Ryan9 - Comments

Stop 5 - Luck Of The Irish

Right, lets jump straight in to the challenge. A pretty straight forward one looking through other peoples attempts!



We'll start with the Leinster Senior Cup, which overall didn't throw up a challenge, as we took victory in all 4 matches to win our first piece of silverware this season!



Unfortunately the same can't be said for the League Cup, where we crashed out the 2nd round to Shamrock Rovers.



Shamrock Rovers also gave us a scare in the Senior Challenge Cup when they held us to a 2-2 draw in the 2nd round, before I smashed them in the replay, on my way to winning another piece of silverware!





As for the league season, it was a bit of a walk in the park. Started off strongly, hit a bit of a rough patch in the middle of the season where it got tight at the top of the league, before we found form again and flew through the rest of the season!
So where did we finish?



A strong campaign saw us take the top spot. A successful season topped off with the title itself, after being pushed for most of the season in a tight battle with Dundalk, who eventually finished 3rd.




Fagan took both the Player of the Year and Golden Boot awards this season after a stunning campaign for himself, netting 31 times in 32 appearances!

Now for the points then!

League - Winners = 50 points
Senior Challenge Cup - Winners = 25 points
League Cup - 2nd Round = 0 points
Leinster Senior Cup - Winners = 15 points
Player Of The Year - Fagan = 5 points
Golden Boot - Fagan = 5 points
Beat Shamrock - 5 times = 25 points
Beah Bohemians - 3 times = 15 points

Total = 140 points

Ryan9s Attempt - Heading Down Under

I really didn't want to get caught up in transfer activity on this one as there seems to be so many rules, so I kept the squad the same. No buys, no sells ... So how did I get on?



We'll start with the FFA Cup, we won in the first leg 2-0 over lower league Lambton Jaffa, before being drawn against St. Albans Saints. An easy tie for us in which we walked out 3-0 winners. Green Gully would be our next opponents in another favourable draw, but this one didn't go our way. The lower league side beat us 1-0 in the quarter final!





Right, now for some league action! We were very rocky at the start, after winning the first couple we went downhill, ending up winning 3 and losing 3 of our first 6! Shortly after that we made huge improvements, going on an 8 game unbeaten streak, before we slipped again. The losses started to creep back in, and we found it hard to recover from there. Plenty of draws and losses that could have so easily have seen us take more points, but it wasn't to be!



A quick look at the league table confirms our 4th place finish. Joint on points with our rivals Melbourne Victory who finished in 3rd, and a point behind runners up Brisbane Roar. Adelaide United were the runaway winners in the end, with a 6 point cushion over 2nd.



Our 4th place finish the the league earned us qualification to the Hyundai Finals Series Elim. Final, where we faced Perth Glory once again. A tight encounter with 7 goals, as evenly shared as the could be, saw our campaign end. A blow for us, but Perth had won 4-3.

Points Breakdown

Hyundai A-League - 4th = 10 Points
Hyundai A-League Finals Series - Elimination Final = 0 Points
FFA Cup - Quarter Finals = 10 Points
Beat Melbourne Victory - 1 = 5 Points
Challenge Total = 25 Points

A poor points total, but I'm glad that one is over. Unfortunately there was no enjoyment in that one.

Ryan9s Attempt - The Leverkusen Curse (Season 2)



I kept the transfer pretty tame compared to some people, not wanting to overhaul the squad too much, as we had a fairly successful first season. Obviously Toprak left for £10.15 million, followed by Leon Baily for £5.75 million (£8 million) to RBL. The other main leaver from the club was Julian Baumgartlinger to Inter for £7.5 million.
Coming in we saw 2 main deals. Matija Nastasic for £15 million from Bundesliga rivals Schalke, along with Javier Pastore from PSG, a fine coup for us costing £14.25 million. Yaya Toure and Fernando Torres also joined us, both on a free, just to add some back up to the squad.



Next up, lets look at the Super Cup. A victory over last seasons Bundesliga champions FC Bayern. We went into know we could beat them, but we went a step further than that and trounced them! A huge 4-0 result to lift the silverware.




Onto the league campaign! We got off to a good start, not losing in our opening 6 matches, winning 4 and drawing 2 of those. Then it went downhill, rather quickly. Several losses started to creep in, and our morale was getting low. A run where we couldn't string 2 wins together really knocked us for the rest of the season. Something we never really recovered too well from. The second half of our season was better, however, it wasn't good enough to see us match last seasons successes. We fell 13 points short of last seasons points tally. Pretty disappointing to say the least.



The poor runs of results were always going to leave it tough to get a decent finish. There was no title fight for us like the previous year. Infact, we were fighting to hold onto 3rd place.Dortmund ended up champions, 3 points ahead of Bayern, before 9 point gap between Bayen and ourselves. Another top 4 finish was not a terrible result though, but we know we could've gone a lot further.



The German Cup saw us easily through the first 2 rounds, beating Wurzburg 3-0 and then Bielefeld 2-0. From there it got a bit tougher. A 3-2 win over Bremen in the 3rd round kept us in the cup. Hamburg were our quarter final opponents, who we beat 3-2 after extra time toset up a tie vs Wolfsburg in the semi final. We were denied a final appearance by a 90th minute equalizer, as we battled away with 10 men due to an injury after our subs had been used. Into extra time we went, and we just didn't have it in us to beat the hosts. We went 2 down before grabbing a consolation goal to finish 4-3.



We faced a tough Champions League group, after being drawn with Barcelona, Inter and Feyenoord. We opened with a 2-0 defeat to Feyernoord, before beating Inter in Germany 2-1 to get our first points. Next up, Barcelona visited us. A close game, but we blew a 2-0 lead to end up losing 3-2. 3 big points wasted! The return leg went as horribly as possible Aranguiz got sent off in the 9th minute, before we went on to lose 8-1 to the Spanish giants, with Luis Suarez scoring all 8! We recovered from the to beat Feyenoord 4-2 at home and Inter 1-0 in Italy. We finished 2nd, and earned ourselves a very tough tie vs Real Madrid. A positive goalless draw at home in the first leg gave us hope that we could snatch the tie with an away goal. But it wasn't to be. The 2nd leg ended in a 5-1 defeat, and that was the end of the road for us in Europe this season.


Points Breakdown

Bundesliga - 3rd = 15 Points
German Cup - Semi Final = 15 Points
German Super Cup - Winners! - 10 Points
Champions League - First Knockout Round = 5 Points
Beat Bayern - 2 = 10 Points
Beat Koln - 2 = 10 Points
Beat BMG - 1 = 5 Points
Challenge Total = 70 Points

Season 1 - 55 Points
Season 2 - 70 Points
The Leverkusen Curse Total - 125 Points!

Ryan9s Attempt - The Leverkusen Curse (Season 1)




Right, lets just get straight into this with the league results. As you can see it was a rocky start. We'd have a couple of wins, then lose, and then win a couple, then lose again. We couldn't keep our momentum going, which early on was a real worry. However, we went on to lose to BVB 3-1, dissapointingly as we played well, but this kick started us onto a great run of results! A win over Bundesliga favourites FC Bayern started the run in November, then a lose to them stopped our 17 league game unbeaten run in April. A couple of wins, a draw and a defeat on the final day wrapped the season up for us ... So with those results, how did we place come the end of season?



Disappointingly, it left us in 2nd place. Whilst 2nd is better than I had expected pre-season, I say that we 'disappointingly' finished there because going into the final match we were in control. A point ahead of FC Bayern going into it, however our final day defeat was costly, as FC Bayern went on to record a 1-0 win to clinch a closely fought title. I'm still pleased to have finished 2nd in my first season, hopefully next season we can push on and topple them.



The German Cup saw us start against Unterhaching, who we disposed of 2-0. Next round we faced Dusseldorf, and again an easy progression through! Next stop, Hertha. A stronger side than the previous 2 rounds, and this showed. A late equalizer for us manager to take it to extra time, before a 120th minute goal from Chicharito saved us from going to penalties.
The Quarter Final saw us face Stuttgart, and they took the game to us, behind by 2 early on we changed it up a bit to try and get back into the game. 2-1 at the break, game on! We sent more and more forward but we couldn't get the equalizer. They stunned us on the counter attack to book their place in the next round, a disappointing exit for us here.



The Champions League Group Stage saw us draw with Dynamo Kyiv, Benfica and Astra Giurgiu. A thrilling opening game saw us beat Kyiv 4-3. Second game a tough fought 1-0 defeat at home to Benfica, the toughest of our opponents in this group. Next up we played Astra Giurgiu twice, winning 2-0 away and 1-0 back in Germany. Another high scoring game with Kyiv followed, but this time we were on the wrong end of it. A thriller for the neutrals saw us lose 5-4! Finally our trip to Portugal to face Benfica, where a 2-0 win saw us finish 2nd in the group the our opponents. I was optimistic with the draw against Napoli. First leg they came to us, where we only drew 2-2 in a game we should've won. In Italy it was a completely different story, and a much tougher game. Napoli ran out 3-0 winners, making it 5-2 on aggregate as we were eliminated in the First Knockout Round!



After a great performance from my team throughout the season, and norrlowly missing out on being crowned champions, I was named Manager Of The Year!



The German Footballer Of The Year went to our man who was so deadly infront of goal, Chicharito. A well deserved award for the Mexican man!

Points Breakdown

Bundesliga - 2nd = 15 Points
German Cup - Quarter Final = 10 Points
Champions League - First Knockout Round = 5 Points
Beat Bayern - 1 = 5 Points
Beat Koln - 1 = 5 Points
Beat BMG - 1 = 5 Points
Manager Of The Year = 5 Points
German Footballer Of The Year = 5 Points
Challenge Total = 55 Points

Wilc94s Attempt - Susie On Tour- #1 Stop The Drop

First up, lets meet the man who's handed the challenge of saving the sinking ship.



Ryan Wilcox, a man who meets the required specifications, but could a rookie manager like himself really complete the task in hand? The inexperienced manager had no dealings in the transfer window, with the intention of trying to get the squad bonded, without upsetting it any further.



As you can see, I had a real struggle to get things going, taking 8 Premier League matches before I managed a single point! 4 more league games then passed, with 4 more defeats. A depleted team, doomed to go down, and there seemed nothing I could do to prevent it. Finally, a bit of light in there, my 13th Premier League game, and finally my first win, against Everton. Would this prove to be the turning point? A fight back from 2 down against West Ham to save a point had me thinking it could be, we could possibly pull out a miracle here. Then we proceeded to lose the next match to a struggling Boro. The 2-1 loss was enough for the Sunderland board, it was time to get rid!

However, looking back at the fixtures, by some miracle we put together an FA Cup run. We smashed out way past Reading before blowing a 3 goal lead against Fulham as they took us to a replay. After a long struggle against the Championship outfit we managed to break through, and hold our lead to get into the next round, where we'd face Chelsea. Havoc inside 13 minutes saw us level at 2-2, but with the clock running out we snatched a late winner! Who saw that coming?! Next up, West Brom. A goalless draw saw us through 120 minutes of action, before we booked our place in the next round with a 3-1 penalty shootout win. But for me, that was the end of the road. A valiant cup run, that I would play no further part in.



Expected, and inevitable. A very poor showing in the league meant this was a long time coming. Just shy of 4 months in charge is where my challenge end.



And confirmation of the league table as I leave it. The loss to Boro was the game that sent us down, and ultimately ended my reign here. A challenge much harder than I had anticipated. Anyway, onwards to the points scoring ...

Points Breakdown

Premier League - 20th - Relegated = -25 Points
FA Cup - 6th Round = 20 Points
Sacked! = -25 Points
Challenge Total = -30 Points

June - 2022



We started June with our first league defeat of the season. 1-0 to Prottur R. A disappointing result for us!
We bounced straight back with a 3-0 win over Afturelding. Magnusson scored twice in three minutes of the second half, and Hjaltason rounded off the scoring.
BI/Bolungarvik also suffered a 3-0 defeat to us. Magnusson again opened the scoring. Einarsson scored a brace before the break to ensure the points.
A 3-1 win over Vikingur O. in the Icelandic Cup was just what we were after. Bjornsson netted in the first half for us, before Einarsson scored twice in the second half to send us through to the quarter finals.
Our fourth win on the bounce followed as we overcame HK. They played the final fifteen minutes of the game with ten men, and we took advantage of that in the dying seconds. Guomundsson scoring extremely late on to snatch the win.
A shock defeat to Tindastoll bought our winning streak to an end. Reliable striker Einarsson once again on the scoresheet, but it wasn't enough as we'releft to rue the two goals we had ruled out for offside.
We rounded off the month with a win. Guomundsson fired us ahead of Vikingur R. after just six minutes. Einarsson scored his sixth goal this month to send us to victory.



As expected we continue to lead the way at the top of the table, and with ten games gone, it's really starting to take shape now! Just two defeats and one draw means we've won the other seven. Five points is the gap over second place, while we're eight points ahead of third! A fantastic first half to the season!



Clyde invited me for an interview. Predicted second in the Scottish First Division, it would be a tempting offer if I was unemployed. However, I've got my task set ahead of me here in Iceland, and I'm not moving until it's done!



Accrington Stanley also offered me an interview this month. Predicted to finish rock bottom of League Two in England. There was never any interest for me in this post, so I swiftly declined the offer.