Academy Matchday #1: Recap and ones to watch

[Daleks]

Academy Matchday #3: Recap and ones to watch > >

Welcome to the first iteration of my Matchday Recaps, which will be focusing on the academy league for the upcoming S20 draft class. We will be looking at the results of the matches from the first matchday of the academy league and pinpointing the people that made the difference, and those who had a match to forget.

Stockholm IK 1:0 Port Royal F.C. 

The first match of the season took place in a warm sunny day in Stockholm, where home team Stockholm IK hosted a game against Part Royal F.C. Niklas Jörgensen starts of the entire season with the starting kickoff. The same man would also register the first shot of the season, with a missed header in the 3rd minute. Controversy would strike early in the 6th minute, as Prince seemingly makes Jörgensen fall in the penalty box. After checking var, the referee decides on... no penalty. Port Royal F.C. narrowly miss an early disaster. Is this clumsiness or a dive from the danish striker? I legally can't say.

Stockholm continued to dominate the match, with the same danish star striker succesfully reaching the ball for several headers, all of which end up going over the top bar. Another close call in the 37th minute, where right wing back Criminal sends a wonderful lofted through ball to a running Jörgensen, who hits the post.

Stockholm gave Port Royal no breathing room, and it finally cumulated in a goal in the 76th minute, as Danny DeVito cosplayer Jimmy Jimsted sent a beautiful corner kick towards the 196 cm tall defender Michael Schuhmacher, marking the first goal of the entire season.

The match continued to be very one-sided, even if the ending scoreline does not reflect so.

Stockholm IK dominated in offense, leaving many to be shocked at such a low scoreline.

Player of the match: Michael Shuhmacher
The tall defender was the difference maker today, being the sole goalscorer to save a dissapointing display of non-clinical finishing by the teams offensive players. The german also did well in the passing game, boasting one of the highest pass completion rates in the match today, while also dominating in the air.

A match to forget for: France Torres
Cairo legend came in to assist the team's incomplete roster. However, his experience did not amount to much. With one of the worst passing completions and having only won a fifth of his headers, Torres might want to stay retired after this match (sorry Cairo fans).

Player of note: Tyrano Criminal
The wingback went under the radar, but his numbers were very impressive. 4 key passes, 7 interceptions, 3 succesfull dribbles, most km ran at 14.1. His cross completion is subpar, but Tyrano Criminal nonetheless might be the biggest difference maker in the upcoming matches and a close eye should be kept on him.

Adowa Accra 3:2 Sydney City 

Gibrahimovic magic, added time heroics and a lot of injuries highlight what was perhaps the biggest spectatle this matchday.

Sydney City starts with the first goal in the 16th minute, as Louis Ashworth intercepts a poorly placed pass by centerback Tathille. Ashworth then proceeds to strike the ball with as much power as possible into the top left, catching keeper Mybox off-guard.

The celebrations would be interrupted, as in the 20th minute inverted-wingback Stampe lobbed a pass over the Sydney defenders onto Dip, who made a low cross across the box towards Redgie who had very little else to do other than tap it in the net. However, the celebrations continued as VAR has ruled Dip offside.

The 29th minute will sound similar. Stampe from a freekick crosses it towards Dip, whose carefully aimed header creates another easy goal scoring opportunity in the form of a header by Cole Mertz. VAR checks the play again for offside, but finds nothing!

This match showcased Addowa Accra's weakness in passing at the back. Mertz passes to Bello in the 41th minute, but a lurking Ashworth once again surprises the reciever and steals the ball. The play becomes messy with a lot of different players playing pinball with the ball, until it eventually leads to Ashworth having a missed shot on goal.

The 47th minute marks our first injury of the season, as Axel Blaze sustains an injury and is replaced by Joey Kelly.

A terrible miss is seen in the 51st minute. Zeret makes a run, passes it to Gibrahimovic in the box, who then probably intentionally backheeled the ball towards Dip. With only the goalkeeper between him and the net, his crucial shot ends up going extremely wide.

Another injury in the 79th minute as Pinkman recieves and injury and is subbed out for Djimrabaye Jr.

A goal falls in the 86th minute. Ashworth plays his way out of trouble, passes onto a running Mao who delivers a perfect cross into the box towards Minjeong Kim, who heads it into the net.

Their opponents quickly retaliate in the 87th minute. Ronflex finds a path for the balls towards Zeret, who quickly passes it towards the Swedish frontman Gibrahimovic, who carefully places the shot in the bottom left corner and scores.

Tragedy would strike for the hopeful Syndey players in the 94th minute. Passing out in the back, Addowa Accra's Mertz surprises the opposition by suddenly creating a long ball pass towards a running Gibrahimovic, who shots between the legs of the opposing goalkeeper towards his familiar bottom left corner. The match ends 3-2.


Player of the match: Gibrahimovic

Not much to say here. Two beautiful runs that finished with two beautifully placed shots.

A match to forget for: Oscar Jebaseelan

While not doing any major mistakes, the Australian center back was invisible on the pitch, not doing anything of note. In comparison, his center back teammate Cahill atleast made several interceptions and 

clearances.

Player of note: Louis Ashworth

His clever anticipation of opponent passes and his dangerous ability to dribble created several dangerous attacks.

Victoria Falls 1:4 Istanbul F.K.

Spectators who turned off the match after half time would understandbly be very confused to see such an one sided result.

Mascot of Istanbul, Vinnie Jones, would score the first goal with a header in the 14th minute from a corner kick taken by Nadj.

Victoria Falls would equalize in the 43 minute. Santori and Narvaez Jr. make a quick one-two, where Krznarić loses his man, leading to Santori hitting the far side netting.

The first half ended 1:1, but it was quite uneventful overall. The second half looked to change all of that.

In the 58th minute, a defence splicing pass from Davidović towards Dobrić created the second goal for Istanbul.

In the 63th minute, Nadj put himself on the assist sheet again, crossing from the left side towards Dohbra, leaping over Narvaez Jr. and putting the ball in the bottom right corner.

And the final goal in the 67th minute ended up being a very unique one, to say the least. A pass from Patak accidentally hit Dohbra's torso, which deflected towards a familiar Dobrić, whose quick reflexes managed to turn the mistake into a goal. The rest of the match continued showing a dominating performance from Istanbul.

Istanbul's XG remained impressive in the second half.

Player of the match: Predrag Dobrić
It is never a surprise to see the player of the match be the person who scored two goals or more. However, it would be silly to ignore the rest of his stats. A key pass, a clear cut chance created, done well in the air and also crosses the ball succesfully when the need arose.

A match to forget for: Borey Barflett
4 shots faced, 4 conceded, as well as a poor pass completion. Not much else to say.

Player of note: Sergej Nadj
Nadj was a danger in every phase of the game. Lots of key passes, a lot of crosses (a lot of them not accurate, but it pressures the opponents nonetheless), a lot of interceptions and clearances and impactful dribbles. Of course, the highlight is his 2 assists.
Although, in such a dominating match, it would be amiss to not atleast mention Davidović and Dohbra, who made a lot of the plays possible as well. Do we see early signs of dynamic duos pairings here?

Interesting match facts:
All shots on target were a goal. Goalkeepers were not a factor in this match.

Atlético 4:2 P.S. Jakarta

Atlético were looking to repeat Istanbul's performance, but a late goal Jakarta placed Atlético below Istanbul in the league standings. But, first off, look at this little boi:

He is so smol

Anyway, onto the match itself;

2nd minute, Atlético player Ramos hands off the ball to winger. He passes the ball back to De Giron, and then onto Mitidiero, and finally towards Brazil (the player) who shoots at the goal. Bus (also the player), Jakarta's goalkeeper, manages to get a hand on it but it is not enough. Atlético is leading.

In the 4th minute, Ramos manages to make a fast run with the ball after a carefully placed pass by Dallas. However, Bus' parry this time does manage to keep the ball out of the net, even if it took mildly destroying the crossbar.

The 29th minute features insane heroics by goalkeeper Lynch, who first manages to punch a cross away, then stands up fast enough to do a majestic save against a rebound shot.

30th minute featured even more quick reflexes by the American goalkeeper.

The 40th minute featured a penalty, after Ramos... just fell behind Hovi. No, really, what did Hovi do!? I am not legally allowed to criticise the referees, so moving onto the penalty itself. Xavier managed to convert the penalty into the top right corner, with a bit of help from the post.

62nd featured a poor clearance. Hulk crossed into the box, which was headed away by Haase. Unfortunately, it went right into Biglehoward, who managed to cross it back into the box towards Dom Patterson, who simply headed the ball into the net.

Another penalty in the 66th minute. Warrick hits Dallas' legs from behind. Xavier once again steps up to take the penalty, converting it in the bottom left corner.

80th minute, a free kick from Atlético's Pinkie manages to reach the currently not very defensive midfielder Budo, whose head hits the ball, scrapes the underside of the crossbar, and scores.

Atlético were hoping to be tied with Istanbul in the first matchday, but their wishes were broken in the 86th minute, as Arthur Cain finishes up the scoresheet for the first matchday after a calculated pass from Geurts and a sneaky definitely calculated fake from Patterson. De Giron has one final attempt to make his team stay in the top spot with Istanbul, but Bus manages to keep them wishing.

Player of the match: Timo Geurts

Not often you see a player from the losing team be player of the match, but Timo Geurts was the reason why Jakarta were competitive today. He really had it all today. A key pass and a clearcut chance, 7 succesfull dribbles, 5 interceptions, 2 clearances and an assist. The Wing-Back has a bright future if he keeps up these perfomances.

A match to forget for: Andres De Giron

Defying expectations again by putting a player from the winning team in here. De Giron simpy had a bad match. Low pass completion, none of his passes created a play, none of his crosses hit, his aerial game was poor and the only thing to make up for it is 1 dribble. You can't be too harsh on someone whose team still won convincingly, but this performance could have been the difference maker on another day. De Giron will be looking to redeem himself on Matchday 2, or the draft might end up not being kind to him.

Player of note: Chris Warrick

While not boasting the best rating (mostly due to being responsible for one of the penalties and getting a yellow) and while also being on the losing team, Warrick has some interesting statistical outliers. His interceptions were good, and his clearances as well. Most importantly, he did 7 aerial plays, all of which he has won. One of them was also a key header. The Indian played a centerback, even though his current preference is a wing-back. Does Warrick perhaps have potential in pivoting into a wide centreback, to compliment his talented aerial game and technical abilities? Or is he going to continue training as a wing-back and hope he can get more playing time as a wing-back? Time will tell.

And that is all for this first Matchday Recap. This one took a long time to make, so I will be experimenting with many different styles in the upcoming week to provide the highest quality or enjoyement, while also creating it in a timely manner consistently.

Thank you for reading. We will see each other again next time, most likely on Matchday 3.

[JeffreyDaniels]

Great breakdown of a very exciting first matchday! Lots of excitement with a huge draft class and the games didn't disappoint in my opinion. I personally also was impressed by Fabian Mao from Sydney (3 key passes, 2 chances created, an assist and 6/8 tackle success rate) and Jimmy Jimsted from Stockholm (also 3 key passes, 2 chances created and an assist). Istanbul's left side especially was also very impressive, every highlight looked really dangerous with Nadj like you mentioned making very scary overlaps every time, while the attackers were firing away all game. I do think that some teams (I know my team Medellin for example) didn't have their custom tactic set so I'm curious to see if that changes a lot in next match day, I recall another player saying something similar about their team. I'm very anxious since I believe we are heading to you guys' ground for our next game day, could be a banger of a match with the two highest scoring teams facing eachother. Are you planning on writing another breakdown for next gameday? Would be nice to have for if people miss a MD due to time zones or real life obligations etc. I might be able to do it some MDs if you're not able, lmk!

[Daleks]

Great breakdown of a very exciting first matchday! Lots of excitement with a huge draft class and the games didn't disappoint in my opinion. I personally also was impressed by Fabian Mao from Sydney (3 key passes, 2 chances created, an assist and 6/8 tackle success rate) and Jimmy Jimsted from Stockholm (also 3 key passes, 2 chances created and an assist). Istanbul's left side especially was also very impressive, every highlight looked really dangerous with Nadj like you mentioned making very scary overlaps every time, while the attackers were firing away all game. I do think that some teams (I know my team Medellin for example) didn't have their custom tactic set so I'm curious to see if that changes a lot in next match day, I recall another player saying something similar about their team. I'm very anxious since I believe we are heading to you guys' ground for our next game day, could be a banger of a match with the two highest scoring teams facing eachother. Are you planning on writing another breakdown for next gameday? Would be nice to have for if people miss a MD due to time zones or real life obligations etc. I might be able to do it some MDs if you're not able, lmk!

Glad you enjoyed. Yeah there were multiple players which were simply incredible on the pitch, it is very hard to choose from sometimes. I tend to be biased in favour of fullbacks/wingbacks and midfielders a lot of the time, since people can often miss their contributions.

I will likely be doing these recaps weekly on every odd numbered matchday. So: 1,3,5 etc. Will likely be doing it until I hit my bounty money cap, after which I will take a small break until next season, where I will switch to minors matchdays, where my player will likely be. No idea how long my interest and dedication will hold though, I might miss some weeks in between as well due to life of course.

But I definitely won't be doing recaps for even numbered match days, as it's too much work. Besides, the bounties are available to everyone, so feel free to also do your own matchday recaps :). But I understand that it is not the greatest feeling doing a post about something that another person has already done. So, yeah, I will not touch even numbered match days for the moment :).

I am excited to see your recaps, if you do end up doing them! :D

[Newkbomb]

Thank your for the attention to detail in writing this recap! I enjoyed the unique insight into both the flow of the matches and the statistical analysis of teams and players. Speaking for Port Royal, we were a team that did not have a tactic uploaded, which at least contributed to us being dominated (shout-out to James Asprey for keeping it close with a heroic performance). I like how you shouted out an under-the-radar player from each match besides the clear player of the match. If it's not too much of a burden I think it would be cool for each team to have their own player of note so that players on both teams can get some kind of shout-out. It was also fun to shout out the smol man, a meme of the week or something like that could be a fun addition to these recaps as well.

As much as I'd also like to potentially jump on the train of writing matchday recaps for the academy, it's probably not something I have time for. I'm definitely looking forward to the draft and will probably write both before and after analyzing it. But who knows maybe I'll decide to join the fun in future match days especially if no one else is writing about the even numbered ones.

[Hero19]

Good god man! This is a remarkable level of analysis. I can absolutely see this becoming a recurring segment with no small amount of content to report on. I'm particularly fond of the 'players in focus' section. Highlighting key players is a great way to really immerse the community in the intricacies of it all, and the attention to detail that you provided remarking on the weather "on a warm sunny day in Stockholm" is just a tidy little cherry on the cake.

I'm also going to commend you on the 'interesting facts' section, which seems like a niche very few people are picking up on, and the attention to detail is appreciated. Noting that all shots were on target in the Atlético VS P.S. Jakarta match is probably a fact that did go under the radar for a lot of viewers, but still an important fact to recognise.

And for my final piece of sycophantic behaviour, I want to say how well done and conveyed your play-by-plays were. I don't fathom to think how long you spent investigating all the details but your perceptive eye has done you justice this day.

All in all, for a short tl;dr, good show chap, thoroughly enjoyed, please do keep up the good work.