2026-07-05, 05:44 AM - Word count:
Daan Wouters is definitely in a different mindset five games into the Simulation Soccer Academy season. While he came in looking to make a difference for his Stockholm team that he was chosen for, and wanted to try and raise his draft stock as much as possible before the incoming SSL Draft, his path had something different waiting for him. His agent had made a few phone calls and had gotten him an agreement to go to one of the newest SSL expansion teams in the upcoming draft where he was going to be a guaranteed first rounder and probably be the first draft pick that the team would ever make. While he was excited for the draft process and getting to meet with different teams, he knew that this could take the weight and pressure off of performing right away in the academy and instead just try to have fun and build deeper bonds with his teammates since you never know who would be on the same team as him when he made his way up.
While he started his journey as a central midfielder that had some experience playing out on right wing, it seemed that Stockholm's formation and team makeup required him to play strictly as an right attacking midfielder operating as a sort of inside forward. While it was a little more work to get used too, he feels confident with that as his main position and he put in a lot of work on his physical attributes during training and was now one of the fastest players in the academy. He plans to enter in the draft as a right winger, but with his experience playing out on the wings, he is open to playing left winger or even right back, planning to go forward and operate more as a right wingback.
Looking at his season however it definitely has not gone the way that he had hoped for it to go, either on a personal level with his performance or with the overall team performance in general. First looking at his performance, he has yet to find a way to impact the score sheet, not tallying up a single goal contribution in the first five games, and to make things worse, he has the second worst average team rating in the game. With the leading striker on the team Bonnibel Bubblegum being second in the league in goals, Wouters definitely should have been a bigger part of delivering good balls to Bubblegum for them to put away. A lot of the play has been going through the left side of the team however, so Wouters hopes to impress a little more in training so the coach and his teammates in general have some more trust in him to make a positive impact on the ball. For Stockholm, they find themselves fifth place out of eight teams in the academy, seven points behind first place. While there is still a lot of the season left to play, they will definitely need to get a win in their next game to start that process. Unfortunately that comes against the first place PS Jakarta, but a win or even a point would be a statement performance that would echo for the rest of the season.
Overall, while many of the teams and his opponents may have written off Wouters for now despite him playing as the number 10 on the team, with his growing familiarity at Right Winger, he hopes to surprise the league and be worthy to be the face of a new expansion organization in the SSL.
While he started his journey as a central midfielder that had some experience playing out on right wing, it seemed that Stockholm's formation and team makeup required him to play strictly as an right attacking midfielder operating as a sort of inside forward. While it was a little more work to get used too, he feels confident with that as his main position and he put in a lot of work on his physical attributes during training and was now one of the fastest players in the academy. He plans to enter in the draft as a right winger, but with his experience playing out on the wings, he is open to playing left winger or even right back, planning to go forward and operate more as a right wingback.
Looking at his season however it definitely has not gone the way that he had hoped for it to go, either on a personal level with his performance or with the overall team performance in general. First looking at his performance, he has yet to find a way to impact the score sheet, not tallying up a single goal contribution in the first five games, and to make things worse, he has the second worst average team rating in the game. With the leading striker on the team Bonnibel Bubblegum being second in the league in goals, Wouters definitely should have been a bigger part of delivering good balls to Bubblegum for them to put away. A lot of the play has been going through the left side of the team however, so Wouters hopes to impress a little more in training so the coach and his teammates in general have some more trust in him to make a positive impact on the ball. For Stockholm, they find themselves fifth place out of eight teams in the academy, seven points behind first place. While there is still a lot of the season left to play, they will definitely need to get a win in their next game to start that process. Unfortunately that comes against the first place PS Jakarta, but a win or even a point would be a statement performance that would echo for the rest of the season.
Overall, while many of the teams and his opponents may have written off Wouters for now despite him playing as the number 10 on the team, with his growing familiarity at Right Winger, he hopes to surprise the league and be worthy to be the face of a new expansion organization in the SSL.
