#4 Versatility

[OblivionWalker]

Career Task 3
Player Page - +1 to LAM

For the start of the next season, Takeda knew that there was room to grow, to improve and to push himself forward. He felt like he had made progress in the last little while, sure, and it seemed like the coaches were pleased with his willingness to throw himself into his training and accepted feedback on what to focus on but he wanted to make sure that he wasn't getting complacent, wasn't settling in and not continuing to drive his improvement forward. It was partly this that prompted him to see out teammates Kel Varson and Leandro Dybala at the team training pitch, hesitantly asking them if they would mind training with him and to his relief and gratitude, both Kel and Leandro were game. Like Takeda, Kel was someone who liked to dictate the tempo in the midfield but he would also get forward whenever he could and Takeda studied his movement, took notice of the way Kel could accelerate to get himself to where he wanted to be faster. Takeda knew that was going to mean more sprints, more working on being a bit more explosive but he felt like that was something he could take away from Kel's game and perhaps add it to his own toolbox, especially when the team was really pushing forward and in prime position for goal scoring opportunities. Leandro was a master at curling the ball and Takeda worked with him quite a bit on getting his foot placement exactly right at a moment's notice. It took a while but after some frustrated muttering in Japanese, Takeda finally got there, able to get a nice curve on the ball and place it where he wanted it. Takeda was grateful that his teammates were so willing to put in some work with him, especially when they had their own things to work on and he was going to make sure what he learned didn't go to waste.

(word count: 324)

Approved - Happy to see that team comradery! 

[Thunder39]

CPT3

Maverick Jones was not happy just stopping shots. He knew he needed to provide more for Kaapstadt, especially if he wanted to get to the majors one day. Everyone knows that the modern game of football requires a keeper who can do more than make stops, they need to be able to act as an 11th outfield player. With that in mind Jones planned for a tour across North America in the offseason. Improving his skills as a distributor from the back.

Maverick’s summer started in Vancouver. He spent six weeks working with the coaching staff from MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps, as well as sports science grads from the University of British Columbia. While working on body health and endurance, the main focus was on one thing: Positioning. Jones needs to be aggressive and ready to make reads and not be stuck on his goal line.  What really made a difference was that Maverick trained with some soccer players who play semi-pro.. He did not play as a goalie. He played as a defensive midfielder when they played 5v5 games. This got him more prepared to make quick passes and be more prepared for that higher positioning.

The next stop was to Mexico. Jones spent 2 weeks training with Club América. While this training wasn't as focused on specifics, it gave him a chance to implement these new skills in intra-squad training at a higher level. Jones worked with the team's coaching staff and rostered keepers to absorb as much as he could in the time there, before returning back to Kaapstad.

Once back on home turf, you could see the change in practice. Jones was aggressive, active and ready to help make the team more of a threat from the back. This gives Kappstad another dangerous element to their attack this coming season as the team makes their debut in the newly formed first division.

Approved

[Ashes]

CPT #3
Upgrade LAM
410 words

During the season, Jesper had some discussions with the AC Romana coaching staff about his role on the team. They assured him that his spot on the starting lineup was secured, especially as he was putting up some excellent performances occasionally and near the top of the entire league in total assists, but they wanted him to be more versatile. They wanted to be able to confidently play him in other attacking midfield positions, as the way it was, if he wasn't on the right side it was clear he didn't really know what to do. He was hesitant, confused, uncomfortable, not what you want one of your key attacking players to be. And so, they put him to work. They asked that over the offseason, he focuses his practice on being a LAM. And indeed, that's what he did. He actually went back home to Visby for a little while, so he could train with his old coaches at FC Gute. He discussed this with them, and it just so happened that around the same time FC Gute's actual starting LAM injured his leg, meaning he could not practice with the team for a couple weeks. They saw this as a great opportunity, and put him into some practice matches with the club as a left mid. It took a bit of getting used to, especially for Jesper being right-footed, but he soon started figuring it out, developing those instincts, that intuitive sense of where to be and what to do. He discussed this with his manager at AC Romana, who allowed him to go on loan to FC Gute during the offseason (the Swedish league, Allsvenskan, has matches from April-November, most of which is when the SSL has its offseason, since Swedish winter weather isn't very conducive to football). The condition of this loan, of course, being that Jesper only plays as a LAM. The loan spell went well, to say the least, turns out dropping an SSL player into the Swedish third tier does quite a lot. The team went from the bottom half of the table to a 9 match win streak - those 9 matches being the ones where Jesper played for them, before being called back to Rome for training camp. Having to play the position in competitive matches helped Jesper a lot, and by the time he had to leave Visby, he was ready to play his new position in the SSL.

Approved

[boom]

CPT #3
Player page +1 to CAM

Having received a call-up to the big club in Liffeyside Celtic FC for the start of the new season, Orla Hughes-Galloway was hard at work in the offseason looking to prove to the managers that she deserved the call-up. Back home in Ireland, she did a lot of physical training with her older sister Caitlin, who had just earned her own call-up to the SHL's Calgary Dragons in the offseason, so their routines often ended up being pretty similar. Orla did get to benefit from the perks of playing for her hometown club, which was that she got to access the team's resources and facilities over the summer. Since she was coming up and set to play in the middle of the field for the near future rather than the left side like she had been playing in Rova, training with teammates to adjust to the added responsibilities of playing in the middle and learning set plays was a big task for Orla. The biggest aspect of adjusting to playing in the middle was in figuring out how to read plays from a different angle so that Orla could know where she needed to be at each moment. When she played in Rova, she was used to utilizing her speed and agility to bang around up front and facilitate chances for her teammates in the middle, but playing in the centre in Liffeyside would mean that Orla would need to be more cerebral about where to position herself on the field. In summary, moving up to Celtic and learning to play a different position than she was used to would be a learning curve for Orla, but it was also an opportunity to really show what she could do and being from Ireland meant that she would be able to take advantage of the resources the organization had to offer. Things are looking up for the hometown player, and it will be interesting to watch how her career develops over the next few seasons.

Approved

[Malino8444]

CPT 3

Player Page +1 To CDM

(Once again, this CPT is set before the panenka incident)
(Also because im always right on time with career tasks, this one takes place before CPT 3, Lovely timeline I know! )

The 22nd season of the SSL had been a difficult one for A.C. Romana, finishing a lowly tenth and below their (Kind of onesided) rivals Shanghai.

And although the coach didn’t want to point any fingers, he knew one reason why things didn’t go well…

In the academy and at London Ryan was used to playing in the attacking positions, he loved getting forward and scoring goals. He wanted to write his name in SSL history as one of the best attackers in the league. 

But when he got promoted to Romana in Season 21, the coach told him that he will start playing as a defensive midfielder. Ryan didn’t agree with this decision and he made it known. He didn’t bother actively participating in training, nor actually trying to learn how to defend. He didn’t listen to the coach during matches, and still got forward whenever he could. His ego was growing too big for his head.

But the 22nd season (and another annoying message from the German who shall not be named) had been a massive wake up call for Ryan. He finally realized that if he wanted his team to succeed, something needed to change, or well, he needed to change.
During the off-season he started training more and more with his teammate Brannigan Stoush @Zag , he learned a lot from him, including but not limited to: where to get good beers. He also started spending more time in the gym and putting in actual effort in both training and during the games.

Slowly but surely Ryan started feeling more comfortable playing as a defensive midfielder, seeing improvements in his tackling and defensive positioning. The coach was happy to see that he was finally listening to him… for the most part. Ryan still liked going forward into the opposition's area, and shooting from distance, the latter still needing improvement.

But with this new role now sort of mastered. The S23 season will surely be an improvement, right?

Approved - Best of luck in the upcoming season with your new position fully engrained. 

[SpiNz001]

Career PT #3

Upgrade RAM

Player page: https://index.simulationsoccer.com/#!/tr...r?pid=5432

Uniao Sao Paolo has proven to everyone that they have gotten better and will continue to improve with time. The league has seen its fair share of players honing their skills, especially among Nerve De Groot and his other two best friends Hashimoto and Cotswold. All three entered the team around the same time and all three are on track to becoming the best in league history. Practice and other training are paramount both during and out of season. The Triple Threat trio frequently practices together to help each other with their respective positions.

AFAS Stadion and Kras Stadion were some of the North Holland fields that they trained at. Before practice, De Groot, Hashimoto, and Cotswold, would do light aerobic exercising so as to not over do anything before an important match or meet.  Afterward, each of them would practice their own positions with each other. Moreover, De Groot would practice offense on the right with one of the others or both on defense. The same would be done with Hashimoto on the opposite side. Cotswold would often have both Hashimoto and De Groot come at him to make sure he was at the top of his game. Of course, they all practiced shooting on goal using specific tactics introduced or utilized the weeks before. De Groot brought up they all would practice passing and kicking with their opposite foot to ensure quick reactions.

De Groot recalls this: “Shooting with power and agility was at the forefront of Hashimoto and I’s strategy with getting better both in and out of season. Cotswold would more often than not be the challenger to our mock offensive plays as we wanted one of the best defensive players in the league to raise the difficulty for us.” These practices have “worked wonders” for all three of them in their performances and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Approved

[Newkbomb]

CPT 3

Upgrade CM

BigMac Johnson, the defensive midfielder for the Shanghai Dragons, started to develop a reputation on the field in his first couple of seasons in the SSL major league. An aggressive and athletic tackler, Johnson was known for being an enforcer who would commonly get booked after taking an opponent out by the shins. And it was an important defensive role for the Dragons. No better stat can better explain this than the fact that Johnson has been booked more times than he's put a shot on target. But eventually, the role of chase down the ball, take out the opponent, and shuffle the ball towards the teams playmakers became monotonous. For BigMac to evolve, and for him to be a piece on a team that could actually fight for a SSL title, he needed to work on his game and become a more well-rounded player.

So BigMac decided to put in some work to expand his game to be be able to make an impact in more areas of the field. After spending multiple seasons as a midfield partner with Marcel Voda, Johnson spent the off-season in Voda's native Slovenia. He spent an entire off-season working on his on the ball skills with Voda, the most technical midfielder on the Dragons. A drill BigMac repeated overall and over was setting the ball up from 30 yards out and attempting to hit the crossbar. The goal was to improve his touch from long range to actually be a scoring threat even if Johnson wasn't consistently making runs into the box. And that work paid off. Not only did BigMac's shooting improve, but also his touch on the ball and dribbling improved too. All of this improvement on the ball helped Johnson be more comfortable getting forward and being part of the attacking build-up.

Approved - Voda is a great mentor to learn from!

[DivogoJota]

CPT 3 and Player Page

Andre Caetano has been working tirelessly in the Alpine Federation camp in the build-up to the World Soccer Federation Classic. They are a plucky, upstart bunch with aspirations of turning some heads come the knock-out rounds.

Part of the training employed by tactical geniuses Divogo Jota and Giacomino Raiola is high-altitude training in the Alps so increase endurance and positional awareness. Nothing heightens your sense like oxygen deprivation and knowing that one wrong step can send you hurtling down the slopes! While all the Alpiners are enjoying the unorthodox training methods, Andre in particular is taking advantage to have a better grasp on the mental side of the game.

The coaches informed Andre Caetano earlier in camp that he would be trusted with performing a slew of defensive duties, picking up responsibilities for some of the more expressive players who like to bomb forward in attack. This is a deviation from how Caetano usually expresses himself on the pitch, so he is trying especially hard to internalize the proper instincts and movements that a defensive midfielder must master.

Andre has taken to watching highlight reels of the great, fellow Swiss international Breadneeq LaVert, an original Azteca who joined his organization Club Deportivo Tenochtitlan in the S20 Expansion Draft and actually scored the first goal in Tenochtitlan history (by an active user). Breadneeq was known for his positional prowess and ability to sniff out danger, both domestically in the league and internationally for the Alpine Federation. Andre facetimes Breadneeq during moments of downtime and picks his brain on how he approaches training and what he would do in particular situations.

The Alpine Federation will surely be hoping that Andre Caetano is a quick learner and masters the CDM position, increasing his familiarity in that role. The success of their squad will rely on Andre’s ability to fill in the gaps in defense and be responsible across the pitch.

Approved

[lunaripcole]

CPT 3 and Player Page +1 to CD



This had been another hard season for Kelsier. While he was excited to be playing at such a high level of competition with SFV, he now was playing about half as much, and it reflected in his gameplay. He couldn't seem to find his rhythm yet. He needed to find a way to be more of a team player and get some versatility on the field. Kelsier decided to ask the team what was best to help up his game, and the team told him to work with Siddhartha Kilgannon and Matias Xavier. Summers spent multiple days throughout the offseason working with Kilgannon and Xavier, doing lots of different drills to work his mechanics, as well as giving him pointers to be a better CD should the team need him. Summers put his all into his small group practices with Kilgannon and Xavier, and tried to go over what they did in the last practice on his own every off day. This on top of all of his usual training and conditioning in the offseason. Summers was determined to make a big jump this offseason, and it was starting to mean that he had to put some of his hobbies like gaming and painting aside so that he could focus one hundred percent on his training. He missed the peace both of them separately brought, gaming with a way to extremely stimulate the mind, and art with a way to almost meditate, clearing the thoughts from his brain. But both were hobbies, and if he wanted to push his limits to get better, he was going to have to make himself a little uncomfortable. That was something an old coach had said to him, "If you want to get better, I need to push you to the edge of the cliff so you aren't comfortable anymore, and that's where the most growth happens." Kelsier had hated hearing that as a kid, but it was true, and he was going to live by those words this offseason.

Approved

[fathands3k]

Career Task 3

Player Page +1 CAM

With Walker being traded from one team to another, it didn't stop his tremendous work ethic in the off season to ensure he was on top form for his new club. Thankfully he didn't need to look far for a friendly face to show him around in Scott MacLeod, a fellow Victoria Eagles Academy team-mate. Both seemed to push each other on in the off season, something that was evident back at the might Eagles.

As the summer went on, Maarten Slothlenburg and Pablo Kawasaski helped Walker by giving pointers on how to learn to play the game in the attacking midfield. While he has been known to play on the right of the attack, they clearly seen something in his ability to think he could handle the position of being chief creator and threat behind the forward. While this is not to be his main position, it is an additional string to the bow and could help spring a tactical surprise when needed against the right opponent. While at first they trained behind closed doors at the clubs facilities, soon they took themselves to Copacabana Beach in Brazil to see some flair and grace, as well as enjoy the sun. What better place to learn a few new tricks and technique's than the footballing beach capital of the world. With a few beach football games here and there with the locals, soon the attacking midfielder in Walker was born. From this came better flair, passing and even a quicker train of thought, something that can only be beneficial for the season ahead. Along with this came the physical improvements Walker always seems to get each season, with him being no stranger to working out while others are recovering. He may have even helped improve his weak foot becoming more of a threat going either side, meaning more unpredictability in his overall play.

Approved