kissofdeath2120

Show us yer Belgians!!!

retired_george-leo

Belgium

Pablo van den Neijster
Personality: Fairly Ambitious

Steven Kemp
Personality: Resolute

Ulfke Chaocmans
Personality: Fairly Determined

Berty Wright
Personality: Fairly Determined

Azarias Sakanyi
Personality: Balanced

Mikel Van Den Butler
Personality: Fairly Determined

Matt Bennett
Personality: Fairly Professional

Tomaldinho
Personality: Fairly Determined

Sneaky Ninja
Personality: Fairly Determined

Rhys Howells
Personality: Fairly Ambitious

Fabio Maldini
Personality: Ambitious

kissofdeath2120

Looking good Mr. Sakanyi

retired_pamd

woah i look awsome! shame about my size though, for a goalkeeper i thought it would be more.

retired_george-leo

Luxembourg

Jordan
Personality: Ambitious

Teejay Vizzy
Personality: Fairly Determined

Daniele Ruggiero
Personality: Balanced

Rafael van Nistelrooy
Personality: Fairly Determined

Brad Harper
Personality: Very Ambitious

Jai Wallace
Personality: Fairly Ambitious

Bertun Ernie Bloodhound
Personality: Fairly Ambitious

Birdstadt
Personality: Ambitious

Josh McLachlan
Personality: Resolute

Freeliovic
Personality: Balanced

Ryan van der Anders
Personality: Balanced

retired_george-leo

So there we are. 33 fine looking young lads, destined for greatness. Hopefully.

A few more interesting (kinda) little tidbits of information:

Ruud van Titchen and Brad Harper are the tallest of the bunch, at 193 cm. Salman Van Dahash and Fabio Maldini are the wee fellers of the lot, at 170 cm.

Maldini is also the lightweight of the bunch, weighing in at 69kg. Brad Harper and Berty Wright tip the other end of the scale – 93kg.

Which reminds me, is everyone ok with me using the metric system and Euros? These are the Low Countries, after all.
If most of you prefer that I use Pound Sterling and those stones and inches thingamajigs, I’m willing to change my preferences for future updates though.


Another 1st July 2006, 9 am observation: The prediction that the Luxembourgians will be the first to make it into the national team seems to be confirmed already.
Not quite the main squad yet, but all eleven Luxembourgians are already listed in either their U21 or U19 squads. (McLachlan and Birdstadt in the U19s, the others in the U21s)

Neither of those squads have any fixtures lined up at the moment though. The Luxembourg U21s were knocked out of the U21 Euro Ch’ship Prelim. Qualifying round by Cyprus, a few weeks before the game’s start date. There is a U19 Euro Ch'ship in 2007, however. The qualifying matches haven't been scheduled yet, but I assume that'll happen pretty soon.

retired_george-leo

July 8th 2006

Not much to report yet. A few players already picked up injuries to hamper their settling into their new clubs:

In Van Der Dude is out for 1-3 weeks (groin strain).
Teejay Vizzy is out for 1-4 weeks (thigh strain).
Matt Bennett is out for 3 weeks – 2 months (sprained ankle).

July 12th 2006

More players into the sickbay:

Rafael van Nistelrooy at home with the flu for 4 days - 2 weeks.

Josh McLachlan out for 1-4 weeks (damaged foot).

Salman van Dahash sprained his ankle, out for 4 weeks – 2 months.

(I probably won’t always go into this amount of detail. But as it’s the start of the game, I’m taking things a bit slower to keep an eye on how everyone settles into their team, etc.)

retired_george-leo

July 19th 2006

Another sprained ankle, for Tomaldinho this time. Also out for 4 weeks – 2 months.

Let’s hope that trend doesn’t continue.


July 22nd 2006

Steven Kemp rejects a new three year Oostende deal, hoping his ability could justify a more lucrative salary.

Meanwhile, Ulfke Chaocmans goes home for 2-4 weeks to recover from a virus.


July 28th 2006

Bertun Ernie Bloodhound is not quite as greedy as teammate Kemp and signs a new three year contract at Oostende.

Mikel Van Den Butler also extends his contract, at Antwerp, to three years.


August 2nd 2006

Fabio Maldini rejects a new contract at Antwerp, wanting a higher appearance bonus.



With a month of pre-season gone and competition matches soon to start, another small observation:
Everyone’s reputation was set to Local at the start of the game. For most, this has now shot up to National. (A few people, those who have appeared in less than two pre-season friendlies, are still at Local for now.)
This is making me suspect that it won’t take very long for the first “Wnt” symbols to appear. None yet, but it’s one of the things I’ll be keeping a close eye on in this first season.

retired_george-leo

August 12th 2006

Landmark news! Brad Harper and Freeliovic are the first players of the 33 to play a competitive match for their team, in the Belgian Cup 3rd Round.

Brad Harper played the full 90 minutes in Geel’s 3-1 home win against Dilbeek and got a solid 8 rating.

Freeliovic was even more impressive in Sprimont’s 4-0 away win against Grimbergen, getting a goal and an assist, and taking the MoM award with a rating of 10!


August 13th 2006

One day later, four more players make their debut as well. Josh McLachlan, Ulfke Chaocmans, Berty Wright and Rhys Howells are all in the starting eleven for their team’s Belgian Cup match.
Striker Howells attempts to equal the performance of his Luxembourgian colleague the day before, also getting a goal, an assist, and a MoM award (but “only” a rating of 8).


(again, this is obviously a bit more detail than I’ll go into in the future. But at this early stage I figured it’s fun to report on little landmarks like this. )
And with that, I’m done for the night. More to come, probably tomorrow evening.

kissofdeath2120

great updates so far Coach, looking forward to more!