The Official Game Status Update Thread

[Flo]

lol I'll bring my career team and then we'll play

[Nentsia]

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Blacs and I were for once finally evenly matched. He was AS Monaco, and I was Inter Milan. Although we could do only two matches, both were almost identical, fairly balanced, and both ended in 1-1. Blac fielded his usual 4-2-3-1, agressive pressure and attacking down the wings. I, of course, did not deploy my usual 5-3-2, because it has only 2 players on the wings while Blac's formation has 4, and actively exploits that numerical advantage. Instead I opted for what many managers consider the most solid defensive formation: 4-4-2. Its old-school, perhaps even a bit boring, predictable, but it can be quite effective.

My aim was to do as an Italian would do when facing an opponent like Blac. That means get rid of my 5-3-2 dogma, and try to come up with something clever. I wasn't too clever, otherwise I might have won. Clever enough not to lose however (yay for me!). I focussed on neutralizing Blac's attacks down the wings, and actually exploiting the forced errors of his wingers. So everytime his central midfielders searched for the winger, it opened up the opportunity for my team to intercept the pass and react with a counter attack.

The first game got off quite hilariously. Monaco's striker hit the crossbar, the ball dropped dead on the goalline and the Inter players shielded it as the goalkeeper jumped on it before someone's toe pushed it over the line. A few minutes later, as Monaco failed to capitalize on a 100% scoring chance, one of Monaco's defenders passed it back to the goalkeeper but it was too short. Mauro Icardi (Inter) intercepted it and scored. Suddenly, all the luck was on my side. But it was all the luck I had for that game. Two minutes later Monaco striker Carrillo (also an Argentine btw) benefitted from poor marking and scored from a cross.

After that there were very little scoring chances, very little highlights, and the game ended in a draw. The bulk of ball posession was for Monaco (60%), but that was also partly a deliberate choice of my team, which was happy to sit back and remain compact. I deliberately positioned my 4-4-2 in such a manner that it could rapidly switch from passive defense into a fast attack, and there were 2 or 3 really dangerous moments when an interception near the wings was very quickly transformed into offense. On one occasion, this put Icardi 1v1 with the goalkeeper, but that fool fired it right into the keeper's hands. As I said, I had used all my luck already for that game. For me, this is the kind of football I want to see from my teams. I want to see a team that is in control; a team that is defensively so well-organized that it does not ~need~ to chase the ball, a team that can play patiently in ball posession, and a team that can be deadly in the transitions.

In the second match it was Blac's Carrillo who scored after like 5 minutes. It was an easy goal: a cross to the first post, low, Carrillo put his foot against the ball and it ended in the goal. I guess the defenders weren't awake yet. Twenty minutes later, out of nothing, a free kick of my Inter lands before the feet of Eder in the middle of Monaco's penalty box. The goalkeeper was out of position, and it was an easy finish for Eder. 1-1 again. For the rest of the match, pretty much nothing noteworthy  happened - maybe some missed scoring chances for Monaco. My team was not having as many fast transitions as in the previous game, but there wasn't much to do about that. It might have something to do with the fact that they were having more ball posession (51%). Maybe Blac scaled down the intensity of his team's pressing, or it was the effect of my team sitting back to a slightly lesser extent, which led to a more balanced game - but also with less spaces to attack into for both teams.

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The statistics of both games

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Icardi intercepting and scoring


Monaco answers


Inter dangerous in the transition


Another dangerous situation

[Flo]

You watched my shitty bolton 4-4-2 do somewhat well and adapted that?

[Blacaria]

When do you do these screenis brah :O

[Nentsia]

You watched my shitty bolton 4-4-2 do somewhat well and adapted that?

Or your shitty Bolton copied my earlier 4-4-2's >

When do you do these screenis brah :O

I made these picturez when I re-watched the highlights of the game. I'm not actually documenting every minute of the game while we play

[Nentsia]

Look at my Empoli (white shirts) completely parking the bus after an early goal against Genoa, supposedly a bigger team than mine. My Empoli is expected to finish 19th of the Serie A (20 teams), so I'm entirely justified to employ this form of trench warfare. I must admit that I've never played so defensively before in the game. Look at those 7 defending players on a line and still 2 in front of it. Genoa was playing in a 3-4-3 formation, I opted for a flat 5-4-1 for that reason. Due to my rigid man-marking instructions my formation would often morph into something like a 7-2-1 though.

[Nentsia]

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11 Machiavelli's vs Inter Milan

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I decided to continue a bit with my season with AC Milan, which is near to its end and my team is leading in the Serie A, followed by Inter Milan and Juventus. The first time I faced my big rival from Milan this season, the game ended in 1-1. I was not to happy about that result since it was a home match for me, which means Inter managed to snag a point at my home. The bookmakers predicted a big win chance for Inter Milan in the next game. More importantly however, Inter is also my only remaining rival for the Serie A title (Juventus is too far behind). Even much more important: if I win this game, AC Milan wins the Serie A title. The entire season compressed in this single Milanese city derby. The Gods wanted it to be this way.

The Great Red Wall vs The Great Blue Wall

One thing my AC Milan and Mancini's Internazionale have in common this season is that they owe their success to their solid defenses. AC Milan conceded only 10 goals throughout the season so far, and Inter Milan only 19. Inter is the most scoring team of the Serie A with 61 goals, and my team ranks 3rd in that department with 53 goals. Before the game, both my goalkeeper and Inter's goalkeeper had an impressive streak of clean sheets behind their name.

Throughout the season, Inter Milan usually employed its 4-1-2-3 formation, making use of its fast wingers and the deadly Mauro Icardi as a lone striker in the centre. In midfield, typical for Mancini, they deployed a bunch of bone-crunching defensive midfielders along with one guy who knows what to do with the ball. My AC Milan adhered to Machiavellianism this season: the team could be a ''fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten off wolves''. My formation was determined by my opponent to a large degree. Usually, I employed a 4-1-2-3, or a 5-3-2, 4-3-1-2 or 4-4-2. The game before I beat Genoa while deploying a 3-5-2 that pressed in midfield, and for the big Finale of the season I opted to adapt again to the all-too predictable formula of Mancini. I mirrored his 4-1-2-3 in order to neutralize it. Mancini also made all kinds of nasty comments in the press about me (he is one of my greatest haters), so I responded by saying all kinds of respectful stuff about the guy.

My 4-1-2-3 differed from Mancini's in one crucial aspect. My version was only a 4-1-2-3 on paper, but in reality it was a completely reactive formation that adapted itself on the pitch to the movements of Inter Milan. The full-backs tracked Inter's wingers, Romagnoli (my tallest central defender) had the task to mark Icardi ''from the dressing room to the parking lot'', my own wingers were ordered to stick to Inter's wing-backs; and the team as a whole was instructed to drop deep and stay close to its own goal - luring Inter Milan forward while giving away no vulnerable spaces. Montolivo was designated as the Director of the team: I glued him to his position in front of the defense, and ensured that all defenders gave him the ball and that he was the only player on the team allowed to send long passes forward.

Inter dominates the opening phase

The first 20 minutes belonged to Inter Milan. Inter managed to get some first shots on goal and a corner kick because confusion arose on my flanks as their wing-backs rushed forward while their wingers dropped deep. As Inter's winger dropped deep, he dragged my full-back out of position, after which Inter's wing-back would run into that space. My wingers did not stay close enough to them, allowing them to receive the pass and dribble into my penalty box to cause some panic. At the same time, my team was careless in ball posession. My wingers and lone striker stood isolated from eachother when in ball posession, making it almost impossible to advance much further beyond the half line.

The game started to improve for me when I made some defensive changes to keep the flanks closed, combined with instructing my wing-backs to provide more support on the wings to keep ball posession. Some crosses were delivered and the team got a corner kick. Inter Milan meanwhile struggled to find space to attack into, and occasionally had to watch out for my counter attacks. Schmid on the wing and Bacca roaming in the center preyed on every opportunity to receive the long ball when Inter was on my half with large numbers.

Late in the 1st half, my team assumed a little more ball posession. My midfielders, with Montolivo as the main playmaker, circulated the ball in Inter's half of the pitch, keeping posession, and patiently searching for space to open up. Cunning as eleven foxes they passed the ball around, horizontally, luring Inter Milan's impatient players to chase it, and then the space emerged on the left flank where Hector ran into. He received the pass, rushed into the side of the penalty box, sent the cross, perfectly placed in mid-air for Carlos Bacca to volley it past Handanovic. It was a beauty of a goal, after a long, patient attack. The best of it all was that it occurred in the 42nd minute, a perfect timing to take the lead. It makes it impossible for Inter to respond quickly because of half-time, and my team gets the chance to regroup and develop a strategy for the 2nd half.

Sabotaging the game

In the second half then, my job was to sabotage the game, frustrate the opponent, and to sit it out until the final whistle. Some nasty fouls were made on both sides, which was funny because every Inter player that got booked I instructed the team to provoke them specifically - hoping that a hot-headed idiot like Medel would take a red card. Machiavelli argued that if you want to be succesful, you will also need to know how to be cunning, and know how to use the opposite of virtue in order to master your fate so that fortune will befall on you. So my players turned malicious when they had too. From about the 65th minute they played with a bunker-mentality, keeping most players between the ball and my own goal. Yellow cards were taken, Schmid faked an injury to Inter's frustration, time was wasted, and Inter Milan could only come up with some distance shots out of sheer desperation.

In the final few minutes it did get tense and I decided to completely park a bus in front of my goal for the remaining minutes, but it was worth it. The game ended and my team won the derby with 0-1 and thereby winning the Serie A league title. They had not given away a single real scoring opportunity to Inter, and they struck at the most opportune moment to win the match. Critics labelled the match as boring, terrible to watch, and they found my team's performance unimpressive. Technically, it was a poor game. But there was a plan, and it was executed with success. Of course, after the game, Mancini had nothing good to say about me. But I could barely hear what he said under the loud congratulations of AC Milan legends such as Kaka, Ancelotti, and Marco van Basten.

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[Seperallis]

I love when a plan comes together.

[Nentsia]

Football Chess

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Immediately after the thriller against Inter Milan, my team had to face Juventus. For those who don't follow the Serie A - Juventus has dominated it for the past 5-6 years and remains by far the best team in the league. In my season, theyve had a lot of bad luck and are currently 3rd. Nevertheless, their team is qualitatively better than mine and they remain a dangerous opponent. In our first meeting during the season in Turin, my team won with 0-3, but the score is misleading. Juventus was much, much stronger, but my team stole the lead with a bit of luck. My team also received a penalty kick, if I remember correctly, and Juventus took 2 red cards if I'm not mistaken. The Gods favored me that day. In Italy, the referee is also one of the players on the pitch, and he plays for the highest bidder.

Cold War
Milan against Juventus is always a very tense game. These are the two biggest clubs of the country, and one could add that the cities they represent are also geographic rivals. In fact, these teams are so big, with such a rich history, that it was the Championsleague Final in 2003. My victory in Turin must have hurt badly, and with the season almost over, they had every reason to make revenge in Milan their number one priority for the remaining season. My team, having claimed the league title already in the previous match, is merely playing for its honor, one could call it a victory tour through the country. Nevertheless, losing at home against Juventus would put an ugly stain on this historical season, so I approached the game as seriously as I did against Inter Milan.

Italian football commentators such as Gianni Brera, and more recently Gianluca Vialli, once argued that Italy's obsession with defending was born out of a deep-rooted sense of insecurity, which had been formed over centuries of foreign invasions and domination (or more recently, Italy's military and economic backwardness in the 20th century). Such an insecurity helped to spread the defensive ''Catenaccio'' football throughout Italy in the 1950's - so goes the myth. There is some truth to it, perhaps, in the sense that the players who were part of the legendary Inter Milan during the 1960's, which conquered Europe with Catenaccio, later admitted they felt very insecure despite their succes. ''We felt the weight of the world on our shoulders and there was no outlet. None of us could sleep. I was lucky if I got three hours a night. All we did was obsess over the match and the Celtic players. Facchetti and I, late at night, would stay up and listen to our skipper, Armando Picchi, vomiting from the tension in the next room. In fact, four guys threw up the morning of the game and another four in the dressing room before going out on the pitch.''

To some degree, I can relate a bit to what Vialli calls the ''paranoia'' that pervades Italian football. The saying goes that ''fear has big eyes'', by which they mean that we tend to exaggerate danger and overlook the insecurity and fear that our enemies may have. I am perfectly capable of understanding that my AC Milan, on paper at least, is stronger than let's say Bologna. But when I actually have to face them in a game, tension grows and I start to worry that my players may have an off day, that Bologna does have dangerous players, and that I will look like a fool if they win, and how they probably have a sinister plan to lure me into a trap. This then justifies a cautious approach and careful preparation. Gianluca Vialli, and many other commentators, consider this mentality as the cause of why the Italian Serie A has become what Jose Mourinho called ''the tactical league''. Its not that they don't have tactics in other leagues, but in the Serie A, they take it to such extremes that every game is a tactical chess game. My fear of Juventus, and Juventus' fear of my team, ensured that our next meeting would become precisely that: a game of chess.

Massimiliano Allegri, the Juventus manager who hates me with every fiber in his body, began the opening move with psychological warfare directed at my players. I was too busy thinking of a method to thwart his 4-3-1-2 formation. The problem with teams playing 4-3-1-2 is that they have pretty much deployed the highest possible number of central midfielders, and are thus almost certain to dominate the central area of the pitch. I don't care much about midfield battles - ball posession is not my priority - but the central area is. If I surrender the central area to Juventus, it will become very difficult to defend against them. One solution could be to mirror Juventus and have equal numbers in central midfield. But I was convinced Juventus would try to control ball posession, and therefore press more than I was willing to, which would force my team to defend a lot. With only 2 central defenders, against 2 central strikers and an attacking midfielder, I found it too risky to defend in this formation.

The best way to ensure defensive security and to frustrate Juventus in midfield, I thought, would be a flat 3-5-2 formation.

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My back 3 would suffice against the 2 strikers of Juventus, 3 flat central midfielders to bother Juventus posession play, and 2 wingers with lots of space on the wing as Juventus lacked wingers. My 2 strikers would play 1v1 against Juventus' central defenders. In theory, my plan would work, but I will never know. Juventus had a little surprise for me.

Against my expectations, Juventus planned to field a 4-1-2-3 formation, as I did against Inter Milan. What worried me was that they deployed Kagawa and Cuadrado on the wings, and Morata in the centre. This meant that they had 3 very fast players, using the width of the pitch, against my narrow 3-man defense. I could not face Juventus this way and expect to do well. At the latest moment, I opted for an alternative. Ironically enough, I deployed the formation that I expected from Juventus; 4-3-1-2. If Juventus plays with only 1 central striker, I can play with 2 central defenders. And to thwart their wingers, I deployed real full-backs. I kept my 3 central midfielders and 2 strikers, to ensure it would be a difficult game for Juventus in case they might want to control ball posession.

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Opening Moves
Although I was playing a home game, I sticked with my plans to disrupt Juventus' posession-oriented playing style and focus on counter-attacks to create danger. Bonaventura played a key role in that. The defence was very organized and tasked with man-marking the front 3 of Juventus. The 3-man midfield had the role to shield the defence, stand in the way, disrupt the game and bother Pogba. Upon an interception then, every ball had to be sent to Bonaventura who would launch the strikers into space with penetrating passes. Juventus however, also played on the counter-attack and refused to let itself get drawn out much.

Juventus failed to build up well because once the ball reached my half, they had their passes frequently intercepted by my midfielders. Their wingers found themselves cut off from passes as they were permanently marked by my defenders. The frequent interceptions (reflected in the relatively low pass success rates) did not lead to very effective counter-attacks from my team, because Juventus did not give away much space. Suddenly, after 14 minutes, AC Milan scored. A counter-attack led to a corner kick. After a corner kick the ball landed before the feet of Andrea Bertolacci, who was waiting at the edge of the pentalty box. With a crushing shot he scored for my team. The game resumed its pace, and Juventus continued to struggle. They could not play through midfield, and there was no space for their counter-attacks either. My team continued to be dangerous on the break. In the 42nd minute, after a long time of ball circulation, my attackers and central midfielders began to tiki-taka their way through the Juventus defence. Bonaventura picked up a splendid through ball and scored - making the Juventus defenders look like a bunch of amateurs.

Leading by half-time with 2-0 and controlling the game like that was not something I had expected against Juventus. Everything was under control. The only downside was the fairly high amount of fouls on both sides and some yellow cards, but this was a consequence of telling the players to bite the ankles of their opponents in midfield. In the 60th minute, Buffon let loose of a free kick of my team, and it was Andrea Poli who got to the rebound and scored. With a 3-0 lead, things were getting humiliating for The Old Lady. Allegri switched his formation - probably thinking along the same lines I did, for he switched to 3-5-2 to stop my 4-3-1-2.

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With 3 central defenders, Juventus could better deal with my attacks, with a flat 3-man midfield they could duel with mine, and with 2 central strikers, they could create more trouble for my defence - which had until then not experienced any difficulties. The game changed immediately. Three minutes later, Hernanes scored a beautiful free kick; 3-1. Juventus began to dominate and press my team back. Their two central strikers began to pose a risk to my 2 central defenders. Meanwhile, fear began to take the upper hand again. A 3-1 lead in the second half might seem confident, but a good team like Juventus could easily make 3-2. This would put them right back in the game, and even give them the momentum to make a late equalizer. A comeback to 3-3 from 3-0 in my home stadium would be a tremendous moral victory for Juventus. So I replaced my booked players with some fresh players, instructed the team to remain deep and take no risk anymore, and waste time until the final whistle. The match ended in 3-1, and the media praised the cold efficiency of my players. ''Cold'' they say. They should've seen how badly I shit my pants for Juventus. Maybe my players don't though.

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AC Milan on the counter-attack in the 54th minute

[Seperallis]

If you can't see what's going on, click the pictures. I resized them to not stretch things.

So I was playing Superpower 2 as Afghanistan. The Taliban were in charge, so I'm obviously playing at them. It took me maybe 20 years to get Afghanistan to a place where it wouldn't be considered a backwater, with a functioning military. We had free demonstrations, a free press, a multi-party democracy, good relations with "the West"...things were kind of alright. The Taliban are a legitimate regime that serves the good of the people, after all.

Of course, if I wanted a "legit" game, I'd continue my campaign for world peace as China. No, I had a different purpose for Afghanistan, one that would be much more dangerous and difficult. You see, over the course of several decades, I'd been preparing for this day. Nations didn't like me for it at first, but eventually they forgot, they grew comfortable with our stable, amicable regime. In time, everything returned to normal.

Then, sometime around mid-year, 2058 AD, the Valkyries rode forth.



I call this next one, "The Hubris of Man."



Afghanistan struck first, with no warning and seemingly with no real purpose to their action. Nearly two thousand nuclear-tipped intercontinental warheads streaked from their tubes deep in the Afghan mountains, striking indiscriminately around the world at all the major powers, targeting both key military assets as well as civilian centers...but mostly the latter, as once bustling cities were reduced to corpse-strewn graveyards.



The creeping barrage of death swept entire continents. Hundreds of millions, maybe even close to a billion, lost their lives throughout the world in the fiery carnage. Afghanistan wasn't spared, itself; though its missile shield kept most incoming strikes at bay, Kabul was still hit, and known military positions were decimated. Luckily for me, I kept all my new and highly trained troops hidden and undeployed, ready to come into action after the dust and danger settled. With the citizens panicked, martial law was declared, all government functions handed over to the Mujahedeen.



It's only fitting that my conquests so far (in orange - Afghanistan shown in green) resemble the shape of the great poisonous clouds that paved the way for their march across central Asia. While great alliances oppose me - indeed, nearly the entire world did in the beginning - few have the strength to muster a resistance to the great Afghan corpse-grinder.

The Taliban march ever onward. The Great Caliphate shall rise.

One interesting thing of note, though, is that, in all this carnage and death, the entire old world order of alliances and treaties collapsed completely. NATO collapsed; the UN charter was torn to shreds. International organizations saw themselves ignored and made obsolete in the new post-nuclear world. Their economic, political, and military power obliterated, the great powers of the world struggled to keep hold of the tenuous world peace. The ecosystem had been disrupted; World War 3 began as once lesser powers sought to exert their influences in this dangerous new landscape, though nearly all the conflicts were resolved a year and a half later.

Most of all, with this grave new threat to humanity, old grudges and enemies fell by the wayside, as the world shared a bond forged in nuclear fire. Russia and the United States, and what few friends of theirs that remained, struggling to hold onto relevancy and attempting to lead the world in defense of such an abominable foe, forged an alliance that put paid to more than a century of rivalry. As the Afghan military marched steadily onward, the world slowly grew more united. New pacts were founded as a new world order was formed.

East and West no longer existed. In this new world, you were either with the Caliphate, or against it.

Who new something resembling world peace could be forged through the fires of nuclear hell?