Freddie will be instrumental to our success in the upcoming season, I can already see him becoming our key player!
Meanwhile, the summer tournament hasn't ended as expected...
After defeating Leverkusen, struggling, we had to bow out in the semifinal against Barcelona.
Looks like things get better and better in the Bundesliga. Perhaps too late to reach European spots, but still a great run. We'll see.
As hardcore Culé should I be happy to see my Barça advancing? Well... you were very near, because a 0-0 at home is not a bad result and you had time to score that second goal. Bad luck, even though I guess it was expected. You went out with the head up!
As hardcore Culé should I be happy to see my Barça advancing?
You should! And... You should also be happy that they signed one of the best attackers in the world while on the other hand Real sold two of their strikers...
Think it'll be a successful season for you to be honest. Can focus fully on the league.
Thanks!
Yeah, only having the league and the domestic cup could be an advantage, even if Bayern could hardly be reached at the moment (at least by us). I foresee another two-horse race between them and Dortmund at the top.
Another tight match against Barcelona, shows you can compete with a HUGE club. I would say Borussia Dortmund got a good deal assuming this Kane is Abel.
This is definitely M'Gladbach's year, I'll stake Sigi's job on it! LOL!
Oh, glad to see you're so optimist... I wouldn't bet anything at the moment... Not even Sigi's job (in the hope he gets fired and they offer KK the bench)!
To be honest, though, after moving a little on the market and after seeing the squad for the first Bundesliga matches, well, we probably are stronger than last year... I agree!
Dear journal,
I'll hardly ever get my head around some players. While discussing the new contracts, Sigi was met with a firm refusal by one of the players. This player was Igor de Camargo, not happy with the rotation role Sigi offered him.
He didn't take into account one little thing though: Sigi is way more stubborn than him. Before he could even realiz it, he got transfer listed and sold to Standard Liège:
Meanwhile the board announced a new signing: Francisco Amorebielsa joined from Caracas FC with a two-year contract. Neither Sigi nor I have ever hear about him, but he trained for a couple of days now and he looks pretty strong actually. He could aswell fight for a spot in the starters with Stranzl and Ecuele Manga...
Actually, our team doesn't look bad at all at the moment. We're not as strong as Bayern and Dortmund, but we're getting there, step by step, the way I like it:
There are two players about which I'm really curious and they are Brandenburger and Dahoud who got promoted from the U-19 team after a very interesting season.
What else to say, dear journal... The Bundesliga will soon be upon us and I can't wait for the first match against FC Bayern.
things are not going as smoothly as expected. Not a single bit, to be honest.
The board seems not to like Sigi that much anymore, after he let de Camargo free to find another team for something like a fistful of peanuts and a couple of apples (I mean, we got something in return from Standard Liège but it was not as much as Sigi was hoping).
I feel it was the right choice all the way, though. No player should be bigger than the club, and no player should by any means believe he's owed (yeah, because that IS the word de Camargo used) more playing time than he's given.
The bad thing here is that the board actually backed the player instead of supporting the manager.
When I was playing, a similar behaviour would be something unheard of in... I believe the entire Northern Emisphere. At least. But not here apparently. According to the board, it's Sigi's fault.
Well, not that he did anything good to make the board change their mind after all... During the opening day, we got trashed by Bayern. Annihilated, obliterated, choose your definition. You get the idea, don't you?
Let's be fair: Stranzl having to leave the pitch for a knock at minute 15 and Amorebielsa entering for him might have played a big role in the loss... I don't know, Amorebielsa looked like he just couldn't click with Ecuele Manga, and this meant we couldn't stop Tevez, no matter what we tried to do.
Then, the two following matches have been two draws and this means we're still winless.
What to say, not really the best way to start the league.
Two matches until the end of the month, the board already keeping Sigi under scrutiny and demanding at least four points from the next two matches, and one week left on the transfer market.
Other teams are doing a lot of business, but it doesn't matter. I know we are strong enough.
By the way, if you want to have a look at what other teams are doing...
I know it's not an easy situation by any means dear journal, but I know Sigi. He's been through worse situations in his career, and he surely knows how to regain control of the ship and how to turn it around.
See you soon, very soon dear journal. This is going to be a busy end of the month.
No doubt some tension was created after the blowout in Munich. Some disappointing and frustrating draws to follow, but also some positives. Seemed like M'Gladbach was on the front foot for those matches; sendoff certainly didn't help. They are points, at least. Rooting for a turnaround.
Rough start. Losing to Bayern away is kinda expected but not by that margin, and then 2 very scrappy draws especially after going ahead in both. Sending off didn't help like K said.
Rough start. Losing to Bayern away is kinda expected but not by that margin, and then 2 very scrappy draws especially after going ahead in both.
Yeah, against Hannover we went ahead even twice... But we couldn't really defend the lead. Amorebielsa didn't impress much until now, but I still believe he'll be very useful during the season. Still I'm planning to keep him out for a couple of matches to see what happens.
Hopefully just a blip in the road to getting back to the Champions League.
I hope so. We're nowhere as strong as Bayern or as Dortmund, but we could play our chances against everybody else I believe... Starting from Hoffenheim and Werder!
Once again we went ahead against Hoffenheim but conceded the equalizer late in the match, against Bremen though we've been almost perfect. Like absolutely perfect, apart from that error by Ecuele Manga that forced Stranzl to bring Eljero Elia down in the box, forcing the referee to give them a penalty.
This match could aswell be the result we needed to boost our morale a little, even if the table doesn't look that good at the moment:
Another weak start of season. Personally, I really like some of the players in the team, young and talented.
I really wish you can find the best of the team to climb in the standings. Perhaps it's too much to ask for a Bundesliga title, but there are enough tools to try to reach CL spots and I bet for it.
A lot of ground to make up already in the league, but that win against Werder shows the team has the quality. I'm predicting a string of wins is on the way
A lot of ground to make up already in the league, but that win against Werder shows the team has the quality.
Thanks guys! We sure have the quality... It's just that results didn't really give our way (apart from that Bayern match which has been abysmal to say the least). I'm sure we could be back in contention soon!
Another weak start of season. Personally, I really like some of the players in the team, young and talented.
Thanks pal! Yes, there are many interesting players in this team... Kramer is one of them for example, and Adu is another. He was set to become one of the greatest players ever according to the press when he was like 15, then he somehow got lost. Here in Gladbach he's improving a lot and he's starting to exceed every expectation.
Slight recovery, undefeated since Bayern I guess ^^
Luckily enough we've already faced them... As they now also have Luis Suarez! Would you imagine a Tevez-Suarez attacking duo? Easily one of the best partnerships of tyhe recent years...
OTHER DEADLINE DAY DEALS:
Kevin Prince Boateng leaves Milan to join FC Schalke 04
Tenerife's new owner is out of himself! He bought Diego Lopez from Real Madrid, Joaquin from Fiorentina and Samuel from Inter.
AS Monaco splash some cash as they sign Abidal, Ricardo Carvalho and Joao Moutinho.
After weeks of rumours it's now official: Chelsea have bought Kevin de Bruyne from Werder Bremen.
Fiorentina sign Adebayor for a fee in the region of €10 million. He'll play upfront alongside Babacar. The 'Viola' also signed Rio Mavuba from Lille.
Aston Villa sign another keeper! That's right, after Caballero they also signed Bordeaux's Carrasso. The French side makes up for the loss by signing Boca Juniors' keeper Augustin Orion.
Tevez and Suarez Good job you've played them once already indeed. Interesting to see Chelsea pick up KDB as well, forgot he spent some time there before Man C.
How do you do it btw in terms that some of these are "real" and some are just the game as normal? I feel you've answered this already though ^^
How do you do it btw in terms that some of these are "real" and some are just the game as normal? I feel you've answered this already though ^^
As I'm trying to include every FIFA game I own in this career starting from FIFA 12 (but well, also a little of FIFA 10 and 11 in the Keller video) and because older FIFAs didn't have the chance to disable the first transfer window, I do like explained in the spoiler:
At the beginning of a season, I leave the first transfer window enabled (older FIFA games didn't have the chance to disable it so I'm sticking with that). I take note of every transfer happening at this stage.
I play the season normally, and I write down all the January transfers.
At the end of the season, I write down all the results (who got promoted, who got relegated, who qualified for European football and so on). I however do NOT enter the new seaason (so there's no transfer window at this point).
I move to the next FIFA: this means that it will already have the real transfers included. I research them on the Internet to remember, then select some of them to be included in the graphics (e.g. Neymar, Bale).
Before beginning a new career, I edit the rosters to include the transfers that happened throughout the career (the one I wrote down before).
If a player moved clubs in real life and in the career, the career mode transfer takes the precedence.
For example, Ozil moved to Inter in my career in like 2012: in summer 2013 he moved from Real Madrid to Arsenal, but I move him to Inter instead (from Arsenal).
I then begin a new career, with the care of moving the teams where they really belong (e.g. Tenerife to Liga BBVA even if in real life it never happened).
Rinse and repeat from point 1.
TL;DR version: YOU WISH!!! Y U NO read the spoiler?
By the way, the league is going on. We only played two matches this month due to the NT break, but at least we managed to gather some points out of them:
A lot of work involved then, I don't envy you ^^ Nice way of doing it though.
Yeah, actually copying the transfers that happened in FIFA 12 and 13 to FIFA 14 squads took an hour, then editing the starting XI to make them realistic (I mean, Napoli signing Miranda and then leaving him on the bench?) usually takes some other time... But still, it's the only way to "switch" from version to version while keeping the career "consistent".
By the way, what the heck did I just write in the previous post? Fixed now, but I'll leave this here.
I'm worried for Sigi. But really, really worried.
This month has been abysmal: nothing ever went the right way, and we must also be thankful that we only had to play three matches because had they been more we woud have probably lost all of them anyway. Luckily enough, Freddie will be back for the next match... As without him, we could just do nothing right:
And not that things went better in the cup, Borussia Dortmund just gave us a footballing lesson unfortunately:
This means we're out of the cup and that we plummeted to the bottom half of the table, just two points ahead of the battl to avoid relegation:
Obviously the board isn't happy at all with Sigi's results and they're actively seeking responses. So do the fans, which have been given the chance to ask Sigi their questions:
What to say dear journal, hopefully we can turn things around before it's too late.
And if you have any qestion for Sigi, just leave it written here: I'll read it and report it to him personally.
Sigi Schmid: Thank you, thank you everyone for being here today. Let's get it started, throw any question at me and I'll answer. Any. You, over there! You're the first: just ask!
Joan Baldó, Sang Culé TV: Question for Sigi... Which is the reason behind this bad run of results? Which is the plan to revert the situation? Sigi Schmid: Whoa, we start with a bang here. Honestly, as always it's a series of causes. If we had to tackle them one by one, one after the other, they wouldn't be that difficult to counteract. The problem here is that we're currently faced with them all together, thus they become almost impossible to overcome.
Adu's injury for example is a cause. Amorebielsa not living up to the expectations is another cause: we let goals in that we shouldn't have. The very difficult schedule hasn't helped either. Hopefully we'll get it sorted now with Adu coming back and with the next match being a little easier than the previous ones.
By the way, why is there a Barcelona fan in here?
Joan Baldó, Sang Culé TV: You know, transfer rumours... Can't tell you more than this. Sigi Schmid: I heard them too: please acknowledge that I'm not willing to sell any of my players anytime soon. Ter Stegen included, because I know he's the one your club is after. Some of them will be available for a loan starting from the winter break, but that will be all.
Jurgen Schwartzkopf, Kicker: Do you really think Freddie Adu's return from the injury will sort things out? Sigi Schmid: Maybe it won't sort out the 'happy' defending, but it will surely help upfront. Freddie enjoyed a huge growth in the past nine months, and now the players are used to have him on the pitch. They struggle when he's not there, as they learned by heart how to serve him. They don't even need to look for him anymore, they just know he'll be there, at the other end of the pass. And when he's not, we give away possession a lot more.
Alessandro Antinelli, RAI Sport: You talked about the outbound transfers (or lack thereof) before. Inbound wise, seeing that Adu is injury prone, is there any player you're after so he would've got you covered in case of another injury? Sigi Schmid: Not really. There's a couple of players that I'm scouting via our network, but nothing more. One of them is another promising youth like Kramer is, the other one is a veteran but surely able to give us that 'something' the board feels we currently lack from time to time.
Jurgen Schwartzkopf, Kicker: The board, you said. What's your current relationship with them? Sigi Schmid: Mutual trust, mainly. They acknowledged we've been through a difficult period and they asked me and Kasey to turn the ship around before it's too late. Yet, they reassured me: if we can qualify for the next Champions League, we'll be safe no-question-asked.
Celia Jung, ZDF: What if you don't? Sigi Schmid: You should ask it to the board! I mean, I brought Gladbach to a Champions League qualification during my first season here, it's perfectly legit that the board expects the same now. It's up to us now to deliver. We can do it, I'm sure.
Celia Jung, ZDF: You seem pretty confident, I like it! Sigi Schmid: I am confident because I know my staff and I know my players. Kasey is doing a great job with Ter Stegen, for example. Our keeper enjoyed such a growth that now he's targeted by some huge European clubs... Baldó, I'm looking at you.
But what I can already say is this: we will face challenges. We will confront hardships, but we will get the job done. If we work together, we will make Borussia great again.
Borussia board member: I can confirm everything Sigi said. This season's objective is to reach at least the Champions League third qualifying round. This is an objective that can only be reached by finishing 4th or better in the league, and that's why we're asking exactly this to the team.
By the way, I've just been informed of a thing: there's someone very important that's following this press conference on the Internet, and that asked to borrow a little part of it:
Congratulations Sigi, you've just won another supporter apparently! What shall we do with the press conference? Shall we allow Donald Trump to use it?
Sigi Schmid: Send Donald Trump the transcript, tell him he's free to use it as he feels fit. Maybe one day we'll see him using one of my sentences for... Who knows, his campaign when he decides to run for President, or maybe his inaugural speech!
Yeah, not really likely to happen I agree. Well, just my imagination like Dolores O'Riordan used to sing some years ago.
Anyway, Trump's goodwill and endorsement to Sigi have probably brought him at least a little luck:
Actually, we left behind a month made entirely of defeats, and we entered a month that saw us end it undefeated.
This means that we managed to gain a couple of positions in the table. It still doesn't look as good as it should, but it's a step forward at least.
Rated E For Everyone.
Comments
Meanwhile, the summer tournament hasn't ended as expected...
After defeating Leverkusen, struggling, we had to bow out in the semifinal against Barcelona.
As hardcore Culé should I be happy to see my Barça advancing?
You should! And... You should also be happy that they signed one of the best attackers in the world while on the other hand Real sold two of their strikers...
Think it'll be a successful season for you to be honest. Can focus fully on the league.
Yeah, only having the league and the domestic cup could be an advantage, even if Bayern could hardly be reached at the moment (at least by us). I foresee another two-horse race between them and Dortmund at the top.
This is definitely M'Gladbach's year, I'll stake Sigi's job on it! LOL!
To be honest, though, after moving a little on the market and after seeing the squad for the first Bundesliga matches, well, we probably are stronger than last year... I agree!
Dear journal,
I'll hardly ever get my head around some players. While discussing the new contracts, Sigi was met with a firm refusal by one of the players. This player was Igor de Camargo, not happy with the rotation role Sigi offered him.
He didn't take into account one little thing though: Sigi is way more stubborn than him. Before he could even realiz it, he got transfer listed and sold to Standard Liège:
Actually, our team doesn't look bad at all at the moment. We're not as strong as Bayern and Dortmund, but we're getting there, step by step, the way I like it:
There are two players about which I'm really curious and they are Brandenburger and Dahoud who got promoted from the U-19 team after a very interesting season.
What else to say, dear journal... The Bundesliga will soon be upon us and I can't wait for the first match against FC Bayern.
Dear journal,
things are not going as smoothly as expected. Not a single bit, to be honest.
The board seems not to like Sigi that much anymore, after he let de Camargo free to find another team for something like a fistful of peanuts and a couple of apples (I mean, we got something in return from Standard Liège but it was not as much as Sigi was hoping).
I feel it was the right choice all the way, though. No player should be bigger than the club, and no player should by any means believe he's owed (yeah, because that IS the word de Camargo used) more playing time than he's given.
The bad thing here is that the board actually backed the player instead of supporting the manager.
When I was playing, a similar behaviour would be something unheard of in... I believe the entire Northern Emisphere. At least. But not here apparently. According to the board, it's Sigi's fault.
Well, not that he did anything good to make the board change their mind after all... During the opening day, we got trashed by Bayern. Annihilated, obliterated, choose your definition. You get the idea, don't you?
Let's be fair: Stranzl having to leave the pitch for a knock at minute 15 and Amorebielsa entering for him might have played a big role in the loss... I don't know, Amorebielsa looked like he just couldn't click with Ecuele Manga, and this meant we couldn't stop Tevez, no matter what we tried to do.
Then, the two following matches have been two draws and this means we're still winless.
What to say, not really the best way to start the league.
Two matches until the end of the month, the board already keeping Sigi under scrutiny and demanding at least four points from the next two matches, and one week left on the transfer market.
Other teams are doing a lot of business, but it doesn't matter. I know we are strong enough.
By the way, if you want to have a look at what other teams are doing...
I know it's not an easy situation by any means dear journal, but I know Sigi. He's been through worse situations in his career, and he surely knows how to regain control of the ship and how to turn it around.
See you soon, very soon dear journal. This is going to be a busy end of the month.
Yeah, against Hannover we went ahead even twice... But we couldn't really defend the lead. Amorebielsa didn't impress much until now, but I still believe he'll be very useful during the season. Still I'm planning to keep him out for a couple of matches to see what happens.
I hope so. We're nowhere as strong as Bayern or as Dortmund, but we could play our chances against everybody else I believe... Starting from Hoffenheim and Werder!
Once again we went ahead against Hoffenheim but conceded the equalizer late in the match, against Bremen though we've been almost perfect. Like absolutely perfect, apart from that error by Ecuele Manga that forced Stranzl to bring Eljero Elia down in the box, forcing the referee to give them a penalty.
This match could aswell be the result we needed to boost our morale a little, even if the table doesn't look that good at the moment:
Very early days so a few wins like that one over Werder and you'll be right back up there in the mix.
I really wish you can find the best of the team to climb in the standings. Perhaps it's too much to ask for a Bundesliga title, but there are enough tools to try to reach CL spots and I bet for it.
Still soon in the season, come on!
Thanks pal! Yes, there are many interesting players in this team... Kramer is one of them for example, and Adu is another. He was set to become one of the greatest players ever according to the press when he was like 15, then he somehow got lost. Here in Gladbach he's improving a lot and he's starting to exceed every expectation.
Luckily enough we've already faced them... As they now also have Luis Suarez! Would you imagine a Tevez-Suarez attacking duo? Easily one of the best partnerships of tyhe recent years...
OTHER DEADLINE DAY DEALS:
How do you do it btw in terms that some of these are "real" and some are just the game as normal? I feel you've answered this already though ^^
As I'm trying to include every FIFA game I own in this career starting from FIFA 12 (but well, also a little of FIFA 10 and 11 in the Keller video) and because older FIFAs didn't have the chance to disable the first transfer window, I do like explained in the spoiler:
If a player moved clubs in real life and in the career, the career mode transfer takes the precedence.
For example, Ozil moved to Inter in my career in like 2012: in summer 2013 he moved from Real Madrid to Arsenal, but I move him to Inter instead (from Arsenal).
By the way, the league is going on. We only played two matches this month due to the NT break, but at least we managed to gather some points out of them:
6 points off the top at this stage isn't too bad. Very nice win over Eintracht, even if they are near the bottom, 3-0 is great.
By the way, what the heck did I just write in the previous post? Fixed now, but I'll leave this here.
^
It was meant to be "HOWEVER" by the way.
I'm worried for Sigi. But really, really worried.
This month has been abysmal: nothing ever went the right way, and we must also be thankful that we only had to play three matches because had they been more we woud have probably lost all of them anyway. Luckily enough, Freddie will be back for the next match... As without him, we could just do nothing right:
And not that things went better in the cup, Borussia Dortmund just gave us a footballing lesson unfortunately:
This means we're out of the cup and that we plummeted to the bottom half of the table, just two points ahead of the battl to avoid relegation:
Obviously the board isn't happy at all with Sigi's results and they're actively seeking responses. So do the fans, which have been given the chance to ask Sigi their questions:
And if you have any qestion for Sigi, just leave it written here: I'll read it and report it to him personally.
Sigi Schmid: Thank you, thank you everyone for being here today. Let's get it started, throw any question at me and I'll answer. Any. You, over there! You're the first: just ask!
Joan Baldó, Sang Culé TV: Question for Sigi... Which is the reason behind this bad run of results? Which is the plan to revert the situation?
Sigi Schmid: Whoa, we start with a bang here. Honestly, as always it's a series of causes. If we had to tackle them one by one, one after the other, they wouldn't be that difficult to counteract. The problem here is that we're currently faced with them all together, thus they become almost impossible to overcome.
Adu's injury for example is a cause. Amorebielsa not living up to the expectations is another cause: we let goals in that we shouldn't have. The very difficult schedule hasn't helped either. Hopefully we'll get it sorted now with Adu coming back and with the next match being a little easier than the previous ones.
By the way, why is there a Barcelona fan in here?
Joan Baldó, Sang Culé TV: You know, transfer rumours... Can't tell you more than this.
Sigi Schmid: I heard them too: please acknowledge that I'm not willing to sell any of my players anytime soon. Ter Stegen included, because I know he's the one your club is after. Some of them will be available for a loan starting from the winter break, but that will be all.
Jurgen Schwartzkopf, Kicker: Do you really think Freddie Adu's return from the injury will sort things out?
Sigi Schmid: Maybe it won't sort out the 'happy' defending, but it will surely help upfront. Freddie enjoyed a huge growth in the past nine months, and now the players are used to have him on the pitch. They struggle when he's not there, as they learned by heart how to serve him. They don't even need to look for him anymore, they just know he'll be there, at the other end of the pass. And when he's not, we give away possession a lot more.
Alessandro Antinelli, RAI Sport: You talked about the outbound transfers (or lack thereof) before. Inbound wise, seeing that Adu is injury prone, is there any player you're after so he would've got you covered in case of another injury?
Sigi Schmid: Not really. There's a couple of players that I'm scouting via our network, but nothing more. One of them is another promising youth like Kramer is, the other one is a veteran but surely able to give us that 'something' the board feels we currently lack from time to time.
Jurgen Schwartzkopf, Kicker: The board, you said. What's your current relationship with them?
Sigi Schmid: Mutual trust, mainly. They acknowledged we've been through a difficult period and they asked me and Kasey to turn the ship around before it's too late. Yet, they reassured me: if we can qualify for the next Champions League, we'll be safe no-question-asked.
Celia Jung, ZDF: What if you don't?
Sigi Schmid: You should ask it to the board! I mean, I brought Gladbach to a Champions League qualification during my first season here, it's perfectly legit that the board expects the same now. It's up to us now to deliver. We can do it, I'm sure.
Celia Jung, ZDF: You seem pretty confident, I like it!
Sigi Schmid: I am confident because I know my staff and I know my players. Kasey is doing a great job with Ter Stegen, for example. Our keeper enjoyed such a growth that now he's targeted by some huge European clubs... Baldó, I'm looking at you.
But what I can already say is this: we will face challenges. We will confront hardships, but we will get the job done. If we work together, we will make Borussia great again.
Borussia board member: I can confirm everything Sigi said. This season's objective is to reach at least the Champions League third qualifying round. This is an objective that can only be reached by finishing 4th or better in the league, and that's why we're asking exactly this to the team.
By the way, I've just been informed of a thing: there's someone very important that's following this press conference on the Internet, and that asked to borrow a little part of it:
Sigi Schmid: Send Donald Trump the transcript, tell him he's free to use it as he feels fit. Maybe one day we'll see him using one of my sentences for... Who knows, his campaign when he decides to run for President, or maybe his inaugural speech!
Really missing Adu a lot it seems, but house got problems at both ends.
Nice interview BTW, got a bit far fetched towards the end there but I'll let it slide. Reality TV star/businessman to President, ha. ^^
Anyway, Trump's goodwill and endorsement to Sigi have probably brought him at least a little luck:
This means that we managed to gain a couple of positions in the table. It still doesn't look as good as it should, but it's a step forward at least.