We're now 3/4 of the way through the current season, so I think it's time for another update on a few things

Starting with the negatives, we're now sadly out of the Champions League We lost the home leg 4-2, and although we did win the away leg 2-1, it wasn't enough to progress. This will however let us focus all of our energy on the league, where our form has dipped a little :/

Having said that, these past 4 games have been great, as we've scored 25 goals and conceded just 1; but before that we went through a stage where we drew 3/4 games, two of which we really should have won! We are technically top of the table at the moment, but we're level on points with the team in second & he has a game in hand. But we can still proudly say that in our entire career, we are unbeaten in the league, a feat which has almost stretched over 2 seasons!


About a week ago we made our final transfer of the season, bringing in this guy on a free transfer, and he's not half bad! Sadly due to him being rather injury-prone, he's only played 3 matches, but he's doing quite well:
Click image for larger version.  Name: Transfer 5.jpg  Views: 85  Size: 48.3 KB  ID: 39189
(I've no idea why that image shows that he has the one-on-one stopper trait - he doesn't have it, he's a RM!
He was very useful when we were competing in both the league and Champions League as a rotation player, and with our squad size now being 14, it meant that we almost never had to play someone who was tired & risk more injuries
However now that we are only looking at the league, I can't see him getting much game time in the near future unless our other RM gets injured or too tired.


Also, news about the clubs rival! I did mention this briefly in the last update, but here's the full story:

The team name is GBFC (It's not, but that's an abbreviation). At the beginning of the season we were put into the same league and Champions League group, and we were friends on the game (I've got no idea who this fella is in real life). My team is better than his on average quality by about 4 points - right now my average quality is 23.3, his is 19.2

He invites me to a friendly on the first day of the season, and I win 2-1. A few days later he invites me to another one and I win 1-0.
I should note, that I was never present for these friendlies and never knew they were happening, so I didn't adjust my team before hand or anything.

But here's where it starts to get interesting. In the Champions League after 2 games had been played, I'd lost & drew, he'd drew & won. We hadn't played each other yet. But we were set to play a CL game against each other on Saturday the 14th and Monday the 16th; along with our first league match being on Tuesday the 17th. So that's 3 important games within 4 days - since he's one of the better players in the league and currently in 3rd.

So before the first of these important matches, on the Friday he invites me to another friendly. I won 1-0 again. Later again on Friday, there's another friendly. I won in extra time, with the winning goal coming in the 113rd minute! Saturday then rolls around for our first CL group match, and he's at home. I beat him 3-0. Obviously he wasn't happy about this; scheduling 4 friendlies and slowly getting better in each of them, to then be humbled in the one that counts. On Sunday he scheduled another friendly, but this time he won! 2-0! Maybe he has truly worked out a tactic to beat me now? You'd think right?

Monday morning and the CL is hosted at my ground, where I won 2-1. Even after beating me in a friendly, it still counted for nothing when it matters. So later on Monday he schedules another friendly, where he wins 4-0! This guy is really going for it, and that's an impressive scoreline to say the least! The following day was the last match that we played, and it was a league game at my place. If I won this as well, then all his work would have been for nothing - all those friendlies trying to work out how best to beat me all for nothing. Well, it wasn't completely for nothing, since it finished 1-1. He at least got a draw. But even so, I can see that he's now mad because he started supporting the opposition team to whoever I played for a few days, before he got bored of doing it.

I haven't played him since, nor has he been a spectator at any of my games, either for or against me. But this Monday is our second league match at his place. There haven't been any friendlies since, and my team has changed a fair bit since we previously played, so I'm not sure the same tactics will work, but we'll see.

Here's a re-cap of our matches over that insane period though:

Sunday the 8th: Friendly; GBFC 1-2 AJ's Fails
Wednesday the 11th: Friendly; GBFC 0-1 AJ's Fails
Friday the 13th: Friendly; GBFC 0-1 AJ's Fails
Friday the 13th: Friendly; GBFC 2-3 AJ's Fails - won in extra time
Saturday the 14th: Champions League; GBFC 0-3 AJ's Fails
Sunday the 15th: Friendly; GBFC 2-0 AJ's Fails
Monday the 16th: Champions League; AJ's Fails 2-1 GBFC
Monday the 16th: Friendly; GBFC 4-0 AJ's Fails
Tuesday the 17th: League match; AJ's Fails 1-1 GBFC

Friendlies: 6
GBFC - 2, Draw - 1, AJ's Fails - 3 (I'm counting the extra time one as a draw, after 90 minutes it was 2-2)
Champions League: 2
GBFC - 0, Draw - 0, AJ's Fails - 2
League: 1
GBFC - 0, Draw - 1, AJ's Fails - 0

9 games in 10 days; and at one point 7 games in 5 days, all so he can get 1/9 points against me; after which he starts supporting whoever I play against. Our match on Monday should be interesting!