Pittbulls, a new hope in a new league

[FrogMan]

This is my first post in the second season of the Pintendre Pittbulls. I decided to title the thread "a new hope in a new league", since the Pittbulls just got relegated to div V.211, an all-bot division in which they don't intend of staying there for more than a season.

You can find the few posts I've made in my first season at this link:
YAHD: FrogMan's Pittbulls

Let's get it on with our first friendly of the offseason.

Friendly vs Bees
Date: 3/26/2003 at 23:00
MatchID: 5144926
Arena: Pintendre Pittbulls Arena
Crowd: 734

Our first international friendly, at home, part of a home and home series with FOFCer Ausonny's Bees.

Lineups
Pintendre had chosen a strategic 4-5-1 formation. The following players had been chosen: Osman - Pawelek, Gardner, Silfwerling, London - MacAdie, Rasmussen, Rossten, Lumpkin, Lyles - Kolokotronis.

Bees had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Muller - Rodrigues, Sherwood, Siegel - Horton, Peris, Sheldon, Seaman, Moyer - Gallegos, Ladd.

We decided to keep going with our 4-5-1, which we were to a "solid" level before the game.

First Half Highlights
In the 30:th minute the visitors broke through on the right after some poor defending and Chad Gallegos put the ball away for 0 - 1.

With a shot floated in from just outside the penalty area in the 34:th minute, Stefan Rasmussen of Pintendre evened the score to 1 - 1.

Pintendre took the lead in the 40:th minute of the game by 2 to 1, as Stephen Lumpkin elegantly received a pass going deep, finishing off with a half-volley shot just below the bar.

In the 40:th minute Pintendre´s Stefan Rasmussen tried to nail the coffin shut, but the shot rebounded off the bar to fall behind the net.

Halftime
The teams went for a half-time break at 2 - 1. Pintendre held the ball, with a clear 58 percent possession rate.

Second Half Highlights
A penalty in the 46:th minute gave the home side a chance at adding to the score, but an overconfident David London shot the ball wide, in an effort to put it away in the top corner.

In the to 68:th minute a very unfortunate collision in the home teams penalty area led to Pintendre´s David London being carried off the pitch and replaced by Sammy Willis.

Paul Moyer seemed to be floating in the air at will as he elegantly headed in 2-2.

Pintendres Per Rossten gave, after 75 minutes, the home team a 3 - 2 lead after an attack coming in from the right.

Several players now looked tired, especially Walery Pawelek who quite horribly caused the 3 - 3 goal as he lost the ball to Robert Rodrigues of Bees, who seemed to have some energy left.

The referee showed Beess Alvin Sheldon the yellow card after a particularly nasty challenge. Panos Kolokotronis the unlucky victim, couldn´t continue the game.

End of Game Report
Pintendre, bringing the final ball possession rate to 62 percent, dominated the battle.

Pintendre´s best player was Stefan Rasmussen. Sammy Willis on the other hand, had a terrible day. Most important Bees player was Chad Gallegos. However, Mikey Siegel made a disastrous appearance. The match ends 3 - 3.

Player Ratings (stars)
GK: Osman (2.5)
DR: Pawelek (2.0)
DC: Gardner (2.0)
DC: Silfwerling (2.0)
DL: London, injured (1.0) & Willis, sub (1.5)
MR: MacAdie (2.0)
MC: Rossten (1.5)
MC: Rasmussen (2.5)
MC: Lumpkin (1.5)
ML: Lyles (1.5)
F: Kolokotronis, injured (1.5) & Garrett, sub (2.0)

Team Ratings
Pintendre Pittbulls
Midfield: weak (4)
Right Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Central Defence: passable (6)
Left Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Right Side Attack: inadequate (5)
Central Attack: poor (3)
Left Side Attack: weak (4)
NSI: 40

Bees
Midfield: poor (3)
Right Side Defence: inadequate (5)
Central Defence: excellent (8)
Left Side Defence: solid (7)
Right Side Attack: inadequate (5)
Central Attack: passable (6)
Left Side Attack: inadequate (5)
NSI: 45


Owner's Comments
All in all I think it was a good game. We took our chances and made the most of them. 3-3 versus a team that is currently reanked 13th in the official FOFC Hattrick rankings compared to the Pittbulls still modest 36th position. We lost two players to injury tough. One of them, David London, a 33 year old inadequate defender bought as a stopgap for the mere cost of 1000 $US in the second week of existence of the club. The team settled with David and he decided to retire (read: we fired him ). Keeper Osman is showing some good stuf, posting reagular 2.5 stars game and stengthening the defense. Offense might be a problem with the 4-5-1, even though we scored 3 goals. It might have helped that we played both wingers, MacAdie and Lyles, on offensive.

To replace London, the team went ahead and hunted for passable defender, that would not only replace London, but upgrade the whole defense. We found Jerome Ball, a 32 year old veteran in solid form with a solid stamina that should help him keep up with the yougnsters. He's a passable defender/passable score although he's a wretched passer. Valued at 76 000 C$, we payed him 18 000 C$ which we thought was a bargain.

With him and Klas Silfwerling in the middle of the defense, we might think of putting Christopher Gardner back in at inner mid, where he could bring a little experience to a midfield that certainly needs it...

Next Game
The Pittbulls will play their next game in the Canadian Cup, visiting yeat another bot team, the British Columbia Diggers.

Financial Overview
We are now at a debt level of (-289 714) C$, which will keep us from spending too much on the transfer market in the next few weeks, but Christopher Gardner might be placed on the market in order for us toget some fund to go hunt for a good, maybe older, forward to plug in the middle of our 4-5-1 formation. Reason for the debt is the upgrade to the stadium that will bring the Pittbulls Arena from the standard 7000 seats to a more respectable 12000 seats.

Next up
Training update coming at some point tomorrow or over the weekend...

Stay tuned,
Da FrogMan.

[FrogMan]

The Pittbulls have decided to try their luck by offering Inner Midfielder/defender Christophe Gardner on the transfer market.

The 23 year old brings a lot of versatility to the field, with his passable ratings in both playmaking and defending, and he sure can run around, with an excellent stamina. Here is his complete profile:

Christopher Gardner (8363899)  
23 years, inadequate form, healthy  

A controversial person who is balanced and upright.
Has wretched experience and poor leadership abilities.


Speciality: Head

Nationality:  Canada  
Assessed value:  258 000  C$  
Wage:  2 320 C$/week  
Owner:  Pintendre Pittbulls  
Warnings:  0  


Stamina:     excellent   Goaltending:   disastrous   
Playmaking:  passable    Passing:       poor   
Winger:      poor        Defending:     passable
Scoring:     weak        Set Pieces:    poor   

Deadline: 3/31/2003 at 04:50
Asking price: 180 000 C$

The asking price was aggressively placed at 180 000 C$ (90 000 U$). That way, if Gardner finds a new home, we will be with some new funds to spend on a forward...

FrogMan

[FrogMan]

Woohoo! Huge stamina increase this week, as 20 of the 25 active players in the team increased one level in stamina, although this also includes the two keepers. Net effect is 18 increases out of 23 active players, or 78% of the players. 3 of them even increased their form level at the same time. With those stamina increase came quite a few form drops though, as 11 players saw a drop in their form level, but only 4 starters were touched by a decrease in form level. One of them even dropped two level though.

Here's the training update... (ST) denotes a starter.

Stamina Update
Now with an inadequate stamina (all up from weak)
(ST)Walery Pawelek
Jean Saint-Laurent

Now with a passable stamina (all up from inadequate)
(ST)Klas Silfwerling
(ST)Jack Rudoy
Jerry Best
Sammy Willis
Radu Jurcã (MID trainee)
(ST) Andrew MacAdie (MID trainee)
(ST) Stephen Lumpkin (MID trainee)
Michel Brouillard (MID trainee)
Vincent Lyles (MID trainee)
(ST) Panos Kolokotronis
Mel Russell
Andreas Wästerstedt

Now with a solid stamina (all up from passable)
Mitch Madsen
Anders Mårtensson (MID trainee)

Now with an excellent stamina (all up from solid)
(ST) Jerome Ball
Malcolm Blackwell


Form Update
Now with a weak form (all down from inadequate)
Malcolm Blackwell
Per Rossten

Now with an inadequate form
(ST) Klas Silfwerling (down from passable)
Jean Saint-Laurent (down from passable)
(ST) Andrew MacAdie (down 2 levels from solid)
Shane Garrett (down from passable)
Andreas Wästerstedt (down from passable)
Radu Jurcã (up from weak)

Now with a passable form
Mitch Madsen (down from solid)
(ST) Stefan Rasmussen (down from solid)
(ST) Stephen Lumpkin (down from solid)
Anders Mårtensson (up from inadequate)

Now with a solid form
Michel Brouillard (up from passable)

All in all, a very satisfying update. Many players went up in stamina, 7 of them starters and 6 of my 8 young MID trainees also went up, which is good. The drops in form would be worrysome if the Pittbulls were playing in a higher division, with more competition. The drops bring the starting lineup down from a low passable average form (6.27) to a high inadequate form (5.81).
Right now, given the fact the we play in an all-bot division and that our first Cup game is against another bot team, we will go ahead and train stamina for a second week in a row. Only time will tell if this was a sound decision. We'll see right off the bat, in our first league game, if the all-bot division will be as soft as many pretend in the Hattrick conferences, as we face the team that finished 2nd last season to start off our season...

With all those stamina increases, the value of the whole team increased of some 74 000 C$. Biggest increase were seen for Walery Pawelek (+16 000, up 17%) and Radu Jurcã (+14 000, up 29%).

That does it for now, stay tuned.
Da FrogMan.

[FrogMan]

Here's a quick rundown of our Cup match win over a bot team...

Cup Match vs British Columbia Diggers
Date: 4/2/2003 at 23:00
MatchID: 6815773
Arena: British Columbia Lane
Crowd: 4512 (capacity: 7000)


Lineups
Columbia started off with a 4-4-2 lineup. They fielded: McEvoy - Healy, Nuttall, Dukic, Geoghegan - McCarty, Lagneau, Smith, Lloyd-Reason - Siggins, Allen.

Pintendre started off with a 4-5-1 lineup. The following players had been chosen: Osman - Silfwerling, Ball, Gardner, Rudoy - Verhaeg, Rasmussen, Mårtensson, Brouillard, Pawelek - Kolokotronis.


First Half
Pintendre took the lead in the games 29:th minute with 0 - 1 after some elegant plays down the middle. Michel Brouillard was the scorer.

In the 36:th minute Pintendre put themselves up 0 - 2 after an attack from the right, caused by a defensive blunder. Scorer was Panos Kolokotronis.

Halftime
The teams went for a half-time break at 0 - 2. Pintendre held the ball, with a clear 78 percent possession rate.


Second Half Highlights
In the 46:th minute the visitors put themselves ahead 0 - 3 as Anders Mårtensson finished off an attack from the left with a spectacular scissors kick.

Walery Pawelek of Pintendre was able to make an impressive rush past the sluggish Gerry Healy, which resulted in the 0 - 4 goal.

A well placed corner kick from Stephen Allen was followed by Lawrence Nuttall´s hard but accurate header. The nice combination meant 1-4 for Columbia.

End of Game Report
The fortyfive minutes were dominated by Pintendre, with an impressive 90 percent possession of the ball.

Columbia´s best player was Gerry McCarty. Gary Smith on the other hand, had a terrible day. Pintendre´s best player was Jerome Ball. Jack Rudoy on the other hand, had a terrible day. The match ends 1 - 4.

Player Ratings (stars)
GK: Osman (2.5)
DR: Silfwerling (2.0) - defensive
DC: Gardner (2.0)
DC: Ball (2.5)
DL: Rudoy (1.5)
MR: Verhaeg (2.5) - offensive
MC: Martensson (2.0) --- 1 goal
MC: Rasmussen (2.0)
MC: Brouillard (1.5) --- 1 goal
ML: Pawelek (1.5) --- 1 goal
F: Kolokotronis (2.0) --- 1 goal

Team Ratings
Pintendre Pittbulls
Midfield: poor (3)
Right Side Defence: solid (7)
Central Defence: solid (7)
Left Side Defence: passable (6)
Right Side Attack: inadequate (5)
Central Attack: poor (3)
Left Side Attack: inadequate (5)
NSI: 42

British Columbia Diggers
not worth mentionning
NSI: 25


Owner's Comments
I decided to go with my "A" team, since it was the last game of offseason and I wanted to see what they could do together. It's the "A" team's third 42 NSI score in a row, which makes us pretty consistent...

Jerome Ball had a strong first game, helping bring the defending ratings up to our first solids ever...

Not much else to say, it was a bot team and my team didn't really dominate. Future will tell...

We're now officially off the transfer market, as the debt level reached the 400 000 C$ mark. The league game and second cup game (at home) should help bring some money in the bank...

Next Game
The Pittbulls will play their first league game in their new division, V.211. It will be against another bot team and I'll soon stop saying that as all 7 other teams are bot teams. I expect to PIC it.

Next up
Training update coming at some point tomorrow or over the weekend...

Stay tuned,
Da FrogMan.

[FrogMan]

As you could see from the game report, Christopher Gardner is still with the team. Anybody has any idea how much I could get from him and what would be a reasonable starting price??

Thanks in advance.
FrogMan