Life in Football Manager

The Semi Final Draw

Sweden V Spain
England V Germany

An interesting set of draws, the first one being the curse of all England teams since 1966. Will it go to penalties? We sure hope not, it will also be a chance again to make those comparisons with the war. Also Sweden v Spain a repeat of the World Cup final, will Gus Hiddink get his revenge?

First up Spain and Sweden, Both fielding familiar sides as they go in search of the semi finals. The first half started just like the Holland game, with Sweden having to defend and once again Isaksson the hero, Kallstrom giving Fabregas a chance from a free kick which went close. Villa and Torres then linked up in a fantastic move which ended with a burying shot from Torres which yet again the Swedish keeper was in the way of. Once again Torres was on goal and looked certain to score one on one with Isaksson, but yet again the keeper kept the game level at half time. Sweden will have to come out stronger in the second half, Isaksson can’t be the hero all of the time when he has Villa and Torres running at him all the time.

The second half continued in very much the same fashion, Torres this time having two good chances to put the ball past Sweden and once again with his cape, was all super Andreas Isaksson. But it couldn’t last and on the hour mark David Villa who looked to be offside latched on to a square pass from Torres to open the scoring that was well deserved. After the goal Sweden found their fight, Rosenberg making Casillias work for the first time, as he broke through the defence and forced a save from the Spanish keeper. Zlatan got Sweden back into the game with 10 minutes to go controlling a cross well and moving the ball past Iker to have the open goal in front of him 1-1 in what looks like a frustrating evening for Spain, Spain believed it to be offside, it was more clear cut then the Spain goal, but two players were booked in the protest. Spain quickly got back down to work, a fine pass by Torres put Silva in front of goal, striking it from outside the box he hit the goal to send Spain back in front. Torres finally finished the game with the goal he so deserved and what a goal lopping Isaksson from 30 yards out to complete the goals and send Spain into their third consecutive final, Torres taking the match ball home.

Sweden 1-3 Spain

Next was the draw that all good finals should have Germany v England, a tradition that has produced some great games over the past couple of years and many English tears. Rafa stays with the formation that seen them past Czech Republic the only change is between the sticks Paul Robinson returning for this all important game.

The first chance of the game came to England, Bentley putting a freekick into the box which was forced goalwards by Micah Richards only for it to be saved by Metzelder. Terry nearly became the villain for the day a shot deflected off his shins changing the path of the ball, luckily Robinson was wise to it and smothered quickly. The ball was at both ends throughout the game. Rooney, should have done better and used his pace when he came up again the German defenders in a good move from England. Rooney was the one to break the deadlock, a goal for England really sent the stadium in rapture as it really looked like England could reach a final. Gerrard causing confusion for the German defence causing space for Rooney, the ball came in and Rooney advance well on goal striking it high into the net. On the 33rd minute with England still in front tragedy as Danny Rose went in with two feet on Busch he was quickly dismissed and will miss the final if England got through, memories of David Beckham quickly come to mind.

The Germans didn’t look to make things easy for England to go through and just after the hour mark, a Schipper cross found Schmidt free in the box to score the equaliser and not long after Germany found themselves in front and the England fans began to worry. Breitkpof hit the ball from just outside the box, across the goal and into the top corner, a great goal. England couldn’t get back into the game and for the last 15 really didn’t look like scoring until the final minute of the game, Metzelder the captain and goalkeeper threw the ball back out into play and it was no surprise when Shaun Wright Phillips was out jumped by Meyer, but the pressure was enough to force a rash decision, the headed ball was meant for centre back Breitkopf, but Rooney intercepted and was free of the last defender struck it hard with everything he had, the stadium watch the ball in slow motion, Rooney didn’t look until the crowd went wild 2-2 in the final minute with 10 men, the dream was still alive.

Extra time was a quieter affair, but no one wants to meet Germany on penalties, so England began to attack, Rooney being on the end of everything England had to offer. But Germany were able to see the game to penalties. First up Germany, Busch placed the ball on the spot and turned his back to goal. Turning round he ran and hit it straight down the middle, Robinson getting to the ball and saved the first shot. Right back Ryan Taylor next, hit it calmly into the bottom corner to open the score. Schikora next and finished nicely for the first mark for Germany. Michael Johnson stepped up for the second, but it was to close to the keeper and he was the first England player to miss. Goalscorer Breitkopf came forward for the fourth penalty, but he hit it badly and an easy save for Robinson, things were looking up for England. England man of the match Rooney next up placing it down and looking confident, and he placed it into the net. Schmidt the other scorer on the day put his penalty into the back of the net so did Ashley Cole so expertly. Truckenbrod then stepped up with the world on his shoulder, he needs to score to keep Germany in it looking nervous he put his ball down, beginning his run up he looked confident, the strike the ball good strong and heading toward goal, but Paul Robinson for the third time got to it and England go through to the final to play Spain. Take that Klinsmann, Take that Hitler, Take that Heidi Klum, Your boys got a whipping.

So already this competition has had everything the England fans could ever dream of a place in the final and beating Germany on penalties along the way, if nothing Rafa is already an English legend.

England 2-2 Germany (3-2 Pens)

For Skacel: Danny Rose

The draw for the Quarter finals:

Sweden v France
Poland v Germany
England v Czech Republic
Holland v Spain

So as it has worked out each of our 6 teams left, are to meet each other in the quarter finals to fight it out to be the best team in Europe and interestingly Poland and Germany are drawn together in a tie that will allow the commentators room to add in comparisons from the war, with many raised eyebrows, England look to have an easy draw against the Czech’s.

So the first game to kick off is two of the favourite of the competition Sweden and France, lining up with strong sides, Ben Arfa regains his place but has moved into midfield and Gourffran returns to the line-up, injuries have meant that the three players lost against Turkey are not able to return, but Toulalan makes it to the bench. Sweden make no changes to their side that has seen them through the group.

The first real action of the game came in the shape of an Sweden goal on the 16th minute. Farnerud joining the many great strikes that this competition has produced, striking from 25 yards to put France on the back foot. France tried to come back quickly Gouffran from the kick off running forward to put the ball in Ben Arfa’s path whose shot was saved by Isaksson. Gouffran again with pin point passing put Obertan, but yet again Isaksson was able to get a glove to the ball to keep France out as they began to pile on the pressure. Before half time Benzema bore down on goal and struck his shot wide, ending a frustrating first half with a fantastic shot by Ben Arfa from outside the box, the fingers tips from Andreas were good enough to allow Sweden to stay infront for the second half. The final 45 didn’t really produce anything spectacular Sweden having the best chance to double their lead when Ibrahimovic was free on goal, Frey did brilliantly to keep the ball out. Sad to see France leave the competition they were my favourites to win the competition and they really should have won this game, but on the day Isaksson was the difference.

Sweden 1-0 France

England lined up their side with a very narrow looking side, Rooney playing as a lone striker, Danny Rose playing behind him. England started the brighter against Czech Republic and Danny Rose gave Rooney the first chance of the game but he blazed it over the bar. It was Fenin who scored the first goal of the game, heading a Kalouda cross behind Ben Foster. Minutes later Gerrard should have equalised but Cech came out best in a one-on-one with the goal, not as easy as it seemed as Gerrard had a defender breathing down his neck. But England continued to pile on the pressure until they got a breakthrough, Carrick losing his marker and finding himself with space in the middle of the box as a Richards thrown in came for him, he struck it home for the equaliser.

England began the second half as they finished off the first, piling on the pressure and for the first time in the game were able to put themselves in front. Richards throw-ins causing problems, this time Gerrard was the target free in the box, but selflessly he cut it across to Danny Rose to apply the finish. At 2-1 with the clock ticking down each side was nervous, going into the final 15. So nervous that Jenas was caught with the ball and disposed easily by Polak who put the ball into the path of Fenin for his second of the game. Minutes later Rooney became a hero, picking up a Gerrards pass inside the box and firing it toward Cech to find the back of the net gave England win in a tough game that could have gone either way.

England 3-2 Czech Republic

In our final clash it was Paul Jewell’s Holland taking on Bernd Schuster’s Spain who now had to be favourites for the competition with France being kicked out. Holland would hope that their attacking advantage would see them through, Huntelaar currently at the top of the goal scoring charts. But the first goal came from Torres, who was at the end of a brilliant move from Iniesta and Villa down the middle of the park, the threw ball seen him into the box and to open the scoring. Then Robben should have done better when he found himself up on goal with two defender in front of him. Villa doubled Spain’s lead picking up on Torres’ rebounded shot and putting it behind Stekelenburg who was helpless to stop the shot and before the half was done Sergio Ramos made things safe for Spain, scoring from a corner. Holland continued the game having chance after chance but in true Holland style non of them real cutting edge chances which cost them the game.

Holland 0-3 Spain

Other result Germany 4-2 Poland to kick out the hosts.

The first of the round of games we bring to you is just for the decision of who will win the group giving the better draw as Germany and Sweden go head-to-head.  Schmitdt opened the scoring, 10 minutes in good position allowed him space, when the ball came in he fired it past Isaksson. A tough half finished 1-0, the second half began and Busch doubled Germany’s lead as he fired from outside the box, poor Swedish positioning once again letting the Germans in. But Sweden quickly got back into the game straight from the kick off Sweden attacked, Farnerud found Zlatan inside the box who headed Sweden back. Sweden changed to the familiar 4-2-4 and with 2 minute to go Zlatan was the goal maker this time who put Elmander on sight of goal and hit it home 2-2. But the Swedish comeback was deflated when Schmidts ended the scoring in a scrappy final goal.

Germany 3-2 Sweden

Scotland didn’t have anything now to play for but pride, and came out of the stocks quickly a fantastic goal from Ross Wallace who ran from deep into the box in time to meet a Hutton cross. It was Scotland’s first goal of the tournament and what a goal! But the lead only last half an hour, Andy Webster giving away a penalty, Rotan stepped up to the spot to miss, the rebound came back to him and once again Craig Gordon got to the ball, but he didnt get it far enough away and Oleg Husyev tapped the ball into the net. Just before half time Ukraine put themselves into the lead Husyev corner headed home by Chygrynski to take away the pride Scotland were playing for. Scotland had a better second half but just couldn’t find the back of the net.

Scotland 1-2 Ukraine

France who had already qualified took on Switzerland who still had a chance of going through if they won and the other game went their way. But it only took a minute for France to score, Ben Arfa who was getting his first chance of the tournament, picking up the ball in the box and expertly turning Djourou to score with his second touch. Ben Arfa didn’t waste any time getting his second and the architect was Nasri another player getting his first chance of the tournament in for the injured Toulanlan, curling the ball into Ben Arfa who struck it home in a match Switzerland didn’t even turn up to.

France 2-0 Switzerland

Other results in Group A Turkey 1-1 Poland, the hosts qualifying from the group

Group C went into the final games in an exciting mood, any team could qualify and all really had fate in their own hands. First up was Holland and Serbia. Sneijder opened the scoring when Boulahrouz put the ball into the middle finding space for Wesley who struck it into the top corner and by half time Holland thought they had wrapped the game up and qualification, Van Persie crossing the ball in from the byline Huntelaar jumping higher then three Serbian players to end the half 2-0. Holland had 22 chances throughout the game and the majority of the ball, but that made them complacent and leaving holes at the back which Rakic exploited with two goals but the result was enough to see Holland through.

Holland 2-2 Serbia

But all this meant that Italy had to beat the Czech Republic to go through, and Spalletti had to get a result from his home country to progress. Nervous times inside the stadium as neither knew how the teams would go at it. When Jiri Kladrubsky was ordered off the field after injuring Gilardino in a professional foul. But the knock didn’t stop Gilardino spurring him on to score the first goal of the game. From the corner Kalouda didn’t move out quick enough with the rest of the back four and when the ball came back in from deep Alberto was in a dream position for the goal. But Rosicky put the game level again from a wonderful strike from way out. In the second half Italy once again got themselves infront, Gilardino pulling the ball back to Rosina who slotted home and the game looked won, but with 85 minutes to go Kalouda who was to blame for the first goal repaid his team from another wonderful strike, this time the Italians were caught out of the position when the free kick came in and Kalouda curled the ball around the players and into the corner. The game ended a draw which was enough to knock out the Italians.

Czech Republic 2-2 Italy

Leaving only one thing to decide, will England be joining the eight sides in the quarter finals? England met once again the side that had kept us out of the 2008 competition, Croatia. England dominated the game but just couldn’t find the back of the net, I am thinking taking just four strikers is something that might haunt Rafa. The guys up front really weren’t on form today and both replaced by Crouch and Defoe and it was the latter who was to thank for striking England through, a wonderful strike from outside the box to rival the two Republic goals with 10 minutes to go this was enough for the win.

England 1-0 Croatia

Spain had nothing to play for now and could use this game as a run around ready for a push in the next round. The only action in the game was an early flurry of goals in the first 10 minutes. Torosidis lofting a brilliant ball from the back to Konstantinos who found himself behind the Spanish back line, there was plenty of protests for offside and they could have had a point. But Alfaro quickly replied with a goal scoring from an Alonso cross.

Spain 1-1 Greece

Scotland once again showed that they were out of their depth even with one of the best managers in British history, Gus Hiddink also showed he was a magician. Sweden played good football throughout the game, Scotland conceded their second consecutive goal in the first minute. Rosenberg opened the scoring and although they dominated the game, Sweden also left it late to score the winner Rosenberg again with 7 minutes to go struck the ball past Iain Turner and Sweden became the first team to qualify from the group stages.

Sweden 2-0 Scotland

Other Result in Group B Germany 3-0 Ukraine, Ukraine the first of the hosts to be knocked out and Germany qualified.

Rafa vs Spain next as England look for another victory to assure qualification. But it was two former players of Rafa’s that punished England. Xabi Alonso opened the scoring on the 35th minute, Rafa tried to beat his home country in this game, but the Spaniards showed why they were best team in the World. El Nino, Torres scored late to secure the victory for the Spain just after Casillas continued bad discipline record in the Spain camp being the second player to be sent off.

Spain 2-0 England

Other Result in Group D Croatia 1-2 Greece

Next up for Zidane was Turkey, it was surprisingly a tough game for France and Turkey gave a real fight, and look to push for qualification from the group. But the difference was in who could actually take their chances and Menez who was having a fantastic tournament and struck twice to give France the win in the first half. But the most worrying thing for the French is in this game they have three players stretched off, Sakho, Ribery and Toulalan. The former two will struggle to be back in time for the end of the tournament, but France have qualified for the next round.

France 2-0 Turkey

Other result in Group A Switzerland 0-1 Poland

Group C showed that it was the toughest of all the other groups, as we have Paul Jewell meeting Spalletti, one of our sides had to go from this group each not wanting it to be the team to do so. Daniel Pudil scored early to give the Czech’s the lead, bad defending from Ron Vlaar giving the ball away gave Pudil the chance on goal. But after the half hour mark, a flurry of action occurred to get the fans going, first off Huntelaar levelled the scoring to put Holland back into the game only for Grygera two minutes later put the advantage back with Czech Republic. Five minutes after that the Republic were to blame for their own downfall Simunek being to blame for a Huntelaar fall, Man of the Match Van Persie stepped up to slot the ball into the net to end the half and the game 2-2.

Holland 2-2 Czech Republic

Italy got themselves back on track and took advantage of the other game finishing deadlocked. Not an exciting game and infact Italy played like Italy and not the attacking football you may expect from Zola a guy who spent many years playing in an English system. Gilardino scored after 15 minutes getting on the end of a corner to get his first goal of the tournament. But then Rossi who was looking to contend for the golden boot scored just after half an hour to give Italy their first victory.

Serbia 0-2 Italy

The opening game of the tournament was Sir Alex Ferguson vs Ze Germans! and it wasn’t one of Ferguson’s finest moments in football. Winning the league with Manchester United before he came out obviously made him a bit worse for wear. From the start the German side was all over Scotland, Schippers firing early just after kick off to give them the lead. Not long after that was doubled when Holger Schmidt scoring in the 5th minute. Schmidst blastered himself to the top of the goal scoring charts with his second goal a fantastic move from Germany who threw themselves forward all game. Busch ended Scotland’s misery for some of the Scots to get the hair dryer treatment at full time from Alex.

Scotland 0 - 4 Germany

Sweden faced Ukraine next in Group B and after reaching the final of the World Cup will hope to live up to the expectations put upon them now. One guy that usually cracks under pressure is Zlatan Ibrahimovic but this time he opened the scoring, a through ball from Kallstrom, sending him through as he used his pace to get into the box and fire home. In the 75th minute is was a chance from the spot that doubled the scoring, Alexander Farnerud slotting it in the corner to gain our first win of the tournament

Sweden 2-0 Ukraine

The European and World Champions took on Croatia in what a heated game against the two teams, but Spain played like Champions throughout the game, keeping hold of the ball and putting as many shots on goal as they could. Pietikosa had a good game between the sticks for Croatia but couldn’t stop David Villa in the 10th minute from heading home a cross from Silva to make it 1-0, but that is how it stayed. Both Iniesta and Eduardo were shown the tunnel after both receiving two yellow cards, in a game with many hard hitting tackles.

Spain 1-0 Croatia

For this European Championships you don’t have to choose between France or Spain, Italy or Portugal. England are here in the Ukraine and Poland for these games and you can get behind our Football Manager side managed by Rafa. Greece though took an early lead against England in a close game, Greece playing their usual defensive way with England playing attacking football. It was Dimitris Papadopoulos who fired the first goal with their only shot of the game. But England played a fantastic game and in the second half came out even stronger, Walcott and Rooney up front was terrifying for any defender trying to keep up. Walcott struck twice in the game to secure a win for England.

England 2-0 Greece

Hosts Poland were the opponents for France and home soil made no difference to the performance of the Poles and France revelled in the game. Menez scored the first goal, running in from the right into the box to put the ball behind Boruc to open the scoring. Before half time the game was over and young striker Benzema put the ball into the back of the net to give Zidane a win in his opening game.

France 2-0 Poland

Other Group A result Turkey 1-1 Switzerland

The first meeting of two of our teams was the clash between Italy and Holland. First blood went to Zola’s side, Rossi showing that he was learning under the talents of Zola and in his mould the striker went past two players to hit the ball from outside the box to open the scoring. But what ever Paul Jewell said at half time really did get instant results, straight from kick off Van Persie quickly attacked Buffons goal to draw level. Then De Zeeuw quickly took the ball back from the kick off and put it infront of Huntelaar who straight away put Holland in the lead. A very tight game which either side could have won, but Holland did on this occasion

Italy 1-2 Holland

Spalletti who had just watched his country lose to Holland would not want to see his own team suffer the same fate as Czech Republic met Eastern European rivals Serbia. The first half was contested well and as the sides went in at half time the game was still in deadlock. It took just over an hour before score was opened and it came from the spot, Rosicky being clattered to the ground and he then getting up to take the spot kick. After that Serbia were forced to go forward leaving space for Fenin who doubled the scoring.

Czech Republic 2-0 Serbia

Looking around the internet forums, the FM scene has never had it so good, how can anyone say that the community is dying when we have some great Football Manager communities to meet everyone’s needs of the new Football Manager player. But anyway I noticed a thread upon one of these forums asking about co-ownership which many gamers will know is a major part of Italian football when developing young players. That got me thinking, is the system in Italy a better system to help their youngsters reach a their full potential?

So I felt a proper experiment was obviously needed to see which system works best for these young players. The experiment will start off with a group of clones, identical players that play in the same position, same attributes and same fixed CA and PA to make it all fair. I will then subject the group of players to different enviromental conditions and see which of them.

The idea really came about because I pondered, whether the co-ownership system in Italy works better than the system used in other countries, so the first group of players will join up with Serie B teams half of which will already be co-owned with the top clubs in Italy while the rest will be left to their own devices.

Next up we will be looking at the English league, were we will have a group of players joining up with Championship sides, a group of players in the Premier League but affiliated with clubs with decent training facilities in lower leagues. Then the next task is to test out training facilities vs trainers, this will only need three of our clones, one will join a club with state of the art training facilities but poor coaches, the other will be the visa versa and then a control will be somewhere in the middle. But what I am going to do with the club with the poor training facilities is give them a state of the art youth academy and see how the new players from that side progress, along with another side in Italy doing the same.

How it will be measured?

As usual with all the experiments that are done on the site I will the game out in holiday mode for a number of years and we will log the progress of each of our clones. But from that we won’t be able to see the hidden attributes from within the game so using FM Scout we will be able to track statistically the progress of our players in the game.

This is by no means a perfect test, to get a dead cert answer to what is the best system it would mean rigirious testing over many different games and many more sitatutions and countries, with so many variables time contraints that would not be possible. But I think it will be an interesting insight to how the game works and it may even help some people in their own quest to youth development. Feel free to suggest your own situations that we could throw our clones in as well.

The squads have been named and look like this:

France

Goalkeepers

Sebastien Frey (Fiorentina), Hugo Lloris (Milan), Steve Mandanda (Marseille)

Defenders

Phillippe Mexes (Roma), Mamadou Sakho (Paris SG), Sebastian Squillaci (Lyon), Bakary Sagna (Arsenal), Gael Clichy (R. Madrid), Armand Traore (Arsenal), Francois Clerc (Lyon), Mathieu Bodmer (Milan) Samir Nasri (Marseille)

Midfielders

Younousse Sankhare (Paris SG), Abou Diaby (Lazio), Benoit Pedretti (Fiorentina), Jeremy Toulalan (Lyon), Franck Ribery (FC Bayern),

Forwards

Hatem Ben Arfa (Lyon), Yoann Gouffran (Tottenham), Jeremy Menez (Manchester United), Gabriel Obertan (Bordeaux), Karim Benzema (Lyon), Andre-Pierre Gignac (Lazio)

Sweden

Goalkeepers

Andreas Isaksson (Torino), Rami Shaaban (Club Brugge), Ivo Vazgec (Larisa)

Defenders

Olef Mellberg (Rimini), Anes Mravec (Williem II), Martin Olsson (Getafe), Robert Ahman-Persson (Panathinakos), Andreas Granqvist (Wigan), Jon Jonsson (Auxerre), Mikael Lustig (Reggina), Mikael Dorsin (West Brom)

Midfielders

Sebastian Larsson (Catania), Tobias Linderoth (Free Agent), Pontus Fernerud (Lavente), Samuel Holman (Monaco), Alexander Fernerud (Stuttgart), Kim Kallstrom (Lyon), Niklas Barkroth (Cadiz)

Forwards

Johan Elmander (Catania), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter), Marcus Berg (Lazio), Henok Goitom (Reggina), Markus Rosenburg (Villerrael)

Scotland

Goalkeepers

Craig Gordan (Celtic), David Marshall (Norwich), Iain Turner (Derby)

Defenders

Mark Wilson (Celtic), Mark Reynolds (Middlesbrough), Garry Kenneth (Rangers), Stephen McManus (Celtic), Andy Webster (Wigan), Alan Hutton (Tottenham), Steven Smith (Rangers), Lee Wallace (Empoli), Ross Wallace (Wigan)

Midfielders

Ian Black (Cardiff), Darren Flectcher (Manchester United), Kevin Thomson (Blackburn), Scott Brown (Manchester City), Chris Burke (Rangers), James Morrison (Sunderland)

Forwards

Shaun Maloney (Torino), James McFadden (Celtic), Kevin Cawley (Celtic), Danny Swannson (Portsmouth), Derek Riordan (Derby)

Holland

Goalkeepers

Tim Krul (Southampton), Erwin Mulder (HSV), Maarten Stekelenburg (Bolton)

Defenders

John Heitinga (Bordeaux), Gianni Zuiverloon (PSV), Edson Braafheid (Getafe), Joris Mathijsen (HSV), Khalid Boulahrouz (Blackburn), Ron Vlaar (Deportivo), Hedwiges Maduro (Valencia), Jan Kromkamp (Marseille)

Midfielders

Royston Drenthe (R. Madrid), Nigel De Jong (At. Madrid), Demy de Zeeuw (AZ), Jonathan De Guzman (Inter), Rafael Van der Vaart (Roma) Arjen Robben (R. Madrid), Wesley Sneijder (R. Madrid)

Forwards

Robin Van Persie (Arsenal), Ryan Babel (Liverpool), Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Chelsea), Dirk Kuyt (Bolton), Genero Zeefuik (PSV)

Czech Republic

Goalkeeper

Petr Cech (Chelsea), Michal Danek (Sunderland), Radek Petr (Catania)

Defenders

Zdenek Grygera (Juventus), Jiri Kladrubsky (Messina), Milan Kopic (Genona), Michal Kadlec (Sevilla), Jan Simunek (Wolfsburg), David Rozehnal (Catania), Tomas Sivok (Derby), Marek Suchy (Torino), Lukas Kuban (AZ), Michal Svec (Fiorentina)

Midfielders

Jaroslav Plasil (Osasuna), Daniel Pudil (Messina), Michal Held (Slavia Prague), Jan Polak (Bochum), Lubos Kalouba (Lyon), Tomas Rosicky (Zaragoza)

Forwards

Tomas Necid (Heerenveen), Martin Fenin (Valencia), Michal Papadopoulos (Leverkusen), Vaclav Sverkos (AZ)

Italy

Goalkeeper

Marco Amelia (Lyon), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Gianluca Curci (Roma)

Defenders

Marco Andreolli (Roma), Cristian Zaccardo (Juventus), Domenico Criscito (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Andra Barzagli (Juventus), Lorenzo De Silvestri (Inter), Manuel Pasqual (Roma), Fabiano Santacroce (Napoli)

Midfielders

Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Andrea Pirlo (Milan), Luca Cigarini (Espanyol), Pasquale Foggia (Lazio), Alessandro Rosina (Arsenal), Alberto Aquilani (Roma), Riccardo Montolivo (Juventus)

Forwards

Antonio Cassano (Espanyol), Sebastian Giovinco (Juventus), Lauri Dalla Valle (Lazio), Giuseppe Rossi (Juventus), Alberto Gilardino (Milan)

England

Goalkeepers

Scott Carson (Liverpool, Ben Foster (Manchester United), Paul Robinson (Tottenham)

Defenders

Nedum Onuosha (Chelsea), Micah Richards (Manchester United), Wayne Richards (Bolton), Gary Cahill (Aston Villa), Curtis Davies (Manchester City), John Terry (Chelsea), Ryan Taylor (Tottenham), Ashley Cole (Chelsea)

Midfielders

Michael Carrick (Manchester United) Micheal Johnson (Manchester United), David Bentley (Espanyol), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City), Steward Downing (West Ham), Jermaine Jenas (Zaragoza), Danny Rose (Tottenham)

Forwards

Theo Walcott (Blackburn), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Peter Crouch (Liverpool), Jermain Defoe (Aston Villa)

Spain

Goalkeepers

Iker Casillas (R. Madrid), Jose Manuel Reina (Manchester City), Victor Valdes (Barcelona)

Defenders

Alexis (Valencia), Sergio Ramos (R. Madrid), Emiliano Insua (Roma), Pablo (Inter), Raul Albiol (Valencia), Cesar Arzo (Sevilla), Gerard Pique (FC Bayern), Antonio Lopez (At. Madrid)

Midfielders

Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Xabi Alonso (Liverpool), Xavi (Barcelona), Silva (Valencia), Andrea Iniesta (Barcelona)

Forwards

Alejandro Alfaro (Fiorentina), Aquino (Valencia), Aaron (Aston Villa), Imsa Lopez (Athletic Bilbao), Jose Antonio Reyes (At. Madrid), Fernando Torres (Liverpool), David Villa (Valencia)

Now it is time to for the big prize, the managers will earning their money, striving for success and fighting for new contracts as this could potentially be the last tournament for many of our managers international careers. In group A, Zola’s Italy was first to qualify in unstoppable form. Through the whole group Buffon has not picked the ball out of his net throughout, the only blip in the season was against neighbours San Marino who held Italy to a 0-0 draw. In the same group Wales finished 3rd, Jose Mourinho’s side looked good to qualify but missed out by a point, a loss to Serbia proving vital in the grand scheme.

France were in Group B along with Ireland, Zinedine Zidane once again qualified easily for a competition losing only one game. Ireland weren’t so fortunate and couldn’t repeat what they did two years ago. North of the Border Northern Ireland didn’t do too well either and failed to make any impact to their group.

The hottest group was Group D which contained the two World Cup finalist Spain and Sweden along with David Moyes of Belarus and Ramos’ Belgium. The latter two didn’t really put up much of a fight from their group Belarus only managing 9 points, Belgium finished higher up but no pressure was placed on Sweden or Spain who finished as the top two on equal points.

Benitez took control of his first competition and done all that the fans could ask, topping the group comfortably which again contained Russia. Paul Jewell and Spalleti were another two sides drawn together and the two sides ran riot in an easy group, Paul Jewell’s Holland winning all 12 games. Scotland themselves had a tough group and it showed as the difference between qualifying and not was one points, the unlucky side not to go through was Portugal as Scotland topped the group equal with Turkey.

Qualfiers

Italy - Gianfranco Zola
France - Zinedine Zidane
Spain - Bernd Schuster
Sweden - Gus Hiddink
England - Rafa Benitez
Holland - Paul Jewell
Czech Republic - Luciano Spalleti
Scotland - Sir Alex Ferguson

The Groups

Group A

Switzerland
Poland
France
Turkey

It is a pretty tough group I think for France, but nothing that Zidane can’t contend to, Turkey and Switzerland can be surprise packages and France will have to be cautious of the sides. Poland will be home soil though, will that give them the advantage needed to get through to the next round?

Group B

Sweden
Scotland
Germany
Ukraine

Scotland and Sweden are the surprise packages so far in this whole experiment, it will be hard to see them both go through when they have to come up against Germany who have been doing well in tournaments over the past couple of years. But Alex Ferguson knows what his players need to win and Sweden have already proved they have what it takes.

Group C

Holland
Czech Republic
Italy
Serbia

Group C holds the most of our teams with three out of the four. But that also means that one of the sides will not make it to the last eight, my money would be on Holland and Italy to get themselves through.

Group D

Greece
England
Croatia
Spain

Spain always seem to do just enough when it comes to the group stages, could this attitude cost them? It looks a group that holders and World Champions Spain could easily get passed and our beloved England should also take them through, but will Rafa be able to face his countrymen with pride?

The managerial reversal campaign that is quickly coming to a close has been well received from those who have chosen to leave their feedback and with the European Championships only round the corner how better to celebrate such an event then to see how Football Manager will play it out. But going with the theme of the site, lets see how different this European Championships will be if the guys coaching the national sides will were changed.

Giving it much thought I have decided not to play the game out for Euro 2008 and instead give the managers in charge 4 years to put together the plans they need to put a real challenge in for Euro 2012. They have all been given contracts that end after the completion of the tournament in 2012, all will keep their current contracts at any club they may be employed by. making things a little bit fairer, all leagues that could possibly be played from the national sides that will be played have all been picked, hopefully some young talent will come through as the game goes on.

Whose Where?

First up Sir Alex Ferguson who joins up once again with the Scottish national side, Sir Alex has had a few years knocked off his age hopefully preventing him from retiring before the tournament. Wales will see the appointment to outspoken manager Jose Mourinho, Jose has become accustomed to winning silverware, with this Welsh side he may have to make do for not winning trophies. Arsene Wenger will take up the San Marino challenge and it will be an achievement for him if he can score a goal never mind win a game. Northern Ireland get themselves a former World Cup winner Marcelo Lippi and the Republic find themselves with their own World Cup winner and Luiz Felipe Scolari. France will have the first of the fairytale appointment with Zidane who will take up his first coaching position with he international side, Zinedene obviously has the experience of winning at international level when the French dominated each competition. The international wonder man who did wonders with the likes of Australia and Russia is Gus Hiddink he will see if he can do the same with Sweden. In Spain Bernad Schuster looks like he could be one of the most successful managers in recent times, not for winning La Liga, but just because he looks like he is going to keep his job at Real Madrid. We have recently seen what Paul Jewell likes to get up to in public, so I have given him the chance travel to a place where everything goes, Holland. A few of the Premiership managers have also taken up roles to play on the international scene, David Moyes and Juande Ramos will take control of Belarus and Belgium respectively. Back onto the fairytale appointments Italian wizard Zola has been put in place for his home nation, already knowing the players he is working with as he has been involved with that national side for sometime now in a coaching role. Finally, Roma coach Luciano Spalleti who will try his had with the Czechs. Fabio Capello, newly in post for England, I don’t see any reason to get rid of him and he will guide England to the next European Championships.

What has happened in four Year?

The first piece of news was the sacking of Arsene Wenger who didn’t even see out 2007 and as predicted struggled to even score a goal, I don’t know why the sacking came about so early but obviously the FA would rather see an San Marian in post rather then the Frenchman.

Euro 2008

The real test for the teams came at Euro 2008, only six of our teams were in action, Holland, Sweden, Spain, Czech Republic, France and Italy. Sweden and Holland were drawn together and both sides were able to to qualify easily from their group that also held Romania and Austria. Spain had a poor group stage grabbing one of each a win, loss and draw, as Switzerland stormed the group. Spalleti and the Czech’s finished bottom of their group only claiming a win against Spain. France finished with a perfect record in arguably the toughest group with Turkey, Portugal and Serbia and Italy also finished top giving the two novices a real boost going in the knock outs.

We then lost the majority of our sides in the final eight, Spain and Holland were drawn against each other and Schuster found form and Raul scored a hatrick to send them through. Switzerland continued their good form and knocked out Sweden. France did well in their game against Germany, but they let it go down to penalties, a big mistake against a side that in their history has won over 80% of their shoot-outs. Italy were the final side to go through Rossi scored the only goal against Scolari’s former side Portugal. In the semi-finals we were certain of a side in the final as Spain and Italy came up against each other. It was Schuster that came out on top winning 2-1 to meet Germany in the final which Spain won rather easily 4-0, I don’t think Germany even turned up for this game.

South African World Cup 2010

Next up was the World Cup in South Africa, doing a little better this time with England, Republic of Ireland, France, Sweden, Spain, Holland, Czech Republic and Italy all qualifying for the finals.

Belrus didn’t do to well only managing to finish 5th in their qualifying group which Sweden topped and Wales as well really failing to set the world alight and finished with only 6 points. A few of our sides though did get through to the play-off stages. Alex Ferguson was so close to an international competition beating Romania 3-0 at home, but it all went wrong when they travelled to Eastern Europe losing 4-0. Belgium and Ireland were they drawn together for their play-off meaning that one wouldn’t make it Ramos vs Scolari. In a close two ties Ireland came out top Robbie Keane and Kevin Doyle putting themselves in the history books as they scored to secure a World Cup place.

In South Africa their wasn’t too many surprises in the groups, Italy did a white was to finish top of their table and Spain once again not favouring the group stages losing to the Ivory Coast to settle for 2nd which was similar to Holland position who lost to Russia. Zidane’s France dominated their group which also contained Sweden who finished 2nd, but it was close as they beat Cameroon which was the reason they got through. Ireland, England and the Czech’s all failed to get past their groups which saw Capello leave his post, to be replaced by former Liverpool coach Rafa Benetiez.

In the second round Italy were the first out against African eagles Nigeria, Mikel was the difference between the two sides to knock them out. Holland battled against Ivory Coast with Stekelenburg being the hero on the night, and from that you can predict that it was a match that Holland got battered in, but Ivory Coast failed to score and it went down to penalties. Where Stekelenburg once again proved his weight in gold saving Toure’s fifth penalty to send his country through. Spain went up against Russia, who managed to keep the game 1-1 for 90 minutes, but in extra time Torres completed a hatrick to send the European Champions through. Sweden went up against World Cup experts Argentina, a fantastic game ensued, Kim Kallstrom scoring first before Tevez levelled the game. It was surprising Ibrahimovic who scored the winner in the 117th minute that sent Sweden through, not bad for a player who fails at the top level. France secured a 2-1 win against Mexico to be the last of our sides to go through.

The quarter finals was a wonderful draw as non of our sides met each other meaning we would have the chance to see all four in the semi finals. Spain dominated Nigeria in a tense game which David Villa settled in extra time. Holland faced old foes Germany and this time penalties wasn’t good enough for the Germans and Holland took the crown once again winning a shoot out to go through. Sweden scored 6 goals against Ecuador two hatricks on the night, Man of the Match Ibrahimovic took the first three and then Rosenburg. France made sure that all four teams were in the semi finals by beating Portugal 3-2 in extra time.

Now here was the real test of how far these sides have come in only two years, Spain would play France and Holland would take on Sweden. Schuster’s team kicked off first in a tight game which at half time was 1-1. But in the second half Fabregas and David Villa hit two goals and put Bernd into his second consecutive final. Sweden were the surprise package to follow, Gus Hiddink was able to make the Swedes into a force of a side, reaching the final.

The final was a fantastic game which Spain lead through the majority of the game but two late goals in the space of 5 minutes from Zlatan gave Sweden hope and forced extra time. But Spain was too strong and Xabi Alonso and David Villa scored in the extra time to give Bernd a second trophy.

Now we reach what all this has been leading up to, the managers have been given 4 years and two competitions to get to know their sides and to really strieve for the big goal of Euro 2012 which will be held in Poland and Ukraine. Can any of these sides end the dominance of Spain who will be going into the competition surely as favourites. Can Gus Hiddink take his Swedish side that much further to win a competition, or will their be a surprise with Alex Ferguson taking an unlikely nation to European success?

With survival in the first season of asking, it was time for Burton’s side to actually stamp their mark on this league and push for another promotion. They obviously have the resources to do so and Burton has done well so far in his transfer market. Not many players left from previous season, but why would they? All the players had only just settled into the squad after only spending a year at the club, out mostly were the guys who were pushing over the age of 35 Trevor Sinclair left, so did Colin Cameroon many in search for coaching jobs or just a quiet life with the missus. Instead Terry Burton decided to strengthen the squad and add more depth to the Blue Square Premier side. The first signing of the summer was Thomas Butler, arriving for next to nothing from Wycombe and adding some punch to the midfield. A decent dribbler and crosser and can play both sides of the pitch, should be an interesting buy for this season. Next in was old boy Leon Constantine who has dropped down the leagues after failing to break into the Leeds United side. The final buy before the season started was another striker to add to the huge collection that The Rovers seem to be stacking up, Gary Alexander another ageing player from League One side Millwall came and signed for Ramesses Rovers. The two latter strikers who have come in look in a far better shape then Facey and Dean and should go into the first team straight away as improvements to the side to look for League Two football. In September Terry continued to add to the squad with free transfer signings, 20 year old Nigerian Danny Uchechi arrived as decent backup for the side and one for the future. Terry used his links with Manchester United to find some young players and in comes James Derbyshire, not one of the best young players the Manchester United have produced but will act as squad fodder supporting the midfield. More fodder came in the shape of Welsh keeper Glyn Garner and youngster Oliver Hewitt-Fisher.

Ramesses Squad

Unfortunately The Pharaohs have lost their a few affiliated teams and it was probably my mistake as I check over the squad and who is actually the parent team? Non other then Ramesses Rovers who are seemingly looking after Inter, Barcelona and Ajax. I am sure that they won’t want to lose any of their players to send off to another country and get a taste of the higher leagues, many of the players may come back with nosebleeds the leagues are so high. Maybe that might be one for the future to put back the affiliation for the squad and see if Ramesses can grab some decent young regens.

The season started slowly and as Rovers didn’t look like they had come back of their holidays, two draws at Abu Simbel against Rushden, then at Dagenham and Redbridge and losing to Accrington, but it wasn’t until Ramesses met a familiar club in Kettering that they recorded their first win of the season and that came away from home sparking a win at home to Boston United 3-0 giving the team momentum to start climbing the table once again, playing attacking football there was no shortage of goals beating Southport 4-0 and rarely coming out of a game with less then two, Terry Burton’s playing style really coming through with his side and scoring a 106 goals for the season in total. In first half of the season although Ramesses were able to come out with alot of wins and definitely a looking good for the season improving on the last, Ramesses were hovering around the play offs because even though they were scoring goal, they were also slipping them and coming away with too many drawn games on the record to put up any real challenge. But come the second half of the season the side got a real kick up the backside and putting together a string of wins to push up the league again putting 4 goals past Southport who have come The Egyptians whipping boys and with the final games of the season Ramesses went on an attack putting together 13 wins in a row and scoring 4 goals for 4 consecutive games, with the help mostly of Alexander and Constantine. That was a real boost for the team and fired the club into 2nd place finishing 7 points behind the automatic promotion place which went to Morcambe the only club to score more goal then Ramesses, the season was definitely helped by a fantastic away form finishing 6 points clear at the top if you just took road trips into account, but the side couldn’t finish teams off at Abu Simbel, maybe the side are still trying to make it their home, even when they are playing against 25,156 fans?

Blue Square Premier 2009/10

But with the league stage over it was down it was down to the lottery of the play offs. First off was an away tie to Accrington a side that had caused problems for Rovers all year and already played 4 games before this one and still yet to win. At The Crown Ground the game was hard, Accrington dominating the play, with good chances they only thing they lacked was the goals. Gary Alexander hit early in a good team move as the midfield moved forward Uchechi who was in for a recovering Constantine, tried popping the ball into the box before it was deflected and was picked up luckily by Butler who hit it onto Gary’s head for the first goal. Lee Grant scored his second goal of the season heading the ball in from a corner to double the lead, John Miles did score in the second half but it wasn’t enough and Alexander scored late as Redmond who was caught out of position, as he pushed himself forward for a late corner the counter attack was quickly on and Gary struck the ball into a open net from 45 yards out. At home Constantine hit two early goals in another close game and John Miles 64th minute goal wasn’t enough in the 5-2 aggregated win. The final was against a side the Rovers had an easier time with this season Dagenham and Redbridge, again on paper Rovers where the worse side, but made the difference when the ball was in the back of the net. Poor positioning by Chris Coyne let Chris Moore take an early lead before Alexander scored late on in the half to equalise and was enough for extra time. As the 2nd 15 minute kicked off some misplaced passes from the Redbridge side proved fatal and from outside the box Gavin Grant struck the ball into the back of the net and securing a move into the professional leagues, The fans sung the name of Terry Burton for sending them up so quickly in this experimental venture.

In the cups first came up was Ramesses first ever entry to the FA cup and it was one to forget, till the next season. Vauxhall Rovers fired 3 past Steven Drench to kick Ramesses Rovers out of the cup before they had even began, maybe this won’t go into the history books that are written on the official basis. The FA Trophy first round placed The Pharaohs up against myfootballclub.net team Ebbsfleet, who recently won this trophy at Wembley in the real world. But against Rovers it wasn’t to be and the side went down 3-0. SI games favourite AFC Wimbledon was next to be disposed of in the January the excellent away form and attacking football transferring into the cups and winning 4-0. Stafford and Dorchester where then easily disposed of before a semi final clash against Accrington and as I have said before, Accrington had come something of a bogey side for The Rovers and a 2-1 result over two legs sent them through to the final only to lose it to super Blue Square side Morecambe. The Satanta shield ended again in the first round of asking, Stevenage squeezed through 1-0 to leave the club with no cup success this season.

The two signings made in the summer were definitely the difference, coming out as the best players of the season, Constantine topping the goal scoring charts with 48 goals and 21 behind him was Alexander who hit 27. The other signing Butler was also a key part of the season and showing as he finished 3rd from the top players and setting up 23 of the goals scored through the season. Terry Burton definitely showed this season he has what it takes to pick the players to succeed and at the back Lee Grant, captain Chris Coyne and Julian Kelly showing not only are they great players now but that they have a great future ahead of them if the club can keep hold of them and them. In only the third season of the game the Rovers have already started reaping the benefits of a great youth system and Neil Simpson a player with the greatest potential in the side broke into the first team playing all season and using his pace and creativity in the middle of the field to assist with 15 goals having a tremendous debut season, the 18 year old is already indispensable to the club signing a new full time contract to keep him at the club till 2012.

Squad Ratings

But even though success was at the club and the players are looking good for the future, one thing that might force the sale of many of the players is the inevitable bankruptcy of the club. The people in charge of the money again failed to keep the wages bill down and the two new signings Butler and Constantine were earning £102,000 per week between them. Delroy Facey who has now become something of suprless to requirements at the club himself earning still £62,000. Investment did come into the club and in total they earned a good £33 million, but the players are taking the majority of the money out of the club before the Chairmen even sees it. Who makes the decision to pay these players this type of Premiership wage?

Finance Summary

The former players continue to perform Sultan Wilson at Aresnal being the cheapest of all the players showing himself worth only £19.25 million, the strikers claiming the most value at £35.5 million. The young players even going as far as changing the look of the Premiership, Tottenham who have three of the players goalkeeper Alya, defender Merill and left winger Conor have helped Ramos’ side to break the the top 4 and finishe 2nd behind Liverpool. But things look very different as Arsenal yet again fail to claim a top four finish and yet again only qualify for Europe through a cup competition. Chelsea will join them in the UEFA cup finishing behind Manchester City in 5th. But overall the players show no sign of being stopped and have totally took over the England side which is due to play in the World Cup in the summer. With only 6 real players still in the squad, Carson, Ferdinand, Terry, Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney it will be interesting to see if the young side has the mental strength to perform on the biggest stage of all. The CA of a couple of players though has began to fall, Wilson the only 19 year old from the squad to lose a point off his CA, where as age looks to start to have affects on Shafaqut who is down two.

Original Players

Season Best Eleven