Fixture Preview
We're back to competitive games. Similar to the Selma Sumorats game, we have a home game with a team of comparable quality to ourselves. We may be leading the series right now but that's 100% a product of schedule. If we lose this one, we're looking at a 5th/6th place finish.
Also, I'm walking that series/cup tightrope which has burned me so many times in the past (and yet, still, I never learn). My next cup opponent isn't a huge challenge but isn't a giant pushover so, I've made a couple of tactical changes to the lineup; it's nothing major, tho.A huge thing for me is having a divine set pieces guy to go along with my head specialists and quick guys- it makes the little drop in "playing creatively" worth it, in my mind. So, I split up Delcarte and Linneberg, my two divine sp defenders, one for cup and one for series. Linneberg is a little weaker so he'll be playing today as well as the new defense trainees, Gafni and Kavelashvili (still learning to spell that one). That's significant because they don't have formidable playmaking like Cyburt and Heunul, which adds a couple of sublevels to my midfield. This allows me to hang with some of the better midfields out there without paying the wages and/or also allowing me to go with another wing attack rather than a WTM middie. Speaking of which, I'll be running out Sidorczak again today and using Partridge for the cup.
I don't think these will really weaken me as I'm running around with insane team spirit and am at home. I think T Hills will be building up team spirit of his own with a PIC but if he doesn't, I still think we win.
A minor formatting note- vBulletin isn't liking some of what I'm putting in disappearing large chunks of stuff for no reason so I'm testing out some new stuff (like standings from alltid). I hate to break up the consistency but I have to do it.
Kits
Hippopotami 4 – 0 Hills (217931293)
3-2-2009 01.00
Clouds darkened the skies at
The Hippodrome as 68072 spectators turned up for the match. Hippopotami tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players took the field: Özkutay - Gafni, Kavelashvili, Delcarte - Sidorczak, Marsh, Thacker, Quijada, Regúlez - Tetlie, Angulo.
Hills decided to use a 4-5-1 set up. The following players took the field: Wise - Donchev, Česonis, de Bertole, Aragon - Irzykowski, Blackburn, Lacy, Pavón, Eifert - Bãlãnica.
Hippopotami took a creative approach on the field. For their match strategy, Hills had decided to use their ability to counter-attack whenever possible. With 5 minutes played, Hills's
Hueiler de Bertole fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee booked
Hueiler de Bertole for diving. It wasn't a pretty goal, but the free kick by
Chema Delcarte after 6 minutes somehow found its way past the keeper. Hippopotami takes the lead, 1-0!
Zurab Kavelashvili of Hippopotami was booked for kicking the ball away after the whistle. A well placed corner kick from
Chema Delcarte was followed by
Tor Tetlie's hard but accurate header. The nice combination marked a goal for Hippopotami, the score now 2-0. The referee showed Hills's
Marvin Eifert the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge.
Oliver Angulo was the unlucky victim and couldn't continue the game, so Hippopotami's
Volfs Treibahs had to come off the bench. Hippopotami solidified their lead at the 38 minute mark, as
Zurab Kavelashvili manoeuvered the ball through the opposing central defence and finished for 3 - 0. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, Hippopotami's
Zacarías Regúlez got himself booked. 3 - 0 was the halftime score. This half belonged to Hippopotami, who controlled the ball 58 percent of the time.
After an industrious effort down the middle,
Volfs Treibahs could have closed the game off after 47 minutes, but his finishing shot hit the post.
Volfs Treibahs could have put Hippopotami up one more, but he fired into the side netting after breaking free on the left after 49 minutes.
Volfs Treibahs gave Hippopotami supporters even more to cheer about when he increased the lead to 4 - 0 after 58 minutes, following a good exchange of passes on the right that the away team failed to deal with. The structure of the game started to change as Hippopotami decided to pull back and meet their opponents in their own half. 60 minutes into the match,
Chema Delcarte could have extended the lead, but his very hard free kick went just over the bar. The referee showed Hills's
Marcin Irzykowski the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. After 72 minutes Hippopotami's
Itamar Gafni had to be carried off on a stretcher in agony.
Ryan Linneberg came in to replace him. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 56 percent of possession.
Most important Hippopotami player was
Carlos Thacker.
Zurab Kavelashvili on the other hand, had a terrible day. Hills's top performer was clearly
Nate Blackburn. However,
Craig Aragon made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 4 - 0.
Rating details
| Houston Hippopotami | T Hills FC |
| Midfield | brilliant (very low) | excellent (low) |
| Right Defence | excellent (very low) | outstanding (very high) |
| Central Defence | solid (high) | brilliant (very high) |
| Left Defence | inadequate (high) | formidable (very high) |
| Right Attack | passable (very high) | weak (very high) |
| Central Attack | excellent (high) | weak (high) |
| Left Attack | solid (very high) | passable (low) |
| |
| Indirect set pieces |
| Defence | passable (low) | solid (very low) |
| Attack | passable (high) | inadequate (very high) |
| |
| Team Attitude | Normal | (Hidden) |
| Tactic | Play creatively | Counter-attacks |
| Tactic skill | - | formidable |
Highlights
Possession
58%
42%
56%
44%
Series Standings
Table
Fixture Recap
Argh! Can I have one game without horrible injuries. I mean, really, I have 10 physiotherapists and their $1800 a week salary (up from $1000 back in the day) and I'm up to an insane 8 injuries, mostly on the young guys, and 17 "player weeks" of time lost.
Still, a win is a win and we're on that "best case scenario" so far from earlier in the season:
Quote:
- Realistic best case: L/W/W/W/W/L/W D/D/W/W/W/L/W. 30 points which is probably good for 2nd or 3rd. Someone is going to walk away with a 33 or 36 point season since there are 42 on the board, 12 are guaranteed, and there's a lot of team spirit help out there.
- Realistic worst case: L/L/W/W/D/L/W L/L/L/W/W/L/L. That would only net 16 points and either 5th or 6th place.
|
(Is it ok to flashback to earlier in the thread- I've always thought that movies that had to do it were victims of poor writing as if you couldn't emphasize a point enough for the audience to remember something less than 2 hours later, you weren't telling the story well enough)
But that was being generous to me, assuming a couple of draws that I might not get and a more imposing game at T Hills. I'm feeling like that somewhat boring college hoops team in a major conference in a down year. I'm getting to 10-6, beating up on the crappy teams, maybe stealing one good home win, and losing to the good teams in the league. Sure, I'm a lock on selection Sunday but I'm a bit of a paper tiger and will be lucky to make the Sweet 16.
That doesn't win you a series in hattie, especially with the Wahoos drawing Supra on the road. To have any hope of sniffing the series title, I'm going to need to pull a draw at the Bridgemen, win at home vs the Wahoos, and get some help. There are still points on the board that I'm not going to get as I'm going to lose to the Wahoos next week. There are also looming road games at T Hills FC and Selma which will take some careful team spirit manipulation and some luck...
SI