THIS WEEKS FINES
DIVISION 1
EW 20k Fine. Cannot find this player (sub). CB . Jingo
DIVISION 2
NH 20k Fine. This player cannot play (inj/susp). AM D. Trost
GU 20k Fine. Cannot find this player (sub). GK F. GinJr
DIVISION 3
CUT PLAYERS
PURCHASES FROM THE DRAFT
AA bid
815,454 for DS 8 20 named O. SylfarJr
AA bids
605,343 for DM 7.25 20 named V. Diaby
FI 161,000
for GK J. VanBeveren age 20 NSL 6,25 (From TB)
TRADES
TB -> FU
AS J. Rowbottum 4,50
20
AS G. Heuveling 4.50 20
150K
FU -> TB
DM A. Yakubu 9.00 24
TB sends BS
FB A. DeZeeuw 5,00 20
FB J. Dicks 5,00
23
FB L. Croft 5,50
20
BS sends TB
DM D. Elisque 8.50 24
PRESS REPORT
DIVISION 1
Alcohol Anonymous
A
HISTORY OF SAEFL (Season 4) – SAD DEPARTURES AND NEW ARRIVALS
With season 3 seeing CA again (Peter : What you mean again ?) winning the league – breaking the IQ dominance. AA again finished second. TB and FI were promoted, with NW winning the cup. Player of the season was GOONIE, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored an amazing 42 goals for NH.
So, what would season 4 herald for SAEFL? Certainly a few surprises as a new breed of player stamped their mark on proceedings. But bigger shocks lay in store …
As
always in SAEFL, the beginning of any new season hails excitement, as managers
scan opposition teams to find the players that have gone from nearly stars to
megastars. Let’s take a look at some of
the early runners and riders, and some of the youngsters that were bubbling
under:
TJ
GK The Cat in the Hat 10
TJ
CF GOONIE 12
MR
CF Dalglish 12
TH
MF Juninho 11.5
FI
CA
FB B. Berlinnin 9.25
CA
AM Todi 9.25
GU
DS McGoo 11.5
NW
DM F. George 10
OC MF R. Keane 9.75
EU CB D. Mills 9
EU
CM J. Cole 10
NH
AM T. Sheringham 12.5
JG CF J. Rowbottom 9.5
LU WH A. Nartov 10.5
The
obvious picks from these men are McGoo, Sheringham and Nartov. All quality players on the
up. GOONIE continued his demise – but at 12 NSL, TJ was hardly
complaining J
The
first week sees the first shock of the season.
IQ, the team to beat for the first season in SAEFL, get outplayed and
defeated 10-5 by TJ, with GOONE and Taz Man taking it
to their mighty opponents. Would this
win see the start of a bright dawn for The Jazz? Sometimes dawns can close quicker than you
think.
With
MR beaten by TB in an epic 20-19 encounter, and CA only managing a draw against
GU, AA stole a march on their likely championship contenders with a solid
victory over TH – oldies Jardel and Davies doing a
good job for the Alcies.
In
my first full season in SAEFL, my side OC manages to sneak a win against
AS. The 7-6 win was hollow though, and
this kind of limited result immediately made me realise that to make OC into a
power house, I would need to radically shake up the whole place in a move that
I expected to take 4 or 5 seasons to fully flourish. Little did I know that the plan would falter
so quickly.
What’s
this? JG in division
2? Crumbs! Mind you, the writing was on the wall for a
quick return to the top flight as although they only got a draw out of another
strong team in NH, CF J. Rowbottom was already
putting in the kind of displays that would make him a legend of the game down
the line - CF S.Rowbottom*/***
9.5 19.38 2 goals.
To show you
this deal shows you what a good trader Mike is, and why he has remained a
constant in the top flight of SAEFL from its inception:
NW - DL
28 yo CB Nsl 8.25 M. Fish
28 yo CB Nsl 8.25 S.
Campbell
24 yo S Nsl 8.75 V. Montella
29 yo CF Nsl 8.75 I. Zamorano
plus $250,000
DL - NW
20 yo CB Nsl 7.5 S. Ward
20 yo CB NSL 6 K.Monkou
20 yo MF Nsl 8 B. Thornley
22 yo S Nsl 7.5 S. Stritzel
20 yo CF NSL 6 J.Holmes
In
particular, S. Ward, B. Thornley and J. Holmes would
become serious players in the league in years to come. Not all of them would remain at NW mind you J
Ah
… the memories of being “the pressman” – I had already decided that as a
freshman in SAEFL, I needed to eek out some sort of reputation – and if it
could not be through my side, it would be through my press and my all round
contribution to the league (It was also a good way, with the EB deadline, of
building up my cash reserves):
“After
Oaklane's mascot, Oakkey
the Ostrich, nearly committed murder after last months defeat at the hands of
Alcohol Anonymous, he will, unfortunately, not be available to entertain the
masses (??) of OC fans, as he is, at present, in
rehabilitation (most of the players are at the Betty Ford clinic). Still, never mind. This year, a new training schedule has been
set up by the coach, Ibe Bonkers. It is based on the formula that, as nearly
all the players are Italian, they will perform much better on the pitch after
consuming copious quantities of Pizza and Lasagna. So don't expect to score many goals this
year, all opponents, as the GK is aiming to fill the whole goal within days....
he trains especially hard!
Starting
from next week - the OC Files!!!! In-depth analysis into the players, and management of Oaklane.
Expect the unexpected!!!!!!!!
Finally,
good luck to all the managers this year.
I wish you all a successful season..... just
not as good as mine!! (well, you can always dream).
For
3 or so seasons, I built my press around a quirky squad and management with their own characteristics, adventures and oddities. I also decided to give the club a new name … Oaklane anyone? ;)
Week
2 heralded a new and very exiting passage in the history of the league –
international games. ARG,
They
say that the skills make the manager – and although I have none, it seemed like
luck was on OC’s side in week as they picked the EU
ONE lock with a CP to net another close (7-8 victory). The win would herald the break up of the
team, however.
Talking
about CP, it’s interesting to see that not many sides were playing the counter-punch
at this time. WPs
and the other attacking systems were very much ‘en-vogue’. Take the week 3 cup games. Of the 24 Div 1 & 2 sides, this was the
make up:
SM
2; ONE 3; WH 3; OFF 1; MM 0; CP 0; BC 2; TC 2; TS 1; ENF 0; BC 0; LB 3 ZD 1; WP
6
So
a clear win for the WP tactic, and while there were only 6 teams playing
defensively, 3 playing counter tactics (SM and OFF), another 15 played
offensive tactics.
It’s
odd; when you look back at the past seasons in SAEFL, you realise that the
league had developed at an early stage to a greater degree than you had
expected. There were a significant
number of freaks in the league in season 4 – probably as many as there are
today. I didn’t expect to see more than
5 or 6 per season for the first few years, but week 4 saw 11 freaks in the
league playing – and I guess one or two might have been rested.
Week
4 was also significant as it saw the introduction of a great freak. Sylfar would light
up SAEFL for many seasons. 306k well
spent on 19 the 6.75 DS by Ed of AA.
Week
7 and OC are defeated 19-20 by a JG side that, with Bart at the helm, are on
the bounce back. The first defeat I
suffered at his hands – but not the last (I’m waiting to repay that 31-17
defeat last week J)
Week
8, and MR, who had been in a bit of a slump, show their enormous EMPing power, taking out all 155 points worth on CA, who
themselves net a respectable 130. Not
enough to get anything but a 11-4 hammering though!
With
week 11 wiped from the SAEFL memory banks, it’s on to
week 12. Just to prove that great
managers don’t always get it right, Vince plays 3 MFs,
2 Ws, 2 S and NO centre forwards in a WP side as his CA side suffers a
shock 14-16 loss to TJ. Very unusual to
see Vince make any errors at all – but I’m sure he had his reasons for the
formation.
Week
13 sees ageing. Berlinnin’s
slow and steady rise sees him move to 9.5 NSL.
McGoo up to an intimidating 11.75, Dalglish to
12.5, Rowbottom to 10.5 and Djordic
up to 12.5. Now let’s have a discussion
about who was the best from those lot!
Week
14 and IQ net 152 EMP v a devastated TJ. OC also by a 20 7 novice called Thundercats. Not a
bad buy J
Week
15 is a very sad day for SAEFL, as Peter has to take control of AA, with Edwin
leaving the league. Ed was instrumental
in building AA into the force they are today (well, other than the odd 31-17 loss L), and his move to
pastures new was a shock to the community.
Peter therefore started his search for a new boss for the Alcies.
(Peter: It still amazes me today that No
one wanted to take control of AA, they were such a
powerful team)
Mind
you, it wasn’t all bad – for once one of his ‘emergency manager’ teams actually
won a game J J
Week
15 was also a sad day for SAEFL as CF Screwdriver – the original dangerman up front – was retired to stud by me (sorry). He
was a old, haggared 31 year
old 5.5 NSL player at this point – but if you have been reading my press in
recent weeks, you will know that this was not always the case. 62 games and 94 goals says
it all. D. Barratt
(OC, 6.75 30 when released) was also decent – 50 games and 63 goals.
Playing
players too long, too hard is always a balancing at that has to be played by
managers. Play a
individual too little, and you don’t get enough bang for your buck. Play them too much, and injuries can lay
around the corner if lady luck is not smiling on you. Week 15 shows all managers the old adage ‘to
be wise is to be careful’ is very true (actually, that’s not an old adage but
is sounds good on paper ;)) - IQ S.Duncan 9.75
7.35 (injured 59 ro 76)
Peter’s
luck as AA managers cannot last though, and in week 17 his bad management sees
the Alcies lose 7-3 to TB. “Yes I am the manager of AA and I never
expected TB to play a GC I expected a WP side but not a GC and that seals the
points for TB”
… excuses, excuses.
Obviously
this meant that Peter was even more in need of a new manager, and at after week
20 (when AA failed to pick up 3 points again) he asked me to become manager of
AA. A tough choice to
make, as I was keen on making OC into a superpower in the game. But AA is a great name, and the chance to
step up was too good to turn down.
Week
21 Peters last games in charge of AA, and he goes out with a bang - grudges in
both league and cup sees 2 wins and EMP of 154 and 155.
Week
23 and with AA in prime position to win the league, I lose in the cup (but go
through to the final on aggregate), and get hammered by NW in the league (the
other team to reach the final in the league).
This result immediately set up a great rivalry between Mike and I that
has never died down (and that’s what SAEFL is all about).
Grudges
are traditionally left to the end of the season, and 23 proves
this – 6 were played in all. As teams
get 2 grudges each per season (Peter: Err you means 3, excuse
him he is new to this league J), that’s 48 in total for the league. So given that an average of 2 grudges can be
played a week, 6 seems mighty high.
With
OC stalling in division 2, week 23 saw Bart wrap up the title – and he has not
been out of the top flight since.
Week
24 sees MR and IQ going head to head.
Two grudges, and 149 and 143 EMP seeing the
home side prevail 23-21. Great leagues
and great games go hand in hand. Great
players win great games and 12.5 CF Dalglish netted
24.17 emp and 7 goals. Not bad for an evenings work.
The
week also sees AA wrap up the title with a win at home to GU. My first league title but not one I really
count on my mantle as it was mainly Eds
work. IQ end up as runners up, while JG and NH shrug off relegation a year
before by bouncing right back.
Week
25, and one of the greatest cup games ever:
Attendance :
79411
Alcohol Anonymous 6 (CF M. Jardel
PEN,WH DragonHart 1, AM J.
Jackson 2, AM Safari 2)
NoShaKi WC'98 6 (AM D. Stankovic 1, W M. Overmars 1, CF
M. Salas 3, CF D. Yorke 1)
GK Chardonnay 10 10.14
Saves 11, CB Tom Vansteenkiste 10 12.96 , CB
Newton 10 11.92 , FB Lou Donaldson* 10 13.13 , MF E. Hefe
10 11.53 , WH DragonHart 9.25 10.76 , WH Bojan Djordic 12.5 14.54 , AM J.
Jackson 9 12.83 , AM Safari 9.5 12.57 , S G. Heathcote
10 10.91 , CF M. Jardel*** 9.5 10.59 Booked NSL 99.75
- EMP 121.74
GK J. Songo’o 10 10.12 Saves 14, DS J.
Baiano 9.5 9.08 , CB A. Nesta
9.5 12.07 , FB L. Thuram 9 8.95 Booked, DM E. Amunike * 10 12.02 , AM D. Stankovic
9 12.46 , AM F. Mars 8.5 10.77 , W M. Overmars 10
13.44 , W P. Beadle 11 12.96 Booked, CF M. Salas *** 12.5 15.35 , CF D. Yorke 9 11.21 NSL 98
- EMP 118.30
Markers
~ DS J. Baiano marks CF Jardel
~ FB L. Thuram marks
PEN SHOOT OUT
NW AA
W Beadle MISS WH Bojan
Djordic GOAL
AM Stankovic GOAL AM J. Jackson GOAL
CF Yorke GOAL AM Safari GOAL
DM Amunike GOAL S G. Heathcote
MISS
CF Salas GOAL CF
M. Jardel MISS
NW
outthought my AA side, although I calculated (incorrectly) that any MM tactic
Mike played could still not cope with AA’s WH tactics. As well … one of many near misses in league
and cup, and to NW in particular, over the course of
the next few seasons.
LU
head up to the top flight (they have not been relegated since), and
After
all the highs though, the season ends on a low as Nigel Gregory bows out of the
league as manager of IQ. A great man and
a great boss, he was rightly named manager of the year. His ability to manage in the electronic
league can be highlighted by the fact that, despite having
several good managers, the club have never really been quite the same
since (although the club are on the way back now).
Out
of interest, McGoo won defender of the year, Francis
midfielder was midfielder of the year, Dalglish won
forward, player of the year and the golden boot, while Rowbottom
picked up the silver boot. A pretty good combination there that would strike fear into any
opposition side.
Oh,
and somehow, I won pressman of the year (yay!)
So,
season 4 was at an end. Roll on season 5, which
would see a trading king emerge, a rags to nearly riches story for AA with
their own trading policy, and the oldies say their last hurrah in the league.
Apocalypse
Catbel Athletic
Excelsior
From the
Excelsior Herald...
Ouch! That hurt. An
0-8 thrashing at the hands of Catbel. But perhaps now
is not the time to panic. Excelsior put out are far
from weak team with decent enought nsl and emp, the problem was that
CA were so good they simply blew it away. On another day against another team Exceslior may have picked up a point or three.
This week sees the final group game in the
cup against FC Inferno. With both teams almost certainly guaranteed a palce in the next round, will we see a thrilling deveil may care game, or a polite 0-0 bore draw? No prizes
for guessing which way Bracegirdle is likely to go - never a man to entertain a
crowd when there is a chance not to.
F.C Inferno
It's cup time this week and let's test
the new boys Fuzue and Zell.
Hopefully they will perform well and help us to move
to the next round. A small loss should be enough... at least that's what I hope
for!
InterQuartile Rangers
I didn't need to rest my "powerful
midfielders" for either fatigue or the upcoming cup match. They are not winning games. The sad news is that while those midfielders
rack up some of the best stats in the division they aren't doing the job. I've already lost at least 2 games where I
had (slightly) higher EMP. In other
games I just got clobbered. I will be
floating around the relegation zone this season. A couple more wins might be enough to pull me
out of the zone, but I don't see who I'm going to beat.
Even worse, I don't have time to scout players and
look for trades. So for the foreseeable
future I'll have a strong Div 2 team.
Maybe I'll just yo-yo between divisions.
Considering the new money for promoting that would be one way to get
some extra money. With the inflation in
SAEFL that money may not even pay for one player off the transfer list.
2 of my 3 seasons in SAEFL are incredibly
frustrating. I don't know how long it
will last.
Here are the stats for Div 1:
TEAMS |
NSL avg |
EMP avg |
EMP/NSL |
max NSL |
min NSL |
max EMP |
min EMP |
Diff NSL |
Diff EMP |
TB |
96.85 |
122.99 |
1.27 |
99.5 |
89.75 |
140.14 |
109.78 |
9.75 |
30.36 |
CA |
92.5 |
114.35 |
1.24 |
93.75 |
90.75 |
127.39 |
98.19 |
3 |
29.2 |
TH |
93.1 |
117.62 |
1.26 |
100.25 |
82 |
132.24 |
96.03 |
18.25 |
36.21 |
AP |
97.55 |
118.08 |
1.21 |
99 |
93 |
131.97 |
107.84 |
6 |
24.13 |
LU |
92.94 |
124.48 |
1.34 |
94.75 |
91.21 |
134.11 |
104.9 |
3.54 |
29.21 |
FI |
93.9 |
121.01 |
1.29 |
97 |
91 |
127.08 |
116.24 |
6 |
10.84 |
OC |
97 |
123.45 |
1.27 |
99 |
95.5 |
132.42 |
116.01 |
3.5 |
16.41 |
AA |
94.7 |
124.51 |
1.31 |
99 |
85.75 |
129.42 |
114.94 |
13.25 |
14.48 |
IQ |
95.55 |
127.93 |
1.34 |
96.5 |
94.75 |
131.41 |
122.01 |
1.75 |
9.4 |
JG |
96.2 |
126.97 |
1.32 |
99 |
92.25 |
131.71 |
116.8 |
6.75 |
14.91 |
EW |
99.95 |
132.95 |
1.33 |
101.75 |
96.25 |
146.01 |
120.94 |
5.5 |
25.07 |
NW |
92.05 |
125.59 |
1.36 |
94.75 |
89.5 |
134.66 |
116.34 |
5.25 |
18.32 |
|
95.19 |
123.33 |
1.3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Let`s rest.
NoShaKi WC98
The Boelewieten
The Jazz Greats
Tottenford Heats
DIVISION 2
Adirondak Renegades
Adirondak
Press (AP):A Victory! It was even a road victory.
Manager
Fulmer (MF); It was good to see. Even if it was one rebuilding team beating
another, it is still good for AR morale. The 3 points didn't hurt either.
AP: GK Hird came through for you.
MF: Hird had an excellent match, in
fact he was the difference for us. He is one of our few experienced players,
and he can be a great help as we develop the youth.
AP: What
else impressed you about the match?
MF: We bad
a very balanced attack. We don't have that top goal scorer, and are trying to
develop a balanced attack with a lot of people involved. Seven different people
scored our nine goals, with no one scoring more that twice. That's the type of
attack we are after. Plus nine goals on 17 chances is good finishing, which is
an area in which we have been poor.
AP; Now its on to the cup where you have a good chance of going
through.
MF: The cup
match will be a good test for our youth. We are playing BS, who have lost their first 2 cup matches, so we are expected to
win. However, BS has new management. BS showed much better effort in their
first match under
African Selection
Dead Scientists
Druss Legends
Englehart Storm
Grammar United
Melchester Rovers
Well last week was a good week, we won. It was even better that we escaped the boost
without it hurting our result. We did
have better NSL and EMP than them so I suppose it was not a suprise. Though that was not the
case two weeks ago when we got our first loss of the season even though we had
higher NSL and EMP.
Go figure. Now
we are in sixth place, right in the middle of the pack, the
last spot of the playoff scene as it stands now. Its not a bad place
to be seeing as it is in the beginning of the season. For the most part, the whole middle of the
table in Division Two is pretty close together so there is a good chance that
we can move up (or down, I suppose) in the next couple of weeks.
We obviously are not a favorite anymore but our goal
is still to get promoted, which we still can.
This week is a cup week and we play AV. Seeing as we are last in
our cup group, there is no hope of moving on so we do not really care if we win
or not.
We are not playing our strongest team so we will be
happy with whatever happens.
Stannington Historical
The Jazz
The Toons face Smoking Guns from Div 3 in the last round of the
league stage hoping for a win and a place in the next round. TJ after a good start of 3 wins in a row have
now be beating twice by the top two sides they will be hoping to stop the
losing run.
Back in the league next week TJ will have an home game against MR and then an away game against DS. TJ
have been training hard this week to get back into winning was the whole squad
have been doing extra training and no late night partys
and drink, and good luck to everyone this week.
DIVISION 3
This week
sees the Kickers playing their final group game in the first round of the cup
against Div 2 side Engelhart Storm. The storm are a
pretty good side and are leading the group with the kickers only needing a draw
to see them through. Of course a win
will be even better and make sure of it.
"We
will be going all out today," David said.
"A draw will be enough but I don't want to risk losing, so we will
attack so that we can create more scoring opportunities."
This
interview was yesterday on the eve of the vital clash.
SB:
"How do you think Peter will play against you tomorrow?"
DT:
"Hopefully Peter will take it easy on us with them already through to the
next round. It would be good to see the
two Australian teams through."
SB:
"Choosing the right captain is important in a game like this, something
you have found hard to get right this season.
Who will be leading the side on the pitch tomorrow?"
DT:
"Yes Stephanie, It has been tough to find the right captain. This week the armband is going to Dmitri Kochetkov."
SB:
"Last week you traded away a couple of players, namely Hoppie
Van Der Westhuizen. What was the reasoning behind this week's
trades?"
DT:
"As you saw a couple of weeks ago, we played our backup keeper and got
hammered. I needed to bring in another
backup keeper of decent ability. Another
striker was going to come in handy too.
Unfortunately that meant having to trade away a good player in Hoppie to make it possible.
I wish Hoppie all the best with his new
team."
SB:
"The team has struggled lately and morale seems to have suffered a
bit. Is this a concern?"
DT:
"Yes it is. Lower morale means that
the lads aren't playing at their best.
When that happens then the results won't happen either. Hopefully tomorrow we can get the win and
progress through to the second round.
This will then help lift the morale so that we can move on."
SB:
"Thanks for your time David."
DT:
"Any time Stephanie."
So let's
see all you fans at the game to help cheer them out. This can be the real turning point for the kickers season.
Stephanie
Burrows
Aros VSK
This is a very hard cup-game for manager Christer, since he faces his old team. A team he managed
for several seasons. Looking at PN now showes
that only a few players are left since Christer
bossed them. And PN have gone WP, a tactic Christer
rarely used for PN.
AV will try to play OFF to counter a
suspected WP and get a draw to see AV proceed from the group-stage and into the
playoffs of the cup.
Blue Storm FC
Greetings all. Welcome to the First Cup Game where Blue Storm FC is managed under
Wayne United colors. This is the first time that
Your
always welcome at Wayne United (Blue Storm FC)
See you in
the Stands.
Defrosted TunaFish
Deo Volente
This week
DV meets Len's SH for the CUP. Len will probably focus on the league, trying to
stay into div 2 and play a backup team with SM/AD in this weeks CUP game.
I would
have liked to use a grudge card for this game, but they might be of better use
after the aging.
Falcons
Falcons FC are using this week's Cup games as an
opportunity to rotate their players.
Nik Albert [FA]
Fanatics United
There were some
good trades last week, and then some bad ones. The team has taken well to the
new guys, and the last few practices have been effective a
the team is coming together. This week is a free rest week and the
second team has been placed in, all the new guys will be playing to get them
into the team spirit.
The whole team
will be there on the bench though taking a look at the performance of a second
division team to see what they will be playing next session.
Half way though
the first year of Fanatics United and the club is going well, top of the league
but not in the cup. Well we won't see until the end of this game, but I don't
want to go for the cup, I would like to focus our efforts to the league.
The game last week
BS vs. DV, was a very good game, well matched up, I
have the recording if anyone wanted it, just follow the link:
http://www.saefl.com/mr/s11/Week7TYPEL3.html
Fantastic eleven
Smoking Guns
Speedsters
Trav Spoodle
So
who thinks I'll beat bart
with my side im fielding…? Hmmm.
Will be interesting to see if I can score a goal in fact… Have a good one...
Vitesse Arnhem