SNN - Vstex 9-0

Beautiful match yesterday with a worthy opponent which we defeated a lot easier than we thought initially. Our team's appetite for scoring was so big that we didn't stop for the whole match and didn't give them any opportunity. We also tried a new formation that seemed to work very well especially in keeping the posession and recovering the ball. The lag wasn't as bad as I expected for me, but our opponents have said it was quite big for them. I don't know how it was for our other team mates.

Our formation: Darian - Marcuzz, Ciona, Mola - Felice, Tarcisio, Beavis - Radu, Zyl
Goals: Zyl (6), Radu (2), Beavis

Special note goes to Vstex who, even if losing at that score, showed sportsmanship and fair play and sportsmanship and we remained on friendly terms with them.

Here are some pictures with some players celebrating together with the fans:

SNNpartans: SNN - Verona 8-7

I COULD ONLY ATTACH THIS PICTURE AND IT WOULD SAY ALL:


but i will write the rest, anyway :)

We started in five against nine, and we played through the first half like this:
Ciona - Beavis, Mola - Radu, Zyl

Ciona tried to keep the ball out of the net while Beavis and Mola spread efficiently across the field recovering valueable balls to me and Zyl. In the final of the first half, Merchant joined us and it was a fiery first game for him, but I think he learned a lot from his match. I want to congratulate him for his start.

After the break, we finally had a goalkeeper as Darian came around and we finally could organize he defence in a diamond shape with Ciona behind the line of three:
Darian - Ciona - Merchant, Beavis, Mola - Radu, Zyl

A special note to the Verona team who throughout the match showed deep frustration and
hatred towards us, we didn't feel welcome at all and neither respected and all they did was to insult us and accuse us of cheating, while not seeing the ridiculous of the situation they were in, losing with 2 or 3 players more all times. Verona - not a friend of us, a team that we must ignore and just beat in the league as we did today.

Overall, it was Zyl's match. He scored 7 of our goals, while the rest of the team showed fantastic organization and dedication in feeding the ball to him.

I would like to ask all our players to try and be available each day at around 1pm SL time because in this period we might be playing a lot of matches and I don't want this situation to happen again (as glorious as it turned to be eventually).

Yesterday we were only 5, think of what we can do when we play in 9 we will be unstoppable!

Congratulations to everyone that played yesterday and please remember that today we have another one or two important games please be present at 12:30 pm!

SNN - AC Perugia 8-4 (6-1)

Yesterday we played a friendly match against Perugia, which should have been the first match in a small cup competition. Because the organizers (Lazio) didn't provide us with a valid referee, the match wasn't registered on the secondfootball.com website, and such wasn't official. However, it was a good practice where we saw our team's strengths and minuses with the new hud.

I was satisfied with the performance of all our players and I think we should have won with a larger margin (we missed two penalties). The defenders did a good job in recovering the ball and passing forward, although passing is a bit tough with the new hud because it is charging too slow. Also tackling is very problematic, especially in big laggy conditions. But they did well nevertheless. Same thing about Cyndee and Mola who recovered well and passed well. In the attack, we did okay and scored enough goals to win.

This was the starting team (as Ciona chose not to start the game without a referee):

Darian
Marcuzz - Beavis - Javier
Mola - Cyndee
Felice - Radu - Tarcisio (Carl)

I don't remember exactly who scored but I'll research it to enter in our match history statistic.
Perugia showed fair play and we look forward to playing to them again.
Again, congratulations to all the team and keep practicing. We have a practice scheduled on thursday at 1 pm SL.
On Wednesday, we have two maches in the cup (if it's still being played): against Vstex and Lazio. Let's hope we show the same determination in those games and win again.

New Ball and New Game.

The new ball has been out for about 3 weeks now, everyone has played with it.

Here are some thoughts and opinions about it from myself and others;

It rolls very little before stopping, this makes it much easier for the goalie to block shots.
( Does the goalie animation work? I can't download it. )

Long shots from mid-field are no longer practical.

It shoots straight while running forward. Very easy to aim.
I think it's a bit too easy, I would like to see tha ball handler run at
a slight angle like with the old ball.

Full power shots seen to go over the goal if elevated even just a little.

It is easier to shoot while running sideways.

The longer you hold down the shoot key the farther it goes.
However, the ball seems to shoot the same distance at different levels of stamina.
I experimented shooting while running at different stamina levels.
The distance the shot traveled did not vary much.
The distance traveled seemed to vary more with the elevation of the shot.

Stamina;
At 7% you become useless.
I did not see any difference in running speeds above 7%
At all different levels of stamina above 7% it took 22 seconds to run across the field.

I think it would make play more realistic if players would
lose maybe 1% speed with every 5% loss in stamina.
This would make the defenders relativetly more stronger than the attackers
and force them to use passing tactics.
Another suggestion I've heard is to reduce the speed of the ball carrier slightly.
As it is now, a single defender can do nothing to stop an attacker if he gets past him.
Defenders must not let the attacker get past them.
There is no extra speed with the tackle.
If extra speed is added to the tackle maybe it could be disabled on the ball handler.
Talk to other players on other teams about this.

The ball is much more sticky now, passing is more reliable.

I think good passing and tactics are what is going to separate the better teams
from the weaker ones.

I played my first game today with the new ball. We were beaten easily.
The other team has apparently been practicing passing and was able
to get around our defenders.

Overall , the new ball is a big improvement over the old ball.
Game play is much more realistic and will require
better teamwork.

I think the player in other leagues will want to play with this ball instead of the old ones.

I've had players from Japanese teams ask if they can get this ball for their fields.
Will it be distributed or sold?

I will be writing on the tactics blog soon.

Primi effetti devastanti della mia assenza dalle riunioni

Come previsto, la mia assenza dalle riunioni sta portando conseguenze catastrofiche.

Il Consiglio di Lega ha approvato una regola assurda sui contrasti, che potete leggere qui (ricordatevi di fare il login sul sito secondfootball):

http://www.secondfootball.com/?p=15&action=ticket&id=1&idarg=64&arg=RISULTATO%20RIUNIONE%20DEL%206%20FEBBRAIO%202008

Purtroppo credo che come al solito la decisione sia frutto di una proposta da parte di un paio di persone che non riflettono (come non riflettono da mesi) sulle conseguenze delle cose, e del solito lassismo di tutti gli altri che si accodano a tutto ciò che all'apparenza è bello e carino, con un sorriso e un "sì", in modo da essere tanto simpatici e benvoluti.

Tutto questo per dire che chi di voi volesse andare a queste riunioni a scontrarsi con certi cervelloni e geni del calcio, me lo faccia sapere. Io ho già fatto troppo, all'inizio non pensavo che sarei stato l'unico con l'intelligenza da capire certe cose elementari e con le palle per lottare affinché le decisioni si prendessero con criterio. Purtroppo è più o meno così. Solo Tarcisio pare avere un po' di buon senso e di cervello, non per niente è stato nominato DG. Questo non vuol dire che lui debba sempre sobbarcarsi il peso di lottare contro i mulini a vento al posto mio.

Se qualcun altro avesse voglia di perdere tempo parlando ai muri lo dica, vediamo cosa si può fare.