Houston Hippopotami at Hattrick (Alliterative, isn't it?)

[NevStar]

Originally posted by sterlingice


Nationalities: 10

Future Training
Ok- can someone help me out on how form changes work in between seasons? What resets at the start of the next season? Anything? Also, how many weeks do we have to go? Right now, I'm looking at going back to training playmaking this week. Then stamina again, the week after that. Then playmaking again before the tough game. Then stamina most, if not all, of the offseason.

That's a lot of international flavor you have there.

I don't think form changes on the change of season. I'm not positive, but I think these things do:

Team spirit
Team confidence
Supporter mood (maybe?)
Sponsor mood (maybe?)

There's 2 more weeks of league games. The next Sunday is the qualifying game, you can schedule a friendly on that Wednesday. The following Sunday there are no games, on that Wednesday the Cup starts. Then the next season starts.

[sterlingice]

The Great Goalie Debate

Ok, I just happened across a passable goalie last night on the transfer wire and just happened to bid on him and now I have a new passable keeper for less than $80K so I'm looking to make a quick buck either in terms of an upgrade or cold hard cash. During the days in the USA, you can sell a passable goalie for between $100K and $120K. But I need to decide which one of these 19yo passable goalies to sell:


Dawid Raduli (5973248)
19 years, wretched form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is fiery and upright.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.
Nationality: Polska
Assessed value: 78 000 US$
Wage: 1 608 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Stamina: weak Goaltending: passable
Playmaking: disastrous Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous Defending: disastrous
Scoring: disastrous Set Pieces: disastrous

Chiritã Vochin (8194780)
19 years, inadequate form, healthy
A controversial person who is fiery and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities.
Nationality: România
Assessed value: 146 000 US$
Wage: 1 656 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Stamina: wretched Goaltending: passable
Playmaking: disastrous Passing: disastrous
Winger: disastrous Defending: disastrous
Scoring: disastrous Set Pieces: disastrous

Dawid was to be our goalie of the future but his form has been in the crapper for quite a while. Chiritã has a bit higher value (ie Dawid was still only at $140K when he had passable form) so it would certainly be in my best interest to keep him. However, will I get significantly less for Raduli because of his form now? Or do people not care because they'll be getting a passable goalie? Tell me what you think.

SI

[ausonny]

I would sell Raduli. It appears that his hidden form, the one he will naturally gravitate to, is pretty low, and he may always struggle with form. He may not bring in as much money, but then again he may. Vochin is an unknown, of course. You could wait a little bit and see what his form does.

[Poli]

I'd expect all teams don't check form when considering their purchases, I know I didn't early on. I know I was one of those that scoured the market looking for passable in the one skill that I knew a player had to have.

I believe you could put Dawid up for his value and you'd have one or two bites.

[vex]

I say sell Dawid.

[sterlingice]

Youth Update
Youth Squad: passable
After less than a full season and with $20K, our youth squad is up to passable! Granted, we have yet to pull anyone better than my grandmother, but at least the chances of a bigger pull are coming. Despite, having a name that just rolls off tongue, our new youth pull, Zachary Coronado is not a part of our future plans.

Zachary Coronado (8581305)
17 years, passable form, healthy

A controversial person who is fiery and honest.
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities.

Speciality: Head
Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 3 000 US$
Wage: 500 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: poor
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: poor
Passing: poor
Winger: weak
Defending: wretched
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: inadequate

Weekly Attitude Update
Team Spirit: composed
Confidence: decent
Sponsors: high on life
Supporter Club: 697 members
Supporters: content

Our sponsors didn't have their spirit dampened by last week's loss but that is about it. Our team spirit is up to composed but our confidence and supporters got knocked down a couple of pegs, which is to be expected after the 4-0 whitewashing we suffered. Thankfully the supporters continue to come out and support us as we gained another 12 this week and barring a major catastrophe tomorrow, we will break 700 by next week.

Weekly Economy Update
If not for the sale of Dawid, we would be looking at hiring an accountant. We will probably end the year around $150K in the hole, or maybe closer to $200K after the couple of weeks between season. Next year will be tons of run, trying to dig out from under this economic mess. Hopefully our youth squad can come through now that it's up to a nice level. Officially, we will be at $225K at the end of the week, tho I'm hoping that with an international team coming in for a friendly and with Dawid's sale, we can drop back to around $100K by the end of the week. The good news is that our sponsorship money grew another $900 last week even with a loss.

However, even without the interest on our debt, we will lose $40K a week on non game weeks. Although, looking at a revised budget with current numbers for crowds, wages, sponsors, and everything else, we should get really close to breaking even- I mean within $1-3K per 2 weeks so that's a good sign, much better than my old projection of being about $12K off per two weeks. Well, here's to hoping for a good youth pull or a couple of bumps on guys I'm looking to sell because once we get out of debt, I can run this team with a profit and compete for our league lead.

SI

[sterlingice]

Preview
After a bunch of huge games in a row, we get to relax and breathe. Unless I'm mistaken, by the end of the day, we should be back in 3rd. We have an easy game and Atlanta will be playing one of the two elite teams in our division. Unfortunately, I think we will be locked into 4th because if we want to move up, we will have to beat that team, CC's Dragons, the last week of the season at their house.

Game Summary
Date: 3/3/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 4591312
Arena: Tea Stealers Arena
Crowd: 4163

Due to an all-day shower, 4163 paying spectators got to see a match on a pitch-turned-bog at Tea Stealers Arena. Stealers had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Foreman - Tze-Yeung, Cavazza, Beaulieu, Roby - Goodwin, Oneil, Champagne, Henning - Jackson, Gilmore.

Hippopotami had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Vochin - Jonsson, Koch, Slingerland - Starks, Benito, Acker, Connors, Crespo - Solomon, Phelan.

Derrick Solomon surprised the home team with a free kick aimed at the wrong post in the 6:th minute. 0 - 1 for Hippopotami. After 8 minutes Hippopotami´s Patrik Jonsson contracted a slight foot injury, but could finish the game. The visitors Derrick Solomon took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side´s goalie and full backs in the 16:th minute. 0 - 2 for Hippopotami. The away team´s Stephen Connors took advantage of a mistake to the home side´s right in the 37:th minute increasing Hippopotami´s lead to 0 - 3. The structure of the game started to change as Hippopotami decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. Hippopotamis Patrik Jonsson got himself booked after a foul. The teams went for a half-time break at 0 - 3. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Hippopotami, with an impressive 64 percent possession of the ball.

The game was close to savage at times, and Hippopotami`s Patrik Jonsson received a second yellow card in the 48:th, his ticket out of the game. The player down was Olivier Champagne. The Stealers bench looked worried a while but in the end he managed to get up. After 52 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for Derrick Solomon who increased Hippopotami´s lead to 0 - 4. This third goal made a hat trick for Derrick Solomon. The referee showed Stealerss Todd Roby the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Deng Tze-Yeung had a good opportunity to reduce in the 76:th minute but wasn´t cool enough. The ball went miles over the bar. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 67 percent possession rate.

Most important Stealers player was Jeremy Goodwin. Steve Beaulieu on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important Hippopotami player was Mick Starks. Zlatko Koch on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 0 - 4.

Stadium
Tough luck for the Tea Stealers as the rain chased away a good 3K people.

Team Ratings

Tea Stealers
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: passable
Central Defence: passable
Left Side Defence: weak
Right Side Attack: poor
Central Attack: poor
Left Side Attack: wretched

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: poor
Right Side Defence: weak
Central Defence: weak
Left Side Defence: inadequate
Right Side Attack: excellent
Central Attack: solid
Left Side Attack: passable

Another excellent on the right side. Mick Starks and Derrick Solomon are a bona fide pair of badasses over there. Looks like our stamina training paid off. We're up to poor for the midfield and another week of stamina training should help some more.

Player Ratings
GK Chiritã Vochin **
DW Patrik Jonsson KICKED OUT
DM Zlatko Koch *~
DW Klaas Slingerland **
WI Mick Starks (off) **~
MI Stephen Connors **
MI Julius Acker (extra) **
MI Carlos Alberto Benito **~
WI Alfredo Crespo **
FO Derrick Solomon **
FO Edwin Phelan **

Total Stars: 20.5 (10 players)
Team Attitude: Normal
Total player experience: wretched

Vochin off to a good start with **. Koch dropped down to *~ but I'm guessing (hoping) it was just a weekly glitch. Benito and Starks are the only two guys who ran **~ this week after Phelan dropped his form to inad last week and is down to **. With Hebert, this is at least a 22.5 again so I don't feel so bad aout this score.

Game Summary
A yawn to get us back on track. If we had been in the league the entire season, Solomon would probably be in the race for league leader in goals. As it is, he's in 3rd with a player from the Darksiders and CC's ahead of him. With a little improvement in form, Vochin could be pulling down **~ for us in net and that would be great. Raduli only got ** when he was in passable form.

 

N  Team                 P Goals  Pts 
1. The Darksiders      12 56 - 4  33 
2. CC's Dragons        12 57 - 12 33 
3. Houston Hippopotami 12 29 - 21 21 
4. Atlanta United      12 31 - 29 21 
5. The Flying Midgets  12 18 - 20 16 
6. Vermont Catamounts  12 11 - 46 9 
7. Tea Stealers        12 7 - 40  5 
8. Metal Mulisha       12 7 - 44  4 

CC's logged 25 stars this week! Next week, at the Darkside Dome, the team that will move up to IV will be decided as CC's Dragons go to play The Darksiders. We have another pretty easy match next week against Vermont, our final home game of the year.

Wrapup
Another easy one next week against the Catamounts before the game against the Dragons. A friendly against an international foe should be fun. Raduli is up for sale at a starting price of $80K. I'm also toying with selling super winger Alfredo Crespo for a cheaper, younger one and towards paying off my debt. We really need to stop putting people out of games because we're going to run out of card subs.

So, that begs the question: Say you were a team from Houston, in 3rd place and needing cash towards building, how much would you put Crespo up for if you were not entirely sure you wanted to sell him?

Alfredo Crespo #16
115 000 US$, 27 years, inadequate form
Has poor experience and weak leadership abilities

Stamina: inadequate Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: inadequate Passing: solid
Winger: passable Defending: weak
Scoring: poor Set Pieces: solid

SI

[DataKing]

If I were in your shoes, with the same economic situation, I would try to get six figures for Alfredo. I'd say right around the $100,000 mark.

If someone pays that much for him, then (along with your other activities) your debt is pretty much taken care of. But if no one is willing to pony up that much cash, you still have a damn fine offensive winger on your club.

And you'd be surprised what some teams are willing to pay for decent wingers. That's because they're so hard to train, with a few different primary skills.

[sterlingice]

Sorry, Hungry, Hungry Hippos but due to a mass of work the next two days, this week's edition of "Where are they Now?" and "Hippo Spotlight" have been moved until later in the week, after the friendly.

FYI, Raduli has already had a $80K bid placed on him. Alfredo Crespo is up for sale at $92K but has recieved no bids as of yet.

SI

[sterlingice]

New Hippo
I try and try to keep from falling into debt but I just can't help myself when something like this falls into my lap. Not only that but I was about to do homework when this little (evil) voice inside my head said "check the USA transfer market before you head to sleep- there tend to be bargains there late at night".

Lo and behold, I run across a passable/passable winger/defender whose coach kept putting him at winger instead of wingback. Not only that but he's only 22. His stamina needs work, but he's in luck since we're working stamina during the offseason. The reason he came so cheap is that he is out 3 weeks with injury. However, I didn't plan on playing him either of the next two weeks anyways. Then he can get put through the stamina wringer the next week with the rest of the troops this offseason and I'll have my 2nd passable/passable wingback for next year.

Elmer Bush (7098202) 3
22 years, poor form, injured (3 weeks)

A sympathetic guy who is temperamental and upright.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 14 000 US$
Wage: 660 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: wretched
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: weak
Passing: disastrous
Winger: passable
Defending: passable
Scoring: wretched
Set Pieces: wretched

This move along with the awesome ** play of my inad/inad phenom wingback trainees, 18yo Patrick Johnsson and 19yo Gerard Longis, makes Zlatko Koch, the last of our players over 24 (except for scoring machine Derrick Solomon), expendable. He'll be put on sale tomorrow and for the last two weeks of the season and I'll finish up with our star defender, Hebert, in the middle with Johnsson (when he finishes serving his red card) or Longis on the wing he formerly occupied. Also we will probably sell our other wingback, Klaas Slingerland, next week once Johnsson gets his head out of his arse and can play.

Zlatko Koch (3837419)
26 years, weak form, healthy

A pleasant guy who is calm and honest.
Has wretched experience and wretched leadership abilities.

Nationality: Österreich
Assessed value: 57 000 US$
Wage: 1 152 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: solid
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched
Passing: weak
Winger: weak
Defending: passable
Scoring: inadequate
Set Pieces: wretched


Klaas Slingerland (5914816)
24 years, passable form, healthy

A sympathetic guy who is calm and upright.
Has poor experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Nationality: Nederland
Assessed value: 70 000 US$
Wage: 1 056 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: solid
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: poor
Passing: inadequate
Winger: passable
Defending: inadequate
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: poor

More exciting moves to come from your favorite Hippos.

SI

[daedalus]

Oooh. Nice pickup. Plus, it never hurts to have an Elmer on the team.

[sterlingice]

Oooh. Nice pickup. Plus, it never hurts to have an Elmer on the team.

Amen to that. We welcome Elmer with open arms.

Lament of a Team in Debt
I was about to snipe to pick up a winger to replace the soon-to-be-departed Crespo but I didn't have the $18K to put down on him. "Him" being an 18yo solid winger with inad passing, passable form and that unpredictable skill I really wanted to try out. Yet, I couldn't scrape together $18K to get him. Unlikely I'll find another guy like him this cheap since today is a bit flooded with youth pulls and guys kicked off due to youth pulls. Oh well.

SI

[daedalus]

I dig Unpredictable forwards. Wouldn't touch an Unpredictable defender with YOUR 10-foot pole, though. Winger might be very interesting, though. If you play 'em offensively, I can see how they'd have the same wild effectiveness as a forward might.

[sterlingice]

Preview
Looking to build off our one game friendly win streak against the Woodlands Rich Kids or whatever, Gurras BK, a team from Sverige division VI comes to the Hippodome to take in some Americana. I don't know why I got challenged by an international team and it wasn't even a home-and-away series but we could use some spare fans. Then again, he doesn't bring a lot of fans to the game and maybe he's seen our home attendance numbers, which are huge. He doesn't look too tough, but this is the two b-teams facing off so who knows. It turned out to be quite the exciting game, as you will see...

Game Summary
Date: 3/6/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 5069780
Arena: The Hippodrome
Crowd: 937


937 spectators had come to The Hippodrome this cloudy day. Hippopotami started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. Lineup: Buckley - Hebert, Koch, Longis, Jonsson - Starks, Rumbold, Paige, Friedländer, Crespo - Chang.

Gurras started off with a 4-3-3 lineup. Lineup: Cronsten - Hansson, Nilsson, Månsson, Bengtsson - Torsson, Stensson, Persson - Möllering, Kjellind, Irwin.

Gurras had several good opportunities to take the lead, especially in the 6:th minute when Mikael Kjellind came up alone against Sidney Buckley who managed a block. The referee showed Gurrass Bengt Månsson the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Hippopotami appeared unsure on how to play. After a fine move down the middle Defoe Chang nearly gave the home side one up in the 26:th minute. The finishing shot went just wide, though. Hippopotamis Defoe Chang gave, after 35 minutes, the home team a 1 - 0 lead after an attack coming in from the right. Gurras´s Michael Irwin left the field after 39 minutes because of a nasty blow to the shin. His replacement was Stig-Arne 'Plattis' Månsson. The teams went for a half-time break at 1 - 0. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 64 percent possession rate.

Hippopotami -coach had an extra briefing during the break, and after that his players looked a lot more organized. Gurras's Fredrik Bengtsson scored 1 - 1 by shooting accurately and hard from a long distance, leaving the opponent goalie no other option than to pick up the ball from the net. Hippopotami were very close to putting themselves one up in the 70:th minute as Kyle Paige got through, but failing in concentration, he shot the ball wide. In the 80:th minute the home side managed to get a 2 - 1 lead as Kyle Paige flipped the ball after a cross pass from the right. Gurras made a substitution in the 84:th minute. Dan M. Stensson limped off the field and was replaced by Gunnar Falland. Gurras´s Conny 'Robbas' Persson refused to leave the field after injuring his achilles tendon in the 84:th minute. Some brilliant football from the visitors right wing resulted in a 86:th minute levelling of scores as Gurrass Mikael Hansson equalised to 2 - 2. Gurras held the ball, with a clear 64 percent possession rate.

After the regular 90 minutes, the agonizing of overtime followed. The home side put themselves ahead 3 - 2 in the 106:th by a breakthrough from Philip Friedländer, who unaided came in out of the right wing hooking the ball over the visitors keeper. With that Hippopotami had won the game in extra time. Most important Hippopotami player was Mick Starks. Sidney Buckley on the other hand, had a terrible day. Gurras´s best player was Mikael Kjellind. Conny 'Robbas' Persson on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 3 - 2.

Events and Stats
Ok, I'm trying out a new section here, designed to give you a better feel of what went on. I saw something similar to this on NevStar's Morrisville Morrisvillians and it makes reading his game reports easier. Mine is a bit between his and DK's summaries for stats- less elaborate than NevStar's great work but moreso than DataKing's goals and cards (then again, his summaries are much better than mine- damn creative writing major; we engineers can't keep up *grumble grumble*).

See, boys and girls, this is what reading other threads does: it allows you to rip off good ideas in exchange for merely giving credit Seriouly, tho, I give tons of extra credit to NevStar, DataKing, and vexroid. I try to catch most everything hattrick posted on this board, but those three dynasties, in particular, really are things I try to read, or at least skim, every time something is posted. If you have a hattrick team and have somehow not read any of those three, do it now. There's a ton of hattrick to learn from them and they all write well about their team.

A few notes:
1. Our score will always be first, whether we are ahead or behind
2. The (F) after the names would have a goal number if it were a fixture
3. "xx" means the time of the goal was not specified
4. Cards and injuries will only be for our team

Formations

HH: 4-5-1
GBK: 4-3-3


Events Summary

1st Half
HH: 35: Defoe Chang (F); 1-0

Halftime
Score: 1-0
Possession: 64%

2nd Half
GBK: xx: Fredrik Bengtsson; 1-1
HH: 80: Kyle Paige (F); 2-1
GBK: 86: Mikael Hansson; 2-2

Regulation
Score: 2-2
Possession: 36%

Overtime
HH: 106: Philip Friedländer (F); 3-2

Final
Score: 3-2
Possession: 50%


Cards
We were lucky to not pick up any more today as we already have more cards than a riverboat casino right now

Injuries
Again, we were fortunate today: no injuries.

Stadium

Terraces: 572 (9702)
Basic seats: 248 (3850)
Seats under roof: 92 (1740)
VIP seats: 25 (400)
Total: 937 (15692)

Cloudy day, which kindof stunk up the crowd some but I figured I'd break at least 1000 with an international team in town. I guess he has hardly any supporters at all.

Team Ratings

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: wretched
Right Side Defence: inadequate
Central Defence: weak
Left Side Defence: poor
Right Side Attack: passable
Central Attack: poor
Left Side Attack: inadequate

Gurras BK
Midfield: disastrous
Right Side Defence: poor
Central Defence: poor
Left Side Defence: wretched
Right Side Attack: inadequate
Central Attack: passable
Left Side Attack: weak

Player Ratings
GK Sidney Buckley *
DW: Hugh Hebert **
DM Gerard Longis *~
DM Zlatko Koch *~
DW Patrik Jonsson **
WI Mick Starks **~
MI Philip Friedländer (wing) *~
MI Jeremy Rumbold (off) *
MI Kyle Paige *
WI Klaas Slingerland **~
FO Dafoe Chang **

Total player experience: wretched
Team Attitude: Normal

Paige is up from ~ to * finally! Longis went down to *~ from ** but that's because he was put in the middle instead of on the wing. Hebert was on the wing for a friendly because he had too many cards to his name to play last week in the fixture *shakes finger scoldingly*. Dafoe Chang is also back up to ** as his form increased last week.

Game Summary
Like the Seamen from Chicago, we, too, had our first OT game in a friendly this week. We edged out a team that was more game than we expected but a win is a win. Our friendly winning streak is up to 2. I somehow doubt we will have a good friendly winning streak, tho. As soon as early next year rolls around, I don't want a single starter in friendlies (Starks, Koch, Crespo) except if they get a little too carded.

Notes
Next up for us is another seemingly easy game. Still, I'm not going to PIC it as we could use the points. A win this week clinches us 4th place and some cash. Third is still probably a pipe dream but we can hope. Tonight or tomorrow, I'll be posting training summaries and other assorted news. Where are they now might also make an appearance. The next Hippo profile won't be until late next week, at the earliest, since I have a pair of difficult tests next week.

So what do you think about the new formatting for the match summaries? Keep it, dump it? Was it worth the extra 10 minutes of my typing and formatting? *points* You make the call.

SI

[sterlingice]

Not just a training summary this week. Have some business to attend to. I know I promised another installment of "Where are they now" but I ran out of time. Hopefully next time I'll get to it and some great material on one of our players who was sold to another FOFCer.

It's a Game of Numbers
After Raduli's sale, our new stud goalie 19yo Romanian Chiritã Vochin will be sporting the number 1 befitting his position as starting goalie.

Our new wing defender Elmer Bush will take the number 8 and will be busting his arse out there as soon as his injury (which I can't track down the origin of) is healed.

Sales and Other Marketing
Kindof like numbers, only really different. Much like everyone else's experience, Dawid Raduli's form got a shot in the arm when he was sold but he's still only poor. We make $75600 off that sale which more than offset the $43000 we paid for Elmer. The bad news to go along with this is that veteran winger Alfredo Crespo didn't even get a nibble at $92K so I relisted him at $75K. If I don't get a buyer now, I'm just going to keep him until his stats change or something. Defender Zlatko Koch already has had someone meet his $5K minimum bid and he still has a couple of days to go. Also, after our small bump in the road last week, we are back to getting 12 supporters twice a week. I guess success breeds popularity as we are now up to 721 supporters

Training
We have an excellent: First time I have an excellent on the team in anything but stamina!!! Middie Julius Acker is up to an excellent playmaker which gives me an interesting quandry. I've never liked Julius and he never seems to get very many stars (** max) but he is young (21yo) and has great stats: now excellent playmaker with passable wing, passable passing, and now passable form. So what is the deal with Mr Acker? With such great stats, why does he suck so hard? I think I'm going to see if it's all a stamina problem: keep him for the offseason, train his stamina, and then try him out next year. If he's up to **~ or ***, he stays on the team, but if not, he gets sold.

We had a great week and two other bumps. Acker also bumped his experience to wretched which isn't great but it's something. Lastly, wingback Patrik Johnsson's playmaking bumped from poor to weak. A couple of othre things of note involve form. Our recent injured wingback pickup raised his form but starting goalie Chirita Vochin, starting wingback Hugh Hebert, and starting forward Edwin Phelan all dropped. I'm worried about Vochin- we have two goalie trainers and I've decided to hire a third because form was a problem with our previous goalie as well. Also, I hired a regular trainer to give me an even 10.

Form
Starters: (+5) (-3)
Entire Team: (+9) (-4)

Value
Starters: (+8) (-3)
Entire Team: (+15) (-4)

Team Stats
Total Wages: 17900 (+700)
Total Value: 1622000 (+149000)
Avg Value: 81100 (+3574)
Avg Age: 21
Avg Form: inadequate
Avg Experience: wretched
No of players: 20 (+1)
Nationalities: 9 (-1)

Future Training
Looks like we will be on playmaking this week and next. Then the offseason and a couple of weeks of stamina. Then maybe start a regimen next year of something like Stamina, PM, PM, PM, Set Pieces, PM, PM, PM, Stamina...

Supporters News
I regret to inform ardent that I will be dropping from his ranks of millions (at last check) of supporters. Instead, we will add reciprocal support to our newest supporter, Doug5984's Louisiana Cyclones who play in "Nawlans", or so the person from his office claimed. We think it is close to New Orleans, but are unsure. Like ausonny, NevStar, and vexroid, I hope he enjoys the executive washroom and attached suite and I hope the girls play nice with him and all of our supporters.

We Support
**ausonny's Bees
dk's Screamin' Seamen
**Doug5984's Louisiana Cyclones
**NevStar's Morrisville Morrisvillians
**vexroid's NE Oklahoma Sidekicks

** = Hippo supporters

Friendly
Woo! Another FOFC friendly. This time, we will go to Qwakers Arena in Philly to take on Qwikshot's Qwakers in the battle for earth. Ok, just seeing if anyone was paying attention. If you didn't know, the Qwakers are in a heated race for V.140 which will come down to a game between them and the Cthulu Servants the last week of the season. We look forward to a great game in the land of liberty and cheesesteak.

SI

[daedalus]

Out of curiosity, do you play Acker at middie or on the wing? What instruction do you use with him?

[sterlingice]

Out of curiosity, do you play Acker at middie or on the wing? What instruction do you use with him?

I almost exclusively play him inner middie with no specialization. I suppose I could play him towards wing or offensively to take advantage of one of his passable skills but I don't really want to weaken my midfield like that.

SI

[sterlingice]

Youth Pullll... and FIRE! (think skeet)
Youth Squad: passable
With another 20K into the youth fund, we remain at passable. That's the good news. Unfortunately, we got another guy not worth the bytes it took to come up with him. He has been summarily shot. Oh, oh, I mean fired. Yeah, that's it. Ignore all of my men and what they say about the one called "el presidente".

Mikey Field (8720365)
18 years, passable form, healthy

A controversial person who is calm and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and disastrous leadership abilities.
Speciality: Head

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 2 000 US$
Wage: 500 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: wretched
Passing: poor
Winger: weak
Defending: disastrous
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: poor

Weekly Attitude Update
Team Spirit: composed
Confidence: decent
Sponsors: high on life
Supporter Club: 721 members +24
Supporters: delirious (up from content)
Yay! We crushed the 700 supporter barrier and are on our way to 800. Our supporters are back to being their usual cheerful selves and our team spirit is still in the doldrums, as always, and I'm hoping our confidence can rebound after a win this week.

Weekly Economy Update
We're hanging out at just above debt level thanks to a sale or two last week (Zlatko Koch is no longer with us and, while his passable defending will be missed, the $23K we get from him will be accepted. Crespo is still out on the transfer wire with a $75K price tag which ends about 18 hours from now tomorrow afternoon. We picked up a new wing trainee should we need to replace him or not. At this point, we are $50K in the hole for the week but should pull down $70-$80K for the game tomorrow depending on the weather so we should be digging slightly further out from under our debt hole.

New Hippo
I love bargains. To all of you teams who I keep saying there are great winger bargains out there: more proof. 18yo Bjorn Magnusson will be joining us as a new trainee winger. He's a passable winger with weak playmaking that we can work on raising. He cost a grand total of $7500.

Björn Magnusson (8582470)
18 years, passable form, healthy

A sympathetic guy who is temperamental and honest.
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities.
Speciality: Powerful

Nationality: Sverige
Assessed value: 24 000 US$
Wage: 744 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: wretched
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: weak
Passing: poor
Winger: passable
Defending: poor
Scoring: weak
Set Pieces: weak

SI

[daedalus]

Originally posted by sterlingice
I almost exclusively play him inner middie with no specialization. I suppose I could play him towards wing or offensively to take advantage of one of his passable skills but I don't really want to weaken my midfield like that.

If he can't get past the 2* threshold and his ratings definitely lends itself to wing, it might be worth giving him a shot or two out there unless you already have a superior winger out there. I play my wingers on 'offensive' but that's mainly because none of them have achieved the passable+ playmaking/winger combination yet. With his ratings, you might be able to just play him straight up (although if his defense isn't any good, then putting him on offensive doesn't hurt any). As you said previously, his stamina might definitely be hurting him inside so once his stamina is up to the passable level, that may be worth revisiting.

Just, uhh, food for thoughts.

[sterlingice]

If he can't get past the 2* threshold and his ratings definitely lends itself to wing, it might be worth giving him a shot or two out there unless you already have a superior winger out there. I play my wingers on 'offensive' but that's mainly because none of them have achieved the passable+ playmaking/winger combination yet. With his ratings, you might be able to just play him straight up (although if his defense isn't any good, then putting him on offensive doesn't hurt any). As you said previously, his stamina might definitely be hurting him inside so once his stamina is up to the passable level, that may be worth revisiting.

Just, uhh, food for thoughts.

You know, that's not a half bad idea. Right now I have a **/**~ winger in Crespo but he's 27 and I'm looking to sell him. Then I was going to grab a winger on the market because they're so cheap but this may be a good answer. We'll see- I may just end up selling Acker to get out of debt early next year but it does seem like it would be a waste to sell a 21yo excellent playmaker. I think he might deserve a look at winger in one of the friendlies inbetween season. Thanks for the idea.

SI

[sterlingice]

Economy
Alfredo Crespo has been sold for $77K to Havoc in V.174. I'm guessing he'll be very pleased with his contributions as Crespo was a good player but just didn't fit in our youth movement. We wish Alfredo and Havoc well. From the sale price, $70840 went towards our economic recovery and another $65K from the game puts our debt for the week at under $90K.

Preview
Our second easy game in a row before what will probably be a loss next week. Vermont took over his team a few weeks ago but hasn't played a friendly or made a transfer so this may be as easy as they come. With the sale of Crespo, Friedl�nder will be playing wing in his place while we take Acker's excellent playmaking for a spin although it probably won't be worth too much until I improve his stamina. I had forgotten I had PIC'd this game. As you will see- it didn't matter.

Game Summary

Date: 3/10/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 4591317
Arena: The Hippodrome
Crowd: 12227

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 12227 to The Hippodrome. Hippopotami started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Vochin - Longis, Hebert, Slingerland - Starks, Benito, Acker, Connors, Friedl�nder - Solomon, Phelan.

Catamounts tactics involved an interesting 4-4-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Wylie - Gooden, Anderson, Lune, Coronado - Curran, Crenshaw, Goetz, Fontenot - Yi, Kline.

In the 1st minute cheers broke out as Edwin Phelan found his way through the guests central defense line, clipping the 1 - 0 goal in for Hippopotami. Things were going to get worse for the visitors. Carlos Alberto Benito squirmed himself through the central defense line in the 18:th minute, asserting the lead to 2 - 0. In the 36:th minute of the match the visitors central line of defence had to look on as Derrick Solomon dashed through, knocking home 3 - 0 for Hippopotami. Catamounts made a substitution in the 38:th minute. Dwight Fontenot limped off the field and was replaced by Casey Conway. In the 39:th minute Hippopotami put themselves up 4 - 0. The visitors defenders lost the ball to Stephen Connors coming up from the left, who proceeded to cooly round the goaltender and knock the ball home. The structure of the game started to change as Hippopotami decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. Philip Friedl�nder was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the enemy box - Mick Starks managed to kick one of them into 5 - 0 in the 40:th minute. Hippopotami put their lead ahead another goal as Derrick Solomon struck home the 6 - 0 goal, after an attack from the left setting him up unmarked with the keeper. The referee showed Catamountss Austin Kline the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. The teams went for a half-time break at 6 - 0. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 76 percent possession rate.

A bit later, a magnificent combination in the middle resulted in Hippopotami�s Carlos Alberto Benito putting the lead up to 7 - 0. Mick Starks of Hippopotami received a yellow card in the 57:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. G�rard Longis of Hippopotami received a yellow card in the 63rd minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. In the 70:th minute Hippopotami�s Carlos Alberto Benito tried to nail the coffin shut, but the shot rebounded off the bar to fall behind the net. G�rard Longis of Hippopotami got sent off for kicking the ball after the whistle, a completely uncalled for move, earning him his second yellow card of the game. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Hippopotami, with an impressive 77 percent possession of the ball.

Most important Hippopotami player was Mick Starks. Chirit� Vochin on the other hand, had a terrible day. Catamounts�s best player was Ivan Curran. Alva Wylie was a disappointment, however. The match ends 7 - 0.

Events and Stats

A few notes:
1. Our score will always be first, whether we are ahead or behind
2. The (F) after the names would have a goal number if it were a fixture
3. "xx" means the time of the goal was not specified
4. Cards and injuries will only be for our team

Formations

HH: 3-5-2
VC: 4-4-2


Events Summary

1st Half
HH: 01: Edwin Phelan(9); 1-0
HH: 18: Carlos Alberto Benito(2); 2-0
HH: 38: Derek Solomon(11); 3-0
HH: 39: Stephen Connors(4); 4-0
HH: 40: Mick Starks(1); 5-0
HH: xx: Derek Solomon(12); 6-0

Halftime
Score: 6-0
Possession: 76%

2nd Half
HH: xx: Carlos Alberto Benito(3); 7-0

Final
Score: 7-0
2nd Half Possession: 77%
Final Possession: 77%


Cards
HH: 63: G�rard Longis (yellow: unsportsmanlike behaviour)
HH: xx: G�rard Longis (yellow: kicking the ball after the whistle)

Injuries
None on our side

Stadium

Terraces: 7047 (9702)
Basic seats: 3715 (3850)
Seats under roof: 1191 (1740)
VIP seats: 274 (400)
Total: 12227 (15692)

Still only 12K which is 3K under what we can seat. We are well over 700 supporters so I just don't get it. That's barely 17:1 fans to supporters. And it's fairly good weather not rain or anything.

Team Ratings

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: poor (3)
Right Side Defence: weak (4)
Central Defence: inadequate (5)
Left Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Right Side Attack: formidable (9)
Central Attack: passable (6)
Left Side Attack: inadequate (5)
DKI: 40

Vermont Catamounts
Midfield: disastrous (1)
Right Side Defence: weak (4)
Central Defence: weak (4)
Left Side Defence: poor (3)
Right Side Attack: weak (4)
Central Attack: poor (3)
Left Side Attack: poor (3)
DKI: 23

Yet again, the right side attack is amazing with Mick Starks and Derrick Solomon. The midfield remained at poor. I'm torn between training stamina or general next week but I think we could use some form training so we may just go general which should help us out more.

Player Ratings
GK Chirit� Vochin **
DW G�rard Longis KICKED OUT
DM Hugh Hebert **
DW Klaas Slingerland **
WI Mick Starks (off) **~
MI Julius Acker (extra) **
MI Carlos Alberto Benito **~
MI Stephen Connors **~
WI Alfredo Crespo **
FO Derrick Solomon **
FO Edwin Phelan **

Total Stars: 21.5 (10 players)
Team Attitude: Play it Cool
Total player experience: wretched

Yes, we PIC'd this game. You are reading that correctly. This is the first game we've gotten everyone with ** or **~ and that makes me very, very happy. Unfortunately, Longis getting kicked out kept us from an all time high of stars, but with his ** he always gets, we would have had 23.5. Vochin continued with ** and Acker at ** which had better improve with his stamia, lest I sell him. Starks, Benito, and Connors with **~ across the middle makes me happy.

Game Summary
A nice healthy obliteration and now I think we even have a slim chance of beating CC's Dragons. We PIC'd this past game so it's time to MotS against CC's Dragons. It was great to see Starks with a goal as well as Solomon churn out two more. That 4 goal blitz in the last 7 minutes of the 1st half was amazing. Our confidence is back up to wonderful. I enjoyed the ho-hum nature of this match. It's a far cry from next week.

 

N  Team                 P Goals  Pts 
1. The Darksiders      13 63 - 5  36 
2. CC's Dragons        13 58 - 19 33 
3. Houston Hippopotami 13 36 - 21 24 
4. Atlanta United      13 33 - 31 22 
5. The Flying Midgets  13 20 - 22 17 
6. Vermont Catamounts  13 11 - 53 9 
7. Tea Stealers        13 9 - 40  8 
8. Metal Mulisha       13 7 - 46  4 

Two huge suprises this week. The Darksiders devistated CC's Dragons 7-1 while Atlanta tied the resurgent Flying Midgets with their excellent/outstanding/excellent defense and *** goalie. They could be a team to worry about next year if they fix their wretched midfield. Atlanta was up 2-0 but pulled back and The Flying Midgets tied them- I am really thankful for my "all out" coach who wouldn't let up even in a 7-0 obliteration. Derek Solomon and Edwin Phelan remained at 3 and 5 in the goal scoring race for our league. It looks like Sean Soto from the Darksiders has the race locked up.

Wrapup
Next week, we have a game against CC's Dragons which will be brutal. He'll be looking for some revenge after being brutalized at the hands of the Darksiders. Perhaps we can beat them- they lost worse to the Darksiders than we did. If we win or tie, we get 3rd. A loss puts us in 4th.

SI

[sterlingice]

Notes
I missed two notes about team captain Mick Starks this week. He actually got ***, making him the first player ever on our team to get that many stars. The second note is much more dire: I forgot to mention a yellow card he picked up in the game and, along with Longis, who was ushered out of the game, Starks will miss next week's crucial fixture against 2nd place CC's Dragons.

Press Announcement for the week
3/10/2003 at 07:32 Hippos Crush Catamounts, 2-3 Battle Next Week
After rolling through Vermont, the Hippos are looking to finish strong this year against CC's Dragons next week. Carlos Alberto Benito and Derek Solomon both scored twice and new goalie Vochin threw his second shutout in a row. A win or tie nets us 3rd place but a loss will likely drop us to 4th. FYI, The Hippos have also created a new logo befitting their division V status: not very intimdating.

More Numbers
New winger trainee Björn Magnusson has the midifield number 14, which he will be sporting in our friendly this week.

In the Market
Ok, I've decided what I need to fill my entire team and a team of trainees. I'm planning on selling 24yo wingback (inad/pass) Klaas Slingerland. Then I'll need to find a middle defender for my main team who is passable or solid, if I have more cash.

For my trainee team, I need the following:
Middle Defender (inad def, inad playmaking)
Winger (pass winger, inad playmaking)
Middie (pass playmaking, good peripherals)

End of Season

Dataking said (in another thread):
Team spirit, team confidence, supporter attitude, and sponsor attitude all reset during the off-season (right after qualification matches, if memory serves).

This is just for my own edification just so I remember.

New Logo
I have a creepily cute logo befitting my team's status as not even able to win in division V. Maybe I'll find some scarier images once my team improves. The image came somewhat from the cover of a book called "Hippos Go Berserk" by Sandra Boynton. I've never heard of it or read it before but it had a picture that fit. Here's a link to the book:Hippos Go Berserk And here is our new, ultra-intimidating team logo:


SI

[DataKing]

That logo is high entertainment!

LMAO!

[daedalus]

A few questions about the whole "clown" thing . . .

1) If I have a solid/sympathetic and a solid/pleasant, who counts?

2) Does the "clown" have to be a non-player?

[sterlingice]

A few questions about the whole "clown" thing . . .

1) If I have a solid/sympathetic and a solid/pleasant, who counts?

2) Does the "clown" have to be a non-player?

If two (or more) players on your team have the same leadership level, then it is random as to which acts as the "team leader" that week. So odds are half the time you get the sympathetic and half of the time you get the pleasant.

For a player to be considered a "clown", they do not play. But "clown" is not the technical term- it is a name given to a team leader who never plays and just occupies a space on the bench. If you have a solid/popular guy who also is an excellent playmaker or something like that, then consider yourself lucky- you don't need a "clown", per se, because your team leader is good enough to play.

SI

[Vince]

Good stuff SI...yours is the first dynasty report I have read. I'll get to the others soon...I want to soak up as much hattrick knowledge as humanly possible

Good luck against those Dragons...looks like you could do it, but it'll be tough.

[NevStar]

Originally posted by sterlingice
New Logo
I have a creepily cute logo befitting my team's status as not even able to win in division V. Maybe I'll find some scarier images once my team improves. The image came somewhat from the cover of a book called "Hippos Go Berserk" by Sandra Boynton. I've never heard of it or read it before but it had a picture that fit. Here's a link to the book:
[/b]

Awwww... :retch:

If two (or more) players on your team have the same leadership level, then it is random as to which acts as the "team leader" that week. So odds are half the time you get the sympathetic and half of the time you get the pleasant.

Are you sure about that? I thought that leadership was like any other skill, there's many different levels of leadership within the tag "solid." This means that whoever has the true highest leadership (which we have no way of knowing) will be the team leader.

[sterlingice]

New Hippo
Brought in a new trainee central defender for the "huge" cost of $12K. Say hello to Rickie Stepp, our new #6. He's only 20 and his passable defending along with inadequate playmaking (which we hope to raise) will serve us well. I can tell he's perfect for us: "A newly bought player got a really bad start when he arrived in the club. The team spirit fell when he initially turned out not to get along very well with the other ones." Wow, we're just a team of miscreants and bastards. Maybe if I stopped bringing in such great character guys, we would actually finish games with all 11 players.

Rickie Stepp (5939343)
20 years, passable form, healthy

A controversial person who is temperamental and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 28 000 US$
Wage: 590 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: weak
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: inadequate
Passing: wretched
Winger: weak
Defending: passable
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: poor

We are now 2 trainees away from a full youth squad. Hopefully I can snag those in the next couple of days. I want to get them before the end of the season so they benefit from our stamina and general training. Speaking of which, I've decided to go with playmaking this week. Then stamina, general, stamina, and playmaking before the first game next week.

Are you sure about that? I thought that leadership was like any other skill, there's many different levels of leadership within the tag "solid." This means that whoever has the true highest leadership (which we have no way of knowing) will be the team leader.

No, I'm not 100% sure on that. I think I just remember reading that on the hattrick conferences. Then again, My team spirit is poor so maybe I'm not best to give advice- it's been "calm" ever since day 1

SI

[The Afoci]

Just a quick question, does it inform you when your player go up with training, or do you just have to look?

[sterlingice]

Just a quick question, does it inform you when your player go up with training, or do you just have to look?

Unless you have a nice little program like HAM, get out your pen/pencil or spreadsheet. Unfortunately, it does not tell you when a player goes up or down.

As you probably already know, it can only happen after weekly training (Thursday evening if your team is in the USA). So you only need to check once a week.

SI

[robbgmaier]

FWIW - older players may see their rating go DOWN on mondays, according to the hattrick rule book

[sterlingice]

New Hippo
Thomas Strömlius (8733970)
19 years, passable form, healthy

A controversial person who is balanced and honest.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.

Nationality: Sverige
Assessed value: 47 000 US$
Wage: 888 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: weak
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: inadequate
Passing: weak
Winger: poor
Defending: passable
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: poor

It has been decided that I cannot count. I said I was 2 players away before but I was actually 3. I run a 3-5-2 for fixtures and 4-5-1 for friendlies so I forgot I needed an extra middle defender. The counting problem came in with me either counting my coach or clown (more likely). That or some of the changes I'll go into detail about below.

Thomas comes to us from Sverige and I'd tell you his team but hattrick is down right now. He will step right in at defender for our frienly tomorrow with the B team. He and our other new Hippo, Rickie Stepp will be getting a trial by fire to see which might replace Klaas Slingerland at middle defender on the main team. If neither can get me two stars, it's back to the drawing board. Both of them are inad playmakers so if they don't work out, they'll end up getting sold when they make passable.

Yet again, " A newly bought player got a really bad start when he arrived in the club. The team spirit fell when he initially turned out not to get along very well with the other ones." We just know how to pick them. I think we should just rename ourselves the 1970s Philadelphia Flyers or the late 80s Pistons or the Nasty Boys of the early 90s Reds.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that he went for $23001. I love that dreaded $1- paying that extra $999 scares teams away like nothing else.

A Numbers Game
Ok, a few number changes had to be made to accomidate the new player. Number 24, right before coaches number 25, will now be the clown since he's essentially our "clippy"- I don't know if that's a term I picked up anywhere or just came up with but it refers to the whole 2nd string QB holding the clipboard thing. So Silviu Radu will be changing from #2 to #24. Backup goalie Sidney Buckley will go to his rightful number #2 as backup keeper instead of his old #3. That will give new Thomas the #3 befitting a defender. Our new players will likely get the vacated #16 and #19 while no one will have the #21 for now since one will be empty (22 players + coach + clown). If we bring in someone to replace Klaas Slingerland at middie defender, he'll just get Klaas's #4. Anyone confused yet? Well, if you are- at some point in the offseason, you can get reacquainted with my team when I'll trot them all out.

Position Confusion
Here was the other thing that may have contributed to the problems. My main team is still in flux for next year. My defense is mainly sorted out but there may be a little shuffling between the A and B squad. Phelan and Solomon are set at forward. Once Solomon starts degrading, Chang will step in and I'll get a new trainee, but until then I'm not taking Solomon and his 3rd-in-the-league goals out of the lineup. In the middle, Connors and Benito are set at middie and Starks at winger. Then things get interesting: I'll likely put Acker at middie toward wing on Starks's side since he plays offensively. If I do this, I'll need a new young winger- probably a passable wing/inad playmaker to train up for cheap. It's a lot cheaper to do that than to get a new middie. I suppose the other alternative is to sell Acker and fill all of my holes with a new solid playmaker and pass/pass winger.

Until next time, Hippo faithful. I may not get to the match report tomorrow with a midterm starting about the time the game is ending but Thursday, there should be a special delayed "Where are they now" with a Hippo which has gone to another FOFC team. They don't just cause trouble on our team apparently

SI

[daedalus]

Is your plan for Strömlius basically as your centre back of the future? Have you entertained any thoughts of him as a middie-in-training?

Also, I think until you have Acker's stamina to passable, he might be able to serve you best as a winger. Of course, that might leave you one short in the middle.

[Doug5984]

Originally posted by sterlingice


New Logo
I have a creepily cute logo befitting my team's status as not even able to win in division V. Maybe I'll find some scarier images once my team improves. The image came somewhat from the cover of a book called "Hippos Go Berserk" by Sandra Boynton. I've never heard of it or read it before but it had a picture that fit. Here's a link to the book:Hippos Go Berserk And here is our new, ultra-intimidating team logo:


SI

I like the new logo, and I just have a few questions about it...What program did you use to make it in? and how would I go about uploading the image to hattrick once I make a new logo?

[NevStar]

I can't answer the 1st question, but you can't upload images to hattrick. You need your own web server space to host it. If you can't find any, send it to me & I can host it for you.

[Poli]

I think I'm finally caught up, good reading!

[sterlingice]

I like the new logo, and I just have a few questions about it...What program did you use to make it in? and how would I go about uploading the image to hattrick once I make a new logo?

I used Paint Shop Pro 7.04 to make it. I think PSP is better than Photoshop in that it's nearly as powerful but has is quicker and better organized. I just used the base image that I have the link for above (the book cover). Step-by-step: I got rid of all the writing using a couple of floods and some overwriting, got rid of the balloons and birthday hats since I think this is "cute" enough as it is (again, depicting the fierceness of our play) the same way and also with the copy brush so the hippo color remained pretty uniform, played with the colors some, added the lines on the field, added the Hippo text and then buttonized it. Just a lot of common paint program utilities - if you know how to use them, great. If not, I suggest getting a program like PSP and just playing around for a night or two. If you enjoy doodling or a little art, you'll be hooked just playing around with all the features.

JASC has a free trial of PSP- just go to JASC.com. As an aside, they run the best beta programs I've ever participated in; whenever a new PSP comes out, bugs and changes are typically fixed the next day and lots of fun new suggested features are added.

As for hosting, as NevStar said, you need your own host. I have a free 5MB of webspace from my ISP so it's there along with a lot of other assorted garbage.

I think I'm finally caught up, good reading!

Cool. I know I've been reading about the Raiders for quite a while

SI

[sterlingice]

Is your plan for Strömlius basically as your centre back of the future? Have you entertained any thoughts of him as a middie-in-training?

Also, I think until you have Acker's stamina to passable, he might be able to serve you best as a winger. Of course, that might leave you one short in the middle.

I basically am going to let Stromlius and Stepp play middie defenders in the back of my 4-5-1 for my 2nd team. If they bump to passable playmaking to go along with passable defending, I'll look into what to do with them then but right now I'm working on playmaking with 3 guys already.

SI

[sterlingice]

Preview
I'm going to see how many times I can use the phrase "Qwikshot's Qwakers" in this writeup because it just sounds cool. Try saying it a couple of times fast: "Qwikshot's Qwakers, Qwikshot's Qwakers". Anyways, we booked a friendly against Qwikshot's Qwakers at Quaker Arena in where else? Pennsylvania, Philly to be specific. Qwikshot's Qwakers are the #2 ranked team in V.140 and if they win this week, they might be up for division IV promotion. Team captain Mick Starks will be playing in the game since he won't be playing in our fixture (well, to keep his form more than anything). A lot of new guys to try out so let's see how they do. Oh, and did I mention we were playing Qwikshot's Qwakers.

Game Summary
Date: 3/13/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 5094453
Arena: Qwakers Arena
Crowd: 716

716 spectators had come to Qwakers Arena this cloudy day. Qwakers had chosen a strategic incomprehensible 2-6-2 formation. They fielded: Piñera - Linnus, Batten - Teufl, Tuito, Harris, Erwin, Anderson, Laizans - Olsson, Fernandes.

Hippopotami tactics involved an interesting 4-5-1 combination. Lineup: Buckley - Jonsson, Stepp, Strömlius, Hebert - Magnusson, Rumbold, Paige, Friedländer, Starks - Chang.

A header from Defoe Chang connected with a corner kick after 5 minutes, and the ball ended up with Hugh Hebert of Hippopotami who shot the 0-1 goal. Qwakers´s Igal Tuito made an attempt at equalising in the 23rd minute, coming in from the right, but the ball hit the post, the defense clearing the rebound. Qwakers seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion about the organization of the team. Halftime score was 0 - 1. Qwakers held the ball, with a clear 51 percent possession rate.

During the break Qwakers´s coach went through the teams new tactics yet again. The away team´s Philip Friedländer took advantage of a mistake to the home side´s right in the 51st minute increasing Hippopotami´s lead to 0 - 2. Nelson Anderson had a good opportunity to reduce in the 55:th minute but wasn´t cool enough. The ball went miles over the bar. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Qwakers, with an impressive 68 percent possession of the ball.

Most important Qwakers player was Manuel Piñera. However, Jordan Erwin made a disastrous appearance. Hippopotami´s best player was Mick Starks. However, Kyle Paige made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 0 - 2.

Events and Stats
A few notes:
1. Our score will always be first, whether we are ahead or behind
2. The (F) after the names would have a goal number if it were a fixture
3. "xx" means the time of the goal was not specified
4. Cards and injuries will only be for our team

Formations
HH: 4-5-1
QQ: 2-6-2

Events Summary

1st Half
HH: 05: Hugh Hebert (F); 1-0
Halftime Score: 1-0
Possession: 49%

2nd Half
HH: 51: Philip Friedländer (F); 2-0
Final Score: 2-0
Possession: 32%
Final Possession: 41%

Cards
None, thankfully

Injuries
Ditto

Stadium

Decent turnout of 716 at Qwakers Arena.

Team Ratings

Qwakers
Midfield: poor (3)
Right Side Defence: weak (4)
Central Defence: inadequate (5)
Left Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Right Side Attack: poor (3)
Central Attack: weak (4)
Left Side Attack: weak (4)
DataKing Index: 31

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: wretched (2)
Right Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Central Defence: passable (6)
Left Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Right Side Attack: weak (4)
Central Attack: poor (3)
Left Side Attack: solid (7)
DataKing Index: 34

We edged them out in the DKI despite getting outplayed in the middle. Needless to say, neither of our 2nd teams were very good up the middle. Starks's presence can be seen on that left side attack, as always. Our defense was just good enough to keep their offense off the scoreboard and our offense was just good enough to punch it by their defense even with the sagging midfield.

Player Ratings
GK Sidney Buckley *
DW Patrik Jonsson **
DM Rickie Stepp **
DM Thomas Strömlius **
DW: Hugh Hebert **
WI Björn Magnusson *~
MI Kyle Paige *
MI Philip Friedländer (extra) **
MI Jeremy Rumbold *
WI Mick Starks ***
FO Dafoe Chang **

Total player experience: disastrous
Team Attitude: Normal

Great news as all of our defenders across the back line delivered ** including the two new guys, Stepp and Strömlius. I haven't worked out the lineup yet for our fixture, but one of them may find themselves as our new middle defender. Starks delivered his second straight *** while new winger trainee Björn Magnusson got *~. The middle improved a little with Friedländer finally finding a spot and getting ** and overshadowed Paige and Rumbold's miserable * performances. Chang got a goal and his usual **. The disastrous total experience worries me a little.

Game Summary
Qwikshot's Qwakers gave us a great game but we pulled one away on their turf. Not bad, especially considering we lost in the middle. Our middie trainees are kindof hurting for skill right now which is why I am reluctant to sell Acker. FYI, Qwikshot- there are problems with your formation: 4 inner middies means none of them got trained. You have to have a max of 3 guys at any one position. That also played a bit of a role in our win. It restores some of my faith in the game to see us lose on the midfield and actually win a game- there were a couple of recent games where it seemed as if the midfield was all the game engine was counting.

Notes
Not much time for notes- studying time. I want to thank Qwikshot for the game and I've got next week's friendly booked and ready to go. We will be traveling to the dreaded North County Raiders Arena to take on ardent's Raiders. I'd like to say this will be one hell of a fight but it's our scrubs and he just got kocked out of the FOFC Cup so who am I kidding. At least we get a nice trip... wait, we're going to Misery. I'm sure there's some silver lining to this cloud of a fixture.

I'll have an update tomorrow when the popular(?) feature "Where are they now" makes a return trip. Also, training updates and then the big 2-3 game this week which we probably will lose, but one can always hold out hope for.

SI

[sterlingice]

Lots and lots of fun today: a new Hippo, our training update, a soon-to-be-former Hippo, an idea, another lineup shakeup and what we need now for our team, Where are they Now, and our history against FOFC'ers for their edification (and mine) as well as a revised posting schedule. Sorry it took an extra day but I hope it was worth it. Everything today is interconnected, as you will see.

New Hippo
Donald Newsom

61 000 US$, 19 years, passable form
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities

Stamina: inadequate
Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: inadequate
Passing: disastrous
Winger: solid
Defending: poor
Scoring: poor
Set Pieces: wretched

Speaking of an extra day, today for $46001, I added Newsom who will be the new #19 and may be displacing Acker (more info on that below). His stamina is pretty good and will improve this offseason. His playmaking is only at inadequate but that's what we train here so that will go up relatively quickly...

Training
Speaking of training, it's that time of the week. Know why superstud Mick Starks is getting *** a game now? Because he was about to pop in playmaking. He's up to inadequate to go along with his solid winger and passable scoring and passing. Also, a really pleasant suprise is that recent winger trainee purchase Bjorn Magnusson popped to inadequate playmaking as well so he's up to pass/inad for winger/playmaking. I think we're starting to get on the happy side of the form curve again as we had 5 increases and only 1 decrease. The best of which is goalie Chirita Vochin who is up to passable. Here's the stats...

Form
Starters: (+3) (-1)
Entire Team: (+5) (-1)

Value
Starters: (+8) (-3)
Entire Team: (+15) (-2)

Team Stats
Total Wages: 18610 (+710)
Total Value: 1709000 (+87000)
Avg Value: 77682 (-3418)
Avg Age: 20 (-1)
Avg Form: passable (from inadequate)
Avg Experience: disastrous (from wretched)
No of players: 20 (+2)
Nationalities: 8 (-1)

Future Training
Playmaking next week, then stamina, set pieces, stamina and it's next year and playmaking again.

For Sale
Speaking of next week, former starting wingback Klaas Slingerland will not be with us, hopefully. His passable winger skill and inadequate defense were good for ** every week and he pretty good leadership and experience. (Un)fortunately, the recent acquisitions of Stromlius and Stepp along with Elmer Bush have made him expendible. Sunday will be his last game for the Hippos. He's currently on the market for $20K.

An Idea
Speaking of the market, we get a ton of questions relating to that and many other hattrick topics and there are a lot of times where I know the answer exists but I can't find it: We need a Hattrick FAQ thread on the discussion board. Sure, the hattrick thread is great but it's over 200 posts long and not very organized. Finding anything in there is impossible so I'm suggesting creating a thread that is only one message long with all the newbie questions, a link to the major hattrick sites, and all that jazz. Basically, take the start of DK's thread from this year and maintain it so that whenever a new question is frequently asked enough, it gets updated. It's just a pain to go searching every hattrick thread on the board for something we could easily have all in one place. Like? Dislike?

Shakeup (Again)
Speaking of likes and dislikes, I dislike that Mick Starks will be sitting out Sunday's fixture with a red card. I also think the Raiders will dislike playing against him on Wednesday. I do like the depth on my team, but I dislike my massive debt so here's what may happen. I think I will hold out on selling Acker until the beginning of next year- sure, he's very good and we don't have a replacement for him yet, but selling an excellent playmaker should net us $300-$400K, expecially with someone of his other skills. With all the shuffling this week, I had 4 spots open and I've really only filled one since I've bought 3 guys but I'm selling Slingerland and Acker.

The gory details, should you care (if not, skip to the next paragraph):
Our new winger above, Newsom, takes Crespo's old spot at winger. Bush will replace Slingerland next week once healed. Stromlius has slightly better stats than Stepp and will be elevated to the A team. Every time I play a friendly or fixture, the one I play goes to excellent and the one I don't goes down to solid. So I think I'll just scrap my useless 4-5-1 altogether and train another forward so my team is 3-5-2 at all times. I'd run-and-shoot the B team but they don't have good enough periphery skills (otherwise they would be starting instead of on the B team).

Sparing my loyal readers the gory details, the sale of Acker will get us out of debt and about $100K in the black (ideally) which gives us enough to replace him with a solid playmaker if I spend my cash right (or passable with other good skills). The quick and dirty is that I will need 2 more players beyond that: a pass/inad forward and a pass/inad winger. I guess if I had spare cash, I'd go for a passable middle defender- then again, I'll never have spare money because I'd just blow it on the transfer wire...

Where Are They Now?
Speaking of blowing money on the transfer wire, many players have been sold to support my habit and I even have a segment I stole from NevStar to show you that: that's right, it's time for the 3rd edition of "Where Are They Now?"

Week One
1/12/2003 Sold (Fired player) to Rednecks 1 000 US$ (0 US$)
1/12/2003 Sold Hayden Hanks to C.A. Daedra (B.Bca.) 20 000 US$ (82 000 US$)
1/16/2003 Sold Rodney Walters to Brookland Cayce 16 000 US$ (100 000 US$)
1/16/2003 Sold Alvin Yeager to Sporting Milwaukee 145 000 US$ (98 000 US$)

Week Two
1/26/2003 Sold Alvarado Lanza to Metaguacha 12 000 US$ (21 000 US$)
1/26/2003 Sold Ben Magnusson to Gringos 12 000 US$ (17 000 US$)
1/27/2003 Sold Tommy Lyhling to Hawkeye F.C. 50 000 US$ (54 000 US$)

Today
1/26/2003 Sold Søren Andersen to Morrisville Morrisvillians 13 000 US$ (31 000 US$)
2/9/2003 Sold Pedro Villavilla Paz to Los N° 1 72 000 US$ (47 000 US$)

For the Future
2/17/2003 Sold Matei Rosca to Racing Mexico 2 000 US$ (30 000 US$)
2/17/2003 Sold José Alberto Balbuena to K-Wings 1 000 US$ (12 000 US$)
2/17/2003 Sold Storm Jordan to Racing Mexico 4 000 US$ (35 000 US$)

2/24/2003 Sold Ildefonso Besteiro Saiz to JOB Squad 1 000 US$ (0 US$)
2/24/2003 Sold Augusto Almeida Lopes to snomus cf 2 000 US$ (33 000 US$)
2/24/2003 Sold Thomas Rosenthal to BACARDI C.F 21 001 US$ (74 000 US$)

3/5/2003 Sold Dawid Raduli to Snufl 84 000 US$ (78 000 US$)
3/8/2003 Sold Zlatko Koch to Livvy Loonies 26 001 US$ (57 000 US$)
3/9/2003 Sold Alfredo Crespo to Havoc 77 000 US$ (115 000 US$)


Total Purchases: 602502 US$ (+221502)
Total Sales 559002 US$ (+187001)
Difference -43500 US$ (-34501)
Average (bought) 21518 US$ (+3375)
Average (sold) 31056 US$ (+6256)
Average (bought + sold) -946 US$ (-696)

Søren Andersen
Søren was one of the daytrading four. The thing that distinguishes him from the others is that he was sold to FOFC's very own NevStar and his Morrisville Morrisvillians in V.93 in the USA. Until recently he had been a bit of a disappointment. Like seemingly all Hippos, when he joined the team he gave them a spirit drop and he just didn't quite fit in and he has been rumored to be nicknaming himself "The Great Dane", much to the annoyance of teammates. Morrisville owner NevStar had this to say about him: "Despite his slow start, the Morrisvillian management remains confident that Søren will have a bright future here. We wish to reiterate that Andersen has not been a disappointment at all. Not at all. Not one bit. None. However, it is quite annoying to search for and copy & paste the "ø" character every time his name comes up." I can definately sympathize about the ø, having written up some stuff about him before. However, things are definately on the way up. He's been getting ** most games lately and just got his first career hat trick in this past week's friendly against Ince. He almost got 4 goals but a header got tipped. He has one career league goal and it occurred this season.

Pedro Villavilla Paz
Pedro was our backup middie for the longest time but he just could never stick with the A team. He is 27 and thus was not a part of our youth movement and got sold for a whopping $70K. He had a brief stop with Los N° 1 in Argentina V.159 before being transferred for $90K to Los Perros in V.62 Argentina. Currently he gets *~ for Los Perros playing middie for them but he has no goals yet.

FOFC Competition
Speaking of ancient history, I figured some of you might be curious how I have fared against other FOFC teams. Witness my miserable history against many of you where I have been your whipping boy. Or you teams I beat who deep down know it was a fluke because you had pity on my boys. Unfortunately this will have to wait as I am nearly falling asleep here at the computer. Likely this feature will just be included with the youth pull writeup.

Revised Posting Schedule
Speaking of various writeups, this is more for me than you so that I have it organized somewhere: It's the attempted posting schedule. The only major change that I can think of is that I'm adding an extra "Week in Review" on Saturdays. I'm not sure the frequency of some of the postings since life is upredictable and all.

Sunday: Fixture Summary, Standings
Monday/Tuesday: Hippo Spotlight, Where are they Now
Wedensday: Friendly Summary
Friday: Training
Saturday: Youth Pull, Team Attitude, Weekly Economy, Week-In-Review
Bi-Weekly or Monthly Updates: Youth Squad, Training, Staff, International Report, Supporter Update

Hope you "enjoyed" the bookkeeping extravaganza. It seems I have one every once in a while where I get everything out in the open again.

SI

[DataKing]

I think your Hattrick FAQ is a great idea, SI.

[BishopMVP]

What would be good questions for Hattrick? Do we want it to be mostly a repeat of the Hattrick FAQ or more an addition that draws on our (massive amounts of) experience?

Questions like these aren't in the Hattrick FAQ but seem asked frequently.

How good should my coach be?
What is the best formation?
How do I change my formation? (symmetrical/asymmetrical)
How should I schedule friendly's?
How much should I pay for a goalie?

[sterlingice]

This gets to be a bit long because of all the downtime and my inability to write this earlier. So the youth/economy/week in review update gets squished together with the team report and a little special feature at the end. Also, about half of this was written last night and some written tonight.

Hattrick FAQ Idea
Well, I've got spring break this week so I will create a FAQ thread in the general discussion forum tomorrow or Tuesday. I'll just start with a skeleton FAQ and the questions I thought should be there and then just keep adding to it and updating it. I'll also throw it into the beginning of my next season thread. Hope to see lots of help on that.

Youth Pull
Our completely inept youth squad has maintained its reputation. Passable youth squad, my arse. Anyways, here is our former employee.

Del Sneed (8860976)
18 years, passable form, healthy

A pleasant guy who is temperamental and honest.
Has disastrous experience and wretched leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 13 000 US$
Wage: 560 US$/week
Owner: Houston Hippopotami
Warnings: 0

Stamina: inadequate
Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: poor
Passing: inadequate
Winger: poor
Defending: wretched
Scoring: wretched
Set Pieces: wretched

Again With the Economy (aka Weekly Economy Update)
Klaas Slingerland has garnered no bids at his $20K price but we still have more than 12 hours on him. About that same time, middie Julius Acker will be put on sale for $400K. While this is a bit steep for him, if anyone is willing to pay that, I'll take it. If not, I'll train him in stamina this offseason and then sell him for a more reasonable price next season when the market perks back up. Next week, we will drop below -$200K again as we will lose close to $45K after our friendly. So while we are on the happy side of buying, it's probably time to fill the remaining holes on our squad before the offseason and training.

Weekly Attitude Update
Team Spirit: furious (down from composed)
Confidence: decent
Sponsors: high on life
Supporter Club: 749 members +28
Supporters: delirious
Well, our team spirit is hurting. I guess you'll see why. Tho, nothing else changed on the week and the supporters just keep coming.

Week In Review
None due to the server downtime. This will start next week.

Preview
Well, this basically is a tough matchup for us at their place. But a win gets us 3rd place money while a loss likely drops us to fourth. I'll be MotS'ing it and hopefully we can hang with the Dragons. The worst part is that our team leader, Mick Starks, will be missing from this game due to an overabundance of cards the past few games. This has added a wrinkle to our game plan as Acker will move to wing and Friedländer called up from the B team for middie (** is a great game for him). Also, Strömlius is called up to play defense this week for the A team and will probably stay here if he plays well.

Game Summary

Date: 3/17/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 4591320
Arena: Dragons Den
Crowd: 12000


The crowd of 12000 turning up at Dragons Den today were greeted by some nasty showers of rain. Dragons had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Bauer - Thomas, Fitter, Boone - Nilsson, Whitmore, Foley, Talley, Jeffries - Refojo, Whakaari.

Hippopotami had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Vochin - Hebert, Strömlius, Slingerland - Acker, Benito, Connors, Friedländer, Newsom - Solomon, Phelan.

Hippopotami took the lead in the games 5:th minute with 0 - 1 after some elegant plays down the middle. Carlos Alberto Benito was the scorer. The referee showed Hippopotamis Julius Acker the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Lynn Whakaari the unlucky victim, couldn´t continue the game. Philip Friedländer had a hard time on the water infested pitch - his trademark technique was nowhere in sight this day. The visitors Carlos Alberto Benito took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side´s goalie and full backs in the 35:th minute. 0 - 2 for Hippopotami. The teams went for a half-time break at 0 - 2. Dragons, bringing the final ball possession rate to 52 percent, dominated the battle.

In the 64:th minute Victorio Refojo passed through the guests central line of defense, scoring the 1 - 2 goal. Jonathan Talley made a superb strike at the goal in the 77:th minute with a long shot coming in from straight in front of the goal, but one of the visitors defenders got a foot in and warded it off to a corner. After 78 minutes of play Will Ziegler equalised for Dragons after an elegant attack from the right. Dragons took the lead in the 84:th minute of the game by 3 to 2, as Victorio Refojo elegantly received a pass going deep, finishing off with a half-volley shot just below the bar. Thomas Strömlius of Hippopotami received a yellow card in the 87:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Dragons put themselves up 4 - 2 when Will Ziegler broke through on the right, leaving the entire defensive box behind him. The structure of the game started to change as Dragons decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Dragons, with an impressive 58 percent possession of the ball.

The most dominating Dragons player was without a doubt Gil Bauer. Elijah Boone on the other hand, had a terrible day. Hippopotami´s best player was Carlos Alberto Benito. Philip Friedländer on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 2.

Events and Stats

A few notes:
1. Our score will always be first, whether we are ahead or behind
2. The (F) after the names would have a goal number if it were a fixture
3. "xx" means the time of the goal was not specified
4. Cards and injuries will only be for our team

Formations
HH: 3-5-2
CCD: 3-5-2 (asymmetric)

Events Summary

1st Half
HH: 05: Carlos Alberto Benito (4); 1-0
HH: 35: Carlos Alberto Benito (5); 2-0
Halftime Score: 2-0
Possession: 48%

2nd Half
CCD: 64: 2-1
CCD: 78: 2-2
CCD: 84: 2-3
CCD: xx: 2-4
Final Score: 2-4
Possession: 42%
Final Possession: 45%

Cards
HH: xx: Julius Acker (yellow- nasty challenge)
HH: 87: Thomas Strömlius (yellow- unsportsmanlike behaviour)

Injuries
None on our side, but Acker got one of theirs right before getting his card. We're getting at least one "killing" a week.

Stadium

On a rainy day, we still packed the Dragons Den with 12000 people.

Team Ratings

CC's Dragons
Midfield: weak (4)
Right Side Defence: solid (7)
Central Defence: solid (7)
Left Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Right Side Attack: passable (6)
Central Attack: passable (6)
Left Side Attack: solid (7)
Dataking Index: 46

Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: weak (4)
Right Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Central Defence: passable (6)
Left Side Defence: passable (6)
Right Side Attack: passable (6)
Central Attack: solid (7)
Left Side Attack: solid (7)
Dataking Index: 45

Argh, missing Starks dropped our right side attack to passable which would have torched their inadequate left side defense. Very, very, very close. It was our best showing but still not enough. I'm itching to start next year.

Player Ratings
GK Chiritã Vochin **
DW Hugh Hebert (def) **
DM Thomas Strömlius **
DW Klaas Slingerland **
WI Julius Acker **~
MI Stephen Connors **~
MI Philip Friedländer (extra) *~
MI Carlos Alberto Benito **~
WI Donald Newsom **
FO Derrick Solomon **
FO Edwin Phelan **~

Total Stars: 23.5 (10 players)
Team Attitude: Match of the Season
Total player experience: disastrous

Disastrous experience? Oh well- I don't understand that rating. Great effort by the midfield except Friedlander. This could be a problem but hopefully the stamina training will fix things. Newsom did a good job with ** which is what the recently sold Crespo got us. Phelan is up to **~ again. Hooray!

Game Summary
Oh, the humanity! We blow a 2-0 65 minute lead! Not only that but he played an asymmetric 3-5-2 which I couldn't take advantage of. Where Starks usually would have played, he had the wingback moved up to middie and his winger offensive- that's a couple of goals for sure. Well, there's always next year and we will be ready. Clearly we can hang with this team and with a little luck, we might get to move up next season. They are still the better team. For now.

League Standings

 
N  Team                 P Goals  Pts 
1. The Darksiders      14 65 - 5  39 
2. CC's Dragons        14 62 - 21 36 
3. Atlanta United      14 39 - 31 25 
4. Houston Hippopotami 14 38 - 25 24 
5. The Flying Midgets  14 20 - 24 17 
6. Vermont Catamounts  14 13 - 54 12 
7. Buccabeavzers       14 10 - 42 8 
8. Metal Mulisha       14 7 - 52  4 

I don't mind losing to CC's but the thing that gauls me is that Atlanta will get the extra cash which I badly needed. He won 6-0 against the Mulisha this week. He only got his place because he had the fortune to take over a 3rd place team instead of a last place team. All will be righted next year as it's likely CC's, the division IV team, and myself will battle for the chance to move up.

Press Announcement for the week
3/17/2003 at 07:15Furious Rally by Dragons Seals Hippos Fate
For over 2/3rds of the game, the Hippos kept CC's Dragons in check, but alas, it was not to be and the Dragons 4 goal rally in the second half doomed the Hippos. In the first half, Houston took charge 5 minutes into the game with a goal by Carlos Alberto Benito. He scored his second goal of the match 35 minutes in and the Hippos led 2-0. However, the Dragons scored 4 goals in the 23 minute span between 64 and 87. The loss relegates Houston to 4th for the year behind Atlanta.

History Against the FOFC
I figured, for those of you who aren't really religious followers of this dynasty, I'd give a little of our lackluster history against fellow FOFCers. A majority of my friendlies have come against FOFCers so there's quite a bit of ground to cover.

1/9/2003 (Friendly):Bees - Houston Hippopotami 6 - 2
In the Hippos first ever game, we went to Bees Arena to take on ausonny's Bees in their first game. I was playing many of my current starters and many were out of position and we got thrashed. Mick Starks scored the first and second goals in Hippopotami history but he was about the only one that showed up for us. It's interesting to look back and see how badly out of position I played some of my guys and also how far some of them have come since then. This would not be our last meeting with the Bees.

1/16/2003 (Friendly): North County Raiders - Houston Hippopotami 2 - 4
Our first friendly win came the next week after a trip to North County Raiders Arena to take on ardent's Raiders. Starks had another goal to open the game and new passable goalie Dawid Raduli gave us the tending we badly needed. Also, through the wonderment of mybestteam, we played immensely better. It would be our last friendly win for quite a while as we lost our next five. We have a return trip this week to beat them silly again. Won't nearly be as easy with our B-team

1/30/2003 (Friendly):Houston Hippopotami - Bees 0 - 9
We figured that after a couple of weeks, we had greatly improved our team and might be able to beat the Bees. How wrong we were. Dawid Raduli came back and did his best impression of a sieve. It didn't help that we were suffering from massive confusion due to a brief flirtation with the 3-4-3. The Bees are a team not to be trifled with and they are one of the better FOFC teams, in my opinion. They have a good chance of moving up to division IV next year.

2/6/2003 (Friendly):Houston Hippopotami - Morrisville Morrisvillians 0 - 4
We got shut out for the 2nd straight friendly, this time by Morrisville. Former Hippo Søren Andersen even scored against us. Another game where we didn't play very well and Morrisville just flat beat us. Kindof embarassing since this was only their 2nd friendly and we had been up and running for a month. Morrisville is another good team, tho, and we're itching for some payback. Like the Bees, we are a supporter of Morrisville.

2/20/2003 (Friendly):Aviators - Houston Hippopotami 4 - 2
Our stay in the FOFC Consolation Cup was a brief one in Aviators Arena in Ohio. We played a few starters and got 3 cards, but that's it. It's kindof sad because it looked like we had better ratings across the board but he beat us in possession and we had a couple of gaping holes where inferior players were. Only 371 fans showed up: You'd think this was the Big XII tourney held in Dallas or something else where no one cared.

3/13/2003 (Friendly):Qwakers - Houston Hippopotami 0 - 2
We're now in the midst of a friendly streak the other direction as we have won 3 in a row including this one against Qwikshot's Qwakers last week. Mick Starks got the first ever *** for our team in this game but unfortunately it kept him out of our fixture Sunday against the Darksiders. They had a higher possession percentage so I have to think we just lucked out and won in events. Next week we have a return trip against the Raiders at their place.

NEW! Late Breaking News
2003-03-18
FLYS offered 4 000 000 Pesos for Julius Acker and thereby took the lead in the bidding.

Goodbye Debt!! In a way this is good: I meade a cool $400K at least and he still has a couple of days left. The bad news is that we lost one of our better young players and the only excellent on our team. Still, Julius never played up to the level he should for his ratings. I guess as soon as he sells, I'll fill my final holes and my team will finally be complete and we'll only be slightly in debt starting next year.

Wrapup
Darn, I was really hoping for the 3rd place money. The team spirit loss hurts and I'm not sure how to reverse this. It's not as if I can afford a proper clown. Anyways, the team will be in flux a little the next two weeks. Hope you liked the history feature. In the next week or so, I'll get to a season wrapup and start a new thread for next year including the FAQ.

SI

[vex]

Originally posted by sterlingice
This gets to be a bit long because of all the downtime and my inability to write this earlier. So the youth/economy/week in review update gets squished together with the team report and a little special feature at the end. Also, about half of this was written last night and some written tonight.

I think this is the longest Hattrick post ever

Hattrick FAQ Idea
Well, I've got spring break this week so I will create a FAQ thread in the general discussion forum tomorrow or Tuesday. I'll just start with a skeleton FAQ and the questions I thought should be there and then just keep adding to it and updating it. I'll also throw it into the beginning of my next season thread. Hope to see lots of help on that.

You might put it on a website or get someone to do it, because it would look a lot better.

Total player experience: disastrous

Disastrous experience? Oh well- I don't understand that rating.

I'm not completely sure on this, but I've always thought that this was your team's average experience.

NEW! Late Breaking News
2003-03-18
FLYS offered 4 000 000 Pesos for Julius Acker and thereby took the lead in the bidding.

[/b]

Congrats!


Wrapup

Darn, I was really hoping for the 3rd place money. The team spirit loss hurts and I'm not sure how to reverse this.
SI

Well, team spirit does reset next season, so no biggie.



Also, if you don't already have something set up, how about a friendly next week?

[sterlingice]

Also, if you don't already have something set up, how about a friendly next week?

I'm game. I've been itching to play you guys for a while since we're mutual supporters. I'm presuming you mean next week as in about 9 days from now and now two days. If so, we'll get it booked as soon as possible after this week's. My place or yours, I don't care (since it's not international). You'll get to see some of my A team, tho, since there is only one game that week

Update: Ackers is up to $417K and there are still more than 2 days left. Woo!

SI

[vex]

Yeah, I mean March 26th. It doesn't matter to me where it's at, it's not like we're exactly going to be selling out at either of our arenas We'll get back to you on that.

[daedalus]

400 000+ for a 2 * average ain't a bad tradeoff.

[sterlingice]

400 000+ for a 2 * average ain't a bad tradeoff.

SHHHH! Don't tell the bidders! They might be listening
Granted, if his stamina were higher, he would be a definite **~ and when I played him wing this week, he got **~ so he's probably a *** winger with stamina training.

Yeah, I mean March 26th.

Ok, we're as good as booked provided one of us remembers to challenge the other one that night

SI

[NevStar]

Originally posted by sterlingice
I'm game. I've been itching to play you guys for a while since we're mutual supporters.
...
SI

Hey now. I thought we agreed we were going to play next week. No biggie if you'd rather play vexroid, Crazy Earl told me he thought you were all scared.

[sterlingice]

Hey now. I thought we agreed we were going to play next week. No biggie if you'd rather play vexroid, Crazy Earl told me he thought you were all scared.

Aw crap. This is why I write 900 line messages: so I can remember stuff. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to write this down. Time to make some "phone calls" over the next couple of days to get things sorted out. My people will call your people and then the guys who break thumbs won't have to be involved and, well, it will all get sorted out, hopefully. Vex, Nev, you have pm's.

Acker-age
Ok, that was a bad pun. But I don't care! Last night, a Canadian team jumped the bid up to $600K!!! Another team has bumped his bid so the market isn't soft for him after that huge bid.
Currrent High Bid: 612 000 US$ by St. Cloud Muskies

SI