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#287454 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#287433 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#287427 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#287408 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#287406 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#287395 The TV Thread
Eric Portapotty
#287243 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
I'll get to the Champions League in a bit, but first, the league:
El Ashri cut a frustrated figure as our attack's focal point, so when Farouk scored an absolute fluke from out wide on the right I went 'Fuck it', hauled El Ashri off and shifted Farouk up top.
It turned out that (surprise surprise) pace on the break is very useful against teams chasing a deficit, so Farouk did just that.
We seemed to be much more interested in defending a lead than looking to extending it, which we eventually did - barely.
They scored with their 1st effort on goal, we make an instant reply with ours.
We then tore them too shreds on the counter (which is what happens when your striker is in midfield apparently) but just couldn't score more than a single goal before they levelled going into the break.
2nd half was an extremely frustrating one, we broke in usual fashion but took far too many of our shots outside the box when the players clearly had a load of space for them to run further into their half.
Had to get through a period of uncomfortable defending, but it was us who finally broke through and earn a harder-than-expected 3 points.
Wasn't expecting to get a win here, Wadi Degla might have not much to show for but they do have one of the league's best shotstoppers and have also frustrated s in previous encounters - so imagine my surprise when we managed to secure a comeback win.
Gamal ran the show - he was brought down for the penalty, his free kick hit the bar and Abdel Rahim converted the rebound, and his scored the 3rd.
Looks a decent prospect, eh?
Odd game, We looked dead and buried by the 30-minute mark before El Ashri gave us a lifeline.
Literally everything went to absolute pot after the interval - we'd managed to grab the lead with 2 goals in 5 minutes, El Ashri then fucked up with a backpass (FROM THE OPPONENTS' HALF) to restore parity, then further defensive chaos ensured we'd somehow come out of this game with 6 goals.
Both defences were absolutely wretched, even El Ashri would've been chastised if it hadn't been for his treble.
So we enter December with a 6-point lead at the top, a good gap but knowing us we'll blow it on the penultimate matchday.
Might sound like a worrywart here but the return fixture against Al Moqaoloun will have to be handled carefully, big teams don't like to get thumped.
So we're off to the CL finals - Having been in both group stage games by Orlando Pirates, how will we fare in the next 2 games?
A desperately disappointing performance - our early defending let us down yet again, while Ibrahim and El Ashri weren't able to replicate their form for the national team to the club side.
An away goal from Gamal keeps our hopes alive.
Well they were alive, up to the eve of the 2nd leg:
That's 6 players gone (including Salah Amin who - lo and behold - has recovered just in time for the internationals), what briliant scheduling.
As good as Farouk is he was never going to be as clutch as El Ashri or Ibrahim (though they've proved otherwise anyway), and when we flapped at another clearance it was curtains.
Damning to realise that we really do have a mental block against Orlando, and even more so at the fact that this could well have been our only shot at the CL - it's not like another CL group stage spot will fall on our feet next year.
#287231 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#287220 standard colours for flavoured crisps
Eric Portapotty
#287187 Newcastle Thread
Eric Portapotty
#286771 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
Very solid win, El Ashri with 2 early goals.
Now this was a rollercoaster - a start so bad you can't imagine, followed by getting one back, before we really turned on the screws in the 2nd half.
Doesn't help Mehdat Mostafa's job one bit - there've been murmurs before the game, and this reversal wouldn't have helped.
Solid win, took quite a while for us to finally get one in, but when we got into our groove there was no stopping us.
Emam took quite a bit of a knock which unfortunately for him would rule him out for a couple of important games.
Rested the regulars for this game, always a riskk when Dmamhour had Mr. Segun Uche up top - blessed with height, speed and no shortage of poaching ability he was always going to get a goal or two.
Fortunately we were the luckier side on the night, 2 long rangers and a cock-up of an OG.
Back to within reach of the top, Tersana tripping up giving us that opportunity.
most importantly is the potential to keep the distance against the sides 3rd and below, to have a grip on the CL spots.
On to the CL semi finals - let's see what we can do against the defending champions:
Wow, one of our best performances ever, more so considering our opposition and the importance of this tie.
We rained hell upon CRB at the start, El Ashri and Ibrahim both scoring braces in the 1st 20 minutes to put the tie shockingly early to bed (or so it seemed anyway).
A few more plundered in and a consolation in the 2nd half ensured one of our greatest wins in the competition.
A few negatives though: Salah Amin hurt himself pretty badly and is effectively ruled out for the rest of the tournament, and the attendance figure was also pretty disappointing - this is probably the biggest stage the club's ben in for goodness sake, if you could fill the stadium (17075) against Al Ahly why not here?
Anyway, with the tie effectively in the bag I decided to rest a number of key players, mostly to prevent them from incurring another yellow and getting suspended from the final.
Well:
Never, ever take progression for granted.
The 1st half was business as usual, we attacked more but meekly failed to put the ball into the back of the net.
The we came out for the 2nd half and CRB played like men possessed, scoring with effectively every attack.
Wael El Sayed was an absolute atrocity at leftback, Adama Yao didn't do himself any favours either, and Abdel Latif spoke a few to many choice word and was promptly dismissed, making our job harder than ever.
Thank fuck then that as soon as the 5th went in they seemed to throw away their shoooting boots and we (SOMEHOW) went through to the final - cue (THOROUGHLY UNDESERVED) celebrations.
Why the fuck is their gaffer scolding them? They won 5-0 for fuck's sake.
Me? I gave them a deserved rollicking, put it that way.
So we meet our nemesis yet again, after they wrecked TP Mazembe in the other semi.
They's arguably odds on to win the whole thing, not least because of our 2nd leg 'performance', and also due to injuries to both Amin and Emam.
#286751 What's the last thing you bought thread
Eric Portapotty
#286381 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
Glad for him, seriously needs the confidence.
#286380 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#286363 What's the last thing you bought thread
Eric Portapotty
#286195 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
A comfortable start against a side who had shocked Al Ahly 2-0 - their only win so far too.
A disappointing effort in our first real test, shooting was subpar as usual, but it wasn't helped by Tersana taking out 2 of our key players inside 30 minutes.
Never truly got going, and paid for it against the 10 men.
Still licking our wounds from our 1st loss in the league, we looked set to suffer another when El Gouna took a very early lead, then retook it after we equalised.
Luck was on our side this time, a controversial penalty in our favour.
El Ashri, despite scoring and winning the penalty, missed a great few chances - still not up to scratch.
Fortunately for us Tersana suffered a shock 6-2 thumping at Masr El Makasa, which let us keep pace with the league leaders.
Need El Ashri to rediscover his scoring touch, a regular goalgetter can only help, as he shown in his title-winning campaign.
Alger got torn a new one at home by Sfax (7-3), and another thumping at our hands ensured a premature end to their qualification hopes.
El Ashri showed there's still a world-beater in him with 2 goals and an assist.
Orlando beat Sfax 2-0 in the group's other game, so:
Been a great campaign, we've showed that we can slug it out with the big boys with our firepower.
Only problem definitely is our streak against Orlando, if it's now a mental block then we could have serious problems should we get to the final and meet them.
The last group game offered a chance to grab top sport (should Orlando somehow lose to Alger), but with qualification already settled this was an opportunity to ensure that no one got suspensions for accumulating yellows.
Outplayed here, not the best performance.
Orlando beat Alger anyway, so it didn't matter.
Semifinals pits us with defending champions CRB Ain Fakroun - they've undergone some asset stripping without signing replacements, but if they could make it to straight semis they're definitely a side of considerable calibre regardless.
Still, I like our chances - on our day we've shown that we can outplay anyone.
#286140 In Pursuit Of The American Dream
Eric Portapotty
-Niigata Unicorn are actually a feeder team of Albirex Niigata in the J-League (Unicorn due to licensing shit) so they only have Japanese players.
They're mediocre IRL though, shouldn't be dominating.
-Singapore Lions (Lions XII) are the de facto Singapore NT, our FA decided a couple of years ago to send them there presumably for them to train as a unit fr the benefit of the NT - arguably failed in that respect though.
-Lots of foreign teams past and present here - Harimau Muda are Malaysia's U19 squad, while DPMM (of Steve Kean fame) are from Brunei.
Used to have plenty of Chinese feeder teams (almost always controversial), a French team and even one exclusively African.
-Virtually no transfer fees IRL here.
-We're dogshit.
KUTGW though, let's see if you can leave even the slightest mark in the ACL
#286130 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#285972 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
I put out a weakened squad to face Ismaily, and damn nearly paid for it.
Aziz Amer is turning out to be a nifty understudy to Mabrouk, now if only he'd only agree to be tutored by him.
Obvious (BLATANT) refereeing bias aside, We were again very wasteful in front of goal in the 1st half, El Ashri a particular culprit.
We did eventually find our goals though, on the way to a deserved victory.
Another B-ish team, though we did start very well this time, even if the majority of the 2nd half didn't exactly make for comfortable watching.
El Ashri came on as a late sub and missed a sitter, yet to open his league account - slightly worrying.
Abdel Rahim staking his claim for a starting berth here, and with El Ashri not firing on all cylinders he might just have a chance.
4 wins from 4, despite juggling the CL and unconvincing performances - I'm sure we can pull away once we can focus fully on the league and El Ashri finds back his scoring touch (though it is every only an 'if' at this point).
Champions League - Group A:
The opening period was a shambles - we couldn't play ourselves out of our own half and were dominated by Alger.
We eventually got going and won a corner (which El Sayed scored from) then Ibrahim scored a sublime chip that sent us into the interval with an unlikely parity.
Another 2 goals off corners and Ibrahim's second later, and we manage to find ourselves on the cusp of a famous win - top, top work by the team.
I asked for revenge for the team, and we still couldn't quite get it - seems like we've got quite the mental block against them Pirates, not ideal.
I'm tampted to say that we only need a win (or 2 draws?) to secure our semifinal spot, but Definitely need Alger and Sfax to stay away.
The best case scenario is for them to draw, leaving us a buffer over them.
We end off with a deadline day deal:
Can I just say, we totally robbed them - he wasn't doing very well for some time now (his crossing not doing as much as I'd hoped) and him being stuck on 2-star mean that cashing in was a no-brainer.
Furthermore with a guy like him waiting in the wings there's just no way to lose.
In fact Al Moqaoloun seem to have realised they's bought the wrong RB and made an even later bid for Ragab that day
#285893 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
If Gab was going to be sent off/banned I'd rather he have Costa feel a couple of studs to the foot.
#285457 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
I'll shove it right up his candy ass tbh.
#285456 Addickted To Winning (A Charlton story) IIIIIIIIIIII
Eric Portapotty
#285434 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#285324 [FM14] Pentagon - Redux
Eric Portapotty
Entered the group stages of the CL, and we get this? Bollocks.
We're still a couple of million in the black, but I'm not expecting it to last the season.
Unusually, the rest of the sugar daddy clubs don't seem to have as much of a financial situation as we do - either the owners are still pumping loads of cash into the clubs or we're just shit at money.
Underperformed despite being little more than a midtable club, Haras El Hodoud seem to have been spoiled by the previous season's relative success.
Should've been Zamalek, I guess for them genuine underachievement at this point is relegation it seems.
I dread the day he retires.
Though it really shouldn't have been him by the looks of it anyway, Mahmoud Ibrahim tore shit up last season and would've got the award had he been at any other club.
Case in point.
Our capacity is 17075, so we're pretty damn near to maxing that out.
Unfortunately we're unable to expand the stadium (not ours) and it's obviously idiotic to build a new ground with our current state of finances.
Transfers now:
Abdel Rahman's a youth LB who has great potential, but with 2 LBs already established at the club having him sitting at third choice wouldn't be good for his development anyway.
Money's pretty good as well, as usual.
Khalifa will get games at Haras El Hodoud, Adel gets yet another loan while he runs his time down at the club and retires, and for some reason TP Mazembe was willing to give Alhassan game time.
Cheikh Diouf goes on another loan, this time to newly promoted Ligue 1 Bordeaux - not bad, already scored in his debut.
You'll also notice that Petrojet took two of my guys on loan, oh how the tables turn.
Despite justifiably selling Abdel Rahman cover was definitely needed especially when looking back at last season's injury hell.
Could be cheaper, but he looks ready enough so he'll do.
Clean sweep, but slight concerns over the form of a couple of men.
The Kafr game was also a testimonial for their veteran CB - won MoM as well, nice touch.
Onto the CL GROUP STAGE:
Not a good return, and yet another reversal against Orlando.
Tried to contain their midfield but we were always on the back foot.
THAT'S MORE LIKE IT
Completely dominated proceedings, and if not for some poor decision making in front of goal (and plain poor finishing) we'd have a more comfortable time than having to defend a 1-goal lead.
It's arguable whether Orlando is the best team in this group, but what matters is they do have 6 from 6 so far.
Next up is MC Alger at home, need to make sure that we can wrap that up.
Back home we had the seasonal curtain-raiser:
Again the forwards were poor, but at least we were on top for the 1st half, up till Mabrouk's opener.
After Darwish equalised it was all downhill - we tired, they got chances, and with so many yellows we couldn't get at them as we'd have liked.
Then it came to penalties - Abdel Latif missed the 1st, and what a pity it was - all subsequent pens were well taken, leaving us with only a best losers tag.here.
#285297 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
Was about to say tbh, but I wouldn't put it past Verse given the stuff he's had here.
#285293 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#285291 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#285288 2015/16 Barclays Premier League Thread
Eric Portapotty
#285221 The Italian Football Thread
Eric Portapotty
wtf
#285157 2015/16 Champions League
Eric Portapotty
It's really sad to see him so devoid of confidence, if he'd put in one of those headers it'd been a weight off his shoulders.
Unfortunately Wenger's trusting a player who doesn't even trust himself now, but Giroud's not helping himself by being a whiny little shit every time he gets tackled and kicking out at others in frustration.