Screamin' Seamen FC - 3rd Season

DataKing · 04-03-2003, 08:37 PM

Screamin’ Seamen Football Club – Season 3

For the first installment of this dynasty report, as well as an introduction to Hattrick, click here

Screamin’ Seamen Prepared To Take Another Shot At Title

(Chicago, IL) The Screamin’ Seamen Football Club, under the ownership and management of Data King, are prepared to take a second shot at the Division IV title this season. In the club’s first season, they breezed to a Division V championship with a record of thirteen wins and one draw. Last season saw them in position to win a Division IV title with only one match to play, sitting at a record of eleven wins and two draws. But disaster struck on the last Sunday of the season, as the valiant Seamen fell to Croats in Miami by a score of 1-nil. It was the team’s first ever league-match loss, and it handed the Division IV title to the Ramblers.

The team now includes a couple of new faces added during the off-season, but due to the fiscal responsibility which King regularly preaches, fans will see largely the same club that they followed last year. Two of the new additions are 26-year-old Swedish midfielder Niklas Ivarsson, and 29-year-old Argentinean winger Valentin Rubio. Both players bring some experience, as well as more talent to the club.

“Our goal was to bring in some more experience to counteract the relative youth of our defense,” stated King at a press conference earlier this week. “Our defense is our cornerstone, and is quite talented, but Chuck Scales is the oldest starter on the back line at twenty-four. Arlen [Lucas] is only twenty-one years old. Heck, Tyler [Willard] can’t even buy beer yet!”

The third addition to the club is actually a product of the team’s youth squad; central defender Cameron McDonald. At only eighteen years of age, young Cameron is said to already be close to the level of play the other three have shown on defense. Although King and other team officials refuse to comment, it is expected that Cameron will become a starter for the club within a season or two.

But there are some that say that the Seamen are merely treading water, and may not be up to the challenges that face them in the coming season. Croats in Miami, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and league-champion Ramblers all return for another season. On top of this, four teams have been promoted from Division V, and a couple of them look to pose a significant challenge to the established teams in the division. SoccerWussies and Big Reds both look to be quite talented, and could very well contend for the series title.

“The division has certainly gotten a lot more competitive than it was last year,” stated King when asked about the division’s new participants. “We will be keeping a close eye on all four clubs in the early weeks of the season.” The Seamen will get an up-close look at the Big Reds in week two, as the Ithaca, New York-based club will visit Chicago for the SSFC home opener.

It should be an interesting season, to say the least.

Ivan Phillip Freely is an associated press writer for the Chicago Tribunal.

DataKing · 04-03-2003, 10:13 PM

Screamin’ Seamen Roster

Here is our starting roster for this 3rd season of SSFC soccer. I have included the numerical equivalents for all skill ratings, for any non-Hattrickers that may be reading.

Starters

Typical Formation: 3-5-2

Keeper

#1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan
-Age: 24
-Current Form: Passable (6)
-Assessed Value: $472,000
-Wage: $3,460 per week
-Goaltending: Solid (7)

“Corny” Jernigan came to the club in a trade last season, and he rapidly replaced Darryl Read as our starting keeper. He performed quite well for us last season, and look forward to another season of solid performances from him. Normally I allow players to keep their jersey numbers, but I also believe that the starting keeper should wear the #1 jersey. Darryl Read gave up the #1 with a minimum of fuss.

Central Defender

#2 Chuck Scales
-Age: 24
-Current Form: Passable (6)
-Assessed Value: $162,000
-Wage: $1,490 per week
-Defending: Excellent (8)

Chuck was one of our original team members, and has been our starting sweeper since day one. He is the quarterback of the defense, and helps to keep our two youngsters on the wings in line.

Wingbacks

#5 Arlen Lucas
-Age: 21
-Current Form: Excellent (8)
-Assessed Value: $221,000
-Wage: $1,580 per week
-Winger: Passable (6)
-Defending: Excellent (8)

Arlen is perhaps the best young talent on the team, and was the winner of last season’s Best Defender and Team MVP awards. He excels at defending against headers on corner kicks, and has tallied a few header goals of his own along the way (7 of them in 29 appearances).

#22 Tyler Willard
-Age: 20
-Current Form: Inadequate (5)
-Assessed Value: $149,000
-Wage: $1,320 per week
-Winger: Passable (6)
-Defending: Excellent (8)

Tyler is the weakest of our three starting defenders, but not by much. He was promoted from the youth squad at the end of January, and became an instant starter. He is, however, a bit unpredictable, and has been known to give both myself and coach Ken Brown fits from time to time.

Inner Midfielders

#8 Niklas Ivarsson
-Age: 26
-Current Form: Excellent (8)
-Assessed Value: $161,000
-Wage: $1,776 per week
-Playmaking: Solid (7)
-Passing: Inadequate (5)

The Swedish striker was one of our off-season signings, brought in to help us compete with the ever-improving midfields in the division, as well as to add some extra oomph to our attack. Although he has only played in one friendly match thus far, we like what we’ve seen from Niklas.

#6 Charlie Bautista
-Age: 26
-Current Form: Inadequate (5)
-Assessed Value: $112,000
-Wage: $1,320 per week
-Playmaking: Solid (7)
-Passing: Inadequate (5)

Charlie is another player who has been with us since day one, and has always been a starter for the Seamen. He is a solid possession midfielder, and is known to jump up onto the attack from time to time as well. He has had good offensive production for a midfielder, scoring 9 goals in 31 appearances.

#4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin
-Age: 33
-Current Form: Solid (7)
-Assessed Value: $42,000
-Wage: $1,010 per week
-Playmaking: Passable (6)
-Passing: Passable (6)
-Defending: Passable (6)

“The Old Goat” has been a starter for us since the beginning. Although he is getting a bit long in the tooth, his experience has been invaluable so far, as well as his ability to play either “up” or “down” (offensive or defensive). Pete has a nasty streak about him, though, and was once ejected for head-butting an opposing player. Still, he is one of the most popular guys in the locker room, and will likely find a position in the front office or training staff when he decides to retire.

Wingers

#3 Ben McMahon
-Age: 28
-Current Form: Weak (4)
-Assessed Value: $148,000
-Wage: $1,990 per week
-Winger: Solid (7)
-Defending: Solid (7)

Once a wingback for the club, Ben made the transition to winger after the promotion of Tyler Willard from the youth squad. While he is able to hold his own on the wing, his real specialty is as a defensive winger. He is often matched up against the opposition’s most dangerous wingers, and generally does a good job of shutting them down.

#9 Valentin Rubio
-Age: 29
-Current Form: Solid (7)
-Assessed Value: $95,000
-Wage: $1,512 per week
-Winger: Passable (6)
-Passing: Passable (6)

The Argentinean winger was our other off-season signing, and has yet to play a match for the club, so we aren’t sure of what to expect just yet. From what we have seen of him on tape and the practice field, though, Valentin excels at moving the ball up the side of the field and sending in good cross-passes, and should provide a good offensive counter-balance to Ben McMahon’s defensive wing-play. Valentin is also tall (6’2”) with a good vertical and body control, and is always a threat for a header off of corner kicks.

Forwards

#11 Johannes Henriksson
-Age: 26
-Current Form: Excellent (8)
-Assessed Value: $93,000
-Wage: $1,272 per week
-Scoring: Passable (6)
-Set Pieces: Solid (7)

The Swedish striker is our team captain, and is an invaluable member of the club. He leads both on and off the field by example as well as by words, and even the older members of the team respect him. He has maintained a goal-a-game average throughout his career (currently 59 goals in 56 appearances), and is the team’s designated set pieces ace as well.

#15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias
-Age: 21
-Current Form: Inadequate (5)
-Assessed Value: $47,000
-Wage: $780 per week
-Scoring: Solid (7)

“Gump” is another product of the team’s youth squad, from the tail end of our first season, and became an immediate starter. He has maintained a goal-a-game average so far in his young career (18 goals in as many appearances), and has proven to be a very clutch player from time to time. This was particularly evident when he scored two goals in the last five minutes of a match last season to give us a narrow 4-3 victory.

The B-Team

Typical Formation: 5-4-1

Keeper

#13 Darryl Read
-Age: 27
-Current Form: Inadequate (5)
-Assessed Value: $186,000
-Wage: $1,940 per week
-Goaltending: Passable (6)

Darryl is another of our original team members, and was our starting keeper until the trade which garnered us “Corny” Jernigan. He has typically put up solid performances and good numbers, allowing only 20 goals in 23 appearances, and tallying 12 clean sheets. Impressive numbers indeed.

Central Defenders

#18 Cameron McDonald
-Age: 18
-Current Form: Passable (6)
-Assessed Value: $100,000
-Wage: $1,000 per week
-Defending: Solid (7)

Cameron was an off-season promotion from our youth squad, and looks to have all the makings of a star sweeper someday. He is also tall, and should learn a thing or two from Arlen Lucas on how to use his height to his advantage on defense. Cameron has yet to see the pitch, though, so we still aren’t exactly sure in what we have here. But all signs point to something positive, that much is for sure.

#20 Keith Stubbs
-Age: 19
-Current Form: Passable (6)
-Assessed Value: $45,000
-Wage: $720 per week
-Defending: Solid (7)

Keith Stubbs was also a promotee from our youth squad last season, which seems to have a knack for producing good defensive talent. Although he started off a little weak, Keith improved by leaps and bounds in his defensive skills last season, and even earned the team’s Most Improved Player award. However, the recent arrival of Cameron McDonald means that Keith has become somewhat expendable.

#21 Zarpas Lerma
-Age: 19
-Current Form: Inadequate (5)
-Assessed Value: $44,000
-Wage: $888 per week
-Defending: Passable (6)

This young Spaniard is another of our tall defensive trainees, but has yet to prove to be anything special. Still, he is quite young and the training staff assures me that he still has the capability to become a decent defender someday.

Wingbacks

#17 Mattias Leier
-Age: 19
-Current Form: Solid (7)
-Assessed Value: $88,000
-Wage: $1,104 per week
-Winger: Passable (6)
-Defending: Passable (6)

The young Estonian is one of our most promising defensive trainees, and is one of coach Brown’s favorites. He has shown himself to be of steady form, and has even managed a couple of scoring chances from the back line in his six friendly match appearances thus far.

#24 Christian Kvam
-Age: 19
-Current Form: Inadequate (5)
-Assessed Value: $46,000
-Wage: $924 per week
-Winger: Passable (6)
-Defending: Passable (6)

Yet another tall (Specialty: Head) defensive trainee on the club, we have yet to be terribly impressed with the Norwegian. His form has been quite erratic since he joined the club back in January, but we’re hoping that he will level out sometime soon.

Inner Midfielders

#7 Lucian Tere
-Age: 27
-Current Form: Solid (7)
-Assessed Value: $59,000
-Wage: $1,080 per week
-Playmaking: Inadequate (5)
-Passing: Inadequate (5)
-Defending: Inadequate (5)

A semi-regular starter for the club until this past off-season, the Romanian makes up in size what he lacks in skill. He is a big, strong body in the middle of the pitch (Specialty: Powerful), and has been a solid contributor throughout the past two seasons. Lucian should continue to be a regular substitute for us, particularly in wet-weather matches.

#19 Jerry Smith
-Age: 20
-Current Form: Excellent (8)
-Assessed Value: $82,000
-Wage: $870 per week
-Playmaking: Solid (7)

We received Jerry in the same trade that brought “Corny” Jernigan to the club early last season. While he has the skills to be a starter for us in the midfield, he lacks the necessary fitness level, and did not respond very well to our off-season training regimen. Still, especially with Father Time beginning to catch up with “The Old Goat,” Jerry may very well see some playing time with the starting squad again this season.

Wingers

#25 Paul Peralta
-Age: 28
-Current Form: Solid (7)
-Assessed Value: $133,000
-Wage: $1,540 per week
-Playmaking: Inadequate (5)
-Winger: Weak (4)
-Scoring: Inadequate (5)
-Defending: Passable (6)

Paul is perhaps the single most valuable member of our B-team. While he normally plays on the wing, he is actually a “super-sub,” capable of playing just about any position in the outfield with some degree of skill. He is often called upon to cover for an injury or suspension on the starting squad.

#10 Olav Mauffret
-Age: 22
-Current Form: Inadequate (5)
-Assessed Value: $47,000
-Wage: $948 per week
-Playmaking: Inadequate (5)
-Winger: Inadequate (5)

Olav has been a regular starter for us on the wing for the past two seasons, but has been bumped down to the B-team with the addition of Valentin Rubio in the off-season. While he lacks any special amount of skill, he may still be called upon to play with the starters if there is an injury.

Forward

#14 Jesper Gravesen
-Age: 28
-Current Form: Passable (6)
-Assessed Value: $32,000
-Wage: $924 per week
-Scoring: Passable (6)
-Set Pieces: Solid (7)

Jesper gives us a third option at forward, and is an experienced striker and set pieces ace. He typically acts as captain for the B-team, and is capable of stepping in for either Johannes Henriksson or “Gump” Tobias should anything unfortunate happen to one of them.

Note: I did not list William Brown or Otis Johnson, as they will both be placed on the transfer market soon.

Up Next: Results from Round One of the U.S.A. Cup. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 04-03-2003, 10:56 PM

Season 3 – U.S.A. Cup – Round 1

Connecticut Samurai vs. Screamin’ Seamen

Date: April 2nd, 2003
Venue: Connecticut Arena (Hartford, CT)
Attendance: 4,911 (7,000)
Weather: Overcast

We start off the new season full of hope and promise today. Our first test should be an easy one, as we face a team from the U.S.A.’s recently-added Division VI. This match won’t be much of a test of us, but will be a nice way to get our players into match-fitness, as well as a way to earn an easy ‘W.’

Formation: 3-5-2

Starters

Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan

Right Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard
Central Defender: #2 Chuck Scales
Left Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas

Right Winger: #9 Valentin Rubio
Inner Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin
Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson
Left Winger: #3 Ben McMahon

Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias

Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson

Substitutes
-Keeper: #13 Darryl Read
-Defender: #17 Mattias Leier
-Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere
-Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen
-Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret

We’re playing our starting line-up today. It’s hardly fair, and should not prove to be much of a contest, but will give our starters a chance to get into match-fitness before we take on Ramblers in the season-opener on Sunday.

We will be keeping a specially close eye on both Niklas Ivarsson and Valentin Rubio, as both are making their competitive-match debuts for us today. We will find out soon whether or not the combined $227,000 we spent to get them will be worth it or not.

Match Report

PRE-GAME

4911 spectators had come to Connecticut Arena this cloudy day. Connecticut had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. Lineup: Stone - Simmons, Koehler, Wise, Vega - Tipton, Quick, Huntley, Wing-Koo - Erwin, Manning.

Screamin' started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Lineup: Jernigan - Willard, Scales, Lucas - Rubio, Ivarsson, Bautista, Tomlin, Mcmahon - Henriksson, Tobias.

FIRST HALF

As Arlen Lucas had, completely unprovoked, swept the legs out from under an opponent in front of a linesman, the referee gave the Screamin' player a red card without batting an eye.

Screamin' took the lead after 18 minutes with 0 - 1. Johannes Henriksson placed the ball out of reach for the home sides keeper after a fine move, coming in from the left.

The visitors Forrest Tobias took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side´s goalie and full backs in the 27:th minute. 0 - 2 for Screamin'.

In the 34:th minute the visitors put themselves ahead 0 - 3 as Ben Mcmahon finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick.

The teams went for a half-time break at 0 - 3. Screamin', bringing the final ball possession rate to 90 percent, dominated the battle.

SECOND HALF

In the 59:th minute the visitors put themselves ahead 0 - 4 as Johannes Henriksson finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick.

After 61 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for Johannes Henriksson who increased Screamin'´s lead to 0 - 5. By then Johannes Henriksson was a three time scorer - a hat trick!

The structure of the game started to change as Screamin' decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone.

Connecticuts August Vega got himself booked after a foul.

Due to a severely mistimed tackle,Chuck Scales spent some on the grass writhing in agony before he could get up and continue the game.

After 79 minutes of game time Johannes Henriksson received an excellent opportunity to add to the visitors lead, clipping a volley hooked in from the right, but Kenneth Stone was in the right place, tipping the ball to a corner.

Charlie Bautista received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 80:th minute and almost caused an opponent to score.

Screamin' came close to extending their lead as Forrest Tobias delivered a long range shot from the right but the angle was to sharp, and the shot hit the side of the goal.

Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 98 percent possession rate.

POST-GAME

The most dominating Connecticut player was without a doubt Howard Manning. Odell Quick was a disappointment, however.

Screamin'´s best player was Niklas Ivarsson. Ben Mcmahon was a disappointment, however.

The match ends 0 - 5.

Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 5, Connecticut Samurai 0

Goals
Henriksson – 3 (1,2,3)
Tobias – 1 (1)
McMahon – 1 (1)

Cards
Lucas (red)

Player Ratings

Jernigan: ***

Willard: **~
Scales: ***
Lucas: ??? (ejected)

Rubio: ***
Tomlin: **~
Bautista: **~
Ivarsson: ***~
McMahon: **

Henriksson: **~
Tobias: **

Team Ratings

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Weak (4)
-Right Defense: Formidable (9)
-Central Defense: Solid (7)
-Left Defense: Inadequate (5)
-Right Attack: Solid (7)
-Central Attack: Passable (6)
-Left Attack: Inadequate (5)
-DKI/NSI: 47/51

Connecticut Samurai
-Midfield: Disastrous (1)
-Right Defense: Inadequate (5)
-Central Defense: Inadequate (5)
-Left Defense: Weak (4)
-Right Attack: Poor (3)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-Left Attack: Poor (3)
-DKI/NSI: 25/26

Comments

This was hardly a top-notch performance from our starters, and missing Arlen Lucas for almost the entire match hurt our ratings considerably, but it still proved to be an easy win.

First, the positives: Team captain Johannes Henriksson earned his third career hattrick. “Gump” Tobias found the twine, and even Ben McMahon (commonly referred to by the team as “the man who never scores") got in on the fun, tallying his second career goal. Valentin Rubio and especially Niklas Ivarsson performed well in their debuts, and our money appears to have been well-spent. We were also quite relieved to find that Chuck Scales’ injury was little more than a stinger, and he should be good-to-go on Sunday.

Now for the bad news. We got exactly what we did not need from Arlen Lucas; a red card. Arlen is our single best defender, and now he is ineligible for Sunday’s match against defending series champion Ramblers. This is his third suspension in as many seasons. He needs to learn how to keep his composure.

Other News

Two more teams have joined the army of Screamin’ Seamen faithful. We would like to welcome the following teams to the SSFC Supporter Club:

Else United (Owner: rexallsc, Seeded #1 in series V.251)
Fort Wayne Wanderers (Owner: DennisMoore, Seeded #3 in series V.236)

Welcome, fellow Hattrickers, and thank you very much for your support.

Up Next: The current state of the team this weekend. After that, we visit the Ramblers on Sunday, in what is sure to be a bit of a grudge-match. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 04-04-2003, 02:56 PM

Our roster is over-full, so two players have been placed on the transfer wire.

William Brown

Listed As: Wing Back
Asking Price: $90,000
Deadline: 4/7/2003 @ 22:45 HT-time

21 years old, inadequate form, healthy

A pleasant guy who is fiery and dishonest.
Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities.

Specialty: Quick

Nationality: American
Assessed Value: $68,000
Wage: $910 per week

Stamina: Passable
Playmaking: Poor
Winger: Inadequate
Scoring: Poor
Goaltending: Disastrous
Passing: Poor
Defending: Solid
Set Pieces: Poor

William seems to have pretty good base form, and has put up 2.5 stars as either a wingback or central defender in his last six matches.

Otis Johnson

Listed As: Inner Midfielder
Asking Price: $1,000
Deadline: 4/7/2003 @ 22:46 HT-time

20 years old, solid form, healthy

A pleasant guy who is tranquil and honest.
Has disastrous experience and solid leadership abilities.

Nationality: American
Assessed Value: $30,000
Wage: $650 per week

Stamina: Solid
Playmaking: Inadequate
Winger: Weak
Scoring: Wretched
Goaltending: Disastrous
Passing: Inadequate
Defending: Poor
Set Pieces: Poor

Otis has good base form, and has been at passable or better form since October of 2002. He can also function as a pseudo-clown (solid leadership, pleasant personality).

GoldenEagle · 04-04-2003, 03:43 PM

DataKng, I have enjoyed your dynasty reports very much. If you dont mind, I would like to ask you a quick question. How can you tell what kind of talent your opponents in your league have?

DataKing · 04-06-2003, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by GoldenEagle
DataKng, I have enjoyed your dynasty reports very much. If you dont mind, I would like to ask you a quick question. How can you tell what kind of talent your opponents in your league have?

Sorry for the delay in responding. I tend to get caught up in other things on the weekends.

I have found that the best way to judge the talent of the others in your series is to look at their match history. Take a look at their typical match ratings, as well as the number of stars their players generally put up.

This is not only a good way to judge talent, but you can also use it to determine if the other teams have any tendencies which you may be able to exploit when you play against them.

I hope this helps, and I'm glad you've enjoyed the dynasty reports thus far.

daedalus · 04-06-2003, 10:09 PM

Wow @ world class.

DataKing · 04-06-2003, 11:49 PM

State of the Team

Note: Rather than compare these numbers and statistics to the week prior, as I have done in the past, I will simply list them here. I am doing this to establish a ‘base-line’ for the remainder of the season. Also, in my imagination at least, the off-season weeks actually represent months of ‘game-time,’ so comparing these to the week prior just doesn’t feel right.

Value

Average Player Value: $116,545
Total Player Value: $2,564,000

*Note: These values exclude William Brown and Otis Johnson, who are currently listed on the transfer wire.

Team Information

Team Spirit: Calm
Team Confidence: Wonderful

Sponsor Attitude: Satisfied
Supporter Attitude: Satisfied
Supporter Club: 1,328 members

Balance Sheet

Previous Balance: $489,096

Revenue

Crowd (U.S. Open Cup match vs. Connecticut Samurai) - $7,508
Sponsors - $48,750
Temporary (7 new supporters) - $210

Total Revenue: $56,468

Expenses

Arena Upkeep - $11,271
Player Wages - $25,440
Temporary (youth squad promotion of Cameron McDonald) - $2,000
Temporary (purchase of Valentin Rubio) - $74,000
Temporary (fired specialist) - $1,500
Temporary (arena expansion project) - $297,525
Temporary (transfer listing for Otis Johnson) - $1,000
Temporary (transfer listing for William Brown) - $1,000
Staff and Specialists - $33,000
Youth Squad Support - $20,000

Total Expenses: $466,736

Net Income/Loss: -$410,268

New Balance: $78,828

Obviously, the big expense during the off-season was spending nearly $300,000 on an ambitious expansion project for The Docks. The improved stadium will have seating for 30,000 SSFC faithful, and will include a special surprise for the fans.

We took the club a little below the normal $100,000 “safety valve” I like to maintain, but that was by design. I knew that the pending sale of Otis Johnson, and particularly William Brown, would take us back into a comfortable financial situation.

Up Next: Results of our league-play opener against the defending series champion Ramblers. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 04-07-2003, 07:42 PM

Season 3 – League Match #1

Ramblers vs. Screamin’ Seamen

Date: April 6th, 2003
Venue: Ramblers Arena (Detroit, MI)
Attendance: 46,507 (51,750)
Weather: Overcast

Prior Meetings

1/5/2003 – Screamin’ Seamen 2, Ramblers 2
2/23/2003 – Ramblers 1, Screamin’ Seamen 2

We open the season with a rather daunting task; travel to Detroit and take on the Ramblers, the defending series champions still flush with excitement over capturing last season’s title.

The Ramblers look to be much the same team that we encountered last season, having added no new players during the off-season. Despite the psychological advantage of having won last season’s title, we felt that we still had the advantage, having gotten the better of the Ramblers in our two prior meetings.

Formation: 3-5-2

Starters

Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan

Right Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard
Central Defender: #2 Chuck Scales
Left Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier

Right Winger: #3 Ben McMahon
Inner Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin
Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson
Left Winger: #9 Valentin Rubio

Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias

Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson

Substitutes
-Keeper: #13 Darryl Read
-Defender: #24 Christian Kvam
-Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
-Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen
-Winger: #25 Paul Peralta

Conspicuous in his absence from the starting lineup, star wingback and last season’s Team MVP, Arlen Lucas, was suspended from the match for having been red-carded in the club’s U.S. Open Cup match on Wednesday. We weren’t terribly comfortable with any of our options to replace Arlen, but eventually decided on Mattias Leier, our 19 year old Estonian trainee. Mattias has shown himself to be the best pure wingback amongst our trainees, and responded well to practice during the week.

The Ramblers always bring their strongest attack on their left-hand side, so we’ll be stacking the defense to our right. Hopefully Tyler Willard and Ben McMahon can contain superstars Philip Gallo (4.5* winger) and Eric Holmes (4* midfielder).

Game time…

Match Report

PRE-GAME

46507 spectators had come to Ramblers Arena this cloudy day.

Ramblers had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Chugg - Arredondo, Powell, Campos - Niemelä, Whittington, Maddox, Holmes, Gallo - Hansson, Barik.

Screamin' tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Jernigan - Willard, Scales, Leier - Mcmahon, Ivarsson, Bautista, Tomlin, Rubio - Henriksson, Tobias.

FIRST HALF

Bhima Barik gave his Ramblers the lead with 1 - 0, as he successfully challenged both the guests central defenders, then placed the ball unreachably at the goaltenders right post.

In the games 16:th minute Ramblers´s Perry Maddox fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee booked Perry Maddox for taking a dive.

After 16 minutes Bhima Barik put Ramblers ahead 2 - 0 as he rose to head in a hooked ball, the result of an effort from the right side.

Charlie Bautista seemed highly inexperienced when in the 17:th minute he was loitering with the ball, allowing Gus Whittington to intercept and strike 3-0 for Ramblers.

By now Ramblers were drawing the troops back in order to defend their lead.

The home side´s Stefan Hansson came close to extending the lead in the 24:th minute. His shot came in off the right hand side but Cornelius Jernigan managed saving with a fingernail.

Bhima Barik almost managed to score another goal for Ramblers, but his header was tipped to a corner by the visitors goalie.

3 - 0 was the half-time score. Ramblers held the ball, with a clear 57 percent possession rate.

SECOND HALF

In the 55:th minute Ramblers´s Stefan Hansson tried to nail the coffin shut, but the shot rebounded off the bar to fall behind the net.

After 67 minutes Screamin'´s Valentín Rubio contracted a slight foot injury, but could finish the game.

In the 71st minute of the match the visitors central line of defence had to look on as Stefan Hansson dashed through, knocking home 4 - 0 for Ramblers.

The referee showed Screamin's Valentín Rubio the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge.

Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 56 percent possession rate.

POST-GAME

The most dominating Ramblers player was without a doubt Philip Gallo. Kurt Arredondo was a disappointment, however.

The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Niklas Ivarsson. Ben Mcmahon on the other hand, had a terrible day.

The match ends 4 - 0.

Final Score: Ramblers 4, Screamin’ Seamen 0

Goals
None

Cards
Rubio – yellow (1)

Player Ratings

Jernigan: ***

Willard: ***
Scales: ***~
Leier: **~

McMahon: **
Tomlin: **~
Bautista: **~
Ivarsson: ***~
Rubio: ***

Tobias: **
Henriksson: **~

Team Match MVP: #8 Niklas Ivarsson

Team Ratings

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Passable (6)
-Right Defense: World Class (13)
-Central Defense: Outstanding (10)
-Left Defense: Solid (7)
-Right Attack: Weak (4)
-Central Attack: Passable (6)
-Left Attack: Excellent (8)
-NSI: 66

Ramblers
-Midfield: Solid (7)
-Right Defense: Passable (6)
-Central Defense: Outstanding (10)
-Left Defense: Outstanding (10)
-Right Attack: Solid (7)
-Central Attack: Solid (7)
-Left Attack: Outstanding (10)
-NSI: 71

Comments

Ouch. This one hurt, boys and girls. Our tactics were sound and possession was roughly even between the two halves. Although we faced a team with a little more talent than our own, there is no way that we deserved a 4-nil drubbing. This just goes to show you that sometimes the ball doesn’t roll your way. I am sure that the home-field advantage for the Ramblers had something to do with it as well.

The good news (if you can call it that), is that Valentin Rubio’s foot injury is a minor one; just a strained arch. Still, the Argentinean is no spring chicken (29 years old), so we’ve brought in a foot specialist to tend to his injury, and ensure that he will be ready to go next weekend.

Series Scores and Standings

-Croats in Miami opened up the season with a bang, shutting out Neon Genesis Evangelion, 3-nil.
-Sweden Heights surprised some people, taking down SoccerWussies, 3-1.
-Big Reds performed admirably in their debut, defeating Syracuse Supers, 4-nil.



No.	Name				Played		Goals		Pts.		NSI

1.	Big Reds			1		4-0		3		64

2.	Ramblers			1		4-0		3		71

3.	Croats in Miami		        1		3-0		3		62

4.	Sweden Heights		        1		3-1		3		63

5.	SoccerWussies		        1		1-3		0		61

6.	Neon Genesis Evangelion	        1		0-3		0		57

7.	Screamin’ Seamen		        1		0-4		0		66

8.	Syracuse Supers		        1		0-4		0		43

As I expected, the competition in our series has gotten a lot tougher this season, and I have added the NSI ratings for all of the teams in the series to illustrate this point. Also, HatStats has rated Series IV.49 as the 5th toughest Division IV series in the entire United States! (Thanks to Eilim for pointing this out to me).

Duplicating our performance from last season looks to be well-nigh impossible. I have predicted that 30 points will win the series. There is no way anyone is getting out of this series with an automatic promotion. The competition is just going to be way too tight.

Other News

Otis Johnson was sold on Monday to Indos, a relatively new team from San Francisco. This is good news for Otis, as it looks like he may be able to fight his way into a starting spot. The sale was completed for $9,000, of which $8,100 has found its way into the club’s coffers.

Of much more importance to our bank account was the sale of William Brown on Monday as well. The 21 year old defender/wingback was sold for $135,000 to Hodechlopfer, a Swiss 5th Division side. Willie looks like a definite starter for his new club, which is always nice to see. We get to keep $121,500 of the money.

We would also like to make mention of the following three clubs and their owners, who have joined the ever-growing ranks of the Screamin’ Seamen Supporters:

Tomahawks (Owner: -Panther, 2nd place in Series V.220)
goldurnears (Owner: robbgmaier, 4th place in Series V.230)
booger balers (Owner: fflix, 1st place in Series V.158)

Welcome and thank you folks. Representatives from the club should be arriving shortly to deliver your VIP tickets (and a bit of mischief as well, I suspect

).

Up Next: We get to escape from the ice storm that has struck Chicago, and travel to Tempe, Arizona. There we hope to rebound with a U.S. Open Cup victory over the Arizona Wolves. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 04-09-2003, 09:02 PM

Season 3 – U.S. Open Cup – Round 2

Arizona Wolves vs. Screamin’ Seamen

Date: April 9th, 2003
Venue: Arizona Field (Tempe, AZ)
Attendance: 6,913 (7,000)
Weather: Partly Cloudy

We’ve managed to escape from the harsh weather that struck Chicago recently, and are in Tempe, Arizona for a 2nd round U.S. Open Cup match against the Arizona Wolves. The Wolves, like many of the new Division VI teams in the U.S., is searching for new ownership, but have managed to claim 2nd place in their series thus far.

Still, the Wolves do not pose a serious threat to the club, so we should be looking at an easy advance to the 3rd round of the cup. We’re fortunate, because this is exactly what our lads need; a nice easy win. Their confidence was pretty well shattered by the drubbing we took in Detroit last week, but this match should go a long way towards repairing that psychological damage.

Formation: 4-4-2

Starters

Keeper: #13 Darryl Read

Right Wingback: #24 Christian Kvam
Central Defender: #18 Cameron McDonald
Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs
Left Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas

Right Winger: #25 Paul Peralta
Inner Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere
Left Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret

Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias

Team Captain: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Set Pieces: #14 Jesper Gravesen

Substitutes
-Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan
-Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma
-Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
-Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson
-Winger: #3 Ben McMahon

We’ve decided to go with a 4-4-2 approach today, which is something we haven’t done in quite a while. We want to get our defensive trainees on the pitch, but I am not comfortable with the idea of playing a 5-4-1. Winning today is too important to the psychology of the team to take that much of a chance.

Arlen Lucas will see the pitch today, as he was suspended from our league match this past weekend. Hopefully he can keep his nose clean this time around, because we will need him on Sunday against the Big Reds.

Forrest “Gump” Tobias is the other starter that will play for us today. We need a second forward to accompany Jesper Gravesen up front, and Johannes Henriksson is far too valuable to risk in a match like this. On top of that, any match experience we can get for “Gump” is a definite plus.

Today also marks the professional debut for youth squad phenom Cameron McDonald. Cameron is one of the most highly-touted players to ever come out of our youth program, and we’re really looking forward to seeing what he can do on the pitch.

Match Report

PRE-GAME

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and Arizona Field saw a crowd turnout of 6913.

Arizona started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Stapleton - Gary, Goodson, Friedman, Atkins - Rivers, Aceña Lopez, Anderson, Wynn - Jiménez Asensio, Lake.

Screamin' had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. Lineup: Read - Kvam , Stubbs, Mcdonald, Lucas - Peralta, Tere, Smith, Mauffret - Gravesen, Tobias.

FIRST HALF

Screamin' took the lead after 18 minutes with 0 - 1. Jesper Gravesen placed the ball out of reach for the home sides keeper after a fine move, coming in from the left.

After 33 minutes Arizona´s Karl Friedman contracted a slight foot injury, but could finish the game.

The visitors Lucian Tere took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side´s goalie and full backs in the 33rd minute. 0 - 2 for Screamin'.

Some fine manouvering on the left lead to an 34:th minute Screamin' goal, making it 0 - 3. Lucian Tere was noted down as the scorer.

The structure of the game started to change as Screamin' decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone.

Halftime score was 0 - 3. Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 68 percent possession rate.

SECOND HALF

After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, Screamin'´s Christian Kvam got himself booked.

After the ball got lifted in from the left Jerry Smith was on his own in the home side´s penalty area 62 minutes into the game, and should have scored, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration.

Some fine manouvering on the left lead to an 80:th minute Screamin' goal, making it 0 - 4. Jesper Gravesen was noted down as the scorer.

Paul Peralta was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the enemy box - Forrest Tobias managed to kick one of them into 0 - 5 in the 83rd minute.

Screamin's Keith Stubbs got himself booked after a foul. The Arizona player was Karl Friedman who had to be helped off the pitch, unable to finish the game.

Screamin', bringing the final ball possession rate to 83 percent, dominated the battle.

POST-GAME

The most dominating Arizona player was without a doubt Tommy Rivers. Bobbie Atkins on the other hand, had a terrible day.

The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Arlen Lucas. Olav Mauffret on the other hand, had a terrible day.

The match ends 0 - 5.

Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 5, Arizona Wolves 0

Goals
Gravesen – 2 (1,2)
Tere – 2 (1,2)
Tobias – 1 (2)

Cards
Kvam – yellow (1)
Stubbs – yellow (1)

Player Ratings

Read: **

Kvam: **
McDonald: ***

Stubbs: **
Lucas: ***~

Peralta: **
Smith: **~
Tere: **
Mauffret: **

Gravesen: **
Tobias: **

Team Match MVP: #5 Arlen Lucas

Team Ratings

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Poor (3)
-Right Defense: Excellent (8)
-Central Defense: Excellent (8)
-Left Defense: Excellent (8)
-Right Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Central Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Left Attack: Inadequate (5)
-NSI: 48

Arizona Wolves
-Midfield: Wretched (2)
-Right Defense: Weak (4)
-Central Defense: Inadequate (5)
-Left Defense: Weak (4)
-Right Attack: Poor (3)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-Left Attack: Wretched (2)
-NSI: 27

Comments

A nice easy win, as was expected. Although Arlen Lucas earned Team Match MVP honors, Lucian Tere deserves some special notice. The big Romanian midfielder pegged home two goals in approximately two minutes! That’s the kind of performance that I like to see, even from backups. Jesper Gravesen added two goals of his own, and “Gump” Tobias got in on the action late, adding his second cup goal of the young season.

In retrospect, we probably could have played a 5-4-1 and still won the match, but I was not prepared to take the risk at the time. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I am a pretty conservative manager when it comes to decisions about my team.

I am particularly pleased with Cameron McDonald, and his outstanding three-star debut performance. He quietly went about his business all game long, sweeping out the area in front of Darryl Read like a pro. Some of the other starters were teasing Chuck Scales about his job being in danger after the match. Chuck looked a little worried, and he should be!

Author’s Note: Given Cameron’s three-star performance and assessed value of $100,000 “out of the box,” I suspect he’ll bump up to excellent defending in a week or two. If only he were a year younger (he’s 18), he’d be possible U-20 team material.

Other News

The incredible support for the Screamin’ Seamen continues to come in, and I can’t begin to tell you all how proud I am to have so much support (primarily from the FOFC). I would like to welcome the following clubs to the family of SSFC supporters:

Golden Eagles FC (Owner: GoldenEagle, 3rd place in Series V.167)
Calibiri (Owner: daelalus, 3rd place in Series V.46)

This brings us to 29 supporting teams, making us #2 in the entire United States! A heart-felt thanks to all of our supporters.

Up Next: Training results and the weekly financial updates in the next few days. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 04-10-2003, 11:56 PM

Week 1 Training Results

We returned to our defensive training regimen this week, but did not see any immediate results. We were rather hoping that Cameron McDonald would show some marked improvement after his performance on Wednesday, but that was not the case.

Jesper Gravesen, our b-team striker, did improve to weak (4) experience, though.

And now for the bad news…

Form Changes

2 players improved a level in form (both starters).
13 players had their form remain the same.
7 players dropped in form (1 of them a starter).

We did not have a good training week, that much is obvious. We’re hoping that this is just a temporary setback, perhaps a bit of a hang-over from our loss on Sunday.

The really bad news is that Cameron McDonald dropped two levels in form!

Cameron is a hot prospect for the club, so we’re hoping and praying that this is not a sign of lousy base-form.

In The Zone

Both of our Swedes are playing some excellent soccer (they must be high on life after Sweden won the U-20 World Cup). Team captain Johannes Henriksson and midfielder Niklas Ivarsson are both in excellent (8) form, as is back-up midfielder Jerry Smith. Jerry may see some playing time with the starters on Sunday.

Form Dogs

Unfortunately, we have four different players currently in weak (4) form. Defensive trainee Zarpas Lerma (who hasn’t played in three weeks), Cameron McDonald, winger Ben McMahon, and keeper Darryl Read are all stinking up the joint at the moment. The good news is that only one of them (McMahon) is a normal starter.

Value

Average Player Value: $114,455 (-$2,090)
Total Player Value: $2,518,000 (-$46,000)

Up Next: The weekly financial update on Saturday. After that, we have our home opener against the Big Reds. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 04-11-2003, 03:14 PM

Team U.S.A. Makes History

The United States National Team made history day, defeating the Swedish National Team for the first time ever. The final tally was U.S.A. 3, Sweden 1.

Match # 6875160

Congratulations to Slashers (even though I don't think he reads this).

It's a great day for the U.S. of A.

illinifan999 · 04-11-2003, 03:24 PM

USA USA USA!!!!!

Havok · 04-11-2003, 04:39 PM

WWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!

USA USA!!!!!!!!!

illinifan999 · 04-11-2003, 05:02 PM

Sweden is a damn good team. Only 2 losses since the inception of national teams. And the US is now one of them. That is an amazing job.

DataKing · 04-13-2003, 01:52 PM

Youth Pull

The youth squad performed for us pretty well again this week. Although Sam won’t be staying with the club (I’m not training playmaking), he should give us a nice financial boost and make a good midfield trainee for someone.

Sam Young

Listed As: Inner Midfielder
Asking Price: $30,000
Deadline: 4/16/03 @ 20:33 HT-Time

17 years old, passable form, healthy.

A pleasant guy who is balanced and righteous.
Has disastrous experience and passable leadership abilities.

Specialty: Technical

Nationality: U.S.A.
Assessed Value: $31,000
Wage: $640 per week

Stamina: Wretched
Playmaking: Passable
Winger: Poor
Scoring: Poor
Goaltending: Disastrous
Passing: Weak
Defending: Inadequate
Set Pieces: Poor

Weekly Financial Update

Previous Balance: $78,828

Revenue

Crowd (U.S. Open Cup match vs. Arizona Wolves) - $10,445
Sponsors - $56,100
Temporary (19 new supporters) - $570
Temporary (sale of Otis Johnson) - $8,100
Temporary (sale of William Brown) - $121,500

Total Revenue: $196,715

Expenses

Arena Upkeep - $11,271
Player Wages - $31,508
Temporary (youth squad promotion) - $2,000
Temporary (fired specialist) - $1,500
Staff and Specialists - $40,500
Youth Squad Support - $20,000

Total Expenses: $106,779

Net Income/Loss: $89,936

New Balance: $168,764

Of particularly good news is that the renovations and expansions of The Docks has been completed. 30,000 brand-spanking-new seats (and a special surprise) are ready and waiting for our home opener against the Big Reds.

Team Information

Team Spirit: Content (up 1 level)
Team Confidence: Strong (down 1 level)

Sponsor Attitude: Delirious (up 1 level)
Supporter Attitude: Delirious (up 1 level)
Supporter Club: 1,347 (up 19 from last week)

Our U.S. Open Cup win on Wednesday repaired some of the damage to the team’s confidence, but not all of it.

Up Next: The Screamin’ Seamen home opener at the “New and Improved” Docks. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 04-13-2003, 09:22 PM

Season 3 – League Match #2

Screamin’ Seamen vs. Big Reds

Date: April 13th, 2003
Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL)
Attendance: 28,873 (30,000)
Weather: Partly Cloudy

Today we play host to the Big Reds, one of the newcomers to the division, in our home opener. It looks like we have magnificent weather for the debut of the “new and improved,” Docks, 65 degrees and partly cloudy. The Docks now looks like a smaller version of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, complete with faux pirate ship on one end of the stadium.

Despite being new to Division IV, Big Reds are not a team to be taken lightly. They dominated the Syracuse Supers (admittedly the weakest team in the division) last week in their home opener, 4-nil. They are an all-around solid club, with a dangerous striker in Willibald Roth (what kind of name is Willibald, anyway?) and a fine 19-year-old midfielder by the name of Theo Juarez.

Still, with home field advantage and Arlen Lucas returning to the line-up, we expect a win, although a narrow one. I would not be surprised to see this one end up 2-1 or 3-2.

Formation: 3-5-2

Starters

Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan

Right Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard
Central Defender: #2 Chuck Scales
Left Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas

Right Winger: #9 Valentin Rubio
Inner Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin
Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson
Left Winger: #3 Ben McMahon

Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias

Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson

Substitutes
-Keeper: #13 Darryl Read
-Defender: #17 Mattias Leier
-Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
-Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen
-Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret

As was mentioned earlier, last season’s Team MVP Arlen Lucas returns to the lineup, after having served his one game suspension last Sunday. Other than that, it’s pretty much business-as-usual as far as our starting line-up goes.

Match Report

PRE-GAME

28873 spectators arrived at The Docks, where weather conditions were pretty good for football.

Screamin' started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Jernigan - Willard, Scales, Lucas - Rubio, Ivarsson, Bautista, Tomlin, Mcmahon - Henriksson, Tobias.

Reds had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Morgansson - Sifres Belenguer, Ryan, Conde - Tønnessen, Williams, Juarez, Crabtree, Freixes - Levin, Roth.

FIRST HALF

David Ryan received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 7:th minute and almost caused an opponent to score.

Many thought Pete Tomlin ought to have been awarded a penalty shot in the 29:th minute, as he went down trying to circle the visitors keeper Martin Morgansson.

Reds had a good opportunity to score the lead goal but the home team goaltender Cornelius Jernigan saved Willibald Roth´s shot headed for the top corner.

0 - 0 was the half-time score. Reds held the ball, with a clear 52 percent possession rate.

SECOND HALF

Screamin' made a bid to take the lead as a ball coming in from the right hand side left Ben Mcmahon completely alone with keeper Martin Morgansson, who made a spectacular block.

n the 71st minute Redss Martin Sifres Belenguer received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first.

Screamin' could have put themselves ahead in the 74:th minute as Forrest Tobias missed a volley shot on a ball coming in from the right.

Robert Levin came close to putting the visiting team one up in the 80:th minute, following a solo raid down the middle, but Cornelius Jernigan managed to tip the ball to a corner.

No one team arose to dominate this half, ending in a deadlock.

POST-GAME

Most important Screamin' player was Arlen Lucas. Ben Mcmahon on the other hand, had a terrible day.

The most dominating Reds player was without a doubt Theo Juarez. Martin Sifres Belenguer on the other hand, had a terrible day.

Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 0, Big Reds 0

Goals
None

Cards
None

Player Ratings

Jernigan: ***

Willard: ***~
Scales: ***~
Lucas: ***~

Rubio: ***
Tomlin: **~
Bautista: **~
Ivarsson: ***~
McMahon: **~

Henriksson: **~
Tobias: **

Team Match MVP: #5 Arlen Lucas

Team Ratings

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Solid (7)
-Right Defense: Magnificent (12)
-Central Defense: Brilliant (11)
-Left Defense: Outstanding (10)
-Right Attack: Solid (7)
-Central Attack: Passable (6)
-Left Attack: Inadequate (5)
-NSI: 72

Big Reds
-Midfield: Solid (7)
-Right Defense: Formidable (9)
-Central Defense: Formidable (9)
-Left Defense: Excellent (8)
-Right Attack: Passable (6)
-Central Attack: Passable (6)
-Left Attack: Solid (7)
-NSI: 66

Comments

I do so enjoy tough defensive battles, but this one was a little too defensive for my tastes, particularly on our side of the scoreboard. The defense performed admirably, as per usual, and when they did get a little leaky, “Corny” Jernigan was right there to shut the door on the Reds. Unfortunately, our own offense remained woeful. Ben McMahon (who we have been less than pleased with lately) and Forrest “Gump” Tobias both had opportunities to give us the lead, but could not finish the deal.

Despite the fact that we only ended up with a draw, there are plenty of good things to draw from this match. We had our best-ever (if memory serves) overall team rating, and our first ever solid-rated midfield. Our entire back line put up ***~ performances each, another first for the club.

It’s obvious that our defense is usually up to the challenge. Our offense, on the other hand, has been lackluster to say the least. Unfortunately, we’re not in a financial position at the moment to make a meaningful change, but will look to address the offense in the future.

Series Scores and Standings

-Sweden Heights scored twice in the last 15 minutes to snatch a 3-2 victory over Neon Genesis Evangelion.
-Croats in Miami had their way with the Syracuse Supers, 4-nil. However, Croats’ starting keeper Don Smith suffered a major injury (5 weeks) in the match.
-SoccerWussies surprised everyone by dominating Ramblers, 4-nil. This confirms my suspicion that Ramblers MOTSed the match against us last week.



No.	Name.					Played		Goals		Pts.	NSI

1.	Croats in Miami			        2		7-0		6	56

2.	Sweden Heights			        2		6-3		6	60

3.	Big Reds				2		4-0		4	66

4.	SoccerWussies			        2		5-3		3	66

5.	Ramblers				2		4-4		3	64

6.	Screamin’ Seamen			        2		0-4		1	72

7.	Neon Genesis Evangelion		        2		2-6		0	62

8.	Syracuse Supers			        2		0-8		0	43

Next Week’s Matchups

Croats in Miami vs. Screamin’ Seamen
SoccerWussies vs. Neon Genesis Evangelion
Big Reds vs. Ramblers
Sweden Heghts vs. Syracuse Supers

Other News

We would like to welcome the 30th member of our supporters.

McGees (Owner: whitesoxmcgee, Currently 2nd place in Series V.195)

Welcome McGee, and thank you for your support.

Up Next: We travel to Brooklyn, Wisconsin for our 3rd-Round U.S. Open Cup match against the Brooklyn Ex-Pats. Stay tuned!

Barkeep49 · 04-13-2003, 11:08 PM

Looks to be a rough season for the Seaman. I hope you guys snap out of it and soon!

robbgmaier · 04-13-2003, 11:22 PM

Congratulations on getting out of the basement (oooh, that was kind of mean)

DataKing · 04-14-2003, 10:45 AM

Things certainly have not started out as planned, but I am certain that things will turn around. I just hope that it is sooner, rather than later.

Series IV.49 was rated as the 4th toughest series in all of Division IV this week (5th last week) by HatStats. Also, our team rating of 72 tied us for 21st in all of Division IV. The ball just hasn't been rolling our way so far this season.

Actually, while it is a little early to look that far ahead, I expect a strong second half from our club, because we get to play the Syracuse Supers back-to-back in weeks 7 and 8. Those matches should be a nice boost to team spirit and confidence, and prepare us for a stretch run.

I don't know if I've mentioned it earlier, but my goal for this season is the same as it was last season; finish in the top four, earn some prize money, and avoid a relegation match. With the dramatic increase in competition in Series IV.49 this season, asking anything more of my club is just downright unrealistic in my book.

Havok · 04-14-2003, 11:29 AM

I think we all got spoiled with DK kicking everyone's ass every game

anyway... just looked through your division and it is very tough. if you get top 3 (which i think you will) that will be a victory in it self.

DataKing · 04-15-2003, 02:46 PM

Thanks for the encouragement Havok. I know I was spoiled by winning week in-week out.

And there is one good thing that we can still cling to. We have yet to lose a home league match, ever! 12 wins, 3 draws, 0 losses.

Of course, I've probably jynxed the team now by mentioning it.

DataKing · 04-16-2003, 08:29 PM

Season 3 – U.S. Open Cup – Round 3

Brooklyn Ex-Pats vs. Screamin’ Seamen

Date: April 16th, 2003
Venue: Brooklyn Ex-Pats Arena (Brooklyn, WI)
Attendance: 6,319 (15,000)
Weather: Rain

For the 3rd round of this year’s U.S. Open Cup, we’ve drawn the Brooklyn Ex-Pats as our competition, from the sprawling metropolis of Brooklyn, Wisconsin (population 916). The two-hour bus trip has resulted in a bit of a culture shock for some of our players, as we have gone from a land of skyscrapers and six-lane highways to a place where cows outnumber cars. Indeed, one rather stubborn heffer delayed our arrival by more than ten minutes by refusing to budge from in front of the bus.

The Ex-Pats are currently leading series V.168, despite having only been formed just last month. Still, we don’t foresee having any major problems with this club, and our B-team should not have too much trouble advancing us to the 4th round of the Cup, assuming that our convoluted tactics work out how we expect them to.

Formation: 5-4-1

Starters

Keeper: #13 Darryl Read

Right Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier (defensive)
Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs
Central Defender: #18 Cameron McDonald
Central Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma (offensive)
Left Wingback: #24 Christian Kvam

Inner Midfielder: #25 Paul Peralta (towards wing)
Inner Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere (offensive)
Left Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret (offensive)

Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen

Team Captain: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Set Pieces: #14 Jesper Gravesen

Substitutes
-Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan
-Defender: #22 Tyler Willard
-Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
-Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias
-Winger: #3 Ben McMahon

We’ve gone back to a 5-4-1 formation, looking to gain one week of full training for our defenders before we will have to run a 3-5-2 in order to advance in the cup. But we’re trying something a little different this time around with the 5-4-1. We’ll be playing with three midfielders (one towards the wing) and only one winger in the central of the field. The hope is that the extra possession afforded us by the third midfielder should keep the opposition from exploiting the while on our right side. If anything should get through the whole, we have our best wingback trainee, Mattias Leier, there to control things until help can arrive.

It started raining about an hour ago, and has shown no signs of letting up, which will hurt the play of some of our more technically-oriented players (Gravesen and Smith in particular). Lucian Tere, on the other hand, is loving every minute of it. The big Romanian plays his best when he’s able to just bowl over smaller opposition, and usually performs admirably on a wet pitch. We’ll keep an eye on him today and try to feed him the ball if he’s got a size-friendly matchup.

Match Report

PRE-GAME

6319 spectators had found their way to Brooklyn Ex-Pats Arena, despite the heavy rain.

Brooklyn tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Beltrán - Gabriel, Fleming, Harder - Gerber, Francoeur, Tillman, Rabella, Shepherd - Florence, Saldana.

Screamin' had chosen a strategic 5-4-1 formation. The following players had been chosen: Read - Leier, Lerma, Stubbs, Mcdonald, Kvam - Tere, Peralta, Smith, Mauffret - Gravesen.

FIRST HALF

John Harder gave his Brooklyn the lead with 1 - 0, as he successfully challenged both the guests central defenders, then placed the ball unreachably at the goaltenders right post.

There wasn´t much opportunity for rapid movements this wet day, which hindered Dom Shepherd in particular.

Screamin' seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion about the organization of the team.

Lucian Tere came close to levelling the score in the 28:th minute, as he was set up with a through ball coming in from the left, but his shot hit the post.

Halftime score was 1 - 0. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Brooklyn, with an impressive 57 percent possession of the ball.

SECOND HALF

During the break Screamin'´s coach went through the teams new tactics yet again.

Screamin' had obvious problems in finding their positions.

Brooklyn put themselves up 2 - 0 when Miguel Florence broke through on the right, leaving the entire defensive box behind him.

The structure of the game started to change as Brooklyn decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone.

The referee showed Brooklyns Jay Fleming the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge.

Due to a severely mistimed tackle,Olav Mauffret spent some on the grass writhing in agony before he could get up and continue the game.

Screamin' had a fair chance to reply after 81 minutes, due to some fine moves down the left, but in the end no one was there to put their head to the ball as it was lifted into the box.

Hayden Saldana should probably have put his team up another goal in the 87:th minute, but some great goaltending by Darryl Read kept the visitors in the game.

This part of the game had been a standoff between the teams.

POST-GAME

The most dominating Brooklyn player was without a doubt Hayden Saldana. David Gerber on the other hand, had a terrible day.

Most important Screamin' player was Keith Stubbs. Zarpas Lerma on the other hand, had a terrible day.

Final Score: Brooklyn Ex-Pats 2, Screamin’ Seamen 0

Goals
None

Cards
None

Player Ratings

Read: **

Leier: **~
Stubbs: **~
McDonald: **~
Lerma: *~
Kvam: **

Peralta: *~
Smith: **~
Tere: **
Mauffret: **

Gravesen: *~

Team Ratings

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Poor (3)
-Right Defense: Outstanding (10)
-Central Defense: Formidable (9)
-Left Defense: Passable (6)
-Right Attack: Wretched (2)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-Left Attack: Weak (4)
-NSI: 43

Brooklyn Ex-Pats
-Midfield: Poor (3)
-Right Defense: Weak (4)
-Central Defense: Inadequate (5)
-Left Defense: Passable (6)
-Right Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Central Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Left Attack: Inadequate (5)
-NSI: 39

Comments

The woes that seem to surround the Screamin’ Seamen continue to plague us, as we lost a match that we should have won, and have been bounced from the U.S. Open Cup much earlier than anticipated. A large share of the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of Jesper Gravesen, who as team captain (weak experience, inadequate leadership) should not have allowed the play of the team to disintegrate the way it did (our experience with 5-4-1 was at passable).

I suspect that coach Brown will also be receiving quite a bit of heat this week, as his “5-4-1 alternative” formation backfired in a major way. We shall see if anything comes of that.

Other than that, I have very little to say at this time about the whole fiasco. When you’re as ticked off as I am, you’re probably best just keeping your mouth shut.

Other News

Youth pull Sam Young is heading south of the equator, as he sold earlier today for a nice tidy sum of $102,000. The purchasing club was C.A. Daedra (B. Bca.), a 4th Division side from Argentina. $93,840 of the money found its way into the club's coffers.

We would also like to welcome a new member to the growing group of Screamin’ Seamen supporters:

Plowboys (Owner: Gathis, Currently 8th place in Series V.202)

The Plowboys are from Kansas…Woohoo and Welcome!

Up Next: The one good piece of news out of all of this is that all of our defensive trainees receive training this week. Training update to be posted on Thursday evening. Stay tuned!

sterlingice · 04-17-2003, 02:22 AM

Ow, this season is going bad quick. I think this is a good omen: you're lulling everyone into a false sense of security so you can win the FOFC Cup and make a miraculous comeback to take 1st in your series. You're just making it more dramatic.

Well, at least you still have the Wing-- never mind (couldn't resist)

SI

DataKing · 04-18-2003, 11:16 AM

Week 2 Training Results

In what continues to be a disappointing trend, none of our defenders showed any marked improvement this week. Trainees Mattias Leier and Cameron McDonald, both of whom are expected to take a “step up” soon, have refrained from doing so.

Form Changes

3 players improved in form this week (including winger Ben McMahon)
14 players saw their form remain the same.
5 players dropped in form this week (including Johannes Henriksson and Charlie Bautista)

Another poor week of training, which saw the average form of the team drop. I’m at a loss for how to explain it. Just some lousy luck on our part, I suppose. This team’s form and performance is nowhere near what it was at this point last season.

In The Zone

The good news is that midfielder Niklas Ivarsson continues to play some of the best soccer of his life. Also in top form is substitute midfielder Jerry Smith, who may very well see the field this Sunday against Croats in Miami.

Form Dog

Newcomer Cameron McDonald continues to disappoint in practice as well as on the pitch, and has dropped to poor (3) form this week. Folks around the front office are hoping and praying that this is just a slump, as Cameron gets used to playing at the professional level, and not an indicator of lousy base-form.

Value

Average Player Value: $116,045 (+$1,590)
Total Player Value: $2,553,000 (+$35,000)

Up Next: This week’s youth squad promotion as well as the financial update on Saturday evening. After that, we’re on the road again, as we travel to Miami to take on the league-leading Croats. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 04-21-2003, 03:08 PM

This week’s youth pull wasn’t with the team long enough for me to remember his name.

Weekly Financial Update

Previous Balance: $168,768

Revenue

Crowd (league match vs. Big Reds) - $150,026
Crowd (U.S. Open Cup match vs. Brooklyn Ex-Pats) - $9,583
Sponsors - $60,750
Temporary (sale of youth squad promotee Sam Young) - $93,840

Total Revenue: $314,199

Expenses

Arena Upkeep - $19,500
Player Wages - $29,948
Temporary (youth squad promotion) - $2,000
Temporary (transfer listing for Sam Young) - $1,000
Staff & Specialists - $40,500
Youth Squad Support - $20,000

Total Expenses: $112,948

Net Income/Loss: $201,151

New Balance: $370,015

Despite our disappointments on the pitch, this was a very profitable week for us, with the promotion and sale of Sam Young acting as a nice little bonus. The expansion to The Docks certainly seems to be paying for itself quickly, as we brought in just over $150,000 from Sunday’s league match. We’re in a good spot financially. Now it’s just a matter of turning that into better on-the-field performances.

Team Information

Team Spirit: Satisfied (up 1 level)
Team Confidence: Strong (no change)

Sponsor Attitude: High on Life (up 1 level)
Supporter Attitude: Content (down 2 levels)
Supporter Club: 1,346 (down 1 from last week)

For the first time in club history, we actually had a supporter leave the organization. Apparently the supporters were none too pleased with us getting shut out at home, even though the game did end in a draw. And I’m sure that getting knocked out of the U.S. Open Cup by a Division V side didn’t help matters any, either.

Up Next: We look to exact a little revenge upon the Croats in Miami on Sunday. For those of you who may not remember, this is the club that cost us the series title last season and handed us our first ever league loss. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 04-21-2003, 03:57 PM

Season 3 – League Match #3

Croats in Miami vs. Screamin’ Seamen

Date: April 20th, 2003
Venue: Croats in Miami Arena (Miami, FL)
Attendance: 29,117 (33,000)
Weather: Partly Cloudy

It’s payback time! This week we travel back down to Miami, to take on the Croats in Miami, the club that handed us our first ever league match loss, and cost us the series title last season. This has rapidly evolved into quite a little rivalry, and we’re looking forward to another good, hard-played match this time around.

The Croats come into today’s match in first place in the standings, and have yet to give up a goal through the first two weeks of play. But this can be quite deceiving, since they have only played two of the weakest teams in the division thus far; Neon Genesis Evangelion and Syracuse Supers. Truth be told, their defense isn’t all that good, and has been made even more suspect with the injury to starting keeper Don Smith last week.

Thus far, the all-time series is tied at one win a piece.

Previous Meetings
12/16/2002 – Screamin Seamen’ 5, Croats in Miami 1
3/17/2003 – Croats in Miami 1, Screamin’ Seamen 0

Formation: 3-5-2

Starters

Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan

Right Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas
Central Defender: #2 Chuck Scales
Left Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard

Right Winger: #3 Ben McMahon
Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson
Inner Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
Inner Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin
Left Winger: #9 Valentin Rubio

Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias

Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson

Substitutes
-Keeper: #13 Darryl Read
-Defender: #17 Mattias Leier
-Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
-Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen
-Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret

The one change to our starting lineup this week is youngster Jerry Smith starting in place of Charlie Bautista in the midfield. Charlie has not been performing well at all as of late, and his slip has opened up a spot in the lineup for Jerry, at least on a temporary basis. Jerry has a bright future with the club, and has been playing excellent soccer as of late, so we want to get him into the starting lineup whenever possible.

With the Croats’ starting keeper out injured, we’ve decided to test the backup, Chris Keys. To do this, we’re playing with a much more aggressive formation than is typical for us, with McMahon, Ivarsson, Tomlin, and Rubio all being given the green-light to jump up on the attack when the situation warrants. Even wingbacks Arlen Lucas and Tyler Willard will play a little bit forward from their usual positions in the back, looking to feed the long ball to the wingers when given the opportunity.

Match Report

PRE-GAME

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and Croats in Miami Arena saw a crowd turnout of 29117.

Croats tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Keys - Schofield, Göransson, Howe - Parish, Allen, Blackwell, Schwab, Rönnerberg - Patrick, Broderick.

Screamin' tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Jernigan - Lucas, Scales, Willard - Mcmahon, Ivarsson, Tomlin, Smith, Rubio - Henriksson, Tobias.

FIRST HALF

At the beginning of the game, Croats appeared to already have taken this victory to the bank.

Croats were very close to putting themselves one up in the 11th minute as Lester Schofield got through, but failing in concentration, he shot the ball wide.

Rolf Schwab received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 13th minute and almost caused an opponent to score.

After 18 minutes Screamin' put themselves up by 0 - 1 as Johannes Henriksson finished off a strike from the left with a real cannon placed at the far post.

After a fatal mistake from the away teams right side defense in the 31st minute, an alert Tony Allen bagged the ball, evening the score to 1 - 1.

Croats made a bid to take the lead as a ball coming in from the right hand side left Ryan Broderick completely alone with keeper Cornelius Jernigan, who made a spectacular block.

Screamin's Arlen Lucas got himself booked after a foul.

The teams went for a half-time break at 1 - 1. Croats held the ball, with a clear 58 percent possession rate.

SECOND HALF

Some quick foot work on the left side of the field in the 52nd minute left Screamin'´s Forrest Tobias completely free to score. 1 - 2 for the visitors.

Due to some great work on the right wing Croats:s Ryan Broderick was able to even the score in the 53rd minute to 2 - 2.

Croats had a good opportunity to take the lead as Michael Patrick came up the left side, but he struck the ball weakly and it went straight into the arms of Cornelius Jernigan.

Rolf Schwab of Croats received a yellow card in the 87:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour.

Croats held the ball, with a clear 59 percent possession rate.

POST-GAME

The most dominating Croats player was without a doubt Tony Allen. Chris Keys on the other hand, had a terrible day.

Most important Screamin' player was Chuck Scales. Ben Mcmahon on the other hand, had a terrible day.

Final Score: Croats in Miami 2, Screamin’ Seamen 2

Goals
Henriksson – 1 (1)
Tobias – 1 (1)

Cards
Lucas – yellow (1)

Player Ratings

Jernigan: ***

Lucas: ***~
Scales: ***~
Willard: ***

McMahon: **
Ivarsson: ***~
Smith: **~
Tomlin: **~
Rubio: ***

Henriksson: **
Tobias: **

Team Match MVP: #2 Chuck Scales

Team Ratings

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Passable (6)
-Right Defense: Excellent (8)
-Central Defense: Formidable (9)
-Left Defense: Brilliant (11)
-Right Attack: Passable (6)
-Central Attack: Passable (6)
-Left Attack: Solid (7)
-NSI: 65

Croats in Miami
-Midfield: Excellent (8)
-Right Defense: Passable (6)
-Central Defense: Passable (6)
-Left Defense: Inadequate (5)
-Right Attack: Solid (7)
-Central Attack: Formidable (9)
-Left Attack: Inadequate (5)
-NSI: 62

Comments

With the offensive troubles that we have had thus far this season, it is nice to finally see some offensive production from the strikers. We only had two really good scoring opportunities in the match, and both Johannes Henriksson and Forrest “Gump” Tobias did not waste them, as each tallied their first league goals of the season.

Unfortunately, the Croats were able to respond to both of our goals, and we had to settle for a 2-2 draw. Despite the fact that we have yet to earn a league win this season, I am not all that upset about the result. The competition level in the series is such that, in most cases, a draw on the road is as good as a win.

I have also discovered what I think to be a big part of the reason that we have experienced trouble this season. Because of the way that the schedules are arranged, each team that we play against in the first half of the season is coming off of a game against the Syracuse Supers, the one safely PIC-able team in the league. This means that, assuming that the other managers in the league are intelligent (which they appear to be, for the most part), we’re playing with a team spirit deficit each and every time out for the first six weeks of the season.

The good news to come out of this little epiphany is that, in weeks six through nine, we will get to play our matches against what appear to be the two weakest teams in the league; Neon Genesis Evangelion and Syracuse Supers. This four week stretch should give us a lot of momentum to make a run at the end of the season. Needless to say, I am not as concerned with our sixth place standing as I was before I figured all of this out.

Series Scores and Standings

-Sweden Heights had an easy time at home against Syracuse Supers, winning 5-nil.
-SoccerWussies survived two second-half goals by Neon Genesis Evangelion, winning 3-2.
-Big Reds won a tough defensive battle against Ramblers, 1-nil.



No.	Team					Played	        Goals		Pts.	NSI

1.	Sweden Heights			        3		11-3		9	60

2.	Croats in Miami			        3		9-2		7	62

3.	Big Reds				3		5-0		7	76

4.	SoccerWussies			        3		8-5		6	68

5.	Ramblers				3		4-5		3	64

6.	Screamin’ Seamen*			3		2-6		2	65

7.	Neon Genesis Evangelion		        3		4-9		0	60

8.	Syracuse Supers			        3		0-13		0	40

Our draw with Croats in Miami knocked them out of contention for 1st place, leaving that honor for Sweden Heights (whom we play host to next week). Also of note are Ramblers, who have yet to score a goal since their 4-nil MOTS victory over us in week one. This just goes to show how damaging an ill-advised early-season MOTS can be to a team’s season.

Week 4 Matchups

Ramblers vs. Neon Genesis Evangelion
Screamin’ Seamen vs. Sweden Heights
Syracuse Supers vs. SoccerWussies
Big Reds vs. Croats in Miami

Ramblers should be able to recover next week against NGE, and SoccerWussies should increase their position with an easy win over Syracuse Supers. The matches to watch next week are ours against league-leading Sweden Heights, and Big Reds hosting Croats (the winner of which could claim first place with a Seamen victory over Heights).

Up Next: We’ve arranged for a friendly match this Wednesday against Rexall’s Else United, to take place at The Docks. Stay tuned!

GoldenEagle · 04-21-2003, 04:00 PM

Just a quick question. Is there anyway to tell if your players have changed in form? Or do you just remember it all like some super-computer?

DataKing · 04-21-2003, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by GoldenEagle
Just a quick question. Is there anyway to tell if your players have changed in form? Or do you just remember it all like some super-computer?

I am a Data King after all.

Actually I use an excel spreadsheet to track things like player values, skills, form, and performance from week to week. I've looked at programs like HAM and the like, but I find it more enjoyable to track things myself, rather than have a tool do it for me. This way, I feel I get to know my players and their abilities better than I would otherwise.

vex · 04-22-2003, 01:23 AM

HattrickPoli is the way to be

DataKing · 04-23-2003, 08:35 PM

Season 3 – Week 3 Friendly Match

Screamin’ Seamen vs. Else United

Date: April 23rd, 2003
Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL)
Attendance: 774 (30,000)
Weather: Partly Cloudy

We certainly didn’t expect to be playing friendly matches at this point in the season, but find ourselves doing just that after an early exit from the U.S. Open Cup last Wednesday. We’re determined to make the best of it, though, and have returned to concentrating our efforts on training for our young defenders.

Today we play host to rexallsc’s Else United, who have flown in from Los Angeles for the match. We expect a typically low-scoring affair from the match, as our defense should be more than adequate to contain United’s strikers. The big question is whether or not our anemic offense will be able to find a way to get the ball on net.

Formation: 5-4-1

Starters

Keeper: #13 Darryl Read

Right Wingback: #24 Christian Kvam
Central Defender: #18 Cameron McDonald
Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs
Central Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma
Left Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier

Right Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret
Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere
Left Winger: #25 Paul Peralta

Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen

Team Captain: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Set Pieces: #14 Jesper Gravesen

Substitutes
-Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan
-Defender: #22 Tyler Willard
-Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
-Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias
-Winger: #3 Ben McMahon

We’re back to our standard 5-4-1 lineup this week, after the resounding failure of Coach Brown’s “alternative” 5-4-1 last time out. The one change to our standard B-team lineup is Charlie Bautista. Charlie’s weak play as of late means that he has been relegated to B-team duty, but we’re hoping that he will recover his previously good form and return to the starting lineup soon. We’ll be keeping a close eye on him today.

A wary eye will also be placed upon striker and team captain Jesper Gravesen. Jesper did a horrible job last week of managing the team on the pitch, and was partially responsible for our exit from the U.S. Open Cup. His continued presence on the club may very well depend on how well the team responds to his commands today. We shall see.

Match Report

PRE-GAME

774 spectators arrived at The Docks, where weather conditions were pretty good for football.

Screamin' had chosen a strategic 5-4-1 formation. Lineup: Read - Kvam , Lerma, Stubbs, Mcdonald, Leier - Mauffret , Tere, Bautista, Peralta - Gravesen.

United had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Põlluste - Braxton, Chance, Figueiredo Costa, Aldrich - Ubierna, Esparza, Burch, Calvert - Ridgeway, Mcqueen.

FIRST HALF

Keith Stubbs behaved like an inexperienced youth player in the 7:th minute as he gave the ball away to an opponent. Lucky for him though, there was no goal.

Screamin's Keith Stubbs gave, after 7 minutes, the home team a 1 - 0 lead after an attack coming in from the right.

Halftime score was 1 - 0. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Screamin', with an impressive 75 percent possession of the ball.

SECOND HALF

With 64 minutes played Keith Stubbs could have brought this one home for Screamin', had his hooked ball gone in, but it went just a bit too high.

One of many good passes from José María Ubierna at the wing was recieved and skillfully taken care of by Sheldon Ridgeway, scoring for United to 1 - 1.

The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Screamin', with an impressive 89 percent possession of the ball.

POST-GAME

The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Keith Stubbs. However, Jesper Gravesen made a disastrous appearance.

Most important United player was Alexandre Figueiredo Costa. Arthur Mcqueen was a disappointment, however.

Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 1, Else United 1

Goals
Stubbs – 1

Cards
None

Player Ratings

Read: **

Kvam: **~
McDonald: **
Stubbs: **~
Lerma: **
Leier: **~

Mauffret: **
Bautista: **~
Tere: **
Peralta: *~

Gravesen: *~

Team Ratings

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Inadequate (5)
-Right Defense: Formidable (9)
-Central Defense: Outstanding (10)
-Left Defense: Excellent (8)
-Right Attack: Weak (4)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-:Left Attack: Wretched (2)
-NSI: 51

Else United
-Midfield: Wretched (2)
-Right Defense: Passable (6)
-Central Defense: Passable (6)
-Left Defense: Inadequate (5)
-Right Attack: Weak (4)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-:Left Attack: Weak (4)
-NSI: 34

Comments

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the Keith Stubbs Show with me, your host, Data King! It’s pretty unusual when all of the notable events for your team focus around one player. It’s even more unusual when that player is a defender! Keith had himself a whale of a game today and, despite his early blunder, I am duly impressed. Stubbs reminds me more and more of a young Sandis Ozolinsh; a defender who jumps up onto the attack with (sometimes disturbing) regularity, whether he is asked to or not. (And no, I did not instruct Keith to play offensive or anything of the sort.)

I have to give credit to the sky-blues of Else United. Despite our early lead and shut-down defense, they kept digging, and were finally able to get the equalizer with about 20 minutes left to play. I am quite impressed with the effort put forth by rexallsc’s club, and would have expected a more lop-sided result (or at least a victory) given the massive possession advantage that we enjoyed.

As far as the players we were keeping our eyes on are concerned, Charlie Bautista passed with flying colors. I was expecting a bit less out of him, to be frank, and now expect him to return to the starting line-up in short order.

Jesper Gravesen, on the other hand, continues to disappoint. Although I am not at liberty to discuss the details at this point (read: I don’t have enough money yet

), we will be looking to make some offensive changes to the club soon. You can be relatively certain that, if those changes require that we let anyone go, Jesper will be the first name on a very short list of expendables.

Other News

We would like to welcome the 32nd member of the Screamin’ Seamen Supporter Group:

Manhattan Marauders (Owner: NAIWF, Currently 6th place in Series V.152).

Welcome Marauders, and thank you very much for your support.

After only 16 days with Swiss club Hodechlopfer, former Seaman William Brown has moved on to F.C. Botarell, a Spanish 5th Division Side. The transfer earned us a nice little bonus of $5,310.

Up Next: Our weekly training results on Thursday evening. Stay tuned!

vex · 04-23-2003, 10:57 PM

Ummm, our match ratings for today were remarkebly similar.

NE Oklahoma Sidekicks
Player rating and Team formation
Midfield: passable (6)
Right Side Defence: excellent (8)
Central Defence: outstanding (10)
Left Side Defence: formidable (9)
Right Side Attack: wretched (2)
Central Attack: weak (4)
Left Side Attack: poor (3)

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Inadequate (5)
-Right Defense: Formidable (9)
-Central Defense: Outstanding (10)
-Left Defense: Excellent (8)
-Right Attack: Weak (4)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-:Left Attack: Wretched (2)

rexalllsc · 04-24-2003, 02:02 PM

Thanks for agreeing to the Friendly. Hopefully, this non-loss (after two defeats in a row) will springboard us onto the League title, but I'm not optimistic.

I'm pretty surprised/thankful you didn't beat the tar out of me

DataKing · 04-24-2003, 04:29 PM

The 5-4-1 formation doesn't beat the tar out of anybody, believe me.

DataKing · 04-25-2003, 11:28 AM

Week 3 Training Results

Once again, we had to marked increases amongst our defensive trainees this week. I know that both Cameron McDonald and Mattias Leier are close, and am rather surprised/disappointed that neither of them has taken the next step just yet.

Form Changes

4 players increased in form (all reserves).
12 players had their form remain the same.
6 players decreased in form this week (3 of them starters).

This is getting rather depressing, as our team’s average form continues to drop slowly, and all of this while training at full intensity (100%). I’m at a loss to explain it, except that we just appear to be having a run of bad luck that will not stop.

In The Zone

The one bright spot for us remains Swedish midfielder Niklas Ivarsson, who continues to shine on the pitch and on the practice field. The best $153,000 I’ve ever spent, at least thus far.

Form Dogs

Defensive trainee Cameron McDonald showed a little bit of improvement this week, which we’re hoping is a sign of good things to come from the 18 year old. He currently shares the dubious title of “form dog” with trainee Zarpas Lerma and midfielder Charlie Bautista (all at weak form).

Value

Average Player Value: $119,682 (+$3,637)
Total Player Value: $2,633,000 (+$80,000)

Wingback and last season’s Team MVP Arlen Lucas becomes the first non-keeper on the club to break the quarter-million mark, and is currently valued at $256,000.

Up Next: The weekly youth squad promotion and financial update on Saturday. After that, we play host to Sweden Heights, the current league leaders, as we continue to seek our first league victory of the season. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 04-27-2003, 08:46 PM

Week 3 Youth Pull

Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Wesley Blount. And as soon as you’re done, you’ll probably want to say goodbye to Wesley. He will be listed on the transfer market on Monday, and should bring in at least $75,000 or so.

Wesley Blount

19 years old, passable form, healthy.

A pleasant guy who is tranquil and honest.
Has disastrous (1) experience and inadequate (5) leadership abilities.

Nationality: U.S.A.
Assessed Value: $66,000
Wage: $840 per week

Stamina: Poor (3)
Playmaking: Passable (6)
Winger: Solid (7)
Scoring: Poor (3)
Goaltending: Disastrous (1)
Passing: Poor (3)
Defending: Poor (3)
Set Pieces: Weak (4)

I am tempted to keep Wesley on the team, but I do not have the spare time necessary to bring his fitness up to a suitable level. I am certain that a club that trains wingers or midfielders will be able to find the time, however.

Weekly Financial Update

Previous Balance: $370,015

Revenue

Crowd (friendly match vs. Else United) - $2,055
Sponsors - $63,000
Temporary (mother club money) - $300
Temporary (6 new supporters) - $180
Temporary (Re-sale bonus from William Brown) - $5,310

Total Revenue: $70,845

Expenses

Arena Upkeep - $19,500
Player Wages - $29,948
Temporary (youth squad promotion of someone who sucked) - $2,000
Staff & Specialists - $40,500
Youth Squad Support - $20,000

Total Expenses: $111,948

Net Income/Loss: -$41,103

New Balance: $328, 912

Team Information

Team Spirit: Satisfied (no change)
Team Confidence: Strong (no change)

Sponsor Attitude: High on Life (no change)
Supporter Attitude: Content (no change)
Supporter Club: 1,352 (up 6 from last week)

We’re finally starting to see a growth in the supporter club this season, albeit a small one. Still, the way things have been going around here lately, we’ll take whatever we can get.

Up Next: Our league match against the league-leading Sweden Heights. Stay tuned!

Havok · 04-27-2003, 09:40 PM

your the king of youth pulls.... i hate you

DataKing · 04-27-2003, 10:17 PM

Season 3 – League Match #4

Screamin’ Seamen vs. Sweden Heights

Date: April 27th, 2003
Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL)
Attendance: 21,542 (30,000)
Weather: Partly Cloudy

We’re back home this week for league play, as we play host to the league-leading Sweden Heights. Heights look to be a decent club (like just about everyone else in the series), and have a good defense that can perhaps rival our own. But their first place standing and nine points is a little misleading, as they have had the luxury of playing against some of the weaker clubs in the division.

We’re looking for solid defense on both sides of the ball, and expect good scoring chances to be few and far between today. Still, we should have the advantage in the number of chances we get, as we appear to have the superior midfield. The question is whether or not our suspect offense can take advantage of those chances.

Formation: 3-5-2

Starters

Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan

Right Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas
Central Defender: #2 Chuck Scales
Left Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard

Right Winger: #3 Ben McMahon
Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson
Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
Inner Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin
Left Winger: #9 Valentin Rubio

Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias

Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson

Substitutes
-Keeper: #13 Darryl Read
-Defender: #24 Christian Kvam
-Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
-Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen
-Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret

We’re back to our regular starting eleven this week. Charlie Bautista continues to struggle, but even a struggling Charlie Bautista appears to be better than a top-form Jerry Smith in the midfield. Both Johannes Henriksson and Forrest “Gump” Tobias are struggling with their form, but Jesper Gravesen is in coach Brown’s doghouse at the moment, and is not about to see the pitch except for in an emergency.

Match Report

PRE-GAME

Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 21542 to The Docks.

Screamin' started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Lineup: Jernigan - Lucas, Scales, Willard - Mcmahon, Ivarsson, Bautista, Tomlin, Rubio - Henriksson, Tobias.

Heights had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Wilkinson - Flamkvist, Bergman, Claesson - Stoner, Jansson, Eriksson, Thomas, Song - Leijonstål, Doyle.

FIRST HALF

The referee showed Screamin's Arlen Lucas the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge.

Tyson Doyle came close to putting the visiting team one up in the 30:th minute, following a solo raid down the middle, but Cornelius Jernigan managed to tip the ball to a corner.

After 31 minutes Heights´s Lars Eriksson contracted a slight foot injury, but could finish the game.

Johannes Henriksson gave his Screamin' the lead with 1 - 0, as he successfully challenged both the guests central defenders, then placed the ball unreachably at the goaltenders right post.

In the 32nd minute Heightss Mats Claesson received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first.

Due to a severely mistimed tackle,Chuck Scales spent some on the grass writhing in agony before he could get up and continue the game.

1 - 0 was the half-time score. Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 56 percent possession rate.

SECOND HALF

With 53 minutes played Forrest Tobias could have brought this one home for Screamin', had his hooked ball gone in, but it went just a bit too high.

Heights got a chance to level the score as Tyson Doyle suddenly found himself free with the goaltender but the finishing shot hit the bar.

In the games 73rd minute Screamin'´s Tyler Willard fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee booked Tyler Willard for taking a dive.

A couple of quick and successful challenges, followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area after 78 minutes might have resulted in another goal for Screamin'. However, Trent Wilkinson made a spectacular save.

In the 83rd minute Screamin' put themselves up 2 - 0. The visitors defenders lost the ball to Tyler Willard coming up from the left, who proceeded to cooly round the goaltender and knock the ball home.

The structure of the game started to change as Screamin' decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone.

Screamin', bringing the final ball possession rate to 62 percent, dominated the battle.

POST-GAME

The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Arlen Lucas. Johannes Henriksson was a disappointment, however.

Most important Heights player was Mats Claesson. Tomas Leijonstål on the other hand, had a terrible day.

Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 2, Sweden Heights 0

Goals
Henriksson – 1 (2, GWG)
Willard – 1 (1)

Cards
Lucas – yellow (2)
Willard – yellow (1)

Player Ratings

Jernigan: ***

Lucas: ****

Scales: ***~
Willard: ***~

McMahon: **
Ivarsson: ***~
Bautista: **~
Tomlin: **~
Rubio: **~

Henriksson: **
Tobias: **

Team Match MVP: #5 Arlen Lucas

Team Ratings

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Solid (7)
-Right Defense: Outstanding (10)
-Central Defense: Brilliant (11)
-Left Defense: World Class (13)
-Right Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Central Attack: Passable (6)
-Left Attack: Passable (6)
-NSI: 72

Sweden Heights
-Midfield: Inadequate (5)
-Right Defense: Formidable (9)
-Central Defense: Excellent (8)
-Left Defense: Excellent (8)
-Right Attack: Solid (7)
-Central Attack: Solid (7)
-Left Attack: Solid (7)
-NSI: 61

Comments

BOOYEAH! We finally got our first victory of the season, and a solid one at that. Team captain Johannes Henriksson gave us the game winner, and wingback Tyler Willard scored the first goal of his young career as well. The match also earned Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan the eighth clean sheet of his career.

Arlen Lucas performed admirably at wingback, earning his (and the team’s) first ever four-star rating. Unfortunately, Arlen also received a yellow card, and now has two. He has already been suspended once this season, and will have to cool his heels if he does not want to get suspended again.

Series Scores and Standings

-Ramblers managed their second victory of the season, defeating Neon Genesis Evangelion in a 4-3 shootout.
-SoccerWussies narrowly escaped from Syracuse with a 1-nil victory over the Supers.
-Big Reds claimed the top spot in the series, defeating Croats in Miami, 2-1.



No.	Team					Played		Goals		Pts.	NSI

1.	Big Reds				4		7-1		10	76

2.	Sweden Heights			        4		11-5		9	61

3.	SoccerWussies			        4		9-5		9	61

4.	Croats in Miami			        4		10-4		7	65

5.	Ramblers				4		8-8		6	69

6.	Screamin’ Seamen*			4		4-6		5	72

7.	Neon Genesis Evangelion		        4		7-13		0	60

8.	Syracuse Supers			        4		0-14		0	46

While the victory did not improve our sixth-place standing, it did serve to tighten things up a bit in the standings. Only five points separate the top six teams in the series now.

Week 5 Matchups

SoccerWussies vs. Screamin’ Seamen
Croats in Miami vs. Ramblers
Sweden Heights vs. Big Reds
Neon Genesis Evangelion vs. Syracuse Supers

Next week’s match against SoccerWussies is definitely a winnable one, even if we will be on the road. I suspect that Big Reds will be able to handle Sweden Heights, and Neon Genesis Evangelion should finally get a victory against Syracuse Supers. Croats in Miami vs. Ramblers is anyone’s guess, however.

Other News

Please help me in welcoming the 33rd and 34th members of the Screamin’ Seamen Support Club:

West Henrietta FC (Owner: bigjdotcom01, currently 3rd place in Series V.53)
Frankfort United (Owner: DukeRulesMAB, currently 7th place in Series V.22)

Welcome, and thank you very much for your support.

Up Next: We’ve scheduled a friendly match this week against another FOFC club, Reign. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 04-27-2003, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Havok
your the king of youth pulls.... i hate you

Having an excellent youth squad pays off in the long run, believe me.

The Afoci · 04-28-2003, 10:02 AM

Nice win, hopefully you can make a push toward DIII now that you got the first one under your belt!

DataKing · 04-28-2003, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by The Afoci
Nice win, hopefully you can make a push toward DIII now that you got the first one under your belt!

Division III would be nice, but it's going to be a lot harder to get there this season. With the competition as tight as it is in my series, there's no way anyone is going to earn enough points for automatic promotion, which means whoever comes out of this dog fight on top will have to play a qualifier. Getting to Div. III is going to be no small task.

DataKing · 05-01-2003, 11:25 AM

Season 3 – Week 4 Friendly Match

Screamin’ Seamen vs. Reign

Date: April 30th, 2003
Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL)
Attendance: 1,634 (30,000)
Weather: Partly cloudy

We play host to another one of our supporting teams this week, heavyreign’s Reign. It looks like we’ve got good weather again this week, and the supporters are in a considerably better mood than they have been previously this season, so we’re expecting a nice turnout.

As is typical for our friendly matches with a 5-4-1 formation, the defense is not our major area of concern. The question is, as it seems to be every time, whether or not our offense can step up and produce. We shall see.

Formation: 5-4-1

Starters

Keeper: #13 Darryl Read

Right Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier
Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs
Central Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma
Central Defender: #18 Cameron McDonald
Left Wingback: #24 Christiam Kvam

Right Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret
Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere
Inner Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
Left Winger: #25 Paul Peralta

Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen

Team Captain: #14 Jesper Gravesen
Set Pieces: #14 Jesper Gravesen

Substitutes
-Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan
-Defender: #22 Tyler Willard
-Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
-Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias
-Winger: #3 Ben McMahon

We’re playing our standard second-team lineup this week. We’ll be keeping a particularly close eye on both Keith Stubbs and Cameron McDonald today, as both are competing for the primary back-up (and heir apparent) spot to Chuck Scales. Cameron appears to have more raw talent, but Keith has been the apple of Coach Brown’s eye as of late. It should be interesting to see which one steps up as things move forward.

Match Report

PRE-GAME

Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and The Docks saw a crowd turnout of 1634.

Screamin' started off with a 5-4-1 lineup. They fielded: Read - Leier, Lerma, Stubbs, Mcdonald, Kvam - Mauffret , Tere, Smith, Peralta - Gravesen.

Reign had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. Lineup: Gaize - Moran, MacDaid, Boulton, Rodríguez - Braun, Robinsson, Herndon, Humphries - Swärdér, Dalstål.

FIRST HALF

In the games 4:th minute Screamin'´s Christian Kvam fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee booked Christian Kvam for taking a dive.

Seemingly due to lack of experience, Ramón Boulton needlessly tripped an opponent just outside the penalty area, but the free kick that followed didn't succeed.

Screamin's Lucian Tere gave, after 19 minutes, the home team a 1 - 0 lead after an attack coming in from the right.

In the 23rd minute Screamin's Keith Stubbs received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Reign were forced to a substitution as Antonio Braun couldn´t continue playing due to the rough treatment.

In the 26:th minute Screamin' put themselves up 2 - 0. The visitors defenders lost the ball to Mattias Leier coming up from the left, who proceeded to cooly round the goaltender and knock the ball home.

With 27 minutes played Zarpas Lerma could have brought this one home for Screamin', had his hooked ball gone in, but it went just a bit too high.

2 - 0 was the half-time score. Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 70 percent possession rate.

SECOND HALF

A speedy charge from the left side of the field put Screamin' lead up with 3 - 0. Jesper Gravesen finished that one off competently, firing from an acute angle.

The referee showed Screamin's Paul Peralta the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge.

Screamin' put their lead ahead another goal as Olav Mauffret struck home the 4 - 0 goal, after an attack from the left setting him up unmarked with the keeper.

In the games 72nd minute Reign´s Ivan Månblad fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee booked Ivan Månblad for taking a dive.

In the 76:th minute Screamin' put themselves up 5 - 0. The visitors defenders lost the ball to Jerry Smith coming up from the left, who proceeded to cooly round the goaltender and knock the ball home.

The structure of the game started to change as Screamin' decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone.

Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 78 percent possession rate.

POST-GAME

Screamin'´s best player was Keith Stubbs. Paul Peralta on the other hand, had a terrible day.

Reign´s best player was Jordie Moran. However, Andreas Robinsson made a disastrous appearance.

Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 5, Reign 0

Goals
Tere – 1
Leier – 1
Gravesen – 1
Mauffret – 1
Smith – 1

Cards
Kvam – yellow
Stubbs – yellow
Peralta – yellow

Player Ratings

Read: **

Leier: **~
Stubbs: **~
Lerma: **
McDonald: **~
Kvam: **~

Mauffret: **
Tere: **
Smith: **
Peralta: *~

Gravesen: *~

Team Ratings

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Weak (4)
-Right Defense: Solid (7)
-Central Defense: Formidable (9)
-Left Defense: Formidable (9)
-Right Attack: Weak (4)
-Central Attack: Poor (3)
-Left Attack: Weak (4)
-NSI: 48

Reign
-Midfield: Wretched (2)
-Right Defense: Inadequate (5)
-Central Defense: Weak (4)
-Left Defense: Weak (4)
-Right Attack: Weak (4)
-Central Attack: Weak (4)
-Left Attack: Poor (3)
-NSI: 30

Comments

We are quite pleased with the results of this match, to say the least. For the first time in club history, we managed to tally five goals with a 5-4-1 formation. We saw all-around decent performances from our reserves, with a couple of exceptions, and this should serve as a nice confidence-booster for the kids on the b-team. This is exactly the sort of performance we were looking for, with FOFC Cup III starting in a couple of weeks.

As far as the competition goes between Keith Stubbs and Cameron McDonald, the jury is still out as far as I am concerned. Keith played himself a fine game, but his penchant for picking up yellow cards (two in the last four weeks) makes me a little leery of playing him in a competitive match. Hopefully Chuck Scales will keep himself healthy, and I will not have to make a decision between Keith and Cameron.

Up Next: Weekly training results Thursday evening. Hopefully a couple of our defensive trainees will take the next step. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 05-05-2003, 01:09 PM

Just a quick note for all the faithful Seamen-lovers out there (

). Updates are forthcoming. I was busy Friday and all weekend with a wedding (congratulations Aylmar) and all the festivities that go along with that (bachelor party

). On top of that, my broadband connection decided to die on me, and I haven't had a chance to get it fixed yet, so I couldn't even get on-line to adjust my lineup.

Anyway, expect to see a few updates soon (hopefully).

DataKing · 05-05-2003, 02:55 PM

Week 4 Training Results

This week, the two defensive trainees that we have been expecting to step up did so. Both Cameron McDonald and Mattias Leier improved in their defensive abilities.

Cameron McDonald

Jersey # 18

18 years old, weak (4) form, healthy.

A pleasant guy who is temperamental and honest.
Has disastrous (1) experience and wretched (2) leadership abilities.

Specialty: Head

Nationality: American
Assessed Value: $99,000
Wage: $1,000 per week

Stamina: Weak (4)
Playmaking: Weak (4)
Winger: Poor (3)
Scoring: Weak (4)
Goaltending: Disastrous (1)
Passing: Weak (4)
Defending: Excellent (8)
Set Pieces: Poor (3)

Cameron has a ton of talent, but his form has been considerably lacking since his promotion from the youth squad a month ago. If he shows some improvement soon, he will probably be considered the heir-apparent to Chuck Scales starting spot on the defensive line. But if not, I will have to consider letting him go. The revenue from the sale of a young defender of his caliber would help us considerably in other areas.

Mattias Leier

Jersey # 17

19 years old, passable (6) form, healthy.

A popular guy who is calm and honest.
Has disastrous (1) experience and weak (4) leadership abilities.

Nationality: Estonian
Assessed Value: $101,000
Wage: $1,104 per week

Stamina: Passable (6)
Playmaking: Poor (3)
Winger: Passable (6)
Scoring: Poor (3)
Goaltending: Disastrous (1)
Passing: Weak (4)
Defending: Solid (7)
Set Pieces: Weak (4)

Mattias is the most promising of our young wingbacks, and it’s nice to see him finally take the next step. However, it is unlikely that he will replace Tyler Willard as one of our starting wingbacks any time soon.

Form Changes

9 players increased in form this week (including 6 starters

).
11 players saw their form remain the same.
2 players dropped a level in form (including Johannes Henriksson)

Overall, we had the best week of training so far this season, and the team’s average form rose considerably, which is nice to see. The only down-side if team captain Johannes Henriksson, who continues to struggle.

In The Zone

Midfielder Niklas Ivarsson continues to play excellent soccer, and is joined by last season’s Team MVP winner, wingback Arlen Lucas. Aside from a small one week dip, Arlen has been in solid (7) or better form since the middle of January. Now that’s what I call good base-form.

Form Dog

We have three players who are really struggling at the moment, in weak (4) form. Two of them are on the b-team; the aforementioned Cameron McDonald and Romanian midfielder Lucian Tere. The third is a cause for real concern, as team captain Johannes Henriksson has dropped to weak form as well this week. The Swedish striker hasn’t played this poorly since September, and we’re hoping that he will snap out of his slump soon. Our offense needs all the help it can get.

Value

Average Player Value: $123,409 (+$3,727)
Total Player Value (22 players): $2,715,000

Assessed Value Milestones

$100,000+
-Wingback #17 Mattias Leier ($101,000)

$200,000+
-Defender #2 Chuck Scales ($207,000)
-Wingback #22 Tyler Willard ($206,000)

Up Next: The weekly financial update and this week’s youth squad product. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 05-05-2003, 03:12 PM

Week 4 Youth Pull

Our youth squad continues its on-again, off-again performance. This week’s youth squad is worth more as a medical test subject than as a soccer player. Frank Ruffie has been shipped off to The Fighting Crawfish. Do with him as you wish, The_Afoci.

Weekly Financial Update

Previous Balance: $328,912

Revenue

Crowd (league match vs. Sweden Heights) - $113,528
Crowd (friendly match vs. Reign) - $4,211
Sponsors - $64,350
Temporary (22 new supporters) - $660
Temporary (sale of youth pull Wesley Blount) - $99,360

Total Revenue: $282,109

Expenses

Arena Upkeep - $19,500
Player Wages - $29,948
Temporary (youth squad promotion of Wesley Blount) - $2,000
Temporary (transfer listing for Wesley Blount) - $1,000
Staff & Specialists - $40,500
Youth Squad Support - $20,000

Total Expenses: $112,948

Net Income/Loss: +$169,161

New Balance: $498,073

With a cool half-million now in the bank, expect to see a roster change or two happen in the near future.

Team Information

Team Spirit: Content (down one level)
Team Confidence: Strong (no change)

Sponsor Attitude: High on Life (no change)
Supporter Attitude: Delirious (up two levels)
Supporter Club: 1,374 (up 22 from last week)

Amazing what a win (and a shutout to boot) can do for the attitude of the supporters, huh?

Up Next: Our week five league matchup against SoccerWussies. Stay tuned!

sterlingice · 05-05-2003, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DataKing
With a cool half-million now in the bank, expect to see a roster change or two happen in the near future.[/b]

*cough*striker*cough*

SI

DataKing · 05-05-2003, 04:14 PM

Season 3 – League Match #5

SoccerWussies vs. Screamin’ Seamen

Date: May 4th, 2003
Venue: SoccerWussies Arena (Atlanta, GA)
Attendance: 17,000 (17,000)
Weather: Overcast

No pre-game commentary this week. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was unable to travel with the team this weekend.

Formation: 3-5-2

Starters

Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan

Right Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard
Central Defender: #2 Chuck Scales
Left Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas

Right Winger: #9 Valentin Rubio
Inner Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin
Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista
Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson
Left Winger: #3 Ben McMahon

Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias

Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson
Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson

Substitutes
-Keeper: #13 Darryl Read
-Defender: #17 Mattias Leier
-Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith
-Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen
-Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret

I was unable to make any alterations to our standard line-up this week (see the earlier post for an explanation), so we were forced to go with our default line-up this week.

Match Report

PRE-GAME

At SoccerWussies Arena, 17000 punters turned up, and despite threatening clouds at the horizon, no rain came.

SoccerWussies had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Tullbrant - Danielsson, Åhlstedt, Dehlbrant - Wilson, Göransson, Myung-Dae, Bower, Udd - Hansson, Casillas.

Screamin' had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Jernigan - Willard, Scales, Lucas - Rubio, Ivarsson, Bautista, Tomlin, Mcmahon - Henriksson, Tobias.

FIRST HALF

After a fine move down the middle Tony Göransson nearly gave the home side one up in the 9:th minute. The finishing shot went just wide, though.

Man, what a shot by Lin Myung-Dae! Firing from 35 yards he didn't give the enemy goalie a chance and it was 1 - 0.

In the 18:th minute of the match the visitors central line of defence had to look on as Jessie Casillas dashed through, knocking home 2 - 0 for SoccerWussies.

In the 24:th minute SoccerWussies´s David 'Follen' Hansson tried to nail the coffin shut, but the shot rebounded off the bar to fall behind the net.

The teams went for a half-time break at 2 - 0. SoccerWussies held the ball, with a clear 52 percent possession rate.

SECOND HALF

Screamin' showed some good morale and were, in the 68:th minute, able to reduce the score to 2 - 1 as Forrest Tobias got past the home sides full backs straight in front of the goal.

The referee showed SoccerWussiess Urban Danielsson the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge.

Björn R. Dehlbrant was clearly tired at the end of the game and Tyler Willard nicked the ball from him, but was unable to put it past the keeper.

Screamin' got a chance to level the score as Forrest Tobias suddenly found himself free with the goaltender but the finishing shot hit the bar.

Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 62 percent possession rate.

POST-GAME

SoccerWussies´s best player was Tony Göransson. Hans Udd was a disappointment, however.

The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Arlen Lucas. Johannes Henriksson on the other hand, had a terrible day.

Final Score: SoccerWussies 2, Screamin’ Seamen 1

Goals
Tobias – 1(2)

Cards
None

Player Ratings

Jernigan: ***

Willard: ***~
Scales: ****
Lucas: ****

Rubio: **~
Tomlin: **~
Bautista: **~
Ivarsson: ***~
McMahon: **~

Henriksson: **
Tobias: **~

Team Match MVP: #5 Arlen Lucas

Team Ratings

Screamin’ Seamen
-Midfield: Passable (6)
-Right Defense: World-Class (13)
-Central Defense: Brilliant (11)
-Left Defense: Brilliant (11)
-Right Attack: Passable (6)
-Central Attack: Passable (6)
-Left Attack: Inadequate (5)
-NSI: 70

SoccerWussies
-Midfield: Passable (6)
-Right Defense: Formidable (9)
-Central Defense: Formidable (9)
-Left Defense: Brilliant (11)
-Right Attack: Inadequate (5)
-Central Attack: Solid (7)
-Left Attack: Inadequate (5)
-NSI: 64

Comments

Coach Brown was left to his own devices this weekend, and needless to say I am not happy with the results. It looks as though the perpetual team spirit deficit we are operating on this season continues to haunt us, and I am certain that playing on the road did not help matters any. Despite great ratings, the defense allowed two early goals from which we were never able to recover.

“Gump” Tobias did make things more interesting with his second-half goal, but he was basically operating alone up front as team captain Johannes Henriksson continues to play the worst soccer we have seen from him in over two seasons. Still and all, both “Gump” and Tyler Willard had opportunities late to change the outcome of the match, but weren’t able to finish things off. Forrest’s shot hitting the bar late in the match was particularly painful, as we were mere inches away from earning at least one point on the road.

Not a good day, to say the least. I cannot wait for the second half of the season, when we are no longer chasing the Syracuse Supers (the one PICable team in the series) through the fixture order. That, more than anything else, is killing the first half of this season.

Series Scores and Standings

-Croats in Miami put up a magnificent (

) midfield, and defeated Ramblers 3-1.
-Big Reds had no trouble with Sweden Heights, handing them an embarrassing 5-1 defeat at home.
-Neon Genesis Evangelion earned their first points of the season with a 5-1 beat-down of Syracuse Supers.



No.	Team					Played	        Goals		Pts.	NSI

1.	Big Reds				5		12-2		13	75

2.	SoccerWussies			        5		11-6		12	64

3.	Croats in Miami			        5		13-5		10	80

4.	Sweden Heights			        5		12-10		9	62

5.	Ramblers				5		9-11		6	66

6.	Screamin’ Seamen*			5		5-8		5	70

7.	Neon Genesis Evangelion		        5		12-14		3	62

8.	Syracuse Supers			        5		1-19		0	45

I’m trying not to let our low standing bother me, because I don’t believe the series standings are a fair gauge of a team until half the season is played (once each team has played every other team once). I know that we’re better than our sixth place standing shows, and that should improve soon. Our next four matches are against the two teams below us; Neon Genesis Evangelion and the (apparently abandoned) Syracuse Supers. We should be able to rise into the top four by the end of the month.

Week 6 Matchups

Screamin Seamen vs. Neon Genesis Evangelion
Croats in Miami vs. Sweden Heights
Big Reds vs. SoccerWussies
Ramblers vs. Syracuse Supers

Other News: Some good news amidst the bad. As some of you may recall, we traded a great youth pull, Hyman Morey (solid playmaking and solid defending) last season for “Corny” Jernigan and Jerry Smith. Hyman was sold over the weekend for a cool million, which netted us a nice $50,000 in mother club money. Despite not having a home league match this week, we should still break even.

Up Next: We’re off to the Big Easy this week, for the last friendly match before the start of FOFC Cup III. Our hosts are Doug5984 and his Louisiana Cyclones. It should be a tough, defensive match. Stay tuned!

DataKing · 05-05-2003, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sterlingice
*cough*striker*cough*

SI

Give the man a cigar!

I already priced excellent strikers last week, and for half a million (or perhaps a touch more) I should be able to land a good one.

sterlingice · 05-05-2003, 04:22 PM

Well, with your defensive coach, you need a damn fine striker while Henrikksson is down. Do you have a set pieces guy and team leader who can step in if you sub for him?

*smokes cigar... then hacks out a lung* damn, i forgot i was allergic to smoke

SI

Alf · 05-05-2003, 04:27 PM

I'm contacting my travel agency in order to book tickets for my whole squad from Rennes to Chicago. I'm still wondering if I'll play a dull 5-4-1, the league standard 3-5-2 or the newly tried 4-5-1.

Alf Trickers - fellow FOFC III Cup team

04-11-2003, 03:14 PM	#12
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Team U.S.A. Makes History The United States National Team made history day, defeating the Swedish National Team for the first time ever. The final tally was U.S.A. 3, Sweden 1. Match # 6875160 Congratulations to Slashers (even though I don't think he reads this). It's a great day for the U.S. of A. __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-13-2003, 01:52 PM	#16
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Youth Pull The youth squad performed for us pretty well again this week. Although Sam won’t be staying with the club (I’m not training playmaking), he should give us a nice financial boost and make a good midfield trainee for someone. Sam Young Listed As: Inner Midfielder Asking Price: $30,000 Deadline: 4/16/03 @ 20:33 HT-Time 17 years old, passable form, healthy. A pleasant guy who is balanced and righteous. Has disastrous experience and passable leadership abilities. Specialty: Technical Nationality: U.S.A. Assessed Value: $31,000 Wage: $640 per week Stamina: Wretched Playmaking: Passable Winger: Poor Scoring: Poor Goaltending: Disastrous Passing: Weak Defending: Inadequate Set Pieces: Poor Weekly Financial Update Previous Balance: $78,828 Revenue Crowd (U.S. Open Cup match vs. Arizona Wolves) - $10,445 Sponsors - $56,100 Temporary (19 new supporters) - $570 Temporary (sale of Otis Johnson) - $8,100 Temporary (sale of William Brown) - $121,500 Total Revenue: $196,715 Expenses Arena Upkeep - $11,271 Player Wages - $31,508 Temporary (youth squad promotion) - $2,000 Temporary (fired specialist) - $1,500 Staff and Specialists - $40,500 Youth Squad Support - $20,000 Total Expenses: $106,779 Net Income/Loss: $89,936 New Balance: $168,764 Of particularly good news is that the renovations and expansions of The Docks has been completed. 30,000 brand-spanking-new seats (and a special surprise) are ready and waiting for our home opener against the Big Reds. Team Information Team Spirit: Content (up 1 level) Team Confidence: Strong (down 1 level) Sponsor Attitude: Delirious (up 1 level) Supporter Attitude: Delirious (up 1 level) Supporter Club: 1,347 (up 19 from last week) Our U.S. Open Cup win on Wednesday repaired some of the damage to the team’s confidence, but not all of it. Up Next: The Screamin’ Seamen home opener at the “New and Improved” Docks. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-16-2003, 08:29 PM	#23
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Season 3 – U.S. Open Cup – Round 3 Brooklyn Ex-Pats vs. Screamin’ Seamen Date: April 16th, 2003 Venue: Brooklyn Ex-Pats Arena (Brooklyn, WI) Attendance: 6,319 (15,000) Weather: Rain For the 3rd round of this year’s U.S. Open Cup, we’ve drawn the Brooklyn Ex-Pats as our competition, from the sprawling metropolis of Brooklyn, Wisconsin (population 916). The two-hour bus trip has resulted in a bit of a culture shock for some of our players, as we have gone from a land of skyscrapers and six-lane highways to a place where cows outnumber cars. Indeed, one rather stubborn heffer delayed our arrival by more than ten minutes by refusing to budge from in front of the bus. The Ex-Pats are currently leading series V.168, despite having only been formed just last month. Still, we don’t foresee having any major problems with this club, and our B-team should not have too much trouble advancing us to the 4th round of the Cup, assuming that our convoluted tactics work out how we expect them to. Formation: 5-4-1 Starters Keeper: #13 Darryl Read Right Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier (defensive) Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs Central Defender: #18 Cameron McDonald Central Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma (offensive) Left Wingback: #24 Christian Kvam Inner Midfielder: #25 Paul Peralta (towards wing) Inner Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere (offensive) Left Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret (offensive) Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen Team Captain: #14 Jesper Gravesen Set Pieces: #14 Jesper Gravesen Substitutes -Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan -Defender: #22 Tyler Willard -Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista -Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias -Winger: #3 Ben McMahon We’ve gone back to a 5-4-1 formation, looking to gain one week of full training for our defenders before we will have to run a 3-5-2 in order to advance in the cup. But we’re trying something a little different this time around with the 5-4-1. We’ll be playing with three midfielders (one towards the wing) and only one winger in the central of the field. The hope is that the extra possession afforded us by the third midfielder should keep the opposition from exploiting the while on our right side. If anything should get through the whole, we have our best wingback trainee, Mattias Leier, there to control things until help can arrive. It started raining about an hour ago, and has shown no signs of letting up, which will hurt the play of some of our more technically-oriented players (Gravesen and Smith in particular). Lucian Tere, on the other hand, is loving every minute of it. The big Romanian plays his best when he’s able to just bowl over smaller opposition, and usually performs admirably on a wet pitch. We’ll keep an eye on him today and try to feed him the ball if he’s got a size-friendly matchup. Match Report PRE-GAME 6319 spectators had found their way to Brooklyn Ex-Pats Arena, despite the heavy rain. Brooklyn tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Beltrán - Gabriel, Fleming, Harder - Gerber, Francoeur, Tillman, Rabella, Shepherd - Florence, Saldana. Screamin' had chosen a strategic 5-4-1 formation. The following players had been chosen: Read - Leier, Lerma, Stubbs, Mcdonald, Kvam - Tere, Peralta, Smith, Mauffret - Gravesen. FIRST HALF John Harder gave his Brooklyn the lead with 1 - 0, as he successfully challenged both the guests central defenders, then placed the ball unreachably at the goaltenders right post. There wasn´t much opportunity for rapid movements this wet day, which hindered Dom Shepherd in particular. Screamin' seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion about the organization of the team. Lucian Tere came close to levelling the score in the 28:th minute, as he was set up with a through ball coming in from the left, but his shot hit the post. Halftime score was 1 - 0. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Brooklyn, with an impressive 57 percent possession of the ball. SECOND HALF During the break Screamin'´s coach went through the teams new tactics yet again. Screamin' had obvious problems in finding their positions. Brooklyn put themselves up 2 - 0 when Miguel Florence broke through on the right, leaving the entire defensive box behind him. The structure of the game started to change as Brooklyn decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. The referee showed Brooklyns Jay Fleming the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Due to a severely mistimed tackle,Olav Mauffret spent some on the grass writhing in agony before he could get up and continue the game. Screamin' had a fair chance to reply after 81 minutes, due to some fine moves down the left, but in the end no one was there to put their head to the ball as it was lifted into the box. Hayden Saldana should probably have put his team up another goal in the 87:th minute, but some great goaltending by Darryl Read kept the visitors in the game. This part of the game had been a standoff between the teams. POST-GAME The most dominating Brooklyn player was without a doubt Hayden Saldana. David Gerber on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important Screamin' player was Keith Stubbs. Zarpas Lerma on the other hand, had a terrible day. Final Score: Brooklyn Ex-Pats 2, Screamin’ Seamen 0 Goals None Cards None Player Ratings Read: Leier: ~ Stubbs: ~ McDonald: ~ Lerma: ~ Kvam: * Peralta: ~ Smith: ~ Tere: * Mauffret: ** Gravesen: ~ Team Ratings* Screamin’ Seamen -Midfield: Poor (3) -Right Defense: Outstanding (10) -Central Defense: Formidable (9) -Left Defense: Passable (6) -Right Attack: Wretched (2) -Central Attack: Poor (3) -Left Attack: Weak (4) -NSI: 43 Brooklyn Ex-Pats -Midfield: Poor (3) -Right Defense: Weak (4) -Central Defense: Inadequate (5) -Left Defense: Passable (6) -Right Attack: Inadequate (5) -Central Attack: Inadequate (5) -Left Attack: Inadequate (5) -NSI: 39 Comments The woes that seem to surround the Screamin’ Seamen continue to plague us, as we lost a match that we should have won, and have been bounced from the U.S. Open Cup much earlier than anticipated. A large share of the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of Jesper Gravesen, who as team captain (weak experience, inadequate leadership) should not have allowed the play of the team to disintegrate the way it did (our experience with 5-4-1 was at passable). I suspect that coach Brown will also be receiving quite a bit of heat this week, as his “5-4-1 alternative” formation backfired in a major way. We shall see if anything comes of that. Other than that, I have very little to say at this time about the whole fiasco. When you’re as ticked off as I am, you’re probably best just keeping your mouth shut. Other News Youth pull Sam Young is heading south of the equator, as he sold earlier today for a nice tidy sum of $102,000. The purchasing club was C.A. Daedra (B. Bca.), a 4th Division side from Argentina. $93,840 of the money found its way into the club's coffers. We would also like to welcome a new member to the growing group of Screamin’ Seamen supporters: Plowboys (Owner: Gathis, Currently 8th place in Series V.202) The Plowboys are from Kansas…Woohoo and Welcome! Up Next: The one good piece of news out of all of this is that all of our defensive trainees receive training this week. Training update to be posted on Thursday evening. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty) Last edited by DataKing : 04-16-2003 at 08:29 PM.

04-21-2003, 03:08 PM	#26
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	This week’s youth pull wasn’t with the team long enough for me to remember his name. Weekly Financial Update Previous Balance: $168,768 Revenue Crowd (league match vs. Big Reds) - $150,026 Crowd (U.S. Open Cup match vs. Brooklyn Ex-Pats) - $9,583 Sponsors - $60,750 Temporary (sale of youth squad promotee Sam Young) - $93,840 Total Revenue: $314,199 Expenses Arena Upkeep - $19,500 Player Wages - $29,948 Temporary (youth squad promotion) - $2,000 Temporary (transfer listing for Sam Young) - $1,000 Staff & Specialists - $40,500 Youth Squad Support - $20,000 Total Expenses: $112,948 Net Income/Loss: $201,151 New Balance: $370,015 Despite our disappointments on the pitch, this was a very profitable week for us, with the promotion and sale of Sam Young acting as a nice little bonus. The expansion to The Docks certainly seems to be paying for itself quickly, as we brought in just over $150,000 from Sunday’s league match. We’re in a good spot financially. Now it’s just a matter of turning that into better on-the-field performances. Team Information Team Spirit: Satisfied (up 1 level) Team Confidence: Strong (no change) Sponsor Attitude: High on Life (up 1 level) Supporter Attitude: Content (down 2 levels) Supporter Club: 1,346 (down 1 from last week) For the first time in club history, we actually had a supporter leave the organization. Apparently the supporters were none too pleased with us getting shut out at home, even though the game did end in a draw. And I’m sure that getting knocked out of the U.S. Open Cup by a Division V side didn’t help matters any, either. Up Next: We look to exact a little revenge upon the Croats in Miami on Sunday. For those of you who may not remember, this is the club that cost us the series title last season and handed us our first ever league loss. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-21-2003, 03:57 PM	#27
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Season 3 – League Match #3 Croats in Miami vs. Screamin’ Seamen Date: April 20th, 2003 Venue: Croats in Miami Arena (Miami, FL) Attendance: 29,117 (33,000) Weather: Partly Cloudy It’s payback time! This week we travel back down to Miami, to take on the Croats in Miami, the club that handed us our first ever league match loss, and cost us the series title last season. This has rapidly evolved into quite a little rivalry, and we’re looking forward to another good, hard-played match this time around. The Croats come into today’s match in first place in the standings, and have yet to give up a goal through the first two weeks of play. But this can be quite deceiving, since they have only played two of the weakest teams in the division thus far; Neon Genesis Evangelion and Syracuse Supers. Truth be told, their defense isn’t all that good, and has been made even more suspect with the injury to starting keeper Don Smith last week. Thus far, the all-time series is tied at one win a piece. Previous Meetings 12/16/2002 – Screamin Seamen’ 5, Croats in Miami 1 3/17/2003 – Croats in Miami 1, Screamin’ Seamen 0 Formation: 3-5-2 Starters Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan Right Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas Central Defender: #2 Chuck Scales Left Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard Right Winger: #3 Ben McMahon Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson Inner Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith Inner Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin Left Winger: #9 Valentin Rubio Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson Substitutes -Keeper: #13 Darryl Read -Defender: #17 Mattias Leier -Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista -Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen -Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret The one change to our starting lineup this week is youngster Jerry Smith starting in place of Charlie Bautista in the midfield. Charlie has not been performing well at all as of late, and his slip has opened up a spot in the lineup for Jerry, at least on a temporary basis. Jerry has a bright future with the club, and has been playing excellent soccer as of late, so we want to get him into the starting lineup whenever possible. With the Croats’ starting keeper out injured, we’ve decided to test the backup, Chris Keys. To do this, we’re playing with a much more aggressive formation than is typical for us, with McMahon, Ivarsson, Tomlin, and Rubio all being given the green-light to jump up on the attack when the situation warrants. Even wingbacks Arlen Lucas and Tyler Willard will play a little bit forward from their usual positions in the back, looking to feed the long ball to the wingers when given the opportunity. Match Report PRE-GAME Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and Croats in Miami Arena saw a crowd turnout of 29117. Croats tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Keys - Schofield, Göransson, Howe - Parish, Allen, Blackwell, Schwab, Rönnerberg - Patrick, Broderick. Screamin' tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Jernigan - Lucas, Scales, Willard - Mcmahon, Ivarsson, Tomlin, Smith, Rubio - Henriksson, Tobias. FIRST HALF At the beginning of the game, Croats appeared to already have taken this victory to the bank. Croats were very close to putting themselves one up in the 11th minute as Lester Schofield got through, but failing in concentration, he shot the ball wide. Rolf Schwab received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 13th minute and almost caused an opponent to score. After 18 minutes Screamin' put themselves up by 0 - 1 as Johannes Henriksson finished off a strike from the left with a real cannon placed at the far post. After a fatal mistake from the away teams right side defense in the 31st minute, an alert Tony Allen bagged the ball, evening the score to 1 - 1. Croats made a bid to take the lead as a ball coming in from the right hand side left Ryan Broderick completely alone with keeper Cornelius Jernigan, who made a spectacular block. Screamin's Arlen Lucas got himself booked after a foul. The teams went for a half-time break at 1 - 1. Croats held the ball, with a clear 58 percent possession rate. SECOND HALF Some quick foot work on the left side of the field in the 52nd minute left Screamin'´s Forrest Tobias completely free to score. 1 - 2 for the visitors. Due to some great work on the right wing Croats:s Ryan Broderick was able to even the score in the 53rd minute to 2 - 2. Croats had a good opportunity to take the lead as Michael Patrick came up the left side, but he struck the ball weakly and it went straight into the arms of Cornelius Jernigan. Rolf Schwab of Croats received a yellow card in the 87:th minute for unsportsmanlike behaviour. Croats held the ball, with a clear 59 percent possession rate. POST-GAME The most dominating Croats player was without a doubt Tony Allen. Chris Keys on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important Screamin' player was Chuck Scales. Ben Mcmahon on the other hand, had a terrible day. Final Score: Croats in Miami 2, Screamin’ Seamen 2 Goals Henriksson – 1 (1) Tobias – 1 (1) Cards Lucas – yellow (1) Player Ratings Jernigan: * Lucas: ~ Scales: ~ Willard: * McMahon: Ivarsson: ~ Smith: ~ Tomlin: ~ Rubio: Henriksson: Tobias: ** Team Match MVP: #2 Chuck Scales Team Ratings Screamin’ Seamen -Midfield: Passable (6) -Right Defense: Excellent (8) -Central Defense: Formidable (9) -Left Defense: Brilliant (11) -Right Attack: Passable (6) -Central Attack: Passable (6) -Left Attack: Solid (7) -NSI: 65 Croats in Miami -Midfield: Excellent (8) -Right Defense: Passable (6) -Central Defense: Passable (6) -Left Defense: Inadequate (5) -Right Attack: Solid (7) -Central Attack: Formidable (9) -Left Attack: Inadequate (5) -NSI: 62 Comments With the offensive troubles that we have had thus far this season, it is nice to finally see some offensive production from the strikers. We only had two really good scoring opportunities in the match, and both Johannes Henriksson and Forrest “Gump” Tobias did not waste them, as each tallied their first league goals of the season. Unfortunately, the Croats were able to respond to both of our goals, and we had to settle for a 2-2 draw. Despite the fact that we have yet to earn a league win this season, I am not all that upset about the result. The competition level in the series is such that, in most cases, a draw on the road is as good as a win. I have also discovered what I think to be a big part of the reason that we have experienced trouble this season. Because of the way that the schedules are arranged, each team that we play against in the first half of the season is coming off of a game against the Syracuse Supers, the one safely PIC-able team in the league. This means that, assuming that the other managers in the league are intelligent (which they appear to be, for the most part), we’re playing with a team spirit deficit each and every time out for the first six weeks of the season. The good news to come out of this little epiphany is that, in weeks six through nine, we will get to play our matches against what appear to be the two weakest teams in the league; Neon Genesis Evangelion and Syracuse Supers. This four week stretch should give us a lot of momentum to make a run at the end of the season. Needless to say, I am not as concerned with our sixth place standing as I was before I figured all of this out. Series Scores and Standings -Sweden Heights had an easy time at home against Syracuse Supers, winning 5-nil. -SoccerWussies survived two second-half goals by Neon Genesis Evangelion, winning 3-2. -Big Reds won a tough defensive battle against Ramblers, 1-nil. No. Team Played Goals Pts. NSI 1. Sweden Heights 3 11-3 9 60 2. Croats in Miami 3 9-2 7 62 3. Big Reds 3 5-0 7 76 4. SoccerWussies 3 8-5 6 68 5. Ramblers 3 4-5 3 64 6. Screamin’ Seamen* 3 2-6 2 65 7. Neon Genesis Evangelion 3 4-9 0 60 8. Syracuse Supers 3 0-13 0 40 Our draw with Croats in Miami knocked them out of contention for 1st place, leaving that honor for Sweden Heights (whom we play host to next week). Also of note are Ramblers, who have yet to score a goal since their 4-nil MOTS victory over us in week one. This just goes to show how damaging an ill-advised early-season MOTS can be to a team’s season. Week 4 Matchups Ramblers vs. Neon Genesis Evangelion Screamin’ Seamen vs. Sweden Heights Syracuse Supers vs. SoccerWussies Big Reds vs. Croats in Miami Ramblers should be able to recover next week against NGE, and SoccerWussies should increase their position with an easy win over Syracuse Supers. The matches to watch next week are ours against league-leading Sweden Heights, and Big Reds hosting Croats (the winner of which could claim first place with a Seamen victory over Heights). Up Next: We’ve arranged for a friendly match this Wednesday against Rexall’s Else United, to take place at The Docks. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty) Last edited by DataKing : 04-21-2003 at 04:02 PM.

04-03-2003, 10:13 PM	#2
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Screamin’ Seamen Roster Here is our starting roster for this 3rd season of SSFC soccer. I have included the numerical equivalents for all skill ratings, for any non-Hattrickers that may be reading. Starters Typical Formation: 3-5-2 Keeper #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan -Age: 24 -Current Form: Passable (6) -Assessed Value: $472,000 -Wage: $3,460 per week -Goaltending: Solid (7) “Corny” Jernigan came to the club in a trade last season, and he rapidly replaced Darryl Read as our starting keeper. He performed quite well for us last season, and look forward to another season of solid performances from him. Normally I allow players to keep their jersey numbers, but I also believe that the starting keeper should wear the #1 jersey. Darryl Read gave up the #1 with a minimum of fuss. Central Defender #2 Chuck Scales -Age: 24 -Current Form: Passable (6) -Assessed Value: $162,000 -Wage: $1,490 per week -Defending: Excellent (8) Chuck was one of our original team members, and has been our starting sweeper since day one. He is the quarterback of the defense, and helps to keep our two youngsters on the wings in line. Wingbacks #5 Arlen Lucas -Age: 21 -Current Form: Excellent (8) -Assessed Value: $221,000 -Wage: $1,580 per week -Winger: Passable (6) -Defending: Excellent (8) Arlen is perhaps the best young talent on the team, and was the winner of last season’s Best Defender and Team MVP awards. He excels at defending against headers on corner kicks, and has tallied a few header goals of his own along the way (7 of them in 29 appearances). #22 Tyler Willard -Age: 20 -Current Form: Inadequate (5) -Assessed Value: $149,000 -Wage: $1,320 per week -Winger: Passable (6) -Defending: Excellent (8) Tyler is the weakest of our three starting defenders, but not by much. He was promoted from the youth squad at the end of January, and became an instant starter. He is, however, a bit unpredictable, and has been known to give both myself and coach Ken Brown fits from time to time. Inner Midfielders #8 Niklas Ivarsson -Age: 26 -Current Form: Excellent (8) -Assessed Value: $161,000 -Wage: $1,776 per week -Playmaking: Solid (7) -Passing: Inadequate (5) The Swedish striker was one of our off-season signings, brought in to help us compete with the ever-improving midfields in the division, as well as to add some extra oomph to our attack. Although he has only played in one friendly match thus far, we like what we’ve seen from Niklas. #6 Charlie Bautista -Age: 26 -Current Form: Inadequate (5) -Assessed Value: $112,000 -Wage: $1,320 per week -Playmaking: Solid (7) -Passing: Inadequate (5) Charlie is another player who has been with us since day one, and has always been a starter for the Seamen. He is a solid possession midfielder, and is known to jump up onto the attack from time to time as well. He has had good offensive production for a midfielder, scoring 9 goals in 31 appearances. #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin -Age: 33 -Current Form: Solid (7) -Assessed Value: $42,000 -Wage: $1,010 per week -Playmaking: Passable (6) -Passing: Passable (6) -Defending: Passable (6) “The Old Goat” has been a starter for us since the beginning. Although he is getting a bit long in the tooth, his experience has been invaluable so far, as well as his ability to play either “up” or “down” (offensive or defensive). Pete has a nasty streak about him, though, and was once ejected for head-butting an opposing player. Still, he is one of the most popular guys in the locker room, and will likely find a position in the front office or training staff when he decides to retire. Wingers #3 Ben McMahon -Age: 28 -Current Form: Weak (4) -Assessed Value: $148,000 -Wage: $1,990 per week -Winger: Solid (7) -Defending: Solid (7) Once a wingback for the club, Ben made the transition to winger after the promotion of Tyler Willard from the youth squad. While he is able to hold his own on the wing, his real specialty is as a defensive winger. He is often matched up against the opposition’s most dangerous wingers, and generally does a good job of shutting them down. #9 Valentin Rubio -Age: 29 -Current Form: Solid (7) -Assessed Value: $95,000 -Wage: $1,512 per week -Winger: Passable (6) -Passing: Passable (6) The Argentinean winger was our other off-season signing, and has yet to play a match for the club, so we aren’t sure of what to expect just yet. From what we have seen of him on tape and the practice field, though, Valentin excels at moving the ball up the side of the field and sending in good cross-passes, and should provide a good offensive counter-balance to Ben McMahon’s defensive wing-play. Valentin is also tall (6’2”) with a good vertical and body control, and is always a threat for a header off of corner kicks. Forwards #11 Johannes Henriksson -Age: 26 -Current Form: Excellent (8) -Assessed Value: $93,000 -Wage: $1,272 per week -Scoring: Passable (6) -Set Pieces: Solid (7) The Swedish striker is our team captain, and is an invaluable member of the club. He leads both on and off the field by example as well as by words, and even the older members of the team respect him. He has maintained a goal-a-game average throughout his career (currently 59 goals in 56 appearances), and is the team’s designated set pieces ace as well. #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias -Age: 21 -Current Form: Inadequate (5) -Assessed Value: $47,000 -Wage: $780 per week -Scoring: Solid (7) “Gump” is another product of the team’s youth squad, from the tail end of our first season, and became an immediate starter. He has maintained a goal-a-game average so far in his young career (18 goals in as many appearances), and has proven to be a very clutch player from time to time. This was particularly evident when he scored two goals in the last five minutes of a match last season to give us a narrow 4-3 victory. The B-Team Typical Formation: 5-4-1 Keeper #13 Darryl Read -Age: 27 -Current Form: Inadequate (5) -Assessed Value: $186,000 -Wage: $1,940 per week -Goaltending: Passable (6) Darryl is another of our original team members, and was our starting keeper until the trade which garnered us “Corny” Jernigan. He has typically put up solid performances and good numbers, allowing only 20 goals in 23 appearances, and tallying 12 clean sheets. Impressive numbers indeed. Central Defenders #18 Cameron McDonald -Age: 18 -Current Form: Passable (6) -Assessed Value: $100,000 -Wage: $1,000 per week -Defending: Solid (7) Cameron was an off-season promotion from our youth squad, and looks to have all the makings of a star sweeper someday. He is also tall, and should learn a thing or two from Arlen Lucas on how to use his height to his advantage on defense. Cameron has yet to see the pitch, though, so we still aren’t exactly sure in what we have here. But all signs point to something positive, that much is for sure. #20 Keith Stubbs -Age: 19 -Current Form: Passable (6) -Assessed Value: $45,000 -Wage: $720 per week -Defending: Solid (7) Keith Stubbs was also a promotee from our youth squad last season, which seems to have a knack for producing good defensive talent. Although he started off a little weak, Keith improved by leaps and bounds in his defensive skills last season, and even earned the team’s Most Improved Player award. However, the recent arrival of Cameron McDonald means that Keith has become somewhat expendable. #21 Zarpas Lerma -Age: 19 -Current Form: Inadequate (5) -Assessed Value: $44,000 -Wage: $888 per week -Defending: Passable (6) This young Spaniard is another of our tall defensive trainees, but has yet to prove to be anything special. Still, he is quite young and the training staff assures me that he still has the capability to become a decent defender someday. Wingbacks #17 Mattias Leier -Age: 19 -Current Form: Solid (7) -Assessed Value: $88,000 -Wage: $1,104 per week -Winger: Passable (6) -Defending: Passable (6) The young Estonian is one of our most promising defensive trainees, and is one of coach Brown’s favorites. He has shown himself to be of steady form, and has even managed a couple of scoring chances from the back line in his six friendly match appearances thus far. #24 Christian Kvam -Age: 19 -Current Form: Inadequate (5) -Assessed Value: $46,000 -Wage: $924 per week -Winger: Passable (6) -Defending: Passable (6) Yet another tall (Specialty: Head) defensive trainee on the club, we have yet to be terribly impressed with the Norwegian. His form has been quite erratic since he joined the club back in January, but we’re hoping that he will level out sometime soon. Inner Midfielders #7 Lucian Tere -Age: 27 -Current Form: Solid (7) -Assessed Value: $59,000 -Wage: $1,080 per week -Playmaking: Inadequate (5) -Passing: Inadequate (5) -Defending: Inadequate (5) A semi-regular starter for the club until this past off-season, the Romanian makes up in size what he lacks in skill. He is a big, strong body in the middle of the pitch (Specialty: Powerful), and has been a solid contributor throughout the past two seasons. Lucian should continue to be a regular substitute for us, particularly in wet-weather matches. #19 Jerry Smith -Age: 20 -Current Form: Excellent (8) -Assessed Value: $82,000 -Wage: $870 per week -Playmaking: Solid (7) We received Jerry in the same trade that brought “Corny” Jernigan to the club early last season. While he has the skills to be a starter for us in the midfield, he lacks the necessary fitness level, and did not respond very well to our off-season training regimen. Still, especially with Father Time beginning to catch up with “The Old Goat,” Jerry may very well see some playing time with the starting squad again this season. Wingers #25 Paul Peralta -Age: 28 -Current Form: Solid (7) -Assessed Value: $133,000 -Wage: $1,540 per week -Playmaking: Inadequate (5) -Winger: Weak (4) -Scoring: Inadequate (5) -Defending: Passable (6) Paul is perhaps the single most valuable member of our B-team. While he normally plays on the wing, he is actually a “super-sub,” capable of playing just about any position in the outfield with some degree of skill. He is often called upon to cover for an injury or suspension on the starting squad. #10 Olav Mauffret -Age: 22 -Current Form: Inadequate (5) -Assessed Value: $47,000 -Wage: $948 per week -Playmaking: Inadequate (5) -Winger: Inadequate (5) Olav has been a regular starter for us on the wing for the past two seasons, but has been bumped down to the B-team with the addition of Valentin Rubio in the off-season. While he lacks any special amount of skill, he may still be called upon to play with the starters if there is an injury. Forward #14 Jesper Gravesen -Age: 28 -Current Form: Passable (6) -Assessed Value: $32,000 -Wage: $924 per week -Scoring: Passable (6) -Set Pieces: Solid (7) Jesper gives us a third option at forward, and is an experienced striker and set pieces ace. He typically acts as captain for the B-team, and is capable of stepping in for either Johannes Henriksson or “Gump” Tobias should anything unfortunate happen to one of them. Note: I did not list William Brown or Otis Johnson, as they will both be placed on the transfer market soon. Up Next: Results from Round One of the U.S.A. Cup. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-03-2003, 10:56 PM	#3
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Season 3 – U.S.A. Cup – Round 1 Connecticut Samurai vs. Screamin’ Seamen Date: April 2nd, 2003 Venue: Connecticut Arena (Hartford, CT) Attendance: 4,911 (7,000) Weather: Overcast We start off the new season full of hope and promise today. Our first test should be an easy one, as we face a team from the U.S.A.’s recently-added Division VI. This match won’t be much of a test of us, but will be a nice way to get our players into match-fitness, as well as a way to earn an easy ‘W.’ Formation: 3-5-2 Starters Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan Right Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard Central Defender: #2 Chuck Scales Left Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas Right Winger: #9 Valentin Rubio Inner Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson Left Winger: #3 Ben McMahon Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson Substitutes -Keeper: #13 Darryl Read -Defender: #17 Mattias Leier -Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere -Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen -Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret We’re playing our starting line-up today. It’s hardly fair, and should not prove to be much of a contest, but will give our starters a chance to get into match-fitness before we take on Ramblers in the season-opener on Sunday. We will be keeping a specially close eye on both Niklas Ivarsson and Valentin Rubio, as both are making their competitive-match debuts for us today. We will find out soon whether or not the combined $227,000 we spent to get them will be worth it or not. Match Report PRE-GAME 4911 spectators had come to Connecticut Arena this cloudy day. Connecticut had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. Lineup: Stone - Simmons, Koehler, Wise, Vega - Tipton, Quick, Huntley, Wing-Koo - Erwin, Manning. Screamin' started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Lineup: Jernigan - Willard, Scales, Lucas - Rubio, Ivarsson, Bautista, Tomlin, Mcmahon - Henriksson, Tobias. FIRST HALF As Arlen Lucas had, completely unprovoked, swept the legs out from under an opponent in front of a linesman, the referee gave the Screamin' player a red card without batting an eye. Screamin' took the lead after 18 minutes with 0 - 1. Johannes Henriksson placed the ball out of reach for the home sides keeper after a fine move, coming in from the left. The visitors Forrest Tobias took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side´s goalie and full backs in the 27:th minute. 0 - 2 for Screamin'. In the 34:th minute the visitors put themselves ahead 0 - 3 as Ben Mcmahon finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick. The teams went for a half-time break at 0 - 3. Screamin', bringing the final ball possession rate to 90 percent, dominated the battle. SECOND HALF In the 59:th minute the visitors put themselves ahead 0 - 4 as Johannes Henriksson finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick. After 61 minutes a combination in the middle resulted in a through ball for Johannes Henriksson who increased Screamin'´s lead to 0 - 5. By then Johannes Henriksson was a three time scorer - a hat trick! The structure of the game started to change as Screamin' decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. Connecticuts August Vega got himself booked after a foul. Due to a severely mistimed tackle,Chuck Scales spent some on the grass writhing in agony before he could get up and continue the game. After 79 minutes of game time Johannes Henriksson received an excellent opportunity to add to the visitors lead, clipping a volley hooked in from the right, but Kenneth Stone was in the right place, tipping the ball to a corner. Charlie Bautista received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 80:th minute and almost caused an opponent to score. Screamin' came close to extending their lead as Forrest Tobias delivered a long range shot from the right but the angle was to sharp, and the shot hit the side of the goal. Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 98 percent possession rate. POST-GAME The most dominating Connecticut player was without a doubt Howard Manning. Odell Quick was a disappointment, however. Screamin'´s best player was Niklas Ivarsson. Ben Mcmahon was a disappointment, however. The match ends 0 - 5. Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 5, Connecticut Samurai 0 Goals Henriksson – 3 (1,2,3) Tobias – 1 (1) McMahon – 1 (1) Cards Lucas (red) Player Ratings Jernigan: * Willard: ~ Scales: * Lucas: ??? (ejected) Rubio: * Tomlin: ~ Bautista: ~ Ivarsson: *~ McMahon: Henriksson: ~ Tobias: Team Ratings Screamin’ Seamen -Midfield: Weak (4) -Right Defense: Formidable (9) -Central Defense: Solid (7) -Left Defense: Inadequate (5) -Right Attack: Solid (7) -Central Attack: Passable (6) -Left Attack: Inadequate (5) -DKI/NSI: 47/51 Connecticut Samurai -Midfield: Disastrous (1) -Right Defense: Inadequate (5) -Central Defense: Inadequate (5) -Left Defense: Weak (4) -Right Attack: Poor (3) -Central Attack: Poor (3) -Left Attack: Poor (3) -DKI/NSI: 25/26 Comments This was hardly a top-notch performance from our starters, and missing Arlen Lucas for almost the entire match hurt our ratings considerably, but it still proved to be an easy win. First, the positives: Team captain Johannes Henriksson earned his third career hattrick. “Gump” Tobias found the twine, and even Ben McMahon (commonly referred to by the team as “the man who never scores") got in on the fun, tallying his second career goal. Valentin Rubio and especially Niklas Ivarsson performed well in their debuts, and our money appears to have been well-spent. We were also quite relieved to find that Chuck Scales’ injury was little more than a stinger, and he should be good-to-go on Sunday. Now for the bad news. We got exactly what we did not need from Arlen Lucas; a red card. Arlen is our single best defender, and now he is ineligible for Sunday’s match against defending series champion Ramblers. This is his third suspension in as many seasons. He needs to learn how to keep his composure. Other News Two more teams have joined the army of Screamin’ Seamen faithful. We would like to welcome the following teams to the SSFC Supporter Club: Else United (Owner: rexallsc, Seeded #1 in series V.251) Fort Wayne Wanderers (Owner: DennisMoore, Seeded #3 in series V.236) Welcome, fellow Hattrickers, and thank you very much for your support. Up Next: The current state of the team this weekend. After that, we visit the Ramblers on Sunday, in what is sure to be a bit of a grudge-match. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty) Last edited by DataKing : 04-03-2003 at 10:58 PM.

04-04-2003, 02:56 PM	#4
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Our roster is over-full, so two players have been placed on the transfer wire. William Brown Listed As: Wing Back Asking Price: $90,000 Deadline: 4/7/2003 @ 22:45 HT-time 21 years old, inadequate form, healthy A pleasant guy who is fiery and dishonest. Has disastrous experience and weak leadership abilities. Specialty: Quick Nationality: American Assessed Value: $68,000 Wage: $910 per week Stamina: Passable Playmaking: Poor Winger: Inadequate Scoring: Poor Goaltending: Disastrous Passing: Poor Defending: Solid Set Pieces: Poor William seems to have pretty good base form, and has put up 2.5 stars as either a wingback or central defender in his last six matches. Otis Johnson Listed As: Inner Midfielder Asking Price: $1,000 Deadline: 4/7/2003 @ 22:46 HT-time 20 years old, solid form, healthy A pleasant guy who is tranquil and honest. Has disastrous experience and solid leadership abilities. Nationality: American Assessed Value: $30,000 Wage: $650 per week Stamina: Solid Playmaking: Inadequate Winger: Weak Scoring: Wretched Goaltending: Disastrous Passing: Inadequate Defending: Poor Set Pieces: Poor Otis has good base form, and has been at passable or better form since October of 2002. He can also function as a pseudo-clown (solid leadership, pleasant personality). __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-04-2003, 03:43 PM	#5
GoldenEagle Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Little Rock, AR	DataKng, I have enjoyed your dynasty reports very much. If you dont mind, I would like to ask you a quick question. How can you tell what kind of talent your opponents in your league have? __________________ Xbox 360 Gamer Tag: GoldenEagle014

04-06-2003, 10:09 PM	#7
daedalus Pro Rookie Join Date: Oct 2000	Wow @ world class.

04-06-2003, 11:49 PM	#8
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	State of the Team Note: Rather than compare these numbers and statistics to the week prior, as I have done in the past, I will simply list them here. I am doing this to establish a ‘base-line’ for the remainder of the season. Also, in my imagination at least, the off-season weeks actually represent months of ‘game-time,’ so comparing these to the week prior just doesn’t feel right. Value Average Player Value: $116,545 Total Player Value: $2,564,000 Note: These values exclude William Brown and Otis Johnson, who are currently listed on the transfer wire. Team Information* Team Spirit: Calm Team Confidence: Wonderful Sponsor Attitude: Satisfied Supporter Attitude: Satisfied Supporter Club: 1,328 members Balance Sheet Previous Balance: $489,096 Revenue Crowd (U.S. Open Cup match vs. Connecticut Samurai) - $7,508 Sponsors - $48,750 Temporary (7 new supporters) - $210 Total Revenue: $56,468 Expenses Arena Upkeep - $11,271 Player Wages - $25,440 Temporary (youth squad promotion of Cameron McDonald) - $2,000 Temporary (purchase of Valentin Rubio) - $74,000 Temporary (fired specialist) - $1,500 Temporary (arena expansion project) - $297,525 Temporary (transfer listing for Otis Johnson) - $1,000 Temporary (transfer listing for William Brown) - $1,000 Staff and Specialists - $33,000 Youth Squad Support - $20,000 Total Expenses: $466,736 Net Income/Loss: -$410,268 New Balance: $78,828 Obviously, the big expense during the off-season was spending nearly $300,000 on an ambitious expansion project for The Docks. The improved stadium will have seating for 30,000 SSFC faithful, and will include a special surprise for the fans. We took the club a little below the normal $100,000 “safety valve” I like to maintain, but that was by design. I knew that the pending sale of Otis Johnson, and particularly William Brown, would take us back into a comfortable financial situation. Up Next: Results of our league-play opener against the defending series champion Ramblers. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty) Last edited by DataKing : 04-06-2003 at 11:50 PM.

04-07-2003, 07:42 PM	#9
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Season 3 – League Match #1 Ramblers vs. Screamin’ Seamen Date: April 6th, 2003 Venue: Ramblers Arena (Detroit, MI) Attendance: 46,507 (51,750) Weather: Overcast Prior Meetings 1/5/2003 – Screamin’ Seamen 2, Ramblers 2 2/23/2003 – Ramblers 1, Screamin’ Seamen 2 We open the season with a rather daunting task; travel to Detroit and take on the Ramblers, the defending series champions still flush with excitement over capturing last season’s title. The Ramblers look to be much the same team that we encountered last season, having added no new players during the off-season. Despite the psychological advantage of having won last season’s title, we felt that we still had the advantage, having gotten the better of the Ramblers in our two prior meetings. Formation: 3-5-2 Starters Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan Right Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard Central Defender: #2 Chuck Scales Left Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier Right Winger: #3 Ben McMahon Inner Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson Left Winger: #9 Valentin Rubio Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson Substitutes -Keeper: #13 Darryl Read -Defender: #24 Christian Kvam -Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith -Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen -Winger: #25 Paul Peralta Conspicuous in his absence from the starting lineup, star wingback and last season’s Team MVP, Arlen Lucas, was suspended from the match for having been red-carded in the club’s U.S. Open Cup match on Wednesday. We weren’t terribly comfortable with any of our options to replace Arlen, but eventually decided on Mattias Leier, our 19 year old Estonian trainee. Mattias has shown himself to be the best pure wingback amongst our trainees, and responded well to practice during the week. The Ramblers always bring their strongest attack on their left-hand side, so we’ll be stacking the defense to our right. Hopefully Tyler Willard and Ben McMahon can contain superstars Philip Gallo (4.5* winger) and Eric Holmes (4* midfielder). Game time… Match Report PRE-GAME 46507 spectators had come to Ramblers Arena this cloudy day. Ramblers had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. Lineup: Chugg - Arredondo, Powell, Campos - Niemelä, Whittington, Maddox, Holmes, Gallo - Hansson, Barik. Screamin' tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. They fielded: Jernigan - Willard, Scales, Leier - Mcmahon, Ivarsson, Bautista, Tomlin, Rubio - Henriksson, Tobias. FIRST HALF Bhima Barik gave his Ramblers the lead with 1 - 0, as he successfully challenged both the guests central defenders, then placed the ball unreachably at the goaltenders right post. In the games 16:th minute Ramblers´s Perry Maddox fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee booked Perry Maddox for taking a dive. After 16 minutes Bhima Barik put Ramblers ahead 2 - 0 as he rose to head in a hooked ball, the result of an effort from the right side. Charlie Bautista seemed highly inexperienced when in the 17:th minute he was loitering with the ball, allowing Gus Whittington to intercept and strike 3-0 for Ramblers. By now Ramblers were drawing the troops back in order to defend their lead. The home side´s Stefan Hansson came close to extending the lead in the 24:th minute. His shot came in off the right hand side but Cornelius Jernigan managed saving with a fingernail. Bhima Barik almost managed to score another goal for Ramblers, but his header was tipped to a corner by the visitors goalie. 3 - 0 was the half-time score. Ramblers held the ball, with a clear 57 percent possession rate. SECOND HALF In the 55:th minute Ramblers´s Stefan Hansson tried to nail the coffin shut, but the shot rebounded off the bar to fall behind the net. After 67 minutes Screamin'´s Valentín Rubio contracted a slight foot injury, but could finish the game. In the 71st minute of the match the visitors central line of defence had to look on as Stefan Hansson dashed through, knocking home 4 - 0 for Ramblers. The referee showed Screamin's Valentín Rubio the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 56 percent possession rate. POST-GAME The most dominating Ramblers player was without a doubt Philip Gallo. Kurt Arredondo was a disappointment, however. The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Niklas Ivarsson. Ben Mcmahon on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 4 - 0. Final Score: Ramblers 4, Screamin’ Seamen 0 Goals None Cards Rubio – yellow (1) Player Ratings Jernigan: * Willard: * Scales: *~ Leier: ~ McMahon: Tomlin: ~ Bautista: ~ Ivarsson: ~ Rubio: Tobias: Henriksson: *~ Team Match MVP: #8 Niklas Ivarsson Team Ratings* Screamin’ Seamen -Midfield: Passable (6) -Right Defense: World Class (13) -Central Defense: Outstanding (10) -Left Defense: Solid (7) -Right Attack: Weak (4) -Central Attack: Passable (6) -Left Attack: Excellent (8) -NSI: 66 Ramblers -Midfield: Solid (7) -Right Defense: Passable (6) -Central Defense: Outstanding (10) -Left Defense: Outstanding (10) -Right Attack: Solid (7) -Central Attack: Solid (7) -Left Attack: Outstanding (10) -NSI: 71 Comments Ouch. This one hurt, boys and girls. Our tactics were sound and possession was roughly even between the two halves. Although we faced a team with a little more talent than our own, there is no way that we deserved a 4-nil drubbing. This just goes to show you that sometimes the ball doesn’t roll your way. I am sure that the home-field advantage for the Ramblers had something to do with it as well. The good news (if you can call it that), is that Valentin Rubio’s foot injury is a minor one; just a strained arch. Still, the Argentinean is no spring chicken (29 years old), so we’ve brought in a foot specialist to tend to his injury, and ensure that he will be ready to go next weekend. Series Scores and Standings -Croats in Miami opened up the season with a bang, shutting out Neon Genesis Evangelion, 3-nil. -Sweden Heights surprised some people, taking down SoccerWussies, 3-1. -Big Reds performed admirably in their debut, defeating Syracuse Supers, 4-nil. No. Name Played Goals Pts. NSI 1. Big Reds 1 4-0 3 64 2. Ramblers 1 4-0 3 71 3. Croats in Miami 1 3-0 3 62 4. Sweden Heights 1 3-1 3 63 5. SoccerWussies 1 1-3 0 61 6. Neon Genesis Evangelion 1 0-3 0 57 7. Screamin’ Seamen 1 0-4 0 66 8. Syracuse Supers 1 0-4 0 43 As I expected, the competition in our series has gotten a lot tougher this season, and I have added the NSI ratings for all of the teams in the series to illustrate this point. Also, HatStats has rated Series IV.49 as the 5th toughest Division IV series in the entire United States! (Thanks to Eilim for pointing this out to me). Duplicating our performance from last season looks to be well-nigh impossible. I have predicted that 30 points will win the series. There is no way anyone is getting out of this series with an automatic promotion. The competition is just going to be way too tight. Other News Otis Johnson was sold on Monday to Indos, a relatively new team from San Francisco. This is good news for Otis, as it looks like he may be able to fight his way into a starting spot. The sale was completed for $9,000, of which $8,100 has found its way into the club’s coffers. Of much more importance to our bank account was the sale of William Brown on Monday as well. The 21 year old defender/wingback was sold for $135,000 to Hodechlopfer, a Swiss 5th Division side. Willie looks like a definite starter for his new club, which is always nice to see. We get to keep $121,500 of the money. We would also like to make mention of the following three clubs and their owners, who have joined the ever-growing ranks of the Screamin’ Seamen Supporters: Tomahawks (Owner: -Panther, 2nd place in Series V.220) goldurnears (Owner: robbgmaier, 4th place in Series V.230) booger balers (Owner: fflix, 1st place in Series V.158) Welcome and thank you folks. Representatives from the club should be arriving shortly to deliver your VIP tickets (and a bit of mischief as well, I suspect ). Up Next: We get to escape from the ice storm that has struck Chicago, and travel to Tempe, Arizona. There we hope to rebound with a U.S. Open Cup victory over the Arizona Wolves. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty) Last edited by DataKing : 04-07-2003 at 07:43 PM.

04-09-2003, 09:02 PM	#10
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Season 3 – U.S. Open Cup – Round 2 Arizona Wolves vs. Screamin’ Seamen Date: April 9th, 2003 Venue: Arizona Field (Tempe, AZ) Attendance: 6,913 (7,000) Weather: Partly Cloudy We’ve managed to escape from the harsh weather that struck Chicago recently, and are in Tempe, Arizona for a 2nd round U.S. Open Cup match against the Arizona Wolves. The Wolves, like many of the new Division VI teams in the U.S., is searching for new ownership, but have managed to claim 2nd place in their series thus far. Still, the Wolves do not pose a serious threat to the club, so we should be looking at an easy advance to the 3rd round of the cup. We’re fortunate, because this is exactly what our lads need; a nice easy win. Their confidence was pretty well shattered by the drubbing we took in Detroit last week, but this match should go a long way towards repairing that psychological damage. Formation: 4-4-2 Starters Keeper: #13 Darryl Read Right Wingback: #24 Christian Kvam Central Defender: #18 Cameron McDonald Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs Left Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas Right Winger: #25 Paul Peralta Inner Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere Left Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias Team Captain: #14 Jesper Gravesen Set Pieces: #14 Jesper Gravesen Substitutes -Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan -Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma -Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista -Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson -Winger: #3 Ben McMahon We’ve decided to go with a 4-4-2 approach today, which is something we haven’t done in quite a while. We want to get our defensive trainees on the pitch, but I am not comfortable with the idea of playing a 5-4-1. Winning today is too important to the psychology of the team to take that much of a chance. Arlen Lucas will see the pitch today, as he was suspended from our league match this past weekend. Hopefully he can keep his nose clean this time around, because we will need him on Sunday against the Big Reds. Forrest “Gump” Tobias is the other starter that will play for us today. We need a second forward to accompany Jesper Gravesen up front, and Johannes Henriksson is far too valuable to risk in a match like this. On top of that, any match experience we can get for “Gump” is a definite plus. Today also marks the professional debut for youth squad phenom Cameron McDonald. Cameron is one of the most highly-touted players to ever come out of our youth program, and we’re really looking forward to seeing what he can do on the pitch. Match Report PRE-GAME Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and Arizona Field saw a crowd turnout of 6913. Arizona started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Stapleton - Gary, Goodson, Friedman, Atkins - Rivers, Aceña Lopez, Anderson, Wynn - Jiménez Asensio, Lake. Screamin' had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. Lineup: Read - Kvam , Stubbs, Mcdonald, Lucas - Peralta, Tere, Smith, Mauffret - Gravesen, Tobias. FIRST HALF Screamin' took the lead after 18 minutes with 0 - 1. Jesper Gravesen placed the ball out of reach for the home sides keeper after a fine move, coming in from the left. After 33 minutes Arizona´s Karl Friedman contracted a slight foot injury, but could finish the game. The visitors Lucian Tere took advantage of an error due to a misunderstanding between the home side´s goalie and full backs in the 33rd minute. 0 - 2 for Screamin'. Some fine manouvering on the left lead to an 34:th minute Screamin' goal, making it 0 - 3. Lucian Tere was noted down as the scorer. The structure of the game started to change as Screamin' decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. Halftime score was 0 - 3. Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 68 percent possession rate. SECOND HALF After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, Screamin'´s Christian Kvam got himself booked. After the ball got lifted in from the left Jerry Smith was on his own in the home side´s penalty area 62 minutes into the game, and should have scored, but missed, probably due to lack of concentration. Some fine manouvering on the left lead to an 80:th minute Screamin' goal, making it 0 - 4. Jesper Gravesen was noted down as the scorer. Paul Peralta was dominating his wing and kept sending fine balls into the enemy box - Forrest Tobias managed to kick one of them into 0 - 5 in the 83rd minute. Screamin's Keith Stubbs got himself booked after a foul. The Arizona player was Karl Friedman who had to be helped off the pitch, unable to finish the game. Screamin', bringing the final ball possession rate to 83 percent, dominated the battle. POST-GAME The most dominating Arizona player was without a doubt Tommy Rivers. Bobbie Atkins on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Arlen Lucas. Olav Mauffret on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 0 - 5. Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 5, Arizona Wolves 0 Goals Gravesen – 2 (1,2) Tere – 2 (1,2) Tobias – 1 (2) Cards Kvam – yellow (1) Stubbs – yellow (1) Player Ratings Read: Kvam: McDonald: * Stubbs: Lucas: *~ Peralta: Smith: ~ Tere: Mauffret: Gravesen: Tobias: ** Team Match MVP: #5 Arlen Lucas Team Ratings Screamin’ Seamen -Midfield: Poor (3) -Right Defense: Excellent (8) -Central Defense: Excellent (8) -Left Defense: Excellent (8) -Right Attack: Inadequate (5) -Central Attack: Inadequate (5) -Left Attack: Inadequate (5) -NSI: 48 Arizona Wolves -Midfield: Wretched (2) -Right Defense: Weak (4) -Central Defense: Inadequate (5) -Left Defense: Weak (4) -Right Attack: Poor (3) -Central Attack: Poor (3) -Left Attack: Wretched (2) -NSI: 27 Comments A nice easy win, as was expected. Although Arlen Lucas earned Team Match MVP honors, Lucian Tere deserves some special notice. The big Romanian midfielder pegged home two goals in approximately two minutes! That’s the kind of performance that I like to see, even from backups. Jesper Gravesen added two goals of his own, and “Gump” Tobias got in on the action late, adding his second cup goal of the young season. In retrospect, we probably could have played a 5-4-1 and still won the match, but I was not prepared to take the risk at the time. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I am a pretty conservative manager when it comes to decisions about my team. I am particularly pleased with Cameron McDonald, and his outstanding three-star debut performance. He quietly went about his business all game long, sweeping out the area in front of Darryl Read like a pro. Some of the other starters were teasing Chuck Scales about his job being in danger after the match. Chuck looked a little worried, and he should be! Author’s Note: Given Cameron’s three-star performance and assessed value of $100,000 “out of the box,” I suspect he’ll bump up to excellent defending in a week or two. If only he were a year younger (he’s 18), he’d be possible U-20 team material. Other News The incredible support for the Screamin’ Seamen continues to come in, and I can’t begin to tell you all how proud I am to have so much support (primarily from the FOFC). I would like to welcome the following clubs to the family of SSFC supporters: Golden Eagles FC (Owner: GoldenEagle, 3rd place in Series V.167) Calibiri (Owner: daelalus, 3rd place in Series V.46) This brings us to 29 supporting teams, making us #2 in the entire United States! A heart-felt thanks to all of our supporters. Up Next: Training results and the weekly financial updates in the next few days. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-10-2003, 11:56 PM	#11
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Week 1 Training Results We returned to our defensive training regimen this week, but did not see any immediate results. We were rather hoping that Cameron McDonald would show some marked improvement after his performance on Wednesday, but that was not the case. Jesper Gravesen, our b-team striker, did improve to weak (4) experience, though. And now for the bad news… Form Changes 2 players improved a level in form (both starters). 13 players had their form remain the same. 7 players dropped in form (1 of them a starter). We did not have a good training week, that much is obvious. We’re hoping that this is just a temporary setback, perhaps a bit of a hang-over from our loss on Sunday. The really bad news is that Cameron McDonald dropped two levels in form! Cameron is a hot prospect for the club, so we’re hoping and praying that this is not a sign of lousy base-form. In The Zone Both of our Swedes are playing some excellent soccer (they must be high on life after Sweden won the U-20 World Cup). Team captain Johannes Henriksson and midfielder Niklas Ivarsson are both in excellent (8) form, as is back-up midfielder Jerry Smith. Jerry may see some playing time with the starters on Sunday. Form Dogs Unfortunately, we have four different players currently in weak (4) form. Defensive trainee Zarpas Lerma (who hasn’t played in three weeks), Cameron McDonald, winger Ben McMahon, and keeper Darryl Read are all stinking up the joint at the moment. The good news is that only one of them (McMahon) is a normal starter. Value Average Player Value: $114,455 (-$2,090) Total Player Value: $2,518,000 (-$46,000) Up Next: The weekly financial update on Saturday. After that, we have our home opener against the Big Reds. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-11-2003, 03:24 PM	#13
illinifan999 Pro Rookie Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: VA	USA USA USA!!!!! __________________ Chicago Eagles 2 time ZFL champions We're "rebuilding"

04-11-2003, 04:39 PM	#14
Havok College Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Florida	WWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!! USA USA!!!!!!!!! __________________ Maniacal Misfitz - We're better than you and we know it!

04-11-2003, 05:02 PM	#15
illinifan999 Pro Rookie Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: VA	Sweden is a damn good team. Only 2 losses since the inception of national teams. And the US is now one of them. That is an amazing job. __________________ Chicago Eagles 2 time ZFL champions We're "rebuilding"

04-13-2003, 09:22 PM	#17
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Season 3 – League Match #2 Screamin’ Seamen vs. Big Reds Date: April 13th, 2003 Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL) Attendance: 28,873 (30,000) Weather: Partly Cloudy Today we play host to the Big Reds, one of the newcomers to the division, in our home opener. It looks like we have magnificent weather for the debut of the “new and improved,” Docks, 65 degrees and partly cloudy. The Docks now looks like a smaller version of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, complete with faux pirate ship on one end of the stadium. Despite being new to Division IV, Big Reds are not a team to be taken lightly. They dominated the Syracuse Supers (admittedly the weakest team in the division) last week in their home opener, 4-nil. They are an all-around solid club, with a dangerous striker in Willibald Roth (what kind of name is Willibald, anyway?) and a fine 19-year-old midfielder by the name of Theo Juarez. Still, with home field advantage and Arlen Lucas returning to the line-up, we expect a win, although a narrow one. I would not be surprised to see this one end up 2-1 or 3-2. Formation: 3-5-2 Starters Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan Right Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard Central Defender: #2 Chuck Scales Left Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas Right Winger: #9 Valentin Rubio Inner Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson Left Winger: #3 Ben McMahon Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson Substitutes -Keeper: #13 Darryl Read -Defender: #17 Mattias Leier -Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith -Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen -Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret As was mentioned earlier, last season’s Team MVP Arlen Lucas returns to the lineup, after having served his one game suspension last Sunday. Other than that, it’s pretty much business-as-usual as far as our starting line-up goes. Match Report PRE-GAME 28873 spectators arrived at The Docks, where weather conditions were pretty good for football. Screamin' started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Jernigan - Willard, Scales, Lucas - Rubio, Ivarsson, Bautista, Tomlin, Mcmahon - Henriksson, Tobias. Reds had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Morgansson - Sifres Belenguer, Ryan, Conde - Tønnessen, Williams, Juarez, Crabtree, Freixes - Levin, Roth. FIRST HALF David Ryan received some harsh words from his coach after he acted foolishly, probably out of lack of experience, in the 7:th minute and almost caused an opponent to score. Many thought Pete Tomlin ought to have been awarded a penalty shot in the 29:th minute, as he went down trying to circle the visitors keeper Martin Morgansson. Reds had a good opportunity to score the lead goal but the home team goaltender Cornelius Jernigan saved Willibald Roth´s shot headed for the top corner. 0 - 0 was the half-time score. Reds held the ball, with a clear 52 percent possession rate. SECOND HALF Screamin' made a bid to take the lead as a ball coming in from the right hand side left Ben Mcmahon completely alone with keeper Martin Morgansson, who made a spectacular block. n the 71st minute Redss Martin Sifres Belenguer received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Screamin' could have put themselves ahead in the 74:th minute as Forrest Tobias missed a volley shot on a ball coming in from the right. Robert Levin came close to putting the visiting team one up in the 80:th minute, following a solo raid down the middle, but Cornelius Jernigan managed to tip the ball to a corner. No one team arose to dominate this half, ending in a deadlock. POST-GAME Most important Screamin' player was Arlen Lucas. Ben Mcmahon on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating Reds player was without a doubt Theo Juarez. Martin Sifres Belenguer on the other hand, had a terrible day. Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 0, Big Reds 0 Goals None Cards None Player Ratings Jernigan: * Willard: ~ Scales: ~ Lucas: ~ Rubio: Tomlin: ~ Bautista: ~ Ivarsson: ~ McMahon: ~ Henriksson: ~ Tobias: * Team Match MVP: #5 Arlen Lucas Team Ratings Screamin’ Seamen -Midfield: Solid (7) -Right Defense: Magnificent (12) -Central Defense: Brilliant (11) -Left Defense: Outstanding (10) -Right Attack: Solid (7) -Central Attack: Passable (6) -Left Attack: Inadequate (5) -NSI: 72 Big Reds -Midfield: Solid (7) -Right Defense: Formidable (9) -Central Defense: Formidable (9) -Left Defense: Excellent (8) -Right Attack: Passable (6) -Central Attack: Passable (6) -Left Attack: Solid (7) -NSI: 66 Comments I do so enjoy tough defensive battles, but this one was a little too defensive for my tastes, particularly on our side of the scoreboard. The defense performed admirably, as per usual, and when they did get a little leaky, “Corny” Jernigan was right there to shut the door on the Reds. Unfortunately, our own offense remained woeful. Ben McMahon (who we have been less than pleased with lately) and Forrest “Gump” Tobias both had opportunities to give us the lead, but could not finish the deal. Despite the fact that we only ended up with a draw, there are plenty of good things to draw from this match. We had our best-ever (if memory serves) overall team rating, and our first ever solid-rated midfield. Our entire back line put up **~ performances each, another first for the club. It’s obvious that our defense is usually up to the challenge. Our offense, on the other hand, has been lackluster to say the least. Unfortunately, we’re not in a financial position at the moment to make a meaningful change, but will look to address the offense in the future. Series Scores and Standings* -Sweden Heights scored twice in the last 15 minutes to snatch a 3-2 victory over Neon Genesis Evangelion. -Croats in Miami had their way with the Syracuse Supers, 4-nil. However, Croats’ starting keeper Don Smith suffered a major injury (5 weeks) in the match. -SoccerWussies surprised everyone by dominating Ramblers, 4-nil. This confirms my suspicion that Ramblers MOTSed the match against us last week. No. Name. Played Goals Pts. NSI 1. Croats in Miami 2 7-0 6 56 2. Sweden Heights 2 6-3 6 60 3. Big Reds 2 4-0 4 66 4. SoccerWussies 2 5-3 3 66 5. Ramblers 2 4-4 3 64 6. Screamin’ Seamen 2 0-4 1 72 7. Neon Genesis Evangelion 2 2-6 0 62 8. Syracuse Supers 2 0-8 0 43 Next Week’s Matchups Croats in Miami vs. Screamin’ Seamen SoccerWussies vs. Neon Genesis Evangelion Big Reds vs. Ramblers Sweden Heghts vs. Syracuse Supers Other News We would like to welcome the 30th member of our supporters. McGees (Owner: whitesoxmcgee, Currently 2nd place in Series V.195) Welcome McGee, and thank you for your support. Up Next: We travel to Brooklyn, Wisconsin for our 3rd-Round U.S. Open Cup match against the Brooklyn Ex-Pats. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty) Last edited by DataKing : 04-13-2003 at 09:25 PM.

04-13-2003, 11:08 PM	#18
Barkeep49 Coordinator Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Not too far away	Looks to be a rough season for the Seaman. I hope you guys snap out of it and soon!

04-13-2003, 11:22 PM	#19
robbgmaier College Prospect Join Date: Oct 2001	Congratulations on getting out of the basement (oooh, that was kind of mean)

04-14-2003, 10:45 AM	#20
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Things certainly have not started out as planned, but I am certain that things will turn around. I just hope that it is sooner, rather than later. Series IV.49 was rated as the 4th toughest series in all of Division IV this week (5th last week) by HatStats. Also, our team rating of 72 tied us for 21st in all of Division IV. The ball just hasn't been rolling our way so far this season. Actually, while it is a little early to look that far ahead, I expect a strong second half from our club, because we get to play the Syracuse Supers back-to-back in weeks 7 and 8. Those matches should be a nice boost to team spirit and confidence, and prepare us for a stretch run. I don't know if I've mentioned it earlier, but my goal for this season is the same as it was last season; finish in the top four, earn some prize money, and avoid a relegation match. With the dramatic increase in competition in Series IV.49 this season, asking anything more of my club is just downright unrealistic in my book. __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-14-2003, 11:29 AM	#21
Havok College Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Florida	I think we all got spoiled with DK kicking everyone's ass every game anyway... just looked through your division and it is very tough. if you get top 3 (which i think you will) that will be a victory in it self. __________________ Maniacal Misfitz - We're better than you and we know it!

04-15-2003, 02:46 PM	#22
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Thanks for the encouragement Havok. I know I was spoiled by winning week in-week out. And there is one good thing that we can still cling to. We have yet to lose a home league match, ever! 12 wins, 3 draws, 0 losses. Of course, I've probably jynxed the team now by mentioning it. __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-17-2003, 02:22 AM	#24
sterlingice Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Back in Houston!	Ow, this season is going bad quick. I think this is a good omen: you're lulling everyone into a false sense of security so you can win the FOFC Cup and make a miraculous comeback to take 1st in your series. You're just making it more dramatic. Well, at least you still have the Wing-- never mind (couldn't resist) SI __________________ Houston Hippopotami, III.3: 20th Anniversary Thread - All former HT players are encouraged to check it out! Janos: "Only America could produce an imbecile of your caliber!" Freakazoid: "That's because we make lots of things better than other people!"

04-18-2003, 11:16 AM	#25
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Week 2 Training Results In what continues to be a disappointing trend, none of our defenders showed any marked improvement this week. Trainees Mattias Leier and Cameron McDonald, both of whom are expected to take a “step up” soon, have refrained from doing so. Form Changes 3 players improved in form this week (including winger Ben McMahon) 14 players saw their form remain the same. 5 players dropped in form this week (including Johannes Henriksson and Charlie Bautista) Another poor week of training, which saw the average form of the team drop. I’m at a loss for how to explain it. Just some lousy luck on our part, I suppose. This team’s form and performance is nowhere near what it was at this point last season. In The Zone The good news is that midfielder Niklas Ivarsson continues to play some of the best soccer of his life. Also in top form is substitute midfielder Jerry Smith, who may very well see the field this Sunday against Croats in Miami. Form Dog Newcomer Cameron McDonald continues to disappoint in practice as well as on the pitch, and has dropped to poor (3) form this week. Folks around the front office are hoping and praying that this is just a slump, as Cameron gets used to playing at the professional level, and not an indicator of lousy base-form. Value Average Player Value: $116,045 (+$1,590) Total Player Value: $2,553,000 (+$35,000) Up Next: This week’s youth squad promotion as well as the financial update on Saturday evening. After that, we’re on the road again, as we travel to Miami to take on the league-leading Croats. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-21-2003, 04:00 PM	#28
GoldenEagle Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Little Rock, AR	Just a quick question. Is there anyway to tell if your players have changed in form? Or do you just remember it all like some super-computer? __________________ Xbox 360 Gamer Tag: GoldenEagle014

04-22-2003, 01:23 AM	#30
vex Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Tulsa	HattrickPoli is the way to be

04-23-2003, 08:35 PM	#31
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Season 3 – Week 3 Friendly Match Screamin’ Seamen vs. Else United Date: April 23rd, 2003 Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL) Attendance: 774 (30,000) Weather: Partly Cloudy We certainly didn’t expect to be playing friendly matches at this point in the season, but find ourselves doing just that after an early exit from the U.S. Open Cup last Wednesday. We’re determined to make the best of it, though, and have returned to concentrating our efforts on training for our young defenders. Today we play host to rexallsc’s Else United, who have flown in from Los Angeles for the match. We expect a typically low-scoring affair from the match, as our defense should be more than adequate to contain United’s strikers. The big question is whether or not our anemic offense will be able to find a way to get the ball on net. Formation: 5-4-1 Starters Keeper: #13 Darryl Read Right Wingback: #24 Christian Kvam Central Defender: #18 Cameron McDonald Central Defender: #20 Keith Stubbs Central Defender: #21 Zarpas Lerma Left Wingback: #17 Mattias Leier Right Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista Inner Midfielder: #7 Lucian Tere Left Winger: #25 Paul Peralta Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen Team Captain: #14 Jesper Gravesen Set Pieces: #14 Jesper Gravesen Substitutes -Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan -Defender: #22 Tyler Willard -Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith -Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias -Winger: #3 Ben McMahon We’re back to our standard 5-4-1 lineup this week, after the resounding failure of Coach Brown’s “alternative” 5-4-1 last time out. The one change to our standard B-team lineup is Charlie Bautista. Charlie’s weak play as of late means that he has been relegated to B-team duty, but we’re hoping that he will recover his previously good form and return to the starting lineup soon. We’ll be keeping a close eye on him today. A wary eye will also be placed upon striker and team captain Jesper Gravesen. Jesper did a horrible job last week of managing the team on the pitch, and was partially responsible for our exit from the U.S. Open Cup. His continued presence on the club may very well depend on how well the team responds to his commands today. We shall see. Match Report PRE-GAME 774 spectators arrived at The Docks, where weather conditions were pretty good for football. Screamin' had chosen a strategic 5-4-1 formation. Lineup: Read - Kvam , Lerma, Stubbs, Mcdonald, Leier - Mauffret , Tere, Bautista, Peralta - Gravesen. United had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Põlluste - Braxton, Chance, Figueiredo Costa, Aldrich - Ubierna, Esparza, Burch, Calvert - Ridgeway, Mcqueen. FIRST HALF Keith Stubbs behaved like an inexperienced youth player in the 7:th minute as he gave the ball away to an opponent. Lucky for him though, there was no goal. Screamin's Keith Stubbs gave, after 7 minutes, the home team a 1 - 0 lead after an attack coming in from the right. Halftime score was 1 - 0. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Screamin', with an impressive 75 percent possession of the ball. SECOND HALF With 64 minutes played Keith Stubbs could have brought this one home for Screamin', had his hooked ball gone in, but it went just a bit too high. One of many good passes from José María Ubierna at the wing was recieved and skillfully taken care of by Sheldon Ridgeway, scoring for United to 1 - 1. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Screamin', with an impressive 89 percent possession of the ball. POST-GAME The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Keith Stubbs. However, Jesper Gravesen made a disastrous appearance. Most important United player was Alexandre Figueiredo Costa. Arthur Mcqueen was a disappointment, however. Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 1, Else United 1 Goals Stubbs – 1 Cards None Player Ratings Read: Kvam: ~ McDonald: Stubbs: ~ Lerma: Leier: ~ Mauffret: Bautista: ~ Tere: ** Peralta: ~ Gravesen: ~ Team Ratings Screamin’ Seamen -Midfield: Inadequate (5) -Right Defense: Formidable (9) -Central Defense: Outstanding (10) -Left Defense: Excellent (8) -Right Attack: Weak (4) -Central Attack: Poor (3) -:Left Attack: Wretched (2) -NSI: 51 Else United -Midfield: Wretched (2) -Right Defense: Passable (6) -Central Defense: Passable (6) -Left Defense: Inadequate (5) -Right Attack: Weak (4) -Central Attack: Poor (3) -:Left Attack: Weak (4) -NSI: 34 Comments Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the Keith Stubbs Show with me, your host, Data King! It’s pretty unusual when all of the notable events for your team focus around one player. It’s even more unusual when that player is a defender! Keith had himself a whale of a game today and, despite his early blunder, I am duly impressed. Stubbs reminds me more and more of a young Sandis Ozolinsh; a defender who jumps up onto the attack with (sometimes disturbing) regularity, whether he is asked to or not. (And no, I did not instruct Keith to play offensive or anything of the sort.) I have to give credit to the sky-blues of Else United. Despite our early lead and shut-down defense, they kept digging, and were finally able to get the equalizer with about 20 minutes left to play. I am quite impressed with the effort put forth by rexallsc’s club, and would have expected a more lop-sided result (or at least a victory) given the massive possession advantage that we enjoyed. As far as the players we were keeping our eyes on are concerned, Charlie Bautista passed with flying colors. I was expecting a bit less out of him, to be frank, and now expect him to return to the starting line-up in short order. Jesper Gravesen, on the other hand, continues to disappoint. Although I am not at liberty to discuss the details at this point (read: I don’t have enough money yet ), we will be looking to make some offensive changes to the club soon. You can be relatively certain that, if those changes require that we let anyone go, Jesper will be the first name on a very short list of expendables. Other News We would like to welcome the 32nd member of the Screamin’ Seamen Supporter Group: Manhattan Marauders (Owner: NAIWF, Currently 6th place in Series V.152). Welcome Marauders, and thank you very much for your support. After only 16 days with Swiss club Hodechlopfer, former Seaman William Brown has moved on to F.C. Botarell, a Spanish 5th Division Side. The transfer earned us a nice little bonus of $5,310. Up Next: Our weekly training results on Thursday evening. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty) Last edited by DataKing : 04-23-2003 at 08:36 PM.

04-23-2003, 10:57 PM	#32
vex Grizzled Veteran Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Tulsa	Ummm, our match ratings for today were remarkebly similar. NE Oklahoma Sidekicks Player rating and Team formation Midfield: passable (6) Right Side Defence: excellent (8) Central Defence: outstanding (10) Left Side Defence: formidable (9) Right Side Attack: wretched (2) Central Attack: weak (4) Left Side Attack: poor (3) Screamin’ Seamen -Midfield: Inadequate (5) -Right Defense: Formidable (9) -Central Defense: Outstanding (10) -Left Defense: Excellent (8) -Right Attack: Weak (4) -Central Attack: Poor (3) -:Left Attack: Wretched (2)

04-24-2003, 02:02 PM	#33
rexalllsc Banned Join Date: Feb 2003	Thanks for agreeing to the Friendly. Hopefully, this non-loss (after two defeats in a row) will springboard us onto the League title, but I'm not optimistic. I'm pretty surprised/thankful you didn't beat the tar out of me

04-24-2003, 04:29 PM	#34
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	The 5-4-1 formation doesn't beat the tar out of anybody, believe me. __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-25-2003, 11:28 AM	#35
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Week 3 Training Results Once again, we had to marked increases amongst our defensive trainees this week. I know that both Cameron McDonald and Mattias Leier are close, and am rather surprised/disappointed that neither of them has taken the next step just yet. Form Changes 4 players increased in form (all reserves). 12 players had their form remain the same. 6 players decreased in form this week (3 of them starters). This is getting rather depressing, as our team’s average form continues to drop slowly, and all of this while training at full intensity (100%). I’m at a loss to explain it, except that we just appear to be having a run of bad luck that will not stop. In The Zone The one bright spot for us remains Swedish midfielder Niklas Ivarsson, who continues to shine on the pitch and on the practice field. The best $153,000 I’ve ever spent, at least thus far. Form Dogs Defensive trainee Cameron McDonald showed a little bit of improvement this week, which we’re hoping is a sign of good things to come from the 18 year old. He currently shares the dubious title of “form dog” with trainee Zarpas Lerma and midfielder Charlie Bautista (all at weak form). Value Average Player Value: $119,682 (+$3,637) Total Player Value: $2,633,000 (+$80,000) Wingback and last season’s Team MVP Arlen Lucas becomes the first non-keeper on the club to break the quarter-million mark, and is currently valued at $256,000. Up Next: The weekly youth squad promotion and financial update on Saturday. After that, we play host to Sweden Heights, the current league leaders, as we continue to seek our first league victory of the season. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-27-2003, 08:46 PM	#36
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Week 3 Youth Pull Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Wesley Blount. And as soon as you’re done, you’ll probably want to say goodbye to Wesley. He will be listed on the transfer market on Monday, and should bring in at least $75,000 or so. Wesley Blount 19 years old, passable form, healthy. A pleasant guy who is tranquil and honest. Has disastrous (1) experience and inadequate (5) leadership abilities. Nationality: U.S.A. Assessed Value: $66,000 Wage: $840 per week Stamina: Poor (3) Playmaking: Passable (6) Winger: Solid (7) Scoring: Poor (3) Goaltending: Disastrous (1) Passing: Poor (3) Defending: Poor (3) Set Pieces: Weak (4) I am tempted to keep Wesley on the team, but I do not have the spare time necessary to bring his fitness up to a suitable level. I am certain that a club that trains wingers or midfielders will be able to find the time, however. Weekly Financial Update Previous Balance: $370,015 Revenue Crowd (friendly match vs. Else United) - $2,055 Sponsors - $63,000 Temporary (mother club money) - $300 Temporary (6 new supporters) - $180 Temporary (Re-sale bonus from William Brown) - $5,310 Total Revenue: $70,845 Expenses Arena Upkeep - $19,500 Player Wages - $29,948 Temporary (youth squad promotion of someone who sucked) - $2,000 Staff & Specialists - $40,500 Youth Squad Support - $20,000 Total Expenses: $111,948 Net Income/Loss: -$41,103 New Balance: $328, 912 Team Information Team Spirit: Satisfied (no change) Team Confidence: Strong (no change) Sponsor Attitude: High on Life (no change) Supporter Attitude: Content (no change) Supporter Club: 1,352 (up 6 from last week) We’re finally starting to see a growth in the supporter club this season, albeit a small one. Still, the way things have been going around here lately, we’ll take whatever we can get. Up Next: Our league match against the league-leading Sweden Heights. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty)

04-27-2003, 09:40 PM	#37
Havok College Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Florida	your the king of youth pulls.... i hate you __________________ Maniacal Misfitz - We're better than you and we know it!

04-27-2003, 10:17 PM	#38
DataKing Pro Rookie Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Chicago	Season 3 – League Match #4 Screamin’ Seamen vs. Sweden Heights Date: April 27th, 2003 Venue: The Docks (Chicago, IL) Attendance: 21,542 (30,000) Weather: Partly Cloudy We’re back home this week for league play, as we play host to the league-leading Sweden Heights. Heights look to be a decent club (like just about everyone else in the series), and have a good defense that can perhaps rival our own. But their first place standing and nine points is a little misleading, as they have had the luxury of playing against some of the weaker clubs in the division. We’re looking for solid defense on both sides of the ball, and expect good scoring chances to be few and far between today. Still, we should have the advantage in the number of chances we get, as we appear to have the superior midfield. The question is whether or not our suspect offense can take advantage of those chances. Formation: 3-5-2 Starters Keeper: #1 Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan Right Wingback: #5 Arlen Lucas Central Defender: #2 Chuck Scales Left Wingback: #22 Tyler Willard Right Winger: #3 Ben McMahon Inner Midfielder: #8 Niklas Ivarsson Inner Midfielder: #6 Charlie Bautista Inner Midfielder: #4 Pete “The Old Goat” Tomlin Left Winger: #9 Valentin Rubio Forward: #11 Johannes Henriksson Forward: #15 Forrest “Gump” Tobias Team Captain: #11 Johannes Henriksson Set Pieces: #11 Johannes Henriksson Substitutes -Keeper: #13 Darryl Read -Defender: #24 Christian Kvam -Midfielder: #19 Jerry Smith -Forward: #14 Jesper Gravesen -Winger: #10 Olav Mauffret We’re back to our regular starting eleven this week. Charlie Bautista continues to struggle, but even a struggling Charlie Bautista appears to be better than a top-form Jerry Smith in the midfield. Both Johannes Henriksson and Forrest “Gump” Tobias are struggling with their form, but Jesper Gravesen is in coach Brown’s doghouse at the moment, and is not about to see the pitch except for in an emergency. Match Report PRE-GAME Fairly good weather for football had drawn a crowd of 21542 to The Docks. Screamin' started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. Lineup: Jernigan - Lucas, Scales, Willard - Mcmahon, Ivarsson, Bautista, Tomlin, Rubio - Henriksson, Tobias. Heights had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. They fielded: Wilkinson - Flamkvist, Bergman, Claesson - Stoner, Jansson, Eriksson, Thomas, Song - Leijonstål, Doyle. FIRST HALF The referee showed Screamin's Arlen Lucas the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Tyson Doyle came close to putting the visiting team one up in the 30:th minute, following a solo raid down the middle, but Cornelius Jernigan managed to tip the ball to a corner. After 31 minutes Heights´s Lars Eriksson contracted a slight foot injury, but could finish the game. Johannes Henriksson gave his Screamin' the lead with 1 - 0, as he successfully challenged both the guests central defenders, then placed the ball unreachably at the goaltenders right post. In the 32nd minute Heightss Mats Claesson received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Due to a severely mistimed tackle,Chuck Scales spent some on the grass writhing in agony before he could get up and continue the game. 1 - 0 was the half-time score. Screamin' held the ball, with a clear 56 percent possession rate. SECOND HALF With 53 minutes played Forrest Tobias could have brought this one home for Screamin', had his hooked ball gone in, but it went just a bit too high. Heights got a chance to level the score as Tyson Doyle suddenly found himself free with the goaltender but the finishing shot hit the bar. In the games 73rd minute Screamin'´s Tyler Willard fell dramatically just outside the penalty area. However, the referee booked Tyler Willard for taking a dive. A couple of quick and successful challenges, followed by a shot from just outside the penalty area after 78 minutes might have resulted in another goal for Screamin'. However, Trent Wilkinson made a spectacular save. In the 83rd minute Screamin' put themselves up 2 - 0. The visitors defenders lost the ball to Tyler Willard coming up from the left, who proceeded to cooly round the goaltender and knock the ball home. The structure of the game started to change as Screamin' decided to pull back and meet their opponents in the defensive zone. Screamin', bringing the final ball possession rate to 62 percent, dominated the battle. POST-GAME The most dominating Screamin' player was without a doubt Arlen Lucas. Johannes Henriksson was a disappointment, however. Most important Heights player was Mats Claesson. Tomas Leijonstål on the other hand, had a terrible day. Final Score: Screamin’ Seamen 2, Sweden Heights 0 Goals Henriksson – 1 (2, GWG) Willard – 1 (1) Cards Lucas – yellow (2) Willard – yellow (1) Player Ratings Jernigan: * Lucas: Scales: ~ Willard: ~ McMahon: Ivarsson: *~ Bautista: ~ Tomlin: ~ Rubio: ~ Henriksson: Tobias: Team Match MVP: #5 Arlen Lucas Team Ratings Screamin’ Seamen -Midfield: Solid (7) -Right Defense: Outstanding (10) -Central Defense: Brilliant (11) -Left Defense: World Class (13) -Right Attack: Inadequate (5) -Central Attack: Passable (6) -Left Attack: Passable (6) -NSI: 72 Sweden Heights -Midfield: Inadequate (5) -Right Defense: Formidable (9) -Central Defense: Excellent (8) -Left Defense: Excellent (8) -Right Attack: Solid (7) -Central Attack: Solid (7) -Left Attack: Solid (7) -NSI: 61 Comments BOOYEAH! We finally got our first victory of the season, and a solid one at that. Team captain Johannes Henriksson gave us the game winner, and wingback Tyler Willard scored the first goal of his young career as well. The match also earned Cornelius “Corny” Jernigan the eighth clean sheet of his career. Arlen Lucas performed admirably at wingback, earning his (and the team’s) first ever four-star rating. Unfortunately, Arlen also received a yellow card, and now has two. He has already been suspended once this season, and will have to cool his heels if he does not want to get suspended again. Series Scores and Standings -Ramblers managed their second victory of the season, defeating Neon Genesis Evangelion in a 4-3 shootout. -SoccerWussies narrowly escaped from Syracuse with a 1-nil victory over the Supers. -Big Reds claimed the top spot in the series, defeating Croats in Miami, 2-1. No. Team Played Goals Pts. NSI 1. Big Reds 4 7-1 10 76 2. Sweden Heights 4 11-5 9 61 3. SoccerWussies 4 9-5 9 61 4. Croats in Miami 4 10-4 7 65 5. Ramblers 4 8-8 6 69 6. Screamin’ Seamen* 4 4-6 5 72 7. Neon Genesis Evangelion 4 7-13 0 60 8. Syracuse Supers 4 0-14 0 46 While the victory did not improve our sixth-place standing, it did serve to tighten things up a bit in the standings. Only five points separate the top six teams in the series now. Week 5 Matchups SoccerWussies vs. Screamin’ Seamen Croats in Miami vs. Ramblers Sweden Heights vs. Big Reds Neon Genesis Evangelion vs. Syracuse Supers Next week’s match against SoccerWussies is definitely a winnable one, even if we will be on the road. I suspect that Big Reds will be able to handle Sweden Heights, and Neon Genesis Evangelion should finally get a victory against Syracuse Supers. Croats in Miami vs. Ramblers is anyone’s guess, however. Other News Please help me in welcoming the 33rd and 34th members of the Screamin’ Seamen Support Club: West Henrietta FC (Owner: bigjdotcom01, currently 3rd place in Series V.53) Frankfort United (Owner: DukeRulesMAB, currently 7th place in Series V.22) Welcome, and thank you very much for your support. Up Next: We’ve scheduled a friendly match this week against another FOFC club, Reign. Stay tuned! __________________ Current Games Diablo III (BattleTag: DataKing#1685) Allegiances: Chicago Bears - Detroit Red Wings - Kansas Jayhawks Awards: 2011 Golden Scribe - Other Sports Category (The Straight(away) and Narrow - A Forza Motorsport 3 Dynasty) Last edited by DataKing : 04-27-2003 at 10:20 PM.