FM 2005 Virtual Simulation (via EURO-League Patch)

[KLINSMANN]

I just recently downloaded the Euro League patch where the best teams in Europe are put into the Scottish leagues. I have just started this file, and made myself unemployed, with the name "Soccer Gaming." Now, I will not be playing in this game; I will only be simulating it with holiday mode at night when I'm sleeping.

I think this will be very interesting, to see where certain teams will end up, both at club and at national level. I will keep all 4 divisions updated, as well as the European Cups, Nationl Cups and International Competitions (World Cup, etc).

You can feel free to ask me for how a specific team is doing or where a certain player currently plays at.

 

[Daz]

sounds very interesting... i'd be intrigued to what would happen to Man Utd

 

[crazyrussin]

sounds very interesting... i'd be intrigued to what would happen to Man Utd

MU is not in there... Just joking mate)))))))))

 

[crazyrussin]

And can you put one russian team, CSKA for example in there, I would really apreciate that

 

[rpvankasteren]

@crazyrussin: I don't know if there's already one in there, but if not KLINSMANN will be unable to add one now.

@KLINSMANN: It'll be interesting to see how balanced this update actually is. I know how hard it really is to get teams to be in a balanced position in a league.

 

[KLINSMANN]

First off, here are the 4 leagues with their respective teams.

Premier League

Platinum League

Gold League

Silver League

 

[KLINSMANN]

And can you put one russian team, CSKA for example in there, I would really apreciate that

There you go. I didn't have to add it, it's already in the Gold League. Good luck to them!

 

[Kibe Kru]

Nice idea... though the Scottish league can be confusing when they split into top6 and bottom 6...
but it'll be interesting!

 

[KLINSMANN]

The upcoming International tournaments:

2004 - OFC Nations Cup (New Zealand)
2004 - Olympics (Greece)
2005 - FIFA Confederations Cup (Germany)
2005 - AFC/OFC Challenge Cup
2005 - Gold Cup (USA)
2006 - FIFA World Cup (Germany)
2006 - African Nations Cup (Egypt)
2007 - Asian Nations Cup (Malaysia & Indonesia)
2007 - Copa America (Venezuela)
2008 - UEFA European Championships (Austria & Switzerland)

 

[KLINSMANN]

League Previews

Premier League:
The favourites for me here are Chelsea FC and AC Milan. Chelsea, with its enourmous wealth and a star studded team will most likely escape with the title. Of course, Barcelona and Juventus make up a great challenge for the two front runners. FC Bayern, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Manchester United can just as equally be ranked as the other teams. The Premier League titlerace will be a very, VERY close one. It is almost impossible to predict who will win it. I will assume that Porto and Lyon will be battling to stay in the Premier League, as one team will be relegated to the Platinum League. As for Valencia, anything can happen in my view. If they start out well, they will finish well; if not, then there might be some problems. It will be VERY exciting to see who come away with the title. And since there are 9 VERY good teams and 3 okay teams, some of those 9 will come in below a mid-table finish!! Also, do not be surprised if managers are sacked from their jobs, as it will happen for sure!

Platinum League:
There are only 10 teams in this division, compared to the 12 in the Premier League. The favourites here look to be AS Roma, FC Liverpool and FC Schalke 04. However, I could see Ajax messing around up there as well. PSV Eindhoven have a decent team, but I don't think its decent enough to be promoted. As far as relegation is concerned, 2 teams will get relegated. To me, it looks to be a battle between Fenerbahce, Benfica and possibly Celtic. Werder Bremen can finish anywhere, even promotion if they do well enough and sign some good players early.

Gold League:
Just by looking at the teams, this could be one of the tighest groupings. Very unpredictable here as Marseille, Newcastle, Deportivo, Anderlecht and Rangers look to be possible candidates for promotion. Of course, Sporting, Galatasaray and Feyenoord could mess in there as well. I predict Sevilla for relegation by far from anyone else. And as far as CSKA Moscow is concerned, who knows? Maybe they can make a couple of signings before the season starts.

Silver League:
Some of the teams here look better than some of the Gold League clubs. For example, Dortmund, Lazio, Leverkusen and Rosenborg really stand out here. I predict Villareal to come in last place here, but you cannot be relegated any further anyway, so it would't matter. Also, watch out for Olympiakos and Club Brugge for potential promotion contenders. Real Betis should be concerned with a mid-table finish if they can achieve that, and I would also keep a close eye on Sparta Prague, as they can come in anywhere.

 

[KLINSMANN]

European Competition Previews

UEFA Champions League:
The "Scottish" teams here are FC Bayern, Lyon, Porto and AC Milan. AC Milan is the only team that has to go through Qualification first to get in. They start off in the 3rd Qualifying Round. From other countries, possible threats could be: Paris, Stuttgart, Atletico Madrid, and maybe Parma. Otherwise, this competition should go to Scotland (aka the "Euro-League"), almost every year!

UEFA Cup:
Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea will represent the Euro-League in this competition. It should be a tight battle, and it will be interesting to see which of these can last the longest against other mediocre teams. Boavista and HSV could serve as other possible threats here, otherwise one of Barca, Arsenal or Chelsea should take it home.

UEFA Inter-Toto Cup:
AS Roma and Celtic from the Platinum Leagues enter this competition. AS Roma enters in Round 2, while Celtic enters in Round 3. Nice, Real Sociedad, and Aston Villa could serve as possible threats as well.

UEFA Super Cup:
This will be played out between last years Champions League winner (FC Porto) and the UEFA Cup winner (Valencia). It will be an interesting match between two Premier League sides in Monaco.

As far as Nation Coefficients are concerned, this is how it looks like right now (Top 25):

As you can see, Scotland lie in 6th place right now. This will surely change soon as Euro-League sides start winning Europe!

 

[KLINSMANN]

Important/Big Transfers - July 2004

As you can notice, the biggest transfers here by far this month is Glen Johnson's move from Chelsea to Barcelona. Barcelona paid a fee of €20 million. Zanetti's move from Inter Milan to Aston Villa might help Aston Villa in their Inter-Toto Cup run. Lyon are also trying to improve their squad by purchasing Sergio from Deportivo La Coruna for €1.2 million. Another, fairly big move is Juan's transfer from Leverkusen to FC Porto. Also, Chelsea are trying to reserve some players for the bench with their purchase of Diego Placente from Leverkusen for only €425,000. Amazing future prospect, Vincent Kompany's move to Porto will surely give Porto a bright future. Soon after his €1.1 million purchase, his value increased to over €8 million and he is only 18 years of age!

 

[KLINSMANN]

2004 UEFA Inter-Toto Cup

This tournament kicked off with 2 Euro-League teams in it. AS Roma and Celtic, who are both in the Platinum League started off in the 2nd Round and 3rd Round respectively.

2nd Round

Easy win here for Roma, 3-0 away and 2-0 at home. They move on to the next round.


3rd Round

Celtic here with an important away goal to secure a spot in the semi-finals after drawing 0-0 at home against Gent. AS Roma, still not conceding a goal, look to be real contenders here after beating 1860 Munich 2-0 and 2-0. Semi's for them!


Semi-Finals

Celtic were deservedly eliminated by Aston Villa as they lost both their legs, 2-0 and 4-1. AS Roma on the other hand continue to impress and move on to the final. Real Sociedad also move on and look to be the only threat to Roma now. The draw for the final pitched Roma and Sociedad!

 

[KLINSMANN]

2004 UEFA Inter-Toto Cup continued...

The Finals

AS Roma chocked at home! 1-1 only against a mediocre Sociedad side. They will have to do better in the 2nd leg. Real Sociedad even outshot them. It is the first game that Roma didn't win in this years Inter-Toto Cup.

And out they are. No UEFA Cup for AS Roma. After Celtic's elimination, Roma are out as well. Even though they outshot Sociedad in this leg, they couldn't finish and therefore are eliminated from Europe.

All other matches:

Chalkidona from Greece defeats Genoa from Italy 3-1 in the second leg to secure a spot in the UEFA Cup. Also, Celtic-defeaters, Aston Villa ties 4-4 on aggregate but goes through on away goals against Bulgarian side Marek.

So, in all:

Final Results of the 2004 UEFA Inter-Toto Cup:
Winners: Aston Villa (ENG), Chalkidona (GRE) and Real Sociedad (ESP)

 

[KLINSMANN]

2004 Olympics

For those who are interested, I'll quickly update what happened at the 2004 Greece Olympic games.

In the group stages, two "sort of" upsets happened. Here they are:

Here is a screenshot of the Quarter Finals to the Final:

Italy wins the 2004 Olympic games with a 2-0 extra time victory over Argentina. Congratulations to them

2004 Olympic Games Winners:
Italy

 

[Áļéאָ]

the selection of teams for the leagues sucks. They should have done it based on the real world team coefficients.

 

[KLINSMANN]

2004 UEFA Super Cup

The final was contested between last years Champions League winner (FC Porto) and last years UEFA Cup winner (Valencia). It is a game played on neutral ground, in this case and every case, Monaco.

Porto didn't play too well, although their new signing Vincent Kompany got on the scoresheet when he tied the score up 1-1 in the 30th minute. Before that however, Ruben Baraja took the lead for Valencia in the 8th minute. Valencia kept dominating until they finally found the goal they were looking for. It came quite late, in the 72nd minute by Pablo Aimar, who was later announced "Man of the Match." Valencia, take the UEFA Super Cup home.

2004 UEFA Super Cup Winners:
Valencia

 

[KLINSMANN]

the selection of teams for the leagues sucks. They should have done it based on the real world team coefficients.

It's okay. It's not too bad. The only place I can kind of see a problem is at the Gold League and the Silver League, but over time, those will even out, because the worse teams will be in the Silver League and the better teams will be in the Gold League.

 

[KLINSMANN]

Important/Big Transfers - August 2004

Joaquin's transfer to Chelsea just shows how much money Chelsea have. Also, Iker Casillas will now play for Manchester United. That is quite a big move. Soldado moved from Real Madrid to Valencia. Also, Porto have picked up Blasi from Juventus for €21 million. One of the biggest transfers is Robinho's move to Europe. AC Milan paid €17.5 million for the 20 year old Brazilian wonderkid. Juventus strenghtened themselves with William Gallas from Chelsea. Demichelis went to Inter Milan for €14 million. He was probably not settling in well at Bayern. Big man Baptista now plays at Monaco, after moving from Sevilla for €12.25 million. Bastian Schweinsteiger, who is a very good prospect for the future, has been sold to Real Madrid in a part exchange deal and €2.3 million. Bayern got Michel Salgado in that deal. American star, Landon Donovan decided to stay in Europe, as he chose to play for Marseille. Bayern also gave away Claudio Pizarro and Willy Sagnol, but got Christiano Ronaldo in return. This was a player-exchange deal.

 

[KLINSMANN]

2004 OFC Nations Cup

Australia beat New Zealand 2-0 and 3-0 in two legs for a combined aggregate score of 5-0 to win the OFC Nations Cup.

2004 OFC Nations Cup Winners:
Australia



2004 Inter-Continental Cup

FC Porto won this one, 2-0 against Once Caldas from Colombia. Luis Fabiano and Diego took care of the scoring.

2004 Inter-Continental Cup Winners:
FC Porto



2005 Gold Cup

Fairly predictable group stage finish here. The 4 teams that were knocked out were to some point the worst teams on paper anyway.

Brazil's path to the final was a stroll through the park as they beat El Salvador 4-0 and Costa Rica 3-0 in the Q-Finals and Semi-Finals respectively. Canada had a little bit of bad luck as they lost 3-2 in extra time to Costa Rica and were sent home. Puerto Rico continued to be the only surprise nation, reaching as far as the Semi-Finals. As for the United States, they were beaten by their rivals Mexico, 2-0 and eliminated earlier than expected. Mexico and Brazil fought out a tightly contested match between themselves. Mexico were trailing Brazil for a long time, and even missed a penalty near the end of the match, however still managed to get that equalizer and send the game to extra time and eventually a penalty shoot-out where they would defeat Brazil 4-2.

2005 Gold Cup Winners:
Mexico