[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by 10-9-2012

(20:39) Hippodrome Repairs Complete

The repairs to the Hippodrome are complete, following the damage done during the, ahem, unofficial "take your seat home with you" promotion during the qualifier against the Wisconsin Omanis. The stadium lost some seats but they have been better distributed to fit the fans needs. The new capacity of the Hippodrome is 68,000. It has been slightly redesigned and fans can see images on the team's "Arena" page.

While the stadium was being repaired, the team took the 30th Anniversary donations and updated the Hippodrome complex.

The Hippo Hall of Heroes is as resplendent as ever. There is a new Houston Hippopotami History Museum, donated as part of the 30th Anniversary Celebration. Fans will be free to visit before every home game.

The International Plaza and museum were miraculously left intact by the hooligans and the complete 256 flag collection untouched.

Even the Hungry Hungry Hippos Mud Pit received a much needed coat of paint, new bleachers, and a lawn mow.

Originally Posted by 10-18-2012

(21:17) Houston Shines in Tournaments
Since Hattrick implemented the new tournament system last season, Houston has used this as a testing grounds for new tactics as there are no flags to collect. Since their inception, the Hippos have played in the following cups:

Mini FOFC Cup - See 4-23-2012 PA

Alcala Cup - This 16 team tourney featured some heavy hitters including 3x Div I, 2x Div II, and 6x Div III teams. Houston made it out of the group round but lost 4-3 in the first elimination round after blowing a 3-0 lead.

International Cup - See 7-23-2012 PA

II. Eagles Cup - Like the International Cup, this featured teams from many different countries. Also, like IC, the Hippos were the only team to go 3-0 in the group stages and won the cup. Houston was home to the leading scorer, Patrov this time, and Edelmann tied for 2nd. It was not without drama as Houston beat South Devils 3-2 in the semifinals in the 99th minute.

Columbia Heights Invitational - Currently participating

Originally Posted by 10-29-2012

(19:52) Hippos Continue to Raise Achievement Flag
Houston has now managed to accrue 410 of a possible 998 achievement points. Last season, the team added to two major performance achievements.

*"Star Collector" (35 -> 50 points) After many seasons of chasing 90 stars in a match, the Hippos finally got it: (392023624)

*"All That Skill" (30 -> 65 points) In the offseason player shuffling, the team exceeded not only 1.2M TSI, but 1.5M TSI!

These are the 2nd and 3rd rarest achievements to date by the Hippos. The rarest was "Join my revolution (100 members)" which we could not have done without the help of the now defunct YMCA federations.

Below is a list of achievements we will aim for once the team has demoted out of II and is forced to rebuild:

Match Achievements: 130 possible
+35 (veteran) +35 (youthful) +35 (academy) +25 (home grown)

Manager Achievements: 60 possible
+15 (nice) +15 (dishonest) +15 (nasty) +15 (honest)

With those we would break 600 and be one of the top 5 achieving teams in the USA!

Originally Posted by 11-12-2012

(20:09) Back to the Drawing Board? Fit to be Tied? Equal to the Task?
The Houston Hippopotami are unequaled as the only undefeated team in II.3. Typically, this would be cause for celebration but they are flagging into the standings due to an overabundance of ties.

The team is thrilled about points from road deadlocks against AhlyUSA and Garden State Gnomes. However, after home stalemates against Aventura Heroes, United Milan F.C., and Hoboken Hitmen, fans have begun to grow weary.

Even Steven, who is from the team's statistics department, cannot find a MATCH for the team's streak of five consecutive standoffs. The longest streak prior to this season was three in a row to end season 46.

Much will be forgotten if the team can draw up a win against the Holy Hand Grenades of Antioch. The press announcement department will be happy, too, as the spokespeople can put down their thesauruses and just go back to trying to squeeze in flag, 256, or 128 into every PA this season.

Originally Posted by 11-27-2012

(20:16) Hungry Hungry Hippo Youth Flag Chasing
Hattrick does not keep track of Youth Flag Chasing. But the bored statisticians for the Hippos do!

First, the raw data, including USA rank (if they were an adult squad).

Visit
32 Flags (25.0%)
138,199.71 Coolness (27.2%) 57th

Host
31 Flags (24.2%)
20,602.65 Coolness (4.1%) 149th

Visit OR Host
55 Flags (43.0%)
158,403.22 Coolness (31.2%) 58th

Visit PLUS Host
63 Flags (24.6%)
158,802.36 Coolness (15.6%) 71st

Highlights
*The Hippos have visited 10 of the 23 rarest countries for a youth friendly including 4 of the top 7 (Yemen, Barbados, Uzbekistan, Palestine).
*On the other end of the spectrum, the Hippos have at least one flag from 20 of the 22 most HT-populated countries.
*It's a bit of feast or famine in between with no flags from 24 to 46.
*The Youth Squad already has both flags for 8 countries.
*Youth friendly flags go back to 2007, tho there is no record for some of the first ones so they did not make the list.

Originally Posted by 12-7-2012

(23:18) Thacker Adds to Crowded Hall of Heroes Midfield
Carlos Thacker is one of many in a line of great American midfielders for the Hippos. He played with HHH member Juan Alberto Quijada, future HHH member John King, and longtime Hippo Damion Marsh among others before giving way to the next generation which included Roberto De Bacco and Hilton Bender.

He was purchased for $3.3M in season 37 at 25 years old and retired 13 later in season 50. His mythical rating at playmaking was the first in franchise history and his 9 stars are the highest of any HHH member and tied for 10th all-time.

He was a quality team leader, tied for 4th all time with 92 total games as captain and 3rd in competitive games at 74, trailing only Staples and Partridge. He was experienced, too, retiring with titanic experience gained from his 245 matches played for the Hippos, 6th in team history. His 199 competitive matches trail only fellow HHH middies Little, Partridge, and Vickers.

His #9 will be retired at halftime of Sunday's match against Garden State.

Originally Posted by 12-20-2012

(19:26) Hippo PA Writers Attempt to Reverse the Curse
After a pun-filled PA earlier this season about the team's promising undefeated start of 1 win and 5 draws, the Hippos have lost 4 of their next 5 games and the writers have been informed that this jinx puts them in danger of unemployment.

The Hippopotami finds themselves in 6th place with 11 points and a -5 GD. The remaining schedule includes games against AhlyUSA and the Maroons at home, sandwiched around a visit to sunny Florida and the AVENTURA HEROES.

The aforementioned 5th place Maroons have a 2 point and 1 GD lead and host AVENTURA and II.3-leading Holy Hand Grenades of Antioch before visiting the Hippos.

The 8th place Garden State Gnomes (9pt -10) host the 7th place Hoboken Hitmen (11pt -11) on Christmas Eve. On New Years Eve, they visit Ahly while Hoboken travels to United Milan F.C. The final week of the season, the Gnomes host Milan and Hoboken hosts AVENTURA.

C'mon, boys! Win one (preferably more) for the PA Authors Local 128th and the Fighting Pencils!

Originally Posted by 1-2-2013

(05:38) Sad and Uncertain Times at the Hippo Hut

Houston has always been an outsider in II, never finishing higher than 4th. As the clock ran down Sunday on another loss, their promising first half dissolved into relegation, sending the Hippos back to III with a cloudy future.

The team is young, recently completing a youth movement: 5 of the 8 non-trainee positions are 25 or younger. And the team is performing at as high a level as they ever have.

However, there are big problems looming as Hiermayer and Serafino will be 31 and 29, respectively, next season. The club has about $2M in the bank and it will take more than that to replace the multi-skilled wingers Houston requires to run their offense. Another long term economic problem is that the market for defense trainees is drying up, even for the multi-skilled players the Hippos specialize in.

Head Coach Gliceu Bianco, whose fate is as uncertain as the team's: "I don't think anyone knows what the future holds. It's going to take some time and reflection to sort things out."

Originally Posted by 1-7-2013

(20:20) Hippos Bid Farewell to II.3
As the final seconds ticked off the clock of Sunday's 2-0 win over Maroons, the mood was anything but celebratory. After the bittersweet game, next up for Houston is III.5.

The Hippos will join the Swords, Ferrets, and FC Phooeysticks. Ambitious Vagrants and A bunch o' bananas will be back, pending qualifiers. Coming up from IV will be The Red Devils 20 and a familiar face: Apollos, team of former II.3 seriesmate and long time MLSer, earlgrey_hot.

The tallies for the Hippos in II.3 are 70 (T-5th) games played, 147-155 (-8) goals scored, and 88 (9th) points. Even in their somewhat lackluster time in the series, Houston has cracked the top 10 in the major categories.

The franchise's only previous home in III, for two stints, was III.3, where they still hold the Div III record for games (210), points (401), goals (616), and GD (+278) in a series. III.4's Ferth is getting close with 182/317/567/+142 and Mountain Kings has 308/522/853/+273 if you count the time in III.4 and III.5.

Here are the PAs from season 50. I had fun trying to work 128, 256, or flag into every PA since I said I wouldn't do it last season after finishing my flag collection. However, that rule went by the wayside for the last pair as there were bigger things going on.

SI