FM2005: European Football is back at Loftus Road!

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

Looks to me like you might want to find a way to get Kalou and Hersi on the field togehter, errr... I mean pitch

It often goes unreported but I sometimes do that late in games, when we're ahead and a striker is more tired than either of the AMC, going to a 2AMC/1SC kind of formation, giving us a bit more people in the middle and less on top...

Using it as a starting formation could be something to try though...

FM
edit: damn timestamps bug...

[KevinNU7]

Looks to me like you might want to find a way to get Kalou and Hersi on the field togehter, errr... I mean pitch

[FrogMan]

April 10, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	8-8-8-8-8	100%	47	-	7.40
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	8-7-8-9-7	96%	33	-	7.24
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	96%	27	1	7.33
DC		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	100%	32 (2)	2	7.29
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	100%	33 (4)	2	7.24
DMC		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-9	100%	12 (17)	1	7.17
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	7-8-7-10-7	94%	35 (8)	4	7.58
ML	PR	Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	95%	29 (8)	2	7.49
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	9-7-9-7-10	94%	19 (6)	8	7.44
FC	Yel	Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-6	95%	39 (4)	20	7.28
FC		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	96%	24 (11)	14	7.14
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Poor	6-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2	Yel	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	91%	42 (2)	3	7.34
S3	PR	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	91%	31 (4)	6	7.20
S4		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-6-7-7-8	97%	13 (19)	4	7.25
S5	PR	Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	7-9-6-6-8	96%	24 (16)	5	7.08
S6		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	7-8-9-7-10	94%	23 (2)	10	7.76
S7		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	93%	22 (9)	12	7.16
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	5 (20)	2	6.96
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	23 (2)	-	7.04
-	Unh	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	100%	10 (10)	8	7.20
-	Ine	Philippe Senderos	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	7	-	6.71

UEFA Cup Quarter Final, leg 2: we play Roma at Loftus Road. They are evens favourites to win this game although we are ahead 2-1 on aggregate goals.

We play Manchester United in the FA Cup Semi Final in 6 days.

Youssouf Hersi is back as the starting AMC as I'd like to keep Bonaventure Kalou for later in the game, given is better ability at handling penalty kicks.

Maxi Lopez is back in the lineup for Roma in this game. Following the experience with Guarín covering Thierry Henry man-to-man, I decide to assign Damiano Zenoni to cover Lopez.

Speaking of Lopez, he's presented as they key man by the TV people. They add that the powerful striker has scored 16 goals in 34 games so far this season. Christian Wilhelmsson is presented as our key man. They also add that this game has draw written all ov er it. With a 2-1 lead on aggregate goals, I could live with a draw today

It's a tight first half with few highlights. Zenoni seems to be doing a good job of covering Lopez but he is injured in the 45th minute after a collision between the two of them. Freddy Guarín takes his place on the pitch.

It's a 0-0 tie at halftime and we're still up 2-1 on aggregate scores. We're outshooting them 6(4) to 4(2). It's dang close!

We keep it close for most of the second half, although they turn on the heat as the half goes on. Their keeper even joins the attack on a corner kick in the 86th minute, but we clear the ball from the area.

One minute into added time, as they keep attacking more and more, one of their strikers hits a low shot that takes a bad deflection off Michael Ball, the weird bounce allowing it to fin the back of the net. Down 0-1 on the game, tied 2-2 on aggregate (2-1 on away goals)

Too bad for Roma, it was too little, too late...

Final Score: Q.P.R. 0, Roma 1 (2-2 on aggregate, 2-1 on away goals)

And with it, we're through on away goals, WEEE!!! They did outshot us 16(8) to 11(7), after pulling an amazing second half. I didn't have a super defensive tactic, but they did put the heat on us.

Their keeper was selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 9. On our side, Simon Jentzsch, Abubakari Yakubu, Christian Wilhelmsson, and Fabrice Fernandes all rated at 8.

We've been given $600k for the win and we're through to the Semi Final in which we will play Spanish side Valencia. They are in 10th place in Spain but just beat Betis in their Quarter Final. Leg 1 will be played on their pitch on April 24 and leg2 will be at Loftus Road on May 1st.

Charlton dropped the ball on their Quarter Final, losing leg 2, 0-3, with it losing the two game series 2-4 on aggregate goals.


FM

[FrogMan]

April 11, 2008
Bah, Pascal Cygan twisted his knee in training today. He will miss one week. I say bah because I'm asking my players to rest the day after a match and last I checked, Cygan the damn whole 90 minutes yesterday... grrrr

April 12, 2008
Some EPL games are played today. Of interest to us, #6 Blackburn beat #7 Fulham, 2-0, and #5 Arsenal drew 1-1 with #8 Manchester City.

Pos	Inf	Team		Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st		Man Utd		34	24	5	5	72	27	+45	77
2nd		Chelsea		33	21	5	7	76	43	+33	68
3rd		Liverpool		33	20	7	6	49	25	+24	67
4th		Q.P.R.		33	18	9	6	62	35	+27	63
5th		Blackburn		34	14	12	8	41	32	+9	54
6th		Arsenal		34	15	8	11	60	42	+18	53
7th		Fulham		34	15	6	13	50	50	0	51
8th		Man City		34	11	17	6	42	31	+11	50
9th		Birmingham		34	13	9	12	42	35	+7	48
10th		Southampton		33	12	10	11	41	37	+4	46
11th		Charlton		33	13	5	15	32	41	-9	44
12th		Tottenham		34	11	9	14	32	44	-12	42
13th		Middlesbrough		34	10	11	13	41	47	-6	41
14th		Aston Villa		33	10	10	13	36	46	-10	40
15th		Nottm Forest		33	10	7	16	35	54	-19	37
16th		Portsmouth		34	8	12	14	36	52	-16	36
17th		Newcastle		33	8	8	17	42	51	-9	32
18th		Wolves		33	6	14	13	30	42	-12	32
19th		Leeds		33	6	7	20	30	58	-28	25
20th	R	Cardiff		34	2	5	27	21	78	-57	11

With Blackburn now in 5th place, 9 points behind with 4 games to play for them (12 points) our magic number for 4th place is now 3 tiny points!

April 13, 2008
The first FA Cup Semi Final is played and Chelsea assure themselves of a place in the Final by beating title holders Southampton 3-1 at Wembley. We play Manchester United in the other Semi Final in three days...


FM

[FrogMan]

April 16, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	8-8-8-8-8	100%	48	-	7.42
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-8-9-7-7	99%	34	-	7.24
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	99%	28	1	7.32
DC	Yel	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-8-8-7-8	100%	33 (2)	2	7.31
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	98%	42 (2)	3	7.34
DMC		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	31 (5)	6	7.19
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	8-7-10-7-8	97%	36 (8)	4	7.59
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	99%	30 (8)	2	7.50
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	8-9-7-10-7	96%	23 (3)	10	7.73
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	98%	40 (4)	20	7.27
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	22 (9)	12	7.16
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Poor	6-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-9-7	99%	13 (17)	1	7.17
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-6-7-7-8	100%	13 (19)	4	7.25
S4		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	9-6-6-8-7	100%	24 (17)	5	7.07
S5		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-9-7-10-7	98%	20 (6)	8	7.42
-	Inj	Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	70%	34 (4)	2	7.24
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	5 (20)	2	6.96
-		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	96%	25 (11)	14	7.14
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	23 (2)	-	7.04
-	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	100%	10 (10)	8	7.20
-	Cup	Philippe Senderos	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	7	-	6.71

FA Cup Semi Final: we play Manchester United at Wembley Stadium. They'Re first in the EPL, kinda close to clinching the title. They beat Liverpool 1-0 in a very close game to get to this Semi Final.

My nemesis, Ruud Van Nistelrooy is injured and thus is out for this game.

Philippe Senderos is again cup-tied and Pascal Cygan is injured. This means that need for a rest or not, Danny Shittu has to start.

I ask Bonaventure Kalou to free role in the midfield.

Man U show a 4-4-1-1 formation to start the game.

We start the game with a roar, a nightmare start for Man U, as we take the lead only 2:12 into the game. After Abubakari Yakubu had sent a long pass down the right sideline, Christian Wilhelmsson took the ball all the way to the byline only to center it to the 6 yard box where it took a diving header from Güiza to take Tim Howard off-guard. Up 1-0!

We cooled off considerably after that hot start and we see them tie it in the 45th minute, on a long range bending shot. We'd looked kinda bad for the last 10-15 minute while they were red hot, putting all kinds of pressure on our back four. Tied 1-1.

That's the halftime score. Although they are barely outshooting us 8(4) to 7(4), all of our shots came in an early spurt.

Fabrice Fernandes' condition has dipped to 69%, thanks to a collision with an opponent early on in the game. I replace him with Peter Lovenkrands.

Manu U go to a 4-3-3 formation only a couple minutes into the second half.

That formation leaves them a bit prone to counter attacks and we pounce on the opportunity in the 50th minute. Cristiano Lucarelli, standing on the line of defenders, pushed the ball forward for Bonaventure Kalou who's all alone with Tim Howard. Kalou does however push the ball bit too much forward and for a moment, Howard looks certain to latch onto it, until Kalou goes with a surge forward and frees it. He's left with an empty net in front of him. Up 2-1!

But DAMN! We let them back in the game in the 56th minute as they are really proving to be too much to handle for us. They score on a shot from just inside our penalty area.

Simon Jentzsch saved the tie in the 90th minute on a one on one against Louis Saha, as he tipped his shot to a corner, then had another monster save on the ensuing corner.

I got all nervous as a saw Wayne Rooney getting a run to a one on one a couple minutes later but we were saved by the final whistle...

The game is tied 2-2 after 90 minutes and we're heading for extra time. They are now outshooting us 22(12) to 9(6) What more proof do you want that they were too much to handle...

There are guys tired on both sides of the pitch already. For us, Kalou is at 68% and Lucarelli is at 69%. For them, Darren Fletcher is at 61%, as is the guy that scored their two goals, Hitzlp... Saha is at 65%, Rooney at 68% and Mista is at 69%.

Hot darn, it's just too easy for them! Down the right, a couple of passes and they score in the 100th minute. Down 2-3.

I push the guys up but we get to the half of extra time down 2-3. They're outshooting us 23(13) to 11(7). Just one shot was needed...

We're playing all out in a 3-1-4-2 formation right now. That's 4AMCs and 2SCs. Do or die baby...

And well, it's more die than do. We can't seem to get close to their goal and they add to their lead in the 117th minute.

I had decided to watch that second half of extra time on full and that was painful. They kept shutting us down and kicking the ball away as soon as we got any closer to their goal...

Final Score: Q.P.R. 2, Manchester United 4.

They outshot us 24(14) to 13(8) on the game

As I'd expected, I'm told that Danny Shittu needs to rest. Fabrice Fernandes suffered a chest injury and will miss 5 days.

And with the loss, we're out of the FA Cup. Still not bad, but I still hate losing... But dang, that was a big morale hit! Come on guys, keep your heads up, this season is far from over!!!

FM

[FrogMan]

April 17, 2008
aww crap, another player who's supposed to be resting gets injured while training... Freddy Guarín played 87 minutes yesterday and yet, he suffered a damaged shoulder in training today. He'll miss one week...

April 19, 2008
I've been very quiet on the Bosman transfer market so far and that's mostly because we will keep most of our starting eleven intact next year. Yeah, Grzegorz Rasiak and Martin Rowlands should be gone, but they're not big names anymore. The only big name that we will lose is Tomas Locatelli and I'm not so sure I need to replace him specifically. Looking at who is still not signed, I see a name I once saw when we played Dutch side Feyenoord and that is the name of 29yo Polish striker Andrzej Niedzielan. The dude is valued at $9.4 and is a goal scoring machine, thanks to a world class ability to finish balls (20) but also with some pace (15) and acceleration (17) to boot. In our two leg series with Feyenoord, he scored their two goals... He's looking for a contract with wages around $62k per week with a signing on fee of $1M while my assistant believe he would only be a fringe player on our club and recommends to limit our offer to $48k per week. I decide to take a shot at it while siding with my assistant and I offer Niedzielan $50k per week with his requested $1M in signing fee. I also upped his required minimu release clause from $14M to $18M.

Some EPL games are played today. #5 Blackburn won 4-1 over #14 Middlesbrough while #2 Chelsea drew 1-1 against #15 Nottm Forest. This leaves us 6 points off Chelsea with 5 games to play for us and a game on hand over them.

Pos	Inf	Team		Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st		Man Utd		34	24	5	5	72	27	+45	77
2nd		Chelsea		34	21	6	7	77	44	+33	69
3rd		Liverpool		33	20	7	6	49	25	+24	67
4th		Q.P.R.		33	18	9	6	62	35	+27	63
5th		Blackburn		35	15	12	8	45	33	+12	57
6th		Arsenal		34	15	8	11	60	42	+18	53
7th		Fulham		35	15	7	13	51	51	0	52
8th		Man City		35	11	17	7	42	32	+10	50
9th		Birmingham		35	13	10	12	43	36	+7	49
10th		Southampton		34	13	10	11	42	37	+5	49
11th		Charlton		35	13	6	16	34	47	-13	45
12th		Aston Villa		35	11	11	13	39	47	-8	44
13th		Tottenham		34	11	9	14	32	44	-12	42
14th		Middlesbrough		35	10	11	14	42	51	-9	41
15th		Wolves		35	8	14	13	38	44	-6	38
16th		Nottm Forest		35	10	8	17	36	57	-21	38
17th		Portsmouth		35	8	13	14	37	53	-16	37
18th		Newcastle		35	9	9	17	44	52	-8	36
19th	R	Leeds		35	6	7	22	31	62	-31	25
20th	R	Cardiff		34	2	5	27	21	78	-57	11

Leeds lost 1-3 against Wolves and as a result have clinched relegation to the Championship.

April 20, 2008
Some more EPL games are played. #3 Liverpool were able to scratch a home draw, 0-0, against table toppers Manchester United while #6 Arsenal won 2-1 over Tottenham. The Liverpool draw put us 5 points away from them although we do have a game on hand. Arsenal remain in 6th even with the win.


FM

[FrogMan]

April 21, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Good	8-8-8-8-7	100%	49	-	7.41
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Okay	8-9-7-7-6	96%	35	-	7.20
DL		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	23 (2)	-	7.04
DC	Yel	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Okay	8-8-7-8-7	96%	34 (2)	2	7.31
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	7	-	6.71
DMC		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Good	7-7-9-7-7	98%	13 (18)	1	7.16
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Good	7-10-7-8-7	97%	37 (8)	4	7.58
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Very Good	6-6-8-7-7	96%	24 (18)	5	7.07
AMC		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	100%	25 (11)	14	7.14
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Very Good	7-7-6-7-7	95%	41 (4)	20	7.27
FC		Güiza	S C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	96%	23 (9)	13	7.16
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Poor	6-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Poor	7-7-7-7-6	97%	29	1	7.28
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Very Good	6-7-7-8-7	94%	13 (20)	4	7.24
S4	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	5 (20)	2	6.96
S5	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	100%	10 (10)	8	7.20
-		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	78%	34 (4)	2	7.24
-		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	79%	31 (8)	2	7.49
-	Inj	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	63%	32 (5)	6	7.19
-		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-9-7-10-7	100%	20 (6)	8	7.42
-		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Very Good	9-7-10-7-8	91%	24 (3)	11	7.74
-		Danny Shittu	D C	Okay	7-8-7-7-6	92%	43 (2)	3	7.31

League Match #34: we play Cardiff at Loftus Road. They have already clinched not only relegation to the Championship, but sole possession of the 20th and last place in the EPL. This has been a tough season for them as they were clearly not up to par with the play level in the EPL. On bright thing for them, they have won their only 2 games this season in the last 5 games... We're 5-4 favourites to win this game.

Philippe Senderos is back in our lineup. We play Valencia in the first leg of our UEFA Cup Semi Final in 3 days.

This game is on TV, mostly because Cardiff and Q.P.R. are long time rivals... They present Christian Wilhelmsson as our key man and Stephen Hughes as theirs. They say that the midfielder has the ability to pull the strings from midfield if given the opportunity. They add that Cardiff find it difficult on their travels (and in most every game I should add) and that they can't see that changing in this game. They take Q.P.R. with a home win.

Damiano Zenoni plays a corner short to Peter Lovenkrands in the 18th minute. Lovenkrands centers it to the 6 yard box where tall boy Philippe Senderos jumps over a crowd of players and heads it in for his first ever goal as a Ranger. Up 1-0!

A nice cross goes Güiza's way to the center/left in the 28th minute and leaves him all alone with the keeper. The keeper rushes out and closes the angles before Güiza is able to find a hole and his kick is blocked. The keeper did leave a long rebound which Cristiano Lucarelli was only so happy to put in an empty net... Up 2-0!

That is the halftime score and we're outshooting them 5(4) to nothing. We're winning possession with 58%.

The second half goes scoreless although we clearly dominated the half.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 2, Cardiff 0

We outshot them 9(6) to 2(0) on the game, quietly on our way to the win.

Steve Finnan, Philippe Senderos, Christian Wilhelmsson, and Peter Lovenkrands all had good games, all rating at 8. It was Senderos' first game rated higher than 7. He won 10 of 13 headers on the game.

We remain in 4th place but are now only 2 points off Liverpool and 3 points off Chelsea. I now realize I forgot to save the table but I got some calculations on paper here We have 66 points at this point with 4 games left. Blackburn is in 5th place with 57 point and three games left, so they can only tie us in points but their goal differential is really not as good as ours. Arsenal is one point below Blackburn with also 3 games left to play. This means we have clinched a top 4 finish, i.e. we're in the Champions League next season!!!


FM

[FrogMan]

April 23, 2008
Ahhh, those two news headers again...

"Niedzielan rejects Feyenoord offer"
"Niedzielan accepts Q.P.R. offer"



He admitted that the chance to show his talent in European Competition influenced his decision. I guess he believes we have better prospects of going further than Feyenoord, because they were in the Champions League to start the season... You can see his profile by clicking the thumbnail below and as I said before, he's got a lot to love...


Take a look at his yearly stats for the last three seasons, not too shabby either...

Year	Team	Division	Info	Apps	Gls	Asts	MoM	Av R
2007-08	Feyenoord	Premier Division		40	18	6	5	7.47
2006-07	Feyenoord	Premier Division		38	17	2	4	7.50
2005-06	Feyenoord	Premier Division		41	11	2	1	7.59
2004-05	Feyenoord	Premier Division	$9.2M	-	-	-	-	----

As I said, he seems to be a natural at putting the ball past the keeper and that is always something that is very welcomed. Here are his stats for the current season.

Statistics	Apps	Gls	Asts	MoM	Yel	Red	Tck	Pass	Sh Tar	Fouls	Fls Ag	Av R
Non Competitive	2	1	0	0	0	0	-	71 %	33 %	-	-	8.00
League	28	11	3	2	1	0	0.07	70 %	48 %	11	7	7.43
Cup	2	1	0	0	2	0	1.29	67 %	100 %	4	4	7.50
Continental	10	6	3	3	2	0	0.80	86 %	62 %	16	19	7.60
International	6 (1)	1	2	0	0	0	0.68	80 %	52 %	6	10	7.00
Overall	40	18	6	5	5	0	0.32	72 %	52 %	31	30	7.47

There's one bummer though. His contract runs through July 31st, so he will only join us on August 1st, leaving him with almost no time to get in game shape and to get acquainted with everyone. I'll simply bring him along slowly...

The leg 1 of the Champions League Semi Finals are played today. Arsenal drew 1-1 at home against Real Madrid while Chelsea also drew, them 0-0 on the road against Milan. Arsenal could very well be in the same situation that Liverpool were at the end of the 2004-05 season (real life) as they can'T do better than 5th place in the EPL...

FM

[FrogMan]

April 24, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	8-8-8-7-7	100%	50	-	7.40
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	9-7-7-6-8	95%	36	-	7.22
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Poor	7-7-7-7-6	100%	29	1	7.28
DC		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	98%	35 (2)	2	7.30
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	92%	34 (4)	2	7.24
DMC		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-9-7-7-7	93%	14 (18)	1	7.16
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	10-7-8-7-8	94%	38 (8)	4	7.59
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	92%	31 (8)	2	7.49
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Very Good	9-7-10-7-8	95%	24 (3)	11	7.74
FC	Yel	Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-6-7-7-7	95%	42 (4)	21	7.26
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	94%	24 (9)	13	7.15
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Poor	6-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2	Yel	Danny Shittu	D C	Okay	7-8-7-7-6	95%	43 (2)	3	7.31
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	94%	13 (21)	4	7.24
S4	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	92%	5 (21)	2	6.96
S5		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	6-8-7-7-8	94%	25 (18)	5	7.09
S6		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-9-7-10-7	100%	20 (6)	8	7.42
S7	Unh	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	95%	10 (11)	8	7.19
-	Inj	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	60%	32 (5)	6	7.19
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	94%	24 (2)	-	7.04
-	Ine	Philippe Senderos	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	94%	8	1	6.88
-		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	92%	26 (11)	14	7.14

UEFA Cup Semi Final, leg 1: we play Spanish side Valencia. They are currently 8th in La Liga and are 4-5 favourites to win this game. They did beat Betis 5-3 on penalty kicks after drawing 2-2 on aggregate goals on two 1-1 games.

They have a left fullback who is injured as well as their sole striker in the 4-3-2-1 formation that they played in their last match.

The other Semi Final is all Germany, opposing FC Bayern to HSV.

We play Newcastle in 3 days.

This game is on TV and they present worldclass goalkeeper Tim Wiese as Valencia's key man saying that his team-mates can be confident of not conceding too many with him in goal. Christian Wilhelmsson is presented as our key man. For prediction, they say they can't look past Valencia in this one. They apparently have enough quality to see off the challenge of Q.P.R...

They indeed show a 4-3-2-1 formation to start this game but they don't even dress the striker I thought they were going to, going with one I feel is much less dangerous. They also start an MC whose condition is at 77% to start the game...

We take an early lead, after only 4 minutes, when Güiza bends a fabulous strike from 25 yards out, converting a pass from Bonaventure Kalou into a 1-0 lead!

We don't back off and we keep on attacking and we double our lead only 7 minutes later when Kalou finds Cristiano Lucarelli. They let him get to the keeper whom he beats to his right for the 2-0 goal! Woah, at that point we were outshooting them 4(4) to 1(1).

I've never heard such an hostile crowd, they are booing us like there is no tomorrow. And we give them more reasons to in the 26th minute when Kalou plays an excellent ball in between two defenders to Güiza on the left. He bends another long one that find its way for a beautiful top corner goal! His second of the game and 15th of the season! Up 3-0!

And guess what, we add to our lead only 7 minutes later when Güiza completes his hat-trick on a lovely pass, again from Kalou. That's Güiza's 50th goal as a Ranger and a 4th assist for Kalou in the game!!! Up 4-0 after 33 minutes!

That's the halftime score and we're outshooting them 12(9) to 4(3). Woo, just wow!

Wow, this is getting out of control. That referee's gonna need the police to get out of the stadium. Güiza centers a ball to the 6 yard box in the 55th minute, a defender backs into Lucarelli, the referee points to the spot! PENALTY!!! A defender comes and pushes Lucarelli in the chest, a yellow card for him! I'm gonna tell the guys to back off and go easy on their tackles for the rest of the game... Damiano Zenoni scores on the penalty to make it 5-0!

They take one back in the 67th minute, as the ball appears to be deflected not one but twice. Now up 5-1!

They keep attacking but we're denying them of any quality shots and in the 78th minute, after stopping one of their attacks, we cleared the area with a long ball out. Peter Lovenkrands got on to it and took a shot from an angle. In off the post, top corner!!! Up 6-1!

Final Score: Q.P.R. 6, Valencia 1

Wow, again just WOW! I'm not too sure what to say about that worldclass keeper, but he let in 6 on 11 shots on target although it may be a case of us playing over our heads and them taking us for granted, given that we're sort of unknown on the European stage... Anyway, we outshot them 16(11) to 11(6) on the game,

Every starter rated at 8 or better with Güiza getting the Man of the Match selection with 3 goals and a rating of 10. Bonaventure Kalou also rated at 10 with 4 assists. Damiano Zenoni rated at 9.

FC Bayern won their first leg 2-0 over HSV.

I learn that Cristiano Lucarelli has now collected three yellows in the cup and because of that will be banned for on match. Assuming that the 6-1 lead on aggregate goals is enough to see us through to the final, he'll be back with us then.


FM

[FrogMan]

April 26, 2008
Some EPL games are played today. Liverpool drew 1-1 with Arsenal, leaving us only three points behind them and we have a game on hand over them, with a better goal differential, nothing's over!

Pos	Inf	Team		Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st		Man Utd		36	25	6	5	77	27	+50	81
2nd		Chelsea		34	21	6	7	77	44	+33	69
3rd		Liverpool		35	20	9	6	50	26	+24	69
4th		Q.P.R.		34	19	9	6	64	35	+29	66
5th		Blackburn		36	16	12	8	47	34	+13	60
6th		Arsenal		36	16	9	11	63	44	+19	57
7th		Southampton		35	14	10	11	46	37	+9	52
8th		Fulham		35	15	7	13	51	51	0	52
9th		Man City		36	11	18	7	43	33	+10	51
10th		Birmingham		35	13	10	12	43	36	+7	49
11th		Charlton		36	14	6	16	37	47	-10	48
12th		Aston Villa		36	11	12	13	40	48	-8	45
13th		Middlesbrough		36	10	12	14	43	52	-9	42
14th		Tottenham		36	11	9	16	33	50	-17	42
15th		Wolves		35	8	14	13	38	44	-6	38
16th		Nottm Forest		36	10	8	18	36	62	-26	38
17th		Portsmouth		36	8	13	15	38	55	-17	37
18th		Newcastle		35	9	9	17	44	52	-8	36
19th	R	Leeds		36	6	7	23	31	65	-34	25
20th	R	Cardiff		36	2	6	28	22	81	-59	12

Among other news, both Bolton and Norwich have clinched promotion to the EPL.

[KevinNU7]

What's the remaining schedule for Chelsea and Pool?

[daedalus]

Nice win against Valencia!

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Nice win against Valencia!

Thanks, very surprising though. As if a mid-table team in La Liga simply thought "who are these clowns, Rangers of the Park of the Queens?" and didn'T play their best players...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

What's the remaining schedule for Chelsea and Pool?

Chelsea's last 4 games:
(H) Fulham
(A) Middlsebrough
(H) Liverpool
(H) Blackwell

Liverpool's last 3 games:
(H) Southampton
(A) Cheslea
(A) Cardiff

Q.P.R.'s last 4 games:
(A) Newcastle
(H) Wolves
(A) Southampton
(A) Charlton

But you need to add to that mix that we're stil in the UEFA Cup, possibly to the final and Chelsea are still in the Champions league AND the FA Cup while Liverpool only have these three league games to play...

FM

[FrogMan]

April 27, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	8-8-7-7-8	100%	51	-	7.41
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-7-6-8-8	95%	37	-	7.24
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-6-8	95%	30	1	7.30
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	99%	8	1	6.88
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	94%	35 (4)	2	7.26
DMC		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	9-7-7-7-9	93%	15 (18)	2	7.21
MR		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	98%	13 (21)	4	7.24
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	99%	25 (19)	6	7.09
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-9-7-10-7	100%	20 (6)	8	7.42
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	6-7-7-7-8	91%	43 (4)	22	7.28
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-8-7-7-10	95%	25 (9)	16	7.24
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Poor	6-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2	Yel	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	95%	36 (2)	2	7.32
S3		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	7-8-7-8-8	92%	39 (8)	4	7.60
S4		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	92%	32 (8)	2	7.50
S5		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	98%	26 (11)	14	7.14
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	5 (21)	2	6.96
-		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	7-10-7-8-10	89%	25 (3)	11	7.82
-		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-7-6-7	99%	43 (3)	3	7.30
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	99%	24 (2)	-	7.04
-	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	94%	10 (12)	8	7.18
-		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	69%	32 (5)	6	7.19

League Match #35: we play Newcastle on their pitch. They are currently in 18th place, fighting real hard to avoid relegation. They did finish 8th last season after not finishing out of the top 10 since 2001/02. They are 5-4 favourites to win this game.

The other game of interest to us today is #2 Chelsea hosting #8 Fulham.

I switched out wingers and AMC for this game but I can't help but see that they are much more rested than we are. This has been a rough stretch to end the season.

They're attacking hard early on and we catch a break when an apparent goal is disallowed to them for a push in the 13th minute.

Well, that break didn't do any good to us as we turn over the ensuing free kick and a striker comes into our area. Michael Ball takes him down... PENALTY!!! Yakubu (their striker, not our defender) scores to make it 0-1. Holy moly! 14 minutes into the game, we got 4 rated at 5: Finnan, Senderos, Lovenkrands, Lucarelli. COME ON GUYS!!!

They head a corner in to make it 0-2 in the 37th minute. It's that dang Yakubu again with his 20th of the season and 2nd of the game. He's always played well against him and I hate him for that.

We're down 0-2 at the half, also being outshot 14(9) to 4(3). A frigging ugly half of football for us. We're getting manhandled!

We put some pressure early in the second half and this time it's Cristiano Lucarelli's turn to have a goal disallowed in the 56th minute. They say he was offside but I call bullshit on that one.

We're indeed putting a bit more pressure but when we're not getting a goal disallowed, Shay Given is simply a wall in front of their goal...

In the 68th minute, they add to their lead with a crazy strike off the post from 25yds out. We were down to 10 men in the pitch as Steve Finnan was on the sideline for treatment... Down 0-3, bleh!

Final Score: Q.P.R. 0, Newcastle 0

Talk about a major chokejob with the season on the line! They outshot us 20(11) to 11(7).

We're now a solid 3 points behind Liverpool and with Chelsea's 3-1 win over Fulham, we're now 6 points behind them and second place, with 3 games to play.

Pos	Inf	Team		Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st		Man Utd		36	25	6	5	77	27	+50	81
2nd		Chelsea		35	22	6	7	80	45	+35	72
3rd		Liverpool		35	20	9	6	50	26	+24	69
4th		Q.P.R.		35	19	9	7	64	38	+26	66
5th		Blackburn		36	16	12	8	47	34	+13	60
6th		Arsenal		36	16	9	11	63	44	+19	57
7th		Southampton		35	14	10	11	46	37	+9	52
8th		Birmingham		36	14	10	12	46	38	+8	52
9th		Fulham		36	15	7	14	52	54	-2	52
10th		Man City		36	11	18	7	43	33	+10	51
11th		Charlton		36	14	6	16	37	47	-10	48
12th		Aston Villa		36	11	12	13	40	48	-8	45
13th		Middlesbrough		36	10	12	14	43	52	-9	42
14th		Tottenham		36	11	9	16	33	50	-17	42
15th		Newcastle		36	10	9	17	47	52	-5	39
16th		Wolves		36	8	14	14	40	47	-7	38
17th		Nottm Forest		36	10	8	18	36	62	-26	38
18th		Portsmouth		36	8	13	15	38	55	-17	37
19th	R	Leeds		36	6	7	23	31	65	-34	25
20th	R	Cardiff		36	2	6	28	22	81	-59	12

FM

[FrogMan]

April 30, 2008
The second legs of the Champions League Semi Finals are played today. Starting at an even 0-0 score atfer leg 1, Chelsea qualified for the final by beating Milan 3-0 in the second leg, giving them a 3-0 aggregate score win. Arsenal were also tied with their opponents Real Madrid, 1-1 after leg 1, and they went to beat Real Madrid 2-0 on the road. The Final of the Champions League will pit two England clubs in Chelsea and Arsenal!

May 1st, 2008
The board is still delighted with my work.

Scott Donnelly ends in 3rd place for the EPL Young Player of the Month award. He had ratings of 8, 7, and 7 in the month.


FM

[NoSkillz]

Great recap of the Valencia game. Enthralling stuff!

And congrats on getting into the Champions League!!!

[FrogMan]

May 1, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Good	8-7-7-8-7	100%	52	-	7.40
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-6-8-8-7	96%	38	-	7.24
DL		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	24 (2)	-	7.04
DC		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Good	8-7-7-8-7	94%	36 (3)	2	7.31
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Very Good	7-8-7-8-7	94%	36 (4)	2	7.25
DMC		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Good	7-7-7-9-7	94%	16 (18)	2	7.21
MR		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	94%	14 (21)	4	7.23
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	99%	32 (8)	2	7.50
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	7-10-7-8-10	94%	25 (3)	11	7.82
FC		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	95%	26 (12)	14	7.13
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	8-7-7-10-7	96%	26 (9)	16	7.23
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Poor	6-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2	Yel	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-7-6-7	100%	43 (3)	3	7.30
S3		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	91%	32 (5)	6	7.19
S4		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	92%	26 (19)	6	7.09
S5	Yel	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Very Good	8-7-8-8-7	94%	39 (9)	4	7.58
S6		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	9-7-10-7-7	93%	21 (6)	8	7.41
S7	Unh	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	99%	10 (12)	8	7.18
-		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-6-8-7	95%	31	1	7.29
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	5 (21)	2	6.96
-	Sus	Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Good	7-7-7-8-7	92%	44 (4)	22	7.27
-	Ine	Philippe Senderos	D C	Okay	7-7-7-8-7	94%	9	1	6.89

UEFA Cup Semi Final, leg 2: we play Valencia at Loftus Road. We got a strong 6-1 lead after leg 1 so I will play this game very conservatively. They are 4-5 favourites to win this game.

Cristiano Lucarelli is suspended for this. I will also try to keep Danny Shittu and Christian Wilhelmsson out of this game since they are both one yellow from being banned for a match. Wouldn't want to lose either of them if we do indeed qualify for the Final...

This game is on TV and they present Bonaventure Kalou as our key man, saying the flamboyant forward has scored 11 goals in 28 games so far this season. Valencia's key man is again world class keeper Tim wiese but we know what that gave them last time around They say they just can't separate the two side and that this goes as a draw in their book.

It's another slow start for us and these are getting me worried.

They take one in the 14th minute when the striker I thought they'd start in leg 1 scores on a fabulous strike. Down 0-1 on the game, still up 6-2 on aggregate scores. After that goal, Juanfran, Scott Donnelly, Bonaventure Kalou and Güiza are all rated at 5. GRRRRR!

We take that goal back only 4 minutes later, following a great sequences of passes on the left, from Fabrice Fernandes to Güiza and back to Fernandes who crosses it to Scott Donnelly. Donnelly finds the back of the net with a nice kick from 25 yards out. That's his 5th goal of the season. Tied 1-1 on the game, up 7-2 on aggregate.

They keep attacking and in the 24th minute, a long pass is played over Juanfran's head. That pass leaves a striker alone with Simon Jentzsch and Jentzsch plays the rush out very poorly, leaving an empty goal to the striker. Down 1-2, still up 7-3 on aggregate.

Dang, they add another one only 4 minutes later on another shot from long range! We're now down 1-3 on the game, up 7-4 on aggregate.

That's the halftime score and they're outshooting us 10(5) to 6(4) at that point. We kinda stopped the bleeding but they're getting too close for comfort. Güiza at 5 and Jentzsch at 6 are now the only players rated below 7 so we sort of took control of our nerves...

We control the game much much more in the second half as we shut them down and go on to win the 2 leg series...

Final Score: Q.P.R. 1, Valencia 3 (7-4 on aggregate)

They outshot us 14(6) to 7(5) on the game and while it wasn't as pretty as it could have been, we're through to the UEFA CUP FINAL!!!!

No player rated above 7 but only Jentzsch, at 6, rated below 7.

In the other Semi Final, FC Bayern built on the 2-0 lead they had going into the second leg against HSV and even though HSV managed a 3-2 win in the second leg, FC Bayern is through to the Final on a 4-3 win on aggregate goals.

We've been given $1.25M for the win and we'll play the Final on May 14th against FC Bayern at Stadion FK Partizan.

FC Bayern are currently in 4th place of the Bundesliga and have finished in that spot for the last 3 seasons.


FM

[FrogMan]

May 3, 2008
Some EPL games are played. #3 Liverpool won 3-0 over #7 Southampton while #2 Chelsea won 3-1 over #13 Middlesbrough. This means that we're now 9 points off Chelsea with exactly three games to play. With their excellent goal differential, this means that we're now out of auto-qualification into the Champions League group stage.

Pos	Inf	Team		Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	C	Man Utd		37	26	6	5	78	27	+51	84
2nd		Chelsea		36	23	6	7	83	46	+37	75
3rd		Liverpool		36	21	9	6	53	26	+27	72
4th		Q.P.R.		35	19	9	7	64	38	+26	66
5th		Arsenal		37	17	9	11	65	45	+20	60
6th		Blackburn		36	16	12	8	47	34	+13	60
7th		Birmingham		37	14	11	12	47	39	+8	53
8th		Southampton		36	14	10	12	46	40	+6	52
9th		Fulham		37	15	7	15	52	55	-3	52
10th		Man City		36	11	18	7	43	33	+10	51
11th		Charlton		37	14	7	16	38	48	-10	49
12th		Aston Villa		36	11	12	13	40	48	-8	45
13th		Middlesbrough		37	10	12	15	44	55	-11	42
14th		Tottenham		36	11	9	16	33	50	-17	42
15th		Newcastle		36	10	9	17	47	52	-5	39
16th		Wolves		36	8	14	14	40	47	-7	38
17th		Portsmouth		37	8	14	15	39	56	-17	38
18th		Nottm Forest		37	10	8	19	37	64	-27	38
19th	R	Leeds		37	6	8	23	32	66	-34	26
20th	R	Cardiff		36	2	6	28	22	81	-59	12

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by NoSkillz

Great recap of the Valencia game. Enthralling stuff!

And congrats on getting into the Champions League!!!

thanks, hope you'll like the report for leg 2 just as much...

FM

[daedalus]

Congrats on getting into the final! Now you just have to win it and do a Mourinho (he won the UEFA Cup with Porto one year then the Champion's League the following).

[FrogMan]

May 4, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Very Poor	7-7-8-7-6	100%	53	-	7.38
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	6-8-8-7-7	95%	39	-	7.23
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-6-8-7	99%	31	1	7.29
DC	Yel	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Good	7-7-8-7-7	95%	37 (3)	2	7.30
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Okay	7-7-7-8-7	99%	9	1	6.89
DMC		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	92%	32 (6)	6	7.18
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Very Good	8-7-8-8-7	99%	39 (9)	4	7.58
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	97%	26 (20)	6	7.09
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-10-7-7-7	98%	21 (7)	8	7.39
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Good	7-7-7-8-7	98%	44 (4)	22	7.27
FC		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	95%	27 (12)	14	7.13
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Poor	6-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-7-6-7	100%	43 (3)	3	7.30
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Good	8-7-7-7-7	90%	15 (21)	5	7.22
S4		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	94%	33 (8)	2	7.49
S5		Güiza	S C	Okay	7-7-10-7-7	93%	27 (9)	16	7.22
-		Pascal Cygan	D C	Okay	8-7-8-7-7	94%	37 (4)	2	7.24
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	5 (21)	2	6.96
-		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	10-7-8-10-7	90%	26 (3)	11	7.79
-		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-7-9-7-7	93%	17 (18)	2	7.20
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	25 (2)	-	7.04
-	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	10 (12)	8	7.18

League Match #36: we play Wolves at Loftus Road. This is our last home game of the season and we're evens favourites to win it.

In the 18th minute, the referee whistles as the ball appears to be headed away on a center from Christian Wilhelmsson to Youssouf Hersi. The ref points the spot! PENALTY!!! They say it's a dubious decision, but who cares?!? Freddy Guarín scores to make it 1-0!

That was a close half and it ends on that score. We're outshooting them but barely, 5(3) to 4(2).

The second half is just as close but we hold them off for the win...

Final Score: Q.P.R. 1, Wolves 0

We outshot them 16(10) to 8(5) in a close, sometimes boring game.

Simon Jentzsch, Abubakari Yakubu, Christian Wilhelmsson, and Youssouf Hersi all rated at 8. It was good to see Jentzsh bounce back after a pretty ordinary performance against Valencia. Wilhelmsson had 10 runs past opponents and Yakubu won 10 of 11 headers.

We stay within 3 points of Liverpool with the win.

Pos	Inf	Team		Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	C	Man Utd		37	26	6	5	78	27	+51	84
2nd		Chelsea		36	23	6	7	83	46	+37	75
3rd		Liverpool		36	21	9	6	53	26	+27	72
4th		Q.P.R.		36	20	9	7	65	38	+27	69
5th		Arsenal		37	17	9	11	65	45	+20	60
6th		Blackburn		36	16	12	8	47	34	+13	60
7th		Birmingham		37	14	11	12	47	39	+8	53
8th		Man City		37	11	19	7	44	34	+10	52
9th		Southampton		36	14	10	12	46	40	+6	52
10th		Fulham		37	15	7	15	52	55	-3	52
11th		Charlton		37	14	7	16	38	48	-10	49
12th		Aston Villa		36	11	12	13	40	48	-8	45
13th		Tottenham		37	12	9	16	35	50	-15	45
14th		Middlesbrough		37	10	12	15	44	55	-11	42
15th		Newcastle		37	10	10	17	48	53	-5	40
16th		Wolves		37	8	14	15	40	48	-8	38
17th		Portsmouth		37	8	14	15	39	56	-17	38
18th		Nottm Forest		37	10	8	19	37	64	-27	38
19th	R	Leeds		37	6	8	23	32	66	-34	26
20th	R	Cardiff		37	2	6	29	22	83	-61	12

May 5, 2008
We suffered two injuries in training today, one of them shouldn't have happened. Michael Ball played the whole game yesterday and should have been resting his ass off today. Instead of that, he goofed off around the training grounds and must have run into a goal post or something. He suffered a chest injury and will miss two week... Damiano Zenoni probably tried to stop him from running into that post and while doing so, he strained a wrist and will miss one week...

FM

[FrogMan]

May 7, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Good	7-8-7-6-8	100%	54	-	7.39
DR	Yel	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	97%	38 (3)	2	7.32
DL		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	25 (2)	-	7.04
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Okay	8-7-8-7-7	99%	37 (4)	2	7.24
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	91%	10	1	6.90
DMC		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	92%	33 (6)	7	7.18
MR		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Good	8-7-7-7-7	96%	15 (21)	5	7.22
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	97%	33 (9)	2	7.48
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	10-7-8-10-7	94%	26 (3)	11	7.79
FC	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	10 (12)	8	7.18
FC		Güiza	S C	Okay	7-10-7-7-7	97%	27 (10)	16	7.22
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Poor	6-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-6-7-7	100%	43 (4)	3	7.30
S3		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	7-8-8-7-8	92%	40 (9)	4	7.59
S4		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	94%	27 (20)	6	7.09
S5		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	10-7-7-7-8	93%	22 (7)	8	7.41
-	Inj	Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-6-8-7-7	75%	32	1	7.28
-		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	95%	40	-	7.22
-	Inj	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	75%	5 (21)	2	6.96
-		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	91%	45 (4)	22	7.27
-		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	28 (12)	14	7.13
-	Inj	Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-7-9-7-7	82%	17 (18)	2	7.20

League Match #37: we play Southampton on their pitch. They're currently in 9th place and we are 6-4 favourites to win this game.

This is our second to last league game of the season and I will be resting some big names in order for them to be in top condition for the UEFA Final. Michael Ball is injured and Juanfran takes his place.

There's another big game played today and it involves 2nd place Chelsea hosting third place Liverpool.

Southampton show a 4-1-2-1-2 wide diamond formation just like ours to start the game.

The firts half goes scoreless even though both teams had plenty of scoring chances. We're outshooting them 10(6) to 6(5) at the half but they are winning possession with a clear 55%, 30 of it on our end of the field, ouch.

In the 51st minute, after a shot had taken a weird deflection off Abubakari Yakubu, Pascal Cygan tries to turn around with it but inadvertantly kicks it past Simon Jentzsch for AN OWN GOAL!!! We go down 0-1 on that mistake...

Even though we put a lot more pressure toward the end of the game, we just can't make up for that one goal...

Final Score: Q.P.R. 0, Southampton 1

We outshot them 14(8) to 11(8) on the game but you can see than both teams did the same with shots on target. They keeper gets the Man of the Match selection with a rating of 9. Aubabakari Yakubu was our only player rating higher than 7, but he also twisted his knee in the game and will miss one week.

Well, Liverpool stole a 2-1 win over Chelsea on their pitch and while that won't be enough for them to pass Chelsea, it'll be just enough to keep us from getting to them. We will finish in 4th place...

May 10, 2008
I get the news that the Q.P.R U18 squad have retained their title of Champions of their U18 group. Sweet! This is how the table looks at the end of their season:

Pos	Inf	Team		Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	C	Q.P.R.		24	14	6	4	39	20	+19	48
2nd		Cardiff		24	14	4	6	32	25	+7	46
3rd		Chelsea		24	13	6	5	32	21	+11	45
4th		Charlton		23	13	5	5	34	25	+9	44
5th		Fulham		24	12	2	10	30	22	+8	38
6th		Arsenal		24	8	11	5	23	18	+5	35
7th		Reading		24	10	4	10	31	29	+2	34
8th		Crystal Palace		24	7	5	12	23	28	-5	26
9th		West Ham		24	6	8	10	24	31	-7	26
10th		Millwall		24	6	5	13	22	30	-8	23
11th		Swansea		24	5	7	12	27	37	-10	22
12th		Bristol C		24	5	6	13	20	35	-15	21
13th		Gillingham		23	4	7	12	16	32	-16	19

FM

[FrogMan]

May 10, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Poor	8-7-6-8-7	100%	55	-	7.38
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	99%	40	-	7.22
DL		Juanfran	D/DM L	Good	7-7-7-7-7	93%	26 (2)	-	7.04
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Poor	7-8-7-7-7	93%	38 (4)	2	7.24
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	93%	11	1	6.91
DMC		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	92%	34 (6)	7	7.17
MR		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	93%	16 (21)	5	7.22
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	99%	27 (20)	6	7.09
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Good	7-7-7-8-7	95%	22 (8)	8	7.40
FC		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	28 (12)	14	7.13
FC		Güiza	S C	Very Poor	10-7-7-7-7	93%	28 (10)	16	7.21
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Poor	6-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Danny Shittu	D C	Okay	7-6-7-7-6	95%	43 (5)	3	7.27
S3		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Good	8-8-7-8-7	91%	40 (10)	4	7.58
S4	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	77%	5 (21)	2	6.96
S5		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	97%	45 (4)	22	7.27
-	Inj	Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-6-8-7-7	71%	32	1	7.28
-		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	91%	34 (9)	2	7.47
-		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Good	7-8-10-7-7	92%	27 (3)	11	7.77
-	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Good	8-7-7-7-7	83%	11 (12)	8	7.17
-	Inj	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-8-8	82%	39 (3)	2	7.33
-	Inj	Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-7-9-7-7	79%	17 (18)	2	7.20

League Match #38: we play Charlton on their pitch. They started the season very hot but are now only in 11th place. We're 6-4 favourites to win this last game of the season, a meaningless game for us.

I rest many players in the build up to the UEFA Final that will happen in only 4 days.

It's the Steve Finnan show in the 40th minute as the fullback takes the ball from the centerline and dribbles through and around a couple of players to the corner of the 6 yard box before launching a low kick that goes in off the post. A sensationnal goal, one for the highlight reel!!! His first goal ever as a Ranger means we're up 1-0!

That's the halftime score and we're outshooting them 6(2) to 1(0) at the half. Freddy Guarín needed the physio early on and his condition has dipped to 67%. I pull him out and replace him with Danny Shittu who goes in as a 5th defender.

Superman Finnan has to leave the field in the 65th minute. It looks pretty bad... Philippe Senderos is moved over to right fullback.

In the 82nd minute, even though Tomas Locatelli's center had been intercepted by a defender, Güiza regained possession with a nice steal, only to turn around and fire a top corner shot from close range! Up 2-0!

Final Score: Q.P.R. 2, Charlton 0

We outshot them 10(5) to 8(2) on the game. Many of our players had a good game in this one, but none better than Steve Finnan who got selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 8. He won every one of the 10 headers he went for and intercepted 6 balls. The news is not so good on the health front for Superman Steve. He suffered a damaged spine and will miss 6 months. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Abubakari Yakubu is still out for a week and we're completely out of natural right fullbacks for the UEFA Final...

Among our eligible defenders for the Final, we're left with Juanfran at left fullback, Danny Shittu and Pascal Cygan at centreback and my choice between Steve Singh or Jonathan Burton, two left fullbacks, for the right fullback spot... Michael Ball, Steve Finnan and Abubakari Yakubu are all out injured... Sigh, this is gonna be a struggle...

Looking at my assistant manager team report, I see that he has left fullback John Fletcher spotted in the right fullback starting slot. Err, that is good stuff you're smoking there but I'll pass... Notwithstanding the fact that Fletcher is ineligible for the UEFA Cup Final, you can take a look at his profile and see for yourself why I would not start the kid in a game of that magnitude:


In the good news department, we've been given $18M for our finish in 4th place. Even more impressive is that we finished a solid 9 points ahead of 5th place Blackburn, and only 6 points off 2nd place Chelsea & Liverpool. A very solid season!

Pos	Inf	Team		Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	C	Man Utd		38	27	6	5	80	27	+53	87
2nd		Chelsea		38	24	6	8	86	48	+38	78
3rd		Liverpool		38	23	9	6	57	27	+30	78
4th		Q.P.R.		38	21	9	8	67	39	+28	72
5th		Blackburn		38	17	12	9	49	36	+13	63
6th		Arsenal		38	17	10	11	67	47	+20	61
7th		Southampton		38	15	11	12	48	41	+7	56
8th		Birmingham		38	14	11	13	49	43	+6	53
9th		Fulham		38	15	8	15	54	57	-3	53
10th		Man City		38	11	19	8	45	36	+9	52
11th		Charlton		38	14	7	17	38	50	-12	49
12th		Aston Villa		38	11	13	14	41	51	-10	46
13th		Tottenham		38	12	9	17	36	53	-17	45
14th		Newcastle		38	11	10	17	51	54	-3	43
15th		Middlesbrough		38	10	12	16	44	57	-13	42
16th		Wolves		38	9	14	15	42	49	-7	41
17th		Portsmouth		38	8	15	15	40	57	-17	39
18th	R	Nottm Forest		38	10	9	19	38	65	-27	39
19th	R	Leeds		38	7	8	23	36	68	-32	29
20th	R	Cardiff		38	2	6	30	22	85	-63	12

As you can see, Nottm Forst were unable to beat out Portsmouth to stay in the EPL...
FM

[FrogMan]

May 12, 2008
The Barclaycards Premiership awards are given out today.

Arsenal's Thierry Henry won both the Player and Footballer of the Year awards with his teammate Shaun Wright-Phillips finishing second and Manchester United's Philipp Lahm finishing third for both awards.

Our very own Scott Donnelly won the Young Player of the Year award ahead of Leeds' Aaron Lennon and Middlesbrough's James Morrison. Following his nomination, he told a local newspaper that I was a key reason for the consistent form that just won him the award. I'm not making this up and I found it very cool of him to point it out. As you can see from his stats sheet below, he really had a great season playing behind Christian Wilhelmsson, so much so that I never feared giving him a start every once in a while...

Statistics	Apps	Gls	Asts	MoM	Yel	Red	Tck	Pass	Sh Tar	Fouls	Fls Ag	Av R
Non Competitive	9 (2)	2	4	1	0	0	2.26	77 %	60 %	5	22	7.27
League	11 (15)	1	7	1	2	0	1.73	85 %	50 %	19	21	7.23
Cup	3 (2)	1	0	0	1	0	3.32	77 %	75 %	6	2	7.60
Continental	3 (5)	3	0	0	0	0	2.69	84 %	57 %	1	1	7.00
International	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	----
Overall	17 (22)	5	7	1	3	0	2.20	83 %	57 %	26	24	7.23

Man U's Alex Ferguson won the Manager of the Year award ahead of Chelsea's José Mourinho and yours truly. Kinda nice to be listed with such big names...

Man U's Ruud van Nistelrooy won his third scoring championship, but this year he had to share it with Thierry Henry as they both scored 21 league goals. The wealth was so well spread on our team that the top score was Cristiano Lucarelli with "only" 13 goals. Right behind him came Bonaventure Kalou and Jon Dahl Tomasson both with 9 and Güiza with 8. Pretty impressed with Kalou's production as it came all from the AMC spot...

Of lesser importance, Abubakari Yakubu was selected to the last EPL Team of the Week of the season.


FM

[FrogMan]

May 14, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	7-6-8-7-8	100%	56	-	7.39
DR	Unh	Steve Singh	D/DM LC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	98%	2	-	7.00
DL		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	27 (2)	-	7.03
DC	Yel	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	6-7-7-6-7	94%	43 (6)	3	7.27
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	96%	39 (4)	2	7.26
DMC		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	92%	35 (6)	7	7.17
MR	Yel	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	96%	40 (11)	4	7.57
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	99%	34 (9)	2	7.47
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Good	7-8-10-7-7	97%	27 (3)	11	7.77
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	100%	45 (4)	22	7.27
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	29 (10)	17	7.21
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Poor	6-7-6-6-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2	Wnt	Jonathan Burton	D LC	Very Good	6-7-7-8-7	93%	1	-	6.00
S3		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-7-9-7-7	90%	17 (18)	2	7.20
S4		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	93%	17 (21)	5	7.24
S5		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	95%	28 (20)	6	7.10
S6		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	93%	23 (8)	8	7.39
S7		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	29 (12)	14	7.12
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	92%	5 (22)	2	6.96
-	Inj	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-8-8	78%	39 (3)	2	7.33
-	Inj	Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-6-8-7-7	66%	32	1	7.28
-	Inj	Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	81%	41	1	7.24
-	Unh	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Very Good	8-7-7-7-7	93%	11 (12)	8	7.17
-	Ine	Philippe Senderos	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	97%	12	1	7.00

UEFA Cup Final: we play German side FC Bayern at Stadion FK Partizan, a 32710 seater in Belgrade. They are currently in 4th place in the Bundesliga but, as you can see from this top 4 of the league table, first place is still withing reach for them...

They are evens favourites to win this game but they also have their share of injuries.

Sad thing is, so do we... I decide to go with left footed Steve Singh at right fullback, leaving Pascal Cygan and Danny Shittu in the middle of our defense. I'll have Jonathan Burton on the bench in case Singh falters.

This game is on TV and centreback Owen Hargreaves is presented as their key man while Bonaventure Kalou is ours. As far as prediction goes, what idiot goes on the air before a Cup Final and predict a draw??? Well, that's what they are predicting here, they just can't separate the sides. JUST PICK ONE!!!

FC Bayern show a 4-5-1 formation with 5 middies on a line to start the game. While both teams have played on May 10th, our condition is a bit better so I decide to up the tempo in hope of creating something early on that we could sit on defensively later on.

We get a monster chance in the 23rd minute when Freddy Guarín played a free kick forward that left Cristiano Lucarelli all alone with the keeper. His short from close range is tipped to corner by there keeper.

0-0 is the halftime score. We did have many chances as our 7 shots indicate, but we only put 3 on target. We'll have to be better at that because we got the defense covered, allowing them only one shot, off target on top of that.

The second half is only 30 seconds old when they try a center from the right. Guarín goes for it but he upends Rivaldo! My heart sanks as the referee points the spot... PENALTY!!! They score and we're down 0-1.

We try everything that is possible for the rest of the half but to no avail, their keeper is simply stopping everything...

Final Score: Q.P.R. 0, FC Bayern 1

We outshot them 14(8) to 2(1) on the game, just sooooooo frustrating. That means we went 7(5) in the second half but their keeper stopped them all.

That keeper was so good, he got the Man of the Match with a rating of 9. On our side, not one player had a rating above 7, but that is typical when nobody gets hot, we just didn't show up to win this one...


FM

[FrogMan]

May 18, 2008
Scott Donnelly and Steve Singh have both been called up to the England U21 squad for the U21 European Championship that starts on the 22nd. Both Donnelly, 21, and Singh, 19, have only one U19 cap to their record.

May 19, 2008
Cristiano Lucarelli strains his groin in training. Well, the season is over, but it's still good to see that he'll only be off for two weeks, even though I sent him to rehab.

May 20, 2008
Bonaventure Kalou strains his wrist and will miss one week. Okay, I've had enough of you kids. EVERYBODY HOME! GO REST!!!

For me, the next order of business will be a string of World Cup Qualifiers with the Ivory Coast squad, with games on June 7 and 14, then on July 4.

May 21, 2008
Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1 in the Champions League Final.

May 24, 2008
Chelsea beat Manchester United, 2-0, in the FA Cup final.

With this, the European qualifiers have been decided for next season...

Champions League
(top 4 in EPL/ 2 straight to group play, 2 in qualification)
#1: Manchester United
#2: Chelsea
#3: Liverpool
#4: Q.P.R.

UEFA Cup
(#5 EPL + FA Cup winner + League Cup winner, or next highest in EPL)
#5: Blackburn
#6: Arsenal (*)
#7: Southampton(**)
(*) Since both the FA Cup Winner (Chelsea) and Runner-up (Manchester United) are both already qualified for the Champions League, we went to the next highest in the EPL (#6 Arsenal)
(**) Since the Carling Cup winners Liverpool have also already qualified for the Champions League, and because under rule the Runner-up (Aston Villa) doesn't qualify for anything, we went to the next highest in the EPL (#7 Southampton)

Intertoto Cup
(next two highest in EPL)
#8: Fulham
#9: Birmingham
It's the first time in about 12 seasons of play that I've seen the team ranked #1 to #9 in the EPL all get into European competition in their respective orders...

May 25, 2008
Everton win the Championship Playoffs, 2-1 over Sheffield United. They are the last team to be promoted to the EPL.

June 1st, 2008
The board is still delighted, why wouldn't they be?

The Ivory Coast squad has to be decided today for the World Cup qualifier of June 7 against Gabon. Here's the whole national pool. Players marked "Main" are the ones I have selected.

Team	Inf	Name	Position	Club	Age	Value
Main		Aruna	F RC	Sampdoria	27	$28.5M
Main		Didier Drogba	S C	Chelsea	30	$25.5M
Main		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Q.P.R.	30	$15M
Main		Kolo Abib Touré	D RC	Arsenal	27	$13M
Main		Cedric Konan	F RLC	Lecce	25	$8.8M
Main		Arouna Koné	S C	PSV	24	$8.6M
-		Sekou Cissé	S C	Roda JC	23	$7.2M
Main		Salomon Kalou	AM R	Feyenoord	22	$5.8M
U21		Franck Djadjédjé	F RC	Paris	22	$5.2M
Main		Marc-Eric Gueï	F LC	Sedan	27	$5M
Main		Emmanuel Eboué	D/DM RL	Arsenal	24	$4.6M
Main		Eli Kroupi	S C	Nancy	28	$4.2M
Main		Baky	F RC	Lorient	26	$4.2M
Main		Arthur Boka	D/DM L	Strasbourg	25	$4.2M
Main		Emerse Fae	DM C	Nantes	24	$3.8M
Main	Bid	Didier Deguy Zokora	D/DM C	St. Etienne	27	$3.4M
Main		Yaya	AM C	Metalurg Donetsk	25	$2.6M
Main		Abdoulaye Meïté	D C	Marseille	27	$2.6M
Main	Wnt	Yago	D RC	Celta	28	$2.6M
Main		Gérard Amoukou Gnanhouan	GK	Grenoble	29	$2.2M
-		Vassiriki Abou Diaby	AM/F LC	Auxerre	22	$2M
-		Amara Diané	F RC	Reims	25	$1.95M
Main		Tchiressoua Guel	AM RC	Ajaccio	32	$1.9M
Main		Ange Kouyo	D RC	Internacional	24	$1.9M
Main		Daniel Yeboah	GK	Bastia	23	$1.7M
Main		Gilles Donald Yapi Yapo	AM C	Nantes	26	$1.45M
-		Zoro	D/DM R	Messina	24	$1.2M
-	Inj	Claude Seanla	S C	Kaiserslautern	19	$1.1M
-		Tagro Baleguhé	S C	Gueugnon	30	$950K
-		Ibrahima Bakayoko	S C	Istres	31	$900K
-	Wnt	Hermann Kouadio	M C	Lecce	22	$480K
Main		Julien N'Da	D RC	Reims	22	$480K
Main		Kanga Gauthier Akalé	AM L	Darmstadt	27	$440K
Main		Stephan Loboué	GK	Aalen	26	$280K
Main		Cheik Ismaël Tioté	D C	Anderlecht	21	$170K
-		Léopold Toty	AM/F C	Melilla	22	$90K
-		Amadou Kouman	AM R	Aston Villa	21	$60K
-		Franck Augustin Dia	AM/F C	Wycombe	30	$48K
U21		Abdoulaye Diarra	M R	Gualdo	21	$40K
-		Patrice Brou	S C	ASEC	22	$4K
U21		Daouda Cissé	AM C	ASEC	21	$2K
-		Roland Cissé	SW/D RC	ASEC	19	$0
-		Seydou Koné	S C	-	20	-
-		Guillaume Faddoul	GK	-	21	-
-		Youssouf Kone	M R	-	25	-

FM

[FrogMan]

I have decided to start a new thread since the Ivory Coast World Cup qualifiers are coming up and I thought this would be a good cutting point, albeit a tad early into the offseason (in terms of life at Loftus Road at least).

The new thread will be created in a bit and I'll post here to let you know...


FM

[finketr]

congratulations, FM!

I knew you'd make CL this time around.

[FrogMan]

Thanks Tim!

New thread had been created btw come read FM2005: a frog at the World Cup?

[daedalus]

The Cup Final hurts but it was great to get there!!!

Good luck with the Q-games! [I'll be in the other thread too. ]

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by daedalus

The Cup Final hurts but it was great to get there!!!

Good luck with the Q-games! [I'll be in the other thread too. ]

Agreed about the Final, quite the heartbreaker. With that one and the loss in the Final of the African Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast, I've had a couple rough ones to swallow this season...

Oh well, plowing ahead

FM

[Tekneek]

I finally caught up with this dynasty today. Great work! These are glory days for QPR, for sure!