Season 26 week 18 processing...

Hello and welcome to week 18 of the season.

The reset has finished and I am now entering the orders.

There is a great review of the World Cup posted up by Ben and Rob so thanks for that guys, I wish you both good luck.

One thing that is becoming quite prevalent is managers using the ENDLOAN dealing then naming that player in the starting eleven. Dont forget all Transfers ( including endloans ) happen after the games have been run and you cannot select a player to play unless he has a squad number. thanks.

Okay I have started running the pre-league games, so the league games should kickoff tomorrow ( Wednesday ) at 1200 hours, before that will be the World Cup Final at 1000 hours.

That's Wednesday as opposed to the normal Thursday, data entry just went quicker today.

Excellent, thanks Paul.

Will there be coverage of the World Youth Final and the Copa America too?

Live and just in from England Manager Ben Wilson's final press conference...


Rumours were abound that, following intense criticism, Ben Wilson was due to announce his resignation as England manager following the final...

Tom@Charlton wrote:

Excellent, thanks Paul.

Will there be coverage of the World Youth Final and the Copa America too?

yes.

We have five Finals to enjoy this morning.

World Cup England vs Germany in Germany.
African Nations Cup Nigeria vs Ivory Coast in South Africa
Copa America Paraquay vs Chile in Argentina
Asian Cup Japan vs China in Japan

and in youth football we have

World Youth Cup England Under 21s vs Belgium Under 21s in Brazil

England will be playing a very experienced side with Andy Cole in for the injured Leighton Baines and three centre backs to help cope with Germany's expected long ball tactics. Ben has selected the FAS tactic for this final with Watford's Wayne Rooney as the target man. Jack Wilshire is also injured and his place on the bench goes to Adam Lallana. Rob's Germany will be playing the expected LON tactics with three centre backs, three dynamos and no full backs with Bayern Munich's Mario Gomez leading the line.

In Africa Alain Joubert has taken Nigeria to their first final and has found a place on the bench for Charlton's young starlet Kelechi Iheanacho they will be playing a FAS system with Manchester City's forgotten man Odion Ighalo controlling the action. For their part the Ivory Coast will also be playing FAS, which is still very popular amongst managers, Johnny Goldsmith saying this week that he rarely plays any other system. With stars like Aston Villa's Wilfried Bony and the Toure brothers in their side the Ivorians must start as slight favorites.

In Brazil we have the final of the Copa America which is being played in Argentina this season. Tom's excellently drilled but ageing Paraquay side will employ the ISF tactical system with Crystal Palace's Roque Santa Cruz as it's spearhead and pundits everywhere are in general agreement that Tom has pulled a masterstroke with team selection this season in order to get the tiny country of Paraquay to this final. Chile for their part will be playing FAS as Ben plots to win a double this week and will hope that Inter Milan's Arturo Vidal and Watford's Alexis Sanchez can provide the kind of support that Alkmaar's Valdivia will need if Chile are to overcome a very strong Paraquay side that are currently unbeaten and yet to concede a goal in this competition having won all four games on the way to this final.

The Asian Cup doesn't normally get much coverage because we have no managers in Asia but the two favorites have reached the final as one would expect from an unmanaged tournament with Japan playing China in Tokyo which by itself makes Japan slight favorites. Japan will be playing WHV and will be hoping that Tottenham bound Shinji Okazaki can get the goals they need, whilst China's journeyman side will be countering the favorites with their own WHV lineup.

We also have the final of the World Youth Cup today with England youth facing off against the young stars from Belgium. Tom's young England side start as strong favorites having already recorded some sensational results with an 8-0 thrashing of Holland and a 6-0 thrashing of Italy already on the books, Tom will be using the FAS tactic with Plymouth's Raheem Sterling in control and Ancona's Ross Barkley and Charlton's Dele Alli supporting him from midfield, it is a team full of flair and as they have proved full of goals. Belgium for their part will be relying on the manager's tactical know how as their team of relatively unknowns try to stop the young stars of England. John Horrocks has selected the WHV system for this game with Ancona's Zak Bakkali on the right and Inter Milan's Youri Tielemans on the left both feeding Charlton's Divock Origi in the middle. The underdogs will need to rely on the strength of Manchester City's Jason Denayer at the back to help win this game.

Okay it just remains for me to wish everybody good luck today...

Excellent reviews, thanks Paul

Great stuff Paul!

And the anticipation around millions of TVs in England has reached fever pitch....

The pitch has been cleared of the paraphenalia of the prematch entertainment, the players have lined up and the whistle is blown...

probably wont take very long to run through only five games...

Ben@Plymouth wrote:

Great stuff Paul!

And the anticipation around millions of TVs in England has reached fever pitch....

Oh dear .....

and hopefully there will be some goals...

a very quiet first ten minutes with all teams probing for an opening...

20 minutes and still no goals, this is the first time I have used the vidiprinter to report on the World Cup games, hopefully it is working okay...

30 minutes...

and we have our first goal...

Paul Hemmings wrote:

and we have our first goal...

This could be huge....

Paraquay 0 Chile 1 Arturo Vidal on 38 minutes.

Nigeria 0 Ivory Coast 1 Arouna Kone on 42 minutes.