Hey guys! Sorry about canceling the J-League adventure, but I really did believe that I did not have time. Fortunately for you I have begun my Arsenal adventure. So without further ado here we go.

Part 1:

The reason that I chose Arsenal was because I liked their playing style and they had really good youth players. I began with the 2007-2008 squad and to be honest there were a couple of problems that had to be addressed.

1. Not enough coverage in the back. Kolo Toure and Willaim Galas were the only 2 quality backs in the side. Senderos and Djourou were not good enough to garner playing time.

2. There was a striker problem.

3. Not enough youth players.

So I began my managerial career at Arsenal by signing some quality youths. I signed Guilherme and Steven Defour for cheap and sent them out on loan so that they could get some playing time. Then came the friendly with Boreham.

It really was a no contest with the away side coming on top with a score of 5-0. Rosicky grabbed a brace while Fabregas, Eduardo, and Adebayor also contributed to the massecre. This game was a building game for my side. I really tried to look at the contributions that each person made and judge by their performances where they should play. I was overall pleased with the match and had a starting formation in mind.

Stay tuned tommorrow for part 2! I will be updating every day!

Arsenal v. West Ham 2-1

Wrong, actual score 0-0

Aston Villa v. Wigan 3-1

Wrong, actual score 0-0

Bolton v. Tottenham 3-1

Correct, actual score 3-2

Fulham v. Portsmouth 1-1

Wrong, actual score 3-1

Hull v. West Brom 2-0

Wrong, actual score 2-2

Manchester United v. Everton 2-0

Correct, actual score 1-0

Middlesbrough v. Blackburn 1-0

Wrong, actual score 0-0

Stoke v. Manchester City 0-3

Wrong, actual score 1-0

Sunday | 1 February 2009

Liverpool v. Chelsea 1-0

Correct, actual score 2-0

Newcastle v. Sunderland 1-2

Wrong, actual score 1-1

Terrible week for me.

Total (this week) : 3 correct | 7 wrong | 0 perfect

Total (all time):    14 correct | 16 wrong | 1 perfect

After a terrible match against Bahrain, where he played the uncomfortable position of left mid, Honda was ready to get back on track. And he did so in the perfect manner. After scoring the opening goal, Venlo went on to score 5 more enroute to an amazing 6-0 win over F.C. Eindhoven. Honda played a critical role throughout the match and was the keep contributers to almost all of the goals. This weeks match against Bahrain, brought Venlo’s manager to Bahrain to scout some Japanese players after the success of Honda. Some of the names that were mentioned were wonderkid Shinji Kagawa and Takeshi Inui. Unfortunately for him, all he saw was a poorly played game where Honda was not able to display his true talents by playing in the center. Hopefully he will learn from this encounter and perform better when he gets a chance.

Arsenal v. West Ham 2-1

Aston Villa v. Wigan 3-1

Bolton v. Tottenham 3-1

Fulham v. Portsmouth 1-1

Hull v. West Brom 2-0

Manchester United v. Everton 2-0

Middlesbrough v. Blackburn 1-0

Stoke v. Manchester City 0-3

Sunday | 1 February 2009

Liverpool v. Chelsea 1-0

Newcastle v. Sunderland 1-2

Portsmouth v. Aston Villa 0-2

Correct, actual score 0-1

Sunderland v. Fulham 0-1

Wrong, actual score 1-0

Tottenham v. Stoke 2-1

Correct, actual score 3-1

West Brom v. Manchester United 0-3

Correct, actual score 0-5

Wednesday | 28 January 2009

Blackburn v. Bolton 1-1

Correct, actual score 2-2

Chelsea v. Middlesborough 3-1

Correct, actual score 2-0

Everton v. Arsenal 0-2

Wrong, actual score 1-1

Manchester City v. Newcastle 2-0

Correct, actual score 2-1

West Ham v. Hull 1-2

Wrong, actual score 2-0

Wigan v. Liverpool 0-2

Wrong, actual score 1-1

This was a pretty good week. The only ones that I got incorrect were the Liverpool, Hull, Arsenal, and Fulham games.

Total (this week) : 6 correct | 4 wrong | 0 perfect

Total (all time):    11 correct | 9 wrong | 1 perfect

Don’t worry I will be starting another adventure once I have the time so stay tuned!

Sporting

The Portugese made a valiant attempt to claim the top spot in group C, but unfortunately for them Barcelona was in their group. They showed promise against the weaker clubs, but against the winners Barcelona they were highly ineffective.  They have alot of potential to cause problems, but the problem is their inexperience. Their captain, Moutinho is only 23, but he plays well and is a great leader.  They have some problems scoring only winning one game by more than 1. To be honest it is going to be extremely hard for them to advance unless they some how find a striker that can consistently score.

Key Player: Yannick Djalo

This young Portugese striker will be absolutely vital if they are going to advance to the next round. They have not shown consistent scoring against higher level opponents.

Bayern Munich

Bayern have once again become one of the perenial forces in Europe. Although they are not performing as expected in the Bundesliga, their performances in the Champions League have more than made up for that. The striking partnership of Toni and Klose is deadly couple with Franck Ribery’s dribbling and Philip Lahm on the wing. Overall they have a highly balanced team only conceding 4 goals while scoring 12 in the group stages. Bayern look to be the perenial favorites in this match-up, but they often get complacent which leads to their eventual downfall. If they can keep their heads out of the clouds and focus on winning then they will surely make it to the next round.

Key Player: Franck Ribery

One of the best players in the world. He has the ability to get by multiple defenders and score. His contributions will be vital and the Champions League is his chance to shine.

Predictions:

First Leg:

Sporting 0 – Bayern 1

Second Leg:

Sporting 1- Bayern 3

Real Madrid

No longer the perenial force in Spain or in Europe. Real Madrid have become a much weaker team since last year. Which is really unusual because they have made several signings that should have increased their fire power, but it has not been seen in their last couple of games. During the group stages the only managed to score more than 2 goals once. The acquistion of Huntelaar should have increased their output, but he has been sparingly used and Real Madrid has continued its poor offensive run. The only shining spot for has been their defense. Both Ramos and Casillas have been solid in the back, which has largely kept them in the run for the Champions League. With La Liga out of reach, the only chance of glory for Real Madrid is to win the competition and they will put everything they have. Watch out for Real Madrid in the champions league. Its been 4 stragith years of round of 16 this year might be their year.

Key Player: Klaas Jans Huntelaar

This biggest signing for Real Madrid this year. With a lack of goals for Real Madrid this season, Huntelaar will be a key part of the revival at Real Madrid. I’ll keep it simple, if this man doesn’t score then they will not advance.

Liverpool

Had a strong start this season, but have started to fade out.  During the offseason they made some several signings like Robbie Keane, but these have turned out to be negligible. Liverpool have always produced in the Champions League and this year is not any different. They easily dispatched PSV and Marseille, but they had problems against Atletico Madrid. They have a talented star, but without Fernando Torres they have problems scoring. Keane and Kuyt have not been to their usual standard and Gerard has a had to pick up the pace for the team. It will be interesting to see whether Benitez puts the Champions League ahead of the premiership. The past couple of seasons Liverpool have not been in contention for the Premier league crown, but this year they are close.

Key Player: Fernando Torres

The best player on Liverpool apart from Gerard. When he played for Atletico he always scored against Madrid. This year is different, but the goal is the same.

Prediction:

First Leg:

Real Madrid 1- Liverpool 0

Second Leg:

Real Madrid 0- Liverpool 2

In:

Thiago | 4,400,000 pounds | Sao Paulo

William | 500,000 pounds | Kyoto Sanga F.C.

Diego | 500,000 pounds | River

Abe, Yuki | 5,750,000 pounds | Urawa Reds

Kim, Jin-Kyoo | 400,000 pounds | Seoul

Out:

Sogahata, Hitoshi | 2,500,000 pounds | F.C. Tokyo

Tashiro, Yuzo | 5,500,000 pounds | Kashiwa Reysol

Iwamasa, Daiki | 7,500,000 pounds | Shimizu S-Pulse

Sato, Hisato | 5,750,000 pounds | Nagoya Grampus

I made some key signings to replace the outgoing Iwamasa and Tashiro. To be honest, the offers were too good to turn down and I made a cool 3,000,000 pound profit from Sato who was starting to go bad. Tiago turned out to be worth the transfer fee and William was a good back up at defensive mid.

Matches:

1st leg

This match turned out better than I expected. I used Thiago because Hisato could not score the past couple of games. It turned out to be a good decision after Thiago scored to late goals that helped secure a needed away win.

This match came down to the wire.  After a Tashiro goal, my team looked like it was crusing towards a win, but in the 88th minute Gilsinho scored and brought the team back to Earth. Fortunately for us, we had Sato who instantly replied and helped us into the Final.

Final

The final could not have started out worse for the team.  A Yuki Abe goal put Urawa on top. By half time I was starting to feel the pressure. But Marquinhos came to the rescue! After a good Kagawa shot the hit the bar, Marquinhos pounced on the rebound and drew us level. After that the match was a see-saw battle going back and forth between the two teams. In the 86th minute, Kagawa found some space and placed a nice through ball to Ogasawara who blasted a shot into the net from a tight angle. That was the goal that won the match and Ogasawara took home MVP honors. It was an amazing game for the players and one of the best comebacks I have ever seen.

Stay tuned for my coverage of the Nabisco cup group stages!

I chose Kashima Antlers because of the good amount of players that they possess and the big transfer budget! So here we go!

The Kashima Antlers squad that I started out with was decent, but there were several aspects that I needed to improve on. Here’s a list of the transfers that I made.

Transfers:

In:

Kashiwagi, Yosuke | 2,000,000 pounds | Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Kagawa, Shinji | 2,500,000 pounds | Cerezo Osaka

Nishikawa, Shusaku | 1,500,000 pounds | Oita Trinita

Aoyama, Toshihiro | 825,000 pounds | Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Aoyama, Naoaki | 3,900,000 Pounds | Shimizu S-Pulse

Sato, Hisato | 2,000,000 pounds | Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Goncalves, Mathieu | 1,000,000 pounds | RC Lens

Jonathon | 500,000 pounds | Vasco

Out:

Chugo, Masaki | 675,000 | Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Aoki, Takeshi | 2,000,000 | Kashiwa Reysol

I really cleaned out Sanfrecce .

I bought Kashiwagi to play on the right side and Kagawa to play on the left.  Naoaki was bought to play in the back and Toshihiro to play defensive mid. Hisato to pair with Marquinhos and Jonanthon as a back-up center back.

The first game that I played was against Monteido Yamagata in the Emperor’s Cup 2nd Round.

Here’s the line-ups for the first match

I chose one of the set formations just so I could see how well the team was.

Here’s the result:

I ended up winning 3-0 with defensive mid Toshihiro grabbing 2 goals and my man-of -the-match. To be honest the game was really one-sided and I didn’t even have to do anything. Toshihiro really surprised me with his two goals, but I wasn’t surprised with Marquinhos’ goal. After this match I was confident that I had a team that could conquer Japan. The combination of Ogasawara, Kagawa, and Kashiwagi worked well and Toshihiro was great as defensive mid. Uchida was really impressive (unfortunately I couldn’t sign Yasuda), but Inoha turned out to be just as good. Things were looking bright.

After this match I started to recieve alot of offers for Ogasawara from European clubs, but I turned them all down and decided to let Ogasawara go after this season. Uchida and Sogahara also recieved a couple of requests, but I turned them all down.

Time for the return leg.

I used the same line-up as before just to make sure that the last game was not a fluke.

It was a very ugly game with neither team really having any chances. But this match helped me figure out a lot about my team. Some of the problems was that they lost the ball too much and gave their opponents too much room at times. So I decided to try a couple of formations before I came-up with a definitive one that my team would play.

Emperor’s Cup Round 3

This time I set-up my team to play a 4-4-2 diamond. Using Kagawa and Kashiwagi out wide. This formation brought a lot of chances, but I became much weaker defensively and conceded to unneeded goals. After this match I tweaked the defense a little bit and tried out the next match.

The second leg was much better than the first. I completely dominated them. Sato got his first goal and Toshihiro grabbed his 3rd goal as defensive mid-fielder. I was really confident with my new formation. I was missing Kagawa due to injury, but his replacement Araiba turned out to be adequate. So I sped into the next round.

Emperor’s Cup Quarter-Finals

This time I was facing an extremely good JEF Chiba side who was highly pack on the offensive side.

This time my tactics failed on me. Maki and Arai ran rapid against my backs. Fortunately for the team, Uchida pulled on back to decrease the deficit. I was back to square one again. I decided to change my tactics against this team in the next leg.

And it worked! They played with 5 midfielders so I put four in the middle which allowed space for my outside backs  Funahaya and Inoha (Uchida was injured). This caused problems for them because the did not have any wingers so they left the outsides wide open for crosses by my wingbacks. Ogasawara was the man of the match with 2 goals. 1 was an absolute screamer from 25 yards out.

I advanced to the semi-finals with a date against Jubilo Iwata…

Stay tuned