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Zema · 2022-08-21, 12:54 AM - Word count:

"And with the 14th overall pick in the S2 draft, Athenai FC are very proud to select... French midfielder, Laurent Gourcuff." Since that fateful day, Gourcuff has taken a weird path towards becoming a great player. After a solid rookie season in Greece, he packed his bags and moved to the beautiful city of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Here he has become a staple in a side that still has not shown what they can truly do. But let us get back on track to that first season. As a rookie he spent the most time playing as a central midfielder, with Zinedine GinTonic taking the offensive midfield role, Gourcuff was trying to find passes from deep and keep the game rolling. Only taking 13 shots all season with 6 hitting the target, Gourcuff saw himself having his best season in terms of passing % at 87. Speaking of passes. Gourcuff managed an impressive 5 assists from 14 games in the league in his first season. Following up on that, a solid 7.01 average rating shows that while he was not the most impactful player on the team he was clearly showing a solid level. In comparison, he got a 6.92 rating from a similar role in his 3rd season. There were some other very interesting stats if you compare his rookie season to his later season. The biggest improvement to his game over the last couple of seasons has been his defensive level. He finished his first season with 8 tackles won. The season after from a more offensive role? 36. Season after? 46. But it was not the only area defensively he has improved since his early days. 15 interceptions and 0 clearances in his first season. In the 3rd season? 42 interceptions, 56 clearences. The most surprising stat however is his dribbling. He only had 2 successful dribbles over his entire rookie season. He averaged 22 over the next two seasons. And that also summs up his development. He started out making the easy, simple pass with the occasional chance creating throughball. But moving forward, he became such a well rounded midfielder who can play in any role in the midfield if necessary. 365 words. <a href='index.php?showuser=89' rel='nofollow' alt='profile link' class='user-tagged mgroup-7'>@Zema</a> you need to put a link to your player page and your CPT#1 before I can approve CPT#1 <a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=2315' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showt...findpost&p=2315</a> Player page: <a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=382' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=382</a> APPROVED

Cleetus · 2022-09-09, 03:24 PM - Word count:

<a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=17007' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Career PT #1</a> <a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=823' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Player Page</a> It is extremely safe to say that Nicolás Inclán's rookie season, and to be fair, also his career until recently, did not go as planned. It all began with excitement, as he was selected int he second round by the expansion squad, Montreal United. The team started off its inaugural campaign with some struggles, as they did not win their first game until matchday 9, which was 2-0 over Buenos Aires. While he had an intense desire for success, and to help his new team get off to a hot start, Nico's personal life forced him to focus on things other than the Simulation Soccer League. As we will get into in future installments of his Career PTs, things did turn around eventually. Back to his rookie year though, that victory over Buenos Aires seemed to jumpstart the squad, as Montreal won 4 out of its next 5 games. This run of good form included victories over Tokyo SC in both legs of their Quarter Final matchup. Unfortunately, Montreal and Inclán ran into a buzzsaw in the Semi Finals as they lost both games to Hollywood FC, 1-5 and then 0-1. It is interesting, as Inclán performed better, at least in terms of match ratings, in the losses to Hollywood than he did in the victories against Tokyo. As the team continued to struggle to get results in its remaining games, it was apparent that his lack of ability to make updates hurt the team. Had he continued in his training regiment, he surely would have been able to turn in better performances. It is entirely possible that had he improved he could have been the reason for a 0-1 loss to turn into a draw and for a 1-1 tie to turn into a victory for Montreal. Either way, it is all in the past now, and he has absolutely used his rookie season struggles as motivation to keep his nose to the grindstone. Knowing that he let his team down in Montreal is a constant reminder for him that he must continue to show up week after week, to put in time on the training pitch so the results of this hard work can show when match time comes. <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1' id='CODE-WRAP'><tr><td>CODE </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'>376 words</td></tr></table> APPROVED

**Nhamlet** · 2022-09-24, 10:03 AM - Word count:

<a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=2083' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>CPT1</a> <a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=400&hl=' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Player Page</a> As a hotly desired prospect coming into the S2 SSL draft, Ryze had no idea how his first season was going to turn out. Being selected 3rd overall by FC Rio, he looked forward to apartnership with the speedster Haruka Mayoi and developing his game to help the team be successful. In some ways that did work out as Mayoi scored 8 goals, good for 8th in the league and Ryze just behind with 6 goals. If anything it could be said that Ryze had been underperforming relative to what the chances created were, as his xG saw him closer to 8 goals as well. Ryze was also second in the league in shots with 70, a little behind the machine Ricky Bobby, but decently ahead of everyone else with Coffee Biscuit at 62 being 3rd highet. This would also include having the fewest appearance among those three. The number he was most proud of was that the expectation that Ryze would be an immediate force in the air came true, seeing him win 71% of his duals in the air, and being the most successful forward when it cames to number of headers. It was clear from the scouting report that there was going to be no issues in this going forward, but what a concern was the ability of him to progress the ball with his feet. At only 6 dribbles all season, combined with a poacher that wanted to stretch the defense vertically, this meant that a lot of the dependency laid at the feet of the defense and midfield to help progress the ball. Yet as a result of the team having a clear disparity in talent, it was more often than not that they have to resort to counter attacking and set pieces to find their offensive success. Unfortunately with the team attempting to force chances through a pressing philosophy, it found themselves way at the bottom of the league, in dead last having conceded 34 goals relative to the 20 scored. It was clear that the defense was a significant issue despite the excitement that could be seen up front. Being the 6th best scoring team was a small condolence even if one could argue they were arguably right in the middle of the pack but the fact that there were only 3 other teams who allowed more than 30 goals in the 14 matches played meant that on average, Rio was expected to try and fight from a 2-0 deficit regardless if they expected to even come away with a single point. This was reflected as well in the fact that they had a league high 9 losses and only 3 wins to their name. These wins only came at the expense of other bottom half teams like Montreal, Tokyo and Cairo. Unfortunately the surrounding struggles of being mired in a losing season led to being too great of a challenge for the team overall as the difficulties piled on with the manager stepping down and a rebranding on the horizon. Ryze would also soon find himself on the move once more. APPROVED

Legend · 2022-09-27, 04:26 PM - Word count:

Lochlann O’Rourke’s rookie season was one that was drastically different from his previous seasons with Galway United. It was the first professional season for O’Rourke in the SSL, the first year of Division 2, and also the first year of F.C Kaapstad. That didn’t stop the expansion side from finishing just 1 point out of automatic promotion as União São Paulo barely edged them, coming down to the final game of the season. Personally, O’Rourke finished the year tied for second in the division in goals scored, with 6. Despite that stat, O’Rourke still outperformed his xG by 2. A strong start for the S5 draftee, but O’Rourke was still outperformed by the likes of Konstantin Selich the German who led Adowa Accra to the Division 2 title, and more than likely MVP honors with a 7.85 rating and 9 goals scored in the campaign. That is the level that O’Rourke will need to get to if his team is to be promoted this upcoming season. Spending another year in Division 2 might hinder his development, which no one wants to see. S5 was a strong class for Strikers as well, with the likes of Justice, and Le Tissier doing good things for their clubs as well. Who will be the first out of those three to make it to the top flight? It remains to be seen. Looking forward, and into S6 there needs to be a big upgrade for O’Rourke if he’s to make a difference. An overall average game and technical player, O’Rourke’s strong suit is his football IQ and reading of the game, highlighted by his 15 offsides last year. Although high and seeming like a bad thing, the underlying reason for this stat is that O’Rourke was making runs and constantly pushing the defenders back into their own end. Was it him going offside because he was too quick, not smart enough to time the run, or perhaps it was jumping the gun when it came to his teammates finding him with through balls? We’ll see this year as O’Rourke has apparently become even faster. Will this lead to more, or less offsides? Will it hurt the team, or potentially lead them to glory? The only way to find out is to watch Division 2 soccer this year! <a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=1855' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Player Page</a> <a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=14686' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Career PT #1</a> <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1' id='CODE-WRAP'><tr><td>CODE </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'>383 Words</td></tr></table> APPROVED

stevo · 2022-09-28, 04:52 AM - Word count:

In their inaugural season in professional football, F.C. Kaapstad nearly missed out on the automatic promotion to the SSL's Division 1. A major hand in this had Abdoulaye Camavinga, who had a a stabilizing effect in the South African defensive line. Standing tall and strong, the German came in and was immediately thrown into a starting role for Kaapstad. While he didn't necessarily thrive as part of the five man group that gave up 18 goals in 10 regular season games, he still consistently garnered match ratings of around 7 - finishing with an average rating of 6.91. He also managed to start in every game of the season, from league games to cup fixtures and preseason matchups. Camavinga did not score or assist on a goal as a rookie, sticking primarily to his defensive role of staying behind. Not much of a gifted technician, he stayed true to himself. This was also evident in his non-existent offensive numbers - a total of 2 shots taken throughout the entire season and a xG value of 0.07 demonstrate his reluctance to be a bigger part of the team's offense. Pretty noteworthy though, he extraordinarily led all Division 2 players in interceptions - an impressive result for a first year player going up against far more experienced players. After 10 games, he had 41 of those to his name. He also made good decisions with the ball, completing 782 of his 826 pass attempts for a pass percentage of 94.7. He also managed to 70 of his 89 aerial duels, for a header percentage of 78.7, including 12 key headers. "I think my rookie season was a good thing after all," Camavinga said. "Overall I showed some defensive prowess, did not make too many costly mistakes. This was a nice group of guys to team up with, and even though we did not manage to secure promotion this time around, I feel confident in our new guys coming in and especially those running it back. Our front office has worked to bring in more staff, we have a strong, growing core. I will be working a lot, and hopefully the results will show it. <a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=2082' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Player page</a> <a href='http://sslforums.com/index.php?showtopic=224&st=105&#entry16620' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>career pt 1</a> 360 words APPROVED

Runningman434 · 2022-09-28, 08:34 PM - Word count:

<div align="center"><a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=1901&view=findpost&p=15145' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Adam Knight Player Page</a></div> <div align="center"><a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=19883' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Career PT #1</a></div> Expectations were high for Adam Knight after he was selected 11th overall by Buenos Aires in the S5 SSL draft, and so far, he has stepped into his new role admirably. A stalwart at LB for the South American squad, Knight has started every game at left back for the team this year and has yet to miss a minute of action. With an average rating of 6.78 across 14 appearances, Knight was solid if not spectacular. Offensively, Knight only ended up with one assist at the end of the season but finished the season with a very solid 25% success rate on crosses on his 76 attempts over the season and created 4 chances. Despite his technical ability not being the most developed at this point in his career, Knight still managed 9 dribbles, a number he hopes to improve on next season. Defensively, Knight was very solid, winning 30 tackles, 3rd most on the team, with a success rate of 81.1%. He was also second on the team with 31 interceptions, utilizing his athleticism and anticipation to frequently cut out passes and shut down opposing attacks. Knight was solid in the air winning 78% of his aerial duels but wants to bring that up next season and prove he’s elite in all aspects of the defensive game. Going into his second season in the SSL Adam wants to work on bumping up 5 key numbers associated with his game: his tackle percentage, header percentage, dribbles, crosses, and assists. Lumping the first two together, Adam wants to be more efficient on defense. He performed well in his first season making interceptions and clearances, but his tackling percentage was a little low for his liking. Same with his header percentage. Through next season he wants to see those numbers rise, showing that he is continuing to improve as a lockdown defender. More importantly, he wants to add some offense to his game by improving his dribbling. He hopes to use this to spring some runs down the wing and open up routes to crosses that (hopefully!) lead to assists. All in all, there were a lot of positives in Knight’s first season in the SSL that he hopes to build on. Together he and fellow S5 rookie Che Guevara are looking like mainstays of the Buenos Aires defense for years to come. And as they say, defense wins cups. Vamos Buenos Aires! APPROVED

**Renomitsu** · 2022-10-01, 01:17 PM - Word count:

<a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=10094' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Career PT #1</a> <a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=1450&st=30&#entry21429' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Sydney Ramirez Player Page</a> Sydney’s first season with Athenai was… uneventful, to be generous. The team finished in the middle of the league – starkly, mind-numbingly average – and utilized their previous season’s success to make it deep into the seasonal Cup tournament. Indeed, not only did she fall solidly in the middle of the league in terms of objective grading, headers, passes intercepted, and so on, but so did her team. And that was frustrating to an extent. Sydney had this illusion of immediate impact, a chance to be rapidly regarded as one of the best (perhaps even crossing into the territory of stardom) in her rookie season. But I suppose that’s the benefit of being a big fish in a small pond: everyone always tells you you’re great, and so you have nothing to expect from yourself except to therefore be great, right? Sydney was always physically imposing compared to her peers, could jump higher, run faster, pass better – the only thing lacking from her game was shooting, or so she’d thought. But as it turns out, everyone in a professional league has been or currently is the best they’ve ever played with or against. Egos are fragile, and some take criticism or that gut-sinking realization that they’re not the best in different ways. Sydney chose to reframe the season in regards to the long con: she wasn’t the best, but it’d be a pretty boring existence if she was. And players were considered “in development” for virtually their entire careers, especially with how new the Sim Soccer League is. There were players with nearly a half decade of experience and institutional knowledge above her – of course she wouldn’t figure out how to play “the game” faster than them, be it football or with regards to life around the sport. When she figures out exactly how this crazy league works she’d figure out how to put on a show – and maybe even move herself to a more valuable position. Side defender is a nice gig, after all, but in most cases Sydney’s true impact on the field comes from where she used to play: central defensive midfielder. [353] APPROVED (PS - You linked your update page instead. I'll accept it since it's not really that much harm anyways.)

SFresh3 · 2022-10-03, 11:24 PM - Word count:

<a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=18040' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Career PT #1</a> <a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=1978' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Shinji Kaido Player Page</a> Drafted to the Simulation Soccer League winning Tokyo Sports Club, Shinji Kaido was nervous about the pressure that would be on him and the rest of the Rookies taken by Tokyo would be immense. The fans would have high expectations on the team and want them to repeat their performance from the last season. Shinji and fellow draftee Dobby Roobe were tasked with replacing the production that Tokyo got from João Morelli, who had taken an unpredicted leave of absence from the team, with their 11 goals and 5 assists through 18 Appearances in Season 4. This was a pretty daunting task that lay ahead of them. The first big appearance for Shinji would come in the SSL Shield game versus Season 4’s Cup winner, Catalunya. Shinji was pretty nervous with this being his first major match being such a prestigious game, but those nerves instantly went away after a brilliant corner in from Emilliano-Yoichi Isagi was off the head of Shinji and then marvelously headed to the back of the net by Sky Ryze in the 4th minute of the match. Although, after that, Shinji didn’t make much of a mark on the game and after the 90 minutes were up, that assist was all he had to speak of. The Regular Season started off pretty rough, with a demoralizing 0-5 loss to the eventual League winners, Sydney. Shinji yet again faded into the background against the immense talent that an SSL match had in it. His first breakthrough came in the 3rd game versus Seoul, after a cross in from Emilliano-Yoichi Isagi was going to the head of Sky Ryze, which garnered the attention of multiple center backs, Shinji slipped on past and Sky headed it perfectly to the foot of Shinji for the tap in. The next handful of games went by with little to note, including the first matches in the Cup Tournament vs Paris both ending in ties, with the tiebreaker going to Paris, gave Tokyo the early exit in that campaign. It wasn’t until the 2nd run in with Seoul that Shinji broke out and had the best game of his Rookie career. He got the team started in the goals after he found some space in the box and was found by Guillaume-Olivier Aubuchon-Touchette and then drilled it to the top corner in the 31st minute of the match. It was only three minutes later that Shinji laid out a leading pass to Emilliano-Yoichi Isagi as he crossed the box and then ended up drilling from 25 meters out for Shinji’s first assist of that game. Shinji’s 2nd assist came on a counter attack where a deep ball was put in front of Shinji from midfield by Helena Söderberg, and then Shinji, yet again, spotted Emilliano-Yoichi Isagi running free up the field and just put the ball right on their foot to score their 2nd goal of the match. <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1' id='QUOTE-WRAP'><tr><td>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>486 words</td></tr></table> APPROVED ... KAWORU!

**Domffl** · 2022-10-05, 05:19 AM - Word count:

<div align="center"><a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=224&view=findpost&p=15206' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>CPT #1</a></div> <div align="center"><a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=1895&view=findpost&p=15106' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Matt Le Tissier Player Page</a></div> Matt Le Tissier had an unfortunate rookie season. One so unfortunate that it inspired him to completely change positions from a center fielder all the way back to a right fullback. But Le Tissier was not the only one filled with woe after his first season. Inter London Football Club had a sorrowful 5 goals throughout all of season 5. Even though their defense was really good when compared to the rest of Division 2, there simply were not enough goals scored by this team to have a positive season. Le Tissier was thrust into the limelight to try to help lead a team of players who were either brand new to the game, or inactive. Thankfully, he wasn't working alone. Thanks to the extensive tactical knowledge of the team's star player, Donna Rumma, and the fiery passion of their defensive anchor, Gavin Millar, the Inter London Football Club was able to put together a halfway decent team by the end of the season--a team that many players around the league have now flocked to. When confronted by a reporter to ask about the turnaround in this offseason and to get a comment on his rookie season, Matt Le Tissier responded, "Well, I think it's fairly obvious to say that this season did not go the way we planned for it to, but don't count us down for long. We have added s significant amount of fire-power this offseason, as well as changed my role to one that better suited my strengths and patched one of the team's few weaknesses. But overall, I'd say that I thoroughly enjoyed my rookie season. Sure, it didn't start out the way I was hoping, but this team has very special, hard-working, genuine people in it that I know will not quit until we have a trophy in our cabinets. Viva la London!" Therefore, I think it's safe to say that this "bad news bears" team from s5 has found their winning strategy this offseason. Led by the fearless Matt Le Tissier and his crewe of exceptional friends, how could things go wrong? Inter London enter season 6 as one of the top teams among the highest promotion odds. Le Tissier is determined to build upon his once-rock-bottom club to erect it into full Division 1 glory in just a season or two. [388 words] APPROVED

Hoovuh · 2022-10-12, 02:17 AM - Word count:

After going 14th overall with the second selection of the second round, Peter Oak was set to become apart of the inaugural season of one of two brand new expansion teams, AS Paris. With a brand new roster put together from those left out from the other football clubs in the league, AS Paris training camp took place shortly after both drafts to get the team used to playing with one another. Established SSL veterans such as Leonidas Papadopoulos, Milan Horvat, and Mikko Järvälä quickly took the rookies under the wing, with Milan Horvat taking a special interest in Peter Oak, a fellow midfield player. The season ended up becoming a fairly surprising one to many of those in the sports punditry business. Predicted to be in the bottom quarter of teams points wise at the end of the season, AS Paris shocked the league by placing 6th out of the 12 SSL teams. Oak featured in all 20 league games for Paris in his rookie season, and put up a respectable 6.97 average rating through the season. Within AS Paris's midfield, Oak was given the role to help link play between the defense and offense and working from box-to-box. Horvat often took up defensive duties dropping back with defenders, with Pelletier playing in a bit more of an offensive role, so Oak was able to be versatile in how he played. Outside of the wingers/fullbacks of the team, Oak put many kilometers under his boots with a total distance run of 288.9, which put him at 23rd overall in the league. Oak is not known as a goal scorer, but regardless he managed to pot in 2 goals, with one being a spectacular effort from well outside the box. His link up play was also demonstrated by picking up 3 assists, 31 key passes, 9 chances created. Rookies are typically known to be prone to mistakes and fouling the other team, but Peter Oak surprisingly only had 7 fouls the entire season, and did not pick up a single card, yellow nor red. It was a successful rookie campaign for the young Berkshire lad, and he hoped to continue his career with the squad progressing forward. <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1' id='CODE-WRAP'><tr><td>CODE </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'>367 Words</td></tr></table> <a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=224&st=75&#entry9868' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Career PT 1</a> <a href='https://simsoccer.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=1366&hl=' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>Player Page</a> APPROVED