Assunto: I.1

Man, it sure is tight at the top. I was getting excited until I realized this was only game 32. I can't believe we still have 10 games to go. This feels like a long ass season.

How does the elimination games go.

15 place play 2.1
16 play 2.2
17 play 2.3
18 play 2.4

Like that?

Other way around, 15th plays II.4 etc.

Darn, I was hoping to give FC Corona a little breathing room since it would sure be swell (for me) if he finishes top 2, but my under-performing forwards couldn't hit the net for the 4th straight game.

(/coach's rant - Stupid team, I put 3 forwards out for a reason, I hate not scoring goals. I don't care so much if the other team scores more, but I don't want to get blanked. Maybe I'll start running a 3-3-4.... /end rant)

Feel free to root for the American teams still alive in the CWC and ChL on Wednesday as well. We still have an outside chance to catch Canada this season (which might get us an extra team into each). Also, if the Wildcats or the Betamax were to win the CWC, we'd get an extra team in there again. (The Wildcats winning would secure your spot, while the Betamax winning would give you a CWC berth if they were to finish top 2 and FC Corona finished 3rd). Then there's the ChL, feel free to root for my team there as well.

Yeah, that all works too, so good luck to everyone else of course. I was just focusing on the one thing I can (slightly) influence.

What the hell? You've been shutout 14 times in your last 19 games. What's going on over there in Faketown?

And I don't think I can catch FC Corona. I've got a tough part of the schedule coming up and my guys are gassed.

No idea what's going on, but I'm not happy with it. I used to like running 3 forwards because it meant I got a lot of goals - gave up more too of course, but still scored plenty. Lately though, that's clearly not been the case.

Maybe it's a fluke - I'll wait till next season and see if it continues. I really hope the 4-4-2 isn't soccer's version of the 2-1-1 in hockey .

oh man pookinators dropped out.... a blow for USA

WTF? That sucks. He was one of the better teams. I hate seeing that. We haven't had a lot of that in soccer, but it's pretty much ruined hockey.

*checks league* Damn.
BizzyBozzy (Baldwin) hasn't been online since the 21st.
jdevils(Africville) was last on the 16th.
huxbux (Huggy Bears) has been on & off lately.
smirker (Safado FC) last login the 15th.
Buckeyes have barely saved their team twice lately.

That's depressing.

Do you always run 3 forwards spread out like that? It seems like that would be easier to contain than if you put them closer together. Like two in the middle and one on the right or left.

Or it could just be a fluke. I know I've had seasons where my guys couldn't find the net at all. Last season wasn't as bad as yours, but I scored more than 1 goal only 11 times. 14 1-goal games. Ugh and shutout 17 times.

Ugh, that's a bummer. Let's hope Terence Morse gets a good home--I'd hate to see him fall behind by ending up on a team with weak facilities.

All the non-NT players on his team will retire, right? I could try to save a player or two by adding them to the roster....Gus Ball is not bad, although we've got a few better and younger goalies so it's probably not worth it. John Knox might be an option, but I'd prefer he have 6/6.

i think it goes anyone with more than 300 OR hits the market the others are dropped

Yeah, I've run the same formation for about 5 seasons now, and it's served me fairly well - promoted twice, usually do OK in the NC (highlights being 2nd in season 3, and 3rd this season), did fine in the CWC and SuperLeague Cups till I ran into a stronger team, etc. Then again, those results could have all been based off my team strength and winning more of the coin flips than losing , but if that's the case, formation doesn't matter much anyway, so no need to worry about it.

For the long story (if you care), the first couple seasons I generally used a 4-4-2, but would tweak it for most games based on opponent's strengths/weaknesses and what just "seemed" like a good soccer formation. I felt like the team was under-performing though, so I started looking at things like a computer sim and less like an actual soccer game.

It made sense to me that there would be a diminishing returns type system from stacking multiple players in the same square vs spreading them out - not necessarily explicitly coded, but that's how it would work out in the long run. It also made sense that if I was training a guy for a position, say side forward, I should put him in the slot that maximizes his influence at that position, and thereby get the greatest influence over the entire field. This theory mostly seemed to work until recently. Maybe the fact that I played lots of weaker teams in III.1 and II.1 clouded things. It could be a great way to ensure you get lots of offense and win against weaker teams, but struggles a bit in the coin flips and has a really tough time generating an upset.

I'll probably tweak it for the rest of the season and bring the side forwards in a little and see if that helps. It just seems odd that teams with minimal offense and a strong midfield can generate so many shots. If my formation experiment continues to falter next season, I guess I'll be boring and just run a standard 4-4-2 against weaker teams and 4-5-1 against stronger ones .

One other thing, I have my subs set such that if I'm behind at any point after the half, I sub out my 2nd CD and add a 2nd CF giving me a 3-3-4. What I would expect is that both teams should have more shots afterwards, and though I haven't gone through and done the math, that really hasn't seemed to be the case. I also used to switch to High if I was tied or losing at the half, but I quit doing that as well after it seemed to just waste energy and make no difference in shots.

So, maybe conditional subs/tactics changes are pointless except to save energy on your starters? I'm not so dedicated to the game that I want to sit down and work out all the math/stats myself, but I'd sure love to hear about anyone else's experiments .