Conquering Europe

[oneteaminglasgow]

Transfers 2062

All absolute pish, with the one exception of Tasev who isn't that pish, but also isn't good enough for my team yet. I still have a lot of complete dross at the club, but I've mostly dumped them in the B team, which is fine.

And now the incomings... I've actually spent a reasonable amount of money here, because the guys available on free transfers were the biggest collection of complete dross I've seen since I was kicking about in San Marino and that. I also spent a fair bit on a centre half from Kosovo, but he isn't joining until June for some reason.

Anyway, Mikel Krasniqi is a central midfielder, and I'm very hopeful that he can be the guy who'll help unlock defences for me. Seems very much like he's a guy who needs someone to do the running and dirty work beside him, but his technique, passing and vision are excellent for the division - and light years ahead of the shite I had playing last year. I'm pleased with this one.

Spoiler

Kulakovs is a back up centre midfielder, he won't be starting every week but he'll allow me to rest other players - most notably Krasniqi. I can also play him at attacking midfield, so that might be something to consider. He's another decent passer etc, but nothing special.

Spoiler

Right, Maksims Gulbis. Finding a goalkeeper who is both an acceptable standard and willing to play for me turned out to be extremely difficult, so I ended up spending a (relative) fortune on a guy who's only slightly better (if at all) that what he was replacing. He's really not very good, and I would hope that if I'm still here next season I'll be bringing in a new goalkeeper, but he'll do for now.

Spoiler

Kristaps Kilmasevics is here to be my back up left winger, and he can also play left back apparently, so that's nice. I basically signed him because my starting left winger had a tendency to get injured after 5 minutes of games last season, and I had to stick some pish striker out of position every time so this is an attempt to avoid that. He's not great technically, but he's not dreadful either and he's quick which always seems to cause havoc in shite leagues.

Spoiler

Jurijs Lusnickis is a left back/centre half who is young, not great but still good enough for a place in my squad. He's basically fine without having anything particularly great about his game.

Spoiler

Vitalijs Beks is another who's basically fine without being anything special. He can jump really high in the air - his physical stats are generally impressive. I think if I'm looking for someone to defend and do absolutely nothing else, he'll be fine.

Spoiler

Ok... David Tobias. I'm not sure about this one. My scouts said he was decent, but my coaches think he's absolutely pish and I'm not sure what to think. Technically speaking, he's very good for this level, and he should be good for a couple of goals from free kicks, and his mental stats are pretty good as well. However, and it's a big however, his physical stats are legitimately pathetic. Like, the worst I've seen on a player in a long, long time. I'm going to give him a chance, I think he'll be decent if I don't want him to run around at all so let's see.

Spoiler

Olegs Uldrikis is my guy to do Krasniqi's dirty work and running around in central midfield. I'm pleased with him, I think he'll be an important player. He's limited, but he's a hard worker and just generally good off the ball. 

Spoiler

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

March 2062

I'll take that, a very comfortable win over the newly promoted side, and then a respectable enough showing against two of the leagues better sides. 10 men for the whole second half in our loss and came back from two down against RFS, so won't complain about those.

Yeah, an ok start and we're sitting in the middle of the pack.

Latvia

Two friendlies, and two results that don't matter. Amazingly enough, American Samoa are ranked ahead of us so that'll be good for the ranking points. I was hopeful that we would pump them, as Latvia's record result is 6-1 - it'd be nice to better that.

Finland absolutely fucked us senseless

[oneteaminglasgow]

April 2062

A very busy month, and a mostly very positive one. We deserved to lose against Liepaja, although we should have beaten Valmeira and Jelgava. Battered both of them but just couldn't get a goal. Good comeback win against what should be a good Ventspils side too.

Rest of it was pretty comfortable, especially against the other Daugavpils team Lokomotiv - who don't seem to even have a Wikipedia page...

First quarter of the season done, and we're sitting in third which is lovely. The top two have a small gap ahead of us, and we have the same over the teams below, so I'm hoping that we can try to drag RFS and Riga back into it.

Latvia

No games this month, but following our promotion the Nations League C Division was drawn...

Aye, we're quite clearly the worst team on paper but we'll see how it goes.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Surprised yer coaches think so lowly of Tobias as an enganche. Seems like the ideal position for the Czech Chic Charnley

[oneteaminglasgow]

10 hours ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

Surprised yer coaches think so lowly of Tobias as an enganche. Seems like the ideal position for the Czech Chic Charnley

I'm assuming its his physical stats they don't like, but aye his rating seems much lower than I would have expected it to be.

[oneteaminglasgow]

A fairly kind draw for Riga in the Latvian Cup there...

[oneteaminglasgow]

May 2062

A remarkably good month. Still can't quite believe it.

We were excellent in the first three games against what should be the best three sides in the league. Well, we were pretty poor against Ventspils for 70 minutes and then outstanding for the last 20. The own goal they scored for us to equalise was something special though.

Spoiler

Scraped through in the cup playing a load of fringe players, and the rest did us good as we had to work very hard for the wins against Lokomotiv and Liepaja. Only let down was the draw with Jelgava, but they just seem to be out bogey team at the minute. A draw isn't bad anyway.

Leaves us ten games unbeaten in the league.

And with that, we shoot up to the top of the table. I don't expect to stay here, but to be in the title fight almost half way through the season is an excellent effort from what I had thought would be a squad capable of challenging for the top four at a push.

I'm playing Super Nova in the cup as well, so we have an good chance at a semi final there and then who knows. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

June 2062

A quiet month, due to the World Cup being on, but another really, really decent month. Admittedly, all of these are sides that we should beat every single time we play them, but pleasing to have actually done it.

And a couple of dodgy results for Riga and RFS means that we're now seven points ahead at the top of the table. Lovely.

We also finalised the signing of Romeo Hoxha, a Kosovan centre half. I agreed to sign him at the start of the season, but he couldn't join until now for whatever reason. He's 18, and has the makings of a very decent centre half while already being good enough to play in the Latvian leagues, so that's nice.  He joined after all my games this month so hasn't played yet, but will go straight into my squad going forward. 

Spoiler

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Mind the Belgium team that scraped two narrow wins against my utter dross Latvia side? They've just won the World Cup.

Also, the absolute fucking state of Iraq's campain...

Love the idea of a load of Iraq fans travelling to China for the World Cup, and being treated to that. Indonesia also managed to get through the group stages, and then took a 9-0 off Spain, while Congo were beaten 8-0 by Craotia. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

July 2062

Really straightforward progression in the cup, before our unbeaten run came to an end in a really frustrating manner. Don't get me wrong, we absolutely deserved to lose the game, but we also missed a 95th minute penalty.

Made up for it by making RFS look really, really ordinary as we extended our lead over them, and the Daugavpils derby was another walk in the park for us.

We've extended our lead again, despite the loss to Ventspils, and now sit eight points clear. 

Obviously there's a lot of games left still, but we're putting ourselves in a very good position. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Oh, also I signed this boy - Alexey Zolotarev. He's an aging Ukrainian centre forward, and he's clearly lost any pace he ever had but he's a very good finisher, both from range and close in, and just a very good technical player. He'll also provide some competition for Keirans up front, which I haven't really had prior to now, so that's always handy.

[oneteaminglasgow]

August 2062

Very good month, again, but I'm left thinking what might have been from the two games against Riga. We were 2-0 up at half time in the first one, and completely chucked it, and then the second game we conceded in the 93rd minute from a corner. Had we won both of those, I'd be saying the title was all but won.

As it is, we're 10 points clear - although I would expect that to drop down to eight again once RFS play their game in hand. We have one game against RFS in the lague left, and one against Ventspils, but that's it in terms of games against the big guns.

I think we should be winning the title. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

September 2062

Worst month of the season so far. They'll be no cup glory for us, as we failed to take our chances and got put out by RFS. A bit unlucky, but oh well.

League form was mixed, the draw against RFS is decent, as is the thumping win over Super Nova, but a very disappointing loss at home to Ventspils. 

So anyway, 15 points to play for still and we have a seven point advantage. Three wins will do it.

It would take a complete collapse from us for us to not be champions, but I'm not taking anything for granted.

Latvia

That Slovakia result might well be the best of my Latvia reign so far. It's certainly either that or the draw in Moscow. We rode our luck a bit, and Makreckis has a great game in goals, but we just about deserved to win. 

Unfortunate not to follow it up with at least a draw against the failed statelet, their goal was fairly late on but again they were on top for most of the game so fair enough really.

A solid start. We have Armenia away and NI at home next month. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Matchday 32 - 2062

Spoiler

It's only us and Riga in the title race, so that's a real help. I said I needed three wins, but it might not even be that.

We were quite impressive. We got complacent at 4-0, but as soon as they got a second we stepped it up again and killed the game very quickly.

Aye, ten points clear, twelve to play for. If we win our next game, we're champions. And next up we have Valmeira.

Before all that though, I have the international break to take care of.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

October 2062 - Internationals

A good point in Armenia, and an alright showing against NI, although obviously we still lost. I'm pleased that we're holding our own against some pretty ok sides, and although my style of play would make Dick Campbell proud, it seems to be fine.

Two more games in the group, Armenia at home and Slovakia away.

We're in with a shot at staying in League C, which would be a pretty decent achievement. This is Latvia's first time in League C since, 2048, when they lost 5 and drew one, and if we can get one more point we'll match our best ever showing in this league through the save - which was in 2024...

[oneteaminglasgow]

Matchday 33 - 2062

Spoiler

Job done. The first half was ropey, they took an early lead and missed a penalty at 1-1, while also just generally looking a good match for us, but Flaksis, who has been having the season of his life (last season he got 4 assists and no goals in 27 games, this season he's on 10 goals and 9 assists in the same amount of games), killed the game in the second half and saw us to the title.

As I said, we're now secured as champions and I can spend the final three games of my Daugavpils reign pissing about a bit.

We've scored the most goals and conceded the fewest, so I think we're deserved winners.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Matchday 34 - 2062

Spoiler

Meh - I threw some young players in to start, one of whom got himself sent off. We still missed a penalty and a load of other chances, but didn't lose. Also, it doesn't really matter if we lose all our remaining games 10-0 so aye.

Still champions.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Matchday 35 - 2062

Spoiler

Won that at a canter. Two teams with nothing to play for, but we're much better than them. Good hattrick for Kovalonoks too.

One game to go, and then I'll be done with Latvia. 

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Matchday 36 - 2062

Spoiler

And we sign off with a very comfortable win, and no surprises in Kovalonoks being the one to get the goals.

Nice way to end it.

And it means that we slightly pished the league in the end, finishing up ten points clear.

As always...

Next up: Bosnia and Herzegovina

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

November 2062 - Internationals

An excellent result against Armenia means that we're staying in League C of the Nations League! We were outplayed by the Slovaks, getting revenge for the fairly embarrassing loss they suffered against me last time, but we were genuinely better than Armenia and deserved to win. Outstanding stuff.

And with seven points, we've now had the best ever performance by Latvia at this level of the nations league.

The draw for the European Championship Qualifying was also made...

Obviously, we have no chance. Turkey and the Netherlands will have the top two wrapped up fairly comfortably, you'd think, and then Finland and Slovenia are quite a lot better than me.

I was seeded fifth rather than sixth this time, so that's a positive at least.

Still looking for a club job, but all the currently available ones are in the third tier of North Macedonian football.