[NoSkillz]

Sat. July 25, 2020 - Preseason Friendly

A.C. Milan vs. Dover
San Siro, Milan, Italy

I like to take two-game tours every year to a different country - last year we visited Brazil and this year we head to beautiful Italy. Game one is against A.C. Milan - this should probably be a pretty close matchup. If I was playing this game for real (ie: if it meant something), I'd likely dial down my tactics and play a counter attacking game but I want to keep working on our creativity, especially in a showcase matchup like this so I roll with most of my first-teamers and continue playing a control system. Despite just arriving today, and with no training time with the club, I throw new signing Paulus Tjiuoro into the starting lineup.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, O. Nicholas, P. Tjiuoro, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, A. Rocca, N. Cairney, G. Bolis
S - G. Gesios, G. Escobar

A.C. Milan 2 - 1 Dover
Goals - Giorgos Gesios (7.3)
Assists - Andrea Rocca (6.9)
Man of the Match - Timo Hiltunen (Real Madrid - 8.0)
Other Notables - Ingo Wilke (5.7)
Attendance - 16186

A.C. Milan dominated the first half but we performed well in the second 45 minutes to make a game of it. Stats were very even, with A.C. Milan having a 16-15 shot advantage and 51-49 possession advantage. Ingo Wilke got a poor rating for messing up on the first Milan goal. Our big signing this year, wonderkid MC Neil Cairney received two yellow cards and was booted from the game.



Euro U19 Championship Update

-- DC Thomas Andersen had another fine game for Denmark but ultimately they were defeated 1-0 by Slovakia in the Euro Cup U19 finals.



Pitch Alterations

-- As usual, we are given the opportunity to made changes to our pitch confirmation. We maintain the same dimensions of 72m x 110m, a wide and long pitch to utilize our speed.



Transfer Delayed due to Work Permit Issue

-- As expected, we have a delay in our transfer for a young Argentine centre half back, as the initial application for a work permit is denied. We appeal and we'll have to wait about a week for the decision. Again, our scouts feel that it should be addressed to our satisfaction but I'm keeping my fingers crossed - hell, they were wrong about Tjiuoro so they could be wrong again!



-- Offers start coming in for transfer listed DC Lukas Stetina - I reject a couple that just offered his value for one that met my asking price. Now it's up to Stetina to agree to a contract



Season Ticket Update

- We are up to 3278 season tickets sold and it's expected we'll sell about 900 more to get to around 4200.



-- I'm disappointed to hear that we miss out on signing cultured winger Gervinho, losing out in a bidding war to Rangers from the Scottish Premier League. He's way past his prime but would have given us a nice veteran presence as a rotational player.

-- Add GK Ingo Wilke to the list of guys upset with his current contract after seeing me decline a transfer bid. We have a quick talk and all is well.