Palace Casuals

[talisman]

...or not, as the case may be.

Cup Preliminary Round 1st Leg, home vs FSM1453 FC of Annecy, France, Level 23, AQ -1.0
The excitement of the first competitive game of a new season was quickly tempered by the realisation, early on, that this match was not going to live up to its billing. Palace Casuals started brightly enough, putting pressure on the visitors defence for almost the entire first 20 minutes of the match, but as Catalin Neagu(2) and Andres Ramos both spurned chances and the usually-reliable Omar Hansen missed badly from a free-kick, the atmosphere got a little more subdued. The visitors eventually got back into the game, and the defence was its usual efficient self, and when called-upon, Zoltan Bieder made confident saves and generally gave a performance that belied his final Performance Rating. Just before half-time, De Miguel fired FSM1453 into the lead, but Casuals reacted immediately and Valentin Ndjengue beat Aite-Ouakrim in the visitors goal in identical fashion. After the break, midfielder Michael Muscroft picked up a booking for a foul, and he was substituted soon after by Mike Christie, but not before FSM1453 took the lead again through Prieto. Claude Pinto replaced Ramos late on in an effort to kick-start the attack, but to no avail and the match petered out into a home defeat.



After the game, the Management decided that they really had to do something about the striker situation, and after a couple of failed attempts in the open market, they turned to the Scout and he unearthed a striker who, after a few tokens were scraped up was signed for $107M/49T.



One in, one out (at the moment) - Claude Pinto's 13 minute cameo was his last in a Casuals shirt as he was offered to the market, and after a lengthy bidding war, departed to Remax Team for $114M. Pinto had been with Palace Casuals for nearly 4 seasons and had 104 appearances, scored 60 goals with 31 assists.