Comeback!
Big Match Against León
RSL in the WSL Part 35
Our December to Remember continues with another big match – this time on the road against León, a team that is actually outside favorites to win the league. Predictably, nobody in the world is giving us a chance:
This gives us another 30 hour bus ride. I’m not sleeping, of course. I’m busy playing around with the players on my squad, going through scouting reports, and trying to figure out what in the world we can do to strengthen our defense.
There aren’t a whole ton of tactical surprises here – just the rotation that you would usually expect. Paredes and Okafor make a horrible midfield combination, but we’re going to have to stick with it if we want Shehu and Ørsahl to last the entire month. Zhang Shilin might not have impressed anybody so far, but he’s going to start in the back – we could use his height.
The Match
Man, oh man, it’s matches like this that will give you those grey hairs.
We fell behind early, but then were able to surprise everybody with a goal by Tonin on a breakaway 30 minutes in. And then both teams started hitting the post left and right.
The penalty that was called against us near the beginning of the second half was pretty ridiculous, in my opinion. I agree with the media sentiment above – it looks like the referee was just a tad biased in his decision making today.
Never in my life, though, did I think that Lundqvist would be the one to tie it back up. That’s why you stick your big boys down low for corners, folks. That was his first of the season – and hopefully not his last.
I’m not sure how we did it, but we managed to hold on, staving off all of Leon’s desperate attacks to tie it in the end, 2-2. It might just be one point, but we could use all the points we can get.
Analysis
I suppose this was an ugly draw, but I think we did well, all things considering. As these youngsters become more accustomed to playing together, you’ll see our shots on target continue to slide upwards. I’m not so concerned about the high numbers of fouls or the low amount of possession. As long as we’re scoring goals, I’m perfectly fine with those numbers as they stand.
Not a great game from Okafor, though. I might need to reconfigure our midfield.
Great games for Lundqvist, Tonin, and Ørsahl, who came off the bench to play on the unfamiliar right side. It was a good match all around, though I was a bit frustrated that Sabangeanu didn’t have any of his patented Hail Mary passes to our pacy strikers.
I don’t think that the xG here accurately reflects how the match was played. You be the judge – go up and watch the video and let me know what you think.
Schubert deserves to be in the Team of the Week – I think he should be the starting goalkeeper. It’s also a real surprise to see Rodriguez make it, since he was in the Reserves just a few weeks ago.
Standings
We’ve climbed up to 20th place now, and are a full 4 points clear of the red zone. If we can string together a win or two, we might find ourselves in the 15th to 16th place zone before long. Houston looks simply awful, and we know first-hand how bad Dallas, Toluca, and Pumas are. With a little bit of luck and some good performances from our upcoming new arrivals, we might wind up with a respectable finish after all.
As I alluded to above, León are potentially in a position to compete for the league title. They’ve got 4 games in hand and are currently in 6th position. Today’s result was nothing to scoff at, folks. This is a vast improvement from what we saw just a few games ago.
Football Manager News
Wainosoren brings us an accurate update for Basque Country.
Luther7b has published a Luxembourg lower league addon.
Blog Roundup
KingOfTheRooks brings us more fun with Championship Manager 97/98.
Football Manager Addict plays with a European Super League database. Word to the wise: World Super League is much better.
FMBlog gives us FM23 wonderkids with release clauses to look for.
Finally, Daniel Gear brings us a Season 1 review with Almeria.
Channel Watch
FM Scout gives us some under 18 wonderkids for the future. Or, if you’re crazy like me, for the present.
CaptainGoodspeed is having success with Leeds.
FM DNA brings us the red card episode.
It’s the first match in CraigsFM’s journeyman series.
Anderzbaz Gaming is already having success with Atlas.
Shaun Does FM is in the race for the playoffs.
FM GNG has built a very good squad.
It’s time for a transfer experiment with The Flying Scotsman.
Oisty FM brings us derby time with Norwich.
Jay Edworthy’s Forest Green Rovers were battered by Portsmouth.
Loki Doki is turning things around in Ghana.
Omega Luke teaches us how to find NewGens in Football Manager.
WorkTheSpace is turning things around tactically.
Similarly, Lollujo has destroyed his tactics… twice, actually.