Here We Go

Well, after a false start Monday, I was finally able to get started with my FM Live club in GW12 Vengalos on Tuesday. I used the automatic team selection to get started, and well, it didn't quite as planned. Despite setting myself up for about £85k in salaries, with ages between 16 & 23, the team I ended up with came to less than half of that salary-wise. I also ended up dumping 6 players and picking up 7 replacements.

KEPT
GK Matt Allen (USA) 22, £14k, £800/wk
GK Phil Marfuggi (USA) 22, £12k, £1250/wk
SW/DC Olexandr Yatsenko (UKR), 23, £22k, £2000/wk
DRC Jon Leathers (USA) 23, £10k, £1250/wk
WBL Mike Randolph (USA) 23, £10k, £1000/wk
DC/DM Pat Phelan (USA) 23, £16k, £1500/wk
DC Rob Valentino (USA) 23, £16k, £1250/wk
DM/AMC Dax McCarty (USA) 21, £16k, £1500/wk
AMR/FC Avdija Vrdajevic (BIH) 22, £16k, £1500/wk
MLC Guy Dufour (BEL) 21, £20k, £2250/wk
AMC Michu (ESP) 22, £20k, £4000/wk
S Martin Paterson (NIR) 21, £24k, £4000/wk
S Misdongard Betoligar (CHA) 23, £24k, £2000/wk
S Ahmed Al-Suwaileh (KSA) 22, £16k, £2250/wk

DUMPED
WBR/DM Efrain Juarez (MEX) 20, £22k, £2000/wk (now w/North Angels FC, WCA)
DLC Arnaud Buhler (SUI) 23, £10k, £2000/wk (NYA - not yet available)
DC/DM Jimmy Magee (USA) 17, £9k, £200/wk (now w/North Angels FC, WCA)
DM Bryan Gaytan (USA) 17, £14k, £400/wk (FA - free agent)
AML/FC Amaechi Igwe (USA) 21, £12k, £1500/wk (NYA)
AMR/FC Johann Smith (USA) 21, £14k, £2000/wk (NYA)

Looks like North Angels FC is run by an American, as well, and got those guys as auto players once I dumped them. Why did I dump these six? Variety of reasons. Wing backs and defensive midfielders don't usually figure into my style of play. And I had a list of players I wanted to grab, thanks to doing some Genie homework with the FM08 database, and they figured to be the replacements.

ACQUIRED
GK Juan Turrubiates (MEX) 23, £16k, £1500/wk
DRC Mateo Musacchio (ARG) 18, £14k, £400/wk
DL Jonas Elmer (SUI) 20, £18k, £2500/wk
DC/DM Cala (ESP) 19, £35k, £300/wk
AMRC/FC Benito Carbone (ITA) 37, £8k, £3500/wk (my one concession to age)
AML Kevin Artmann (GER) 22, £24k, £1750/wk
AMLC/FC John Fleck (SCO) 17, £40k, £2000/wk

Once I got that taken care of and confirmed, I joined the Nighttime FA, as it seems to be the best fit, being as I'm 5 hours behind most everybody (that puts game times between 5:30 - 8 pm Eastern). And I started playing.

Conklin Forks' inaugural match had us traveling to Ashington to face nufceltic of the PFA. A 25-yard Dufour free kick in the 15th minute gave the Three Wolves their first-ever goal, and it proved to be the winner as Conklin Forks won, 1-0.

Next, it was time for some Cup play. Forks entered the Tesco Value Cola 17p Cup, a 10-team tourney broken into two groups. In our first cup match in Group B against fellow Nighttimers and lupines the Jazzman Wolves, Fleck opened the scoring in the 5th minute with a thunderous drive from the top of the boxthat clanged off defender Donovan Slijngard and into the lower right corner of the net. Bulgarian striker Vladimir Manchev evened the scoreline in the 14th minute with a well-placed shot from 10 yards out, but Forks were back in the lead 3 minutes later when Goat of the Day Slijngard brought down Dufour inside the box and Vrsajevic cooly slotted home from the spot. Dufour made it 3-1 Forks 10 minutes later with a drive from just outside the box. The J-Wolves got back to within a goal in the 67th minute, thanks to a Rudolf Skacel strike, but Forks held firm for the last 25 to score a 3-2 victory.

Next came another Nighttime club, AFC Kobras. After 55 minutes, the Three Wolves found themselves down 3-0, thanks to goals by Simone Motta (35'), Míchel (38') and Henok Goitom (55'). Still, Forks pressed ahead, and after being gifted a Ivan Dudic own goal in the 75th minute, Betoligar followed 5 minutes later with a header off a Cala corner kick to pull within a goal and make things interesting. But Forks hopes were snuffed out in the 84th minute as Goitom collected his second to lead AFC Kobras to a 4-2 win.

Team Habu of the AFA were the next opponents, and Forks stormed out of the gate, as Leathers took the opening back pass, found Fleck 40 yards ahead, and Fleck rustled the back of the net 17 seconds into the match. Turrubiates held firm, saving 5 shots on goal, but Gerardo Castillo played a perfect pass to the head of Boubacar Sanogo in the 81st minute, and the Three Wolves would have to settle for a 1-1 draw.

And so after 3 games in the Tesco Cup, Conklin Forks find themselves sitting third in Group B with 4 points, behind AFC Kobras (6 pts) and the J-Wolves (4 pts, ahead on GD by 1). All three clubs await Swell City of the XFA, who won their opener against Team Habu (2 pts, finishing 5th in group) before disappearing into the night.

Finally, some initial thoughts about FM Live. The server issues that plagues Day 1 seem to be resolved, and everything seemed to be running smoothly by Tuesday night. Gameplay is very similar to FM08, but learning my way around the interface has been a little daunting. And I miss having an Assistant Manager around to help me figure out my team. Although maybe I'm supposed to go buy one? Don't know. I'm still flying blind on a lot of this. But fun, it is.