[jayhawkblue]

An update on my Atletico Madrid career:

Still in my 2nd season. We sit in 2nd in La Liga behind Valencia by 1 point. We're currently in the quarterfinals (against Man City again, now with Ronaldo) of the Champions league, having gone undefeated in our group and beating Copenhagen 5-1 agg. in the Round of 16. Some Champions League notes: Manchester United did not even qualify for the league, Real Madrid did not make it out of the group stage, and Barcelona lost in the R16 to Dortmund. We're also in the final of the Copa del Rey against Barcelona after beating Valencia in the semis.

It was a busy January transfer window for me. Diego Godin got homesick and requested a transfer, so I sold him to Arsenal for $10 million. Christian Rodriguez was not getting much playing time, so I sent him off to Chelsea, also for $10 million. I then brought in the 19 year old Brazilian defender Marquinhos from Corinthians for $7 mil. I also bought Junior Fernandes, the Chilean striker for Bayer Leverkusen for $7 mil to be a rotation player. I also bought Willian from Shakhtar Donetsk (I imported them from the Creation Center) for $14.5 million.

Here is my starting XI:

------------------------Salvatore Sirigu (84 ovr)---------------------------
Juanfran (81 ovr)--Miranda (82 ovr)--Martins Indi (79 ovr)--Filipe Luis(83 ovr)
------------------Turan (87 ovr)--------Rakitic (82 ovr)--------------------
-------Lamela (82 ovr)--------------------------------Adrian (86 ovr)------
-------------------------------Gomis (84 ovr)------------------------------
-------------------------------Aguero (90 ovr)----------------------------

Bench:
GK Sergio Asenjo (74 ovr)
CB Marquinhos (74 ovr)
ST Junior Fernandes (79 ovr)
ST Diego Costa (82 ovr)
LM Ola John (78 ovr)
CB Douglao (75 ovr)
CAM Willian (80 ovr)

On the international side, we (USA) drew with Argentina 2-2 after a terrible penalty call in the dying minutes allowed Messi to tie it up. We also beat Ivory Coast 3-0 and lost to Cameroon 2-0 (simulated). We have a friendly against England coming up that will be our final test before the World Cup this summer. Overall, the team has really improved, and I'm hoping for a strong showing at the WC.