Sportazine

Doug here. I probably won’t be posting here a lot during the school year. I will, of course, be providing game coverage from time-to-time on twitter, identi.ca and Google Plus.

I wanted to spend this last post talking about my latest FIFA 11 simulation. It was inspired in part by the start of the EPL season this past weekend and the NY Times own simulation of the 2012-2013 EPL season.

The latest simulation was with Shamrock Rovers of the League of Ireland; the worst league in the EA world.

Unlike my simulation with Malmö FF, this time I played on World Class instead of Semi-Pro. I also kept my “Be A Pro” player as long as I could, which is 10 years in FIFA 11. In the last year, I was finally able to bring home the Europa League trophy!

Notable players in my final line-up were:

A made up Brazilian GK at 78

J. Bruma at 82 (was 83 at highest)

Reincarnated R. Marquez at 80.

A made up Argentinian RWB at 81.

Reincarnated T. Henry at 80 (I’m guessing he didn’t get as high with Shamrock as he did with Malmo because of the fewer games because of crashing out of tournaments sooner).

A. Najar at 79 or 80 depending on position.

J. McEachran at 80 or 82 depending on position.

Reincarnated D. Drogba at 86.

V. Noring at 75 (was 77 at his peak)

D. Fabbrini at 76 (was 77 at is peak)

F. Borini at 77

N. Vaccari at 44 (I only mention him because he is a real player.)

T. Garrod at 37

M. Worsfold at 46

Interestingly, you’ll noticed several players that Chelsea released, including the reincarnated Drogba!

Notable players I got rid of either through transfer market or retirement before the last season:

O Gonzalez (highest I remember was 74)

E. Lichaj (78 I think was the highest)

I won the league all 15 seasons. Biggest win was 6-0 over St. Pats in 2016. Biggest Defeat was to Real Madrid, 6-0, in 2015. I went 522-111-95 with 1609 goals for and 472 goals against.

In the first year I bought a Brazilian Sousa as my highest transfer.

In 2011/2012 I bought Naki from FC St. Pauli (one of my favorite clubs) and sold a D. Kelly. This year I maid the Europa League Round of 32.

In 2012/2013 I bought R. Marquez and again made the Europa League Round of 32.

In 2013/2014 I bought a J. Carrizo (which I believe is a goalkeeper) and sold N’Gakoto. This time I qualified for the Champions league Group Stage.

In 2014/2015 I bought Ji Dong Won and again made Champions League Group Stage.

In 2015/2016 I bought E. Lichaj and again made the Champions League Group Stage.

In 2016/2017 I bought Dude Cearense and finally made it out of the Champions League Group Stage.

In 2017/2018 I picked up the reincarnated T. Henry from NY Red Bull and sold J. Mensah. I did not make it out of the group stage.

In 2018/2019 I picked up G. Medel (from Sunderland at the time) and sold Ji Dong Won. I got third in the Champions League Group stage and proceeded to the Round of 16 in the Europa League.

In the 2019/2020 season I paid no transfer fees (only free agents, which I bought a lot!) and sold J. Rodriguez. Again, I bowed out at the Champions League Group Stage.

In 2020/2021 I bought A. Najar from my hometown DC United! I made it to the Champions League Quarter Finals with his help!

In 2021/2022 I paid no transfer fees (you don’t get a lot of money with Shamrock Rovers!). Champions league round of 16 again.

In 2022/2023 I bought C. Keeley for a nominal fee to round out my lineup. This is about the time when a lot of players start expressing “loyalty”. I made it back to the Champions League Quarter Finals.

In 2023/2024 I bought the goalkeeper that would lead me to the Europa League title. I made it to the Champions League Round of 16.

In the last season, I added a CDM, P. Cetout to the lineup and went 56-49-3-4, scoring 117 goals and only giving up 25. I won the league with 100 points. The next closest team, Bohemians, with 77 points. Unfortunately, after winning the Europa League, I had a transfer budget of 6.1 Million and a wage budget of 57K/week that was wasted.

I thought about cashing in on the reincarnated Drogba a few times, but ultimately he scored 4 goals to lead the team in the winning Europa League campaign. That doesn’t include his 5 goals in 6 appearances in the Champions League that season to qualify for the Europa League, which also lead the team.

Also of note: The Champions League final that last year was Real Madrid vs. Liverpool.

During his 11 seasons, my Be-A-Pro contributed 475 appearances, which were 329 wins, 78 draws and 68 loses. He scores 254 goals and had 82 assists. He also had 59 yellow cards and 1 red card.

Once I get back to Concord, I’ll be able to play some real football, rather than just the video game.