Conquering Europe

[oneteaminglasgow]

FC Nitra - Meet the Team

4 stars is "good player for most Super League sides", 3 is "currently operating at Super League level"

A promising start to the squad. Jurcisin has spent the vast majority of his career in the Slovakian top flight, and has shown himself to be fine at this level. That'll do for now.

Again, that's no bad. Definitely could do with some improvement but I'd like to think it's all good enough to begin with.

First area I really need immediate improvement, IMO. 

Could do with a right back, and some decent cover at centre half here.

And neither of them are really good enough.

So aye, some work needing done but overall it's not a disaster.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Transfers 2087

That's the outgoing players - no losses there.

And that's my incoming players.

I thought that the biggest issue in my squad was the goalkeeper, and to that end I've brought in Marko Gasparik. His distribution is pretty poor, but he's a solid keeper and certainly an upgrade on what I had before. 

Spoiler

Dalibor Gierti is a left back, who can also do a passable job covering at centre half. He's technically limited, but he reads the game well and a very fit player. Should do ok for this season, but I'll probably need another upgrade in future seasons.

Spoiler

Besmir Emini is a right back, and he's defensively solid. But he doesn't offer much going forward. Actually, he's a lot like Gierti, but slightly better technically.

Spoiler

Patrik Baran is a central midfielder, and he's good on the ball. Good touch, skillful and a good passer of the ball. Also works hard, good vision and has a lot of decent attributes. He's not very good defensively though, so I will need someone to do that beside him.

Spoiler

Gordon McCord joins from East Fife, and he's what I'd consider the quintessential Scottish lower league defender. Absolutely nothing fancy, but he's good in the air and defensively solid. A little bit of pace, and a strong guy too. Very pleased.

Spoiler

Marko Markovic is the central midfielder I need beside Baran. He's good at winning the ball back, but also relatively decent on the ball. Should be a decent acquisition.

Spoiler

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

July 2087

Disappointing to lose my first game in charge, but we bounced back well in the next one. I'll take that start as the newly promoted team.

And here's the early table.

Edited March 18, 2022 by oneteaminglasgow

[oneteaminglasgow]

August 2087

I'll take that for sure. A couple of good wins to start the month off, and then decent points against Streda and Slovan, who are the sides who've won the past 15 titles between them so that's pleasing.

I would take this at the end of the season to be honest. A good start. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

September 2087

Another good month - it's going very surprisingly well so far. I'm not entirely sure what it is that we're doing that's led to this, but long may it continue.

And after ten games, we're sitting one point off the top.

In terms of league structure, it looks like they play home and away once, then split in half and have another round home and away for 32 games in total. Top two and the cup winner get European place automatically, and then there's also a playoff for the other European spot. Bottom goes down with second bottom into a playoff.

[oneteaminglasgow]

October 2087

Everything is just going right for us at the minute. Jurcisin has hit some wonderful form with five league goals this month - which is more than he's managed in seven of his previous ten seasons at this level. We also got a good bit of luck against Pohronie, where we were 1-0 down and playing with 10 men for the entire second half. They missed a penalty, and then we got two and scored them. Lovely stuff.

And we've won some games by more than a single goal for the first time this season. 

I'm waiting for the bubble to burst, but it doesn't seem to be happening yet.

And we've gone to the top of the league.

I won't lie - I think we'd be an absolutely fucking grim team to sit and watch every week. We've only scored 18 goals, five of which have been penalties and another five have been from set pieces. But we seem to be very, very effective at winning football matches, and if shitfesting is how I'll do well then all for it.

[oneteaminglasgow]

November 2087

The winning streak has come to a stop at 11 in all competitions, but the unbeaten run is still going strong at 19. Could have done with beating Streda, who are one of the main challengers I have in the league but a draw isn't too bad a result all in.

Into the cup quarter final as well, so that's good. 

We remain top, and have managed to stretch our lead out a little. It was looking even nicer at the top until those two draws at the end of the month.

Just one game next month - at home to Slovan Bratislava - and then that's us until February for the winter break.

[oneteaminglasgow]

December 2087

In a surprising turn of events, it's a shite game where we win by a single goal. Who could have seen that coming?

A genuinely huge win for us though, our first over either of the other title challengers this season.

So we go into the winter break with a six point lead and 14 games to go when we come back.

[oneteaminglasgow]

February 2088

A second loss of the season to start our return from winter break, but we got back on track with a win against Trnava.

We really, really should have beaten Zlate Moravce as well, but couldn't quite get the goal we needed. We ended up with 10 men and had a goal disallowed, but it wasn't quite enough. Oh well, hopefully we won't end up regretting it.

Still six points ahead though.

One more game pre-split. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

March 2088

Three wins from three in the league, and we're still hanging in there with the second leg of the semi final to go. I would think that the winner of our semi final is likely to be the heavy favourites in the final with the other semi containing Ruzomberok and a lower league side.

Eight games to go, and we're still top by six. Looks very much like it's a straight shootout between us and Dunajska Streda.

We have two games against them left, starting next month.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Game 25 - April 2088

Spoiler

An absolute screamer from Markovic settled it in a huge win for us. It was another game with very few chances. They had the vast majority of the ball, but didn't do much with it - more than happy with that.

Nine points ahead - we should be winning the league from here.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Slovakian Cup Semi Final - April 2088

Spoiler

Didn't do enough to overturn the first leg.. A real shame, and we won't be playing in the final, but that's ok.

If I'm honest, they were closer to adding to the lead than we were to overturning it so I can't have any complaints.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Game 26 - April 2088

Spoiler

Our worst performance of the season and we fully deserved to lose. Just didn't turn up at all.

Thankfully Dunajska didn't take advantage of it, as they seem to be absolutely determined to hand us the title. Very generous of them.

Lead is down to a measly eight points.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Game 27 - April 2088

Spoiler

On the worrying side, that's the third game in a row where we've failed to score, but Zilina getting their 92nd minute winner over Dunajska sort of makes that redundant for the time being. 

Everything is just falling into place for us.

Back to nine points with five games to go.

A matter of time, I'd like to think.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Game 28 - April 2088

Spoiler

Slovan Bratislava - a great bunch of lads.

We finally played well and got a few goals, which is lovely, but the main takeaway is that Dunajska continue their fine form with one point in four games. 

Four games to go, and we're 12 points ahead. 

It would take a fucking ridiculous bottle job for us to not win the title. If we don't win the league now, I'll probably have to pack this whole thing in.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Game 29 - May 2088

Spoiler

It looks like I'll be able to continue with the save then. Zilina getting a completely needless red card helped us out a fair bit, and a couple of very nice goals saw us to the title comfortably.

Delightful.

Very lucky to have inherited the basis of a team who could do this, and it's the quickest title for me since Malta in 2047.

A few more games and I'll be away.

 

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Check this page for the first time in a week 

"Wonder if he'll get closer to the top in Northern Ireland"
 

Instead ye just bitch slap Slovakia or wherever the hell ye've ended up.

[oneteaminglasgow]

May 2088

Whole team was on holiday and we still fucking beat Dunajska. Sensational.

So the final table in my only season in Slovakia ends up like this.

Got incredibly lucky here - first of all in getting a side that had the basis of a team who could win it immediately. Secondly, both Slovan and Dunajska had pretty shite seasons. And lastly, my only real challenger for the title hit out with this run of form in the split.

They only lost six times all season, and three of them came in the space of a month.

Anyway, I'm now done with Slovakia and next up is Kazakhstan.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Nah, you're alright lads. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Following on from my whirlwind tour of Slovakia, I'm going to Belarus next with FC Energetik-BGU Minsk.

Obviously, they play in Minsk, and are probably the third largest club in the city behind Dinamo Minsk and FC Minsk - although everything I can find suggests that Dinamo Minsk are by far and away the biggest of the capital's clubs. Minsk itself looks nice, although the political situation in Belarus seems not great - I know that's massively euphemistic, but oh well. BGU is the acronym for the Belarussian State University, so as far as I can tell they're the University team.

Anyway, they've got a handful of lower league titles, no cup wins and tend to drift around in the lower half of the top flight these days - their best ever efforts were a couple of fifth placed finishes. Unlike reality where BATE Borisov are the dominant side in Belarus, the big team at the minute seems to be Shakhter Soligorsk (who've actually won the last two real life championships as well), but there's a bit of a variety as there's been four different champions in the past 10 years, incluidng reigning champions Isloch who stole my bit by coming from nowhere to win their first ever title.

As things stand, the table looks like this...

Half way through the season, and it's looking like another year of midtable mediocrity - I will take that and then we can look to build properly next season. We're still in the cup though, so that's something.