us from Sverige and I'd tell you his team but hattrick is down right now. He will step right in at defender for our frienly tomorrow with the B team. He and our other new Hippo, Rickie Stepp will be getting a trial by fire to see which might replace Klaas Slingerland at middle defender on the main team. If neither can get me two stars, it's back to the drawing board. Both of them are inad playmakers so if they don't work out, they'll end up getting sold when they make passable.

Yet again, " A newly bought player got a really bad start when he arrived in the club. The team spirit fell when he initially turned out not to get along very well with the other ones." We just know how to pick them. I think we should just rename ourselves the 1970s Philadelphia Flyers or the late 80s Pistons or the Nasty Boys of the early 90s Reds.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that he went for $23001. I love that dreaded $1- paying that extra $999 scares teams away like nothing else.

A Numbers Game
Ok, a few number changes had to be made to accomidate the new player. Number 24, right before coaches number 25, will now be the clown since he's essentially our "clippy"- I don't know if that's a term I picked up anywhere or just came up with but it refers to the whole 2nd string QB holding the clipboard thing. So Silviu Radu will be changing from #2 to #24. Backup goalie Sidney Buckley will go to his rightful number #2 as backup keeper instead of his old #3. That will give new Thomas the #3 befitting a defender. Our new players will likely get the vacated #16 and #19 while no one will have the #21 for now since one will be empty (22 players + coach + clown). If we bring in someone to replace Klaas Slingerland at middie defender, he'll just get Klaas's #4. Anyone confused yet? Well, if you are- at some point in the offseason, you can get reacquainted with my team when I'll trot them all out.

Position Confusion
Here was the other thing that may have contributed to the problems. My main team is still in flux for next year. My defense is mainly sorted out but there may be a little shuffling between the A and B squad. Phelan and Solomon are set at forward. Once Solomon starts degrading, Chang will step in and I'll get a new trainee, but until then I'm not taking Solomon and his 3rd-in-the-league goals out of the lineup. In the middle, Connors and Benito are set at middie and Starks at winger. Then things get interesting: I'll likely put Acker at middie toward wing on Starks's side since he plays offensively. If I do this, I'll need a new young winger- probably a passable wing/inad playmaker to train up for cheap. It's a lot cheaper to do that than to get a new middie. I suppose the other alternative is to sell Acker and fill all of my holes with a new solid playmaker and pass/pass winger.

Until next time, Hippo faithful. I may not get to the match report tomorrow with a midterm starting about the time the game is ending but Thursday, there should be a special delayed "Where are they now" with a Hippo which has gone to another FOFC team. They don't just cause trouble on our team apparently ;)

SI

daedalus

03-12-2003, 03:31 AM

Doug5984

03-12-2003, 12:09 PM

Originally posted by sterlingice

New Logo
I have a creepily cute logo befitting my team's status as not even able to win in division V. Maybe I'll find some scarier images once my team improves. The image came somewhat from the cover of a book called "Hippos Go Berserk" by Sandra Boynton. I've never heard of it or read it before but it had a picture that fit. Here's a link to the book:Hippos Go Berserk (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0689834349/qid=1047280181/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_3/104-5290038-7352763?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) And here is our new, ultra-intimidating team logo:
http://www.sunflower.com/~sterlingice/hippo.jpg

SI

I like the new logo, and I just have a few questions about it...What program did you use to make it in? and how would I go about uploading the image to hattrick once I make a new logo?

NevStar

03-12-2003, 01:13 PM

I can't answer the 1st question, but you can't upload images to hattrick. You need your own web server space to host it. If you can't find any, send it to me & I can host it for you.

Poli

03-12-2003, 01:48 PM

I think I'm finally caught up, good reading!

sterlingice

03-12-2003, 05:14 PM

I like the new logo, and I just have a few questions about it...What program did you use to make it in? and how would I go about uploading the image to hattrick once I make a new logo?

I used Paint Shop Pro 7.04 to make it. I think PSP is better than Photoshop in that it's nearly as powerful but has is quicker and better organized. I just used the base image that I have the link for above (the book cover). Step-by-step: I got rid of all the writing using a couple of floods and some overwriting, got rid of the balloons and birthday hats since I think this is "cute" enough as it is (again, depicting the fierceness of our play) the same way and also with the copy brush so the hippo color remained pretty uniform, played with the colors some, added the lines on the field, added the Hippo text and then buttonized it. Just a lot of common paint program utilities - if you know how to use them, great. If not, I suggest getting a program like PSP and just playing around for a night or two. If you enjoy doodling or a little art, you'll be hooked just playing around with all the features.

JASC has a free trial of PSP- just go to JASC.com. As an aside, they run the best beta programs I've ever participated in; whenever a new PSP comes out, bugs and changes are typically fixed the next day and lots of fun new suggested features are added.

As for hosting, as NevStar said, you need your own host. I have a free 5MB of webspace from my ISP so it's there along with a lot of other assorted garbage.

I think I'm finally caught up, good reading!
Cool. I know I've been reading about the Raiders for quite a while :)

SI

sterlingice

03-13-2003, 12:58 AM

Is your plan for Strömlius basically as your centre back of the future? Have you entertained any thoughts of him as a middie-in-training?

Also, I think until you have Acker's stamina to passable, he might be able to serve you best as a winger. Of course, that might leave you one short in the middle.

I basically am going to let Stromlius and Stepp play middie defenders in the back of my 4-5-1 for my 2nd team. If they bump to passable playmaking to go along with passable defending, I'll look into what to do with them then but right now I'm working on playmaking with 3 guys already.

SI

sterlingice

03-13-2003, 02:53 AM

Preview
I'm going to see how many times I can use the phrase "Qwikshot's Qwakers" in this writeup because it just sounds cool. Try saying it a couple of times fast: "Qwikshot's Qwakers, Qwikshot's Qwakers". Anyways, we booked a friendly against Qwikshot's Qwakers at Quaker Arena in where else? Pennsylvania, Philly to be specific. Qwikshot's Qwakers are the #2 ranked team in V.140 and if they win this week, they might be up for division IV promotion. Team captain Mick Starks will be playing in the game since he won't be playing in our fixture (well, to keep his form more than anything). A lot of new guys to try out so let's see how they do. Oh, and did I mention we were playing Qwikshot's Qwakers.

Game Summary
Date: 3/13/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 5094453
Arena: Qwakers Arena
Crowd: 716

716 spectators had come to Qwakers Arena this cloudy day. Qwakers had chosen a strategic incomprehensible 2-6-2 formation. They fielded: Piñera - Linnus, Batten - Teufl, Tuito, Harris, Erwin, Anderson, Laizans - Olsson, Fernandes.

Hippopotami tactics involved an interesting 4-5-1 combination. Lineup: Buckley - Jonsson, Stepp, Strömlius, Hebert - Magnusson, Rumbold, Paige, Friedländer, Starks - Chang.

A header from Defoe Chang connected with a corner kick after 5 minutes, and the ball ended up with Hugh Hebert of Hippopotami who shot the 0-1 goal. Qwakers´s Igal Tuito made an attempt at equalising in the 23rd minute, coming in from the right, but the ball hit the post, the defense clearing the rebound. Qwakers seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion about the organization of the team. Halftime score was 0 - 1. Qwakers held the ball, with a clear 51 percent possession rate.

During the break Qwakers´s coach went through the teams new tactics yet again. The away team´s Philip Friedländer took advantage of a mistake to the home side´s right in the 51st minute increasing Hippopotami´s lead to 0 - 2. Nelson Anderson had a good opportunity to reduce in the 55:th minute but wasn´t cool enough. The ball went miles over the bar. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Qwakers, with an impressive 68 percent possession of the ball.

Most important Qwakers player was Manuel Piñera. However, Jordan Erwin made a disastrous appearance. Hippopotami´s best player was Mick Starks. However, Kyle Paige made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 0 - 2.

Events and Stats
A few notes:
1. Our score will always be first, whether we are ahead or behind
2. The (F) after the names would have a goal number if it were a fixture
3. "xx" means the time of the goal was not specified
4. Cards and injuries will only be for our team

Formations
HH: 4-5-1
QQ: 2-6-2

Events Summary

1st Half
HH: 05: Hugh Hebert (F); 1-0
Halftime Score: 1-0
Possession: 49%

2nd Half
HH: 51: Philip Friedländer (F); 2-0
Final Score: 2-0
Possession: 32%
Final Possession: 41%

Cards
None, thankfully

Injuries
Ditto

Stadium

Decent turnout of 716 at Qwakers Arena.

Team Ratings

Qwakers
Midfield: poor (3)
Right Side Defence: weak (4)
Central Defence: inadequate (5)
Left Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Right Side Attack: poor (3)
Central Attack: weak (4)
Left Side Attack: weak (4)
DataKing Index: 31

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: wretched (2)
Right Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Central Defence: passable (6)
Left Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Right Side Attack: weak (4)
Central Attack: poor (3)
Left Side Attack: solid (7)
DataKing Index: 34

We edged them out in the DKI despite getting outplayed in the middle. Needless to say, neither of our 2nd teams were very good up the middle. Starks's presence can be seen on that left side attack, as always. Our defense was just good enough to keep their offense off the scoreboard and our offense was just good enough to punch it by their defense even with the sagging midfield.

Player Ratings
GK Sidney Buckley *
DW Patrik Jonsson **
DM Rickie Stepp **
DM Thomas Strömlius **
DW: Hugh Hebert **
WI Björn Magnusson *~
MI Kyle Paige *
MI Philip Friedländer (extra) **
MI Jeremy Rumbold *
WI Mick Starks ***
FO Dafoe Chang **

Total player experience: disastrous
Team Attitude: Normal

Great news as all of our defenders across the back line delivered ** including the two new guys, Stepp and Strömlius. I haven't worked out the lineup yet for our fixture, but one of them may find themselves as our new middle defender. Starks delivered his second straight *** while new winger trainee Björn Magnusson got *~. The middle improved a little with Friedländer finally finding a spot and getting ** and overshadowed Paige and Rumbold's miserable * performances. Chang got a goal and his usual **. The disastrous total experience worries me a little.

Game Summary
Qwikshot's Qwakers gave us a great game but we pulled one away on their turf. Not bad, especially considering we lost in the middle. Our middie trainees are kindof hurting for skill right now which is why I am reluctant to sell Acker. FYI, Qwikshot- there are problems with your formation: 4 inner middies means none of them got trained. You have to have a max of 3 guys at any one position. That also played a bit of a role in our win. It restores some of my faith in the game to see us lose on the midfield and actually win a game- there were a couple of recent games where it seemed as if the midfield was all the game engine was counting.

Notes
Not much time for notes- studying time. I want to thank Qwikshot for the game and I've got next week's friendly booked and ready to go. We will be traveling to the dreaded North County Raiders Arena to take on ardent's Raiders. I'd like to say this will be one hell of a fight but it's our scrubs and he just got kocked out of the FOFC Cup so who am I kidding. At least we get a nice trip... wait, we're going to Misery. I'm sure there's some silver lining to this cloud of a fixture. ;)

I'll have an update tomorrow when the popular(?) feature "Where are they now" makes a return trip. Also, training updates and then the big 2-3 game this week which we probably will lose, but one can always hold out hope for.

SI

sterlingice

03-15-2003, 06:44 AM

Lots and lots of fun today: a new Hippo, our training update, a soon-to-be-former Hippo, an idea, another lineup shakeup and what we need now for our team, Where are they Now, and our history against FOFC'ers for their edification (and mine) as well as a revised posting schedule. Sorry it took an extra day but I hope it was worth it. Everything today is interconnected, as you will see.

New Hippo
Donald Newsom

61 000 US$, 19 years, passable form
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities

Stamina: inadequate
Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: inadequate
Passing: disastrous
Winger: solid
Defending: poor
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: wretched

Speaking of an extra day, today for $46001, I added Newsom who will be the new #19 and may be displacing Acker (more info on that below). His stamina is pretty good and will improve this offseason. His playmaking is only at inadequate but that's what we train here so that will go up relatively quickly...

Training
Speaking of training, it's that time of the week. Know why superstud Mick Starks is getting *** a game now? Because he was about to pop in playmaking. He's up to inadequate to go along with his solid winger and passable scoring and passing. Also, a really pleasant suprise is that recent winger trainee purchase Bjorn Magnusson popped to inadequate playmaking as well so he's up to pass/inad for winger/playmaking. I think we're starting to get on the happy side of the form curve again as we had 5 increases and only 1 decrease. The best of which is goalie Chirita Vochin who is up to passable. Here's the stats...

Form
Starters: (+3) (-1)
Entire Team: (+5) (-1)

Value
Starters: (+8) (-3)
Entire Team: (+15) (-2)

Team Stats
Total Wages: 18610 (+710)
Total Value: 1709000 (+87000)
Avg Value: 77682 (-3418)
Avg Age: 20 (-1)
Avg Form: passable (from inadequate)
Avg Experience: disastrous (from wretched)
No of players: 20 (+2)
Nationalities: 8 (-1)

Future Training
Playmaking next week, then stamina, set pieces, stamina and it's next year and playmaking again.

For Sale
Speaking of next week, former starting wingback Klaas Slingerland will not be with us, hopefully. His passable winger skill and inadequate defense were good for ** every week and he pretty good leadership and experience. (Un)fortunately, the recent acquisitions of Stromlius and Stepp along with Elmer Bush have made him expendible. Sunday will be his last game for the Hippos. He's currently on the market for $20K.

An Idea
Speaking of the market, we get a ton of questions relating to that and many other hattrick topics and there are a lot of times where I know the answer exists but I can't find it: We need a Hattrick FAQ thread on the discussion board. Sure, the hattrick thread is great but it's over 200 posts long and not very organized. Finding anything in there is impossible so I'm suggesting creating a thread that is only one message long with all the newbie questions, a link to the major hattrick sites, and all that jazz. Basically, take the start of DK's thread from this year and maintain it so that whenever a new question is frequently asked enough, it gets updated. It's just a pain to go searching every hattrick thread on the board for something we could easily have all in one place. Like? Dislike?

Shakeup (Again)
Speaking of likes and dislikes, I dislike that Mick Starks will be sitting out Sunday's fixture with a red card. I also think the Raiders will dislike playing against him on Wednesday. I do like the depth on my team, but I dislike my massive debt so here's what may happen. I think I will hold out on selling Acker until the beginning of next year- sure, he's very good and we don't have a replacement for him yet, but selling an excellent playmaker should net us $300-$400K, expecially with someone of his other skills. With all the shuffling this week, I had 4 spots open and I've really only filled one since I've bought 3 guys but I'm selling Slingerland and Acker.

The gory details, should you care (if not, skip to the next paragraph):
Our new winger above, Newsom, takes Crespo's old spot at winger. Bush will replace Slingerland next week once healed. Stromlius has slightly better stats than Stepp and will be elevated to the A team. Every time I play a friendly or fixture, the one I play goes to excellent and the one I don't goes down to solid. So I think I'll just scrap my useless 4-5-1 altogether and train another forward so my team is 3-5-2 at all times. I'd run-and-shoot the B team but they don't have good enough periphery skills (otherwise they would be starting instead of on the B team).

Sparing my loyal readers the gory details, the sale of Acker will get us out of debt and about $100K in the black (ideally) which gives us enough to replace him with a solid playmaker if I spend my cash right (or passable with other good skills). The quick and dirty is that I will need 2 more players beyond that: a pass/inad forward and a pass/inad winger. I guess if I had spare cash, I'd go for a passable middle defender- then again, I'll never have spare money because I'd just blow it on the transfer wire...

Where Are They Now?
Speaking of blowing money on the transfer wire, many players have been sold to support my habit and I even have a segment I stole from NevStar to show you that: that's right, it's time for the 3rd edition of "Where Are They Now?"

Week One
1/12/2003 Sold (Fired player) to Rednecks 1 000 US$ (0 US$)
1/12/2003 Sold Hayden Hanks to C.A. Daedra (B.Bca.) 20 000 US$ (82 000 US$)
1/16/2003 Sold Rodney Walters to Brookland Cayce 16 000 US$ (100 000 US$)
1/16/2003 Sold Alvin Yeager to Sporting Milwaukee 145 000 US$ (98 000 US$)

Week Two
1/26/2003 Sold Alvarado Lanza to Metaguacha 12 000 US$ (21 000 US$)
1/26/2003 Sold Ben Magnusson to Gringos 12 000 US$ (17 000 US$)
1/27/2003 Sold Tommy Lyhling to Hawkeye F.C. 50 000 US$ (54 000 US$)

Today
1/26/2003 Sold Søren Andersen to Morrisville Morrisvillians 13 000 US$ (31 000 US$)
2/9/2003 Sold Pedro Villavilla Paz to Los N° 1 72 000 US$ (47 000 US$)

For the Future
2/17/2003 Sold Matei Rosca to Racing Mexico 2 000 US$ (30 000 US$)
2/17/2003 Sold José Alberto Balbuena to K-Wings 1 000 US$ (12 000 US$)
2/17/2003 Sold Storm Jordan to Racing Mexico 4 000 US$ (35 000 US$)

2/24/2003 Sold Ildefonso Besteiro Saiz to JOB Squad 1 000 US$ (0 US$)
2/24/2003 Sold Augusto Almeida Lopes to snomus cf 2 000 US$ (33 000 US$)
2/24/2003 Sold Thomas Rosenthal to BACARDI C.F 21 001 US$ (74 000 US$)

3/5/2003 Sold Dawid Raduli to Snufl 84 000 US$ (78 000 US$)
3/8/2003 Sold Zlatko Koch to Livvy Loonies 26 001 US$ (57 000 US$)
3/9/2003 Sold Alfredo Crespo to Havoc 77 000 US$ (115 000 US$)

Total Purchases: 602502 US$ (+221502)
Total Sales 559002 US$ (+187001)
Difference -43500 US$ (-34501)
Average (bought) 21518 US$ (+3375)
Average (sold) 31056 US$ (+6256)
Average (bought + sold) -946 US$ (-696)

Søren Andersen
Søren was one of the daytrading four. The thing that distinguishes him from the others is that he was sold to FOFC's very own NevStar and his Morrisville Morrisvillians in V.93 in the USA. Until recently he had been a bit of a disappointment. Like seemingly all Hippos, when he joined the team he gave them a spirit drop and he just didn't quite fit in and he has been rumored to be nicknaming himself "The Great Dane", much to the annoyance of teammates. Morrisville owner NevStar had this to say about him: "Despite his slow start, the Morrisvillian management remains confident that Søren will have a bright future here. We wish to reiterate that Andersen has not been a disappointment at all. Not at all. Not one bit. None. However, it is quite annoying to search for and copy & paste the "ø" character every time his name comes up." I can definately sympathize about the ø, having written up some stuff about him before. However, things are definately on the way up. He's been getting ** most games lately and just got his first career hat trick in this past week's friendly against Ince. He almost got 4 goals but a header got tipped. He has one career league goal and it occurred this season.

Pedro Villavilla Paz
Pedro was our backup middie for the longest time but he just could never stick with the A team. He is 27 and thus was not a part of our youth movement and got sold for a whopping $70K. He had a brief stop with Los N° 1 in Argentina V.159 before being transferred for $90K to Los Perros in V.62 Argentina. Currently he gets *~ for Los Perros playing middie for them but he has no goals yet.

FOFC Competition
Speaking of ancient history, I figured some of you might be curious how I have fared against other FOFC teams. Witness my miserable history against many of you where I have been your whipping boy. Or you teams I beat who deep down know it was a fluke because you had pity on my boys. Unfortunately this will have to wait as I am nearly falling asleep here at the computer. Likely this feature will just be included with the youth pull writeup.

Revised Posting Schedule
Speaking of various writeups, this is more for me than you so that I have it organized somewhere: It's the attempted posting schedule. The only major change that I can think of is that I'm adding an extra "Week in Review" on Saturdays. I'm not sure the frequency of some of the postings since life is upredictable and all.

Sunday: Fixture Summary, Standings
Monday/Tuesday: Hippo Spotlight, Where are they Now
Wedensday: Friendly Summary
Friday: Training
Saturday: Youth Pull, Team Attitude, Weekly Economy, Week-In-Review
Bi-Weekly or Monthly Updates: Youth Squad, Training, Staff, International Report, Supporter Update

Hope you "enjoyed" the bookkeeping extravaganza. It seems I have one every once in a while where I get everything out in the open again.

SI

DataKing

03-15-2003, 01:05 PM

I think your Hattrick FAQ is a great idea, SI.

BishopMVP

03-15-2003, 01:54 PM

What would be good questions for Hattrick? Do we want it to be mostly a repeat of the Hattrick FAQ or more an addition that draws on our (massive amounts of) experience?

Questions like these aren't in the Hattrick FAQ but seem asked frequently.

How good should my coach be?
What is the best formation?
How do I change my formation? (symmetrical/asymmetrical)
How should I schedule friendly's?
How much should I pay for a goalie?

sterlingice

03-17-2003, 10:53 PM

This gets to be a bit long because of all the downtime and my inability to write this earlier. So the youth/economy/week in review update gets squished together with the team report and a little special feature at the end. Also, about half of this was written last night and some written tonight.

Hattrick FAQ Idea
Well, I've got spring break this week so I will create a FAQ thread in the general discussion forum tomorrow or Tuesday. I'll just start with a skeleton FAQ and the questions I thought should be there and then just keep adding to it and updating it. I'll also throw it into the beginning of my next season thread. Hope to see lots of help on that.

Youth Pull
Our completely inept youth squad has maintained its reputation. Passable youth squad, my arse. Anyways, here is our former employee.

Del Sneed (8860976)
18 years, passable form, healthy

A pleasant guy who is temperamental and honest.
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 13 000 US$
Wage: 560 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: poor
Passing: inadequate
Winger: poor
Defending: wretched
Scoring: wretched
Set Pieces: wretched

Again With the Economy (aka Weekly Economy Update)
Klaas Slingerland has garnered no bids at his $20K price but we still have more than 12 hours on him. About that same time, middie Julius Acker will be put on sale for $400K. While this is a bit steep for him, if anyone is willing to pay that, I'll take it. If not, I'll train him in stamina this offseason and then sell him for a more reasonable price next season when the market perks back up. Next week, we will drop below -$200K again as we will lose close to $45K after our friendly. So while we are on the happy side of buying, it's probably time to fill the remaining holes on our squad before the offseason and training.

Weekly Attitude Update
Team Spirit: furious (down from composed)
Confidence: decent
Sponsors: high on life
Supporter Club: 749 members +28
Supporters: delirious
Well, our team spirit is hurting. I guess you'll see why. Tho, nothing else changed on the week and the supporters just keep coming.

Week In Review
None due to the server downtime. This will start next week.

Preview
Well, this basically is a tough matchup for us at their place. But a win gets us 3rd place money while a loss likely drops us to fourth. I'll be MotS'ing it and hopefully we can hang with the Dragons. The worst part is that our team leader, Mick Starks, will be missing from this game due to an overabundance of cards the past few games. This has added a wrinkle to our game plan as Acker will move to wing and Friedländer called up from the B team for middie (** is a great game for him). Also, Strömlius is called up to play defense this week for the A team and will probably stay here if he plays well.

Game Summary

Date: 3/17/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 4591320
Arena: Dragons Den
Crowd: 12000

The crowd of 12000 turning up at Dragons Den today were greeted by some nasty showers of rain. Dragons had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Bauer - Thomas, Fitter, Boone - Nilsson, Whitmore, Foley, Talley, Jeffries - Refojo, Whakaari.

Hippopotami had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Vochin - Hebert, Strömlius, Slingerland - Acker, Benito, Connors, Friedländer, Newsom - Solomon, Phelan.

Hippopotami took the lead in the games 5:th minute with 0 - 1 after some elegant plays down the middle. Carlos Alberto Benito was the scorer. The referee showed Hippopotamis Julius Acker the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Lynn Whakaari the unlucky victim, couldn´t continue the game. Philip Friedländer had a hard time on the water infested pitch - his trademark technique was nowhere in sight this day. The visitors Carlos Alberto Benito took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side´s goalie and full backs in the 35:th minute. 0 - 2 for Hippopotami. The teams went for a half-time break at 0 - 2. Dragons, bringing the final ball possession rate to 52 percent, dominated the battle.

In the 64:th minute Victorio Refojo passed through the guests central line of defense, scoring the 1 - 2 goal. Jonathan Talley made a superb strike at the goal in the 77:th minute with a long shot coming in from straight in front of the goal, but one of the visitors defenders got a foot in and warded it off to a corner. After 78 minutes of play Will Ziegler equalised for Dragons after an elegant attack from the right. Dragons took the lead in the 84:th minute of the game by 3 to 2, as Victorio Refojo elegantly received a pass going deep, finishing off with a half-volley shot just below the bar. Thomas Strömlius of Hippopotami received a yellow card in the 87:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Dragons put themselves up 4 - 2 when Will Ziegler broke through on the right, leaving the entire defensive box behind him. The structure of the game started to change as Dragons decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Dragons, with an impressive 58 percent possession of the ball.

The most dominating Dragons player was without a doubt Gil Bauer. Elijah Boone on the other hand, had a terrible day. Hippopotami´s best player was Carlos Alberto Benito. Philip Friedländer on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 2.

Events and Stats

A few notes:
1. Our score will always be first, whether we are ahead or behind
2. The (F) after the names would have a goal number if it were a fixture
3. "xx" means the time of the goal was not specified
4. Cards and injuries will only be for our team

Formations
HH: 3-5-2
CCD: 3-5-2 (asymmetric)

Events Summary

1st Half
HH: 05: Carlos Alberto Benito (4); 1-0
HH: 35: Carlos Alberto Benito (5); 2-0
Halftime Score: 2-0
Possession: 48%

2nd Half
CCD: 64: 2-1
CCD: 78: 2-2
CCD: 84: 2-3
CCD: xx: 2-4
Final Score: 2-4
Possession: 42%
Final Possession: 45%

Cards
HH: xx: Julius Acker (yellow- nasty challenge)
HH: 87: Thomas Strömlius (yellow- unsportsmanlike behaviour)

Injuries
None on our side, but Acker got one of theirs right before getting his card. We're getting at least one "killing" a week.

Stadium

On a rainy day, we still packed the Dragons Den with 12000 people.

Team Ratings

CC's Dragons
Midfield: weak (4)
Right Side Defence: solid (7)
Central Defence: solid (7)
Left Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Right Side Attack: passable (6)
Central Attack: passable (6)
Left Side Attack: solid (7)
Dataking Index: 46

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: weak (4)
Right Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Central Defence: passable (6)
Left Side Defence: passable (6)
Right Side Attack: passable (6)
Central Attack: solid (7)
Left Side Attack: solid (7)
Dataking Index: 45

Argh, missing Starks dropped our right side attack to passable which would have torched their inadequate left side defense. Very, very, very close. It was our best showing but still not enough. I'm itching to start next year.

Player Ratings
GK Chiritã Vochin **
DW Hugh Hebert (def) **
DM Thomas Strömlius **
DW Klaas Slingerland **
WI Julius Acker **~
MI Stephen Connors **~
MI Philip Friedländer (extra) *~
MI Carlos Alberto Benito **~
WI Donald Newsom **
FO Derrick Solomon **
FO Edwin Phelan **~

Total Stars: 23.5 (10 players)
Team Attitude: Match of the Season
Total player experience: disastrous

Disastrous experience? Oh well- I don't understand that rating. Great effort by the midfield except Friedlander. This could be a problem but hopefully the stamina training will fix things. Newsom did a good job with ** which is what the recently sold Crespo got us. Phelan is up to **~ again. Hooray!

Game Summary
Oh, the humanity! We blow a 2-0 65 minute lead! Not only that but he played an asymmetric 3-5-2 which I couldn't take advantage of. Where Starks usually would have played, he had the wingback moved up to middie and his winger offensive- that's a couple of goals for sure. Well, there's always next year and we will be ready. Clearly we can hang with this team and with a little luck, we might get to move up next season. They are still the better team. For now.

League Standings

N Team P Goals Pts
1. The Darksiders 14 65 - 5 39
2. CC's Dragons 14 62 - 21 36
3. Atlanta United 14 39 - 31 25
4. Houston Hippopotami 14 38 - 25 24
5. The Flying Midgets 14 20 - 24 17
6. Vermont Catamounts 14 13 - 54 12
7. Buccabeavzers 14 10 - 42 8
8. Metal Mulisha 14 7 - 52 4

I don't mind losing to CC's but the thing that gauls me is that Atlanta will get the extra cash which I badly needed. He won 6-0 against the Mulisha this week. He only got his place because he had the fortune to take over a 3rd place team instead of a last place team. All will be righted next year as it's likely CC's, the division IV team, and myself will battle for the chance to move up.

Press Announcement for the week
3/17/2003 at 07:15Furious Rally by Dragons Seals Hippos Fate
For over 2/3rds of the game, the Hippos kept CC's Dragons in check, but alas, it was not to be and the Dragons 4 goal rally in the second half doomed the Hippos. In the first half, Houston took charge 5 minutes into the game with a goal by Carlos Alberto Benito. He scored his second goal of the match 35 minutes in and the Hippos led 2-0. However, the Dragons scored 4 goals in the 23 minute span between 64 and 87. The loss relegates Houston to 4th for the year behind Atlanta.

History Against the FOFC
I figured, for those of you who aren't really religious followers of this dynasty, I'd give a little of our lackluster history against fellow FOFCers. A majority of my friendlies have come against FOFCers so there's quite a bit of ground to cover.

1/9/2003 (Friendly):Bees - Houston Hippopotami 6 - 2
In the Hippos first ever game, we went to Bees Arena to take on ausonny's Bees in their first game. I was playing many of my current starters and many were out of position and we got thrashed. Mick Starks scored the first and second goals in Hippopotami history but he was about the only one that showed up for us. It's interesting to look back and see how badly out of position I played some of my guys and also how far some of them have come since then. This would not be our last meeting with the Bees.

1/16/2003 (Friendly): North County Raiders - Houston Hippopotami 2 - 4
Our first friendly win came the next week after a trip to North County Raiders Arena to take on ardent's Raiders. Starks had another goal to open the game and new passable goalie Dawid Raduli gave us the tending we badly needed. Also, through the wonderment of mybestteam, we played immensely better. It would be our last friendly win for quite a while as we lost our next five. We have a return trip this week to beat them silly again. Won't nearly be as easy with our B-team

1/30/2003 (Friendly):Houston Hippopotami - Bees 0 - 9
We figured that after a couple of weeks, we had greatly improved our team and might be able to beat the Bees. How wrong we were. Dawid Raduli came back and did his best impression of a sieve. It didn't help that we were suffering from massive confusion due to a brief flirtation with the 3-4-3. The Bees are a team not to be trifled with and they are one of the better FOFC teams, in my opinion. They have a good chance of moving up to division IV next year.

2/6/2003 (Friendly):Houston Hippopotami - Morrisville Morrisvillians 0 - 4
We got shut out for the 2nd straight friendly, this time by Morrisville. Former Hippo Søren Andersen even scored against us. Another game where we didn't play very well and Morrisville just flat beat us. Kindof embarassing since this was only their 2nd friendly and we had been up and running for a month. Morrisville is another good team, tho, and we're itching for some payback. Like the Bees, we are a supporter of Morrisville.

2/20/2003 (Friendly):Aviators - Houston Hippopotami 4 - 2
Our stay in the FOFC Consolation Cup was a brief one in Aviators Arena in Ohio. We played a few starters and got 3 cards, but that's it. It's kindof sad because it looked like we had better ratings across the board but he beat us in possession and we had a couple of gaping holes where inferior players were. Only 371 fans showed up: You'd think this was the Big XII tourney held in Dallas or something else where no one cared.

3/13/2003 (Friendly):Qwakers - Houston Hippopotami 0 - 2
We're now in the midst of a friendly streak the other direction as we have won 3 in a row including this one against Qwikshot's Qwakers last week. Mick Starks got the first ever *** for our team in this game but unfortunately it kept him out of our fixture Sunday against the Darksiders. They had a higher possession percentage so I have to think we just lucked out and won in events. Next week we have a return trip against the Raiders at their place.

NEW! Late Breaking News
2003-03-18
FLYS offered 4 000 000 Pesos for Julius Acker and thereby took the lead in the bidding.

Goodbye Debt!! In a way this is good: I meade a cool $400K at least and he still has a couple of days left. The bad news is that we lost one of our better young players and the only excellent on our team. Still, Julius never played up to the level he should for his ratings. I guess as soon as he sells, I'll fill my final holes and my team will finally be complete and we'll only be slightly in debt starting next year.

Wrapup
Darn, I was really hoping for the 3rd place money. The team spirit loss hurts and I'm not sure how to reverse this. It's not as if I can afford a proper clown. Anyways, the team will be in flux a little the next two weeks. Hope you liked the history feature. In the next week or so, I'll get to a season wrapup and start a new thread for next year including the FAQ.

SI

vex

03-18-2003, 12:43 AM

Originally posted by sterlingice
This gets to be a bit long because of all the downtime and my inability to write this earlier. So the youth/economy/week in review update gets squished together with the team report and a little special feature at the end. Also, about half of this was written last night and some written tonight.

I think this is the longest Hattrick post ever:)

Hattrick FAQ Idea
Well, I've got spring break this week so I will create a FAQ thread in the general discussion forum tomorrow or Tuesday. I'll just start with a skeleton FAQ and the questions I thought should be there and then just keep adding to it and updating it. I'll also throw it into the beginning of my next season thread. Hope to see lots of help on that.

You might put it on a website or get someone to do it, because it would look a lot better.

Total player experience: disastrous

Disastrous experience? Oh well- I don't understand that rating.

I'm not completely sure on this, but I've always thought that this was your team's average experience.

NEW! Late Breaking News
2003-03-18
FLYS offered 4 000 000 Pesos for Julius Acker and thereby took the lead in the bidding.[/b]

Congrats!

Wrapup
Darn, I was really hoping for the 3rd place money. The team spirit loss hurts and I'm not sure how to reverse this.
SI

Well, team spirit does reset next season, so no biggie.

Also, if you don't already have something set up, how about a friendly next week?

sterlingice

03-18-2003, 12:47 AM

Also, if you don't already have something set up, how about a friendly next week?

I'm game. I've been itching to play you guys for a while since we're mutual supporters. I'm presuming you mean next week as in about 9 days from now and now two days. If so, we'll get it booked as soon as possible after this week's. My place or yours, I don't care (since it's not international). You'll get to see some of my A team, tho, since there is only one game that week ;)

Update: Ackers is up to $417K and there are still more than 2 days left. Woo!

SI

vex

03-18-2003, 12:51 AM

Yeah, I mean March 26th. It doesn't matter to me where it's at, it's not like we're exactly going to be selling out at either of our arenas:) We'll get back to you on that.

daedalus

03-18-2003, 01:41 AM

400 000+ for a 2 * average ain't a bad tradeoff. :)

sterlingice

03-18-2003, 01:43 AM

400 000+ for a 2 * average ain't a bad tradeoff.
SHHHH! Don't tell the bidders! They might be listening ;)
Granted, if his stamina were higher, he would be a definite **~ and when I played him wing this week, he got **~ so he's probably a *** winger with stamina training.

Yeah, I mean March 26th.
Ok, we're as good as booked provided one of us remembers to challenge the other one that night :)

SI

NevStar

03-18-2003, 09:47 AM

Originally posted by sterlingice
I'm game. I've been itching to play you guys for a while since we're mutual supporters.
...
SI

Hey now. I thought we agreed we were going to play next week. No biggie if you'd rather play vexroid, Crazy Earl told me he thought you were all scared.

sterlingice

03-18-2003, 12:36 PM

Hey now. I thought we agreed we were going to play next week. No biggie if you'd rather play vexroid, Crazy Earl told me he thought you were all scared.

Aw crap. This is why I write 900 line messages: so I can remember stuff. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to write this down. Time to make some "phone calls" over the next couple of days to get things sorted out. My people will call your people and then the guys who break thumbs won't have to be involved and, well, it will all get sorted out, hopefully. Vex, Nev, you have pm's.

Acker-age
Ok, that was a bad pun. But I don't care! Last night, a Canadian team jumped the bid up to $600K!!! Another team has bumped his bid so the market isn't soft for him after that huge bid.
Currrent High Bid: 612 000 US$ by St. Cloud Muskies

SI

vex

03-18-2003, 12:39 PM

Ice, clear out your PM box some. It's full.

sterlingice

03-18-2003, 12:40 PM

Ice, clear out your PM box some. It's full.
Just did. Thx :) (the comedy of errors continues)

SI

robbgmaier

03-18-2003, 01:44 PM

$612K and counting. Oh dear. Please excuse the mess....

daedalus

03-18-2003, 04:27 PM

Originally posted by sterlingice
SHHHH! Don't tell the bidders! They might be listening ;)
Granted, if his stamina were higher, he would be a definite **~ and when I played him wing this week, he got **~ so he's probably a *** winger with stamina training.

Not to worry, I won't tell anyone. It's just between us. Ya. :)

I have a winger who doesn't have near Acker's ratings (passable wing/passing and weak playmaking but with passable stamina) that gets a fairly consistent **~ playing 'offensive' so I think Acker would have a fairly easy time doing ***.

Qwikshot

03-18-2003, 04:57 PM

Threadjack warning

I love this dynasty, but I have a question to ask...the Qwakers are kaput. I'm going to start up a new team as soon as the Qwakers are replaced (I may even email to expedite the process).
But I have a few questions.

1. With a new team, fresh capital, even without looking at the roster would it be wise to:

1a.invest heavily in spokepersons (5 or more)

1b.invest heavily in economists (I know these guys do wonders for debt but do they also help if you are in the black, if I hired say 5, would they pay for themselves and then some, I couldn't tell with the Qwakers because I got to buyer happy without kicking the tires).

2. why playmaking? here's another question, all good inner mids (even wingers) need playmaking, but they also need form, stamina, defense and passing right? so you waste almost eight months on a guy to get him to passible mid, but his passing and def are wretched and inadequate, have you really improved the team? I have also read that training defense is like shooting yourself in the foot because defense isn't thought of so highly by the algorhytims (pardon for spelling.)

3. you get yourself a passable goalie, but if your team is a bunch of youth misfits, or old fogies, are you paying a chunk of change for a guy that while valuable may actually do more harm than good...think of it this way, Vlad Guerraro (again sp) on Montreal, great talent wasted on a team with not enough money for supporting members. By the time your team is competitve, he may be too old, and you'll be selling him off at a loss, or worse if he gets hurt...wouldn't it be wiser to grab an inadequate 17 year old early in the season (perhaps two) and train goalkeeping for 5 to 6 weeks jumping them up to passable and therefore earning a profit?

4. Isn't it better to be competitve than to win advancement? If you are a good team in a division you'll actually accumulate more money because if you advance you have to start at the bottom again, with teams far better than you, and once relegated you'll lose your fans, wouldn't it be better to hover a few seasons building up wealth before jumping up...? Curious, again, it defies the idea I guess, but there are more intangibles.

5. Why not practice at 100%. Honestly, why do anything less than 100%, I did without any injuries on my players (save two and both were minimal). Are they prone to injuries during matches, or just practice? I don't recall.

6. Anyway, I love hattrick but I was frustrated at not having a gameplan, which hopefully I will have should I be able to get another team...

Thanks for your time...
Back to your original viewing pleasure

DataKing

03-18-2003, 06:10 PM

Okay I have to jump in on this one. :)

1a. It's difficult to tell just how much spokespersons help, and at what point they do more than just pay for themselves. With SSFC I started with 2 spokespersons (I like to refer to them as spokesladies ;) ), and I kept an eye on the rate at which my sponsorship money was increasing. When it seemed to be flattening out, I added another spokesperson. I currently have 4 spokespersons, and will be moving to 5 during the off-season, but I have just concluded my second full season. I'm not saying this is the best way to go about things, but it is what I have done.

1b. Economists only help reduce debt if you are $200,000 or more in debt. If your debt is less than this, then your savings on interest payments will be less than the $1,500 per week you pay for the economist. On the flip side, economists also only give you bonus money if your cash stock is over $500,000.

Remember that with all specialists, there is a law of diminishing returns. 2 specialists are not twice as good as 1 specialist. 4 specialists are not twice as good as two, etc.

2. A lot of people train playmaking because of the emphasis the game puts on the midfield rating. Stamina helps to determine how good a midfielder is, but is really a non-factor since it trains up so quickly. Passing and defending help midfielders, but are not a major concern. They play more of a factor if you play a midfielder offensive or defensive. A lot of guys look for playmaking trainees that already have decent ratings in one or both of those skills.

And as far as the idea that training defending is a waste of time...well...I'm doing what I can to give all the defensive naysayers out there some crow to eat. :)

3. I was blessed with a passable keeper from the word "go" with my team, so I am not a subject matter expert on this one, to say the least. But I think that one of the common misconceptions is that your keeper needs to be young in order to be valuable. Unless you plan on training keeper, this is not the case. Get a 25-27 year old keeper (for less than those teenagers you guys keep buying) and use him. Yes, player skill begins to degrade at age 27, but it does not get noticeable until a player reaches 30 or so. Also (and I may be mistaken about this) I seem to recall someone mentioning that keepers' skills degrade slower than anyone else's. Playing goalie does not require someone to be in peak youthful fitness (look at David Seaman).

4. There are a couple of factors that come into play when a team advances, that some of you probably are not aware of. First of all, the higher the division you play in, the more you will earn in sponsorship money. At the end of my one season in Division 5, I was earning about $40,000 per week from my sponsors. Now at the end of my first season in Division 4, I am earning just over $60,000.

Second, when you promote to the next level, you gain a 10% bonus to your supporter club. So those 1,000 supporters you had suddenly have turned into 1,100. This means more butts in the seats of your stadium, which in turn means more money. On the flip-side, if you get demoted, you lose 10% of your supporter club.

Third, there is a "soft cap" on the number of supporters a club can have at the different division levels. As you get closer to the cap for your division, you gain supporters at a slower rate. And like I mentioned earlier, supporters = cash.

Fourth, the longer you wait to promote to a higher division, the more difficult it will be to earn promotion. The U.S.A. league continues to expand, and more teams means a more competitive atmosphere. The game isn't going to get any smaller.

5. I have heard varying reports about training 100%. Some I have spoken to have been burned by this, while others have had very few injuries, even though they train 100% with only a couple of physiotherapists. I get the feeling that it's pretty much a crap-shoot, with those training at 100% with few physios having a slightly higher chance of contracting injuries to their players. I don't plan on testing this theory out, though. Next season I will have a full staff of 10 physiotherapists.

6. Having a game-plan is a good idea. Now that you have some exposure to the game, and a better idea of how it works, you will surely have an advantage over other new teams. I just hope you don't land down in the new 6th Division.

Here endeth the lesson. :p

daedalus

03-18-2003, 06:21 PM

Originally posted by Qwikshot
I love this dynasty, but I have a question to ask

You don't do so good with math. :)

But I have a few questions.

There will probably be different (quite likely better) opinions than mine. Just wanted offer up some different thoughts so you can check out the different approaches.

1a.invest heavily in spokepersons (5 or more)

I wouldn't start with more than 3. If you can avoid being shutout (read: be very careful, if you're a 4-5-1 proponent), 3 should give you enough leeway with your sponsors to not get in trouble. Those 1 500 really adds up and I would prefer to spend it on the coaches. Think of the mathematics . . . If you want 10 coaches, that's 15 000. If you want 5 physio, that's another 7 500. If you want to maximize your Youth Squad, that's another 20 000. I would not expect to bring in 42 500 per week at the start of the game. And that's without salaries.

1b.invest heavily in economists (I know these guys do wonders for debt but do they also help if you are in the black, if I hired say 5, would they pay for themselves and then some, I couldn't tell with the Qwakers because I got to buyer happy without kicking the tires).

You would have to have a fair chunk of money to benefit from their investment as far as I can tell. Might want to take a look at the Economist Calculators (http://www.databased.at/hattrick/pages_en/t_econcalc_en.asp) at the HattricX-Files (http://www.databased.at/hattrick/index.asp) before committing yourself to that kind of spending.

2. why playmaking? here's another question, all good inner mids (even wingers) need playmaking, but they also need form, stamina, defense and passing right? so you waste almost eight months on a guy to get him to passible mid, but his passing and def are wretched and inadequate, have you really improved the team? I have also read that training defense is like shooting yourself in the foot because defense isn't thought of so highly by the algorhytims (pardon for spelling.)

Hattrick's engine is heavily slanted toward the midfield. The primary skill for midfielders is, of course, playmaking. Thus the fascination with training playmaking.

I'm not sure what you mean by training for 8 months. Do you mean as in most of the Hattrick season? How old were your midfield trainees and what did their ratings start off as?

Based on DK's and Horned's teams, I wouldn't exactly say that training and playing a defensive game is "shooting yourself in the foot". [Based on Ardent's team, going the opposite direction doesn't hurt, either.] The one place where playing a defensive game does hurt is in tiebreaker. The place where training defense hurts is that defender doesn't seem to bring in the same amount of money in the transfer market as a forward or a midfielder (or a keeper).

3. you get yourself a passable goalie, but if your team is a bunch of youth misfits, or old fogies, are you paying a chunk of change for a guy that while valuable may actually do more harm than good...think of it this way, Vlad Guerraro (again sp) on Montreal, great talent wasted on a team with not enough money for supporting members. By the time your team is competitve, he may be too old, and you'll be selling him off at a loss, or worse if he gets hurt...wouldn't it be wiser to grab an inadequate 17 year old early in the season (perhaps two) and train goalkeeping for 5 to 6 weeks jumping them up to passable and therefore earning a profit?

For most people, I think it's a matter of numbers. Training goalkeeping, you can train at most 2 players per week. You can train as many as 7-10 players each week with other skills. Of course, if it makes sense for your team's personnel to train goalkeeping (2 inadequate keepers, mostly 24YO+ outfielders), then that's probably better.

4. Isn't it better to be competitve than to win advancement? If you are a good team in a division you'll actually accumulate more money because if you advance you have to start at the bottom again, with teams far better than you, and once relegated you'll lose your fans, wouldn't it be better to hover a few seasons building up wealth before jumping up...? Curious, again, it defies the idea I guess, but there are more intangibles.

I don't know if you caught the furor and righteousness over vexroid's serie winner a week or two ago or not but, as far as I can tell, that was precisely what it was about. The person felt pretty much what you said, the team wasn't ready so he wasn't going to try very hard to win his qualification game.

And, yes, getting thrashed weekly would make a mess of your supporters club. I had back-to-back games against our division winner in the middle of the season. Got thrashed 4-0 and 0-10. Made a complete mess of my supporters club. [They get more upset if you get shutout.] Had quite a few started leaving. Took a couple of weeks before they came back to normal again.

Of course, if you have a team that could be competitive in the higher division, then you'll be able to make more money via sponsors and gate receipt.

5. Why not practice at 100%. Honestly, why do anything less than 100%, I did without any injuries on my players (save two and both were minimal). Are they prone to injuries during matches, or just practice? I don't recall.

I think a lot of people do train at 100%. Just make sure you have plenty of physios on hand.

6. Anyway, I love hattrick but I was frustrated at not having a gameplan, which hopefully I will have should I be able to get another team...

I think all of us are just trying to learn and understand this game together. Which is why it's so cool to have all these dynasties to see and learn from (ahem, that's "sample").

sterlingice

03-20-2003, 08:22 PM

Can't argue with most of what they said and I'd repeat a lot of what was up there so I'll try to fill the holes inbetween:

1. With a new team, fresh capital, even without looking at the roster would it be wise to:

1a.invest heavily in spokepersons (5 or more)

1b.invest heavily in economists (I know these guys do wonders for debt but do they also help if you are in the black, if I hired say 5, would they pay for themselves and then some, I couldn't tell with the Qwakers because I got to buyer happy without kicking the tires).
Well, I think everyone was been pretty succinct about economists: that's a big negative. As for spokespersons, I think, like all of your expenses, you should ramp things up. If you treat your team like a Div IV team when you don't make Div IV cash, you'll just bankrupt yourself needlessly. I hired my spokesmen too fast so this is the voice of experience talking. DK has the best comments in this regard.

2. why playmaking? here's another question, all good inner mids (even wingers) need playmaking, but they also need form, stamina, defense and passing right? so you waste almost eight months on a guy to get him to passible mid, but his passing and def are wretched and inadequate, have you really improved the team? I have also read that training defense is like shooting yourself in the foot because defense isn't thought of so highly by the algorhytims (pardon for spelling.)
Ok, they explained the engine loving playmaking thing but I think more needs to be said about training proper. If you train playmaking, middies get good full benefits while wingers get partial benefits. In essence, if you run a 3-5-2 or 4-5-1 with 2 full teams, you can train 10(!!) players a week: 6 fully and 4 partially. The 4-5-1ers *spit* do what they do because they can train 8 guys per week (4 inner defenders fully and 4 wingbacks partially) but defense trains up at a faster rate than playmaking so while I'm waiting 8 weeks to train my 17yos, they can train their 17yos in 6 weeks. So across a long season, DK can train up a middle defender 3 levels while I can only get 2.5 on my middies.
Inevitably, what you will do is manufacture players at your training positions and then sell them off so you can buy talent to spread across your field.

EDIT: I HAD THIS BACKWARDS, SEE NEVSTAR'S POST BELOW.

3. you get yourself a passable goalie, but if your team is a bunch of youth misfits, or old fogies, are you paying a chunk of change for a guy that while valuable may actually do more harm than good...think of it this way, Vlad Guerraro (again sp) on Montreal, great talent wasted on a team with not enough money for supporting members. By the time your team is competitve, he may be too old, and you'll be selling him off at a loss, or worse if he gets hurt...wouldn't it be wiser to grab an inadequate 17 year old early in the season (perhaps two) and train goalkeeping for 5 to 6 weeks jumping them up to passable and therefore earning a profit?
Already fully addressed.

4. Isn't it better to be competitve than to win advancement? If you are a good team in a division you'll actually accumulate more money because if you advance you have to start at the bottom again, with teams far better than you, and once relegated you'll lose your fans, wouldn't it be better to hover a few seasons building up wealth before jumping up...? Curious, again, it defies the idea I guess, but there are more intangibles.
Both the guys before me covered this.

5. Why not practice at 100%. Honestly, why do anything less than 100%, I did without any injuries on my players (save two and both were minimal). Are they prone to injuries during matches, or just practice? I don't recall.
I know this will bring me karmic retribution, but I think those 1% physio for every % over 90% are full of crap. I train at 95%, have 1 physio, and have only had 1 significant injury all year (bruises don't count).

Hope that helps. Match report and training results forthcoming.

SI

NevStar

03-20-2003, 09:16 PM

Need to make a couple of corrections:

Originally posted by sterlingice
Ok, they explained the engine loving playmaking thing but I think more needs to be said about training proper. If you train playmaking, middies get good full benefits while wingers get partial benefits. In essence, if you run a 3-5-2 or 4-5-1 with 2 full teams, you can train 10(!!) players a week: 6 fully and 4 partially. The 4-5-1ers *spit* do what they do because they can train 8 guys per week (4 inner defenders fully and 4 wingbacks partially) but defense trains up at a faster rate than playmaking so while I'm waiting 8 weeks to train my 17yos, they can train their 17yos in 6 weeks. So across a long season, DK can train up a middle defender 3 levels while I can only get 2.5 on my middies.

Actually, if you look at the rules, defending trains slower than playmaking. This is offset by the fact that all defenders get full training (wingbacks don't get half training). Thus, if I chose to play a 5-4-1, I could give training to 10 guys a week. Since 5-4-1, isn't very competitive, defense trainers usually elect to play a 3-5-2 or 4-5-1 for league matches, and save the 5-4-1 for friendlies.

I know this will bring me karmic retribution, but I think those 1% physio for every % over 90% are full of crap. I train at 95%, have 1 physio, and have only had 1 significant injury all year (bruises don't count).

Lucky b@stard. I've had 3 physios, trained at 95% and have lost 12 player-weeks (all starters) due to injury in the half season I've owned my team. I guess, as always, YMMV.

sterlingice

03-20-2003, 09:18 PM

Actually, if you look at the rules, defending trains slower than playmaking. This is offset by the fact that all defenders get full training (wingbacks don't get half training). Thus, if I chose to play a 5-4-1, I could give training to 10 guys a week. Since 5-4-1, isn't very competitive, defense trainers usually elect to play a 3-5-2 or 4-5-1 for league matches, and save the 5-4-1 for friendlies.

Oops, yeah. I had it backwards. More guys train for defense but slower not playmaking. Thx for the correction.

SI

sterlingice

03-20-2003, 09:40 PM

Preview
Rather than make another humongous post, I'll split this late match summary from yesterday and the training update later tonight if I get to it. Plus, lots of sales news and the second team is almost completely full so more lineup shakeups. This week, we head back to Misery and the North County Raiders Arena to face ardent's Raiders. Starks, Strömlius, and Johnsson are playing as ringers on the B team today due to cards and a lack of depth. Also, this should be the last game we have to play the wretched 4-5-1 since we will have a more full team. We packed that stadium for a friendly and it was rocking. Just remember: having a coach who goes all out is your friend ;)

Game Summary
Date: 3/20/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 5110945
Arena: North County Raiders Arena
Crowd: 1320

1320 spectators had come to North County Raiders Arena this cloudy day. Raiders had chosen a strategic 3-4-3 formation. Lineup: Penn - Anderson, Dailey, Tripp - Kennedy, Fernandez, Lemus, Evans - Castle, Brown, Vang.

Hippopotami started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Buckley - Jonsson, Stepp, Strömlius, Longis - Starks, Rumbold, Paige, Friedländer, Magnusson - Chang.

After 5 minutes Hippopotami put themselves up by 0 - 1 as Philip Friedländer finished off a strike from the left with a real cannon placed at the far post. After 17 minutes Jack Brown made a dash down the middle past the away teams defenders scoring 1 - 1. The referee showed Hippopotamis Rickie Stepp the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. A questionable penalty in the 22nd minute gave the home side the lead 2 - 1. The visitors goaltender didn´t stand a chance as William Vang knocked the ball home. The visiting teams Patrik Jonsson could score the 2 - 2 equaliser in the 38:th minute with a header, after some good work on the right. Patrik Jonsson received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 40:th minute and almost caused an opponent to score. Some beautiful plays on the left side of the field resulted in a 41st minute goal by Jack Brown for Raiders, putting them ahead 3 - 2. 3 - 2 was the half-time score. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Raiders, with an impressive 61 percent possession of the ball.

A bit later, a magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Raiders´s William Vang putting the lead up to 4 - 2. After this Raiders lowered the tempo in order to concentrate on their defensive efforts. 69 minutes into the game Björn Magnusson had to leave the pitch due to a knee injury. In came Donald Newsom. Hippopotami reduced in the 69:th minute to 4 - 3 as Defoe Chang easily chipped the ball past the home sides keeper on a play from the right. Michael Tripp of Raiders received a yellow card in the 70:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. One of many good passes from Donald Newsom at the wing was recieved and skillfully taken care of by Defoe Chang, scoring for Hippopotami to 4 - 4. After a fine move down the middle Michael Tripp nearly gave the home side one up in the 76:th minute. The finishing shot went just wide, though. Nelson Kennedy of Raiders received a yellow card in the 78:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Raiders, with an impressive 68 percent possession of the ball.

Most important Raiders player was William Vang. Michael Dailey on the other hand, had a terrible day. Hippopotami´s best player was Mick Starks. Kyle Paige on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 4. The match ends 4 - 4.

Events and Stats
A few notes:
1. Our score will always be first, whether we are ahead or behind
2. The (F) after the names would have a goal number if it were a fixture
3. "xx" means the time of the goal was not specified
4. Cards and injuries will only be for our team

Formations
HH: 4-5-1
NCR: 3-4-3

Events Summary

1st Half
HH: 05: Philip Friedländer (F); 1-0
NCR: 17: 1-1
NCR: xx: 1-2
HH: 38: Patrik Jonsson (F); 2-2
NCR: 41: 2-3
Halftime Score: 2-3
Possession: 39%

2nd Half
NCR: xx: 2-4
HH: 69: Defoe Chang(F); 3-4
HH: 70: Defoe Chang(F); 4-4
Final Score: 4-4
Possession: 32%
Final Possession: 36%

Cards
HH: xx: Rickie Stepp (yellow- particularly nasty challenge)

Injuries
HH: 69: Björn Magnusson (1 week- knee)

Stadium

We filled up the stadium as much as possible for a friendly with 1320.

Team Ratings

North County Raiders
Midfield: wretched (2)
Right Side Defence: weak (4)
Central Defence: weak (4)
Left Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Right Side Attack: passable (6)
Central Attack: excellent (8)
Left Side Attack: solid (7)
DataKing Index: 38
NevStar Index: 40

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: wretched (2)
Right Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Central Defence: passable (6)
Left Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Right Side Attack: solid (7)
Central Attack: poor (3)
Left Side Attack: weak (4)
DataKing Index: 34
NevStar Index: 36

We defied the odds and tied despite losing pretty badly in the indices and possession. I think the Hippos just got lucky and we hit on all of our events and they missed a couple of theirs.

Player Ratings
GK Sidney Buckley *~
DW Patrik Jonsson **
DM Rickie Stepp **
DM Thomas Strömlius **
DW: Gérard Longis *~
WI Mick Starks ***
MI Kyle Paige *
MI Philip Friedländer (extra) *~
MI Jeremy Rumbold *~
WI Donald Newsom **
FO Dafoe Chang **
SUB Björn Magnusson *~

Total player experience: disastrous
Team Attitude: Normal

Buckley up to *~ so maybe he's on the way up. Longis, however, gives me cause for concern. I thought I had all of my defense up to ** and now he regresses. Looks like Starks and *** will be synonymous from now on. The ** again from Newsom is encouraging and Paige, Rumbold, and Friedlander continue to fluxuate between * and ** at midfield trainee.

Game Summary
For the third straight game, we scored 5 minutes into a game and it's the 7th straight game where we have come out hot and scored within 7 minutes. But that wasn't at all the story of the game. Newsom comes in for the injured Magnusson at 69 minutes in and hooks up with Chang for two goals late after the Raiders went into a defensive shell.

Notes
I thank the hattrick gods every day for my all out coach. We won this game because of defensive coach syndrome. I knew as soon as I saw the Raiders pulling back, I had a shot. Anyways, as I said, more rebuilding as Acker sold and a couple of purchases were made. That will all appear with the training update. After the little mixup with who to play in next week's friendly, we are booked on a trip to Morrisville Morrisvillians Arena in North Carolina to face NevStar's team.

SI

illinifan999

03-20-2003, 09:53 PM

I hate it when a coach pulls back. Luckily I have a poor coach, so he gets confused, and always goes all-out. ;)

Doug5984

03-20-2003, 09:55 PM

sterlingice- I havn't seen you mention this yet (maybe i missed it) but what do you plan to do with all the money you got from selling Julius Acker?

sterlingice

03-20-2003, 10:02 PM

sterlingice- I havn't seen you mention this yet (maybe i missed it) but what do you plan to do with all the money you got from selling Julius Acker?

Well, that is being written up as we speak and will be included with the training update. I didn't want another huge cumbersome post if I could avoid it.

SI

FrogMan

03-21-2003, 08:50 PM

Hey SI, while I was browsing the Canadian transfer market, I saw that you had just bought a solid keeper for 313 000$.

Is that the going value for a solid keeper these days?

FrogMan.

sterlingice

03-22-2003, 03:58 AM

With the new season coming and activities not so frequent, I've been squishing reports. This time, weekly training update and then the sale of Acker (and what it goes towards).

Supporter News
We're pleased to welcome Havok12 and his Maniacal Misfitz to the "legion" of our supporters. Unfortunately we don't have any more spots open to reciprocate support. However, we do hope he enjoyes the executive washroom, attached suite, and included girls. We don't call them Hippo girls as that certainly would not be an accurate description. Here's a list of our current supporters:

1. Havok12 Supporter since: 2003-03-18 22:48:07
2. Doug5984 Supporter since: 2003-03-06 19:44:19
3. vexroid Supporter since: 2003-02-13 08:24:27
4. NevStar Supporter since: 2003-02-03 04:56:37
5. ausonny Supporter since: 2003-01-08 23:22:37

The FAQ
I think I'll be creating this thread either tonight or tomorrow if I get distracted by Pokemon (I'm hopelessly addicted to my ruby cart despite the fact that it's not as good as gold/silver) and basketball tonight. Look out for it on the other board. I'll flesh out a skeleton of what I was thinking of making and then look for all sorts of feedback and corrections. I've been a bit scatterbrained lately, it seems.

Training
I'm leading a somewhat semi-charmed life in terms of training. I picked up Donald Newsome last week as a solid winger, inad playmaker and he's now bumped to passable winger. He's the perfect replacement for Crespo, who was sold a couple of weeks ago. As for form, it's kindof hit and miss. A minor bump of note is that starting forward Edwin Phelan bumped from disastrous to wretched in experience. Three guys on the A team went down for reasons I'm just not sure of- still, all of our starters (except one) are sold, passable, or inad. The good news is that Elmer Bush is back from his injury but the bad news is that his form is down to poor (the exception to our good starter ratings above). He will be enjoying his first game as a Hippo against the hated Morrisvillians ;)

Future Training
It's the offseason so it's time for stamina, set pieces, and stamina the first week next season. We have quite a few 2-4's on stamina and it's time to work on those. WIND SPRINTS!

Form
Starters: (+3) (-3)
Entire Team: (+8) (-5)

Value
Starters: (+6) (-2)
Entire Team: (+11) (-7)

Team Stats
Total Wages: 20200 (+1590)
Total Value: 2100000 (+391000)
Avg Value: 91304 (+13622)
Avg Age: 20 N/A
Avg Form: passable N/A
Avg Experience: disastrous N/A
No of players: 23 (+3)
Nationalities: 8 N/A
NOTE: This includes the purchase below.

The Team Is Taking Shape

from Doug5984
sterlingice- I havn't seen you mention this yet (maybe i missed it) but what do you plan to do with all the money you got from selling Julius Acker?

from FrogMan.
Hey SI, while I was browsing the Canadian transfer market, I saw that you had just bought a solid keeper for 313 000$.
Is that the going value for a solid keeper these days?

Well, our team will drop below that $2M value mark next week but that's ok, I'll also shed $1656 in wages as Vochin will be on the market. His stay as starting goalie was good but cut short because of, well, I'll start at the beginning despite Frog Man ruining my suprise :) ...

Julius, since he popped to excellent playmaking last week, was on the way out if someone paid $400K for him. A couple of preliminary bids came in the first 24 hours and I knew he was moving. Then, on the second day, some team in Canada bumped it up to $600K, possibly trying to scare others away, but it didn't work. But the bidding just kept going up and eventually he went for $638000 to Universitatea&Craiova in Romania. I now had to decide how to use this money, $586960 of which was suddenly ours. Also, I sold now backup wingback Klaas Slingerland for $16000.

First, I needed to get a 1st team middie to replace Acker since Friedlander. I've found that it takes more than $100K to get guys who have multiple passables but if I'm going to spend that kind of cash, I'd better get a good one. After all, I just made some good scratch and to not reinvest it would be stupid but to reinvest it stupidly would screw my team for the future. I reeled in a whopper with this purchase: I bought Anders Jörgensson from Tyfors FK in division IV Sverige. He's only 17 and has the potential to be as good at 19 as Acker was at 21. Passable at stamina, winger, and scoring with inadequate at playmaking and set pieces. Even if he's the minimum at inadequate playmaking, he'll be a solid playmaker near the end of next season which means he'll be up to excellent halfway through his 19th year. This guy will be a stud

Also, I still needed to fill a couple of holes on the practice squad. Back to the great trading grounds that is Oceania, I bought a guy from The Grasshoppers, who are a #1 division V team over there. For $33005 (I think I overspent a tad), I got an 18yo winger trainee who is passable at winger and inadequate in both scoring and playmaking. Hopefully after some training, he'll be up to passable or even solid playmaking and that passable winger and inad scoring will serve him well when I sell him a little down the road. Or maybe he'll end up in our lineup. He's a trainee, but not much else.

We still had $250K sitting around after these two purchases but I only have one hole left to fill on my team: a forward if I wanted to run a 3-5-2 for friendlies or a defender if I wanted to run a 4-5-1 *spit*. While I think it might be handy to have a second formation, even if it's the 4-5-1, not many people will pay for a trainee defender with some spare playmaking but they will for a forward. So I set out looking for a forward but nothing interested me. I also decided that along with my two wingbacks, I wouldn't mind having a solid defensive middie.

However, I came to the simple conclusion that I won't see this kind of cash again for a long time so it's time to invest it. I took the plunge and got my solid goalie. Not only a solid goalie but a 21yo solid goalie who has an assessed value of $495K. At $500K, a goalie is what we in the business call "excellent". Go check Sverige for "solid" keepers who have values of over $490K. As of right now, there is a grand total of 1. It makes me want to train a week of goalkeeping just to pop him and resell but I need a solid goalie and he will do nicely. Can someone confirm that training general trains goalies slightly? Either way, Tim Kimber is my main man now and Vochin is on his way out. I think I'll set Vochin out to sell tomorrow at $80K to start. If I can't get that $80K (I only paid $77K for him), I'll just sit on him until the new season starts.

Needless to say our two big guys (Jörgensson and Kimber) will definately fit in: "A newly bought player got a really bad start when he arrived in the club. The team spirit fell when he initially turned out not to get along very well with the other ones." It's time to get down to busting heads.

I really can't describe how excited I am about all of this. Acker went for $200K more than he probably should have and that allowed me to get a really wicked 17yo who I'm itching to put in his spot and then get a solid goalie which I will need to hit the big time of division IV should I get a chance to advance next season. Regardless, this will make the race for V.62 that much tighter next year. Kimber is probably the best money we've ever spent. This still leaves us one forward trainee short but that's about it.

New Hippo Stats

Anders Jörgensson (8718431)
17 years, passable form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is temperamental and honest.
Has disastrous experience and solid leadership abilities.
Speciality: Powerful

Nationality: Sverige
Assessed value: 101 000 US$
Wage: 1 176 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: passable
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: inadequate
Passing: poor
Winger: passable
Defending: poor
Scoring: passable
Set Pieces: inadequate

Ivan Viseslav (5501146)
18 years, inadequate form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is temperamental and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.

Nationality: Hrvatska
Assessed value: 49 000 US$
Wage: 852 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: passable
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: inadequate
Passing: poor
Winger: passable
Defending: poor
Scoring: inadequate
Set Pieces: weak

Tim Kimber (3952839)
21 years, solid form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is fiery and upright.
Has wretched experience and passable leadership abilities.

Nationality: England
Assessed value: 495 000 US$
Wage: 2 280 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: solid
Playmaking: disastrous
Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous
Defending: disastrous
Scoring: disastrous
Set Pieces: inadequate

The New Numbers
Pretty straightforward changes this time. As soon as he's sold, Kimber takes over the #1 from Vochin. Acker's replacement Anders takes his 17. Winger trainee Ivan Viseslav will take the #16 vacated by Alfredo Crespo. Once we get our forward trainee, he will get #21.

Upcoming Friendly
Sparks are flying ahead of our upcoming friendly with Morrisville. We have even gotten into a feud with Crazy Earl and will probably live to regret it. I should have read the Crazy Earl Care and Feeding directions more closely. See some details below. I can't wait to get this game underway :) Here is the Morrisville press release which has escalated the tensions:

3/21/2003 Earl Frantz announces name change.
Starting wingback and lover of cheese, "Crazy" Earl Frantz announced that due to global events, he'd be changing his name to "Earl Freedom."
Freedom also remarked on the upcoming friendly with the Hippopotami, bringing with him the stuffed head of the Hippo mascot he abducted in the first game. "This? He's my Minister of Cowardly Nancy-Boys," said Freedom, referring to the head.
The press conference abruptly ended when he called for a meeting with his "Head Staff" and dropped his pants.

Weekly Press Release
3/21/2003 Year End Shakeup and Crazy Earl
After the sale of excellent playmaker Julius Acker netted over $600K, the Hippos are looking to upgrade all over the field. Details will be worked out in the next few days
On an unrelated note, the Hippos are looking to give Morrisville some payback for a friendly loss earlier this year. Mick Starks, called out 'Crazy' Earl Frantz by musing "Hmm... he sounds like one of those chease eatin' surrender monkeys. I wonder if he confuses his alternate white uniform for his state flag?"

There might be more on this front in the next few days. Who knows, with the growing rivalry and tension between these two teams.

SI

daedalus

03-22-2003, 05:25 AM

Heh. Earl Freedom is funny.

And I need a review of Pokemon Ruby, darn you. I only have the Gold. Debating whether or not to break down and save up for one of those new GBA to play the new Pokemons or not.

robbgmaier

03-22-2003, 01:02 PM

I don't know (I don't think) if general does anything other than form, but having goalkeeping coaches does slowly train them regardless of what you are training special. So maybe you want to hire some extra GK coaches until the bump happens. Why not just train keeping the week you were going to train set pieces?

Someday, I will have cash, because, I'm good enough, I'm special, and, dog gone it, I deserve it......

rob

sterlingice

03-22-2003, 01:03 PM

And I need a review of Pokemon Ruby, darn you. I only have the Gold. Debating whether or not to break down and save up for one of those new GBA to play the new Pokemons or not.

The plot/story seems more in depth than the previous games but you can only catch about 200 of the 380-something that are out there. Hasn't stopped me from playing about 25 hours since it's come out. Also, if you didn't know, a new backlit GBA is coming out this week so you might want to take a look at that before you decide. Here's the link to the reviews on IGN:

IGN (http://pocket.ign.com/articles/389/389728p1.html)

SI

vex

03-22-2003, 01:07 PM

Originally posted by robbgmaier
I don't know (I don't think) if general does anything other than form, but having goalkeeping coaches does slowly train them regardless of what you are training special. So maybe you want to hire some extra GK coaches until the bump happens. Why not just train keeping the week you were going to train set pieces?

Someday, I will have cash, because, I'm good enough, I'm special, and, dog gone it, I deserve it......

rob

Training General does train your Keepers slightly.

FrogMan

03-22-2003, 01:56 PM

Originally posted by vexroid
Training General does train your Keepers slightly.

Just what Vex said. Straight from the Hattrick rules page:

Training type Improves ...for...
General (Form) (All who played a game during the week)
(Goaltending) ((Goaltending))

FrogMan
PS: sorry for spoiling the news :p

edit: to make code smaller

daedalus

03-22-2003, 08:23 PM

Originally posted by sterlingice
but you can only catch about 200 of the 380-something that are out there.

I think they did that with the older ones as well. Kinda irritating. Plus, since I don't have anyone to trade it with, I've never gotten my Kadabra (my favourite for whatever reason) to evolve to an Alakazam.

a new backlit GBA is coming out this week so you might want to take a look at that before you decide.

Ya, it's really tempting me. (The flippy one, right?) Though I guess it'll stay in the $100 range for a fair bit.

sterlingice

03-25-2003, 05:43 PM

Youth Pull Blues
Eighty-seventh verse, same as the first. I press the youth pull button, hope against hope that I get a good player and my passable squad produces another clunker. Youth pulls to date: something like $200K-$300K invested, $1K profit. Mr Davidson is now working at the all-ex-Hippos-staffed McDonalds.

Marcus Davidson (9455325)
17 years, passable form, healthy

A pleasant guy who is tranquil and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.
Speciality: Powerful

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 2 000 US$
Wage: 500 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: poor Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: poor Passing: wretched
Winger: poor Defending: wretched
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: poor

A Few Notes on Finance
We got some nice yearly scratch, tho getting the 3rd place money would have been nice:
3/23/2003 The series is over and you have been awarded 19 000 US$ in prize money for the position your club achieved.
3/23/2003 Your supporters paid their annual fees. The income from this amounted to 23 130 US$.

Chiritã Vochin, our former starting goalie sold for $77K to Malignos Team, a Spanish team who ended #4 in VI.359. They got a great deal. The $69300 will put us in the black! WOO! It may be by less than five grand and it will only be for a week but don't spoil my fun ;)

Where Are They Now?
Now time for the 4th installment of "Where are they now?" Today we look at the three of our five guys who were bought up in a fit of spring cleaning. All were backups but some still talk about Storm Jordan and his cool name.

Week One
1/12/2003 Sold (Fired player) to Rednecks 1 000 US$ (0 US$)
1/12/2003 Sold Hayden Hanks to C.A. Daedra (B.Bca.) 20 000 US$ (82 000 US$)
1/16/2003 Sold Rodney Walters to Brookland Cayce 16 000 US$ (100 000 US$)
1/16/2003 Sold Alvin Yeager to Sporting Milwaukee 145 000 US$ (98 000 US$)

Week Two
1/26/2003 Sold Alvarado Lanza to Metaguacha 12 000 US$ (21 000 US$)
1/26/2003 Sold Ben Magnusson to Gringos 12 000 US$ (17 000 US$)
1/27/2003 Sold Tommy Lyhling to Hawkeye F.C. 50 000 US$ (54 000 US$)

Week Three
1/26/2003 Sold Søren Andersen to Morrisville Morrisvillians 13 000 US$ (31 000 US$)
2/9/2003 Sold Pedro Villavilla Paz to Los N° 1 72 000 US$ (47 000 US$)

Today
2/17/2003 Sold Matei Rosca to Racing Mexico 2 000 US$ (30 000 US$)
2/17/2003 Sold José Alberto Balbuena to K-Wings 1 000 US$ (12 000 US$)
2/17/2003 Sold Storm Jordan to Racing Mexico 4 000 US$ (35 000 US$)

For the Future
2/24/2003 Sold Ildefonso Besteiro Saiz to JOB Squad 1 000 US$ (0 US$)
2/24/2003 Sold Augusto Almeida Lopes to snomus cf 2 000 US$ (33 000 US$)
2/24/2003 Sold Thomas Rosenthal to BACARDI C.F 21 001 US$ (74 000 US$)

3/5/2003 Sold Dawid Raduli to Snufl 84 000 US$ (78 000 US$)
3/8/2003 Sold Zlatko Koch to Livvy Loonies 26 001 US$ (57 000 US$)
3/9/2003 Sold Alfredo Crespo to Havoc 77 000 US$ (115 000 US$)

3/20/2003 Sold Julius Acker to Universitatea&Craiova 638 000 US$ (205 000 US$)

3/21/2003 Sold Klaas Slingerland to Gooner 16 000 US$ (78 000 US$)
3/25/2003 Sold Chiritã Vochin to Malignos Team 77 000 US$ (168 000 US$)

Total Purchases: 1053508 US$ (+451006)
Total Sales 1290002 US$ (+731000)
Difference 236494 US$ (+279994)
Average (bought) 33984 US$ (+12466)
Average (sold) 61429 US$ (+30373)
Average (bought + sold) 4548 US$ (+5244)

Matei Rosca
Rosca was definately one of those players I learned a lesson with on the transfer wire. Just because I was willing to throw away $25K on the transfer wire for him, no one else was. I bought him for $25K, realized I didn't need him, and then turned around and sold him for a measly $2K. He went to a Mexican team called Racing Mexico in IV.38. He currently plays offensive winger on their B team and scored a goal in last week's friendly. Also, in true Hippo fashion, he has a pair of yellow cards to his name.

José Alberto Balbuena
Back when I was training really cheap guys, I bought up Jose for $1K to train at winger but after a couple of lackluster showings, he was put back on the transfer wire and bought by the K-Wings in V.171 for the same $1K I bought him for a couple weeks earlier. Unfortunately, Jose has never played a game for the K-Wings. Then again, they look like a team who doesn'y play very often as they have only played 1 friendly in the past 4 weeks.

Storm Jordan
If we had a cool name hall-of-fame, former backup winger Storm Jordan would be the founding member. Unfortunately he didn't help the team much and was too old to train. At the time, I had my eyes on one cool named guy (and later a second) who was younger and more trainable. But, as luck would have it, both went for way more than I was willing to pay so I lost out on having my requisite "cool name guy". What I really want now is a young, cool-named clown so he can be the cool named guy and a clown :) As for Storm, he was sold to a team named "Racing Mexico" in Mexico's IV.38. But he turned around and sold him to luv united in Deutschland's V.110 for $12K, $8K more than he bought him for. He doesn't play very often for luv, but got *~ last time he was in a friendly at winger (about a month ago). However, he was used at forward and picked up ** in their qualification match this past week.

Upcoming
Next post: the awards banquet where Hippos dress up like penguins and the season in review. Then it's time to check out the new season, our new league and our players for next year as well as the FAQ.

SI

sterlingice

03-25-2003, 06:17 PM

Oops...
In my haste to post actual news, I forgot to insult Morrisville and their inbred, smelly, illiterate, skoal-chewing, banjo-playing, wife-beater-wearing fans that fill a converted Neck-Car stadium every week because they confuse the World Cup with the Winston Cup. Never mind. On second thought, I don't have time to insult them today.

SI

daedalus

03-25-2003, 06:32 PM

Originally posted by sterlingice
Eighty-seventh verse, same as the first.

I like that. Consider it stolened!

3/20/2003 Sold Julius Acker to Universitatea&Craiova 638 000 US$ (205 000 US$)
3/25/2003 Sold Chiritã Vochin to Malignos Team 77 000 US$ (168 000 US$)

Mmmmmmmmmm, money.

NevStar

03-25-2003, 08:43 PM

Originally posted by sterlingice
Oops...
In my haste to post actual news, I forgot to insult Morrisville and their inbred, smelly, illiterate, skoal-chewing, banjo-playing, wife-beater-wearing fans that fill a converted Neck-Car stadium every week because they confuse the World Cup with the Winston Cup. Never mind. On second thought, I don't have time to insult them today.

SI

I resent that! This is Redman country, not Skoal.

Unlike you, I'd never stoop to insulting the fine fans of Houston, who when they fill a stadium, ALMOST have a full set of teeth between them. :p

sterlingice

03-26-2003, 03:17 AM

Season Awards
Few people have ever experienced the sheer opulence of the Hippodrome's Executive Washroom and attached Suite. It's a palatial area built into the Hippodrome with marble floor, columns, and tables. It showcases rare art and some of the finest Turkish rugs. But its classic elegance blends perfectly with the ultramodern bank of tvs, computers, and every modern convenience in a display that would make Bill Gates jealous. To say nothing of the women who work there. Suffice to say the beauty of the room is only exceeded by theirs. Typically the only people allowed inside are the owner of the team who built it and the official supporters of the team (five FOFCers: ausonny, NevStar, vexroid, Doug2984, Havok12; and a guy who has helped me learn a lot in the game and even bought a player of mine: Havoc99). Tonight, however, is an exception as the team gets to enjoy the splendors of this room once a year. Needless to say, this awards banquet is one of the huge perks of joining the Hippos. Privilaged readers tonight get a small glimpse inside as well.

NOTE:This year, as owner, I have named the award recipients. Perhaps in the future, we could have some sort of voting or something but not this time.

Year In Review
First, before the awards are announced, a short film will be shown detailing the Hippos year.

On January 8th, the Hippos we born from the ashes of the previous team, the fudruckers. And ashes, they were: the fudruckers started the season 0-4 with a 0-16 goal differential. However, that week, the Hippos beat then third place LA Bronco and started their longest winning streak of the season. Next, the Hippos beat league cellar dwellers The Flying Midgets and Metal Mulisha 4 times in 4 weeks, setting up a battle for 3rd. Feb 17th was a watershed day for the Hippos as they thrashed former LA Bronco, now Atlanta United, by a score of 6-0, establishing themselves in the upper echelon of the league. The 6-game winning streak came to a halt the next week as The Darksiders, a soon-to-be Div IV team, shutout the Hippos 4-0 in their first loss with sterlingice as owner. Two more easy games against lower teams in the division set up a game the last week of the season for 2nd place. A win against CC's Dragons would have propelled the Hippos to 2nd, but the loss of Mick Starks to a red card was too much to overcome and the Dragons retained 2nd place with a 4-2 victory. The loss dropped the Hippos back below Atlanta United for the season into 4th. Next year, however, Houston will be battling with the Dragons and the recently demoted Toledo Blades for the Series V.62 crown in season 19.

As for friendlies, those two were up and down. Our first and fourth friendlies were throttlings at the hands of aussony's Bees by a combined 15-2. Sandwiched inbetween those, however, were wins against ardent's North County Raiders and a loss in our only trip out of the USA, playing Sverige's Räkfarmens IF. Our losing streak went to four as hated Morrisville beat us 4-0 and, then a random team in Detroit, Stockbridge Panthers FC, beat us 3-1. Next was our single game against the Aviators in the FOFC Consolation cup, which should give you an indication of how long our stay there was. Our five game losing streak ended the next week as I picked a fight with the Woodlands Rich Kids (or something like that). We won the next two games, the first against a Sweedish team, Gurras BK, and the second against Qwikshot's Qwakers. Last week, we came back from a 4-2 defecit to tie ardent's raiders in a rematch.

Lastly, as is expected from a first year team, the Hippos took part in lots of off-the-field activity. Tons of players were shuttled in and out of the lineup as they tried to improve the team. The most substantial move is the progression of starting goalie from Raduli to Vochin to Kimber. Alvin Yeager's sale early on allowed us to refurbish the Hippodrome. We sold other major contributors such as Pedro Villavilla Paz, Zlatko Koch, and Alfredo Crespo. Lastly, the sale of Julius Acker for an FOFC-record at $638K and allowed us to get Kimber, buy new trainee Anders Jorgensson, and get out of debt.

Awards Presentation
And now, without further adieu, the presentation of awards. There are five awards tonight: Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Old Man Award, Under-20 MVP, and Team MVP.

Offensive Player of the Year
The easiest award to hand out. Derek Solomon scored 13 goals and finished 3rd in series V.62 in scoring. He had a pair of hat tricks and combined with Mick Starks to rule the left side of the field most weeks. The voting wasn't even close. Phelan was second but it was a distant second.

Defensive Player of the Year
As our best wingback, Hugh Hebert walks away with this piece of hardware. He wasn't spectacular but he eeked out a win over former Hippo middle defender Zlatko Koch. He gets an average of ** and occasionally **~ while anchoring the right side of the defense. Not to be taken as a slight at Hebert, but the Hippos hope to have better canidates for this award next year as defense was not the strong suit of the team this year.

Old Man Award
The Old Man Award was just as easy to hand out as the Offensive Player of the Year. Basically because it went to the same guy, Derek Solomon. The Old Man Award goes to the best player on the team who is 27 or older and he was the only one who qualified. Still, he was an important cog this year and the award makes Derek Solomon the first Hippo in history to win more than one piece of hardware.

Under-20 MVP
This was a close vote as many of Hippos were 20 or under (since hattrick rules consider 20yo's U-20) this year. However, in the end, Edwin Phelan won out. He had 9 goals and was a nice compliment to Derek Solomon. Neither of the 19yo starting goalies Raduli and Vochin are still on the team and they split the goalie vote and lost to Phelan.

Team MVP
While Solomon may have won extra hardware, the heart and soul of the team is still Mick Starks. He's team leader and anchored the midfield that became the key to our team. Not only that but he set up many of Solomon's goal as he typically played on the left side attack feeding him from the wing. He may not have big scoring stats but the team leader's contribution to the team cannot be denied.

In his acceptance speech for the award, Mick, known for igniting the competitive fires of the team, responded to insults leveled at the Hungry Hungry Hippos. Referring to the Morrisvillians owner's comments about the fans in which he claimed "the fine fans of Houston, who when they fill a stadium, ALMOST have a full set of teeth between them", he quipped: "That's pretty funny, coming from a man who, when I'm done with him, won't have any teeth. Then again, it's not much of a challenge as he has the dental higene of the British and an entire stadium full of him wouldn't have a set of teeth."

Notes
Hope you enjoyed your look at the Hippodrome's palace. A report on the Morrisville game is forthcoming (we will be playing some of our starters) and there might be a little housekeeping but then it's off to next season's post.

SI

sterlingice

03-27-2003, 05:01 AM

Preview
After a week of trash talking and plotting the demise of Morrisville, the game is finally here. We will be playing some starters and some backups but overall a pretty good team. New goalie Tim Kimber will be playing as will now-healed wingback Rickie Stepp. Also, new middie trainee star Anders Jorgensson will get a shot at midfield but we aren't looking for a whole lot from him until we boost his stamina and playmaking. Søren Andersen of Morrisville will be looking for revenge on us for selling him and he gets a small measure (as you will see). Also, as NevStar has mentioned, this was all staged for the week so if anyone (and I doubt anyone did) was thinking this is real animosity, rest assured we were just having a little fun with our teams.

Game Summary
Date: 3/27/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 5142282
Arena: Morrisville Morrisvillians Arena
Crowd: 603

603 spectators had come to Morrisville Morrisvillians Arena this cloudy day. Morrisvillians started off with a 5-4-1 lineup. The following players had been chosen: del Toro - Lund, Vega, Minton, Dupre, Pãdurean - Cannon, Atkins, Lövbo, Frantz - Andersen.

Hippopotami had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Kimber - Hebert, Strömlius, Bush - Newsom, Connors, Friedländer, Jörgensson, Starks - Chang, Phelan.

Morrisvillians broke through to the left in the 8:th minute, Otis Dupre firing at an acute angle giving the home side a 1 - 0 lead. In the games 11th minute Morrisvillians´s Matt Atkins fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee booked Matt Atkins for taking a dive. After an industrious effort down the middle Otis Dupre could have closed the game off in the 13th minute, but his finishing shot hit the post. Morrisvillians appeared unsure on how to play. The visitors didn´t give in and after 36 minutes Thomas Strömlius got through the home sides central line of defense, rolling in the levelling goal to make it 1 - 1 Seemingly due to lack of experience, Otis Dupre needlessly tripped an opponent just outside the penalty area, but the free kick that followed didn't succeed. Morrisvillians seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion about the organization of the team. Morrisvillianss Matt Atkins gave, after 40 minutes, the home team a 2 - 1 lead after an attack coming in from the right. The teams went for a half-time break at 2 - 1. No one team arose to dominate this half, ending in a deadlock.

During the break Morrisvillians´s coach went through the teams new tactics yet again. In the 52nd minute Morrisvillians´s André Lövbo tried to nail the coffin shut, but the shot rebounded off the bar to fall behind the net. Morrisvillians´s James Lund left the field after 53 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was Willis Flynn. A speedy charge from the left side of the field put Morrisvillians lead up with 3 - 1. Earl Frantz finished that one off competently, firing from an acute angle. In the 79:th minute Morrisvillians put themselves up 4 - 1. The visitors defenders lost the ball to Otis Dupre coming up from the left, who proceeded to cooly round the goaltender and knock the ball home. By now Morrisvillians were drawing the troops back in order to defend their lead. Morrisvillians seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion about the organization of the team. The visitors replied in the games 83rd minute, scoring the 4 - 2 goal, as Defoe Chang broke through from the left, easily lobbing the ball over the home teams keeper. The referee showed Morrisvillianss Søren Andersen the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Hugh Hebert the unlucky victim, couldn´t continue the game. Anders Jörgensson of Hippopotami received a yellow card in the 85:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Morrisvillians, bringing the final ball possession rate to 61 percent, dominated the battle.

The most dominating Morrisvillians player was without a doubt Matt Atkins. However, Buster Minton made a disastrous appearance. The most dominating Hippopotami player was without a doubt Tim Kimber. Anders Jörgensson on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 2.

Events and Stats
A few notes:
1. Our score will always be first, whether we are ahead or behind
2. The (F) after the names would have a goal number if it were a fixture
3. "xx" means the time of the goal was not specified
4. Cards and injuries will only be for our team

Formations
HH: 3-5-2
MM: 4-5-1

Events Summary

1st Half
MM: 08: 0-1
HH: 36: Thomas Stromlius (F); 1-1
MM: 40: 1-2
Halftime Score: 1-2
Possession: 50%

2nd Half
MM: xx: 1-3
MM: 79: 1-4
HH: 83: Defoe Chang(F); 2-4
Final Score: 2-4
Possession: 39%
Final Possession: 45%

Cards
HH: 85: Anders Jörgensson (yellow- unsportsmanlike conduct)
NOTE: Morrisville got 2 including Søren Andersen after injuring Hebert

Injuries
HH: xx: Hugh Hebert (1 week- bruised, but training )

Stadium

Only 603 toothless wonders showed up. Seriously, tho it's kindof disappointing because if there was some sort of hype meter, we would have gotten tons of fans.

Team Ratings

Morrisville Morrisvillians
Midfield: poor (3)
Right Side Defence: solid (7)
Central Defence: passable (6)
Left Side Defence: passable (6)
Right Side Attack: passable (6)
Central Attack: weak (4)
Left Side Attack: passable (6)
DataKing Index: 41
NevStar Index: 44

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: poor (3)
Right Side Defence: passable (6)
Central Defence: passable (6)
Left Side Defence: passable (6)
Right Side Attack: passable (6)
Central Attack: passable (6)
Left Side Attack: excellent (8)
DataKing Index: 44
NevStar Index: 47

We won the index battle but lost the war. Really suprised me especially after Kibler's rating (see below). Passables across the board except for an excellent at left side attack and a poor in the midfield. If we can get that midfield rating up to inadequate by the end of the year, we will have a team that will likely move up to IV with ratings of over 50.

Player Ratings
GK Tim Kimber ***~
DW Rickie Stepp **
DM Thomas Strömlius **
DW Elmer Bush **
WI Donald Newsom **
MI Stephen Connors **~
MI Anders Jörgensson (extra) *~
MI Philip Friedländer *~
WI Mick Starks ***
FO Edwin Phelan **~
FO Dafoe Chang **

Total Stars: 24.5
Total player experience: wretched
Team Attitude: Normal

Um... Tim Kimber for president! That's our first ***~ performance anywhere on the field and to have it in goal is extra sweet. I just don't understand how 4 goals got by that and passables all the way across the defense. Despite his poor form, Elmer Bush debuted with ** and will be up to **~ or *** once we get that higher. Looks like Mick is locked in at *** from now on. Anders Jörgensson and his *~ was about what I expected. In another year, he'll be up to **~ and will have solid playmaking.

Game Summary
It's the first game in quite a while we didn't score early in the game. We won the index battle and an amazing showing by Kimber and we still didn't win(!?!). We need to work on our stamina pretty badly and that's what we will be doing the next few weeks- we played them even through 45 but lost in possession battle in the 2nd half. I can't wait for our next game against Morrisville.

Press Release
3/27/2003 at 03:01 Hippos Lose to Yokels in Friendly
At Buck Tooth Stadium in the middle of Appalachia and straight out of Deliverance, the Hippos 4-2 lost a grudge match to rival Morrisville. Despite a Hippo high NSI of 47 vs their NSI of 44, the Morrisvillians' home stench advantage was too much to overcome. Four players scored for Morrisville including "Crazy" Earl Nancy-Boy-In-a-Tutu. Thomas Strömlius and Dafoe Chang scored for Houston. No love was lost between the teams as there were 3 yellow cards, 2 injuries, and a penalty kick.

Notes
One of our better games and I'm not really sure how we lost. The only battle they won was the star battle 25 to 24.5. Anyways, this has been a fun week and I definately thank NevStar for the game and our fun little fake hostilities. No friendly next week as we have a cup game. Currently, I have most of our starters going in a PIC match against a bot div VI team. Then we have a match against the team that was formerly Atlanta United (3rd place last year) but has been bought out so this truly is a 3-team race. Maybe a little wrapup post in the next couple of days but not much else before the next season thread is started.

SI

sterlingice

03-31-2003, 02:04 AM

Training
It was wind sprints week for the Hippos as they tried to shed some of their tons. I'm still living the good life, training-wise. Only three of my 23 guys didn't go up in stamina: Derrick Solomon and his excellent stamina, wingback trainee Patrik Jonsson who is already at passable, and coach Ricky Braden, whose wife will probably be disappointed that he did not take part in the training. We may alternate stamina and playmaking for the first part of the new season (with some general splashed in) to get some of the slackers in shape. Six other starters bumped to solid stamina but we still have three starters at passable, inadequate, and poor. Not only that, but most of our B team is composed of loafers (only one excellent and one solid). I think we need about 3 more weeks of stamina training with our current team to get most people to passable or above. Even better news: no starters lost form and one gained.

Future Training
Next week, a little set pieces work and then back to stamina and then playmaking with some stamina mixed in.

Form
Starters: (+1) (-0)
Entire Team: (+1) (-2)

Value
Starters: (+9) (-2)
Entire Team: (+19) (-3)

Team Stats
Total Wages: 18820 (-1380)
Total Value: 2040000 (-60000)
Avg Value: 88696 (-2608)
Avg Age: 20 N/A
Avg Form: passable N/A
Avg Experience: disastrous N/A
No of players: 23 N/A
Nationalities: 8 N/A
NOTE: This is before the wage changes for the new year

Wish List
Priority one is now taken care of with a our almost-excellent goalie. But I can always dream for those days when I win the lottery or something. Just assume that I want young players.

1. An excellent middie who can rule the midfield a lot better than Mr Acker
2. A solid/excellent middle defender to play sweeper
3. A good wingback with the head attribute
4. A good offensive winger with the upredictable attribute

Youth """"Pull""""
Good news: my youth squad has now reached solid. Yet, it produces another crapper: I guess my training karma is offset by my youth karma. Hopefully by this time next season, I'll have an excellent youth squad. And maybe by this time next season, I'll have more than one crummy $1K sale to show for my youth program. Next time any of you want to complain about your crummy youth squad, just remember- it could always be worth: basically an entire season to get from disastrous to solid youth squad and one measly $1K sale. Matthew Hitchcock has now been shot out of a cannon and is lying, conveniently, on the floor of the ex-Hippos McDonalds.

Matthew Hitchcock
1 000 US$, 17 years, passable form
Has disastrous experience and disastrous leadership abilities [Unpredictable]
Stamina: poor
Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: disastrous
Passing: poor
Winger: poor
Defending: poor
Scoring: wretched
Set Pieces: wretched

Next Season
As next season draws ever closer, I will continue writing the season preview and working on the FAQ in the next few days. There will be everything from news about the team and supporters to a look at our league and other such fun. Stay tuned.

SI