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#295397 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
Fuck knows how we didn't convert our 2nd half dominance into a goal or two of our own, though i has to be said that Ismaily definitely got the better of us in the 1st half through the sheer speed of their attacks.
There was no doubt that this was a must-win, not least because of the gulf in quality but also the need to maintain our sight at the top of the table.
With all that said, easy win.
Next was Haras El Hodoud - they were an occasional banana skin over the past number of seasons, but we should look to put them away regardless.
Though my cause wasn't helped by statements like these:
Smouha legend Mohamed Adel coming out criticising the club and its manager - perfectly normal thing to do given modern media, but he seems to have forgotten that he's still contracted to the club!
Not yet off our payroll and already he's talking shit about the club - man's got a death wish.
Enough of that nonsense though, we made sure his comments would come back to bite him in the ass with a convincing victory.
I'll take being 'only' 4 points off the pace, given that we've already faced (and lost to) 2 moneybag sides.
Damanhour seem to have lived up to my prediction of their league-best attack, frontman Segun Uche with 10 goals already.
Zamalek continue to struggle, culminating in yet another change of manager.
Off to the CL, where we tidy up our business having qualified from our group:
Great win, and a hope that I might actually manage to cope with the other South African sides (i.e. Orlando Pirates).
The win also seals top spot for us, ensuring we get to play the return leg at home.
Rested the regular for the final matchday, and we paid a heavy price.
There was hope that we'd manage to secure a smash and grab win after our early opener, but we were just outplayed by a superior team here.
So top spot here, a decent achievement - but then I see the other group and realise in horror:
Welp, that's our CL hopes done then, fuck's sake.
#295058 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
We started off with an easy win against a Zamalek side slowly but surely staring into the abyss of relegation.
With a 2nd string side too, adding salt to the wound there.
Police Union shocked Al Ahly 1-0 on the opening day, and it did look like they were about to repeat that feat here.
We didn't help our cause with 2 goals ruled out for offside (alongside countless other offisde calls).
Emam turned (relatively unlikely) hero for once with a clinical brace.
We tried keeping the ball at first (and got the opener), Tersana shut us down very well with their pressing.
We then went long ball to try and use of forwards' pace, but that only served to increase the pressure on our defence, which eventually buckled - a rude awakening this.
Early days, so not much to tell from here, but at least we're very much within reach of the top.
Onto the CL:
An extremely comprehensive win against a South African side that I expected to dominate against us, turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
Ibrahim's dismissal for a rather needless 2nd yellow put a dampener on things though.
We bossed the early exchanges, got the 1st goal, then switched to a 4-6-0 when Mazembe did their own tactical adjustments with a 3-5-2.
Ragab's sending-off only served to make us sit back even more, and we managed the 2nd goal on the break.
David Hurtado was awesome in goal, definitely got us the win as much as the goals did.
Gives me a lot of leeway for the next couple of games, though of course I'll be looking for top spot.
Also, Orlando might well be looking at a group stage exit - great news given our wretched record against them.
#295053 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#294749 How to put a pic in a comment - new member
Eric Portapotty
2. Press CTRL + P
3. Paste the link into the textbox in the pop-up window.
#294437 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
Not bad, overachievers.
But yet again Zamalek are the prime underachievers, they've been in a downward spiral for a number of seasons now, and it's really not looking good for them at this point.
No question, almost always produced in style when it mattered.
We need all the fans we can get of boost our gates, but let's be honest, it's really a minuscule part of our income which itself is peanuts in the face of our expenditure.
Basically evidence that despite our increasingly popularity
Score! Glad to see that our board knows at least that we're sliding into the shitter fast.
Arguably insufficient though, if I'm honest.
Now here's something they can work on, make use of our position of title holders to squeeze out better sponsorship deals.
Transfers:
Well suffice to say we're gonna rake in a record profit this summer, in a desperate bid to ensure that we don't go into the black at the end of this season.
Would've loved for him to stay (quite a solid centreback after all) but he was taking up a foreign slot and I felt we needed to cash in on him while he was still able to fetch a good price.
Interestingly, he only made a single appearance for the club, having been farmed out to European teams to take advantage of their facilities - a decision which has worked out well enough on hindsight.
He wanted the move too, so this was as amicable as it could get - the fans are happy at the cash, I'm happy that I don't have to fret about his place in the team, and he gets his chance at a top(-pish) league.
Decided to cash in on him too, he was undeniably a talented player but Aziz Amer always had a higher ceiling and was younger too.
Could've made more from him, Vitesse actually in with a $3 mil up front offer but I played hard to get under the assumption that I could get a higher price - guess I assumed wrong.
Nice surprise here, a decent sum for a guy I'd not followed up on.
Onto preseason:
A good run of games, which started with Midtjylland coming over for Mabrouk's testimonial.
Only blip was the Nott'ham loss, where I inexplicably played an unfit 2nd string team for 90 minutes.
The CL Group stages also started in preaseason:
Mazembe's GK played an absolute blinder, which resulted in him getting the MoTM award - well deserved, if I may say so myself.
Mahmoud Ibrahim was injured for this one, and our front 3 of Farouk, Emam and El shri sorely missed in power in front of goal.
That said, Alger gave us quite the run for our money, and in such a close game they just about deserved it with their better finishing.
Orlando were torn a new one by counterpart Kaizer Chiefs (5-1!) but recovered to beat CRB to secure 2nd in the group.
We find ourselves in the same position, albeit with a better goal difference.
Beck to Egypt now, for the curtain-raiser of the domestic season:
El Ashri with a match-winning performance here, I'll need him to pull this off on a consistent basis if we are to win the CL this time round.
To round off:
500+ tickets more is a great sign of progress, but I wonder if a bigger capacity stadium would allow for more season ticket holders.
The bookies have also made us 2nd favourites to win, seems like Al Ahly's sheer advantage in reputation will always make them favourites.
It seems like reputation also applies to Zamalek - despite finishing /staying in the bottom half for a few seasons already the bookies still made them favourites behind the moneybags and El Gouna.
Meanwhile, Wadi Degla could have a really hard time ahead - having lost their star GK and striker over the summer they've replaced them with somewhat inexperienced youths, could end in tears for them.
#294410 What Was The Last Film You Saw?
Eric Portapotty
And Joseph Gordon-Levitt with a French accent is incredibly annoying for some reason.
#294408 La Liga 2015/16
Eric Portapotty
Still can't quite work out why the fuck he would want to get involved with that.
#294331 2015/16 Champions League
Eric Portapotty
#294327 2015/16 Champions League
Eric Portapotty
#293436 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#293431 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#293415 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#293383 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
We tore them yet another one, Ibrahim this time getting the plaudits with a superb treble.
Onto the final - Masry provided decent (but ultimately futile) opposition as we defended the cup in style.
Amin with 2 brilliant headers won the MotM award, but Ibrahim did set up both his goals from corners and put 1 in himself.
Yes! Double winners, now to make it a treble.
Players of the Season
Mahmoud Ibrahim was the best player this past 18 months by some distance, tanking El Ashri's inconsistent form and banging in 29 goals for club and another 9 for the NT.
El Ashri just about did well, but there were patches of poor form - very much a confidence player.
Regardless, one of the hardest workers on the pitch on the day and a good leader up top.
Mabrouk just wouldn't quit, would he? Double-doubles in all competitions shows he's still very much a valued member of the starting XI.
Mahmoud Abdel Fatah was a rock at the back, with 12 clean sheets and an average of under a goal conceded a game.
Unfortunately he broke his collarbone towards the tailend of the season, which meant that:
David Hurtado had a chance to impress - and boy did he.
Keeping an insane 11 clean sheets in just 15 games, and not conceding more than a goal in the other four, he has been an inspired addition to the squad.
There'll be a very hard time picking one of them for the start of the season.
The pair have been helped very much by the CB pair of Hossam Ibrahim and Salah Amin, brilliant how we've got a reliable defence for once.
Finally, all the way from French wine country:
Chiekh Diouf is 3rd top scorer in Ligue 1, quite the surprise given his low rating.
Nevertheless, leading newly-promoted Bordeaux to a top half finish is definitely not to be sniffed at.
Now's decision time though - should I keep him for my assault on the CL (and drop one of my foreigners in the league's registered squad), or continue whoring him out to Europe(and earn/save a bit of cash in the process)?
#293367 New Site Design
Eric Portapotty
Absolutely fab Rob, thanks.
#292482 The Night Thread Mk. IX
Eric Portapotty
#292445 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
The league champions versus the already-down cellar dwellers - hard to find a bigger mismatch this season.
It was predictably easy in the end - rested most of the 1st-teamers and still came away with a dominant win.
El Ashri absolutely destroyed him in the 1st half with a treble, a surprisingly large scoreline if I'm honest.
The result also ensured we beat our previous points record, and some way to achieve it too.
The final league game of the season saw us fall behind against the run of play, but the players got their act together and ended the campaign on a very high note.
How high? 89 points high.
Best defensive record by some distance, and 2nd top scorers - not much to complain about for this year really.
Of course after the conclusion of the league season there's the cup to look forward to - one that we'll be looking to defend:
Round 1 couldn't have been easier - all the youths put on a dominant performance and completely nullified any threat present by All Hammam.
The next round was substantially harder, Al Ahly always providing stiff opposition.
Certainly didn't help that El Ashri was missing chances left right and centre to keep the game at 1-0, then continuing to bomb after the equaliser.
Thank our lucky starts for Mahmoud Ibrahim then - 2 assists and a goal for himself eventually ensured an extra time victory.
Not a good time to draw Damanhour, especially since most of our starters had just gone through 120 minutes of football a couple of days before.
Ibrahim was rested on the bench in favour of Farouk, who made a vital impact with the only goal of the game.
Damn, a 3rd top side already? the odds haven't exactly been in our favour this time round it seems.
Off to the continental stage:
We could and should have scored more, but given their intent to foul our players as many times as possible I think coming away without any knocks was the best outcome.
Al Ahly were knocked out by Africa Sports, to mark the end of a very underwhelming season on their part.
A relief is Orlando not being in our group - they're in with domestic rivals Kaizer Chiefs and CL winners of the season before, Ain Fakroun.
The hope is they'll break each others' bones as much as possible and have Orlando somehow not qualify for the semis, but surely any side who could put a side of the calibre out aren't spring chickens either.
We've got the take care of our own group anyway, Mazembe are perennial African giants, while Supersport are South African so they automatically have some cracking players.
#292436 New Site Design
Eric Portapotty
Oh, and what about timezone-based timestamps?
#292424 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#292339 New Site Design
Eric Portapotty
Tbh I loved the the one before the previous layout, but by and large it's about getting used to the new stuff imo.
#288988 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
Well, here's our game in hand.
We absolutely rattled Al Ahly in the 1st half, but just couldn't find the target.
It was beginning to look like one of those days until El Sayed delivered a cross from wide left that went all the way in.
Ibrahim made sure of the win, and we restore our 11 point lead.
Good win, Koroum gave it a hell of a go with their 352, but our quality shone through.
This, coupled with Damanhour's shock loss to El Gouna, meant that we could seal and 2nd title in 3 seasons with a win over Petrojet:
Easy.
It turns out that I'm now also the 13th most successful manager in Africa, cool.
Mabrouk with a perfect start to the game, Emam scoring the winner (after not being caught offside for once) - should've scored a couple more, but their GK was pretty good on the day.
The equaliser was scored by ex-Smouha man Talaat, still at Al Moqaoloun but it does look like he won't amount to any more than a backup for them.
We've got a great chance of breaking our own points record from our 1st title win, just need 4 points from he remaining 3 games to break the olrd recorrd of 83.
Off the the CL yet again - will we shrug off our poor 1st leg and put Coton Sport away?
Well yes.
We quickly gave our opponents a mountain to climb with Wellington's realy goal, and proceeded to pick them off on the counter.
Ibrahim was absolutely lethal on the break, galloping down the right on multiple occasions and smashing in a hat trick.
The next round featured the likes of Raja Casablanca, Al Ahly, Etoile du Sahel, and (grr) Orlando Pirates.
Who did we draw, Guinean minnows and by far the weakest side left in the competiton in Hafia.
And so it proved, our 2nd string side completely overwhelmed them and went back to Egypt with 5 away goals.
#288927 In Pursuit Of The American Dream
Eric Portapotty
#288908 What to do with FM16?
Eric Portapotty
Hoping that SI increases their database numbers for the smaller nations, and not have that greyed-out players in small NTs bug.
#288869 The Night Thread Mk. IX
Eric Portapotty
#288867 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
El Gouna still had the narrow diamond to frustrate us with, but this time we handled it quite comfortably.
Definitely had an easier game here.
Could've been so much more comfortable though, if it wasn't for El Ashri's frankly terrible performance in front of goal - he hustled well, won a few tackles too, but when it came to finding the net he seemed to be completely dumbfounded.
I think on paper Damanhour arguably have a better squad than ours, particularly with their direct and powerful front trio, and it showed here.
They didn't score any of the goals but their running (and outrunning) at our back 4 caused havoc in that area, and we weren't able to get a grip on the game with them going at us.
But it does say volumes about the lead we've built up when we still possess an 8-point lead over them with a game in hand - though it has to be pointed out that said game is against Al Ahly.
Onto to the Champions League:
We finally dealt with the Togolese side properly, Said with another double, along with right winger El Sayed.
Next round matched us against Cameroonian tyrants Coton Sport, who'd just won their 10th (TENTH) consecutive league title.
Shaky performance, both El Ashri and Ibrahim failed to really get going.
Finally, our next youth intake:
Wow! One of the most gifted players to come through the youth ranks in recent years!
Oh.
It does say a fair bit about this intake that the best player's only got 3-star potential.
This batch can be effectively written off as a dud (barring a miracle), but Ibrahim might be able to offer something - he's already got the basics of defence covered and can impose himself physically, could work on his mentals next.
#288864 UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying
Eric Portapotty
I think Jonas might keel over if Norway don't manage to qualify.
#288797 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#288666 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
Before we get on with Smouha have a look at Egypt's Cup of Nations campaign:
Started with a (shock?) loss to Angola, before scraping 2 wins to finish 2nd in their group:
Then they get their ass handed to them by Morocco.
The Moroccans did eventually reach the final (losing on penalties to hosts Tunisia) so at least they can say they lost to a finalist.
Of Smouha's representatives:
- Salah Amin didn't play a minute, and the same could be said for stopper Abdel Fatah;
- Hossam Ibrahim started all the games, but was average at best.
- El Ashri and Mahmoud Ibrahim were the starting strike pair and started every game as well, but both only showed up for a game each - that's half the battle lost when they're your main goalgetters.
What did we do during the extended international break then?
Not too bad, had the assman handle the games and we managed to go unbeaten here.
Earned quite a bit of cash as well, vital for our coffers given that we lost about a thousand even with this income.
Disappointing way to resume the league after the break, wrong tactics were employed and we paid for it with an uninspiring performance.
Ibrahim did score an equaliser to ensure we continued our unbeaten streak.
An easy win against probably the least ambitious I've seen Tersana play, having lost a good number of players to injury.
Haras El Hodoud finally ditched their troublesome 3-5-2 in favour of a 4-3-3, which arguably played into our hands - albeit taking some time to get going.
When we did though, oh what a goal from Mabrouk - from well outside the area he picks one out into the bottom corner for a vital lead.
Tentatively 12 points ahead, though Damanhour will make it 9.
10 games to go, could be an easy title win, could be one of the most spectacular collapses - we'll see.
Also, another CAF Champions League campaign begins, and we're off to Togo for the Preliminary round:
Dominant win, and 2-0 wasn't quite sufficient.
Said was very wasteful despite his 2 goals, could and should have grabbed a treble.
Finally, there were a number of moves i the January transfer period:
Lots of loans out, Abdel Azim failed to get a proper sniff at the left wing spot so was sent out again, while El Hadeedi was never going to start over Abdel Fatah at the back.
It's Abdel Fatah's deputy that caught the eye though:
One of the few times I'd ever made use of an agent's offer, we pay half his wages (half El Hadeedi's incidentally) and we get a stopper who is probably just as good as (or maybe even better than) Abdel Fatah.
Abdel Fatah's the undisputed starter though, barring disaster there's no way I'm dropping a local lad.
#288166 Cyril and the Swans
Eric Portapotty
#287651 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
Rested most of the regulars in anticipation of the Ismaily a couple of days later, turned out pretty well, even if we did look wobbly after conceding an equaliser.
Well, Ismaily... It didn't go so well.
They pressed us hard on every ball, and camped in our half for the 1st 45 minutes, earning a penalty.
Abdel Fadil then tore us to shreds on the counter, and despite Mabrouk getting a goal back it wasn't to be.
Our bid to recover from the previous loss started poorly, Abdel Fatah being completely caught out by a freekick that looked much more like a crossing opportunity.
But then we woke up, Emam (for once) scoring, then setting up Mabrouk for a coolly volleyed finish just before the break.
Great finishes from Ibrahim and Abdel Kader, and we're back in business.
Played the 1st team, expected much more.
20 shots, and we scored with our 2 shots on target - considering how rubbish their stopper must-ve been we should've tested him more.
The Egyptian NT strike partners both scored in the 1st 10 minutes. and while El Ashri did eventually get a treble Ibrahim could've too but for a header that smashed the crossbar.
Tersnan absolutely bottled it this month, getting only 5 points from a possible 15, allowing Damanhour to leapfrog them into 2nd.
More importantly, it allowed us to attain a massive 11 point lead, and with over half of the season gone it's a vital advantage.
Now, to some miscellany - a new contract:
Incredible how the club agreed to my request of a new ground, we're bleeding money month-on-month, and a new stadium will only load shameful amounts of debt.
But all things considered it's probably a necessity, we're bloody close to maxing our capacity (and average attendance of 96.73%) and fingers crossed an increased capacity will give us self sustainability a la Al Ahly (after we somehow repay the stadium debt).
That said I'm expecting the board to scrap the plans citing a lack of funds.
There was also the CAF YPoTY award (the PoTY has none of our guys so fuck that):
Nice... Shows the amount of potential this club could well have in the next few years - that said Abdel Kader won it a couple of years back and is still being completely ignored by the national setup.
Anyway:
Not bad, given he was always Ibrahim's deputy on the right wing.
#287464 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty