#4 Versatility

[Aleris]

CPT1
CPT2
CPT 3
player page (i think) or try this one

Position upgrade to RD

Due to a lack of players in the organization. Viktoria was recently asked to begin playing a position she never thought she would. All her life she has played on the left side of the field. She was very versatile on that side of the field being able to play from attacking midfielder to wingback, but the switch to full back on the right side was going to be a tough one. Luckily she had a few family members to talk to about it.

For one her dad, who she called everyday, while he played a different sport, he had to switch from Winger to Defense in hockey and was able to talk with Vikkie about the mentality of the switch, that its a lot of work to see the game from a different point on view, but study the film and work hard at it and she will pick it up.

The second person, who Viktoria spent a whole offseason training with was her Aunt Eirlys. Eirlys was a journeywoman defender from Season 2 to Season 11 in the SSL and had played both full back and center back. Working with Eirlys, Viktoria was able to really step up her defense game. She had to get better at being a presence in the box. She also really had to work on her tackling as her yellow card count needed to be brought down. Her ability to attempt killer balls would be great from the RD position but it would take some practice crossing from the opposite side of the field.

The time spent with Eirlys was really beneficial. She felt her defensive game really improved and the hard work paid off as rumors were swirling that her time in North Shore could be coming to a close and she could be called up soon to Reykjavik with the improvement to her versatility. Really it was the same game, just a different side of the field!

APPROVED

[OrbitingDeath]

Career PT #3
Position upgrade: RWB

A more versatile player? Ilya Prusikin thinks he is the most versatile player there is already, how can he be more versatile. Keep in mind, he plays with people like a Red Panda that only has pace and acceleration, so he feels that he can easily outplay anyone at this point as he is just as fast as the panda, but has more skills outside of that.

But to become even better he decided to work out on his mental skills in the offseason. He decided to train by competing in game shows. Why gameshows you think? Well why not, Ilya is a fun guest to have on a show as he doesn’t really take himself serious. He might as well show up in a Lobster costume if he feels like it. A good decision you think? Probably not, but we are in life to have fun, so why only be serious.

During the gameshows he competed on he was able to join in a lot of trivia questions, helping him to improve on his ‘decisions’ by helping him choose the right answer. And he also worked on his ‘vision’ as he decided to stand 50 meters behind his desk and still tried to read the questions that were being presented. There were also shows where he had to work together with people, so this helped him to improve his ‘teamwork’. The best skill in which he improved during the offseason, was ‘passing’ and how did he achieve that by competing in gameshows? Well, if he did not know the answer, he would simply just pass the question. He deflected so many questions that his passing skill now shops up in green numbers on his profile page.

And this is why Ilya Prusikin is a very versatile player, he will find solutions where no one else ought to look.

APPROVED - A career task dad-joke. Kudos.

[Wiggli]

CPT 3
Upgrade CD

Necessity is the mother of … Versatility. Young Hercule Hefeweizen rose through the academy ranks as an aggressive, box crashing midfielder. Drafted to Catalunya he was tasked with a variety of roles, though steadily in his time there found his focus more and more moved toward the defensive side of the ball. And then most recently, fighting for his Benelux federation, he was pressed into action as a center back.

The Belgian was not an unwilling participant in this steady transformation. Drawn to the midfield for its ability to influence all aspects of the game; ultimately, he was interested in doing what is most necessary to help his team win. And across the league, and certainly for the teams he has found himself on, there was a dearth of defensive stalwarts. Hercule, always the inquisitive type, was very willing to identify and fulfill this need.

In hindsight, there is no better place to position himself than the backline. With a view toward the entire playing field in front of him, the would-be detective can assess the situation and deliver what is needed most. Whether that be a vital interception, key tackle, or defense unlocking pass. Still developing the skills to round out his abilities, it’s unclear whether or not the burgeoning pro will always be able to make good on his discoveries, but he will continue to work hard to put himself in a position to do as such.

Upon being picked up by the Hollywood / Kaapstad organization following free agency, Hercule was tasked with becoming a better decision-maker by his new managers. South Africa offered the young mustachioed footballer the perfect opportunity to hone his craft. You see, in addition to signing a deal with his new team, he also inked a three movie deal with a film production company. The wilderness he was surrounded by afforded him many opportunities to make decisions. What locations would work best for his film? Which of the local fauna would kill him if allowed too close? A defensive midfielder becoming a central defender is one thing, but a soccer star becoming a movie star? That’s true versatility.

APPROVED - I hope a future career tasks outlines the plot of at least one of these movies.

[roquefort]

CPT 3
Upgrade RD

When university students in Sao Paolo, Brazil were tasked with defining the word "Versatility", the group all agreed upon a two word solution: Roquefort Cotswold. The Simulation Soccer League has never seen a talent of his protean nature. Initially an (American) footballer, Roquefort's natural agility and fluid hip motions naturally translated over to the SSL. Since joining the SSL, Roque has also been cross training as a pitcher in the Pro Baseball Experience league, a place where he has picked up elite eyesight and reaction time. Despite his breadth of experience, there has been one challenge above all else that Roquefort has found himself forced to adapt to: Julian Rubio. 

Rubio came blazing onto Uniao Sao Paolo this past season not just as a striker, but also a tactician. This lanky lad immediately thrust himself into the center of USP's gameplan without considering the others on the team. A real bastard, this one. His foul mind produced strategies that resulted in our dear Roquefort playing Fullback, a position he found himself significantly less experienced in. Some commentators have speculated that Rubio sees Roquefort as the "real star" of USP and wishes to steal his spotlight, tainting his tactics to push Roque out of the action. 

Roquefort would not be stifled. Rather than backing down to this long faced rookie, Roque instead exploded out of his new position, unlocking a new on field gear that nobody expected. "How did he do it?" you may be asking - performance enhancing drugs. Sorta. Cheese. You see, Roquefort is a rat - an animal noted for its ability to adapt to foreign environments (such as human civilization) and not just survive - but thrive. It turns out that this is what Roquefort was made to do. After a season of hybridizing between Wingback and Fullback, Roquefort has established himself as one of the premier right defenders in the league - and looks forward to cementing his legacy in coming years.

APPROVED - I like to imaging Comté would unlock new superpowers for our rat.

[Durodo]

Player Page, I guess since the Portal doesn't really let you link it
Career PT3

Upgrade to CD

Erik knew that he had to up his level to continue being a mainstay in the Schwarwälder midfield in the SSL. While he had the physical part, what he was lacking was the top technical abilities that others in the league possessed. He didn’t have those magical feet that seemed like magnets to a football. He didn’t possess that magical vision that shows him exactly where and when to pass the ball to. So off-season after off-season Beermann decided to train on what he could improve on. Together with his teammate Wang Zhihao, a much more technically aversed player, he began training on those things. Working on finding the right moment to play that killer pass through the midfield into the attacking zones. How to properly connect the defense with the attack as that was going to be one of Beermann’s big jobs in the SFV midfield. Being that linking player. Hours and hours were spent on a pitch down in the Schwarzwald region of Germany. The sun crashing down on the two SFV teammates. It wasn’t the most exciting work, and it wasn’t something that would end up improving quickly, but Erik was ready to put in as much time as needed to help his team get back to the top of the league. Like they did the season before he moved up from the Minors to the Majors.

But it wasn’t just the passing game that needed improvement. Erik also was tasked to improve on his finishing. He was often one of the guys that came running late towards the box and he had scored quite a few goals that way already, but Schwarwälder needed him to be more efficient with that. So as the off-season progressed and time slowly became less and less, Beermann moved further up the training pitch going from simple passing routines to trying to send as many shots into that goal as possible. Slowly but surely Beermann could see the progress on that, much more easily to be seen as the passing progress he had made as that would only become clear once the season properly starts again and his passing hopefully ends up helping his team more than it has done so far.

Word Count: 371

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[CROney3]

Career Task 3


Versatility. That's not a word that's usually associated with goal keepers. Their job is simple. See ball, stop ball. However, there is no end to training, and so there are always various new ways to increase various skills for the keepers. One player that always preached versatility was former Uniao Sao Paolo keeper, Calvin Ball. He was a big mentor when young Benecio Aguilera III came on board, and really helped him hone his skills. While he grew up with professional American football player as his father, Benecio never thought about using a Juggs machine to help with his hand-eye coordination. That is until Ball kept him after practice early on to work on stopping these rockets coming from the machine. 

Another training technique that Ball taught Aguilera was actually learned from current Paris ST Eric Belmont. While kicking the ball far is a great asset, sometimes you need to bend to place it in front of your teammate that's streaking down the field. So Ball showed Aguilera how to kick AROUND various objects on the practice field, from the light posts to the nets to even the water station! Aguilera even took the next step of working on corner kicks during practice, mainly just for fun but it helped hone the skill. He's been arguing with the coaches that he should be put in on corners but the league ain't ready for that (and the coaches aren't that dumb to leave the net open for that long). But nothing is more versatile than getting an extra man in the box because your keeper wants to do the corner kick then streak back down the field to get back into net! Maybe his next training should focus on sprinting from one end of the pitch to the other!

Some day the world will be ready for that innovation. Some day....

APPROVED - as a fellow keeper, I support this proposed innovation.

[piza]

CPT3
Player Page
Upgrade CAM
 

After another season with Seoul Mythic, Nikolai was notified that he would most likely be getting a call up to CF Catalunya. Of course, Nikolai was happy to hear the news but he knew that he had to work extra hard through this off season. He called up one of his good buddies from a different organization, Kuba Kunicki (@Chillybro) and brought up the possibility of training somewhere nice in the off season. Both Nikolai and Kuba shared the same obsession; becoming the best. Kuba eagerly agreed to this, and mentioned that he has family in Split, Croatia. Nikolai and Kuba had a pristine pitch waiting for them to grind on, and the two friends traveled to Split a few days later.

Every morning, the two would take a run on the beach, and sprint through the winding cobble roads. Nikolai called in a EUFA certified coach to help run sessions. With this coach, Nikolai would spend his afternoons with rapid passing drills, starting with a sprint down to the defensive half, sprinting with the ball back up, playing a 1-2 with the coach and immediately firing a through where Kuba would sprint past the defensive line and convert the opportunity. Multiple sets of those occurred, not only giving Nikolai and Kuba great conditioning but also giving Nikolai some tactical fluidity in certain roles as well as great finishing exercises for Kuba. In the nights, the pair would carry a heavy-weight jacket on them and jog for a good hour.

Nikolai and Kuba would repeat these sorts of drills throughout the off season, until the calls were given out from their respective organizations to report back to their training facilities. Both said farewell and good luck, with Nikolai creeping closer to his Major League debut and Kuba still working hard for his eventual call up. 

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[Chef Gagne]

Career Point Task #3

Upgrade LM

Chef Gagne's teammates love to tease him for equating literally everything to the culinary arts. "The pitch is my kitchen," he whispered to himself before ripping into a footwork drill. His words were overheard and his fate was sealed, the razzing came fast and hard after that point. Chef doesn't care, it's the vehicle for his discipline. A busy saturday night with 200 on the books is every bit as stressful and challenging as  as cup game against Hollywood, so he chooses to work the way he knows how. Cooking. 

In this offseason, Gagne put this discipline to work on learning a new position. As one of Uniao Sao Paolo's volante defensive midfielders, Gagne has carved himself a nice little role on the team as physical defender and as an opportunistic playmaker and facilitator. In two games this season, Gagne has made his mark with a key block against SFV followed by a player of the match performance against AC Romana in which he scored a key goal to keep USP undefeated. Regardless of his early successes, Gagne is anything but complacent. "We won a couple, and I'd like to win a whole lot more. Dinner isn't over yet, gotta eat." 

In pursuit of becoming a more dynamic player, Gagne has spent much of the offseason learning how to master the left side of the midfield. For these things, it's all about the footwork. Gagne's favorite drill is to place red and yellow squares of paper on the field and practice dribbling a ball while stepping on as many of the cards as possible. The drill trains coordination, balance, focus, and dribbling ability. To alter the drill to make it more conducive to learning the new position, he has taken to adding in a curve to the path of the drill, one that arches around the periphery and mimics a likely plan of attack.

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[cake307]

CPT 3

(Upgrade to CDM please)

For Daryl, it was about to be the most intense off season of his life. He was moving up, he was told halfway through the offseason, from Athens to a top flight team. CABA had bought out his contract and brought him to Argentina. He wasn't given any time to get used to the new life, new language, new location, though. The very same day he arrived, he found himself battling jetlag and a minor hangover as he was sent out to the field. Brief introductions finished, it was time for him to get learning. Leo Fichara, star central midfielder, was to be his personal mentor, but not in the usual CM tasks. No, Leo would drive Daryl hard, forcing him to run, to tackle, to pass and track, even to lift weights well beyond his normal amounts for the next several weeks, all in between long film sessions and yelling in Turkish. Why? What was the point? Daryl would only finally find out after nearly two weeks of grueling, everyday training.

He was being trained to be more flexible. He'd always said he could be a central defensive middie, and he was finding out really fast he was full of shit and false self confidence. Tackling practice alone was hell, trying to poke the ball out, trying to time slides, shoving with his shoulder and not drawing a foul. At the same time, he was having to learn how to read his opponents more than knowing which dribble move or pass they weren't ready for, but to see what they would be doing next. Where were they going? Were they looking to cut inside or out? Was that a pass or a feint? It turned out, playing defense was significantly harder than he had ever anticipated it could be. And it also turned out he had surprising talent for it, soon taking a savage kind of joy in stealing the ball, in taking out his opponents legs without the foul, in intimidating the midfield into doing what he wanted. This would be useful. He was evolving... becoming a killer in both halves.

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[donut]

CPT #3
Upgrade CAM

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Nobody really knows where Julián Rubio went after the season ended.

While most of the São Paulo squad took off for beaches, nightclubs, and five-star resorts, Rubio disappeared. No Instagram updates. No cryptic tweets. Just silence. Rumors spread fast. Some said he was in Ibiza. Others claimed he was meditating in Bali or backpacking with monks in Tibet.

None of it was true.

In reality, Rubio was halfway up the Andes Mountains, standing knee-deep in snow on a makeshift pitch carved between two cliffs. He was training. Passing. Fighting through the thin mountain air under the guidance of one man: Chef Gagne, his São Paulo teammate, international culinary icon, and the greatest passer in the world.

The sound of the season’s final whistle still echoed in his mind. They had missed the title by a single match. And deep down, Rubio knew that if he had created just one more chance or made one smarter run, the ending might have been different. He needed to change. To evolve. To become more than just a striker. He wanted to control matches from the middle, to thread passes no one else could even imagine. He had to become a winner.

Every day started before sunrise. He did footwork drills around tree stumps. He practiced long passes through narrow rock gaps that Gagne called defensive lines. If he hit the goat (yes, there were goats), he had to start over. Evenings were spent watching old match tapes projected by a car battery-powered system. Gagne would pause the footage and say things like, “See that? That pass had emotion.”

It was strange. It was intense. And it worked.

When Rubio returned to São Paulo, his teammates barely recognized him or his passes. He saw spaces they didn’t. Played balls they never expected. And while they still joke about his altitude enlightenment, they are beginning to realize something important.

Julián Rubio didn’t go on vacation.
He went up a mountain and came back a number ten.

APPROVED - nice finishing line.