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04-26-2014, 04:18 PM
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#351 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Quote:
Thanks Duke! And yes, it is quite strange that we can't fill the place with such world-renowned teams coming in. I'll be really interested to see how close we get with Madrid on the schedule next.
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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 |
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04-26-2014, 04:18 PM
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#352 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sat. March 19, 2023
Barclays Premier League Arsenal (19-5-5, 62 points, 5th) vs. Dover (19-6-5, 63 points, 4th) Emirates Stadium, London, England Betting Odds: Arsenal: 1-2 (Favourites) Draw: 13-5 Dover: 9-2 Past Meetings: 4W 2D 8L We are significant underdogs against Arsenal, who just got knocked out of the Europa League by HSV in the 2nd Knockout stage. We've already played the Gunners a couple of times, most recently defeating them in the League Cup finals at Wembley Stadium. They did beat us at home in league play earlier in the year, however. Jack Wilshere still leads the club in goals with 14 and DC/ST Nchimunya Munyao is second with 10. Shanon Andrea is back in the lineup today, otherwise we'll go with the same starting eleven as the Benfica Champions League game. I may be tempting fate here but I think this team is beatable so I'm going to start with a positive game plan and utilize a control mentality to start. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - I. Wilke D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis S - S. Andrea, Chiquinho Bench - D. Traore, K. Zagos, S. Spall, G. Fanfoni, G. Allan, H. Cruz, P. Moses Arsenal are in their 4-5-1 formation with Boakye up front. Wilshere is playing AMR, Munyao is playing defence and Sergio Asenjo is in goal. Lets play attractive football for our travelling supporters and lets get some shots on goal today! 5' - Chiquinho with an early yellow card. 20' - A long period without highlights but we get the first great chance as Cairney feeds a little touch pass through the defence. Shanon Andrea runs into it and shoots it past Asenjo and IN but the assistant has his flag up. Offsides is the call! The replay confirms it. NO GOAL. 29' - Shanon Andrea is tackled hard and he's down for the count. I need to bring him off so Paul Moses comes in. DOVER INJURY - Shanon Andrea OFF 30' - Chiquinho turns around and shoots with his left foot but the shot is weak and easily saved by Asenjo. 32' - Paul Moses with a PILEDRIVER from way out and it's off the crossbar! HALFTIME - A quiet half but I'm happy with our display so far. I think we've had more chances but they are winning on the stat sheet, as they hold 51% of possession and a 9-7 (3-1 on target) shot edge. I tell the team I'm pleased thus far. 50' - Wow! Cairney with a touch pass into the area to Bamba and Arsenal defender Lorenzo Tomaselli, a Canadian international, brings him down! PENALTY! Up steps Neil Cairney to take it and the kick is IN THE NET! Wooo! DOVER GOAL 1-0 Arsenal immediately move to a flat 4-4-2 and bring in dangerous striker Lee Ross. 55' - We steal possession at midfield and Paul Moses sends a delicious ball up field and Chiquinho is on a breakaway. He's in on goal and his shot is stopped by Asenjo! Great chance! 57' - Yellow card for Neil Cairney. 60' - We have another rush down field and Bamba's cross is in the area to Andrea Rocca but his shot from point blank range is stopped by Asenjo! 65' - Arsenal work possession deep in our end and the ball comes to Boakye and he turns and fires from the edge of the area and it's off a diving Wilke and IN. Damn. ARSENAL GOAL 1-1 69' - Moses again with a ROCKET from distance and it's off the crossbar. That's twice for Moses today! 70' - Wow. Boakye up to Lee Ross and on a harmless looking play, he runs past Contreras, rounds Wilke and shoots and it's IN. Two quick goals and Arsenal now LEAD. ARSENAL GOAL 1-2 We bring in Kostas Zagos for a tired Rayane Hamon. Arsenal move back to a 4-5-1 formation. 72' - Moses with a lovely little touch pass into Bamba but his low shot is right at the Arsenal keeper. 75' - Ross with a nice turn and shoot move and Wilke is forced to make a nice save. 84' - I bring in Graham Allan for Gianluca Bolis and move to an Overload mentality. Real tough loss. Arsenal 2 - 1 Dover Goals - Neil Cairney PEN (7.4) Assists - Arsene Bamba (7.1) Man of the Match - Boakye (Arsenal ST - 8.0) Other Dover Notables - Attendance - 60,361 Arsenal dominated possession to the tune of 55% and outshot us 17-17 (6-5 on target). I thought we played well enough to win today…a few posts and some bad luck. Oh well, we'll move on. The schedule definitely eases up for us in the league so we can still finish in the top four if we play to our capabilities. -- Shanon Andrea suffered a twisted ankle and will miss the next four weeks. Great. Well, Paul Moses gets his chance to shine now. -- United win the Manchester derby, taking a 3-1 decision at Old Trafford. Chelsea and Sheffield Wednesday also win, as we drop back into fifth. Sheffield have quietly crept to within 2 points of us! BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS (ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 31 GAMES UNLESS NOTED) 1. Chelsea - 72 points 2. Manchester United - 69 points 3. Arsenal - 65 points (30 games played) 4. Manchester City - 64 points ---------------------------------------------------- 5. Dover - 63 points 6. Sheffield Wednesday - 61 points 7. Sunderland - 50 points ---------------------------------------------------- Premier League Mid-Week Update -- Arsenal win again, this time over Derby and they move to 68 points, five ahead of us. We need a big winning streak to start pronto! FA Cup Update -- After two consecutive FA Cup wins, there won't be a third for Reading, as they lose 2-1 in extra time to Newcastle in a quarterfinal replay. International Update -- Getting capped for their countries are Steve Reed (England U21), Louis Reed and Paul Moses (England U20), Kostas Zagos (England), Daniel Traore (Ivory Coast), Salim Loucif (Algeria), Graham Allan & Neil Cairney (Scotland), Zoltan Bardi (Hungary) and Chiquinho. So only ten caps this time. Dover Reserves Team Update -- We battle to a 1-1 draw versus Arsenal's reserves, with the returning Mancini scoring our only goal. -- In that game, reserve fullback Steve Reed dislocated his shoulder and likely will miss the rest of the season. April Update -- This will be a hellacious month of action, with five Premier League games: Middlesbrough (AWAY), Newcastle (HOME), Derby (HOME), Stoke (AWAY) and Wolves (AWAY). We also have both of our Quarterfinal Champions League games against Real Madrid AND the FA Cup semi-final against Huddersfield at Wembley. If we were to somehow get past Real Madrid in the Champions League, we'd have one semi-final game this month too. So that's NINE (!!) potential games but i'd think *something* would be rescheduled if that was the case. This is a key stretch in the season for us as ALL FIVE of our league games are against teams in the bottom half of the table. If we could win four of the five or, knock on wood, win all five, we'll do wonders for our positioning. -- We get positive training reports for Gian Marco Fanfoni, Marcel Quade, Hans Briers and Mwemere Mutesa. Negative reports come in for the retiring Wayne Rooney and just back from injury Mancini. Premier League Monthly Awards -- Man City midfielder Giorgos Spanoudakis wins the Player of the Month award for March. -- Derby wins an award!!! Their young DC Rini Verhagen wins the Young Player of the Month award. Paul Moses finishes in second after his fine month! -- Jurgen Klinsmann from Man United wins the Manager of the Month award. Next Up -- We need to start a good run of form to close the season and can get off to a good start against struggling Middlesbrough in a game played away from home.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 04-26-2014 at 04:23 PM. |
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04-26-2014, 10:41 PM
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#353 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sat. April 1, 2023
Barclays Premier League Middlesbrough (8-6-17, 30 points, 15th) vs. Dover (19-6-6, 63 points, 5th) The Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough, England Betting Odds: Middlesbrough: 13-8 Draw: 2-1 Dover: 6-4 (Favourites) Past Meetings: 6W 1D 4L Middlesbrough have been in the top flight of English football since the 2010/11 season and only once during this period have they finished below 13th and that was in 2012/13, which they finished just above the relegation line. This is their worst season in recent memory - they will likely stay up but they'll need a few more points to guarantee their spot next year and considering the fact that they finished 6th, 8th and 9th in a four year period, it qualifies as a huge disappointment. Roland Hoxha has done well in his first year with the club, scoring 16 goals in 32 games to lead the club by a mile. We'll need to watch him closely. We beat Middlesbrough comfortably 4-0 at Crabble earlier in the year. With Shanon Andrea on the shelf for a month, this is now Paul Moses's time to really shine. He'll be given every opportunity to play a big role in our remaining games. The rest of our lineup is unchanged from the Arsenal loss. We need a result today to get back on track - our schedule is very easy, relatively speaking, right through until our final game against Manchester City, which could very well be meaningful. Control mentality today on the road as slight favourites. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - I. Wilke D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis S - P. Moses, Chiquinho Bench - D. Traore, K. Zagos, S. Spall, G. Fanfoni, G. Allan, H. Cruz, Z. Bardi Middlesbrough are in a 4-2-3-1 with three AMCs. Hoxha is alone up front and we'll be mindful of Thorgan Hazard, a very dangerous midfielder. Sinan Bolat is in goal. I tell the team they can win today and pull aside Chiquinho to tell him I have faith in his scoring ability. 7' - We've already had two great chances early on that were shot wide and now Paul Moses is sent in and his low blast is stopped by Sinan Bolat. The rebound is out to Neil Cairney but the Middlesbrough keeper recovers in time to stop that too! Great chances so far! 32' - Not much happening after that opening flurry. Paul Moses gets a yellow card. 36' - Now it's Rayane Hamon with a yellow. 37' - Right after that yellow, we regain possession and move up field. We start a great little move, with Bolis passing to Andrea Rocca then he one touches it through the defence and Moses gets there first. He's in the area and he shoots low and under Sinan Bolat and it's in! DOVER GOAL 1-0 39' - Chiquinho sends a ball through to Moses but his shot is JUST turned aside by Sinan Bolat! 43' - There's an amazing sequence where Middlesbrough have a corner and Hoxha heads it off the goal post. We immediately start a counter attack, with Neil Cairney running the length of the field down the right sideline and crossing into the box. Moses is there and hits a bullet but it's right at Sinan Bolat and bumped away. Crazy stuff. 45'+1 - We have possession deep in their end and it's Rocca again as the architect, sending a lovely ball through to Bamba. He's in on goal and Sinan Bolat takes a terrible angle to challenge him and Bamba easily puts it past him and IN! Late half dagger! DOVER GOAL 2-0 45'+3 - There's only supposed to be two minutes of extra time but Middlesbrough have possession in our area and win a corner. The ref keeps his whistle in his pocket and they take the corner. Who is there but our former defender, Thomas Andersen, and he heads it in for his first ever Middlesbrough goal. That's not a good time to give up a goal. MIDDLESBROUGH GOAL 2-1 HALFTIME - We are unquestionably the better club but that late goal is a killer. We hold 52% of possession and outshoot them 12-6 (6-3 on target). This is a worrisome scoreline but we're ahead and I tell the team I'm pleased so far. We need one more goal. I may have to eventually drop back into a counter mentality, as their fullbacks are pinching in a lot. 47' - Another crazy event. We win a free kick deep down the right side and Rocca sends it out to Cairney lurking outside the area. He sends a bullet that's destined for the net but Thorgan Hazard is guarding the left post and blocks it. He tries to shoot it out to safety but it hits Tom Cairney on Middlesbrough and deflects backwards right into the net! WOW! DOVER GOAL 3-1 53' - We send a long ball up to Moses and he's speeding in on goal. His shot is stopped by Sinan Bolat but it squirts through and is going into the net but a Middlesbrough defender gets there in time to clear it off the line. 66' - Middlesbrough have changed to a flat 4-4-2. 70' - We work a counter attack and it's Moses again leading the charge, bolting through the defence and in on goal. His shot is saved by a diving Sinan Bolat but the rebound pops right out to Gianluca Bolis and he left foots it into the open net and we are ahead by three! DOVER GOAL 4-1 73' - Time to start looking ahead to our midweek Champions League game. Paul Moses and Andrea Rocca come out. In come Graham Allan and Gian Marco Fanfoni. 81' - Helder Cruz is in and Arsene Bamba is out. 84' - We work the ball up to midfield and Graham Allan, who is playing striker after coming on for Paul Moses. Allan uses his blazing speed to molest Thomas Andersen and he has a breakaway from the midfield stripe. He's in on goal and shoots past Sinan Bolat to the near corner and it's IN! What a second half! DOVER GOAL 5-1 87' - We keep pushing, getting a corner and Cairney's cross is headed to goal by Contreras but it's off the crossbar. 89' - Chiquinho has been incredibly quiet for the last couple games and he is sent in on yet another breakaway. This is a must score situation, as he has all the time in the world but he shoots RIGHT AT the goalkeeper. Oh well. SENSATIONAL road win! Middlesbrough 1 - 5 Dover Goals - Paul Moses (8.3), Arsene Bamba (8.1), Tom Cairney OG, Gianluca Bolis (8.2), Graham Allan (8.0) Assists - Andrea Rocca 3 (9.0), Neil Cairney (7.6), Paul Moses Man of the Match - Andrea Rocca Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.5), Salim Loucif (7.6), Rayane Hamon (7.8), Claudio Contreras (7.3), Renato Gaucho (7.3), Chiquinho (7.4) Attendance - 16,828 Just pure domination in that second half, as I continued with our control mentality and we worked it to perfection. We hold 54% of possession and outshoot them by a wild 31-12 (14-3 on target) margin. GREAT game by Rocca, who has been excellent since his return from injury. Everyone in the starting lineup gets a rating over 7.3. -- As an aside, Chiquinho has only scored in one of his last eight games, that being a two goal performance against Chelsea a few weeks ago. -- A HUGE upset sees Tottenham walk into Old Trafford and knock off United 2-1!!! We also get some help as Arsenal and Manchester City battle to a 1-1 draw, so we gain two points on both clubs and vault over City into fourth. On Monday night, we get more good news when Sheffield Wednesday battle Chelsea to a scoreless draw at Zola Stadium in London! We gain two points on the league leaders as well but man, Sheffield simply won't go away! Good for them and a good week of results for us! BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS (ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 32 GAMES UNLESS NOTED) 1. Chelsea - 73 points 2. Manchester United - 69 points 3. Arsenal - 69 points 4. Dover - 66 points ---------------------------------------------------- 5. Manchester City - 65 points 6. Sheffield Wednesday - 62 points 7. Sunderland - 50 points ---------------------------------------------------- Dover U18 Update -- The U18s draw against Portsmouth 1-1. Striker Tomas Liska scored the only Dover goal. April Board Confidence Update -- The board are very pleased with my overall leadership of the team. Our League Cup victory is the highlight and our 3-0 loss versus Manchester United is the disappointment. -- We made a profit of £1,460,000 last month. Work Permit Issue -- Mancini has an expiring contract and I had trouble with his agent earlier in the year after talks broke down, with him saying he didn't want to speak to me about another extension. Time and a four month injury changed his mind and I had a nice little extension agreed to but for the first time, I have a work permit denied for a current player. I don't know if this means it's over for Mancini at Dover but I'll try to sign him one more time a bit later. Transfer News -- Four teams make contract offers to reserve midfielder Jonathan Gauthier. He's not in my plans whatsoever and he can't even get into reserves games with me. He's a 0.5/1.5 player and has only made 10 non-competitive appearances all year for our reserves. Contract Extension -- We've been getting hassled for some time by Arsene Bamba's agent for a new contract and after I got into a little battle with Bamba himself, I relented. In the end, we come to an agreement on a new deal that will see him here until 2027 and his salary increases from £21,000 per week to £38,000. He hasn't been anywhere near as effective this year from a production standpoint but he's still a vital piece to our puzzle. Premier League Team of the Week -- Three of our players make the team of the week: Arsene Bamba, Andrea Rocca and Paul Moses. Injury Update -- We're pretty healthy right now but Shanon Andrea will still be a couple weeks from returning from his sprained ankle. Steve Reed is likely out for the rest of the season with a dislocated shoulder. Champions League Update -- Manchester City are feeling the effects of selling the sensational Enrique. After four consecutive Champions League titles and three consecutive Premier League titles, they will likely win neither this year. They get humiliated at their own ground against Olympique Lyonnais 3-0 and I don't see them coming back from that kind of a deficit. Meanwhile, Man United and Barcelona battle to a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford. Dover Reserves Team Update -- We go with a reserves squad filled with U18s and get humbled by Chelsea's reserves 5-2. Unfortunately, GK Manuel Perez let in all five goals so I hope he doesn't suffer a morale hit after that display. Ben Patterson and Helder Cruz score for our club. Next Up -- Here we go! We head to Spain to face powerhouse Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League Quarter Final round!
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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 |
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04-27-2014, 07:35 PM
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#354 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Wed. April 5, 2023
UEFA Champions League - Quarter Final First Leg Real Madrid (1st in Spanish Liga BBVA) vs. Dover (4th in English Premier League) Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain Betting Odds: Real Madrid: 4-5 (Favourites) Draw: 2-1 Dover: 3-1 Past Meetings: 1W 0D 0L What can you say about Real Madrid? They are the richest club in this gaming world, worth in excess of £784,000,000 and are 11 time Champions League winners, most recently taking the title in 2017. They have won their domestic league 37 (!!) times but haven't won since 2020. They are leading the league this year though, with a three point edge over Atletico Madrid and a four point lead over Barcelona. Their big off-season signing was spending £31 million on Nigerian international Austin Eboh, a big striker. He's rewarded the club with 13 goals in 29 games so far. The team leader in goals is attacking midfielder Emiliano Moreno with 17 and another attacking mid, Diogo, has 15. As you'd expect, this is a deep and very talented bunch. We did play them in this year's batch of preseason friendlies and beat them 2-1, a game where we absolutely dominated the first half and held on for the one goal win. I expect a much tougher game today. Our starting eleven will be unchanged from our last game. We'll play a counter attacking style on the road as big underdogs today and look to keep the scoreline close and hope to take advantage of a quick counter or two. Dover: 4-4-2 Counter GK - I. Wilke D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis S - P. Moses, Chiquinho Bench - D. Traore, K. Zagos, S. Spall, G. Fanfoni, G. Allan, F. Hernandez, Z. Bardi Madrid are in a 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) with Eboh up front alone, Moreno at AML and Diogo at AMR. Zonzamas Garrido is in goal. Ok guys - you can win this game! We are just as good a club, now lets prove it to the world! 18' - We have had the majority of highlights so far, with a few corners and shots just wide and the first shot on target is from Andrea Rocca but it's with his weaker foot and Garrido makes the easy stop. 20' - I can't tell if Madrid are just taking us lightly right now or if we're just this good. I think it's likely the former but we're completely taking the play to them right now. We have a corner and it's cleared out to Cairney, lurking outside the area. He sends the ball back into Rocca and he immediately feeds Gianluca Bolis. Our winger is on a poor angle but takes a couple steps in and shoots for the near post and Garrido doesn't even move, as it goes past him and IN! Fantastic start and we have a key away goal! DOVER GOAL 1-0 30' - Yup, it was definitely them taking us lightly! The next ten minutes are ALL MADRID and there is one breathtaking sequence where Eboh dances from the midfield line, through our midfield then avoids an attempted tackle from Contreras and he's in alone. He shoots and it's past Wilke but WIDE! 31' - Paul Moses with a yellow card. HALFTIME - Madrid definitely controlled the second part of that half but are having trouble breaking us down. Contreras looks a bit rough so far but otherwise we're playing nice tight defence and holding enough possession to keep them honest. In fact, we hold 52% of the ball in that half and have a 10-8 (2-1 on target) shot advantage too. I tell the team I'm pleased. Madrid change their look, moving to a flat 4-4-2 formation. 46' - Eboh has tons of flair and simply dances through our defence and shoots and Wilke is tested for the first time in the game but makes the brilliant stop. His first save was on a shot from distance in the first half. 61' - Not many great chances for either side. I'm a bit leery of Contreras today so I take him out and bring in some additional veteran presence with Daniel Traore. 64' - Eboh has the ball in the middle and sends a wonderful pass into the area and charging in is Madrid's leading scorer Moreno. He's in on goal and makes no mistake, putting it underneath Wilke and the game is tied. REAL MADRID GOAL 1-1 Madrid take out Eboh and move back to their preferred 4-2-3-1 formation. 71' - Madrid has an injury and they use their last substitute, moving back to a flat 4-4-2. 75' - Khalid Jaouhari moves into our area and shoots hard at Wilke and he bumps it out to safety. They get the ball back and make some nice little passes into the area and there is Diogo, completely unmarked and his shot is past Wilke and in. Well, damn. REAL MADRID GOAL 1-2 I take out Arsene Bamba and bring in Graham Allan. I also switch to a control mentality. We can't generate anything and I resist the urge to press too much for fear of giving up another goal. Tough way to lose but it's Madrid and we're still in it heading back home. Real Madrid 2 - 1 Dover Goals - Gianluca Bolis (7.5) Assists - Andrea Rocca (7.7) Man of the Match - Andrea Rocca Other Dover Notables - Attendance - 77,034 Madrid were unquestionably the better team in the second half but in reality, they just took advantage of their two best opportunities. They end up holding 52% of possession but we outshot them 15-14 (2-5 on target). Rocca was excellent today and I continue to feel let down lately by Chiquinho. These are the games where we need his experience and goal scoring ability. Moses was also neutralized well. Rocca played great but it's still surprising to see him get Man of the Match honours in a losing effort. Transfer News -- Midfielder Jonathan Gauthier agrees to a contract with Australian club Perth Glory FC and will make the move in the summer. The 21 year old has never played a senior level game for our club so it's no loss whatsoever. Next Up -- We're back at home, hosting Newcastle in Premier League action.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 04-27-2014 at 07:38 PM. |
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04-27-2014, 09:03 PM
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#355 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sat. April 8, 2023
Barclays Premier League Dover (20-6-6, 66 points, 4th) vs. Newcastle (10-9-13, 39 points, 12th) Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, England Betting Odds: Dover: 5-4 (Favourites) Draw: 11-5 Newcastle: 7-4 Past Meetings: 4W 1D 2L Newcastle are in their third consecutive year in the top flight and sitting in 12th right now, they are safe from the drop zone and will be back next year too. These guys are a two man show, with Stanislas Vigneau up front with 17 goals and fine left midfielder David Maclennan sitting with 6. Their goalkeeper Jak Alnwick always plays like a superstar against us and I expect no different today. We did beat them 3-2 away earlier this year. We have a tired bunch today and with a return matchup in midweek against Real Madrid, we'll be resting some key players today. Starting today are GK Manuel Perez, Kostas Zagos, Daniel Traore, Gian Marco Fanfoni, Graham Allan and Zoltan Bardi. Guys getting a rest include Renato Gaucho, Claudio Contreras, Neil Cairney, Gianluca Bolis and Chiquinho. We'll go with a one striker formation today. Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control GK - M. Perez D - K. Zagos, D. Traore, R. Hamon, S. Loucif M - G. Fanfoni, A. Rocca AM - A. Bamba, Z. Bardi, G. Allan S - P. Moses Bench - M. Yilmaz, C. Guzman, Mancini, N. Cairney, G. Bolis, H. Cruz, Chiquinho Newcastle are in the same formation we are and Vigneau is alone up front. Surprisingly, young Pierpaolo Bartoli is in goal for Newcastle today and Alnwick is on the bench. I want to tell the team I expect a win today but with so many backups in, that might be a bit too strong so I just tell the team I want to see some attractive football for the home supporters today. 1' - DREAM START! We have the opening kick and move it up to Zoltan Bardi. He feeds a ball through the defence and Paul Moses wins the race and shoots for the far corner and it's IN past Bartoli! That only took 32 seconds!!! DOVER GOAL 1-0 5' - We're pouring on pressure early and Gian Marco Fanfoni feeds Bardi at the edge of the area and his left footed shot is deflected over by Bartoli. 6' - We steal possession again and Graham Allan feeds Andrea Rocca. Newcastle back off and allow him to dribble into the area and fire an absolute HOWITZER into the top corner. Sensational strike from Rocca! "Newcastle's fans wish they had stayed home!", says the announcer! DOVER GOAL 2-0 11' - We have a throw in and Loucif sends it to Allan. He avoids a tackle at the edge of the area and sends in a low pass toward Moses. Our striker slides and kicks the ball past Bartoli and it's in again! That's two for Moses and we're unstoppable at the moment! DOVER GOAL 3-0 13' - Vigneau gets off a curling rocket and Perez makes a brilliant diving stop! 32' - We have a throw in down the right and we play some give and go's. The ball comes to Bamba and he sends a little touch pass back to Fanfoni. From the top of the box, he sends in a savage right footed shot that Bartoli gets a piece of…but not enough and it's IN! What a performance in the first half! DOVER GOAL 4-0 33' - This is BEYOND ridiculous. We steal possession again and just move up field like we own the place (well, we do!). Now it's Moses sending in a little touch pass and there is FANFONI again! He's all alone, beats Bartoli but not the crossbar and it deflects out of play. A complete sitter for Fanfoni! My goodness this is so fun to watch. 43' - Daniel Traore with a yellow card. 44' - Moses with some magic, as he evades two defenders and cuts in on goal but Bartoli finally makes a save. Poor kid. HALFTIME - BRILLIANT half of football! We hold 55% of possession and a 13-6 (8-1 on target) shot advantage. I tell the team I'm pleased so far. I also decide to take out Andrea Rocca and bring in Mancini for his first senior action since returning from his broken leg. We need Rocca for the Champions League game in a few days and I'll also take out a couple more of our starters around the 60 minute mark. 52' - Moses is SO fast, as he just weaves through the defence then turns on the afterburners. He's in on goal and Bartoli makes a great diving save to keep Moses from his hat trick. 54' - A TERRIBLE defensive lapse on our part sees Newcastle send a long ball up and there is David Maclennan in all alone. Perez comes out to challenge and he MAKES THE SAVE! Awesome! 56' - Moses WILL NOT BE DENIED! Rayane Hamon sends a long ball up field and there is Graham Allan. He speeds after it and sends a cross into the area and there is Moses, sliding again and sending the ball underneath Bartoli and it's in the net. HAT TRICK FOR PAUL MOSES!!! DOVER GOAL 5-0 61' - Helder Cruz is on for Arsene Bamba 63' - We make our last change, taking out Salim Loucif and bringing in Carlos Guzman. Guzman moves to the left fullback slot and Kostas Zagos moves over to the right side. 74' - Rayane Hamon almost gets into the action, with a fine header off an Allan corner kick but Bartoli is up to the task. Newcastle must be sick of conceding because they've changed to a 4-2-1-2-1 with two DMC's. FANTASTIC win today with many key players getting much needed rest! Dover 5 - 0 Newcastle Goals - Paul Moses 3 (9.6), Andrea Rocca (7.9), Gian Marco Fanfoni (8.2) Assists - Graham Allan 3 (9.3), Zoltan Bardi (7.8), Arsene Bamba (8.0) Man of the Match - Paul Moses Other Dover Notables - Manuel Perez (7.5), Salim Loucif (7.6), Rayane Hamon (8.7), Daniel Traore (7.8), Kostas Zagos (8.4) Attendance - 15,735 We hold 54% of possession and outshoot them 22-9 (12-2 on target). Graham Allan continues to produce every single time he's called upon - he started off a bit slow with us but his production has been incredible for a backup - he is up to 8 goals and 12 assists and he's only started in 16 games (he's played in 36 overall). Every starter gets a rating of 7.5 or more. And what can I say about Paul Moses? He's exceptional…and he's only 19! Moses is up to 17 goals and he's only started 15 games (plus 14 as a substitute). -- OOH BOY! Things are getting VERY interesting in the Premier League! League leaders Chelsea LOSE 2-0 to Huddersfield of all teams! 16th placed Huddersfield!!! We also get draws from Manchester United (2-2 versus Everton) and Manchester City (2-2 versus Liverpool). Arsenal win 1-0 over Birmingham but this is yet another great week of results for us! We're still in fourth but now we're only 4 points out of first place and we have a relatively easy final stretch, with only our final game against Man City being a top half team. We are STILL IN THIS THING!!! BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS (ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 33 GAMES UNLESS NOTED) 1. Chelsea - 73 points 2. Arsenal - 72 points 3. Manchester United - 70 points 4. Dover - 69 points ---------------------------------------------------- 5. Manchester City - 66 points 6. Sheffield Wednesday - 63 points 7. Sunderland - 50 points ---------------------------------------------------- Dover U18 Update -- The U18s win 4-0 over AFC Wimbledon, with Tomas Liska scoring a pair and Eddie Robinson and Pete Smith score singles. Premier League Team of the Week -- An incredible FIVE of our players are named to the 11 man team of the week: Kostas Zagos, Rayane Hamon, Graham Allan, Arsene Bamba and Paul Moses. Dover Injury Update -- Shanon Andrea is still a couple weeks from returning to full training after his sprained ankle. Steve Reed, a reserve defender, is out for the year. Next Up -- We are behind 2-1 to Real Madrid as we welcome the Spanish giants to Crabble Athletic Ground for the second leg in the Champions League quarter finals.
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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 |
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04-27-2014, 11:22 PM
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#356 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Tue. April 11, 2023
UEFA Champions League - Quarter Final Second Leg Dover (1) vs. (2) Real Madrid Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, England Betting Odds: Dover: 7-4 Draw: 11-5 Real Madrid: 5-4 (Favourites) Past Meetings: 1W 0D 1L This is for all the marbles! We need a 1-0 win or need to win by two goals to move on. A 2-1 win will see us go to extra time and anything other than that and we're out of the Champions League for this year. Their starting striker from last game, Austin Eboh, is suspended for today's match due to yellow card accumulation. It's our normal starting eleven today. I'm going with a positive game plan today and will play with a control mentality at home. It looks like we may just have our first ever sell out here at our 23,000 seat stadium! Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - I. Wilke D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis S - P. Moses, Chiquinho Bench - M. Perez, D. Traore, K. Zagos, Mancini, G. Fanfoni, G. Allan, Z. Bardi Madrid are in their customary 4-2-3-1 formation and have 21 year old Rodolfo Negrete starting up front. He has ten goals in only 14 games so he's super dangerous. We'll need to do better against Emiliano Moreno and Diogo in this game. Zonzamas Garrido is back in goal. Lets play well for this sell-out crowd! 1' - Right away, Moreno shows his incredible skill, dancing down the field and cutting in on goal but Wilke makes the great save only 18 seconds in! 12' - This is a VERY tense match already, with both teams playing with incredible speed and precision. We get into their area and Chiquinho embellishes on a tackle and is given the unsportsmanlike yellow card. 19' - They have the ball at midfield and AMC Raphael Holzhauser sends a great ball through our defence. Contreras is nowhere to be found and it's Diogo dribbling in on a breakaway. He makes no mistake and it's past Wilke and in the net. We're in big trouble now. REAL MADRID GOAL 0-1 (1-3 AGGREGATE) 21' - Paul Moses takes a little pass from Bamba, cuts in and shoots and it's off the goal post! 24' - Andrea Rocca forces a turnover and sends it up to Chiquinho and he's GONE! He's in on goal and shoots and Garrido makes a brilliant diving save to tick it just wide. 28' - Yikes. Paul Moses goes in with spikes up on a challenge and I'm expecting a straight red card but he thankfully only gets a yellow. Whew. 42' - Cairney with a yellow card now. 43' - Moses with another shot at the corner of the net and Garrido makes a great diving stop. HALFTIME - We're playing fine and holding a significant possession edge with 57% of the ball but quality chances are lacking. We are outshot 9-7 (3-2 on target) by Madrid. We need two goals at least - I have to move to an attack mentality. 48' - Rocca is off after taking a knock and Paul Moses gets off a hard curling effort but the excellent Garrido makes the save. Rocca should be fine. 58' - We get a corner and Rocca's cross is headed to goal by Contreras and Garrido makes another great stop! 59' - Wilke with a great stop on a Diogo shot! 66' - We have a free kick just left of the Madrid box but after some ill-advised passing, Madrid start a counter. They have a 4 on 3 break and work the ball around to perfection and it's David Vullings with the ball and ready to score but just as he's about to shoot, Rayane Hamon tackles the ball away. Unfortunately, he kicks the ball right past Wilke and into the net. We're toast. REAL MADRID GOAL 0-2 (1-4 AGGREGATE) I take out Andrea Rocca and bring in Gian Marco Fanfoni, as I need to look ahead to the weekend. 70' - Chiquinho, who has been completely ineffective for some time now, gets a chance but Garrido makes the save. 71' - Neil Cairney comes off and in comes Mancini. 79' - We work a beautiful passing play and eventually it's Fanfoni feeding a lovely ball into Mancini. He shoots and Garrido makes the save again. He's been brilliant for them. 83' - Kostas Zagos is on for Rayane Hamon. 84' - Claudio Contreras with a yellow card. 87' - Mancini with a blast to the top corner and Garrido is just everywhere. Another spectacular save. A good effort but I guess we're just not good enough yet. Dover 0 (1) - (4) 2 Real Madrid Goals - Assists - Man of the Match - Zonzamas Garrido (Real Madrid GK - 8.0) Other Dover Notables - Neil Cairney (7.0) Attendance - 22,239 Well damn, we still didn't sell out! We did everything but score here, ending up with 60% of possession as Madrid just sat back almost the entire second half. We outshot them 24-14 (7-5 on target). We just couldn't beat the awesome Garrido, who was rightfully given man of the match honours. Really disappointing games from Chiquinho lately. -- We are awarded £2.87 million for taking part in the Champions League quarter finals. This is the second year in a row we exit the competition at the final eight. -- In other Champions League play, Atletico Madrid and Dortmund draw 2-2 but it's Dortmund moving on 5-4 on aggregate. A three goal deficit is too much to overcome for Man City and they end up losing again, this time at home against Olympique Lyonnais 2-1. They lose 5-1 on aggregate. And in the last quarterfinal matchup, Manchester United score an 84th minute penalty shot to win 3-2 over Barcelona and move on 5-4 on aggregate. Champions League Semi Final Draw -- Olympique Lyonnais will face off against Manchester United while Dortmund will battle against Real Madrid in the Champions League semis. FA Cup Semi-Final Update -- Manchester City's nightmarish season continues, as they drop a 1-0 decision to Newcastle in the FA Cup semi finals! If we beat Huddersfield tomorrow, we'll face Newcastle for the trophy! City are looking destined to win only the Community Shield this year after winning the treble last year (Euro Super Cup, English Premier League, Champions League). Premier League Update -- Arsenal can only manage a draw on the road versus Everton - they pull level with Chelsea at the top of the table with 73 points but they are way back on goal differential and now have played one more game than everyone else. As an aside, at +52, we have the best goal differential in the Premier League by eight goals so if we can continue to win, we've got a reasonable chance at winning the league and should win any tie-breakers. Next Up -- We head to Wembley to face off against fellow Premier League side Huddersfield in the FA Cup semi finals.
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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 |
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04-27-2014, 11:31 PM
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#357 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Whitman, MA
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Tough loss to Real, and not selling out is a game bug if you ask me.
I wonder if any of the newer versions of the game do a better job when a team like Dover reaches the higher reaches of the league and international levels. Or if it's just a realism thing with a low population in the area the team exists in. Tell
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FOOL - Ann Arbor Winged Lingerines FOOLX - Portland Axemen Hattrick - Fizzle United (222968) |
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04-28-2014, 12:49 AM
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#358 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sun. April 16, 2023
FA Cup - Semi Final Huddersfield (16th in Premier League) vs. Dover (4th in Premier League) Wembley Stadium, London, England Betting Odds: Huddersfield: 7-4 Draw: N/A Dover: 5-4 (Favourites) Past Meetings: 8W 1D 2L We have a win and a draw against Huddersfield in league play this year and they are finding their form just in time to save themselves in the relegation battle, with consecutive wins against Aston Villa and Chelsea. Their leading scorer, 16 goal man Nelson Oliveira, is out with an injury today so Paul Lumsden and his 13 goals will be the danger man. We've got some backups in today as we will concentrate more on the league right now. Manuel Perez, Daniel Traore, Kostas Zagos, Helder Cruz and Graham Allan are in the starting lineup today. Getting a rest will be Ingo Wilke, Salim Loucif, Claudio Contreras, Arsene Bamba and Gianluca Bolis. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - M. Perez D - R. Gaucho, D. Traore, R. Hamon, K. Zagos M - H. Cruz, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Allan S - P. Moses, Chiquinho Bench - M. Yilmaz, S. Loucif, Mancini, G. Fanfoni, A. Bamba, G. Bolis, Z. Bardi Huddersfield are also in a flat 4-4-2 with David Caldwell and Paul Lumsden up front. Alex Smithies is in goal. I tell the team to do it for the fans today and tell Chiquinho I have faith in him. 8' - Perez makes a brilliant diving save off a shot from distance. 13' - We're suffering from Champions League letdown here, as Huddersfield control the play. They have a free kick just outside our area and Perez is called on again to make a great stop. 24' - We are playing horribly and Huddersfield strike on a counter, as the ball moves from the left flank to the inside and to David Caldwell and his weak effort is perfectly placed just beyond the reach of Perez and it's in. Come on men! HUDDERSFIELD GOAL 0-1 25' - Oh my GOD. Andrea Rocca with a brutal giveaway on the ensuing kick and Huddersfield march right back down the field again. It's Caldwell again and he's able to get a shot underneath Perez and he's got two goals in two minutes. "Dover is sinking without a trace!", says the announcer. HUDDERSFIELD GOAL 0-2 26' - Paul Moses tries to take matters into his own hands, just bursting through the defence with his considerable speed on the next kick off but his hard shot is saved nicely by Smithies. 30' - Now it's Chiquinho finally doing something but his piledriver is saved in spectacular fashion by Smithies. 40' - Smithies, like Garrido for Real Madrid, is in fine form right now and he makes a great save on Allan after he takes a lovely touch pass from Chiquinho. HALFTIME - This is an embarrassment! They hold 54% of possession and we outshoot them 8-7 (3-4 on target). Just a complete turd, this is. I read the riot act in the dressing room and say I expect a result, no excuses! 46' - Off the kick off, Moses essentially streaks through the defence and is in on goal but shoots JUST wide. That took 15 seconds for him to race through everyone and judging by that finish, it's not going to be our day. I hope I'm wrong... 48' - Chiquinho sends in Cruz but his shot is right at Smithies. Easy save. 60' - Off a failed corner, the ball spits out to Cairney outside the area and his rocket is off a defender then off the post. Not our day. 62' - This is hilarious. Huddersfield have a corner and go to the near post. There is a weak shot and it's off Renato Gaucho, protecting the post, and it just goes over the goal line. Own goal and we're toast here too. HUDDERSFIELD GOAL 0-3 Neil Cairney comes out and in comes Gian Marco Fanfoni. 74' - Lumsden with a header from in tight and Perez makes a great save. 75' - Rocca and Hamon are out and in come Mancini and Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz. 82' - Fanfoni with a nice pass to Mancini and his shot from just inside the area is…off the goal post. Sigh. A shocking result. Huddersfield 3 - 0 Dover Goals - Assists - Man of the Match - David Caldwell (Huddersfield ST - 8.8) Other Dover Notables - Manuel Perez (8.4), Rayane Hamon (7.0), Daniel Traore (5.4), Chiquinho (5.5) Attendance - 53,402 One of the most ridiculous losses I can remember - how we don't get up for this I don't quite understand. Huddersfield edge us on possession with 51% and we outshoot them 18-14 (7-6 on target). I can't understand why Perez got such a high rating - he did make a few great stops but he let in three goals and gets an 8.4? Chiquinho has hit a new low - a 5.5 rating and he's now gone ten games straight without a goal and the media say it's affecting his confidence. -- There's a media report saying that our fans are "devastated" by the result of this game. No shit! -- Oh yeah, morale is IN THE GUTTER right now. Literally the worst I've ever seen as manager of this club. Several "poor" ratings and Chiquinho is "Very Poor". Fantastic. I note that we've lost four of our last six games in all competitions - thankfully, only one has been in league play. Injury Update -- Shanon Andrea returns to full training. Excellent news and perfect timing, especially with the Chiquinho struggles lately. Premier League Update -- In other games this weekend, Man United can only muster a draw against Sunderland and Chelsea get back on the winning track, with a 1-0 win over lowly Burnley. Dover Reserves Team Update -- Adding to the misery is a 2-1 loss to Reading's reserves - we played the returning Shanon Andrea up front with Chiquinho, making his first ever reserves appearance tonight in hopes of getting him a confidence boost. He did nothing and it was Shaun Spall scoring our only goal. Next Up -- We try to get back on the winning track, as we're huge favourites at home versus relegation candidates Derby in Premier League action.
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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 |
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04-28-2014, 10:15 AM
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#359 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Quote:
Yeah, I'm using FM 2011 for this saved game and I'd imagine it's an old bug that's presumably been fixed for recent versions. Another bug is that we are *always* underdogs in reserve league games and most friendlies, including games against much, much weaker competition. It's like the game doesn't recognize our increased stature in those competitions. Just a nagging thing and nothing that hinders my enjoyment of the game.
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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 |
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05-01-2014, 09:54 PM
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#360 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Wed. April 19, 2023
Barclays Premier League Dover (21-6-6, 69 points, 4th) vs. Derby (4-13-16, 25 points, 17th) Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK Betting Odds: Dover: 4-7 (Favourites) Draw: 5-2 Derby: 4-1 Past Meetings: 8W 0D 2L Derby might be the most boring team in the Premier League this year, playing a "park the bus" style both home and away. We eked out a 1-0 win against them early in the year in a complete snoozer of a match and hopefully we can score early to force them to open up today. We are significant favourites against the relegation candidates, with Derby only a single point above the drop zone right now. Niels Hendriks is their top scorer with 15 goals in 33 games and Hallam Hope, another striker, has 9. Their third leading scorer has THREE. This team doesn't score much. We will utilize a one striker formation and the cold-as-ice Chiquinho will be on the bench today. Paul Moses will start up front and Zoltan Bardi will sit behind him. Morale is a huge issue for us right now and I'm starting the "happiest" lineup possible today. That means regular starters like Renato Gaucho and Andrea Rocca are on the bench. Dover: 4-4-2 DM (4-2-3-1) Control GK - I. Wilke D - K. Zagos, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif M - N. Cairney, G. Fanfoni AM - A. Bamba, Z. Bardi, G. Bolis S - P. Moses Bench - D. Traore, R. Gaucho, Mancini, A. Rocca, H. Cruz, G. Allan, Chiquinho Derby are in a 4-4-2, a different look for them. Hendriks and Hope are up front and former Dover keeper Fraser Forster will be the last line of defence. With our club languishing, I have to be very careful with this team talk so I simply ask them to do it for the fans today. Sparse crowd today. Maybe around 12-13,000 or so. 2' - We win an early corner and Arsene Bamba's cross is headed toward goal by Zoltan Bardi but Forster is there in good position for the save. 16' - We win another corner and this time it's Neil Cairney taking it. The ball is delivered toward the middle and Claudio Contreras beats Forster to the ball and heads it into the open net! DOVER GOAL 1-0 28' - We have a free kick in our end of the pitch and it's Salim Loucif sending a long ball up the middle. Derby decide not to mark Paul Moses and the pass is right at his feet. He takes a few steps into the area and sends a quick shot past Forster and in. TERRIBLE defence by Derby and we're up two! DOVER GOAL 2-0 34' - Rayane Hamon with a header off a Bamba corner and Forster makes the stop. 35' - Hallam Hope with a turnaround shot from just outside the area and Wilke has to dive low to make the nice save. HALFTIME - Somehow, Derby have 52% of possession but we outshoot them by a wide 17-3 (4-1 on target) margin. I encourage the players to keep it up. 51' - Claudio Contreras with a brutal takedown of Hope just as he's about to enter our penalty area. Yellow card for Contreras but thankfully not a penalty kick. They do get a free kick and Paul Mulrooney's shot is deflected off our wall and right to captain Miles Addison but his header is stopped brilliantly by Ingo Wilke. 67' - Not much happening for either side in this half. I take out Zoltan Bardi and bring in Chiquinho, with hopes that participating in a win will boost his morale a bit. 69' - Bamba with a great cross into the area and Bolis, with an empty net to shoot at, gets ROBBED by a brilliant diving save from Forster. WOW. Great stop! 70' - Another morale motivated move, as I take out Neil Cairney and bring in Andrea Rocca. 71' - Boy, this is a brutal half. Contreras gets stripped of the ball inside our area by Hendriks and his quick shot is saved by an alert Wilke. Terrible defence by Contreras. 76' - On an innocent looking rush, Moses sends a little pass up to Chiquinho. From 30 yards out, he sends in a BULLET of a shot and it's in the far corner past a diving Forster and we strike for our third and Chiquinho has a slump buster!!! DOVER GOAL 3-0 79' - One last morale boosting change, as we take out Salim Loucif and bring in Renato Gaucho. 86' - A nice passing play results in a Andrea Rocca shot from just outside the area and Forster makes the nice save. 90' - On another innocent enough looking play, it's Moses moving it to Chiquinho and the Belgian striker moves into the penalty area. He's on his weaker left foot but moves the ball back to his right and his quick, low shot is in the near side past Forster and Chiquinho has TWO as a substitute! DOVER GOAL 4-0 Excellent. We win AND Chiquinho gets a couple of goals to break his scoreless slump! Dover 4 - 0 Derby Goals - Chiquinho 2 (8.5), Claudio Contreras (8.7), Paul Moses (8.8) Assists - Paul Moses 2, Salim Loucif (8.2), Neil Cairney (7.0) Man of the Match - Paul Moses Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.3), Rayane Hamon (7.7), Kostas Zagos (7.4), Gian Marco Fanfoni (7.3), Arsene Bamba (7.3) Attendance - 15,737 We end up with 52% of possession and a huge 32-12 (10-5 on target) shot advantage. Great stuff from Moses and Chiquinho especially! -- There's only one other game in the Premier League today, as Man City win 2-1 over Newcastle to hold onto 5th spot. We move up into third place. -- Neil Cairney played his 100th Premier League game for Dover today. He's having one hell of a season and is being given consideration for English Footballer of the Year according to the pundits!!! -- That was a big morale booster. Everyone is back to being happy, for the most part, with ratings between "Okay" and "Superb". BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS (ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 34 GAMES UNLESS NOTED) 1. Chelsea - 76 points 2. Arsenal - 73 points 3. Dover - 72 points 4. Manchester United - 71 points ---------------------------------------------------- 5. Manchester City - 69 points 6. Sheffield Wednesday - 66 points 7. Sunderland - 51 points ---------------------------------------------------- Next Up -- We are on the road and will face the worst team in the league in Stoke City.
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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 |
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05-01-2014, 11:45 PM
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#361 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sat. April 22, 2023
Barclays Premier League Stoke (2-7-25, 13 points, 20th) vs. Dover (22-6-6, 72 points, 3rd) Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent, UK Betting Odds: Stoke: 9-2 Draw: 13-5 Dover: 1-2 (Favourites) Past Meetings: 4W 1D 0L Stoke will be relegated to the Championship next season and are just playing out the string. They will need to win three of their next four games just to avoid having the worst EVER season in this dynasty for a Premier League team, as they currently sit with 13 points and the worst point total in the last 13 years in-game was 21. They are terrible defensively and we scored a 5-1 win earlier in the year against them. They've given up a league-high 81 goals in 34 matches. Filip Pivkovski leads the club with 14 goals in 35 appearances and Richard Valenta is second with only 5. Full starting lineup today as we go back to two strikers. Paul Moses will continue his run in the first team and a fully fit Shanon Andrea will be on the bench. We are HUGE favourites on the road today. This is a must win. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - I. Wilke D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis S - P. Moses, Chiquinho Bench - D. Traore, K. Zagos, Mancini, G. Fanfoni, H. Cruz, G. Allan, S. Andrea Stoke are in their 4-4-2 diamond formation with Pivkovski and Valenta up front and Asmir Begovic in goal. No kidding around today - I expect a win! 1' - We steal the ball immediately and move up field with swift passing. Neil Cairney sends a curling blast at the goal but Begovic is there. Nice start! 8' - Wim Georges, a Stoke midfielder, sneaks in and shoots low but Wilke makes the stop. 18' - On a Stoke goal kick, we head it back over their defence and Chiquinho, despite being held up by a jersey pull, gets loose and into the ball first. His shot is stopped well by Begovic and we get two cracks at the rebound but both shot attempts are blocked. Furious sequence! 21' - Begovic is looking good, making a spectacular stop on a Chiquinho blast. We're showing great skill but can't get one past the Stoke keeper as of yet. 30' - Ok. Former Dover defender Jackson Ramm, playing right midfield for Stoke, sends in a cross and it's one-timed at goal by Vladimir Langer. Wilke makes a brilliant save but the rebound is back out to Langer and he shoots it off Wilke and IN. Holy smokes! STOKE GOAL 0-1 45'+3 - So, there's supposed to be one extra minute of injury time and we're approaching the third minute. We have the ball in their end and Cairney sends the ball up the middle to Moses. He looks BLATANTLY offsides at the top of the area but takes one step in and rips it past Begovic and IN! Stoke's players all run to the sideline assistant to complain but to no avail, as we pull level! DOVER GOAL 1-1 HALFTIME - Well, that changes things. We were definitely the better team regardless, holding 59% of possession and a 17-6 (5-4 on target) shot advantage. The replay on Moses' goal looked a bit closer on second glance but it still looked offsides. We'll take it. I tell the team I'm pleased but we need more goals! 65' - Oh boy. Jackson Ramm, coming back to haunt me, scores on a header but it's called offsides. Where is our offence today?!? 70' - Geez, we need a goal! Out are Andrea Rocca and Arsene Bamba and in come Gian Marco Fanfoni and Graham Allan. 83' - This is incredibly disappointing. No shots and now Gian Marco Fanfoni is hurt and needs to come off. In comes Mancini. DOVER INJURY- Gian Marco Fanfoni OFF 86' - We move to an OVERLOAD mentality. 90'+3 - Time is ticking down and we're in the last minute of injury time. Stoke with a terrible giveaway at midfield and Moses sends it up to Chiquinho. His shot is turned behind the net by Begovic, tested for the first time this half. Neil Cairney races to take the corner and it's sent to the far post to Contreras. His header is weak and right at the middle of the net toward Begovic but jumping up to get the ball is little Paul Moses and he heads it past the Stoke keeper and IN THE NET! WOWOWOW! DOVER GOAL 2-1 90'+6 - The referee lets Stoke kick off despite being two minutes over and they have four men up. I stupidly forget to change back from an overload philosophy and Stoke send a long ball up and our defence is WAY UP. Wim Georges is behind them, he's in on goal and SCORES. You have to be kidding me. STOKE GOAL 2-2 THAT may have cost us a Premier League championship. Stoke 2 - 2 Dover Goals - Paul Moses 2 (8.8) Assists - Neil Cairney 2 (8.9) Man of the Match - Neil Cairney Other Dover Notables - Attendance - 15,298 We dominated the game and the stat sheet but that is a killer. We hold 57% of possession and a 31-11 (8-5 on target) shot advantage. Chiquinho put up another dud (6.1). I know I have a fragile squad so I just sympathize with them. Still, a terrible coaching mistake on my part and it incredibly costs us. -- Chelsea and Arsenal both win to move two points further ahead of us. Man United draw and City win. We maintain third spot but we'll likely need to run the table now to win the league. -- DOVER INJURY: Adding to our misery is the fact that Gian Marco Fanfoni suffered a torn calf muscle on a challenge and is out for 3-4 MONTHS. Just sickening. BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS (ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 35 GAMES UNLESS NOTED) 1. Chelsea - 79 points 2. Arsenal - 76 points 3. Dover - 73 points 4. Manchester City - 72 points ---------------------------------------------------- 5. Manchester United - 72 points 6. Sheffield Wednesday - 69 points 7. Liverpool - 51 points ---------------------------------------------------- 8. Reading - 51 points 9. Sunderland - 51 points 10. Tottenham - 49 points 11. Aston Villa - 48 points 12. Everton - 42 points 13. Wolves - 41 points 14. Newcastle - 40 points 15. Huddersfield - 36 points 16. Middlesbrough - 36 points 17. Birmingham - 27 points ---------------------------------------------------- 18. Derby - 25 points 19. Burnley - 20 points 20. Stoke - 14 points Dover U18 Update -- The U18s win 3-0 over Aldershot behind goals from Felix Hernandez, Eddie Robinson and Dean Morgan. Player Unhappy -- Backup midfielder Shaun Spall is unhappy and after some back and forth, I tell him that I'll try to move him in the offseason. He's a mediocre player so it won't be a big loss. Attempted Signing -- I decide to make my move on Paul Moses and offer £19 million to Man United for his services, a figure that is auto-accepted as it meets the terms of our loan agreement buyout clause. However, Moses' agent says he doesn't want to negotiate right now with me. Umm…UH OH. I hope it is just a temporary thing due to the fact the transfer window isn't open and NOT a thing where he wants to play for United next year. Moses has been SENSATIONAL this year and is now up to 20 goals as a 19 year old. This guy is a star already and he will be terrorizing this league for years to come. I want him doing it with our club! I'll stay patient… Premier League Team of the Week -- The superb Neil Cairney is added to the Barclays Premier League team of the week. Injury Update -- Wonderful. Manuel Perez hurts his back during weight training and will miss 3-4 weeks. That puts him out for our last three games. We'll continue to ride Ingo Wilke. Dover Reserve Team Update -- Our reserves win 4-0 over Sheffield United. Zoltan Bardi scores a hat trick and Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz notches a single. -- We win the Reserves League title for the fourth year in a row. Our real nerdy fans are celebrating like we won the Premier League and even our board are delighted. I'll take the praise but come on guys…show more ambition and hold off on the ticker tape parades until we win something that counts! Next Up -- We stay on the road and face Wolves in a key late-season matchup.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-01-2014 at 11:46 PM. |
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05-03-2014, 03:08 PM
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#362 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sat. April 29, 2023
Barclays Premier League Wolves (12-5-18, 41 points, 13th) vs. Dover (22-7-6, 73 points, 3rd) Molineux, Wolverhampton, UK Betting Odds: Wolves: 7-4 Draw: 2-1 Dover: 5-4 (Favourites) Past Meetings: 8W 2D 1L This is our FIFTH game against Wolves already this season: two Premier League games, an FA Cup match and two legs in the League Cup semi-finals. We are 4-0-0 against them and outscored them by a whopping 16-3 in those matches! That said, Wolverhampton have fared well this year in league play, sitting comfortably in 13th position and they will see their third consecutive year in the top flight next season. Their danger men are Guy Luckett and Emanuele Testardi. A couple changes today: Shanon Andrea will return to the starting eleven today in place of out-of-form Chiquinho and play the unfamiliar position of target man. Paul Moses has been too effective to take out of the lineup. Graham Allan will play at right midfield and relegate Gianluca Bolis to the bench. Control mentality as favourites on the road. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - I. Wilke D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Allan S - P. Moses, S. Andrea Bench - D. Traore, K. Zagos, Mancini, H. Cruz, G. Bolis, Z. Bardi, Chiquinho As expected, Luckett and Testardi are up front in their 4-4-2 formation. Wayne Hennessey is in goal. If we have ANY chance to make a move on first place, we'll need to win all of our remaining games and even that likely won't be enough. I tell the team they can win this. 11' - Wilke is forced into action early, as Luckett gets a shot off from in close but it's deflected and our keeper makes the stop. 17' - Moses is sent up field by Andrea Rocca but he has defenders all over him. His shot is stopped by Hennessey and Wolves clear the ball to safety. 24' - Gueida Fofana makes a nice move to cut into our area and his shot curls right to Wilke and he's in good position for the save. 31' - We get our best chance, as Graham Allan crosses to the far post to Moses. He sends a pass back into the middle and there is Shanon Andrea but his shot is right at the keeper and he makes the reflex save. Great chance to get a goal there. 42' - Another great passing play sees Graham Allan feed Moses in the middle but again, we shoot right at the Wolves keeper. HALFTIME - Sigh. We dominate proceedings but can't break them down or more to the point, we can't beat Hennessey. We held a whopping 63% of the ball that half and outshot them 11-3 (5-2 on target). We just need a break. I tell the team i'm pleased with the way they're playing. 61' - Nothing happening. Testardi is sent through and he is alone with Wilke but shoots WIDE. We are VERY lucky there. I take out a very ineffective Shanon Andrea and bring in Chiquinho. 63' - We steal the ball at midfield and Neil Cairney sends a delightful ball up field to Chiquinho. He's got fresh legs and no one can catch him as he moves in on goal. His shot is low and past Hennessey and IN!!! That's Chiquinho's 30th of the season!!! Hasn't scored in his last 11 starts but has three in his last two appearances as a substitute and we take the lead! DOVER GOAL 1-0 75' - Moses has no luck in front of goal today, as he's sent in by Bamba and his shot beats Hennessey but cruelly hits the goalpost and bounces out. 76' - I take out a tired Andrea Rocca and bring in Mancini. 79' - Wolves have a free kick and send it into our area. Claudio Contreras goes up and a Wolves forward goes down and the ref points to the spot! PENALTY! Salim Loucif is given a yellow for complaining as we surround the referee. Renato Gaucho is warned and up steps Evgeny Maltsev to take the kick. He goes straight to the middle and Wilke is there but it's off his hands and IN. Devastating goal. WOLVES GOAL 1-1 We immediately take out Graham Allan and bring in Gianluca Bolis and also switch to an overload mentality. We need a win…a draw won't help us. 89' - Rayane Hamon with a yellow card for holding a player back. 90'+2 - We are melting down, as a cross comes into their area and we feel a foul should be called. The ref keeps the whistle in his pocket and we complain enough to get TWO YELLOW CARDS, with Renato Gaucho and Claudio Contreras both getting booked. Wolves 1 - 1 Dover Goals - Chiquinho (7.3) Assists - Neil Cairney (8.2) Man of the Match - Neil Cairney Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.1), Renato Gaucho (7.3), Andrea Rocca (7.0) Attendance - 21,271 We hold 57% of overall possession and a 21-9 (7-3 on target) shot advantage. Some brutal refereeing and we are now out of the running for the league title. In fact... -- Manchester United and Manchester City both win, with City winning 7-1 over Derby and both clubs climb past us and we drop from 3rd into 5th place. Just a devastating draw as we fall out of the Champions League qualification positions with only two matches to go. We did get the benefit of a 2-1 Sunderland win over Arsenal. BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS (ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 36 GAMES UNLESS NOTED) 1. Chelsea - 82 points 2. Arsenal - 76 points 3. Manchester City - 75 points 4. Manchester United - 75 points ---------------------------------------------------- 5. Dover - 74 points 6. Sheffield Wednesday - 69 points 7. Sunderland - 54 points ---------------------------------------------------- 8. Liverpool - 52 points 9. Reading - 51 points 10. Aston Villa - 51 points 11. Tottenham - 50 points 12. Wolves - 42 points 13. Everton - 42 points 14. Newcastle - 41 points 15. Middlesbrough - 39 points 16. Huddersfield - 37 points 17. Birmingham - 30 points ---------------------------------------------------- 18. Derby - 25 points 19. Burnley - 20 points 20. Stoke - 14 points Dover U18 Update -- The U18s win 4-0 over Eastbourne Boro behind braces from both Felix Hernandez and Lyubomir Kunchev. New Dover Record -- Striker Chiquinho sets a new Dover record after scoring his 23rd league goal of the season, topping the 22 goals scored by Robert Kerkhof back in 2016 in our League 1 days. May Update -- We're getting to the end of the line here. We have a one week international break before finishing off the season with games against Birmingham (HOME) and Manchester City (AWAY). -- I get positive training reports for Paul Moses and young GK Louis Read but negative reports from Shanon Andrea, Mancini and Neil Cairney. Hmm. Don't like to see that from Cairney but he's been sensational for us this year. On the youth side, I get positive reports for Geoff Williams and Mwemere Mutesa and a negative report for Damian Thorne. Premier League Monthly Awards -- We get a huge honour, as young loanee Paul Moses is named Premier League Player of the Month!!! Moses scored SEVEN goals in five games to win the award. Neil Cairney finishes in third for April. -- Claudio Contreras comes in third in Young Player of the Month voting, with Sheffield Wednesday fullback Gerard de Jong winning the award. -- Carlo Ancelotti from Man City wins Manager of the Month honours and I finish in second for the month. May Board Confidence Update -- The board are very pleased with my overall leadership of the team. Stature increase is the positive and our ugly 3-0 FA Cup semi-finals loss to Huddersfield is a big disappointment. -- We lost £1.46 million last month. Champions League Update -- Dortmund lose 3-2 at home versus Real Madrid but it doesn't matter, as they move on based on a 5-4 aggregate score to the Champions League finals. In the other semi-final, Manchester United beat up on Olympique Lyonnais 3-0 at Old Trafford. After a scoreless draw in leg one, that means the final will be Dortmund versus United! Dover Reserves Team Update -- Our reserves win 5-0 over West Brom, as we get a hat trick from Zoltan Bardi in the win. Also scoring were Shanon Andrea and young Emmerson Harvey. International Duty -- Emmerson Harvey (England U19) and Felix Hernandez (France U19) are called up for U19 Euro qualifications. Dover U18 Update -- In their final game of the season, our U18s win 3-0 over Woking, with goals scored by David Smith, Ben Patterson and a Woking own goal. Our U18s won their league once again, going 21-3-2 on the year and scoring 94 goals in 26 matches. Next Up -- We get set for our last home match of the season, welcoming Birmingham to Crabble Athletic Ground.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-03-2014 at 03:10 PM. |
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05-03-2014, 04:35 PM
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#363 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sat. May 13, 2023
Barclays Premier League Dover (22-8-6, 74 points, 5th) vs. Birmingham (9-3-24, 30 points, 17th) Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK Betting Odds: Dover: 1-4 (Favourites) Draw: 4-1 Birmingham: 9-1 Past Meetings: 3W 0D 1L Birmingham are just above the drop zone but with a five point lead on Derby with two games to go, and with Derby facing Everton and Tottenham in their final matches, I'd say Birmingham will survive for another year. This club doesn't score an awful lot and veteran striker Sam Vokes leads the club with only 10 goals. Former Dover midfielder Arron Williams has been decent for them this year too. Chiquinho will be back in the lineup today and Paul Moses will get one more start as well. I plan on starting Shanon Andrea in our last match against City. Gianluca Bolis is back today as well. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - I. Wilke D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis S - P. Moses, Chiquinho Bench - D. Traore, K. Zagos, Mancini, H. Cruz, G. Allan, Z. Bardi, S. Andrea Birmingham will be playing SUPER TIGHT today, with a very defensive 4-2-1-2-1 look, with 2 DMCs. Ugly. They could be tough to break down today. Sam Vokes is alone up front and Edwin Leferink is in goal. Lets put a good game together for our supporters! 2' - Umm, okay. Birmingham control after kick off and a long ball is sent up the left. Salim Loucif misjudges the header and Joe Mason is past him. He chases the ball down and Ingo Wilke charges out but can't get there in time, as Mason boots it into the open net and Birmingham SHOCKINGLY score right off the bat on our pitch! BIRMINGHAM GOAL 0-1 11' - Boy, we're not doing well so far. Salim Loucif with a yellow. Terrible stuff. 14' - Rocca with a corner and Contreras' header is stopped on the goal line by Leferink. 16' - Rocca with a free kick and his curling blast is off the goal post! 29' - Off a failed corner, Cairney sends the ball back out wide to Andrea Rocca and his cross into the box is headed by Gianluca Bolis and it's past Leferink and IN. Big goal. DOVER GOAL 1-1 36' - Man. Birmingham with a free kick and it's sent into our area and headed into the net by Tony Maher, the Birmingham captain. However, the assistant's flag is up and Maher is offsides. NO GOAL! 42' - Bolis with a yellow card. HALFTIME - Well, they scored their fluke goal and have parked the bus all half, as we have 60% possession and a 15-1 (3-1 on target) shot advantage. I hem and haw about going with a positive approach or just go with anger and I decide on the anger! Paint peeling time! Moses has been invisible so far, a rarity for him. 65' - This is a complete embarrassment. Gianluca Bolis flagrantly dives and is given a second yellow card and he is OUT OF THE GAME! We're down to 10 men. DOVER DISMISSAL - Gianluca Bolis Red Card Birmingham go aggressive and switch to a 4-4-2, which may help us. 66' - Incredible. What a brutal mistake by Birmingham to switch tactics from their defensive shell to a more offensive structure. We immediately move up field and Moses is in on goal. His shot is stopped but there is a big rebound and there is Neil Cairney to clean up the mess and he puts it into the open net! DOVER GOAL 2-1 72' - Moses with a soft shot off the cross bar! 75' - We make a double switch, with Mancini and Zoltan Bardi coming in for Arsene Bamba and Chiquinho. 82' - We steal the ball at midfield and Rocca delivers a beauty through the middle and there is substitute Zoltan Bardi. He rounds the keeper and he's got the open net to shoot at. He doesn't miss and we now have a two goal lead with only 10 men! DOVER GOAL 3-1 I bring in Kostas Zagos for the yellow carded Salim Loucif. 85' - Rocca with a rocket off the cross bar! We hold them off the rest of the way. Dover 3 - 1 Birmingham Goals - Gianluca Bolis (7.4), Neil Cairney (7.9), Zoltan Bardi (7.3) Assists - Andrea Rocca 2 (8.8), Chiquinho (6.9) Man of the Match - Andrea Rocca Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.0), Claudio Contreras (7.2) Attendance - 18,737 We hold 61% of the ball and outshot them by a huge margin: 32-2 (8-1 on target). They couldn't generate anything even when we went down to ten men. -- Gianluca Bolis will miss our next game due to the two yellow cards, getting a one game suspension. I give him an official warning for the dive and he accepts it with understanding. -- Well, we have a huge fight on our hands in our last match. First placed Chelsea lose but Arsenal and Manchester United both win. City can only manage a draw against Stoke so we move ahead of them into fourth. That said, with our final match coming up against Man City, we'll need a draw at worst to qualify for Champions League football next year. Anything less and we're in the Europa League next year  For some reason, I don't like my chances. Remember, City are the four time consecutive Champions League winners and it's hard to fathom that a four-time defending champ won't be back next year but it's possible, as they are obviously eliminated from the competition this year and will need a win against us to do it. It's all but official at the top too - Chelsea lead by three points over Arsenal but have a GD of +49 while Arsenal are only at +31. I don't envision a 20-0 Arsenal win next week so Chelsea are incredibly going to win the Premier League title this year after going without ANY European football this year. We can still move as high as second with a win next week, as unlikely as that is.BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS (ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 37 GAMES UNLESS NOTED) 1. Chelsea - 82 points 2. Arsenal - 79 points 3. Manchester City - 78 points 4. Dover - 77 points ---------------------------------------------------- 5. Manchester City - 76 points 6. Sheffield Wednesday - 69 points 7. Sunderland - 57 points ---------------------------------------------------- 8. Liverpool - 55 points 9. Reading - 54 points 10. Aston Villa - 54 points 11. Tottenham - 53 points 12. Everton - 43 points 13. Wolves - 42 points 14. Newcastle - 41 points 15. Middlesbrough - 39 points 16. Huddersfield - 37 points 17. Birmingham - 30 points ---------------------------------------------------- 18. Derby - 26 points 19. Burnley - 20 points 20. Stoke - 15 points Premier League Team of the Week --Andrea Rocca makes the Barclays Premier League team of the week. Injury Update -- Keeper Manuel Perez returns to full training. He won't be playing in our last game against Man City so it's not monumental news for us. International Update -- International games will start in earnest soon and Neil Cairney and Graham Allan are the first to get the call, as they'll suit up for Scotland. Next Up -- We have a HUGE match against Manchester City at their stadium - a win or draw sees us return to the Champions League next year. A loss and we're destined for the Europa League. It's as simple as that!
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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 |
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05-03-2014, 06:01 PM
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#364 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sun. May 21, 2023
Barclays Premier League Manchester City (23-7-7, 76 points, 5th) vs. Dover (23-8-6, 77 points, 4th) Manchester City Stadium, Manchester, UK Betting Odds: Manchester City: 4-6 (Favourites) Draw: 9-4 Dover: 7-2 Past Meetings: 1W 2D 7L Historically, we're awful against this team but they've never been more vulnerable, with the sale of Enrique really hurting the club all season. They were three-time defending Premier League champs and four-time defending Champions League holders but won't win either this year. That said, a win against us and they are back in the Champions League next year. A loss or a draw to us will keep them in fifth and allow us to experience Champions League football for a third consecutive year. Young striker Jelle Hoegee is up to 25 goals in 35 games, as he's starting to take over the starting reins. Bruno and big signing Mario Brito will need to be watched as well. Shanon Andrea will be back in today and I want to go with a speedy defence so Salim Loucif moves to the centre, Kostas Zagos comes in at right fullback and Claudio Contreras is on the bench. Graham Allan is in at right midfield for the suspended Gianluca Bolis. We will play tight at the back with a counter mentality. Dover: 4-4-2 Counter GK - I. Wilke D - R. Gaucho, R. Hamon, S. Loucif, K. Zagos M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Allan S - S. Andrea, Chiquinho Bench - D. Traore, C. Contreras, Mancini, E. Harvey, H. Cruz, Z. Bardi, P. Moses City are in their traditional 4-5-1 with Hoegee alone up front. Joe Hart is in goal. Come on guys - do it for the travelling supporters! 2' - We have possession right from the opening kick and look dangerous. We get the ball and move it up the left to Bamba and he heads it into the penalty area. Shanon Andrea burst into the box and quickly shoots, stunning Joe Hart, who wasn't ready for the quick shot and the ball is IN THE NET! Fucking FANTASTIC START BOYS! DOVER GOAL 1-0 21' - City has had some good possession but no shots on target. Now we have it deep down the left and it's out to Renato Gaucho. He sends a deep cross into the box and for some reason, Chiquinho is WIDE OPEN. He has the net at his mercy and it's IN! I look to the sidelines to see if it's offsides and the assistant is running back to midfield. THIS IS AWESOME! DOVER GOAL 2-0 24' - Hoegee is looking dangerous on two consecutive highlights and on this one, he gets a shot on goal but it's right at Wilke. 26' - Hoegee again with a turnaround shot and Wilke makes the big stop! 27' - And now I regret not having the 6' 6" Claudio Contreras in the game, as City press and the ball is delivered high into the area. Loucif goes up against Hoegee but City's tall and talented striker gets up higher and heads it over Loucif and a pinching Ingo Wilke and the ball falls under the cross bar and IN. MANCHESTER CITY GOAL 2-1 I immediately drop Neil Cairney and Andrea Rocca into unfamiliar DMC positions, essentially moving into a 4-2-2-2. 39' - We are playing super defensive yet still letting these guys through our defence. Crazy. A through ball is perfect and there is Hoegee again - he makes no mistake putting it into the near side and City pull level from two behind. MANCHESTER CITY GOAL 2-2 We move back into our normal 4-4-2 counter. 43' - Neil Cairney gets a yellow card. 45' - We steal possession and work a quick counter. Rocca delivers a pass to Andrea then he touches it over to Chiquinho. He's got a man on his tail as he moves toward the outer edge of the area and he sends a ROCKET BLAST past Hart, off the crossbar and DOWN OVER THE GOAL LINE AND IN! Late half DAGGER!? Chiquinho has two and we have a lead back!!! DOVER GOAL 3-2 HALFTIME - W H A T A M A T C H!!!!!. This is ridiculous how good it is! We have 58% of possession (!!!) but they outshot us 9-5 (5-3 on target). We're definitely taking advantage of our chances. I am going to pull back big time. Tight formation, deep as can be, etc. 51' - Joe Hart makes his first save of the game off a Chiquinho shot from distance. 58' - We are completely sitting back right now - this isn't Dover football but it is right now! City get a chance and a ball comes through to substitute Gylfi Sigurosson, a thorn in our side for years and he puts it past Wilke and in. But wait, it's offsides! The replay confirms the ref got it right. NO GOAL!!! 63' - Wilke ROBS Sigurosson on a shot from in close! WOW! 64' - Chiquinho with a yellow card. THE CLOCK IS MOVING TOO SLOW!!! 66' - We win a corner and Rocca's cross is headed to the far post by Hamon but City's defender is covering the post and clears it off the line! OOH. 78' - I take out Shanon Andrea and bring in Mancini. We move to a 4-1-4-1 formation, with Mancini at DMC. 82' - We make another substitution, bringing in Claudio Contreras and taking out Kostas Zagos. Contreras moves into the middle and Loucif is back to right fullback. 90'+1 - Three extra minutes! City have a corner and we head it out and it's Chiquinho 1-on-1 with a City defender. Chiquinho wins the race and has a chance to end the game but his shot is JUST WIDE! OH MY! We take out Chiquinho and bring in Zoltan Bardi. THAT'S IT!!! We win at the Etihad!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!! Manchester City 2 - 3 Dover Goals - Chiquinho 2 (8.8), Shanon Andrea (8.0) Assists - Renato Gaucho (7.6), Arsene Bamba (6.9), Shanon Andrea Man of the Match - Jelle Hoegee (Manchester City ST - 8.8) Other Dover Notables - Attendance - 62,499 Possession ended dead even, as we sat back and parked our bus for the entire second half. City outshot us 20-9 (9-4 on target). This win is one of the most satisfying I can remember! We knock Manchester City out of next year's Champions League!!! -- And not only that, but Chelsea knock off Manchester United 1-0 AND Sheffield Wednesday hold Arsenal to a draw. That means that we move all the way up to second place!!! Our best ever finish in club history, both from a standings perspective AND a points perspective! -- We are given £15,200,000 for our second place finish and we pay out £2.4 million of it to the players on a pro-rated basis.  -- And with that, our players and staff head away on their summer holiday. What a season! Second place in the league, a second consecutive quarter final appearance in the Champions League, a semi-finals appearance in the FA Cup and LEAGUE CUP CHAMPIONS! Next Up -- Stats, recaps, awards, etc.
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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 |
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05-03-2014, 06:10 PM
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#365 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Alexandria, VA
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And the 4 lost points from those two late draws didn't cost you the league title. Thank god for Chelsea getting hot down the stretch.
 The lesson of Manchester City: If you ever are fortunate enough to have an Enrique, never sell him, no matter how much of a record transfer fee is thrown at you. |
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05-03-2014, 08:42 PM
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#366 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Quote:
Wow - yeah, you're right about those two draws! Way to spot that! That said, one win out of those two would have made things just a bit less stressful in that last game! Still, a great win and in a way, I'm glad we showed we could do it when everything was on the line like that. And you're definitely right about Enrique. His stats are hilarious this year - he scored 44 goals in 52 overall matches for Barcelona this year, which are obviously outstanding numbers. But it's his Champions League numbers that are absolutely ASTOUNDING - 26 goals and 5 assists in only 11 games - those are INSANE! He wasn't anywhere near as effective in the Spanish league, scoring only 18 goals in 36 matches and he scored NO GOALS in his 5 cup games. Wild stuff. I still think City have a tremendous young striker in Jelle Hoegee but he's not Enrique. And the fact that City spent £73 million on midfielder Mario Brito makes it even worse - the guy is a good player but that's a ridiculous amount to spend on a wide midfielder. Dumb moves and they suffered the consequences! Thanks for reading!
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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 |
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05-03-2014, 08:44 PM
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#367 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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  The stats shown above take into account all competitions with our senior team and include everyone who played at least one game for the big club this past season. GK -- Ingo Wilke continues to perform beyond his "skill level" and arguably had his finest season yet, with a scintillating 7.10 average rating and a 7.13 rating in league games. He's been a great servant to this club and he's approaching Oliver Nicholas' club record for league games played. That said, we picked up a keeper for the future (and present) in Mexican international Manuel Perez. I went relatively easy on Perez, giving him 1/4 of our 60 total games as he assimilates into the club. He's still attempting to learn English but he was superb when called upon this year. I envision more of a balanced split next year and I'm thinking that Perez will eventually take over the starting job when he finally learns the language. D -- Overall, we went with the exact same starting back four and all of them continue to grow with each other. On the outside, Salim Loucif continues to grow into his leadership role and he will be a top candidate to take over our captaincy next year. On the other side, another young leader continues to get better in Renato Gaucho - he's been starting since he was 18 and just over from Brazil and he's coming off his finest season yet. We made a splash to add a quality backup in Kostas Zagos and he got 24 starts among his 34 appearances and was excellent when called upon. Youngsters Carlos Guzman and Steve Reed are decent depth players. We are in great shape at fullback. -- Our central defence continues to be effective and I expect Rayane Hamon to be highly sought after in the offseason by bigger clubs. He's got good size and speed and when he went down for over a month due to injury, our back four suffered. Surprisingly enough, Hamon didn't score a goal all year despite being an excellent header of the ball. Claudio Contreras is starting to live up to his great promise and he is a towering presence on the back end at 6' 6" tall. He scored five goals this year and his speed has improved greatly to the point where he isn't a liability anymore. Daniel Traore was a nice veteran pickup and produced a couple of goals and brought experience to the club. Young Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz, a Moroccan in our system since he was 16, made a very good first impression as a back up to the senior team and he played very well for a 20 year old. Mwemere Mutesa is a potential prospect who may be loaned out next season in hopes of developing his game. Emmanuel Agbo is a long-time club player who was here due to his home-grown status. His contract expires at the end of the year and he won't return. M -- After numerous honours last year, including Barclays Premier League Players' Player of the Year, Gianluca Bolis was back to his maddening inconsistent self. His production was way down this year, as was fellow starter Arsene Bamba. That said, both still did fine and had more than respectable average ratings. Graham Allan, after a very slow start with our club, blossomed in mid-season and ended up with superlative production, notching 20 points in only 19 starts, just incredible numbers! He is equally adept at playing both sides and is a very valuable player for us. Helder Cruz, another new signing, was brought along very slowly this year as he also gets used to English football. He showed glimpses of potential but like Manuel Perez, is struggling with the English language so far. Lyubomir Kunchev is a solid prospect for the future and may stick around next year in a reserves role or be sent out on loan. -- We waited three years but we FINALLY got to see what all the fuss was about with Neil Cairney. His production always was lacking and I struggled with finding the proper role for him but this year, we stuck him in a "box-to-box" role and he flourished, to say the least! 15 goals…25 assists. 40 POINTS from central midfield are absolutely LUDICROUS numbers and he produced at the same level throughout the year, showing amazing consistency and superlative skill. He benefited from an aggressive and skilled set of forwards, as he was given an incredible 11 penalty kicks this year and converted 10 of them. I will be shocked if Cairney isn't our supporters Player of the Year and he should definitely be recognized by the league for his year-long performance. Andrea Rocca battled more injuries this year but continues to produce at a level beyond his ratings. He's getting a bit older and isn't as pacy as he was in his early 20's and I'm going to have to start looking for a replacement soon. Speaking of which, perhaps that replacement will be the remarkable Gian Marco Fanfoni. I brought in this 18 year old from Inter on a season-long loan, expecting to give him maybe 10 appearances as a substitute or maybe a rare Cup start. When Rocca and Mancini went down with long-term injuries, I was forced to give him an expanded role and he delivered in spades, scoring 6 goals and adding 8 assists in 36 games and only 20 starts. Just remarkable for a kid! I do have a clause in my loan contract to buy him out and I will seriously consider it. Mancini suffered a serious injury and missed four months of the year. When he returned, his role had been stolen by Fanfoni but the Brazilian played well in his early games before the injury. His contract is up and while I've tried to resign him, I can't get an updated work permit and therefore, he'll likely be gone by July 1st. Young Emmerson Harvey spent the majority of the season with the U18s and saw a bit of action with the senior team. That said, Harvey is a very ambitious individual and I don't know if I'll be able to resign him at the end of next year, as he's been open about wanting to "impress visiting scouts". I do envision a solid role for him on next year's senior team so hopefully he wants to stick around. Shaun Spall has some offensive flair but isn't a complete player and saw his playing time diminish due to the great play of young Fanfoni. Spall is under contract for one more year but he wants first-team football and I'll be trying to move him when the transfer window re-opens. S -- I've seen some good years from my strikers but this year was off the charts. First, our star from last year, Shanon Andrea, continued to impress and with 21 goals in 34 games, along with 15 assists, was above a point per game for the second year in a row. He's highly productive but a bit injury prone. The biggest and best offseason signing was Belgian Chiquinho, who set team records for total goals in a year (30) and league goals (23). He's big, fast and strong and has a rocket launcher for a leg and he was unstoppable when he was on. He went into a major slump near the end of the season, going 10 games at one point without a goal but came through in our last match of the season, scoring twice to propel us back into the top four and a third consecutive season of Champions League football. What can I say about superlative young striker Paul Moses? After a 2021/22 season that saw the two of us feud, he got over it and returned for a second season on loan from Manchester United. All he did was score 20 goals as a 19 year old and this "wonderkid" is destined to be a superstar in this league. I'm DESPERATELY trying to get him to come here for good but for some reason, he won't look at a contract offer from me right now. I'm hoping he has a change of heart when the transfer window reopens. Zoltan Bardi didn't get an awful lot of playing time this year, as Chiquinho stayed healthy all year but Bardi did produce well when called upon. Wayne Rooney had an incredible year last year at 36 years old, scoring 12 times but he had no fuel left in the tank at all this year and couldn't even get a bench position for most of the season. This legend of the game will retire at the end of June. RESERVE TEAM PLAYERS -- I keep a number of players around that have either reached home-grown status or are working on it. GK Louis Read, MC Jamie Matthews, ML Steve Ingram, DC Andrew Stanley and MC Jonathan Gauthier played a bunch of reserves games but never made it into a senior team match. LOAN PLAYERS -- We had four players out on loan for the season. AMR Kostas Kalfas was sent to Sheffield Wednesday and was quite effective there, scoring 6 goals and adding an assist in 20 appearances for the surprising Premier League outfit. Former huge signing Giorgos Gesios was loaned out to Sevilla but suffered a serious injury, breaking his foot which kept him out of the lineup for four months. He only played 11 games, scoring three goals and adding an assist. I also loaned out two other young strikers: Orlando Scolari went to Leverkusen and scored two goals and added an assist in 11 games while Rogelio Garcia played a huge role for Sporting CP, scoring 17 goals (!) and adding four helpers in 33 appearances. He's got great potential and I may see what he can do with our senior team next year. U18 PLAYERS -- Unlike past years, I don't really have a great striker prospect. Our top valued prospect would be young left midfielder Felix Hernandez (0.5/3.0), who joined us in the January transfer window. He scored 6 goals and added 5 assists in only 9 non-competitive starts. Midfielder Jay Doyle (0.5/2.5), striker Ben Patterson (0.5/2.0) and DR Hans Briers (0.5/2.0) have some potential and may make an impact with another team after a sale. I have a number of other middling prospects but I doubt any of them will make an impact with the senior team here.
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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 |
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05-03-2014, 09:47 PM
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#368 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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2022-23 Barclays Premier League - Team Stats
-- We were by FAR the top scoring team in the Premier League, just missing the coveted 100 goal mark by a single goal! United and City were tied for second 11 goals back of us! For a second consecutive year, we were 5th in goals conceded (40 goals against) but gave up two fewer than last year. -- For the first time in the Premier League, we were NOT the team with the lowest attendance - that honour went to Huddersfield. We had an average of 18,231 supporters, a pretty significant increase again over last year's average of 15,027. That said, we're still looking for our first sell-out at our 23,000 seat stadium and while we came close a few times, we've just fallen short of that goal both in Premier League play and Champions League play. We also finished 14th out of 20 in Average Attendance by Capacity with a 78% total. -- Other key team stats: we were 1st in penalty goals (10), 7th in goals from corners with 9 (down from 17 last year when we finished 2nd in the category), 6th in goals from IFK's with 8 (up from 5 last year when we finished T-8th) and we were T4th in goals from DFKs with 2. We were middle of the pack with respect to discipline, finishing T8th in yellow cards with 55 (up from 45 last year and 17th place) while our red card tally was 4, which was 2nd most in the league (up from 2 last year). 2022-23 Barclays Premier League - Player Stats -- 18 players participated in all 38 games across the league but none of them were from our club. Salim Loucif was our iron-man with 37 league games played. GOALS 1. Yaya Sanogo, Manchester United, 30 2. Chiquinho, Dover, 25 3. Jelle Hoegee, Manchester City, 22 T4. Darijo Jukic, Sheffield Wednesday, 20 T4. Steve Pates, Sheffield Wednesday, 20 T12. Shanon Andrea, Dover, 14 T15. Paul Moses, Dover, 13 T32. Neil Cairney, Dover, 9 ASSISTS 1. Nicola Papaleo, Sunderland, 20 2. Neil Cairney, Dover, 18 3. Miguel Sousa, Chelsea, 15 T4. Teco, Aston Villa, 14 T4. Steve Pates, Sheffield Wednesday, 14 T9. Shanon Andrea, Dover, 12 T23. Andrea Rocca, Dover, 8 T23. Chiquinho, Dover, 8 T32. Graham Allan, Dover, 7 MAN OF MATCH AWARDS 1. Yaya Sanogo, Manchester United, 10 2. Steve Pates, Sheffield Wednesday, 8 3. Jelle Hoegee, Manchester City, 7 Four Tied with 6 T11. Shanon Andrea, Dover, 4 T24. Paul Moses, Dover, 3 T24. Ingo Wilke, Dover, 3 AVERAGE RATING 1. Jelle Hoegee, Manchester City, 7.64 2. Neil Cairney, Dover, 7.57 3. Yaya Sanogo, Manchester United, 7.55 4. Giorgos Spanoudakis, Manchester City, 7.54 5. Luis Carballo, Chelsea, 7.49 6. Shanon Andrea, Dover, 7.47 7. Chiquinho, Dover, 7.46 21. Andrea Rocca, Dover, 7.29 T24. Salim Loucif, Dover, 7.23 T30. Renato Gaucho, Dover, 7.21 T34. Rayane Hamon, Dover, 7.20 T37. Graham Allan, Dover, 7.19 T41. Gian Marco Fanfoni, Dover, 7.17 T41. Arsene Bamba, Dover, 7.17
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-03-2014 at 09:48 PM. |
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05-05-2014, 11:41 AM
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#369 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Rennes, France
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Exciting finish ! Well done on that second place !
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05-06-2014, 02:36 PM
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#370 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Quote:
Thanks for reading and commenting Alf! We've improved every single year since I started managing this club but now, there isn't much more I can do here, other than actually win the league and hang on a bit longer in Champions League play. I guess those will have to be our goals for next year!
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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 |
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05-13-2014, 10:47 PM
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#371 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Barclays Premier League Awards
-- With Enrique now in Spain, we have a new English Footballer of the Year for the first time in five seasons. The award goes to Man United striker Yaya Sanogo. Enrique’s replacement, Jelle Hoegee, comes in second and our very own Neil Cairney comes in third! -- Chelsea’s Miguel Sousa wins the English Player’s Player of the Year award. Giorgos Spanoudakis from Man City comes second and Luis Carballo from Chelsea comes in third. Gianluca Bolis won this award last year, if you recall. -- Sheffield Wednesday forward Steve Pates wins the Players' Young Player of the Year award for the second year in a row. Mario Brito, the big new signing with Man City, comes in second and Everton’s Daniele Bentivoglio comes in third. -- Chelsea manager Leonardo wins English Premier League Manager of the Year, with last year’s winner Malky Mackay finishing runner up and Man United’s Jurgen Klinsmann finishing third. Nothing for me this year! -- Barclays Premier League Players' Team of the Year GK - Antonio, Reading DL - Danny Wilson, Manchester City DC - Salah Abbes, Manchester City DC - Nchimunya Munyao, Arsenal DR - Jonathan Keat, Manchester City ML - Luis Carballo, Chelsea MC - Giorgos Spanoudakis, Manchester City MC - Neil Cairney, Dover MR - Miguel Sousa, Chelsea ST - Yaya Sanogo, Manchester United ST - Jelle Hoegee, Manchester City Neil Cairney is rewarded for his incredible season with his first ever “All-Star” nod. We placed three additional players on the substitutes list, with Chiquinho, Shanon Andrea and Arsene Bamba all getting nods. Yearly Dover Training Summary -- I get positive reports on Claudio Contreras, Helder Cruz and reserve Jay Doyle, with significant praise bestowed on youth find Mwemere Mutesa. -- Negative reports come in for midfielder Mancini, who was injured most of the year and veteran Wayne Rooney, who will be retiring next month. -- On the youth side, Eddie Robinson, Phil Whitbread and Ben Lee get positive reports, with Robinson and Lee ending up on this list for the second consecutive season. Youth Recruitment Investment -- The board announce that construction has begun on an upgrade to our training and youth facilities. The planned expansion will cost us an estimated £3.7 million. Heading to Spain? — I get a rare job offer, with Atletico Madrid offering me £48,000 per week, a £18.25 million transfer budget and a whopping wage budget of £1.9 million per week to manage at Estadio de Madrid. Pretty cool - this is definitely one of the largest clubs in the world (ranked fourth in game, only behind Real Madrid, Barcelona and Arsenal) but I’m not going anywhere. Offer declined. FA Cup Final -- Newcastle upend Huddersfield 3-1 to win the 2023 FA Cup, thereby earning a Europa League spot. Newcastle finished in 14th place in the Premier League so it’s quite a feat to see them make Europe. -- We pay out £195,000 in bonuses to our squad for our semi-final FA Cup run. Champions League Final -- Man United win 3-0 over Dortmund to win the Champions League title for the fourth time ever and first time since 2008! -- We see a significant increase in Champions League television revenue, as we are given £21,739,000 for our quarterfinals run this year after receiving about £18 million last season. Our bank balance is currently north of £37 million and we’re currently showing a profit of over £7.6 million for this season. That said, I have about £25 MILLION in last season’s transfer budget that has gone unspent as I continue to be patient in hopes of luring young striker Paul Moses to our club on a permanent basis. -- We pay out bonuses totalling £600,000 for our quarterfinal appearance in the Champions League to the players. -- Next year's final will be played in France at Stade Velodrome. -- Enrique wins the competitions Best Player award for the third consecutive season, not much of a surprise after scoring 26 goals in 11 games! He obviously wins the Golden Boot as well. International Call-Ups -- Thirteen players get called up by their respective countries: Marcel Quade (Austria U20s), Hans Briers (Belgium U20s), Carlos Guzman (Argentina U20s), Emmerson Harvey (England U21s), Felix Hernandez (France U21s), Zoltan Bardi (Hungary), Arsene Bamba and Daniel Traore (Ivory Coast), Gianluca Bolis (Italy), Chiquinho (Belgium), Lyubomir Kunchev (Bulgaria), Kostas Zagos (England) and Giorgos Gesios (Greece). Dover Shareholders Payout -- Dividends totalling £5.25 million will be paid to our shareholders on turnover of approximately £174 million this year - the shareholders received about £4.5 million last year so a nice increase once again. Future Transfer IN — We come to terms on a deal for Olympique Lyonnais GK Mathis Imbert on a free transfer. I’ll have more details on this 22 year old when he arrives in July. He isn’t going to supplant Ingo Wilke or Manuel Perez but he’ll help from a organizational depth perspective. Dover Contracts Expiring -- Three of our senior team players are on expiring contracts, with midfielder Mancini being the most notable. I have tried to re-up him but can’t get a work permit so he’ll be leaving the club at the end of June. Also leaving without contract extensions will be long-time reserve players Emmanuel Agbo and Andrew Stanley. I have a number of youth contracts expiring as well - 14 in total! I offer extensions to Hans Briers, Louis Read and Marcel Quade - all three have played for their country at the youth level so I’ll try to get them re-signed on the cheap and perhaps loan them out or keep them around as reserves. -- I still have 3 staff members with expiring contracts and I attempt to bring back only one of them.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-13-2014 at 10:48 PM. |
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05-14-2014, 12:01 AM
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#372 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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June Update
-- The Premier League transfer window opens on June 9th as well and I still have a crapload of last year’s transfer budget to spend if I so choose. Again, my hopes are to lure Paul Moses here on a permanent basis from Manchester United. Premier League Monthly Awards — Liverpool fullback Chanda Mbesuma wins Player of the Month accolades. — Our very own Renato Gaucho wins Young Player of the Month honours, the 7th time he’s been given the award since joining our club in 2020. — And hey, I win the Premier League Manager of the Month award for winning both of our games in May, including the shocking 3-2 away win at Manchester City in our final match of the year. June Board Confidence Update -- No change here: the board is very pleased with my overall leadership of the team. Stature increase is the positive and our ugly FA Cup semi-finals loss is the negative. -- We made a profit of £26 million last month. We also have the chance to cash in on three buyout fees for a few clauses put into past transfer deals for Ross McLaughlin, Thomas Andersen and Carlo Cerbone - I will accept all three and pocket over £2 million! Cha Ching! International Update -- Six more players get called up by their respective countries: Louis Read (England U20s), Tomas Liska (Slovakia U20s), Salim Loucif (Algeria), Mwemere Mutesa (Rwanda), Shanon Andrea (Holland) and Manuel Perez (Mexico). Contract Extensions — I come to terms on three year contract extensions for midfielder Marcel Quade, goalkeeper Louis Read and fullback Hans Briers. Neither of the three will amount to much here but I will keep them on board either as reserves or loan them out, with the aim of selling them in the future.  -- We continue to make AND spend money and clear close to a two million pound profit but that was with a shocking asterisk, as we actually spent 8 million pounds less on transfers then player sales! We saw a nice spike in attendance too.
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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 |
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05-14-2014, 12:41 AM
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#373 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Transfer Window Opens
-- The Premier League transfer window reopens and right away, Sheffield Wednesday come calling for young Emmerson Harvey, offering £6 million. We reject it but that’s a good start - I may consider moving him at some point but I do envision a role here for the 19 year old this year after two years of seasoning with our U18 club. Transfer Market - Needs -- Okay, what are we looking for this year? At the moment, we have around £27 million in our transfer kitty from last year but my first move with the transfer window opening will be making another £19 million bid on young striker Paul Moses to activate our buyout clause in the loan deal we have with Manchester United. Other than that, I’m looking for another key central defender and perhaps a star central midfielder. Beyond that, we are pretty loaded and will just look for depth or young U18 prospects. Transfer IN -- In a previously arranged deal, we welcome 20 year old Rafael Ramirez to Dover in a £5.25 million deal with OM.  Ramirez is a 2.0/3.5 rated prospect with great technical skills, excellent determination and work ethic and good speed. He’ll be a great fit on our roster and will help replenish the depth we’re losing with Mancini leaving the team at the end of the month and the likely transfer listing of fellow midfielder Shaun Spall. — We also come to terms with two U18 prospects: MC Gary Archer and ST Jim Ryan. Neither will likely do any damage for our senior team but they will be contributors for the U18s this coming season and perhaps can be sold in the future if they develop. Transfer IN — And here it is. THE BIG ONE! We are DELIGHTED to announce that Paul Moses has accepted a contract offer with our club and we officially complete our largest transfer in team history, a £19,000,000 deal with Manchester United. Of course, that was a previously negotiated number when we brought Moses in on loan last year and with the transfer window opening, Moses comes to an immediate agreement with our club.  What more can we say about this 19 year old wonderkid? He scored 20 goals for our club last year in 21 starts (35 total appearances) and has 29 in two years with our club on loan. Moses signs a 3 year deal with our club for £62,000/week, a more than fair amount for a player of his ability. My coaches feel he is a 3.0 to 3.5 player RIGHT NOW and feel his potential is up to 4.5 stars. Simply sensational deal and Moses will battle with Shanon Andrea for a lead role this year alongside Chiquinho. Moses pays homage to me in his press conference, saying he looks up to me and has the highest regard for my coaching ability. I love you too, pal! WOOOOOOOO!
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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 |
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05-14-2014, 01:40 AM
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#374 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Transfer List
-- I place striker Giorgos Gesios, currently on loan at Sevilla, and midfielder Shaun Spall on the transfer list. Both are surplus to requirements at this point. Gesios isn't happy and wants to stay but I hope to get as much of a return as possible for him. European Club Rankings -- We move up 27 more places on the European Club rankings list, landing in the 29th position with 73.678 coefficient points. Manchester United retain first place on the club coefficient list after their Champions League win last year. Transfer IN -- We welcome yet another U18 prospect to the club in GK Steven Potter. He’s just a two star prospect so nothing much to see here. Transfer Talk — I’ve got a couple smaller offers out right now as we await word on our 2023/24 transfer budget. Arsene Bamba and Salim Loucif are popular targets right now but I’ve been able to reject all of the offers thus far.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-14-2014 at 09:45 AM. |
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05-14-2014, 12:41 PM
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#375 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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In a note completely unrelated to this gaming world, the real-life Dover Athletic FC defeated Ebbsfleet 1-0 on the weekend to win promotion to the Skrill Conference Premier League via the playoffs.
Pretty cool!
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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 |
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05-14-2014, 11:16 PM
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#376 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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European Golden Boot
-- Manchester United's Yaya Sanogo wins the European Golden Boot with 30 goals. Rogelio Robles from Valencia finishes second and Thomas Franke from AS Saint-Etienne is in third. Future Transfers OUT -- Long time reserve midfielder Steve Ingram agrees to a contract with Bristol Rovers and will be departing our club on July 1st. We weren’t extending him and we’ll wish him well at the beginning of next month. -- DC Emmanuel Agbo will also be leaving after a long tenure at our club. He’ll be heading to Chesterfield on July 1st. Preseason Friendlies -- Offers start coming in for preseason friendlies and I accept an offer from Ipswich but decline one from fellow Championship side West Brom. Injury Update -- Emmerson Harvey suffers a fractured wrist while playing for England’s U21 team and will miss a month. Not good news, as we have very little depth at central midfield right now. Striker Paul Moses scored a hat trick in that game for England, by the way. Transfer Talk -- Man United continue to sniff around our central defenders. Only a year after taking Cristian Rodriguez away from us, they offer £11,250,000 for Rayane Hamon. Hamon is going nowhere - he’s our best defender right now. -- And in the “You’ve GOT to be Kidding Me” files, Chelsea come calling for Kostas Zagos again, only this time, they aren’t ringing our door bell. They are bloody well knocking the door down! Chelsea offer us £21,500,000 for our BACKUP fullback and the offer is auto-accepted by our board, as it meets Zagos’ minimum release clause. I *love* Zagos - I chased him for two years before grabbing him and he’s incredibly versatile, with the ability to play both sides of the field with aplomb. That said, it’s 21 million pounds for our backup so what can I say? I’m sure he’ll take the deal but we’ll see what happens….and just like that, he’s gone. Transfer OUT -- So Kostas Zagos comes to terms with Chelsea and he’s gone in a record transfer deal for our club totalling £21,500,000 (paid over 30 months). He leaves Dover after only one season, where he started 24 games (34 total appearances), scoring one goal and finishing with a 7.09 average rating. We’ll miss him but that’s LUDICROUS money for a fullback in my opinion. Time to find someone else now to fill in!
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-14-2014 at 11:18 PM. |
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05-14-2014, 11:48 PM
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#377 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Premier League Sponsorship
-- Manchester United continue to bring in sponsorship money at a ridiculous rate, netting £60 million while we continue to attract little attention, garnering only £250,000, easily last in the Premier League. Thankfully, our pitiful Kit sponsorship deal expires next year so hopefully we’ll get a deal a bit more lucrative and more befitting a club of our stature. International Duty — Paul Moses is in FINE form already and has scored 7 goals in three games for England’s U21 team in Euro U21 action. England Season Summary Here's a look at the football.guardian.co.uk Season Summary report on all the English leagues, with a full recap of the Premier League and just a quick look at the promotions/relegations in the other leagues. Barclays Premier League 2022/23 Winners - Chelsea Relegated - Derby, Burnley, Stoke Top Goalscorer - Yaya Sanogo, Manchester United - 30 Most Assists - Nicola Papaleo, Sunderland - 20 Highest Average Rating - Jelle Hoegee, Manchester City - 7.64 (28 apps) Overachievers - Sheffield Wednesday (second year in a row) Underperformers - Tottenham Signing of the Season - Dover's Chiquinho (£9.5m) Worst Signing of the Season - Sunderland’s Nuno Santos (£7.75m) npower Championship Winners - Norwich Promoted - Norwich, Blackpool, Fulham Relegated - Leicester, Portsmouth, Cardiff npower League 1 Winners - Barnsley Promoted - Barnsley, Bradford, Bristol Rovers Relegated - Barrow, Rushden, Scunthorpe, Oldham npower League 2 Winners - Barnet Promoted - Barnet, Hereford, Gillingham, Stockport Relegated - Torquay, Stevenage Blue Square Bet Premier Winners - Forest Green Promoted - Forest Green, Kidderminster Relegated - Woking, Stalybridge, Eastbourne Boro, Kingstonian Blue Square Bet North Winners - Fleetwood Promoted - Fleetwood, Eastwood Relegated - Histon, Corby, Nuneaton Blue Square Bet South Winners - Hampton & Richmond Promoted - Hampton & Richmond, Eastleigh Relegated - Carshalton, Chippenham, Tooting & Mitcham Other Winners FA Cup - Newcastle League Cup - Dover Community Shield - Manchester City Johnstone's Paint Trophy - Colchester FA Trophy - York Europe Qualification Champions League Group Stage - Man United, Chelsea, Dover, Arsenal Europa League Fourth Qualifying Round - Newcastle, Manchester City Europa League Third Qualifying Round - Sheffield Wednesday -- Great to see us get “Signing of the Year” for a second consecutive season! Preseason Foreign Tour -- Every year, we pick a different country for a two-game friendly tour and this year, we’ll take our act to North America to face a couple of Mexican powerhouses in Club de Futbol America (America) and Club Deportivo Guadalajara (Chivas).
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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 |
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05-15-2014, 12:39 AM
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#378 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Dover Fans' Player of the Year
-- Justice is served: I suppose a case could have been made for Chiquinho, considering he set a club record for goals scored in a season but there was no question in my mind who our top player was this year and the supporters agreed. Our Fans’ Player of the Year winner is midfielder Neil Cairney!!! 15 goals and 25 assists from the midfielder last season - simply spectacular numbers! Dover Best Eleven for 2022-23 -- A couple of slight surprises here but we all know how important average rating is in this game: GK - Manuel Perez - 15 apps 0g 7.17 avg DL - Renato Gaucho - 50 apps 0g 7.18 avg DC - Rayane Hamon - 35 apps 0g 7.21 avg DC - Claudio Contreras - 46 apps 5g 7.15 avg DR - Salim Loucif - 52 apps 0g 7.20 avg MC - Andrea Rocca - 35 apps 5g 7.23 avg MC - Neil Cairney - 52 apps 15g 7.51 avg ML - Arsene Bamba - 44 apps 6g 7.19 avg MR - Graham Allan - 32 apps 8g 7.27 avg ST - Shanon Andrea - 34 apps 21g 7.55 avg ST - Chiquinho - 49 apps 32g 7.39 avg Other notables: GK Ingo Wilke 45 apps 0g 7.10; DC Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz 14 apps 0g 7.09; DC Daniel Traore 19 apps 2g 7.02; DC Mwemere Mutesa 1 apps 0g 5.40; MC Gian Marco Fanfoni 33 apps 6g 7.19; ST Zoltan Bardi 18 apps 4g 7.18; ST Wayne Rooney 3 apps 0g 6.70 No Gianluca Bolis, Paul Moses or Kostas Zagos at all? Not even on the “substitutes” list? What a terrible list this is! Let's take a look at our overall Best Eleven since I took over management of the franchise: Dover Best Eleven - Overall GK - Ingo Wilke - 296 apps 0g 7.02 avg DL - Renato Gaucho - 155 apps 2g 7.10 avg DC - Olly Schulz - 120 apps 18g 7.32 avg DC - Oliver Nicholas - 316 apps 28g 7.14 avg DR - Salim Loucif - 130 apps 1g 7.15 avg ML - Arsene Bamba - 236 apps 42g 7.22 avg MC - Neil Cairney - 142 apps 25g 7.26 avg MC - Andrea Rocca - 225 apps 40g 7.26 avg MR - Abdeltareck Sakali - 176 apps 50g 7.14 avg ST - Alexander Rattke - 125 apps 55g 7.13 avg ST - Aaron Green - 141 apps 65g 7.18 avg Renato Gaucho, Salim Loucif and Neil Cairney all vault onto our overall best eleven! Substitutes: GK - Liam O'Brien - 219 apps 0g 6.84 avg DC - Rayane Hamon - 114 apps 4g 7.10 avg DR - Conor Morrissey - 230 apps 1g 6.98 avg ML - Ismael Fofana - 206 apps 38g 6.98 avg MR - Gianluca Bolis - 160 apps 39g 7.11 avg ST - Ben Hunt - 156 apps 70g 7.12 avg ST - Zoltan Bardi - 218 apps 74g 7.05 avg Rayane Hamon gets onto the list for the first time as a substitute. 2023-24 Barclays Premier League Fixture List Announced -- For a second consecutive year, we open our season against Everton but this year, we’re at home to start. Our first away match will be at Craven Cottage against newly-promoted Fulham. We’ll play another promoted club, Blackpool, on Boxing Day and our final match of the year will be at home versus Aston Villa. -- As usual, we are given £40,000,000 spread over 12 months for Premier League television rights. Start of Season Expectations -- The board’s minimum expectation is that we qualify for Europe again. I want to win a title but I won’t make any promises at this point so I’ll go with the board for now. For that they'll offer the following: 2023/24 TRANSFER BUDGET - £23,500,000 (Last Year: £38,000,000) 2023/24 WAGE BUDGET - £950,000 (Last Year: £700,000/week) Pretty weak. Part of the problem is that Chelsea is paying the £21 million they owe us for former fullback Kostas Zagos over 30 months. If we had that all now, I’m guessing we’d have another 15 million pounds for our transfer budget, which would put us in line with last year. Not a worry either way. I can manage with this budget for now. Youth Intake - U18 Club -- We continue to improve our youth facilities but our academy continues to produce absolutely no good players. We have perhaps our worst class of prospects yet, with most of the players only 0.5 star prospects. Terrible! Transfer Talk -- Sheffield Wednesday had our MR Kostas Kalfas on loan all year and the youngster performed quite well for their club. We had negotiated a buyout clause and Sheffield have just activated it, offering us £8.5 million for his services on a permanent basis. It’s obviously auto-accepted by our board and we’ll wait to see if Kalfas signs a contract. He’s a surplus to requirements so I’m okay with getting the money.
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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 |
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05-15-2014, 02:30 AM
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#379 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Preseason Friendlies
-- We finalize our preseason schedule, with an intersquad game and nine other friendlies. It's a pretty tough schedule, as usual, with some good money-making opportunities and only one possible cupcake in Hungarian side Ferencvaros, a team I promised a friendly against in the deal I made for their DC Mwemere Mutesa. July 6 vs. Dover U18 July 9 at Ipswich (England Championship) July 12 vs. FC Bayern (Germany Bundesliga) July 16 at America (MEX) (Mexico) July 18 at Chivas (Mexico) July 22 vs. Werder Bremen (Germany Bundesliga) July 29 vs. AJ Auxerre (France Ligue 1) August 5 vs. Genoa (Italy Serie A) August 8 at Ferencvaros (Hungary) August 12 vs. Celtic (Scotland Clydesdale Bank Premier League) Transfer Talk -- Liverpool come calling for backup left midfielder Helder Cruz, offering £3 million. I tell them it’s not enough - Cruz is only depth here so I can be swayed to make a move but I’m looking for more than that. -- In very disappointing news, Kostas Kalfas rejects the contract offer from Sheffield Wednesday, nullifying a potential £8.5 million transfer. Attendance Record Broken -- As indicated previously, we set a new attendance record, averaging 18,109 last year to smash our previous record set the year before, when we welcomed an average of only 15,081. We’re still looking for our first ever sell-out at our 23,000 seat stadium. Barclays Premier League Odds for 2023-24 -- Manchester City, after finishing 5th last year, are installed as 7-4 favourites by William Hill to regain the English Premier League title this year. With only Europa League play on the schedule, they will be able to concentrate a bit more on the league this year. Tottenham shockingly are installed at 5-1 along with Manchester United, defending champions Chelsea are at 6-1, Arsenal are at 12-1 and we come in at 25-1, with the agency projecting us to finish in 7th. Last year, our odds were 33-1 so we continue to get a bit more respect each year. Future Transfer IN -- We add to our U18 club by signing AJ Auxerre’s DR Takfarinas Madani on a free. He won’t amount to much I don’t think. UH OH - Tottenham bid £30,095,000 for Chiquinho, for some reason bidding 1 million less than his minimum release clause. I reject the deal and in a panic try to renegotiate his contract. His agent plays hard ball with me over a new minimum release clause and cancels negotiations. DAMNIT! There are no less than ten teams sniffing around him and he may be as good as gone soon. This isn’t good… Transfer OUT -- We get an offer for backup GK Louis Read that we can’t turn down and he’s off to Norwich in a £250,000 transfer. Read did not suit up in a senior level game for our club and we have a couple of clauses in the deal that could pay off down the road as well. Possible Transfer IN — I come to terms with an exciting 19 year old fullback who would immediately step in as a replacement for the departed Kostas Zagos but I’ll need a work permit granted. My scouts feel it’s a formality but I’ll hold off talking about the youngster until it goes through officially. Loan IN -- I have an offer accepted from Inter to bring Gian Marco Fanfoni, the dynamic young central midfielder, back to Dover on loan for a second consecutive year. Fanfoni quickly agrees to return to our club! I negotiated a MUCH better buyout clause too (approximately 10 million pounds) but keep in mind that Fanfoni is coming off a long-term serious calf injury. Bringing him in on loan was a calculated move, just to ensure he hasn’t regressed after the injury - if he returns and looks good, I’ll pull the trigger at some point. Transfers IN -- I make two additions to our U18 club, bringing in AMC Warren Ward and AML Adam Hyde on free transfers. Again, nothing much to see here.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-15-2014 at 02:31 AM. |
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05-15-2014, 05:09 AM
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#380 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Rennes, France
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Ouch, the Chiquihno sniffing is bad....
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05-15-2014, 11:00 AM
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#381 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Quote:
No question - it's all MAJOR clubs after him as well (City and United; Barcelona, etc) and I have to imagine *someone* will come at me with a deal in excess of 31.5 million for him. Slight game-to-game inconsistency aside, he NEVER gets hurt and his career stats prove that despite the occasional slump, he always gets his 20+ goals. I hate minimum release clauses!  I'll keep my fingers crossed and also will keep trying to reopen talks with his agent, who doesn't want to talk to me at the moment after the previous breakdown in negotiations.
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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 |
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05-15-2014, 06:15 PM
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#382 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Whitman, MA
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Good stuff, NoSkillz. Keep it up!
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FOOL - Ann Arbor Winged Lingerines FOOLX - Portland Axemen Hattrick - Fizzle United (222968) |
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05-15-2014, 09:36 PM
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#383 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Quote:
Thanks Tell!
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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 |
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05-15-2014, 09:36 PM
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#384 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Dover Player Retirements and Other Departures
-- Legend of the game Wayne Rooney retires from football and heads into coaching. He scored an astonishing 355 goals in his 21 year career, which was spent with four clubs: Everton (2 seasons), Manchester United (16 seasons), Fulham (1 season) and Dover (2 seasons). He also scored 96 goals for England in 149 appearances. Rooney was incredible for us the year we picked him up, scoring 12 goals as a 36 year old but he had nothing left in the tank last year and went scoreless. -- The most notable player to leave our club without a contract extension is midfielder Mancini. I signed him from Cruzeiro in 2019 for £500,000 and he played four seasons for our club, scoring three goals and adding eight assists in 88 total appearances. I actually tried to resign him but I couldn’t get a work permit issued and we didn’t pursue it any further. Thanks to Mancini for his contributions. -- Four players leave our club after signing Bosman transfers: MC Jonathan Gauthier (Perth Glory FC), ML Steve Ingram (Bristol Rovers), DC Emmanuel Agbo (Chesterfield) and DC Andrew Stanley (Luton Town). Only Agbo played for our senior team and he made only one substitute appearance last year. Ingram was with our team since 2016. We wish them all the best. -- Getting their outright release are MC Jamie Matthews, GK Garry Doyle, GK Richard Schaap, DR Dean Morgan and MC Daniel Wagner. None of these players suited up for our senior team and won’t be missed. Transfer Market Plans -- At this point, we don’t have any gaping holes but I’ll have to be very mindful of big clubs trying to poach my star players. Chiquinho especially is vulnerable with his reachable minimum release clause. -- I need to add a starter quality fullback but again, as indicated, I have a deal all set to go and we’re just waiting for a positive resolution with a work permit. -- I’m also interested in grabbing one more starting quality centre half back. I might also look for a stud central midfielder but that’s not a major concern right now. World's Richest Club List -- Real Madrid are at the top of the Richest Club list for a second straight season, with an estimated value of £850 million, a £14 million increase over last year. Barca are at £730 million (down £89 million from last year). Arsenal continue to be the top rated English club, sitting in 4th place at £403 million (down £27 million from last year). United are 5th at £397 million (up 4 million) and City drop to 8th at £341 million (down 13 million). We continue to move up the list, going from 36th up to 27th with a value of £114 million, up £12 million from last year. Transfers IN -- We welcome 22 year old goalkeeper Mathis Imbert to Dover on a free transfer from Olympique Lyonnais.  Imbert is 22 years old and a 2.5/3.0 rated talent. He played for OL’s B team last year and had 4 clean sheets in 8 starts but he’s here for depth purposes only. It doesn’t hurt that he comes in valued at £3 million right away. I may look to loan him out for this season if I can. -- We also officially welcome U18 prospect Takfarinas Madani on a free from AJ Auxerre. He’s a 0.5/2.0 rated prospect and will play for the junior club all year. No real need to see his profile pic, since I don’t expect much out of him.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-15-2014 at 09:38 PM. |
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05-15-2014, 10:32 PM
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#385 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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July Board Confidence Update
-- The board are very pleased with my overall leadership. The stature increase is the main reason and there are no negatives this month to speak of! -- We recorded a loss last month of £28.18 million! Ouch! It’s all in Man United and Paul Moses’ pocket! Contract Status - We have five players with one year left on their contract, including a few key guys: DC Claudio Contreras, GK Ingo Wilke, MC Emmerson Harvey, DC Daniel Traore and DL Sebastian Kraft. Contreras, Wilke and Harvey will all be offered extensions and we’ll see about Kraft. I doubt I’ll extend an offer to the 30 year old Traore. Manager, Team & Stadium Status and Media Expectations  Not much to see here, as I’m in the second year of my contract but my “Loyalty” rating continues to increase, as we’ve essentially gone with a very similar starting eleven for three straight years now.  We get the requisite 5% price increase but the most notable change is to our reputation, which is now “Continental”. Great stuff, as we head into our third straight year of Champions League play. Our estimated value continues to edge higher and probably won’t see a huge hike again until we increase our stadium size…if that’s even possible!  No changes at all to our stadium or facilities since last year at this time but we do have some training and youth facilities improvements taking place right now, with a completion date scheduled for September. Mexican Tour CANCELLED! -- Both America and Chivas cancel our scheduled friendly matches due to fixture congestion, forcing me to alter my plans. We make the decision to travel to Brazil instead and will face Santos and Internacional. Transfer Talk -- Offers start filtering in for Giorgos Gesios, Shaun Spall, Kostas Kalfas and Hans Briers. We’ll see what comes of all this. Season Ticket Update -- Ticket sales are brisk so far and we’ve sold 2143 packages so far, with expectations of selling about 5600 by the beginning of the season. That would be a nice increase over last year. Transfer IN -- We add another youngster to our U18 program in DC/DR Adam Betts, a 0.5/2.0 prospect who was recently released by Liverpool.
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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 |
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05-15-2014, 11:59 PM
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#386 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Training Camp Begins
-- The players return from their vacation and two of our central midfielders are injured upon reporting to the team: Gian Marco Fanfoni and Emmerson Harvey will miss most of the preseason by the looks of it but we knew that would be the case in advance. Thankfully, there are no other fitness concerns from my assistant manager. -- In our team meeting, my coaches give me the low-down on where we stand in relation to other teams in the league. We still struggle in a few key categories: Aggression - Low (Same as last year) Concentration - High Dribbling - Poor (Same as last year) Height - Good, among the tallest squads in the league (Same as last year) Speed - High (same as last year) Strength - Poor Fitness - Best in the League (Third year in a row) Age - Youngest team in the League (We've been the youngest squad all six years in the Premier League) Transfers IN -- We sign a couple more youngsters for our U18 team in GK Anthony Gardiner and MR Steven Miller. Neither are great prospects but will help our U18 team in their bid to win their league once again. Loan OUT -- I was hoping to get rid of him by selling him but instead, we loan out midfielder Shaun Spall to Norwich for the season. Norwich just got promoted back up to the Premier League so Spall won’t be eligible to play in games against us. We get an up front loan fee of £575,000 - we’ll take it. Transfers OUT -- I release two former U18 players whose contracts had expired. Striker Tomas Liska and defender Geoff Williams are released on a free. Transfer Talk -- ST Orlando Scolari rejects a contract offer from FC RB Salzburg and a potential £5.5 million sale is nullified. Bastard! Scolari was picked up last year and loaned out for the season. He’s a surplus to requirements here and I could use the money a sale would bring. I’ve got a couple offers in right now - one is a huge one on a central midfielder star and I continue to chase central defenders too. Transfer IN -- We’ve waited patiently for a work permit to be issued to a 19 year old Brazilian fullback and it’s finally granted. I’m absolutely delighted to introduce Rafinha as the newest member of Dover Athletic!  We scoop up this youngster from Omonoia in Cyprus for £4.3 million and I’m STUNNED at his ratings when he arrives - my scouts felt he was a 2.5/4.0 type of player but upon arrival, my coaches feel he is currently rated between 3.0 and 3.5 with a potential rating of 4.5! This guy is a stud and may end up being an upgrade on Kostas Zagos, who was taken from us by Chelsea late last month. Rafinha (real name is Rafael dos Santos Gomes) doesn’t know the language so we’ll bring him along slowly but I still envision him playing a similar role as Zagos did last year, which means he could see close to 20 starts. He can play both sides of the field and that versatility is a huge plus. This is an exciting signing for us! Preseason Fun -- Our upcoming friendly against FC Bayern Munich will be televised live.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-16-2014 at 10:27 AM. |
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05-16-2014, 01:44 AM
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#387 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Thu. July 6, 2023
-- We play our annual intrasquad game between our reserves/backups and our U18 team. Preseason Friendly Dover 3 - 0 Dover U18 Dover Goals - Orlando Scolari (7.6), Helder Cruz (7.9), Rogelio Garcia (8.3) Dover Assists - Steve Reed (7.2), Rogelio Garcia, Johnny Mardenborough (6.9) Man of the Match - Rogelio Garcia Other Notables: Mwemere Mutesa (7.1), Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz (7.0) U18 Goals - U18 Assists - Other U18 Notables - Takfarinas Madani (5.6), Adam Betts (5.8), Shane Holmes (5.8), James Campbell (5.7), Jim Ryan (5.7) -- We got a bit of a scare when new signing Rafinha got hurt and needed to come off but he’s no worse for wear after the game. As usual, this was poor football to watch, as I just played our backups in this game against our U18 club. Garcia played well and will likely open the season as our fifth striker, playing the “Wayne Rooney” role. 19 year old Mwemere Mutesa will get every chance to make our squad this year as a depth DC. Transfer OUT -- We get an offer we can't refuse on right midfielder Kostas Kalfas, who leaves in a £7.5 million deal with Genoa in Italy. Kalfas was picked up in 2021 from Tottenham for £5.75 million and played 20 games with our club that year, scoring 2 goals and adding an assist. Kalfas spent all of last season on loan with Sheffield Wednesday, where he scored 6 goals in 20 appearances. Kalfas didn’t have the speed I look for in a wide midfielder and despite having great mental characteristics, there simply wasn’t going to be a spot available on our team with Gianluca Bolis and Graham Allan around. We do pretty well here and now I can use this money to add to our depth elsewhere. -- I also release eight scrubs from our weak 2023 U18 recruitment class. As usual, I cut any kids without potential and I lose close to £50,000 in severance fees. Loans OUT -- Striker Giorgos Gesios is heading out on season-long loan for a second consecutive year, this time heading to Hoffenheim in the German Bundesliga. I collect £2.9 million from Hoffenheim up front - I preferred selling Gesios but only Birmingham (in our league) offered to buy him outright - Gesios picked Hoffenheim over Birmingham so here we are. I still have the explosive Gesios under contract until 2025 so he will be back in Dover on July 1, 2024. The German club is picking up his entire £49,000/week salary for the duration of the loan. -- We also send 19 year old fullback Hans Briers away to Coventry on a season-long loan spell. Briers is a 2.0 star prospect that played with our U18 squad last year and hopefully he gets some decent playing time in the Championship. Ancelotti Retires -- Wow! Perhaps the greatest manager in this gaming world calls it a day, as Manchester City head honcho Carlo Ancelotti retires, effective immediately. City are coming off a disastrous season where they finished outside the top four and missed Champions League qualification after winning the title four years straight. Still, Ancelotti’s record is unmatched in this gaming world and now I have the top reputation of any manager in the game. I won’t be surprised if City come calling for me now… Contract Extension -- We agree to a contract extension with young midfielder Emmerson Harvey. The 19 year old sees his salary increase to £12,750 per week and we have him under contract for three more years. I expect the youngster to get quite a few opportunities with the senior team this year after spending the majority of the last two seasons on our U18 club.
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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 |
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05-16-2014, 03:24 AM
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#388 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sun. July 9, 2023
Preseason Friendly Ipswich (England Championship) vs. Dover Portman Road, Ipswich, UK Ipswich have been in the Championship since 2002/03, so over 20 years straight in the second best flight. They are a mid-table constant. I’m a bit perplexed that my roster is A) so out of shape right now and B) completely clueless with our tactics. Last year, our guys returned from holiday with a full understanding of the tactics but this year, our match preparation screen shows that they basically don’t have a clue what’s going on. I’ve added no new coaches, haven’t changed my tactics one iota but here we are, looking like a bunch of middle schoolers. We play about half our starters today. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - I. Wilke D - C. Guzman, D. Traore, M. Mutesa, S. Loucif M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis S - P. Moses, Z. Bardi Ipswich 1 - 3 Dover Goals - Gianluca Bolis (7.5), Mwemere Mutesa (7.5), Rogelio Garcia (7.3) Assists - Andrea Rocca (7.3), Helder Cruz (6.9) Man of the Match - Mwemere Mutesa Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.2), Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz (7.0) Attendance - 23,174 We outshot them 30-6 (11-4) with possession dead even. Paul Moses had a rough game in front of goal, only getting 3 of his 10 shot attempts on goal. He ended up with an anemic 6.0 rating. Not a good start for our £19 million man. Good to see Mutesa with the man of the match honours and also great seeing Rogelio Garcia score again. -- Most important - no injuries! Loan OUT -- 19 year old midfielder Marcel Quade agrees to move to Savona in Italy for a season-long loan spell. Quade is a middling prospect so I’m glad to see him leaving to gain some experience. -- I release a couple of other former U18 players, including Johnny Mardenborough, who came through our youth system at 15 years of age and spent four years with the U18s. He didn’t play in a senior level match, however. NoSkillz Set for the Etihad? -- The press speculate that Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak is targeting me to fill the vacant managerial position at the Etihad. And the press turns out to be right, as I’m approached the same day with a ridiculous offer: £54,000 per week in salary, a £49 million transfer kitty and a whopping £4.2 million per week wage budget. City are one of the great teams in this gaming world but what can I say? Sorry sir - I’m just going to stay in Dover, thank you very much! -- City end up hiring Brazilian national coach Dunga as their new boss. Transfer Talk -- I’m still aggressively going after a couple of players and I may be close to landing a potential stud central midfielder. Ideally, I’d also like an upgrade at central defence for depth reasons - I’d like to specifically upgrade over Daniel Traore but DC’s are VERY expensive. Next Up -- We head home to face powerhouse FC Bayern Munich at Crabble Athletic Ground in a preseason friendly.
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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 |
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05-17-2014, 07:01 PM
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#389 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Wed. July 12, 2023
Preseason Friendly Dover vs. FC Bayern (Germany Bundesliga) Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK This is our first ever meeting against Bayern Munich, a perennial German powerhouse. They are 30 time Bundesliga champions and have lifted that title 8 times in the last 11 years. That said, they were runners up last year to Hoffenheim. They’ve already spent £37 million this month on two players: Everton, a 25 year old midfielder from Cruzeiro cost £15.5 million and Lamine Thiam, a big 28 year old striker from CSKA Moscow cost £21.5 million. We’ll go with a pretty strong lineup at home today, with Shanon Andrea and Chiquinho seeing their first preseason action of the year up front. Ingo Wilke will patrol the net again, as Manuel Perez is with Mexico on international duty. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - I. Wilke D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, Rafinha M - H. Cruz, N. Cairney, R. Ramirez, G. Allan S - S. Andrea, Chiquinho Dover 1 - 2 FC Bayern Goals - Shanon Andrea (7.2) Assists - Helder Cruz (6.9) Man of the Match - Capixaba (FC Bayern ST - 7.6) Other Dover Notables - Neil Cairney (5.9) Attendance - 17,424 We put up a bit of a stinker in front of a pretty nice preseason crowd of over 17,000 supporters. We did have a significant possession edge (56%) and outshot them 19-10 (4-8 on target). Too many missed shots and they were pretty clinical on theirs. Neil Cairney with a poor rating, as he missed on five of six shots. International Update -- One of my U18 players, GK Steven Potter, is called up to England’s U19 team. Good for him. Transfer CANCELLED -- I have a £3.1 million transfer ready to go through for very promising 17 year old DC Adrian Torres but my board cancel the deal because Torres, currently out with a broken foot, fails his medical. Well, OF COURSE he did! He has a broken bloody foot! Still, let me have the kid! Maybe I’ll try again next month when he’s healthy. Next Up -- Our preseason foreign tour begins, as we fly to Brazil to face Santos FC.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-17-2014 at 07:02 PM. |
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05-17-2014, 08:28 PM
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#390 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sat. July 15, 2023
Preseason Friendly Santos (Brazil) vs. Dover Vila Belmiro, Santos, Brazil Brazil isn’t a playable league in my gaming universe but Santos is the largest club by estimated value in the country. Still, they are about half of our estimated value so I’d imagine we’ll be favourites today. Mathis Imbert will play goal today and I lean a bit more towards unfit players. Normal starters playing today that are still unfit are Rayane Hamon, Gianluca Bolis, Andrea Rocca and Shanon Andrea. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - M. Imbert D - Rafinha, D. Traore, R. Hamon, S. Loucif M - H. Cruz, R. Ramirez, A. Rocca, G. Bolis S - S. Andrea, R. Garcia Santos 2 - 4 Dover Goals - Rogelio Garcia 2 (8.8), Shanon Andrea (7.4), Daniel Traore (7.8) Assists - Rafinha (7.1), Gianluca Bolis (7.2), Andrea Rocca (8.0), Helder Cruz (7.4) Man of the Match - Rogelio Garcia Other Dover Notables - Rayane Hamon (7.1) Attendance - 11,532 We jumped out to a 3-0 lead at half but gave two back in the first 25 minutes of the second half to make things interesting. Thankfully, young Rogelio Garcia potted a late goal to salt it away - Garcia was out on loan all season last year but is making a big first impression on me and is the favourite to stick around as a fifth striker option up front. I’m very happy with Helder Cruz as well, as he’s been quite the playmaker so far in the preseason. Santos had only three defenders and clogged the midfield so possession was tough to come by for us, as we held only 46% of the ball. We did outshoot them 21-13 (6-5 on target). Solid game. Season Ticket Update -- We have now sold over 3400 season ticket packages and we’re expected to reach about 5600 subscribers by the end of the preseason, which would be a sizeable increase over last year. Transfer IN -- Well, this is a LOT of money to spend on a third choice central defender but when you play as many games as we do, you need a “starter quality” backup at pretty much every position. And this guy is definitely starter quality. Please help me welcome a long-time transfer target, Tunisian international Saber Nasri to Dover!  Nasri has definitely been around the block and I’ve long had him on my radar, most recently a few years ago but I ended up signing Cristian Rodriguez and Paulus Tjiuoro at that time…both of whom, of course, are no longer with our club. Nasri has incredible speed and size and I really wanted a pacy central defender to keep up with some of the speedy strikers in the Premier League and especially the Champions League. I was forced to play Salim Loucif a lot last season at DC since he was the only one on our roster who could keep up with some of the skilled forwards in our division. Now we have Nasri! We are his fourth English Premier League club, after Sunderland, Bolton and Sheffield Wednesday. We end up paying £5 million up front for Nasri and will also have to pay an additional £8 million over the next couple of years. So £13 million for a backup - wow. The peace of mind will definitely be worth it. This makes 30 year old Daniel Traore expendable and I immediately put him on the block. Future Transfer IN? -- OK, this is incredibly exciting news. We come to terms on a contract with a 25 year old Brazilian midfielder after his current club Zenit agrees to sell him to us. We’ll have to await word on a work permit but my scouts feel it shouldn’t be an issue. This young man may be one of the best midfielders in the entire WORLD and has ratings better than our own Neil Cairney. I don’t want to start hypothesizing but this guy could help lead us to the promised land. We’ll await word on that permit but oh boy…SO EXCITING! Loan OUT -- We send out young striker Orlando Scolari once again on season long loan, this time to French Ligue 1 side Girondins Bordeaux. Scolari didn’t play much for Leverkusen last year so hopefully he’ll get more of a chance in France (har had). Transfer Talk -- Werder Bremen offer us £5.25 million for our fifth choice striker Rogelio Garcia. Yikes - that’s great money for a deep backup but I reject the deal, as it had very little up front money. I want to keep this young man around this year but if I get a bigger offer, I’ll definitely consider it. Garcia has been in lethal form this preseason, scoring 4 goals in his three games. Injury Update -- Our only injuries continue to be young midfielders Gian Marco Fanfoni and Emmerson Harvey. Fanfoni is engaging in light training while Harvey is close to a return as well. Next Up -- Our preseason foreign tour in Brazil ends with a match against SC Internacional.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-17-2014 at 10:38 PM. |
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05-17-2014, 10:23 PM
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#391 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Whitman, MA
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Super excited to see the new season and how it goes! Hope you get that midfielder and can't wait to see how the team shapes up going forward.
Team rep going up to continental should really help you in a lot of ways. Tell
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FOOL - Ann Arbor Winged Lingerines FOOLX - Portland Axemen Hattrick - Fizzle United (222968) |
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05-17-2014, 11:51 PM
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#392 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Tue. July 18, 2023
Preseason Friendly Internacional (Brazil) vs. Dover Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre, Brazil Another of the big Brazilian clubs today - they just added a 24 year old fullback from rival Santos FC named Lulinha for £7.5 million. Their top striker by value, Paulo Sergio, is injured today. Our splashy new central defence signing Saber Nasri will suit up for the first time today. Paul Moses is up front with Chiquinho today. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - I. Wilke D - R. Gaucho, M. Yilmaz, S. Nasri, S. Reed M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, R. Ramirez, G. Allan S - P. Moses, Chiquinho Internacional 1 - 2 Dover Goals - Paul Moses (7.7), Shanon Andrea (7.3) Assists - Renato Gaucho (7.5), Neil Cairney (7.5) Man of the Match - Ze Carlos (Internacional GK - 8.7) Other Dover Notables - Saber Nasri (7.1), Chiquinho (5.9) Attendance - 13,713 This was a lightning fast game and super fun to watch. The pitch at Beira-Rio is HUGE and we were just darting all over the place. We held 55% of possession and a ludicrous 35-10 (16-5 on target) shot advantage. Their keeper Ze Carlos made 14 SAVES and deservedly wins man of the match honours. We needed a last minute goal from substitute Shanon Andrea to finally take the lead. Chiquinho gets a poor rating but he’s getting in the right spots to score so I’m not worried. Newcomer Saber Nasri looked good. -- We had two injuries in the game: Graham Allan suffered a twisted ankle and will miss close to three weeks while young defender Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz suffered a dead leg but will only miss a few days. Transfer OUT -- We move DC Daniel Traore to Everton in a £1.7 million transfer deal. Traore played only one year for us but was very effective as a spot starter, scoring 2 goals and adding 2 assists in 23 appearances. He is a prolific header of the ball but at 30 years of age, his skills were starting to decline ever so slightly and he was a luxury item after our signing of Saber Nasri. We wish Traore the best with our rivals in Everton. Transfer IN -- Is this the move that puts us over the top? After a work permit is granted, we are elated to welcome 25 year old Brazilian midfielder Jose (full name: Jose Silva dos Santos) to Dover in a £16.5 million deal with Zenit from the Russian Premier League.  This guy immediately joins Neil Cairney and Chiquinho as the most skilled players to ever put on a Dover kit. Incredible attributes across the board and my scouts feel he’s anywhere between a 4.0 to 4.5 star player right now. He doesn’t speak English so I’ll bring him along slowly to start but I’m guessing he’ll play his way into the lineup a lot this year. We are ridiculously deep at MC now, with Cairney, Andrea Rocca, Gian Marco Fanfoni, Emmerson Harvey and Rafael Ramirez all around. -- As an aside, this move leaves us with just over £2 million in our transfer kitty but we are spending way below our £950,000 per week wage budget so we have some wiggle room if necessary. That said, I have no plans to add additional players at this time - I think we're set. Oh yeah, we are now close to £50 million in the red for this year already (!!!) and our bank balance is at a negative £20 million. Ouch - hope we can pay the bills... Next Up -- We welcome German club Werder Bremen to Crabble Athletic Ground - they are after my young striker Rogelio Garcia so I may play him just to give them a taste of his game.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-17-2014 at 11:55 PM. |
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05-18-2014, 12:22 PM
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#393 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Rennes, France
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Uber good signing !
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05-18-2014, 10:50 PM
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#394 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Quote:
I hope so!  I do think he'll team up very well with Cairney - this will mean more time on the bench for Andrea Rocca, Fanfoni and Harvey but I think it will be worth it. He looks to be a tremendous player but we'll see if he can adjust quickly to English football.
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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 |
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05-19-2014, 12:11 AM
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#395 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sat. July 22, 2023
Preseason Friendly Dover vs. Werder Bremen Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK We played Werder Bremen in a preseason friendly two seasons ago and beat them 3-2. They’ve been a mid-table side over the past couple of years in the German Bundesliga but traditionally fight for a top five position, finishing as high as second on two occasions during this dynasty. They only finished in tenth last year but were the German Cup winners, which earned them a spot in this year’s Europa League. They’ve been big sellers in July, getting £30 million in 9 transfers out but haven’t brought a SINGLE player in yet. They are currently going after my fifth choice striker, Rogelio Garcia and I’m open to moving him if the price is right. Our exciting new midfielder Jose will play alongside Neil Cairney today. We can’t wait to see him on the pitch! Only a few players are unfit, including striker Shanon Andrea, who will start today with Zoltan Bardi as his strike partner. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - M. Imbert D - Rafinha, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif M - H. Cruz, N. Cairney, Jose, G. Bolis S - S. Andrea, Z. Bardi Dover 1 - 0 Werder Bremen Goals - Zoltan Bardi (7.2) Assists - Shanon Andrea (7.0) Man of the Match - Zoltan Bardi Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.0), Rayane Hamon (7.0), Claudio Contreras (7.2), Gianluca Bolis (7.0) Attendance - 15,616 A complete snoozefest. We out possessed them with 55% of the ball and a 17-6 (3-0 on target) shot advantage. Very few chances. Jose looked okay in his first game but my assistant indicated that he was “disinterested” for much of the game. I don’t like seeing that in the kid’s first game. Loan OUT -- We loan out 19 year old DC prospect Mwemere Mutesa to AS Saint-Etienne in French Ligue 1 for the season. Mutesa is a 2.5/4.0 player so he has plenty of potential - he’s actually much more of a prospect than Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz but I’d like to see Mutesa play a lot of games and with Rayane Hamon, Claudio Contreras and newcomer Saber Nasri all healthy, Mutesa would have struggled to get playing time. Hopefully he sees that in France and develops accordingly. Injury Update -- Graham Allan is still out a few more weeks with his twisted ankle while Gian Marco Fanfoni (Torn Calf Muscle) and Emmerson Harvey (Fractured Wrist) are both back in light training and soon will return to full training with the squad. Transfer OUT -- We sell 19 year old Sebastian Kraft to AJ Auxerre, our next preseason opponent, for a tidy sum of £2,500 - that’s right, twenty five hundred pounds only! Hey, that’s a profit on the £1,500 we bought him for! Kraft spent last year with our U18s and I brought him in after Shanon Andrea put in a good word about him, as they both played together at Bayern Munich. Kraft was way down our depth chart and isn’t going to amount to much - I do have a clause built in that will see us get an extra £100,000 if he plays in 10 league games so we’ll hope he gets some playing time. Good luck to the kid in France. Transfer OUT -- I mentioned that Werder Bremen were after my young fifth choice striker Rogelio Garcia, who I picked up on a free transfer from Porto last year. I sent him on a season-long loan to Sporting CP, where he scored 13 goals in 22 games and I expected him to provide depth here. He is an intriguing prospect, with great speed (17 acc and 17 pace) and size (6’ 3” 191lbs, 17 strength) and he was rated anywhere between 2.5 to 3.5 stars by my scouts. I asked for the moon for Garcia - £9,250,000 with additional clauses and I’m shocked when the German club come back to me and accept my conditions. I guess I have no choice but to take the money. This could be a bad move but I’m very happy with my current four-man strike force and I don’t see how Garcia would have gotten much playing time beyond a major injury crisis. Garcia was molten hot during our preseason schedule but never suited up in an official game for our club. I’ll be watching his career with interest. Now, I’m on the lookout for a young striker to fill his slot, preferably someone who could play for the U18s and get called up in a pinch. Next Up -- Sebastian Kraft and his new club, AJ Auxerre, visit Crabble Athletic Ground for a preseason friendly.
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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 |
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05-19-2014, 01:50 AM
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#396 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sat. July 29, 2023
Preseason Friendly Dover vs. AJ Auxerre Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK AJ Auxerre are a mid-table constant in French Ligue 1, finishing 8th last year. We played them in a friendly five years ago and beat them handily at the time. They are a relatively small club and we should be able to beat them today, even with a less than full strength lineup. We get young midfielders Gian Marco Fanfoni and Emmerson Harvey back from their long-term injuries and both will start. Fanfoni will only last a half and I’ll bring in newcomer Jose for him at that point. I want to see Chiquinho score today - he’s been very pedestrian in his two preseason games so far. I’ve also got two youngsters at wide midfield today - Felix Hernandez, an U18 prospect is on the left and Lyubomir Kunchev is on the right. Two other newcomers are in today - Saber Nasri and Rafinha are on defence. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - I. Wilke D - C. Guzman, M. Yilmaz, S. Nasri, Rafinha M - F. Hernandez, E. Harvey, G. Fanfoni, L. Kunchev S - P. Moses, Chiquinho Dover 4 - 2 AJ Auxerre Goals - Paul Moses 2 (8.8), Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz (7.5), Chiquinho (7.8) Assists - Gian Marco Fanfoni (7.0), Emmerson Harvey (7.8), Jose (6.9), Shanon Andrea (6.9) Man of the Match - Paul Moses Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.1), Saber Nasri (7.0), Carlos Guzman (7.2), Lyubomir Kunchev (7.0) Attendance - 9,763 From a boring game against Werder Bremen to a crazy, back and forth affair. We were way too loose on defence and gave them so much room to move - we held 55% of the ball but shots were 17-16 (9-12 on target) in our favour…yes, they had 12 shots on goal! Not good. Moses was superb and scored two beauties and Chiquinho finally got on the board with a goal from in tight on a great pass from substitute Shanon Andrea. Emmerson Harvey looked great in midfield too. Season Ticket Update -- We are up to 4684 season tickets sold, which already exceeds our total from last year, which was 4562. We are now expected to sell around 5700 before the season begins, a bit more than originally expected. We have a 23,000 seat stadium so it will be great to keep adding more to our season ticket base. August Update -- Alright, our preseason is starting to wind down, with three more friendlies upcoming against Genoa (Home), Ferencvaros (Away) and Celtic (Home). We have two Premier League games this month, opening at home against Everton and then heading to Craven Cottage to face Fulham. So a pretty light month. -- I get positive training notices for Paul Moses along with U18 players Ben Lee, Adam Hyde and Dominic Beard. Negative reports come in for Gian Marco Fanfoni and Lyubomir Kunchev. I’ll give Fanfoni a pass since the kid was on the shelf for 4 months due to injury and just returned but there is no excuse for Kunchev so I have a little heart to heart with him and he says he’ll work harder in the future. Injury Update -- Our only injury at the moment is to wide midfielder Graham Allan but he is close to returning to full training. August Board Confidence Update -- The board are very pleased with my overall leadership. Our stature increase, as always, is the main positive and for a second consecutive month, the board can’t come up with anything negative. -- That said, we did lose £17.79 MILLION last month! Transfer Talk -- We come to terms on a potential move for an 18 year old Argentine striker and now await word on a work permit. He’s a 3.5 star prospect and would be placed on our U18 team for the year to develop. My scouts feel it will go through but I’ll hold off on introductions until that happens - we should hear back on him early next week. Cairney Unhappy?! -- So I have been getting some notices during games that star midfielder Neil Cairney has been feeling pressure to perform due to interest from other teams. Then we get word that Arsenal want him and I decide to tell the press that he’s not going anywhere. This obviously triggers something with Cairney, who tells me he’s unhappy at Dover and wants to move to a bigger club. Sheesh. Arsenal are considered the largest club (by estimated value) in England but I sit down with Neil and tell him our club will continue to grow and I want him to be a part of it. He’s fine with that and everything seems okay as he leaves my office. Something to keep an eye on… Next Up -- We welcome Italian club Genoa to Crabble Athletic Ground in preseason friendly action.
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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 |
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05-20-2014, 08:01 AM
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#397 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Not too far away
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Jose's stats are indeed drool worthy. I'm curious how your tactics incorporate both. Are they both Box to Box Midfielders?
Also I wouldn't be too discouraged by the disinterested line. If I recall you're playing in FM11 and I believe disinterest was a sign of difficulties adjusting to a new country. |
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05-20-2014, 01:12 PM
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#398 | |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Quote:
Thanks Barkeep - good to know about the "looking disinterested" comment from my assistant... As for player roles, I experimented for a long time with Cairney and he's locked in as our "box-to-box" guy. If Jose plays alongside him, I'll install Jose in an advanced playmaking role. If Cairney is out of the lineup and Jose is in, I'll put Jose as the box to box guy. His attribute ratings look good for both roles so we'll see how he produces in both spots. At this point, I'm still planning on having Andrea Rocca be our main starter alongside Cairney but I still envision at least 20-25 starts for Jose as he gets accustomed to England.
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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 |
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05-20-2014, 11:33 PM
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#399 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Sat. August 5, 2023
Preseason Friendly Dover vs. Genoa (Italy Serie A) Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK Like last week’s opponent AJ Auxerre, Genoa are a mid-table team in their league, in this case, Italy’s Serie A. They are coming off a 7th place finish last year but didn’t qualify for Continental play. Their big splash in the transfer market was with our club, buying wide midfielder Kostas Kalfas from us for £7.5 million a few weeks back. Kalfas already has two goals in as many preseason games so I’m guessing we’ll be seeing him today. We’ve still got a few unfit players and will play them today. GK Manuel Perez is finally back from international duty with Mexico and will start today in net. Andrea Rocca and Gian Marco Fanfoni are also trying to regain match fitness and will also start. A pretty full-strength lineup today. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - M. Perez D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif M - A. Bamba, G. Fanfoni, A. Rocca, G. Bolis S - S. Andrea, Chiquinho Dover 4 - 0 Genoa Goals - Shanon Andrea 3 (9.6), Chiquinho (7.6) Assists - Shanon Andrea, Arsene Bamba (7.2), Zoltan Bardi (6.9) Man of the Match - Shanon Andrea Other Dover Notables - Manuel Perez (7.1), Salim Loucif (7.4), Claudio Contreras (7.6), Renato Gaucho (7.4), Andrea Rocca (7.1), Gian Marco Fanfoni (7.0) Attendance - 15,509 We scored twice in the first ten minutes and coasted the rest of the way, holding Genoa to no shots on goal. We held 57% of possession and a 21-5 (7-0 on target) shot advantage. Shanon Andrea was superb, with three goals (including a penalty after former Dover winger Kostas Kalfas committed a foul in Genoa's box) and an assist. Season Ticket Update -- We are now up to 5317 season tickets sold, with projections putting us around 5600 or so upon the start of the season. Transfer IN -- After the sale of young striker Rogelio Garcia, we needed a fifth choice striker, someone who could play in a pinch and more importantly, someone who could play a lot with the reserves. I have another deal on the table for an U18 striker but I decided to jump at an opportunity to bring 21 year old Englishman Andy Broomes in from Manchester City in a modest deal worth £1.3 million.  Broomes was developed in Man City’s academy and spent a year on loan over at League 2 Carlisle in 2020/21, scoring 13 goals in 25 games as an 18 year old. Broomes spent the last two years playing for City’s reserves team and has no senior team games at the Premier League level to his credit. He’s got incredible speed, great determination and should be ideally suited to playing a reserves role for us here at Dover. I imagine he’ll get a few games in as a substitute for the senior team as well. A nice bargain pickup for the 2.0/3.0 rated youngster. Dover Captain Selected -- With the retirement of former captain Wayne Rooney, we needed to name a new leader for the club. It’s no surprise that our vice-captain from the last two years, right fullback Salim Loucif, gets the honour. Congratulations to Salim - he’s a natural choice and we were careful not to throw him into a major leadership role until he was ready. But now, he’s 24 years old, speaks fluent English, captains his national team (Algeria) and has 54 international caps and an incredible 302 senior league games to his credit. He’s influential, a great team player and works as hard as anyone on the squad. We’re delighted - his vice-captain is new centre halfback Saber Nasri. No less than 14 of our senior team members show delight at the announcement of Loucif as captain. Transfer IN -- A work permit is granted to complete a £2.2 million transfer for 18 year old Argentinian striker Norberto Vazquez from Boca Juniors.  This is a solid 1.0/3.5 prospect with great determination, excellent speed and clinical finishing ability. He will play as an over-ager for our U18 squad (he turns 19 in a couple weeks) and I’m guessing he’ll light it up for them this year. He needs to get much stronger and while I don’t envision him being good enough to play a large role with our senior team, he could be a backup for us or be sold in the future. A good depth addition either way. Next Up -- We head to Hungary, Zoltan Bardi’s home country, to face Ferencvaros in order to satisfy one of the clauses in our purchase of defender Mwemere Mutesa.
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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 Last edited by NoSkillz : 05-20-2014 at 11:34 PM. |
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05-21-2014, 12:38 AM
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#400 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: St. Catharines, Canada
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Tue. August 8, 2023
Preseason Friendly Ferencvaros (Hungary) vs. Dover Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK Ferencvarosi Torna Club are actually a decent sized Hungarian club and former winners of the Europa League (1965). They made it into Champions League qualifying the last two years, last year losing in the Champions playoff stage and just missing out on the Group stage. They did get relegated to the Europa League group stage last year but they’d lose out there as well. We plucked young defensive prospect Mwemere Mutesa from them last year and playing them in a friendly was part of the deal so here we are. We’re playing a full squad of backups today but I still expect us to dominate. Zoltan Bardi will proudly start in his home country alongside Paul Moses. I’d like to get newcomers Andy Broomes and maybe Norberto Vazquez into the lineup at some point as well. Jose is starting in midfield today and other newcomers in the starting eleven include Rafinha and Saber Nasri. Dover: 4-4-2 Control GK - M. Perez D - C. Guzman, M. Yilmaz, S. Nasri, Rafinha M - H. Cruz, E. Harvey, Jose, L. Kunchev S - P. Moses, Z. Bardi Ferencvaros 0 - 7 Dover Goals - Paul Moses 2 (9.3), Lyubomir Kunchev 2 (9.4), Norberto Vazquez 2 (8.6), Zoltan Bardi (8.1) Assists - Helder Cruz 2 (9.0), Carlos Guzman (9.0), Emmerson Harvey (8.7), Paul Moses, Felix Hernandez (6.9), Andy Broomes (6.9) Man of the Match - Lyubomir Kunchev Other Dover Notables - Manuel Perez (7.2), Rafinha (7.6), Saber Nasri (9.0), Mohamed Lamine Yilmaz (8.6), Jose (7.9) Attendance - 5,349 Yeah, this was no contest from the start as we humbled the Hungarian side in all aspects of the game. We held 61% of possession and a ridiculous 43-1 (14-0 on target) shot advantage. Newcomer Norberto Vazquez scored two goals in garbage time and Lyubomir Kunchev could have scored four goals - he was excellent. All of our starters get ratings of 7.2 or more. Good confidence booster for our backups! International Update -- We have 15 players that are called up by their country for international duties. Of the call ups, the biggest surprise is seeing our third string goalkeeper, new addition Mathis Imbert, getting called up by France. He doesn’t have a senior team cap for his country but has played 21 times for their youth squad. We’ll see if he gets a start next week. Speaking of which, countryman Rayane Hamon also gets the call from France. I did a double take when I noticed he also doesn’t have a senior team cap! He’s a superlative player for us and I *really* hope he gets that elusive first game with their senior team. He has played 33 times for their youth squad over the years. Transfer IN -- We sign midfielder Terry Williams to a youth contract and send him to the youth team after being dropped by Championship side Leeds in the offseason. My one scout said he had 2.5 star potential so I brought him in on a free but my coaches feel he’s not worthy of wearing our crest. There’s nothing much here and there is no reason to show a screenshot of the guy. He’s just an U18 player for us. Next Up -- We welcome Scottish powerhouse Celtic to Crabble Athletic Ground for our final preseason friendly.
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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 |
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