Rangers Report
League Match 22 at USS Sermaize, Porto, France
With the league title secured, we've focused entirely on Champions League. We went deep to our bench, trying to keep as many of our key players rested as possible. 3-1-4-1-1 easy tackling, normal, normal, normal, mixed passing against 4-5-1. Sermaize is fighting to avoid relegation and played a hard tackling, aggressive game, drawing 4 yellows for the match. Kupalang suffered a minor injury. The match ended in a nil-nil draw and we took most of the day off to rest and prepare for the second leg of the CL semi final. Vargas was MOM with two saves. MC Christie was carded.
League Match 23, Ranger Park, vs Nut FC, Bangkok, Portugal
Nut FC is an affiliate club (friends) and one of three teams fighting for second place. Again, we used easy tactics, and opened testing the legality of a formation (3-5-1-0-1, illegal). Nut FC came out with a hard attacking 5-3-1 and struck fast, DR(!) Ryan slammed a goal home two minutes into the match on the free kick after MC Christie was carded (he seems to have missed the memo about easy tackling). We switched back to a conventional formation, but maintained an easy pace. Our young striker Sasa Lucik, getting his first playing time as a Ranger, put the finish on a sweet layoff from Kupalang to equalise it at 36'. the second half played out quietly and we relaxed a bit as the match wound down, but Nut desperately wanted a win and came on strong to score the go ahead goal in the final seconds and take a 2-1 victory and three needed points, pulling them withn 5 of second place.
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Champions League Semi-Final, 2nd Leg, Ranger Park, vs CF Real Madrid, Beius, Romania
Having won 2-0 in Beius in the first leg, we felt confident in advancing. Nevertheless, we were determined to take control of this match. With our best players, well-rested and in high morale, on the pitch, we played a 3-5-2V, defensive/counter, mixed passing, normal tackling against a conventional 4-4-2. The first half was .. a disappointment.
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Complete domination yielded nothing! Maybe the boys were just too amped up, sending those shots into the upper deck instead of anywhere near the goal. Feeling frustrated, we slid
SEO over to AMC and replaced MC Aceituno with AMR George and went to an attacking mentality. It apparently paid off, pulling some defensive bodies off Edri and Berizin who, in a beautiful piece of teamwork, sliced and diced through the defense and with 2 against 1 Edri calmly laid it off to Berezin for the wide open shot as the helpless keeper, with nothing but bad choices, went left to stop Edri. That was the only score of the game.
We're excited about advancing to our first Champions League Final. But we're very worried about the lack of goals. We will, indeed, be facing the Thai team, who have grown stronger and stronger over the season, and actually outrate us now on average.
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We may have a slight advantage with our starters, but it's still quite evenly matched:
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This is going to be nerve-racking. A week ago I was confident in the win, but now it seems a toss-up. Heck, I don't even know the format of the final .. is it 1 game? I assume? Who get's home advantage?
With defensive/counter slumping, I don't know what tactics to use. He plays a variety of formations, always with 4 defenders, and usually with 3 MCs and 2 strikers, with an AM in varying positions depending on the opponent. I'll be sweating this one.
Originally Posted by July Fourth
and two trophies on your hands ... good luck and I hope to win CL trophy because also I have an appointment with another scouter team but not like the previous one ... and I hope I find no difficulty in winning against him.
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