June 2014

The first three games of June saw the return of Darlington Nagbe to the starting eleven after a long injury and he made an immediate impact scoring in all of them, though we did suffer our second defeat of the MLS season away to Real Salt Lake in a top of the table clash. Seattle didn’t cause us too much of a problem as we maintained a 100% record in the Cascadia Cup.

Next was the arrival of Toronto at BC place whom we had just recently beaten in a dramatic penalty shoot-out to take the Canadian title. Mustapha Jarju got things going early on with a brilliant goal, running on the diagonal past three Toronto players before curling the ball into the net. His second before the interval put us in the driving seat with Hudson and Henry (former Toronto player) adding to the tally in the second half.

The following game was away to Columbus where poor passing and two own goals – that’s four in the last three games sealed the victory for our hosts. We had no such trouble on the second leg of this three game road trip where Scott Sinclair tormented Colorado for 90 minutes and we really should have added more than the two goals that made the score-board.

So the month ended with us just a point behind Real Salt Lake but importantly we had a game in hand.

Trades & Transfers

The middle of the season provided a good opportunity to review the squad in alignment with our “Moneyball” program though prior to that we off-loaded the unsettled Adam Payne who had basically threatened to disrupt the squad. He was traded to SKC for a 2015 supplemental draft pick.

Defensively we had only one potential issue brewing that being Alain Rochat as his heading stats were beginning to fade from previous seasons so this could be possibly a good time to offer him to the European market where some interest had been shown before.

Offensively club captain Edinho was having a poor season though I think trading or selling him now could be bad for moral but is certainly something to keep an eye on. Castillejos is a worry and he think he’s going to have less to offer over the remainder of the season so I’ll put him out in the market and see what happens.

The scouting team – which I’d forgotten about had found this young American down in the Mexican Promotion League and joined us July 1st on a free transfer. Hernandez will be the number 3 striker with behind Jarju and Hudson.

Having joined Vancouver around 18 months ago on a free Gonzalo Catillejos was sold to Argentine side Rosario Central for $400,000.00 of which 33% goes to the MLS. Still, that’s not a bad profit.

AML Tenema Traore finally arrived from Africa after a year’s wait which I hope will be worth it and we also picked up on a free Jordi Pablo who had been released by Villareal of Spain.

July 2014

July began with the final leg of our road trip at West Coast rivals LA Galaxy where we were immediately in trouble after the sending off of RB Steve Draper just 9 minutes in. Young defender Michael Rodriguez would go on to make a sterling performance in that role as part of a three man defence and at the other end Sinclair caused so much trouble setting up two goals in each half for strikers Hudson – with a great diving header and Jarju with an easy tap in.

Our first real set-back of the season came a few days after the LA game as Sinclair was injured in training. As he’s been such an important part of this season’s success it will be interesting to see how the team reacts.

The loss of Sinclair didn’t seem to have too much effect on the team with newcomer Pablo setting up the opening goal for Jarju inside 2 minutes as we beat Chivas quite comfortably at home. After one games rest Nagbe got himself a handy little brace in a more challenging game away to SKC making that right wing slot a very competitive position amongst three players.

The summer also saw the World Cup in Brazil take place with the host nation getting eliminated by Cameroon in the second round who went on to thrash Spain but would then lose to England in the final led by Roberto Mancini who resigned from the role days later.

Possession maybe nine tenths of the law and in football it doesn’t always mean you will get goals as was the case in Chicago where and solid defence frustrated us throughout the match resulting in a goalless draw.

NACL Champions League

We began qualification for the group stages by going one down inside 20 minutes at BC Place to Jamaican side Portmore United who held that lead until half time. A very stern team talk changed things immediately with two goals from Brazilian Tardelly in the space of eight minutes and a powerful header from a corner by Ike Opera – out first for some time from a set piece that sealed the victory.

August 2014

We stayed at home for our next MLS game which saw our drop in form continue as we struggled to make any impact in a 1-1 draw with Houston. A double injury blow was also a feature of this game with defender Ike Opara and Tardelly both now out for 5 weeks. The second leg of our NACL qualification match didn’t go much better but we scraped through with another draw. Striker Tony Hudson became our next injury victim during the trip to Jamaica and he will be out for 5 weeks also.

The draw for the group stages looks extremely difficult as we find ourselves in Group D along with Philly and Toluca of Mexico – both strong teams. This could be the “Group of Death”.

Back at BC Place we hosted Eastern Conference leaders Philadelphia and within twenty minutes Sinclair had ripped them apart, creating a penalty, an assist to Kramer’s goal as well as being instrumental in reducing the visitors to ten men. Philly re-grouped and kept Edson busy between the sticks for the rest of the first half then after the interval Sinclair’s pace set up goal number 3 for Nagbe and that was game, set and match.

Two wonderful goals by Sinclair marked our return to the East Coast as we ended DC United’s 10 game unbeaten streak in front of their home fans though we were a more than lucky in front of our own thanks to a deflected shot by Galloway to beat Real Salt Lake with just 2 minutes left on the clock.

We finished up the summer in Carson California where Chivas USA totally outplayed us with the home side having 68% possession. Undoubtedly it was our worst MLS performance of the season and a late consolation goal by Gershon Koffie did nothing to calm to aftermath in the dressing room.

 Standings: Western Conference

Overall:

Trades & Transfers…part two

Central defender Alain Rochat refused to sign a new contract and was quickly snapped up by FC Luzern so he will return to his native homeland in January. A scouting trip to South America found Rafael Arboleda at Columbian side Millionarios and we snapped him up on a free as his contract is expiring in December.

I think he will be a good replacement for Edinho as the Brazilian midfielder seems to have gone through a dramatic drop in his stats.

 In the MLS “Weighted Lottery” Marc Pelosi was this season candidate having been released by Aberdeen so we threw our name into the draw and we won making our left flank very strong indeed along with Sinclair and Traore. Young Canadian left back Ermes Ferrari was waived to make way for Pelosi.

NACL

As expected our first two games in this season’s group stages were tough encounters both of which were decide by a single goal and a first for Joaquin Hernandez in a Vancouver shirt.

So we top the table and with our next game against Marathon we could really put ourselves in the driving seat for a place in the quarter-finals.

Finances:

I’m sure these will improve at some point but it feels like we are on a slippery slope into a financial hole that will be very difficult to claw back out of. Hopefully some fabulously wealthy businesman will come along and wipe the debt off. Yeah right!

Fixtures:

The final two months of the season will start and finish with Cascadia Cup games and a very cramped schedule will also feature four NACL matches. Barring anything silly happening we should make the MLS Play-Offs for the fourth season running.

 Well, that’s completes a rather full and busy update so thanks for taking the time to plough through it and I look forward to your comments.

© www.footballmanagerstory.com

Our financial situation was not bad at the beginning of the summer so we were offered a pretty good wage budget along with just over 11 million pounds for transfers.

Moreover, the board have finally repaid an old loan of just over 1 million pounds.

And now, the transfers. Two first team players were sold: right back Darko Andric and midfielder Joaozinho, both replaced with better players. And I also decided to expand the first team squad to 24 players compared to the previous 23, mainly because I wanted better options in case of an injury crisis.

So there are three new first team players to introduce (click on the names to see their profiles):

Tomislav Djurdjek – an impressive right back.

Maximiliano Ceballos – probably the best central midfielder I had so far, surely the most expensive signing yet.

Jerome Vrignaud – a decent striker that should provide good cover upfront, great value for money since I got him for free

And now the full 24-man squad, with all the updated player profiles:

Goalkeepers: Tomas Held, Vaninho

Right Backs: Tomislav Djurdjek, Ali Amara

Left Backs: Sebastien Verdier, Danut Gongolea

Centre Backs: Georgica Dicu, Xavier Dumont, Juan Belencoso, Sammy Mbarga

Central Midfielders: Maximiliano Ceballos, Hector Fernandez, Yasen Zlatinski, Alin Dicher, Markus Winkler, Roman Benes, Gabriel Neacsa

Strikers: Rastislav Benko, Manoel, Dramane Sow, Juan Cruz Argenti, Peter Guba, Jerome Vrignaud, Guido van der Meulen

Our good Europa League run from last season maintained the Romanian League in 13th position in the European Competition rankings, which means that the qualification places were left unchanged.

But we managed to move quite a few places up in the European club rankings, we are 14th now and I was hoping that we would be seeded second in the Champions League group draw thanks to that ranking. There are 8 teams in each pot, so basically the top 8 are seeded first and the following 8 are seeded second and so on, that is if all of them qualify for the group stage.

Before moving to the actual matches and results, I am pleased to announce that the board decided to invest some more cash into the training facilities. I’m always pleased to see such news

We kicked off the season by winning another Romanian Super Cup, our 9th in a row! Then we started the league campaign with an unlucky draw before recording some really impressive wins. However, we recorded another draw at the end of August, quite unlucky again but I guess some complacency was involved as well.

And now, drum rolls…

… Yes, we were seeded second for the Champions League group stage draw!

But… that didn’t mean we had more luck with that infamous draw! We got Manchester United from the first pot, no complaints there as all the 8 teams in that pot were tough. But we got Roma from the third pot when we could have gotten the likes of Zenit St. Petersburg… Well, I guess we’ll have to work our way into the top seeded pot for an easier draw?

However, the bookmakers think that we are better this season as our odds have moved to 33-1 from 40-1 last season.

We will start the campaign with a home game against Manchester United, the team that we have also met last season in the group stage. That time we grabbed a 0-0 draw at home but lost 2-0 at Old Trafford. I don’t know if we are better than last season but the Red Devils surely are since they spent no less than 45 million pounds to buy Yaya Sanogo!

Then we’ll meed Dinamo Zagreb away,  a team that we have beaten 2-0 back in 2015 in the Champions League preliminary rounds, so I guess we should get a win there. And then we’ll have the decisive back to back games against Roma, a team that we have never met before.

Last but not least, our finances are still looking green, bright-green I might say

That’s all that I had to report for now folks, stay tuned for the Champions League group stage update. I don’t know when that will be, but until then we can have some fun in the comments section

© www.footballmanagerstory.com

As promised I’ve decided to bring you a special London Olympics post which I can guarantee will be more exciting than the actual thing! It’s not that I’m not a fan of the Olympics, I just think it’s really boring and the way it has been done seems to me like it’s not for anyone who lives outside of South-East England…

So I bet you’re wondering who I got in my group? Well I got Iran, Fiji, and Brazil so a group that I think Team GB have a realistic chance of winning but before we move onto the games I suppose I should show you my chosen squad.

Joe Hart – English – Goalkeeper – Over 23yrs Allocation 1

Wayne Hennessey – Welsh – Goalkeeper – Over 23yrs allocation 2

Adam Matthews – Welsh – Full Back

Kieran Gibbs – English – Full Back

Craig Cathcart – Northern Irish – Centre Back

Phil Jones – English – Centre Back

Chris Smalling – English – Centre Back

Danny Wilson – Scottish – Centre Back

Joe Allen – Welsh – Central Midfield

Tom Cairney – Scottish – Central Midfield

Jamie Ness – Scottish – Central Midfield

Aaron Ramsey – Welsh – Central Midfield

James Forrest – Scottish – Winger

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – English – Winger

Gareth Bale – Welsh – Winger

Daniel Sturridge – English – Striker

Danny Welbeck – English – Striker

Wayne Rooney – English – Striker – Over 23yrs allocation 3

I left out Rodwell and Wilshere purely by accident in case anyone noticed. It wasn’t until after the tournament that I actually realised but I guess in leaving them out I’ve just created a more diverse squad which is a good thing! All in all my squad contains 8 English players, 4 Scotsmen, 5 Welshmen, and a Northern Irishman. To any Northern Ireland fans reading I did try to find more it’s just there wasn’t a great amount of quality in your squad, sorry…

The Olympics – Group Stage – Iran vs. Great Britain

So the group stage of the worlds oldest sporting event got under way and the first opponents we invited to Coventry were Iran. We somehow managed to be the away team in this fixture despite it being on home soil but hopefully it wouldn’t count against us.

It didn’t matter at all as we brushed a vastly inferior side away. They only had 1 shot on target and that really summed up their performance as we put 4 past their keeper. At this point I thought we would be top of the group until I remembered that Brazil were playing Fiji, they won 10-0 which put them top on goal difference.

The Olympics – Group Stage – Great Britain vs. Fiji

This was a game I was looking forward to! Brazil put 10 past Fiji 3 days earlier and I was hoping to do the same!

Demolition doesn’t quite do this result justice. 35 shots, 17 on target, 67% possession, 11-0 by half time! It probably should have been more than just 12-0 really! Fiji’s keeper must have wanted to cry, he didn’t touch the ball until the second half other than picking it out of the back of the net.

Here’s the list of goal scorers that didn’t fit into the screen shot above! A great game for Oxlade-Chamberlain as he bagged a hat-trick, but he was overshadowed by 5 goal Danny Welbeck who left this match with a 10.0. As you can see however we suffered 2 injuries to both Kieran Gibbs and Jamie Ness, both of which had been playing well so far so this was a bit of a blow.

In their place I gave calls ups to these 2:

Martin Kelly – English – Centre Back

Corry Evans – Northern Irish – Central Midfield

Looking for Gibbs’ replacement made me realise something too, there’s a serious lack of left full backs in Great Britain! Anyway, I believed these 2 could do the job and they were likely to be thrown in at the deep end as our next opponents were ready for us.

The Olympics – Group Stage – Brazil vs. Great Britain

Along with Spain I believe that Brazil have the best U23 squad in the tournament and we were lucky enough to be playing them in the group stage. It was a winner takes all match, our 4-0 and 12-0 wins gave us 6 points and a goal difference of +16. Brazil had beaten Fiji 10-0 and Iran 2-0 giving them 6 points and a goal difference of +12. All we had to do was not lose!

And we didn’t! In fact we won impressively leading the Brazilians 4-1 by half time. In a very even match it was our much superior finishing and Wayne Rooney’s attacking instinct in both passing and shooting was key. After half time Ganso scored a screamer but we finished them off with another Danny Welbeck goal. This kid is now firmly on my radar with Newcastle, even more so when I realised he was in Man Utd’s reserves!

So we made a clean sweep of our group and managed to finish top after that great result against the South Americans.

As you can see we finished convincingly top of the group with Brazil quite a way behind if you take goal difference into account. As for Fiji, they lost 5-0 to Iran and I think may just give up on this sport after this.

The Olympics – Quarter Finals – South Korea vs. Great Britain

For a home tournament we seem to be playing away a lot but never mind that. The draw was very kind to us since we drew 2nd place in Group D after finishing top of Group C and that team was South Korea. This draw also meant that I could get Brazil in the semi finals should I progress.

Who would have guessed that South Korea would be such a hard game? We lost the possession battle and our shooting wasn’t great. There were times when I feared we would lose this match but a brace from Wayne Rooney settled my nerves and we ran out 2-1 winners although South Korea had nothing to be ashamed of.

The Olympics – Semi Finals – Great Britain vs. Brazil

As I had expected we welcomed Brazil, this time to Wembley, for our semi final match and this time I expected a much tighter match. The semi finals are where you can finally start to dream of that big day out in the final.

This wasn’t what I expected at all! We beat them even more convincingly than we did in the group stages preventing them from even having a shot on target. Possession was very even but in Tom Cairney Great Britain (and Swansea who have signed him for just £3.4million) have a great playmaker and his passing was deadly. So far the only teams to put the ball past Joe Hart had been Brazil (group stages) and South Korea, and for the final I intended to keep it that way.

But then I saw who our final opponents were…

The Olympics – The Final – Great Britain vs. Spain

The powerhouse of European football had reached the final of the Olympics too! If they could beat me here then I’m pretty sure that they would be the only team for a long, long time to be champions of the world, their own continent, and Olympic gold medallists all at the same time.

The battle lines were drawn, their over-23 players were Casillas, Pique, and Fabregas, as well as possessing the Bojan up front and a host of other quality talent…

I did not expect this at all! We crushed them! Annihilated them! We won! Yipee! It had to be really, the one and only time Team GB will appear on the Olympic football fields, our one shot at glory and we didn’t pass it up! Danny Welbeck grabbed another hat-trick after Wayne Rooney scored a great poachers effort inside the first 5 minutes.

There was a distinct lack of celebration and to be honest I can understand it. The domestic season kicks off literally the day after the Olympics final where my Newcastle team face Manchester United in the Community Shield. Even my mind was firmly on that game rather than the Olympics final but it’s nice to place myself in history.

Other than our results I thought you guys might be interested in seeing how the other teams who qualified for the knockout stage did…

After seeing their results, beating Switzerland and Japan 3-0 it is really something to beat Spain 4-0 in the final. In case you were wondering Japan beat the Ivory Coast 2-0 in the Bronze medal play-off and the Ivorian U23 manager lost his job as a result.

As you can see we were by far the best team in the tournament winning all of our games, scoring by far the most goals, and only conceding 3 goals and since we got further in the tournament than Mexico and Belarus that’s a good achievement too.

I’m not sure why the average ratings show England while the rest show Great Britain but anyway, Danny Welbeck scored the most goals by far but Rooney and Sturridge make that list too. Cairney was amazing with the amount of assists, averaging 1 a game and Bale, Sturridge, and Oxlade-Chamberlain also did their fair share. No surprise to see Welbeck crowned the tournaments best player quite a way ahead of 2nd place Sturridge. Tom Cairney and Rooney also deservedly make that list which rienforces just how good we were.

The tactics I used for this tournament also allowed me to test my new Newcastle tactic on the big stage and hopefully it works that well domestically! I’ll go into detail on my pre-season post but as you just saw, it creates plenty of chances and seems to force the opponent into numerous long shots.

With all that out of the way there was only one thing left for me to do…

On the same day we were crowed Olympic Gold Medal winners I handed in my resignation. I was given a task and I completed that task and now look forward to what will hopefully be a big season with my beloved Newcastle United.

Thanks for reading!

© www.footballmanagerstory.com

March 2014

The opening game of the season meant a long flight to New York with the home team putting us on the back foot which resulted in an own goal by Koffie after 23 minutes. Our effort was sluggish to say the least until just after the hour mark when on the counter attack Sinclair picked up the ball on the half way line beat three defenders for pace before striking home, 1-1. That motivated us offensively and a precision pass by right back Steve Draper in added time found substitute Jarju who rounded the keeper for the winning goal on his debut as a forward.

We hosted Sporting Kansas City in our home opener which saw a brilliant first half by Edinho who got on the score-sheet with a beautifully struck free kick after just 2 minutes. This was followed by a pair of “guided missile” passes to Nagbe and Jarju that sent us into the break with a dominating three goal lead. Sloppy defending made it 3-1 and cruel deflection brought KC back into the game which set things up for a tense finish but we held on to the lead for the three points.

Following this game Russ Tiebert was traded to Houston for a 2015 draft pick valued at $220,000, though I should have sold him overseas when he was worth a lot more.

April 2014

We stayed at home where a superb effort by Dallas goalkeeper Brian Shuttleworth ensured our 60% possession and 13 shots counted for nothing with a rare attack by Dallas early in the second half snatching the three points.

On the road we had a bounce back victory over San Jose which started off with a cracking shot by Galloway that struck the underside of the bar from 25 yards out before crossing the line for the opening goal. Back in BC we had our usual titanic tussle with Los Angeles but took maximum points with a bullet of a header from Cuesta.

It was back to the East Coast for our next game as we faced New England. Due to some fitness issues I threw young striker Tony Hudson out on the right flank and to my surprise he played his best game for the club grabbing a brace along with Galloway who put in a magical 90 minutes and is now looking indispensable to the club. Scott Sinclair, who resembled an express train down the left flank, was instrumental in three of the goals before getting one himself just after half time. The sending off of Hernandez did allow for 2 late goals for our hosts, but the fate of the game was game was already sealed by then.

We capped off the month in Texas with a visit to Houston who had a good selection of former Vancouver players in their line-up. We opened the scoring early on with Galloway feeding off a through ball by Kramer which he struck low and hard into the corner of the net after 5 minutes. Houston though didn’t capitulate in the same manner as New England, standing their ground and fighting for every inch of the field. Thirteen minutes from time we finally broke them down with a long searching ball by RB Sarkodie which Castillejos pounced on and drove home for goal number two.

May 2014

We started off with an away game to Philadelphia whom we had beaten in last season’s MLS Cup Final and who were also topping the Eastern Conference. Despite having splashed the cash in pre-season they were still no match for us and we came away with a tidy 3-0 win.

Returning to BC it was an experimental side that took the field against the Chicago Fire and after an early set back the youngster’s fought back for an encouraging 3-2 win

The final game of the month was our first Cascadia Cup match of the season across the border in Portland. Twenty-year old Canadian Michael Rodriguez was the star of the show with two powerful headers that forced own goals within the opening 30 minutes. Jesus Hernandez added a third goal early in the second half with a shot from just outside the box.

So just the one defeat so far this season but things are very tight in this conference with the possibility of the lead changing at any moment.

Canadian Championship

This season we opened up with a 1st leg away game to Edmonton. I sent out a full strength side knowing that success in this tournament was our only way into the Champions League. It was a disappointing effort that resulted in a 0-0 draw but in the return leg at home Castillejos scored a brilliant hat-trick to send us through to the final against Toronto.

The first leg of the final was in Toronto where a single goal divided the two teams but with home field advantage in the second leg we felt confident of over-turning that lead.

A capacity crowd was on hand for the second leg in anticipation of a home win and we poured on the pressure in the opening twenty minutes that eventually led to a goal thanks to a brilliant run by Sinclair whose cross found the head of Jarju which he glanced the ball into the net. We kept up the domination but couldn’t break down the Toronto defence again and so a place in the NACL rested on a penalty shoot – out….

…which we won with a perfect set! It was desperate game to win and so we are now back in the all-important North American Champions League.

We were given $150,000 in transfer funds for qualifying for the NACL but it appears the board are going to use that money elsewhere.

Finances

The building of a new stadium has put us into financial trouble with the board having to take a loan to meet operating costs and other financial debts. Aside from the NACL allocation money our transfer funds of over $400,000.00 from the start of the season has also been used elsewhere though we do have $4,000.00 available for salaries.

Overall, things look very grim right now so I don’t expect much in the way of transfer activity and I may have to trade off a player to make room for Mali youngster Traore whose joining us in July. The likely candidate to go is DC Alain Rochat.

Fixtures

We start off with what should be an easy game at home to San Jose before our top of the table clash with Real Salt Lake.

Republic of Ireland

Just one game to report on in which we were completely over-run in the African heat after going down to 10 men early on. The pace of the Mali players was just too much to cope with as they made the most of their attacking opportunities.

Thanks a lot for reading this slightly longer post and I look forward to your comments.

© www.footballmanagerstory.com

I decide to sell two first team players: Daniel Mazzoni for 6.5 million (he was unwilling to extend his contract, wanted to move to a bigger club and started playing badly as a result) and Christian Kaufmann for 2.2 million. I also decided to offload four youngsters from the Under 19 squad for a total of 9.8 million pounds.

I had to replace the two first team players and I think I have found two worthy players to that purpose:

- striker Juan Cruz Argenti – 7.75 million pounds from Boca Juniors – a striker that resembles Ibrahimovic, towering presence but good technique as well.

- midfielder Alin Dicher – 4 million from U Cluj – probably one of the best Romanian players of his generation, I just had to take him and maybe help him progress.

And now, the Europa League adventure…

The first round saw us taking on CSKA Moscow and the first leg went quite badly, we lost 1-0 at the end of a game in which both sides displayed poor football. Fortunately we turned things around in the second leg thanks to a Manoel brace, we played really well on the day and could have won more comfortably.

And then we got another Russian team, Zenit, who had just dispatched Fiorentina 5-3 on aggregate. This time there were no problems at all, we won both legs quite comfortably while keeping a clean sheet. However, an unfortunate event happened in the second leg: new signing Julio Cruz Argenti, who had just bagged his first brace for the club, suffered a pretty nasty injury and was going to be out for a couple of months.

And then guess what? We got yet another Russian team in the quarter final: Rubin Kazan! And it was just as easy as it was against Zenit, we won both legs 2-0 but lost another player until the end of the season: Joaozinho – out for three months.

The semi final didn’t bring us any other Russian team, there weren’t any left We got Turkish side Besiktas instead and it was a lot more difficult than expected. We played quite poorly in the home game and then were a bit unlucky away as we wasted two huge chances in the opening 10 minutes. The game went to penalties and we prevailed, quite a nail-biting ending to a tie that was supposed to be a lot easier for us.

And we were into the final for the second time in the club’s history and we were about to face… mighty Juventus! They had a much more difficult road to the final than us, knocking out the likes of AC Milan, PSG or Werder en route to the ultimate clash.

Juventus, three-times Europa League winners, had a solid line-up with two excellent strikers upfront (Nangis and Coulibaly), along with a hard-working central midfield and two fast and talented wingers.

On the other hand, I had three absences: Joaozinho, still injured, Rastislav Benko, injured, and Dramane Sow, suspended. With those problems in attack I had to send in Juan Cruz Argenti who had just recovered from injury.

Our line-up was like this: Tomas Held – Darko Andric, Xavier Dumont, Georgica Dicu, Sebastien Verdier – Yasen Zlatinski, Hector Fernandez, Markus Winkler – Juan Cruz Argenti, Peter Guba, Manoel.

I would have liked to give you a full of suspense story of this final, I even wrote down the most important moments of the game in my notebook. But there was no suspense at all, unfortunately. Juventus totally thrashed us in the first half, with Lenny Nangis playing with our defenders like an experienced cat with a clueless mouse. I guess the half time stats screen shot tells the story better than I could.

We did a slightly better job after the break but Juventus were still the dominant side. Nangis scored again on 55 minutes, then we replied through substitute Guido van der Meulen but that was what they call a consolation goal. There was no real consolation though, we were totally outplayed and I guess it’s a lesson that Juventus taught us. I just hope we’ll learn something from it.

With the European adventure over, it’s time to show you how we bulldozed through the domestic scene once again.

Romanian Cup – won it without conceding again, just having fun…

Romanian First Division – We won it again, don’t worry, even though we started the second half of the season with a defeat. That was just an accident though and we recovered from it easily.

We won the league by a hefty margin again, even though I’m pleased to say that the likes of Steaua, Rapid and U Cluj seemed to do better than in the previous seasons.

The player statistics for the season see three strikers leading the pack but I am quite disappointed to see Rastislav Benko, our main man for quite a few seasons, down towards the middle of the list. Juan Cruz Argenti was unable to make the impact I know he could have made but that was because of that injury, I hope he will do a lot better next season. Oh, and Xavier Dumont is a solid first team regular now, I preferred him to Juan Belencoso in most of the important games.

Our finances are looking very good and I think next summer will see at least a couple of big transfers. That is if the board won’t decide to pocket the money

That’s about it for now my friends, thanks for reading. I know, it’s great that we reached the Europa League final, I am pleased with that, but the way Juventus thrashed us leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. However, reaching the final might further improve our UEFA coefficient and we might be seeded second for the Champions League group draw next season, at least that’s what I’m hoping for.

© www.footballmanagerstory.com