#4 Versatility

[CamGoldenGun]

Career Point Task #3


Player Page +1 to CD

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Users will have the opportunity to write 300 words on their players off-season training that helped them develop into a more versatile player. They are encouraged to write who they trained with, where they trained, etc. 

Sophomore season done and over with. Seth McNeil heads over to his buddy Luke Walker's locker. Empty. Confused, he goes to look for the manager and walks past his own. Empty. No name plates, no uniform hanging up. His concern was growing. Walking at a faster pace he gets into the manager's office.

"Ah, just the person I needed to see," the manager says to Seth.

"Coach, what's going on...? Where's my Luke's stuff--- where's mine?" Seth asked almost reaching a panicked state.

"We're making some changes. You've been traded. Same with Luke."

Seth, mistakenly thinks that they've been traded together calms down a bit, "Oh ok," he's a professional after all, Seth can't his personal feelings get in the way of the club's business. "Where are we going?"

"You're going to Argentina, Luke is heading to Spain, or Seoul wherever they're going to put him." The manager clarified.

"CABA? Catalunya? Wait what? Was it because of my lack of production...?" Seth asked confusingly again.

"No no, just business kid. Now, we really appreciated your time here. You had a promising rookie season and while you might not have contributed the same numbers this season, you're still a great player. Anyways, your stuff has been shipped down there, I'll let them know that you've been informed. Someone will get a hold of you for your plane ticket. Not a short flight to Buenos Aires."
Coincidently, the manager's phone rings. Saved by the bell. He nods to the door for Seth to leave the office. "Shut it on the way out would you please?"

Still shocked, Seth mumbles, "Sure thing boss..." and walks out the door. He dropped off his security pass with the guard at the reception desk and walked out the building.

A couple hours later when he was home Seth got the call and email confirming his transfer and got an email with his plane tickets that night to Buenos Aires. 

The 14-hour flight was the longest 14 hours he'd spent in awhile. Had this trade been coming? Was the manager lying when he said it wasn't about his performance? Either way, it doesn't matter now. He was greeted by a driver after making it through customs who took him right away to his new organization. He was happy to find out that with this move he was moving up to the Majors. He wouldn't be with CABA's minor team affiliate, Athenai, but with the parent club - in his preferred position. A couple of midfielder's, Giacomo Santori and Daryl McManus introduced themselves and explained the formation that would be in use for the upcoming season. 4-2-3-1. Perfect. Gives him plenty of space to run up and down the pitch and cross it to the front. With this new training Seth is getting more comfortable marking his opponents defensively but also getting better at positioning himself where he needs to be to intercept those errand passes and capitalize on the opposition's mistakes. He's also getting used to passing it up with the defensive midfield doing one-two's in an attempt to blast past the other team. It'll be an interesting year and Seth was glad for the time he spent in Masques but as they say, carpe diem, seize the day. And he'll intend to do just that and make the most of this opportunity on the Suns.

[558 words]

Approved

[Darthus]

Career PT#3

Saturday, May 17th 2025, a day that Takechi would remember for the rest of his career. He had joined the newly formed Shanghai Dragons for Season 20 of the SSL, although at that point in the season Shanghai had already dropped out of the Majors League title picture (they would end up finishing 11th out of 12th teams with just 7 points scored in a 18 game season). This was not a league game however, it was leg 2 of their SSL cup quarterfinals match against Tokyo S.C.

Shanghai had the advantage heading into the match, they had won the first leg 3-1, but their advantage was halved just 4 minutes in, as a goal from Amore Delo made the aggregate score 3-2. Shanghai would then increase their advantage once more, as Aaron Ford scored in the 42nd minute. Then, right before half time, Delo got his second goal to bring Tokyo back to one goal behind. And right at the start of the second half, Tokyo would draw level with a goal from Zlatan Ibruhimovic. The game would then settle down, full time came without any more goals, and there wouldn't be any goals in extra time either. Thus, Tokyo vs Shanghai would be decided on penalties.

And it would be a legendary penalty shootout.

Takechi stood between the goalposts, sweat dripping from his upper brow. He was facing his 21st penalty in the shooutout, after his teammate Trick Johnson had missed his previous spotkick, Tokyo had a chance to win this game once and for all. So up stepped Jia Yun, Takechi would dive to his left, but Yun would shoot the other way, and won the penalty shootout for Tokyo 19-18.

This loss was devastating to Shanghai, and none took the loss as hard as Takechi did. He felt he had let his team down, that had he just saved one more spotkick, or saved one of Delo's or Ibruhimovic's goals, they would've made it to the Cup semifinals.

Thus, Takechi spent the offseason training with his best friend and team captain, Thomas Hohenhahn, working on his penalty saving such that the loss against Tokyo would not repeat itself in the future. Takechi even helped to train new goalkeeper hire, Snor Lax, who would be playing for Shanghai's minor league squad for season 21. Through training it even seemed that Takechi was getting pretty good at scoring penalties himself, who knows, maybe one day he'll become the main penalty taker for Shanghai and he'll have the chance himself to fire in a penalty to bring Shanghai to glory.

Approved

[McLumberjack]

Career Point Task #3
Player Page   Upgrade RD


The offseason has always been a mixed bag for me, I love competition, I love playing football, having the chance to win. The drama the adrenaline, it fuels me and makes my life worth living. However on the other hand, the offseason is also the perfect time to hone my skills. Improve myself so I can be even better next season. I realise the value in having time off to focus on specific skills.

For this season I picked an interesting one, I say interesting because if you asked a couple years ago what position I would be upgrading, right defender would NOT make that list. Having started as a creative, dribbling and assisting left attacking midfielder, going to the back right of the field is quite possibly the furthest away (not role wise but pure distance) from what I was used to. Although some days I do miss the glory of being an attacker, I have really started appreciating the fullback/wingback position. Above all I have realised that the team should be put above everything else and getting more versed in the right defender position will give Paris more tactical flexibility.

This tactical flexibility will be crucial in the upcoming season where we will try to regain our title from Kaapstad. It will be a tough fight, especially with North Shore coming up and looking like a serous threat as well. However I believe that I can once more be the difference maker this season. Last season will just be a blip on the radar and I will show the minors why I deserved to be rookie of the season. 

Anything other than team of the season I will consider a failure.


Now however... Now is the time for training, sharpening the mind body and soul and making sure I am in the peak physical, mental and spiritual form by the time I step back onto the pitch next season.

Berendsen OUT!

Approved