RSL in the WSL Part 19

St Pauli

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RSL in the WSL Part 19

It’s time for our Super League Cup appearance.  This is the World Super League’s take on England’s League Cup.  We’re expected to reach the second round, which I really doubt will happen.

This cup matches together all the Super League 1 teams.  The draw has us facing St. Pauli:

St. Pauli are dead last in the Bundesliga, mostly because they aren’t blessed with the legendary players that the rest of the teams have.  They were able to beat Karlsruhe, which is saying something; however, I don’t see them avoiding relegation.

As for us – well, I’ll be happy if we manage to score a goal.  I’m worried about morale, and I’m worried about how all the losses are starting to mount up.  It’s time for us to turn our season around, and I certainly hope we have it in us today.

Match Preview

We’re underdogs, even at home.  No news there.

It’s interesting to see that we’re looking at another sellout – and that about 1,200 fans are going to make the trip from Hamburg.

This was an interesting headline to read.  I really hope we see more from Munoz, and wonder if it wouldn’t be wise to start him here.

Holm was injured in training, which really is going to deal a blow to our chances.  Both Fonseca and Rigazzi are out, too, which means it’s youth time.  Let’s see what I can come up with.

Tactics

After a bit of pushing around, I came up with this somewhat injured squad.

We could technically start Holm, but we’re going to give the kid a chance instead.  We’ve got another kid waiting in the wings in case it doesn’t work out.  I’d much rather give Holm a chance to rest for the season, which means a lot more to me than this draw.

Papazov is back in there, after my poetic waxing on about right backs the other day.  And, of course, Munoz is going to start after being called out in public like that.

Golubka gets the start at goal today.  I know what the star ratings say, but I am starting to wonder if he isn’t actually just as good as Schubert is today.  Let’s see what happens.

We’re back on television again – and in the evening this time to boot.  That means another fancy opening screen:

St. Pauli have come out in that Christmas Tree formation again:

First Half

Well, it didn’t start off all that well, yet again.  We gave up a goal off a corner in the 23rd minute, just as we always seem to do.  It might be time for me to look into effective corner defense routines.

That was it for the first half, thank goodness.  We weren’t as far behind as we could have been.

Second Half

Tonin came back for us in a big way.  Seconds after doing nothing with the ball in excellent position, he hit a great volley in the air to put us level in the 54th minute.

20 minutes later, Munoz had an excellent chance to put us ahead, but completely fanned on it.

I thought that he might try to redeem himself, but then our defense completely fell apart.

First came this horrible goal by St. Pauli in the 82nd minute.  This type of goal tells me that we need completely new central defenders.  There’s no excuse for that.

And then, seconds later, came an even worse goal to seal the deal.

And that was all the shouting.

Analysis

I know that it’s only a game, and I know that this blog is supposed to be for fun. However, I am seriously closer to rage quitting this save now than I think I’ve ever been on any save in the past.

I’m not sure what we can do, nor am I sure what we could have done differently from the start of the save.  This squad wasn’t exactly blessed with talent when I took over.  We have players with potential – but we’re seeing players who are simply giving up.  It’s not acceptable, and I’m really not sure that there are any in-game options that let me adequately express my frustration.

Fining players, talking with them strictly, and sending them down when they play poorly is an option, I suppose – but it seems to ring hollow in the face of what we’re up against here.  I wish I had a taser to zap them now and then.

Yeah, we came unstuck again.  Thanks.

I think most of those shots came within a 20-minute period of the 2nd half.  We did dominate possession, but that doesn’t mean anything.  We don’t know what to do when we have the ball.

Papazov looked horrible once again.  However, as you’ve seen in the replays above, I can’t really fault him for either of those second half goals.  Our central defenders did nothing, and the game really didn’t recognize their lack of effort.

Golubka played well, of course.  He had a number of excellent saves that I didn’t show you.

Tonin had his goal, and Lundqvist played well in defense.  Ørsahl and Shehu are both clearly excellent players, but both are coming off of recent injuries – I simply couldn’t take chances with them in such a meaningless cup game.

Munoz, by the way, was upset when I criticized him for his awful play.  I can’t fine him again, since I fined him for poor play in a recent game.  He’s been demoted to the under 18 squad, which means we’re searching for another young striker to take his place.  Both he and Mills are likely to never play for our first team again.

This is the same story we’ve seen time and time again.  We start off strong and then level out. I’m not sure what else to say here.

Again, I’m not sure why anybody had their hopes up for this match.  I just hope we can finally win another game, somewhere, somehow.