#2 Rookie Season

[Aenir]

Career PT #1

Beelze's rookie season was quite an adjustment for him. Going from a fish market and looking for Bernardo, to Playing in the same organization, but on the opposite end of the planet. Time and again Beelze thought he finally had him, only to realize he didnt make the trip, made the trip but wasnt playing, made the trip but <Suprise> it was his clone! and then one time on a joint organizational practice, he made the trip, practiced, and was there... only for the Alarm clock to rouse Beelze out of sleep mode to suffer battery failure. After this occurrence Beelze switched to a solar powered, electric backup alarm system! This failure will not happen to him again!

Statistically speaking, It was a pretty decent season for Beelze. He made 21 appearances, with a match rating of 6.89, 1 goal (on 1.63 xG) 6 shots on target, 22 shots overall, a pass Percentage rate of 88.47 (1013/1145) 4 Key Passes, 54.07 Header Percentage (113/209) A Tackle Success Rate of 80.85 (38/47) 28 Interceptions, 43 Clearances and 8 Yellow Cards on 28 fouls! (.28 Cards Per Foul!) He Also stacked up 20 Blocks and 16 Shot Blocks! All of this is to say Seoul had a pretty decent season, Finishing 3rd on the Table, with 15 wins, 2 Draws and 5 Losses for a total of 47 points. 3 Points Back from 2nd, and 14 back from first place Paris (What a season they had!)

Its early on in his professional career but Beelze Bot is excited for the opportunity offered by being a part of this organization both from a soccer standpoint as well as his main function to capture and return Bernardo Fry to the correct timeline and repair the damage to the time space continuum that his dimensional hopping has caused upon the universe.

(306 words!)

Approved

[Ltblackgrizzly]

Career 1


After being accepted to an Academy team called "The Victoria Falls Eagles" Bodhi made his name amongst an amazing team. Even meeting a soccer playing dog that was their goalkeeper. And when he qualified for the draft a team decided to take a shot on the Grizzly. Taking him first overall and sending him across the world to Cairo, Egypt where he would get to play his rookie season. His rookie season was tough to say the least. The fast pace at which everyone around him played kept him moving. But he wouldn't let that deter him. He made sure to play his mark and keep the ball moving. Using his large body and intimidating visage to help hold down the midfield. He quickly got used to making tackles and helping direct the ball to safety with key headers. But loss after loss kept coming. No matter how much Bodhi progressed in his skills. He couldn't seem to catch up to those around him. So he got better at passing and watching the movement on the field. Making sure he was trying to get the ball to his open teammates whenever he could and intercept it when the other teams forwards were pressing his team. He even tried to run with the ball himself and take a few shots at the goal. All of which either missed or were stopped by the opposing goalkeepers. But to Bodhi that was fine. He wasn't trying to score a lot. He was proving to his team that if even a bear could run down the field with the ball. So could they. And while it didn't seem to help that much. It helped Bodhi find some comfort in the rough season. He kept his head held high though. This was only the beginning and he would only get better. This was just the first of many season he would play for Cairo. And if he would have any say in it. His worst.

Approved - Cairo needs players like Bodhi. Keep working hard!

[RoyRivers]

Career PT #1: https://forum.simulationsoccer.com/showt...#pid101580

Roy Rivers ended up getting drafted into Buenos Aires Team, in the first round of the draft, but before he could play with the Majors, he was sent to the Minors team, the Athenai. He was playing at a position he likes, as a Center Midfielder, but things didn’t go very well. He played 22 games, the equivalent of 1980 minutes, but finished with the worst average of his career so far: 6.79. He only had one Player of the Match award, all season, he only scored two goals, one of them from outside the box, zero assists (!), 0.99 xG, fourteen shots on goal, but only six shots on target.

Something good, though, it was the season he really made his bones passing the ball to his teammates: 1291 attempted passes, he completed 1160 of them, to a whopping 89.85 pass percentage! 12 Key passes was good as well, 2 chances created, won 40 out of 51 tackles, to 78.43 percentage. 40 interceptions, 23 clearances, 16 blocks, and 7 yellow cards. Roy was a force on the defensive side, at least.

Roy was very discouraged about his rookie season, things weren’t looking good. It felt like things were not working out as he hoped, and his dream to be a big player were going down the drain, he wasn’t even going to be called up to the Majors…

So, he called his football legend grandfather, and his grandfather told him he would study his tape and in the next couple weeks would bring a detailed report about his soccer prowess. Well, one week later, his grandfather called him and told him: “First of all, I don’t think you should be playing center midfielder. You’re not ready to play there in the big leagues” Then he went on many details about how at this point he should try to play at AMC or Striker. He explained, that he would need to evolve for two years playing at those positions, and then we would see from there. So Rivers talked to his manager, and it was agreed.

Approved

[Moka26]

Here's my biography, if you want to check it first...



My first season with London was just amazing, and also an emotional roller-coaster.

I was told by Ryan van Eyndhoven and Predag Dobric, the managers of the organization, that I would share minutes with the actual goalkeeper at the team, Tumelo Letsie. He spent two seasons in the club already and since the goalkeeper in the Major team was in his retirement season (or at least he plans to retire at the end of the season), Tumelo will jump up there and I'd be the starter goalkeeper for next season.

I was looking for things to do to occupy myself and also how to contribute to the team, which was in its rebuilding phase. I went through multiple jobs, and went with Ryan to work in the sticker factory. I also did my best to write some articles for the SSL Blog, to gain some money. I also picked up a morning routine there, and almost all of the managers followed : after my breakfast I would go check the Wordle we receive every morning and try to solve it ; in the evening, after the training session, I would go see the tree planted by Predag in the park and water it. At times I could see some insects flying or roaming around the tree, and I'd catch them for my sticker collection.

The season was going superbly, but only for one of the teams. While we were doing great in the Minors, the Major team got a weird stretch of bad luck that was incomprehensible : in the games where it could have been close, they lost and sometimes they could loose so badly due to early goals or set-pieces or silly things happening all over the pitch. Thankfully, it was not all so bad for Romana : they were on a great Cup run on the more favorable bracket, when we got to play Hollywood in the Qualifiers (a Division 1 Major team, of course we lost...).

Do you remember I talked about a roller-coaster ? In the middle of this great Cup run, we were surprised with a press conference : Ryan decided to step down from his managerial duties. He was reconsidering whether he'd even be as active as he used to, and I honestly started fearing to lose him : he's the most skilled designer of the team on top of being a great manager, and I don't know who else would give us these legendary kit designs or badge ones (there is still some corrections to do on the London badge, it you read this the lions should not be visible under the white contour unless they're over it)...

I'm really happy with my defensive record so far, and grateful for the well-organized defense for the amount of shots on target we conceded. Nonetheless, I did something that felt stupid, and the first goal I ever conceded in my career was funny, really funny.

Actually we're barely past the mid-season, so you're probably asking yourself why I'm writing about all of this now, when this should be a recap of my rookie season ? The answer is simple : for the money (insert laugh here) ! And also because I hope there will be no more drama until the end of the season. We are 5 points ahead of Cairo, and if we get cruising we should secure promotion soon enough, and maybe get one of the best academy graduates to back us up for the next season.

I'm writing this from the hotel room, after a safari and a visit to the Pyramids. I hope my performances will be good enough to get a sponsorship like my teammates, and for sure I'll tell you all about it when I get there !



Approved

[Degradation]

Career PT # 1

I've stated before that I am not well aware of the stats that are meaningful in this sport and sim league. The player Grimace was meant to be a fun story based character where the stats weren't the star of the show. I have taken the advice from my teammates as to what stats to focus on for his rookie season, a season I don't really remember much because the most exciting parts for this player were not the games won or stats earned but the friends made.

Grimace spent his rookie season (S22) with Schwarzwalder FV which boasted a fair amount of success. The team finished 14-1-7 to place 4th in the minor league standings (this was before relegation rules). I believe Grimace played at LD or slightly out of position as I recall there was a LWB on the roster as well. Stats important to him that season were his 11 Assists (the most assists he would have in his career to this point) and had him tied for 8th in the stat. Grimace also reached 46 Key Passes that season (he would best this by 3 the next season) and this pairs up well with his assists obviously. The better passes you make the more often someone is open for that all important goal. He also was incredible with his Cross Completions (27) and boasting a nice 17.42% rate there. When combined with 24 Chances Created, a stat he has yet to sniff even close to the same success, both of these are alluding to a season full of clean passing and goal creation. Dribbling is a huge part of anyone's game but a staple for Grimace as he notched 53 of them and improved several seasons since (except one big drop, yeesh). Grimace was all about the attacking in his rookie season portrayed by his 129 Progressive Passes meaning he was driving the play forward and earning a name on the offensive side.

A successful season for Grimace for sure especially as a rookie who was given a lot of run and room to grow!

Approved

[Metafiction]

Career PT #1

The final whistle blows, and Juliette Greer collapses to the ground.

As the Rapid Magyar players celebrate around her, having won the match—and more importantly, their survival in Division 1 of the Minor League—all she can feel is exhaustion.

Just minutes ago, not even an hour in fact, she’d been on cloud nine. After scrapping and clawing all season to help Cairo City get to the promotion playoff, and after countless near misses to this point, she’d finally gotten it: her first career goal. It was the moment she’d been chasing all season, and finally she’d gotten one.

It was just a shame that Rapid ended up with five of them today.

Somehow, she finds her way to the locker room, flanked by her teammates. Each and every one of them has given every drop of effort they could muster to this run, and that fact in itself makes this moment hurt so much more. In one corner of her eye, Juliette spots her partner in defensive midfield, Bodhi Grizz, panting for breath, nursing a nasty-looking bruise on one of his paws. Out of the corner of her other eye is Ekon Ayo, the player drafted right before her, head in his hands. Right ahead of her across the room is Momo Adamu, putting on a brave face as always but surely hurting deep inside at falling short in his final match. And all she can do is sit there, numb.

The atmosphere in the room is funereal—not cold, so much as just bleak—as the manager mumbles through the standard “proud of what we accomplished” spiel. It’s the same speech, at least in content of not in phrasing, that Juliette got in the academy with Port Royal after they lost the title. And it’s the same speech, at least in context if not in language, that she got when her high school team got knocked out on penalties in the semifinals of the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament—her final high school match before turning professional.

To fail once was tragic. Twice was frustrating. But three times? With three different teams, and in three consecutive seasons?

Now Juliette was beginning to wonder if she was the problem.

The locker room eventually empties out as her teammates disperse. Some will head to the training area to start preparing for next season. Others will take time away from the pitch altogether to clear their head. But Juliette just sits there, still numb.

She hasn’t scored enough, she thinks to herself. Every missed shot over the course of the season replays in her mind, one after the other. If even one of those had gone in, maybe they wouldn’t have even needed the damned playoff to begin with. Maybe they’d have won the division outright, and it would’ve been London sitting here instead. Maybe if she had just planted her feet a bit differently here, or leaned back less there, or curled it just a bit more that one time…

And what were the headlines going to read? And what about the pundits? Juliette is already envisioning how much material Alexi Lalas is going to have off of this—and after he’d already basically ruined her social media accounts with his little “nepo baby” jab. And that’s not even getting into her online beef with Ryan van Eyndhoven. Maybe, she thinks to herself, she’d better save everyone the trouble and go off the grid now.

In all of this, she barely notices the person sitting down next to her. She nearly jumps out of her skin when the figure speaks:

“Well, kid, at least you got one, right?”

Juliette exhales. “Not now, coach.”

“Season’s over, Juju. You can call me ‘Dad’ again.”

“Fine. Not now, Dad.”

Jude Greer chuckles. “Y’know, I reckon I’ve never seen anyone so down after getting their first pro goal. Took me a full week to come down from the clouds after my first one.”

“That’s because you were a fullback. Defenders don’t score goals that often.”

“Tell that to Ali Dia.”

Juliette leans back in her locker. “Look, Dad, I’m not in the mood. I don’t know how you’re so chipper when we just got crushed like that.”

“First thing I learned when I came up to the pro game, kid. Win or lose, there’s always another match.”

“But you don’t get it. That’s three seasons in a row a team I’ve played for has come up short.” Juliette grits her teeth. “Am I the problem, or what?”

“Whatcha mean?”

“I call myself a goalscorer, but I’ve scored a grand total of three goals since I started playing professionally. And two of those were in the academy, so those barely count to begin with.”

“And?”

Juliette grits her teeth. “And, what use is someone whose main skill is scoring when she can’t even do that?”

There’s a moment of silence, so Juliette keeps speaking. “Not just that, but basically everyone’s going to clown on me for riding off your coattails, if they haven’t already. They’re gonna use this season as proof that I really am just a ‘nepo-baby.’”

Her dad groans. “Now, I thought I told you not to pay any mind to what that Lalas fella says. He’s just as bad as Merson ever was.”

“I can’t help it. I know he’s full of BS, but it still sticks with me.” Juliette looks over at Jude as her temper starts to flare up. “Every time I think about it, I just know I have to prove him wrong. To prove everyone wrong. To be…” She swallows. “To be just as good as you were, if not even better.”

Silence falls. Juliette stares at her dad, but his experession is hard to read. The long, curly brown locks of his hair, now streaked with the occasional ring of almost indiscernible dark gray from age and stress from his new position, sway a bit as he looks off into the middle distance. It’s a while before he speaks.

“All right,” he says finally. “You wanna be the best player you can be. That’s fine and all. But if you really wanna get there, I’ve got some advice for you.”

Juliette raises an eyebrow, but can’t help herself from leaning in. “What advice is that?”

Jude looks up, turns to his daughter, takes a deep breath, and smiles, before finally saying:

“Grow up.”

Juliette blinks. “Bwuh?”

“Did I stutter? I said, grow up.”

Juliette blinks again. What did he just say? Did he not see how hard she’s been working all season? Before she can open her mouth to retort, though, Jude continues.

“You’re trying to do too much. You wanna score goals, but you’re also playing defense, but you’re also trying to find the right pass, and get into space, and carry the ball forward, and all of this other stuff. And on top of that, you’re letting yahoos like Lalas and what not live rent free in your head.”

“But—“

“I ain’t done. This ain’t high school anymore, kiddo. You can’t just expect to dribble the ball from the back line, through the midfield and into the box and expect nobody to challenge you. You have any clue how hard players in this league train? How much of their lives they’ve dedicated to soccer since they were born? Some of ‘em have been hitting rabonas and playing rondos since they could walk. You’re a good soccer player, don’t get me wrong, but you can’t do it all. Nobody can.”

Juliette starts to reply, but she knows she has no comeback. He’s right, of course. As always.

“You wanna score goals, and that’s great,” Jude continues. “You wanna be a better player than your old man, and that’s something I can get behind any day of the week. But you aren’t gonna do either of those when you’re trying to play every position on the pitch at once.”

“But I’m—“

“You’re trying to help your team. I know. But you gotta face facts that there’s some stuff you ain’t good at, and that’s okay.” Jude grins again. “Not that I think you ain’t gonna try, mind.”

Juliette lets out a chuckle. Dad knows her too well.

“Point is, you got your skills, and your teammates have theirs. You gotta trust each other to do what you need to do. You gotta trust they’ll pass the ball and play defense and all that, and they’ve gotta be able to trust that when they get the ball to you, you’ll make something special happen. You get what I’m saying? You’ve gotta trust them—and more important than that, you’ve gotta trust yourself.”

“I know.” Juliette stares at the floor. That’s never been her strong suit. “I just feel like I let them down this season.”

Jude shrugs. “You’re a rookie. It happens. I was awful my first season, and look how I ended up.”

“But you’re one of the best players to ever play the game.”

“And you think that ain’t genetic, Juju?”

“But—“

“You’re not always gonna be at a hundred percent. But that’s fine. Give it everything you’ve got, and trust your team and yourself. You do that, and you’re gonna be well on your way. Promise.”

Juliette keeps staring at the ground, but she feels her mouth curling into a smile despite her best efforts. “Thanks, Dad.”

“Now, let’s get outta here. I wanted to talk to you about where you’re gonna fit in tactically next season. We’re gonna see about playing a bit more to your strengths.”

Juliette nods, standing to her feet and following her dad—out of the locker room. Maybe, she thinks to herself, maybe there’s hope for her yet.

Approved

[Jakesdy]

Career Task 1
After a successful academic league season with the Victoria Falls Eagles, in which I became a champion, I was drafted by CF Catalunya with the overall number 16. After a warm welcome in Barcelona, I went to the minor league at Seoul MFC. And now I'm going to tell you about my first season at a professional level.
The first match of the season for us was the match against Athênai F.C., which ended in a 1-3 defeat for us. Unfortunately, I didn't stand out in anything remarkable in my debut match.
Next, we went to the match against Inter London, in which we also failed to win, the score was 1-2. Again, nothing remarkable on my part.
Cup time! Or rather, the qualifying round against Cairo City. And... a minimal 0-1 defeat... And, so far, again without any effective actions from me.
So, having moved away from the insulting relegation from the cup, we are going to the match of the 3rd round with CS Rova Mpanjaka. Once again, we fail with a score of 1-3. I played generally well, but without any resultant actions.
Matchday 4 brought us a rematch with Cairo City. Unfortunately, a thriller match with 8 goals ends in defeat for us again. The score is 3-5. But we are already seeing progress in our game. I'm out of points again.
And by matchday 5, and therefore the end of the first round of the championship, we were finally able to break our losing streak and get our first win of the season against Montréal United with a score of 3-0! And I also scored my first goal for Seoul, which is also good news.
Matchday 6 against Inter London ended with a mirror result for us compared to the last one. 0-3. And no points on my part.
The second match of the season against Athênai F.C. ended in success for us with a minimum score of 2-1. I also participated, but without scoring any points.
The 8th game day against CS Rova Mpanjaka ended with our biggest defeat of the season. The score is 0-6. It's hard and unpleasant to lose like that, but it's an experience, no matter how you look at it.
The third match with Cairo and victory again ! The score is 3-1. And... again, no points for me... But it is worth noting the consistently good performance in other indicators both in previous matches, as well as in this and subsequent ones.
Unfortunately, Montreal took revenge on us for the 0-3 defeat and defeated us 2-4. 
In the very next match, which marked the beginning of the final round of the championship, we lost big again with a score of 2-6, this time to Inter London.
In general, the rest of the matches can be described in the same way. We did not win, having suffered defeats against Rova (0-2) and Cairo City (1-2); and having drawn with Athênai F.C. (1-1) and Montreal (2-2).
Overall, I have 1 goal and 1 assist, a 6.62 rating, and 87.39% pass accuracy. I will call the season itself difficult and transitional. At the end of the season, we took 5th place in the championship and stopped in the cup qualification round. We are a young team and everyone is gaining experience, so next season also promises to be very difficult. And this one is history, and I'm glad I became a part of that history. Thanks for reading!

[Definia]

Career Task #1

Barry McGlynn had a rather turbulent rookie season within the academy, he was assigned to Port Royal FC, they had started off with a bang in their first game of the season and Barry was a main part of that as he picked up 2 goals and the man of the match award when they ran out 4-3 winners! From then, they could only hope to build on that game and give themselves a good run to start off the season and form a good foundation to build on. However, it just didn't happen that way, they then went on a really bad losing streak of 4 losses in a row. The weird part was that the performances, other than a 7-1 defeat to Victoria Falls Eagles, were decent but they just couldn't get the ball in the net. Then it was just a roller coaster of results from MD6 on wards, in fact pretty much it continued like that for the rest of the season, a decent bit of form in the middle then fell flat towards the end of the season. However amongst all that came an opportunity for McGlynn. Pizca, the head coach stepped down just before MD12 and McGlynn was asked to carry out player/coach for the rest of the season. He taken that opportunity as a learning experience, it went alright from then facing some really good teams. But he relished in the experience, it was great to get the players on your side and believing in what you wanted them to do! 

By the end, Barry just about had the most average season you could, but in context he performed quite well considering the position of the team and the teams overall performance, he managed to bag 6 goals and pick up an average rating of 7.26 which all things considered... the poor team performance over the season and the fact he also had to manage the team as well as perform well, it was actually a really good season for McGlynn. It certainly must have been for Schwarzwalder FV to pick him up in the 1st overall draft position! 

Now it's time for the minors at Montreal United, reunited alongside his brothers, playing for the first time together and doing it professionally, they cannot wait.