retired_blondielovespink

An interesting beginning to my tenure at AJ Auxerre. I came in on October 29th, bringing with me a new tactic, it took a few matches for it to get sorted out. We started out 1-1-1 in the league, and then lost in the 1st round of the League Cup to Caen, and then we began a streak. We've now had 4 straight without a loss. We're in 7th in the League, after taking over in 10th. Our schedule coming up after the break is promising for getting into the top 3 and thus returning Auxerre to the 1st.

I've had to sell 2 players due to being discipline cases. One decided to pipe up to the media he was on the move. So I smacked him with a warning for unprofessional behaviour, demoted him to the reserves, and transfer listed him. And in rare form, my players responded with "Glad to see (Polish Striker) punished for his actions" and "Hopes (Polish Striker) learns from his mistakes." [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="big grin[/IMG] Good lads. The board is "delighted with the start I've made." And despite the fact I'm playing in front of 6K fans again, it's nice to manage for a board that appreciates my efforts. We have some good players coming in. I raided Toulouse for some help (btw, they're in 8th and falling in the 1st Division. Ahhhh.) on the backline and I signed my Danish striker, whom the manager inexplicably Free Transferred.

I've also raided both Scandinavia and Italy for attacking midfielders. So we'll have plenty of depth finally, once I can get all the transfers to fit in the deadline. I'm guardedly optimistic for a promotion run. But I'm not going to say anything to raise the Board's expectations yet.

The Silver Eagles will be requesting my services in February for the African Nation's Cup. But I have no idea whether or not I'll be doing anything for International Duty until then. Our First Round group looks promising. I'm optimistic we can storm through into at least the Semis. A good prep for World Cup 2006 to follow the season.

retired_blondielovespink

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> ************************************************** ********************************************** French Second Division - Saturday 10th December 2005********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2005/6 Table============================================= ================================================== =Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st Cannes 20 8 0 2 22 11 5 4 1 22 11 43 2nd Le Mans 21 6 4 1 24 14 5 2 3 15 13 39 3rd Caen 21 6 3 2 16 11 5 2 3 15 14 38 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4th Dunkerque 22 9 1 1 18 8 2 3 6 10 16 37 5th Nancy 21 6 2 3 15 9 4 4 2 24 19 36 6th Alès 22 6 4 1 24 15 4 1 6 12 16 35 7th Auxerre 21 6 2 3 23 17 3 4 3 20 20 33 8th Le Havre 20 6 4 0 16 5 3 1 6 11 16 32 9th Ajaccio AC 20 7 1 2 18 6 2 3 5 7 11 31 10th Angoulême 22 6 2 3 24 17 3 2 6 13 19 31 11th Racing CP 21 5 4 2 22 20 3 2 5 20 20 30 12th Strasbourg 21 7 2 2 22 10 2 0 8 16 26 29 13th Beauvais 21 5 3 2 17 7 2 3 6 13 20 27 14th Amiens 20 4 1 4 10 9 4 2 5 15 15 27 15th Wasquehal 22 4 3 4 12 17 2 3 6 7 16 24 16th Rouen 21 2 3 5 8 16 4 2 5 10 13 23 17th Nîmes 21 5 1 5 22 22 1 3 6 7 16 22 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------18th Clermont 21 4 0 6 12 14 2 3 6 14 23 21 19th Louhans 21 4 3 3 19 17 1 1 9 12 25 19 20th Metz 21 2 2 6 16 25 0 0 11 7 31 8 </pre>

KingsbayYHPE

Good launch pad for the rest of the season, though 10 points and a game in hand behind at Christmas doesn't bode well [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif" alt="wink[/IMG] [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="big grin[/IMG] Five to a promotion place looks decidedly better, though [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="big grin[/IMG]

KUTGW!! [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="big grin[/IMG]

retired_blondielovespink

iajafer,

Thanks, I don't expect 1st either. Though I can't believe Cannes is sitting top of the table. But that promotion spot looks ripe for the taking.

DD,

You're not the first to tell me Nigeria isn't the easiest job to keep. But hey, it's my first (ever in CM) International job, why should I not expect to get the sack? [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="big grin[/IMG]

retired_blondielovespink

I was wondering why their job was available when they were 1st in their WC qualifying group. [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="big grin[/IMG] Oh well, I'll manage them through the WC, and then resign like any good international coach regardless of how well I do. If I do well, it should give my rep a nice push.

retired_blondielovespink

Super Eagle Update--African Nations Cup

I'll do the Auxerre second half by itself when I finish it. But I thought a Contintental tourney merited its own update. We drew an opening round of Togo, Morocco, and the Ivory Coast. We started against Togo, winning 2-0 in an absolute laugher. We put 20 shots on frame to get our 2 goals. Togo managed 1 shot, it missed. We played this match with Nigerian Super Forward (whose initials are the same as Junior Achievement's)out due to suspension. He came back in match 2 vs Ivory Coast. They struck 1st on a free kick, but that merely woke the dragon. We struck back with 3 straight of our own, they clawed back a 90th minute consolation, but we won. The final first round match versus Morocco was more or less a formality, we only had to avoid getting crushed. I played lots of bench players, and we drew 1-1, putting us safely into the Quarter Finals as a #1 seed. immediately after this match, the French FA fitted me with a satellite feed so I could manage Auxerre via proxy.

We drew Cameroon in the Quarterfinals in a West Africa rivalry match. But the Indomitable Lions proved conquerable, and fell with more of a whimper than a roar, 2-0. The semifinals surprisingly pitted us against Ghana, who we had crushed in our friendlies earlier on. This time they played much better, and their star midfielder caused us havoc until I man-marked him with my German-based DMC whose first name is the same as the first day of the week. Then he disappeared, and his marker made a long run that scored our 2nd of the match. We won 3-1.

The finals saw us against, surprisingly, Eygpt, led by their soon-to-be-ex-Ajax striker. But we got the jump on them with an early goal. Then we proceeded to thump in 2 more, with my right winger scoring his first of the tourney at an opportune time. But we then went about proving that in African footy, no lead is safe. Egypt clawed back 2 goals in the last 20 minutes. And looked capable of coming all the way back, but they ran out of time.

Nigeria, the African Nation's Cup winners! The FA is "pleased" with my performance. [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt="roll eyes[/IMG] [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="big grin[/IMG] But it bodes well for the World Cup, IMHO. Our first round is Saudi Arabia (cannon fodder), Belarus (your guess is as good as mine), and Argentina (the power in the group). The FA has said their expectation is to advance to the 2nd round. I think this is very easy, as long as we take care of business against the Saudis. Belarus I'm sure has some quality players, but I don't see them matching our attacking prowess. And Argentina is Argentina, but we can probably render that match irrelevant. If nothing else, a gentlemanly draw is likely here.

The press has written off our WC chances. I was asked to respond, but declined comment. No reason to unnecessarily raise the FA's expectations, but I think we can at least get to the quarterfinals, if we get a good draw and a couple breaks, who knows? We definitely have the attacking strength to put fear in anyone we face. And for the most part we've been organized at the back. If we stay that way, I expect nothing but good things. But better to simply post this on the bulletin board for motivation than to build up hype that could crush my young stars.

[This message was edited by shawng1 on 26/12/2002 at 08:13.]

retired_blondielovespink

Auxerre 2nd half 05/06.

Having taken over in 10th position in the 2nd division, my goal for the side was to see them safely back into Europe in the allotted 5 year plan. We had made a good start on that in the time to the break. I had also obtained my Danish Striker whom Toulouse had Free Transferred and one of my center backs from Toulouse during the break. I also free transferred in a South African D/Amid (L/C). His versatility will be highly desirable. We went into the 2nd half with a match against Nimes at home. We won that 2-0, but we followed that with a disappointing 2-2 draw on the road to Nancy. We were knocked out of the French Cup 9th round by Bordeaux, a 1st Division side, 1-0, despite having much of the better of play. We finished January with a 3-0 thrashing of Le Mans, Danish Striker getting his 2nd with the club and a penalty caused when their keeper sent down my other striker in the box salted the game away by putting us up by 3 and sending him off. However, we had made no ground on the front runners in the Division.

In February, while I was accomplishing glorious victory with the Nigerians, the going at home was sluggish. A 2-2 draw to struggling Wasquehal, even away, was disappointing. The 2-2 home draw to Strasburg left us tasting ashes as well. The mid-month visit to Paris to face newly promoted Racing CP ought to have been a laugher, but instead turned into a disgraceful 1-2 loss. The staggering form cost us all the ground I had made in the months leading up to the break. And the fact that we failed to collect even 3/4s of the points from the teams below us aggravated me to no end. The month ended with a match against Clermont on February 25th, this was the match the FA allowed me to manage via satellite. In truth, little aid from me was needed. We put up our best performance since the break, winnng 3-1 at home to claw us back within 4 points of promotion.

We had nearly 2 weeks off, then played Le Havre in their stadium. They got 2 quick goals on us, but we then scored 4 straight on them to win a wild shootout 4-3 We did not play again for 17 days then had another trip to Ameins, where we continued our good run by upending Amiens 2-1, a goal from our South African sending us off to a good start. Meanwhile our French striker, whose name would fit in with some Knights from Monty Python, put in his 15th goal since I took the club. As he still did not have 20 for the season, I think I can fairly be said to have found the firepower the team was lacking in the 1st half of the season.

April 1st saw us facing Rouen. Once again, we showed ourselves capable of playing up, or down, to any level of opponent. In this case, it was clearly down. Danish striker scored, then went off with an injury. Rouen equalized, and we never looked threatening. Thus once again we managed to disappoint our home fans by underperforming to a 1-1 draw. A week later table topping Cannes came to call. And we demonstrated the positive end of our schizophrenic play. This time Knight who says... put in 2 goals, seeing us to a comfortable 2-0 win. A week later we travelled to Dunkerque, where there was no escape for the home side as we thumped them 3-1, our Knight once again scoring a brace. We are 1 point from promotion, which is also tied for 2nd. A win could see us to within 2 points of the leaders. All we have to do is beat a weak Louhans side at home...

You guessed it, an utterly annoying 1-1 draw puts 2nd place out of reach and leaves us 2 points out of 3rd. A goal by our Knight against Beauvais away does not offset our continuing lackluster play, and we finish with another dreary 1-1 draw in a match we should have taken. Now we are 4 points back again, with 3 matches left, and the board's opinion of me is merely "satisfied."

The first match of the final month sees us facing Ales, the Knight scores again, and an own-goal propels us to a 2-1 home win in our final home match of the season. We still are 4points back when we travel to relegation fodder Metz. Danish striker is back in the lineup, and scores 2 goals, the brace sees us into a 2-1 win and leaves us 1 point back with 1 match to play.

And for the 2nd year in a row, the one match I need to win for the points to pass the team in front of us will have to come by a direct confrontation with the team-to-bet at their park. 3rd place Ajaccio AC welcomes us on May 20th. Winner goes to the 1st Division, loser gets to sell players in the offseason to meet his budget. But this time, my striker doesn't break his leg. Of course, this time my strikers don't even score for me either. But neither do his. The goals come from our midfielder, one of the few quality attacking players from the original Auxerre prat pack, a Senegalese attacking midfielder, bolts off the left side of ht ebox to score twice in the match to see us into a 2-0 lead. But in the 70th minute, with everything looking comfortable, the home side strikes back, 2-1, we're hanging on by our fingernails on the road, and visions of a 90th minute goal reducing our season to ash float through my head. But we hold the fort and win 2-1.

AUXERRE TO THE 1ST DIVISION! Pierre Lacroix in his 3rd season with a side below the 1st, wins promotion for the 3rd time. This time not the comfortable coast into the top spot the 1st 2 were with Toulouse, but a god-fight to the very end. But our side is going to be significiantly strenghtened by my incoming crop of Bosmans and judicious use of our transfer budget. A Russian goalkeeper will be arriving in December, a number of quality midfielders will bolster our side and provide some youth, as a number of our midfielders are getting long in the tooth, which means they will have to see less action next year. We scored a record number of goals for the 2nd division, but our defense was not very solid. I will be examining before next season, as we will need to shore than up lest we be catapulted back into the 2nd. I think, if I can find the right tactic to use our players, we can very well be comfortably into the mid-table of the 1st Division next season. But time will tell. I finished the season with a baord confidence of "pleased" once again.

For the moment, more immediate concerns are at hand. I am currently ranked #3 in France (superb), and #170 in the world (fair). And I take that reputation, and the African Champion Super Eagles, to Germany for World Cup 2006.

retired_blondielovespink

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">********************************************* ************************************************** * French Second Division - Saturday 20th May 2006********************************************** ************************************************** ================================================== ============================================== 2005/6 Table============================================= ================================================== =Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1st C Caen 38 12 4 3 34 19 10 4 5 33 24 74 2nd P Le Mans 38 14 4 1 47 22 7 4 8 26 31 71 3rd P Auxerre 38 11 5 3 39 23 8 7 4 39 34 69 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4th Ajaccio AC 38 14 1 4 38 18 6 6 7 19 18 67 5th Cannes 38 12 2 5 35 22 7 5 7 32 26 64 6th Strasbourg 38 14 2 3 44 20 5 4 10 27 38 63 7th Alès 38 10 7 2 38 24 7 3 9 24 27 61 8th Louhans 38 11 3 5 37 27 5 3 11 25 33 54 9th Beauvais 38 8 4 7 29 21 7 4 8 28 29 53 10th Racing CP 38 10 5 4 36 27 4 5 10 30 38 52 11th Amiens 38 10 1 8 24 18 6 3 10 27 33 52 12th Nancy 38 8 4 7 25 24 6 5 8 34 37 51 13th Angoulême 38 10 4 5 40 28 4 3 12 21 39 49 14th Dunkerque 38 12 3 4 31 24 2 4 13 12 30 49 15th Le Havre 38 7 9 3 28 22 5 2 12 24 37 47 16th Rouen 38 5 6 8 15 22 6 4 9 17 21 43 17th Clermont 38 8 3 8 30 28 4 3 12 27 43 42 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------18th R Nîmes 38 8 5 6 35 30 2 3 14 14 41 38 19th R Wasquehal 38 5 5 9 23 35 2 5 12 12 33 31 20th R Metz 38 7 4 8 31 34 0 4 15 17 47 29 </pre>

retired_holden

KUTGW with Auxerre!

Don't count your chickens on that WC spot with Nigeria... there is still time for them to sack you yet [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif" alt="wink[/IMG]

retired_blondielovespink

Nah, they were nice and let me manage the side in the World Cup. [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif" alt="wink[/IMG]

Super Eagles- Germany 2006

Nigeria was drawn into a fairly easy 1st round of Saudi Arabia, Belarus, and Argentina. The FA's expectations were to advance into the 2nd round, so meeting thos goals won't be too difficult.

Saudi Arabia gets the privilege for the 2nd World Cup in a row of being utterly embarrassed in their first match. 3 first half goals illustrate our dominance in triplicate. We called off the dogs in the 2nd half. So the scoreline ended the same. But we were off to a fine start. Our 2nd match was against Belarus, who had gotten themselves stuffed by Argentina 4-0. They faired little better against us, We had a 4-0 lead as well by just after halftime. And though they managed 2 consolations goals, we had established ourselves as qualified for the 2nd round by the end of the day. We also got news of a very surprising result, England 1, Indonesia 2. [IMG]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif" alt="eek[/IMG]

Our final Group match against Argentina was meaningless except for seeding, as both teams were through to the 2nd round. But we got the jump on them anyway with a goal in the first 10 minutes. We scored another just before halftime to make the score 2-0. Argentina fought to try to restore their goal-difference advantage, but they only scored 1 goal, so we finished top of the Group, with a perfect 9 points going into the round of 16. England advanced, btw, but only because 3 teams in her group finished with 3 points--including them, and England advanced on best goal difference of the 3.

For the round of 16 we drew another South American squad, this time Uruguay. Goals on each side of halftime assured us the victory. But it was costly. Our 1st choice DMC went out in the 4th minute. One of our front runners also got hurt, so we went into the Quarter Finals shorthanded. Despite this, we were enthusiastic regarding our chances.

In the Quarter Finals we faced yet another South American Team, Columbia. The weakest of the 3 we had faced, in my mind. And we scored on them in the 4th minute, raising our hopes even more. But Columbia equalized 13 minutes later. And from then on the match stagnated. I tried bringing in a second wave of speed in the last 30 minutes, but Columbia actually managed to sneak in the 2nd goal, much to our dismay. We ended up outshooting them in both total shots and shots on frame by nearly 2-1, but all we got for that was ashes and the knowledge that our suspect goalkeeping had let us down when it mattered most.

Columbia went on to lose to Peru, Peru went on to face the hosts, Germany, in the final. And Germany won after a 2-2 draw, on PKs (figure the odds). The FA reviewed my performance after the World Cup and said they were very pleased in the work I had done and retained my services. I applied for Sweden, but they hired some nobody from their own country. The World Cup was very good for my reputation. I am now #3 in France, and #96 in the world. Alex finally retired from Man U. They hired Alex MacLeish from Rangers. I thought about applying there, but decided that I needed to stick out the plan at Auxerre before i go anywhere.

Speaking of Auxerre, we had our preseason, a record of 4-1-1. Our 1 loss to a Premiership side I invited in, despite playing several reserves, we seemed to play that match well. We beat a Swiss 1st Division team 6-3 in a wild shootout. That led to our draw in our last preseason match possibly. In that match a keeper of absolutely no reputation played the match of his life, stopping 14 on frame shots to preserve a scoreless draw his team did not deserve. But despite that minor disappointment, it was a good preseason. Our goalkeeping is still dodgy, but that situation should be remedied in December, one hopes, when our Russian arrives. I'm being closed mouthed about my expectations. The board has said, "Battle Bravely Against Relegation." I think I can do better than that. We'll just have to wait and see...