FM2005: European Football is back at Loftus Road! - Page 5

daedalus · 11-10-2005, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Hey, there's something good for everyone in here, even when I crush your favorite team 4-1 on their pitch...

Selective memory. I pretend that that other game doesn't exist.

daedalus · 11-10-2005, 04:10 PM

Congrats on signing Big Phil. When I was tinkerin' with the demo, I actually started him more than a few games and he held his own, even at 19. Great in the air, even if he needed somebody with speed next to him. He'll be even better when you get the speedier centrebacks back to pair with him.

FrogMan · 11-10-2005, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daedalus

Congrats on signing Big Phil. When I was tinkerin' with the demo, I actually started him more than a few games and he held his own, even at 19. Great in the air, even if he needed somebody with speed next to him. He'll be even better when you get the speedier centrebacks back to pair with him.

thanks, I was kind of hoping you'd comment on the signing. I'm very happy about it and even though I won't play this career forever, he would be a good kid to have for many, many seasons to come...

FM

daedalus · 11-11-2005, 03:13 AM

Certainly. He definitely makes a good signing for you, especially since you have speedy centrebacks to pair with him. He does a heck of a job patrolling the back.

Blade6119 · 11-11-2005, 03:58 AM

Wow, talk about deja vu...i read this thread then went over to SI and looked at the soccer section...top article is about the world cup qualy playoffs going on soon and of course the key player for the swiss team is listed as Philippe Senderos!! I was cracking up at that...heres the link to the article, i think its the third page they talk about him.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ews/index.html

FrogMan · 11-11-2005, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blade6119

Wow, talk about deja vu...i read this thread then went over to SI and looked at the soccer section...top article is about the world cup qualy playoffs going on soon and of course the key player for the swiss team is listed as Philippe Senderos!! I was cracking up at that...heres the link to the article, i think its the third page they talk about him.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ews/index.html

very, very cool, thanks for the link!

From it, presenting the key players from both Turkey and Switzerland:

Quote:

Switzerland: He can't crack the Arsenal lineup -- playing the same position as Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure will do that to you -- but Philippe Senderos is the man at the heart of the Swiss defense. The 20-year-old is big (6-foot-3), strong, skilled and has got a good head on his shoulders: He captained the Swiss to the European U-17 championship in 2002. If Switzerland is going to hold off the Turks in the second leg, which will be a raucous scene in Istanbul, it will need Senderos to replicate the performance he gave under similar conditions in Ireland in Switzerland's final qualifier.

I knew he was strong and a good header and all, but 6'3" is a pretty significant size advantage

That is one big thing I'm finding very interesting with playing FM, I'm getting to learn about football players worldwide. And now that our digital TV provider has FSW, I'm getting to see many of them in action too

Speaking of watching players I know, I almost saw Fábio Rochemback yesterday. They were showing Middlesbrough vs Everton last night on FSW (possibly a replay as they seem to replay different games from the weekend all week long at 8pm) and while channel surfing, the name Rochemback flashed at the bottom of the screen but he was being subbed out for Middlesbrough whom he apparently joined in August 2005. Kinda cool...

FM

FrogMan · 11-11-2005, 12:06 PM

January 26, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	7-7-6-8-9	100%	31	-	7.39
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	6-7-8-7-8	100%	20	-	7.20
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-8-8-8	100%	16	1	7.56
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Good	-	100%	-	-	-
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	100%	23 (2)	2	7.20
DMC	Yel	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-8-8-8	100%	20 (2)	4	7.23
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	8-7-8-7-8	100%	23 (5)	1	7.50
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	6-7-7-10-9	99%	19 (7)	1	7.62
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-9-8-7	98%	12 (5)	2	7.24
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	8-7-7-9-7	100%	25 (3)	17	7.43
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-9	99%	11 (5)	7	7.25
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Very Good	7-6-7-7-9	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-6-6-7-8	100%	18 (2)	-	7.00
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	9 (10)	3	7.32
S4	Yel	Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	100%	16 (10)	5	7.23
S5		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	18 (9)	10	7.11
-	Wnt	Jonathan Burton	D LC	Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	1	-	6.00
-	Int	Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	7-10-10-9-7	90%	18 (1)	7	7.68
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	100%	5 (13)	1	6.94
-	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-7-7-9-7	99%	8 (7)	6	7.20
-	Int	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-8-8-7	97%	31	1	7.32
-	Unh	Steve Singh	D/DM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	2	-	7.00
-	Int	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-8-8-8-8	90%	25 (1)	-	7.27
-		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-8-8-8-8	99%	7 (14)	1	7.10

League Match #26: we play Liverpool at Loftus Road. They are curently in 4th place only two points behind us so this is a huge game for both teams. They are 4-5 favourites to win this game.

They last played on January 19, while we played a full week ago, on the 19th. They've been depleted by injuries lately, look at this. Missing for this game will be : Anthony Le Tallec, Harry Kewell, Aliaksandr Hleb, and most importantly, Djibril Cissé.

This game will mark Pilippe Senderos' debut as a Ranger. We will start this game with a well rested starting eleven.

Liverpool have chosen an attacking 4-2-3-1 formation that includes three attacking midfielder spread out wide, supported by two inner midfielders on the centerline.

We finally take the lead in the 31st minute when a wing to wing crosspass from Christian Wilhelmsson to Fabrice Fernandes is taken into the area by Fernandes where he bends a nice one from 25 yards out. I say "finally" because we've not allowed them to touch the ball much since the start of the game. In fact, "not much" is 68% possession for us and a 6(2) to 2(0) shooting advantage for us.

The halftime score is still only 1-0 though and we're now outshooting them 8(3) to 2(0). We still have 58% possession... I'm worried about long passes and counterattack so I ask the guys in the back to play a bit deeper.

Also, since our condition at the half is much better than theirs, I ask the guys to try and up the tempo a bit.

They get a rare presence in our penalty area in the 61st minute. Peter Lovenkrands, just put in for Fabrice Fernandes no more than 4 minutes before that, is a bit overager and he trips an opposing striker inside the area... PENALTY!!! Simon Jentzsch touches the incoming kick, but it's too hard and it goes in. Tied 1-1. DAMN!

We try for the rest of the half, but we can't get any chances on net and it stays that way...

Final Score: Q.P.R. 1 , Liverpool 1

AAAAARRRRGGGG!!!! I AM SO PISSED OFF!!! We had no finishing and we end up only outshooting them 12(4) to 4(1) despite keeping 67% possession in the second half. We owned them on the field, but it didn't translate to scoreboard... I guess being pissed about not winning against Liverpool is a good sign. I remember a time when I was happy to pull out a draw with teams like them, injuries or not...

Christian Wilhelmsson was selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 9. He had 9 runs past opponents and an assist in the game. He was the only one to really stand out though... Philippe Senderos rated at 7 after a slow start. He won 9 of 12 headers and his 2 tackles.

Chelsea won 4-1 over Cardiff, causing us to slip to 3rd place.

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Man Utd	25	19	1	5	55	23	+32	58
2nd	Chelsea	25	15	4	6	60	37	+23	49
3rd	Q.P.R.	25	14	7	4	46	23	+23	49
4th	Liverpool	25	14	5	6	37	22	+15	47
5th	Blackburn	25	12	8	5	36	25	+11	44
6th	Man City	25	10	10	5	36	24	+12	40
7th	Fulham	24	12	4	8	37	36	+1	40
8th	Arsenal	24	11	5	8	43	29	+14	38
9th	Charlton	25	11	3	11	26	30	-4	36
10th	Southampton	25	9	7	9	33	31	+2	34
11th	Birmingham	24	9	5	10	32	28	+4	32
12th	Middlesbrough	25	8	8	9	32	34	-2	32
13th	Aston Villa	24	9	5	10	27	33	-6	32
14th	Tottenham	25	8	7	10	22	34	-12	31
15th	Nottm Forest	24	8	5	11	25	39	-14	29
16th	Newcastle	25	7	6	12	33	36	-3	27
17th	Leeds	24	5	6	13	24	38	-14	21
18th	Wolves	25	3	10	12	20	35	-15	19
19th	Portsmouth	25	3	10	12	21	40	-19	19
20th	Cardiff	25	0	4	21	13	61	-48	4

Peter Lovenkrands, on top of giving them the tieing goal, also collected a yellow card later on. That was his 5th card of the season and he's been automatically banned for one match.

FM

FrogMan · 11-14-2005, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blade6119

Wow, talk about deja vu...i read this thread then went over to SI and looked at the soccer section...top article is about the world cup qualy playoffs going on soon and of course the key player for the swiss team is listed as Philippe Senderos!! I was cracking up at that...heres the link to the article, i think its the third page they talk about him.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ews/index.html

If anybody saw the highlights of the Switzerland/Turkey match of this weekend, you have all seen what Senderos is capable of, as he scored Switzerland's first goal, redirecting a free kick with a nicely placed header. I was sitting with kiddo in the living room when I saw the kick and the goal and was all stoked about it

FM

FrogMan · 11-14-2005, 09:09 AM

January 27, 2008
Well, there he is again, or is it a different one eacher time? Anyway, an ex Ivory Coast international is again doubting Ivory Coast's chances of winning over Senegal. Bleh...

That being said, the same thoughts are not shared in the Ivory Coast camp, as Aruna has declared the team in optimistic mood ahead of the country's African Cup of Nations Group A game against Senegal. Aruna told a local newspaper that he felt Ivory Coast had the players capable of winning the match and he hoped they could give the nation something to cheer about by securing a victory.

FM

FrogMan · 11-14-2005, 11:38 AM

January 28, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Gérard Amoukou Gnanhouan	GK	Superb	8-7-7-9-7	100%	9	-	7.22
DR		Yago	D RC	Superb	6-7-7-7-8	92%	2 (2)	-	7.25
DL		Arthur Boka	D/DM L	Superb	6-6-6-8-7	92%	5	-	7.60
DC		Kolo Abib Touré	D RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	90%	10	-	7.20
DC		Abdoulaye Meïté	D C	Superb	6-7-7-8-8	95%	9	-	7.33
DMC	Bid	Didier Deguy Zokora	D/DM C	Very Good	6-8-7-6-7	92%	8	-	7.25
MR	Yel	Salomon Kalou	AM R	Superb	6-7-7-9-8	94%	9	2	7.89
ML		Cedric Konan	F RLC	Superb	7-7-6-7-8	91%	6	1	7.33
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	7-10-10-9-7	92%	9	5	7.56
FC		Didier Drogba	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	92%	11	5	7.18
FC		Arouna Koné	S C	Superb	6-8-7-7-7	92%	8	4	7.75
S1		Daniel Yeboah	GK	Poor	7-6-7-8-7	100%	-	-	-
S2		Gilles Donald Yapi Yapo	AM C	Superb	6-8-7-8-7	95%	0 (4)	1	7.00
S3		Emerse Fae	DM C	Okay	5-6-7-7-7	94%	1 (1)	-	7.00
S4		Kanga Gauthier Akalé	AM L	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	87%	2 (4)	-	7.67
S5		Tchiressoua Guel	AM RC	Superb	6-7-7-7-7	99%	0 (8)	2	7.13
S6	Wnt	Yaya	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	96%	0 (7)	1	7.14
S7		Aruna	F RC	Superb	8-8-6-7-8	92%	1 (7)	2	7.00
-	Inj	Emmanuel Eboué	D/DM RL	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	69%	10	-	7.00
-	Unf	Marc-Eric Gueï	F LC	Very Good	8-8-8-6-8	53%	1 (2)	-	7.00
-		Eli Kroupi	S C	Superb	7-7-8-8-6	100%	1 (1)	-	7.00
-		Cheik Ismaël Tioté	D C	Very Good	6-6-8-8-7	95%	1	-	7.00

African Cup of Nations, Group Stage, Match #3: Ivory Coast play Senegal to close the group stage. They are ranked 34th in the world while Ivory Coast are ranked 49th. They have their two starting centrebacks who are suspended for this game. Yet, they are evens favourites to win this game.

With two wins in our back pocket already and a nice goal differential to boot, we only need to keep the scoring low and win or lose, we'll qualify for the quarter final. The other game played today in our group is Angola vs Morocco.

Arthur Boka is back in the starting lineup. Kanga Gauthier Akalé is on the bench to serve as backup left winger.

Senegal show a 4-3-3 formation to start the game.

The game is only 4 minutes old when Kolo Touré trips fellow EPL opponent Henri Camara just inside our penalty area... PENALTY!!! We're lucky and Camara hits the post!!!

The half ends in a 0-0 headlock. We're outshooting them 10(5) to 8(3) and despite no goal being scored, it was a dang fine and exiting half.

We finally take the lead in the 65th minute as Cedric Konan passes the ball down the left to Arouna Koné. His center to Didier Drogba on the edge of the 6 yard box is perfect and Drogba heads it in for the 1-0 goal.

It's another exciting half of football and we add to our lead late in the half, when Aruna runs in between their two centrebacks only to beat their keeper with a nice shot.

Final Score: Ivory Coast 2, Senegal 0

Wow, three clean sheets in as many group games!!! We outshot them 17(7) to 15(5) and have qualified for the Quarter Final round.

Centreback Abdoulaye Meïté was selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 9. He won all of the 9 headers he went for and had 6 interceptions on the game. We had a group of players that rated at 8 although Kolo Touré had a downer and rated at 6.

In the other Group A game, Morocco qualified for the Quarter Final round with a 2-1 win over Angola. Here's the final table now that group play is over:

Pos	Inf	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Q	Ivory Coast	3	3	0	0	7	0	+7	9
2nd	Q	Morocco	3	2	0	1	4	4	0	6
3rd		Senegal	3	1	0	2	3	4	-1	3
4th		Angola	3	0	0	3	1	7	-6	0

We now have to wait to see who will go forward, as we're the first group out of the four to close group play.

FM

FrogMan · 11-14-2005, 11:39 AM

January 29, 2008
Teams in Group C of the African Cup of Nations are the ones closing their group play today. Guinea won 4-1 over Egypt but it wasn't enough to get the edge over Zimbabwe who squeezed in a 1-1 draw over group leader and Cup hosts, Ghana. Here's the table for group C:

Pos	Inf	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Q	Ghana	3	2	1	0	8	3	+5	7
2nd	Q	Zimbabwe	3	1	2	0	4	2	+2	5
3rd		Guinea	3	1	1	1	6	6	0	4
4th		Egypt	3	0	0	3	2	9	-7	0

Today is also the day that I'm allowed to add/swap players to our list of eligible players for later rounds of the EUFA Cup. We're at 23 players out of a possible list of 25 so I add Scott Donnelly as #24 and goalkeeper Dean Morgan as #25. I could swap 3 but I don't see any. Philippe Senderos is ineligible, probably because he joined us in season...

FM

FrogMan · 11-14-2005, 11:43 AM

January 30, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Good	7-6-8-9-7	100%	32	-	7.38
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Very Good	7-8-7-8-7	96%	21	-	7.19
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Good	8-8-8-8-7	96%	17	1	7.53
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Good	7	96%	1	-	7.00
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Good	7-7-7-8-7	96%	24 (2)	2	7.19
DMC		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-8-8-8-8	100%	7 (14)	1	7.10
MR		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Good	8-7-7-7-7	100%	9 (11)	3	7.30
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	7-7-10-9-7	95%	20 (7)	2	7.59
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-9-8-7-7	96%	13 (5)	2	7.22
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Good	7-7-9-7-7	96%	26 (3)	17	7.41
FC		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Good	7-7-7-7-7	98%	18 (10)	10	7.11
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Very Good	7-6-7-7-9	100%	1	-	7.00
S2	Yel	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Okay	7-8-8-8-6	95%	21 (2)	4	7.17
S3		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	7-8-7-8-9	94%	24 (5)	1	7.55
S4	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	100%	5 (13)	1	6.94
S5		Güiza	S C	Good	7-8-7-9-7	95%	12 (5)	7	7.24
-	Int	Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	10-10-9-7-8	90%	18 (1)	7	7.68
-	Int	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	95%	31	1	7.32
-	Int	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Very Good	8-8-8-8-8	88%	25 (1)	-	7.27
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-6-6-7-8	100%	18 (2)	-	7.00
-	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-7-7-9-7	100%	8 (7)	6	7.20
-	Sus	Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Okay	7-8-7-7-6	97%	16 (11)	5	7.19

League Match #26: we play 15th place Nottm Forest on their pitch and we are 5-4 favourites to win this game. We will play them again in a couple of weeks in the 5th round of the FA Cup...

Peter Lovenkrands is banned for this match but their top scorer, Frederic Kanouté who has 13 leagues goals so far this season, is also unavailable, still away with Mali in the African Cup of Nations.

In the 24th minute, Michael Ball flights a beautiful through ball for Jon Dahl Tomasson who takes it home to make it 1-0.

We were having a rough time early on and with a one goal lead, I immediately asked to put in some new tactics to prevent them from coming right back. As I'm watching the "waiting" button flash before my eyes, I see them march the field from kickoff to the back of our nets, only one minute after we'd taken the lead. Now tied 1-1... At that point, they were outshooting us 8(5) to 1(1), ugh...

Steve Finnan has to leave the field, injured, in the the 39th minute. Dang why do my defenders have to get injured when I don't have any on the bench?!? I put Freddy Guarín in at right fullback...

1-1 is the half time score. They are outshooting us 13(7) to 2(2), double ugh... We are winning possession, as weird as this may sound...

We hang in there in the second in a ugly game for us...

Final Score: Q.P.R. 1, Nottm Forest 1

A bleh kind of game in which we got outshot 20(10) to 7(4).

Fabrice Fernandes got selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 8, the only rating higher than 7 for any of our players.

Liverpool drew 0-0 with Manchester City and Chelsea won 3-2 over Newcastle so we stay in 3rd place with 12 games still to play.

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Man Utd	26	20	1	5	59	23	+36	61
2nd	Chelsea	26	16	4	6	63	39	+24	52
3rd	Q.P.R.	26	14	8	4	47	24	+23	50
4th	Liverpool	26	14	6	6	37	22	+15	48
5th	Blackburn	26	12	9	5	36	25	+11	45
6th	Fulham	25	13	4	8	40	37	+3	43
7th	Man City	26	10	11	5	36	24	+12	41
8th	Arsenal	25	11	5	9	43	30	+13	38
9th	Southampton	26	10	7	9	34	31	+3	37
10th	Charlton	26	11	4	11	26	30	-4	37
11th	Birmingham	25	10	5	10	34	28	+6	35
12th	Tottenham	26	9	7	10	26	35	-9	34
13th	Aston Villa	25	9	6	10	29	35	-6	33
14th	Middlesbrough	25	8	8	9	32	34	-2	32
15th	Nottm Forest	26	8	6	12	26	42	-16	30
16th	Newcastle	26	7	6	13	35	39	-4	27
17th	Leeds	25	5	6	14	25	41	-16	21
18th	Wolves	26	3	11	12	22	37	-15	20
19th	Portsmouth	26	3	10	13	22	44	-22	19
20th	Cardiff	26	0	4	22	13	65	-52	4

In the African Cup of Nations, Group B finished their group stage. Algeria won 2-1 over Mali to take the top spot in the group while Nigeria won 3-1 over Gabon to beat them for the second qualifier spot. Here's the Group B table:

Pos	Inf	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Q	Algeria	3	2	1	0	4	2	+2	7
2nd	Q	Nigeria	3	2	0	1	5	2	+3	6
3rd		Gabon	3	1	1	1	5	5	0	4
4th		Mali	3	0	0	3	2	7	-5	0

I also learn that Ivory Coast will play Nigeria in Quarter Final on February 3. We lost 0-2 to them in a friendly in last October so this will not be an easy one. Q.P.R. play Fulham on the 4th so I'll have to pull a Deon Sandersish helicopter move to be there on time...

FM

FrogMan · 11-14-2005, 11:45 AM

January 31, 2008
In a rare straight trade of players, on the deadline of the transfer window, Arsenal get attacking midfielder Thomas Rosicky from Liverpool while Liverpool get right winger Jermaine Pennant.

I get a news report that Freddy Adu's contract with Inter is set to expire in six months. Even though he's still only 18, I'm not overly impressed with his skill set. I mean, I've seen many players with better skills than him at age 18. I'll give it to him that he seems very determined, which could help his development in future years. You can see his profile by clicking on the thumbnail below.

Weird thing is I wouldn't have to pay any compensation to Inter if I were to make him a contract offer... hrm...

In the African Cup of Nations, Group D is the last group to close its group stage. Here is the table of Group D:

Pos	Inf	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Q	Republic of Congo	3	2	1	0	7	4	+3	7
2nd	Q	Cameroon	3	1	2	0	6	5	+1	5
3rd		Zambia	3	1	0	2	4	4	0	3
4th		South Africa	3	0	1	2	3	7	-4	1

February 1st
The transfer deadline has passed.

The team board is still delighted with my work.

Freddy Guarín came in 2nd place for Young Player of the Month in the EPL. He had ratings of 8, 8, 8, 6, and 7 in 5 appearances in league play in January.

I also come in 2nd, this time for Manage of the Month. Man U's Alex Ferguson got the award.

FM

FrogMan · 11-14-2005, 02:21 PM

February 2, 2008
Some EPL games are played today and of interest to us, both Liverpool (1-0 over Tottenham) and Chelsea (1-0 over Wolves) won their games, making us drop to 4th place.

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Man Utd	26	20	1	5	59	23	+36	61
2nd	Chelsea	27	17	4	6	64	39	+25	55
3rd	Liverpool	27	15	6	6	38	22	+16	51
4th	Q.P.R.	26	14	8	4	47	24	+23	50
5th	Blackburn	27	12	10	5	36	25	+11	46
6th	Fulham	25	13	4	8	40	37	+3	43
7th	Man City	27	10	12	5	36	24	+12	42
8th	Arsenal	26	11	6	9	44	31	+13	39
9th	Charlton	27	11	5	11	26	30	-4	38
10th	Southampton	26	10	7	9	34	31	+3	37
11th	Birmingham	26	10	6	10	35	29	+6	36
12th	Aston Villa	26	9	7	10	29	35	-6	34
13th	Tottenham	27	9	7	11	26	36	-10	34
14th	Middlesbrough	26	8	9	9	33	35	-2	33
15th	Nottm Forest	27	8	7	12	26	42	-16	31
16th	Newcastle	26	7	6	13	35	39	-4	27
17th	Leeds	26	5	7	14	25	41	-16	22
18th	Wolves	27	3	11	13	22	38	-16	20
19th	Portsmouth	26	3	10	13	22	44	-22	19
20th	Cardiff	27	0	5	22	14	66	-52	5

February 3, 2008
Nine of our players have been called up for various international friendly matches and I learn that I'll be spared of a crazy plane flight between Ghana and England as Q.P.R.'s February 4 match against Fulham has been rearranged to February 17.

FM

FrogMan · 11-14-2005, 02:24 PM

February 3, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK	Inj	Gérard Amoukou Gnanhouan	GK	Superb	7-7-9-7-8	80%	10	-	7.30
DR	Wnt	Yago	D RC	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	97%	3 (2)	-	7.40
DL		Arthur Boka	D/DM L	Superb	6-6-8-7-8	99%	6	-	7.67
DC		Kolo Abib Touré	D RC	Superb	7-7-7-8-6	94%	11	-	7.09
DC		Abdoulaye Meïté	D C	Superb	7-7-8-8-9	100%	10	-	7.50
DMC	Bid	Didier Deguy Zokora	D/DM C	Good	8-7-6-7-7	98%	9	-	7.22
MR	Yel	Salomon Kalou	AM R	Superb	7-7-9-8-8	98%	10	2	7.90
ML		Kanga Gauthier Akalé	AM L	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	96%	2 (5)	-	7.57
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	10-10-9-7-8	94%	10	5	7.60
FC		Didier Drogba	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	97%	12	6	7.25
FC		Aruna	F RC	Superb	8-6-7-8-7	100%	1 (8)	3	7.00
S1		Daniel Yeboah	GK	Very Poor	7-6-7-8-7	100%	-	-	-
S2		Cheik Ismaël Tioté	D C	Good	6-6-8-8-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S3	Wnt	Emerse Fae	DM C	Poor	5-6-7-7-7	99%	1 (1)	-	7.00
S4		Cedric Konan	F RLC	Superb	7-6-7-8-7	97%	7	1	7.29
S5		Tchiressoua Guel	AM RC	Superb	6-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (8)	2	7.13
S6		Gilles Donald Yapi Yapo	AM C	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	100%	0 (5)	1	7.00
S7		Arouna Koné	S C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	93%	9	4	7.67
-	Wnt	Yaya	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (7)	1	7.14
-		Marc-Eric Gueï	F LC	Very Good	8-8-8-6-8	90%	1 (2)	-	7.00
-		Eli Kroupi	S C	Superb	7-7-8-8-6	100%	1 (1)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Emmanuel Eboué	D/DM RL	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	61%	10	-	7.00

African Cup of Nations, Quarter Final: Ivory Coast play Nigeria. They are ranked 25th in the world and are guaranteed to give us a hard time. They are evens favourites to win this game and we lost 0-2 to them in a friendly in October 2007.

Our goalkeeper Gérard Amoukou Gnanhouan suffered a damaged shoulder a couple days ago and is one day from being completely healthy. He'll start regardless.

Nigeria show a 5-3-2 formation with two wingbacks to start the game.

Only 56 seconds have passed in the game when we go down by one after Kolo Touré had blocked a shot and the rebound got kicked past Gnanhouan. DANG! Everybody on the squad dropped to 5 in form, this is not gonna make it any easier... Down 0-1.

Well, well, well, only two minutes later, their keeper plays a long ball that gets headed back by Didier Drogba to Bonaventure Kalou. Kalou holds up play, giving Drogba some time to settle in between the two centrebacks only to send him a nicely placed pass. Drogba is alone with the keeper whom he beats with a precise strike. Tied 1-1!

Woah, that's a heck of a start to that game as we take the lead in the 8th minute with Drogba's second goal of the game on a hard free kick through the wall from 30 yards out. The wall deflected the ball to the keeper's right. Sadly for him, he'd already dove to his left. Up 2-1 but this is far from over!

The halftime score is 2-1 and we're outshooting them 8(3) to 4(1). We're also winning possession with a solid 56% heavily skewed toward their end of the field. The goalkeepers on both teams are rated at 5.

We play a tight game in the second half but some mental mistakes and disogarnization lead to them tieing the game in the 80th minute. They got a free kick just outside our area but not one of our players went to set up a wall as the player kicked it quick, beating the keeper from 30 yards out. Tied 2-2 and on to extra time!

After 90 minutes, the game is tied 2-2 and shots are now dang close with 11(5) for us and 12(3) for them. It was a definite collapse for us, or resurgence for them, as they won possession in the last 45 minutes with 52%...

In the other game, Morocco won 2-1 over Algeria. We really had a crappy draw to have to play Nigeria in this Quarter Final...

The first half of extra time goes without a goal and almost without any shots. We now have 11(5) shots and they have 13(3).

The second half of extra time is just about the same, ending with us at 12(5) shots and them at 15(3). Strangely enough, we won possession in extra time with a clear 58% but didn't really get good scoring chances...

On to penalty kicks!!!

Nigeria kick first.
Yakubu kicks and scores.
Bonaventure Kalou is our first kicker and the kick is saved.
Nigeria up 1-0 after 1.

Ifeanyi Udeze kicks second for Nigeria and Jentzsch saves it !!!
Didier Deguy Zokora is our second kicker and HE KICKS IT OVER THE BAR!!!
Nigeria up 1-0 after 2.

Seyi Olajengbesi then kicks for Nigeria and HE PUTS IT WIDE!!!
Cedric Konan is our third kicker and he puts past the keeper to tie it!!!
Teams tied a 1-1 after 3.

Wilson Oruma then kicks for Nigeria and HE TOO PUTS IT WIDE!!!
Arthur Boka is our fourth kicker and he beats the keeper with a well placed kick!!!
Ivory Coast up 2-1 after 4.

Peter Odemwingie is Nigeria's fifth kicker. He needs to score to keep their hopes alive. And he does!
Spanish/Ivorian Yago is our fifth kicker. A goal from him and we win it.... He lines up... AND SCORES!!!!!

FINAL Score: Ivory Coast 2, Nigeria 2 (3-2 on PK)

We're trhough to the Semi Final after a hard fought win!!!

Q.P.R.'s Danny Shittu, playing for Nigeria in this game, was selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 8.

We will play the winner of the Quarter Final between Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe, respectively ranked 57th and 76th in the world.

FM

FrogMan · 11-14-2005, 02:25 PM

February 4, 2008
In the other Quarter Finals of the African Cup of Nations, Republic of Congo beat Zimbabwe, 2-1, and Cameroon beat host country Ghana, 1-0. This means that Ivory Coast will play Republic of Congo in one Semi Final and Morocco will play Cameroon in the other one. We have beat both of these teams in the last year, Morocco 2-0 in group play and Cameroon in a wild friendly, 5-3.

February 5, 2008
Raúl Sánchez twisted his knee in training and will miss one week.

February 6, 2008
Guess who's back, back again
The doubter's back, tell your friends
Yeah, that ex-Ivory Coast international is again doubting Ivory Coast's chances of beating Republic of Congo. I tell ya, we better never find the name of that traitor or else he could spend a frigging bad 15 minutes...

On the flip side though, hero of last match with the winning kick, Yago is optimistic of Ivory Coast's chances to win their upcoming African Cup of Nations Semi Final.

FM

FrogMan · 11-14-2005, 02:40 PM

February 7, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Gérard Amoukou Gnanhouan	GK	Poor	7-9-7-8-5	96%	11	-	7.09
DR	Wnt	Yago	D RC	Superb	7-7-8-8-8	96%	4 (2)	-	7.50
DL		Arthur Boka	D/DM L	Superb	6-8-7-8-8	95%	7	-	7.71
DC		Kolo Abib Touré	D RC	Very Good	7-7-8-6-7	90%	12	-	7.08
DC		Abdoulaye Meïté	D C	Very Good	7-8-8-9-8	97%	11	-	7.55
DMC	Bid	Didier Deguy Zokora	D/DM C	Good	7-6-7-7-7	93%	10	-	7.20
MR	Yel	Salomon Kalou	AM R	Good	7-9-8-8-7	92%	11	2	7.82
ML		Cedric Konan	F RLC	Superb	6-7-8-7-7	96%	7 (1)	1	7.25
AMC		Gilles Donald Yapi Yapo	AM C	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	100%	0 (5)	1	7.00
FC		Didier Drogba	S C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	95%	13	8	7.31
FC		Aruna	F RC	Very Good	6-7-8-7-6	97%	2 (8)	3	6.90
S1		Daniel Yeboah	GK	Very Poor	7-6-7-8-7	100%	-	-	-
S2		Cheik Ismaël Tioté	D C	Okay	6-8-8-7-7	97%	1 (1)	-	7.00
S3	Wnt	Emerse Fae	DM C	Poor	5-6-7-7-7	100%	1 (1)	-	7.00
S4		Kanga Gauthier Akalé	AM L	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	90%	3 (5)	-	7.50
S5		Tchiressoua Guel	AM RC	Superb	6-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (8)	2	7.13
S6		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	10-9-7-8-7	87%	11	5	7.55
S7		Arouna Koné	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	90%	9 (1)	4	7.60
-	Inj	Emmanuel Eboué	D/DM RL	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	64%	10	-	7.00
-		Marc-Eric Gueï	F LC	Very Good	8-8-8-6-8	94%	1 (2)	-	7.00
-		Eli Kroupi	S C	Superb	7-7-8-8-6	100%	1 (1)	-	7.00
-		Yaya	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (7)	1	7.14

African Cup of Nations, Semi Final: Ivory Coast play Republic of Congo. They are ranked 57th in the world to Ivory Coast's 49th place in the same rankings. We are 5-4 favourites to win this game.

A quick look at the roster tells me that the frenetic pace of this competition is not letting the guys breathe too much. Some of the guys are showing signs of getting tired.

I decide to start Gilles Donald Yapi Yapo at AMC in place of Bonaventure Kalou. Kalou will play in the second half, as I'd rather have him on later on and possibly for penalty kicks and I don't think he'll be able to go the full 120 minutes in case of extra time...

They show an attacking 3-4-1-2 formation to start the game. I ask all of our defenders to try longer passes to get it over the line of four middies.

Didier Drogba scores in the 24th minute, but it is disallowed. Apparently, he pushed a defender to get to the ball, booooo...

The halftime ends 0-0 despite us dominating play, first with shots, 12(6) to 3(0), then with possession with 57%, again heavily skewed toward their end of the field.

Yapi Yapo is really struggling, rating at 5 after 45 minutes. I pull him out and put Bonaventure Kalou in.

Cedric Konan goes to the byline on the edge of their penalty area in the 55th minute. From there, he centers the ball to the top of the 6 yard line to Didier Drogba who heads it in. The goal stands this time and we're up 1-0!!!

Their keeper joins the attack on a corner kick one minute into added time, but we defend it well.

Didier Drogba goes down 3 and a half minute into added time. He seems in bad shape and has to leave the field. I hope he'll be okay...

Final Score: Ivory Coast 1, Republic of Congo 0

We outshot them 25(10) to 7(0) but it seemed a much closer game from the highlights that they showed me.

Cedric Konan was selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 10. Salomon Kalou, Abdoulay Meïté and Didier Drogba all rated at 8.

We're through to the Final where we'll defend our title!!!

In the other Semi Final, Cameroon decisively beat Morocco 2-0, the same score we beat Morocco in group stage. This should be a very tight Final, as Cameroon are ranked 45th in the world, to our 49th position...

That's when the news got bad. Didier Drogba fractured some ribs and will miss three weeks, and the Final. Same with centreback Abdoulaye Meïté, who strained a calf and will miss two weeks. DAMN!!!

The Final will be played on February 10. As I said, we'd beat Cameroon once, 5-3 in a wild friendly where our starting keeper got injured in the 45th minute, but also a game in which Didier Drogba had scored two goals...

Looking back to the 2006 African Cup of Nations, Ivory Coast had beat Cameroon in Semi Final, on their way to winning the cup. Cameroon had then gone to lose to Nigeria in the 3rd place playoff...

On the Q.P.R. front, Lee Porter is back from his loan at Crystal Palace with no real improvement to his skills. He averaged an ugly form rating of 6.54 in 12 starts and he now feels that he should be a first team regular... Say what?!?

FM

FrogMan · 11-15-2005, 09:05 AM

February 9, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Very Good	6-8-9-7-7	100%	33	-	7.36
DR	Yel	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-8-8-8-7	96%	25 (1)	-	7.27
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Very Good	8-8-8-7-7	100%	18	1	7.50
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	96%	31	1	7.32
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Okay	7-7-7	94%	2	-	7.00
DMC	Yel	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Okay	8-8-6-7-8	94%	21 (3)	4	7.17
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	7-8-9-7-8	92%	24 (6)	1	7.53
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	7-10-9-7-8	100%	21 (7)	2	7.61
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Good	9-8-7-7-7	100%	14 (5)	2	7.21
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Good	7-9-7-7-7	100%	27 (3)	17	7.40
FC		Güiza	S C	Good	8-7-9-7-7	100%	12 (6)	7	7.22
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Very Good	6-7-7-9-7	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Pascal Cygan	D C	Very Good	7-7-8-7-7	100%	25 (2)	2	7.19
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	10 (11)	3	7.29
S4		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Okay	7-8-7-7-6	100%	16 (11)	5	7.19
S5		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-8	94%	19 (10)	11	7.10
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	100%	5 (13)	1	6.94
-	Int	Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	9-7-8-7-7	88%	18 (1)	7	7.68
-		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Very Good	8-8-8-8-7	100%	8 (14)	1	7.09
-		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	100%	22	-	7.18
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-6-6-7-8	100%	18 (2)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-7-7-9-7	79%	8 (7)	6	7.20

League Match #27: we play 14th place Middlesbrough on their pitch. we are 6-4 favourites to win this game.

Danny Shittu and Abubakari Yakubu are both back from the African Cup of Nations. I start Yakubu are right fullback and Shittu, with Philippe Senderos, at centreback.

Our next game is against Feyenoord, on their pitch, on the 14th.

Middlesbrough show an attacking 4-2-3-1 formation to start the game.

Young Senderos starts the game with some bad judgment. He got called for a foul on a dubious decision from the referee in teh 13th minute. Even more dubious was the ref's decision to give him a yellow. Senderos got mad at the ref and he got warned for his behaviour. Instead of backing off, he got even madder and the referee had no choice but to give him a second yellow and send him off.

I like aggressiveness but I hate lack of self control and discipline... Senderos will hear about this after the game...

Güiza started the game very slowly and he's rated at 5 at this point. I pull him out and put Pascal Cygan in on defense. They take the lead in the 22nd minute when, following a corner kick, Youssouf Hersi fails to clear the bal from our area. They get it and score. Down 0-1.

We get right back though and in the 24th minute, Fabrice Fernandes runs along on the left wing then centers the ball to Hersi who beats the keeper from an angle... Tied 1-1.

They keep attacking and again, we can't clear the ball properly from our penalty area. It's Abubakari Yakubu who failed this time. The ball is centered and then flicked past Simon Jentzsch. Down 1-2 after 30 minutes.

On of their centrebacks also receives his second yellow of the game in the 36th minute and he's sent off. We're back on even ground, 10 vs 10! They go to a very narrow 3-2-3-1 formation that has 3 DC, 2 MC, 3 AMC, and 1 SC...

The halftime score is 1-2 and they are outshooting us 9(5) to 4(2). Freddy Guarín is having a rough game, rating at 5 at the half.

We can't get anything going in the second half, while they keep attacking us...

Final Scoring: Q.P.R. 1, Middlesbrough 2

They outshot us 13(6) to 8(3).

Fabrice Fernandes got selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 8, but who cares when you lose the game... Jentzsch and Shittu both had good games with ratings of 8 while Guarín had to be substituted in the 57th minute, still only rating at 5.

We remain in 4th place and missed a golde chance of passing Liverpool to reclaim back 3rd place.

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Man Utd	28	20	3	5	61	25	+36	63
2nd	Chelsea	28	18	4	6	67	39	+28	58
3rd	Liverpool	28	15	7	6	39	23	+16	52
4th	Q.P.R.	27	14	8	5	48	26	+22	50
5th	Blackburn	27	12	10	5	36	25	+11	46
6th	Fulham	25	13	4	8	40	37	+3	43
7th	Man City	27	10	12	5	36	24	+12	42
8th	Southampton	28	11	7	10	36	32	+4	40
9th	Arsenal	26	11	6	9	44	31	+13	39
10th	Charlton	28	11	5	12	26	33	-7	38
11th	Aston Villa	27	10	7	10	32	36	-4	37
12th	Tottenham	28	10	7	11	28	37	-9	37
13th	Birmingham	26	10	6	10	35	29	+6	36
14th	Middlesbrough	27	9	9	9	35	36	-1	36
15th	Nottm Forest	28	8	7	13	27	44	-17	31
16th	Newcastle	27	7	7	13	36	40	-4	28
17th	Portsmouth	28	4	11	13	24	45	-21	23
18th	Leeds	27	5	7	15	26	44	-18	22
19th	Wolves	28	3	12	13	23	39	-16	21
20th	Cardiff	28	0	5	23	14	68	-54	5

Fabrice Fernandes strained a wrist in the game and he will miss one week.

Following his sending off, I issue a formal warning to Philippe Senderos. To the media, he will later say that he feels the warning was unfair. One of his concerns is now showing that he feels he was brought to the club under false pretences. HUH!?!? I never brought you to the club with the sole use of getting red carded!!!

Immediately after the game, I hopped on a plane to get to Ghana where the Final of the African Cup of Nations is to be played tomorrow.

While in the plane, I get to take a look at some Ivorian newspapers and well, well, well, looks like a new ex-Ivorian national teamer is showing up today as I read that indeed an ex-Ivory Coast international has said that he feels confident that Ivory Coast will play better against superior opposition when they take on Cameroon in their African Cup of Nations match on Sunday. The former international commented that he believed Ivory Coast can win, provided the team get out of the blocks quickly and make life as difficult as possible for Cameroon.

Yago also went with a very optimistic comment, saying that the Ivory Coast players would show Cameroon plenty of respect but they would not fear them and they were certainly beatable.

FM

FrogMan · 11-15-2005, 11:36 AM

February 10, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Gérard Amoukou Gnanhouan	GK	Superb	9-7-8-5-7	100%	12	-	7.08
DR	Wnt	Yago	D RC	Superb	7-8-8-8-7	94%	5 (2)	-	7.43
DL		Arthur Boka	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-8-8-7	93%	8	-	7.63
DC		Kolo Abib Touré	D RC	Superb	7-8-6-7-7	91%	13	-	7.08
DC		Cheik Ismaël Tioté	D C	Okay	6-8-8-7-7	100%	1 (1)	-	7.00
DMC	Bid	Didier Deguy Zokora	D/DM C	Very Good	6-7-7-7-7	92%	11	-	7.18
MR	Yel	Salomon Kalou	AM R	Superb	9-8-8-7-8	93%	12	2	7.83
ML		Cedric Konan	F RLC	Superb	7-8-7-7-10	92%	8 (1)	1	7.56
AMC		Yaya	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	0 (7)	1	7.14
FC		Arouna Koné	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	93%	9 (2)	4	7.55
FC		Aruna	F RC	Superb	7-8-7-6-6	95%	3 (8)	3	6.82
S1		Daniel Yeboah	GK	Very Poor	7-6-7-8-7	100%	-	-	-
S2		Emmanuel Eboué	D/DM RL	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	83%	10	-	7.00
S3	Wnt	Emerse Fae	DM C	Poor	5-6-7-7-7	100%	1 (1)	-	7.00
S4		Kanga Gauthier Akalé	AM L	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	95%	3 (5)	-	7.50
S5		Tchiressoua Guel	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	96%	0 (9)	2	7.11
S6		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	9-7-8-7-7	90%	11 (1)	5	7.50
S7		Eli Kroupi	S C	Superb	7-7-8-8-6	100%	1 (1)	-	7.00
-		Gilles Donald Yapi Yapo	AM C	Poor	7-8-7-7-5	96%	1 (5)	1	6.67
-		Marc-Eric Gueï	F LC	Very Good	8-8-8-6-8	98%	1 (2)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Didier Drogba	S C	Superb	7-7-8-8-8	69%	14	9	7.36
-	Inj	Abdoulaye Meïté	D C	Superb	8-8-9-8-8	78%	12	-	7.58

African Cup of Nations Final: Ivory Coast play Cameroon. They are ranked 45th in the world while we're 49th so these are two very close teams, if we believe the rankings... They are 4-6 favourites to win this game.

We beat them 5-3 on November 14, 2007 on a wild friendly but we have two players out for this one in striker and goal scoring machine Didier Drogba, and centreback Abdoulaye Meïté.

As I did in the Semi Final, I leave Bonaventure Kalou on the bench to start the game. This time, it's Yaya who starts at AMC.

I'm kinda sad that the final of the Cup is not even on TV

Cameroon show a 4-1-3-2 formation to start the game. One of their regular MC is suspended.

It's a rather boring, scoreless first half that we get, with shots kept very low at 4(3) for us, 3(1) for them. We do own possession with a clear 60%.

The second is much of the same and we're still tied 0-0 after 90 minutes. Both team had their chances late in the game though, us when Bonaventure Kalou hit the post in the 83rd minute and them just before that, in the 74th minute when a player on a clear breakaway was caught from behind on a clean tackle by Cheik Ismaël Tioté. They're outshooting us 10(4) to 8(4) after 90 minutes and off to extra time we go!

Guys are burned out on both side of the field though. For us, Cedric Konan is the worst, at 57%, while Cameroon have two guys under 50%, one at 46% and the other at 48%...

They play a long cross from the left in the 96th minute. Arthur Boka is backpedaling inside our penalty area to try and get under it but he just can't. The ball gets to one of their striker and Boka tries to tackle him but he tips the ball behind goalkeeper Gérard Gnanhouan for an own goal... NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Not like that, we can't drop this game on an own goal...

Down 0-1, I set the guys on a very attacking 3-1-4-2 formation, that's 3DC, 1MC, 4AM and 2SC for those of you keeping score at home.

We get a free kick just inside their half of the field and the fucking moron (he can thank God that I don't remember his name) decided to try a 55 yard long shot on goal. Their keeper easily picks up the ball and starts the counter attack that will kill us. They score on it to make it 0-2.

We get 2 amazing chances in the next three minutes, but the chips just won't fall for us. One of these chances was a long header from the edge of their penalty that went just over the bar. I wanna cry right now...

We're down 0-2 at the half of extra time and we're now outshooting them 12(6) to 10(5)...

They shut us down in the last 15 minutes and I really wanna cry right now

Final Score: Ivory Coast 0, Cameroon 2

We added one shot off target in the last 15 minutes to ends the game at 13(6) to 11(5).

In the 3rd place playoff, Morocco won 3-0 over Republic of Congo.

I feel the media are a bit off in their analysis of the game, saying that poor finishing cost us the game and adding that Ivory Coast failed to show the same level of ruthlensness in front of the goal as their opponent and paid the price with a 2-0 defeat. Well, they got lucky pure and simple, and then they fed off our overagressiveness to get to a tied game...

Following the game, the Ivorian Football Association assessed the nation's performance in the African Cup of Nations. They are saying that they are very pleased with the team'S performance in the Cup. It's hard for me to accept that not defending our title with success is acceptable, but yet, it's still a good showing... Winners in 2006, runners-up in 2008. World Cup contestants in 2010?

New World rankings are also unveiled following the completion of the Cup. We made a big jump from 49th to 24th and I'm quite happy with that! Nigeria is also nicely sitting in 18th place now and Cameroon is 23rd. I guess we'll be going down a little as other International Competition will take place, giving other teams points...

FM

FrogMan · 11-15-2005, 11:38 AM

February 11, 2008
Danny Shittu has been selected to the EPL Team of the Week.

Freddy Adu signed a new deal that will keep him at Inter for three seasons.

February 13, 2008
Lee Porter has asked to meet me in private. He tells me that he must play regular first team football if he is to stay at Loftus Road and that if I can't grant him this wish, he will start looking for a new club. I told him that while I thought he was a nice kid, he wasn't in our first team plan, especially with the glut of left fullbacks we already have on the team. We ended our meeting with a handshake and a promise from me that I'd transfer list him, which I did. Valued at $4.8M, I ask $1.25M for the 19yo left fullback. While not a bad player, I don't feel he'll ever develop into a regular Premiership player for us...

No more than a couple of hours have passed and an offer was already in the fax.

Ipswich are very interested in Porter and they're offering $1M plus 20% of next sale. I accept the offer, mentionning that he isn't in the club's first team plans.

February 14, 2008
Another offer for Lee Porter's services came today. This time, it's Gillingham who are interested in acquiring him. They are offering the requisite $1.25M and I accept their offer.

FM

FrogMan · 11-15-2005, 02:18 PM

February 14, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Very Good	8-9-7-7-8	100%	34	-	7.38
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	22	-	7.18
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Good	8-8-7-7-7	98%	19	1	7.47
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Good	7-8-8-7-8	95%	32	1	7.34
DC	Wnt	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Very Good	8-8-8-7-7	98%	26 (1)	-	7.26
DMC		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Very Poor	8-6-7-8-5	98%	22 (3)	4	7.08
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Good	8-9-7-8-7	98%	25 (6)	1	7.52
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Poor	8-7-7-6-7	98%	16 (12)	5	7.18
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Good	8-7-7-7-7	96%	15 (5)	3	7.20
FC	Yel	Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Okay	9-7-7-7-7	96%	28 (3)	17	7.39
FC		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-8	100%	19 (10)	11	7.10
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Very Good	7-7-9-7-6	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Pascal Cygan	D C	Good	7-8-7-7-7	98%	25 (3)	2	7.18
S3		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Very Good	8-8-8-8-7	100%	8 (14)	1	7.09
S4	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-6-7	100%	5 (13)	1	6.94
S5		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Good	7-7-7-7-7	98%	10 (12)	3	7.27
S6		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	90%	18 (1)	7	7.68
S7		Güiza	S C	Very Poor	7-9-7-7-5	100%	13 (6)	7	7.11
-	Inj	Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	10-9-7-8-8	63%	22 (7)	2	7.62
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-6-6-7-8	100%	18 (2)	-	7.00
-	Inj	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-7-7-9-7	77%	8 (7)	6	7.20
-	Ine	Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Poor	7-7-7-5	100%	3	-	6.33

UEFA Cup, 1st Knockout round, leg 1: we play Dutch side Feyenoord on their pitch. They are currently in 3rd place of the Dutch Premier Division and are 6-4 favourites to win this game.

Philippe Senderos is ineligible as I couldn't select him when the time to add/switch players came. Fabrice Fernandes is injured for us.

Interesting fact is that Bonaventure Kalou's brother and fellow Ivory Coast teammate, Salomon Kalou is a starter for Feyenoord.

This game is on TV and two strikers are presented as key men for both teams. For Feyenoord, it's Andrzej Niedzielan who has scored 12 goals in 28 games so far this season and for us, it's Cristiano Lucarelli, who has scored 17 goals in 31 games so far this season. They add that this game has draw written all over it and that they just can't separate the two sides...

Not even one full minute has been played when we take a 1-0 lead off of a Freddy Guarín free kick. Guarín took the kick from just inside their half of the field and played it forward to Abubakari Yakubu. Upon reception, Yakubu tipped the ball out right to Christian Wilhelmsson and quickly ran to the the edge of the 6 yard box where Wilhelmsson centered him the ball. Yakubu was left with an easy header for his 1st goal of the season.

We keep playing GREAT football after that goal, winnin headers and challenges and completing passes precisely.

In the 18th minute, Youssouf Hersi hit a half volley on a center from Jon Dahl Tomasson. His shot was blocked but the keeper let go of a long rebound that fell to the feet of Cristiano Lucarelli who didn't miss his chance. Up 2-0!!!

At that point, we were outshooting them 7(4) to nothing, on their pitch!

We add to our lead in the 24th minute when it's now Hersi's turn to feed Tomasson on a nice pass. Tomasson puts it behind the keeper, off the post. Up 3-0!

That is the halftime score and we're outshtooting them 14(6) to 5(2) at the half although possession is absolutely the same in all thirds of the field...

As amazing as it is, we add to our lead in the 51st minute when Guarín hits a hard free kick through the wall from just outside their penalty area. The wall deflects the kick and the keeper can't do a thing. Up 4-0 on Guarín's 5th goal of the season.

GAH! Michael Ball is injured in the 61st minute and he has to leave the field. I just proceeded with my three substitutions about 3 minutes before that so we'll have to finish with 10 men on the pitch.

They take one goal back on a nicely centered pass in the 73rd minute. Up 4-1.

We actually looked lost for about the last 20 minutes then boom in the 83rd minute. Lucarelli runs down the right wing with the ball until he spots Hersi, unmarked, on the edge of the 6 yard box. The center is perfect and Hersi is left with an easy header for the 5-1 goal!

That's an exciting game full of action and it goes past regulation time when 2:14 into added time, Simon Jentzsch makes a great save. Guarín goes to fight for the rebound with an opponent and the ref whistles! PENALTY!!! He adjuged that Guarín pushed the other player! The kicker lines up, kicks and SIMON JENTZSCH SAVES IT!!! He even rushes out to pick up the rebound!!!

Final Score: Q.P.R. 5, Feyenoord 1

The final final 30 minutes ended up being quite a battle with a man down for us. Shots ended at 19(8) for us, 20(7) for them. This is a great lead to take into leg 2 of the series, even more that these are 5 away goals!

Simon Jentzsch got selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 10. Youssouf Hersi had a great game playing the whole game in the AMC spot. He got rated at 9 after completing 37 of 41 passes, 5 of them key passes. Every other start but injurd Michael Ball rated at 8.

Speaking of Ball, he suffered a gashed head in the game but he will only miss 3 days.

Leg 2 of the series with Feyenoord is in exactly one week at Loftus Road.

FM

KevinNU7 · 11-15-2005, 02:50 PM

Congrats on the big win, looks like an easy pass to the next round

FrogMan · 11-15-2005, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinNU7

Congrats on the big win, looks like an easy pass to the next round

Thanks, it's no big spoiler (even though legh 2 has been played and only need to be reported

) to say that when you start with a 4 goal lead, going back home, things are looking pretty good

I don't remember us ever losing by 4 (or more) at home, at least not since our second season in the EPL...

FM

daedalus · 11-15-2005, 06:44 PM

Too bad you couldn't get to Adu. In spite of fairly pedestrian ratings, he does play dangerous. Even in the demo when I only had him for 2-3 games, whenever he was in he was able to do more than his ratings suggested.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Today is also the day that I'm allowed to add/swap players to our list of eligible players for later rounds of the EUFA Cup. We're at 23 players out of a possible list of 25 so I add Scott Donnelly as #24 and goalkeeper Dean Morgan as #25. I could swap 3 but I don't see any. Philippe Senderos is ineligible, probably because he joined us in season...

Midseason acquisition can be made eligible for Champion's League. Chances are Senderos is ineligible because he is cup-tied having played in a Champion's League match with Arsenal.

FrogMan · 11-15-2005, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daedalus

Too bad you couldn't get to Adu. In spite of fairly pedestrian ratings, he does play dangerous. Even in the demo when I only had him for 2-3 games, whenever he was in he was able to do more than his ratings suggested.

Yeah, couldn't convince the analytical part of my brain that he was really worth it

And the 6.7 or so form rating average didn't really jump out the screen either...

Quote:

Originally Posted by daedalus

Midseason acquisition can be made eligible for Champion's League. Chances are Senderos is ineligible because he is cup-tied having played in a Champion's League match with Arsenal.

I thought about that and honestly it's probably what I should have written in there, especially after having experienced it first hand with him being cup-tied for the FA Cup... I'll only play him more in league play

FM

FrogMan · 11-16-2005, 11:38 AM

February 17, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	9-7-7-8-10	100%	35	-	7.46
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	95%	23	-	7.22
DL		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-6-6-7-8	100%	18 (2)	-	7.00
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-8-7-8-8	92%	33	1	7.36
DC	Yel	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-8-7-7-8	97%	27 (1)	1	7.29
DMC		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Very Good	8-8-8-8-7	100%	8 (14)	1	7.09
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	9-7-8-7-8	93%	26 (6)	1	7.53
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	7-7-6-7-8	93%	17 (12)	5	7.21
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Very Good	7-8-7-7-7	93%	18 (1)	7	7.68
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	9-7-7-5-7	95%	13 (7)	7	7.10
FC		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	93%	20 (10)	12	7.13
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Very Good	7-7-9-7-6	100%	1	-	7.00
S2	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-6-7-7	92%	5 (14)	1	6.95
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	10 (13)	3	7.26
S4	Yel	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	6-7-8-5-8	92%	23 (3)	5	7.12
S5		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	90%	29 (3)	18	7.41
-		Pascal Cygan	D C	Good	7-8-7-7-7	100%	25 (3)	2	7.18
-		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	91%	16 (5)	4	7.29
-		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	90%	20	1	7.45
-		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	10-9-7-8-8	70%	22 (7)	2	7.62
-	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-7-7-9-7	90%	8 (7)	6	7.20
-	Sus	Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Poor	7-7-7-5	100%	3	-	6.33

League Match #28: we play Fulham at Loftus Road. They are in 6th place, only 5 points under us with a game on hand. We are 5-4 favourites to win this game.

Philippe Senderos is suspended for this game although we don't have any injuries right now.

I decide to try something with my back four. I give up arrows to both fullbacks and back arrows to both centrebacks. We'll see how it goes...

Fulham show a 3-4-1-2 formation to start the game.

A goal by Christian Wilhelmsson is disallowed in the 10th minute after the assistant referee had raised his flag. Wilhelmsson was offside on the pass from Güiza...

So what, we try again, and again, and in the 28th minute, it pays off on a short corner from Juanfran to Peter Lovenkrands. Lovenkrands' center to the 6 yard box is low but Abubakari Yakubu connects with it with a diving header to make it 1-0!

In the 34th minute takes a free kick on the outside edge of theirn penalty area. Instead of shooting to goal, he plays it short to Bonaventure Kalou who smashes it in low. The ball hits a defender before finding its way behind the keeper for th 2-0 goal!

1:35 into added time, Kalou tries a crazy backpass from almost midfield back to keeper Simon Jentzsch. Jentzsch is in the middle of a crowd and gets tackles and he loses the ball. They score an easy goal... Abubakari Yakubu went down on the play and needed to be checked by the team physio.

The halftime score is 2-1 and we're outshooting them 9(4) to 7(4). We're also winning possession with a solid 55%.

Steve Finnan is called for a foul just inside our penalty area in the 68th minute... PENALTY!!! They score to tie the game, 2-2. CRAP!

In the 79th minute, Scott Donnelly shows first some great resilience in holding up play to give a chance to his teammates of getting open, then great vision in seeing Tomas Locatelli all accross the field. His 60 yard long wing to wing crosspass is perfect and Locatelli takes it home to get us back in the lead, 3-2!

Crap, will we ever keep a lead?!? We let them get back in the game only 2 minutes later, tied again, 3-3.

We exchange some impressive wing to wing pass a couple times in the 87th minute, so much so that we got our opponents all mixed up as to which side is up. Locatelli takes advantage of the confusion and finds Jon Dahl Tomasson in the center. Tomasson heads the ball in for the winning goal!

Final Score: Q.P.R. 4, Fulham 3

A wild, wild game in which we outshot them on shots 17 to 14, but where they were more accurate with 9 on target to our 7.

Güiza was selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 8 and a goal. Simon Jentzsch and both wingers, Wilhelmsson and Lovenkrands, also all rated at 8.

This win allowed us to pass Liverpool to 3rd place, 5 points off Chelsea with 10 games to play.

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Man Utd	28	20	3	5	61	25	+36	63
2nd	Chelsea	28	18	4	6	67	39	+28	58
3rd	Q.P.R.	28	15	8	5	52	29	+23	53
4th	Liverpool	28	15	7	6	39	23	+16	52
5th	Blackburn	28	12	11	5	36	25	+11	47
6th	Fulham	27	13	5	9	44	42	+2	44
7th	Arsenal	28	12	7	9	48	33	+15	43
8th	Man City	28	10	13	5	37	25	+12	43
9th	Southampton	28	11	7	10	36	32	+4	40
10th	Middlesbrough	28	10	9	9	37	37	0	39
11th	Aston Villa	28	10	8	10	33	37	-4	38
12th	Charlton	28	11	5	12	26	33	-7	38
13th	Birmingham	27	10	7	10	35	29	+6	37
14th	Tottenham	28	10	7	11	28	37	-9	37
15th	Nottm Forest	28	8	7	13	27	44	-17	31
16th	Newcastle	28	7	7	14	37	43	-6	28
17th	Portsmouth	28	4	11	13	24	45	-21	23
18th	Leeds	28	5	7	16	27	46	-19	22
19th	Wolves	28	3	12	13	23	39	-16	21
20th	Cardiff	28	0	5	23	14	68	-54	5

My head physio tells me that Bonaventure Kalou is in need of some rest. Dang, this means that Youssouf Hersi will see more playing time...

FM

FrogMan · 11-16-2005, 11:39 AM

February 18, 2008
The draw for the 6th round of the FA Cup happens today, even though we're kind of late and we have not played our 5th round game against Nottm Forest. The winner of our match will play EPL relegation battlers Portsmouth on their pitch in round 6.

February 19, 2008
Lee Porter has agreed to terms on a contract with Ipswich. While I almost expected our supporters to be pissed off at me for letting go of the youngster, they're not. The Ipswich fans on the other hand are reportedly delighted that manager Dave Jones has landed the club a real bargain with the signing of fullback Lee Porter. The $1,000,000 signing from Q.P.R. has really caught the imagination of the public at Portman Road and Supporters feel the 19yo will prove a great piece of business. Good for them...

February 20, 2008
Aww crap! Just when I needed him to step up in the attacking portion of our midfield, Youssouf Hersi strained his groin in training. At first thought to miss 2 weeks, it's increased to 3 weeks of missed time when he goes to his first physiotherapy treatment. I move Cedric van der Gun back to the first team squad.

February 21, 2008
Abubakari Yakubu suffered a damaged foot in the morning's training session, a training session that should not have happened, AS WE PLAY TODAY!!!

FM

FrogMan · 11-16-2005, 11:58 AM

February 21, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	7-7-8-10-8	100%	36	-	7.47
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Good	7-7-7-8-7	96%	24	-	7.21
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	96%	20	1	7.45
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Very Good	8-7-8-8-7	92%	34	1	7.35
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Good	7-8-7-7-7	100%	25 (3)	2	7.18
DMC		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-8-5-8-7	96%	23 (4)	5	7.11
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	7-8-7-8-8	95%	27 (6)	1	7.55
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	10-9-7-8-8	92%	22 (7)	2	7.62
AMC	Unh	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	100%	2 (4)	-	7.33
FC	Yel	Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	98%	29 (3)	18	7.41
FC		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Very Good	7-6-7-8-8	95%	18 (12)	5	7.23
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Very Good	7-7-9-7-6	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	6-6-7-8-7	94%	19 (2)	-	7.00
S3		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	8-8-8-7-7	93%	9 (14)	1	7.09
S4	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-6-7-7-7	92%	5 (15)	2	6.95
S5		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	96%	10 (14)	3	7.25
S6		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	92%	21 (10)	13	7.13
S7	Unh	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-7-7-9-7	95%	8 (7)	6	7.20
-		Güiza	S C	Good	7-7-5-7-8	93%	14 (7)	7	7.14
-	Inj	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	64%	16 (5)	4	7.29
-		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Good	8-7-7-7-7	90%	19 (1)	8	7.65
-	Ine	Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Poor	7-7-7-5	100%	3	-	6.33
-	Inj	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	85%	28 (1)	2	7.28

UEFA Cup, 1st Knockout round, leg 2: we play Feyenoord at Loftus Road. We go into this game leading 5-1 on aggregate and are 5-4 favourites to win it.

With this kind of lead, I think it's as good a game as any to give Cedric van der Gun some playing time in the AMC spot. He'll start there today and Jon Dahl Tomasson will back him up.

Fabrice Fernandes is back in the lineup.

This game is on TV and Cristiano Lucarelli and Andrzej Niedzielan are again their team's respective key men. They're saying that this game has draw written all over it. Personally, I wouldn't mind a draw...

They take an early lead in the 10th minute, on a center from the left that went right over Pascal Cygan's head and I fear the worst at first. Everybody on our side is rated at 5...

We do get our heads back in the game and the halftime score is only 0-1, 5-2 on aggregate scores. We are even outshooting them 9(5) to 8(3). Peter Lovenkrands is rating at only 5 and I replace him with Raúl Sánchez.

Tomas Locatelli, who'd come in to replace Fernandes in the second half, has to leave the field, injured, in the 83rd minute. We're out of subs so we end the game at 10. I put Cedric van der Gun on the right wing and Christian Wilhelmsson on the left wing.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 0, Feyenoord 1 (5-2 aggregate)

We outshot them 14(7) to 10(5) so even with the loss today, it's nice win on aggregate.

We're given $180k for the win and we're trhough to the 2nd knockout round, in which we will play Portuguese side Benfica. They have just won their series with Romanian side Rapid, 1-1 & 1-0. We won a friendly 3-0 against them last Summer. The first leg will be played on their pitch on March 6 and the second a week later, on March 13, at Loftus Road.

Tomas Locatelli came out of this game with bruised ribs and he'll miss 3 days.

FM

FrogMan · 11-16-2005, 02:31 PM

February 24, 2008
Liverpool are the Carling Cup champions with a 1-0 win over Aston Villa.

After taking a look at avergae attendance in league play and seeing that we are averaging a crowd of 24,569 for every home game, I decide to go back to the team board and ask again for an expansion to the stadium. I know that local authorities turned us down last Summer, but we are doing very well this year, especially on Continental competition, bringing visibility to the club, and I'm hoping it'll go forward this time.

The team board concur that Loftus Road need to be improed if the team is to fulfil its potential and they assure me that plans are afoot to expand the stadium. We'll see about it in June...

February 25, 2008
Aww crap and a half! Cedric van der Gun has been ruled out for about 2 months after picking up a broken collarbone during a team training session. Fans of the club are optimistic however that van der Gun will be back in action sooner than hoped to help boost their drive for success.

I don't know what's wrong with the AMC spot, but guys are dropping like flies...

February 26, 2008
Fabrice Fernandes bruised a shin in training and he will miss 5 days.

FM

FrogMan · 11-17-2005, 11:33 AM

February 27, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Okay	7-8-10-8-5	100%	37	-	7.41
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Very Good	7-7-8-7-7	99%	25	-	7.20
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	21	1	7.43
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	95%	35	1	7.34
DC	Cup	Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Poor	7-7-7-5	100%	3	-	6.33
DMC	Yel	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	8-5-8-7-7	98%	24 (4)	5	7.11
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	8-7-8-8-7	97%	28 (6)	1	7.53
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Very Poor	6-7-8-8-5	99%	19 (12)	5	7.16
AMC		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	100%	21 (10)	13	7.13
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-7-7-8-6	99%	30 (3)	18	7.36
FC		Güiza	S C	Good	7-7-5-7-8	100%	14 (7)	7	7.14
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Good	7-7-9-7-6	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	6-6-7-8-7	100%	19 (2)	-	7.00
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	10 (14)	3	7.25
S4	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	6-7-7-7-7	91%	5 (16)	2	6.95
S5	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-7-9-7-7	94%	8 (8)	6	7.19
-		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	99%	26 (3)	2	7.17
-	Inj	Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	9-7-8-8-7	83%	23 (7)	2	7.60
-	Inj	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	57%	16 (5)	4	7.29
-		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Good	8-7-7-7-7	97%	19 (1)	8	7.65
-	Inj	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	78%	28 (1)	2	7.28
-		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	98%	9 (15)	1	7.08
-	Inj	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	36%	3 (4)	-	7.29

FA Cup, round 5: we play Nottingham Forest at Loftus Road. They are currently in 15th place in the EPL and we are 5-4 favourites to win this game.

Philippe Senderos is again cup-tied for this game. I didn't know what that meant at first (game was played before daedalus clued me in

) so I had him selected but had to replace him by Pascal Cygan as I was not allowed to keep him in...

I start Jon Dahl Tomasson in the AMC spot to give Bonaventure Kalou a breather.

They show a 5-3-2 formation with two wingbacks to start the game. They last played on February 9 while we've played three games since that day... phew!

We take a 1-0 lead in the 33rd minute when Peter Lovenkrands plays a nice short pass to Güiza who takes it home.

Their right wingback Brennan gets his second yellow of the game and is sent off only two minutes later. To make it even worse for them, Freddy Guarín kicks the ensuing free kick from just outside their penalty area real hard. Their keeper can stop it but he leaves a long rebound that Christian Wilhelmsson converts into a two goal lead for us. Up 2-0!

They take on back in the 40th minute after a long ball was played over our line of defenders, leaving a striker alone with Simon Jentzsch. Jentzsch rushed out but couldn't stop the precise strike.

The halftime score is 2-1 and we're outshooting them 8(5) to 6(2). We're quietly in control, winning possession with 57%, skewed toward their end of the field.

We add to our lead early in the second half when Lovenkrands bends a sweet looking center to Cristiano Lucarelli who heads it in. Coming from the left, the centered ball looked like it was getting away from the goal line, toward Lucarelli's head, before he smashed it behind the keeper. Up 3-1 after 52 minutes.

In the 83rd minute, Jentzsch clears a long ball over everybody's head for Lucarelli. He's not very fast and as he gets inside their penalty area, he appears to be tripped by an opponent... PENALTY!!! They say it was surely a dive by Lucarelli, but who cares!

This is getting ugly, Scott Donnelly got kicked by an opponent after the play was over. A yellow card is given... Amidst all the brouhaha, Freddy Guarín scores on the penalty kick to make it 4-1.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 4, Nottm Forest 1

We outshot them 22(13) to 7(2) on the game. One could say that we really took off in the second half...

Christian Wilhelmsson was selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 10. He scored a goal, completed 25 of 27 passes, 5 of them key passes, and had 7 runs past opponents in the game. Freddy Guarín had a rating of 9, winning all of the 8 headers he went for and putting 4 of 6 shots on target, one of them scoring him a goal. Danny shittu, Pascal Cygan, Peter Lovenkrands, and Cristiano Lucarelli all rated at 8.

We've been given $260 for the win and we're through to round 6 in which we will play Portsmouth on their picth on March 16.

Freddy Guarín has collected his 5th yellow card and has been automatically banned for one match.

Cristiano Lucarelli's 19th competitive goal of the season sets a new Q.P.R. season record, beating Güiza's record of 18 goals in a season set last season. NEAT!

March 1st, 2008
The team board is still delighted with my work as manager of the team.

Looking over my squad listing, I see two players that are being scouted by other teams. Danny Shittu is being scouted by Liverpool and Abubakari Yakubu is being scouted by German side Schalke 04. Yakubu is playing under a protected contract and as thus, Schalke would have to make a bid for his services. Shittu, on the other hand, is playing under a unprotected contract, possibly because his current contract was more than two seasons long since his contract supposedly runs until June 2009. I see a small concern for him that he'd like to sign a new contract. I can understand why, as he's currently earning only $6,000 per week. He's looking for a contract around $33.5k per eek with a signing on fee of $380k. Hrm, renewing him would make him a protected player again, well worth it in my opinion. I offer him a much lower offer, but with a better signing on fee. Big Dan is pretty loyal and not a very greedy player from my experience and I think I can get away with an offer of $25k per week with a signing on fee of $500k so I offer him that.

FM

FrogMan · 11-17-2005, 11:50 AM

March 1, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	8-10-8-5-6	100%	38	-	7.37
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	95%	26	-	7.19
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	22	1	7.41
DC	Wnt	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-8-7-7-8	92%	36	1	7.36
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Poor	7-7-7-5	100%	3	-	6.33
DMC		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	100%	9 (15)	1	7.08
MR		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	10 (15)	3	7.24
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Good	7-8-8-5-8	94%	20 (12)	5	7.19
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Good	8-7-7-7-7	99%	19 (1)	8	7.65
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-7-8-6-8	92%	31 (3)	19	7.38
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-5-7-8-7	94%	15 (7)	8	7.14
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Good	7-7-9-7-6	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	94%	27 (3)	2	7.20
S3	Yel	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	7-8-8-7-10	92%	29 (6)	2	7.60
S4	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	89%	5 (17)	2	6.95
S5		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	94%	22 (10)	13	7.13
-	Inj	Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	9-7-8-8-7	80%	23 (7)	2	7.60
-	Sus	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	5-8-7-7-9	93%	25 (4)	6	7.17
-	Inj	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	54%	16 (5)	4	7.29
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	6-6-7-8-7	100%	19 (2)	-	7.00
-	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-9-7-7-7	93%	8 (9)	6	7.18
-	Inj	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	74%	28 (1)	2	7.28
-	Inj	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	33%	3 (4)	-	7.29

League Match #29: we play Blackburn at Loftus Road. They are currently in 5th place, only 6 points below us. We are 5-4 favourites to win this game.

Philippe Senderos is finally eligible for a match, after UEFA cup matches, FA Cup matches and a suspension for another league match...

Freddy Guarín is suspended for this game. Damiano Zenoni gets the start in his place.

I hope Bonaventure Kalou rested enough in his game off because I need to start him today.

Again, they last played on February and we've played three games since that day...

Damiano Zenoni plays a corner kick short in a tight place in the 14th minute. Peter Lovenkrands and Scott Donnelly are giving him short options, but they are covered by three opponents... Lovenkrands plays the ball right back to Zenoni who switfly centers it to the 6 yard box where Danny Shittu jumps on top of the crowd to head it in. Up 1-0!

That is the halftime score and we're dominating them, first with shots, 8(3) to 2(0) then with possession with 63%, heavily skewed toward their end of the pitch.

Philippe Senderos gives me a "wow!" moment in the 51st minute. Simon Jentzsch went after an opponent on a rush out but got beat. The kick to the apparently empty net was kinda weak and Senderos got there just in time to stop the ball right on the goal line and save a goal, and our lead!

Cristiano Lucarelli adds to his season goal record in the 73rd minute when he scored his 20th goal of the season from wide right in an impossible angle. That play had been started by a nice pass from Kalou to Güiza and a nice through ball from Güiza to Lucarelli.

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

Danny Shittu, Scott Donnelly and Damiano Zenoni all had solid game, all rating at 8.

Liverpool won 1-0 over Nottm Forest so we remain one point ahead of them in 2rd place.

No news is good news as they say. Bonaventure Kalou, despite playing the whole game, doesn't need to be rested...

FM

FrogMan · 11-17-2005, 11:52 AM

March 2, 2008
We catch a big break of sorts as Chelsea drops an apparently easy game, losing 2-3 against relegation battlers Leeds. We're now within 2 points of Chelsea and second place, 1 point ahead of #4 Liverpool and a solid 9 points ahead of #5 Blackburn with 9 games to play.

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Man Utd	29	21	3	5	62	25	+37	66
2nd	Chelsea	29	18	4	7	69	42	+27	58
3rd	Q.P.R.	29	16	8	5	54	29	+25	56
4th	Liverpool	29	16	7	6	40	23	+17	55
5th	Blackburn	29	12	11	6	36	27	+9	47
6th	Man City	29	11	13	5	39	26	+13	46
7th	Fulham	28	13	5	10	45	44	+1	44
8th	Arsenal	29	12	7	10	49	36	+13	43
9th	Birmingham	29	12	7	10	39	30	+9	43
10th	Southampton	29	11	8	10	38	34	+4	41
11th	Middlesbrough	29	10	9	10	38	39	-1	39
12th	Aston Villa	29	10	8	11	33	39	-6	38
13th	Charlton	29	11	5	13	26	34	-8	38
14th	Tottenham	28	10	7	11	28	37	-9	37
15th	Nottm Forest	29	8	7	14	27	45	-18	31
16th	Newcastle	29	7	8	14	39	45	-6	29
17th	Portsmouth	29	5	11	13	27	45	-18	26
18th	Leeds	29	6	7	16	30	48	-18	25
19th	Wolves	29	4	12	13	26	40	-14	24
20th	Cardiff	29	0	5	24	14	71	-57	5

March 3, 2008
Danny Shittu and Damiano Zenoni have both been selected to the EPL Team of the Week. Zenoni has become a very good alternative to Freddy Guarín in the DMC spot in recent weeks...

On top of the weekly honors, Danny Shittu has agreed to a new deal with us. The lucrative deal valued at $5.4M will keep him at the club for the next 4 years. This latest deal brings our total wages up to $831k per week out of a budget of $900k, that's not too bad...

FM

FrogMan · 11-17-2005, 02:30 PM

March 6, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	10-8-5-6-7	100%	39	-	7.36
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	99%	27	-	7.19
DL		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	6-6-7-8-7	100%	19 (2)	-	7.00
DC	Wnt	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-7-7-8-8	94%	37	2	7.38
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	100%	27 (4)	2	7.19
DMC		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	5-8-7-7-9	100%	25 (4)	6	7.17
MR		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	96%	11 (15)	3	7.27
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	8-8-5-8-7	98%	21 (12)	5	7.18
AMC		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	100%	22 (10)	13	7.13
FC	Yel	Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-8-6-8-7	97%	32 (3)	20	7.37
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	5-7-8-7-7	97%	16 (7)	8	7.13
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Good	9-7-6-7-6	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	23	1	7.39
S3	Wnt	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-8-7	93%	28 (1)	2	7.28
S4	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	96%	5 (18)	2	6.96
S5		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	20 (1)	8	7.62
S6		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	98%	10 (15)	1	7.12
S7	Unh	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-9-7-7-7	99%	8 (9)	6	7.18
-		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	9-7-8-8-7	94%	23 (7)	2	7.60
-	Inj	Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	52%	16 (5)	4	7.29
-	Ine	Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Good	7-7-7-5-7	98%	4	-	6.50
-	Inj	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	8-8-7-10-7	83%	29 (7)	2	7.58
-	Inj	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	33%	3 (4)	-	7.29

UEFA Cup, 2nd Knockout Round, Leg 1: we play Portuguese side Benfica on their pitch. I don't know where they sit in the Portugal top series (can't wait to see this simmed in basic mode in FM2006) but I can say that they too have been booted from the Champions League to end up in the UEFA Cup. They are 5-4 favourites to win this game.

Looking at past matches between the two teams, I see that we've played them in the last two offseasons. We drew 0-0 in 2006 and beat them 3-0 this past offseason.

Looking at the fixtures of this round, I find it kind of weird that many series involve teams from the same country. In fact, other than our series, 5 of the 7 others involve teams from the same country, namely:
Betis/Zaragoza (Spain)
Bochum/HSV (Germany)
Charlton/Tottenham (England)
Nantes/St. Etienne (France)
Parma/Roma (Italy)

Christian Wilhelmsson suffered some bruised ribs in training yesterday and is 2 days from being completely healthy. Scott Donnelly, who's very capable of holding his own on the right wing as his proved no later than three days ago, will start in his place.

The legendary Pierluigi Collina is the assigned referee for our match, match that is on TV. They say that Benfica's enthusiastic midfielder Manuel Fernandes has the ability to pull the strings from midfield given the opportunity and that Q.P.R.'s powerful striker Cristiano Lucarelli has scored 20 goals in 35 games so far this season. As a prediction, they add that Benfica should come out on top against Q.P.R. today but that it'll be a tight affair. If he had to make a prediction, he'd stick his neck out and say 1-0.

Well, they do take a 1-0 lead in the 30th minute after a long, long pass over our centrebacks left a striker all alone with Simon Jentzsch whom he beat even though Jentzsch had cut all angles with a great rush out. That pass was a hair from being called offside and we've had some very good chances prior to that so I remain hopeful we'll get back in it.

"Ugh, that's gonna hurt our chances though" is what I think as I see Peter Lovenkrands receive his second yellow card of the game. He's off to an early shower in the 40th minute.

We're down 0-1 at the half, but we're outshooting them 6(2) to 3(2) and while they are winning possession, as I said, we had our chances. Now, being down a man is not gonna make it easy...

We tie it after only 20 seconds of play in the second half as Steve Finnan plays a nice through ball for Cristiano Lucarelli who got tackled on reception. The ball went to his right where Scott Donnelly got it and chipped over the head of the rushing keeper for the 1-1 goal!

We even take the lead 9 minutes later, as Juanfran plays a beauty of a corner to the 6 yard box where once again Danny Shittu jumps above a sea of player to head it in. Up 2-1!

We had another scoring chance in the 57th minute but we pushed a bit too hard and they took the ball all the way down the field to score an equalizer. Tied 2-2.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 2, Benfica 2

We outshot them 15(5) to 6(4) and I'm very happy to come back home with a tied score, even better are the two away goals! And to think that we did this on the road and down a man for half of the game... Leg 2 is our next game in one full week from now. Peter Lovenkrands will be banned for that one though.

Juanfran, Danny Shittu, Scott Donnelly, and Freddy Guarín all had good games, all rating at 6.

My had physio tells me that Danny Shittu now needs a rest. This has happened in the past and I kind of felt it coming. This is where the addition of Philippe Senderos will come in handy. Shittu has played in 38 competitive matches for us so far this season, in addition to 9 games for Nigeria.

FM

FrogMan · 11-18-2005, 11:36 AM

March 9, 2008
Youssouf Hersi resumes full training today.

March 10, 2008
The draw for the FA Cup Semi Final is today. The winner of the match between us and Portsmouth will play Manchester United, apparently on the road, although if I remember correctly, Semi Finals and Final are all played at Wembley. The other Semi Final will pit Chelsea and Southampton against each other. Southampton are the holders of the title btw.

FM

FrogMan · 11-18-2005, 11:38 AM

March 13, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Okay	8-5-6-7-6	100%	40	-	7.33
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	28	-	7.18
DL		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	6-7-8-7-8	99%	20 (2)	-	7.05
DC	Wnt	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	99%	28 (2)	2	7.27
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	99%	28 (4)	2	7.22
DMC		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-9-8	99%	26 (4)	6	7.20
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	8-8-7-10-7	97%	29 (7)	2	7.58
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	9-7-8-8-7	100%	23 (7)	2	7.60
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	20 (1)	8	7.62
FC	Yel	Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	8-6-8-7-7	99%	33 (3)	20	7.36
FC	Unh	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-9-7-7-7	100%	8 (9)	6	7.18
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Okay	9-7-6-7-6	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	23	1	7.39
S3	Yel	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	94%	38	3	7.37
S4	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	95%	5 (19)	2	6.96
S5		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-7-8-8	99%	12 (15)	4	7.30
S6		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	99%	23 (10)	13	7.12
S7		Güiza	S C	Good	7-8-7-7-7	98%	17 (7)	8	7.13
-		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	90%	16 (5)	4	7.29
-	Sus	Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Good	8-5-8-7-6	100%	22 (12)	5	7.15
-	Ine	Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Good	7-7-7-5-7	100%	4	-	6.50
-		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Good	7-7-7-8-7	100%	10 (16)	1	7.12
-	Inj	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	33%	3 (4)	-	7.29

UEFA Cup, 2nd Knockout Round, Leg 2: We play Benfica at Loftus Road. The series is tied 2-2 on aggregate scores and they are 5-4 favourites to win today.

Peter Lovenkrands is suspended for this game after being sent off in leg 1 of the series. Fabrice Fernandes gets the start even though he's not completely match fit.

Raúl Sánchez gets a rare start in this game.

The game is on TV and they mentionned that Cristiano Lucarelli has scored 20 goals in 36 games and that Benfica's Nuno Gomes has scored 9 in 24 games so far this season. They also add that both teams are fairly evenly matched and that they think this will be a draw. Fwiw, a 1-1 draw would give us a win on away goals while a 2-2 draw would push the game to extra time.

The game is scoreless until very late in the half, to the 44th minute to be exact, when a nice triangle of passes between Bonaventure Kalou, Cristiano Lucarelli and Christian Wilhelmsson ends with a centered ball by Wilhelmsson to Kalou who powers a header toward the goal that goes in off the post. Up 1-0, 3-2 on aggregate.

That is the halftime score. At one point, we were absolutely unable to get out of our half and this is reflected by the shots, at 7(2) for them and 3(3) for us. We're lucky not to be down at this point.

We're holding our grounds until the 80 minutes mark, when a nothing of a kick from 25 yards out finds the back of the net. DAMN! Tied 1-1 on the game, 3-3 on aggregate. If we can only hold on for 10 more minutes, we're still good to go...

I pulled Lucarelli from the game at that point and replaced him by Danny Shittu as we went to a 5-1-2-1-1 formation.

In the 84th minute, I go WOAH!!! as I almost shit my pants on shot from Güiza. He ripped a crazy bending shot from the left with almost no angle. Their keeper had absolutely no chances of getting this one. Up 2-1 on the game, 4-3 on aggregate.

They go to a 4-2-4 formation in the 87th minute, in hope of pulling a late equalizer but we hold them off...

Final Score: Q.P.R. 2, Benfica 1 (4-3 on aggregate)

They had trouble on accuracy in this game, only getting 3 of their 11 shots on target, compared to us hitting the mark 6 times out of 9. A Sweet win than mean we're through to the Quarter Final!!!

Only our two scorers, Bonaventure Kalou and Güiza, got rated higher than 7, at 8. Kalou was in the center of many plays, completing 47 of 53 passes on the game.

We've been given $360k for the win.

FM

FrogMan · 11-18-2005, 11:40 AM

March 14, 2008
The draw for the UEFA Cup Quarter Final round happens today. We'll play Italian side Roma. They are currently in 4th place in the Italian Serie A and just beat Parma, 3-1 on aggregate scores (0-1, 3-0). The first leg will be played on their pitch April 3 and the second will be on the 10th. In between will be a very important league match against Arsenal...

Kinda funny, the draw for the UEFA Semi Final Round happens later on in the day. The winner of our series against Roma will play the winner of the series between Betis and Valencia.

March 15, 2008
Some games are played in the EPL. Of interest to us, #2 Chelsea beat #9 Birmingham, 2-0, #4 Liverpool won 1-0 over #7 Fulham, and #5 Blackburn and #6 Manchester City drew 0-0. We slip to 4th place with Liverpool's win.

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Man Utd	29	21	3	5	62	25	+37	66
2nd	Chelsea	30	19	4	7	71	42	+29	61
3rd	Liverpool	30	17	7	6	41	23	+18	58
4th	Q.P.R.	29	16	8	5	54	29	+25	56
5th	Blackburn	30	12	12	6	36	27	+9	48
6th	Man City	30	11	14	5	39	26	+13	47
7th	Fulham	30	13	5	12	45	47	-2	44
8th	Arsenal	29	12	7	10	49	36	+13	43
9th	Birmingham	30	12	7	11	39	32	+7	43
10th	Southampton	29	11	8	10	38	34	+4	41
11th	Tottenham	29	11	7	11	30	37	-7	40
12th	Middlesbrough	29	10	9	10	38	39	-1	39
13th	Aston Villa	29	10	8	11	33	39	-6	38
14th	Charlton	29	11	5	13	26	34	-8	38
15th	Nottm Forest	30	8	7	15	30	50	-20	31
16th	Newcastle	29	7	8	14	39	45	-6	29
17th	Portsmouth	30	6	11	13	32	48	-16	29
18th	Leeds	29	6	7	16	30	48	-18	25
19th	Wolves	29	4	12	13	26	40	-14	24
20th	Cardiff	29	0	5	24	14	71	-57	5

FM

FrogMan · 11-18-2005, 11:54 AM

March 16, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	5-6-7-6-7	100%	41	-	7.32
DR	Yel	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	98%	29 (2)	2	7.26
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	23	1	7.39
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Very Good	7-7-7-5-7	100%	4	-	6.50
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	95%	29 (4)	2	7.21
DMC		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Good	7-7-7-8-7	100%	10 (16)	1	7.12
MR		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	99%	12 (16)	4	7.29
ML		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Good	8-5-8-7-6	100%	22 (12)	5	7.15
AMC		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	100%	23 (10)	13	7.12
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	6-8-7-7-7	93%	34 (3)	20	7.35
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	100%	17 (8)	9	7.16
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Okay	9-7-6-7-6	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-7-9	95%	16 (5)	4	7.29
S3	Yel	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	8-7-10-7-7	93%	30 (7)	2	7.57
S4		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	7-8-8-7-7	90%	24 (7)	2	7.58
S5	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	9-7-7-7-7	91%	9 (9)	6	7.17
-		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	29	-	7.17
-		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-9-8-7	94%	27 (4)	6	7.19
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	94%	21 (2)	-	7.04
-		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	90%	21 (1)	9	7.64
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	99%	5 (19)	2	6.96
-		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-8-8-7-6	98%	38 (1)	3	7.33
-	Inj	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	33%	3 (4)	-	7.29

League Match #30: we play Aston Villa on their pitch. They are currently in 13th place and are 6-4 favourites to win this game. They last played on March 2nd, while we played only three days ago.

Scott Donnelly has to leave the game in the 20th minute, injured. Christian Wilhelmsson replaces him on teh field.

We have to wait until we're 1:10 into added time before a goal is scored, when Christian Wilhelmsson showed great vision in setting up Güiza with a 45 yard long pass ahead of his run. It's a footrace between Güiza and the two centrebacks and Güiza wins it, getting to the ball first and then beating the keeper with a low ball for his 10th of the season. Up 1-0!

That is the halftime score. Shots are pretty low, at 4(3) for us and 5(1) for them. Peter Lovenkrands is having a rough game, still rated at 5 at the half.

We quietly gained control of the game as it went on and we add to our lead in the 79th minute, when Fabrice Fernandes picked up a loose ball in the middle of our half of the field, only to pass it forward, ahead of Youssouf Hersi who got one on one with the keeper. He beats him for his 5th of the season.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 2, Aston Villa 0

We had a much better second half and ended outshooting them 13(9) to 9(2) on the game.

Christian Wilhelmsson ended with the Man of the Match selection with a rating of 8. He had an assist in the game, his 13th of the season and this is a new season high for a Q.P.R. player. Also rating at 8 were Simon Jentzsch, Abubakari Yakubu, and Pascal Cygan.

We're back up to 3rd place with the win, now 1 point from Chelsea and 1 point off Liverpool. We're still 10 points away from Manchester United, with 8 games to play.

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Man Utd	30	22	3	5	66	25	+41	69
2nd	Chelsea	30	19	4	7	71	42	+29	61
3rd	Q.P.R.	30	17	8	5	56	29	+27	59
4th	Liverpool	30	17	7	6	41	23	+18	58
5th	Blackburn	30	12	12	6	36	27	+9	48
6th	Man City	30	11	14	5	39	26	+13	47
7th	Arsenal	30	13	7	10	51	36	+15	46
8th	Fulham	30	13	5	12	45	47	-2	44
9th	Birmingham	30	12	7	11	39	32	+7	43
10th	Southampton	29	11	8	10	38	34	+4	41
11th	Tottenham	30	11	8	11	30	37	-7	41
12th	Middlesbrough	30	10	10	10	38	39	-1	40
13th	Aston Villa	30	10	8	12	33	41	-8	38
14th	Charlton	30	11	5	14	26	36	-10	38
15th	Nottm Forest	30	8	7	15	30	50	-20	31
16th	Newcastle	30	7	8	15	39	48	-9	29
17th	Portsmouth	30	6	11	13	32	48	-16	29
18th	Leeds	30	6	7	17	30	52	-22	25
19th	Wolves	29	4	12	13	26	40	-14	24
20th	Cardiff	30	1	5	24	17	71	-54	8

Scott Donnelly came out of the game with a strained thigh and he'll miss 5 days.

The board is extremely happy with this win.

FM

FrogMan · 11-18-2005, 02:24 PM

March 17, 2008
As he's done a couple times already this season, Pascal Cygan is selected to the EPL Team of the Week in the week where he's coming back to the starting eleven after having missed a couple games...

March 18, 2008
Hrm, this is odd... Media mention that Jonathan Burton has never been the most patient of individuals at Q.P.R. and now it seems he has become tired of me persistently overlooking him. He told a national newspaper that he was disillusioned by my selection policy and wants to be guaranteed regular first team football. He also added that he would look to leave Loftus Road if he was unable to play every week... Kid, I just can't make you a guarantee like that. Geez, I don't even guarantee that to veteran Pascal Cygan!!! I think it's odd since Burton is described as a "casual"...

FM

FrogMan · 11-18-2005, 02:26 PM

March 19, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	6-7-6-7-8	100%	42	-	7.33
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	29	-	7.17
DL		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	99%	21 (2)	-	7.04
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-8-8-7-6	100%	38 (1)	3	7.33
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	8-7-8-7-8	94%	30 (4)	2	7.24
DMC		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-7-9-8-7	99%	27 (4)	6	7.19
MR	Yel	Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	7-10-7-7-8	93%	30 (8)	2	7.58
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	8-8-7-7-7	94%	24 (8)	2	7.56
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-7-9-7	96%	16 (6)	5	7.27
FC	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	9-7-7-7-7	95%	9 (9)	6	7.17
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-7-7-8-7	93%	18 (8)	10	7.15
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Okay	9-7-6-7-6	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	93%	21 (1)	9	7.64
S3		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	93%	11 (16)	1	7.11
S4		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	5-8-7-6-6	93%	23 (12)	5	7.11
S5		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	93%	35 (3)	20	7.34
-		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	24	1	7.38
-	Inj	Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-8-8-7-6	82%	13 (16)	4	7.24
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	5 (19)	2	6.96
-	Cup	Philippe Senderos	D C	Superb	7-7-5-7-7	94%	5	-	6.60
-		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	91%	24 (10)	13	7.12
-	Yel	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	95%	30 (2)	2	7.28
-	Inj	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	33%	3 (4)	-	7.29

FA Cup, 6th round: we play Portsmouth on their pitch. They are currently in 17th place of the EPL, fighting real hard to avoid dropping right back to the Championship. We are 4-5 favourites to win this game.

Philippe Senderos is again cup-tied and thus unavailable for this game. Scott Donnelly is out, still injured.

We play Chelsea on the 24th...

In the 13th minute, Raúl Sánchez makes me go all "WHAT!!!!!" when I see him pass the ball back from the centerline, all the way to Simon Jentzsch just outside of our penalty area. Thing is, just as he sent that ball back, Sánchez got moving and Jentzsch sent him the ball back, over his head and at the same time, the two centrebacks' heads!!! Alone with the keeper, the surefooted Sánchez doesn't miss it. In fact, Sánchez doesn't miss many one on one... Up 1-0!

Youssouf Hersi then shows great vision in the 30th minute when he finds Güiza on the wing. Güiza came into the area unchallenged by any defender, although he had to wrestle a diving keeper to score the 2-0 goal.

Jentzsch distributes a goal kick to the right to Steve Finnan in the 38th minute. Finnan then launched a sweet looking long pass ahead of Sánchez who scores his second of the game. Up 3-0!

We're comfortably ahead 3-0 at the half, outshooting them 9(6) to 3(2), and we'll keep it to that score in the second half.

Final Score: Q.P.R. 3, Portsmouth 0

We outshot them 14(8) to 6(3) in a seemingly easy win.

Youssouf Hersi got selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 9. Jentzsch, Finnan, Shittu, Guarín and Sánchez all had good games, all rating at 8.

We're given $700k for the win and we're through to the Semi Final, in which we'll play Manchester United at Wembley on April 16.

FM

FrogMan · 11-21-2005, 09:05 AM

March 21, 2008
Long time readers will remember promising goalkeeper Dean Morgan. While Dean has not played much with Q.P.R. this season, thanks to the outstanding play from Simon Jentzsch, the 19yo has just been called up to the England U19 squad for a friendly against the Australia U19 squad.

March 22, 2008
Some EPL games are played. Of interest to us, 1st position Manchester United drew 1-1 with #9 Birmingham and #4 Liverpool won 3-0 over #12 Middlesbrough. We slip to 4th place and our match against Chelsea in a couple of days becomes that much more important...

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Man Utd	31	22	4	5	67	26	+41	70
2nd	Chelsea	30	19	4	7	71	42	+29	61
3rd	Liverpool	31	18	7	6	44	23	+21	61
4th	Q.P.R.	30	17	8	5	56	29	+27	59
5th	Blackburn	31	13	12	6	38	28	+10	51
6th	Arsenal	31	14	7	10	54	36	+18	49
7th	Man City	31	11	15	5	40	27	+13	48
8th	Fulham	31	14	5	12	47	47	0	47
9th	Birmingham	31	12	8	11	40	33	+7	44
10th	Southampton	31	11	9	11	40	37	+3	42
11th	Tottenham	31	11	8	12	31	39	-8	41
12th	Charlton	31	12	5	14	28	37	-9	41
13th	Middlesbrough	31	10	10	11	38	42	-4	40
14th	Aston Villa	31	10	9	12	34	42	-8	39
15th	Portsmouth	31	7	11	13	33	48	-15	32
16th	Nottm Forest	31	8	7	16	30	52	-22	31
17th	Newcastle	31	7	8	16	39	49	-10	29
18th	Wolves	31	5	13	13	29	42	-13	28
19th	Leeds	31	6	7	18	30	55	-25	25
20th	Cardiff	31	1	5	25	18	73	-55	8

FM

FrogMan · 11-21-2005, 11:53 AM

March 24, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	7-6-7-8-8	100%	43	-	7.35
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	98%	30	-	7.20
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	100%	24	1	7.38
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	8-8-7-6-8	95%	39 (1)	3	7.35
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Superb	7-7-5-7-7	100%	5	-	6.60
DMC		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Superb	7-9-8-7-8	97%	28 (4)	6	7.22
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	10-7-7-8-7	98%	31 (8)	2	7.56
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	98%	25 (8)	2	7.55
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	99%	21 (1)	9	7.64
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	99%	35 (4)	20	7.33
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-7-8-7-7	98%	19 (8)	11	7.15
S1	Trn	Generoso Rossi	GK	Very Poor	7-8-7-6-8	100%	2	-	6.50
S2	Yel	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	100%	30 (2)	2	7.28
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	7-8-8-7-6	94%	13 (16)	4	7.24
S4		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	8-7-6-6-7	99%	23 (13)	5	7.11
S5	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-8	94%	10 (9)	8	7.21
-		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	98%	31 (4)	2	7.23
-		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-9-7-9	95%	17 (6)	5	7.35
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	98%	22 (2)	-	7.04
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	5 (19)	2	6.96
-	Inj	Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	81%	24 (10)	13	7.12
-		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	98%	11 (17)	1	7.11
-	Inj	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	33%	3 (4)	-	7.29

League Match #31: we play Chelsea at Loftus Road. They're currently in 2nd place but only 2 points ahead of us. A win for us today would put us in 2nd place!

They are 4-5 favourites but they also have a boatload of injuries. Namely, MC Pablo Aimar, DC Vincent Kompany, SC Ronaldo are all out and Robin Van Persie is just coming back. On top of that, Cristiano Ronaldo is suspended for the game today.

This game is the start of a crazy stretch that will see us play Man U in three days, then Roma on April 3rd and 10th, with a game against Arsenal in between the two legs, on the 6th, and then Man U again for the FA Cup Semi Final on April 16th...

I hope to fire up my guys, I go with a last minute comment in the media to the attention of Jose Mourinho. I tell them that we are more than ready and that we need no motivation and that we we couldn't wait to take them on at Loftus Road.

Grr, it's not having the effect I was looking for, as Simon Jentzsch, Cristiano Lucarelli, and Güiza are all relieved following my comment that I don't expect too much from the team and they hope the side can go into games without too much pressure on them... hrm...

The game is on TV and Christian Wilhelmsson is presented as our key man while midfield playmaker Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has created 8 goals in 37 games so far this season, is Chelsea's.

They add that not much separates the two sides, that Q.P.R. will find themselves up against a team who have had a good set of results of late and they think the two clubs will cancel each other out. This game has apparently draw written all over it.

Well, we would think they are after a scoreless yet very exciting first half of football. Shots are high and very even with us at 7(5) and them at 8(5).

The more we go into the game, the more and more they keep 11 men in the penalty area.

However, in the 76th minute, Bonaventure Kalou picks up a loose ball and after a couple blocked shot finally fires a shot hard enough that even though it's deflected, it makes it to the back of the net for the 1-0 goal and his 10th goal of the season!

DAMN! in the 87th minute, we collapse defensively and they move the ball at will, also thanks to a couple lucky bounces, and they score from 20 yards out to tie the game... I made the rookie mistake of pulling back too much...

Final Score: Q.P.R. 1, Chelsea 1

AAAARRRGGG!!!! There used to be a time that a 1-1 draw with Chelsea would have satisfied me, but not anymore, especially not this late in the season, fighting for the 2nd place in the EPL... They outshot us but barely, 13(8) to 12(8).

Their dang keeper got the Man of the Match selection with a rating of 10. For us, Bonaventure Kalou had the best game, with a rating of 9 as he put his 5 shots on target and scored our only goal. Simon Jentzsch was our only player to rate higher than 7.

we remain in 4th but failed to use this golden opportunity to pass Chelsea in the standings...

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Man Utd	31	22	4	5	67	26	+41	70
2nd	Chelsea	31	19	5	7	72	43	+29	62
3rd	Liverpool	31	18	7	6	44	23	+21	61
4th	Q.P.R.	31	17	9	5	57	30	+27	60
5th	Blackburn	31	13	12	6	38	28	+10	51
6th	Arsenal	31	14	7	10	54	36	+18	49
7th	Man City	31	11	15	5	40	27	+13	48
8th	Fulham	31	14	5	12	47	47	0	47
9th	Birmingham	31	12	8	11	40	33	+7	44
10th	Southampton	31	11	9	11	40	37	+3	42
11th	Tottenham	31	11	8	12	31	39	-8	41
12th	Charlton	31	12	5	14	28	37	-9	41
13th	Middlesbrough	31	10	10	11	38	42	-4	40
14th	Aston Villa	31	10	9	12	34	42	-8	39
15th	Portsmouth	31	7	11	13	33	48	-15	32
16th	Nottm Forest	31	8	7	16	30	52	-22	31
17th	Newcastle	31	7	8	16	39	49	-10	29
18th	Wolves	31	5	13	13	29	42	-13	28
19th	Leeds	31	6	7	18	30	55	-25	25
20th	Cardiff	31	1	5	25	18	73	-55	8

FM

FrogMan · 11-21-2005, 02:17 PM

March 29, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	6-7-8-8-8	100%	44	-	7.36
DR	Yel	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-8	100%	30 (2)	2	7.28
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	98%	25	1	7.36
DC		Danny Shittu	D C	Very Good	8-7-6-8-7	94%	40 (1)	3	7.34
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	7-8-7-8-7	100%	31 (4)	2	7.23
DMC		Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Very Good	9-8-7-8-7	95%	29 (4)	6	7.21
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	94%	32 (8)	2	7.55
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	98%	26 (8)	2	7.53
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Superb	7-7-9-7-9	100%	17 (6)	5	7.35
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	97%	36 (4)	20	7.33
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	97%	20 (8)	11	7.14
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Okay	7-6-7-6-6	100%	1	-	7.00
S2		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	93%	31	-	7.19
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Superb	8-8-7-6-7	99%	13 (17)	4	7.23
S4		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	6-6-7-7-9	93%	23 (14)	5	7.11
S5		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	7-7-7-8-9	92%	22 (1)	10	7.70
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	5 (19)	2	6.96
-	Inj	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	33%	3 (4)	-	7.29
-		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	11 (17)	1	7.11
-		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	93%	24 (10)	13	7.12
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	100%	22 (2)	-	7.04
-	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	100%	10 (10)	8	7.20
-		Philippe Senderos	D C	Superb	5-7-7-7-7	92%	6	-	6.67

League Match #32: we play Manchester United on their pitch. They're first in the league with a solid lead over Chelsea. They are 4-6 favourites to win this game

They show a 4-3-3 formation to start this game.

The first have is another entertaining scoreless one with lots of highlights and very tight play. We are even oushooting them 7(3) to 5(3). Simon Jentzsch and Danny Shittu are rated at 8 on our side and Tim Howard having a very solid game for them. They do have three players rating at 5 at the half.

It's kind of close in the beginning of the second half, until things unravel for us in the 72nd minute. After an attack up to their goal, they take the ball all the way from Howard to our goal, where Ruud Van Nistelrooy buries it for the 0-1 goal...

We keep trying, maybe even a bit too hard and Peter Lovenkrands is caught (!) upending an opponent in our penalty area... PENALTY!!! Paul Scholes lines up for the kick... kicks it, but JENTZSCH SAVES IT!!! Lovenkrands redeems himself by getting the rebound and clearing it away!

We're attacking hard but are not getting lucky and in the 88th minute, they get all the bounces right and after a long pass, Van Nistelrooy finds himself alone with Jentzsch. He beats him with a precise finish. Down 0-2. Pascal Cygan and Danny Shittu were so out of position on that long pass that it's not even funny...

Final Score: Q.P.R. 0, Manchester United 2

Dang I hate losing! They outshot us 15(8) to 10(7) on the game and Tim Howard got selected as Man of the Match with a rating of 9.

Simon Jentzsch, Abubakari Yakubu and Danny Shittu all rated at 8. Shittu had a nice game before letting that long pass go uncovered late in the game as he won 10 of 11 headers on the game. My physio does tell me that he needs to be rested though...

Liverpool won 2-1 over Blackburn and Chelsea won 2-0 over Manchester City and we're still in 4th place, slipping further from the top... Arsenal is now 8 points behind us with 6 games to play...

Pos	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st	Man Utd	32	23	4	5	69	26	+43	73
2nd	Chelsea	32	20	5	7	74	43	+31	65
3rd	Liverpool	32	19	7	6	46	24	+22	64
4th	Q.P.R.	32	17	9	6	57	32	+25	60
5th	Arsenal	32	15	7	10	56	36	+20	52
6th	Blackburn	32	13	12	7	39	30	+9	51
7th	Man City	32	11	15	6	40	29	+11	48
8th	Fulham	31	14	5	12	47	47	0	47
9th	Southampton	32	12	9	11	41	37	+4	45
10th	Birmingham	32	12	8	12	40	35	+5	44
11th	Tottenham	32	11	9	12	32	40	-8	42
12th	Charlton	31	12	5	14	28	37	-9	41
13th	Middlesbrough	32	10	10	12	40	45	-5	40
14th	Aston Villa	32	10	10	12	35	43	-8	40
15th	Nottm Forest	32	9	7	16	33	54	-21	34
16th	Portsmouth	31	7	11	13	33	48	-15	32
17th	Newcastle	31	7	8	16	39	49	-10	29
18th	Wolves	31	5	13	13	29	42	-13	28
19th	Leeds	32	6	7	19	30	56	-26	25
20th	Cardiff	31	1	5	25	18	73	-55	8

March 30, 2008
Cardiff played, an lost again, today. They are the first team to clinch relegation from the EPL this season.

April 1st, 2008
The board is still delighted with my work as manager.

FM

Galaxy · 11-21-2005, 11:45 PM

I'm currently unbeaten with Aarru in Swiss, 18 games in, 18 to go. Brought in some stellar young talent in my first year so far. Not bad for a team projected to battle regulation. Great thing is, what do I do in the January transfer? Look ahead for Europe next year with impact, veteran players? Or continue the youth movement by bringing in top young players to build a long-term foundation already in the process? Decisions, decisions....Sorry to threadjack.

Anyways, glad to see FrogMan at the helm.

NoSkillz · 11-22-2005, 10:09 AM

Tough result against ManU...there's probably a picture of Ruud in the Dutch dictionary beside 'Clinical Finisher'!

Love reading your work FrogMan...I just got my fresh copy of FM and this is motivating me to start a career.

FrogMan · 11-23-2005, 09:10 AM

April 3, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	7-8-8-8-8	100%	45	-	7.38
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-7-8-7-8	100%	31	-	7.19
DL		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	8-7-8-7-7	100%	22 (2)	-	7.04
DC		Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Very Good	7-7-7-8-8	100%	31 (2)	2	7.30
DC		Pascal Cygan	D C	Good	8-7-8-7-7	98%	32 (4)	2	7.22
DMC		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	100%	11 (17)	1	7.11
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Good	8-7-7-8-7	97%	33 (8)	2	7.54
ML		Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Good	7-7-7-7-7	97%	27 (8)	2	7.51
AMC		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Very Good	7-7-8-9-7	95%	22 (2)	10	7.67
FC	Yel	Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Okay	7-7-7-7-7	97%	37 (4)	20	7.32
FC		Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Okay	6-7-7-9-6	100%	23 (15)	5	7.08
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Okay	7-6-7-6-6	100%	1	-	7.00
S2	Yel	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	7-6-8-7-8	94%	41 (1)	3	7.36
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Very Good	8-7-6-7-7	100%	13 (18)	4	7.23
S4	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	5 (19)	2	6.96
S5		Güiza	S C	Good	8-7-7-7-7	96%	21 (8)	11	7.14
S6		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Good	7-9-7-9-7	98%	18 (6)	5	7.33
S7		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	99%	24 (10)	13	7.12
-	Inj	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	39%	3 (4)	-	7.29
-		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	98%	26	1	7.35
-	Unh	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	100%	10 (10)	8	7.20
-	Int	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Poor	7-8-7-7-7	87%	30 (4)	6	7.21
-	Ine	Philippe Senderos	D C	Superb	5-7-7-7-7	100%	6	-	6.67

UEFA Cup Quarter Final, leg 1: we play Roma on their pitch. They are currently in 5th place in the Italian Serie A. In fact they are a usual top 5 finisher in Serie A, year in year out... They are evens favourites to win this game.

If we got one thing going for us, it's that their top scorer, top form averager, Maxi Lopez is away on international duty.

On our end of things, Freddy Guarín is also away on international duty.

This game is on TV and they present keeper Ivan Pelizzoli as their key man, adding that Roma have only conceded 37 goals in the 42 games that he's played in. Christian Wilhelmsson is presented as our key man. For prediction, they say that it's a close call but that they've got to go with Roma on this one. They add that that Q.P.R. will give it everything but Roma should come out victorious in the end.

Well, looks like the trio of Peter Lovenkrands, Bonaventure Kalou and Christian Wilhelmsson isn't so sure about a Roma win, and they move the ball from left to right in the 6th minute, ending the sequence with a nice strike from Wilhelmsson, beating the keeper on the near side for the 1-0 goal!

That's the halftime score and we're outshooting them 8(5) to 6(2). There were many highlights despite the low score as it was a very exciting half of football. Kalou is rating at 9 an Jentzsch and Wilhelmsson are both rating at 8. Lovenkrands is having a rough half, rating at 5 for most of it and now at 6. I pull him out and replace him with Güiza.

After receiving a pass from centerfield in the 57th minute, Fabrice Fernandes tried a shot from long range but the ball got deflected all the way to the right sideline where it was picked up by Wilhelmsson. From there, Wilhelmsson dribbled it around no less than 3 defenders to finally bury it pass the keeper for his second goal of the game. A magical goal that makes it 2-0!!!

They get one back in the 65th minute, as a center to the 6yd box is headed in. It didn't take more to get the 53k+ crowd roaring! Still up, 2-1.

Their keeper joined the attack on a corner kick in the 87th minute. We stopped the kick and cleared it toward Wilhelmsson. He tries for his hat-trick from midfield but is wide right...

Final Score: Q.P.R. 2, Roma 1

We outshot them 17(10) to 12(5) on the game, a very fun game to watch!

Christian Wilhelmsson played a great game, getting the Man of the Match mention with two goals and a rating of 10. He completed all of his 23 passes, won 7 of 12 tackles and had 11 runs past opponents. Bonaventure Kalou also had a rating of 10 and a great game with an assist6 key passes. Steve Finnan and Damiano Zenoni both rated at 9 while Simon Jentzsch and Pascal Cygan rated at 8.

In the other Quarter Final played today, Charlton beat German side HSV 2-1.

FM

FrogMan · 11-23-2005, 09:10 AM

April 5, 2008
Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger tells me via the media that he truly hopes the best team win when our two side meet in our upcoming EPL clash. Wenger commented that I am a good manager and that I deserved every succes with The Rs.

Always nice thing to hear from a highly rated manager...

His comment gives Fabrice Fernandes a boost of confidence so big, he borders on the overconfidence. He believes the team cannot fail to perform whilst under my guidance.

Peter Lovenkrands, Danny Shittu, and Freddy Guarín are all happy to see I'm getting the praise that I deserve.

I liked his praise and decide to respond accordingly, praising my friend Arsène Wenger, saying he is one of the great manager in the game today and a friendly guy into the bargain.

Looking at Arsenal's list of recent fixtures, I'm kinda surprised to see they just crushed Manchester United 5-1 in the first leg of their Champions League Quarter Final.

Some EPL games are played. #3 Liverpool won 3-1 over #14 Aston Villa, not good for us, but #6 Blackburn lost 0-2 to #15 Nottm Forest, good for us as it keeps them from getting on to us...

FM

FrogMan · 11-23-2005, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Galaxy

I'm currently unbeaten with Aarru in Swiss, 18 games in, 18 to go. Brought in some stellar young talent in my first year so far. Not bad for a team projected to battle regulation. Great thing is, what do I do in the January transfer? Look ahead for Europe next year with impact, veteran players? Or continue the youth movement by bringing in top young players to build a long-term foundation already in the process? Decisions, decisions....Sorry to threadjack.

cool, is that with '06?

Anyway, if reading the dynasty got you to play a bit more, I can always leave with threadjacks like that

FM

FrogMan · 11-23-2005, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoSkillz

Tough result against ManU...there's probably a picture of Ruud in the Dutch dictionary beside 'Clinical Finisher'!

Love reading your work FrogMan...I just got my fresh copy of FM and this is motivating me to start a career.

Yeah, I hate him. And he's always in the top 3 of the top goal scorers in the EPL...

Thanks for reading, good luck with '06

Been trying it out without managing games, kind of to get a feeling for it. I like many of the new little things they have added to it and I'm torn between putting this career on pause and going with '06, or keep on going on withi this one...

FM

FrogMan · 11-23-2005, 11:48 AM

April 6, 2008

Pkd	Inf	Name	Position	Morale	Form	Con	Apps	Gls	Av Rat
GK		Simon Jentzsch	GK	Superb	8-8-8-8-8	100%	46	-	7.39
DR		Steve Finnan	D/DM R	Superb	7-8-7-8-9	98%	32	-	7.25
DL		Michael Ball	D/DM L	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	100%	26	1	7.35
DC	PR	Danny Shittu	D C	Superb	6-8-7-8-7	98%	41 (2)	3	7.35
DC		Philippe Senderos	D C	Superb	5-7-7-7-7	100%	6	-	6.67
DMC	PR	Freddy Guarín	DM RC	Okay	7-8-7-7-7	94%	30 (4)	6	7.21
MR		Christian Wilhelmsson	AM/F RLC	Superb	7-7-8-7-10	92%	34 (8)	4	7.60
ML	PR	Fabrice Fernandes	AM RL	Very Good	7-7-7-7-7	94%	28 (8)	2	7.50
AMC		Youssouf Hersi	AM C	Good	7-9-7-9-7	100%	18 (6)	5	7.33
FC		Cristiano Lucarelli	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	94%	38 (4)	20	7.31
FC		Güiza	S C	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	21 (9)	11	7.13
S1		Dean Morgan	GK	Poor	7-6-7-6-6	100%	1	-	7.00
S2	Yel	Abubakari Yakubu	D/DM RC	Superb	7-7-8-8-7	98%	32 (2)	2	7.29
S3		Scott Donnelly	AM RC	Very Good	8-7-6-7-7	100%	13 (18)	4	7.23
S4	PR	Peter Løvenkrands	F LC	Superb	7-7-9-6-6	95%	24 (15)	5	7.05
S5		Jon Dahl Tomasson	F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	100%	24 (10)	13	7.12
-		Pascal Cygan	D C	Superb	7-8-7-7-8	95%	33 (4)	2	7.24
-		Juanfran	D/DM L	Superb	7-8-7-7-7	94%	23 (2)	-	7.04
-		Bonaventure Kalou	AM/F RC	Superb	7-8-9-7-10	89%	23 (2)	10	7.76
-	Unh	Tomas Locatelli	AM LC	Superb	7-7-7-7-7	95%	5 (20)	2	6.96
-	Yel	Raúl Sánchez	S C	Very Good	7-7-7-8-7	100%	10 (10)	8	7.20
-		Damiano Zenoni	DM RC	Superb	8-7-7-7-9	93%	12 (17)	1	7.17
-	Inj	Cedric van der Gun	AM/F C	Superb	8-7-7-7-7	46%	3 (4)	-	7.29

League Match #33: we play Arsenal at Loftus Road. They are currently in 5th place, 8 points below us with 6 games to play. A win win here would go a long way toward securing a spot in the Champions League next season, as we'd take an 11 points lead over them with 5 games left to play (15 possible points).

Bonaventure Kalou is still very tired from our last game so I decide to rest him and I start Youssouf Hersi. I'm happy that Hersi has developped over the season, as his presence is very helpful now.

Philippe Senderos is back in and I keep Abubakari Yakubu on the bench. Freddy Guarín is also back with the team.

To start the game, I see that they have some players who are very tired, namely Thierry Henry and midfielder Patrick Vieira. Because of that, I decide to start the game with a faster tempo than what we're used to.

This switch in our tactics pays off in the 14th minute when Christian Wilhelmsson plays a nice wing to wing crosspass for Fabrice Fernandes who plays it on a short center to Güiza. Güiza fakes a defender first then beats the keep to his left. Up 1-0 in a very physical start to the game. Edu got injured in the 2nd minute and they already have players getting pretty low in condition. Vieira is at 75% while Roque Santa Cruz is at 80% and Henry is at 83% and this after only 15 minutes of play.

We add to our lead in the 39th minute when Wilhelmsson plays a nice center from the right edge of the penalty area to Youssouf Hersi, standing on the penalty spot. Hersi turns around and hits a perfect half-volley to make it 2-0!

They take one back in the 42nd minute, as Philippe Senderos makes a kiddo mistake. With Santa Cruz coming toward him, he's a bit overeager and let Henry run past him and find a spot unmarked just inside our penalty area. The pass from Santa Cruz is perfect and Henry is left alone with Jentzsch. A typical placed from Henry means it's now 2-1.

DANG!!! Sloppy, sloopy football we're playing and only 2 minutes later, we leave an unmarked man on a corner kick. The kick goes straight to him and it's headed in to tie it 2-2. Both our centrebacks are rated at 6 after that goal, a disgrace!

2-2 is the halftime score. They are outshooting us 9(7) to 8(4) and while we're winning possession with 54%, 23 of these are us controlling the ball inside our defensive area...

HOT DAMN!!! We leave Henry alone again in the 63rd, not just a little too, as he's able to get one shot on goal, blocked by Jentzsch, and Henry is able to get the rebound and put it behind Jentzsch for the 2-3 goal! I'm so pissed off about it that I decide to put Freddy Guarín on man mark specific, asking him to glue himself to Henry.

We get back in the game in the 75th minute, when Youssouf Hersi scores his second goal of the game, heading in a perfect center to the 6 yard box from Peter Lovenkrands. Tied 3-3!

The crowd of Loftus Road goes wild in the 85th minute as their favourites take the lead back. A perfect pass from the centerline from Lovenkrands ahead of Jon Dahl Tomasson, followed by a nice run from Tomasson in between their two centrebacks and then a nice placed shot off the post meant the locals were back up, 4-3!

We're not backing down either and 2:30 into added time, another Lovenkrands pass for Tomasson, this time a center to the penalty spot, gave Tomasson a chance to fire a short from close range. Their keeper stopped it but he let go a long rebound that Hersi was just too happy to bury for his hat-trick!!!

Final Score: Q.P.R. 5, Arsenal 3

A wild wild game in which we outshot them 17(11) to 14(10) and honestly, our bench won this game. Even though Youssouf Hersi and his three goals, rating of 10 and Man of the Match selection were great, it's the entry of Scott Donnelly, Peter Lovenkrands, and Jon Dahl Tomasson into the game in the 65th minute that proved the turning point. All three of them rated at 8, Lovenkrands registering 2 assists and Tomasson getting one. Güiza and Jentzscbh also had solid games, both rating at 8.

Chelsea won and we're still in 4th, now 11 points clear of Arsenal and 4 points of 3rd place Liverpool.

Pos	Inf	Team	Pld	Won	Drn	Lst	For	Ag	G.D.	Pts
1st		Man Utd	33	23	5	5	70	27	+43	74
2nd		Chelsea	33	21	5	7	76	43	+33	68
3rd		Liverpool	33	20	7	6	49	25	+24	67
4th		Q.P.R.	33	18	9	6	62	35	+27	63
5th		Arsenal	33	15	7	11	59	41	+18	52
6th		Blackburn	33	13	12	8	39	32	+7	51
7th		Fulham	33	15	6	12	50	48	+2	51
8th		Man City	33	11	16	6	41	30	+11	49
9th		Southampton	33	12	10	11	41	37	+4	46
10th		Birmingham	33	12	9	12	40	35	+5	45
11th		Charlton	33	13	5	15	32	41	-9	44
12th		Tottenham	33	11	9	13	32	42	-10	42
13th		Middlesbrough	33	10	11	12	40	45	-5	41
14th		Aston Villa	33	10	10	13	36	46	-10	40
15th		Nottm Forest	33	10	7	16	35	54	-19	37
16th		Portsmouth	33	7	12	14	34	51	-17	33
17th		Newcastle	33	8	8	17	42	51	-9	32
18th		Wolves	33	6	14	13	30	42	-12	32
19th		Leeds	32	6	7	19	30	56	-26	25
20th	R	Cardiff	32	1	5	26	19	76	-57	8

My head physio tells me that Danny Shittu needs a rest.

The board is delighted with the win over our rivals.

As could be expected, this game was a record high scoring game for us...

FM

FrogMan · 11-23-2005, 12:00 PM

April 7, 2008
Youssouf Hersi got selected to the EPL Team of the Week, deservedly I might add... Showing you what kind of game it was against Arsenal, both their strikers, Thierry Henry and Roque Santa Cruz, also got selected on that team.

April 10, 2008
Cedric van der Gun resumes full training. I feel kind of bad for him. He figured to finally get some playing time in the AMC spot with Bonaventure Kalou needing a rest from time to time, and bam, got injured, boom Youssouf Hersi shines...

FM

11-11-2005, 03:58 AM	#205
Blade6119 Coordinator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Scottsdale, Arizona	Wow, talk about deja vu...i read this thread then went over to SI and looked at the soccer section...top article is about the world cup qualy playoffs going on soon and of course the key player for the swiss team is listed as Philippe Senderos!! I was cracking up at that...heres the link to the article, i think its the third page they talk about him. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ews/index.html __________________ *Underachievement* The tallest blade of grass is the first to be cut by the lawnmower. *Despair* It's always darkest just before it goes pitch black. *Demotivation* Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to fire all of the unhappy people. http://www.despair.com/viewall.html

11-14-2005, 09:09 AM	#209
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	January 27, 2008 Well, there he is again, or is it a different one eacher time? Anyway, an ex Ivory Coast international is again doubting Ivory Coast's chances of winning over Senegal. Bleh... That being said, the same thoughts are not shared in the Ivory Coast camp, as Aruna has declared the team in optimistic mood ahead of the country's African Cup of Nations Group A game against Senegal. Aruna told a local newspaper that he felt Ivory Coast had the players capable of winning the match and he hoped they could give the nation something to cheer about by securing a victory. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog... Last edited by FrogMan : 11-14-2005 at 09:49 AM.

11-14-2005, 02:25 PM	#216
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	February 4, 2008 In the other Quarter Finals of the African Cup of Nations, Republic of Congo beat Zimbabwe, 2-1, and Cameroon beat host country Ghana, 1-0. This means that Ivory Coast will play Republic of Congo in one Semi Final and Morocco will play Cameroon in the other one. We have beat both of these teams in the last year, Morocco 2-0 in group play and Cameroon in a wild friendly, 5-3. February 5, 2008 Raúl Sánchez twisted his knee in training and will miss one week. February 6, 2008 Guess who's back, back again The doubter's back, tell your friends Yeah, that ex-Ivory Coast international is again doubting Ivory Coast's chances of beating Republic of Congo. I tell ya, we better never find the name of that traitor or else he could spend a frigging bad 15 minutes... On the flip side though, hero of last match with the winning kick, Yago is optimistic of Ivory Coast's chances to win their upcoming African Cup of Nations Semi Final. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-15-2005, 11:38 AM	#220
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	February 11, 2008 Danny Shittu has been selected to the EPL Team of the Week. Freddy Adu signed a new deal that will keep him at Inter for three seasons. February 13, 2008 Lee Porter has asked to meet me in private. He tells me that he must play regular first team football if he is to stay at Loftus Road and that if I can't grant him this wish, he will start looking for a new club. I told him that while I thought he was a nice kid, he wasn't in our first team plan, especially with the glut of left fullbacks we already have on the team. We ended our meeting with a handshake and a promise from me that I'd transfer list him, which I did. Valued at $4.8M, I ask $1.25M for the 19yo left fullback. While not a bad player, I don't feel he'll ever develop into a regular Premiership player for us... No more than a couple of hours have passed and an offer was already in the fax. Ipswich are very interested in Porter and they're offering $1M plus 20% of next sale. I accept the offer, mentionning that he isn't in the club's first team plans. February 14, 2008 Another offer for Lee Porter's services came today. This time, it's Gillingham who are interested in acquiring him. They are offering the requisite $1.25M and I accept their offer. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-15-2005, 02:50 PM	#222
KevinNU7 College Starter Join Date: May 2003 Location: Beantown	Congrats on the big win, looks like an easy pass to the next round __________________ Boston Bashers - III.14 - (8347)

11-10-2005, 04:10 PM	#202
daedalus Pro Rookie Join Date: Oct 2000	Congrats on signing Big Phil. When I was tinkerin' with the demo, I actually started him more than a few games and he held his own, even at 19. Great in the air, even if he needed somebody with speed next to him. He'll be even better when you get the speedier centrebacks back to pair with him.

11-11-2005, 03:13 AM	#204
daedalus Pro Rookie Join Date: Oct 2000	Certainly. He definitely makes a good signing for you, especially since you have speedy centrebacks to pair with him. He does a heck of a job patrolling the back.

11-16-2005, 11:39 AM	#227
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	February 18, 2008 The draw for the 6th round of the FA Cup happens today, even though we're kind of late and we have not played our 5th round game against Nottm Forest. The winner of our match will play EPL relegation battlers Portsmouth on their pitch in round 6. February 19, 2008 Lee Porter has agreed to terms on a contract with Ipswich. While I almost expected our supporters to be pissed off at me for letting go of the youngster, they're not. The Ipswich fans on the other hand are reportedly delighted that manager Dave Jones has landed the club a real bargain with the signing of fullback Lee Porter. The $1,000,000 signing from Q.P.R. has really caught the imagination of the public at Portman Road and Supporters feel the 19yo will prove a great piece of business. Good for them... February 20, 2008 Aww crap! Just when I needed him to step up in the attacking portion of our midfield, Youssouf Hersi strained his groin in training. At first thought to miss 2 weeks, it's increased to 3 weeks of missed time when he goes to his first physiotherapy treatment. I move Cedric van der Gun back to the first team squad. February 21, 2008 Abubakari Yakubu suffered a damaged foot in the morning's training session, a training session that should not have happened, AS WE PLAY TODAY!!! FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-16-2005, 02:31 PM	#229
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	February 24, 2008 Liverpool are the Carling Cup champions with a 1-0 win over Aston Villa. After taking a look at avergae attendance in league play and seeing that we are averaging a crowd of 24,569 for every home game, I decide to go back to the team board and ask again for an expansion to the stadium. I know that local authorities turned us down last Summer, but we are doing very well this year, especially on Continental competition, bringing visibility to the club, and I'm hoping it'll go forward this time. The team board concur that Loftus Road need to be improed if the team is to fulfil its potential and they assure me that plans are afoot to expand the stadium. We'll see about it in June... February 25, 2008 Aww crap and a half! Cedric van der Gun has been ruled out for about 2 months after picking up a broken collarbone during a team training session. Fans of the club are optimistic however that van der Gun will be back in action sooner than hoped to help boost their drive for success. I don't know what's wrong with the AMC spot, but guys are dropping like flies... February 26, 2008 Fabrice Fernandes bruised a shin in training and he will miss 5 days. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-18-2005, 11:36 AM	#234
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	March 9, 2008 Youssouf Hersi resumes full training today. March 10, 2008 The draw for the FA Cup Semi Final is today. The winner of the match between us and Portsmouth will play Manchester United, apparently on the road, although if I remember correctly, Semi Finals and Final are all played at Wembley. The other Semi Final will pit Chelsea and Southampton against each other. Southampton are the holders of the title btw. FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-18-2005, 02:24 PM	#238
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	March 17, 2008 As he's done a couple times already this season, Pascal Cygan is selected to the EPL Team of the Week in the week where he's coming back to the starting eleven after having missed a couple games... March 18, 2008 Hrm, this is odd... Media mention that Jonathan Burton has never been the most patient of individuals at Q.P.R. and now it seems he has become tired of me persistently overlooking him. He told a national newspaper that he was disillusioned by my selection policy and wants to be guaranteed regular first team football. He also added that he would look to leave Loftus Road if he was unable to play every week... Kid, I just can't make you a guarantee like that. Geez, I don't even guarantee that to veteran Pascal Cygan!!! I think it's odd since Burton is described as a "casual"... FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-21-2005, 11:45 PM	#243
Galaxy Coordinator Join Date: Apr 2005	I'm currently unbeaten with Aarru in Swiss, 18 games in, 18 to go. Brought in some stellar young talent in my first year so far. Not bad for a team projected to battle regulation. Great thing is, what do I do in the January transfer? Look ahead for Europe next year with impact, veteran players? Or continue the youth movement by bringing in top young players to build a long-term foundation already in the process? Decisions, decisions....Sorry to threadjack. Anyways, glad to see FrogMan at the helm. Last edited by Galaxy : 11-21-2005 at 11:48 PM.

11-22-2005, 10:09 AM	#244
NoSkillz College Benchwarmer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: St. Catharines, Canada	Tough result against ManU...there's probably a picture of Ruud in the Dutch dictionary beside 'Clinical Finisher'! Love reading your work FrogMan...I just got my fresh copy of FM and this is motivating me to start a career. __________________ MY CURRENT FM19 DYNASTY - FM19: "Ludere causa Ludendi - To Play for the Sake of Playing" - Queen's Park FC (Scottish League Two) MY OLD FM11 DYNASTY - FM11: From Semi-Pro Minnows to the EPL - Dover Athletic FC My Personal Blog - Now on the Tee - Golf, Sports, Poker, Life 2006 GOLDEN SCRIBE AWARD WINNER FOR BEST 'OTHER SPORT' DYNASTY - EHM2005: Sharpening Swords in Buffalo

11-23-2005, 09:10 AM	#246
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	April 5, 2008 Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger tells me via the media that he truly hopes the best team win when our two side meet in our upcoming EPL clash. Wenger commented that I am a good manager and that I deserved every succes with The Rs. Always nice thing to hear from a highly rated manager... His comment gives Fabrice Fernandes a boost of confidence so big, he borders on the overconfidence. He believes the team cannot fail to perform whilst under my guidance. Peter Lovenkrands, Danny Shittu, and Freddy Guarín are all happy to see I'm getting the praise that I deserve. I liked his praise and decide to respond accordingly, praising my friend Arsène Wenger, saying he is one of the great manager in the game today and a friendly guy into the bargain. Looking at Arsenal's list of recent fixtures, I'm kinda surprised to see they just crushed Manchester United 5-1 in the first leg of their Champions League Quarter Final. Some EPL games are played. #3 Liverpool won 3-1 over #14 Aston Villa, not good for us, but #6 Blackburn lost 0-2 to #15 Nottm Forest, good for us as it keeps them from getting on to us... FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

11-23-2005, 12:00 PM	#250
FrogMan Hattrick Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Pintendre, Qc, Canada	April 7, 2008 Youssouf Hersi got selected to the EPL Team of the Week, deservedly I might add... Showing you what kind of game it was against Arsenal, both their strikers, Thierry Henry and Roque Santa Cruz, also got selected on that team. April 10, 2008 Cedric van der Gun resumes full training. I feel kind of bad for him. He figured to finally get some playing time in the AMC spot with Bonaventure Kalou needing a rest from time to time, and bam, got injured, boom Youssouf Hersi shines... FM __________________ A Black Belt is a White Belt who refused to give up... follow my story: The real life story of a running frog...

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