Tough day for the Rangers. I'd been rolling over my league opponents with three straight three-nil results, leading the tables in Champions league with 6-0 and 7-0 results, and after three Cup matches, my brother's team was the only one to score against me all season (but his two home goals were far too little as i dispatched him 3-0, 4-2).
Today I had an early league match against my nemesis from last season - Tarek FC. They'd actually led most of the season before I overtook him and then pulled away in the final week and they'd settled for number two. With the second leg of Cup qualifying (up 2-0 in the away leg) in the afternoon, i started my reserves in the league game.

He plays an unbalanced 4-4-2 diamond with a MC close in on the left and a MR wide on the right and his strikers finished 1-2 in goals scored last season. Still, i had him outmatched and was (over)confident with my success. I played a 3-5-2V variation with the right winger pulled back and the strikers stacked. After 5 games in 26 hours, my players were a bit jetlagged, but still 90-95%, but they came out flat, shots that should have scored, didn't and Tarek's swift counterattacks had us backpedaling again and again. i switched to short passing and shifted a player into the middle hoping to improve possession and things seemed to be swinging our way when their striker scored off a corner in the 27th minute. I sent in one of my heavy hitters, sending ST Eden Edri (34.4) in for Pasukmueng (30.5). Their DMC went down with an injury and they played a man down for 7 minutes, but at halftime we still trailed by a goal. The second half we fared no better, and with 15 to go I subbed in two of my stars, AML Valentin Zelazhko and DM Huynh Thanh Long Giang. To no avail, as they scored a counterattack goal in the 89th minute and we left our home pitch stunned by the 2-0 loss.

In the Cup match we faced ubrekaleg ufall for the third time in as many days ( Cup, league, Cup). With all the starters in, we dominated the match statistically but still only held a 2-0 (4-0) lead going into the final minutes before giving up a closing goal and the clean sheet.

Overall a disappointing day, but we still lead the league, and advance to the playoff round of the Cup where we'll face our first major challenge in SV Eckerncamp (35.7 with a 3-1-3-1-2 -vs- our 31.6)

Tomorrow we have a league game against another nemesis from last season that simply collapsed and barely advanced. They're playing a most unusual 0-0-2-5-3 formation so we expect utter domination and at least a hat trick from Edrin. In the afternoon we face our most talented competitor in our champions league group playing what I'd describe as a '3' formation (it looks like the number 3) an unbalanced 3-1-3-1-2. Unusual, but really just a 4-4-2 with the right side pushed forward. With 3 hours between matches, i expect everyone to be well rested and the team to get back on track tomorrow while i develop the plan and lineup for that looming cup match on Sunday.