Fixture Preview
When you start in hattrick, you want to win every game. And, frankly, if you're a pretty good manager, at lower levels, you can go all out and win a lot of ball games. However, as you play hattrick longer, you really start to realize the value of giving up on games- 3 points handed away at one point usually turn into 3 or 6 gained at another, if you plan your team spirit well.
When you're in the cup, no longer facing pushovers, each week must be taken as a whole. The Wahoos are one of the best in the series- I picked them to finish first. If they win this week, they'll be there or at least tied, a little behind on GD. They've had a little schizophrenic of a season so far with a nice draw on the road against Supra but then lost at home against Selma
Old Town Tavern, our cup opponent, puts up some good ratings and leads his IV.49 (hey, that series sounds familiar!) but he still is a light in the midfield and can be beaten on the road. However, I'm going to need to keep my team spirit high and maybe play a couple of subs in one game to keep form up and get all training done. Which reminds me, I got a message from someone in Georgia (Sakartvelo), apparently Kavelashvili is on a watch list for the U20/National team so I should try to get him trained.
So, I was faced with the decision this week- go all out or play conservatively.
The easy answer is to punt against the Wahoos as I had been planning all along, PIC, win easily against OTT with the boosted team spirit en route to at least one more PIC next week vs Bridgetown or maybe 2 in a row if things go really well, going into the second half.
But a funny thing happened when I started running the numbers on HO (Hattrick Organizer). With as sky high as my team spirit and confidence are coming into this game, I'm getting a better than 40% chance to win, more like 47% win/17% draw/34% loss, based on my current lineup and his best over the past few games.
What to do...
Kits
Wahoos 2 - 2 Hippopotami (217931296)
3-9-2009 01.00
It had rained all day, but 41000 hardy fans still made it out to
Standing Room Only. Wahoos decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. The following players had been chosen: Tuttle - Vanhove, Cavini, Houser - Dänzer, Hollis, Farmer, Gates, Braz - Suitts, Nix.
Hippopotami tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. Lineup: Özkutay - Cyburt, Huenul, Delcarte - Regúlez, Marsh, Quijada, Thacker, Partridge - Angulo, Tetlie.
Hippopotami demonstrated their creative tactics on the field.
Oliver Angulo slipped and slithered in the wet grass. His usual rapid runs were nowhere to be seen today. The rain made it hard for players like
Marc Nix to show their technical control of the ball on this soggy day. 30 minutes into the game,
Damion Marsh was a hair's breadth away from giving Hippopotami the lead with a shot from over on the left. A prompt block by
Jayson Tuttle saved the home team that time. Some beautiful plays on the left side of the field resulted in a goal after 31 minutes by
Marc Nix for Wahoos, putting them ahead 1 - 0. Hippopotami's right side looked dangerous 32 minutes in, but
Jayson Tuttle made a good save on
Arkadiusz Cyburt's hard shot to the top corner. Halftime score was 1 - 0. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 57 percent of possession.
Carlos Thacker was ever so close to scoring after an excellent corner was perfectly redirected by
Damion Marsh, but the ball went into the frame. 61 minutes into the match, Hippopotami's
Oliver Angulo demonstrated his famed speed as he raced past his marker and passed the ball to
Tor Tetlie who chipped it in for 1 - 1. Hippopotami had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially 65 minutes in when
Tor Tetlie came up alone against
Jayson Tuttle who managed a block. Hippopotami's
Tor Tetlie managed to lose the defenders as he came down the right side and scored, putting the visitors ahead, 1 - 2. The Wahoos free kick 71 minutes into the match seemed wasted, as the shot was both short and off target. But there was an idea to it - the misdirected ball was turned into a cross towards
Shawn Farmer, who was waiting for it in the box. That's 2 - 2! Don't forget to thank the assistant coach for that gem of a routine! Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 57 percent of possession.
Wahoos's top performer was clearly
Jayson Tuttle.
Wilbur Houser on the other hand, had a terrible day. Hippopotami's top performer was clearly
Carlos Thacker.
Arkadiusz Cyburt turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 2 - 2.
Rating details
| Wahoos | Houston Hippopotami |
| Midfield | formidable (very low) | brilliant (low) |
| Right Defence | excellent (very low) | inadequate (very high) |
| Central Defence | magnificent (low) | formidable (very low) |
| Left Defence | solid (very high) | outstanding (high) |
| Right Attack | formidable (very high) | solid (very high) |
| Central Attack | magnificent (very low) | excellent (high) |
| Left Attack | outstanding (low) | weak (very low) |
| GardierStats | 361 | 343 |
| HTitaVal | 309.2 | 276.9 |
| PStats | 35.85 | 34.02 |
| LoddarStats | 29.66 | 27.57 |
| HatStats (total only) | 321 | 290 |
| HatStats (detailed) | 321
Defence: 103
Midfield: 99
Attack: 119 | 290
Defence: 92
Midfield: 126
Attack: 72 |
| Vnukstats | 9.55
Defence: 8! 12- 7*
Midfield: 9!
Attack: 9* 12! 10- | 9.25
Defence: 5* 9! 10+
Midfield: 11-
Attack: 7* 8+ 4! |
| |
| Indirect set pieces |
| Defence | passable (low) | passable (low) |
| Attack | passable (low) | solid (very low) |
| |
| Team Attitude | (Hidden) | Normal |
| Tactic | Normal | Play creatively |
| Tactic skill | (no tactic) | - |
Highlights
Possession
43%
57%
43%
57%
Series Standings
Fixture Recap
I was watching this game closer than I had watched a hattie game in a long time (it lost its charm when the chat room went away).
I am quite conflicted- it's the battle of expectations versus adjusted expectations. A coworked or mine is a Dolphins fan and he was just enjoying this past season as they went from 1-15 to 11-5. But after they lost to the Ravens, he was so disappointed and was back on being down on them. I couldn't help but continuously remind him that you didn't in your wildest dreams even have them in this game so you just can't be too down. But once you taste success, I guess you can never have enough.
To get back to the game, I'm thrilled that a game that was painted "L" in even our best case scenario turned into a "D". But when we went up 2-1 after Tetlie's second goal, that was as happy as I had been about hattie in a long time. When they scored the equalizer, it was all I could do to stop hitting refresh every minute to see if he or I would score the next goal. It was almost a little tough to leave with "only" a draw, especially considering we had 4 scoring chances to their 2.
A couple of little tidbits for the record book. First is that I bet this is the first 10 game unbeaten streak we've had, for competitive games anyways. Same with the 9 game win streak that was snapped- I'm pretty sure we've never had anything that long, at least not since III. Looking back in my spreadsheet, I think we had a 13 game win streak to close season 26 and start season 27 but that was a long time ago.
The 69 stars we put up tonight is tied for 2nd best with a 69 star game in season 34, trailing only a 70.5 star game that season. I haven't gotten the 70 star achievement yet as that was from the days before achievements and I'm hoping to get it this season but I'm not sure where I'm going to squeeze another star from.
It was also my 13th best match ever by rating, 90% of my best. Most of the ones at the top of that list are week 14 MotS's, however, whereas this has to be one of the highest normals. It was also the second highest road rating ever, trailing at 91% season finale.
Next week, at the halfway point, I'll dissect what each team has left on the schedule as I should study up and see who is in the best shape to make it out of this. As you can see from the standings, there's not much separation at the top. The bottom two have guaranteed spots and The Bridgemen are all but locked into 6th. But then there's the top 5, all within 2 points and anyone could win this.
At the end of the day, we just turned a certain loss into a point in a game Hippos fans will remember for a long time.
Gentlemen, we have ourselves a ball game!
SI