The forum has been quiet so far this season, but I’ll start. We’re coming to the half-way point of the season and the table is just starting to take shape. There are only 2 bots in the league, and it looks like about half of the 16 clubs log in twice a day or more.
The Cosmos are partying like its 1977. Their new Pele is US international striker Daniel Jackson, who leads the league by a wide margin with 16 goals in the first 15 matches of the season. Cosmos look to be a good bet to be playing first division football in Season 6.
Surprisingly, the second place club is Frankfort, who have been without a manager for the last 11 game weeks. Fun fact: Frankfort only have 3 midfielders on their squad, and one is hurt for 6 game weeks. They have a lot of exciting young strikers, but how are they beating all of us?
The Huskies are sure to be in the mix for a promotion spot when all is said and done. The club features Mexican international goalkeeper Oscar Benine, and striker Morgan Dovel has scored in over half the matches so far this season.
Nuevo Mexico is a bit of a mystery to me. Are they an active club? Their manager has no online status dot, they’ve made no transfers in the history of the club, they only have a 500-seater stadium, popularity under 40k, and no young players in the first team. Despite all that, they find themselves in a promotion spot and are playing well.
The Bunnies sit fifth in the table, but are making a strong move up, having won their last 4 matches. The club is the most popular in the US Second Division. Karank is the only manager the club has known, and has molded a dynamic young squad. Leadership is provided by US national team midfielder Kevin Rank, and they are looking to start a trend of Azerbaijani internationals in America by employing their national team’s goalkeeper Mehpare Mustafayev.
The relegation battle is destined to be hotly contested. There is not much to separate the bottom half of the table thus far. One win could move Detroit from the 14th spot to 9th.
Please share your thoughts here. Where have I missed the mark on this assessment, what are your club’s prospects for the rest of the season?

Very nice post.

Last season I actually started to try and figure this game out. I'm kind of faking it right now.

The Reapers are trying to avoid relegation with a squad who hasn't the level of League 2. By selling our older players, we are clearly focusing on the future and the financial aspect of the game with a long term objective. Staying in League 2 would be great, but making our way back to League 3 won't be overly dramatic as long as our fans continue to come to the stadium. The next big step is a 8000 seater stadium, but this won't be before a while. In the meantime, the Reapers will slowly rebuild their squad and focus on younger players who with hard work could bring the club to League 1, one day.

I just started playing before the beginning of Season 5, so my job is to get the club in order, build up facilities, and try to catch up to the more established managers. I think I've made good progress in 5 weeks, but won't be at the level of the rest of this division until I build a 4,000 seat stadium.
I did a quick survey of the stadium sizes in this division vs. the number of points the clubs have, and not surprisingly the clubs at the top of the table have the larger stadiums. There is only one club without a stadium, and they can see everyone else out in front of them on only 13 points, looking bleak for the Nightmares.
Stadium Size / Number of Teams / Average Points
500 / 4 / 21.25
1,500 / 4 / 23.5
4,000 / 7 / 25.14
No one has made the move to 8,000 yet. So it looks like I'll have to wait until the TV money comes in to step up with the big boys and build my 4,000 seater for Season 6. Until then I'll grab points where I can and cross my fingers to avoid relegation.

Very nice posts all! The Bunnies are looking to push into League 1 next year, however, I do have a few older players that are vital in my success and when they leave the team I do not know how we will hold up in league play. That being said, our youth program is doing very well so far this season (and in seasons past) so I hope that the Bunnies get a good cycle going of incoming and outgoing players. I started this team in season 1 in League 2 and have come close to breaking through in season 3, then changed around the lineup and was almost relegated in season 4! It's out there boys, just stick strong and develop your strategy! Be it youth, maybe you want to cycle and go up and down every few years, or a constant stream of players; just stay true to your philosophy and success will come!

I'll jump in on this, as well. I'm Shawn, by the way. I started playing this game early on in season 1 but I chose to start with a random team, thus I was assigned to Peru. I built up my club there for 2-2.5 seasons and had the best facilities in that country, but I just wasn't having much fun as it wasn't an active league nor was it my home country. Thus, I switched to the USA in the middle of season 3, I think. I barely avoided relegation in that season and then last year was in the playoff for promotion, but lost. I then sold my older high-value, high-star players in order to gain money for my plan to build through my youth. This season, I started relatively weakly, hanging near the bottom of the table, but through training of my high-talent youths and their incorporation in the senior team, I've rallied off 3 or 4 straight wins and 4 or 5 wins out of my last 6.

For all of the "newer players", my best advice would be pick a strategy and keep with it, don't change philosophy midway through because your team isn't doing well. Look at your philosophy and build your players around it. If you want defense, focus on defenders and get your midfielders defensive skills, if you want offense, develop passing in your defenders and build up the passing and offensive skills in your mid. STICK WITH IT, good things will happen!

Nice writeup!
I think I joined sometime in season 3 or 4 I think. For the most part I donot know what I m doing. division 1 is scary - I mean most teams up there have yellow starred players. So I donot really know if a team can win enough in Level 1 without a few of its own.

Good luck to everyone tomorrow! FC Appleton 13 will take on Beach City in a battle of the 9th-place and 10th-place teams! In the last match between these two teams we drew 1-1 at Beach City so hopefully the home-field will put me over the top! Should be a good one and will report afterwards!

Well, we battled to a draw today at 0-0. We were lucky, I think, to draw as Beach City controlled possession 62%-38% and completed 82% of passes to our 64ish%. Overall, happy with the draw, as it sold out the stadium!

7 matches left, and the Terriers are only 1 point above the drop zone. Not long ago we were 5 points clear, but a few matches against the top clubs, and now right back into the relegation battle. And Terriers getting dominated by Bunnies, that's embarrassing :). We really need some wins. I'm enjoying being in the second division and want to expand the stadium and start filling it up and bringing in some cash. Dropping to the third tier would really hurt those amibitions. We'll fight and claw for every point until the end.

After winning 5 of 6 we have now drawn 2 and lost 2 of our past 4. Once again, the opposing keeper plays the game of his life against us, garnering a 9 match rating and saving 8 of our 21 shots on goal....which amounted to 0 goals....frustrating match, especially at home.

Four consecutive wins, and we've secured a second season in League 2!!! Really happy to be staying up, look forward to playing a lot of you again next season.

I just noticed that one of my former prospects, Edem, is second place in scoring this season in this league. He was on the Ghanian national team during the first season. I'm a bit surprised to see him up there or even still playing at all at this point (granted that he probably hasn't gotten much training while playing for his current team).

Finally, good news for FC Appleton 13 fans! In our rebuilding year, after beating the Brooklyn Reapers, we have survived and clinched a non-relegation spot! Looking forward to matching up with many of you again next season!