FM14 Level 8 USA Amateur Climb - Page 3

Radii · 08-04-2014, 12:41 AM

September 17th, 2014

North America Amateur Cup

Wake Forest Cougars vs So California Seahorses

Attendence: 204

Starting Lineup

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Arroyo
DM: Williams
M: Glaser/Shakespeare
AM: Rose/Cooper
ST: Navarro

Full rotation back to the best team we are capable of fielding. Defensive/retain possession.

3': Defender Whiteman for So Cal gets a yellow.

5': They work up to a strong shot from the right, just wide.

11': We watch another very wide shot of theirs, the concern being that it came from Glaser getting dispossessed fairly deep in our own end.

12': Cooper to Shakespeare, he runs into the area, near the baseline, lays it back for Cooper who blasts a shot from the right.. goal! 1-0

14': A very long ball from one of their defenders, a striker runs onto it but he can't control it well, ends up a bit wide out left, and catn' get his shot on target.

34': Glaser sends it up to Rose, near the corner of the penalty area, he runs by his man, crosses to the 6 yard box, Cooper is there, heads it, goal!! 2-0

HALF: We outshoot them 8-4, they haven't put one on target yet.

66': Yellow for their defender Garcia

72': Davidson in for Rose.

75': Yellow for ST Correra for them.

79': Tapia in for Glaser

86': First highlight of the second half, a good sign for us. They earn a corner on a cross, Arroyo heads the first one away for another corner, that one is aimed poorly and we get a goal kick.

91': Gyan saves a cross, turning it behind, corner... cleared away, they earn a throwin. Eventually they manage a weak shot that Gyan easily saves.

That's it!

Wake Forest 2 : 0 Southern California

Man of the Match: Ian Cooper (8.8)
Goals: Cooper 2
Assists: Shakespeare (7.5), Rose (7.0)
Notables: Arroyo (7.1), Galvis (7.2), Pickering (7.0), Campbell (7.2)

Ian Cooper is becoming a superstar here.

-- We receive $38,750 for this win!

-- I should point out, I think most of these teams really don't care about this tournament. Southern California is on a hot streak in their league, doing quite well in a tier above us, but today we played against guys with average ratings under 6 in a couple cases, guys on their U18 squad. We are very clearly taking advantage of the fact that we have nothing to play for in league, while these other teams are treating this like a very secondary tournament.

Radii · 08-04-2014, 12:46 AM

North America Amateur Cup - Semifinal Draw

Wake Forest Cougars will host the California Jaguars, yet another team from the Gold Coast Amateur League. The Jaguars are currently struggling and are in 15th in that league out of 20 teams, just two spots ahead of relegation.

In the other semifinal, Match Fit Academy of the Colonial Amateur League will face Regals FC of the All-American Amateur League.

Match Fit have a 15-4-5 record in their league and currently lead the league by 3 points. Regals FC are 10-8-5 and in 4th place in their league, fighting hard for a playoff spot.

So between relegation and promotion, all four of these teams have tons to play for. Hopefully that helps us out!

This match will be on October 1st.

bbgunn · 08-04-2014, 02:45 AM

Ugh... would have liked to see Hilo beat Match Fit.

Radii · 08-04-2014, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbgunn

Ugh... would have liked to see Hilo beat Match Fit.

I agree. I'm sure my players would have enjoyed a potential trip to Hawaii for the semifinals as well.

September 20th, 2014

Wake Forest Cougars (9-4-6, 8th) vs Tupelo Possums (3-4-13, 16th)

Attendence: 252

We're 1-6 favorites today against the team that is the reason we aren't playing for playoffs right now.

Starting Lineup

GK: Gyan
D: Coggins/Burke/Garcia/Varela
DM: Pena
M: Sandoval/Tapia
AM: Davidson/Crook
ST: Pace

Full changes today, except for Gyan. Even with backups, I tell the team I expect them to win.

28': First highlight so far, Davidson just walks by his man to earn a clear cut chance but puts it hilariously wide.

HALF: We outshoot them 5-2 and are clearly the better team but have nothing to show for it.

59': Coggins with a long cross, their keeper punches it away, Pace with a shot after the rebound... but he puts it off the crossbar.

93': We get a corner, they head it out, we retain possession and after a couple passes Davidson is in the right side of the area, by his man, he strikes it well... off the post though.

Nope, not today.

Wake Forest 0 : 0 Tupelo

Notables: Tapia (7.0)

I wouldn't' care about this if it weren't for wanting revenge for the earlier key loss. Maybe the team just has a general issue performing in situations where they are fully expected to win.

Radii · 08-04-2014, 11:40 PM

September 26th, 2014

Wake Forest Cougars (9-5-6, 8th) vs Cleveland Stokers (6-5-9, 13th)

Attendence: 253

We drew each other earlier in the year

Starting Lineup

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Arroyo
DM: Williams
M: Glaser/Shakespeare
AM: Rose/Cooper
ST: Navarro

2': They build up slowly after kickoff, eventually with a pass into the right side of the area for Sinisterra, he shoots, Gyan saves, but rebound falls to another one of their strikers and he puts it in. 0-1

4': Navarro a through ball to Shakespeare, looked a sure goal, but the keeper saves it, we get a corner out of it but its cleared.

22': They control possession again for a good while, finally a run down the left, a cross... and a goal, but, offsides, whew.

HALF: Roth is coming in for Navarro who has picked up a minor injury.

76': Took long enough! Cooper out wide right, he puts it into the area, Shakespeare runs onto it and volleys it in off a bounce. 1-1

82': Perkins in for Glaser, Tapia in for Williams.

That'll do it.

Wake Forest 1 : 1 Cleveland Stokers

Man of the Match: Make Shakespeare (7.4)
Goal: Shakespeare
Assist: Cooper (6.7)

I tell the team I'm disappointed, but I'm not sure if they can tell that I actually don't give a shit at all what happened here.

Radii · 08-05-2014, 12:15 AM

October Update

-- Navarro, Perkins, Arroyo train well. DC Garry Garcia, and DC Pickering both struggle with fitness training.

-- The board remains very pleased with my leadership. Our fantastic performance in the North American Amateur Cup is the highlight. ST Leon Roth's poor play is the negative. He's hardly played... We made $53,580 last month, thanks to the Amateur Cup.

October 1st, 2014

North America Amateur Cup Semifinals

Wake Forest Cougars vs California Jaguars

Attendence: 213

We still can't bring fans to the stadium for this, even for a semi.

Starting Lineup

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Arroyo
DM: Tapia
M: Glaser/Shakespeare
AM: Davidson/Cooper
ST: Navarro

Williams and Rose still seem to be slow to recover after both being out with long-ish term injuries. Neither are fully ready for this one and would definitely have to be subbed if they started. So I'll make them both subs.

5': Throwin in their end, Cooper ends up sending it into the area for Shakespeare, he's brought down... but no penalty. They end up clearing safely.

17': They have a corner that hits the post as it curls in... we clear.

23': We watch them take a shot from 30 yards out that is nowhere close at all.

29': Navarro picks up a minor injury. Unsure if he stays in long term or not.

33': There's a long back and forth over possession in the midfield, finally they win it, a couple passes ahead and they send it to their left midfielder coming towards the goal, he has a clear cut chance... but puts it high.

43': Yellow for Arroyo

46': They earn one corner, we head that behind.. the second one is no danger.

HALF: They outshoot us 4-3, and have the only clear cut chance so far. We are dominating in the air and winning most of our tackles too which is good. Overall though its quite even.

Pace is in for Navarro.

46': Cooper with a run down the right side right after kickoff.. a cross in, headed by pace, pushed away by the keeper. Davidson is there for the rebound.. and the keeper recovers enough to get his hands on that too. Sad.

58': Free kick for us, we make the keeper dive to stop it, corner.. which is cleared easily.

78': Perkins in for Glaser, Rose in for Davidson.

84': Pace is hurt... not out of the match but really hobbled.

91': Free kick for us, Cooper sends it into the area, Shakespeare heads it.. inches wide.

FULL TIME: Pretty dull half really. They lead in shots 9-7, we now have more on target with 4, and really should have scored in the opening minute of the half. Once we didn't, it was pretty slow.

The first half of extra time passes with no highlights.

And so does the second half. With Pace injured I was content to go to penalties and didn't try to do anything aggressive in extra time.

PENALTIES:

They shoot first:

Bevan: right side, good. 0-1
Shakespeare: right side, good. 1-1

Marshall: left side, good. 1-2
Perkins: right side, good. 2-2

Adams: left side, Gyan dives same way but can't get it. 2-3
Galvis: top right corner, good. 3-3

Rodriguez: right side, good. 3-4
Cooper: right at the keeper, pretty sure the keeper got a hand on it, but it went in anyway. 4-4

Johnson: right side, good. 4-5
Arroyo: right side, good. 5-5

Williams: left side, good. 5-6
Tapia: upper right, good. 6-6

Miller: right side, good. 6-7
Pickering: down the middle, good. 7-7

Dominguez: right side, good. 7-8
Rose: left side, good. 8-8

Is this going to come down to the keepers like the last one?

Moctezuma: left side, good. 8-9
Campbell: Middle-left, good. 9-9

Patham: Good right side, 9-10 - This was their keeper
Gyan: upper left, good. 10-10

Bevan: right side, good - 10-11 - wait did one of them shoot twice early? WTF?
Pace: Left side, good - 11-11

Ok this is just silly. I load up Reddit on my second monitor and wait.

After penalties even out at 15-15, their midfielder Williams hits one right at Gyan and he luckily doesn't dive and saves it. Arroyo takes his penalty and scores!

Wake Forest 0p (16) : (15) 0 California

So we win... 16-15 on penalties.

Man of the Match: Mark Shakespeare (7.4)
Notables: Arroyo (7.2), Campbell (7.0), Tapia (7.1)

In the end they outshoot us 10-9, we put more on target but they get the only clear cut chance, and in the end it doesn't matter, as we watch 16 penalty attempts by each team to decide it.

We are going to the finals!!

-- We are given $77,500 for winning in the semifinal! We have $240k in the bank, with the vast majority of it coming in prize money. Surely one of the richest amateur teams in history.

Injury Update

ST Ronnie Navarro is out for 3-4 weeks with a leg injury he picked up today.

-- Match Fit Academy beat Regals FC in the other semifinal 1:0 in extra time, so we're going to face them in the final.

-- The Final is in Dallas, in FC Dallas Stadium!

We have one more league match then 10 days off before the final. It won't be enough to get Navarro in there, sadly.

britrock88 · 08-05-2014, 12:36 AM

Could your board decide to go semi-pro and get you promoted up to Level 6 that way?

Radii · 08-05-2014, 09:51 PM

October 4th, 2014

Model City Kings (9-6-6, 8th) vs Wake Forest Cougars(9-6-6, 8th)

Attendence: 211

We won the first meeting this year.

Starting Lineup

GK: Gyan
D: Coggins/Burke/Lassiter/Varela
DM: Williams
M: Glaser/Shakespeare
AM: Colangelo/Crook
ST: Roth

Backups in since we just played 3 days ago.

23': AMR Ryan Crook is hurt and has to leave the match. Sandoval is in in his place, playing out of position because I didn't pay enough attention to subs going into this.

42': They shoot from 20 yards out, its off the post, Gyan dove for it and missed. The ball bounces off the post and hits Gyan in the back and rolls slowly towards the net. Gyan recovers just in time to turn around and pounce on the ball.

HALF: They outshoot us 4-2, one shot on target for each.

46': Buildup for us after the kickoff, Colangelo finds Roth about 20 yards out with no one in front of him. The keeper rushes out, and Roth tries to lob over him... his shot just hits the crossbar, so close.

57': Yellow for Coggins

60': Perkins in for Shakespeare

65': Sandoval and Roth with a give and go move on the right side, Roth back to Sandoval who beats the keeper. Hooray for out of position subs! 1-0

75': Pena in for Glaser

78': Pretty awful defending on our part of a weak ball into the left side of the area, we let ST Valeasco get deep with the ball with lots of help, he puts it into the 6 yard box and they get a header in. 1-1

That's it for this one.

Model City 1 : 1 Wake Forest

Man of the Match: Ashley Sandoval (7.1)
Goal: Sandoval
Assist: Roth (6.7)

Coggins/Lassister/Burke with 6.3/6.4/6.5 ratings, they could have been better.

-- backup AML Luca Colangelo was hurt near the end of that one, he's going to miss 2 weeks. Crook has no long term issues.

Radii · 08-05-2014, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by britrock88

Could your board decide to go semi-pro and get you promoted up to Level 6 that way?

This is my first time managing an amateur team so I have no idea at all what to expect. Maybe if we win the final and get tons of money? Who knows!

Radii · 08-05-2014, 10:26 PM

-- Coggins has to miss another match after his yellow card in the last one. He'll miss the Cup final. He wasn't going to start anyway.

-- We have a U18 match on Oct 6th and a reserve match on Oct 8th. i make my starters available for those since there's no league match until the cup final on the 15th.

-- AMR Ian Cooper is hurt in the U18 match, he'll miss about a week. So he might not be able to go in the finals. That would be a pretty big blow if that's the case.

October 15th, 2014

North America Amateur Cup Final

Match Fit Academy vs Wake Forest Cougars

Attendence: 1426

I was hoping for more fans.

Starting Lineup

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Arroyo
DM: Williams
M: Glaser/Shakespeare
AM: Rose/Cooper
ST: Pace

Cooper isn't 100% fit, but he can start and we'll see how long we can go without having to sub him out. Pace will start in Navarro's place.

Jordan Schmid is their big star. Schmid has 7 goals and 5 assists in 6 matches in this Cup so far. We're going to try to close down on him any time he touches the ball.

1': they earn an early corner, taken into the 6 yard box.. headed, off the crossbar and over.

4': We get our first shot, Cooper to Shakespeare for a header, but stopped easily.

13': They build up down the right side for a shot, but its a very off target shot from 20 yards out.

16': Another shot wide from Match Fit.

22': Galvis with an interception to start our offense, Rose does most of the work, with just a pass to Pace at one point, Rose gets it back, gets by his man and into the area, its actually a clear cut chance.. but high.

40': Pace is hurt and forced to leave the match. Randy Adamson tackled him pretty hard, he gets a yellow. Roth is in.

43': Shakespeare hits the crossbar from 25 yards out on a free kick, close.

47': Corner for them, taken to the far side of the 6 yard box... headed, it hits a defender and Gyan scoops it up. That was a clear cut chance for Match Fit.

HALF: We'll take it. They are outshooting us 7-4, just 1 on target from both teams, 1 clear cut chance for both. They are in control in the air, a rarity for Wake Forest games, we usually win the majority of our headers.

55': Roth with a terrible free kick from 30 yards out, they clear but we recover, work it back up to Roth where he puts a shot wide.

59': A cross into the 6 yard box from the left corner for MAtch Fit, it falls to their star Schmid and he puts it in from very close range. Boo! 0-1

61': Schmid with a shot from outside the box that hits the crossbar, that was close.

62': We have to attack now.

68': Crook in for Cooper, just too tired.

79': Tapia in for Glaser.

84': They pressure us after a goal kick and steal the ball in midfield, a run by ST Thompson and he shoots.. Gyan with a great diving stop, and we clear. That wsa their 4th clear cut chance.

There's just nothing we can do.

Wake Forest 0 : 1 Match Fit

We weren't expected to win this one, and they were obviously the better team, we only had one decent look and weren't able to finish it. They had lot of chances and made one of them work.

DC Galvis put up a 7.0 rating on the back line. A 6.1 from DL Campbell, everyone else was in that 6.5-6.7 range.

-- Samir Pace is going to be out for 2 months with the injury he picked up today. We only play one more match so no big deal.

Radii · 08-05-2014, 10:44 PM

October 18th, 2014

Wake Forest Cougars (9-7-6, 9th) vs Blacksburg Bears (5-7-10)

Attendence: 281

Most teams played a couple days ago, our match was postponed due to the cup final. If we win by 3 or more, we finish 8th. Any other result, we finish 9th.

Starting Lineup

GK: Garcia
D: Rongen/Garcia/Burke/Jackson
DM: Pena
M: Sandoval/Tapia
AM: Salas/Thompson
ST: Reynoso

I start all of my most little used guys.

35': First highlight of the match, Tapia with a corner, Rongen a clear cut chance from 6 yards out but its blocked and cleared.

HALF: Lets get on to something more interesting!

73': Damn nice save by Clark Garcia on a strong shot from 15 yards out by Blacksburg.

Two highlights for the entire match.

Wake Forest 0 : 0 Blacksburg

Man of the Match: Sean Rongen (7.2)
Notables: Jackson (7.1), Burke (7.0), Tapia (7.1)

Some solid defense today.

We finish 9th in the league. I'll do end of season stuff tomorrow.

bbgunn · 08-06-2014, 01:20 AM

I suppose not a bad first season, but I'm sure you wanted more.

nol · 08-06-2014, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radii

-- We are given $77,500 for winning in the semifinal! We have $240k in the bank, with the vast majority of it coming in prize money. Surely one of the richest amateur teams in history.

I'm sure some SEC football team has something to say about that

Great stuff as usual! The last time I was visiting the dynasty forum regularly, you had your Ipswich one going, so that's some fortunate timing on my part.

Radii · 08-06-2014, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbgunn

I suppose not a bad first season, but I'm sure you wanted more.

Making the finals of the amateur cup helped, but failing to make it into the top split to have a shot at the league playoffs, especially since it involved a bad loss to the worst team in the league in the final week, is definitely the most important result of the season.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nol

Great stuff as usual! The last time I was visiting the dynasty forum regularly, you had your Ipswich one going, so that's some fortunate timing on my part.

Thanks!

Radii · 08-06-2014, 06:34 PM

Before I do anything else, lets get through the league playoffs and see who is going to promote.

Appalachain Premier League Semifinals

Hickory Heat 0 (p) : 0 Kentucky Colonels
Twin City Patrol 1 : 0 Asheville Attack

Appalachain Premier League Finals

Hickory Heat 2 : 0 Twin City Patrol

Appalachain Premier League Promotion

The Fayetteville Liberty win the league with 42 points in 21 matches, they will promote.

The Hickory Heat win the playoffs after finishing 4th with 32 points in 21 matches, they will also promote.

I'm pretty sure both of these teams will promote into the Atlantic Coast Amateur League. Four teams relegate out of that league, Savannah Braves, North Meck SC, Roosevelt, and Bayamon. I assume we will get two of those teams in our league next year.

Tons of coaches are fired, I get asked by the media for each one (or at least each one that comes across my news feed) if I'm interested in the job. In every case I state that I have a contract with Wake Forest and haven't met my goals for this team yet. The board is pleased.

November Update

-- Brian Williams and Amidu Gyan trained well. Ashley Sandoval and David Campbell did not.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership (down from very pleased). Our great locker room atmosphere is a highlight. Our 0-0 draw vs Blacksburg is a negative. We made $92,320 last month. Possibly a sign regarding semi-pro stuff, "The financial outlook of the club is looking relatively stable for the forseeable future"

Ownership Update

-- Wake Forest Cougars could be taken over by a consortium of businessmen, possibly involving a former player, according to the media. We'll see what happens with that and if it impacts me.

Radii · 08-06-2014, 06:36 PM

Final Standings

Radii · 08-06-2014, 06:42 PM

Team Stats

Sorted by rating. So when everyone is healthy, Mora, Cooper, Rose and Navarro are my biggest offensive players, so its no surprise that they're up at the top here. Shakespeare spent more of his time in the "supportive" MC position this season, but did take over for Mora in the more attacking MC role when Mora was hurt, which was a lot.

Pickering was by far my highest rated defensive player, but he is also 6'8" and is very dangerous on corner kicks, as seen by his 4 goals.

Goal Leaders

Navarro - 11
Mora - 8
Shakespeare - 6
Davidson - 6
Roth - 5
Cooper - 5
Rose - 4
Pickering - 4
Pace - 3
Crook - 3

Assist Leaders

Cooper - 14
Navarro - 11
Shakespeare - 6
Davidson - 6
Mora - 6
Rose - 3
Crook - 3

Man of the Match winners

Mora - 6
Navarro - 5
Shakespeare - 4
Rose - 3
Roth - 2
Cooper - 2
Pickering - 2

Radii · 08-06-2014, 09:20 PM

Injury Update

Backup DC Don Burke broke his foot in training and is out 5-6 months. By the time he gets back from injury and goes through reserve matches to get his fitness up it'll probably be July or August, ugh.

Appalachain Premier League Leaders

Goals

1. Stephen Marshall - Fayeteville - 16 goals
2. Gus Chapman - Huntington - 11 goals
3. Anthony Schmidt - Kentucky - 10 goals
3. Johnny Clark - Blacksburg - 10 goals
5. Alfonso Grisi - Model City - 9 goals
...
14. Ronnie Navarro - Wake Forest - 6 goals
26. Brian Davidson - Wake Forest - 4 goals
26. Jhonatan Mora - Wake Forest - 4 goals

Johnny Clark left Wake Forest for Blacksburg in the preseason. I had him penciled in as my #2 or #3 striker at the time.

Assists

1. Stephen Marshall - Fayeteville - 8
2. Gary Spicer - Model City - 7
3. Ian Cooper - Wake Forest - 6
3. 5 others tied - 6
...
9. Jhonatan Mora - 5
9. Ronnie Navarro - 5

Average Rating

1. Stephen Marshall - Fayeteville - 7.47
2. Anthony Schmidt - Kentucky - 7.28
3. Jhonatan Mora - Wake Forest - 7.16
3. Ronnie Navarro - Wake Forest - 7.16
3. Johnny Clark - Blacksburg - 7.16
...
7. MArk Shakespeare - Wake Forest - 7.09
8. Ian Cooper - Wake Forest - 7.07
27. Brian Davidson - Wake Forest - 6.90

Radii · 08-06-2014, 10:12 PM

Injury Update

ST Samir Pace recovered from injury, went into a U18 match, and got hurt again immediately. He's going to miss 3-4 months. Its now December, so that puts him out until March'ish.

End of Season Team Meeting

I tell the team to enjoy their break, and to be ready when they come back because we are aiming to promote next season.

-- DC Galvis (our captain) has a good response, saying that its a challenge but we can do it.

-- MC Shakespeare is cautious and thinks that's an awful ot of pressure.

-- I re-iterate that we can absolutely achieve promotion if we play our best.

-- Backup MC Sandoval agrees about our expectations being fine.

-- Overall, 5 players had a good reaction to my expectations, while 9 had a bad reaction. Notable poor reactions came from Shakespeare, Rose, Gyan, and Mora. The negatives far outweighed the positives here, I'll have to be careful of that in the future.

Yearly training summary

Backup GK Phil Harrington and DL David Campbell are noted for having the best training performances throughout the year.

Pre-Season Start

I can bring the players back on 12/29, 1/5, or 1/12. I choose the middle option, 1/5/15, which will give us a 5 week long preseason.

Transfer Embargo

-- Because of the impending takeover of the team, we're not allowed to bring in any transfers. They're all free anyway!

North American Open Cup

New England beats Seattle in a thrilling 5-4 match to win the biggest domestic competition in the US.

Tax Bill

We pay around $75,000 in taxes based on making a profit of $250k.

Jersey Sponsorship

We sign a 2 year sponsorship deal worth $9,750 per year.

Takeover Cancelled

The consortium that was looking to take over Wake Forest has backed out. This was over about a 2 week period from the transfer embargo.

Our transfer embargo is lifted. Its not quite Christmas, we'll start dealing with all this in early January.

Financial Update

-- Wake Forest have announced a profit of $250,000 for the last year, "a staggering 78% of their turnover"

That was more than I thought I'd be cramming into this post. Its now December 31st and transfer windows are open. Its still a week until we get our players back from vacation, but its about time to start planning for the new season.

Radii · 08-06-2014, 11:32 PM

Ugh I was going to try to format player attributes nicely here to review the roster starting the new year, but I lost a bunch of if when OpenOffice crashed on me, so screw it, maybe next year.

Depth Chart - Goalkeepers

1. Amidu Gyan - 27 y/o - Best Combo of technical/mental attributes.
2. Phil Harrington - 24 y/o - As good as Gyan technically, weak mentally

I have two 17 y/o keepers. Clark Garcia could surpass these guys... eventually. But with training being what it is at this level, not really worth worrying about.

Gyan remains the starter here.

Defenders - Left Side

1. David Campbell - 22 y/o - Not skilled at all. Coggins should be my best here, but the ratings last year did not bear that out.
2. Danny Coggins - 25 y/o - Best Technically and Mentally by a lot.
3. Sean Rongen - 17 y/o - Rongen is actually better technically than Campbell too

Coggins is by far the best by the numbers, but Campbell put up better ratings last year. If Coggins plays well he probably gets all the starts here when he's fit. If no one stands out I may well rotate all three of them though.

Defenders - Right Side

1. Steve Arroyo - 17 y/o - By attributes, the best defender on my team. One of the few players with lots of 8's in spots like marking/tackling

2. Bob Varela - 16 y/o - Fine numbers for a backup, but Arroyo clearly looks better.

3. Joe Jackson - 27 y/o - Jackson's attributes are basically the same as Varela, I chose to give the younger guy more playing time last season.

Varela has the highest average rating here, but he only played when fully fit and sometimes against weaker opposition to rest Arroyo. Arroyo's attributes are so much better that its impossible to not start him (unlike Campbell vs Coggins at DL)

Defenders - Central

1. Joe Pickering - 16 y/o Attribute-wise, he looks like just another schlub, but he's 6'8" and the ratings he put up separated him from the pack last year.
2. Hernando Galvis - 25 y/o - The only DC with super high determination. Also the best leader and thus captain. Elsewhere he's in line with everyone else, so that gives him the bump to start.

3. Garry Garcia - 17 y/o - Best marking at this position. There's a big clump of players here really.

4. Tommy Lassiiter - 28 y/o - Best heading and Tackling, strongest DC, but the lowest composure and determination.

5. Don Burke - 25 y/o - By far the worst technically, minus the fact that he can jump...

Looking at attributes, the top 4 guys seem interchangeable mostly, and Burke clearly seems worse. Galvis wins out entirely b/c of determination and leadership.

Looking at ratings last year, it goes Pickering >>>>> Galvis/Burke >>> Garcia/Lassiter. Burke is 6'7" so maybe he outplays his ratings b/c of height too.

Radii · 08-06-2014, 11:44 PM

Defensive Midfielders

1. Brian Williams - 17 y/o - On paper Williams is better here and its not remotely close. His key technical attribute are all... ok... 6-8 range. No giant holes.
2. Timothy Pena - 24 yu/o - Looks like crap. I wanted to replace him in the preseason last year and couldn't find better.

But... in game, their ratings are basically the same.

One change i will make this year, last season I just played them both in "Defensive Mid" roles. But my assistant thinks they're both better as "Ball Winning Midfielders" and both have pretty high aggression, one of the key stats for that role. So I will probably change the role for my DM's and see if it lets them make more plays.

Central Midfielders

1. Jhonatan Mora - 21 y/o - Ratings don't much stand out, outside of a nice flair rating and a high work rate. Dude got results though.

2. Jose Alejandro Tapia - 24 y/o - best technical midfielder, best positioning and no 2'3 and 3's.

3. Mark Shakespeare - 17 y/o - 2nd best technically behind Tapia, weaker mentally than Mora though.

4. Gary Glaser - 18 y/o - So average everywhere. The guys behind him have major weak spots where Glaser is... ok.

5. Bayard Perkins - 25 y/o - Clearly worse than Glaser, clearly better than Sandoval

6. Ashley Sandoval - 17 y/o - 1 in marking, 2 in tackling, the offensive side of things doesn't do anything to make up for that.

So my tactic runs an "attacking" MC, and an "automatic" MC, which for me more often than not is defensive. The attackers by nature stand out and get better ratings. So even though Shakespeare had my best overall ratings, I think the combination of Tapia on defense/Mora offense give me my best team. Glaser/Shakespeare the 2nd tier there.

Radii · 08-06-2014, 11:55 PM

Right Attacking Midfielder

1. Ian Cooper - 17 y/o - Maybe the single best player on the team. A '13' technical attribute stands out light years ahead of everyone else, at any position. Solid flair, one of my best off the ball, which like decision making is just a rating that is bad for everyone at this level. Cooper is a star.

2. Ryan Crook - 25 y/o - At most other positions Crook would start. I like him a lot.

3. Bo Thompson - 17 y/o - Physically pretty good, which makes up for his awful technical skill.

Left Attacking Midfielder

1. Dylan Rose - 17 y/o - 2nd best "Technical" attribute behind Cooper on the team. Great flair, very good physiclaly, but lacks some crossing and dribbling ability. A '1' off the ball rating has to hurt him too.

2. Brian Davidson - 20 yo - Solid physically but very average elsewhere.

3. Luca Colangelo - 20 y/o - Interchangable with Davidson when it comes to attributes.

Rose was hurt a lot so we saw a lot of Davidson. Davidson, perhaps due to off the ball rating, was a much bigger threat to score, but he and Rose both had very solid overall ratings. Colangelo, despite appearing equal to Davidson, never impressed in any way.

Strikers

1. Ronnie Navarro - 17 y/o Best dribbling, best flair, best finisher, also put up the best stats by far from this position.

2. Leon Roth - 17 y/o - Best anticipation and off the ball out of the strikers. Not great at all otherwise.

3. Samir Pace - 17 y/o - Attributes say he's my second best striker, a step down from Navarro but not a big one.

4. Pierre Reynoso - 17 y/o - A warm body and not much more. Was signed for injury depth last year.

Reynoso started 3 matches and played in 8 more off the bench and never scored for me. Roth/Pace is a bit of a tossup but Roth had a couple monster games where Pace never really did, so my default thinking here is to give Roth the chance to be my #2 guy to see if he holds up over more appearances.

Notice they're all 17 years old. We have shit for experience up front.

Radii · 08-06-2014, 11:58 PM

So thoughts on the overall roster... I would like to sign better strikers, maybe I can't replace Navarro but I can hopefully make my depth better.

At every other position if I can find what seems like better players I will sign them and insert them into the depth chart. Cooper/Mora/Shakespeare put up great ratings last year and seem relatively safe in their roles compared to other positions. But since we're an amateur team and transfer $$ isn't part of the equation, we will take anyone, anywhere that I think might make the team better.

If it seems like a tossup or bringing in someone equal, I will probably tend against it for team cohesion reasons.

bbgunn · 08-07-2014, 12:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radii

Ugh I was going to try to format player attributes nicely here to review the roster starting the new year, but I lost a bunch of if when OpenOffice crashed on me, so screw it, maybe next year.

I might be in the minority, but I don't mind so much about that. You did point out each player's higher attributes, and that's enough for my reading pleasure.

I don't know if other readers feel that way, but don't put pressure on yourself to write up more than you need. Of course, who am I to give advice to the writer of one of the more popular dynasty threads here.

Radii · 08-07-2014, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbgunn

I might be in the minority, but I don't mind so much about that. You did point out each player's higher attributes, and that's enough for my reading pleasure.

Good to know, thanks.

At a higher level, when my players can be expected to improve as they train in at least somewhat significant ways, I want that kind of thing for my own benefit as much as for the presentation.

But for a team with 1/2 star training facilities and no better than 2* training in any one area, and where many of my depth chart moves come down to whether I want the guy with a 5 in decision making vs the guy with a 2, it can wait

Radii · 08-07-2014, 01:02 AM

Wake Forest Player of the Year

-- Its all about the goals, as ST Ronnie Navarro is the fans Player of the Year. If I had a vote, I would have voted Cooper first, Mora 2nd, and Navarro 3rd.

Wake Forest Best Eleven

GK: Amidu Gyan - 37 apps/6.84 rating
DR: Bob Varela - 12 apps/6.97 rating
DC: Joe Pickering - 23 apps/4 goals/7.12 rating
DC: Hernando Galvis - 24 apps/1 goal/6.85 rating
DL: David Campbell - 20 apps/7.01 rating
DM: Mark Shakespeare - 27 apps/6 goals/7.26 rating
MC: Jhonatan Mora - 23 apps/8 goals/7.17 rating
MC: Jose Alejandro Tapia - 23 apps/2 goals/6.91 rating
AMR: Ian Cooper - 23 apps/5 goals/7.18 rating
AML: Brian Davidson - 22 apps/6 goals/7.08 rating
ST: Ronnie Navarro - 28 apps/11 goals/7.16 rating

Shakespeare at DM is a joke. He can't even play the position. If anything, put Tapia at DM, Shakespeare/Mora at MC, as Tapia actually played DMC a fair bit.

League Schedule Announced

Jon had mentioned this in the FM14 thread, as have others, there's a continuity issue with teams at least in this bottom tier staying in the same league from year to year. I care more about the climb than I do the history we build here, so its an annoyance, but not a showstopper to me.

Examples:

Twin City Patrol are now in the Florida Coast Premier League
Blacksburg Bears are now in the New England Premier League, so are the Roanoke Magic

New Teams in the APL:

Cape City - Finished 16th in the Gateway Premier League last year
North Meck SC - They belong here. Relegated last year.
Peoria Steamers - Finished 9th in the Gateway Premier League last year
Savannah Braves - relegated last year, they belong
Springfield Lynx - Finished 8th in the Gateway Premier League last year

So 3 teams here that shouldn't be, from Missouri and Illinois.

Our season opens May 2nd in Springfield. Home opener May 8th vs Huntington.

North American Open Cup Groups

We're drawn into the group stage that takes place before league play starts. We're in group L against 7 other amateur teams we haven't faced before. Most notably we have a road match on March 28th in Juneau, Alaska, against the Ice Bears. Not exactly the Hawaii trip the team had hoped for last year in the Amateur Cup.

Youth Intake

We bring in a large number of youth players and will have to decide which ones get contracts. The $70/wk "youth contract" that I was offering these guys in my game that accidentally went semi-pro doesn't exist as an option here, so I assume things are good as far as keeping amateur status.

We'll go through these players tomorrow. Am I allowed to play 14 year olds? Because I bet more than a few of these could crack my rotation at a glance.

Radii · 08-07-2014, 10:37 PM

Wake Forest Youth Intake

We got a LOT of players in, so I'm only going to mention ones that seem relevant here. I looked very quickly last night and saw lots of ratings scattered about that I thought were competitive with first team players.

DL Florian Bergmann - 14 y/o - Good stamina, good pace (11/10, solid for this level). Aggresion, Bravery, Determination, Leadership all very high. Work rate extremly high for this level (14). 6 Tackling is good already for this level. Marking, Anticipation, Positioning are awful. If they go up a few points he could be very good though.

DC Asley Varela - 14 y/o - Teamwork 14/Work Rate 17, through the roof! Heading, Marking, Tackling all 7 already. He's only 5'8" and we have seen height be hugely important for our central defenders. If I'm allowed to, i could actually see putting him directly into the senior team rotation.

DC Jesus Antonio Guerrero - 14 y/o - Exact opposite of Varela. Pretty crappy skillsy, but aggressive, brave, strong, can jump, and he's 6'7".

DM Adalberto Vega - 14 y/o - Poor tearmwork and work rate, which worry me a bit, but solid elsewhere, Marking 7/Tackling 8/Positioning 8, he's very slow though. Pace/Accel both 5's, that worries me a lot.

ST Ben Goodwin - 14 y/o - Crap technically, but composure, flair, off ball, and pace are all pretty solid. Enough to keep around at least. Can also play AML.

ST Michael Maurer - 14 y/o - cross 5/dribble 8/finish 6, weaknesses would be a lack of pace (5), and a low flair (6) compared to many other strikers we have. Also has terrible natural fitness (4), which could just kill him right away, but his technical skills make him worth a look no matter what.

I go ahead and offer all of these guys contracts. I cut a few guys right away, and I will decide on some others before the deadline.

Radii · 08-07-2014, 11:35 PM

-- We set up five friendlies.

-- I make a few transfer offers. I find nothing interesting at all at the MC or attacking mid positions. DR where I really like Arroyo I didn't offer anyone, but I made offers at most other positions. I will admit, I made one offer to a guy from the Blacksburg Bears who is at best 50/50 to play for me. But they signed 3 of my players last year, so I just want to try to get the guy.

So the Blacksburg guys I went after said no, boo!

New Signing

DMC Luis Villa - 27 y/o - 6 marking/11 tackling. 5 concentrate/6 decisions/6 positioning. Weak-ish physically, 7 accel/6 sta/5 str. I signed Villa basically because i think very little of my backup DMC Timothy Pena. Villa was a free agent, not something I saw much of last season. He was released by the NC Fusion, a team a couple divisions higher than us.

-- We miss out on the guy I wanted the most out of everyone I tried to sign, a DL with great acceleration and good technical skills.

Player Departure

Nooooooooo. MC Jhonatan Mora signs with the NC Fusion. They're a much bigger team than us, and Mora chooses to make $230/week at a higher tier instead of $0 with us.

-- We already have an offer out on another MC. Lets see what happens.

Player Departure

DR Steve Arroyo signs with the Allen Bandits SC. The Bandits are also many tiers above me and Arroyo will be making $475/week thre.

-- The MC I was trying to go after signs elsewhere.

-- With Arroyo leaving I make an offer to a DR youth candidate, not a real solution I don't think, but a guy who could offer injury coverage if I can't sign something better.

This takes us to January 10th, this offseason is not looking quite as good as our last offseason!

Radii · 08-08-2014, 12:06 AM

-- Up to January 17th, and I don't think I'm going to sign a new MC or DR any time soon. Guys that I didn't like so much all of a sudden get much more important spots in the depth chart.

Friendly #1 - January 19th

We travel to Raleigh to play the Pioneers, a team a couple tiers above us. I should probably watch these matches to see who stands out, but that's boring, so I don't.

I play my starters a half and then give backups a half to get some action.

Raleigh Pioneers 0 : 0 Wake Forest Cougars

Pretty even match, no ratings stand out. Shakespeare missed a clear cut chance, they missed one as well.

Injury Update

MC Ashely Sandoval turned an ankle, it was listed as a minor injury during the match, but he's going to miss 6-8 weeks. Bummer.

...

days later, DC Garry Garcia hurts an ankle and is out 2-3 weeks.

-- That takes us to January 24th, we'll finish up the preseason tomorrow and see if there's any way we can sign anyone new.

Radii · 08-08-2014, 11:28 PM

Injury Update

-- Youth ST Michael Maurer broke his leg in a U18 match and is out for 7-8 months. He would have played some this year.

Friendly #2 - Jan 26th

We're playing our reserve squad today, I make sure that everyone not available for the senior team is available for the reserves.

Navarro with a goal from just outside the box in the 25th minute. We allow a penalty in the 48th minute and they tie it up.

Wake Forest 1 : 1 Wake Forest Reserves

Most importantly, we get out of this one with no injuries.

-- One of my coaches has been hired away, and my assistant has a bunch of offers, so it looks like I'm going to be replacing two coaches in the next few days.

Injury Update - Feb 1st

DR Bob Varela has a bruised rib from training and is out 2 weeks.

February Update

-- MC Glaser trains well.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership, squad harmony and our results last year are the main reasons. We lost $4,610 last month.

New Signing

14 y/o ST Patrick Ratzburg joins the team. 5 dribbling/6 finishing/6 heading/6 passing all seem nice. 8 off the ball is way better than many, though most of his other mental attributes are low as you'd expect. 8 pace but only 4 acceleration.

Its going to take Pace awhile to get into match shape, he's still hurt remember. And Reynoso has still never scored a goal for me, so an extra striker seems like a good thing.

Friendly #3 - Feb 3rd

We host CASL Elite in this one. We get a goal from our new 14 y/o Striker Ratzburg in the 10th minute. We sub most of our starters out around 60 minutes. That's the only goal, victory!

Wake Forest 1 : 0 CASL Elite

The worst thing about losing your assistant is that you lose the ability to "filter out unreasonable targets" when trying to find a new damn assistant.

Old North Cup Draw

This is the small tournament between all the teams in North Carolina. Last year we drew one of the USL teams and it was awful. This is so much better. We get a home match against the Asheville Attack, another team in our division. A winnable match!

Radii · 08-08-2014, 11:43 PM

Ok I don't know how to sign an assistant. My last coach made a couple of suggestions before he left, but none of them took the job. I'm trying to filter attributes like "adaptability less than 10" etc to make the list a little smaller to try to find coaches who will talk to me, but not a single one will even consider a contract that I can find.

Is it a thing to just have no coaching staff at this level?

Radii · 08-08-2014, 11:45 PM

It does seem many other teams in my division have no coaching staff outside head coach.

Radii · 08-09-2014, 12:29 AM

Friendly #4 - Feb 10th

We're taking a long trip to St Louis for this one. It was available and we'll get some cash for playing on the road, so I figured why not.

Cooper gets a goal in the 30th minute, and that's the only goal of the match.

St Louis 0 : 1 Wake Forest

-- So I offered one of my two physio's the assistant coach job and they took it. Awful, awful assistant, but, if it lets me see guys I have a shot at hiring so I can bring in a better one it fixes everything.

Injury Update

A few guys who weren't getting enough rotation time were playing for the reserves. Way too many of them got hurt today.

DC Galvis is out for 2 weeks
DL Coggins is out for 2 weeks.
DM Luis Villa is out 9-12 days.

Injury Update

AMR Bo Thompson is going to miss 4-5 weeks with an injury picked up in training.

New Assistant Coach

OMG We did it!

Shaker Asad has a 14 determination, 13 discipline, only 5 adaptability, his coaching attributes are mostly in the 6-8 range. We'll see if I can find some coaches now too.

britrock88 · 08-09-2014, 02:54 PM

It's harder to get by without an assistant, IMO. Go to the job center and place an advert?

Radii · 08-09-2014, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by britrock88

It's harder to get by without an assistant, IMO. Go to the job center and place an advert?

That sounds like a much better solution than promoting your physio to assistant so you can get access to the "filter unreasonable targets" option to actually find coaches that I can make offers to. I didn't know the job center thing existed. I'll do that next time!

Radii · 08-09-2014, 08:38 PM

February 18th, 2015

Old North Cup

Wake Forest Cougars vs Asheville Attack

Our first match with any meaning!

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Varela/Jackson
DM: Williams
MC: Tapia/Shakespeare
AM: Rose/Cooper
ST: Navarro

A pretty familiar lineup to last year. Joe Jackson gets the start at DR, youth player Ashley Varela gets the start at DC, mainly for fitness reasons. Its going to be a bit confusing, we now have an Ashley Varela at DC and a Bob Varela at DR, if the young kid at DC is decent I'm sure both will be on the field together at points.

12': We hold possession for quite a long time, Shakespeare hits Rose in the area for a clear cut chance but he puts his shot wide.

14': Williams ahead to Rose, Rose with a short run down the left side and a cross into the area, Navarro volleys it in! 1-0

33': They have a corner, its a short lob into the near side of the box, they get a shot off it but its contested well and its off target.

HALF: Joe Jackson and Ronnie Navarro both picked up minor injuries in the first half. I'm going to sub Navarro out. Roth is in. We are really dominating this one, just need to avoid allowing a stupid goal.

51': Indirect free kick 35 yards out, Tapia taps it to Shakespeare, into the area for Cooper, he crosses to Roth, Roth with a godawful header that is going to go well wide... but a defender runs into it and redirects it into the net, own goal! 2-0

57': Rose with a run down the left after some midfield possession, a cross to about 8 yards from goal, Roth heads it into the right side of the net! 3-0

64': Campbell wins the ball in defense and we start to push forward, Cooper ends up with a run down the right side, he fires a low cross to the other side of the penalty area, Rose is there and shoots... basically at the keeper's feet, he tries to get down to get it but can't, its in! 4-0

That's it! Little action in the final 25 minutes.

Wake Forest 4 : 0 Asheville

Man of the Match: Dylan Rose (9.4)
Goals: Rose, Navarro (7.1), Roth (7.5)
Assists: Rose 2, Cooper 2 (9.1)
Notables: Gyan (7.2), Jackson (8.0), Varela (7.9), Pickering (7.8), Campbell (7.8), Williams (7.5), Shakespeare (7.6), Tapia (7.5)

Injury Update

Ronnie Navarro turned his ankle in the first half today, and he's going to miss 6-7 weeks as a result. Damn!

DR Joe Jackson bruised a rib in the first half today, he stayed in, but he's going to miss about 2 weeks.

Radii · 08-09-2014, 09:23 PM

Old North Cup Quarterfinal Draw

Eight teams left, one other from our division, one just 1 tier up, the other 5 are well above us. We're going to be going on the road to play the Wilmington Hammerheads from the USL Pro division. They actually promoted up last year into the top USL league, which is the 3rd tier of American soccer.

That match won't take place until June 10th.

New Coaches

36 y/o Reinaldo Navia signs with us. 8 attacking/8 defending/9 mental/7 technica/7 tactical.

30 y/o Chris Hawkins also joins the coaching staff. 6 attacking/7 defending/6 mental/6 technical. We have warm bodies to fill our training schedules again.

We also sign a new physio, Carl Parkins, physiotherapy 5, to replace the guy we temporarily moved to assistant coach to make this all happen.

Friendly - Feb 22nd

We host DC United, it didn't cost much to get them here so why not. This is only a few days after our last match. I make sure not to start anyone who played in our cup match.

Goes as expected. No one gets hurt so its good enough!

Wake Forest 0 : 4 DC United

Injury Update

In a reserve match, DL Sean Rongen got hurt and will miss 6-7 weeks. DR Fausto Diaz is going to miss 4-5 weeks.

Both are the #3 options at their positions.

-- On the good side of injury news, ST Samir Pace has recovered from the injury he picked up at the end of last season and will start working on his fitness immediately.

Friendly - Feb 27th

Our last friendly before the North American Open group play starts. We travel to CASL Chelsea.

We only have 11 players who aren't match fit right now, so we've done a good job getting everyone ready, hopefully this last match will take care of it for most of them.

They get a red card around the 50th minute after a scoreless first half. We take advantage with goals from Pace and Crook.

CASL Chelsea 0 : 2 Wake Forest

-- That takes us to the end of February. For the next two months we'll be playing North American Open group stage matches.

Radii · 08-09-2014, 10:18 PM

March Update

-- Samir Pace trained well, DM Luis Villa trained poorly.

-- The board remains pleased with my leadership. Last season's success and the locker room atmosphere are the reasons. We lost $3,300 last month.

Player Departure

DC Tommy Lassiter leaves us for the Fayeteville Liberty, a team who promoted out of our league last season. Lassiter made 15 starts and came on as a sub 5 times last year, putting up a 6.64 rating. When I signed him I thought he was immediately our best DC, but he did nothing to separate himself from any other player in the rotation.

We're left with Pickering, Galvis, and Garry Garcia as fairly known quantities. Don Burke played some last year, he's hurt at the moment though, with Ashley Varela and Jesus Antonio Guerrero who came in as youth pulls. So the depth is there if the youth players can do anything at all.

Injury Update

Due to match fitness issues I let DL Danny Coggins play in a reserve match and was just going to sit him for our first match. He tears a hamstring and is going to miss 3-4 months.

With Coggins and Rongen both hurt we are now down to David Campbell, who started much of last season, and youth pull Florian Bergmann, who does not look like one of our best youth players to be honest.

March 7th, 2015

North American Open Cup - Group Stage - Group L

Wake Forest Cougars vs Prairie Rapids SC

Attendance: 455

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Jackson
DM: Williams
M: Tapia/Shakespeare
AM: Rose/Cooper
ST: Roth

Defensive/Retain Possession, somewhat of a standard for us now, even at home.

9': Roth with a ball into the area for Cooper, he is behind his defender and has a clear cut chance, but puts it wide.

15': We build up after a throwin in our own end, Rose with a run down the left, into the area for Roth, he controls it, shoots.. off the crossbar.

16': Williams ahead to Shakespeare, to Roth... another shot wide. We're in full control here, just need the goal.

40': Shakespeare to Roth, about 25 yards out, he lobs it over the defense to a streaking Ian Cooper, good control of the ball, and his shot is perfect! 1-0

HALF: We have 57% of the possession, and a 7-0 edge in shots. We are winning 81% of our headers, they are at 31%. I tell the team to keep it up.

56': We control possession in their half, after a number of passes Shakespeare hits Cooper who places a shot very nicely from just inside the 18 yard box! 2-0

67': Nice long ball from Cooper out of our own half up to Roth, he holds it up, finds Shakespeare who strikes it well, but saved.

71': Rose with a cross to Cooper, he shoots... its on target, keeper pushes it weakly to the side, but just enough for it to hit the post and go free. They clear.

71': Garcia in for Galvis and new young ST Ratzburg in for Roth.

79': Another clear cut chance for Cooper... and another one saved. Our first two corners are headed behind by them, the third is harmless.

85': They have it in our end, there's a cross from the right side... Jackson is there but positioned really poorly so he's a non factor, and their ST Brown puts it in. 2-1

We hang on and don't give up anything else.

Wake Forest 2 : 1 Prairie Rapids

Man of the Match: Ian Cooper (9.1)
Goals: Cooper 2
Assists: Shakespeare (7.3), Roth (7.1)

Everyone else is in the high 6's. Cooper is just so good.

-- We get $7,600 for the win.

Radii · 08-09-2014, 10:37 PM

-- We still have a number of players right on the edge of match fitness. Those that need it I give the ok to play for the U18s and reserves and will just adjust my starting lineup accordingly.

Injury Update

3rd string AMR Bo Thompson had just recovered enough from his last injury to get out on the field for the reserves. He turns his knee and is out another month.

March 14th, 2015

North American Open Cup - Group Stage - Group L

Hudson Valley United (1-0-0, 2nd) vs Wake Forest Cougars (1-0-0, 3rd)

Attendance: 977

GK: Gyan
D: Bergmann/Pickering/Varela/Varela
DM: Williams
M: Tapia/Shakespeare
AM: Davidson/Cooper
ST: Roth

Three changes to the back line and a change at AML. Both Varela's are in and playing next to each other.

6': Cooper intercepts a poor pass near midfield, he plays a long ball ahead to Roth, Roth holds it and then lobs it into the left side for Davidson, he's got a clear cut chance and he finishes! 1-0

11': Cooper with a corner kick, taken to Williams who tries to shoot on the volley, its on target but weak, saved.

20': Very quick highlight with Shakespeare playing a ball to Cooper, he lays it off for Roth for a clear cut chance, but its put well wide.

HALF: We saw one more brief highlight and that was it. We have 10(!!) shots in the first half, to their 3. 64% of the possession, we just look crazy strong here.

55': Roth takes a rough hit and he's not injured, but his fitness went way low. Even though it'll come back up, I go ahead and sub in Ratzburg at the next opportunity.

61': Davidson with a cross to Ratzburg, he's all alone in the area for a bit, but he doesn't control it well and the defense recovers and blocks the shot.

62': After a throw we pass it around outside the area, Bergmann is way forward due to the set piece I assume, he lays it off for Shakespeare, who passes to Davidson, shot and goal! 2-0

80': They earn a corner after a poor pass by DR Varela gives it away in their offensive half, but can't do anything with it.

81': Glaser in for Shakespeare, Garcia in for Pickering.

Another good win!

Hudson Valley 0 : 2 Wake Forest

Man of the Match: Brian Davidson (8.9)
Goals: Davidson 2
Assists: Shakespeare (7.8), Roth (6.8)
Notables: Bob Varela (7.2), Pickering (7.2), Bergmann (7.2), Tapia (7.0), Cooper (7.2)

-- We get $7,600 for the win.

Radii · 08-09-2014, 11:03 PM

March 21st, 2015

North American Open Cup - Group Stage - Group L

Wake Forest Cougars (2-0-0, 2nd) vs Belleville Squires (2-0-0, 1st)

Attendance: 465

-- Belleville won their first match 5-2 for the goal differential lead. We're the only two teams at 6 points.

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Varela
DM: Williams
M: Glaser/Shakespeare
AM: Rose/Crook
ST: Ratzburg

Campbell and Galvis in on defense, Glaser gets his first start (he was one of the ones struggling with match fitness). Rose/Crook at AM, Cooper gets the day off, while Ratzburg gets his first start up front. Pace is a sub today, his fitness kind of sucks since he just came back from a long term injury which is why Ratzburg is getting so many chances here.

1': We build up on offense, Ratzburg sends it out wide for Rose, he crosses to the far post, Crook heads it.. off the post, clear cut chance right out of the gate, darn.

2': Shakespeare ahead to Rose, who shoots from an awkward angle and puts it wide. Wish he would have tried to get it to Ratzburg or Crook there.

3': A great tackle from Varela stops their offense in its tracks, a ball ahead to Rose and he runs iwth it, we work it around a bit, Shakespeare pulls it out wide to the left, sends a low cross to the 6 yard box, Ratzburg is there and its an easy finish! 1-0

16': A poor pass by them gives Shakespeare the ball, he immediately sends it long, Ratzburg is on it, instead of trying to beat his man he sends it wide for Rose, who can't score.

23': We have a corner, taken to the far post... a defender of theirs is hit by the ball and it bounces in the net. Own goal! 2-0

28': Crook to Ratzburg for a nice headed goal.. but offsides.

43': Crook with a solid shot from the right side of the area, but saved by the keeper. Rose recovers it near the baseline but they tackle well and eventually clear.

HALF: Another great half for us. We only control 51% of possession but outshoot them 8-0.

50': Crook to Ratzburg who tries a shot from 20 yards out, wide and high.

53': Ratzburg picks up a minor injury, hopefully no big deal.

58': Complete breakaway for Rose, but he doesn't know what to do. He holds up play 18 yards out instead of charging the keeper. Then he just shoots from there, and its well off target. That was pathetic.

81': A quick strike from them, run down the right, cross, and a goal from ST Borin. 2-1

83': Davidson in for Rose, Pace in for Ratzburg.

89': We have a corner, taken to the far post, there's a penalty as Pickering went up for a header! Shakespeare takes the penalty and drills it. 3-1

We are absolutely on fire!

Wake Forest 3 : 1 Belleville

Man of the Match: Mark Shakespeare (8.5)
Goals: Shakespeare, Ratzburg (7.9) (there was one own goal)
Assists: Pickering (7.1), Shakespeare, Ratzburg
Notables: Gyan (7.0)

Galvis with a 6.6, Rose a 6.4. Rose is better at crossing the ball, but Davidson is a much much bigger scoring threat.

-- We again receive $7,600 for the win.

Radii · 08-09-2014, 11:41 PM

-- going into a U18 match: "players in the first team needing match fitness: Ronnie Navarro, Samir Pace, Pierre Reynoso" Yeah.. that's 3 of our 5 strikers. Navarro being on the list is good, means he's about recovered from injury. And Pace has an excuse too with his injury problems. Reynoso I just don't like.

-- DC Don Burke resumes training after being out months with an injury.

-- I mentioned earlier that I was going to change my DMC role from "Defensive Midfielder" to "Ball Winning Midfielder". I had forgotten to do that, and am doing it now. Both Williams and Villa are better at that role according to my coaches.

Injury Update

GK Clark Garcia is out for 2 months after an injury in training. Noteworthy because GK Phil Harrington got hurt last week and since I never rotate GK's I didn't bother to slow down to mention it. But now our #2 and #3 GK's are out for some time. So if Gyan goes down we have a serious problem.

March 21st, 2015

North American Open Cup - Group Stage - Group L

Juneau Ice Bears (0-1-2, 7th) vs Wake Forest Cougars (3-0-0, 1st)

Attendance: 465

-- Belleville won their first match 5-2 for the goal differential lead. We're the only two teams at 6 points.

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Garcia/Jackson
DM: Villa
M: Perkins/Glaser
AM: Davidson/Cooper
ST: Roth

Tons of changes today. Actually is Pickering our only player who started last match (aside from Gyan)? Its raining in Alaska today. Its probably cold too.

3': Davidson with a free kick from 25 yards out, just high.

4': Roth has it 35 yards out, gets it ahead to Glaser who lays it back for Roth, Roth sends it right for Cooper, its a clear cut chance, on target, but their keeper with a nice dive to stop it.

30': Roth is hurt and forced to leave the match. Reynoso is match fit and I stuck him as my sub today, so he's in.

31': Cooper with an extremely long free kick, almost from midfield. He launches it into the area, Reynoso gets his head to it, and its a goal! Reynoso with his first goal for Wake Forest. 1-0

38': Davidson to Glaser, he sends it to Cooper who shoots from 18, but its wide left.

HALF: We outshoot them 5-2 and control 53% of the possession. We're looking good, but definitely not as dominant as I've seen in other matches. I add the "Exploit the Right Flank" instruction at the half. Especially with 2nd stringers in at the MC roles, lets run everything we can through Cooper... and with Davidson on the left instead of Rose I'm confident in his scoring ability if Cooper sends a few balls his way.

51': Clear cut chance for Juneau after a long ball, Gyan rushes out and gets a hand on it, good save of a clear cut chance. They can't score on the corner.

60': Jackson takes a throwin in their end, its poor and he gives it away, they cross from the left side, a header from Allen, and a goal. 1-1

67': Tapia in for Glaser.

68': Cooper a corner, header from Perkins... wide.

75': Free kick from Tapia from the left side, Reynoso ends up behind everyone to put it in easily... but he's offsides.

88': Sandoval in for Villa. Tapia to DMC, Sandoval MC.

That's it.

Juneau 1 : 1 Wake Forest

Their scorer is man of the match.

Goal: Reynoso (7.1)
Assist: Cooper (6.7)
Notable: Pickering (7.0)

Pickering wins 12 headers out of the 13 he went for, including 3 key ones. The rest of the team won 13 headers.

-- Reynoso had been on the field for 15 hours in his Wake Forest before scoring today finally.

Injury Update

-- Roth has a sprained ankle and is out for 2 months. Pace and Navarro need to get their fitness together quick now.

Standings with 4 of 7 matches played. We'd probably advance even if we don't get any more points.

Radii · 08-10-2014, 12:14 AM

April Update

-- Burke is noted for training well, Galvis and Pace both poor.

-- The board remains very pleased with my leadership. Atmosphere is still the positie. We made $24,190 last month. Even the trip to Alaska didn't seem to hurt the finacnes.

-- 3rd string (or 4th, depending on how i use Tapia) DMC Timothy Pena is hurt in a reserve match and out 2-3 weeks.

April 4th, 2015

North American Open Cup - Group Stage - Group L

Wake Forest Cougars (3-!-0, 1st) vs Brea Orange (0-2-2, 8th)

Attendance: 458

-- another match against a bottom team, we've had trouble in the past beating teams we're supposed to beat.

GK: Gyan
D: Bergmann/Varela/Galvis/Varela
DM: Williams
M: Tapia/Shakespeare
AM: Rose/Cooper
ST: Ratzburg

Lots of changes again today. Both Varela's in. Pickering rests for the first time this year.

6': They take the first shot in this one, a free kick from 20 yards out, saved easily.

8': Strikers going down left and right. Ratzburg is hurt and has to leave the match. Reynoso is in.

13': They are attacking, Williams with a tackle but we can't clear it away, they win it back, pass up to Diaz, he fires a very strong shot and Gyan has no chance. 0-1

22': Cooper with a free kick from the left side, very depe in their territory, its headed around a few times, we maintain control and send it back to Cooper out side, he passes it in to Ashley Varela (the DC) who scores!! 1-1

27': Cooper with a great long ball for Reynoso, he gets into the area and shoots, but its wide.

31': Long ball ahead, didn't see who passed it. Shakespeare is trying to get to it, but the keeper comes out of hte penalty box to try to clear, but he kicks it into Shakespeare and it bounces into the area. Shakespeare gets to it and puts it into the empty net. 2-1

38': After a long buildup, mostly on the left side, the ball is passed to Cooper outside of the area, he beats his man 1v1 and gets a clear cut chance, but his shot is very poor.

HALF: After falling behind early we end up outshooting them 7-2, generating 4 clear cut chances and managing to finish two of them.

47': We generate some offense off the kickoff, but end up with a pretty tough long shot from Shakespeare that's saved.

51': More long possession, another instance where we settle for a longer shot than usual, Reynoso puts one well wide.

64': Some passing around the left side for Brea, there's a pass to Prado in the area, Galvis' positioning is terrible and we give him a great look and he buries it. 2-2

67': Reynoso beats his man 1 on 1 about 25 yards out, runs into the area and fires a shot... saved.

70': Rose earns us a corner as a cross isheaded behind. Cooper with the corner, Shakespeare shoots... off the crossbar.

72': They're able to get a pass into the area and get a decent shot off, but high.

75': Glaser in for Tapia

84': Perkins in for Shakespeare

Another draw against weak competition.

Wake Forest 2 : 2 Brea

One of their scorers is man of the match.

Goals: Varela (7.4), Shakesperae (7.7)
Assists: Rose (7.2) (one unassisted)
Notables: Reynoso (5.8)

Really rough game for Reynoso. I have to think we win that with Ratzburg up front.

Injury Update

ST Patrick Ratzburg turned an ankle and is going to miss two months. Pace and Navarro I believe are both ready to play.

We're 5 points ahead of 5th with 2 to play. We'll advance barring a miracle.

Radii · 08-10-2014, 12:50 AM

-- Two weeks off between games, I let some players play on the reserves.

April 18th, 2015

North American Open Cup - Group Stage - Group L

Mesquite Skeeters SC (1-2-2, 6th) vs Wake Forest Cougars (3-2-0, 1st)

Attendance: 977

-- another match against a bottom team, we've had trouble in the past beating teams we're supposed to beat.

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Varela/Pickering/Varela
DM: Williams
M: Tapia/Shakespeare
AM: Rose/Cooper
ST: Reynoso

6': The first shot goes to them, but its contested and from long range.

30': Midfielder Latham with a yellow. Reynoso takes a free kick from just outside the penalty area, its off the crossbar. Close!

HALF: Pretty crappy half, long shots when we've seen shots at all, neither team has put anything on target yet. I'm bringing Navarro in to play the second half.

48': Brian williams with a minor injury.

76': No highlights for 30 minutes, here Shakespeare gets the ball ahead to Navarro, he chips it to Cooper, a clear cut chance.. but he barely taps the ball, right at the keeper. Weak effort there.

77': Glaser in for Williams, Tapia to DMC. Davidson in for Rose.

81': Glaser with a long ball ahead for NAvarro... a little too far ahead though, the keeper gets to it first. We get the ball after the goal kick though and attack. Navarro ahead to Shakespeare, he shoots from the 18 yard mark, the keeper saves it but can't control it, rebound to Davidson and he put it in! 1-0

86': They earn a corner on a long shot on target. Corner is headed by one fo their guys, but weakly and Gyan picks it up easily.

They control the ball in the final couple minutes but an offsides gives us possession without them threatening seriously, and that will do it!

Mesquite 0 : 1 Wake Forest

Man of the Match: Mark Shakespeare (7.7)
Goal: Davidson (7.3)
Assist: Shakespeare
Notables: Navarro (7.1)

Navarro with some solid play in his first game of the season after injury. He had a few key passes.

-- We get $7,600 for the win.

-- We clinch advancement out of the group stage here. This is the tournament where we made tons of cash last year by advancing a couple rounds further than expected, so maybe we can get lucky and do that again.

-- One more group stage match, then league play begins!

Radii · 08-10-2014, 02:56 PM

April 25th, 2015

North American Open Cup - Group Stage - Group L

Ocala Marlins (3-3-0, 2nd) vs Wake Forest Cougars (4-2-0, 1st)

Attendance: 933

-- both of us have clinched advancement. This game is meaningless.

GK: Barton
D: Bergmann/Burke/Guerrero/Diaz
DM: Villa
M: Sandoval/Glaser
AM: Reynoso/Crook
ST: Goodwin

Burke, Sandoval, Glaser, and Crook are playing b/c they are still struggling a bit with match fitness. Villa is playing b/c I'm worried that I'm not using him enough and that he'll get pissed. Everyone else is playing so I can get a look at some young players. Barton is a U18 keeper, I never even mention his name b/c why would I ever get down to my 4th keeper, but #2 and #3 are hurt and I want to sit Gyan today.

15': First highlight of the match, they shoot off a free kick miles wide.

31': So we're watching a highlight and one of their midfielders is slowly dribbling the ball about 40 yards from goal, when MC Sandoval just launches himself at the player in a wild, aggressive sliding tackle attempt. Its the first straight red I've seen in this career for either team. I don't sub anyone, I just even out my midfield so we're playing a straight 4-4-1 now.

33': They control the ball in and around the area for a scary long time, but in the end a close range shot is blocked and cleared.

HALF: No changes. They outshoot us 4-1, sucks being a man down, it really hurts our chances of seeing one of these new guys make a play.

46': They score, but their guy was hilariously far offsides, its properly called back.

68': Perkins in for Crook, he's out of position at MR, but I'm not putting Cooper out there.

We watch one more highlight, Burke and Villa both clear threatening passes out nicely, they force a long shot that Barton saves easily. After that its over.

Ocala 0 : 0 Wake Forest

A man down with this lineup, I'll take it. They outshot us 9-1 and were clearly better.

Man of the Match: Florian Bergmann (7.0)
Notable: Diaz (7.0), Glaser (7.0)

Youth DC Guerrero had a 6.3 rating, everyone else was 6.7 or 6.8.

-- Sandoval is suspended for one match for his red card. I give him a warning and indicate that he clearly deserved it.

Final group standings, we win the group and make it out without a loss!

Radii · 08-10-2014, 03:54 PM

North American Open Cup - First Qualifying Round Draw

192 teams in the draw here. We draw a home match against WPB United, a team one tier above us, in the Atlantic Coast Amateur League. That's the division we hope to promote into this season.

May Update

-- We currently have matches on the 2nd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th of May. If we win in the North American Open Cup that will increase and our week long breaks at the end of the month will disappear.

-- Pace, Villa, and Bo Thompson trained well. Don Burke trained poorly.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. The locker room atmosphere is a positive. Our 0-0 draw to Ocala is a negative. WTF. They were in 2nd place in the group, and we had already advanced. Why do you care about this! We made $6,760 last month.

May 2nd, 2015

Springfield Lynx vs Wake Forest Cougars

Attendance: 269

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Jackson
DM: Williams
M: Tapia/Shakespeare
AM: Rose/Cooper
ST: Navarro

Our best lineup.

2': Rose with a ball ahead to Navarro, he controls it.. decently.. and fires from 25 yards out, and its in, wow!!

11': They fire a long free kick into the area, they end up with a shot from 20 yards and its wide.

31': They work the ball into the area and get a great look from close range, Gyan with a very solid save. There's a followup shot but wide. We dodged a bullet there.

HALF: They end up outshooting us 4-3, each of us have 1 on target. They control possession, slightly, while we are the better tackling team. Equal in the air right now. No changes, keep it up!

54': They pass very well and work the ball up the left side, eventually getting a shot from the left side of the area, its off the crossbar and over, very close.

68': Another on target look from Springfield, saved by Gyan.

70': Villa in for Williams at DM

71': Campbell intercepts a pass and sends it to Navarro. Navarro holds, Shakespeare makes a run and Navarro hits him, he's all alone, his control is poor though and he ends up pulling up from 20 yards and shooting instead of attacking the keeper. Its wide.

76': A nice move by Rose to pull two defenders to him and blow by them, he tries a cross but misses Navarro, they can't clear it, Cooper ends up with a shot but wide.

87': Glaser and Perkins in for Tapia and Shakespeare

91': A pickering header saves us after a cross by Springfield.

We hold out here and start the sesaon off with a win!

Springfield 0 : 1 Wake Forest

Man of the Match: David Campbell (7.1)
Goal: Navarro (7.1)
Assist: Rose (7.0)
Notable: Pickering (7.0)

Campbell with 11 interceptions in defence today, and as a result the most passes out of our defenders, I assume that's what earned him the good rating.

-- Sandoval is given 2 more matches of suspension after review of his red card incident.

Radii · 08-10-2014, 04:15 PM

-- Backup GK Phil Harrington comes to see me about his playing time. I tell him he's a backup and he can't expect more. He says ok. If he were to get upset I'd probably just release him and add another keeper.

May 6th, 2015

North American Open Cup - First Qualifying Round

Wake Forest Cougars vs WPB United

Attendance: 459

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Burke/Varela
DM: Villa
M: Tapia/Glaser
AM: Davidson/Cooper
ST: Pace

About half the team I run out for a 2nd match in a row, the other half gets the day off.

5': Free kick about 40 yards out, we take it short and pass it around, Glaser sends it down the right side, Cooper has to race a defender for it, he gets there first and crosses to the far post, where Davidson taps it in! 1-0

16': Very poor defending allows a simple pass ahead to a striker and a clear cut chance, that they finish. There were like 7 defenders back and only the two offensive players. 1-1

17': Cooper scores a goal but offsides apparently.

33': Glaser to Cooper who just misses a shot from the right side of th area.

39': defender Toussant with a yellow for them. Villa takes the free kick from 20 yards out, its just over.

HALF: We outshoot them 4-3, each team has 1 on target, 1 clear cut chance and 1 goal.

67': We earn a corner after a Cooper cross, they clear it but we control the ball, but can't do anything with it.

72': Perkins and Shakespeare in for Glaser and Tapia.

80': Lets try to avoid extra time here, we come out of our defensive mindset a bit.

80': Shakespeare with a free kick from 25 yards out. Its over the wall and into the upper left corner of the net! Wow! Uhh, back to defensive guys. 2-1

86': Davidson with the ball after a poor goal kick by them, he makes a run down the left side, crosses into the area, Pace gets his head to it, goal! 3-1

90': Cooper with a free kick near the left corner of the penalty area, 20 yards out. He crosses into the box, Shakespeare controls it with his chest and fires it in! 4-1

Those last 10 minutes were pretty unexpected!

Wake Forest 4 : 1 WPB United

Man of the Match: Brian Davidson (9.0)
Goals: Shakespeare 2 (8.5), Davidson, Pace (7.7)
Assists: Cooper 2 (8.5), Davidson
Notables: Gyan (7.0), Varela (7.3), Burke (7.0), Pickering (7.1), Campbell (7.1), Villa (7.2)

-- We receive $15,210 for the victory.

Radii · 08-10-2014, 04:37 PM

North American Open Cup - Second Qualifying Round Draw

We get another home match, this one against the Khalsa Sporting Club, looks like they're in British Columbia. They're in the Gold Coast Division 2, which is tier 6, two above us. We beat a team in this tier last year, but it won't be easy. j Khalsa is the worst team in their division 9 matches in, so maybe that will help us.

May 9th, 2015

Wake Forest Cougars (1-0-0, 7th) vs Huntington Hammers (1-0-0, 4th)

Attendance: 262

-- We've never lost to Huntington, we played them twice in the regular season and in the Amateur Cup last year. We have a 7-1 goal edge in those matches.

GK: Gyan
D: Bergmann/Varela/Galvis/Jackson
DM: Williams
M: Perkins/Shakespeare
AM: Rose/Crook
ST: Navarro

Wholesale changes today.

16': Shakespeare with a corner, far post, Galvis heads it.. off the post, wow close.

26': Crook with a free kick from 30 yards out, its not bad, but a bit wide.

30': A yellow from their player Powers.

37': We win it in midfield after a goal kick, Shakespeare sends it ahead to Rose, he cuts inside, fires a shot from a fairly tough angle, but places it well into the right side of the net! 1-0

HALF: We are completely in control here. 9 shots to 3, 64% of the possession, we will hopefully add to the lead and secure this one.

48': Shakespeare with a free kick from 25 yards, its a very good kick, their keeper dives to stop it. We get a corner but can't do anything with it.

57': We attack up the middle, Perkins to Shakespeare to Navarro, he holds it up though and the sends it left. Rose goes very deep, sends a low cross through the 6 yard box, and Shakespeare is there to finish! 2-0

74': We try a lob into the area, but a defender of theirs is first to it.. but his control of the ball is awful, Navarro takes it away, attacks, has a clear cut chance... but saved.

75': Villa in for Tapia, Reynoso in for Rose.

88': garcia in for Galvis.

91': They blast a shot off the post from a pretty dangerous spot in the left side of the area.

That's it!

Wake Forest 2 : 0 Huntington

Man of the Match: Mark Shakespeare (8.8)
Goals: Shakespeare, Rose (8.2)
Assists: Shakespeare, Rose
Notables: Jackson (7.4), Bergmann (7.3), Navarro (7.0)

Our fullbacks were heavily involved in the passing today, leading to their nice ratings.

A solid 2-0 start to the league season.

Radii · 08-10-2014, 05:36 PM

-- We've now gone 12 matches without a loss going back into last season, that's a record for us.

-- Leon Roth has begun full training again after his ankle injury

May 12th, 2015

Cleveland Stokers (1-1-0, 3rd) vs Wake Forest Cougars (2-0-0, 2nd)

Attendance: 271

Only us and Peoria are 2-0-0, everyone else has a loss or draw. We played Cleveland twice last year and drew both times.

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Jackson
DM: Villa
MC: Tapia/Glaser
AM: Davidson/Cooper
ST: Pace

After this match we have one more league match, then our NA Open match. Most of these guys are the ones I want to start in the NA Open match, so i play them now, rest them next game, play them for the open. Exceptions are Williams, Shakespeare, and Navarro, they are just too tired to go today and follow that format.

ST Diego Sinisterra is a name I remember from last year. He's got 4 goals in 6 matches this year so far. I give the order to close down on him quickly any time he touches it. He actually isn't incompetent with his left foot so I don't worry about the show onto foot instruction.

4': We watch Glaser, Jackson and Cooper pass the ball back and forth for about 30 seconds before Cooper tries a shot, which is blocekd by a defender.

30': Davidson intercepts a poor pass in our offensive side of midfield, ahead to Pace, to Glaser, he puts it into the right side of the area for Cooper, and this time Cooper finishes it! 1-0

33': Galvis with a key header to win a cross attempt from a defender. Sinisterra ends up with a tough shot afterwards, wide.

HALF: We control 64% of the possession, outshoot them 4-2, our goal is the only shot on target so far. We're actually losing out in the air, but maybe that's because we control so much of play that Pickering hasn't been needed to stop attacks in defense much.

50': Davidson with a lob ahead to Pace, he's behind the defense.. a defender, catches up and tackles him... yellow for the defender. Tapia tries to shoot on the free kick but misses bad. I was hoping for a red there.

57': One of those totally random flukey long passes that goes at the keeper instead of to the target for Cleveland... except here Gyan just craps himself and lets it go by him for a goal. Ugh. 1-1

75': Reynoso in for Davidson at AML. Perkins in for Glaser.

77': Long free kick for us, Cooper sends it into the area from 50 yards out or so, it hits Perkins (or did he try to head it, can't tell), falls free in the area, and Reynoso is first to it and puts it in 2-1

85': Pace gets free of his defender 25 yards out, makes a run to the edge of the box, shoots... way high.

89': DR Jackson picks up a minor injury.

91': Garcia in for Galvis.

94': Pickering is hurt and forced to leave the match... 4 minutes into extra time, when only 3 minutes were called for. Asshole ref!

Cleveland 1 : 2 Wake Forest

Man of the Match: Ian Cooper (8.3)
Goals: Cooper, Reynoso (7.3)
Assists: Cooper, Glaser (7.6)

No one else above a 7. Galvis actually as low as 6.5.

Injury Update

DR Joe Jackson is going to miss 2 weeks with a thigh bruise.

Luckily Pickering has no long term injury.

Peoria remain perfect in league play, so we're still second.

Radii · 08-10-2014, 05:56 PM

-- We've now gone 12 matches without a loss going back into last season, that's a record for us.

-- Leon Roth has begun full training again after his ankle injury

May 15th, 2015

Cleveland Stokers (1-1-0, 3rd) vs Wake Forest Cougars (2-0-0, 2nd)

Attendance: 271

Only us and Peoria are 2-0-0, everyone else has a loss or draw. We played Cleveland twice last year and drew both times.

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Jackson
DM: Villa
MC: Tapia/Glaser
AM: Davidson/Cooper
ST: Pace

After this match we have one more league match, then our NA Open match. Most of these guys are the ones I want to start in the NA Open match, so i play them now, rest them next game, play them for the open. Exceptions are Williams, Shakespeare, and Navarro, they are just too tired to go today and follow that format.

ST Diego Sinisterra is a name I remember from last year. He's got 4 goals in 6 matches this year so far. I give the order to close down on him quickly any time he touches it. He actually isn't incompetent with his left foot so I don't worry about the show onto foot instruction.

4': We watch Glaser, Jackson and Cooper pass the ball back and forth for about 30 seconds before Cooper tries a shot, which is blocekd by a defender.

30': Davidson intercepts a poor pass in our offensive side of midfield, ahead to Pace, to Glaser, he puts it into the right side of the area for Cooper, and this time Cooper finishes it! 1-0

33': Galvis with a key header to win a cross attempt from a defender. Sinisterra ends up with a tough shot afterwards, wide.

HALF: We control 64% of the possession, outshoot them 4-2, our goal is the only shot on target so far. We're actually losing out in the air, but maybe that's because we control so much of play that Pickering hasn't been needed to stop attacks in defense much.

50': Davidson with a lob ahead to Pace, he's behind the defense.. a defender, catches up and tackles him... yellow for the defender. Tapia tries to shoot on the free kick but misses bad. I was hoping for a red there.

57': One of those totally random flukey long passes that goes at the keeper instead of to the target for Cleveland... except here Gyan just craps himself and lets it go by him for a goal. Ugh. 1-1

75': Reynoso in for Davidson at AML. Perkins in for Glaser.

77': Long free kick for us, Cooper sends it into the area from 50 yards out or so, it hits Perkins (or did he try to head it, can't tell), falls free in the area, and Reynoso is first to it and puts it in 2-1

85': Pace gets free of his defender 25 yards out, makes a run to the edge of the box, shoots... way high.

89': DR Jackson picks up a minor injury.

91': Garcia in for Galvis.

94': Pickering is hurt and forced to leave the match... 4 minutes into extra time, when only 3 minutes were called for. Asshole ref!

Cleveland 1 : 2 Wake Forest

Man of the Match: Ian Cooper (8.3)
Goals: Cooper, Reynoso (7.3)
Assists: Cooper, Glaser (7.6)

No one else above a 7. Galvis actually as low as 6.5.

Injury Update

DR Joe Jackson is going to miss 2 weeks with a thigh bruise.

Luckily Pickering has no long term injury.

Peoria remain perfect in league play, so we're still second.

Radii · 08-10-2014, 06:27 PM

May 20th, 2015

North American Open Cup Second Qualifying Round

Wake Forest Cougars vs Khalsa Sporting Club

Attendance: 470

GK: Gyan
D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Varela
DM: Villa
MC: Tapia/Shakespeare
AM: Davidson/Cooper
ST: Navarro

5': Navarro with an early yellow card.

15': Davidson to Navarro, to Cooper, his cross is turned behind for a corner. We can't do anything on the corner though.

24': They have a free kick, just high.

27': Cooper with a run down the right, cross to near post, Navarro controls it, holds it amoment and shoots, its a clear cut chance, but blocked. First corner Pickering gets a shot off, but blocked. Second corner Galvis with a clear cut chance from the far post... weakly headed right at the keeper.

46': Villa with a long ball ahead to Davidson, he controls it well 25 yards out, to the middle for Shakespeare, a through ball into the area, Cooper is on it, shoots, and its by the keeper! 1-0

HALF: Great job getting a goal to end the half. We out-shoot them 6-2, with 3 clear cut chances, we actually could have hoped to be further ahead here. 64% of the possession too. We're losing in the air, that's the only area.

50': We watch a number of awful passes to trade possession back and forth. Finally Davidson with a nice long run down the left side, a cross... keeper punches it away. Shakespeare heads it back in, but Navarro is offsides.

57': DM Villa gets a yellow.

61': A couple quick long passes from Khalsa get them a decent look from the left side of the area, but its way off target.

66': Cooper to Shakespeare to Navarro, he beats his man 1v1 and is into the area, clear cut chance #4 for us, but the keeper gets a hand to it. We get a corner, but no luck.

74': First clear cut chance for them, a very long ball from a defender, Galvis just takes a bad angle to it and the attacker gets to it, but Gyan makes a nice diving stop.

75': We turn it around after their attack, Shakespeare with a ball ahead from about 40 yards out, Navarro gets behind the defense and is first to it. He has yet another clear cut chance and this one he finishes! 2-0

80': they get one back pretty quick, a nice cross from their right midfielder, a volly from the penalty spot for ST Janicky. 2-1

80': Pace in for Davidson, Perkins in for Shakespeare

86': Perkins ahead to Navarro for a goal, but offsides. It was close, but pretty definitive.

91': oh wow. They ahve a corner, Pickering heads it away, it bounces once around 30 yards out, midfielder Marie strikes it on a half volley after the bounce, and it is perfectly put into the top right corner. That was pretty damn impressive. 2-2

FULL TIME: That was a really tough break. I tell the team they're playing well and we can still win. Glaser is in for Tapia.

92': Perkins to Cooper after a throwin for a rocket of a shot from 15 yards awayu, our 5th clear cut chance, but the keeper gets in front of it.

EXTRA TIME HALF: We watched them take a free kick, only other highlight.

121': Pace tries a cross that earns us a corner, but the corner was taken too close and right at the keeper.

That's it, and we go to penalties.

Penalties have been a pretty ridiculous thing and that's apparently a common theme in FM14, so we're not going to describe every shot here. Lets just see who wins the random thing that is a shootout.

-- Khalsa's 4th penalty kick goes wide. Its the first penalty I've ever seen straight up miss the target, as opposed to being stopped by the keeper. We hit all of ours.

Wake Forest (5) 2p : 2 (4) Khalsa

Giving up a 2 goal lead is pretty scary, but we advance and that's all that matters!

Man of the Match: Mark Shakespeare (8.4)
Goals: Cooper (7.3), Navarro (7.2)
Assists: Shakespeare 2

Galvis with a 6.4, Pickering 6.6, everyone else 6.8-6.9.

We really were the much better team for 90 minutes today.

-- We receive $30,420 for the win today.

08-04-2014, 02:45 AM	#103
bbgunn College Benchwarmer Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Osaka, Japan via Honolulu, Hawaii via Birmingham, Alabama	Ugh... would have liked to see Hilo beat Match Fit. __________________ U of Hawaii \| U of Alabama \| Montreal Impact \| Montreal Canadiens \| West Ham \| West Indies cricket \| Portland Trail Blazers

08-06-2014, 01:20 AM	#112
bbgunn College Benchwarmer Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Osaka, Japan via Honolulu, Hawaii via Birmingham, Alabama	I suppose not a bad first season, but I'm sure you wanted more. __________________ U of Hawaii \| U of Alabama \| Montreal Impact \| Montreal Canadiens \| West Ham \| West Indies cricket \| Portland Trail Blazers

08-07-2014, 01:02 AM	#126
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Wake Forest Player of the Year -- Its all about the goals, as ST Ronnie Navarro is the fans Player of the Year. If I had a vote, I would have voted Cooper first, Mora 2nd, and Navarro 3rd. Wake Forest Best Eleven GK: Amidu Gyan - 37 apps/6.84 rating DR: Bob Varela - 12 apps/6.97 rating DC: Joe Pickering - 23 apps/4 goals/7.12 rating DC: Hernando Galvis - 24 apps/1 goal/6.85 rating DL: David Campbell - 20 apps/7.01 rating DM: Mark Shakespeare - 27 apps/6 goals/7.26 rating MC: Jhonatan Mora - 23 apps/8 goals/7.17 rating MC: Jose Alejandro Tapia - 23 apps/2 goals/6.91 rating AMR: Ian Cooper - 23 apps/5 goals/7.18 rating AML: Brian Davidson - 22 apps/6 goals/7.08 rating ST: Ronnie Navarro - 28 apps/11 goals/7.16 rating Shakespeare at DM is a joke. He can't even play the position. If anything, put Tapia at DM, Shakespeare/Mora at MC, as Tapia actually played DMC a fair bit. League Schedule Announced Jon had mentioned this in the FM14 thread, as have others, there's a continuity issue with teams at least in this bottom tier staying in the same league from year to year. I care more about the climb than I do the history we build here, so its an annoyance, but not a showstopper to me. Examples: Twin City Patrol are now in the Florida Coast Premier League Blacksburg Bears are now in the New England Premier League, so are the Roanoke Magic New Teams in the APL: Cape City - Finished 16th in the Gateway Premier League last year North Meck SC - They belong here. Relegated last year. Peoria Steamers - Finished 9th in the Gateway Premier League last year Savannah Braves - relegated last year, they belong Springfield Lynx - Finished 8th in the Gateway Premier League last year So 3 teams here that shouldn't be, from Missouri and Illinois. Our season opens May 2nd in Springfield. Home opener May 8th vs Huntington. North American Open Cup Groups We're drawn into the group stage that takes place before league play starts. We're in group L against 7 other amateur teams we haven't faced before. Most notably we have a road match on March 28th in Juneau, Alaska, against the Ice Bears. Not exactly the Hawaii trip the team had hoped for last year in the Amateur Cup. Youth Intake We bring in a large number of youth players and will have to decide which ones get contracts. The $70/wk "youth contract" that I was offering these guys in my game that accidentally went semi-pro doesn't exist as an option here, so I assume things are good as far as keeping amateur status. We'll go through these players tomorrow. Am I allowed to play 14 year olds? Because I bet more than a few of these could crack my rotation at a glance. Last edited by Radii : 08-07-2014 at 01:02 AM.

08-04-2014, 12:41 AM	#101
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	September 17th, 2014 North America Amateur Cup Wake Forest Cougars vs So California Seahorses Attendence: 204 Starting Lineup GK: Gyan D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Arroyo DM: Williams M: Glaser/Shakespeare AM: Rose/Cooper ST: Navarro Full rotation back to the best team we are capable of fielding. Defensive/retain possession. 3': Defender Whiteman for So Cal gets a yellow. 5': They work up to a strong shot from the right, just wide. 11': We watch another very wide shot of theirs, the concern being that it came from Glaser getting dispossessed fairly deep in our own end. 12': Cooper to Shakespeare, he runs into the area, near the baseline, lays it back for Cooper who blasts a shot from the right.. goal! 1-0 14': A very long ball from one of their defenders, a striker runs onto it but he can't control it well, ends up a bit wide out left, and catn' get his shot on target. 34': Glaser sends it up to Rose, near the corner of the penalty area, he runs by his man, crosses to the 6 yard box, Cooper is there, heads it, goal!! 2-0 HALF: We outshoot them 8-4, they haven't put one on target yet. 66': Yellow for their defender Garcia 72': Davidson in for Rose. 75': Yellow for ST Correra for them. 79': Tapia in for Glaser 86': First highlight of the second half, a good sign for us. They earn a corner on a cross, Arroyo heads the first one away for another corner, that one is aimed poorly and we get a goal kick. 91': Gyan saves a cross, turning it behind, corner... cleared away, they earn a throwin. Eventually they manage a weak shot that Gyan easily saves. That's it! Wake Forest 2 : 0 Southern California Man of the Match: Ian Cooper (8.8) Goals: Cooper 2 Assists: Shakespeare (7.5), Rose (7.0) Notables: Arroyo (7.1), Galvis (7.2), Pickering (7.0), Campbell (7.2) Ian Cooper is becoming a superstar here. -- We receive $38,750 for this win! -- I should point out, I think most of these teams really don't care about this tournament. Southern California is on a hot streak in their league, doing quite well in a tier above us, but today we played against guys with average ratings under 6 in a couple cases, guys on their U18 squad. We are very clearly taking advantage of the fact that we have nothing to play for in league, while these other teams are treating this like a very secondary tournament.

08-04-2014, 12:46 AM	#102
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	North America Amateur Cup - Semifinal Draw Wake Forest Cougars will host the California Jaguars, yet another team from the Gold Coast Amateur League. The Jaguars are currently struggling and are in 15th in that league out of 20 teams, just two spots ahead of relegation. In the other semifinal, Match Fit Academy of the Colonial Amateur League will face Regals FC of the All-American Amateur League. Match Fit have a 15-4-5 record in their league and currently lead the league by 3 points. Regals FC are 10-8-5 and in 4th place in their league, fighting hard for a playoff spot. So between relegation and promotion, all four of these teams have tons to play for. Hopefully that helps us out! This match will be on October 1st.

08-04-2014, 11:40 PM	#105
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	September 26th, 2014 Wake Forest Cougars (9-5-6, 8th) vs Cleveland Stokers (6-5-9, 13th) Attendence: 253 We drew each other earlier in the year Starting Lineup GK: Gyan D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Arroyo DM: Williams M: Glaser/Shakespeare AM: Rose/Cooper ST: Navarro 2': They build up slowly after kickoff, eventually with a pass into the right side of the area for Sinisterra, he shoots, Gyan saves, but rebound falls to another one of their strikers and he puts it in. 0-1 4': Navarro a through ball to Shakespeare, looked a sure goal, but the keeper saves it, we get a corner out of it but its cleared. 22': They control possession again for a good while, finally a run down the left, a cross... and a goal, but, offsides, whew. HALF: Roth is coming in for Navarro who has picked up a minor injury. 76': Took long enough! Cooper out wide right, he puts it into the area, Shakespeare runs onto it and volleys it in off a bounce. 1-1 82': Perkins in for Glaser, Tapia in for Williams. That'll do it. Wake Forest 1 : 1 Cleveland Stokers Man of the Match: Make Shakespeare (7.4) Goal: Shakespeare Assist: Cooper (6.7) I tell the team I'm disappointed, but I'm not sure if they can tell that I actually don't give a shit at all what happened here.

08-05-2014, 12:15 AM	#106
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	October Update -- Navarro, Perkins, Arroyo train well. DC Garry Garcia, and DC Pickering both struggle with fitness training. -- The board remains very pleased with my leadership. Our fantastic performance in the North American Amateur Cup is the highlight. ST Leon Roth's poor play is the negative. He's hardly played... We made $53,580 last month, thanks to the Amateur Cup. October 1st, 2014 North America Amateur Cup Semifinals Wake Forest Cougars vs California Jaguars Attendence: 213 We still can't bring fans to the stadium for this, even for a semi. Starting Lineup GK: Gyan D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Arroyo DM: Tapia M: Glaser/Shakespeare AM: Davidson/Cooper ST: Navarro Williams and Rose still seem to be slow to recover after both being out with long-ish term injuries. Neither are fully ready for this one and would definitely have to be subbed if they started. So I'll make them both subs. 5': Throwin in their end, Cooper ends up sending it into the area for Shakespeare, he's brought down... but no penalty. They end up clearing safely. 17': They have a corner that hits the post as it curls in... we clear. 23': We watch them take a shot from 30 yards out that is nowhere close at all. 29': Navarro picks up a minor injury. Unsure if he stays in long term or not. 33': There's a long back and forth over possession in the midfield, finally they win it, a couple passes ahead and they send it to their left midfielder coming towards the goal, he has a clear cut chance... but puts it high. 43': Yellow for Arroyo 46': They earn one corner, we head that behind.. the second one is no danger. HALF: They outshoot us 4-3, and have the only clear cut chance so far. We are dominating in the air and winning most of our tackles too which is good. Overall though its quite even. Pace is in for Navarro. 46': Cooper with a run down the right side right after kickoff.. a cross in, headed by pace, pushed away by the keeper. Davidson is there for the rebound.. and the keeper recovers enough to get his hands on that too. Sad. 58': Free kick for us, we make the keeper dive to stop it, corner.. which is cleared easily. 78': Perkins in for Glaser, Rose in for Davidson. 84': Pace is hurt... not out of the match but really hobbled. 91': Free kick for us, Cooper sends it into the area, Shakespeare heads it.. inches wide. FULL TIME: Pretty dull half really. They lead in shots 9-7, we now have more on target with 4, and really should have scored in the opening minute of the half. Once we didn't, it was pretty slow. The first half of extra time passes with no highlights. And so does the second half. With Pace injured I was content to go to penalties and didn't try to do anything aggressive in extra time. PENALTIES: They shoot first: Bevan: right side, good. 0-1 Shakespeare: right side, good. 1-1 Marshall: left side, good. 1-2 Perkins: right side, good. 2-2 Adams: left side, Gyan dives same way but can't get it. 2-3 Galvis: top right corner, good. 3-3 Rodriguez: right side, good. 3-4 Cooper: right at the keeper, pretty sure the keeper got a hand on it, but it went in anyway. 4-4 Johnson: right side, good. 4-5 Arroyo: right side, good. 5-5 Williams: left side, good. 5-6 Tapia: upper right, good. 6-6 Miller: right side, good. 6-7 Pickering: down the middle, good. 7-7 Dominguez: right side, good. 7-8 Rose: left side, good. 8-8 Is this going to come down to the keepers like the last one? Moctezuma: left side, good. 8-9 Campbell: Middle-left, good. 9-9 Patham: Good right side, 9-10 - This was their keeper Gyan: upper left, good. 10-10 Bevan: right side, good - 10-11 - wait did one of them shoot twice early? WTF? Pace: Left side, good - 11-11 Ok this is just silly. I load up Reddit on my second monitor and wait. After penalties even out at 15-15, their midfielder Williams hits one right at Gyan and he luckily doesn't dive and saves it. Arroyo takes his penalty and scores! Wake Forest 0p (16) : (15) 0 California So we win... 16-15 on penalties. Man of the Match: Mark Shakespeare (7.4) Notables: Arroyo (7.2), Campbell (7.0), Tapia (7.1) In the end they outshoot us 10-9, we put more on target but they get the only clear cut chance, and in the end it doesn't matter, as we watch 16 penalty attempts by each team to decide it. We are going to the finals!! -- We are given $77,500 for winning in the semifinal! We have $240k in the bank, with the vast majority of it coming in prize money. Surely one of the richest amateur teams in history. Injury Update ST Ronnie Navarro is out for 3-4 weeks with a leg injury he picked up today. -- Match Fit Academy beat Regals FC in the other semifinal 1:0 in extra time, so we're going to face them in the final. -- The Final is in Dallas, in FC Dallas Stadium! We have one more league match then 10 days off before the final. It won't be enough to get Navarro in there, sadly.

08-05-2014, 12:36 AM	#107
britrock88 Pro Starter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Madison, WI	Could your board decide to go semi-pro and get you promoted up to Level 6 that way?

08-05-2014, 09:51 PM	#108
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	October 4th, 2014 Model City Kings (9-6-6, 8th) vs Wake Forest Cougars(9-6-6, 8th) Attendence: 211 We won the first meeting this year. Starting Lineup GK: Gyan D: Coggins/Burke/Lassiter/Varela DM: Williams M: Glaser/Shakespeare AM: Colangelo/Crook ST: Roth Backups in since we just played 3 days ago. 23': AMR Ryan Crook is hurt and has to leave the match. Sandoval is in in his place, playing out of position because I didn't pay enough attention to subs going into this. 42': They shoot from 20 yards out, its off the post, Gyan dove for it and missed. The ball bounces off the post and hits Gyan in the back and rolls slowly towards the net. Gyan recovers just in time to turn around and pounce on the ball. HALF: They outshoot us 4-2, one shot on target for each. 46': Buildup for us after the kickoff, Colangelo finds Roth about 20 yards out with no one in front of him. The keeper rushes out, and Roth tries to lob over him... his shot just hits the crossbar, so close. 57': Yellow for Coggins 60': Perkins in for Shakespeare 65': Sandoval and Roth with a give and go move on the right side, Roth back to Sandoval who beats the keeper. Hooray for out of position subs! 1-0 75': Pena in for Glaser 78': Pretty awful defending on our part of a weak ball into the left side of the area, we let ST Valeasco get deep with the ball with lots of help, he puts it into the 6 yard box and they get a header in. 1-1 That's it for this one. Model City 1 : 1 Wake Forest Man of the Match: Ashley Sandoval (7.1) Goal: Sandoval Assist: Roth (6.7) Coggins/Lassister/Burke with 6.3/6.4/6.5 ratings, they could have been better. -- backup AML Luca Colangelo was hurt near the end of that one, he's going to miss 2 weeks. Crook has no long term issues.

08-05-2014, 10:26 PM	#110
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	-- Coggins has to miss another match after his yellow card in the last one. He'll miss the Cup final. He wasn't going to start anyway. -- We have a U18 match on Oct 6th and a reserve match on Oct 8th. i make my starters available for those since there's no league match until the cup final on the 15th. -- AMR Ian Cooper is hurt in the U18 match, he'll miss about a week. So he might not be able to go in the finals. That would be a pretty big blow if that's the case. October 15th, 2014 North America Amateur Cup Final Match Fit Academy vs Wake Forest Cougars Attendence: 1426 I was hoping for more fans. Starting Lineup GK: Gyan D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Arroyo DM: Williams M: Glaser/Shakespeare AM: Rose/Cooper ST: Pace Cooper isn't 100% fit, but he can start and we'll see how long we can go without having to sub him out. Pace will start in Navarro's place. Jordan Schmid is their big star. Schmid has 7 goals and 5 assists in 6 matches in this Cup so far. We're going to try to close down on him any time he touches the ball. 1': they earn an early corner, taken into the 6 yard box.. headed, off the crossbar and over. 4': We get our first shot, Cooper to Shakespeare for a header, but stopped easily. 13': They build up down the right side for a shot, but its a very off target shot from 20 yards out. 16': Another shot wide from Match Fit. 22': Galvis with an interception to start our offense, Rose does most of the work, with just a pass to Pace at one point, Rose gets it back, gets by his man and into the area, its actually a clear cut chance.. but high. 40': Pace is hurt and forced to leave the match. Randy Adamson tackled him pretty hard, he gets a yellow. Roth is in. 43': Shakespeare hits the crossbar from 25 yards out on a free kick, close. 47': Corner for them, taken to the far side of the 6 yard box... headed, it hits a defender and Gyan scoops it up. That was a clear cut chance for Match Fit. HALF: We'll take it. They are outshooting us 7-4, just 1 on target from both teams, 1 clear cut chance for both. They are in control in the air, a rarity for Wake Forest games, we usually win the majority of our headers. 55': Roth with a terrible free kick from 30 yards out, they clear but we recover, work it back up to Roth where he puts a shot wide. 59': A cross into the 6 yard box from the left corner for MAtch Fit, it falls to their star Schmid and he puts it in from very close range. Boo! 0-1 61': Schmid with a shot from outside the box that hits the crossbar, that was close. 62': We have to attack now. 68': Crook in for Cooper, just too tired. 79': Tapia in for Glaser. 84': They pressure us after a goal kick and steal the ball in midfield, a run by ST Thompson and he shoots.. Gyan with a great diving stop, and we clear. That wsa their 4th clear cut chance. There's just nothing we can do. Wake Forest 0 : 1 Match Fit We weren't expected to win this one, and they were obviously the better team, we only had one decent look and weren't able to finish it. They had lot of chances and made one of them work. DC Galvis put up a 7.0 rating on the back line. A 6.1 from DL Campbell, everyone else was in that 6.5-6.7 range. -- Samir Pace is going to be out for 2 months with the injury he picked up today. We only play one more match so no big deal.

08-05-2014, 10:44 PM	#111
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	October 18th, 2014 Wake Forest Cougars (9-7-6, 9th) vs Blacksburg Bears (5-7-10) Attendence: 281 Most teams played a couple days ago, our match was postponed due to the cup final. If we win by 3 or more, we finish 8th. Any other result, we finish 9th. Starting Lineup GK: Garcia D: Rongen/Garcia/Burke/Jackson DM: Pena M: Sandoval/Tapia AM: Salas/Thompson ST: Reynoso I start all of my most little used guys. 35': First highlight of the match, Tapia with a corner, Rongen a clear cut chance from 6 yards out but its blocked and cleared. HALF: Lets get on to something more interesting! 73': Damn nice save by Clark Garcia on a strong shot from 15 yards out by Blacksburg. Two highlights for the entire match. Wake Forest 0 : 0 Blacksburg Man of the Match: Sean Rongen (7.2) Notables: Jackson (7.1), Burke (7.0), Tapia (7.1) Some solid defense today. We finish 9th in the league. I'll do end of season stuff tomorrow.

08-06-2014, 06:34 PM	#115
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Before I do anything else, lets get through the league playoffs and see who is going to promote. Appalachain Premier League Semifinals Hickory Heat 0 (p) : 0 Kentucky Colonels Twin City Patrol 1 : 0 Asheville Attack Appalachain Premier League Finals Hickory Heat 2 : 0 Twin City Patrol Appalachain Premier League Promotion The Fayetteville Liberty win the league with 42 points in 21 matches, they will promote. The Hickory Heat win the playoffs after finishing 4th with 32 points in 21 matches, they will also promote. I'm pretty sure both of these teams will promote into the Atlantic Coast Amateur League. Four teams relegate out of that league, Savannah Braves, North Meck SC, Roosevelt, and Bayamon. I assume we will get two of those teams in our league next year. Tons of coaches are fired, I get asked by the media for each one (or at least each one that comes across my news feed) if I'm interested in the job. In every case I state that I have a contract with Wake Forest and haven't met my goals for this team yet. The board is pleased. November Update -- Brian Williams and Amidu Gyan trained well. Ashley Sandoval and David Campbell did not. -- The board is pleased with my leadership (down from very pleased). Our great locker room atmosphere is a highlight. Our 0-0 draw vs Blacksburg is a negative. We made $92,320 last month. Possibly a sign regarding semi-pro stuff, "The financial outlook of the club is looking relatively stable for the forseeable future" Ownership Update -- Wake Forest Cougars could be taken over by a consortium of businessmen, possibly involving a former player, according to the media. We'll see what happens with that and if it impacts me.

08-06-2014, 06:36 PM	#116
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Final Standings

08-06-2014, 06:42 PM	#117
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Team Stats Sorted by rating. So when everyone is healthy, Mora, Cooper, Rose and Navarro are my biggest offensive players, so its no surprise that they're up at the top here. Shakespeare spent more of his time in the "supportive" MC position this season, but did take over for Mora in the more attacking MC role when Mora was hurt, which was a lot. Pickering was by far my highest rated defensive player, but he is also 6'8" and is very dangerous on corner kicks, as seen by his 4 goals. Goal Leaders Navarro - 11 Mora - 8 Shakespeare - 6 Davidson - 6 Roth - 5 Cooper - 5 Rose - 4 Pickering - 4 Pace - 3 Crook - 3 Assist Leaders Cooper - 14 Navarro - 11 Shakespeare - 6 Davidson - 6 Mora - 6 Rose - 3 Crook - 3 Man of the Match winners Mora - 6 Navarro - 5 Shakespeare - 4 Rose - 3 Roth - 2 Cooper - 2 Pickering - 2

08-06-2014, 09:20 PM	#118
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Injury Update Backup DC Don Burke broke his foot in training and is out 5-6 months. By the time he gets back from injury and goes through reserve matches to get his fitness up it'll probably be July or August, ugh. Appalachain Premier League Leaders Goals 1. Stephen Marshall - Fayeteville - 16 goals 2. Gus Chapman - Huntington - 11 goals 3. Anthony Schmidt - Kentucky - 10 goals 3. Johnny Clark - Blacksburg - 10 goals 5. Alfonso Grisi - Model City - 9 goals ... 14. Ronnie Navarro - Wake Forest - 6 goals 26. Brian Davidson - Wake Forest - 4 goals 26. Jhonatan Mora - Wake Forest - 4 goals Johnny Clark left Wake Forest for Blacksburg in the preseason. I had him penciled in as my #2 or #3 striker at the time. Assists 1. Stephen Marshall - Fayeteville - 8 2. Gary Spicer - Model City - 7 3. Ian Cooper - Wake Forest - 6 3. 5 others tied - 6 ... 9. Jhonatan Mora - 5 9. Ronnie Navarro - 5 Average Rating 1. Stephen Marshall - Fayeteville - 7.47 2. Anthony Schmidt - Kentucky - 7.28 3. Jhonatan Mora - Wake Forest - 7.16 3. Ronnie Navarro - Wake Forest - 7.16 3. Johnny Clark - Blacksburg - 7.16 ... 7. MArk Shakespeare - Wake Forest - 7.09 8. Ian Cooper - Wake Forest - 7.07 27. Brian Davidson - Wake Forest - 6.90

08-06-2014, 10:12 PM	#119
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Injury Update ST Samir Pace recovered from injury, went into a U18 match, and got hurt again immediately. He's going to miss 3-4 months. Its now December, so that puts him out until March'ish. End of Season Team Meeting I tell the team to enjoy their break, and to be ready when they come back because we are aiming to promote next season. -- DC Galvis (our captain) has a good response, saying that its a challenge but we can do it. -- MC Shakespeare is cautious and thinks that's an awful ot of pressure. -- I re-iterate that we can absolutely achieve promotion if we play our best. -- Backup MC Sandoval agrees about our expectations being fine. -- Overall, 5 players had a good reaction to my expectations, while 9 had a bad reaction. Notable poor reactions came from Shakespeare, Rose, Gyan, and Mora. The negatives far outweighed the positives here, I'll have to be careful of that in the future. Yearly training summary Backup GK Phil Harrington and DL David Campbell are noted for having the best training performances throughout the year. Pre-Season Start I can bring the players back on 12/29, 1/5, or 1/12. I choose the middle option, 1/5/15, which will give us a 5 week long preseason. Transfer Embargo -- Because of the impending takeover of the team, we're not allowed to bring in any transfers. They're all free anyway! North American Open Cup New England beats Seattle in a thrilling 5-4 match to win the biggest domestic competition in the US. Tax Bill We pay around $75,000 in taxes based on making a profit of $250k. Jersey Sponsorship We sign a 2 year sponsorship deal worth $9,750 per year. Takeover Cancelled The consortium that was looking to take over Wake Forest has backed out. This was over about a 2 week period from the transfer embargo. Our transfer embargo is lifted. Its not quite Christmas, we'll start dealing with all this in early January. Financial Update -- Wake Forest have announced a profit of $250,000 for the last year, "a staggering 78% of their turnover" That was more than I thought I'd be cramming into this post. Its now December 31st and transfer windows are open. Its still a week until we get our players back from vacation, but its about time to start planning for the new season.

08-06-2014, 11:32 PM	#120
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Ugh I was going to try to format player attributes nicely here to review the roster starting the new year, but I lost a bunch of if when OpenOffice crashed on me, so screw it, maybe next year. Depth Chart - Goalkeepers 1. Amidu Gyan - 27 y/o - Best Combo of technical/mental attributes. 2. Phil Harrington - 24 y/o - As good as Gyan technically, weak mentally I have two 17 y/o keepers. Clark Garcia could surpass these guys... eventually. But with training being what it is at this level, not really worth worrying about. Gyan remains the starter here. Defenders - Left Side 1. David Campbell - 22 y/o - Not skilled at all. Coggins should be my best here, but the ratings last year did not bear that out. 2. Danny Coggins - 25 y/o - Best Technically and Mentally by a lot. 3. Sean Rongen - 17 y/o - Rongen is actually better technically than Campbell too Coggins is by far the best by the numbers, but Campbell put up better ratings last year. If Coggins plays well he probably gets all the starts here when he's fit. If no one stands out I may well rotate all three of them though. Defenders - Right Side 1. Steve Arroyo - 17 y/o - By attributes, the best defender on my team. One of the few players with lots of 8's in spots like marking/tackling 2. Bob Varela - 16 y/o - Fine numbers for a backup, but Arroyo clearly looks better. 3. Joe Jackson - 27 y/o - Jackson's attributes are basically the same as Varela, I chose to give the younger guy more playing time last season. Varela has the highest average rating here, but he only played when fully fit and sometimes against weaker opposition to rest Arroyo. Arroyo's attributes are so much better that its impossible to not start him (unlike Campbell vs Coggins at DL) Defenders - Central 1. Joe Pickering - 16 y/o Attribute-wise, he looks like just another schlub, but he's 6'8" and the ratings he put up separated him from the pack last year. 2. Hernando Galvis - 25 y/o - The only DC with super high determination. Also the best leader and thus captain. Elsewhere he's in line with everyone else, so that gives him the bump to start. 3. Garry Garcia - 17 y/o - Best marking at this position. There's a big clump of players here really. 4. Tommy Lassiiter - 28 y/o - Best heading and Tackling, strongest DC, but the lowest composure and determination. 5. Don Burke - 25 y/o - By far the worst technically, minus the fact that he can jump... Looking at attributes, the top 4 guys seem interchangeable mostly, and Burke clearly seems worse. Galvis wins out entirely b/c of determination and leadership. Looking at ratings last year, it goes Pickering >>>>> Galvis/Burke >>> Garcia/Lassiter. Burke is 6'7" so maybe he outplays his ratings b/c of height too.

08-06-2014, 11:44 PM	#121
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Defensive Midfielders 1. Brian Williams - 17 y/o - On paper Williams is better here and its not remotely close. His key technical attribute are all... ok... 6-8 range. No giant holes. 2. Timothy Pena - 24 yu/o - Looks like crap. I wanted to replace him in the preseason last year and couldn't find better. But... in game, their ratings are basically the same. One change i will make this year, last season I just played them both in "Defensive Mid" roles. But my assistant thinks they're both better as "Ball Winning Midfielders" and both have pretty high aggression, one of the key stats for that role. So I will probably change the role for my DM's and see if it lets them make more plays. Central Midfielders 1. Jhonatan Mora - 21 y/o - Ratings don't much stand out, outside of a nice flair rating and a high work rate. Dude got results though. 2. Jose Alejandro Tapia - 24 y/o - best technical midfielder, best positioning and no 2'3 and 3's. 3. Mark Shakespeare - 17 y/o - 2nd best technically behind Tapia, weaker mentally than Mora though. 4. Gary Glaser - 18 y/o - So average everywhere. The guys behind him have major weak spots where Glaser is... ok. 5. Bayard Perkins - 25 y/o - Clearly worse than Glaser, clearly better than Sandoval 6. Ashley Sandoval - 17 y/o - 1 in marking, 2 in tackling, the offensive side of things doesn't do anything to make up for that. So my tactic runs an "attacking" MC, and an "automatic" MC, which for me more often than not is defensive. The attackers by nature stand out and get better ratings. So even though Shakespeare had my best overall ratings, I think the combination of Tapia on defense/Mora offense give me my best team. Glaser/Shakespeare the 2nd tier there.

08-06-2014, 11:55 PM	#122
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Right Attacking Midfielder 1. Ian Cooper - 17 y/o - Maybe the single best player on the team. A '13' technical attribute stands out light years ahead of everyone else, at any position. Solid flair, one of my best off the ball, which like decision making is just a rating that is bad for everyone at this level. Cooper is a star. 2. Ryan Crook - 25 y/o - At most other positions Crook would start. I like him a lot. 3. Bo Thompson - 17 y/o - Physically pretty good, which makes up for his awful technical skill. Left Attacking Midfielder 1. Dylan Rose - 17 y/o - 2nd best "Technical" attribute behind Cooper on the team. Great flair, very good physiclaly, but lacks some crossing and dribbling ability. A '1' off the ball rating has to hurt him too. 2. Brian Davidson - 20 yo - Solid physically but very average elsewhere. 3. Luca Colangelo - 20 y/o - Interchangable with Davidson when it comes to attributes. Rose was hurt a lot so we saw a lot of Davidson. Davidson, perhaps due to off the ball rating, was a much bigger threat to score, but he and Rose both had very solid overall ratings. Colangelo, despite appearing equal to Davidson, never impressed in any way. Strikers 1. Ronnie Navarro - 17 y/o Best dribbling, best flair, best finisher, also put up the best stats by far from this position. 2. Leon Roth - 17 y/o - Best anticipation and off the ball out of the strikers. Not great at all otherwise. 3. Samir Pace - 17 y/o - Attributes say he's my second best striker, a step down from Navarro but not a big one. 4. Pierre Reynoso - 17 y/o - A warm body and not much more. Was signed for injury depth last year. Reynoso started 3 matches and played in 8 more off the bench and never scored for me. Roth/Pace is a bit of a tossup but Roth had a couple monster games where Pace never really did, so my default thinking here is to give Roth the chance to be my #2 guy to see if he holds up over more appearances. Notice they're all 17 years old. We have shit for experience up front.

08-06-2014, 11:58 PM	#123
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	So thoughts on the overall roster... I would like to sign better strikers, maybe I can't replace Navarro but I can hopefully make my depth better. At every other position if I can find what seems like better players I will sign them and insert them into the depth chart. Cooper/Mora/Shakespeare put up great ratings last year and seem relatively safe in their roles compared to other positions. But since we're an amateur team and transfer $$ isn't part of the equation, we will take anyone, anywhere that I think might make the team better. If it seems like a tossup or bringing in someone equal, I will probably tend against it for team cohesion reasons.

08-07-2014, 10:37 PM	#127
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Wake Forest Youth Intake We got a LOT of players in, so I'm only going to mention ones that seem relevant here. I looked very quickly last night and saw lots of ratings scattered about that I thought were competitive with first team players. DL Florian Bergmann - 14 y/o - Good stamina, good pace (11/10, solid for this level). Aggresion, Bravery, Determination, Leadership all very high. Work rate extremly high for this level (14). 6 Tackling is good already for this level. Marking, Anticipation, Positioning are awful. If they go up a few points he could be very good though. DC Asley Varela - 14 y/o - Teamwork 14/Work Rate 17, through the roof! Heading, Marking, Tackling all 7 already. He's only 5'8" and we have seen height be hugely important for our central defenders. If I'm allowed to, i could actually see putting him directly into the senior team rotation. DC Jesus Antonio Guerrero - 14 y/o - Exact opposite of Varela. Pretty crappy skillsy, but aggressive, brave, strong, can jump, and he's 6'7". DM Adalberto Vega - 14 y/o - Poor tearmwork and work rate, which worry me a bit, but solid elsewhere, Marking 7/Tackling 8/Positioning 8, he's very slow though. Pace/Accel both 5's, that worries me a lot. ST Ben Goodwin - 14 y/o - Crap technically, but composure, flair, off ball, and pace are all pretty solid. Enough to keep around at least. Can also play AML. ST Michael Maurer - 14 y/o - cross 5/dribble 8/finish 6, weaknesses would be a lack of pace (5), and a low flair (6) compared to many other strikers we have. Also has terrible natural fitness (4), which could just kill him right away, but his technical skills make him worth a look no matter what. I go ahead and offer all of these guys contracts. I cut a few guys right away, and I will decide on some others before the deadline.

08-07-2014, 11:35 PM	#128
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	-- We set up five friendlies. -- I make a few transfer offers. I find nothing interesting at all at the MC or attacking mid positions. DR where I really like Arroyo I didn't offer anyone, but I made offers at most other positions. I will admit, I made one offer to a guy from the Blacksburg Bears who is at best 50/50 to play for me. But they signed 3 of my players last year, so I just want to try to get the guy. So the Blacksburg guys I went after said no, boo! New Signing DMC Luis Villa - 27 y/o - 6 marking/11 tackling. 5 concentrate/6 decisions/6 positioning. Weak-ish physically, 7 accel/6 sta/5 str. I signed Villa basically because i think very little of my backup DMC Timothy Pena. Villa was a free agent, not something I saw much of last season. He was released by the NC Fusion, a team a couple divisions higher than us. -- We miss out on the guy I wanted the most out of everyone I tried to sign, a DL with great acceleration and good technical skills. Player Departure Nooooooooo. MC Jhonatan Mora signs with the NC Fusion. They're a much bigger team than us, and Mora chooses to make $230/week at a higher tier instead of $0 with us. -- We already have an offer out on another MC. Lets see what happens. Player Departure DR Steve Arroyo signs with the Allen Bandits SC. The Bandits are also many tiers above me and Arroyo will be making $475/week thre. -- The MC I was trying to go after signs elsewhere. -- With Arroyo leaving I make an offer to a DR youth candidate, not a real solution I don't think, but a guy who could offer injury coverage if I can't sign something better. This takes us to January 10th, this offseason is not looking quite as good as our last offseason!

08-08-2014, 12:06 AM	#129
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	-- Up to January 17th, and I don't think I'm going to sign a new MC or DR any time soon. Guys that I didn't like so much all of a sudden get much more important spots in the depth chart. Friendly #1 - January 19th We travel to Raleigh to play the Pioneers, a team a couple tiers above us. I should probably watch these matches to see who stands out, but that's boring, so I don't. I play my starters a half and then give backups a half to get some action. Raleigh Pioneers 0 : 0 Wake Forest Cougars Pretty even match, no ratings stand out. Shakespeare missed a clear cut chance, they missed one as well. Injury Update MC Ashely Sandoval turned an ankle, it was listed as a minor injury during the match, but he's going to miss 6-8 weeks. Bummer. ... days later, DC Garry Garcia hurts an ankle and is out 2-3 weeks. -- That takes us to January 24th, we'll finish up the preseason tomorrow and see if there's any way we can sign anyone new.

08-08-2014, 11:28 PM	#130
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Injury Update -- Youth ST Michael Maurer broke his leg in a U18 match and is out for 7-8 months. He would have played some this year. Friendly #2 - Jan 26th We're playing our reserve squad today, I make sure that everyone not available for the senior team is available for the reserves. Navarro with a goal from just outside the box in the 25th minute. We allow a penalty in the 48th minute and they tie it up. Wake Forest 1 : 1 Wake Forest Reserves Most importantly, we get out of this one with no injuries. -- One of my coaches has been hired away, and my assistant has a bunch of offers, so it looks like I'm going to be replacing two coaches in the next few days. Injury Update - Feb 1st DR Bob Varela has a bruised rib from training and is out 2 weeks. February Update -- MC Glaser trains well. -- The board is pleased with my leadership, squad harmony and our results last year are the main reasons. We lost $4,610 last month. New Signing 14 y/o ST Patrick Ratzburg joins the team. 5 dribbling/6 finishing/6 heading/6 passing all seem nice. 8 off the ball is way better than many, though most of his other mental attributes are low as you'd expect. 8 pace but only 4 acceleration. Its going to take Pace awhile to get into match shape, he's still hurt remember. And Reynoso has still never scored a goal for me, so an extra striker seems like a good thing. Friendly #3 - Feb 3rd We host CASL Elite in this one. We get a goal from our new 14 y/o Striker Ratzburg in the 10th minute. We sub most of our starters out around 60 minutes. That's the only goal, victory! Wake Forest 1 : 0 CASL Elite The worst thing about losing your assistant is that you lose the ability to "filter out unreasonable targets" when trying to find a new damn assistant. Old North Cup Draw This is the small tournament between all the teams in North Carolina. Last year we drew one of the USL teams and it was awful. This is so much better. We get a home match against the Asheville Attack, another team in our division. A winnable match!

08-08-2014, 11:43 PM	#131
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Ok I don't know how to sign an assistant. My last coach made a couple of suggestions before he left, but none of them took the job. I'm trying to filter attributes like "adaptability less than 10" etc to make the list a little smaller to try to find coaches who will talk to me, but not a single one will even consider a contract that I can find. Is it a thing to just have no coaching staff at this level?

08-08-2014, 11:45 PM	#132
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	It does seem many other teams in my division have no coaching staff outside head coach.

08-09-2014, 12:29 AM	#133
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Friendly #4 - Feb 10th We're taking a long trip to St Louis for this one. It was available and we'll get some cash for playing on the road, so I figured why not. Cooper gets a goal in the 30th minute, and that's the only goal of the match. St Louis 0 : 1 Wake Forest -- So I offered one of my two physio's the assistant coach job and they took it. Awful, awful assistant, but, if it lets me see guys I have a shot at hiring so I can bring in a better one it fixes everything. Injury Update A few guys who weren't getting enough rotation time were playing for the reserves. Way too many of them got hurt today. DC Galvis is out for 2 weeks DL Coggins is out for 2 weeks. DM Luis Villa is out 9-12 days. Injury Update AMR Bo Thompson is going to miss 4-5 weeks with an injury picked up in training. New Assistant Coach OMG We did it! Shaker Asad has a 14 determination, 13 discipline, only 5 adaptability, his coaching attributes are mostly in the 6-8 range. We'll see if I can find some coaches now too.

08-09-2014, 02:54 PM	#134
britrock88 Pro Starter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Madison, WI	It's harder to get by without an assistant, IMO. Go to the job center and place an advert?

08-09-2014, 08:38 PM	#136
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	February 18th, 2015 Old North Cup Wake Forest Cougars vs Asheville Attack Our first match with any meaning! GK: Gyan D: Campbell/Pickering/Varela/Jackson DM: Williams MC: Tapia/Shakespeare AM: Rose/Cooper ST: Navarro A pretty familiar lineup to last year. Joe Jackson gets the start at DR, youth player Ashley Varela gets the start at DC, mainly for fitness reasons. Its going to be a bit confusing, we now have an Ashley Varela at DC and a Bob Varela at DR, if the young kid at DC is decent I'm sure both will be on the field together at points. 12': We hold possession for quite a long time, Shakespeare hits Rose in the area for a clear cut chance but he puts his shot wide. 14': Williams ahead to Rose, Rose with a short run down the left side and a cross into the area, Navarro volleys it in! 1-0 33': They have a corner, its a short lob into the near side of the box, they get a shot off it but its contested well and its off target. HALF: Joe Jackson and Ronnie Navarro both picked up minor injuries in the first half. I'm going to sub Navarro out. Roth is in. We are really dominating this one, just need to avoid allowing a stupid goal. 51': Indirect free kick 35 yards out, Tapia taps it to Shakespeare, into the area for Cooper, he crosses to Roth, Roth with a godawful header that is going to go well wide... but a defender runs into it and redirects it into the net, own goal! 2-0 57': Rose with a run down the left after some midfield possession, a cross to about 8 yards from goal, Roth heads it into the right side of the net! 3-0 64': Campbell wins the ball in defense and we start to push forward, Cooper ends up with a run down the right side, he fires a low cross to the other side of the penalty area, Rose is there and shoots... basically at the keeper's feet, he tries to get down to get it but can't, its in! 4-0 That's it! Little action in the final 25 minutes. Wake Forest 4 : 0 Asheville Man of the Match: Dylan Rose (9.4) Goals: Rose, Navarro (7.1), Roth (7.5) Assists: Rose 2, Cooper 2 (9.1) Notables: Gyan (7.2), Jackson (8.0), Varela (7.9), Pickering (7.8), Campbell (7.8), Williams (7.5), Shakespeare (7.6), Tapia (7.5) Injury Update Ronnie Navarro turned his ankle in the first half today, and he's going to miss 6-7 weeks as a result. Damn! DR Joe Jackson bruised a rib in the first half today, he stayed in, but he's going to miss about 2 weeks.

08-09-2014, 09:23 PM	#137
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	Old North Cup Quarterfinal Draw Eight teams left, one other from our division, one just 1 tier up, the other 5 are well above us. We're going to be going on the road to play the Wilmington Hammerheads from the USL Pro division. They actually promoted up last year into the top USL league, which is the 3rd tier of American soccer. That match won't take place until June 10th. New Coaches 36 y/o Reinaldo Navia signs with us. 8 attacking/8 defending/9 mental/7 technica/7 tactical. 30 y/o Chris Hawkins also joins the coaching staff. 6 attacking/7 defending/6 mental/6 technical. We have warm bodies to fill our training schedules again. We also sign a new physio, Carl Parkins, physiotherapy 5, to replace the guy we temporarily moved to assistant coach to make this all happen. Friendly - Feb 22nd We host DC United, it didn't cost much to get them here so why not. This is only a few days after our last match. I make sure not to start anyone who played in our cup match. Goes as expected. No one gets hurt so its good enough! Wake Forest 0 : 4 DC United Injury Update In a reserve match, DL Sean Rongen got hurt and will miss 6-7 weeks. DR Fausto Diaz is going to miss 4-5 weeks. Both are the #3 options at their positions. -- On the good side of injury news, ST Samir Pace has recovered from the injury he picked up at the end of last season and will start working on his fitness immediately. Friendly - Feb 27th Our last friendly before the North American Open group play starts. We travel to CASL Chelsea. We only have 11 players who aren't match fit right now, so we've done a good job getting everyone ready, hopefully this last match will take care of it for most of them. They get a red card around the 50th minute after a scoreless first half. We take advantage with goals from Pace and Crook. CASL Chelsea 0 : 2 Wake Forest -- That takes us to the end of February. For the next two months we'll be playing North American Open group stage matches.

08-09-2014, 10:18 PM	#138
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	March Update -- Samir Pace trained well, DM Luis Villa trained poorly. -- The board remains pleased with my leadership. Last season's success and the locker room atmosphere are the reasons. We lost $3,300 last month. Player Departure DC Tommy Lassiter leaves us for the Fayeteville Liberty, a team who promoted out of our league last season. Lassiter made 15 starts and came on as a sub 5 times last year, putting up a 6.64 rating. When I signed him I thought he was immediately our best DC, but he did nothing to separate himself from any other player in the rotation. We're left with Pickering, Galvis, and Garry Garcia as fairly known quantities. Don Burke played some last year, he's hurt at the moment though, with Ashley Varela and Jesus Antonio Guerrero who came in as youth pulls. So the depth is there if the youth players can do anything at all. Injury Update Due to match fitness issues I let DL Danny Coggins play in a reserve match and was just going to sit him for our first match. He tears a hamstring and is going to miss 3-4 months. With Coggins and Rongen both hurt we are now down to David Campbell, who started much of last season, and youth pull Florian Bergmann, who does not look like one of our best youth players to be honest. March 7th, 2015 North American Open Cup - Group Stage - Group L Wake Forest Cougars vs Prairie Rapids SC Attendance: 455 GK: Gyan D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Jackson DM: Williams M: Tapia/Shakespeare AM: Rose/Cooper ST: Roth Defensive/Retain Possession, somewhat of a standard for us now, even at home. 9': Roth with a ball into the area for Cooper, he is behind his defender and has a clear cut chance, but puts it wide. 15': We build up after a throwin in our own end, Rose with a run down the left, into the area for Roth, he controls it, shoots.. off the crossbar. 16': Williams ahead to Shakespeare, to Roth... another shot wide. We're in full control here, just need the goal. 40': Shakespeare to Roth, about 25 yards out, he lobs it over the defense to a streaking Ian Cooper, good control of the ball, and his shot is perfect! 1-0 HALF: We have 57% of the possession, and a 7-0 edge in shots. We are winning 81% of our headers, they are at 31%. I tell the team to keep it up. 56': We control possession in their half, after a number of passes Shakespeare hits Cooper who places a shot very nicely from just inside the 18 yard box! 2-0 67': Nice long ball from Cooper out of our own half up to Roth, he holds it up, finds Shakespeare who strikes it well, but saved. 71': Rose with a cross to Cooper, he shoots... its on target, keeper pushes it weakly to the side, but just enough for it to hit the post and go free. They clear. 71': Garcia in for Galvis and new young ST Ratzburg in for Roth. 79': Another clear cut chance for Cooper... and another one saved. Our first two corners are headed behind by them, the third is harmless. 85': They have it in our end, there's a cross from the right side... Jackson is there but positioned really poorly so he's a non factor, and their ST Brown puts it in. 2-1 We hang on and don't give up anything else. Wake Forest 2 : 1 Prairie Rapids Man of the Match: Ian Cooper (9.1) Goals: Cooper 2 Assists: Shakespeare (7.3), Roth (7.1) Everyone else is in the high 6's. Cooper is just so good. -- We get $7,600 for the win.

08-09-2014, 10:37 PM	#139
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	-- We still have a number of players right on the edge of match fitness. Those that need it I give the ok to play for the U18s and reserves and will just adjust my starting lineup accordingly. Injury Update 3rd string AMR Bo Thompson had just recovered enough from his last injury to get out on the field for the reserves. He turns his knee and is out another month. March 14th, 2015 North American Open Cup - Group Stage - Group L Hudson Valley United (1-0-0, 2nd) vs Wake Forest Cougars (1-0-0, 3rd) Attendance: 977 GK: Gyan D: Bergmann/Pickering/Varela/Varela DM: Williams M: Tapia/Shakespeare AM: Davidson/Cooper ST: Roth Three changes to the back line and a change at AML. Both Varela's are in and playing next to each other. 6': Cooper intercepts a poor pass near midfield, he plays a long ball ahead to Roth, Roth holds it and then lobs it into the left side for Davidson, he's got a clear cut chance and he finishes! 1-0 11': Cooper with a corner kick, taken to Williams who tries to shoot on the volley, its on target but weak, saved. 20': Very quick highlight with Shakespeare playing a ball to Cooper, he lays it off for Roth for a clear cut chance, but its put well wide. HALF: We saw one more brief highlight and that was it. We have 10(!!) shots in the first half, to their 3. 64% of the possession, we just look crazy strong here. 55': Roth takes a rough hit and he's not injured, but his fitness went way low. Even though it'll come back up, I go ahead and sub in Ratzburg at the next opportunity. 61': Davidson with a cross to Ratzburg, he's all alone in the area for a bit, but he doesn't control it well and the defense recovers and blocks the shot. 62': After a throw we pass it around outside the area, Bergmann is way forward due to the set piece I assume, he lays it off for Shakespeare, who passes to Davidson, shot and goal! 2-0 80': They earn a corner after a poor pass by DR Varela gives it away in their offensive half, but can't do anything with it. 81': Glaser in for Shakespeare, Garcia in for Pickering. Another good win! Hudson Valley 0 : 2 Wake Forest Man of the Match: Brian Davidson (8.9) Goals: Davidson 2 Assists: Shakespeare (7.8), Roth (6.8) Notables: Bob Varela (7.2), Pickering (7.2), Bergmann (7.2), Tapia (7.0), Cooper (7.2) -- We get $7,600 for the win.

08-09-2014, 11:03 PM	#140
Radii Head Coach Join Date: Jul 2001	March 21st, 2015 North American Open Cup - Group Stage - Group L Wake Forest Cougars (2-0-0, 2nd) vs Belleville Squires (2-0-0, 1st) Attendance: 465 -- Belleville won their first match 5-2 for the goal differential lead. We're the only two teams at 6 points. GK: Gyan D: Campbell/Pickering/Galvis/Varela DM: Williams M: Glaser/Shakespeare AM: Rose/Crook ST: Ratzburg Campbell and Galvis in on defense, Glaser gets his first start (he was one of the ones struggling with match fitness). Rose/Crook at AM, Cooper gets the day off, while Ratzburg gets his first start up front. Pace is a sub today, his fitness kind of sucks since he just came back from a long term injury which is why Ratzburg is getting so many chances here. 1': We build up on offense, Ratzburg sends it out wide for Rose, he crosses to the far post, Crook heads it.. off the post, clear cut chance right out of the gate, darn. 2': Shakespeare ahead to Rose, who shoots from an awkward angle and puts it wide. Wish he would have tried to get it to Ratzburg or Crook there. 3': A great tackle from Varela stops their offense in its tracks, a ball ahead to Rose and he runs iwth it, we work it around a bit, Shakespeare pulls it out wide to the left, sends a low cross to the 6 yard box, Ratzburg is there and its an easy finish! 1-0 16': A poor pass by them gives Shakespeare the ball, he immediately sends it long, Ratzburg is on it, instead of trying to beat his man he sends it wide for Rose, who can't score. 23': We have a corner, taken to the far post... a defender of theirs is hit by the ball and it bounces in the net. Own goal! 2-0 28': Crook to Ratzburg for a nice headed goal.. but offsides. 43': Crook with a solid shot from the right side of the area, but saved by the keeper. Rose recovers it near the baseline but they tackle well and eventually clear. HALF: Another great half for us. We only control 51% of possession but outshoot them 8-0. 50': Crook to Ratzburg who tries a shot from 20 yards out, wide and high. 53': Ratzburg picks up a minor injury, hopefully no big deal. 58': Complete breakaway for Rose, but he doesn't know what to do. He holds up play 18 yards out instead of charging the keeper. Then he just shoots from there, and its well off target. That was pathetic. 81': A quick strike from them, run down the right, cross, and a goal from ST Borin. 2-1 83': Davidson in for Rose, Pace in for Ratzburg. 89': We have a corner, taken to the far post, there's a penalty as Pickering went up for a header! Shakespeare takes the penalty and drills it. 3-1 We are absolutely on fire! Wake Forest 3 : 1 Belleville Man of the Match: Mark Shakespeare (8.5) Goals: Shakespeare, Ratzburg (7.9) (there was one own goal) Assists: Pickering (7.1), Shakespeare, Ratzburg Notables: Gyan (7.0) Galvis with a 6.6, Rose a 6.4. Rose is better at crossing the ball, but Davidson is a much much bigger scoring threat. -- We again receive $7,600 for the win.