retired_mmafan

you will... you won't get a DC for that quality for that price... </BLOCKQUOTE>
Yeah, he's mint. But with Breno, Edcarlos, Edu Dracena and Luisão i think i've got a good solid base to build on.

I'll never sell Luisão, this lad is so good!

retired_mmafan

Dammit!!!

Palacio's season has ended... he's out for 5 to 6 months with a broken leg! I hope he will still be the same after that!

My most important player. He has 22 goals in 26(3) appearances and 7 Assists. 8MoMs and 7.34 rating!

There goes the championship

retired_mmafan

End of season update

Finished my first season with Aguias. My team had some great runs throughout the season including a 13 game unbeaten run in the first half of the season and a 12 game unbeaten run come the end of the season. Boavista almost denied us from winning the title and if it wasn't for goold old Sporting then we would not have won it!
This offcourse resulting in alot of awards for me and my players.

We made our home ground a real fortress, yet to suffer a defeat in it. We finished the season with 68 points and only 2 losses. Stealing the league with a narrow 2 points over Porto. A screenshot will follow. Some players have really established themselves and won the hearts of many. Especially Ali Karimi who is already a club icon! He helped us in a hard end of season fight, scoring 7 in 5 tough games.
We won the League cup final with a 2-0 win over Académica... Well actually Ali Karimi won the League Cup Final by scoring both goals and becoming the tournament's best player.

I've got the Portuguese cup final coming up in some days. I'll post it a while later.

Ääritalo provided the most goals in the Bwin Liga. He has provided no less than 10 goals for us. But not only has he layed on goals, he has also scored the most goals. Sadly enough this would've been Palacio's award if he didn't break his leg! Palacio didn't go home empty handed by winning the Player of the year award (wich he certainly deserved!) and the Forward of the year award.
Ääritalo kept sweeping away prices just in front of his teammate's noses and he ran off with the most Man of the match awards. Elsewhere our determined midfielder Lucas Biglia became young player of the year.
And with all these silly prices that keep stocking up, Ali Karimi was close to scoring the quickest goal of the year with 19 seconds on the clock he was 5 seconds too slow to become the quickest.

There were also some setbacks in the prices as Quim came runner up to Hélton for the Best Goalkeeper award. (geez so much awards!!)
Manager of the year... Offcourse, Me!

Bwin Liga
Team Rosters

4-4-2
My high up the field 4-4-2 seems more than sufficient for this league, although 4-4-2 is not often used in Portugal.

Manager's team of the year

GK - Quim
DR - Sergey Ignashevich
DL - Miguelito
DC - Luisão
DC - Edcarlos
MR - Ali Karimi
ML - Danny
MC - Kostas Katsouranis
MC - Lucas Biglia
ST - Mika Ääritalo
ST - Rodrigo Palacio

Player evaluation

Landon Donovan definately disappointed me. He had 2 droughts (9 hour and 10 hour drought) and was missing everything. From long shots to sitters. Has improved alot statwise so he can get a second chance!

Biglia was immense for me. Controlling midfield, laying on goals and showing up with some threatening runs and shots. He missed some sitters throughout the season but i think that will come by age. One of the most important assets of my team!

Danny definately proved his worth. He ran down the left, right and center throughout the season. Was so versatile he even played well as a striker. No wonder he got a call up to the national squad.

Ali Karimi scored so much from the wing. He was even more prolific than my strikers at some points in the season. I'm keeping him till he's 40

Possible transfer targets

I've got Eduardo from Braga coming in as a backup goalkeeper and i latched onto some talent from the USA (Abdus Ibrahim and Israel Sesay). I think the future might be secure.

The places i'll tend to strengthen are the RB position as Ignashevich was a tad bit disappointing. I'm looking at Lionel Scaloni from Lazio.
The MC position as Mendieta is old and i want someone that can rotate with both Lucas & Kostas. A free Walter Baseggio fills this spot perfectly, if he wants to come.
Maybe replace Miguelito but only if its someone even better. Marcelo from Real Madrid comes to mind!
And i want a striker than can take over from Donovan when he hits another drought again. Adriano from Inter spring to mind and the fabulously named Claudio Pitbull from Porto has been on my shortlist for a while.

Most commemorable moments of the season

Victory @ San Siro

Dominating Anfield

Last game of the season - if i didn't win this i would not have been champions. Thank god for team talks!

Thanx for reading another awfully long post!

retired_mmafan

Sporting are just unbeatable... I've managed to lose 1-0, draw 2-2 and now i lost the Portuguese cup to them by a 4-2 loss!

retired_mmafan

Transfer Window update

Getting some enquiries in for some of my player and i give them fairly decent values. I'm scouting the European championship and i'm watching the final myself so my targets may increase even further.

For the much needed right back i'm having a look at Lionel Scaloni and Jan Kromkamp. Kromkamp managed to impress my scout at the EC. Both are close to fulfilling there potential so no need for nurturing there.

Jean II Makoun, who's at Feyenoord, is on my records. But i've got players coming in for the middle of the park. I latched onto Fábio Rochemback and Walter Baseggio who are coming 1-7-2008!

Marcelo keeps rejecting my contracts, so my intrest has faded and i'll possible opt for another season with Miguelito.

For the attacking department Claudio Pitbull is my main target. Other then that Mateja Kezman and Danilinho have gotten high on the list.

I've also seen some 'big' names on the transfer list. I'll be having a look at Adriano, El-Hadji Diouf, Simão and Júlio Baptista. Well i will have a look when i get my money to spend

retired_cmlafevers

started a benfica save yesterday while I wait for the full patch. here's my transfer activity-

OUT
brezovacki - free
christian rodriguez - lens, 7.5m
katsouranis - parma, 8m
nuno gomes - fiorentina, 5m
maxi pereira - rennes, 5m
angel di maria - spurs, 8m
rivaldo - guimares, 1k
oscar cardozo - bochum, 8m

IN
barazite from arsenal, 500k
piatti from estudiantes, 2.2m
marcelo oliveira from corinthians 3.4m
luka modric from dinamo, 7.5m
juan manuel torres from san lorenzo, 1m
leonardo from ajax, 1m
vagner love from cska, 10m
wagner from cruzeiro, 7.25m

got jozy altidore arriving in january and lulinha coming in at the end of the season as well.

playing a 41311 formation, put rui costa right in the middle of the pitch with closing down on 0, so as to allow him to play and be awesome, but not get worn out by his awful physical stats.

modric in the hole in a free role, and he loves it. 3 goals in 3 games. vagner love leads the line, but only played 2 games as he arrived late in the window. marcelo oliveira on the right of the midfield three runs all day (19 on natfit, 20 on stamina, invaluable). I did have adu on the opposite side, but he didn't have the physical presence I wanted so I got wagner in. that may or may not have been a waste of money, time will tell.

torres rotates with petit in the DM role. no nonsense stuff - the reason I got torres was due to age and stamina (torres has 18).

got rui costa tutoring barazite, and his stats have shot up after only a month so that bodes VERY well. all in all I've assembled a good young squad

I was going to get breno, but I have five top quality centrebacks (the five they start with) so spent money elsewhere. I'm training zoro to be accomplished at RB so he can back me up there, and I may cash-in on luisao (as david luiz and edcarlos are awesome, and miguel vitor's coming along too).

had bids for baptista, nasri and sunny accepted, but they all turned me down. not too fussed about baps and nasri, but I would have really loved sunny at the club.

bit disappointed in the quality of the young players. hopefully the regens are better, I mean this is benfica after all!

top of the league on points (3 wins out of 3) but I've been drawn in barca's CL group! that's gonna be an epic coupla games, for sure.

mdschneids

nice choice except di maria, if you say the right team talks to him we will make many 8 in a row

nice, watch out for torres, he's very agressive and can be sent off easily. vagner love nice stats but played like crap on my game. you can get daniel carvalho for 3M form CSKA and he plays well, wil also make the club happy with that transfer.

give us some feedback on bergessio, he was my best scorer... :eek:

retired_cmlafevers

nice choice except di maria, if you say the right team talks to him we will make many 8 in a row </BLOCKQUOTE>

yeah I was torn on di maria, but I preferred leonardo because he's A) faster B) brazilian [trying to move out the mass argentine contingent] and C) more versatile (i.e. with training he can play in CM)

so leonardo, 1 game, 1 goal, 1 assist. not a bad start!

nice, watch out for torres, he's very agressive and can be sent off easily. vagner love nice stats but played like crap on my game. you can get daniel carvalho for 3M form CSKA and he plays well, wil also make the club happy with that transfer. </BLOCKQUOTE>

vagner love has been great thus far. 5 goals in 6 games (including 2 in 1 game against barca!)

carvalho available for that cheap? hrm. his physical stats have deteriorated massively.

haven't had a chance to play torres yet, so will see about his aggression. if he's too bad it's not that much of a deal. he only cost 1m, and I can get elicarlos for free from porto(pe) thanks to the feeder club arrangement. though I may get him anyway.

bergessio looked average to me, but his stats have shot up after some training. I may well have to give him a shot, though vagner love is the main man. was gonna sell mantorras but as he's a benfica youth product I decided to keep him. I should probably give him a shot, but I dunno, I have altidore coming in. though I made that deal right at the start of the save, kinda regretting that now.

mdschneids

yep, just tell to the media you want to buy him and he will want the leave CSKA

mdschneids

playing with Benfica:
1st season: won everything even champs (even i dont know how luky i was)
2nd season: won all supercups, 3rd in world club championship, won league cup, 2nd in league, lost semi-final cup against my rival, 1/4 final on champs.

result: overall they we're happy by my fast success in 2 years but still got fired. they hired a stupid manager... all my rival managers got their contract renewed. i'm stopping playing FM2008 until the patch comes out because this game is jsut ridiculous as it is now