djchapsticks Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Smurph not taking any shite from his squad of underachievers....I like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 10, 2012 Author Share Posted June 10, 2012 Smurph not taking any shite from his squad of underachievers....I like it. Certainly. I should have probably done it a while ago. If anyone cares, the second half of the second leg of Carpi and Pro Vercelli is on just now. The first leg finished 0-0 in Vercelli, and it's currently 1-1 in Modena. You might think that Pro would gain promotion on away goals but it would go to extra time and if it still remains a draw, Carpi would win as they finished higher in the league table (3rd v 5th). Unfair, I know, but them's the rules I suppose. Edit- As soon as I hit post Iemello scores for Pro. 2-1 to Pro Vercelli! September 2022 A good few performances but two fairly disappointing ones too. Started off well with a solid win against Bari, but too many men up for a corner resulted in a Palermo counter attack and we lost that game by that one mistake. Followed up by an excellent result against Lazio. They were 2-1 up but an incredible midfield display saw us win it at the very last minute. Two very easy results against Genoa and Milan followed, and then a poor performance saw us lose to Cagliari. Our goal was an own-goal and theirs was a penalty. Not a bad start to the season though. The main disappointment, as you may have noticed, is that none of my strikers have scored since the first game. I don't really know what's happened but I hope they can start finding their shooting boots soon. As I have said plenty of times, it's too early to judge anything just now, but it's good to be up there. We also had the small matter of the Europa League. Two fairly easy wins. Poor defending from crosses is how we conceded two against Braga but a brace for new-boy Cunha and goals from Reinaldo and Salles saved us from embarrassment as they equalised it to 2-2 at the 76th minute. The win against Cluj was fairly easy and it was good to see Le Moal get a brace. Fairly comfortable. The double-header against Trazbonsor is the one we need to watch, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 10, 2012 Author Share Posted June 10, 2012 October 2022 Hmm. I don't know what happened against Atalanta, but three excellent performances afterwards, and not a goal conceded in three, is very encouraging. Everyone's starting to perform well and our strikers are starting to find their feet (bar Maringá and Cunha - Fratti hasn't been getting games) which is good to see. I'm hoping that we can keep this up. Holders Inter seem to be the team to beat. Parma aren't looking too bad again. We need to play Fiorentina, Parma and Inter this both, so it's incredibly important that we can do well in the next month and continue our cracking form! Hain secures a win against Trabzonspor and we're top of the group. Away game next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 10, 2012 Author Share Posted June 10, 2012 November 2022 Almost the perfect month. Almost. I don't know how we managed to beat Fiorentina quite so comfortably but it happened. We were 1-0 up against Parma until the 86th minute when Bakambu scored. Straight from kick off, Hain ran up the park and scored the winner. Delighted with that. That was our first win against Parma. Simple wins against Roma and Sampdoria followed, but a loss against Inter scuppered our chances of a perfect month. Leonard made a mistake and Marilungo finished well. Inter are certainly the pace setters so we need to just keep beating the other teams and they'll soon fall. Still not been overly troubled in the Europa League and we've finished first and qualified for the next round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 11, 2012 Author Share Posted June 11, 2012 December 2022 Perfect. I played the game in January to make it exactly half way through the season. No trouble in any of those games, and you may have noticed a friendly face has returned to his excellent goalscoring form. Maringá is back, ladies and gentlemen. The Magnificent Magician Maringá is banging them in yet again. The other players are playing well, too, but he's stolen the limelight once again and at what a time. Definitely on course right now to a Champions League place which is what we want. Inter still doing incredibly well. Maringá scored a brace in our final game against Cluj so we finished unbeaten in the Europa League group. Who do we play in the next round? YES YES YES YES YES I could not have wished for a better team to ABSOLUTELY DEMOLISH. I intend to completely destroy Rangers on course to Europa League glory. Get in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 11, 2012 Author Share Posted June 11, 2012 January 2023 The transfer marker was upon us again. My chairman thought it would be a good idea to sell Carlos Valencia to AC Milan for €12.75M. A decent amount of money, yes, but he was my back-up centre back so it was annoying to lose him. Nothing I can do about that, though, and it's now in the past. I initially never wanted to sign anyone, bar maybe someone for back-up in midfield and maybe a new defender, but this rocked Vercelli... Injured in the Napoli game last month, it looks like captain Toplek's season is over. A real shame as he's been absolutely brilliant this season and has led the team incredibly well. I hope he recovers quickly and doesn't miss out on progressing too much. However, that wasn't it. In the game against Palermo this month... f**k, f**k, f**k, f**k, fuuuuck. My two main central midfielders both knocked out for the remainder of the season. It was going to be incredibly tough to win anything without them. In 17 games in the league, Toplek had scored 6 and assisted 5, whereas Salles in 13 had scored 4 and assisted 1 - but assisted 4 in the Europa League. We needed to replace them until the end of the season. In comes experienced midfielder Andrea Poli. He will be used as cover mainly and should come off the bench to add more to the defensive side of things but he should be a good addition to the squad and should be able to teach the younger guys a thing or two. Not a bad signing for €2.2M. Nuno Leite is a young Portuguese midfielder who I reckon in a few years time will be a sublime footballer in a few years. He's probably ready to start games and probably will, being the replacement for Salles just now, probably. Two new faces in midfield but I reckon that's us covered now. Another defender was needed so I re-called Raiola from his loan. Three decent performances. Leonard is in the African Cup of Nations with Cameroon again, so Reinaldo was moved to left back, and without Valencia we didn't have our first choice defence. Add in that Reinaldo and Pereyra were suspended for a game a piece and we had to rely on a Keric and Raoila partnership in the Lazio game. Bari are always tough, and with Reinaldo getting sent off five minutes in it was always going to be harder, but a Le Moal brace eased us in and they scored a goal in the 73rd minute but we saw them off. We went 1-0 up against Palermo from a corner but the equalised from a corner. Up steps Cunha in the 87th minute to run past two players and score with an excellent finish. A massive result for us in the title race. We went down 1-0 to Lazio but a few tweaks within our shattered squad and somehow we managed to score two goals and get the three points. An excellent performance and Keric (in for the suspended Pereyra) scored his first goal for the club. Inter managed to lose a game somewhere in the month, so that's us only three points behind. The game at the Pro Vercelli stadium in a month or two is going to be absolutely massive. Edit - oh aye, the cup. A fairly routine win against Roma started us off in the First Round. Poli got us off to a great start against Milan but we scored an own goal straight after and no-one could break the deadlock. It went to extra time and super-sub Cunha, again, saved our skin and scored a brilliant goal. He doesn't score often, but when he does it seems to be vital. We play Palermo in the semi-final. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Craig Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Just spent near enough 4 hours reading this Epic thread and it ends HERE?!?! Damn you smurph!! DAMN YOU!!! ETA: Just as I post, you update! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Best. Thread. Ever. Keep up the good work Smurph. What's your new keepers goals conceded compared to your starter last season? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 11, 2012 Author Share Posted June 11, 2012 Keep up the good work Smurph. What's your new keepers goals conceded compared to your starter last season? Buonagura last season played 35 league games, conceded 19 and kept 21 clean sheets. 44, 34 and 22 in all competitions. Mazzon, so far, has played 27 games, conceded 15 and kept 14 clean sheets. 39, 19 and 23 in all comps. He's kept less clean sheets in the league but has certainly made up for it in Europe - albeit against lesser opposition. I'll compare them again at the end of the season again, but I reckon we would have conceded a lot more with Buonagura in goals this season - but I guess there's no way to actually check that. February 2023 Almost perfect bar a disappointing result against AC Milan. Nothing really to elaborate on. It was fairly simple bar that one blip. We're scoring an absolute shitload of goals from corners this season. Top three have broken away a little bit which is good to see. What isn't good to see is that we still have to play both Parma and Inter Milan. Those games will be vital and will definitely determine who wins the Scudetto. Let's hope it's us. However, Champions League spot is what we want to achieve, so winning the league isn't our main priority, especially as I want to win the Europa League this season. I made a bit of a f**k up editing but that's because so much happened. This is the first leg, from Ibrox. Went down to ten men and then played them off the park. They didn't really threaten us and we were excellent. ...and a Maringá brace saw us beat Rangers 4-0 on aggregate. GIRUY. That was us into the 2nd knockout stage. Who did we draw? Oh f**k. That was the worst possible draw IMO. They're doing exceptionally well in Serie A. I know we can beat them, we've beaten them before, and I know we can put in brilliant performances, but I'm a little worried about these upcoming fixtures. The first leg is away in Milan. I don't know whether that's preferable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 March 2023 Perhaps not the most impressive performances but three hard-fought wins, and that's what we're after at this stage. Our midfield, although we have bought new players, is still incredibly thin so to continue to win games despite most players being absolutely shattered is pleasing to see. Good levels of graft from all involved. Pulled away a bit from Parma, and a win in our next game against them I reckon knocks them out of the title race. A two horse race against both us and Inter Milan would ensue - with a game at the Pro Vercelli stadium to come later on at the end of the month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 Oh, yeah. We also had to play them in the Europa League, didn't we? Spoiler time. I know how much you all love spoilers. This'll be a treat. The first leg was in Milan. Both teams, as you know, were doing superbly in Serie A this season, so an away goal in this leg would be an excellent result but we were obviously going to try for the win. That's what we always play for. And the win we got. We were the better side going by the stats and deservedly led in the first leg. The goal coming courtesy of top goalscorer Maringá. We still had a lot to do in the second leg in Vercelli, though. It wasn't going to be easy and we know that Inter Milan were going to give it their all to progress to the Quarter Final. We were ready for them, though. Pro Vercelli kicked off. 21 minutes Ismali runs down the right wing for Inter Milan and gets to the by-line. He lines up a cross to the far post... Chadli is completely unmarked and slots it in to Mazzon's near post. GOAL FOR INTER MILAN And Inter Milan have the breakthrough and equalise the tie! They also get an away goal which now makes Pro Vercelli's redundant. Not a good start for Vercelli but Inter Milan will be delighted with the start! 39 minutes Garcia heads it just outside the box and it finds Chadli, unmarked, again. He jinks inside... Hits a shot and it's another goal for Inter Milan! GOAL FOR INTER MILAN That's Chadli and Inter's second goal of the game. How vital could that be?! Two away goals now and 2-1 up on aggregate. They certainly have the advantage over Pro now. The home side have it all to do in the second half. And so that was it. 2-0 down on the day and 2-1 down on aggregate. We needed two goals to stay in this, to equalise the match, and progress. We couldn't slip up and we needed to start early. We had to get a goal. I told the lads exactly what I wanted and that what they were doing wasn't good enough - they needed to do better. We walked through the tunnel onto the Pro Vercelli Stadium turf facing the proud Vercelli fans and vowed we were going to turn this around. We couldn't fail them. The whistle went and Inter Milan kicked off. 56 minutes Liete collects the ball and tries to pick out the run of Wolfgang Hain. It's Hain v Montenegro... Hain gets to it! And he gets it past the goalkeeper too! GOAL TO PRO VERCELLI! And that's one goal! One goal for Pro Vercelli. That ties it at 2-2 but Inter Milan still have the advantage thanks to the away goal rule. They'll need to pull off something special again if they were to progress to the quarter final. 76 minutes Ritter finds Liete 30 yards from goal. And he hits it first time. Oh.. OH.. OH MY f*cking GOD. WHAT A f*cking GOAL FROM LIETE. GOAL FOR PRO VERCELLI THAT'S LIETE'S FIRST GOAL FOR THE CLUB AND IT COULD DEFINITELY BE HIS MOST IMPORTANT. WHAT A f*cking STRIKE. WHAT. A f*cking. STRIKE. THAT'S 3-2 TO PRO VERCELLI ON AGGREGATE. THEY'RE PROGRESSING IF IT STAYS LIKE THIS. THEY'RE f*cking PROGRESSING! 87 minutes Inter Milan have a late corner. They're going to throw everything at this. Garcia whips it in. It falls to Marilungo... ...who heads it Santos. He just needs to tap it in... GOAL TO INTER MILAN 3-3 on aggregate. Inter Milan are progressing. So late in the game. To say I'm devastated is an understatement. Fair play, Inter... 89 minutes Liete takes a quick free kick and finds Trotta. Trotta heads it down to Hauck... Hauck lines up the shot. GOAL GOAL GOAL GOAL GOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL GOAL FUCKING LACCIO THE INCREDIBLE HAUCK FUCKING DOES IT. 3-3 ON THE DAY. 4-3 ON AGGREGATE. YAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS Surely we can hold on this time? Surely? Please. Please. Please. Of course we can. Absolutely brilliant. Absolutely fucking brilliant. What a come back. Absolutely sensational. When we got it to 2-2 I was delighted but when they scored from that corner that was it. It was over. That was the Europa League dream done. But no. The Incredible Hauck had a different idea. The German superhero unleashes an absolute beast of a strike and it goes in the back of the net to win the tie. Ecstatic. Who awaited the Pro Vercelli train in the quarter final? Who were we going to beat next? We are unstoppable. (There should be a picture of the Schalke 04 badge here, but I've had to delete a few images because there were too many...) Schalke. Ah. That could be easier... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Think you enjoyed that Smurph! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 Think you enjoyed that Smurph! Oh yes. When Leite's screamer went in I went mental and jumped out my chair shouting "YAASSS!" like I would at an actual football game. When Santos scored from that corner I had my head in my hands and was properly devastated (It actually reminded me of a game in Football Manager 2010 with Fiorentina - In my first season I guided them to the Champions League semi-final against AC Milan. I can't remember the schematics of it, but we were progressing until the 88th minute of the second leg when Ambrosini headed in from a corner. We were knocked out at the very last minute essentially) and I had consigned it was going to be the same in this game - but no. Hauck saved the day. When his shot went into the net I think I celebrated more than Leite's goal. Sheer and utter elation. Probably my favourite game with Pro Vercelli so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widge Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 I'd love to see you stream the CL final Smurph, you've got to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 I'd love to see you stream the CL final Smurph, you've got to try. Spoiler! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widge Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Spoiler! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted June 12, 2012 Author Share Posted June 12, 2012 April 2023 This is a tough one to update. There was a lot that went on. Serie A, Coppa Italia and the Europa League. We haven't had a break this month. We need to keep playing weekend, weekday, weekend, weekday, etc. We don't have a lot of depth and it's starting to take its toll. A very good result against Parma. Leite and Hauck, again, scored screamers and we deservedly won a very tough game. Inter lost this weekend. It was looking promising... Three very good wins against Roma, Napoli and Sampdoria followed. Three clean sheets, too. We couldn't put out our strongest squads so we did very well to win these three games. But then it was Inter. And we lost. They went 1-0 up and then we equalised. It was looking good. But then, in the 85th minute, they got a corner. Garcia, whips it across to Santos, who taps it in. GOAL TO INTER MILAN. Does that sound familiar? And that was it. We lost. Massive game but our squad were absolutely shattered afterwards... ...and they took the lead in the table again. We need to win our remaining three games and we need them to lose at least one. I'm not particularly happy with that, but my aim was for a Champions League place, and we've secured one of them, so I can be content with that. We had two other competitions to concentrate on, anyway. The Coppa Italia. The first leg was played this month, with the second leg next, so I can only comment on the one. It was at home and we wanted to get as big an advantage as possible. What a performance. That was quite amazing to be honest. 4-0 up at half time, which meant we could rest some key players in the second half. That happened, we didn't score, but we didn't concede either. Very, very happy with this performance. It means I can rest players in the second leg, but we still need a good performance to progress and we can't slip it up. The Europa League. Both quarter final legs were played this month against Schalke. The first tie was in Germany and we needed a good performance if we wanted to make it easier for ourselves in the second leg in Vercelli. Here we go. Brilliant performance. That was excellent. Pereyra got us off to a good start and then Le Moal got the second which secured the win. Schalke didn't offer much to be honest, and the competition's top scorer Nene didn't seem to threaten us much. We put ourselves in an excellent position to progress to the semi-final. Wow. That was quite simply brilliant. I really couldn't believe that performance. Schalke offered absolutely nothing and we completely dominated. It was definitely the best performance we've had this season and it was completely emphatic. We beat Schalke 7-0 on aggregate, and that was us in the semi-final of the Europa League. I was feeling so incredibly confident. Spartak Moscow. That's not too bad, is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 That's a fucking doing you gave to Schalke! And then to gub Spartak, easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattydfc Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 f**k off, let Smurph tell the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 f**k off, let Smurph tell the story. lol wut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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