Preview
Thankfully, I have the best spin doctors in the world. How else could you explain sponsors that are dancing in the strees, supporters that are delirious, and an increasing supporter club despite our three straight losses (including our Cup ouster)? That said, if we don't win today, we have serious problems. We should win and we must win. The team has been in upheaval as Houben, Romo, and Newsom have all been sold in the past week and a half, but something had to be done.
Team Groomers is one of the two teams I'm expecting to auto demote and to avoid that fate ourselves, we have to beat them. They have put up NSI's of 55, 57 (in cup, only 42 in fixture that week), and 60 the past three weeks so they are on the rise. They run a 3-5-2 but with lackluster offense as they play a couple of their middies defensive, including star middie Don Betts, who is capable of 4 stars. We should win this one, especially at home. One change to our recent standard lineup is putting Pierre Wellens at wing after Donald Newsom was sold as part of the shakeup. Derrick Solomon is back to starting at forward, as he did all for the latter half of last season. Hopefully the guys respond.
Game Summary
Date: 8/18/2003 at 01:00
MatchID: 8326983
Arena: The Hippodrome
Crowd: 28075
Weather conditions were fairly good for football, and The Hippodrome saw a crowd turnout of 28075. Hippopotami tactics involved an interesting 3-5-2 combination. The following players had been chosen: Kimber - Cristiano, Miquel, Bush - Starks, Meek, Benito, Connors, Wellens - Solomon, Phelan.
Groomers started off with a 3-5-2 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Arcuato - Anderson, Henderson, Sheldon - Codrescu, Saes, Betts, Ortiz, Fernández - Souza, Root.
José María Miquel gave his Hippopotami the lead with 1 - 0, as he successfully challenged both the guests central defenders, then placed the ball unreachably at the goaltenders right post. Carson Souza came close to levelling the score in the 26: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. Hippopotami held the ball, with a clear 56 percent possession rate.
After 53 minutes Stephen Connors put Hippopotami ahead 2 - 0 as he rose to head in a hooked ball, the result of an effort from the right side. By now Hippopotami were drawing the troops back in order to defend their lead. With 57 minutes played José María Miquel could have brought this one home for Hippopotami, had his hooked ball gone in, but it went just a bit too high. The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Hippopotami, with an impressive 63 percent possession of the ball.
Most important Hippopotami player was Herschel Meek. Pierre Wellens on the other hand, had a terrible day. The most dominating Groomers player was without a doubt Don Betts. Juan Antonio Fernández on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 2 - 0.
Events and Stats
A few notes:
1. Our score will always be first, whether we are ahead or behind
2. The (num) after the names is their goal tally for the season
3. "xx" means the time of the goal was not specified
4. Most stats will only be for our team
Formations
HH: 3-5-2
TG: 3-5-2
Events Summary
1st Half
HH: xx: Jose Maria Miguel (1): 1-0
Halftime Score: 1-0
Possession: 56%
2nd Half
HH: 53: Stephen Connors (1): 2-0
Final Score: 2-0
Possession: 63%
Final Possession: 60%
Cards
None
Injuries
None
Stadium
Terraces: 17776/20000
Basic seats: 7118/8000
Seats under roof: 2524/3200
VIP seats: 657/800
Total: 28075/32000
Not as big as our home game against Chock but still well in excess of $100K brought in! The Hippodrome32K is proving to be just the right size.
Team Ratings
Houston Hippopotami
Midfield: excellent (8)
Right Side Defence: solid (7)
Central Defence: solid (7)
Left Side Defence: excellent (8)
Right Side Attack: excellent (8)
Central Attack: solid (7)
Left Side Attack: solid (7)
DataKing/Nevstar Index: 60/68
Team Groomers
Midfield: passable (6)
Right Side Defence: brilliant (11)
Central Defence: formidable (9)
Left Side Defence: passable (6)
Right Side Attack: inadequate (5)
Central Attack: passable (6)
Left Side Attack: weak (4)
DataKing/Nevstar Index: 53/59
This is tied for our highest rating ever with the Dragons game last season. All excellents and solids looks pretty across the board. Although, I would like to get something higher somewhere- basically to have a strength. Then again, if Mick Starks is in better form, that excellent right side attack becomes formidable, I'm guessing.
Player Ratings
GK Tim Kimber ***~
DW Lorenzo Cristiano (o) ***
DM Jose Maria Miguel **~
DW Elmer Bush ***
WI Mick Starks (o) **~
MI Carlos Alberto Benito (o) ***
MI Stephen Connors (x) ***~
MI Herschel Meek (d) ***~
WI Oierre Wellens **
FO Edwin Phelan ***
FO Derrick Solomon **~
Total Stars: 32.0
Total player experience: poor
Team Attitude: Normal
Phelan showed no ill effects from his injury, going back to *** after last week's **~ before getting taken off the field. The wings are a serious problem: Starks's poor form is giving me cause to worry now and Wellens is really a trainee, not so much a Div IV caliber starter.
Three Stars
A goalie, a defender, and a middie
Bronze: Stephen Connors
All but put the game out of reach with his goal
Silver: Tim Kimber
Finally bounces back from his two game slump with his first shutout of the season
Gold: Jose Maria Miguel
Had game winning first goal and barely missed a second
Game Summary
This really was a boring game. But who cares, we won! Their anemic offense couldn't break through and even with really weak wings, we still put a couple past them. It was good to see Timber finally get back on track after 9 goals in his last 2 games. Nothing really stands out about this game except that we broke our 3 game losing streak and that it was our first ever Div IV home win.
Press Release
8/21/2003 at 02:39 Hippos Get First Home Div IV Victory
Over 28000 at the Hippodrome saw a grind-it-out defensive soccer game and the first ever Div IV home win for their beloved Hippos. José María Miquel got a goal and almost connected on a second and Stephen Connors got the second goal, early in the second half. The defense held Team Groomers to only one chance that hit the post and Timber made the 2 goal advantage stand up. The win evens the Hippos record at 2-2 with 6 points and a 0 goal differential with 8 goals for and against.
Around the League
Chock's bad luck continues and a big game in the battle for prize money
Brooklyn United - zfan 4 - 0
Brooklyn continued rolling along with the only easy game of the week. At Champions Park, they put up a brilliant midfield with a world class-titanic-brilliant defense, while running a 4-4-2. Their midfielders put up 5.5, 5.0, and 4.0 stars and four different players scored for them. zfan only put up a weak midfield despite a 3-5-2. However, they had a form-out-exc attack from their 5.0 and 3.5 star forwards.
The Champion - Chock Full of Wholesome Goodness 1 - 1
Less than 13K came out on this rainy day, but many more will claim to have. This game was the shock of the week as Chock extends their suprising winless streak to 2 games. The Champion put up some of his best ratings to date with everything between passable and formidable. Chock "only" put up a solid midfield, possibly PIC'ing, but his other ratings all were between excellent and brilliant. Both teams scored on their only chances of the entire game, which is, I'm sure, a product of the weather. The NSIs were 79-62 while stars were 40.5-31.0, both in favor of Chock.
Kaishaku F.C. - Iowa Enforcers 1 - 3
In another freakish NSI/stars result, Iowa goes to Kaishaku F.C. Arena and takes this crucial game in the race for 3rd, or possibly even 2nd place with the way Chock is playing. Kaishaku out NSI'd Iowa by 83 to 67 and outstarred them 35.0 to 30.5 but Iowa outchanced them 5-2. People keep saying the engine hasn't changed, but, sheesh- these are starting to get out of hand. This is three fixtures out of eight in the past two weeks that were really out of whack (>10 NSI difference, but outchanced) in IV.21 and I'm really starting to wonder.
League Standings
Code:
N Team P Goals Pts NSI
1. Brooklyn United 4 18 - 1 12 93
2. Iowa Enforcers 4 13 - 8 9 67
3. Chock Full of Whole 4 12 - 7 7 79
4. Houston Hippopotami 4 8 - 8 6 68
5. Kaishaku F.C. 4 6 - 9 6 83
6. zfan 4 8 - 15 6 62
7. The Champion 4 2 - 8 1 62
8. Team Groomers 4 4 - 15 0 59
It's cool to see me in the money even if it's just for a second. Next week starts a bad 5 game stretch. The easiest game is next week's on the road against zfan. Then things get really ugly as I have a home-and-home against Brooklyn wrapped around a home-and-home against Kaishaku. The absolute best case scenario out of that (barring teams being disqualified or something flukish) is 2 wins with 1 being likely and 0 entirely possible.
Hatstats
This is the first week a team from IV.21 failed to capture the top NSI for Div IV. Brooklyn's 94 was only good for 3rd, behind teams from IV.34 (Monkey of Doom, in a division with the Green Mages who used to be in the Misfitz V.253) and IV.28 (all day i dream about soccer). Kaishaku F.C. was 27th and Chock 46th in a loss and a draw, respectively. If the season ended today, Brookyln would autopromote into III.4 and replace Mountain Kings. Brooklyn's stud middies got 5.0 and 5.5 stars this week and that placed them in the top list of all players in Div IV. Lastly, this week, IV.21, as a whole, was 6th in Div IV for series strength.
Yet again, Louisiana tops the thugs list with 17 yellow cards. The Gargoyles and Calibiri are both in the top ten, as well, and lots of other FOFC teams dot the list. Havoc (not to be confused with Havok), who created the Kraftworks Union fed that I am in, leads Div IV in Fragility with a whopping 6 players hurt for 13 weeks. The highest FOFC team is the Horned Toads who have a combined 8 weeks of injuries between 2 players.
Notes
We needed a win and hopefully we can build off of this and win next week, too. We head to play zfan next week and, while they are tough, it looks like they were just declared a computer team so we might benefit from that. This week, for our friendly, we face Coffee Warlord in a battle of run-and-shoot!
SI