God is our leader, Dragons move on up to III

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by finkenst

i fixed this for you, SI.

But we've made it into an art form

SI

[FrogMan]

darn, season has not even started and we're already on page 3, this thing is gonna explode!!!

FM

[mrkilla22]

FM's dynasty is legendary already!

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by mrkilla22

FM's ego is legendary already!

Now your talkin'.

[FrogMan]

you think so?!?

I just like talking about my boys, is all...

FM

[mrkilla22]

Omg! Pilotman misquoted me! I'm suing!

[FrogMan]

I just saw that OldGiants has now become the 28th to support the Dragons. Woot!!! I don't know if you're a reader of this dynasty, but THANKS!

FM

[PilotMan]

got'cha!

[FrogMan]

CUP MATCH
Date of match:		2004-06-23
Venue:		away
Weather		fairly good
POSITIONAL MATCHUPS
		Cerio's Dragons FC											Killika Killers
Midfield		weak (low)	4.25			77%		3.00					1.25		disastrous (low)		Midfield
Right Side Defence		weak (high)	4.50			60%		1.50					3.00		poor (very low)		Left Side Attack
Central Defence		weak (low)	4.25			53%		0.50					3.75		poor (very high)		Central Attack
Left Side Defence		weak (very high)	4.75			56%		1.00					3.75		poor (very high)		Right Side Attack
Right Side Attack		inadequate (low)	5.25			70%		3.00					2.25		wretched (low)		Left Side Defence
Central Attack		inadequate (very low)	5.00			61%		1.75					3.25		poor (low)		Central Defence
Left Side Attack		inadequate (very high)	5.75			62%		2.25					3.50		poor (high)		Right Side Defence
		NSI	42.25										23.25	NSI
		Stars Defence	13.0										7.5	Stars Defence
		Stars Midfield	19.0										5.5	Stars Midfield
		Stars Attack	7.0										5.0	Stars Attack
		Stars Total	39.0										18.0	Stars Total
FINAL SCORE
Cerio's Dragons FC						7		-	0			Killika Killers
GOAL SCORERS
	Hubert Gortemaker (22)						1 - 0
	Lars Andersson (31)						2 - 0
	Lars Andersson (32)						3 - 0
	Lars Andersson (72)						4 - 0
	Lars Andersson (78)						5 - 0
	Patrik Kvarning (84)						6 - 0
	Gilang Juanda (84)						7 - 0
POSSESSION
	First Half Possession					88%			12%
	Second Half Possession					94%			6%
CARDS
	Lars Andersson (Y81)
REPLACED PLAYERS
	none											Patryk Kuśmierz (+2)
MAN OF THE MATCH
	Jon Riser											Gerald Emerson

DRAGON PLAYER REPORT

	Nick de Hooge
Lars Aspenander Defensive	Patrik Kvarning Extra Inner Midfield	Reimund Brigg Offensive	Reuven Zaltzman Defensive
Marcus Hansson Offensive	Jon Riser Defensive	Hubert Gortemaker Offensive	Gheorghe Bãnicã Offensive
	Gilang Juanda Normal	Lars Andersson Normal

Set Pieces Gheorghe Bãnicã	Sub (Keeper) Francois Boisclair		Team Captain Lars Andersson
Sub (Defender) Quentin Doaré	Sub (Inner Midfield) Miao Thanh-Tuan	Sub (Forward) Michael God	Sub (Winger) Sergio Chapin

---

Can you really be unhappy about a 7-0 win? Nah, I can't. That was a walk in the park kind of win, although the team was kind of slackingat first, taking a whole 22 minutes before putting one in. After that, it was all Lars Andersson. LAAAAARRRRRSSSSS!!!! We could hear the crowd chanting as he put 4 goals in the opponent's net, starting season 23 as he left off in season 22... Ratings are kind of so-so. I'm still getting a feel for the new ratings, but that 42.25 doesn't really compare too well with the team's best performance of season 22, a 51 that came in week 13. This rating is kind of astarting point though, as we PICed away from home, with only composed (4) team spirit at the start of the game. Team spirit is now at content (6), but I expect it to drop to calm (5) as soon as tomorrow morning's update will happen. We played an all starter lineup, trying to keep form as good as possible for our starting 11. The Dragons were seeded #170 of 2048 teams taking part in the first round of the Canadian Cup.

Good news: Hubert Gortemaker popped to poor experience, which may explain his 3.5 stars performance, despite playing in weak form. This may clinch Hubert's spot as third inner midfielder, since the other candidate, Miao Thanh-Tuan is still stuck at disastrous experience. The other trade off between Miao and Hubert are that Miao is one level behind in playmaking, but he has solid passing, to Hubert's inadequate passing AND defending...

Next week's opponent will be another divisions V team, called "your mother". Weird name for a team if you ask me. Their team manager seem fairly active, logging in at least once a day. They just pulled a ratings of 35 in this week's match, which they won only 2-0 against a bot team... Draw your own conclusions...

---

In other news around III.15, here are the results of all the 1st round Cup matches in which a team from the league was playing...

week 0	HOME					AWAY
04-03-03	A jax (V.10)	30.25	0	5	56.00	podiatrists (1)
	Saskatchewan Miners (V.208)	20.50	0	8	48.75	SD's Boys (2)
	raggae boys (V.77)	32.50	0	4	39.50	max calcio (3)
	Manitoba Polar Dogs (V.209)	21.75	0	7	46.75	Thoroughbreds (4)
	Nunavut Hunters (V.218)	17.00	0	11	48.25	Nepean United (5)
	Killika Killers (V.128)	23.25	0	7	42.25	Cerio's Dragons FC (6)
	alevi_spor (V.65)	29.50	1	4	40.50	Sackers (7)
	Les Stormbringers (V.113)	24.50	0	8	39.75	OFV Goose Bay (8)

The numbers next to teams of III.15 represents their seeding in the Cup, relative to other III.15 teams... As you can see, no casualties this week, and the ratings can give you an idea of who will be VERY tough and who the Dragons may be able to take on... More to come when I get around to posting my III.15 preview, which should be before the weekend...
FM

[FrogMan]

quick add-on to my match report...

Tonight's match ranked as the 9th best attack performance ever for the team. Maybe Gilang Juanda will help the team reach new highs in this regard this season...

Midfield, the defense, or the overal rating all failed to show up in their respective top 15 lists...

FM

[FrogMan]

The team didn't run much this week, instead we decided to work on our set pieces. Penalties, free kicks, all that crap...

Training
As a result os set pieces training, 9 players popped in set pieces, but only 4 of them starters, and 3 of the 4 starters popped from wretched to poor, wheeee

Players who popped in set pieces this week:
WB Lars Aspenander to poor
W Marcus Hansson to poor
W Gheorghe Bãnicã to passable
F Lars Andersson to poor
GK Francois Boisclair to wretched, woohoo!!!!
W Kristoffer Bjerre to weak
WB/D Quentin Doaré to wretched
IM Jackie Cherry to solid
F Michael God to passable

As you can see, dunce cap wearer Jackie Cherry may not know what to do when the play is on, but sure learned what to do when the ball is stopped


Form

players form up	3
players form down	-5
net	-2
form levels up	5
form levels down	-5
net form change	0

Starters went +1 / -2 in players, BUT +2 / -2 in levels. The good: Hubert Gortemaker improved his form two levels, from weak all the way to passable. The bad: Keeper Nick de Hooge dropped one more level, now down to weak form... Same with Lars Andersson who dropped from passable to inadequate form...

Value Changes

nb value up	10
nb value down	9
TSI value up	2420
TSI value down	-2020
net value change	400

Not much of a change this week. Biggest jumps up going to Hubert Gortemaker (+940) thanks to his two levels improvement in form, and Jon Riser (+620) with no apparent reason and no training, gotta believe his form went up without changing level. Jon is currently in solid form...

Opponent's report
If the Dragons' next opponent, Sackers, play the lineup I think they will play, there's some good news in this training update. From my observations, they suffered a global form change of +3 / -7 to their starters only. Their keeper dropped two levels from passable to weak, and one of their wingbacks also dropped two levels, from solid to inadequate...

Still to come, at some point before the league matches, my report and league analysis of III.15, stay tuned...

FM
edit: to add that the change to Sackers' form is "to their starters only".

[Alf]

You know what, I really refrained reading this thread becuase of "God" beeing mentionned. Fortunately forme, I still clicked on the link and I am glad I did.

Go Dragons !

[FrogMan]

Alf, you really didn't know I had a player named God?!? With me bragging about him and all that, I was sure everybody knew about Michael God

Glad to see you're on board now

FM

[FrogMan]

So, how tough is it gonna be for the Dragons in this upcoming season 23. Well, it's probably gonna be very tough. Not impossible to survive, but it'll take some luck and wins at opportune times for us to hang on to a spot outside the autodemotion zone.

First of all, let's start with some methodology for how I analyzed all the teams in III.15. I have pulled the ratings (new format) of the last four competitive, non-walkover matches of all the teams that will make fight in III.15 this season. If a team had a qualifier, that match was one of the four, and I'd go backward for the last three. This at least gave all team one MOTS, if their manager was bright enough to plan it in advance, which would have to be assumed for a level III league

Then, I averaged the ratings for every team, but with a twist. Instead of averaging right something separately from left something, I went and created d1, d2, a1, and a2, where in any given game, d1 would be the strong side defense (side with best defense ratings) and d2 would be the weak side defense (side with lowest defense ratings). Same is done with attack, with a1 and a2. Central attack and defense remain as they are though. I thought it didn't make sense for me to average right side defense if that side changed a time or two over the four weeks, and I wanted to see if any of the teams had a weakness in either their attack or their defense.

Here is the table of all the teams in III.15, let's look at it:

season 22	Started	Team age (wks)	teams	FMI	mid	cd	d1	d2	ca	a1	a2
1st	01-05-12	162	podiatrists	55.1	3.9	7.5	9.3	7.7	7.1	6.4	5.6
2nd	02-08-22	96	SD's BOYS	55.3	5.4	6.3	6.6	5.3	7.4	6.8	6.6
3rd	01-11-10	136	max calcio	47.1	5.7	6.4	5.4	4.6	4.8	5.2	3.7
4th	02-07-16	101	Thoroughbreds	51.5	4.4	8.9	8.4	7.3	4.8	5.6	3.2
5th	02-03-03	120	Nepean United	55.4	4.9	7.6	8.8	6.2	5.3	6.6	6.1
1st IV.18	03-02-19	70	Cerio's Dragons	46.6	5.7	4.6	4.9	4.9	5.0	5.4	4.7
1st IV.13	03-02-13	71	Sackers	45.9	5.6	4.7	5.4	4.3	4.9	5.6	4.3
1st IV.8	03-01-12	75	OFV Goose Bay	41.9	3.6	5.3	5.5	5.0	5.1	5.4	4.8

The first column is the team's finishing position in season 22. The second column is the date the team was founded. Oh, how interesting, the Dragons are the "youngest" team by a mere 6 days. You can clearly see that some of the teams in that league have been playing Hattrick for a loooong time. Next is the team's name and their average ratings. These average ratings are based on the "very low"= x.00, "low"= x.25, "high"= x.50, "very high"= x.75 scale, where "x" is a level of ratings as we know them already (disastrous=1, wretched=2, poor=3, etc). Using this and looking at the table, my team's average midfield is around a very high inadequate. The FMI as I have called it here (thanks vexroid) is done with our usual formula of adding up all the ratings with midfield counting for triple its value.

Okay enough methodology, let's look at the teams At first glance, it looks like the playmaking training of the Dragons in the past may pay off after all. The Dragons look to be one of the strongest team in the midfield, but we will struggle elsewhere. There are some pretty strong defenses , probably more so than strong attacks, which I'm happy about, since I tend to fear more a better attack than a better defense... To be noted, these ratings can be misleading, since they don't take into account the possible transfers that may have happened during the offseason. I'll address one of these transfers now, Gilan Juanda, whom I bought in the offseason. He's a formidable scorer with inadequate passing, and passable experience. Hopefully he will boost our team's attack ratings in general. He replaces a solid scorer with only weak passing, but who also had passable experience. A definite upgrade. Transfers from other teams will be addressed when I get to them...

This first table gave us an idea of who the Dragons would have to deal with in season 23, now let's take a look at each and every one of them , especially comparing them to what my team is capable of. To do that I use the same kind of comparison already presented in my match report, under the "Positional Battles". For every team, there will be a little comparative table in which I show how good or bad my team could do against that team, with a line called "Dragon's share". Calculation of that line is the same as in the match report when comparing two ratings, but in this case here, it's always presented with my team in mind. One final assumption I made is that I would usually be able to pit my top attack to their worst defense, and vice versa, although I know it will not always happen that way. Formula for the Dragon's share is (my rating / (my rating + their rating) ). It returns a percentage. If it's over 50%, the Dragons own that part of the game and the number is red. If it's under 50%, the Dragons are pwned and the number is in blue. And since I wanted to mix you up real good, I decided to switch scale. I will now use the 1 to 80 scale ("disastrous (very low)"=1, "disastrous (low)"=2, etc) only because I tested it with past levels of midfield and it gave a much better representation of what was indeed achieved in the game than by using the scale with quarter-values. This may be especially true at lower ratings.

Okay, enough ramblings, are you ready? here we go

teams	NSI	mid	cd	d1	d2	ca	a1	a2
podiatrists	193.5	12.5	27.0	34.0	27.8	25.3	22.8	19.3
Cerio's Dragons FC	159.3	19.8	17.0	15.8	18.8	15.3	16.8	16.5
Dragon's share	47%	61%	41%	32%	40%	38%	42%	46%
		mid	ca	a2	a1	cd	d1	d2

Podiatrists finished 1st in III.15 in season 22 and seem to have been playing forever, more than three calendar years actually... They have also been in III.15 forever, since season 14 in fact... They usually play 3-4-3 with no wingers toward middle and more often than not, only two inner midfielders. This explains the rather low midfield ratings for a team that has been playing for so long... Scary fact is that while playing 3-4-3, they do get some very good defense ratings... Ball control will be the name of the game for the Dragons, but I hold little hope of doing much against the podiatrists... They have not acquired any new players since October 11, 2003, while selling many. Because of this I thought they had a lot of money stacked up, which got confirmed when I took a look at the wealthiest teams in III, as they are 5th with 17.4M C$, or 8.7M U$... They also have the 8th biggest wages of III, with a hefty 266k C$ or 133k U$ per week... Definitely a forward trainer...
Dragons play them... week 3 (home) & week 12 (away)

teams	NSI	mid	cd	d1	d2	ca	a1	a2
SD's BOYS	194.0	18.8	22.0	23.5	18.0	26.5	24.3	23.5
Cerio's Dragons FC	159.3	19.8	17.0	15.8	18.8	15.3	16.8	16.5
Dragon's share	46%	51%	46%	40%	51%	37%	41%	41%
		mid	ca	a2	a1	cd	d1	d2

SD's BOYS are beginning their 5th season in III.15, where they finished second the last two seasons... They are a well balanced team with good attack and defense ratings. They usually play 3-4-3, but they played a 4-4-2 in the last game of the season, it may have been a lineup mistake though... Last player bought is a keeper with a TSI of 12020 (1.2M U$) right before their week 14 game, definitely an improvement over their previous keeper who was only valued at around 300k U$. This should upgrade their defense ratings quite a bit... Our midfield advantage over them will be smaller and may make them a more difficult opponent than podiatrists, if at all possible... Another forward trainer...
Dragons play them... week 2 (away) & week 13 (home)

teams	NSI	mid	cd	d1	d2	ca	a1	a2
max calcio	161.3	19.8	22.8	18.5	15.3	16.0	17.8	11.8
Cerio's Dragons FC	159.3	19.8	17.0	15.8	18.8	15.3	16.8	16.5
Dragon's share	50%	50%	45%	46%	55%	49%	49%	58%
		mid	ca	a2	a1	cd	d1	d2

max calcio finished season 22 in 3rd place of III.15... They too have been playing Hattrick for a very long time, bumping up and down from III to II, then back to III... This season will be their second one in III.15... Even though they played a 4-4-2 for their last three competitive matches, they had been playing mostly 3-5-2 before that, getting fairly good midfield ratings in the process, but more often than not at the price of pinching a winger to help the middle... They used some fairly weird lineup settings last season, stuff like playing both wingbacks toward middle... This may make them a fairly unpredictable team... Last impact player they bought was on June 14 and he has not yet played one game with their team. With his former team, that player achieved a 5.5 stars performance as a central defender, scary... That being said, I think they may be the one team among the older ones in III.15 that the Dragons may stand a chance against, mostly because of the relative weakness of their attack ratings... Not as easy to figure as far as what they are training. I would probably guess playmaking, since this is where is only young guys are, but playing a 4-4-2 kinds of kill one training spot, since they play it with only 2 inner midfielders...
Dragons play them... week 4 (home) & week 11 (away)

teams	NSI	mid	cd	d1	d2	ca	a1	a2
Thoroughbreds	179.0	14.8	32.8	30.5	26.3	16.0	19.5	9.8
Cerio's Dragons FC	159.3	19.8	17.0	15.8	18.8	15.3	16.8	16.5
Dragon's share	49%	57%	36%	34%	42%	49%	46%	63%
		mid	ca	a2	a1	cd	d1	d2

Thoroughbreds finished in 4th place in III.15 in season 22, their second season in this league... They have some killer defense ratings, mostly from being a defense trainer. Among their trainee, they even have a U20 player of Føroyar... More than that, as of June 23rd, they had TWO world class defenders on the market. This may mean a truck load of money coming their way... Their midfield if average, mostly due to the fact that they play a 5-3-2 formation with only two inner midfielders and one winger. The sole winger also accounts for the weak side attack on one side of the pitch... They latest buy is a 5.5 stars forward, in passable form, with a TSI of 15,840 points that they bought to the price of 4.25M U$, and this will certainly boost their attack ratings... One of the team I see as being in the top 4 of the league... As stated previously, they train defense...
Dragons play them... week 7 (away) & week 8 (home)

teams	NSI	mid	cd	d1	d2	ca	a1	a2
Nepean United	194.5	16.8	27.5	32.3	21.8	18.0	23.5	21.3
Cerio's Dragons FC	159.3	19.8	17.0	15.8	18.8	15.3	16.8	16.5
Dragon's share	46%	54%	41%	33%	46%	46%	42%	44%
		mid	ca	a2	a1	cd	d1	d2

Nepean United finished 5th in III.15 in season 22 and had to win a qualifier to remain in division III. This was their fourth season in III.15 where they once finished 2nd... They should be even tougher opponents than Thoroughbreds, if only because they have much better attack ratings with similar defense ratings... They'ce played some 4-4-2 and some 3-5-3, confusing me as to what they are training. I have pretty much ruled out forward, but, by looking at many of their players past value movements on HATStats, they have many players going up in value over the seasons. This sort of leads me to believe they train one skill after another, weird... Last transfer buy was on May 13th, so no impact on the average ratings calculated here, but he was still impressive. A 4 stars forward they paid more than 4M U$ for, but that is currently injured, with a +2 next to his name... As mentionned, I don't have much of a clue what they are training...
Dragons play them... week 5 (away) & week 10 (home)

teams	NSI	mid	cd	d1	d2	ca	a1	a2
Sackers	156.5	19.5	15.8	18.5	14.0	16.5	19.3	14.0
Cerio's Dragons FC	159.3	19.8	17.0	15.8	18.8	15.3	16.8	16.5
Dragon's share	51%	50%	54%	46%	57%	48%	47%	54%
		mid	ca	a2	a1	cd	d1	d2

Sackers autopromoted from IV.13 where they fought a hard and long season, earning the 32nd and very last spot for autopromotion to III after three seasons spent in division IV... They were founded at about the same time as the Dragons were and because of that are about in the same league, rating-wise, as the Dragons... Strong midfield and good balance overall, but a tiny bit below what the Dragons can deliver, at least when they're in good form... They play a 3-5-2 formation pretty much exclusively, sometimes pinching a winger toward middle... They bought young defenders on June 10th, but they probably won't see the field for their starting eleven, as one of them is in weak form, while the other is in poor form... I see this team as one of the three teams fighting for the 6th place and a spot out of relegation zone, the Dragons being one of the three... They are currently on a streak of 12 undefeated games with 9 wins in a row. The Dragons have 11 undefeated games in a row, all of them wins... They have many youngish players all over their lineup, but not so young that it makes it easy to determine what they are training. My guess is playmaking...
Dragons play them... week 1 (home) & week 14 (away)

teams	NSI	mid	cd	d1	d2	ca	a1	a2
OFV Goose Bay	140.5	11.5	18.0	19.0	17.0	17.3	18.8	16.0
Cerio's Dragons FC	159.3	19.8	17.0	15.8	18.8	15.3	16.8	16.5
Dragon's share	54%	63%	51%	45%	52%	47%	47%	51%
		mid	ca	a2	a1	cd	d1	d2

OFV Goose Bay is coming to III.15 via a upset win in a qualifier match against 6th place team "The Show Stoppers". They were outmatched in that game, but they kept the possession numbers close to 50% apiece and won it with a tiebreaking goal in the 85th minute... The fact they were able to have close to 50% possession with their midfield, arguably the weakest in the teams presented here, is telling you a lot as to why The Show Stoppers are now in IV... On paper, this team presents the best matchups for the Dragons, especially since they will have a hard time outpowering us to compensate for their low midfield, like other older teams may do in the league... They are the other team that, with the Dragons and Sackers, should be fighting for that coveted 6th spot and a spot out of relegation zone... They too seem to play a 3-5-2 formation almost exclusively... I can't seem to figure out their training, since similarly to Sackers, they have youngish players but none very young ones. Then when I find a young one, he's a wingback, with wingers that are 30 and 31 years old... I won't guess anything for now, but will keep looking at their transfer movements to see what they train...
Dragons play them... week 6 (home) & week 9 (away)


Hope this wasn't too dry and that you enjoyed it. Now bring the season, darn it!!!

FM

[kingfc22]

excellent read FM. You inspire my dynasty with each and every new post.

[FrogMan]

cool! Glad you liked it. It actually took me quite a while to get this done, but I had fun. It's actually the first time I've done this kind of analysis for my leaguemates. I like doing it so far...

FM

[Alf]

Great read FM. I really enjoyed your analysis of the series !

[FrogMan]

I posted this in the Hattrick forum already, but I wanted to stick in here, as a testament to the importance of team spirit and the importance of having a high leadership coach to hold it...



As you can see, I had plenty of chances to PIC last season, but more than this, Quentin Doaré, the Dragons coach with passable leadership, was able to hold team spirit quite well. So much so that we were able to survive a midseason MOTS and come back to delirious team spirit in time to make one last run to end the season...

This chart may also serve as an example of what *not* to do, if you don't have the right combination of a good coach leadership and PICable games. Se the 4 PICs in the middle of the season were the games 6-7-8-9, with the same two teams (6-9, and 7-8) and they were pulling NSIs around 25-35 in old style ratings, so real easy. May not be the same for someone trying to run for 1st place and you end up MOTSing week 5, only to lose 3 out of 4 following that one win...

Why is team spirit important for the Dragons this season? Well, after looking at who's part of III.15, it's become evident to me that I will have to concentrate my efforts on winning the "have-to" games, i.e. the ones against Sackers and OFV Goose Bay. To do this, I may end up PICing many of the games I see as unwinnable, in hope to come into the "hate-to" games with the team spirit as high as possible so I'll be able to normal them...

FM

[FrogMan]

My luck continues, or lack of luck I should say, as I pulled a real piece of crap today... look at this bad boy...

Gilbert Larue (35979870) 19 years, passable form, healthy

A controversial person who is balanced and upright.
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities.


Speciality: Technical

Nationality:	Canada
Total Skill Index (TSI):	10 (2 000 C$)
Wage:	1 000 C$/week
Owner:	Cerio's Dragons FC
Warnings:	0

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

WOOHOO!!! Excellent set pieces, wow!!! WHO CARES!!! THERE'S NO WAY YOU'LL EVER STEP ON THE FIELD AS A DRAGON!!!!

okay, I feel better now. Go wash the bathroom, we'll shoot, err fire you tomorrow only...

In other news, the weekly economic update was a very good one. After dropping from 105k U$ to about 91k U$ in sponsor revenue, we made that up and more this week with an increase of more than 17k U$, back to a sponsor money level of more than 108k U$.

FM

[FrogMan]

LEAGUE MATCH (week 23.01)
Date of match:		2004-06-27
Venue:		home
Weather		cloudy
Crowd:		37199
Income:		495 545 C$
Team Spirit:		calm (5)
POSITIONAL MATCHUPS
		Cerio's Dragons FC											Sackers
Midfield		passable (low)	22					2		52%			24		passable (very high)		Midfield
Right Side Defence		inadequate (very low)	17			50%		0		50%			17		inadequate (very low)		Left Side Attack
Central Defence		weak (low)	14					1		52%			15		weak (high)		Central Attack
Left Side Defence		weak (high)	15			58%		4					11		poor (high)		Right Side Attack
Right Side Attack		inadequate (low)	18			50%		0		50%			18		inadequate (low)		Left Side Defence
Central Attack		inadequate (low)	18			53%		2					16		weak (very high)		Central Defence
Left Side Attack		passable (very low)	21			60%		7					14		weak (low)		Right Side Defence
		HATStats	169										163	HATStats
		Stars Defence	13.0										12.0	Stars Defence
		Stars Midfield	20.0										16.5	Stars Midfield
		Stars Attack	7.0										6.0	Stars Attack
		Stars Total	40.0										34.5	Stars Total
Experience		poor	3										2		wretched		Experience
FINAL SCORE
Cerio's Dragons FC						2		-	1			Sackers
GOAL SCORERS
							0 - 1					Lawrence Entwistle (33)
	Gilang Juanda (33)						1 - 1
	Michael God (65)						2 - 1
POSSESSION
	First Half Possession					48%			52%
	Second Half Possession					59%			41%
CARDS
	Lars Aspenander (Y30)											Manuel Rouillard (Y39)
												Mack Brewster (Y70)
												Manuel Rouillard (R79)
REPLACED PLAYERS
	none											none
MAN OF THE MATCH
	Jon Riser (5*)											Lawrence Entwistle (5*)
DRAGON PLAYER REPORT
Nick de Hooge Reuven Zaltzman Defensive Reimund Brigg Offensive Patrik Kvarning Extra Inner Midfield Lars Aspenander Defensive Kristoffer Bjerre Offensive Jon Riser Defensive Hubert Gortemaker Offensive Gheorghe Bãnicã Offensive Michael God Normal Gilang Juanda Normal Set Pieces Gheorghe Bãnicã Sub (Keeper) Francois Boisclair Team Captain Nick de Hooge Sub (Defender) Quentin Doaré Sub (Inner Midfield) Miao Thanh-Tuan Sub (Forward) Lars Andersson Sub (Winger) Marcus Hansson
GAME COMMENTS and OTHER NOTES

"I would like to thank God for our win tonight" could have been my first word to the team in a possible after-game speech... Yeah, In what may become a rare league match appearance, Michael God scored what became the winning goal of the first ever division III game for the Dragons. The game, which pitted the best two midfields in III.15 in this young season, came out as a thight, low scoring affair. The two teams exchanged one goal a piece in the 33rd minute and the game remained tied until Michael God scored in the 65th minute. A great start for the Dragon who were able to remain close in possession in the first half, despite seeing their opponent playing a winger toward the middle, while they were going all out. The second half was all Dragons in the midfield, especially after Sackers saw their best inner midfield being sent out for collecting a second yellow in the game. Defensive ratings were kinda low on both side of the ball, probably due to bad form on both keepers... The Dragons "normalled" the game tonight, seeing it as a "must win" despite it being only the first game of the season. Sackers is one of the teams I see that we have to beat...

Among other news: Veteran winger Gheorghe Bãnicã popped in experience following his 4 stars performance. He now has passable experience, at only 25 years of age... Defensive inner midfielder Jon Riser became the first ever Dragon to pull a 5 stars performance tonight... I would also usually comment on who pulled their best performance, but this feature is currently unavailable and I don't have time to look at all my players. That 5 stars simply popped out of the screen...Overall, this was the team's 4th best performance ever, ranking as 96% of the #1 game ever. With a keeper in weak form in the goals, this is very encouraging... The midfield performance was also the team's 4th best ever, at 94% of the #1 game. This is also very encouraging, since the top match was a home normal, but with satisfied team spirit, while the match today was played with only calm team spirit... The attack was also in good form tonight, turning in the 5th best performance ever, at 94% of the #1 game. This can only get better, as we had Michael God in the lineup instead of the usual starter, Lars Andersson. Lars will play in the Cup this coming Wednesday...

FM

[FrogMan]

Now time for a quick look around what happened in III.15 in week 1.

First, the results...

week 1	HOME					AWAY
04-06-27	podiatrists (99.8)	196	1	4	183	SD's Boys (95.2)
	max calcio (87.3)	161	3	1	172	Thoroughbreds (94.1)
	Nepean United (94.2)	189	3	0	151	OFV Goose Bay (71.1)
	Cerio's Dragons FC (78.1)	169	2	1	163	Sackers (75.9)

That 4-1 loss of podiatrists to SD's BOYS surprised me a bit. But as I said in my league review, I think that BOYS will be a tougher team to play than podiatrists, not that I may win many against any of them anyway...

mac calcio winning against Thoroughbreds also came as a surprise to me. Ratings wise, Thoroughbreds should have run away with that one, but you'll see who had the midfield in a few moments...

Nepean United over OFV Goose Bay was what was supposed to happened, as Nepean pulled the 2nd highest ratings, comparfed to Goose Bay's worst rating in III.15 for that first week of action.

Here are the team ratings in week 1...

TEAM NAME		MID	RD	CD	LD	RA	CA	LA	HR
podiatrists	home	4.25	7.75	7.75	9.50	5.25	6.75	6.00	196
Nepean United	home	5.50	8.00	6.25	6.75	5.50	4.75	6.25	189
SD's Boys	away	5.50	5.50	6.00	6.00	6.75	7.50	4.25	183
Thoroughbreds	away	3.50	6.75	8.50	8.25	6.75	5.50	3.50	172
Cerio's Dragons FC	home	6.25	5.00	4.25	4.50	5.25	5.25	6.00	169
Sackers	away	6.75	4.25	4.75	5.25	3.50	4.50	5.00	163
max calcio	home	5.25	6.50	6.25	4.75	4.50	4.50	4.75	161
OFV Goose Bay	away	4.00	5.75	5.50	5.00	5.00	5.50	5.75	151

I am presenting those with 0.25 scale, since it's easier to convert mentally... As you can see, the two autopromotee, Dragons and Sackers, put on the heat in terms of midfield. They were the only two teams to get a passable of any kind in the midfield. Other than that, they were also the two lowest in defense ratings Dragons come in 5th, which is one place better than expected... HR stands for HATSTats rating by the way...

And now the standings after this first week of action...

III.15
STANDINGS	W	L	D	PTS	GF	GA	DIFF	AVG HR	as FOFC	BEST HR
SD's Boys	1	0	0	3	4	1	3	183.0	0.0	183
Nepean United	1	0	0	3	3	0	3	189.0	0.0	189
max calcio	1	0	0	3	3	1	2	161.0	0.0	161
Cerio's Dragons FC	1	0	0	3	2	1	1	169.0	0.0	169
Sackers	0	1	0	0	1	2	-1	163.0	0.0	163
Thoroughbreds	0	1	0	0	1	3	-2	172.0	0.0	172
podiatrists	0	1	0	0	1	4	-3	196.0	0.0	196
OFV Goose Bay	0	1	0	0	0	3	-3	151.0	0.0	151

Dragons in 4th!!! This shouldn't last, but is nice to see. Next week, we take on SD's BOYS, at their place...

FM

[vex]

Nice win, Congrats!

[terpkristin]

Great win, FM!
Keep it up, get those W's when you can (like I will be).

~tk

[FrogMan]

Wow, according to HATStats, the Dragons' 169 ratings is the 78th of 168 in III in Canada, almost right smack in the middle. I'm kind of happy about that...

Also, III.15 ranks 9th of 16 in series strength among all of III in Canada...

		Total	Total	Total	Average	Total	Ave
Rank	Series	Goals	Crowd	Stars	Stars	Ratings	Rating
1	III.12	21	180,793	382.0	47.8	1568	196.0
2	III.6	18	207,861	375.5	46.9	1533	191.6
3	III.1	20	209,225	365.5	45.7	1482	185.3
4	III.9	20	201,349	353.5	44.2	1473	184.1
5	III.3	27	229,256	362.0	45.3	1458	182.3
6	III.16	25	214,927	346.5	43.3	1440	180.0
7	III.8	14	148,503	350.5	43.8	1402	175.3
8	III.7	19	196,355	345.0	43.1	1395	174.4
9	III.15	15	197,434	336.0	42.0	1384	173.0
10	III.10	19	190,683	340.5	42.6	1350	168.8
11	III.4	22	204,435	331.5	41.4	1348	168.5
12	III.11	16	211,456	348.0	43.5	1336	167.0
13	III.5	17	188,695	317.5	39.7	1275	159.4
14	III.14	15	151,947	298.5	37.3	1060	132.5
15	III.2	16	159,436	290.5	36.3	1041	130.1
16	III.13	24	160,752	294.0	36.8	1041	130.1

And here's the III.15 table from HATStats...

							Stars				Ratings
Rank	Team Name	+	-	Diff	Pts	Formation	Def	Mid	Att	All	Def	Mid	Att	Tot
1	SD's BOYS	4	1	3	3	3-4-3	15.5	18.0	11.0	44.5	61	57	65	183	W
2	Nepean United	3	0	3	3	3-5-2	18.0	22.5	7.0	47.5	75	57	57	189	W
3	max calcio	3	1	2	3	3-5-2	18.0	19.0	6.0	43.0	61	54	46	161	W
4	Cerio's Dragons FC	2	1	1	3	3-5-2	13.0	20.0	7.0	40.0	46	66	57	169	W
5	Sackers	1	2	-1	0	x-x-x	12.0	16.5	6.0	34.5	48	72	43	163	L
6	Thoroughbreds	1	3	-2	0	5-3-2	21.5	14.5	9.0	45.0	85	33	54	172	L
7	podiatrists	1	4	-3	0	x-x-x	14.5	16.5	13.0	44.0	91	42	63	196	L
8	OFV Goose Bay	0	3	-3	0	3-5-2	13.0	19.0	5.5	37.5	56	39	56	151	L
					Star Totals		125.5	146	64.5	336	Rating Totals			1384
					Star Average		15.7	18.3	8.1	42.0	Rating Avg.			173.0

FM

[FrogMan]

CANADA CUP MATCH (round 2)
Date of match:		2004-06-30
Match type:		Canada Cup
Venue:		away
Weather		cloudy
Crowd:		30000
Income:		129 195 C$
Team Spirit:		calm (5)
POSITIONAL MATCHUPS
		Cerio's Dragons FC											your mother
Midfield		weak (very high)	16			73%		10					6		wretched (low)		Midfield
Right Side Defence		poor (very high)	12			57%		3					9		poor (very low)		Left Side Attack
Central Defence		weak (very low)	13			59%		4					9		poor (very low)		Central Attack
Left Side Defence		weak (very high)	16			55%		3					13		weak (very low)		Right Side Attack
Right Side Attack		inadequate (very high)	20			57%		5					15		weak (high)		Left Side Defence
Central Attack		inadequate (very low)	17			59%		5					12		poor (very high)		Central Defence
Left Side Attack		inadequate (low)	18			62%		7					11		poor (high)		Right Side Defence
		HATStats	144										87	HATStats
		Stars Defence	12.0										14.0	Stars Defence
		Stars Midfield	19.0										7.5	Stars Midfield
		Stars Attack	7.0										4.5	Stars Attack
		Stars Total	38.0										26.0	Stars Total
Experience		poor	3										2		wretched		Experience
FINAL SCORE
Cerio's Dragons FC						7		-	0			your mother
GOAL SCORERS
	Sergio Chapin (10)						1 - 0
	Gilang Juanda (17)						2 - 0
	Hubert Gortemaker (23)						3 - 0
	Hubert Gortemaker (28)						4 - 0
	Gilang Juanda (49)						5 - 0
	Juan María Cavareda (70)						6 - 0
	Marcus Hansson (73)						7 - 0
POSSESSION
	First Half Possession					74%			26%
	Second Half Possession					74%			26%
CARDS
	none											Helge Hansen (Y72)
REPLACED PLAYERS
	none											David Wainwright (+1)
MAN OF THE MATCH
	Jon Riser (5*)											Cab Randle (4*)
DRAGON PLAYER REPORT
Nick de Hooge Quentin Doaré Defensive Patrik Kvarning Extra Inner Midfield Reimund Brigg Offensive Juan María Cavareda Defensive Sergio Chapin Offensive Hubert Gortemaker Offensive Jon Riser Defensive Marcus Hansson Offensive Lars Andersson Normal Gilang Juanda Normal Set Pieces Jon Riser Sub (Keeper) Francois Boisclair Team Captain Lars Andersson Sub (Defender) Reuven Zaltzman Sub (Inner Midfield) Miao Thanh-Tuan Sub (Forward) Michael God Sub (Winger) Jim Hendrix
GAME COMMENTS and OTHER NOTES

It was a sellout crowd at the "your mother" arena. They didn't get to see many home team goals. A home team simply called "your mother", that even though it got the first chance, was unable to convert, and then let seven goals in... Coach Doaré decided to go defensive after only 2 goals from the Dragons, and we will talk to him about this unacceptable defensive attitude for him, a trainer who is fond of attacking... Solid in the win were Hubert Gortemaker and Gilang Juanda, both with a paire of goals. The two goals for Juanda give him a streak of at least one goal in every competitive match he has played for the Dragons so far. If he can go on and get the kind of streak fellow striker Lars Andersson got going last season, we should be in for some fireworks at The Dojo this season... Juan María Cavareda scored in his debut as a Dragon, posting a 3 stars performance, which was very welcomed...

Next up for the Dragons, a division IV team named SPARKS, that seems to be pulling more respectable ratings, especially in defense...

FM

[FrogMan]

wow, midfield comparison with the ratings came quite close to real possession... 73% vs 74%...

FM

[fantastic flying froggies]

And FM killed 'your mother'...

[FrogMan]

the first line of the match report was in fact quite funny...

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of mother.

then at the end...

The most dominating mother player was without a doubt Cab Randle.

FM

[fantastic flying froggies]

When I lived with my parents, my own mother was more a fan of the pressing tactic...

[FrogMan]

After doing stamina and set pieces training in the last two weeks, the team switched to the cup run training program, winger training...

Training
Not much was of regular trainees, but some of the trainees have not seen one pop since the team has started doing some winger training in the cup run. The one I'm hoping to see pop very soon is Kristoffer Bjerre, to formidable winger, since he is using a trainee spot I'd rather use on Jim Hendrix. Jim is currently not being trained, sadly... Bjerre has also stopped being trained in playmaking when he popped to passable playmaking. I'm only waiting for him to get to formidable winger to unload him on the transfer market... Other possible pops includes wingback Reuven Zaltzman (currently at excellent +32.7%), winger Gheorghe Bãnicã (excellent+49.1%), wingback Lars Aspenander (solid+22.5%), and newly bought winback Juan María Cavareda who just played his first ever game as a Dragon.

Well, what would you know, but the new kid on the block is the one to pop!!! Juan María Cavareda indeed popped to solid winger, to go with his solid defending skill, after reeiving only week of winger training at the wingback position, or an estimated 8.3% of a level in training. He was darn close... Here's his player card...

Juan María Cavareda (34769778) 19 years, solid form, healthy

A pleasant guy who is balanced and upright.
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities.

Nationality:	Chile
Total Skill Index (TSI):	1 190 (238 000 C$)
Wage:	1 774 C$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner:	Cerio's Dragons FC
Warnings:	0

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

I'm in a bit of a dilemma with him now though. At first I was worried he wouldn't pop this season, but now he popped kind of too soon... "The player has been on your team for 14 days and you would keep 85.45% of the transfer sum." hmmmm There's no way he'll pop again this season while playing at wingback, may pop again next season though... He's a nice enough backup defender... I'll probably keep him around until I definitely go to winger and will sell him at excellent...

None of the others popped. Bjerre *should* pop next week, as it will be his 6th week of winger training and he was a clean youth pul already at excellent winger when I bought him...


Form

players form up	5
players form down	-4
net	1
form levels up	5
form levels down	-4
net form change	1
starter form levels up	4
starter form levels down	-1
starter net form change	3

The good: GK Nick de Hooge finally seems to be coming out of his form funk, improving to inadequate form, and his TSI value shows me he should be able to put up a 3.5 stars performance this week, an improvement over the 3 stars performances he's been giving the team over the last three games. This should come in handy this week against SD's BOYS, a tough attacking team... The team will boast a midfield in very good form, as Jon Riser went up to excellent form, as did Reimund Brigg, the team's offensive centreback. Hubert Gortemaker also went up in form, to solid, probably excited over the possibly of staying with the club long term...
The bad: Coach and backup defender Quentin Doaré dropped to poor form and that is very sad. We can't explain why, since he played in last week's second cup match... Also going down was Miao Thanh-Tuan, probably depressed to see his playing time go down and his chances of sticking with the club long term going down with it...

Value Changes

nb value up	12
nb value down	6
TSI value up	1820
TSI value down	-1050
net value change	770

Value changes are in line with winger training, which is a bit lower than usual playmaking training week. Big gainers were Hubert Gortemaker with +570, gain form only since he's playing middie, Marcus Hansson with +340, which is nice since this is winger training going in, and Nick de Hooge with +300, with a nice form upgrade...

Going down the worst were Miao Thanh-Tuan with -670, big form drop here, and Michael God, -230, another form drop...

Opponent's report
After a quick look at the recent lineups of the Dragons' opponent this week, SD's BOYS, I'd say it's not a bad week for the Dragons. Yep for the Dragons, as the BOYS saw two of their midfielders drop one level of form, one of them also losing 5380 TSI points in value over an inital TSI value of 38070, that's a 14% drop, gotta mean something in performance!!! Other than this, I see an overall form change to his projected starters around +1 / -4, which is the exact opposite of what the Dragons experienced this week. Nice

FM

[FrogMan]

Frogot to post my roundup of round 2 of the Canada Cup in III.15... Here we go...

round 2	HOME					AWAY
04-06-30	Ankle Breakas (V.253)	124	0	5	170	podiatrists (1)
	Manitoba Mounties (V.229)	62	0	8	160	SD's Boys (2)
	Office_Mans (V.67)	72	0	5	122	max calcio (3)
	Toronto Miners (V.236)	73	0	5	117	Thoroughbreds (4)
	scartown soliders (V.10)	100	1	7	160	Nepean United (5)
	your mother (V.28)	87	0	7	144	Cerio's Dragons FC (6)
	lacombe rangers football club (V.3)	88	3	5	115	Sackers (7)
	Sooke FC (V.109)	100	0	6	135	OFV Goose Bay (8)

As you can see, everybody is still in the Cup, although Sackers gave themselves a tiny bit of a scare. At some point at the beginning of the second half, they were tied 2-2... Some teams are playing some backups in the Cup, judging by their lower than average rating, especially for teams like max calcio, Thoroughbreds, and Sackers...

[FrogMan]

Here's that time of the week again, the time where you build your hopes up and get them crashed down to earth with the simple click of a button... And here's the popcorn vendor we pulled this week...

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80040e31'

Timeout expired

/Common/includes/Database2.asp, line 286

Don't you hate it when you click the darn button and it times out on you?!? You don't even get to see the new player rightaway, you have to go to your players list and see the new name in there, visit his player page and see the crap...

Trevor Benavides (36530213) 17 years, passable form, healthy

A controversial person who is calm and honest.
Has disastrous experience and poor leadership abilities.

Nationality:	Canada
Total Skill Index (TSI):	40 (8 000 C$)
Wage:	1 000 C$/week
Owner:	Cerio's Dragons FC
Warnings:	0

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

He will be fired tomorrow, just before the game, but please don't tell him now, we don't want him trashing the locker room before he's let go...

Among other news, the team saw the weekly money coming from sponsors take another nice jump, from 108k U$ last week to 119k U$ this week. This jump, combined with the drop in team salary makes the weekly economy page looks like this at the beginning of the week...

This week
Revenue			Expenses
Crowd	0		Arena	78 180
Sponsors	238 590		Wages	83 756
Financial	0		Interest	0
Temporary	0		Temporary	4 000
			Staff	102 000
			Youth squad	40 000
Total revenue	238 590		Total expenses	307 936
Expected income/loss				-69 346

This means that on a week where the team only has an away game, we can get away with only losing 35k U$ minus the friendly crowd money we'd have in that week, which isn't too bad...

FM

[FrogMan]

LEAGUE MATCH (week 23.02)
Date of match:		2004-07-04
Match type:		league (23.02)
Venue:		away
Weather		rain
Crowd:		48375
Income:		0 C$
Team Spirit:		satisfied (7)
POSITIONAL MATCHUPS
		Cerio's Dragons FC											SD's Boys
Midfield		inadequate (very high)	20			56%		4					16		weak (very high)		Midfield
Right Side Defence		weak (very high)	16			52%		1					15		weak (high)		Left Side Attack
Central Defence		weak (low)	14					14		67%			28		solid (very high)		Central Attack
Left Side Defence		weak (very high)	16					9		61%			25		solid (very low)		Right Side Attack
Right Side Attack		inadequate (low)	18					2		53%			20		inadequate (very high)		Left Side Defence
Central Attack		inadequate (very low)	17					3		54%			20		inadequate (very high)		Central Defence
Left Side Attack		inadequate (high)	19			50%		0		50%			19		inadequate (high)		Right Side Defence
		HATStats	160										175	HATStats
		Stars Defence	13.5										15.0	Stars Defence
		Stars Midfield	17.0										16.5	Stars Midfield
		Stars Attack	6.5										12.0	Stars Attack
		Stars Total	37.0										43.5	Stars Total
Experience		poor	3										2		wretched		Experience
FINAL SCORE
Cerio's Dragons FC						3		-	3			SD's Boys
GOAL SCORERS
							0 - 1					Love Rothdahl (9)
							0 - 2					Jesús Aguirrebengoa (28)
	Reuven Zaltzman (34)						1 - 2
	Michael God (68)						2 - 2
							2 - 3					Marius Alexandru (70)
	Reimund Brigg (72)						3 - 3
POSSESSION
	First Half Possession					57%			43%
	Second Half Possession					55%			45%
CARDS
	none											none
REPLACED PLAYERS
	Jon Riser (+5)											none
MAN OF THE MATCH
	Hubert Gortemaker (4*)											Love Rothdahl (5*)
DRAGON PLAYER REPORT
Nick de Hooge Lars Aspenander Defensive Patrik Kvarning Extra Inner Midfield Reimund Brigg Offensive Reuven Zaltzman Defensive Kristoffer Bjerre Offensive Miao Thanh-Tuan Defensive Hubert Gortemaker Offensive Gheorghe Bãnicã Offensive Michael God Normal Gilang Juanda Normal Set Pieces Gheorghe Bãnicã Sub (Keeper) Francois Boisclair Team Captain Nick de Hooge Sub (Defender) Juan María Cavareda Sub (Inner Midfield) Sub (Forward) Lars Andersson Sub (Winger) Marcus Hansson Replaced players: Jon Riser
GAME COMMENTS and OTHER NOTES

I debated longly between playing this match normal or telling the boys to "play it cool". I finally went normal, and boy did it pay off!!! After going down 0-2 early, the Dragons ended the first half only one behind, while controlling the ball 57% of the time. On the road and we were winning the midfield battle, anything was possible... God tied it early in the second half, and both teams exchanged a goal to finish it off. We stole a draw!!! This draw was absolutely unexpected and is very rewarding. Despite losing the ratings battle 160 to 175, this tells me one thing: the Dragons belong in III and will fight with everything they have to stay in III.

This great news of a draw came at a price though. Jon Riser had to be replaced at the 58th minute and is suffering from sever concussion syndroms. He is said to be possibly out for 5 weeks, a period of time that we will try to reduce at all cost. Eight doctors were promptly added to the usual staff of two that we carry week in, week out. While we will miss Jon very much in our midfield, and his absence will force us to scramble our lineup a bit, it's probably the best time for him to suffer that kind of injury, as we are currently training our wingers' cross pass technique and he his missed training time will not be as bad as if his injury had happened in the middle of the playmaking training period...

This match ranked as the team's 9th best performance overall, at 89% of the best performance ever, not bad. The midfield performance also ranked as the 9th performance of all midfield performances, at 84% of the top performance. The attack ranked at #13 of all time, at 90% of the top performance. Our defense performance failed to rank in the top 15 of our best performances...

FM

[Tellistto]

Nice tie, FM. My condolences on losing Riser for 5. I suppose the only good thing about that is that your training winger atm. Still sucks to lose a 5* player for that long.


Tell

[FrogMan]

time for a quick roundup of the week 2 action in III.15.

week 2	HOME					AWAY
04-07-04	OFV Goose Bay (151)	155	1	3	190	podiatrists (196)
	Sackers (163)	148	1	2	166	max calcio (161)
	SD's Boys (183)	175	3	3	160	Cerio's Dragons FC (169)
	Thoroughbreds (172)	211	2	1	188	Nepean United (189)

TEAM NAME		MID	RD	CD	LD	RA	CA	LA	HR
Thoroughbreds	home	7.50	7.00	7.50	6.25	6.25	5.50	4.50	211
podiatrists	away	3.50	7.75	7.75	9.50	5.50	7.00	6.25	190
Nepean United	away	5.00	5.50	7.50	8.00	6.25	5.25	6.25	188
SD's Boys	home	4.75	5.50	5.75	5.75	7.00	7.75	4.50	175
max calcio	away	5.75	7.00	6.50	4.25	4.50	4.25	4.50	166
Cerio's Dragons FC	away	5.75	4.75	4.25	4.75	5.25	5.00	5.50	160
OFV Goose Bay	home	4.50	5.50	5.25	5.25	5.00	5.50	5.50	155
Sackers	home	4.75	4.00	5.00	5.50	5.75	4.50	4.75	148

Not too many surprises this week, other than the Dragons drawing with the Boys

The other two promotees, Sackers and Goose Bay, both lost, which is good news for the Dragons. While Goose Bay were playing podiatrists, a very strong team in the league, Sasker were playing a team they could have beat in max calcio. Instead, Sackers turned in a lackluster performance at home, to lose 1-2...

Thoroughbreds pulled a very surprising ratings of 211 this week, playing a unusual 4-4-2 formation. Part of that 211 is a high solid midfield, the best in the league so far this season... Looking at their recent transfer history, I found that they sold one of their world class defender and bought an inner midfielder valued at 47350 TSI points (or 4.735M U$) who gave them a 5.5 performance tonight. In my eye, they automatically jumped to the forefront of contenders in III.15...

Here's how III.15 is shaping up right now...

III.15
STANDINGS	W	L	D	PTS	GF	GA	DIFF	AVG HR	as FOFC	BEST HR
max calcio	2	0	0	6	3	1	2	163.5	82.2	166
SD's Boys	1	0	1	4	4	1	3	179.0	88.8	183
Cerio's Dragons FC	1	0	1	4	2	1	1	164.5	81.5	169
Nepean United	1	1	0	3	3	0	3	188.5	94.2	189
Thoroughbreds	1	1	0	3	1	3	-2	191.5	99.0	211
podiatrists	1	1	0	3	1	4	-3	193.0	96.0	196
Sackers	0	2	0	0	1	2	-1	155.5	76.5	163
OFV Goose Bay	0	2	0	0	0	3	-3	153.0	76.8	155

That right people, that Dragons are in third, 4 cool points ahead of relegation zone. While I know that we're still only in week 2 of a long season, let's not forget that the Dragons are STILL UNDEFEATED in III, and that is worth noticing

The "as FOFC" column is still worthless since we have not played three matches in the season. Starting next week, this column will present the weighed average of the last three games for all the teams, just like I do it for the FOFC rankings.

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Tellistto

Nice tie, FM. My condolences on losing Riser for 5. I suppose the only good thing about that is that your training winger atm. Still sucks to lose a 5* player for that long.


Tell

Thanks for the condolences

Yes, it indeed sucks. My teams does have some depth though, so I should be able to get by without too much hurt, but it is a hit to my midfield, no question about it. Patrik Kvarning had a +4 injury in league play in week 4 last season and he ended up missing the next three matches only, and only one week of playmaking training. Now I can only hope that Riser will show up tomorrow morning at +4 already and that the 10 doctors will work their magic fairly quickly. He is still young at 21 that he should be able to recover quickly...

FM

[kingfc22]

Very solid FM. Nice comeback(s) too

[mrkilla22]

Grats on the tie FM! I am sure Riser will heal quickly for ya.

[FrogMan]

First off, thanks kingfc and mrkilla, glad to see you're still reading

Some Riser news for you folks. Well, they're not as good as one would have hoped. Jon lost more than half his TSI value overnight, dropping from a pre-injury TSI value of 9880, all the way down to 4450... This is one heck of a drop That huge drop, combined with the fact that Jon showed up this morning still at +5, makes me believe he's in for a long recovery... At least, as wast stated before, we are still training winger, so this week is at least one where he won't lose training time. Now, let's hope for a long cup run, despite missing our top inner midfielder. We may have to call upon backup Miao Thanh-Tuan, or even shuffle our lineup and move Reimund Brigg from offensive centreback to inner midfielder and Reuven Zaltzman to offensive centreback...

In other news, I expected III.15 to slide a little in the world of III in Canada, but no, it held on strong in, still in 8th place of all division III series...

		Total	Total	Total	Average	Total	Ave
Rank	Series	Goals	Crowd	Stars	Stars	Ratings	Rating
1	III.12	39	211,572	373.0	46.6	1528	191.0
2	III.6	39	200,887	359.0	44.9	1474	184.3
3	III.9	32	173,331	356.5	44.6	1469	183.6
4	III.3	48	210,386	359.0	44.9	1452	181.5
5	III.8	32	158,848	344.5	43.1	1440	180.0
6	III.1	40	148,011	358.5	44.8	1437	179.6
7	III.10	36	198,444	341.5	42.7	1416	177.0
8	III.15	31	175,544	339.5	42.4	1393	174.1
9	III.16	47	180,781	347.0	43.4	1378	172.3
10	III.11	33	215,808	333.0	41.6	1356	169.5
11	III.7	35	182,451	335.0	41.9	1355	169.4
12	III.4	39	198,561	326.0	40.8	1339	167.4
13	III.5	34	185,544	316.5	39.6	1284	160.5
14	III.14	29	139,884	307.0	38.4	1142	142.8
15	III.13	39	198,210	288.5	36.1	1073	134.1
16	III.2	29	146,820	264.0	33.0	1005	125.6

I also took a quick look at our opponent in round 3 of the Canada Cup, and I raised an eyebrow this morning. They played a weird 3-4-3 in week 2 of league play, resting many of their usual starting players. Their manager has not logged in since July 2nd, but this may mean he has set up some funky lineup for us this coming Wednesday. They also lost a player, one of their good defender, this past Sunday, but he's currently only at +1, so he has a good chance of being back for Wednesday's match...

I will report tomorrow with some sort of report on when we may expect to see Jon Riser back on the field, depending on how much value he gains after his first update with some doctors attending to him...

FM

[FrogMan]

Was still not happy with Riser's recovery this morning when I saw that he was still at +5 after the Tuesday morning update. The one good news then was that he gained a whopping 260 TSI points of value in that one update. Based on that 260 being the norm, I came up with this table of recovery for Riser...

update	game	doctors	Riser	gain	cum.	status
04-07-04 2:15	23.02	10	9880			+5	guessing
04-07-05 12:00		10	4450	-5430	-5430		game
04-07-06 12:00		10	4710	260	-5170		as of 04/07/06
04-07-06 23:00	cup	10	4970	260	-4910	+4	+4
04-07-08 12:00		10	5230	260	-4650
04-07-09 12:00		10	5490	260	-4390
04-07-10 12:00		10	5750	260	-4130
04-07-11 2:15	23.03	10	6010	260	-3870	+3	+3
04-07-12 12:00		10	6270	260	-3610
04-07-13 12:00		10	6530	260	-3350
04-07-13 23:00	cup4/friendly	10	6790	260	-3090
04-07-15 12:00		10	7050	260	-2830	+2	+2
04-07-16 12:00		10	7310	260	-2570
04-07-17 12:00		10	7570	260	-2310
04-07-18 2:15	23.04	10	7830	260	-2050
04-07-19 12:00		10	8090	260	-1790	+1	+1
04-07-20 12:00		10	8350	260	-1530
04-07-20 23:00	cup5/friendly	10	8610	260	-1270
04-07-22 12:00		10	8870	260	-1010
04-07-23 12:00		10	9130	260	-750	bandaid	bandaid
04-07-24 12:00		10	9390	260	-490
04-07-25 2:15	23.05	10	9650	260	-230
04-07-26 12:00		10	9910	260	30

I made this table before knowing his status would indeed change to +4, but I had made that assumption, given the +260 in value after only one update. So, seeing that he would be about 5000 TSI points away from his starting value, and counting he would need 5 changes of status to be completely healthy (1 is from +4 to +3, 2 from +3 to +2, 3 is from +2 to +1, 4 is from +1 to bandaid, and 5 is from bandaid to healthy), I marked where I thought he'd change status. The blue column is my prediction of how he will recover. I like playing little side games like that, try to see if I can guess right. I'll keep you updated on Riser's recovery, as I'll change the grey numbers to the real numbers as the updates happen, and we'll see how close I'll end up being One thing I know is that this guess is the pessimistic one. I mean it assumes that Riser's value will increase of 260 TSI points per update until he is healthy. From experience, I have learned that doctors hired in the middle of a week don't do anything until they get paid once, so the 260 should increase somewhat after Saturday's weekly update. By how much, I can't say right now...

One good thing I see is that if the team makes it to round 5 of the cup, as it did last season, Jon may not miss any training time at all. Now, this may be tougher this season, with the fact that he's out of the lineup...

Among other news, you'll remember that I reported earlier that our Cup opponent in round 3 lost one of his best defender in league play last Sunday. The play had been at +1 (injured but training) since then and I was pretty sure he was going to recover on tonight's last update before the Cup match. Well, he didn't and SPARKS will have to play without this 3 stars wingback tomorrow. Weather forecast calls for an overcast sky over SPARKS arena tomrrow, which isn't the worst weather to help fill its 50000 seats. Let's hoep for a big crowd!

FM

[FrogMan]

CUP MATCH (round 3)
Date of match:		2004-07-07
Match type:		Canada Cup
Venue:		away
Weather		1900-01-00
Crowd:		22630
Income:		99 622 C$
Team Spirit:		content (6)
POSITIONAL MATCHUPS
		Cerio's Dragons FC											SPARKS
Midfield		weak (very high)	16			64%		7					9		poor (very low)		Midfield
Right Side Defence		weak (low)	14			54%		2					12		poor (very high)		Left Side Attack
Central Defence		poor (very high)	12					1		52%			13		weak (very low)		Central Attack
Left Side Defence		weak (very low)	13			50%		0		50%			13		weak (very low)		Right Side Attack
Right Side Attack		inadequate (very high)	20			53%		2					18		inadequate (low)		Left Side Defence
Central Attack		inadequate (very high)	20					5		56%			25		solid (very low)		Central Defence
Left Side Attack		inadequate (very high)	20			53%		2					18		inadequate (low)		Right Side Defence
		HATStats	147										126	HATStats
		Stars Defence	11.5										11.5	Stars Defence
		Stars Midfield	19.0										13.0	Stars Midfield
		Stars Attack	7.0										6.0	Stars Attack
		Stars Total	37.5										30.5	Stars Total
Experience		poor	3										4		weak		Experience
FINAL SCORE
Cerio's Dragons FC						3		-	4			SPARKS
GOAL SCORERS
	Lars Andersson (17)						1 - 0
							1 - 1					Paul Haynes (32)
	Reimund Brigg (63)						2 - 1
	Hubert Gortemaker (71)						3 - 1
							3 - 2					Paul Haynes (79)
							3 - 3					William Sandbratt (82)
							3 - 4					Nigel Redding (97)
POSSESSION
	First Half Possession					63%			37%
	Second Half Possession					62%			38%
CARDS
	Reimund Brigg (Y34)											none
	Quentin Doaré (Y82)
REPLACED PLAYERS
	none											none
MAN OF THE MATCH
	IM Reimund Brigg (4.5*)											GK Paul Crocker (4.5*)
DRAGON PLAYER REPORT
Nick de Hooge Juan María Cavareda Defensive Patrik Kvarning Extra Inner Midfield Reuven Zaltzman Offensive Quentin Doaré Defensive Sergio Chapin Offensive Hubert Gortemaker Offensive Reimund Brigg Offensive Marcus Hansson Offensive Lars Andersson Normal Gilang Juanda Normal Set Pieces Gilang Juanda Sub (Keeper) Francois Boisclair Team Captain Nick de Hooge Sub (Defender) Lars Aspenander Sub (Inner Midfield) Miao Thanh-Tuan Sub (Forward) Michael God Sub (Winger) Gheorghe Bãnicã
GAME COMMENTS and OTHER NOTES

Well, this sucks, big time... Not much to say but bad luck. A bad luck that started with Jon Riser getting injured last Sunday. I had my lineup set with Reimund Brigg in his usual offensive centreback position, and Miao Thanh-Tuan taking the place of Riser at the inner midfielder position. I left from work at 4:15 yesterday and during the 25 minutes commute, I freaked out. Thanh-Tuan is only in weak form, and since he already played in replacement of Riser last Sunday, he doesn't need anymore playing to get the favorable change in form at the training update. I was gonna PIC that match, no doubt about it, then I started thinking: "what if Thanh-Tuan's only formidable playmaking, combined with weak form isn't enough to give me enough ball possession to win tonight? Maybe I should have played Brigg at middie and Zaltzman at offensive centreback, no?" Anyway, got home at 4:40, 20 minutes until kickoff, 5 minutes before lineup freeze. Logged in and made the switch, that was my last good move/good news. We won possession in both half, 63 & 62%, and despite owning them in two of the three ratings concerning my attacks versus their defenses, we were un but were unable to convert three scoring chances, while they converted all three chances in regulation and their sole chance in overtime to do us in...

I'll confess to one mistake, playing out of form coach Quentin Doaré at his regular defensive wingback spot. I should have played Lars Aspenander there and forget about the 50% of winger training that is useless to Doaré. Well, live and learn.

Compounded to the loss was the atrocious crowd that attended the game. Only 22630 people attended the game at SPARKS arena, giving my visiting team a tiny income of 49 811 U$ for its last cup match of season 23. Out from the cup without a home match, two rounds earlier than what we accomplished in season 22, which was our best cup run in team history, lasting until round 5. More than that, this "early" exit also means that Jon Riser may miss two weeks of playmaking training, if he only comes back after the friendly of week 23.05, as originally planned. Right now, Riser is the one who will be the last one to pop in our run toward switching to winger training for good...

Speaking of that injury to Riser, it really had some very bad impacts to the team, in more than one way. First, it forced me to play Brigg, a formidable playmaker, in Riser's place at inner mid. Riser is a brilliant playmaker, so a drop of 2 levels there. To play in Brigg's place, I moved Reuven Zaltzman from his usual wingback slot to the offensive centreback position. While Zaltzman is an excellent defender, compared to Brigg's solid defending skill, he is only an excellent playmaker, further more hurting the team's midfield rating. To replace Zaltzman on the wing, I bring Juan Maria Cavareda, solid defender/solid winger, from the B squad. Cavareda's disastrous solid defending skill, compared to Zaltzman's excellent skill is one drop there, but Cavareda also has disastrous experience, which hurts him, and our defense in general. Finally, coming back to Riser, and maybe the smallest hit we take, he is the team's defensive midfielder, with indequate defending skill and with him out of the midfield, I usually play an offensive midfielder. While this brings a bit more firepower to the team, it breaks the balance I usually like to have when I play one offensive and one defensive middie... Wow, that was one long rambling

Okay, now that my whining is done, I can see that some positives havppened in that game. First, we got two experience pops, both to players with a bright future with the dragons. IM Patrik Kvarning popped to poor experience, and future offensive centreback Reuven Zaltzman finally popped to wretched experience. Second, we didn't lose any supporters despite the loss. The fact that the team scored three goals in the loss may have helped though. In fact, two new members signed up for a "Black Belt Club" membership. Third, the team recorded the best overall attacks ever, with a triple very high inadequate, mostly helped by playing two middies offensively, one of them with solid passing. While this is a very nice factoid, it's not making the final score any easier to swallow... Finally, the team'S confidence only dropped to strong from wonderful, which may help us in our league match this week... Team Spirit also jumped to delirious, as a result of the PIC order...

FM

[FrogMan]

Here are the results of the round 3 games for the teams of III.15...

round 3	HOME					AWAY
04-07-07	Kamloops United (IV.47)	133	0	3	196	podiatrists (1)
	The Drifters (IV.21)	134	1	4	155	SD's BOYS (2)
	farul F.C. (IV.31)	100	2	4	119	max calcio (3)
	sexy_azn (V.166)	128	1	2	159	Thoroughbreds (4)
	The Downies (V.143)	136	0	2	166	Nepean United (5)
	SPARKS (IV.46)	126	4	3	147	Cerio's Dragons FC (6)
	Takahashi's Warriors (IV.21)	140	2	3	142	Sackers (7)
	the loserz (IV.5)	140	4	2	125	OFV Goose Bay (8)

As you can see, 8 teams remain. The one good news for the Dragons is that OFV Goose Bay, which is one of the teams we're fighting against for that #6 spot, is also out, so they won't benefit from any PICing to help them raise team spirit...

FM

[FrogMan]

forgot to mention that the Dragons have booked a series of two friendlies with fellow FOFCer, supporter of the Dragons, and friend, Tellistto and his Fizzle United. First game will be played at the Fizzle United Arena next week, while the second game will be played at The Dojo in two weeks.

Any reader interested in a home and home series can either send me a PM, an HT-mail or post it in here. I like playing fellow FOFCers, especially those of you who support mem and since I'm in Canada, pretty much anybody from here gets an international friendly by playing me

FM

[Tellistto]

Should be interesting, be the first time for many of my players to see the pitch in awhile. Hopefully no injuries and a fun friendly both ways.


Tell

[FrogMan]

With the team out of the cup, this was likely going to be our last week of winger training until next season. Let's see how it went...


Training
As I just said, the Dragons usually do winger training during the Cup run, for whatever long that Cup run lasts. With the team out of the Cup, it basically was the last week of winger training until next season's Cup run, unless incumbent Kristoffer Bjerre had not popped. But, you guessed it, HE POPPPED After 6 weeks of winger training, Bjerre, who got with the Dragons as a freshly pulled excellent winger/inadequate playmaker from a Danmark club called Trigestars, is now a formidable winger/passable winger. Here is his player card...

Kristoffer Bjerre (23090522) 20 years, inadequate form, healthy

A sympathetic guy who is balanced and honest.
Has disastrous experience and solid leadership abilities.

Speciality: Head

Nationality:	Danmark
Total Skill Index (TSI):	2 260 (452 000 C$)
Wage:	2 534 C$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner:	Cerio's Dragons FC
Warnings:	0

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

We stopped training him in playmaking as soon as he popped to passable and he didn't fit in the team's long term plans. It was clear that we were going to transfer list him the minute he was going to pop to formidable winger. Doing an extra week of winger training would have probably made sense, had he not popped this week, after 6 weeks of winger training. But he popped, and he's now transfer listed with a starting price of 750k U$. While his stamina is not very good, he was trained in stamina this past offseason but didn't go up at all, so one more week of stamina training may see him pop two levels at once...

We had another pop at winger this week, although this one was sort of unexpected. Marcus Hansson, the future winger extraordinaire of the Dragons popped to formidable winger after only 5 weeks. This newly acquired winger skill goes along very well with his excellent playmaking skill and his inadequate passing. Here's his player card, please don't drool all over it...

Marcus Hansson (23091039) 19 years, inadequate form, healthy

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

Nationality:	Sverige
Total Skill Index (TSI):	4 130 (826 000 C$)
Wage:	3 315 C$/week including 20% Bonus
Owner:	Cerio's Dragons FC
Warnings:	0

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

Marcus will not see much action in league play, as he is schedule to undergo intensive playmaking training that should bring him close to midway between formidable and outstanding playmaking by the end of the season. Because of that, he will not be playing much at winger, except for some chosen games...


Form

players form up	4
players form down	-3
net	1
form levels up	4
form levels down	-4
net form change	0
starters form levels up	2
starters form levels down	1
starters net form change	1

The good: GK Nick de Hooge is finally back to passable form, and this will help our defense a bunch... Lars Andersson, who had been in a semi-funk, form-wise, is also back to passable form, as is Michael God, so all three forwards are now in passable form or better, with Gilang Junda hanging to his solid form... Coach and backup defender, Quentin Doaré is slowly regaining some form, now up to weak form...

The bad: Poor inner midfielder Miao Thanh-Tuan could not have picked a worst time to drop to poor form. An opening in the starting lineup showed up, but there's no way Miao steps on the field as a starter in poor form... Jim "Jimi" Hendrix dropped two levels of form, basically due to a lack of activity. Sadly for Jimi, the early exit crom the Cup for the Dragons means that he will not get any winger training until next season... Finally, newly appointed starting wingback, Juan María Cavareda, also dropped in form, down from solid to passable, which is still acceptable. But we'll hope he won't drop any lower, sice his lack of experience, mixed in with low form could very well mean he'll be back to the backup squad in no time...


Value Changes

nb value up	14
nb value down	3
TSI value up	2650
TSI value down	-580
net value change	2070

This is a very good week in terms of change in player value, especially for a week of winger training. While training playmaking, I've seen many weeks with a net value change of over 3000 TSI points, while during our 4 winger training weeks of last season, the best we ever got was 920 TSI points...

Two big movers were the two newly popped wingers, Bjerre and Hansson, with respectively 340 and 330 TSI points. GK de Hooge also gained some value, which is always nice when you're talking about your keeper. His value went up 510 TSI points. Among others, Hubert Gortemaker, who didn't receive any training, also didn't change in form, but saw his value go up 360 TSI points...

Big dropper was Miao Thanh-Tuan, thanks to his form drop, who saw his value drop some 520 TSI points...

The team will now switch back to its playmaking training program for the rest of the season...


Opponent's report

From the last few lineups of the podiatrists, the opponents of the Dragons in week 3, I can come up with two possible lineups, both only differing by the 3 forwards. Either way, I don't like what I'm seeing, but I'm not sure it would matter against them. Just so you know, the podiatrists had ratings of 190 in league play in week 2, and of 196 in Cup play, compared to 160 and 144 for the Dragons... Anyway, one of their lineup would show a +4 / -1 levels of form to the starters, while the other would show a +3 / -4, but they could come in a mix and match the forwards of the second group so my analysis would be a moot point...

FM

[thealmighty]

I'd love to play you FM and should be well out of the US Cup in time for the end of your home-home with Tellistto.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Tellistto

Should be interesting, be the first time for many of my players to see the pitch in awhile. Hopefully no injuries and a fun friendly both ways.


Tell

It should be interesting indeed, as I will also have some players that have not seen the pitch in some time, including dunce cap wearer Jackie Cherry, who will even get a half dose of playmaking training with the injury to Jon Riser...

Gotta tell you that I may have a starter or two in there, as I need to pull a few hole filler. One will come on Saturday evening, but I'll still be short one fellow on my B, err C, nah, D squad

Good luck, and may the injury fairy stay far, far away from our teams

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by thealmighty

I'd love to play you FM and should be well out of the US Cup in time for the end of your home-home with Tellistto.

Tim (finkenst) has requested one, or two, can't remember. So I'll probably play him and then would be available for you. That's if the FOFC cup hasn't started, but then I usually bow out of that cup fairly quickly, given the sad shape of my backups

But I got your team name on my spreadsheet. And you know, if you're on one of FrogMan's spreadsheet, it means you're important

FM

[kingfc22]

FM - great recap of that unfortunate Cup loss.

[FrogMan]

thanks kingfc. I had to take a few good, deep breath before I started writing anything about the game. In fact, I wrote it only the next day. Little fact I forgot to mention is that I actually missed the end of the game. I left home to go to my son's soccer practice just as regulation ended, score being 3-3. When we got back home, I logged in, but I sort of knew I had lost, had the feeling...

This is very weird though, as two seasons ago, I lost 3-4 again in the 3rd round of the Cup. I don't miss many games, but at that time, I also at to leave when the game was tied 3-3, finally to come back to a loss... Difference is at the time, my team would have done the upset

FM