Posted March 29, 2014 Cheers dawg, it's been fun conducting them! Yeah defo, that'll be awesome I've exhausted all my options unfortunately, having brought 7 or 8 people to the league already. Could try Mikal again but he's never liked the idea in the past when I've tried to sell it to him. Get Mikal in it baby Mikal vs Milagi! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 30, 2014 Haha... "Mister Tee has dreamed of going on a helicopter ride since he was a young boy. He attends a charity fundraiser and is excited to see a raffle offering a helicopter ride as a prize, and buys 10 tickets. Hundreds of tickets are sold, so when his ticket is chosen as the winner, he can't believe his good fortune! The ride is the thrill of his life and he is the envy of all his teammates. As a result, his form improves." Isn't it ironic...don'tcha think? :p Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 30, 2014 (edited) A review of the group stages - Mushroom and Special leagues Flower League As a result of the strong performance of 5th placed Atletico Aqui1la, the points tally for flower league’s top four was lower than in any other league. It took a long time for the running order to be decided, whilst the qualification spots went right down to the wire. Anything less than a spot in the final will be unacceptable. 1- Intergalactico Stars - Inter aim for the stars with perfect finish In an early report I asked ‘ Why are inter not cleaning up?’. Since then they have taken 27 points out of a possible 27 and conceded two goals. Papadopoulos has been the star performer of a team with considerable depth. Not once in the past five games has a team had more than three chances on goal. Monday’s win against Elites threw up some daunting stats - 14/15/15 ratings. After two frankly disappointing Elite league campaigns this is a team with a point to prove. With form averaging 16 Coloccini will need a gargantuan performance to scrape through. 2 - AC Elites pipped by Inter to marr otherwise Elite season If their opening game of this season was one of caution and evenly matched tactics, Monday’s game saw Inter try out a packed midfield where Elites have stuck to their guns. Gary Lineker tweeted during the match that ‘Ell’s Dinosaur tactics and his stone age 442 will be the death of Elites’. Inter ran away with the match - though to score three was perhaps lucky. An away win here would have taken Elites top of the table going into the knockouts to secure an easier path to the quarters. In the past two games AC have created only two chances - a poor end to an otherwise impressive knockout campaign. Zell and Bodin have formed a brilliant partnership up top - the latter will want to take this team as far as he can - at 33 he will want to get his hands on silverware - if he can keep up his form, 12 goals from 9 games, he will be a danger to the strongest of defences. The manager will be unhappy with a trickier draw than he would like - beating Federer is no easy feat, as too many gram slam hopefuls have found over the years. 3 - Leeds MOT - Final day big winners as Woodlands is MOT MotM Mushroom League’s big winners on the final day of the season, winning a tight game by the majestic Pispek’s penalty, one of only two chances for the team. The ‘twighlight trio’ of Jarvie, Howson, and Pispek have carried the team this season, all players for whom this might be a final shot at glory. Goals have been no problem, a tally of 31 being only one less than Inter’s 32. Their defence, however, is bafflingly bad for a team with such quality - this has been pounced upon by superior teams in Inter and AC - one would not place much faith on further progression in the knockouts, and fans will no doubt make noise at the board for failing to invest in such an important and obviously lacking area of the pitch. Silverdale are fallable, but a win here looks unlikely. 4 - Kippen - No Kip for Kippen in final push Kippen have done well to achieve qualification with a relatively mediocre set of players. However their promotion should not be taken lightly, as two wins over AC Elites and an away draw away at Inter show that this manager is capable of surprises. Against strong teams the preferred formation is a cautious 4-5-1, with MacEllar the target man up front - he will need to continue his strong season if Kippen are to progress any further. The reward for such an impressive few weeks is a tough game against Yellow Sub - Charlie will need to pull out another tactical masterclass to progress here. 5 - Atletico Aqui1la After a strong start, Aquil1a fell away right when it mattered. Ultimately it was the head to heads with Leeds that cost them a qualification place - unlucky not to secure a point from the thrilling final day cclash with Leeds MOT. One would hope that this has been a good season for DVs - Rafalski, Kuchta and den Turk represent a strong future for this ever improving team, for whom the cup has come perhaps a season or two too early.* *Since the time of writing it has become apparent that the manager has packed in the game. The fans will be hugely disapointed given the quality of youth coming through. Special League Eights wasted no time powering through to the top of the league, as it quickly became apparent that they would not be topped. The battle for second raged throughout the season with Familia and Rossers providing bumps along the road, but Winston scraped through on top. Whilst for a long time Familia looked nailed on for fourth they faced a last minute scare from Rosser's Rovers, who ultimately were let down by a poor first few games. 1 - Eights - Eights top the seven without a hitch The series’s evil overlords have had another unmatched, even indominatable campaign this season. They have scored 41 and won all but one game, only proving remotely fallable with an away draw at Winston. These results have reportedly produced some fine DVs, meaning the knockouts will be free for the first eleven to run rampant. The team continues to leak goals, but through sheer power they have as of yet to never fail to register on the scoreboard. Granas has so far been the player of the tournament, a midfielder with an astonishing 22 G&A’s - his presence alongside Emil Beck means tightly marking one will leave the other too much space to roam and run the game. There is little depth here, but Eights goes into the knockouts with a fresh team of players, Seljevord aside. Tales will be rightly expecting to add to the trophy room - but over one leg anything can happen. Will be happy their knockout campaign has lead to an easy draw at Familia. 2 - Winston - Lions begin to roar at the end of the season Leaving aside a narrow away defeat to Eights, Winston have enjoyed a strong back half of the season, narrowly knocking out Rossers to steer the team to second place. In a draw away to Eights and a win against Haden they have done about all that could be expected of them recently. Ingham and Goodison upfront are a daunting prospect for any back line. There has been a good spread of goals across the squad - and even in points dropped the team has performed admirably. However much like the manager’s beloved Spurs, one would feel that the players in the squad remain a level below those of Eights or Inter, and are not quite yet ready to make it to the summit. The forthcoming match against Lylats, who had played in the league above them in the past two seasons, is a tougher proposition than the manager would have liked. 3 - Haden - Solid foundations as rangers show range Like Winston one would feel that this team is one of talent and under the command of a versatile manager, but whose players are right now a level below that required to finish top. More worringly for the manager Mullholand’s suspension and Mossley’s injury mean that there is a midield crisis for the Tuesday game. Mallett has hammered in over half of the squad’s goals and this season, but star talent Condon will need to step up a gear - the twentyfive year old has failed to hit top form, with only three assists to his name so far in the compeition. The team have averaged only a goal a game so far in the competition, but with Palmer and Zabel lending stability and experience at the back they are capable of tight wins against superior clubs. The match against Dragoo if perhaps the pick of the bunch on Tuesday. 4 - Familia The mid-season double header against Rosser’s Rovers effectively secured the 4th spot - necessary given the final fun of games - an expected series of three loses against Haden, Winston and then Eights. The manager can thanks Tommy Gibbs, an intelligent old hand who solidifies and organises the back line, making the xpert 7 times this season. If Roy Hodgson hasn’t already booked his seat to Brazil in the summer then the conspiracies about players from lower clubs failing to make it into international manager’s thoughts will be proved true. Familia are the only team to qualify for the knockouts with negative goal difference - they will need a miracle to overcome Eights - though the two games they have played this season have been tight, encouraging for manager Chris. 5 - Rosser’s Rovers - New boy on the block threatens Familia scenes A team that started the season under everybody’s radar, Rossers announced themselves as a future top team with an emphatic 3-1 victory over Haden which shocked fans all over, and the highlight of an impressive debut season for Oleg Fedosov. The manager will point to the early dropped points against Lords of Hydra as the explanation for this early knockout. There is talent in the squad and talent at the helm - the surprise package of Special league, who have been a facourite amongst neutrals and pundits alike. --- --- Whew! Wrote most of that before the knockouts were announced (and before Haden's post hence just doing mushroom and Special - my apologies to the other two leagues! @Peeps - haven't played you for ages, but our head to head record is pretty similar - I think you've won a couple more so it could go either way for sure. Poor effort by Aquil1a. Toys well and truely thrown out of the pram. And I'd just learnt to spell his team name right! Some great games on the cards already. Haden Dragoo is my pick - sure to be a great match (or a nil-nil draw knowing Haden) kind of wish I'd have gotten 3rd @Haden, would have liked to finish off Dragoo myself! Edited March 30, 2014 by dan-likes-trees Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 30, 2014 Nope, you still got his name wrong. Twice :p Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 31, 2014 Fantastic write up dansliketrees Do you want to split the match reports up? If you do let me know four you would like to do. I am nervous about my game on a bit of a bad run of form at the moment not sure how to play this game it really is two well matched teams on a neutral ground which makes it hard to plan for in a way. After watching my game I can't wait to watch all of the other 7 games shame xpert doesn't have a very basic graphic for when a highlight is shown. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 31, 2014 Fantastic write up dansliketrees Do you want to split the match reports up? If you do let me know four you would like to do. I am nervous about my game on a bit of a bad run of form at the moment not sure how to play this game it really is two well matched teams on a neutral ground which makes it hard to plan for in a way. After watching my game I can't wait to watch all of the other 7 games shame xpert doesn't have a very basic graphic for when a highlight is shown. Yeah sounds good. Or we could do it so one of us does writeups the other does previews of the coming games? I wouldn't mind doing previews for the friday games if you we went for that option. Or if the former - you can pick the four you fancy writing up and I'll do the rest Psyched for tomorrow. Peepsy looks stronger than I thought for their group. Winston will be ready. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 1, 2014 Hmm, when do the first round Europa League matches happen? I challenged Fedex but no reply yet... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 1, 2014 (edited) This will most likely be my last match, as I don't expect to win. We're hoping to go out with a bang, so we're giving everything we've got. Just want to say that it's been a pleasure. If I do suddenly re-gain an interest in this or something exciting happens that makes me want to play, I'll be back on this. But, for one last time... DRAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! *claps* WE LOVE YOU DRAGOOOO, WE DO WE LOVE YOU DRAGOOOO, WE DO. WE LOVE YOU, DRRAGOOO, WE DO! OH! DRAGOOOOO, WE LOVE YOU! *claps* (to the tune of the mama mia let me go in Bohemian Rhapsody) GRACIANO GRACIANO GRACIANO VELLY-OH DAAN WIEEEELINK's PUT THE BALL ON A PLATE FOR YOOOOU FOR YOOOOU FOR YOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU. *claps* (to the tune of NO LIMITS) GREGOR GREGOR GREGOR GREGOR GREGOR GREGOR GREGOR FORSYTH SAVO SAVO SAVO SAVO SAVO SAVO SAVO SIMIC NORRIS NORRIS NORRIS NORRIS NORRIS NORRIS NORRIS RYDING Edited April 1, 2014 by Fierce_LiNk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 1, 2014 A valiant effort from my boys. Anyone want a friendly on Friday? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 1, 2014 (edited) This will most likely be my last match, as I don't expect to win. We're hoping to go out with a bang, so we're giving everything we've got. Just want to say that it's been a pleasure. If I do suddenly re-gain an interest in this or something exciting happens that makes me want to play, I'll be back on this. But, for one last time... DRAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! *claps* WE LOVE YOU DRAGOOOO, WE DO WE LOVE YOU DRAGOOOO, WE DO. WE LOVE YOU, DRRAGOOO, WE DO! OH! DRAGOOOOO, WE LOVE YOU! *claps* (to the tune of the mama mia let me go in Bohemian Rhapsody) GRACIANO GRACIANO GRACIANO VELLY-OH DAAN WIEEEELINK's PUT THE BALL ON A PLATE FOR YOOOOU FOR YOOOOU FOR YOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU. *claps* (to the tune of NO LIMITS) GREGOR GREGOR GREGOR GREGOR GREGOR GREGOR GREGOR FORSYTH SAVO SAVO SAVO SAVO SAVO SAVO SAVO SIMIC NORRIS NORRIS NORRIS NORRIS NORRIS NORRIS NORRIS RYDING In the next round I want to avoid, Eights, Yellow, Inter, Silverdale, DuD or AC Elites as these are all teams that will be able to beat me on a neutral ground. Edited April 1, 2014 by Haden Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 1, 2014 Heroic goal by Elroy. Like Becks he'd had about 4 free kicks through the game that he'd duffed up and finally nailed one in at the end of the game. Sure to be an even tougher game on friday and I've got some war wounds so I think this might be my last. In the next round I want to avoid, Eights, Yellow, Inter, Silverdale, DuD or AC Elites as these are all teams that will be able to beat me on a neutral ground. Leaves only one team bro. And may I remind you of the result Rangers played them? Horrific last Eight for us udnerdogs though. Was hoping for an upset or two. How epic was Famila's effort??? Reports: Lets split the match reports 4 - 4 yeah? I've got the day off so might do mine this afternoon - you pick the four you'd like to do. (Unless youve already started them all) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 1, 2014 (edited) Heroic goal by Elroy. Like Becks he'd had about 4 free kicks through the game that he'd duffed up and finally nailed one in at the end of the game. Sure to be an even tougher game on friday and I've got some war wounds so I think this might be my last. Leaves only one team bro. And may I remind you of the result Rangers played them? Horrific last Eight for us udnerdogs though. Was hoping for an upset or two. How epic was Famila's effort??? Reports: Lets split the match reports 4 - 4 yeah? I've got the day off so might do mine this afternoon - you pick the four you'd like to do. (Unless youve already started them all) I won't get a chance to do mine till tomorrow or Thursday so I will leave it to you Only request could you do mine? I dislike reporting on my own matches. Such a shame Eights won that shootout that would have been hilarious as it goes no real shocks in the 1st round. It will be interesting to see if the Elite Four of Inter, Eights, Yellow and Silver get separated or not. I think I can have a go at any team but chances of going through are now very slim my tactics were perfect in almost every area today and I will need a similar result next time still at least Mulholland is back which increases my tactical options dramatically. Peeps are the spots ready for the new guys? Edited April 1, 2014 by Haden Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 1, 2014 And I'll be going out against Winston Gardens :p @dazzybee @Agent Gibbs I've taken out two teams that have quit (cube and Aqui1a) thinking it might allow me to accept your applications but it's only going to let me do it if you take over those teams. So we will definitely have to wait until the season ends (13th april) before I accept your applications so you can both have brand new teams Cheers. Is there anything I can do in the mean time to get accustomed to it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 1, 2014 Yeah i could do with some pointers else i'll be relegated quicker than you can say Fulham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 1, 2014 Read the result on my phone today. Because the screen is so small the first thing I read was "Familia 5-" I was about to keel over and die. "Eights United in the middle league.." Not surprised it was so close though, Familia was definitively the most difficult 4th place team I could meet. As for next match. Haden please. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 1, 2014 @Nikos9 - Dont forget about me on your inter-views! My season will be over before I get the chance! Peepsy - dont forget about that Clownferret chap - saw him post in another thread about Champ Manager so I'm sure he'll fit right in. I won't get a chance to do mine till tomorrow or Thursday so I will leave it to you Only request could you do mine? I dislike reporting on my own matches. Such a shame Eights won that shootout that would have been hilarious as it goes no real shocks in the 1st round. Not quite finished mine after all so mine wont be up till thursday, but ive got the Kippen, Colo, Russian Rev and Haden / dragoo games as my four if thats cool - left you a couple of good'uns. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 1, 2014 if anyone wants a friendly on Friday feel free to send me a challenge! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 1, 2014 (edited) Cheers. Is there anything I can do in the mean time to get accustomed to it? Yeah i could do with some pointers else i'll be relegated quicker than you can say Fulham @Clownferret are you still interested in joining? You'd be one of three new managers so you won't be on your own The current season ends on the 13th and that's when you can all get new teams. We'll delay the start of the next season by a week or so for you to get your squads together. If you don't mind trying to manage more than one team, you could all join an official league. If you go to http://www.xperteleven.com and in the menu bar look at The Game and find 'Xpert Leagues' you should see "League of Champs" is currently out of season (not sure when matches start) so you could create a new team in that league or take over an existing team. That will at least allow you to get used to things. You can have an official team alongside 3 private league teams. This link takes you to the Xpert Rules which covers basics of how Xpert works. You want to be looking at the league, team and player tabs. Alternatively I'll post up a shitty video of the basic layout and stuff that I'll make :p Edited April 1, 2014 by The Peeps Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 2, 2014 if anyone wants a friendly on Friday feel free to send me a challenge! Fire over a challenge to Kippen FC. Don't know what your team name is! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 2, 2014 Looking forward to playing inter Nikos is my tip for this tourney on current form so I am just trying to avoid a humiliation lol. Milagi once I go out be good to add to our series of games send me over a challenge. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 2, 2014 Can't say I have good memories from playing against AC Elites :p Pretty strong team too, there's at least three other teams in the QFs I rather meet. Still, I believe it's mine to lose and I don't intend to do that again. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 2, 2014 @bob did you send a challenge to fedex in the end? Only one match got played of the friendly cup, AFC Dedede 7-0 The Sixty-Fourthers. Rovers forgot so Recall go through, Lords of Hydra had a bye anyway so it's only bob vs fedex where we need to decide who goes through. If the participants still want to go ahead with it, I'll do a draw tonight... otherwise I guess no one was interested enough :p I did ask before but no one answered but how long are people comfortable with delaying the next season for? It's not fair on the new teams to start straight away but I think 2 weeks is enough time for them to make any transfers and sort out their squad. I'd like to hear people's thoughts as I know some of you don't like a long off-season. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 2, 2014 Fire over a challenge to Kippen FC. Don't know what your team name is! Challenge sent Coloccini FC is my team Looking forward to playing inter Nikos is my tip for this tourney on current form so I am just trying to avoid a humiliation lol. Milagi once I go out be good to add to our series of games send me over a challenge. You never know! Just don't let him boss you in the final 10 mins of the game like he did with me! haha Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 2, 2014 Ok the draw for round 2 of the friendly cup has been done. The fixtures are: Lords of Hydra vs AFC Dedede Recall United vs bob @Esequiel and @Jimbob need to send their challenges by 9pm Thursday. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
