Return of the Bluebirds: A Cardiff City AFC Dynasty

[IchBinDeutsch]

I don't know what your Midfield is like, but if you ever need a strong LM/LW I HIGHLY recommend you to look into Ibrahima Traoré from VfB Stuttgart. He's an absolute stud! And he's super cheap, I got him for $2,500,000 in my Napoli Career Mode. But anyways, keep up the good work, I'm really enjoying this.

[djc7677]

Quote: Originally Posted by UK0wnag3

"You used to be blue, but know you're red. You look like ***** when you tap your head." Good stuff.

Haha! Thanks.

Quote: Originally Posted by IchBinDeutsch

I don't know what your Midfield is like, but if you ever need a strong LM/LW I HIGHLY recommend you to look into Ibrahima Traoré from VfB Stuttgart. He's an absolute stud! And he's super cheap, I got him for $2,500,000 in my Napoli Career Mode. But anyways, keep up the good work, I'm really enjoying this.

Thanks for the tip. Right now I'm OK at LM with Bellamy, Zaha, and Daehli all being able to play there, but I could really use a better RM than Noone. (I think he's kinda underrated on the game.) Luckily all three of those guys can also play RM, so I'll take a look at Traore in January and think about running one of those guys on the right. Besides, I'm losing Zaha when his loan is up, and Bellamy is 34.

[djc7677]

Wet Pitch Leads to Wild Shootout Between Cardiff and Fulham



Man of the Match: Maarten Steklenburg


Fulham 3 - 3 Cardiff City
Mitroglou 10', Parker 62', Mirallas 80'
Daehli 69', Lescott 76', Zaha 89'

On a very wet evening in London, Cardiff City battled back to record a 3-3 draw against hosts Fulham.

Hipster icon Konstantinos Mitroglou opened the scoring for the hosts on 10 minutes, connecting with a rebound off Cardiff keeper David Marshall and putting it into the empty net.

Fulham had a golden opportunity to double their lead a few minutes later when Joleon Lescott appeared to trip Mitroglou inside the area, though all the Cardiff defenders claimed it was a dive. Fortunately for Lescott, Marshall was able to parry Kevin Mirallas's penalty kick.

Fulham would double their advantage in the 62nd minute when Scott Parker showed speed and skill that few knew he possessed, dribbling around and outrunning at least half of Cardiff's squad before unleashing a thunderbolt into the top of the net.

As though shocked awake, Cardiff were able to finally turn on some offense then as substitute Matts Moller Daehli was able to beat an in-form Maarten Steklenburg, before Lescott evened the score by getting a head onto a corner kick from Daehli in the 76th minute.

Kevin Mirallas broke the deadlock four minutes later when he made Steven Caulker turn the wrong way and leave him clear on goal. Five minutes later, Wilfried Zaha scored the sixth and final goal of the match, clipping the crossbar and bouncing straight down. Fulham's players and manager were adamant the ball never crossed the goal line, but replays showed it clearly did.

"That was a messy game," the Cardiff manager said afterward. "I'm surprised the match was allowed to go on with how water-clogged the pitch was. It made defending nearly impossible. I'm glad we got the point, but I felt we could have taken all three given how in control we were through most of it. But that's football."

Sep 30, 2013 - Fulham vs Cardiff City
TEAM	1	2	SCORE
Fulham (0-4-2)	1	2	3
Cardiff City (1-3-2)	0	3	3

Team Stats Comparison
Fulham		Cardiff City
3	Goals	3
8	Shots	16
6	Shots on Target	9
47%	Possession	53%
0	Fouls	3
0	Yellow Cards	0
0	Red Cards	0
0	Injuries	1
75%	Shot Accuracy	56%
88%	Passing Percentage	81%

[djc7677]

Barclays Premiere League Table
1 October 2013


Here's a look at the Barclays Premiere League table after the first two months of action.

Barclays Premier League Table, 01 October 2013
TEAM	GP	W	D	L	PTS
Manchester City	6	5	1	0	16
Arsenal	6	5	1	0	16
Liverpool	6	4	2	0	14
Chelsea	6	4	1	1	13
Manchester United	6	3	3	0	12
Tottenham Hotspur	6	3	1	2	10
Everton	6	3	1	2	10
Sunderland	6	2	3	1	9
West Ham United	6	2	3	1	9
Norwich City	6	3	0	3	9
Newcastle United	6	2	1	3	7
Cardiff City	6	1	3	2	6
Southampton	6	2	0	4	6
Aston Villa	6	2	0	4	6
West Bromwich Albion	6	1	2	3	5
Swansea City	6	1	2	3	5
Fulham	6	0	4	2	4
Stoke City	6	1	0	5	3
Crystal Palace	6	0	2	4	2
Hull City	6	0	2	4	2

[OliFisher96]

Really liking this so far! Loving the graphics and reports, your writing style is very official! Keep it up!

[djc7677]

Quote: Originally Posted by OliFisher96

Really liking this so far! Loving the graphics and reports, your writing style is very official! Keep it up!

Thank you! I just commented on your thread about how much I like what you're doing with St. Pauli.

[djc7677]

Bluebirds Hang On to Beat Magpies



Man of the Match: Wilfried Zaha

Cardiff City 3 - 2 Newcastle United
Mutch 36', 43'; Campbell 57'
Santon 35', Marveaux 80'

After conceding the opening goal, Cardiff City scored three in succession and hung on against a late onslaught to defeat Newcastle United.

Poor defensive clearances would be an unfortunate theme for the Bluebirds, who conceded the first goal against the run of play when they were unable to clear David Marshall's parry of a Didier Ya Konan shot. Fullback Davide Santon made them pay by tapping the rebound into the open net.

But Cardiff fought back immediately, when fullback Kevin Theophile-Catherine found Jordan Mutch with a beautiful cross, allowing the attacking midfielder to head home his first goal of the season. Up to that point, Tim Krul had made one fantastic save after another to deny Cardiff, but he could only watch as Mutch's bullet header scorched his net.

Seven minutes later Mutch would double Cardiff's advantage heading into halftime when he beat Newcastle's back line to chase down a beautiful through ball from Wilfried Zaha and curl it around an outstretched Krul. It was quite a remarkable ten minutes for Mutch, who picked up a yellow card for a reckless challenge on Fabricio Coloccini to go with his two goals.

Cardiff came out of the break flat-footed, seeming to invite Newcastle to equalize. But on 57 minutes, the recently in-form Fraizer Campbell chased down another perfectly-weighted through ball from Zaha to double the advantage.

From there, Thomas Shepherd's men sat back and played defense, occasionally breaking on a counterattack, but could not find another goal.

Things took a nervy turn in the 80th minute when the Cardiff defenders failed to clear a poor corner. Four blue shirts stood watching the ball bounce off the pitch before Sylvain Marveaux ripped the volley past a flat-footed Marshall to pull one back for the Toon.

Newcastle looked destined to equalize and take points away from Cardiff, but the Bluebirds were able to settle down, play possession football, and run out the clock, though they did allow Newcastle a beautiful chance to equalize, but Marshall was able to deflect Tiote's rocket and preserve all three points.

"A great win in front of the home crowd," Shepherd said. "I'm proud of our guys today. I know a lot has been said about Zaha lately, but you couldn't beat those two assists. He's been terrific for us. We would love to hang onto him after this season, but that isn't really up to me."

We expect more developments on the Zaha front in the coming month. Stay tuned.

Oct 5, 2013 - Cardiff City vs Newcastle United
TEAM	1	2	SCORE
Cardiff City (2-3-2)	2	1	3
Newcastle United (2-1-4)	1	1	2

Team Stats Comparison
Cardiff City		Newcastle United
3	Goals	2
18	Shots	10
12	Shots on Target	5
52%	Possession	48%
2	Fouls	0
1	Yellow Cards	0
0	Red Cards	0
0	Injuries	0
66%	Shot Accuracy	50%
79%	Passing Percentage	81%

[JibberSkin]

Great start to the season! 9 points through seven matches is an impressive haul for Cardiff!