Season 78 - Are you ready?

[talisman]

Day 17 - Palace teams Champions League report.

Palace Casuals bowed out of their Level 31 Champions League with an away 0-3 defeat in the 2nd Leg, going out 2-3 on aggregate to a Level 31 team with comparable Starting XI Quality. Playing defensive/counter 4-5-1V against 4-1-3N-2 (the Palace teams' bogie formation), the home side scored with monotonous regularity, and suffered a double yellow dismissal in the last 5 minutes, but the Casuals team was strangely subdued, putting up little fight and meekly accepting their fate.



Palace Terriers had the same formation puzzle in their home 2nd Leg 'Top-16' Round match, and followed the senior team's example in using 4-5-1V instead of the recognised counter of 4-3N-2W(AM)-1. The two goals they forced in at the end of the 1st Leg proved critical, as after going 2 goals up through Niklas Schlaudraff and Esneider Gil, the visitors pulled a goal back and threatened a second, until Roberto Pigatto Baratto sent a goalkeeper clearance back past the unfortunate custodian to give Terriers a 3-1 win. With the aggregate score at 5-5, away goals came into play and Terriers progress to the Quarter-Finals.

[talisman]

I never said what you just said: 'that this always happens to you'. You have misunderstood me. This has not happened to me in this season so far nor last season, but I have observed such things in the past where a leading team (and not my team) suddenly starts to suffer losses to lower quality teams in the league. The explanations I gave are possibilities (not confirmed). This can also be said to be based on form.

Assuming that the tactics he used were ok and his team had a superior quality, what will be your explanation to this? 'Troll' ? Why 'trolls' occur? This is the important question.

You misunderstand me - I was trying to distingush between the managers suffering the issue (Killroy, Tactician, me, etc) and 'them' (the other teams that don't seem to be affected). Perhaps I should have said 'us'...

No matter what we do, after a certain period of success, there is always two or three matches which could be termed as having 'dodgy' results, after which the status quo is restored. By then it's too late as the teams which seem to be immune to the 'bug' are at the top and running away.

If they do have a bad result, and the next match for 'us' is a slam dunk (bottom of the table team, much poorer in quality), then the thought is 'got a chance here', and then the 'Troll' card is played - GK plays a blinder, defence blocks everything, prolific scoring players miss everything in sight and they score from their only shot on target (usually around the 75th minute)...

[nikolgiorgos]

@Tactician
in my thread Mythbusters
http://forum.topeleven.com/top-eleve...eleven-11.html
in post #102 I 'm writing about some cases (maybe like yours) when the roll dice of the game decides not only for one game but for the pack of two games in a K.O. round of the Cup or the CH.L.
It seems that maybe there is some truth there - but it's rare and I can't figure out how the criterion can be.

[Tactician]

after a certain period of success, there is always two or three matches which could be termed as having a 'dodgy' results

This, for example, I can tell you that I have observed this. So, it is a possibility. There are a lot of possible explanations for things happening in this game, but many of them are still not confirmed to a certain extent.

[reddeviljohn]

Cup oppo have changed Ko to 3 am

[Tactician]

@Tactician
in my thread Mythbusters
http://forum.topeleven.com/top-eleve...eleven-11.html
in post #102 I 'm writing about some cases (maybe like yours) when the roll dice of the game decides not only for one game but for the pack of two games in a K.O. round of the Cup or the CH.L.
It seems that maybe there is some truth there - but it's rare and I can't figure out how the criterion can be.

I can confirm that this sort of situation has happen to me twice though, and they are very similar, and both were for the Champions League.

The first was back in 2015 where I won the away 2-1 and lost the home game on penalties after a loss of 1-2 at home. I could see how the game was setting things up during the home match so that the other team will be able to go through.The decisive goal for my team simply did not want to come, even in extra time. Everything was going in vain, even a penalty; a player who never missed a penalty since he joined my team, missed one in the match.

The second is as posted in the previous post in this thread. I dominated this team completely, both home and away, but could not go through to the next round. When I got the 1-1 draw away, I already felt something was wrong. But, still it can be said to be a decent result. But when the home match was played, I could see how the game was making things happen so that my team would be knocked out. Again, the decisive goals did not want to come; all efforts were going in vain. But, the opponent appeared to have scored way too easily.

I have not watched the matches for talisman and motrin cases, but it is likely that they experienced a similar sort of thing. There are similarities. From the match statistics, motrin's team also appeared to have dominated the game, but still his team lost 2-0 despite winning the away match 0-1, and hence was knocked-out of the competition.

So far, as I see it, there is virtually nothing a manager can do to change the outcome for those cases, especially the second case. I pushed my players to the max, so much that some had only 60% condition after the match. May be with time, with a lot of thinking, a possible logic explanation in terms of tactics or football may be found as there is still a small possibility of the opponent having gone through due to tactics, but as it is now, some of those matches seem to be fixed.

[Tactician]

You misunderstand me - I was trying to distingush between the managers suffering the issue (Killroy, Tactician, me, etc) and 'them' (the other teams that don't seem to be affected). Perhaps I should have said 'us'...

No matter what we do, after a certain period of success, there is always two or three matches which could be termed as having 'dodgy' results, after which the status quo is restored. By then it's too late as the teams which seem to be immune to the 'bug' are at the top and running away.

If they do have a bad result, and the next match for 'us' is a slam dunk (bottom of the table team, much poorer in quality), then the thought is 'got a chance here', and then the 'Troll' card is played - GK plays a blinder, defence blocks everything, prolific scoring players miss everything in sight and they score from their only shot on target (usually around the 75th minute)...

Ah, ok. You meant this always seem to happen to us, and not the other teams, especially those 'auto-mode' teams. This is something that I find strange also; why does it seem to affect only serious managers?

[Gert Funck]

Two goals from right back.. good work!



Nice goal again a penalty

[Arion]

Let me join the bandwagon — it's about the Cup this season. Both teams had no changes over two legs, we had a 2% advantage, then why it was 0-0 away and 3-3 at home? Even more surprising was the equaliser came just 5 minutes before buzzer and only 3 minutes after our goal.

[El Pistolero]

I haven't been posting lately mainly due to boredom. I finally lost a game. I haven't lost a single match in about 3 seasons

The fact I lost to 2 counter attacks in the whole match yet I got denied so many times amazes me. It has luck written all over it.