***The Official Football Manager Thread***

[The GIGGAS]

Quote: Originally Posted by Joshua1207

That US Pyramid looks interesting. I may join in on that once that guy gets it out of beta.

I'm finding it really fun so far. There's like a winter break in the USASA, where you play in a World Cup style tournament with all of the different USASA leagues, which is ingenious. There's only 18 matches for USASA, so this definitely pads it quite a bit, with 10 teams per group (16 groups total). 2 teams per group advance.

[Suntan Superman]

I'm going to test it, as I'm completely frustrated by my board right now.

[rsnomar05]

Quote: Originally Posted by rsnomar05

Midway through the group stages, and Group E is wide open:

I've been swamped with work recently, so I haven't gotten to play much, but I got in a nice FM session today while I watched NFL action, so I made some great progress in my Roma save.

Last time I posted, I was in my first season at Roma after unjustly getting canned from Arsenal. I was midway through the group stages of the CL, tied with Dortmund and Nice with 6 points apiece.

I went into the final match of the group stages with a massive match against Dortmund. We were both tied for second in the group with 9 points apiece, and thankfully Dortmund decided to turn in an anemic performance.

My team entered that match on a high, as we had just played two equally massive matches (damn you, fixture congestion!) against 4th place Verona and 3rd place Juventus. Both those teams will have wished they stayed home, as I trounced them.

So I sit 2nd in the league through December 9, just 3 points behind 1st place Fiorentina. I've qualified for the knockout stages of the CL, which meets the board's minimum expectations, and morale is sky-high. Things are going great, so I fully expect the FM gods to pull the rug out from under me and make Lyon my CL knockout stages opponent, even though Lyon are in the Europa League.

Finally, Javier Hernandez has 20 goals in 20 apps and it's only December 9. He's a goal-scoring machine right now.

[ImTellinTim]

First season at Liverpool:



Realize that's hard to read. 72 goals for 40 goals against through 26 matches.

Tactics:







YOLO

Still alive in the FA Cup and Champions League. Away to Swansea in FA Cup 5th round and drew Benfica in the CL round of 16.

[kaletore11]

It was about damn time!!

[rsnomar05]

Ugh. I drew Bayern Munich in the round of 16:

[The GIGGAS]

My USASA game with Club Lents is going swimmingly. I pretty much exceeded expectations of a mid-table finish by getting myself into the USASA Northwest Championship game (which I lost to the Vancouver Thunderbirds, grr) and got promoted into the single A league (don't know what it's called off the top of my head).

I've been playing well there too. I don't know how many games I've played in season 2, but I'm at the top of the table to get promoted again, which is another exceeding of expectations. I'm wondering when the brick wall will hit.

I've also been mentioned a lot for other openings, but I've been playing it cool in the little media the lower levels get, and not applying for jobs.

[NoDakHusker]

Started my managerial career at Grindavik in Iceland's second tier. Basically everyone on my team have long names and the last names all end in -sson. Time to give these guys some nicknames.

I just finished up an interesting cup match against league foe, Prottur Reykjavik. I rested a few key players for this one, as the league is a priority to the board over cup success. I don't really have the luxury of depth at each position, though I did raid the youth team for a few guys to see what they could do in an early round of cup action.

First half was negligible, 0-0. Then, I suffer two injuries in a period between the 53rd and 56th minutes that need subs. 74th minute, I use my last sub to put some fresh legs on the attack. We have hope, I think to myself.
Not even 2 minutes pass and my keeper gets injured with a twisted knee. He's down to playing at 50%. I have no more subs, so he has to play. FM'ed.

Match was scoreless, I was thinking this is going to extra time. Not good, until the 87th minute when we finally get a breakthrough! My 18 year old AM Olaf Olafsson fires a screamer from 25 yards out. I put my team on defensive immediately. I had the win. It was glorious...until FM decides I can't have nice things. 88th minute equalizer by my opponent. My poor, gimpy keeper never had a chance. FM'ed again.

Extra time. My team is wasted. My keeper is injured. Defenders: might as well be dead.
96th minute, it happens. A free kick just outside the box hits the cross bar and lands at the feet of one of my strikers. He puts it away without a problem. 2-1 to Grindavik. Faith in FM: restored.

Holding on to the lead, withstanding corners and quite an onslaught by PR, my defense stands tall and somehow my keeper manages a few saves. We got this. This is match is ours.
In the 110th minute, a beautiful through ball finds our third goal scorer of the day. 3-1. Relief.

We hold on for a 3-2 victory, they'd score one back in the 115th. My keeper is out for 4-5 weeks now. He did well considering he was playing on a bad knee for ~50 minutes. Though I certainly didn't want to go to penalties with my keeper in that shape. It never came to penalties, thankfully.
All that for a third round cup win, but a weak start to the league season has me happy the team pulled out the win - especially with several 18-19 year-olds performing surprisingly well. We got a nice morale boost from this win. I'm hoping to carry that into better league performances.

This probably is a rather insignificant match in the grand scheme of things, but I don't care. My keeper was a trooper.