Shaolin Landfills HT Dynasty

[GoldenEagle]

Billy, if you lose in the cup, I am avaliable for friendly at your place

[Havok]

lol!!!!

same here

[BillyNYC]

Week 11 : SHAOLIN 2 Slashers 0 Final.

To the layman, this result was surprising. To the more knowledgable viewer (and to the team owner; that being me :P), it was expected.

Slashers had 2 key players injured (including the magical or mythical mid that's costing him 120k/week, or whatever), and his top winger suspended.

I also was missing 2 players (due to suspension), but neither were absolutely key:
1. Krita Mae Noi, my wingback. My 4th best D ("only" brilliant; horrible I know), but my best offensive wingback (solid wing). Still, in bad form and one of my better D's has passable wing.
2. Lars Tornen, my 2nd striker. His form is up to a season-high of inadequate, so he'd probably get 4* (he's magnif.). My 3rd striker (Gooch, who's formidable) dropped to passable form, so I expected 3*. Not a HUGE difference.

Also, my spirit was delirious, while Slashers was certainly lower.

So I expected a tough match, but thought I'd win by a goal or two. And so it was. Fortunately, I took a nap and missed the first 3/4 of the match, so by the time I woke up, was up 2-0. If I had watched the 0-0 first half, I would've been a bit antsy, especially with 69% possession. Not sure if Slashers PIC'ed me, or if spirit/injuries killed him THAT bad, but his excellent midfield was surprisingly low.

As for me, magical midfield was about what I expected. 53* is a new team high.

Standings
The standings are being screwy, so can't post it. But I moved from 7th to 5th, now 2 points ahead of both IndyRacing and Minute Men. This too was expected, since Indy faced a tough D&D team, and MM an equally tough RSB team. Both D&D and RSB play in the Cup, of course, so I feared either might take it a bit easy against my competitors...but neither did (yay).

In fact, D&D got 2 starters suspended for his Cup match, including his star midfielder Is. So they'll be ready for me on Sunday, unfortunately.

A look at the remaining 3 weeks in the next post.

[GoldenEagle]

What about your recent youth pull?

[BillyNYC]

GoldenEagle: yeah, I guess I forgot that. I tend to gloss over most youth pulls. I guess it's something I take for granted. Whether they're fired or earn 100k isn't a HUGE deal to me anymore (so thus I don't get pissed at crap pulls, nor ecstatic at good ones).

But anyways:
Peter Taylor
90 000 US$, 17 years, passable form
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities

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

He's got a few bids, and would expect he'll sell for 25k or so.

Attendance
I didn't sell out today, which wasn't a shock; 59,271 out of 60,250, so close enough. Still, I haven't expanded my stadium in 3 seasons or so and despite a growing fanclub (close to 3000), I still can't and won't. Being midtable or lower in ML doesn't draw fans as much as being at the top of III (for example).

That's part of why I wasn't terribly distraught at the potential drop to II. It's lame to say "the first thing I'll do when I'm relegated is to expand my stadium!", but it's absolutely true.

Also, I wish HT was more like CM in this point. The game doesn't care that I've been in ML for 5 seasons and have established myself. It only cares what my fanclub is (size and attitude), what level I'm in, my position, and the weather. So, a team new to ML like Minute Men or D&D draws much more fans than I do, which bothers me a little (also notable, I promoted to ML before the 10% promotion bonuses came about; so my fan club's quite small compared to some of my ML opponents).

The future next...

[BillyNYC]

As stated, am currently in 5th, 2 ahead of both Minute Men and IndyRacing. With standings down, can't check, but my goal differential is about even with Indy and MUCH (+15 or so) better than Minute Men.

What's left:
SHAOLIN: @D&D, AYSA, @IndyRacing
MM: @KC, Slashers, @D&D
Indy: @AYSA, @KC, Shaolin

If you look at my schedule head-to-head with MM, you have to like my chances of holding a 2 pt lead on him. Of course, anything can happen.

The ideal would be if MM loses the next 2 weeks, and I beat AYSA. Then I can PIC Indy, rest my starters, and prepare for the qual. match. Also, even if MM wins 1 of 2, if I tie D&D and beat AYSA, would be 3 pts up, with a commanding goal diff. advantage (thus, could PIC Indy also).

So essentially, I need 4 points for guaranteed safety, as far as getting a qual. match (Indy likely won't pass me in the next 2 weeks; so if I draw him, I'd finish ahead).

Looking even further ahead, all four II series are close at the top, so no potential opponent will have extremely high team spirit. So, that bodes well for me.

So, what's my strategy?
@D&D: will wait to see what he does in the Cup, and who's suspended. He has several other starters with 2 yellows. A PIC is a possibility. That would get my spirit back to delirious for AYSA, and make sure it's still pretty high for Indy (if needed). Normal's also a possibility. Will see what he does. Also, need to decide who to bench (4 starters with 2 yellows; all KEY starters)

AYSA: again, dependent on what happens. Almost certainly "normal" though.

[BillyNYC]

1. Kansas City Wizards 11 28 - 13 24
2. Drunk&Disorderly 11 31 - 12 22
3. Red Star Belgrade 11 28 - 11 22
4. Slashers FC 11 34 - 21 19

5. Shaolin Landfills 11 12 - 17 12
6. Indy Racing Athleti 11 21 - 26 10

7. Minute Men 11 11 - 30 10
8. AYSA Express 11 8 - 43 4

So, even with Indy at -5 differential; much better than MM's -19. Therefore, 4 points should be enough...

[BillyNYC]

Down to the end we come, with a quite interesting match ahead against D&D. D&D's in the Cup of course, and also clinched at least 4th, so nothing to truly lose. Will he PIC me in preparation for the 2nd half of his Cup semifinal? Or will he play all starters? He has no one suspended, but many guys with 2 yellows.

And what will *I* do? It's a road match against a superior team (in current form anyway; i've suspected that D&D trains general for a while now based on high form and lack of really young players, but could be wrong), with AYSA and Indy looming.

As I said in a previous post, I need 4 points to guarantee a qual. match. A win and a draw. So how do I play D&D to try to assure that. PIC, and hope for a draw or that he rests starters and PICs me too? Normal, and hope he rests starters and I get a WIN out of it?

One thing's for certain. I'm going to be rooting for RSB against D&D in the Cup on Weds. D&D faces Minute Men the final week of the season. If they're in the Cup final the Weds. before and after, it's an almost certainty they'd PIC against Minute Men. Of course, this has the potential to hurt me. OK OK, this is NOT for certain. If I get a point this weekend and MM doesn't, I'd feel pretty comfortable and might root for D&D. Not sure

One thing is REALLY for certain, I root against Minute Men for the rest of the season.

What I'll do on Sunday is FAR from certain...

[-Panther]

a win this week would all but guarantee you a qual match. I really
don't think D&D has your team 'outclassed' too much.

MF are about same, D yours is better, O his is slightly better.

I'd play 3-5-2 normal.

You and Indy both have 1 more 'sure' win vs. AYSA (I think so anyway)

MM is likely to loose all 3 (may beat slashers, unlikely)

D&D @ home will give him the advantage, but I think you'll still have a shot. poss. PIC is very risky right now. Even a 1-0 loss will
leave you a very high probability of PICing Indy for your qual.

MM has to win 2 to catch you.

it will end like this:

going in to last week:

Shaolin - 15
Indy - 13

MM - 10

if MM beats slashers:

Shaolin - 15
Indy - 13

MM - 13 (lower GD)

I don't see MM taking D&D on the road.
You could still PIC Indy and lose to make it:

Indy - 16
Shaolin - 15

MM - 13

1 win & 2 losses should keep you above auto-demotion
unless MM pulls 2 upsets ( I don't see it though )

I think you can - norm - norm - pic - qual

D&D's played almost the same lineup in last 2 games (league & cup) so i don't see him playing scrubs against you. not many anyway. If for some reason Indy looses this week, you're pretty secure in qual. & to PIC him in last game.

I'd go normal. if he PICs you should win, if he normals, you should at worst lose by 1 probably draw, maybe win.

[BillyNYC]

And the verdict was that I decided to.......PIC .

The reasons were multiple. It was obvious that D&D PIC'ed in the Cup on Weds., so I figured his spirit was sky-high. Also, I didn't NEED a win or a draw, since was 2 points up on 6th/7th. I figured Indy would beat AYSA and MM would lose to KC. So if I retained my 2 point lead on MM, and beat AYSA next week, I'd be in good shape.

Similarly, I figured getting high spirit for the next few weeks was a priority.

Another course of reasoning is that PICs don't equal automatic death on upper levels. This is because the midfields are high enough that if you drop it a level or two, it won't KILL you. Say a V team has a weak midfield against a passable one. If they PIC, they'd lose maybe 15% possession more or something like that. If it's divine versus titanic and the latter PICs, it might lead to 5% possession loss. And ESPECIALLY with the better defenses that ML teams have, a PIC against a better team does not equate to total surrender as it does on lower levels.

So with all that, I PIC'ed and played a defensive 3-5-2 (2 wingbacks, both set defensive). Figured my D was much stronger than his attack and hoped for a 0-0 draw.

When I went down 2-0, figured the match was over. In fact, D&D and myself were HT-mailing each other throughout the match (he's a cool guy; out of the current ML guys, I probably get along with him, Indy, and AYSA the best. Not that I DON'T get along with the others, but have had conversations with those 3 on various occasions). When it was 2-0, he asked if I PIC'ed. I confirmed I did and joked "don't beat me up too bad".

I scored one, and then tied it up, leading him to HT-mail me "wow!". Cool guy.

Anyway, scratched out a draw, despite being killed in midfield (divine versus magnificent) and thus possession (63 and 66% for D&D). Still the result wasn't THAT lucky. My defense was much better than his, and my attack very slightly better. So in theory, he got more chances, but I should've been successful on a higher percentage of mine. And so it was.

MM lost to KC and Indy beat AYSA, both as expected. The standings now are:

1. Kansas City Wizards 12 31 - 14 27
2. Red Star Belgrade 12 30 - 12 25
3. Drunk&Disorderly 12 33 - 14 23
4. Slashers FC 12 35 - 23 19

5. Indy Racing Athleti 12 24 - 26 13
6. Shaolin Landfills 12 14 - 19 13

7. Minute Men 12 12 - 33 10
8. AYSA Express 12 8 - 46 4

I feel a little bad about costing D&D a chance at the title (in reality, I've done alot more than yesterday. I lost both matches to KC and drew both matches with D&D...so that's the 4 pt difference up top right there. Strangely, I lost and drew RSB. So if you take out MY matches, all 3 of them have 21 points. So, I might've helped KC win the title.)

Analysis of next few weeks in next post....

[DukeRulesMAB]

Must be nice to:

a) Be high enough in the Hattrick universe to play teams with divine midfield, and

b) Be good enough to get road points against teams with divine midfields.

Congrats, great draw!

Question on what you said about PICing, I was under the impression that the numerical difference between 2 levels on the weak/passable level was the same as the difference between 2 levels on the titanic side. So why would PICing have less effect on the higher levels?

I guess the proportional difference between weak (4) and passable (6) is a lot larger than the proportional difference between (15) and (17), and that might explain it.

[BillyNYC]

Yes, it's the proportions that explain my statements on such. As far as I know, possession's pretty directly related to that. So 6 vs. 4 would lead to around 60% possession ("around", since 6 could be 5.5 or 6.4, and so forth). 20 versus 14 isn't much different from 20 versus 15; 6 versus 4 compared to 6 versus 3 is quite a difference.

I could be wrong on the specifics. But in general, PIC/MOTS has less of an effect the higher you go.

Oh, on the subject of divine mids, I think I've faced 4-5 this season. Unfortunately, I've yet to have one for myself

[BillyNYC]

Should also note that yesterday's 54* was a new all-time team high (and also the highest in the US; I think the first time that I've had that honor. Misleading, since Slashers had several key guys out, but still I find it cool).

Youth pull this week was an 18 passable scorer. He should sell for 50-75k I'd guess.

I just lost a bidding war with a Finn team for a 17 solid playmaker. The thing about this guy is he also was passable passing, passable defense, and a REALLY high value (400k or so) for a solid. So he was almost certainly near excellent. Still, 1.4M (which is what he went for...) is way too much and I bit my lip and let it go. I do still need a 6th trainee.

Friendly in Egypt this week, early early Weds. So, likely no trainee this week. Ah well.

Will rant about the coming week and future plans sometime in the next 48 hours.

[BillyNYC]

Logged on to see this:
D.G. Marum Glamourboys raises for Olli Gooch

A bit surprising. Gooch is the formidable Swiss striker (25 years, passable passing) that I overpaid for earlier in the season. When my 2nd striker (Tornen, the magnif. striker) had his form plummet, I needed someone to take his place. Gooch was in solid form and I got caught up in a bid war and paid too much (1.65M or so).

Now that Tornen's form is an inadeq. (and Gooch's has FALLEN to inadeq. as well), I figured I'd try to cut my losses and scrap Gooch. Didn't expect anyone to bid the 1.5, since I thought it was high. If he sells as is, then it's a net 300k loss. Which sucks, of course, but Gooch's use for 3/4 of the season was worth that much to me.

So now I'm going to have only 2 strikers (my 3rd striker is passable...). Hopefully they both last until the end of the year.

But I'm also going to have about $4M to play with. As I said, I need a trainee, but not planning to spend more than $1.5M (if that much!) for one. Never been a big believer in spending 3M to get "the best" trainee. I don't REALLY care whether they're 21 titanic or 22 titanic, nor would it terribly affect their sale value. So why spend 2M extra? The only possible consideration is if they're a definite U-20 player.

So after a home match and buying a 17 year old (let's assume I finally pull the trigger for a moment...), I have 3M to play with.

Am at a bit of a loss as to what to do with it (NO! Charity to one of you guys is not an option! ) I definitely want to purchase a super wing (world class+ wing rating), but 3M isn't even close to that. I have nothing to truly sell this instant. I WILL sell one of my 4 defenders:

Wennling: 23 titanic
Petterson: 23 supernatural, passable wing
Nyhling: 25 magnificent, passable wing, SOLID PASSING
Mae Noi: 28 brilliant, SOLID WING, SOLID PM, BRILLIANT EXPERIENCE

The worst two would be the most ideal to sell, since they're also the oldest 2. However, with the mysterious "passing will matter for D's next season" announcement, I won't sell Nyhling until that's announced (his solid passing might command a premium. Not alot of Magnif. D who can pass too)

Similarly, with "experience mattering more next season!", Mae Noi could be crucial, since I have no one else on the team with greater than PASSABLE experience. He's also my top offensive wingback, so even more reason to sell a different D to keep him in the lineup.

So for now, I wait. I might sell Petterson in the offseason instead. Will see.

In meantime, put the "forgotten man" on the list. Kenneth Flodgren, 24 exc. D. He was my 3rd D until I bought Nyhling and Petterson earlier this season. Now he's the 5th D and never plays. His value's REALLY low ($125k now, in weak form), so he's low low excellent. Still, he's excellent. I listed him for 1M, which is probably too much. But figured why not.

Likely will just add 10 economists and sit on the 4M for a few weeks, until I decide who to sell to finance a great wing.

(Although I might sell Tornen, the magnif. striker. Maybe get 4-5M, and have 9M to play with to buy a "2nd striker", with my "top striker" Thorbrant being supernatural. Decisions, decisions.)

[Alf]

BillyNC, excellent defenders sell aroud $400K. Plus your guy is 24, thus not very trainable.

[BillyNYC]

Alf: yeah, I checked the lists after I listed him.

Really, I might just keep him then. 400k additional in funds is less useful to me than having an exc. D as an "emergency" D.

[DataKing]

I have a question for you, if you don't mind.

You mentioned that Noi is your best offensive wingback. What kind of difference do you see in your attack and defense ratings for Noi's side when he's played offensively, defensively, and normal. Are we talking about a level or two difference in ratings? Less than that? More?

I ask because I feel that my defense, and my wingbacks in particular, are getting to the point where I can begin to experiment with playing them offensively. I am just curious what sort of results I can expect.

Thanks much.

[BillyNYC]

DK: I honestly don't track things as much as I should, but would say that Noi (the wingback with solid wing) improves that side's wing attack by about 2 (maybe a little more) when offensive, and 1 when played normal.

Of course, when played O, it hurts that side's D ratings a good amount (probably more than it helps the attack).

To make up for that, I tend to use my best D in the middle on that side. So I'd have:

Offensive wingback--Normal D---Extra inner mid---Normal/D wingback

This tends to give me pretty balanced defense ratings (you can go through my past matches for some examples).

[BillyNYC]

As an ML team, I usually get flooded with friendly challenges from teams that want a decent crowd. Before the 20 challenges allowed rule, I'd get approx. 75-100 a week.

As I've mentioned before, I usually accept challenges from "obscure" countries (or even issue some of my own...). My last 2 friendlies have been in Chile and Egypt.

Occasionally a team will send a suck-up HT-mail "it would be an honor if you'd play me" yadda yadda yadda.

Today's pair of HT mails from a Slovenian team take the cake:

Subject: Play PLEASE
Would you please play a friendly with me. Tommorow i will chalenge you PLEASEEEEE. We can play in your arena. just play with me. PLEASE.thank you

Subject: (none)
i KNOW that you have much better players BUT lets have some fun PLEASE play WRITE BACK AS SOON AS YOU CAN pleaaase

Normally, I'd ignore it, but this sounds so amusingly desperate, and Slovenia is obscure. Should I have mercy and let him have his "fun"?

My first instinct is to reply a-la Bonds' daughter "Will you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pitch to my daddy??!?!", since that would be confusing to the guy.

Other instinct is to respond "no." Simple, yet gets the point across.

But maybe I should give the guy a break...

[RPI-Fan]

Billy: I have a fool-proof solution.

Play my team (Averill Park Mercury, 8489).

Everybody wins!

[BillyNYC]

Notable training update...my star wing went up to outstanding in PM. He now looks like this:

Bo Hägersjö
1 636 000 US$, 20 years, passable form
Has poor experience and poor leadership abilities

Stamina: excellent Keeper: disastrous
Playmaking: outstanding Passing: passable
Winger: outstanding Defending: wretched
Scoring: wretched Set Pieces: disastrous

Probably the best young wing in the US. Too bad he's Swedish. And I'm far from done with him; likely will train his PM up to titanic (by age 23-24 or so). FYI, he plays wing on Sundays and IM in cup/friendlies. So, he gets full PM training. Oh, and his form went up to passable too.

In other training form updates:
Riedel (starting keeper): down to passable

Wennling (top D): down to solid
Petterson (2nd D): up to solid
Nyhling (3rd D): up to inadeq.

Thorbrant (top striker): down to solid
Tornen (2nd striker): up to passable

Larsson (2nd IM): up to solid

[Havok]

holy shit that guy is a beast

[BillyNYC]

Transfers for Chang Shi-Kai

4 transfers found.
Date From To Price Value then
6/30/2003 Real pellasgårde Shaolin Landfill 3 774 000 US$ (495 000 US$)
6/27/2003 Odds vänner Real pellasgårde 3 200 000 US$ (356 000 US$)
2/10/2003 Barnes United Odds vänner 2 591 000 US$ (166 000 US$)
2/3/2003 AIA Barnes United 1 665 000 US$ (157 000 US$)

That, my friends, is ugly. The guy sold for almost 1M more a week after being sold the first time. And now *I* bought him for nearly 600k more than he went for 3 days earlier.

So, why did I?

I looked at the player himself, thought "if I can get him for under 4M, I'd be happy" and put ONE bid. Checked the transfer history before and knew he was being daytraded. However, the guy's going to help me longterm much more than he'll help the guy who sold me him. So he's worth paying more, to me. Never been one to say "grrrr he's being daytraded! I won't buy him!". More I think "is he worth the price he's being sold for, to me? If so, and he's being daytraded, congrats to the guy selling him". So I placed one bid and went to sleep. No one overbid, and he's mine, which leads me to think I overbid. But I'm content with my purchase.

Why?

Here's him now:
Chang Shi-Kai (7886032)
18 years, weak form, healthy

A pleasant guy who is tranquil and honest.
Has poor experience and weak leadership abilities.

Also part of Team U-20 Hong Kong!

Nationality: Hong Kong
Assessed value: 495 000 US$
Wage: 2 148 US$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner: Shaolin Landfills
Warnings: 0

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


Here's what I hope he can be after I'm done with him:
Chang Shi-Kai (7886032)
21 years, passable form, healthy

A pleasant guy who is tranquil and honest.
Has brilliant experience and weak leadership abilities.

Also part of Team Hong Kong!

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

And that about sums it up. I've been looking for a passable+ passing mid trainee for weeks. My midfield passing has always sucked, and has hurt my attack. I'm trying to change that. This guy fits that bill.

He's already firmly entrenched in the U-20 team (played 11 matches, even now in weak form) and since I'm training him indefinitely, he'll be a part of the U-20 and Nat. teams indefinitely as well. Thus, his experience should go up nicely.

Plus, he's already at solid stamina. I have 2 other mids with passable and solid stamina. So one stamina training in offseason should take care of all 3.

Plus his side skills suck. This is great, since will help keep wages down some. As I plan to train him past titanic, that is CRUCIAL to me long-term. Plus getting the wage reduction for a nat. team player means I'm OK training him up PAST titanic, which I haven't been doing previously.

So yes, nearly 4M for a trainee is a ton. But considering 17 high solids NOW are going for over 1M, I don't think it's that bad. This guy's a certain nat. teamer, has passable passing, and cheap wages. And he'll be ready to play immediately. So next season when I sell my top midfielder (when he hits titanic), I won't drop too much in midfield.

So arguably, a player like this is MUCH more valuable for an ML/II team than would be for a lower level team. All the side things that keep salary down and help in other ways are worth more on a higher level.

Plus I can sell him in 2 seasons for 7-8M probably (if I wanted to), because of all these things. So 2M profit per season's not too shabby.

My 6 current playmaking trainees:
Lundgren, 22 supernatural (Swede)
Larsson, 20 world class (Swede)
Taylor, 20 magnificent (American)
Methi, 19 brilliant (Norwegian)
Shi-Kai, 18 outstanding (Hong Kong)
Hagersjo, 20 outstanding, outstanding wing (Swede)

By the time I sell LARSSON, Shi-Kai should be magnificent, which is quite playable as a 3rd mid in ML. This is part of my "cycling" of trainees. When I sell the top one, the new 3rd best needs to be able to play on an ML level. I DID want a 17 solid, but Shi-Kai will help me short and long-term MUCH more.

When I sell Lundgren, I plan on getting a 17 passable/solid for much cheaper. Again, passable+ passing. Because I don't need someone to "step right in" as soon. So can go 17 solid versus 18 formidable. Also, I plan to get a star wing, so if I need a midfielder (due to injury cards), I could also use Hagersjo as an inner (he'd be brilliant by then). That's part of why I love Hagersjo. Great wing, but he also gives me so many options.

And having options are a nice thing.

(Week 13 review, Week 14 preview on deck...)

[Havok]

god i love to hate this dynasty!!!

Since Hong-kong is so small, this guy will play in every U-20 match and every National team match when he is of age.

can i have him??? please?

[BillyNYC]

Beat AYSA 4-0, as expected. Played normal. What was unexpected was my divine midfield rating...a personal first. Had hit utopian (next level below) twice earlier in the season. But didn't expect divine now, since spirit wasn't POE and I played it normal. Form was high...but not all excellents or anything.

So divine midfield, an all-time team high of 55* and a rating thing of 136 (both of those being US highs as well). Would say stuff's going along well.

Indy PIC'ed and got killed by KC 8-0, as expected. MM beat Slashers 2-0, which wasn't a huge upset.

So standings now:
1. Kansas City Wizards 13 39 - 14 30
2. Drunk&Disorderly 13 36 - 14 26
3. Red Star Belgrade 13 30 - 15 25
4. Slashers FC 13 35 - 25 19

5. Shaolin Landfills 13 18 - 19 16
6. Indy Racing Athleti 13 24 - 34 13

7. Minute Men 13 14 - 33 13
8. AYSA Express 13 8 - 50 4

Being +18 goals on MM essentially locks up a qual. match for me. But being +9 on Indy means that if he beats me by 5+ goals, I'd drop to 6th.

PIC'ing and resting my guys with 2 yellows is obvious. Playing somewhat defensive is also highly likely, since I'd rather hold 5th. It's probable that apoc will lose Sunday and Cyclones will win, so holding 5th would likely give me a qual. match against apoc (who is going all out for the Cup, and who has publicly said he doesn't want to promote. So, essentially would be an easy win).

Even if it's not apoc, PIC'ing will get my spirit back sky high and combined with a MOTS, I should hit divine midfield in my qual. match. Any of my potential opponents from II will have a tough time dealing with that...

[BillyNYC]

Somewhat eventful.

My 3rd mid (the 20 year old American) up to World Class playmaking. He only has passable stamina though. When I train stamina once in offseason, will help. But this is also why I HATE buying guys with low stamina, and why I so liked the HK trainee buy with solid stamina. Taylor (the guy who just went WC) started with poor stamina. I won't buy anyone with that low stamina again (as far as midfield trainees).

But more bizarrely, my KEEPER went up in PLAYMAKING to wretched. He's never played anything but keeper. Very strange.

Form changes:
3 starters DOWN (2nd D Petterson to inadeq; 3rd D Nyhling to weak; 4th mid Methi to passable.
0 starters UP
other notable: the new HK guy up from weak to inadeq. Hopefully that's enough for him to keep his spot in the U-20 lineup.

My 55* from last week will not be repeated this week (even if I played all my starters)

[GoldenEagle]

This dynasty is so interesting. I cant even think about what it is like to run a club at the top of it all.

[BillyNYC]

Lost 4-0 to IndyRacing. Not a surprise, since I PIC'ed and rested about half my starters (any with 2 yellows, a few others). I played a 4-4-2 with both wingbacks defensive, because I wanted to hold onto 5th.

The theory being that I figured apoc would lose (the Cup is all that matters to him) and that Cyclones would win. So holding 5th would give me apoc...who has said he doesn't want to go to ML yet. In other words, a win would be a formality, more or less.

And that's what happened. My 4-0 loss BARELY let me keep 5th (by one goal...). Apoc lost; Cyclones won. I get apoc; Indy gets Cyclones (for the second straight season). My spirit's Paradise on Earth. Had my 3rd D hurt for 2 weeks today, but his form's low and so he likely wouldn't have played next week anyway.

So staying in ML seems pretty safe right now. Yay.

[sterlingice]

Woo!

SI

[BillyNYC]

(Team press announcement)

7/9/2003 MidEast peace announced; Landfills soccer responsible

Gaza (AP): In an earth-shattering event, a lasting peace was announced in the Middle East. Officials from both Arab and Israeli authorities cited their mutual love of Shaolin Landfills soccer as the reason.

"They play friendlies here the last 3 weeks. 1 in Egypt, then 2 in Israel. Palestinean and Israeli sit together and cheer this great team!" said LeBron Hussein-Goldstein, 24, of Bethlehem.

Rumors of Landfills GM Billy writing a Nobel Peace Prize speech have been unsubstantiated.

[DataKing]

*laugh*

Great stuff, Billy.

[BillyNYC]

As I've said before, I often get spam HT-mails asking for friendly matches.

Two tales of such today....

First wasn't even on HT. An Israeli ICQ'ed me (thought my ICQ info was gone from my info; guess not?) telling me how much he loves America and how he always wants to come here. I'm not stupid and was waiting for the inevitable. So it was...he asked for a friendly. I declined. Then he asked if I could buy some of his players because he's in debt. I asked why I should buy players. He said something like "so I can give the money to poor teams!" A regular Robin Hood (no, I didn't save the convo. Wish I did)

The second is the following HT-mail from a Dutch team:

Subject: I've challenged you

Hope you accept,

Bye.

Suzanne.


Yes, I can't see the message with the red arrow saying "blahblahblahteam has challenged you". It was necessary for her(?) to inform me of such. How nice!

Denied. Am in that US/Canada Cup thing anyway.

In other news, apoc won the Cup and visits me Sunday for the qual. match. He's left open the possibility of playing me tough, but I think I'm ready regardless. Everyone will be healthy, no one suspended, and form's ok. Spirit's delirious. I should get a divine midfield and good stuff everywhere else.

And if he does somehow beat me, I just drop to II and kill everyone. Life could be worse...(yes, I can be an arrogant bastard from time to time )

[BillyNYC]

Beat apoc 2-0, as expected. Based on his formidable mid, I'm fairly sure he didn't make a full effort. That being said, my midfield was divine+, so if he had, I still would've felt confident.

Let me explain "divine+". I hit divine 2 weeks ago in my match versus AYSA. In the qual. match was also divine. When I use supporter at look at my "best match ratings" for midfield, the qual. match divine is 100%. The other divine is only 90%. Since divine is 20, my qual. divine was likely 22-23 (ie. 2-3 levels above divine...if such levels were defined). So...that's a good thing.

My top striker was hurt for 3 weeks. He's 22 and I always have 9 doctors on hand. So am hopeful that he'll be playable for the league opener in 2 weeks.

Other news/preparations/preview in next post...

[BillyNYC]

Since my fanclub size is closing on 3000 and most of my matches sold out this past year, I decided to expand the stadium. It had been 60,250 for the last 2-3 seasons. I boosted that to 80,008. It'll be ready for the season opener in 2 weeks.

I want an offensive coach, but am going to wait until I see what the new coach process is going to be.

Dobie, the owner of California Sea Lions posted in HT US Conf. about how his fanclub's the 8th largest in the US, and how that shouldn't be right (that the 10% fanclub boost for promotion's a bit extreme).
Funny thing there is that the Sea Lions were in my original III series (III.9). They won the series the season after me, then went back to III, down to IV. However, they promoting to III and now to II, gaining 10% each time. As a result, their fanclub's larger than mine. But no, I'm not bitter...not me.

(FYI, the 2 seasons I promoted were before the 10% rule was implemented. So I didn't get the benefit of it. However if I demoted to II this season, I'd have lost 10%.)

Longterm, it's meaningless. Slashers and KC have both been at the "soft cap" for a while and have 3300-3400 fans. I should be approaching that in 2 seasons or so. So gaining fans won't mean as much.

I start the season home to IndyRacing. If my striker's healthy, I'll feel good about my chances. Will see. Need to work on buying a wing...still.

[Havok]

good season Billy........... All the FOFC'ers are expecting a first place finish from you this year!!!! no less!!!

[DukeRulesMAB]

I've always wondered, what happens at the "soft cap"? Do you just stop getting new fan club members?

[BillyNYC]

DukeRulesMAB: As far as I know, it's just much slower/more difficult. KC and Slashers have both been at 3200-3400 for a little while. It's such that I might get 7-8 supporters in an update now. Once I reach 3100 or so, that might drop to 4-5, and so forth.

And once it gets up to like 3300-3400, might get 1-2 supporters, but would lose 5 for a loss (or similar). So it's exceedingly difficult to get more than that. (Thus, why Swedish teams who have been around 20 seasons don't have more than that. There's no "hard limit", but it's just about impossible to stay above a certain point.)

[DukeRulesMAB]

Gotcha, that makes sense. Unless there was some sort of cap, stadiums would be of unlimited size.

[BillyNYC]

Figured I'd give a brief run-through of how the changes affect my team and strategy


Coaches
My coach for the last several seasons:

A solid coach who is defensive minded
A pleasant guy who is balanced and honest.
Has weak experience and solid leadership abilities.


I made no secret of wanting an attacking coach. Also, wanted a popular coach...or a coach with only passable leadership (since I have a clown, wanted to make sure my coach wasn't also the team leader). Based on the pre-announcements, I figured a solid/passable would cost around 500-750k. Was pretty unhappy that it costs sizably more.

Also with the "slight boost" to defensive coaches, and GM-SpidurMan replying in US conf. saying old coaches were "grandfathered" (ie. they shouldn't drop in leadership...no clue whether this is "fact"), I'm thinking I'm going to stay put right now.

Counterattacking
I expected this. The specifics of it were sort of what I had guessed. This makes my decision of "which D to sell" much easier. I'm a midfield-heavy team, so will never counterattack anyway. So selling the magnif D/solid passer is an easy call now. Hopefully I can get a nice sized profit on him due to the rule change. He'd be IDEAL for someone like Cyclones (sub-par midfield, great attack).

Also, my team D's so good that if a team counterattacked me, I don't think I'd be too concerned.

Experience
This does concern me a bit. My team's quite young and lacks nat. team players. I built a team with the idea that I didn't want older guys, since I'd have to replace them every few years.

Well, now this hurts. Fortunately, I kept my Thai nat. teamer D (28, brilliant D, brilliant experience). Otherwise, here's the experience of my 10 other starters (best to worst):
passable, inadequate, inadequate, weak, weak, weak, poor, poor, poor, disastrous

Not so good. One of my trainees is the HK U-20, who's poor. Hopefully he'll go up quickly.

Many other ML teams are much older and have current or former nat. team players. Therefore, I could be hurting.

Also, this will further my search for potential U-20 players as trainees. It wasn't my plan with the HK guy, but now I'm very glad I did buy him.

Tactics
I've already said I wanted to use wings in the future. Now that's even more likely. Also, with wing training being better now, would expect prices on wings to drop some (since will be more).

The "play destruction" thing is worrisome, especially in the Cup. I don't like the chance of increased injuries. At same time, no more really dangerous IV and V teams doing MOTs/fire/PIC/MOTS to play giantkiller, since coach firing doesn't reset spirit anymore.

Recap
Overall, I'm in pretty good shape with the changes. My coach isn't offensive, but he's pretty ideal otherwise. The experience changes might hurt me, but over time I can compensate.

[Havok]

where's season 2 at Billy!!!

[BillyNYC]

oK OK, will work on it later :P

[sterlingice]

Billlll-aaaaaay! Billlll-aaaay! (I probably shouldn't talk so loud since my dynasty is still a week behind)

SI

[DataKing]

Slackers.

[sterlingice]

Originally posted by DataKing
-5th Season Head Coach of the Kansas Jayhawks. Check out my TCY Dynasty Report

Pot. Kettle. Black.

SI

[DataKing]

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[sterlingice]

Originally posted by DataKing
I have no idea what you're talking about.

If you're going to update your sig, do it right. Your Seamen dynasty link points to last year or the year before.

SI

[DataKing]

My, aren't we picky.

OK, enough of this. Sorry for the threadjack, Billy.

[sterlingice]

Each of these is really an attention getting device for information about the Landfills. We need your MLS expertise and this nitpicking and infighting is our cry for help

SI

[GoldenEagle]

I want to hear bitchin about only getting a utopian midfield!!