Tamworth: Back To The Future

[Chief Rum]

Tamworth Season Stats, March 3, 2009

Keepers             Age   Wage    Value   Apps    Con   AvgR

Jon Masalin          23   $35 K   $1.4 M   22      25   6.32
Thomas Heaton        22  $100 K   $2.4 M   21  (1) 25   7.36
Casper Nelis         32   $35 K   $300 K    1       1   5.00

Defenders           Age   Wage    Value    Apps     G   A  MoM   AvgR

Leon Cort            29  $110 K   $4.1 M   21  (1)  2   2   0    7.09
David Raven          23   $75 K   $4.0 M   21  (1)  0   5   0    7.09
Mike Duff            30  $575 K   $2.3 M   21       0   4   0    7.33
Hermann Hreidarsson  34  $825 K   $325 K   20  (1)  0   0   0    7.10
Kevin Gorman         20  $160 K   $2.3 M   20       0   2   0    7.65
James McEveley       24  $1.0 M  $5.75 M   20       0   0   0    7.45
Tieme Klompe         32  $625 K   $1.0 M   20       1   1   0    6.85
Gaël Clichy          23  $160 K   $4.1 M   15  (4)  0   6   1    7.53
Jarl Andre Storbæk   30   $85 K   $1.8 M    4  (8)  2   0   0    7.25
Jon Otsemobor        25   $65 K   $3.0 M    4  (5)  0   0   0    6.78
Peter Castle         21  $100 K   $2.3 M    3  (8)  1   0   0    6.91
Mark Phillips        27  $300 K   $4.0 M    3  (5)  0   0   0    7.13
Justin Skinner       36   $40 K    $45 K    2  (1)  0   0   0    6.67
Trond Erik Bertelsen 24  $1.3 M  $13.0 M    2       0   0   0    7.50
Mark Warren          34   $75 K    $45 K    1  (2)  0   0   0    7.33
Pat Davenport        18   $40 K   $475 K    0       0   0   0    0.00

Midfielders         Age   Wage    Value    Apps     G   A  MoM   AvgR

Michael Stewart      28  $230 K $10.75 M   22       3   8   1    7.36
Denny Landzaat       32  $850 K   $2.2 M   21       3   8   2    7.57
Johnnier Montaño     26  $775 K  $11.0 M   20  (1) 16   7   4    8.00
Richie Partridge     28  $400 K  $6.75 M   19  (5)  3   9   1    7.67
Jim Corbett          28   $80 K   $3.8 M   19       0   7   3    7.74
David Pizarro        30  $500 K $12.25 M   18  (2) 12   3   5    7.90
Lionel Morgan        26  $825 K   $7.0 M   17  (3)  1   7   4    7.55
Carl Motteram        23  $900 K  $7.75 M   15       2   1   0    6.80
Darren Birchall      30   $85 K   $3.8 M    8  (8)  6   4   1    7.38
Chris Booth          19   $60 K   $625 K    8  (3)  2   7   1    7.55
Emmanuel Olisadebe   30  $850 K   $5.0 M    5  (1)  1   2   0    7.17
Andy Williams        31  $500 K   $1.0 M    4       2   0   0    7.75
Giovanny Hernández   32  $725 K   $2.3 M    3 (12)  7   1   1    7.47
Danny Prutton        27  $1.1 M   $6.0 M    1 (14)  0   0   0    6.93

Forwards            Age   Wage    Value    Apps     G   A  MoM   AvgR

Louis Saha           30  $625 K   $4.6 M   20      15   6   5    7.90
Andre Pereplytokin   23  $475 K  $11.0 M   18  (1) 15   5   1    7.32
Orri Freyr Oskarsson 28  $950 K   $2.4 M   17  (3) 12  10   3    7.90
Yakubu               26  $1.2 M  $17.0 M   16  (4) 14   8   3    7.45
Adam Wilde           29  $400 K   $2.6 M    9 (12)  9   5   0    7.24
Mark Hicks           27  $450 K  $9.75 M    3 (18)  6   5   1    7.29

CR

[Chief Rum]

Tuesday, March 3 To Monday, March 9

We get back to some Premier Division play early on this week, when we play host to mid-table squad Nottingham Forest on Wednesday. Then we take our next step in the FA Cup on Saturday, as we host our old friend Cyrstal Palace, whom we beat in the final of that very same competition a couple seasons ago.

Nottingham Forest

On Wednesday, we play host to Forest, the 12th ranked squad in the Premiership. We beat Nottingham Forest at their place 4-1 in October.

Forest is a solid squad, albeit not one that really has the talent right now to make a run at the top. If they play well enough, they might contend for a European spot, but even that is a stretch at this late point.

Their offense seems to be entirely provided by striker Darren Huckerby (19 goals). They play an intricate 3-2-3-2, similar to what Dinamo Kiev ran last week. Their best midfielder, unfortunately for them, is hurt and will miss today's match. That would be veteran Icelandic international Brynjar Gunnarsson (6.90 rat). They do employ some decent defensive midfielders in the key wing roles in Darren Ryan (4 goals, 6.91 rat) and Diego Martinez (5 assists). The real problem with the team Forest runs out is that they have too many kids trying to learn on the fly. Starting midfielder Neil Futcher is 18, Ryan is 18, and starting centreback Lee Bates is 17. The net is at least handled by a well-known and venerable name in Finland's Antti Niemi. He adds a little respectability to the defense (50 goals conceded in 38 matches).

Huckaby is still learning to work with Nottingham Forest's key transfer window addition in HSV loanee striker Benjamin Lauth, who had 13 goals in 23 appearances with the German superpower, but only has one goal in five matches so far with Forest.

This is a first eleven match for us, from top to bottom.

That youth hit Forest hard early in this one. In the 5th minute, Andy Williams put a ball into the box for Yakubu, and Bates took out the legs of the Nigerian striker, leading to a penalty call. Williams got the call, and he blasted the ball over Niemi's left shoulder for the score.

The Lambs almost added a couple more scores in the first 15 minute, but Niemi turned away close shots by Johnnier Montaño and Orri Freyr Oskarsson. It was Forest, though, that almost ended up tying it. Lauth worked himself behind the defense on a nice pass from defender Hasney Aljofree and charged in on goal. Jon Masalin came out and blocked Lauth's shot to his left. Huckerby jumped on the ball and angled for a shot around Masalin, but the golakeeper retreated it and made a nice save to push it across the left goal line. The follow up corner was cleared without a score.

Despite the quick double shot by Forest, this was clearly our match from a control standpoint. Niemi was standing on his head to stop another tough shot by Oskarsson in the 21st minute, and to deflect a Jim Corbett shot over the net after a nice run. We finally broke through in the 26th minute. In an offensive wave that actually begun with Corbett's deflected shot, Michael Stewart ended up with the ball in the center of the offensive pitch. As he typically does, Montaño was able to time a step into the penalty area and Stewart was right on him with the pass. Niemi rushed out on Montaño and almost knocked the ball away before the Colombian mdfielder sidestepped it and kicked the ball into the open net for the 2-0 lead.

It didn't take so long to get the next score. In the 28th minute, Mike Duff had the ball from a foul near the right corner. He sent the ball up the goal line to Oskarsson, who was strangely unguarded. The striker ran up the line toward the goal and blasted a sharp angle shot at the opposite side netting. Niemi couldn't stop the blast and we had a commadning three-goal lead.

After that, Nottingham Forest actually did a fair job in keeping us to the outside of the penalty area, as we put a number of long shots over the bar. But it was too late by then, because they couldn't solve Masalin. In fact, the only shots they got all match came in that one two-shot affair in the 18th minute. Tamworth 3, Nottingham Forest 0

Oskarsson did pick up a minor injury, when he suffered a gashed leg. He will be out for five days, including Saturday's FA Cup match against Crystal Palace. That latter shouldn't matter, though, as he wasn't going to be playing anyway.

Crystal Palace, Sixth Round of the FA Cup

You know it's a slow week when we pretty much go from one match to the next one, just like that.

I have already talked a little bit about Crystal Palace. The Eagles are struggling this season in the First Division. They are the fourth straight club from the division that we will be facing in this competition.

Dominant First Division striker Peter Weathersoon remains the player to watch, with 28 goals this season. He gets help from Marlon King and young Richard Lambert (12 goals each) up front. Veteran Finnish winger Jari Niemi (14 assists) is the top midfield passer on the squad, with Weatherson also showing he passes as well as he shoots (14 assists). Centreback Darren Powell (7.10 rat) and young Italian fullback Ciro Rizzi (7.16 rat) lead a decent backline, but this team is definitely a better offensive squad than defensive. The net work is handled by Richard Lee, but he has allowed 70 goals in 49 appearances.

We will run out the second eleven for this one, as scheduled. There were no changes from the standard second team lineup.

David Marcelo Cortez Pizarro didn't start off the day so well. In the 13th minute, he took a header pass from Louis Saha right into the box, and had even dodged aside Lee, but he put an open shot well wide of the goal. He redeemed himself in the 20th minute. James McEveley took a clear out pass to the right centreline and moved it forward to Emmanuel Olisadebe along the right edge of the area. The pass drew the attentions of both Powell and the striker's marker, Gary Borrowdale, leaving Pizarro alone near the center of the area. Olisadebe has increasingly been able to find the centre man on this play, and he did so again, dropping it down to Pizarro. The Chilean midfielder ran into the box and on goal, blasting a shot over Lee's right shoulder for the first score of the match.

Pizarro continued to get chances throughout the first half, forcing Lee to deflect one shot over the goal, and to make a save on a low Pizarro shot after a long run up the middle of the pitch. Lee's ended early efforts turned out to be worthwhile, as the Eagles' impressive frontline combo went to work in the 40th minute.

Weatherson headed a ball toward Lambert just outside the edge of the area. With a step on the defense, Lambert ran into the box. Thomas Heaton rushed out on him and when Lambert kicked a low shot, Heaton deflected it to his left. Unfortunately for the goalkeeper, the save left him off-balance and help was slow in coming. Lambert barely beat Heaton to the ball and kicked it into the open net to bring Crystal Palace level.

Going into halftime with a 1-1 draw was hardly how I envisioned this match.

Pizarro continued to knock on the door in the second half. He threw a wide shot at the net off of a free kick, and then attempted a chip on Lee that the goalkeeper was just able to retreat on and catch before it went into the net. Lee couldn't do a thing with Pizarro's next shot, though, in the 59th minute. Denny Landzaat found Pizarro in the penalty area and placed a perfect high pass right onto the midfielder. The ball barely stopped an instant before Pizarro had blasted it at the right post, well away from Lee. The ball caught the edge of the post and sailed into the back of the net for the go ahead score.

Pizarro wrapped up a strong day in the 65th minute. Olisadebe got control of the ball near the centreline and found Pizarro on a run up the middle of the pitch. Pizarro was being closed upon on both sides, as defenders chased him and Lee rushed out. Before he even got to the penalty area, though, Pizarro unleashed a low curling shot that jsut whistled by the approaching Lee. The ball curved toward the left post and went into the side netting for a beautiful long score. The midfielder had scored his hat trick!

We continued to threaten to make the score worse, with Olisadebe having a shot turned away from point blank range, and Chris Booth shooting a shot off of the right post in the 80th minute. It wouldn't matter, though; we had already secured the necessary margin for victory in this one. Tamworth 3, Crystal Palace 1

Pizarro, on top of his hat trick, took no less than 11 of our 16 shots, and 7 of our 9 on goal shots. He rightfully earned a 10 rating and the Man of the Match in this one.

We were awarded $650,000 for the win in the Sixth Round, which is essentially the quarterfinals and the last matches of the FA Cup that aren't played on neutral ground.

FA Cup Sixth Round Results

We're getting to the nitty gritty here.

Chelsea edged First Division Norwich, 1-0, at Stamford Bridge to advance to the next round. That one probably shouldn't have been that close.

Still, the Blues did better than the other Premiership squads remaining. Arsenal was drawn at home, 0-0, by former Premiership squad Charlton Athletic, while First Division Scunthorpe held even, 1-1, with the Foxes of Leicester. Arsenal and Leicester will have to replay their matches on March 18 to determine who will advance to the semifinals.

League News

Some little bits of news on the Premiership wires this week.

On Wednesday, young Fulham midfielder Mike Douglas, who has yet to see the pitch for the first team since being brought on board from Crewe last summer, complained to The Times about his lack of presence on the first team. The 21-year-old has played well at the reserve level, though (7.42 rat).

On Thursday, the Western Daily Press reported that Bristol City defender Clayton Fortune is unhappy with his current contract. Fortune, 26, is making just $65,000 per year right now, so I can understand his consternation, considering he has started 28 matches for City (and played well, 7.11 rat).

Here is the Premiership League Team of the Week:

SC Miroslav Klose (Man Utd)-- 9 rat vs SFW
SC Orri Freyr Oskarsson (Tamworth)-- 1 G, MoM, 9 rat vs NOT
MF Michael Stewart (Tamworth)-- 1 A, 8 rat vs NOT
MF Andy Williams (Tamworth)-- 1 G, 8 rat vs NOT
MF John Arne Riise (Liverpool)-- 8 rat vs BLK
MF Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd)-- 1 G, MoM, 10 rat vs SFW
DF Gary Rowett (Blackburn)-- 8 rat vs LIV
DF Nyron Nosworthy (Southampton)-- 1 G, 9 rat vs AST
DF Joseph Yobo (Everton)-- 8 rat vs COL
DF Danny Higginbotham (Southampton)-- MoM, 9 rat vs AST
GK Richard Wright (Everton)-- 6 sav, MoM, 10 rat vs COL

CR

[Chief Rum]

Tuesday, March 10 To Monday, March 16

We start off this week by playing Dinamo Kiev in the second leg of our Champions League matchup. While we have a 3-0 lead in the aggregate scored match, this one is in Kiev, so I can't assume anything at this point. Still, I am looking pretty solid.

On Saturday, we play host to top ten Premiership squad Birmingham in a league game. That should be fun.

FA Cup Semifinal Draw

Two of the semifinalists for the FA Cup have yet to be finalized, but that doesn't mean the English Football Association won't move forward with their draw.

As it turns out, we got the only other squad that is certainly through to the semifinals in Chelsea. Arsenal-Norwich and Leicester-Scunthorpe will determine the other semifinal matchup after they play their respective replay matches next week.

We will play Chelsea at Wembley Stadium on May 4.

The FA Cup continues its "tradition" of offering me up tough semifinal opponents. Two seasons ago, I got Newcastle and barely escaped with a 4-3 victory after coming back with three goals in the last 20 minutes. Last year, I got Man Utd, and once again barely escaped with a 4-3 win there.

Chelsea, currently fifth in the league, is another example of a powerful opponent for my FA Cup semifinal.

Dinamo Kiev

Given that it is early March in the Ukraine, I expected some snow or otherwise tough conditions when we traveled to meet Dinamo Kiev at the Valeriy Lobanovs'kyi stadium Dinamo on Wednesday. It certainly was gusty and cold (46º F), but the pitch and sky were both clear.

The Ukrainian club marched out the exact same lineup as last time. For us, it was a first eleven match. Orri Freyr Oskarsson, though, was still getting back into shape from his down time via the gashed leg injury. I felt he was far enough along to include as a sub, but I started Mark Hicks in his place. Otherwise, the lineup remained the same.

I don't know if it was the windy day or playing in the cold or the already-noted tough defense by Dinamo Kiev, but this was a tight defensive match, the kind where any offensive run could be critically important. That's bad news, of course, for Dinamo Kiev, as they need to generate three more goals than us (and four if we score a goal).

A brilliant play in the 12th minute by Andy Williams set up a near score for us. He went on a long curving run from beyond the centreline, where he worked his way down the centre and then right up the middle, somehow dodging by numerous defenders. Just as he reached the edge of the area, he moved the ball up to Yakubu to the left of the goal. The Nigerian striker blasted a shot on goal off of the volley but his ball sailed too high and whzzed over the bar.

In the 20th minute, Dinamo Kiev got their first real good chance. Defensive midfielder Andriy Nesmachnyi took a ball just off the left edge of the penalty area and sent a high lob cross into the area. Striker Oleg Gusev was on it, but his volley went wide left of the goal. Then a couple minutes later, Brazilian midfielder Alessandro freed the ball up from Williams along the right touchline and moved the ball forward to Argentinian striker Roberto Nanni on the run. Nanni had a step on the defense, but, perhaps unwisely, went for a long distance chip over rushing out Jon Masalin. The ball just missed the net as it drifted down (kicked from some 30 yards out, I might add), and went harmlessly out of bounds for the goal kick.

This match seemed full of long distance tries that were a good ways off from success because of the wind they were going into. The closest shot through the first half and change came in the 53rd minute, when Michael Stewart sent a long ball billowing into the wrong side of the right side netting (wrap your mind around that one!).

We're beginning to creep across the second half here, and that's unfortunate for Dinamo Kiev. They really need to start scoring goals to have a chnce here. Getting a 0-0 draw or 1-0 win against us at home isn't going to be enough.

They did almost break through in the 59th minute. Nesmachnyi made a nice pass to Gusev, who went along a half-pitch-length run along the left touch. Gusev sent a sharp cross into the edge of the area, where Nanni was being marked by both David Raven and Trond-Erik Bertelsen. Despite that, Nanni got his head to it and blasted a strong shot on goal. Masalin was ready for it, though, and deflected it back out. Bertelsen cleared the ball to end the chance.

We had a great chance in the 73rd minute. Yakubu took a Bertelsen trhow-in along the left touchline and found Giovanny Hernáandez ona run toward the left end of the area. Yakubu sent a long pass that actually went into the penalty area well ahead of Hernández and his marker, veteran centreback Sergiy Foderov (the soccer-playing one). Hernández proved to be much faster than the older Fedorov and took the ball in toward the goal from near the left goal line. He fired a hard shot on goal, but the high ball ricocheted off of the crossbar and bounced toward the right end of the goal. It was then cleared by Goran Gavrancic.

In the 76th minute, Williams got revenge on Alessandro for the midfielder's earlier swipe of the ball that led to Nanni's oh-so-close chip shot. Williams took the ball from Alessandro along the left touchline and went on a run toward the offensive pitch. He has greater foot speed than Alessandro so he was able to stay on the ball and free up a pass to Yakubu, who was just outside of the penalty area, to the left of the goal. The striker took the ball ona run toward the center of the pitch and unleashed a hard shot just inside the left post. Goalkeeper Olexandr SHovkovskiy didn't react in time, and the ball sailed into the back of the net for the first score of the match.

Adding injury to insult, Gavrancic had to leave the pitch with a dislocated shoulder on the play. Not only would the injury cost Gavrancic more than a month this season, his squad had to try to score five goals in then minutes with a man disadvantage, since they had already used their alotted three-man subs.

Yakubu's goal would prove to be the difference, as Dinamo Kiev put up little further fight. Tamworth 1, Dinamo Kiev 0

On aggregate, we won the second round Champions League matchup, 4-0, and are through to the quarterfinals. We only allowed Dinamo Kiev to take seven shots, only two of which went on goal.

Other Second Round Results

Milan 3, Leverkusen 3 (Milan through on away goals) Leverkusen proved to be every bit of the tough match for the defending champs, but they fell on away goals after Milan shut them out 1-0 in Italy.

Tamworth 4, Dinamo Kiev 0 Already covered, of course. Our defense really did a good job in this round.

Levski Sofia 3, Olympiakos 0 The Bulgarian squad finished off the impressive victory by holding Olympiakos scoreless in a 1-0 match. They certainly have exceeded where I thought they could be.

Juventus 3, Celtic 0 The Bhoys blew a big chance when they went into a home match against Juventus just a goal down. Coming out of Italy with a 1-0 loss was impressive, but they dropped the ball by allowing the Italian club to continue to limit their offense with a 2-0 win in Scotland.

Bodo/Glimt 5, Sporting Lisbon 2 This was almost a foregone conclusion for the Cinderella Norwegain club after they thrashed Sporting lisbon at their place, 4-1. Today, the Portuguese power played much better, holding Bodo/Glimt to one goal in a 1-1 draw, but too little, too late.

AaB 3, Ajax 1 Another surprise squad held up on the road and didn't allow the Dutch power Ajax to come back on them. The two clubs drew 1-1 in the Netherlands, allowing the Danish club's 2-0 win at home two weeks ago to stand up for the win.

Werder Bremen 5, Shakhtar 3 Werder Bremen is clearly a squad witha lot of offensive talent, so there is no surprise they were able to put three up on Shakhtar. Holding the most dominant club in the group stage to zero goals, though, in a 3-0 comeback win to climb up from a 3-2 deficit going in is very impressive.

Brno 3, Lens 1 Just like AaB and Bodo/Glimt, another surprise squad in Brno held serve with a 1-1 draw on the road, allowing its previous victory to win through. What Brno has accomplished this eyar is nothing short of amazing. When was the last time a second round qualifier got all the way to the quarters?

O'Brien Joins Tamworth

On Friday, the transfer of Stephen O'Brien on a free from AA Gent was completed, and he joined our U-19 squad.

If you will recall, O'Brien is the promising 19-year-old midfielder we signed on a Bosman transfer a couple months ago.

He had four goals and six assists in 24 appearances for the Belgian First Division squad, and is thought to have a bright future.

As I said above, he will play with our U-19s for now, as he isn't yet ready for first team play at this level.

Champions League Quarterfinal

On Friday, we received official notification of the fixture for the Champions League quarterfinals, although we already knew we were set for a showdown with defending champion AC Milan.

We will play the powerful Serie A club at Giuseppe Meazza on March 25, and then at the Lamb Ground on April 8.

Our scheduled visit to Ashburton Grove and a match with powerful Arsenal was postponed due to the clash with Milan on March 25. The rescheduled league match will be played on April 22, instead, perhaps turning it into a pivotal late-season match, for Arsenal at least, if not us.

In other matchups, Juventus takes on Levski Sofia, Bodo/Glimt and AaB hook up for the Scandinavian quarterfinal and Werder Bremen and Brno will do a Central European matchup.

Booth Targeted For Loan Again

Unbelievable. These guys just don't have a clue.

We get another offer on Friday to loan out young winger and key backup Chris Booth, this time from First Division relegation candidate Derby. We turn the offewr down again.

I would hope it stick, but I know it won't. As a promising winger, he will probably continue to be a target until I finally make him a regular.

Morgan Unhappy With Role

Winger Lionel Morgan came to me on Friday (busy day) to inform me of his unhappines with not being on the first team.

Technically, of course, he is a member of the first team, and I regard hima sone of my best backups. I realize this is probably a reaction, though, to his recent demotion to the backup squad from the second eleven, courtesy of Williams' return to health.

I really like Morgan and have since my Middlesbrough dynasty, and I still have big plans for him. Truth be told, I think I can get a lot for Carl Motteram, the current second eleven left winger, and would probably prefer to move him and allow Morgan back onto the regular squads.

Still, that's a decision for the offseason. For now, I tell Morgan he will be selected when I feel the time is right.

Later that day, Morgan said he was happy I was beginning to appreciate his value with the team.

Looking back, I see why he might be upset, as he was an unused sub against Dinamo Kiev, and he wasn't selected for the three previous matches. He hasn't played since the first match in the two-leg round with the Ukrainian club, some two weeks ago.

I admit I am a little disappointed, though. I would have hoped Morgan was above the petty whining some others (Yakubu, Johnnier Montaño, Richie Partridge) have done.

Nelis Hurt In Training

On Saturday, reserve goalkeeper Casper Nelis hurt himself in training, tearing a groin muscle. He will miss the next two months, which more or less puts him out for the season at this point.

Losing a reserve, of course, is not really a big deal, but there is always the possibility that an injury to one of our top goalkeepers will make the need for a quality reserve necessary. Nelis, who started for us last season with Masalin, was the emergency reserve. We do still have our other reserve, Kees Kostwinder, but he is listed and I would only go to him in a true emergency.

Nelis appeared in just one match for the first team, conceding one goal (I believe it was ina low priortiy match against Colchester in late November-early December). For the reserve squad, he allowed 17 goals in 15 matches, to go along with 6 clean sheets. Considering he in the final year of his current contract, I suspect Nelis has played his last match in a Tamworth uniform.

Birmingham

More than four months ago, a tough looking Blues squad beat us in a tight 1-0 match, one of our few down marks on a long season. I am hoping to get revenge for that loss in today's rematch at the Lamb Ground.

Birmingham has remained the respectable squad it looked it would be back in November. They are sitting at ninth in league, and appear to be a solid defensive squad. Offensively, though, they appear to be in the bottom half of the league. That would certainly fit with losing to them 1-0 in November.

The goalkeeping is being handled by a familiar name from my Middlesbrough dynasty: Carlo Nash. It's good to see the guy doing well. Actually, he has been starting for Birmingham for years, and did pretty poorly. This year, he has been much stronger (37 goals conceded in 31 appearances), which suggests that at least part of his problem was a poor defense in front of him.

The only difference from last year's defense, though, appears to be the increased play of young Chris Griffiths (33 appearances by far more than he has ever gotten). The other regulars, Martin Taylor (7.35 rat), Matthew Upson (7.15 rat) and Vincent Kompany (6.47 rat) remain the same and aren't playing especially better than they have in the past. Perhaps Neil Cameron, who took over the managing job in Birmingham just over a year ago, has put a stronger emphasis on defense than his predecessor Simon Smith. It should be noted that Smith ran Man City for most of this season before being fired, and they have some very poor defensive numbers at the moment.

The offense, for all its problems, does have some quality players. Former Man Utd and Welsh star winger Ryan Giggs is still the best creative talent on this squad, even at 35. He leads the team with 10 assists. Damien Johnson (5 assists) is a good defensive wing on the other side, and veteran Senegalese midfielder Aliou Cissé remains a strong defensive player in the middle. Up front, Czech star striker Milan Baros (18 goals) remains the face on the Blues' offense. Veterans Kanu (7 goals) and Jason Roberts (9 goals) form a solid support group for Baros.

We went with our second eleven today, although we made a small change. Partly, it was a mistake on my part, though. Despite the fact that he had started a few days before against Dinamo Kiev, I was focusing on Montaño as if he was the scheduled starter. Noting, of course, that he was poor in conditioning, I decided to use the opportunity to start the unhappy Morgan in his place. Then, further making all this strange was that I put in normal second eleven attacking midfielder David Marcelo Cortez Pizarro in Denny Landzaat's defensive midfield spot, and left the Dutchman off of the squad altogether. I didn't realize my error until I had alreayd begun the match, so I will just have to try and make it up to Landzaat sometime in the next few matches.

We broke through the defense early on. In the 10th minute, Louis Saha headed the ball up from the center of the offensive pitch toward Emmanuel Olisadebe. Olisadebeb had a step on the defense going into the right end of the box. He fired a shot at the goal, but Nash was ready for it and defelected it back up the goal line. Olisadebe was first to it, but more improtantly, his deep run into the box had drawn the attentions of Nash and defenders Kompany and Upson, freeing up Saha on a run straight up the middle. Olisadebe has repeatedly shown his ability to find the open man and he did again, moving the ball down to Saha. The French striker volleyed the ball into the left end of the net on the run, well out of reach of Nash, stuck near the right post.

Just three minutes later, we almost added another one. Morgan got a freekick from just outside of the box. He sent a slightly curving shot at the left post, but Nash was on it and sent it back out into the box, where it was cleared by Giggs.

Motteram had another great chance in the 23rd minute. Taking a pass from Hermann Hreidarsson along the left touchline, Motteram turned at the outer corner of the penalty area and sent a curving shot right in toward the left post. It would have been a brilliant score, but Nash just managed to step down to it and block it. Kompany then cleared it away.

We finally broke through again in the 27th minute. James McEveley fired a long pass to Olisadebe along the right side of the pitch. The striker beat Callum Davidson in the air and headed it on to Morgan on a run into the box. Nash played him toward the right post, so Morgan switched feet and kicked the shot into the left end of the net for the two-goal lead.

After that, the Blues did a fairly good job of limiting our shots. Their problem was they couldn't seem to get anything going themselves. We had one other great chance, but a score by Olisadebe was disallowed when he moved too early on goal.

Backup winger and fullback Jarl Ander Storbæk picked up a knock in the 76th minute, forcing us to finish the match a man down, but it didn't change the end result. Tamworth 2, Birmingham 0

Storbæk was just fine, suffering a bruised jaw in a bad collision. He's just going to miss a day of training, and I always give the squad a day off after match days anyway.

League News

There was very little in the way of league news that didn't actually happen to us in Tamworth.

Here is the Premiership League Team of the Week:

SC Matt Jansen (Blackburn)-- 1 G, 8 rat vs MUT
SC Brett Ormerod (Blackpool)-- 4 G, 2 MoM, 9 rat in 2 matches
MF David Marcelo Cortez Pizarro (Tamworth)-- 8 rat vs BIR
MF Dickson Agyeman (Man City)-- 1 G, 1 A, MoM, 8 rat in 2 matches
MF Richie Partridge (Tamworth)-- 8 rat vs BIR
MF Mark Bresciano (Liverpool)-- 1 G, MoM, 10 rat vs MUT
DF Lucas Neill (Blackburn)-- 1 G, 9 rat vs MUT
DF Lee Atkinson (Leicester)-- 8 rat in 2 matches
DF Richard Scimeca (Leicester)-- 1 G, 8 rat vs LIV
DF Aaron Hughes (Newcastle)-- 8 rat vs FUL
GK Shay Given (Newcastle)-- 4 sav, MoM, 8 rat vs FUL

CR

[Chief Rum]

Tuesday, March 17 To Monday, March 23

We have a short stretch between international club competitions, and the cup competitions are growing sparse, so we finally return to a week with all Premiership matches.

This week will play 14th-placed Fulham at their place on Wednesday, and then follow that up with a home match against 10th-placed Everton on Saturday.

Fulham

The Cottagers just continue to seemingly run in place. They have been in the Premiership awhile now, but they never really threaten to break into the upper echelons of the league, nor do they end up relegated at the end of the year.

This year is no different for Fulham. At 14th, they aren't safe from relegation yet, but they should probably steer clear again. Fulham ranks in the lower half of the league in both offense and defense, and they are generally closer to the bottom than to the middle.

Both Collins John (12 goals) and Alan Smith (7 goals, 6 assists) are decent enough strikers, but the fact is, they just aren't enough to make a break at the big time. John is just 23 and having his best year, but he doesn't have top talent. Smith is one of those guys who is olid, but has proven he can't be more than that over the years. Hurting the Cottagers further is the fact that there is almost no quality scoring depth on the team.

The midfield is stocked with names, if not true talent. Like Smith, midfielder David Dunn is another known name that just hasn't really developed into a difference maker. He is playing beside one of the most beloved names in England in Paul Scholes. Too bad the former Man Utd superstar is 34 and lacks the physical ability to put his creative talents and football savvy to good use. Sylvain Legwinski is 35, but still plays at a consistent level on the right wing. American left wing Demetrius Williams (7 assists) is the best offensive innovator on the team, but he is way too inconsistent (5.97 rat). Michael Essien needs to see the pitch more from the midfield. He is probably the most complete player under 30 currently part of the offense.

The defense has a surprisingly long list of top players for a weak performing unit. Popular American fullback Carlos Bocanegro (7.14 rat) continues to be the backline leader. Former Man Utd fullback Phil Neville (two goals, foru assists) handles things on the other side. Both Zatyiah Knight (7.13 rat) and Steve Wilkinson (7.23) have done some good work at centreback, and the squad also brought on Arsenal's Kolo Abib Touré on loan, and has former international defensive midfielder Nicky Butt in hand. Heck, they even have nice wing depth with exciting young right winger Bruno Gama and former Chelsea winger Boudewijn Zenden around. Why is this team so bad?

Aging Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar might be a key reason. He is not enjoying a good year (57 goals conceded in 38 matches).

This was a first eleven match for us. There were no changes to the starting eleven, although I did add Denny Landzaat tot he sub list with the intent of getting him some playing time to make up for my lineup gaffe against Birmingham.

John got fancy to give Fulham a bolt of early excitement. Smith took an Essien pass and ran down to the left corner before sending in a curling backpass into the center of the penalty area. Deep amidst defenders, John performed an acrobatic overhead kick to blast a shot at the right post. He was off target, though, as the ball sailed wide right.

In the 8th minute, Johnnier Montaño won free through traffic along the centreline with the ball and proceeded on a run along the left touchline. He drew attention from Knight, which allowed Yakubu an open field on a run toward the box. Montaño put the ball on Yakubu's foot and the striker picked it up and blasted it toward the inside of the left post. Van der Sar was close enough to reach it, but failed to react fast enough, as the ball sailed into the net for the first score.

Just a couple minutes later, Jon Masalin almost made one of those critical errors he has been known to make. Demetrius Williams got the ball along the left touch and sent a long cross-pitch pass to near the left end of the penalty area. Smith went on a run to get to the ball first and used his speed to gain the edge. Masalin seemed to waffle whether to jump out of th enet to get the ball. By the time he decided to do so, Smith was able to get to the ball just before he did. The reuslt was a wide open net for Smith to kick to. Fortunately for Masalin and the Lambs, Smith was well off-target, curling a shot harmlessly past the goalmouth to the other side of the pitch.

Van der Sar turned away some good chances early on, including close shots by Yakubu and Montaño, and a play in which Jim Corbett went on one of his patented runs up the goal line to the box. Masalin had to make a top save when Smith made a well-timed pass to Essien on a run into the box. Essien was alone on goal, but Masalin was able to turn the straight-on shot away before Leon Cort cleared it.

Van der Sar seemed to be on his game, so it took a nice play to get us on the board again. In the 47th minute, Andy Williams cleared out a Fulham corner that Orri Freyr Oskarsson got to first out on the right. Oskarsson was under pressure from defenders, but he managed to kick a long ball across the centreline toward Yakubu in the middle of the offensive pitch. Yakubu got to the ball at the same time as Neville, but he got the ball under control, and skipped by the veteran defender to go in on goal. Van der Sar charged out to stop him, so Yakubu chipped a shot from beyond the penalty area. It drifted over the goalkeeper and fell perfectly into net for the score, Yakubu's second of the match.

Fulham had a big chance to get one back in the 55th minute. Legwinski put a pass into the penalty area for Smith, who had a step on the defense. Masalin went out to meet the striker, but Smith had a pretty good shot at a goal. Despite that, he kicked the ball well wide left of the goal, in a mystifyingly off kick.

We finally put this one away in the 61st minute. Trond-Erik Bertelsen passed the ball up to Yakubu on the left side. Yakubu headed the pass into the box, just ahead of Darren Birchall. The midfielder misplayed his first attempt at a shot, dribbling the ball forward at Van der Sar. The keepr couldn't get it under control, though, and it fell to Birchall again. He kicked into the open net with ease for the three-goal lead.

Tamworth added a fourth goal in the 70th minute, when Knight brought Birchall down in the box. Andy Williams kicked the ball inside the left post from the spot for the Lambs' fourth goal of the match. That is how it would end. Tamowrth 4, Fulham 0

The Cottagers actually got nearly as many shots off as we did (9-11), but they couldn't seem to get the shots on goal (2-9), and that would be their downfall.

FA Cup Quarterfinal Replays

While we shellacked Fulham, the two FA Cup quarterfinal replays were played on Wednesday.

All competition long, First Division and lower squads had stunned Premirship squads, but not this time. Arsenal edged Charlton, 1-0, on the road, and Leicester beat Scunthorpe, 4-2.

They will now play each other at Wembley Stadium on April 8, in the nightcap of a two-match affair that will start with us meeting Chelsea in the afternoon.

The winners of the two matches, of course, will meet for the FA Cup in late May.

International Call Ups

Club competition may be hitting the home stretch, but international play is just kicking off its season, with the resumption of qualification for China 2010 set to resume in the next couple weeks. On Friday and Saturday, we got the news that no less than 15 of our players were being called up.

On Friday, the Under-21s came calling. Ireland once again called on Kevin Gorman, while Slovakia called up our U-19 defender Andrey Gorbunov. The Ireland U-21's go to Latvia on March 27, and host Norway on Match 31. Slovakia plays host to Austria and Germany on those same dates.

On Saturday, we got the big call up list. Thirteen Lambs were added to international rosters.

South America is kicking off another round of World Cup qualifyinf fixtures, so Giovanny Hernández and Montaño were both off to Colombia, while David Marcelo Cortez Pizarro will go to Chile. Colombia plays Paraguay on the road on March 28, and then they host Peru on April Fool's Day. Chile travels to Uruguay first, and then play Paraguay at home.

As usual, Ireland called up Richie Partridge. In a new move, though, they also added longtime Lamb Mark Hicks. It's nice to see Hicks finally get some respect. Ireland's schedule mirrors that of its U-21 squad, just a day later on both.

This was also the first time Bertelsen was called up by Norway while in a Tamworth uniform, although this is certainly not his first time playing for Norway. The Norwegian squad will play Portugal on the road before Bertelsen plays two of his teammates on Ireland on April 1 in Norway.

The other players called up are to be expected, including Louis Saha to France, Michael Stewart to Scotland, Andy Williams to Wales, Emmanuel Olisadebe to Poland, Mike Duff to Northern Ireland, and both Oksarsson and Hermann Hreidarsson to Iceland. The only regular not called up was Landzaat. This was no omission--Holland isn't playing until a few days later, so the call for their players will also come later.

Saha and Olisadebe will meet again shortly, as France hosts Poland on March 28. France travels south to little Andorra on April 1, while Poland goes home to play Georgia. Wales will play both of its matches on the road, against the Faroe Islands on March 28, and Portugal on April 1. Scotland plays Malta on the road on the same first day, then Stewart & company will host the Ukraine. Northern Ireland travels to Georgia for its first match, and then they host Romania on April 1. Iceland wraps up the international fixtures involving Tamworth players by going to Belgium, and then playing England at home.

Everton

Unlike Fulham, Everton is a squad that has seen some success from its talent, although you could argue they could be even better.

The Blues still have a shot at Europe this year, but they are currently on the outside looking in at 10th in league. Only Bristol City and Colchester have scored less goals this season, but Everton does have a respectable mid-table defense, which has kept them in soem matches they perhaps shouldn't have been in. One of those was a 2-2 draw against Tamworth in November.

Richard Wright (45 goals conceded in 35 matches) continues to play well in net for the Blues, if not spectacular. He remains a top notch netminder. Nigerian centreback Joseph Yobo (7.22 rat) continues to be a force on the backline. Everton's defense would be much worse without him, as he has to make up for players of either poor ability like fullback Tony Hibbert (6.24 rat, highest in three seasons) or youth, like centrebacks Andy Potter (21 years old) and Declan Power (20).

The wings key the offense in this tactic, led by Danish winger Jesper Gronkjær (6 assists) and Colombian winger Daniel Cruz (5 assists). Chinese star Li Tie (5 assists) is the top player in the middle.

In the absence of oft-injured Wayne Rooney (6 goals in 14 matches), Elvis Hammond (7 goals) is leading the Blues in scoring. He gets help from young 17-year-old David Cooper (6 goals in 20 matches), who is a youthful talent that is giving Everton's offense what life it has. Steady Scotsman James McFadden (5 goals, 4 assists) continues to help the offense from both the frontline and the midfield. Rooney is just wrapping up another two-month stretch of down time, courtesy of his second torn groin muscle of the year. He will have missed more than four months this year due to groin hurts, and injuries have derailed what once was a very promising career.

We are going with the second eleven today. The only change we make is sticking Danny Prutton in the defensive midfield spot for Landzaat. The Dutch midfielder played half of the match against Fulham, and is still recovering from that. Still, as a nod to the start I accidentally cost him, he is ont he sub list for this one, and I do intend to play him again.

We didn't waste any time. In fact, our first score came on a play with surprising quickness in the 7th minute. Tie had the ball on the defensive side of the pitch, when Olisadebe slipepd up and took it from him. Very quickly, he dropped a pass to Partridge, who moved it up to Pizarro on a run toward the box. Wright charged out, but Pizarro went with old tricks and chipped the ball over the goalkeeper. The ball fell into the left corner of the net for the first goal.

Just four minutes later, we used a persistent attack to stack on another goal. Gorman found Pizarro running into the box again, and Pizarro unleashed a low shot right at Wright. The goalkeeper deflected it to his left, but no one could get to the ball faster than Pizarro. The Chilean midfielde rkicked another one at Wright, but he was positioned well again. This time, though, the rebound fell to his right and, unfortunately, for Everton in good view of a wide open net. Saha came up from the edge to finish off the easy score before a defender could leap on it and clear it.

We continued to get chances on Everton throughout the rest of the match, but we couldn't capitalize on any further passing plays. We got just one more goal off of a brilliant curling freekick by Pizarro in the 57th minute. The kick, from 30 yards out, was a fantastic, highlight-reel type of score that curled just inside the left post.

As has been the case recently, we simply dominated on defense, allowing just one shot, and made good on our shots on offense. Tamworth 3, Everton 0

We are really beginning to stretch things out in league, with a 14 point lead on second place Man Utd.

Thoughts On Match Reports And Our Tactics

I have decided at this point on two things regarding Tamworth league matches the rest of the way.

I believe our league championship is a foregone conclusion at this point, with just a month and change left. So from now on, I will be running normal computer tactics throughout matches (in other words, no uber tactics) the rest of the way, at least in league. I will continue to use what has worked in international and cup competitions.

This is in preparation for next seaosn, when I have decided I will only allow myself to use regular tactics in league matches. I don't know yet if I will extend that ban to cup and European competition, although I will play it by ear.

The other change I will make for league matches the rest of the way is that I will shorten my match reports considerably, unless I believe there is something of import that needs to be shared beyond simple scores and goal reports and what not. It's simply gotten too long to write out each match report.

I still plan on doing full writeups of international and any remaining cup matches.

League News

Nottingham Forest manager Walter Smith praised his midfielder Brynjar Gunnarsson in the media for recently strong form on Wednesday. Gunnarsson was out with an injury when Forest played us a couple weeks ago, so I personally wouldn't know. The veteran Icelandian has been solid this season, though (two goals, four assists, 6.90 rat).

Smith suggested that if the rest of the team played at the same level of Gunnarsson, the club wouldn't be where they are in the league table (an actually not bad 11th).

Fans flooded the local media in Nottingham with praise for the midfielder following Smith's announcement.

On Thursday, Southampton finally named a new manager, and it's an old name. Former Middlesbrough manager Steve McLaren returns to the Premiership as the new boss of the Saints.

McLaren's return highlights a bounce back year for the 47-year-old manager. Last season, he got sacked by the Boro in February, and then resigned his post as England's national team manager after the home nation did poorly in Euro 2008. McLaren was hired by Scottish power Rangers and has led them to a second place spot in the Scottish Premier League. He also reached the Scottish League Cup final and kept the team in the Scottish Cup until the quarterfinals.

For his career, McLaren is a respectable 105-64-94, with 381 goals for versus 368 against in 263 games managed. He has yet to win a league or a cup. He managed England after Sven-Goran Eriksson was fired following Euro 2004, and coached them through qualifying for Germany 2006 and then Euro 2008. England failed to qualify for Germany 2006.

McLaren is stepping into a good situation, as Southampton, in 7th, is deep in contention for a European spot, perhaps even the UEFA or a Champions League spot with a good run.

Here is the Premiership League Team of the Week:

SC Thierry Henry (Arsenal)-- 1 G, MoM, 9 rat vs CHE
SC Shola Ameobi (Newcastle)-- 1 G, 1 A, MoM, 9 rat in 2 matches
MF David Marcelo Cortez Pizarro (Tamworth)-- 2 G, 1 A, MoM, 9 rat vs EVR
MF Jim Corbett (Tamworth)-- 9 rat vs FUL
MF Andy Williams (Tamworth)-- 1 G, 9 rat vs FUL
MF Richie Partridge (Tamworth)-- 9 rat vs EVR
DF Luke Young (Aston Villa)-- 7.50 rat in 2 matches
DF Matthew Upson (Birmingham)-- MoM, 8 rat in 2 matches
DF Mike Duff (Tamworth)-- 9 rat vs FUL
DF Ben Gardner (Newcastle)-- 1 G, MoM, 9 rat vs MAN
GK Tony McDermott (Arsenal)-- 3 sav, 8 rat vs CHE

CR

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Thoughts On Match Reports And Our Tactics

I have decided at this point on two things regarding Tamworth league matches the rest of the way.

I believe our league championship is a foregone conclusion at this point, with just a month and change left. So from now on, I will be running normal computer tactics throughout matches (in other words, no uber tactics) the rest of the way, at least in league. I will continue to use what has worked in international and cup competitions.

This is in preparation for next seaosn, when I have decided I will only allow myself to use regular tactics in league matches. I don't know yet if I will extend that ban to cup and European competition, although I will play it by ear.

The other change I will make for league matches the rest of the way is that I will shorten my match reports considerably, unless I believe there is something of import that needs to be shared beyond simple scores and goal reports and what not. It's simply gotten too long to write out each match report.

I still plan on doing full writeups of international and any remaining cup matches.

Why not do your own instead of using stock computer tactics? That could be something else fun to tinker with.

Y'know, at least fun for us to mock and harass you with.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by daedalus

Why not do your own instead of using stock computer tactics? That could be something else fun to tinker with.

Y'know, at least fun for us to mock and harass you with.

Oh, I'll be tinkering!

I'm just saying I will always go off of a computer tactic base before I make adjustments, and that I will avoid moves that will make something into an uber-tactic (one of which, I believe, is the forward run for the attacking midfielder in diablo, which is the reason I score so many goals with Pizarro and Montaño).

CR

[Chief Rum]

Tuesday, March 24 To Monday, March 30

We have one match this week before everyone takes off for international matches. That, of course, is the key opener of our two-leg Champions League quarterfinal with defending champion and world superpower Milan. I don't think I am overstressing in noting how critical this match could be.

I will be covering the international action in separate posts, so this might be a light week outside of the Milan match.

Landzaat Called Up

On Wednesday, Tamworth midfielder Denny Landzaat got the expected call up to Holland. His notice from the Netherlands came a few days after the others because Holland will only play one match in this round of World Cup qualifying fixtures.

Landzaat has been a regular call up with the Netherlands national team since well before coming to the Lamb Ground. He and his Dutch countrymen will meet Lithuania on the road on April 1.

Milan, First Leg of the Champions League Quarterfinal

Now for the big time. This is the kind of squad that can beat us even when we're running an uber tactic. They are that good.

In an odd twist, we have actually played AC Milan this season, beating them 3-1 in the Super Cup in August, which matches the Champions League and UEFA winners.

Milan is currently on top of the powerful Serie A, although the league is very tight at the moment, with surprising Brescia (one point back) and three-time defending champ Juventus (two points back) within a win of the top, and dangerous Inter is also fairly close (five points back).

As is often the case with superpowers flush with cash (see: Real Madrid, Man Utd, etc.), Milan made some purchases in the midseason transfer window to bolster their club. Unfortunately for them, only one of the three players they spent more than $60 M on is eligible for international club play. They spent over $56 M on Liverpool winger Harry Kewell and Arsenal midfielder Ivan Genarro Gattuso, but neither can play in the Champions League, because they were on their respective former clubs' international rosters for previous European-level competitions. So the only January transfer we will have to play against is Danish forward Johan Absalonsen, who was playing with 2007-08 mid-table Marseille of La Ligue.

Milan's lineup, of course, reads like a who's who of international superstardom. Milan has the Serie A's top defense, and a respectable offense, if not at the very top of the league. The head of defense is Brazilian star goalkeeper Dida (51 goals conceded in 48 matches, 18 clean sheets). He plays behind a four-man backline in the 4-3-3 tactic Milan runs (incidentally, the same as English powerhouses Chelsea and Arsenal). French international Mikaël Silvestre (8 assists, 7.02 rat) and Italian veteran Gianluca Zambrotta (5 assists, 6.88 rat) are two well-rounded ends to the backline, while popular Georgian defender Kakhaber Kaladze (7.03 rat) heads the central defense. He is paired there with Italian superstar defender Alessandro Nesta (7.23 rat).

The three-man midfield features both Kewell and Gattuso at prominent points in league play, but they, of course, can't play in the Champions. Not that that matters for a team with this kind of depth. I doubt the squad will suffer from replacing those guys with talents like Kléberson (4 goals, 7 assists, 7.12 rat) and Argentinian superstar Andrés D'Alessandro (9 goals, 10 assists, 7.36 rat). Former Arsenal star Patrick Vieira (7.09) is still a powerful defensive presence in the middle of the tactic.

Up front, the talent is just sick. Former Man Utd superstar Ruud van Nistlerooy (19 goals, 4 assists) is at the center of the three-man frontline, where he serves as a target for both the midfield and his star forward partners, Kaká (13 goals, 7 assists) and Andriy Shevchenko (9 goals, 11 assists).

On our schedule, this is a first eleven match. We made no changes to our first eleven for this match.

Right away, I knew this match wasn't going to be like my other ones. Absalomsen, starting on the frontline instead of Nistlerooy (you got me as to why), went on a long run along the left touch in the 4th minute. He moved into the area and sent a sharp crossing pass into the box. The ball skipped dangerously close to both Kaká and Shevchenko before Leon Cort got to the ball and cleared it out of danger. Showing the offensive firepower for both clubs, we went on an immediate counterattack run off of Cort's clear out, as Yakubu ended up with the ball and went on a cross-pitch run before Dida deflected his shot over the crossbar.

On the ensuing corner kick by Jim Corbett, Shevchenko drew a foul for a push on Orri Freyr Oskarsson--and gave us a penalty! Oskarsson himself went up to take the shot. The Icelandic forward blasted a shot right up the middle, counting on Dida making a guess one way or another. But the Brazilian superstar netminder didn't get where he is by falling for that. He was ready for it and sent the ball right back out into the box. Oskarsson was, of course, first ont he ball, but Dida stepped forward and caught the striker's rebound attempt to end the early chance.

The thing that scared me most (and which became quickly apparent) was that Milan was quickly able to outman us on the backline with a quick counterattack. They often had odd-numbered rushes, which is atypical of this tactic. Shevchenko, for instance, went on one such rush in the 22nd minute. Fortunately, Jon Masalin was ready for it and clutched the Ukrainian striker's shot.

In the 25th minute, we finally managed to capitalize on an error by Silvestre. The French fullback tried to move the ball along the centreline, but Oskarsson intercepted the ball and moved it down to Johnnier Montaño. The midfielder went on a run toward the centre circle, drawing the attention of Kaladze. That allowed Oskarsson to get a step on the defense on a run toward the box. With Nesta and Kaladze trying to close in on him, Oskarsson took the return pass from Montaño and ran into the box from the right. After working his way to the right to seek a hole around the charging Dida, Oskarsson blasted a shot just inside the right post for the first score of the match. We nearly added a quick second score a minute later, but Nesta made a key clearance on an Oskarsson centering pass to Montaño.

In the 30th minute, Montaño had the ball near the cente of the pitch. He tried to move the ball forward to Oskarsson, who was trying to get a step on the defense into the box. Vieira seemed to be ready to head the pass away, though--until he mishit it! The French midfielder misjudged the pass and accidentally struck it back--and right on Oskarsson's foot! Oskarsson quickly ran intot he box and reproduced another high corner shot inside the right post for his second goal of the match. Oskarsson is already just a missed penalty away from a hat trick.

I had seen this before. I felt this was the start of a huge run, and we would put powerful Milan away much as we had others before them. Silly me.

In the 38th minute, Mike Duff got above Shevchenko in the box for a Kaká crossing pass and headed a clear out. The header was short, though, and Kléberson was first on it. He immediately moved it up to Absalomsen on the left. The Danish forward ran into the box to the left of the goal. After dodging right, Absalomsen fired a shot into the upper left corner that Masalin was unable to get to. The Italian club had moved within one, and the decision to start Absalomsen over Nistlerooy no longer looked so odd.

Oskarsson nearly completed his hat trick in the 47th minute, when he took the ball alone on goal. He dodged to the left and fired a shot on goal, but Dida blocked the ball up the left goal line. Nesta kicked it across the goal line before another Lamb could get on the loose ball.

It almost happened again in the 59th minute. Corbett found Oskarsson on a run into the box with a perfect centering pass. The Icelander put a hard shot into the upper right corner of the net. Unfortunately, the ref waved it off, calling offsides on Yakubu. Dida also stonewalled Montaño on a shot from the left of the goal, contributing to a long string of Tamworth futility in the second half.

Where we failed, Milan succeeded. Not long after the Montaño miss, Shevchenko found new sub Nistlerooy running on the left side of the offensive pitch. He moved it forward to the Dutch star, who took it to the left goal line before trying to center it. The pass richocheted off of Cort, marking Nistlerooy, though, and settled to the left of the goal. Shevchenko was first on it and he moved it up to backup defender André Bahia, just getting around an attempted interception by Trond-Erik Bertelsen. Bahia, alone and even with the right post, sent a shot into the right end of the net beforee Masalin could work his way up the line. With that, Milan had tied it up.

They weren't done. In the 72nd minute, Silvestre fired off a free kick from a distant left touchline spot. He sailed the kick in toward the right end of the six-yard box. Nesta and Bertelsen went up for the aerial challenge. Not only did Nesta win that challenge; his header bounced off of the Norwegain fullback and shot askance of its original path, surprising Masalin and bouncing into the net for the go ahead score, just to the right of the left post.

We got a shot or two more in, but that go ahead goal was the dagger in the heart. We never seriously threatened again, and have put ourselves behind the eight-ball in our tow-leg match with Milan. Milan 3, Tamworth 2

We do get to play that next match at the Lamb Ground, but you have to worry when you are going up against a reknowned squad that has proven itself capable of playing with you. We will need to win by at least one at home on April 8 to have a chance to move on.

Other Champions League Results

Danish squad AaB edged Norwegian club Bodo/Gimt, 3-2, in Denmark to take the early advantage in the matchup of surprising Scandinavian clubs. AaB did a strong defensive job, limiting Bodo/Glimt to just four total shots (although they did score on both of their shots on goal).

Juventus wasn't going to allow surprising Levski Sofia to shock them. As you might expect, they held serve at home quite strongly, dominating the Bulgarian squad, 3-0. Levski Sofia only had one shot on goal.

Brno did the unexpected (as they have done all competition) and held the offensively potent Werder Bremen scoreless on the road. The suppsoedly defensively-deficient Bundesliga squad returned the favor, though, as the two sides ended up level, 0-0. This one will need to be decided in the Czech Republic.

All four of the second legs of the Champions League quarterfinals will take place on April 8.

Injuries

While many of our top stars packed their bags and fled the Lamb Ground to various points arounde continental Europe and beyond, some of the other players stayed home and got hurt in training.

Reserve striker Che Stadhart broke his toe on Thursday, and will miss two weeks. Slovakian U-19 striker Roman Boldyrev broke his collarbone in a training session on Sunday, and will miss about four weeks. On Monday, we were finally hurt on the first team. Key backup winger and midfielder Lionel Morgan picked up a calf strain and will miss about two weeks.

I almost wish I had rested everyone instead.

League News

There was no news of note this week in the Premiership, what with the league's best players leaving to represent their homelands around the world. Since there were no league matches, there, of course, was also no Premiership Team of the Week.

CR

[Chief Rum]

International Play Up To Late March Matches

There have been some international matches played, particularly in Africa, since I last took a look at international play, so this post will catch everyone up on the goings-on as the world prepares for China 2010.

African Cup Of Nations Qualifying

Africa holds its Cup of Nations--its equivalent to the Euro--every two seasons, including during World Cup years. So they are running qualifying for both competitions at the same time (which is why Yakubu takes off to international play so often).

Here's a quick list of the top clubs in Africa, by FIFA ranking.

6. Nigeria
10. Cameroon
12. Senegal
14. Morocco
17. Ghana
22. Ivory Coast
26. South Africa
34. Angola
40. Algeria
42. Togo
45. Sierra Leone
47. Liberia
50. Egypt
51. Burkina Faso
52. Kenya
58. Mali
61. Zimbabwe
65. Guinea
67. Democratic Republic of Congo
70. The Congo
89. Libya
91. Rwanda
92. Mozambique
96. Zambia

There are 13 groups in the African Cup of Nations qualifying, with three or four nations per group. Morocco is hosting the event in 2010, and Senegal is the defending champion.

Here's a brief group-by-group look, with three matches left for each club.

Group A: Angola (34), Congo (70), Djibouti, Niger

Comments: As expected, Angola is dominating, and since only one nation moves on, it's almost already a cinch to move on. The Angolans have 9 points to 3 for everyone else.

Group B: Algeria (40), Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Togo (42)

Comments: Togo has the edge over Algeria, 9 points to 6, and beat Algeria head-to-head last year, so this group spot is theirs for the taking.

Group C: Chad, Malawa, Mali (58), Zambia (96)

Comments: Mali got a lucky draw here, it appears, and they are leading the group. They aren't dominating, though, with Zambia still in reach.

Group D: Egypt (50), Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Zimbabwe (61)

Comments: Zimbabwe has the edge and a win over Egypt, so it's an uphill climb for the traditional power along the Mediterranean coast.

Group E: Burkina Faso (51), Central African Republic, Ghana (17), Tanzania

Comments: Ghana is one of the top clubs in Africa, so it's no surprise they have won all three of their matches so far. Burkina Faso, which played in Germany 2006, is no slouch, though.

Group F: Cameroon (10), Namibia, Republic of Congo (67), Somalia

Comments: This group is surprisingly up in the air, which should be disappointing for Cameroon, a top ten world club. Three squads are tied at six points, with Somalia the lone zero point nation after three matches. Cameroon has the edge right now with goals scored and goal differential.

Group G: Eritrea, Libya (89), Mozambique (92), Tunisia

Comments: Even with two clubs in the top 100 of the world, you have to figure this one is pretty wide open. That seems to be backed by the showing of Tunisia, currently on top of the group with three wins. They are the first club outside of the top 100 to currently be in line for a spot in the competition.

Group H: Burundi, Gabon, Rwanda (91), South Africa (26)

Comments: This group is playing out as expected. South Africa leads with three wins, while Rwanda has only a loss to South Africa.

Group I: Nigeria (6), Sierra Leone (45), Swaziland, Uganda

Comments: Nigeria, the top club in Africa, should be leading this group easily, but they suffered the embarassment of drawing with Uganda in December. That leaves them just a point up on Sierra Leone, which seems good enough to make a run.

Group J: Botswana, Gambia, Guinea (65), Ivory Coast (22)

Comments: This could be a good fight to the end. Guinea and Ivory Coast drew in December and have beaten their group opponents, so they are currently tied atop the griup tAble with seven points apiece. This one could come down to the next matchup of the two nations in August.

Group K: Ethiopia, Liberia (47), Mauritius

Comments: Liberia leads this group as expected. Being a top 100 group with no other such clubs, and in a three-nation group, is obviously a boon to advancement.

Group L: Benin, Cape Verde. Mauritania

Comments: This is the only group without a top 100 club. It's still pretty wide open, with Cape Verde leading with four points, and Benin just behind with three.

Group M: Kenya (52), Madagascar, Seychelles

Comments: As expected, Kenya is on top here with two wins and six points.

As the host and defending champion, respectively, Morocco and Senegal do not have to go through qualifying to get into next year's tournament.

World Cup Qualifying, Africa

As I said, the African Cup of Nations isn't the only tournament qualifying going on right now. Qualifying for China 2010 is now deep in the second round. Africa has five groups of five nations, and the winner of the groups will go to China next year.

Here's a group-by-group look:

Group 1: Cameroon (10), Egypt (50), Guinea (65), Senegal (12), Sierra Leone (45)

Comments: Need proof the groups aren't weighted to produce the top fivce nations on the continent? I figure this one shows that, as every single club is a top 100 team in the FIFA rankings. Senegal leads right now with 10 points, while Cameroon is just behind (9 points). Egypt has 6. Every team has at least a draw or a loss.

Group 2: Algeria (40), Angola (34), Kenya (61), South Africa (26), Zimbabwe (52)

Comments: This group is no slouch, either, with another fivesome of all top 100 clubs. It doesn't have the top running quality of Group 1, though. South Africa has played strong, and has 12 points and four wins. Zimbabwe is a somewhat surprising 7 points, but in a group with this little difference, the most surprising thing is that South Africa has jumped to the top so strongly.

Group 3: Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast (22), Liberia (47), Nigeria (6), Togo (42)

Comments: This club has the top club power of Group 1, but doesn't have the depth of either of the first two groups. I'm sure that's fine for Nigeria--except they are behind Ivory Coast at the moment. They drew when they played each other a year ago, but Ivory Coast has played slightly better since then to lead the group with 10 points. Nigeria is right behind with 8 points, so this one has a long way to go.

Group 4: Gambia, Ghana (17), Libya (89), Rwanda (91), Tunisia

Comments: Ghana is the clear favorite here, as only one other top African club drew a weaker group (see Group 5). At the moment, though, they are dropping the ball, with 9 points, to Tunisia's 12. The North African nation has four wins in four matches, including a 2-1 win over Ghana last month.

Group 5: Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Malawi, Morocco (14), Namibia

Comments: What kind of luck does Morocco have? They get an automatic entry to the Cup of Nations, and they are the only top 100 club in their World Cup qualifying group. Not surprisingly, they lead the group and are pulling away. They have 12 points, with four wins in four matches. Surprising Cape Verde is second with 7.

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying

The World Cup qualifying final for North and Central America is already underway, as six nations play a full home-and-home fixture for the region's four spots.

Germany 2006 runner up Mexico (8) and the United States (5), not surprisingly, are leading the group with 7 points apiece through three matches. Their only non-wins came in a 1-1 draw against each other on March 15.

Honduras (74) and Guatemala (56) are currently third and fourth with four points each, but Jamaica is just behind with three points. Surprising Haiti is playing as expected and has no wins so far.

So, basically, this final has produced no surprises just yet, although Jamaica is in the position to thrust itself into a spot with strong play the rest of the way.

Oceania World Cup Qualifying

The Oceania region also has reached its final stage, but the competition for a spot is much fiercer, since there is only one spot.

Not surprisingly, Australia (12) is leading the six-nation group with four wins. New Zealand (53) is traditionally the other power in the region, but they aren't mounting much of a threat at the rival Ausses at the moment. They are tied with the Solomon and Cook island groups, all three with six points. Tongo has four points and little Tahiti has one.

As usual, Australia is the easy favorite to get to China 2010.

Other Regions

South America has been on break from their full fixture since November, much like Europe. Asia starts its qualifications later than any other region and won't kick things off until May.

I will cover South America and Europe in the recap of the late March-early April matches in the next post.

CR

[MIJB#19]

I think that Tunisia is just another case of "FIFA Rankings don't say anything about the countries' true strenghts".

I am a little late to join the readers group, but so far it's been an interesting read, Matt.

[Chief Rum]

South America

Here is a look at the South American action in the late March-early April round of international matches.

Table Set Up

South America has five spots set aside for China 2010. They play (and have been playing) a full fixture in which all ten nations play the other nations in home-and-homes, for a total eighteen matches. The top five squads in the national table at the end of the fixture win their way through to the World Cup tournament.

After eleven matches (completed through November), four teams had firmly established themselves on top of the table, with top ten world superpowers Brazil, Argentina and Colombia being joined by upstart Peru. All four teams had 23 points, nine more than the fifth place squad, Uruguay. With just seven matches left, that is close to insurmountable.

That fifth spot, however, remains a brutally competitive and open spot. Uruguay has the spot with 14 points, but they are justa point ahead of both Ecuador and Paraguay. Chile and Venezuela are also still within striking distance at 9 points.

Coming into the matches, here are the top 100 ranked South American squads.

1. Brazil
3. Colombia
7. Argentina
18. Peru
64. Chile
68. Paraguay
69. Ecuador
73. Uruguay

March 28

On the first day of matches, there were few battles between the countries still in contention for that fifth spot. The only key match would be Uruguay hosting Chile.

None of the top four squads played each other, facing off with one of the lower teams instead.

In the key match, Uruguay edged Chile, 1-0, on the strength of an 89th minute score by forward Horacio Peralta of Uruguayan club Nacional. That key three points could be huge for both teams, so Peralta's late score could be a death blow for Chile's World Cup hopes. Tamworth's David Marcelo Cortez Pizarro finished with a 7 rating, but no other distinguishing achievements for Chile.

The only other match involving Lambs was Colombia, which stomped Paraguay on the road, 3-0. Striker Jeffrey José Diaz of the Primera Liga's Deportivo scored two goals to lead the way. Tamworth had two starters on the Colombian side. Veteran international midfielder Giovanny Hernáandez serves as the team captain on the right wing and put up a 7 rating. Johnnier Montaño served as Diaz's frontline partner, and assisted on one of his goals, along with his own 7 rating.

Argentina barely avoided an embarassing hoem draw to Venezuela, when Boca forward Carlos Tevez scored in injury time to give them the 2-1 victory.

Peru also played a close match at home, edging by Ecuador, 2-1. Top ranked Brazil had no problem with table cellar-dwellar Bolivia, though, beating them 4-0 on the road.

Uruguay's key win over Chile, combined with the sweep of other teams inc ontention for the fifth spot, has allowed Uruguay to widen its lead with the fifth spot to four points over Paraguay and Ecuador.

April 1

Whereas there were few truly meaningful matches on March 28, this round was full of them.

All five of the lower end squads fighting for the fifth spot were in action against either each other or Bolivia, the last place nation. Chile got one more chance with a match against Paraguay, while Venezuela is also against the wall in a match against Uruguay. Ecuador was the lucky nation facing off withg Bolivia. Among the teams that are practically qualified, the big match is a Brazil-Argentina match in Brazil, while the undercard features Colombia hosting Peru.

Even when they are meaningless, those Brazil-Argentina matches are always fun. Brazilians centreback André Bahia and midfielder Kléberson, both of Milan, showed their love of country by trying to take it out on the Argentinians with rough play, and were booted in the 2nd and 12th minutes. Despite the immense man-advantage, Argentina only managed to score once in a match that ended 1-0 on their favor. No lvoe lost between these two sides.

Colombia showed Peru why they are the third-ranked squad in the world, beating the one surprise amongst the top four squads, 4-1, at home. Hernández got the start on the right wing again, although this one neded a little scary for Tamworth fans, as the midfielder picked up a knock in the 33rd minute and had to leave the pitch. He put up a 7 rating,a dn the injury turned out to be very minor. Montaño was not selected for the Peru match.

The lesser quality but more important matches between the lower end squads all essentially resulted in a tightening of the race for the fifth spot. Chile and Venezuela both injected life into their campaigns with resounding 3-0 defeats of Paraguay and Uruguay, respectively. In the Chile match, Pizarro started again and had a 7 rating.

As expected, Ecuador beat Bolivia at home, albeit by a close 2-1 decision, to move back within one of Uruguay.

South American Points

*Colombia 29 (+20 GD)
*Argentina 29 (+11 GD)
*Brazil 26 (+16 GD)
*Peru 26 (+12 GD)
*Uruguay 17 (-8 GD)
Ecuador 16 (-4 GD)
Paraguay 13 (-12 GD)
Chile 12 (-2 GD)
Venezuela 12 (-14 GD)
Bolivia 5 (-19 GD)
*-- currently in line for bid to China 2010

The top four haven't clinched yet, but with five matches left, they can within the next 1-2 matches.

Uruguay and Ecuador have separated a little from the pack, and that means something at this point. That said, no team is safe with five squads within five points of that last spot. Chile could be particularly dangerous, considering it is the highest ranked of the lower squads, and also has by far the best goal differential of that latter group.

The next matches will take place in early June.

CR

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

I think that Tunisia is just another case of "FIFA Rankings don't say anything about the countries' true strenghts".

I am a little late to join the readers group, but so far it's been an interesting read, Matt.

Better late than never.

Yeah, my impression was that Tunisia was stronger in real life than this is suggesting, although we are talking five years down the road here.

Still, it stands out when you see Tunisia doing well in both World Cup qualifying and in African Cup of Nations qualifying.

CR

[Chief Rum]

Europe--Setting The Table

Before I get into what happened in this latest round of international play, I thought I would first reset the table for what Europe's World Cup qualifying groups currently look like and where they stand.

Group 1: Cyprus (85), Hungary (93), Malta, Scotland (30), Spain (20), Ukraine (36)

Comments: This is one of the stronger groups in the competition, which is a shame, since only two nations can possibly come out of this and into the World Cup (and one will have to do it by beating another second place team). The Ukraine has the edge through three matches, with seven points, including a 2-1 decision over Spain last year. Scotland and somewhat surprising Hungary are tied for second with five points. Spain is underwhelming again, with its only win coming against lowly Cyprus.

Group 2: Albania (95), Croatia (21), Czech Republic (37), Greece (39), Kazakhstan, Luxembourg

Comments: Croatia, the defending Euro 2008 chapion, has the edge here. It will be interesting to see if they can handle being the favorites this time. They weren't placed in a group with a traditional European power, but the Czechs and Greeks are respectable teams. All told, though, getting three teams ranked 95th or lower is a coup for the surprising new power nation in Balkan Europe. The early going is playing out as expected. Croatia leads with seven points, although they came against the bottom three squads in the group. Greece, with six points, lost a showdown with the Czech Republic last season, but are in second because the Czechs failed to take care of business in draws with Kazakhstan and Albania. Albania and the Czech Republic have five points each.

Group 3: Faroe Islands, Ireland (35), Latvia, Norway (29), Portugal (44), Wales (78)

Comments: This one doesn't look as strong as some other groups, but it could be called a redemption group. Several of these squads have a history of being better than they are listed right now (Portugal, Wales), and that makes for a real solid top foursome at the very least in a competitive group. That top foursome does indeed comprise the top four spots of this table, with Ireland leading the way with nine points. Ireland did it legit, too, with wins over Wales and Portugal. Speaking of Portugal, their loss to the Irish was their only loss, and they sit at second right now with six points. Norway has been inconsistent, including a draw with the weak Faroe Islands, so they are third with five points. Wales will need to step it up, as they only have four points right now.

Group 4: Bulgaria (41), FYR of Macedonia (81), Italy (4), Liechtenstein, Moldova, Sweden (59)

Comments: Italy was handed a group they should easily be able to qualify from. Of course, the Italians have never done things the easy way. Bulgaria and Sweden have respectable squads, but neither should be able to keep up with the Italians when they are playing at peak form. So far, Italy is true to its history and is in second, behind Bulgaria. The Central European club has three wins and nine points, all against the weakest squads by FIFA ranking in the group. Italy has seven points, with just a draw with Sweden as the only mark on their record. Speaking of Sweden, that draw with Italy was their only point, as they stunningly lost to both Liechtenstein and Moldova...badly (and moving their draw with Italy into the sublime). No one is particularly close to the top two clubs right now.

Group 5: Andorra, France (2), Georgia (77), Northern Ireland (100), Poland (84), Romania (13)

Comments: Romania can't catch a break. It just seems wrong to place the Germany 2006 third place squad with the World Cup champs. If Romania wants to get in again, they will have to do it the hard way (either by beating France or going in as a second place team). Fortunately for both of the top clubs, the rest of the group isn't so fearsome. The top is pretty tight so far, with France, as expected the group leader with seven points. France did crush Romania, 4-0, in a primary group showdown last year, but they spoiled it by drawing with Northern Ireland, 1-1. Romania's loss to France is their only blemish, as they are tied with Poland for second with six points. Poland has gotten fat off of the lower squads. Northern Ireland is one of those squads, though, and they have done surprisingly well in getting to four points.

Group 6: Austria (76), Bosnia & Herzegovina (98), Denmark (32), Germany (28), San Marino, Slovakia

Comments: Is this the battle for Saxony? The top two clubs are interesting because on one hand, Denmark seems to be a solid, even improving team, while Germany is a traditional power that did poorly at its own World Cup and didn't qualify for Euro 2008. Still, those two clubs are the clear favorites here. Denmark has the early edge right now, with three wins and nine points. They haven't played Germany yet, but they also haven't played San Marino. Germany looked good except when they dropped the ball against their Bavarian neighbors Austria last year. They are tied with Austria for second with six points. Slovakia is a mild surprise in fourth with four points, but their win came against San Marino.

Group 7: Azerbaijan, Belgium (33), England (31), Estonia (79), Iceland (71), Slovenia (55)

Comments: This is one of the stronger groups, although it lacks true top notch European power. England used to be that, of course, but they have been underachieving for over a decade now. In some ways, there is a correlation between England-Belgium and Germany-Denmark in Group 6, as less traditional upstarts are trying to establish themselves in groups with normally strong powers fallen on hard times. The supporting cast, though is pretty strong in this group and should make for some fierce competition. The current standings certainly reflect that, with five squads from four to six points, including a three-way tie for the group lead for England, Slovenia and Iceland. Slovenia beat both England and Iceland, but then got smacked hard by Belgium in an embarassing 8-1 loss. So it's tough to get a read on them and on Belgium (tied with Estonia with four points). The Slovenia match is the only non-wins on the record for England and Iceland at the moment, and England has already beaten Belgium, 4-0. This group is just crazy at the moment.

Group 8: Armenia, Finland (43), Israel (72), Serbia & Montenegro (19), Turkey (27)

Comments: It's only a five-nation group, so it seems cruel again to have two well-regarded clubs like Turkey and Serbia & Herzegovina in the same group. The Serbs began their rise to power with a run to the second round of World Cup 2006, and then got to the semis of Euro 2008. Turkey also got to the second round in Germany, and lost in the Euro 2008 final. So these are two nations with a recent history of playing strong. Finland is no slouch either here. The Serbs continue to play well, with six points in two matches, including a 2-0 win over Turkey. They are tied with Finland, also in two matches and also with a win over Turkey. The Turks have just one point in three matches, which is an awful blow for them at this point. Israel is third with four points, but they, too, have played three matches in the uneven fixture forced by an odd number of teams.

Group 9: Belarus (46), Holland (15), Lithuania, Russia (82), Switzerland (75)

Comments: Holland seems to be the only top team that is really handed an easier group (with possible exception to Italy). Not only is the highest other nation ranked 46th, they are in a five-nation group, which logically is a little easier to come out of. Still, Holland is another nation that traditionally makes things hard on itself, and while not dominating squads, Belarus and Russia are no pushovers. Switzerland is a club to watch, because of how they did in their own Euro 2008 last year (getting to the knockout phase against all odds). In the first few matches, Holland is doing what it's supposed to be doing, leading the group. The problem is that they have six points in three matches, as they dropped one to Russia, that nation's only point-match in their three matches so far. Belarus lost a showdown to Holland, 2-1, and then nailed themselves as underachievers by drawing with Lithuania, 1-1. Lithuania is actually a bit of a surprise at this point, in second with four points. Russia is third with three, while Switzerland and Belarus have just one point apiece. Lithuania's better performance essentially means there isn't an easy win for any club in any match in this group.

CR

[Katon]

Stylistic quibble: national teams are not clubs.

Great dynasty apart from that, though. How did Spain drop to #20 in the world? Are they really worse than Peru (#18), or is this just FIFA's rankings being silly?

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Katon

Stylistic quibble: national teams are not clubs.

Great dynasty apart from that, though. How did Spain drop to #20 in the world? Are they really worse than Peru (#18), or is this just FIFA's rankings being silly?

That's the one thing I noticed, but decided not to write about.

Well, you should know that FIFA rankings are dominated by finals tournaments results, hence the high ranks for Mexcio because they play more tournaments then European top countries do.

[Chief Rum]

Well, to be fair, Mexico was a finalist in the last World Cup.

I'm sure that, with their nod toward realism, CM has likely copied the FIFA formulae for rankings (whatevrer those are, I forget, although I know they involve tournaments over a period of time or last three major tournaments or whatever). So considering that FIFA's rankings are often ridiculed as flawed, those flaws are no doubt reproduced here.

As for Spain, they have no one to blame but themselves. They keep choking in major tournaments.

Peru seems to be riding their strong run in World Cup qualifying, unless that doesn't count. I forget how they have done in Copa America or the Gold Cup in recent years (you guys can go look that up if you want, since I knwo I list it somewhere here).

As for clubs/teams, pish off. Actually, I am very aware of that already, but I have been writing clubs so long, I think I forgot in the all writing I did above for international play.

Thanks for reading, guys.

CR

[3ric]

Just caught up with this dynasty after overlooking it for a while (didn't see it was with CM). Fun read, but I look forward to next season when you limit yourself to not use the über-tactic...

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by 3ric

Just caught up with this dynasty after overlooking it for a while (didn't see it was with CM). Fun read, but I look forward to next season when you limit yourself to not use the über-tactic...

You just wanna see me struggle.

Hopefully I will disappoint you and others predicting my imminent demise.

Welcome to the dynasty audience.

CR

[Chief Rum]

Europe Results, March 28

I will go down the groups and detail the results on March 28.

GROUP ONE

Results

Scotland 2, Malta 0
Ukraine 2, Cyprus 0
Hungary 1, Spain 0

Comments: The key match here, of course, was yet another disappointing loss by Spain. They had a great chance to jump back into contention with a win over Hungary, which has played surprisingly well so far. They failed to score against Hungarian netminder Gábor Király of Bielefeld, though, while the Hungarians got an 85th minute score from forward Tibor Tokody of Ujpest. Although their opponents were hardly strong, both Scotland and the Ukraine took care of business on the road. Scotland dominated Malta with both shots and possession. Tamworth's Michael Stewart put up a 7 rating in the middle for the Scots. The Ukraine's win was much tougher, in a tight defensive match that needed two late scores by Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko to give them the win.

With the top three teams all winning, this group is as tight as before up top--and powerful Spain is even further out of the running. The Ukraine has ten points, with both Scotland and Hungary at nine points. Spain is fourth with four points and desperately needs a win on April 1. Fortunately, they are hosting Malta.

GROUP TWO

Results

Croatia 1, Czech Republic 0
Luxembourg 2, Kazakhstan 0
Greece 3, Albania 1

Comments: The match of the round was the showdown between Croatia and the Czech Republic. Croatia was the group leader and the top squad, but this match was played on the Czechs' home turf. They won a tough defensive match that only had six total shots on goal, witht he only score coming from Académica forward Tomislav Sokota. Big Game 1A took place in Greece, where traditional rivals squared off. Albania's good early run made this game important, but Greece squashed the little country's momentum with two late scores in a match they largely dominated. I woudl speak more of Luxembourg and Kazakhstan, but theya re going to need to win more for it to begin to matter.

Croatia's win keeps them on top of the group with ten points, although second place Greece's victory keeps them right on their tail with nine points. All of this sets up an April 1 showdown between the two teams in Croatia. Albania and the Czech Republic remain tied in third with five points.

GROUP THREE

Results

Norway 2, Portugal 0
Faroe Islands 5, Wales 1
Latvia 0, Ireland 0

Comments: It may have involved a squad tied for last place and the lowest of the "major" squads in the group, but little Faroe Islands' huge demolition of Wales opens some eyes here. It makes their earlier draw of Norway seem less plausible and makes one wonder if the little country can actually make a run at things. One reason they might be able to is because neither of the top two squads won, with Ireland shocked in a draw against lightly-regarded Latvia, and Portugal falling to up-til-now underachieving Norway. Latvian goalkeeper Andrei Povlov of Skonto turned away seven shots by Ireland to get the draw. Tamworth's Richie Partridge had a 7 rating on the left wing for Ireland. Before a late score by Liverpool's John Arne Riise, it looked like Norway would win over Portugal couresy of a 51st minute penalty kick by Lleida fullback Ole Tolberg. Tamworth's Trond Erik Bertelsen put up a 7 rating on the left wing for Norway.

Norway's win leaps them past Portugal and into second with eight points, two ahead of their opponent. Wales' stunning loss to the Faroe Islands not only cost them a chance to also jump over Portugal, but allowed the Farotians to draw level with them. Ireland still leads the group with ten points. Ireland-Norway and Portugal-Wales makes the April 1 matches perhaps the most important round yet.

GROUP FOUR

Results:

FYR of Macedonia 3, Liechtenstein 0
Bulgaria 2, Sweden 1
Italy 2, Moldova 0

Comments: The big match for this week wasn't so big, thanks to Sweden's amazing freefall thus far. The normally strong squad contniued its poor play by falling to group-leading Bulgaria on the road. The match was largely even, but Bulgaria got the edge when Aston Villa's Stilian Petrov put in the go ahead goal in the 72nd minute. Italy dominated Moldova on the road, not allowing even one shot on goal, while Macedonia easily handled little Liechtenstein.

The wins by Bulgaria and second place Italy pretty much kept the status quo, with Bulgaria on top with 12 points, and Italy with 10. FYR of Macedonia breaks the three-squad tie at three points to move into third with six points. As has happened in two of the first three groups, the top two tams will meet each other in Italy on April 1.

GROUP FIVE

Results

Georgia 1, Northern Ireland 1
Romania 2, Andorra 0
France 1, Poland 0

Comments: Poland came into this one in second, but hadn't played any tough squads. On March 28, they didn't win, but they nearly pulled off a big upset when they forced powerful France to grab a late score from Man Utd winger Sidney Govou to pull out a 1-0 win. Looks can be deceiving, though, as France largely outplayed the Poles, who hung in behind the strong play of Liverpool's veteran goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek. Tamworth's Emmanuel Olisadebe started on the front line for Poland and put up a 7 rating, while fellow Lamb Louis Saha was not selected for the match by France. Romania didn't hit on many of its 15 shots on goal, but Andorra never even got a sniff at a shot after defender Samuel Serra Ferrer was sent off with a red card in the 25th minute. As if Romania needed the help. Georgia and Northern Ireland could have made a move up, but neither were entirely successful with a draw. Tamworth's Mike Duff had a poor day (5 rat) for Northern Ireland at centreback.

Poland's loss to France allowed Romania to move ahead of them and into second place alone. The Romanians are a point behind group leader France. Poalnd is in third with six points, while Northern Oreland has five points.

GROUP SIX

Results

Germany 2, Denmark 0
Slovakia 1, Austria 0
Bosnia 1, San Marino 0

Results: This was a big round for this group. Denmark had gotten to this point undefeated, and their match with traditional power Germany was the showdown circled on the calendar. It turns out it was Germany that came up big, though, reversing their ecent trend of choking in big matches. The generally outplayed Denmark in this one in most facets of the game. The other big matchup was Slovakia and Austria. Austria had a win over Germany and was tied with them for second place, so they are in a position to make a move. But they needed a win over surprise squad Slovakia, and it was the former Eastern bloc country that stepped it up. In fact, Slovakia, despite the close score, dominated this match and did not allow the Austrians to take a single shot on goal. Slovan Bratislava midfielder Martin Sabol scored the only goal in the 71st minute. Bosnia & Herzegovina is good enough to sneak up on people, so they needed to beat weak San Marino to get in striking distance--and they did, albeit in a close one.

Germany's defeat of Denmark drew the two countries level atop the group with nine points, while Slovakia overtook Austria for third place with seven points. With Austria still at six, this group is still pretty wide open.

GROUP SEVEN

Results

England 3, Estonia 1
Slovenia 3, Azerbaijan 1
Belgium 2, Iceland 0

Comments: This group came in about as tight as could be at this point, with five teams within two points of the lead, including a three-way tie for the lead. The big match came between Belgium and Iceland, with the latter being somewhat of a surprise as a part of the leading trio, and Belgium being one of the co-favorites going into qualifying that was looking for redemption. The Belgians held serve at home, getting two qukck early scores and never giving Iceland room to budge an inch on offense. Tamworth players striker Orri Freyr Oskarsson and centreback and national team captain Hermann Hreidarsson both started for Iceland, with 6 and 7 ratings respectively. England has long found a way to lose games it needs to win, but they didn't fall into that trap this time. Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard scored two goals as England tore apart Estonia, allowing just one shot on goal. Slovenia was the only group co-leader playing ont he road, but thsi was countered by them playing the group's worst squad in Azerbaijan. Not surprisingly, they won going away, behind two second half goals by Cottbus striker Borut Semler.

The Iceland loss has eased things up on top a little, but this remains one of the tighter groups in qualifying. England and Slovenia are stilled tied on top, now with nine points. By virtue of having defeated Iceland, Belgium jumped to third with seven points. Iceland is still in it with six points.

GROUP EIGHT

Results

Serbia & Montenegro 1, Finland 0
Turkey 2, Armenia 1

Comments: As with so many of the other groups, this was a very critical round. The big match featured the two lone undefeated squads in Serbia & Montengro and Finland. Despite playing on the road and struggling to get by Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Antti Niemi, the Serbs were by far the better club on the pitch. They won behind a late goal by Newcastle striker Mateja Kezman--just five minutes afetr he came onto the pitch as a sub. The second one doesn't look important on a group level, as a mettign between the bottom teams, but pre-qualifying favorite Turkey needed a win to right the ship, and they got it. Turkey dominated Armenia on the road, and led most of the match 2-0 before giving up a late goal. Israel, which came in in third, had the round off.

The Serbian victory thrusts the rising national team into the group lead with nine points, while Israel's bye ensured Finland it would remain in second with six points. Turkey and Israel are tied for thrid with four points, but Turkey has played one more match than all of the other squads.

GROUP NINE

Results

Switzerland 4, Lithuania 2
Russia 1, Belarus 0

Comments: Some of the verve goes out of this round with group leader and favorite Holland on a bye, but that doesn't mean the matches had no meaning. Holland's run to the top has been the only surprise in this group. Switzerland and Belarus entered as the next best teams, and both have done poorly so far. So this was a gut check round for them. Switzerland came through, but Belarus fell to the group's surprise team in Russia. Switzerland beat Lithuania to draw even with the Baltic Sea nation, but Belarus was completely outclassed by Russia, which dominated them in their win, despite the score.

Russia's win draws them level with Holland for the group lead, although they also have a game on the Dutch. With Switzerland now tied with Lithuania in third with four points, this group now has a very tight, wide open look. Even Belarus, with their talent, isn't out of it, although it's hard to get enthused about a nation that has just one point in three matches.

CR

[Chief Rum]

Europe Results, April 1

I will go down the groups and detail the results on April 1.

GROUP ONE

Results

Spain 5, Malta 0
Scotland 2, Ukraine 1
Cyprus 1, Hungary 1

Comments: Spain needed a win, and as expected, they got it against a weak Malta squad. How ugly was it? Try 35 shots (19 on goal) to zero! If they brought that game to some of their other matches, clinching a spot in the World Cup wouldn't be much of an issue. The showdown match was in Scotland, where group leader Ukraine was trying to put some distance between itslef and the Scots and Hungary. Scotland wasn't so obliging, though, getting early first half scores from star talents James Graham of Leicester and Stephen Pearson of Celtic and holding on for the win in a very even match. Tamworth's Michael Stewart had a 7 rating in a midfield start. That gave Hungary a chance to riser to the top with Scotland, only to have them drop the ball and draw with Cyprus.

This group remains completely up in the air. Only four points separate the top four clubs, with Scotland leading at 11. The Ukraine is right behind them with 10, and Hungary has nine. The dangerous Spain snuck into contention with its demolition of Malta, sitting now in fourth with seven points.

GROUP TWO

Results

Croatia 1, Greece 0
Luxembourg 1, Czech Republic 0
Albania 1, Kazakhstan 0

Comments: With Croatia and Greece meeting each other, this was a chance for the Czechs or the Albanians to move up. So this was one of those weeks where every match had some significance to the group table. For Croatia, edging the second place Greeks at home was a huge validation of their status as the group favorite as well as leader. They won out in a very tight match that the Greeks should feel no shame for having lost. Speaking of shame, the Czech Republic has joined the likes of Sweden and Belarus as one of the big underachievers of qualifying so far, after allowing little Luxembourg to pull off one of the biggest upsets in their nation's football history. The Czechs took 18 shots and put 12 on goal, but Luxembourg netminder Jimmy Gillander of Iraklis and Beira-Mar stonewalled them and held up for the amazing clean sheet. Albania didn't exactly sweep Kazakhstan under the rug, but at least they got the needed victory.

Croatia's win gives them a strong lead ont he group with 13 points, four more than Greece. Albania's win jumped them up to third with eight points, while shocking Luxembourg has ridden a two-match win streak to fourth with six points. The disappointing Czechs have five points.

GROUP THREE

Results

Ireland 3, Norway 0
Portugal 3, Wales 1
Faroe Islands 1, Latvia 0

Comments: Norway had a chance to overtake group leader Ireland today, but the Irish proved to be too able at home to fall in this one. They got just five shots off on a tough Norwegian backline, but made them count, getting three first half goals to cost to the win in an otherwise brutally defensive match (only eight total shots on goal). Tamworth's winger Richie Partridge dominated from the right wing, scoring his first ever international goal and putting up a top notch 10 rating to nab Man of the Match honors. His teammate Mark Hicks wasn't selected for the match, just like March 28. Trond Erik Bertelsen actually played directly against his Lamb-mate on Norway's left wing, but, obviously, didn't do so hot, with a 6 rating. This round was filled with big matches, though. Portugal got back to winning ways with an easy win over Wales, thanks mostly to two second half scores by Braga striker Nuno Miranda. For Wales, they just continue to fall short in key matches. Tamworth's Andy Williams started in the midfield but put up just a 6 rating. The last match saw the continuing rise of the Cinderella Faroe Islands. They could be expected to beat Latvia at home, but more importantly, they have to be considered a legit contender in the group now.

Ireland's win gives them a lead like Croatia has in Group Three, with four points on Portugal. The race for second is much tighter at the moment, with Portugal just a point up on Norway and two on the Faroe Islands.

GROUP FOUR

Results:

Moldova 5, Liechtenstein 0
FYR of Macedonia 1, Sweden 0
Italy 1, Bulgaria 0

Comments: The group leaders met in a duel in Italy today, and it was the powerful Italians that came out winners in a match they played strongly in, but didn't necessarily dominate. Still, they got the score they needed from Parma striker Alberto Gilardino and shut the Bulgarians down to make it stand. For Sweden, today pretty much ensured they were down to their worst qualifying campaign ever. It's no longer about qualifying--it's about catching Liechtenstein in the table. The two squads put just five shots on goal--one of which, unfortunately for the Swedes, snuck into the goal for Macedonia. Moldova doesn't get plaudits for doing what it's supposed to do in pasting little Liechtenstein.

Italy's win places them in a position they aren't used to--the group lead with 13 points. They are usually the most talented squad on any given pitch, but their ability to underachieve is notorious. Now they will have to fight off that history and a tough Bulgarian squad, just a point behind in second, to keep that spot. Macedonia's win vaults them up to third with nine points, but the top squads are beginning to seriously distance themselves from the bottom feeders.

GROUP FIVE

Results

Poland 2, Georgia 1
Northern Ireland 2, Romania 0
France 2, Andorra 0

Comments: The top three teams were all playing the lower teams, so this was a chance to put some distance between the two groups. Almost. Poland held up against Georgia, allowing just one shot on goal by the Georgians, while France beat Andorra (if in underwhelming fashion). The catch came in Northern Ireland, where the Irish proved they were no fluke by beating second place Romania. It was a very even match, but Northern Ireland capitalized on their chances. It was a good day for Tamworth players, as both Polish striker Emmanuel Olisadebe and Northern Irish fullback Mike Duff started and put up 8 ratings. Louis Saha was selected by France as a sub, but not used.

Romania's loss has allowed France to put a little lead on, with 13 points. Romania and Poland are tied in second with nine points, while Northern Ireland has thrust itself in the picture with eight points.

GROUP SIX

Results

Denmark 7, San Marino 0
Slovakia 2, Germany 0
Bosnia 0, Austria 0

Results: Just when Germany seemed to take control of things by beating group and region rival Denmark, they turn around and drop a critical match against the lower-regarded Slovakia. The Huns are clearly missing their superstar goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, who is now retired from international football, as his replacement, Dortmund's Roman Weidenfuller, allowed two of the three shots he faced to get by him. Denmark, perhaps frustrated by their los to that same German team, took it out on little San Marino, including a hattrick by young PSV striker Lasse Qvist. Austria missed on a chance to move back into contention by only drawing with Bosnia.

Germany's loss dropped them all the way to third with nine points. Slovakia moved past them into second with 10 points, and Denmark took back the group lead with 12 points. Austria remains on the fringe with 7 points.

GROUP SEVEN

Results

England 1, Iceland 0
Slovenia 3, Estonia 1
Belgium 3, Azerbaijan 0

Comments: Iceland had a chance to get back into things after dropping from the group lead, but they failed to hold up England at home. In fact, the English dominated and are playing som eo f the best football they have played in some time. Tamworth's Orri Freyr Oskarsson and Hermann Hreidarsson both put up 7 ratings, but otherwise did not distingush themselves. Slovenia kept pace with England by beating Estonia. Belgium made a move back to contention by beating Azerbaijan, 3-0, with two goals coming from Dortmund forward Emile Lokonda Mpenza.

England and Slovenia are on top with 12 points each, but Belgium is just two points behind with 10. Former group leader Iceland is beginning to fade with just six points.

GROUP EIGHT

Results

Israel 3, Finland 0
Serbia & Montenegro 5, Armenia 1

Comments: The Serbians just won through to the group lead on March 28 by beating co-leader Finland. Getting to follow that up with a home match against weak Armenia was the cherry on the sundae. The match of the round was between second and third place squads Finland and Israel. The Israeli squad isn't as well-respected as the Finnish team, but they took control of the second place spot with a strong win. The waffling of both Finland and Israel overall, though, has kept Turkey within striking distance of second, despite playing fairly poorly in qualifying so far. Turkey had a bye this week.

Serbia & Montenegro has the biggest group lead in qualifying at the moment, with 12 points. That's five points up on second-place Israel. The fight for second looks to be fierce, though, as Israel has just a point lead on Finland and three on dangerous Turkey.

GROUP NINE

Results

Lithuania 2, Holland 1
Belarus 2, Switzerland 2

Comments: Holland missed a terrific opportunity to ease up one of the tightest groups in qualifying when they dropped ball against Lithuania. They allowed two of Lithuania's four shots on goal into the net, and that proved to be their undoing. With group leader Russia on a bye, not only did the Dutch miss out on a chance to capture the group lead, they now drop into third of a group they are considered to be the favorite by some margin. Pre-qualifying contenders Belarus and Switzerland did little to put themselves in position to advance by drawing with each other.

With the surprising win, Lithuania moves level with idle Russia for the league lead with seven points apiece. Holland is right behind with six points, and another point down finds the Swiss. With Belarus a solid team just five points out of the lead, you can't say that anyone is out of this one.

CR

[3ric]

Bulgaria 2, Sweden 1

The Bulgarians got their revenge at Sweden at last. They just had to wait until Henrik Larsson had retired.

You haven't gotten an opportunity yet to coach an international team?

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by 3ric

The Bulgarians got their revenge at Sweden at last. They just had to wait until Henrik Larsson had retired.

You haven't gotten an opportunity yet to coach an international team?

Strangely enough, Henrik is still playing, although, as you surmised, he is retired from international football. Llarsson is 37 now, though, and has spent much of the season on the Celtic reserves (that's right, he stayed with Celtic). He probably has overstayed his ability to play at a top level unfortunately.

I deemed myself ready for international action last year, and when a handful of prominent jobs opened up after failures in the Euro 2008 and other international tournaments last year, I applied for them. England and Germany both shot me down in Europe, while Colombia and Japan hired others as well. France is the only opening I have applied for that has not been filled. That's right, almost a year later, France's national team manager spot is still unfilled. Obviously a game bug. I am hoping that something will kick it into motion soon and get it going, because I would like to stop checking France's staff page every other week.

CR

[SplitPersonality1]

Thanks a lot Chief.

Thanks to you, I am forced to start playing the crack substitute known as Championship Manager. I'm not sure why, but I missed your dynasty until a few days ago and I am really enjoying it. So much so, that I am probably going to restart my own "Adventures in Babysitting" CM thread.

Because of you, and recent posts by Antmeister in the General Discussion board, my sleep will suffer, my marriage will suffer and my children will not receive as much quality time from their father. And it will be all your fault.

Seriously, great read. I love the depth.

[Chief Rum]

Tuesday, March 31 To Monday, April 6

We have just one match this week, with international play wiping out the possibility of club matches early on.

The lone match is a big one, though--our FA Cup Semifinal showdown with Chelsea in front of the football-mad throngs at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.

Board Confidence Update

No change here. I am beloved. I wonder how quickly the board's love for me will last if my tactical adjustments don't take? I'm safe this season, of course, but how long does it take for a manager to fall out of favor in a bad season if he is really well-regarded? Hopefully I won't ever actually test that.

March Premiership Awards

On Wednesday, the first day of the month, the league announced the monthly awards for March.

Blackpool's Brett Ormerod won the Premiership Player of the Month award for March. The 32-year-old striker was fantastic this month, with seven goals in four matches, including two separate hattricks. Ormerod posted an 8.75 average rating.

Leicester's James Graham won his third straight Premiership Young Player of the Month. At some point, this guy has to get old enough to not get this award anymore, because he is clearly mature beyond his age (21). He had three goals and two assists in five league matches in March, averaging an 8.40 rating.

Graham also likely won the Premiership Manager of the Month award for his new manager John McDermott. The former Celtic boss has engineered a turnaround for the Foxes since he took over in late January, and he has quite a pedigree as well. That said, I don't think it's coincidental that Leicester City's fortunes have risen since Graham's return from injury in early January. The Foxes won all five of their league matches, including wins over Liverpool, Chelsea, Man Utd and Aston Villa. They also won through to the FA Cup semifinals, although this award only takes into consideration league achievements.

Tamworth did not figure in any of the goals of the month.

Davenport Resumes Full Training

Young fullback Pat Davenport is finally ready to return to action after completing five months of rehabilitation for a chronic groin injury. Combined with the actual groin injuries themselves, Davenport has missed the entire season. Since the first team is essentially established, including Kevin Gorman as the second team eleven starting right back, I have decided to send Davenport to the reserve squad for the rest of the year to get him some consistent playing time.

I still have high hopes for the 18-year-old defender, but I'm no longer certain he will be ready next season for a regular first team role as I had thought he would be.

Chelsea, FA Cup Semifinal

Most match reports from now on will use the shortened format I will be using, as well as computer-based tactics, but this is not one fo thsoe matches. I'm not yet ready to commit to tactics I am not used to for critical cup and European matches.

Chelsea, of course, is one of the powerhouses of the league, although they have fallen off a bit, down to fifth in the Premiership. Their talent can't be doubted, though.

On offense, only Man Utd and ourselves are clearly better squads this season. Defense is Chelsea's albatross, as they are putting up mediocre numbers in goals allowed, about middle of the table.

The Blues use a 4-3-3 tactic that is close to what I will be first trying out in my next league matches, and they have the players to fill it, even after moving star forward Michael Chopra to Napoli in January. The headliner is still Adrian Mutu, with 20 goals in 37 matches. He has been a dominant force this season. Arjen Robben (7 goals) is another star talent who makes way for Mutu for the most part. Egyptian star Mido and Roma transfer Jermaine Defoe have three goals each, as this club is very reliant on Mutu for its offense. Robben (9 assists) and Mutu (7 assists) are also the primary playmakers in the offense.

The midfield is deep and talented, as you would expect, so it's surprising they aren't putting up more obvious numbers on offense. The primary starters this season have been the popular Joe Cole (three goals, two assists, 7.17 rat), Scott Parker (7.08 rat) and Belarussian Aliaksandr Hleb (7.03 rat). They are aided with tremendously skilled depth which includes Dane midfielder Christian Poulsen (three assists), longtime popular Irish left winger Damien Duff (four assists) and January's star midfield transfer, Argentine's Leonardo Ponzio.

John Terry (7.27 rat) is the leader of the backoine and a worldclass defender. His primary partner is Germany's Robert Huth (three goals, 7.17 rat). The outside spots are handled by Glen Johnson (five assists) and December transfer Aleksandre Amisulashvili. This line is also deep, although obviously, given the squad's defensive performances, this line has been fraught with inconsistency. In the net is Czech international goalkeeper Petr Cech (55 goals conceded in 42 matches). Cech is a well-regarded netminder, but is having at best a competent season.

For us, this is a second eleven match, although the recent international play is forcing us to make some adjustments. Both of our starting left backs, Hermann Hreidarsson and Trond Erik Bertelsen are tried from matches with their national teams, so we start former second eleven starter Gaël Clichy, and put Bertelsen on the sub squad. Chris Booth has to start in place of the fatigued Richie Partridge, whom I also put on the sub list. And Darren Birchall gets the call in the middle of the tactic over David Marcelo Cortez Pizarro, who is not stillr ecovering from playing with Chile on Wednesday. Like Bertelsen and Partridge, Pizarro will be available for substitute work.

We scored early to take the edge. In the 8th minute, Denny Landzaat had the ball in the middle of the pitch, and found Emmanuel Olisadebe with a step on Terry going into the box. As he has made a habit of doing, the midfielder put the ball precisely on Olisadebe's foot. The Polish striker fired a low shot at Cech, who was rushing out at him. The goalkeeper got a piece of the ball, but it skipped past him and rolled into the net for the goal.

It quieted down considerably after that, which is surprising with the two squads on the pitch. Neither side got anything else going in the first third of the match. In the 33rd minute, Chelsea had a great chance set up by Mutu. Glen Johnson found Mutu on the run from along the right touch, sending a cross-pitch pass onto the striker just as he was chraging toward the right end of the area. Klompe closed in, but Mutu swung a pass up to center and Defoe. The striker headed it on goal, past his man marker James McEveley, but Thomas Heaton stepped down and was there to catch it.

Then in the 40th minute, Robben stepped up on an Olisadebe pass in the defensive zone and intercepted it, timing a long cross-pitch pass to Mutu, who took off toward the goal just as the striker got the ball. McEveley was the lone defender on a two-on-one break and trying to play between Mutu and Defoe. Mutu ended up trying to do too much as he ran into the box, though, as he sailed his shot well over the goal.

With the half nearly done, just two shots on goal were recorded, and only eight overall. This was looking entirely different than one would suggest. Finally, in first half stoppage time, we found a break in the defense. Again, it involved Landzaat and Olisadebe. The midfielder collected a clear out near the centre circle and found the striker moving into the right end of the area, wide of Terry and the goal. Olisadebe made a great move that froze Terry and allowed him to move a step past him to get an angle on the goal. Then he blasted a high shot just short of the crossbar. Cech reached up to try and grab it, but it blasted past him and into the net for the two-goal lead. Showing how tight on time the play was (it was more than two minutes into stoppage), the whistle was blown almost the second the goal was scored in.

It wouldn't take long for Olisadebe to capitalize on another chance. The striker was having his best day so far in his career as a Lamb. In the 51st minute, Johnson was preparing to initiate a Chelsea pass play from just behind the right centreline when Saha surprised him and stepped up to take the ball. Despite Huth and Johnson being right there, Saha managed to get the ball under control and go on a run along the right touch behind the defense, leaving Huth hurt on the pitch as well. Saha took the ball into the left end of the area before putting up a soft centering pass for Olisadebe. The striker volleyed the pass inside the left post and into the corner of the net for his hattrick.

That seemed to take much of the fight out of the Blues. The rest of this match was mostly Lamb highlights--and it could have been worse, with Cech making a brilliant save at the left post on a Mark Hicks freekick from just outside of the area. The resulting clear out just ended up leading to a Tamworth goal. Olisadebe--yes, him again--ended up with the ball along the right touch and found Pizarro, who was substituted in recently, on a run toward the goal. Pizarro took the ball in on goal and fired a shot inside the right post for the Lambs' fourth goal. We finished them off with a 78th minute score by Hicks ona run into the right end of the box. This one started tight, but just ended up ugly. Tamworth 5, Chelsea 0

I'll miss this tactic when I can't use it anymore.

Booth picked up a knock, but it turned out to just be a sprained wrist that will only limit him for a couple days. Chelsea suffered a far worse loss. Mutu suffered a torn groin muscle late in the match and will miss at least a month and maybe the entire rest of the season (what's left of it). That could be devastating for a squad that relies on him so much, and which is still in range of a Champions League slot.

League News

It was a light week with, once again, many of the best players away with their national teams. There were also no league matches, so we had no Premiership Team of the Week.

CR

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by SplitPersonality1

Thanks a lot Chief.

Thanks to you, I am forced to start playing the crack substitute known as Championship Manager. I'm not sure why, but I missed your dynasty until a few days ago and I am really enjoying it. So much so, that I am probably going to restart my own "Adventures in Babysitting" CM thread.

Because of you, and recent posts by Antmeister in the General Discussion board, my sleep will suffer, my marriage will suffer and my children will not receive as much quality time from their father. And it will be all your fault.

Seriously, great read. I love the depth.

Thank you?

Good luck with the dynasty. I'll keep my eye on it. I would apologize for being the street hood that is dealing your addiction out, but I am Marc Vaughan's long lost evil American twin. (or is "American" and "evil" redundant?). Muhahaha!

CR

[Alf]

Originally Posted by 3ric

Just caught up with this dynasty after overlooking it for a while (didn't see it was with CM). Fun read, but I look forward to next season when you limit yourself to not use the über-tactic...

Shame on you Kristian. Chief Rum makes me want to buy FM5 when it comes out now...

[3ric]

What, you haven't pre-ordered already?

[Chief Rum]

Like I said, Marc Vaughan's evil twin. I'm so evil even MV's mom doesn't know I exist!

I'm really looking forward to FM2005.

CR

[Chief Rum]

Tuesday, April 7 To Monday, April 13

This is yet another big week for us, with Milan coming to town on Wednesday to finish off our Champions League quarterfinal. Since we're a goal down going into this one, we will need to win by at least one to advance. It helps that we scored two goals in Italy--away goals is the first tiebreaker.

On the last day of the week, Monday, we meet up with Manchester City at the City of Manchester Stadium (now there's a mouthful). That will start us up on the rest of our Premiership matches, and also be the first match in which we go with a computer-original tactic (or a tactic based on one).

Milan, Second Leg of the Champions League Quarterfinal

Neither team has changed much in two weeks, so we can just get into the nitty gritty here.

Milan manager Ezio Rossi made some small changes, one of which was necessary because of a major injury the club took when they last played us. Apparently, it was no small knock that took out legendary Italian centreback Alessandro Nesta. The 33-year-old veteran defender will miss about three months and change with a fractured skull. Ouch. He will be replaced by Argentinian defender Fabricio Coloccini in Wednesday's lineup.

Rossi also made changes in the midfield and up front. He inserted supersub Argentinian forward Andrés D'Alessandro in the middle of Milan's 4-3-3 tactic and shifted Patrick Vieira over to the left, bumping out Massimo Ambrosini. Up front, there was no messing around with starting Johan Absalonsen in this one. Milan marched out their super threesome forwards, with Kaká and Andriy Shevchenko back on the ends, and superstar Dutch striker Ruud van Nistlerooy back in the middle of the front line.

We once again had our first eleven in, as we did in the Guiseppe Meazza two weeks ago. That first eleven was mostly as it has been, with Hermann Hreidarsson replacing Trond Erik Bertelsen because the latetr was a little tired from a late appearance against Chelsea. We stocked the sub squad with better quality reserves, including Bertelsen, Richie Partridge, James McEveley and Louis Saha, as we were more than a little concerned about this match. It isn't every team that can beat us using our uber tactic, but that's exactly what Milan did.

It didn't take long for me to see this would be a different sort of match. Amazing what a simple switch of venue can do. In the 9th minute, Mike Duff got the ball along the right touch on the wrong side of the centreline. He saw Yakubu making a run toward the center of the opposite side of the pitch, closely marked by Coloccini. He sent a long, high pass to the Nigerian striker, who was basically on an island with his defender and no one else about. Yakubu beat Coloccini in the air and headed the ball on, and into the penalty area. Yakubu ran into the area and onto the ball, as Dida waffled between whether to charge out to meet him. Yakubu fired a low shot toward the left post, but Dida made a fantastic save, pushing the ball up into the left end of the area. Yakubu chased after it, still with a step on a closing defense and Dida wasn't quite quick enough to back up and cut off an open shot. The striker sent an easy shot into the wide open net for our first score of the match. We were now drawn even with Milan and were the match to end right now, we would get in on away goals.

Of course, this match was far from over. Milan almost tied it up and took the aggregate lead six minutes later. Shevchenko took a long pass from centreback Kakhaber Kaladze and went on a long run just to the left of the goal. He curled in toward the net at the end of his run into the left side of the penalty area and fired a shot at the far post. Unfortunately for the Ukrainian striker, the ball sailed wide right of the post and missed the mark.

We started to add some insurance later in the first half. In the 20th minute, Michael Stewart wound up with the ball near the centre circle. He spotted Johnnier Montaño directly ahead, on a run into the penalty area. He put the pass spot on and Montaño was through on goal. The Colombian forward blasted his shot just inside the left post and into the high back corner of the net for the two-goal lead.

We began to move the match into the nether regions with a quck two-goal set of scores about a third of the way in. And it could have been worse. In the five minutes leading up to this pivotal stretch, Montaño missed a wide open net, and Dida deflected an Andy Williams shot when the winger found himself on goal with a step on the defense (which, it turned out, really missed Nesta and lagged a step all day). In the 29th minute, Yakubu took a pass from Williams and moved it down to Montaño in the center of the offensive pitch. The forward turned it around immediately and sent it to the edge of the area for Orri Freyr Oskarsson. Montaño put the ball beyond Oskarsson and his marker, Kaladze, allowing the Icelandic striker to move down on it first. Oskarsson turned and blasted the ball toward the net on the run, hitting the ball with such force that it blasted past Dida's left shoulder before the goalkeeper could so much as react to stop it. The next score came almost right off of Milan's kickoff. After a tackle, a freekick and a clear out, Leon Cort ended up with the ball in the center of the defensive pitch. Occasionally he drops an incredible pass into the offensive zone, and he did so now. Like Stewart ten minutes before, Cort found Montaño near the edge of the area. He put a perfect pass on the mark from more than halfway across the pitch. Montaño skipped past a poor tackle attempt by Vieira and blasted a low shot inside the left post. Dida just missed it ont he dive as the ball went into the net for a commanding 4-0 lead.

Do I really need to go on like this? We were really rolling. Milan did get one back on a Shevchenko score in the 43rd minute. But Montaño responded quickly to that, finishing off a hattrick with a hard shot past Dida in first half injury time. Montaño's replacement, Giovanny Hernández, added a quick two scores late in the match to move what had been a scary match for me before into a crazy run away win. Tamworth 7, Milan 1

This was probably my most dominant win ever on this high a stage against this quality of a team. I was very impressed with myself.

We won the quarterfinal against the Champions League defending champs 9-4 on aggregate to win through to the semifinals.

We were awarded $2.9 M in Champions League winnings for the two-leg victory, and we also set a gate receipts record at the Lamb Ground of $1.8 M, courtesy of high Champions League-priced tickets and a crowd numbering over 31,000.

Champions League Quarterfinal Results

Coming into today, here was the situation in the other three quarterfinals:

Juventus 3, Levski Sofia 0 (playing at Levski Sofia today)
AaB 3, Bodo/Glimt 2 (playing at Bodo/Glimt today)
Werder Bremen 0, Brno 0 (playing at Brno today)

As you can see, the home teams by and large held up in the first leg, with the exception of Werder Bremen, which only got a draw in its home match. Of course, Milan held up in its home match, too...

Here's what happened.

Juventus 1, Levski Sofia 0 (Juventus wins, 4-0, on aggregate)

The Italian superpwer didn't win easy on the road, but they did still win. The only score was a 4th minute penalty kick by Alessandro Birindelli. Only four shots on goal were taken all match between the two sides.

Bodo/Glimt 1, AaB 0 (Bodo/Glimt advances on away goals, 3-3, on aggregate)

AaB has to be very disappointed, considering they went to Norway with a one-goal lead and then held Bodo/Glimt scoreless into the last ten minutes of the match. Unfortunately, the Norwegian squad pushed across an 80th minute score by Anders Askheim, and only allowed two shots on goal to the Danish club to win through on a tiebreaker.

Werder Bremen 3, Brno 2 (Werder Bremen win, 3-2, on aggregate)

Brno had a terrific chance after drawing the offensively potent Werder Bremen in Germany, but they started off bad and never could recover. Werder Bremen got scores from Lúcio Flávio and Diego Tardelli int he first ten minutes to take a lead they would never relinquish. And since the othe rmatch was a draw, this one was a winner take all.

UEFA Fourth Round and Beginning of Quarterfinals

Looking back over my dynasty, I realized I had missed reporting the results of the UEFA Fourth Round. They wrapped up the day after the first leg of the Champions Leg quarterfinals, on March 26.

We entered the fourth round with three English league squads still alive, including First Division Wolverhampton. Newcastle and Aston Villa are the other squads still alive.

The Wolves ended up being the only English squad to not survive the fourth round, falling to Portuguese Superleague squad Belenenses, 3-2 (and disappointingly losing 2-0 at home after holding a 2-1 lead coming from their place).

Aston Villa barely survived a 3-0 shellacking on the road against M. Tel-Aviv of the Israeli Premier League. They won 5-4 overall after figuring they were safe with a 5-1 win at home.

Newcastle didn't allow Polish First Division squad Wisla any goals at all in a 3-0 aggregate victory.

There were a couple of top notch matches. The Bundesliga's Schalke 04 beat Inter 3-2 in Italy to surprise the Italian power, and defeat them 4-2 overall. Dutch power PSV beat Porto, 2-0, in Portugal to provide the difference in a 4-2 aggregate victory.

The biggest upset came when Ukrainian High League Tavria edged out another Serie A power in Parma, 1-0, on aggregate. Th two sides drew even in a scoreless match in Italy after Tavria squeaked by Parma in the Ukraine.

The Primera Liga's Alavés was Spain's only entrant to get this far, but they did advance, beating another Polish First Division squad in Legia, 3-0, on aggregate. Greek National A club PAO beat former Champions League club Chornomorets of the High League, 2-1, on aggregate.

The matchups for the quarterfinals are PSV and Tavria; Aston Villa and Schalke 04; Belenenses and Alavés; and Newcastle and PAO.

In the quarterfinal first leg on Thursday, April 9, Tavria continued to roll, surprising PSV in Holland, 3-2. Aston Villa and Newcastle both did well at home. The Villans beat Schalke 04, 5-3, while the Magpies shutout PAO, 3-0. Belenenses edged Alavés, 2-1, in Portugal.

There is a very quick turnaround in the EUFA quarterfinal. The above eight squads will switch venues and play each other again on April 15--less than a week after playing the first leg.

Champions League Semifinals Announced

The announcement is a mere formality, as the Champions League doesn't redraw after the initial knockout phase draw. We knew who we would have to face.

We will host powerful three-time consecutive Serie A champions Juventus on April 22 at the Lamb Ground in the first leg of the semifinals. We will then meet them at Delle Alpi, their home stad in Torino, Italy, on May 6.

Werder Bremen hosts Cinderella Bodo/Glimt on April 22, and then goes to Norway on May 6.

Our match with Arsenal on April 22 has been re-arranged for May 13. It is actually the second time our visit to Ashburton Grove has been postponed for a Champions League match. We were initially supposed to meet up with the Gunners in March. Whenever we finally meet up with them, it will be the first time since that amazing penalty kick win in the League Cup fourth round last December.

Yakubu Called Up

Nigeria is meeting Togo in a Group Three World Cup qualifier on April 18, and on Saturday requested the presence of Tamworth striker Yakubu at the match.

It looks like he will have to miss the Blackpool league match scheduled for that day--which is, incidentally, scheduled to be a first eleven match. I already have plans to juggle my strikers to accomodate.

My Tactic Against Man City

Here is an attempt to visualize the tactic I will be using against Man City:

<--F  ^  F-->
 ^    |     ^
  \   F    / 
   \     /
    M ^ M    
^     |     ^
|     M     |
|           |
F   D   D   F

      G

Obviously, it is a slight variation of the given 4-3-3 the computer uses (and which is prominently used by some of the world's top superpowers, including Arsenal, Chelsea and Milan). Given my depth at forward, I thought this would be a great way to take advantage of it. I also feel I have the attacking fullbacks to make them more important to the offense as they are here.

I have dropped the middle forward back to an AMC position with a forward arrow, and the middle MC back to a DMC position, also with a forward arrow. I feel this keeps some of what I like to do from the uber tactic, allowing my forward midfielder to make runs into the box, while giving my back midfielder the dual roles of being a primary defensive presence in front of the backline, but also allowing him to initiate the offense.

The forwards I have kept with the 4-3-3's side arrows. Since my forwards do have well-rounded capabilities, I am not concerned that this will require them to do more crossing and playmaking.

The side midfielders, my former wingers, will run at an angle toward the touches on offense, and be primary ball movers, as they were in the old tactic, and in the 4-3-3. The arrows make them more into the wingers I first recruited for those spots.

I gave the fullbacks forward arrows to participate in long crosses. I think this will better take advantage of the good offensive abilities I have at those positions.

The two centrebacks are essentially the same as before, with the small change that one defensive back will be a man-marking speedster, while the other will be a zonal last line of defense with primary defensive and positioning skills.

Overall, I kept much of the team approach the same. I will go with hard tackling, as always, and man mark in own half for the fullbacks and the man-marking defender, and zonal marking for the defensive midfielder and the other centreback. I set my wingers and forwards to man mark always. I rely on my players' abilities to determine the best direction to move the ball, with Mixed passing, and I don't employ counter attacks, offside traps or men behind the ball.

The fullbacks and wingers and side forwards will do crossing, while the midfielders, wingers and fullbacks will run with the ball. My midfielders and fullbacks will attempt through balls, and my defensive midfielder will hold up the ball.

The only things I don't like about it involve the left and right centre midfielders. I have often professed my affinity for good wing play. Using three midfielders in the center doesn't leave these positions out wide the way I like them. So I am concerned this tactic won't make full use of talents like Andy Williams, Jim Corbett and Richie Partridge, although I feel my askant forward arrows and the types of wingers I have gone for will work here well enough. The other thing related to wings that I'm not sure I like are the arrows moving the left and right forwards out to the touch. Not only does that move them farther away from the goal (which to me seems to work against forwards scoring), but it seems to move them close to the same spots as my former wingers are running to, and I don't need two players at each of those spots.

I Ihave lots of ideas for how I want to try new tactics--this is just the first one. I also have a question for the readers--does dropping the middle forward back strike too much of the uber tactic? If you feel it is too close to the old tactic, I would probably just place that forward midfielder forward as the target man. Still, I felt I needed to draw him back, because I dodn't have anyone in the middle at that point to advance the ball forward, and moving him to the frontline means I will have to move my DMC forward to an MC spot, perhaps exposing my defense.

I guess we'll find out when I start playing.

Man City

Manchester City is 15th in the league, but it is a road match and they are supposed to be better than they have been this year. So I am figuring for a tough match (not to mention my squad playing a new tactic).

Ivorian forward Aruna is clearly their best offensive player. He has 11 goals this year to lead City by far. He is one of the two forwards in Man City's 3-2-3-2 that uses two defensive midfielders, a la Dinamo Kiev. Midfielder Dickson Agyeman is the highest valued player but he hasn't been great this season (2 G, 3 A, 7.13). The playmakers seem to be the defensive midfielders. They have a really good one in Wayne Bridge (5 G, 2 A, 6.86), and the other side is manned by Anthony Réveillère (5 A). The offense seems about average, while the defense is only better than a handful of other Premiership squads. English international Nicky Weaver (60 GC in 37 mat) isn't playing behind a very good backline.

It was a second eleven match for us. Despite the new tactic, it's fairly obvious who goes where. The attacking midfielder (David Marcelo Cortez Pizarro) moves up to the middle forward spot, while the old strikers (Louis Saha, Emmanuel Olisadebe) man the side forward spots. Denny Landzaat is in the defensive midfield position, of course, with Richie Partridge and Carl Motteram int he other midfield spots that run off to the touches. Herman Hreidarsson and Kevin Gorman get to be the first two fullbacks to try their expanded offensive roles, while James McEveley and Tieme Klompe are at centreback, in front of Thomas Heaton.

Those of you looking to see me struggle ( ) with the new tactics will be overjoyed to know that the team did indeed struggle. My understanding, though, is that it sometimes takes time for players to learn new tactics. I sure hope so, because I didn' like much of what I saw, especially int he first half.

Aruna scored in the 12th minute off of a Jurica Vranjes pass from the midfield when McEveley seemed to misjudge the pass and took a step away from Aruna. Aruna just squeezed the ball high inside the left post. That would be the only score for a long time. By the 38th minute, we hadn't gotten a single shot off, much less on goal, and we had a slight possession disadvantage of 22% in our own third against 19% in City's. City had three shots, all on goal. That's when Bridge was sent off with a professional foul for holding back Pizarro on a run toward the box. It wasn't a second yellow, but an actual straight, professional foul red. You don't see those too foten--tey usually result in multiple match suspensions.

Not surprisingly, with the man advantage, we started getting some shots off. Still, we continued to struggle, even with an extra man, and weren't anywhere near the dominant offensive squad we have been. The best shot through 76 minutes came when Olisadebe headed a Motteram pass right on goal, and Weaver caught it to end the chance. Weaver also caught a Mark Hicks freekick that almost snuck inside the left post. That shot finally caught us up with Man City in shots taken at five apiece. Ouch.

I figured we were done for as we went deep into stoppage time. The official had indicated three minutes of extra time, and we were just getting a throw-in from the right touch when the 93rd minute rolled on through. Gorman short tossed it to McEveley, who moved it forward to Olsiadebe in the right end of the penalty area, in traffic. The striker moved back to Gorman along the right touch,a nd the fullback fired a cross through the area that deflected slightly off of Vranjes. The ball dribbled to the middle of the area and Hicks got to it with his back to the net and two or three defenders. William Flood, a former Lamb loanee and a midfield starter for City, tackled the ball away from Hicks, but the ball skirted up to Pizarro--with a good look on net! Pizarro took a small step to the left and blasted a high shot inside the left post. Weaver jumped after the shot, but it just slipped passed his flailing hands and went in for the amazing final second equalizer! Three seconds after the ball went in--at 93:16--the ref blew the whistle and we luckily escaped the City of Manchester Stadium with a draw. Tamworth 1, Manchester City 1

Despite having a man advantage for most of the match, we had just as many shots as City (6-6), and were worse on goal (4-5). We moved possession toward their third (27% to 20% in our own), but I think that was because of their loss of a man more than anything. So I am alreayd tinkering with this tactic, I think.

League News

After league matches on Saturday, Third Division Mansfield became the first English club relegated this year, clinching a fall to the Nationwide Conference and out of the League.

At the other end of the Third Division table, Torquay won promotion to the Second Division on Saturday, becoming the first squad promoted in England this year.

On Sunday, Fulham hired three-time English league loser Micky Adams to replace Ruud Gullit, who left the Cottagers on March 30 to return to his old job with Scotland's Rangers. The merry-go-round continues between the EPL and SPL in that respect. Gullit was hired away from the Rangers by Fulham last August, and the Scottish power hired former Middlesbrough boss Steve McLaren. McLaren was hired back into the Premiership on March 19 by Southampton, opening the job again for Gullit, who apparently has quickly tired of trying to turn around the perennial mid-table Cottagers.

Are you confused yet? Leicester City also hired the well-regarded John McDermott from the other Scottish power Celtic in January, a move that has been considered one of the bigger stories in the League this year, as Leicester has played very ell and gotten to the FA Cup Final.

Leicester City happens to be a former employee of Fulham's new manager Adams. He ran the Foxes for the first two years of this dynasty, leading them to 10th and 14th in the Premiership. He was let go after that disappointing 2004-05 season, but hired by First Division West Ham in November in an attempt to turn around a dismal season to that point. He kept them r4espectable, finishing 12th that season in the First Division, but the squad faltered mightily the next year and Adams was let go in March, 2007. A month after that, he was hired by another First Division squad in Derby. He held the reigns over the end of the 2006-07 season, which saw Derby finish 10th--seven spots ahead of Adam's former bosses in West Ham. He then had perhaps his best season as a manager, leading Derby to 6th in the First Division in 2007-08 and a spot in the playoffs. It was "what have you done for me lately, though" when Derby got to an awful start this past year. Adams was fired in November, and as of right now, Derby appears headed for relegation to the Second Division.

Adams, 47, has no league wins, but he does have a cup one, finishing as one of three winners of the Inter-Toto Cup competition with Leicester City in 2004. In his career in this dynasty, he has a 91-56-102 record, with 362 goals scored against 397 conceded, in 249 matches. He has pretty good skills and prefers a cautious 4-4-2, but, not surprisingly, he is thought to have a very poor reputation.

Here is the Premiership League Team of the Week:

SC Trevor Benjamin (Colchester)-- 2 G, 9 rat vs BRI
SC Milan Baros (Birmingham)-- 2 G, MoM, 9 rat vs CHE
MF Gaetano D'Agostino (Man Utd)-- 1 G, 1 A, 8 rat vs NOT
MF Shaun Neville (Southampton)-- 1 A, 8 rat vs BLK
MF Jesper Gronkjær (Everton)-- 1 G, 8 rat vs TOT
MF Rafael van der Vaart (Liverpool)-- 1 G, MoM, 9 rat vs LIV
DF Daniele Bonera (Arsenal)-- 8 rat vs LIV
DF Peter Canero (Southampton)-- 8 rat vs BLK
DF Darren Kenton (Southampton)-- MoM, 8 rat vs BLK
DF Michael Jakobsen (Arsenal)-- 8 rat vs LIV
GK Mark Brown (Bristol City)-- 7 sav, 8 rat vs COL

CR

[Chief Rum]

Tuesday, April 14 To Monday, April 20

We have just one match this week, a visit from relegation candidate Blackpool on Saturday. It's nice to have a lighter week. We have been doing heavy work now for a while (although admittedly it is because we have been very successful in cup competitions).

I plan on some adjustments on my tactic for 16th-placed Blackpool. We'll see if they work out or not. Of course, I'm not sure if I will be able to tell right away, with an entirely new team starting (it will be a second eleven match). It's harder to contrast two matches when you start a completely different eleven.

Partridge Unhappy

For some players, it's just a matter of time. Yakubu and Johnnier Montaño are examples of this. And so is Richie Partridge.

Late Monday (of the previous week), the second eleven right winger complained about not seeing regular time again. As usual, the lack of playing time has nothing to do with an intent to do so, but is related to his international play.

He was not scheduled for the first match against Milan, then he was too tired from his duties with Ireland to start against Chelsea in his scheduled spot in the FA Cup semifinal. I included him as a sub, but I didn't have a use for him. Because he didn't play against Chelsea and because the second Milan match was pretty critical, I had him as a sub again for Milan, too, but again didn't find a need for him.

He played against Manchester City, but the report about his unhappiness came about before that match. I told him he would be played when the time was right, as suggested by my assistant manager Terry Gennoe.

On Tuesday, Partridge said he is happy with his role, and pleased I am starting to appreciate his value to the first team blah blah blah.

I know that these complaints are largely a result of my carrying a large first team, but the fact is that the solution to that problem is to cut down on the number of players I have here. And you can take a quick guess who will go first...yup, see ya whiners...

UEFA Quarterfinals Second Leg

The Champions League may not resume until next week, but the UEFA wrapped up its quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Coming into the match, Ukrainian High League squad Tavria beat Dutch power PSV at home, 3-2; Aston Villa defeated Bundesliga squad Schalke 04, 5-3, in England; Newcastle pounded Greek squad, 3-0, at St. James Park; and Belenenses edged Alavés, 2-1, in a matchup of teams from the Iberian Peninsula.

Tavria continued its Cinderella run by drawing with PSV in Holland, 2-2. That gave them a 5-4 aggregate victory to advance to the semifinals.

Aston Villa had a built in a two goal lead over Schalke o4, but that didn't stop them from beating the German club on the road, 3-2. The Villans won their quarterfinal with ease, 8-5 on aggregate.

PAO held powerful Newcastle to a scoreless draw in Greece, but that doesn't do you much good when you lost 3-0 in the first leg. Newcastle advances to the semis, giving England two clubs in the final four.

The closest quarterfinal was between Portugal's Belenenses and Spain's Alavés. The Primera Liga squad beat the Superleague squad, 3-2, at home to draw level on aggregate, but Belenenses' two away goals beat out Alavés' one away goal, giving the Portuguese club the tiebreaker in a 4-4 aggregate score.

Belenenses will meet Newcastle in the semifinals, while Tavria will play Aston Villa. The semifinal first leg will be played on April 23.

My Tactic Against Blackpool

For the most part, I kept the same tactic as I had against Man City, but I decided to make a small adjustment to it. Here's how it turned out:

F-->  ^  <--F
 ^    |     ^
  \   F    / 
   \     /
    W ^ W    
^     |     ^
|     M     |
|           |
F   D   D   F

      G

The adjustment is small, but I think it could be key. Defensively, we seemed to be just fine. So I changed what I didn't like about the first tactic. I reversed the side forwards from starting inside the penalty area and moving out to the touches, to vice versa. Now they start from the touches and move in toward the goal, which makes more sense to me. Now, I have all three forwards running forward to the net, and it also doesn't group the side forwards with the left and right central midfielders (my wingers) in the corners of the pitch. Basically, as the forwards move up toward the net, the midfielders move to fill in their positions on the pitch to facilitate ball movement. Then on defense, everyone returns to their original spots, which are better able to inhibit ball movement by the opponent.

Or at least that's my theory.

Blackpool

Blackpool is one step lower than Manchester City in the table, so this is about the same strength of an opponent. This one is at the Lamb Ground, though.

In fact, Blackpool is very similar to Man City, in that they are about avergae offensively, and they rank among the worst clubs in the league defensively.

The offense has a star up front whom has recently exploded on the scene, winning the Premiership's Player of the Month in March. Veteran forward Brett Ormerod leads the team by far with 15 goals. The offense has been limited by forward Omar Daley's broken leg, but the former leading Blackpool playmaker wasn't having a good season anyway (3 G in 22 mat as of injury in February). The next best talents are striker John Murphy (7 A), Latvian midfielder Imants Bleidelis (4 G, 6 A) and Scottish star winger Ricky Waddell (6 G, 5 A, 7.12 rat). The defense is clearly the weak point of this squad, and Lee Camp (51 GC in 33 mat) has not been very good.

This is a first eleven match, but we are short a starter, with Yakubu away at Nigeria. Since Emmanuel Olisadebe can't play against Juventus in the next scheduled second eleven match, we go ahead and insert him in Yakubu's place. This is also fullback Trond Erik Bertelsen's return to the first eleven starting lineup after being limited by fatigue from international play in a couple of recent matches.

The match didn't start off so well for us, although this was entirely unrelated to the new tactic, but instead falls completely on one of goalkeeper Jon Masalin's occasional incredibly dumb gaffes. In the 7th minute, midfielder Lee Canoville sent a cross-pitch pass on a counterattack to Murphy, on the run toward the box. Murphy was not alone--Leon Cort was with him and had a step between him and the goal. So why is Masalin running out of the penalty area and intot he middle of the defensive pitch to try and intercept the ball and Murphy? Good Gawd, how stupid. Murphy headed Canoville's ball forward and then just edged the ball away from the goalkeeper into the box. Ormerod came up on the loose ball and blasted it into the empty net for the agonzingly stupid easy goal.

Fortunately, the tactic itself worked just fine, and we demonstrated that with a three-goal stretch in the middle of the first half. Oskarsson started it in the 29th minute, going on a run through the right end of the penalty area to set up a short crossing pass to Olisadebe. The Polish striker easily put the ball into the net past Camp. Then in the 31st minute, we put together a play that was reminiscent of the uber tactic, as Michael Stewart found Montaño splitting the defense up the middle. The midfielder, alone on goal, put in a shot just inside the left post for the go ahead. Then in the 33rd minute, Montaño sent in a corner right into the middle of the area, and Olisadebe redirected the high pass into the right corner of the net with a well-timed header.

We pretty much rolled from there, getting a second half own goal from young midfielder Michael McGrath to wrap it up. Tamworth 4, Blackpool 1

We didn't dominate in shots taken (10, 6 on goal), but in defense (only 2 shots allowed) and making good on our chances (three of six goal shots in the net). We also dominated possesson (31% in Blackpool's end to 18% in ours).

League News

Last week, the first English league promotion and relegation was just the kicker to this week's action, which saw the fates of a good many more squads determined.

The big news was the long expected relegation of Colchester from the Premiership. They may be the worst Premiership squad I have ever seen. They have just four wins in 33 matches, to go with just 18 points and a -52 goal differential. I wonder how José Alexander Amaya feels about that?

Plymouth joined last week's Third Division relegation squad Mansfield on the route to the Conference, which lost the services of Canvey Island on Saturday.

The one promotion came to the Bees of Barnet, which became the first Second Division promotee to the First Division.

In Germany, Dortmund clinched the Bundesliga championship, becoming the first winner of a major league this season. We aren't too far off ourselves, with a 12 point lead on Man Utd and six matches left (five for Man Utd). Arsenal, with a match in hand and a 21-point deficit can technically still catch us in points, but that would require us to lose all of our remaining matches, them to win all of theirs, and make up 42 points in goal differential--aside from whatever Man Utd does during this stretch. So we basically have our automatic Champions League spot for next year sewn up.

Here is the Premiership League Team of the Week:

SC Shola Ameobi (Newcastle)-- 2 G, MoM, 9 rat vs COL
SC Tommy Wright (Leicester)-- 2 G, MoM, 10 rat vs SOU
MF Jermaine Jenas (Newcastle)-- 2 A, 8 rat vs COL
MF David Marcelo Cortez Pizarro (Tamworth)-- 1 G, MoM, 9 rat vs MAN
MF Dean Marney (Leicester)-- 1 G, 1 A, 8 rat vs SOU
MF Gaetano D'Agostino (Man Utd)-- 1 G, MoM, 10 rat vs ARS
DF Lucas Neill (Blackburn)-- 8 rat vs NOT
DF Clayton Fortune (Bristol City)-- 8 rat vs SFW
DF Tieme Klompe (Tamworth)-- 8 rat vs MAN
DF Jonathon Woodgate (Newcastle)-- 9 rat vs COL
GK Fabien Barthez (Man Utd)-- 4 sav, clean, 9 rat vs ARS

Seems a little odd that our two entrants to this week's Team of the Week came from our draw with Man City, instead of our strong win over Blackpool. Go figure.

CR

[Chief Rum]

"The Poison Chalice"

I had a good laugh while watching the real life Charity Shield today. The announcers called the tournament trophy the "poison chalice" because since Newcastle won it in 1994, no team that had won the trophy had also won the league that year.

So I decided to see how this holds up in the current Tamworth dynasty.

Here are the Community Shield winners in this dynasty:

2003: Man Utd
2004: Arsenal
2005: Arsenal
2006: Arsenal
2007: Tamworth
2008: Man Utd

and here are the following league winners:

2003-04: Man Utd
2004-05: Arsenal
2005-06: Man Utd
2006-07: Chelsea
2007-08: Tamworth
2008-09: Tamworth?

Well, the streak was broken in 2004, when Man Utd won both the Shield and the Premiership. Then Arsenal did it in 2005. It didn't work out for Arsenal the next two years, though, starting a new mini-streak. Then my club's arrival broke that streak, as I won the Shield as a new Premiership squad (and only in the thing becuase of my FA Cup success) and went on to win the league.

I put a question mark by this year, of course, because the season is not yet completed. That said, it seems very unlikely that I won't end up on top. If so, given that I lost the Shield this year to Man Utd, it looks like the Poison Chalice strikes again.

Basically, assuming things go as expected the rest of the way here, there is an even three-three split of Shield winners also taking home the silverware in the Premiership (and not doing so).

CR

[Katon]

I forgot to mention this in the EPL thread, but it was Blackburn who last pulled of the Charity Shield/Premiership double. Newcastle haven't won the top division in several decades.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Katon

I forgot to mention this in the EPL thread, but it was Blackburn who last pulled of the Charity Shield/Premiership double. Newcastle haven't won the top division in several decades.

Ah...credit that one to the dumbass announcers then of the Shield (or my lousy ears for British accents). I coulda sworn they said Newcastle. Perhaps Blackburn beat Newcastle in the Shield? Who knows what I really heard.

Is Newcastle the Boston Red Sox/Chicago Cubs of the Premiership?

CR

[Chief Rum]

dola, I may have figured it out. Although I am going on what CM says. Remember it has historic winners of the current leagues and trophies and cups.

According to that, Blackburn won the Premiership in 1994-95, about the time you mention. You're off in the Shield, though--they lost to Man Utd and Everton in consecutive years in 1994 and then 1995, and they haven't won a Shield since 1912.

It appears the last time it happened was in 1996-97 with Man Utd. They won the 1996 Community Shield and then went on to win the 1996-97 league championship. And guess who they beat in that Shield? Newcastle...

CR

[Chief Rum]

double dola,

As I expected, you were dead on with Newcastle's failures in the Premiership. They haven't won the league championship since 1927. Ouch.

CR

[daedalus]

That's okies . . . Manchester United's double of league and Shield should be broken this year.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by daedalus

That's okies . . . Manchester United's double of league and Shield should be broken this year.

Man U's double is already pretty much broken...oh wait, you mean in real life.

CR

[Chief Rum]

Tuesday, April 21 To Monday, April 27

We have a huge match and a lowest-of-the-low match this week.

On Wednesday, we begin our Champions League semifinal with mighty Juventus, a match up I expect to give as much or even more trouble than Milan did. They, also, are tremendously skilled and deep.

On Saturday, we end the week on a bit of a downer: a road visit to talent-challenged Colchester, recently relegated from the Premiership and merely playing out the string. This is the kind of squad I play backups in (although I won't this time, with the new tactics needing to be learned).

Still, there is something on the line--we could clinch the Premiership title. We have a match in hand on Man Utd and we're 12 points up on them. Man Utd has five matches left, so if we get to 15 points up on them (or more than 12, really) after this round, we will have clinched the Premiership for the second year in a row (and started a new "Poison Chalice" streak, since Man Utd won the Shield last August).

Juventus

Like AC Milan, this is a squad that is literally stocked with worldclass players from front to back. They have won three straight Serie A titles, and are currently in second place (behind Milan by three points) in their run at a fourth.

They have also really turned it up with the return of superstar French striker David Trezeguet. The star striker, who has dominated the Serie A for years, missed four months this season with a shin injury, but the club has been very good since his return in late February. He has 11 goals in 21 matches (along with 7 A and a 7.21 rat). Juventus were no slouches without him--they still have veteran Italian star Alessandro Del Piero (15 G, 9 A), and Brazilian striker Nenê (team leading 16 G, 7.21) blossomed as Trezeguet's replacement, and is Del Piero's heir apparent.

The midfield is also still ridiculously skilled. They have one of the best pairs of wingers in the world, even if both are on the wrong side of 30. Star Czech winger Pavel Nedved (6 G, 7 A) doesn't have the physical skills anymore, but he remains one of the smartest players in football. On the other side, Italian vet Mauro Germán Camoranesi (5 G, 18 A, 7.24) has been the Italian side's most important offensive element. The team is strong defensively in the middle with Matteo Brighi (4 G, 6 A, 7.21) and Enzo Maresca (4 G, 3 A, 7.03).

The defense is led by Croatian superstar vackliner Igor Tudor (7.24), who made a big name for himself in leading Croatia's tough defense as they won the cup at Euro 2008. On the outside, Alessandro Birindelli (3 G) is the veteran fullback. Argentinian Juan Pablo Sorin (1 G, 4 A) is the best offensive defender on the squad, and Marco Zanchi is a steady partner for Tudor int he middle.

Of course, the biggest reason Juventus's D is so strong (among the best in Serie A) is superstar goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who is in his prime right now at 31. Buffon (42 GC in 46 mat, 21 cleans, 7.00) is probably the best netminder in football right now.

Against all of that, we are marching out our second eleven. We did make one change. Emmanuel Olisadebe usually starts here, but he is ineligible to play in European matches for us because he was on Hertha BSC's international roster. So we are starting Yakubu in his place. Yakubu missed his scheduled start against Blackpool because of being away with Nigeria, so I figure this is a good way to forestall his inevitable complaints about playing time. I was short of top condition subs who were on the eligible roster for this match, so I put normal first eleven fullback Trond Erik Bertelsen ont he sub list with the usual characters (Giovanny Hernáandez, Adam Wilde, Mark Hicks, Lionel Morgan, etc.).

I almost regret starting off at the Lamb Ground. There was comfort in knowing I was coming back from Itlay against Milan with just a one-goal deficit. I felt I could make that up at home. Now, if we don't get a good result in this match against Juventus, we would face the unenviable challenge of trying to get the upperhand on them at Delle Alpi.

Right off the bat, this one didn't start off too well for us. Tudor went in hard on David Marcelo Cortez Pizarro in one play in the 8th minute. He took our star midfielder down, and unfortunately, Pizarro didn't leap back up. He was hurt, and had to leave the match. Pizarro is a primary reason our second eleven has been, really, our first eleven, if you know what I mean. Losing him is horrible news, and I just had this this back-of-the-mind impression that the injury wouldn't be a day-to-day one either. I decided to put Morgan in as a replacement since, while he is a left winger, he has the sort of skills I like at this spot and has done well here before. Also, I didn't have as much confidence in my normal backup forward midfielder Hernández, a fine player but not always consistent.

We seemed to counteract that injury well in the 14th minute, when Yakubu volleyed a long header pass from Richie Partridge along the right touch right into the left side of the net, seemingly catching Buffon by surprise. Unfortunately the attack came so fast, Louis Saha was caught slightly offsides and the goal was waved off. Just a minute later, Morgan got a little too neat on an easy goal score possibility. He took a pass from Saha right in front of the goal, but decided to try and chip it over Buffon instead of the more conventional direct kick. Buffon anticipated the kick and drifted back to the right post, where the ball fell harmlessly into his arms.

We got a scare in the 22nd minute ourselves, when fullback Giourkas Seitaridis went on a run toward the box and then moved the ball up to Trezeguet--with a step on the defense. That's a scary thing. Fortunately, Trezeguet was off in the left of the area, and Thomas Heaton was able to clutch his long shot from the side.

There was no denying the star for long, though. In the 27th minute, Tieme Klompe headed a Juventus throw in to the middle of the pitch and Morgan. Maresca intervened, though, and sent a pass forward to Trezeguet, just outside of the box. Turning the situation into a mind-boggler, Trezeguet's marker, Jmes McEveley inexplicably charged off to the middle of the pitch (seeking a phantom striker?) as the ball moved to Trezeguet. The striker was pretty much all alone on goal with Heaton. The goalkeeper rushed out and got a piece of Trezeguet's shot from the edge, but it squeaked by him and rolled slowly into the net for the first goal of the match. Not exactly the way I saw our home match starting (and this is with the uber tactic!).

It looked like we might equalise it in the 41st minute. Hermann Hreidarsson intercepted a half-pitch clear out by Buffon and sent it right back toward the box and Saha. As he did in Morgan's other great chance to score, Saha headed the ball to the midfielder as he ran into the penalty area. Morgan returned it to Saha to the left of the goal to complete the give-and-goal, but Saha was off with his kick, blasting the ball into the side netting.

In the 44th minute, we were moved to the point of despair. Trezeguet beat Klompe with a header in the middle of their offensive pitch, moving the ball down to Del Piero on the right side edge of the penalty area. Del Piero took the ball just along the right side of the area before sending a low, back-curling cross into the box. Trezeguet was closely marked by McEveley, but he snuck in closer to the incoming pass than the defender and sent a low volley shot inside the right post. It seemed to freeze Heaton, who never even made a move toward the shot as the ball sailed into the net for the two-goal Juventus lead.

Thus began perhaps my lowest point in this dynasty. For all the success I have had, I never realized how much I wanted to capture the Champions Cup until now. It was upsetting me and frankly pissing me off that we couldn't do better at our own ground. I wasn't without hope at this point, but I was despondent and frustrated. Despite playing at home, we were being outshot (4-3, and 4-2 in shots on goal) at halftime. The only thing I could take to heart was that we had a commanding 34% to 13% offensive-third advantage over the Italian team, meaning we were largely controlling the ball play, but falling short when it comes to shots. And the way Buffon and the defense was playing, I wasn't sure we could even begin to make headway here, and even if we did, we would have to do it all over again in Italy in a couple weeks. Ugh. And that's on top of my suspicion Pizarro would be out for a while.

This feeling would only deepen as we progressed into the second half. Our play was characterized by plays like Morgan's in the 47th minute, where he had a good look at the net from the right, but, like Saha in the first half, he kicked the ball into the side netting. Thirty minutes into the second half, we only had one more shot on goal (the Morgan shot), although we had also kept Juventus from getting any shots at all in the second half up to then.

In the 65th minute, I decided to make some more lineup changes. Morgan was putting up a 7 rating in replacement of Pizarro, but he just wasn't playing all that well when it came to creating offense. In addition, Carl Motteram was having an awful match (4 rating) as he tried to keep a lid on Camoranesi (and it wasn't working). So I put Hernández in Morgan's spot and moved Morgan to his traditional left wing spot, replacing Motteram. The deposed winger was not happy; he was, in fact, furious at leaving the pitch. Well, play better than, Carl. I also put in Bertelsen at defensive midfielder, as Landzaat had picked up a small knock that dropped his conditioning to below 50. I really didn't have too many other options there.

If there were any positives to the changes, they weren't immediately obvious. I was just praying to get a goal at this point, any score to help defray what I would have to do at Juventus to pull this one off.

We finally took the shot lead just before the 76th minute, moving ahead 6-5 in total shots, while matching Juventus' 4 shots on goal. Of course, since no shots had gone in, that was a hollow victory. That sixth shot did get us a corner, though, which Morgan sent in from the right spot. The low corner pass was reached first by midfielder Manuele Blasi, a sub, but he misplayed it and deflected into the center of the box in front of the net. Hreidarsson stepped up in heavy traffic and blasted a low shot past a stunned Juventus defense and into the lower right corner for the late 76th minute score!

I can't tell you what a relief this was, to see us score at this point. It took an odd deflection to do it, and it went to a player whom had not yet scored a goal for us in almost two seasons of regular time, but we finally got that score I was looking for. One goal deficits, even on the road, are much more doable than two-goal deficits.

That seemed to trip a switch, though, and we started to get more shots on goal. In the 81st minute, Bertelsen found Hernáandez with a pass up the pitch toward the box. Hernáandez took the ball into the area and tried to dodge around Buffon. The goalkeeper still got to the shot and deflected it back across the right goal line, but it was a good sign to even take a relatively high percentage shot.

That led to another corner. Instead of a cross into the box, Morgan sent a pass out to the middle of the offensive pitch. After a couple pass backs between Richie Partridge and Klompe, Partridge saw Saha with a chance at a step on the defense in the left end of the area. He put a perfect pass just over seemingly both teams gathered near the edge of the area and onto Saha's foot to the left of the goal. Saha took a step and then blasted the ball at the right side of the net. The shot flew over Buffon's shoulder and into the corner for the amazing equalizer! We have fought back in the 82nd minute!

In the 86th minute, we were fighting an endless interception game with Juventus, as both sides struggled to advance on the other's goal. Bertelsen ended up with the ball just in front of the centerline and sent a pass toward the right side of the pitch. The ball was well-placed, as Yakubu was on the far side of his marker Alexey Korneev and could get to the ball first. The striker took the ball into the right end of the area and seemed prepared to send a pass back into the box (as he usually does). Instead, though, he turned and fired a long shot right on goal. He squeezed the shot into a tight angle inside the right post and it somehow evaded Buffon and slammed into the back of then net. OMG, we took the lead with our third goal in ten minutes!

Even then, we weren't done. In injury time, Kevin Gorman passed the ball to Partridge at the centreline along the right touch, and the winger decided to take off on a run toward the right end of the area, with Birindelli trying to chase him down or get an angle on his approach to the net. Partridge ran deep into the penalty area, curling in toward the box (and coming perilously close to Birinidelli and another Juventus defender) before unleashing a high shot that just blasted right past Buffon for our fourth goal in 16 minutes.

Thus wrapped up the most amazing blitzkrieg of scoring and critical comeback that I have ever witnessed in a CM03/04 match. Just...wow. Tamworth 4, Juventus 2

Juventus took one shot, off goal, in the entire second half. From the point of Hreidarsson's 76th minute score, we took eight shots, seven of which went on goal and four went in.

Champions League Semifinal First Leg Aftermath

What is there to say after a match like that?

Two things, actually. One, we drew 32,013 to the Lamb Ground, just 17 short of our record (and 32 less than full capacity). At Champions League prices, that beat out our previous $1.8 M gate receipts record, set two weeks ago when we hosted Milan in this very same event. Technically, both receipts were listed as $1.8 M, but obviously we got slightly more from the Juventus match to set the new record.

The second thing was something I almost forgot about it in the aftermath of that amazing comeback. My physio came back with a report on Pizarro's injury, and, unfortunately, I was right. The Chilean midfielder broke his shoulder and will be out for four weeks. Well, the time missed isn't as bad as I had feared, but it seems likely Pizarro will not play for us again this season.

In the interim, I will start Hernández in the second eleven forward midfielder spot, and both Morgan and Darren Birchall will be taking primary backup duties at the position (as well as their current winger reserve duties).

Werder Bremen-Bodo/Glimt

There was another Champions League semifinal on Wednesday, of course. Werder Bremen was hosting surprising Bodo/Glimt at Weserstadion in Bremen. Werder Bremen won the shot war (12-5 total) and the possession war (21% in own third to 31% in Bodo/Glimt's), but they only put 5 shots on goal to 4 by the Norwegian club. The result? The team exchanged first half goals, and ended up with a 1-1 draw.

This one will have to be decided in Norway on May 6, the same day we go to Delle Alpi to wrap our semifinal with Juventus.

UEFA Semifinals First Leg

On Thursday, the UEFA played the first leg of its semfinal stage as well.

Newcastle rode goals by Shola Ameobi and Darren Ambrose, and should have won by far more in absolutely obliterating Belenenses in the Portuguese squad's own stade. The Magpies took 27 shots, 15 on goal, while allowing just one off-goal shot to Belenenses in beating them 2-0. Ouch.

In the other match, Aston Villa didn't have the same quality as league partner Newcastle, in a visit to surprising Ukrainian High League squad Tavria. Of course, it doesn't help that a key defender, Seth Johnson, broke his arm in the 22nd minute, and then centreback Jonathon Bewers picked up two yellows in three minutes and was sent off in the 30th minute, both times on frustrated retaliatory pushes on Tavria striker Mikhail Axionov. Tavria centreback Sergio Moreno scored in the 57th minute to put in the only goal in the match, as the Villans lost, 1-0.

The second leg for both matches will be played on May 7.

Yakubu Called Up

Africa is certainly busy with its international play.

On Saturday, we got notice again that Nigeria will be calling up our first eleven striker Yakubu for a World Cup qualifier against Liberia on May 2.

We play Newcastle at St. James Park that day, so, obviously, he will not be available for that match.

Colchester

I have noted a number of times that Colchester is probably the worst Premiership squad I have ever seen. They have already been relegated, so Saturday's match is pretty much meaningless for them. They have the worst offense (31 goals) barely and the worst defense (85 goals) by a ton. It doesn't get much worse than -54 goal differential, and just 18 points in 34 matches (four wins total on the season thus far).

Popular international Aussie striker Joshua Kennedy (10 G, 4 A) seems to be the leading offensive talent on the team. He is joined by former Leicester forward Trevor Benjamin (5 G), who is not having a great season (6.14). Our good friend José Alexander Amaya (3 G, 5 A) has stepped it up after a poor start, but it's sad that he is probably their top midfielder. He gets help from winger Karl Duguid (3 G, 3 A). Tested and cagey old veteran English international Ian Walker isn't exactly playing out the twilight of his career in top form. Although credit deserves to go to an awful backline, Walker has allowed 86 goals in 35 matches.

We started our first eleven. Bertelsen is a fast recoverer, so he was at full conditioning for his regular start, despite playing a good chuck of the Juventus match. I started Adam Wilde in Yakubu's place, as the striker wasn't nearly as rested. Not willing to switch Yakubu and Olisadebe in their eleven spots, though, I did put Yakubu on the sub list. Olisadebe will go two matches without playing, but he hasn't yet shown himself to be a whiner like Yakubu. It does seem terrible to basically benefit Yakubu for whining, but I need to be sure to shut him up (at least until I decide if I want to move him).

Despite running our 4-3-3 tactic (instead of the uber "diablo" tactic), it was pretty clear we weren't going to have any problems with these guys. In the 21st minute, Orri Frey Oskarsson intercepted an ill-advised Colchester backpass and took the ball in on goal. He blasted a hard shot over a charging Walker for the first score. In the 40th minute, Leon Cort put in a glancing header off of a Johnnier Montaño corner pass to put us up two goals. And that's how it ended. Tamworth 2, Colchester 0

We outshot Colchester 16-4, and 9-2 on goal.

Tamworth Retains Premiership Title

Man Utd lost to Birmingham, 2-0, on the road on Saturday, so in combination with our win over Colchester, we had the necessary margin to clinch our second straight Premiership title.

We have scored the impressive double, and we could still end up with both the Champions League and FA Cup trophies as well.

Storbæk Hurt

Backup winger and fullback Jarl Ander Storbæk broke some ribs in an apparently tough training session on Sunday, and will likely miss the rest of the season.

Like Pizarro, Storbæk is expected to be out of action for four weeks.

I seriously doubt this will have any real effect on my rotations.

League News

With another round of league play on Saturday, we also had some noew relegations and promotions, as well as the first English league championships.

On the same day we clinched the Premiership, the already promoted Second Division Barnet won the division title. Down in the Conference, Carlisle clinched both the top non-league table title and a promotion to the League and the Third Division.

Burton Albion and Stockport essentially switched places. Burton Albion became the second Third Division squad to win promotion to the Second Division, along with Torquay. Stockport was relegated to the Third Division from the Second on Saturday.

On a slightly higher scale, First Division Wigan became the first victim of its division, and was relegated to the Second Division on Saturday.

Here is the Premiership League Team of the Week:

SC Dean Ashton (Blackburn)-- 3 G, MoM, 10 rat vs ARS
SC Adam Ward (Fulham)-- 1 G, MoM, 10 rat vs LIV
MF Tommy Doherty (Bristol City)-- MoM, 8 rat vs NEW
MF Paul Scott (Tottenham)-- 7.50 rat in 2 matches
MF Karl Duguid (Colchester)-- 8 rat vs TAM
MF Mark Bresciano (Liverpool)-- 8 rat vs FUL
DF Sun Jihai (Man City)-- MoM, 8 rat vs TOT
DF Nils-Eric Johansson (Blackburn)-- 8 rat vs ARS
DF Steven Reid (Blackburn)-- 8 rat vs ARS
DF Brett Emerton (Blackburn)-- 1 A, 9 rat vs ARS
GK Yves Makubu Ma Kalambay (Sheff Wed)-- 8 sav, clean, 9 rat vs SOU

CR

[SirFozzie]

Nice to see you mention former Cambridge player Trevor Benjamin..

any chance I can get a "where are they now" update on Cambridge United?

Foz

[SplitPersonality1]

Great win over Juventus. Excellent comeback.

Isn't amazing how involved you can get in an "important" game in a computer sports sim. Nice job.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Nice to see you mention former Cambridge player Trevor Benjamin..

any chance I can get a "where are they now" update on Cambridge United?

Foz

Sure, who you want me to locate?

CR

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by SplitPersonality1

Great win over Juventus. Excellent comeback.

Isn't amazing how involved you can get in an "important" game in a computer sports sim. Nice job.

lol...kinda sad to, eh?

But, yeah, getting onvolved liek that, that level of immersion, is what these games are all about. Plus, that's why CM is the king of text sims.

CR

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Sure, who you want me to locate?

CR

Sorry.. was unclear.. wanted to know how they were doing, their highest value player, whether they are a buying or selling club, etcetera

[Chief Rum]

Heh heh sure thing...

They were promoted from the Third Division after the 2003-04 season (the first in this dynasty). They finished in 2nd that year.

They started off very strong in the Second Division as well, finishing 4th in 2004-05.

Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. They went from a playoff spot in 2005 to mid-table (10th) in 2005-06, edge of relegation (18th) in 2006-07, and then actual relegation (21st) in 2007-08.

Currently, they are 12th in Third Division with a 15-17-12 record and a +7 GD.

As it turns out, Foz, Cambridge and my own Lambs have a bit of a history. In the 2004/05 season, which was my first (and last) in the Third Division and was the year Cambridge got to the Second Division playoffs, we played four times in three separate cup competitons! I remember thinking it was one of the stranger oddities I had ever seen, to keep drawing Cambridge like that.

On September 28, 2004, we edged out Cambridge, 2-1, in the League Cup second round. Then a month later, on October 27, we again beat Cambridge, 3-2, in the Vans Trophy Sout first round. On November 13, we drew with Cambridge at the Lamb Ground (which was little at the time), 1-1, in the FA Cup first round. So we had to replay them at their place, and lost on November 24, 1-0.

The thing I remember most from those matches was my impression that Cambridge was a very good team. All of the matches, as you can see each within one on the final tally, were tight, close affairs that either team could win.

Next year, although we would eventually play our way back into the Second Division playoff for advancement to the First Division. Cambridge, our cup nemesis, pulled the double on us, beating us 1-0 in August, 2005, at the Lamb Ground, and then edging us 3-2 at their place in January, 2006. It was the only season we were in the same division with one another.

The highest valued player now ont he team is MC Darren Brady ($85,000). He came to Cambridge via the Raith Rovers and Watford.

Centreback Stevland Angus (a name you no doubt know) is second ont he team at $80,000, and is a popular players with the supporters.

Carl Cort, formerly of Newcastle and the Wolves, is Cambridge's premier offensive talent. The 31-year-old has 24 goals and 11 assists this season, and has been a top player for Cambridge saince 2006.

Australian Danny Alsopp is Cort's partner and the former star of Cambridge in the Second Division. He scored 23, 23 and 21 goals from 2005-08. He is second on the team this year with 12 goals. He was with Hull and Notts County before joining Cambridge in 2005.

Vet Danny Dicchio gives Cambridge three thirtysomething strikers with good ability. He has 11 goals this year and has scored double digits in goals in two of the previous three seasons, prior to this one. He comes from Milwall and W.B.A.

Cort and Dicchio are two of the best passers, but the top creative playmaker is right winger Andy Hughes (6 goals, 14 assists), who came to Cambridge this past offseason from Coventry. He also played with Reading and was Alsopp's teammate at Notts County in 2000-01.

Goalkeeper Danny Clark (22 years old) looks like a good young netminder (59 GC in 47 mat, 15 cleans). He is a product of Cambridge's youth system, first coming into existence here in 2004.

In the first year, the top transfer out was of striker Dave Kitson to Reading for $240K. GK Shaun Marshall ($70K to Plymouth), AMC George Fotheringham ($70K to Gillingham), and young striker John Turner ($40K to W.B.A.) were the other significant transfer outs.

In 2005-06, Cambridge sold striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake to Motherwell for $200K, but you probably don't know him, as he was brought in from Man Utd's youth team the year before.

The top guy sold you would know would be striker Daniel Chillingworth. He was sold to Darlington for $95K in August, 2006. Another dynasty-starting Cambridge player who left was Luke Guttridge, sold to Scunthorpe for $20K in March, 2007.

Cambridge's reputation is regional and their finances Insecure. Former Fulham manager Graham Westley is currently managing them. He was sacked by Fulham after a short stint last May. He wasn't hired by Cambridge until February this year (since they fired their previous guy). You might know Westlkey as the manager of Stevenage, where he was a long time before getting the call from the Cottagers.

CR

[Chief Rum]

Tuesday, April 28 To Monday, May 4

This week we return to finishing off our Premiership schedule. With the league championship locked up, we can concentrate on running out these tactics and seeing what comes up.

We play two league matches this week. On Wedensday, we host likely relegation candidate Bristol City, and then on Saturday, we put the tactic to a serious test when we visit Newcastle at St. James Park.

Injuries

We seem to be getting hit with a late run of injuries.

On Tuesday, winger Jim Corbett hurt his neck in training. He will be out for about a week, and miss his scheduled start against Newcastle on Saturday.

Later that day, reserve defender Graham Porter also hurt himself in training, breaking his wrist. He will miss three weeks, so that will pretty much put him out for the season.

Bristol City

Bristol City hasn't yet been relegated, but they seem on their way. Only Colchester is worse in points, and Bristol City has a long way to go to catch the next squad Blackburn (who is also a relegation candidate right now).

The defense isn't great, ranking in the bottom half, but it's not more than a solid player or consistent backline play from being at least decent. Goalkeeper Mark Brown (55 GC in 39 mat, 7.28) has a handful of Premiership League Team of the Week appearances this season for stonewalling opponents.

The offense, however, has been awful, scoring more than only Colchester in league. Lee Miller (10 G, 7 A) is the top talent up front, where he is paired with Leroy Lita (8 G, 5 A). They are essentially the only scorers to be concerned about it on this squad. They also happen to be the best passers on the team, so you know you have to watch.

This was a second eleven match for us, with most of the usual suspects in place. Giovanny Hernández gets his first official second eleven start in palce of the injured David Marcelo Pizarro. Emmanuel Olisadebe returns to his starting role at the right forward spot, as he had to skip the last one because of being ineligible to play against Juventus.

God bless Denny Landzaat. He has been wonderful for us this year. But for some reason on this night at the Lamb Ground, he fell in love with his long shot. I don't know if the midfielders didn't feel they could get the ball inside to the strikers or what, but Landzaat just kept launching them from outside of the area. It forced me to remove "take long shots" from the tactics instructions because I saw offensive rush after rush ended because of pointless long balls sailing over and/or wide of the net. Landzaat ended up with 16 shots in this match, and only six of them went on goal.

Overall, we took 29 shots, with 10 on goal. Brown was typically wonderful, stopping us when he had to, although to be honest, even the ones we got on goal were really long shots. Our three forwards took just five shots, with only one on goal. If the shots didn't profess to our otherwise dominance of the pitch, our amazing 43% to 11% time advantage in our opponents' third of the pitch should do the trick. They only got three shots total, two on goal, which proved easy enough for Thomas Heaton to stop to pick up the easy clean sheet.

A lot of shots were taken, but pretty much nothing happened. Tamworth 0, Bristol City 0

I have to be concerned about the tactic if I can't score after taking 29 shots against a relegation candidate at home. From what I saw on the pitch, the problem was where the shots were coming from, their chance of going in, as opposed to generating shots (which obviously wasn't a problem).

Board Confidence Update

We got the same message as usual when the new month rolled around on Friday.

April Premiership Awards

Leicester City continues to rack up the awards with its late season play.

On Friday, the Premiership awarded the Foxes' striker Tommy Wright with the Premiership Player of the Month award. Wright had two goals and an 8.50 rating in four matches.

John McDermott, Lecister's new boss, won his second straight Premiership Manager of the Month award, as the Foxes won three of their four matches, drawing in the only one they didn't win.

Strangely enough, the award the Foxes usually win--Young Player of the Month, generally to superstar striker James Graham--was the one that didn't go to them this time. Instead, Southampton midfielder Shaun Neville won the award, with a goal and an assist to go along with an 8.00 rating in three matches. It was the first time since December that Graham did not win the award.

Tamworth did not figure into any goals of the month, for good or bad.

Newcastle

The Magpies are playing well in the UEFA, as they have the edge in their semifinal there. And they are no slouches with their resources and sitting at sixth in the Premiership right now. So even with the uber tactic, this wouldn't be an easy match.

Newcastle is solid on both offense and defense, but they aren't especially close to the top of the league on either end. Shola Ameobi (31 G, 14 A, 7.93 rat) is once again perhaps the best player in the league. He and Mateja Kezman (21 G, 14 A) form one of the most explosive striker combos in recent Premiership history. The midfield is very talented, with Barry Ferguson (7 G, 3 A) and Jermaine Jenas (7 G, 7 A< 7.16) in the middle, and Hugo Viana (10 A) and Darren Ambrose (6 A) on the sides. The defense is led by fullback Aaron Hughes (2 G, 3 A, 7.20) and centrebacks Titus Bramble (7.21) and Jonathon Woodgate (3 A, 7.18). Shay Given (57 GC in 50 mat, 21 cleans, 7.18) entered the season as one of the more consistent goalkeepers in the league and has done little to dispel that notion.

This was a first eleven match, but we had to make some adjustments. With Corbett hurt, we needed a new right winger and started Darren Birchall. Up front, Yakubu was away with Nigeria, so we started Mark Hicks at the left forward spot.

We made some small adjustments here, removing the take long shots option from the central midfield position and adding forward runs to the side forwards. The first one is an obvious change arising from the propensity of our midfield to take unnecessary long shots, while the second one was to get our side forwards more involved in the offense.

This match was very defensive, thanks to the fact we controlled the ball possession, and Newcastle controlled the quality of shots taken. By the end of the match, we had a 31% to 17% time advantage in our opponent's third of the pitch (there has got to be a more succinct way of saying that...).

We weren't able to turn our ball control into shots this time, like we did against Bristol City. We remained strong in our own end, though, and limtied Newcastle's shots. Unfortunately, the Magpies are a little more talented than Bristol City, and make much better use of their limited chances.

In the 13th minute, Kezman put one in that almost seemed like a fluke. Jenas headed forward an Andy O'Brien freekick into the penalty area, up to Kezman on the other side of the area, about even with the left post. He was man-marked by two defenders, but got to the ball first, heading a soft lob at the right post. Jon Masalin was guarding for the more likely shot inside the left post and seemed frozen by the surprise header. The ball fell easily into the right corner of the net, just barely making it inside the right post.

In the 60th minute, Hughes went on a run up the left touch and then sent a pass into the left end of the area for Viana. The winger turned and blasted a shot inside the left post. Masalin was on it, but he let out a rebound in front of the net. Ameobi jumped on it first and put it into the right end of the goal for Newcastle's second score.

We outshot Newcastle 7-5, and 5-4 on goal, but we couldn't solve Givens. Although we didn't have the wasted long shots in this one, and we had some interesting points where we seemed close to generating scores, we never really seemed to put it together to get a goal. Newcastle 2, Tamworth 0

Obviously, this wraps up our worst week of the year for matches, as we didn't get a win in either of our league matches. I don't think it's coincidence this happens with the new tactic.

The new tactic is good at controlling the ball and limiting opponent shots, but I think the jury is very much out on generating quality shots. We have too much offensive talent to get zero goals in two league matches.

It's tough to say what's real, though. With this same tactic, we scored two goals against Colchester. But it was against Colchester. Then it's conceivable that our poor performance the past couple matches is due to running into a hot goalkeeper (Brown) and playing a fine defensive club ont he road (Newcastle). It could also be we're not used to the tactic yet.

That's the thing about CM. By the time you figure out if a tactic works or not, you might have sunk your season (not a concern for us this seaosn, but certainly something to think about for next year). Ugh.

Trond Erik Bertelsen picked up a knock late in the match, but my physio says he will only miss three days with a thigh bruise.

Tamworth Sign Kiss

Months ago, we signed a young Slovakian centreback named Péter Kiss to a Bosman transfer. On Sunday, he officially joined us on free transfer from his old employer, Banska Bystrica of the Slovak Second Division.

Kiss is a 19-year-old U21 player for Slovakia who joins a growing cadre of youth talent from that central European club on our U-19 squad. Kiss joins fellow young countrymen Roman Boldyrev and defender Andrey Gorbunov on our youth squad.

Kiss appeared in 28 matches for Banska Bystrica and played well, putting up a 7.39 average rating. He also had an assist and four Men of the Match.

Physically, Kiss is very fast and well-built. He also has a good attitude to getting better and in his approach to the pitch, and he has winger quality crossing abilities. He has a ways to go in his technical skills, though, and his handle on the mental part of the game also needs a lot of work.

Saha Hurt In Training

On Monday, Louis Saha became our third player to succumb to a training injury. Saha strained some knee ligaments and will be out about a week. That certainly puts him out for the Juventus match.

Considering we already can't use Olisadebe, this will put us at a disadvantage against the powerful Italian club on offense (thank God we'll be using the uber tactic). At least we should have Yakubu back.

League News

Three more clubs had moves cemented by league play on Saturday.

Huddersfield joins Canvey Island in being relegated from the Nationwide Conference. Chester joins Torquay and Burton Albion in the Second Division, while Exeter dropped from the Second Division.

Here is the Premiership League Team of the Week:

SC Clinton Morrison (Birmingham)-- 2 G, MoM, 9 rat vs LEI
SC Jon Macken (Man City)-- 1 G, 2 A, MoM, 9 rat vs LIV
MF Shaun Neville (Southampton)-- 1 G, 1 A, MoM, 8 rat in 2 matches
MF Matthew Oakely (Southampton)-- 1 G, 7 rat in 2 matches
MF Jermaine Jenas (Newcastle)-- 2 A, 8 rat in 2 matches
MF Olivier Bernard (Newcastle)-- 1 G, 8 rat vs SFW
DF Peter Canero (Southampton)-- 1 A, 8 rat in 2 matches
DF Christoffer Andersson (Aston Villa)-- 1 A, 7.50 rat in 2 matches
DF Luke Young (Aston Villa)-- 1 A, 8 rat vs AST
DF John Terry (Chelsea)-- 2 MoM, 8.5 rat in 2 matches
GK Fabien Barthez (Man Utd)-- 3 sav, clean, 8 rat vs FUL

CR

[Chief Rum]

Tuesday, May 5 To Monday, May 11

We again have two matches this week, but the first one is circled.

On Wednesday, we go to Italy to play the second leg of our Champions League semifinal. With just a two-goal lead and having given them two away goals, this is far from a sure thing.

Then on Saturday, we play our third to last Premiership match of the season, when we host mid-table squad Sheffield Wednesday. Given how we have done with our tactics so far, I approach that one with some trepidation, but I do have some changes in mind that I am hoping will have a positive effect.

Juventus, Second Leg of Champions League Semifinal

We enter this match at Delle Alpi in Torino, Italy with a 4-2 aggregate lead. I think it's fair to say that Juventus showed through most of the match at the Lamb Ground, though, that they are very much a match for us. I don't feel safe with a two-goal lead at all, especially going into their place.

Juventus did get a big injury a couple days before our match when star centreback Igor Tudor went down with a groin strain, and he will not be in this one. Of course, we're missing Louis Saha, so there are hurts on both sides.

Tudor will be replaced by veteran Italian defender Nicola Legrottaglie, a solid player, but, IMO, a step down from Tudor. Otherwise, their lineup remains the same.

For us, it is again a second eleven match. As I mentioned, Saha is hurt, so I replace him with Adam Wilde. At the other forward spot, I go with Yakubu, fresh off his international with Nigeria. The striker missed his scheduled start against Newcastle, so it seemed only right to get him a start here, where he can replace the ineligible Emmanuel Olisadebe. Giovanny Hernáandez is back for another start in place of the injured David Marcelo Cortez Pizarro.

Since this is a key cup competition match, we are using the ole uber tactic. Not that it did us much good for most of the last matchup with these guys.

Juventus immediately showed how dangerous they could be. At the beginning of the 3rd minute, Alessandro Del Piero took a pass from Mauro Germán Camoranesi as he went into right end of the area. Tieme Klompe raced to cut him off, while Hermann Hreidarsson charged up from behind. Del Piero sent a hard cross back across the area, but Kevin Gorman intervened on the dangerous cross. Gorman was stuck int raffic in front of the net, though, and couldn't clear it. The ball skipped up to the lethal David Trezeguet, almost right in front of Thomas Heaton. James McEveley made a last ditch tackle at the ball before the French superstar could kick it, and freed it up to clear it out of the box.

We responded in the 8th minute. Yakubu took a long ball to the right goal line and sent a high pass to the far post. Marco Zanchi out-jumped Hernáandez and cleared it out just beyond the edge of the penalty area. Richie Partridge was first on it, though, and took it right back in. He dodged a couple markers to come in at the goal from just beyond the right post before kicking it from up close. Gianluigi Buffon was ready for it, though, and the class keeper clutched the shot to end the threat.

Trezeguet continued to create his chances, as he tends to. In the 18th minute, he ran under a throw in from fullback Alessandro Birindelli into the left end of the area. With just a touch of a step on the defense, Trezeguet proceeded on goal from the left. He fired a shot at the goal, but went wide, hitting the side netting for a goal kick.

Following the form of the match so far, we had the next best chance. In the 20th minute, Partridge got the ball on a clear out at the centreline. He moved it forward to Yakubu, and the striker moved the pass on the run to Wilde, who was distancing himself from Zanchi as he ran toward the left end of the penalty area. Wilde blasted a shot on goal as he crossed the edge of the area. Buffon rebuffed the hard shot, but it ricocheted back out to the edge. LeGrottaglie was first on it and cleared it out past the touch.

Finally, we broke through in the 22nd minute. Denny Landzaat got the ball just in front of the centrecircle before firing a dart of a pass to Wilde, just inside the edge of the left end of the area. Wilde volleyed the pass to the front of the goal mouth, perfectly setting it up for Hernández, who well-timed a run into the box. Buffon ran up to trya nd intercept the ball, but he was too late. Hernández blasted a shot into the left end of the net for the first score of the match.

We have been picking up a lot of injuries, and that trend struck us again in the 26th minute. Yakubu collided with Zanchi on a run toward the box and took a knock. The striker had to be helped off of the pitch. He was replaced with Mark Hicks, giving us a front twosome of Hicks and Wilde. While these longtime Lambs certainly have the skilsl to be here, it was the first time this season, I think, that we had two strikers that weren't a part of either of our top two elevens. In fact, taking into consideration the injured Andrei Pereplyotkin, they were the sixth and seventh strikers on our depth charts. Pretty important matcht o be left with that, but what can you do? On the ensuing freekick that resulted from Zanchi's hit on Yakubu, Hernández fired a shot that just curled wide of the left post.

Juventus almost got that goal back in the 34th minute. Del Piero and Pavel Nedved were playing a passing game along the edge of the area when the Czech winger sent a hard shot up to Matteo Brighi, standing enar the center of the edge. Brighi one-timed the pass and blasted a hard shot right on goal. Fortunately, Heaton got a good look at it and got in the way. The hard shot tore him up, though, and deflected up at the crossbar. The shot rebounded high off the bar and back into the center of the area. Trezeguet was first to it and fired a shot on the volley, but McEveley got in the way and deflected the ball out of bounds for the corner (which went for naught).

We tried to pad our lead in the 38th minute. Wilde got a clear out pass along the left touch and found Hernández free of his defense and on a run toward the box. He sent the ball forward to the Colombian midfielder, but Hernández took his shot from beyond the area, sending it high over the left post for a harmless goalkick.

Hernández didn't make a bad decision a few minutes later. In the 41st minute, Hreidarsson played a wonderful ball for Hernández as he ran into the box, alone on goal. The midfielder took the ball to the right of the rushing out Buffon and looked odds on to score. The Italian star netminder made an amazing save, though, deflecting the shot with a dive. The rebound was cleared by Legrottaglie.

There were a lot of shots in the first half, but not much going on for either side. We had a 7-6 shots advantage, but the important stat was our 4-1 lead in on-goal shots. Of course, given our one-goal lead, this is just to our liking. It will be difficult for Juventus to overcome a three-goal aggregate deficit in a match like this.

We continued to press the issue in the second half. In the 53rd minute, Partridge went on a run at the goal from the right end of the area. He had an open look at the goal, and fired a high angle shot. Buffon rejected it, though, out to the middle of the box. Zanchi cleared it into the stands. In the 59th minute, Hicks did much the same thing from the other side, only he took the ball past two defenders to charge in on goal from the left side, and Buffon's only option was to delfect the backup forward's shot over the bar for the corner.

That was really our best weapon in this one. We kept the pressure up, so Juventus didn't have a chance to strike back. There is no prevent defense on this football pitch (and if there was, I wouldn't go to it anyway).

We kept Juventus away from good shots on goal, and won a hard fought match in front of a hostile Italian crowd and against a worldclass lineup. Tamworth 1, Juventus 0

On aggregate, we move on to the Champions League Final with a 5-2 aggregate win. Wow, Milan and Juventus? They couldn't have made our latest path in this competition much harder, but we have survived it. Now imagine us doing it with last week's tactics. No, on second thought, don't. I'm just going to enjoy the moment.

We outshot Juventus 12-9, with a 9-3 advantage in shots on goal. Showing the talent we were going up against, we didn't have much of an advantage in ball time in their end of the pitch, just 30% to their 27% (the ball did not spend a lot of time in the middle of the pitch obviously).

We were rewarded with $3.6 M for our win in the Champions League round.

We got another good bit of news when there wasn't even one mention of Yakubu's injury. He appears to be fine, as it ended up just being a knock.

Werder Bremen-Bodo/Glimt

The other Champions League semifinal entered their second leg knotted up in a one-goal draw. So this match in Norway was for all the marbles.

Werder Bremen has a dangerous forward rotation, and they used it strike quickly and early. Lincoln scored in the 15th minute to give them the early 1-0 lead.

Bodo/Glimt didn't get this far by quailing under pressure against "superior" teams, though. They stunned Werder Bremen with a blitz of goals in and around half time. In the 42nd minute, young Even Knutsen put in the equalizer. Then star forward Anders Askheim moved Bodo/Glimt ahead in stoppage time of the first half. They finally put it away with a penalty kick int he 52nd minute by Knutsen, his second goal of the match.

Werder Bremen outshot Bodo/Glimt, 13-8 and 8-6 on goal, but they couldn't solve goalkeeper Tor Egil Horn. Bodo/Glimt continues to amaze on their Cinderella run, beating the Bundesliga club, 4-2, on aggregate.

I plan on turning Bodo/Glimt's fairy carriage into a pumpkin, though.

Champions League Final Set

Not surprisingly, we found out the details of the Champions League final just after our semifinal wins.

We will meet Bodo/Glimt in a winner-take-the-whole-continent match at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille, France on May 27. It will be our final match of the season, four days after the FA Cup final and 10 days after our final league match.

UEFA Semifinals Second Leg

A day after the Champions League semifibals wrapped, the UEFA also held their last home-and-home round. Newcastle had a 2-0 advantage and were playing at St. James Park against Belenenses. The test was tougher for Aston Villa, which also have a home match, but are fighting from behind a 1-0 deficit to Ukrainian High League squad Tavria.

The Magpies dominated their match, not that you could tell from the final score. They won, 1-0, with the only goal coming from midfielder Jermaine Jenas in the 74th minute. They outshot the Portuguese club 17-1, and didn't allow a shot on goal.

Aston Villa was in a tighter affair. They got the scoring started early, with a 2nd minute strike by Wlesh veteran forward John Hartson. Tavria's Andriy Holovko equalized in the 36th minute, though, putting immense pressure on the Villans. Because Tavria scored at Villa Park, Aston Villa could no longer count on making up the one goal deficit from the first match--they would now lose out on away goals. So they needed to win by two.

In the second half, Spanish striker David Villa got them one closer, scoring in the 48th minute. It was almost shortlived, though, as Tavria got a penalty in the 54th minute. Fortunately for the Villans, young and inexperienced goalkeeper Robert Olejnik made the unlikely save on striker Mikhail Axionov, which was just desserts after the striker provoked centreback Jonathon Bewers into two yellow cards in the last match.

Aston Villa finally completed the comeback in the 69th minute, when midfielder Steed Malbranque scored to give them the edge they needed. They held on for the 3-1 win, and edged Tavria, 3-2 on aggregate.

Newcastle and Aston Villa will play for the UEFA championship at the Olimpico in Rome, Italy, on May 20. After that, we will no longer be the defending UEFA champions (duh).

Pereplyotkin Resumes Light Training

Well, after more than three months of nursing along his broken leg, our star Ukrainian striker Pereplyotkin finally begun light training to get himself back into form on Saturday.

I doubt it matters much. He is still listed as being four weeks away from full health, and with my forward depth, I don't see a need to rush him back for the last match or two, no matter how important they are.

Sheffield Wednesday

This is somewhat of a revenge match for us, since this squad beat us around Christmas time, 2-0.

They are a bit better than they were given credit for in the early going. They currently sit at 14th in the table, although they are well away from relegation. They have spent most of the season in the middle of the table before a recent set of bad form dropped down two or three spots.

They are a little like a mirror image of Newcastle, in that they aren't among the worst in either offense or defense, but they are comfortably mediocre at both.

Striker Kim Olsen (16 G, 5 A, 7.47) has been great up front this year, where he is paired with Francis Jeffers (10 G). They do almost all of the squad's scoring. Winger Matthew Hamshaw (3 G, 12 A) is the primary creative force in the midfield and has ocasionally found his way on some Teams of the Week. The best player in the middle is Nigerian Dickson Etuhu (2 G, 4 A, 7.06). Centreback Richard Wood and fullback Derek Geary seem to be the top players on a weak backline. Chelsea loan goalkeeper Yves Makabu Ma Kalambay seems to be doing better than regular netminder Allan McGregor, and it seems to be a toss up right now who generally goes. Against us, it will be McGregor.

This is a first eleven match for us, although, as usual, we have to make some changes. Jim Corbett is just wrapping up his healing from his little injury last week, and I decided to keep him on the bench for this one, going again with Darren Birchall. I moved Orri Frey Oskarsson to Yakubu's side, since the striker is still a little tired from the Juventus match, and started Olisadebe at the left forward spot. European play, for which the Polish striker is ineligible, have deprived him of two starts now with his regular eleven, so I start him where I can. I still have Yakubu on the sub list, too, but I won't use him unless I have to--my usual striker backups, Hicks and Wilde, are both heavily fatigued from playing most or all of the Juventus match.

I said I would make some tactical changes, and I did. I basically started from scratch, although my direction was similar to before. I went with the conventional 4-3-3 this time, without moving players around or adding forward arrows, or changing the arrow directions of the side forwards and midfielders. I kept the backline as I had it in diablo, all stand off, zonal and defensive, with the fullbacks jumping forward to help out the offense.

While I didn't model the positioning, I did take some of the positional instructions from the diablo tactic. It just so happens that some of the things the tactic emphasizes (winger runs, lots of through balls, always closing, short passing, down both flanks, etc.) are what I seek from my team (and those were ideals cemented in previous dynasties like Kettering and Middlesbrough, well before I had ever heard of diablo, much less used it).

So the midfielders will try through balls, and I will encourage the wingers (left and right central midfielders actually) to go out on the touches to go on runs, and to accept passes from the fullbacks. I did make some adjustments to the three-forward set, which didn't fit so smoothly with the diablo positioning instruction tactic. I made crossing, forward runs, runs with the ball, and through balls as emphasizes for the side forwards, while I had the centre forward (my old attacking midfielder) hold up the ball and try through balls himself to the other forwards.

The main differences from the tactic I have been trying the past couple weeks, other than the return to normal positioning and the lack of any arrows not already present in the computer-original gameplan, is the short passing, the zonal marking and stand off closing on the backline, and the employ of a counterattack. The short passing should better fit our skills, as it will force us to use teamwork to move the ball, but hopefully set us up better in front of the goal. The closing down and marking I only changed because that's how diablo had it, and I wanted the backline to pretty much play as it did before. The counterattack is simply to inject our tactic with a little quick strike, something which takes advantage of the pace and acceleration I have been emphasizing in my player acquisitions for several seasons now.

After saying all that, I plan on having this game report a short one.

I was very pleased to see the new tactic bring about immediate dividends. In the 3rd minute, Michael Stewart put a perfect pass on the foot of Olisadebe as the striker timed a step past the defense, and he shot the ball into the right end of the net for the first score. Olisadebe also figured in the next score, in the 24th minute. He took a header pass from Johnnier Montaño in the middle of the pitch and ran to the right goal line before sending a sharp cross in front of the goal mouth to the far post. Oskarsson positioned himself perfectly and slammed the ball inside the left post on the volley. I have to say, it was a very well-run play.

Montaño took a pass from Olisadebe in the 35th minute, and maneuvered for some distance between himself and the defense to work open for a shot as he ran into the penalty area in the 35th minute. He kicked a high shot into the back of the right side of the net than McGregor couldn't reach. Montaño would add a second goal in the second half on a header of yet another Olisadebe pass to cap an impressive victory for the Lambs. Tamworth 4, Sheffield Wednesday 0

Our ball possession advantage wasn't as high (28% to 20%), but we had a strong shots difference (14, 8 on goal, versus 2, 1 on goal), and got great play from the backline.

We did get a bit of a worry when left winger (or left central midfielder or what have you) Andy Williams had to leave the pitch with an injury in the 50th minute. Williams was hurt in a scrum in front of the goal on a corner kick, and had to be replaced by Gaël Clichy. Fortunately, the injury was minor, as Williams picked upa groin strain that won't keep him out of training for more than a day.

Hendriks Hurt In Training

It's a good thing I haven't needed my reserve depth on the backline because it wouldn't be there if I did.

A week after Graham Porter went down, veteran centreback Reinder Hendriks tore a groin muscle in training and will be out for two months. Since he is at the end of his contract and retiring, this pretty much means Hendriks has left the pitch for good.

I will, of course, use the physios to help him get back up and rehabilitated, but mostly, I bid him a fair adieu and a thank you for his service with us, particularly in our First Division championship two seasons ago.

League News

Not surprisingly, as we get closer to the end of the season, the relegation and promotion news is coming fast and heavy.

Torquay, which clinched promotion to the Second Division weeks ago, wrapped up the Third Division championship on Saturday. They passed Bournemouth, on its way down to the Third Division after being relegated on Saturday. In one of the other nice rags-to-riches stories, former Conference squad Farnborough earned a promotion to the First Division on Saturday. And sadly for Split Personality, his Dag & Red squad was relegated from the Conference and to the nether regions of lower league football in England.

Another round of fixtures on Sunday brought about another set of league adjustments. The biggest was in the Premiership, where Bristol City finally lost its fight to stave off the inevitable, a return to the First Division. We found out two of our new league members on Sunday, and they are both old friends to this league. West Bromich Albion clinched both promotion and the First Division championship on Sunday, and former Premiership power Leeds United will make its return to the top league as well next season.

Wimbledon, a former Premiership squad, and Stevenage, who once bitterly fought us for a Conference title in 2003-04 (and almost won), both dropped from the First Division to the Second Division.

In world news, Juventus ended the week better than it began, winning its fourth straight Serie A championship, just endging out AC Milan by a point. They became the third of the big four leagues (five if you count France) to clinch their championship, after Dortmund and ourselves did it last month.

Here is the Premiership League Team of the Week:

SC Johnnier Montaño (Tamworth)-- 2 G, MoM, 9 rat vs SFW
SC Jack Howells (Tottenham)-- 2 G, 1 A, MoM, 10 rat vs NEW
MF Michael Stewart (Tamworth)-- 1 A, 9 rat vs SFW
MF Stefano Mauri (Leicester)-- 2 G, MoM, 9 rat vs FUL
MF Orri Freyr Oskarsson (Tamworth)-- 1 G, 9 rat vs SFW
MF Rafael van der Vaart (Liverpool)-- 2 G, MoM, 10 rat vs BKP
DF Christoffer Andersson (Aston Villa)-- 8 rat vs BRI
DF Darren Ryan (Nottingham Forest)-- 1 G, 9 rat vs ARS
DF Emiliano Moretti (Man Utd)-- 8 rat vs EVE
DF Luke Young (Aston Villa)-- 1 G, MoM, 8 rat vs BRI
GK Antti Niemi (Nottingham Forest)-- 11 sav, MoM, 10 rat vs ARS

CR

[Chief Rum]

Tuesday, May 12 To Monday, May 18

This week we wrap up our league fixture for the season, including the much-delayed visit to Ashburton Grove.

On Wednesday, we will finally play the match against Arsenal that has been postponed twice now because of conflicts with our Champions League fixture. It was originally supposed to be played in March.

On Sunday, we host Tottenham in our final league match of the season. It is, of course, also our final match at the Lamb Ground this season.

It's hard to believe we have finally gotten to the end of a long league season. I can barely remember the Community Shield.

Arsenal

This will be our first matchup with the Gunners since that amazing English League Cup match which required penalty kicks to decide. It is also our first visit to Ashburton Grove this season, as the League Cup match was played at the Lamb Ground.

Arsenal is fourth in the league, just a couple points behind Liverpool. Only Man Utd and Tamworth have scored more goals, and they rank among the league's top ten squads on defense. And, of course, they have a worldclass lineup.

Superstar strikers Thierry Henry (26 G, 10 A, 7.80) and Hernán Crespo (26 G, 13 A, 7.35) are perhaps the most powerful combo up front in the world, much less the Premiership. French striker Jérémie Alaidière (9 G) is a dangerous player off of the bench. Crespo and Henry create much of the Gunners' offense passing back and forth between each other, but this is team is still very deep here, even after allowing Gennaro Ivan Gattuso to go to Milan in January. English international Owen Hargreaves (3 G, 9 A, 7.14) and Brazilian Denílson (6 A) do much of the creative work from the wings, and another Brazilian Edu (6 G, 6 A, 7.15) is a top notch offensive player that tends to get overshadowed by the other stars on the squad. This is a team that also has top players like José Antonio Reyes, Claudio Reyna, Freddie Ljungberg and Robert Pires as backups or part time starters. Veteran international Sol Campbell still leads the backline, but the best defensive player is now Daniele Bonera (6.96). Ashley Cole (8 A, 6.93) remains as the best attacking fullback on the squad. Goalkeeper Tony McDermott (59 GC in 51 mat, 20 cleans, 7.04) has done little to dispel the nation that he is the next great superstar goalkeeper.

This is a second eleven match for us, although we have to go with substitutes at our front three forward spots. Emmanuel Olisadebe isn't ready to return to the pitch following his play against Sheffield Wednesday, so Yakubu will get the call to replace him at the left forward spot. Louis Saha is still recovering from his minor injury last week, so I will go with Adam Wilde today. And, once again, Giovanny Hernández returns to the middle forward spot in place of the injured David Marcelo Cortez Pizarro. Otherwise, the second eleven remains the same.

This match started off as a tight one in which both sides were taking runs on goal, but neither showing yet to be stronger than the other. In the 13th minute, Hargreaves sent a cross right in front of the goal. Crespo volleyed it on the net and was rejected by Heaton. He was there for the rebouund, though, and got Arsenal on the board with an easy tap in. We answered in the 22nd minute, when Hernández nodded on a clear out pass to Wilde on a run around the left end of the backline. McDermott was prepared for Wilde's shot from the left of the goal, but the ball came off of him and dribbled into the net for the equalizer.

Through the first third of the match, Arsenal had three shots, all on goal, while we had five shots but just two required McDermott to make a move. That's when the whole tenor of the match was changed by an awful decision by Arsenal fullback Dion Dickhoff. Dickhoff slid in a bit too hard on Wilde as the two converged on a clear out, and drew a yellow card. He argued a bit too much on the call and earned his second yellow and an early bath.

Not surprisingly, we took over from that point, and it started to get ugly. In the 33rd minute, Kevin Gorman sent a pass on the spot in the box for Hernández, who blasted it past McDermott for the go ahead goal. Then Hernández added another in first half stoppage time, putting a shot into the right corner of the net off of a nice Wilde centering pass.

The second half was more of the same. In the 49th minute, Hernández sent a crossing pass off of a freekick to the right of the penalty area, and James McEveley beat the defense in the air and headed the ball off of McDermott's hands and into the net. A couple minutes later, Richie Partridge set up Wilde's second score of the match with a centering pass from the right goal line. Then Lionel Morgan finished off the scoring with a chip in of a Yakubu centering pass. Henry got one back late for the Gunners, but this is one they would sooner rather forget. Tamworth 6, Arsenal 2

Who needs the uber tactic? Well, okay, I know this one was created by the man advantage. We were playing very even in this one before Dickhoff got himself booted. After his departure, Arsenal had just three shots, one on goal, while we put up nine shots, with six on goal.

Hernández had a great match, but he did have to leave the match not long after halftime. He picked up a calf strain that will sideline him for a week. That may or may not put his participation in the FA Cup final at risk, although it's tough to say for sure right now. Heck, Pizarro might be back by then (he seems to be progressing just fine).

Bid For Costanzo Rejected

With $4 M in transfer funds left and nearing the end of the season, I began to look for ways to spend what was left of transfer budget. The way I figure it, if I allow that money to stay on the books, it will like as not never be used, or at least got shunted off to some shareholders.

So I started to look around for big name goalkeepers that could be had for that price. Generally, prices for goalkeepers are depressed compared to other positions, so I thought I could get a good one this way. My first target was Argentinian power River's Franco Costanzo, a 28-year-old tremendously skilled player with 11 appearances on the books for the strong Argentinian national squad.

On Friday, River came back with a rejection of my offer of $4 M for the goalkeeper. I submitted an enquiry to see how much it would cost. At this point, I don't even know if he would pass a work permit, but I can certainly hope. He is currently listed on Argentina's national roster.

Tottenham

We entered this last home match with nothing to prove by playign starters, and little to gain outside of risking injury to our stars. So I resolved to give some backups a shot in this match.

I wasn't thinking it through, though, when doing this, as I was making a big faux pas with regards to the Premiership relegation race. Entering the match, Tottenham was tied with Blackpool for the final relegation spot at 39 points. Fulham and Blackburn sat at 40, as well, so going into the last round, that last spot was very much still in contention. By starting a backup squad, I was giving Tottenham a huge opportunity to avoid relegation that I hadn't given to the other three squads when they came to the Lamb Ground.

Alas, this did not occur to me until after I had gone to the match.

Before I get to that, here' s a look at Tottenham. They are actually a decently respectable squad, with just a -5 goal difference. The defense is poor, but not bottom of the league poor. The offense is actually veru solid, and ranked in the league's top ten. Hélder Postiga (18 G, 6 A, 7.41) was the leading scorer, and he was paired up front with Paul Gallagher (11 G, 7 A). Young Jack Howells (7 G, 6 A, 7.25) has established himself as a young star on the rise, as well, giving the Spurs a nice scoring trio. German winger Christian Tiffert (3 G, 11 A) is the primary playmaker in the midfield, but the midfield is solid elsewhere with another German Fabian Ernst and Irish international Robbie Keane (5 G). This is an area that was a concern overall, though. The defense is led by South African fullback Mbulelo Mabizela (7.29), who has been very solid this year. The rest of the backline has been less so, though, which hasn't been helped by the youth of the talented Nick Robinson (38 GC in 24 mat).

The mystery Tamworth lineup is as follows. We brought Casper Nelis back up to handle the net duties. He is playing behind Mark Warren and Mark Phillips at centreback, Justin Skinner at left back and Jon Otsemobor on the right. David Prutton will play the defensive midfield positon, with Chris Booth and Morgan handling the right and left central midfield spots. The front three forward spots are manned by Olisadebe and Saha on the sides, and Birchall in the central forward spot.

This one was a very defensive match, and it just goes to show that we don't have that much margin for error with these new tactics when our quality of play drops so far with a backup squad. Despite playing at the Lamb Ground, we were outplayed in front of the net, putting just one of four total shots on goal. The Spurs were better (although not by much). They took eight shots, and put five on goal. We again dominated possession in the opponent's third--that seems to be something we're always good at.

Still, you can guess that goals were hard to come by in this one. We seemed on our way to a scoreless draw when the 65th minute came around. Gallagher intercepted a Louis Saha header near the centre circle that came off of a clear out. He found Howells timing a step on the defense and sent the ball up to the striker as he approached the box. Phillips was making up ground on Howells and Nelis was closing in from the net, but Howells struck a low shot to Nelis' left and it just evaded the goalkeeper to run intot he net inside of the right post.

That would end up being the lone goal in the match. Tottenham 1, Tamworth 0

Mark Hicks also picked up an injury in the match and had to leave the pitch in the 68th minute. Since we had used all of our subs at that point, we pretty much played the rest of the way a man down. Hicks' injury was a light one, an arm injury that put him out for just a day.

Fortunately, our mess up with the lineups didn't end up hurting the relegation race any. Blackpool lost to Man Utd, 2-1, to stay at 39 points. Even if we had beaten Tottenham, they had a ten-goal advantage on Blackpool in goal differential. In order for Blackpool to avoid relegation, they pretty much had to win their match, no matter what the Spurs, Fulham or Blackburn did.

Skinner's appearance reset the club record for the oldest player to appear on the pitch for Tamworth at a regular match. Skinner, 36 and eight months, replaced himself in the record books when he played for us on Saturday. He was alreayd the oldest player to play for Tamworth when he had his three previous appearances this season.

Despite his age, Skinner still has not announced his retirement, but his contract with the Lambs ends on June 30.

Premiership Wrap Up

We had clinched the league championship weeks ago, but it wasn't in the books until today. We wrapped up our second straight Premiership title today, finishing with 91 points, 14 up on second place Man Utd.

The English Football Association gave us $16 M for our league win, making our bottom line look awful rosey right now.

League News

Blackpool was the only major relegation/promotion in England on Sunday. There are still playoffs to determine the last promotion spots from the Conference up to the First Division.

In world news, surprising Alavés not only clinched the Primera Liga championship, but they have the lead by 11 points right now. They are the last of the major leagues to be determined, although the mid-major La Ligue in France still has yet to be resolved.

Here is the Premiership League Team of the Week:

SC Sylvain Perrin (Newcastle)-- 3 G, MoM, 9 rat in 2 matches
SC Jack Howells (Tottenham)-- 1 G, MoM, 9 rat vs TAM
MF Nicolás Medina (Blackpool)-- 1 G, 8 rat in 2 matches
MF Rafael van der Vaart (Liverpool)-- 1 G, MoM, 8 rat vs COL
MF David Prutton (Tamworth)-- 8 rat vs TOT
MF Richie Partridge (Tamworth)-- 1 A, 9 rat vs ARS
DF Joe Burnell (Bristol City)-- 2 A, 8 rat vs CHE
DF James McEveley (Tamworth)-- 1 G, MoM, 9 rat vs ARS
DF David Cooper (Everton)-- 1 G, 1 A, MoM, 10 rat vs LEI
DF Chris Griffiths (Birmingham)-- 1 G, 2 A, MoM, 10 rat vs NOT
GK Fabien Barthez (Man Utd)-- 6 sav, MoM, 9 rat vs BKP

CR

[Chief Rum]

Premiership Table, May 18, 2009

| Pos   | Team         | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D.| Pts | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st-C | Tamworth     |  38 | 29  |  4  |  5  | 116 | 40 | +76 |  91 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   | Man Utd      |  38 | 23  |  8  |  7  |  72 | 41 | +31 |  77 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   | Liverpool    |  38 | 19  |  9  | 10  |  65 | 44 | +21 |  66 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   | Arsenal      |  38 | 20  |  6  | 12  |  66 | 47 | +19 |  66 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   | Newcastle    |  38 | 17  | 10  | 11  |  64 | 51 | +13 |  61 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   | Chelsea      |  38 | 18  |  6  | 14  |  62 | 48 | +14 |  60 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   | Aston Villa  |  38 | 18  |  6  | 14  |  67 | 56 | +11 |  60 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   | Birmingham   |  38 | 17  |  8  | 13  |  47 | 42 |  +5 |  59 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   | Southampton  |  38 | 15  |  8  | 15  |  51 | 58 |  -7 |  53 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  | Leicester    |  38 | 15  |  8  | 15  |  51 | 60 |  -9 |  53 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 11th  | Everton      |  38 | 12  | 12  | 14  |  41 | 48 |  -7 |  48 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 12th  | Man City     |  38 | 11  | 14  | 13  |  51 | 55 |  -4 |  47 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 13th  | Nottm Forest |  38 | 12  | 10  | 16  |  39 | 56 | -17 |  46 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 14th  | Sheff Wed    |  38 | 11  | 11  | 16  |  42 | 55 | -13 |  44 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 15th  | Fulham       |  38 | 11  | 10  | 17  |  43 | 61 | -18 |  43 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 16th  | Tottenham    |  38 | 10  | 12  | 16  |  52 | 56 |  -4 |  42 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 17th  | Blackburn    |  38 | 10  | 11  | 17  |  50 | 69 | -19 |  41 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 18th-R| Blackpool    |  38 | 11  |  6  | 21  |  47 | 63 | -16 |  39 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 19th-R| Bristol City |  38 |  9  |  9  | 20  |  37 | 53 | -16 |  36 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 20th-R| Colchester   |  38 |  4  |  8  | 26  |  33 | 93 | -60 |  20 | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------|

Comments: I was beginning to pull away in early March the last time I put up the table. So it should come as no surprise that I continued along that pace. I don't know if I should call the next five a surprise. Really, theya ren't--they are exactly what you would expect in any given year in the Premiership. What is a surprise is that it ended up that way after so many upstarts--Aston Villa, Birmingham, Southampton--made runs to the top five of the table. Man Utd was almost as head-and-shoulders over the rest of the league, as we were over the Red Devils. Newcastle finally overcame three-quarters of a season of underachieving and stormed back to fifth. Chelsea has to be a bit disappointed, as they always aim to finish higher than 6th--and even then they needed a tie brekaer to edge Aston Villa. I don't think the Villans will be too disappointed in missing out on the top five, considering they have been very strong this season. Birmingham, Southampton and Leicester City are also very competent squads that round out the top ten. Leicester, in particular, charged up from relegation contention to finish very respectably. Everton and Manchester City were somewhat disappointments with where they should have finished. Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday were relegation possiblities that played better than expected, to earn mid-table spots. Although the top remains the same, the bottom shows that only a few teams seem truly safe from relegation. Three longtime stalwarts of the Premiership, Blackburn, Fulham and Tottenham, all came perilously close to being relegated, right down to the last day of the season. All three of last year's First Division promotees were relegated this season, although it was a close one.

My Predictions

Here was my prediction at the beginning of the season:

1. Man Utd--C
2. Arsenal
3. Chelsea
4. Liverpool
5. Tamworth
6. Newcastle
7. Aston Villa
8. Man City
9. Tottenham
10. Fulham
11. Southampton
12. Blackburn
13. Leicester
14. Everton
15. Birmingham
16. Bristol City
17. Nottingham Forest
18. Blackpool--R
19. Sheff Wed--R
20. Colchester Utd--R

Comments: Well, I was wrong about the championship--happily. Of course, I also didn't pick myself out of modesty, although I al;ways thought I would contend for the title. I guess it's not too hard to pick generally right for the next five squads, considering it's always the same ones. I was proud to have guessed Aston Villa's run to the top, and Everton's fall to the lower half of the table. Obviously, I missed the boat on Tottenham, Fulham and Blackburn--they were much worse than I expected. Birmingham also played significantly better than I thought they would. I missed out on one of the relegation candidates, and Sheffield Wednesday was the only team I picked for the fall that didn't follow suit. Altogether, not bad, but not that great either.

CR

[daedalus]

Hooray for Costanzo!

He was my superstud goalkeeper in 01/02 for a LOOOOOOOONG time. After he retired, he became an awesome Assistant Manager for me.

[Chief Rum]

It would be nice for me to get Costanzo. I like Heaton, and Masalin is a talented keeper (although his occasional huge gaffes are really annoying), but a guy like Costanzo is the true star in the net I have been waiting to get. I don't even know if he can get a work permit, though.

Having already started my goalkeeper search, it's amazing how hard it has been for me to find a guy I feel comfortable with that has skills in the areas I like. More on that within the dynasty, though.

Speaking of which, you guys probably wondered where I went. Have no fear--I have been working on getting some info down from all of the Premiership squads so that I can write a season review. I'm hoping to get that up in a day or so.

CR

[Chief Rum]

Final Premiership League Leaders, 2008-09 Season

Here are the notable league leaders in individual categories for the season. These stats are only from league matches, of course (so cup, European and international stats don't count).

Goals

1. Hernán Crespo (Arsenal) 24
2. Thierry Henry (Arsenal) 23
3. Shola Ameobi (Newcastle) 21
4. Adrian Mutu (Chelsea) 19
5t. Darius Vassell (Aston Villa) 18
5t. Milan Baros (Birmingham) 18
5t. Nicolas Anelka (Man Utd) 18
5t. Ivica Olic (Southampton) 18
9t. Hélder Postiga (Tottenham) 17
9t. Darren Huckerby (Nottingham Forest) 17
9t. Brett Ormerod (Blackpool) 17

Assists

1. Hernán Crespo (Arsenal) 15
2. Miroslav Klose (Man Utd) 13
3t. Matthew Hamshaw (Sheff Wed) 12
3t. James Beattie (Southampton) 12
5t. Mateja Kezman (Newcastle) 11
5t. Arjen Robben (Chelsea) 11
5t. Christian Tiffert (Tottenham) 11
5t. Gaetano D'Agostino (Man Utd) 11
5t. Peter Lovenkrands (Blackburn) 11

Rating

1. Adrian Mutu (Chelsea) 8.10
2. Miroslav Klose (Man Utd) 7.94
3. James Graham (Leicester) 7.92
4. Thierry Henry (Arsenal) 7.78
5. Johnnier Montaño (Tamworth) 7.64
6. Shola Ameobi (Newcastle) 7.61
7. Hernán Crespo (Arsenal) 7.56
8. Mike Duff (Tamworth) 7.53
9. Kim Olsen (Sheff Wed) 7.50
10. Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd) 7.40

Goals Conceded Per Match
Minimum 20 appearances

1. Jon Masalin (Tamworth) 0.90
2. Carlo Nash (Birmingham) 1.00
3. Fabien Barthez (Man Utd) 1.08
4. Jerzy Dudek (Liverpool) 1.09
5. Richard Wright (Everton) 1.24
6. Tony McDermott (Arsenal) 1.24
7. Petr Cech (Chelsea) 1.26
8. Shay Given (Newcastle) 1.34
9t. Nicky Weaver (Man City) 1.39
9t. Mark Brown (Bristol City) 1.39

Rating, Attackers

1. Adrian Mutu (Chelsea) 8.10
2. Miroslav Klose (Man Utd) 7.94
3. James Graham (Leicester) 7.92
4. Thierry Henry (Arsenal) 7.78
5. Johnnier Montaño (Tamworth) 7.64
6. Shola Ameobi (Newcastle) 7.61
7. Hernán Crespo (Arsenal) 7.56
8. Kim Olsen (Sheff Wed) 7.50
9. Hélder Postiga (Tottenham) 7.39
10. Nicolas Anelka (Man Utd) 7.34
11. El-Hadji Diouf (Liverpool) 7.30
12. Sidney Govou (Man Utd) 7.29
13. Jack Howells (Tottenham) 7.27
14. James Beattie (Southampton) 7.24
15. Tommy Wright (Leicester) 7.20
16. Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd) 7.16
17. Emile Heskey (Liverpool) 7.14
18. James McFadden (Everton) 7.09
19. Mido (Chelsea) 7.04
20. Darius Vassell (Aston Villa) 7.03

Rating, Midfielders

1. Michael Stewart (Tamworth) 7.33
2. Mark Bresciano (Liverpool) 7.31
3. Ryan Giggs (Birmingham) 7.26
4. Stilian Petrov (Aston Villa) 7.26
5. Rafael van der Vaart (Liverpool) 7.20
6. Lucas Neill (Blackburn) 7.17
7. Dickson Agyeman (Man City) 7.15
8. Mark Hicks (Tamworth) 7.15
9. Ricky Waddell (Blackpool) 7.14
10. Joe Cole (Chelsea) 7.14
11. Edu (Arsenal) 7.13
12. Jermaine Jenas (Newcastle) 7.13
13. Owen Hargreaves (Arsenal) 7.11
14. David Fox (Sheff Wed) 7.10
15. Peter Canero (Southampton) 7.10
16. Fredy William Thompson (Aston Villa) 7.08
17. Darren Carter (Birmingham) 7.06
18. Scott Parker (Chelsea) 7.06
19. Brett Emerton (Blackburn) 7.05
20. Claudio Ercoli (Tottenham) 7.05
21. Omar Daley (Blackpool) 7.05

Rating, Defenders

1. Mike Duff (Tamworth) 7.53
2. Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd) 7.40
3. John Terry (Chelsea) 7.37
4. Sam Jones (Leicester) 7.33
5. John O'Shea (Man Utd) 7.31
6. Martin Taylor (Birmingham) 7.30
7. David Raven (Tamworth) 7.30
8. Mbulelo Mabizela (Tottenham) 7.28
9. Aaron Hughes (Newcastle) 7.24
10. Darren Kenton (Southampton) 7.24
11. Gareth Barry (Aston Villa) 7.22
12. Matthew Upson (Birmingham) 7.21
13. Anthony Gardner (Tottenham) 7.21
14. Leon Cort (Tamworth) 7.21
15. Steve Wilkinson (Fulham) 7.19
16. Rincón (Aston Villa) 7.18
17. Joseph Yobo (Everton) 7.18
18. Kevin Amankwaah (Bristol City) 7.17
19. Robert Huth (Chelsea) 7.16
20. Titus Bramble (Newcastle) 7.13
21. Sun Jihai (Man City) 7.13

Rating, Goalkeepers
Minimum 20 appearances

1. Mark Brown (Bristol City) 7.29
2. Carlo Nash (Birmingham) 7.23
3. Fabien Barthez (Man Utd) 7.21
4. Antti Niemi (Nottm Forest) 7.21
5. Jerzy Dudek (Liverpool) 7.17
6. Nicky Weaver (Man City) 7.05
7. Tony McDermott (Arsenal) 7.03
8. Shay Given (Newcastle) 7.00
9. Richard Wright (Everton) 6.89
10. Petr Cech (Chelsea) 6.79

Yellow Cards

1t. Jonathon Woodgate (Newcastle) 13
1t. Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) 13
3t. Alan Smith (Fulham) 11
3t. Zatyiah Knight (Fulham) 11
3t. Stephan Kling (Tottenham) 11
6t. Michael Jakobsen (Arsenal) 10
6t. Dkimi Traoré (Liverpool) 10
6t. Anthony Réveillère (Man City) 10
6t. Derek Geary (Sheff Wed) 10
6t. Anthony Gardner (Tottenham) 10
6t. Mark Reilly (Leicester) 10

Men of the Match

1. Adrian Mutu (Chelsea) 12
2t. Antti Niemi (Nottm Forest) 9
2t. Miroslav Klose (Man Utd) 9
4t. Thierry Henry (Arsenal) 8
4t. Mark Brown (Bristol City) 8
4t. Shola Ameobi (Newcastle) 8
7t. Jerzy Dudek (Liverpool) 7
7t. Hernán Crespo (Arsenal) 7
7t. James Beattie (Southampton) 7
7t. Richard Wright (Everton) 7

CR