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Post by Sonic on Apr 5, 2006 23:08:08 GMT
That league form is starting to look like the end of last season. It could be down to all the new signings brought in, but then they were needed. How do you sign all the youngsters? Do you just go to free pages and check out the interest and go, I'll sign you, or do you just sign all of them up that you can be bothered to?
Newcastle are remarkably consistent there, and have shown a sign to the fans that they do know where the back of the net is. Has Shearer gone into management?
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Post by coffers on Apr 6, 2006 0:39:54 GMT
Regards Shearer; I have no idea where he is, regards youngsters, once I have the new batch of kids from the academy to peruse I tend to search for all the unattached British players under 17 and off trials where the stats look useful. If the ass-man identifies any as enthusiastic, promising or better then they are offered terms, the rest are only offered terms if they look to have something special.
The next game was upon us an away game at Charlton, despite dominating we couldn't score for love nor money but neither could they, so yet the game ended in yet another draw, which didn't bode well for the visit of Liverpool in the next game. Belluschi was back from a 2 month injury but didn't get on the pitch.
The Poo looked like they would line up a 4-1-4-1 formation so I went with 4-1-3-2. Rafa was told before the game to concentrate on finishing above mid-table rather than looking for tilt at the top. The taunt worked big style, Vassell had us a goal up within a minute of the start then on 7 Kirkland punched the ball into his own goal. Liverpool were on the ropes but rallied and held out until the 40th minute when we notched a third from De Guzman. Vassell added a fourth in 1st half injury time, and Liverpool didn't know night from day. The Poo went down to 10 men on 53, Charisteas hit a 5th on 72 and Liverpool went down to 9 men on 87, Baptista committing a professional foul in the area. Guarin notched our 6th from the spot. To say I was ecstatic was an understatement. It was a fully deserved if somewhat surprising win, which left us in 5th place with 5 games gone.
Newcastle are second bottom having finally notched a win at home to Plymouth, 3-1. They had lost 2-0 away to Preston in the previous game. Newcastle's next league game is away to us..
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Post by Sonic on Apr 6, 2006 7:13:18 GMT
:cab: That's what I call a fix! Now your going to fly. TG Good idea on the youth front. I forgot completely about the offering trials, as everyone I've ever asked to come on one has rejected it. Must be a reputation thing.
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Post by Moo on Apr 6, 2006 7:21:42 GMT
Lost all three games? Here we go again....
Indifferent form is the newblack, I heard. KUTAW! (Average) :thumb:
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Post by coffers on Apr 6, 2006 11:06:31 GMT
Newcastle came to the City of Manchester Stadium on a relative high, the TV pundits forecasted a cITEH win and that's what they got, a bizarre early goal by Vassell and a close range shot De Guzman late in the first half ensured the Citizens finished the game as 2-0 winners. Unfortunately the same couldn't be said in the international Arena, Egypt went down 3-2 away to Malawi in the opening game of the African Nations Qualifiers. If I thought that the Venezuelan players were shoite then I hadn't seen this lot. every player apart from the goalie turned up for the game at less than 85% fitness. We would have hung on for a 2-2 draw but played the last 20 minutes with 10 men. In other words 1 minute after using our last sub one of our midfielders was carried off the pitch never to return. Malawi scored the winner in injury time. :moop: The League table after most teams have played 6 games:
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Post by Moo on Apr 6, 2006 11:09:40 GMT
Nice to see Spurs down there though. :humb:
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Post by coffers on Apr 6, 2006 12:19:25 GMT
The Champions League Group Stage opened with a home game against Italian giants Juventus, I stayed with the same formation and tactics that had seen us through two home victories on the trot, but expected a hard game. the TV pundits were predicting a draw, claiming both teams were on a par. They didn't quite get what they thought. From the off we put Juventus under pressure fighting for every ball, they retaliated on 17 and we won a penalty for it. Guarin obliged. We continued with the frantic stuff, it unsettled the more Italian cultured side. As the game approached half time, there were 6 seconds of normal time left when Glen Whelan received the ball on 25 yards, he spun and hit an unstoppable curling shot to give us a 2-0 lead at the break. Juventus obviously had a bollocking during the break as they came out with a bit more fire in their belly. It didn't last long, on 57 a long clearance from Kasper Schmeichel caught the defence out, Vassell got behind them, rounded Buffon and slotted into an empty net from a tight angle. Two Juve players managed to collide with the post trying to stop the shot. Six minutes later Whelan got a near post cross in and Vassell beat Buffon to the ball to double his tally. We played the game out at a less frenetic pace after that. So 4-0 a nice way to start a European campaign. Viera, Trezeguet, Ibrahimovich, Pizzarro and Buffon didn't look too pleased as they trooped off the pitch. The media described the performance as "a class apart" as we overwhelmed Juve. The opposition fans fans praised the quality of the performance. Our own board were delighted.
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Post by coffers on Apr 6, 2006 12:29:41 GMT
PS: The Ass-man has changed his tune, he now thinks that Guarin is a very talented player.
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Post by Moo on Apr 6, 2006 12:31:02 GMT
Dear me! Are you sure you haven't got this on beginner mode?
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Post by coffers on Apr 6, 2006 13:02:01 GMT
Our five game run of not conceding a goal continued in our next game, away at Blackburn. Blackburn had much the better of the play but didn't know how to finish, so Vassell showed them the way on 7 minutes when he turned his marker, cut inside and curled a wonderful shot passed their bemused keeper. Charisteas added a second on 79 just to rub it in. We only managed 3 on target shots in the game. So with a 2-0 win it's now six games without conceding.
Newcastle managed a second win of the season, 2-0 at home to Tottenham, this lifted them out of the bottom 3, Arsenal hammered Middlesbrough 3-0 at home which allows them to keep their 1 point advantage over us at the top. Our next game is at home to West Brom.
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Post by Moo on Apr 6, 2006 13:33:17 GMT
Vassell seems to be rattling them in for you. I can't believe someone has got the best out of the lad. Ha!
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Post by coffers on Apr 6, 2006 14:47:12 GMT
2-0, 2-0, 2-0, 2-0........... That seems to be the league mantra of cITEH these days as we rattle up another 2-0 victory, this time at home to West Brom. They made us work for it though, holding us to 0-0 at the break. It wasn't until I took the tiring Vassell off and fiddled the tictacs for the umpteenth time that we got a breakthrough though. A long cross by Belluschi on 57 found Charisteas at the far post, he rose above everyone to score with his head. West Brom redoubled their efforts trying to catch us on the break, but with 6 minutes to play we broke one of their breaks and broke ourselves, De Guzman beat the keeper at the near post. HA! I blame Moo's comment above for Vassell not getting on the score-sheet for this game. Immediately after the game Deadly Doug phoned me to ask if I wanted to manage Aston Vanilla for £130k per month. He promised a transfer kitty of £33M if I joined his enterprise. I delayed for a week, though I'm unlikely to take his offer. Villa Promptly went out and beat Newcastle 2-1 in a televised match to show they mean business, but they were at home and if we are honest Newcastle aren't that hard to beat at the moment. (Sorry Moo).
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Post by Sonic on Apr 6, 2006 23:33:52 GMT
130K a week? Deadly Doug offered you this :cab: That Juventus match was a top match, and I bet it was a fun one to watch Really, If you were to move from Man CIty, it would be to a bigger club, or a foreign league. You do have Spain and Italy right?
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Post by coffers on Apr 7, 2006 7:47:32 GMT
130K a week? Deadly Doug offered you this ........ Really, If you were to move from Man CIty, it would be to a bigger club, or a foreign league. You do have Spain and Italy right? No Sonic, he offered me £130k per month, read it again. As far as the Leagues go England is the only big league open to me. I've got the following Leagues running: England (Conference National & above), Iceland (Div 1 & above) Finland (Div 1 & above), Scotland (Div 2 & above), Norway (Div 1 & above) and Sweden (Div 1 & above). So I'm not going to get any big jobs outside of the EPL. I know I'm going to turn Villa down because they are only in the UEFA competition. I'm determined to take cITEH to the LAC final this season, well what I mean is I don't want to jump ship this early in the season. Has anyone else noticed that winning the League cup doesn't count for anything in the Hall Of Fame? I've also noticed that you get approached more often to jump ship than I remember in previous versions.
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Post by coffers on Apr 7, 2006 8:00:24 GMT
Would you believe it our next game an away LAC Group Game at Rapid Wien ended in a 2-0 win for us, again. This is getting silly. I rested Vassell as he was looking a bit jaded, but we controlled the game from start to finish, Charisteas scored our first on 21 minutes after De Guzman broke down the right and crossed to present him with the simplest of chances. Papadopoulos completed the scoring with 3 minutes of normal time to play, hitting a 65 yards shot into an open net. Yes their keeper had gone up for the corner and the ball was cleared to the Greek striker who was waiting unmarked and wide near the halfway line. The only negative point to come from the game was an injury to Daniel Agger (DC) who twisted his ankle just before the break and could be out for a month.
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Post by Moo on Apr 7, 2006 8:21:39 GMT
Key injuries suck scrote. Nice 2-0 win though, it's been a while since that happened.
KUTGW! :thumb:
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Post by coffers on Apr 7, 2006 8:27:43 GMT
Agger is an automatic choice for DC, but Ricard Dunne and Daniele Bonera will do a fine job in those positions whilst he's out.
Anyhow for September, Vassell claimed the Player of the month award, Bonera came third. I got the manager of the Month vote and Vassell's screamer from the edge of the area against Blackburn was voted goal of the month.
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Post by Moo on Apr 7, 2006 9:12:47 GMT
Show off.
Aye, that was it. Not worth the post really.
+1
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Post by coffers on Apr 7, 2006 12:46:09 GMT
When you're on a roll you are always wondering if the wheels are going to fall off, we were traveling to the Fat Man's stadium for the next game and I thought that it might happen today. The first half was a tough and mean affair, but we got our noses in front on 38 when that man Vassell got the ball near the corner flag and then went on mazy dribble before lamping the ball into the net from near the penalty spot. The lead was short lived as Vaz Te broke and equalised on the stroke of half time. we'd gone 8 games without conceding and we had to let one in today. The second half was much the same as the first until I made substitutions on 73. We got a break on 79, there keeper took a short free kick from near the centre circle, Bolton fooked it up and lost the ball on the halfway line and with the keeper back-peddling as fast as his little legs would carry him, Charisteas lobbed the ball into the unattended net from 40 yards. We didn't let go this time and Whelan slammed a third in from 14 yards a minute into injury time. I love it when Fat Sam cries into his beer. The TV moguls predicted a draw and were unhappy to be wrong. We now had 16 day break due to internationals, during which the Russian mafia approached me to take over at Chelsea for £140k per month. They wanted to revive the ailing clubs fortunes, but as I'm not a big fan of the London scene I told them not on your Nellie. Our next match was against Monaco and we had to travel away to play them, one thing was for certain; I had no intention of using Easyjet to get us there. :humb: Once again the TV men were predicting a draw and for once they got it right. The first half was a very even affair but Monaco took a lead on 23 when Schmeichel balls-ed up a cross he had no hope of getting. Never mind the goal a game man, Vassell, got us back into the game on 31, slamming in at the near post after a goal mouth scramble. Another defensive cock up, this time by Dunne on 45 minutes allowed Monaco to take a 2-1 lead into the break. I was livid, livid I tell you. I sent the team out in the second half with a flea in their ear, it did no good until the substitutes arrived. On 69, Vassell forced a parry out of the keeper and Charisteas arrived to prod home from 5 yards. Monaco attempted to grab a third but we wouldn't allow them near enough to shoot so the game ended 2-2. The media reckoned we should have won in the end and Monaco were fortunate. We still top the group by 3 points as Juve also drew in the other game away to Rapid Wein. We now have an away trip to 4th placed Arsenal to look forward too, followed by an away trip to Doncaster in the League Cup, which doesn't count for anything in the HOF, apparently.
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Post by Moo on Apr 7, 2006 13:09:42 GMT
You turned down Chelski? Wow.
Liking the LAC results. And humping Fat Sam..... not an image I wanted, in all fairness. Thanks Moo! :leafybranch:
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Post by coffers on Apr 7, 2006 14:38:58 GMT
I think I've found another bug in this here version, I can't find Scotland in 2010/2011 European Championship Qualifying Stages Competition. Wierd.
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Post by Moo on Apr 7, 2006 15:28:03 GMT
They got knocked out in the pre-Group qualifiers by the not-happy-in-Asia Australia?
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Post by coffers on Apr 7, 2006 16:15:06 GMT
Finishing off for the weekend, we'd let one goal in two games ago, two goals went in against us in the previous game, I hoped it wasn't the start of a pattern. As we started away against Arsenal it didn't look that way, Aissati a signing from Preston before the deadline scored a brilliant individual goal after only 13 minutes, running the ball down the wing from half way before cutting in a planting in at the near post. Three minutes later Lee Croft doubled our lead finishing off a Vassell cross at the far post. That was the signal for Henry to put on a one man show and score a hat-trick before half time (21, 34 and 45). There was no stopping him, the anger flew at the break and we came out playing a little better. On 57 Vertonghen headed in a Croft corner to level the game. That's how it finished half time tactic changes neutralised Henry and Defoe, but we couldn't find another way through. Drew 3-3, I'd have been happy with that at the start, but after going 2 up I'm disappointed. A mid week League Cup game at League 1 Doncaster gave me a chance to try out some fringe players and they obliged nicely. Goals from Ekin (13), Oskitz (25) and Flood (43) gave us a 3-0 lead at the break. The second period was a bit more low key but Hubschman added a 4th on 79 and Dunne got one from the spot on 83 to make sure we gave the minnows a lesson in football they wouldn't forget. Won 5-0. Finally a game at home to Birmingham shouldn't have been a problem but it was. Glen Whelan's 25 yard shot flew into the net to give us a 17th minute lead and we should have gone on from there. Unfortunately the game didn't pan out like that, Forsell equalised on 27 and we struggled from that moment on. More half Time anger but this time not much lift. We finally came good on 85, Santos hit a deep cross towards the edge of the area and substitute Papadopoulos stole in to blast the winner. We deserved the win but the team were blasted for making hard work for themselves at the final whistle. We're now on a 33 game unbeaten run in the league and 16 games unbeaten overall, the latter is a record.
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Post by coffers on Apr 9, 2006 18:43:34 GMT
The Champions League took centre stage next as Monaco visited and felt the full force of planet cITEH. Vassell opened the scoring on 4 minutes and Charisteas added a second on 7. Monaco pulled a goal back on 12 and the game settled down for a little while. A change in tictacs brought a second Vassell goal on 28 but Monaco struck again on 32 through Kallon, is second of the game. From that moment on, cITEH took the game by storm, on 38 Vassell nabbed his hat-trick and 2 minutes latter Mackoun scored an own goal to gibe us a 5-2 half time lead. There was no way back for the French side in the second period as first Whelan on 63 and then Ekin on 90 completed the scoring to complete a 7-2 rout.
A tip to Chelsea came next and they made me pay for turning them down, Torres opened the scoring on 2 minutes and despite Guarin equalising from the spot on 32, Torres doubled his tally on 67 to give the Mafia a 2-1 win.
Everton visited the City of Manchester Stadium and were treated to a beating, Vassell opened on 30 and though we were comfortable throughout we didn't make the game safe until the 81st minute when Peltier was forced to concede an own goal. A 2-0 win boosted our morale for a trip to Juventus.
We faced probably our toughest match in the Champions League so far this season and despite a hard fight we went down 1-0, the goal, scored by Miccoli, came after only 4 minutes. Beaten by a sucker punch.
A visit to high flying Middlesbrough was next on the agenda and things looked bright when had McMahon sent off after only 5 minutes. Unfortunately Guarin missed the resulting penalty. Still we had an advantage and long range shots from Whelan on 12 and 33 gave us a 2-0 lead before De Guzman added a third on 37. That was the end of the scoring, though we did create plenty of chances.
Another cup competition was the order of the day now, an away trip to Arsenal was on order and it would be damned hard. Our away games at top teams had not been happy affairs lately so a new set of tactics were devised and used based on a 4-2-3-1 formation using two DMC's just in front of the defence and it worked a treat. Monteiro opened the scoring for us on 14 with a break through the middle, but Defoe equalised for the Gunners 10 minutes later. Not much headway was made by either side after that so a minor change in tictacs on the hour was made. Within 5 minutes Charisteas put us in front and with Arsenal desperately pushing for an equaliser he broke again on 85 to wrap the game up 3-1 and give us a Quarter Final slot.
We had two home games next, first was struggling Southampton in the league, they fought hard but didn't really pose a threat. Whelan opened on 8Vertonghen doubled our tally on 50 and De Guzman completed the rout on 89. It keeps the pressure on the chasing pack.
The final Group stage tie in the Champions League, was a home game against Rapid Wein, they had given us things to think about on their patch but were no match this time around. Papadopoulos on 7 and Belluschi on 14 gave us a comfortable 2-0 lead but Rapid pulled a goal back a minute before the break. A mini roasting at the break breathed some fire into the team and Agger scored his first ever City goal on 50. That was quickly followed by Papadopoulos's second on 52. Having scored his first ever City goal obviously boosted Agger's confidence and he grabbed a second with a 25 yard shot to give City a 5-1 win, which ensured we finished top of the group. Juve were second.
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Post by Sonic on Apr 10, 2006 5:29:47 GMT
Month? I use Week, so I guess that's what I assumed.
It's been gunho until the Chelsea match, and the Juv one too, and things still look good. It looks like another league is going to be walked and it's all about hte CHamps Cup.
I'll have a look at the Scotland thing tonight and see if that occured in my game as well.
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