Jbc's Pentagon Challenge

Mitra Kukar – Club 1 – Season 4 – Update 2

Following on from our promising transfer window I was very excited to get going this season. Starting the season slowly has always seemed to be our weakness so I was hoping to get off to a good start in pursuit of the league title.

Fixtures
The season got off to the worst possible start as we played fellow title challengers Tira and fell to a tight 1-0 defeat. We did however play quite well so I wasn’t too worried going forward, I was just disappointed to have handed the initiative to Tira so early into the season.
The next eight games however went much more how I had expected them to have gone. Six wins and two draws followed our opening day defeat to keep us in the title race.



We immediately bounced back and dismantled newly promoted Sulut Utd 5-1 in our first home game. We did however go behind after 10 minutes, but following a red card in the 21 minute we asserted our dominance and scored 4 goals in a scintillating second half display with Ahmad and Fatahillah breaking their duck for the club.



Our second home game was also just as eventful as we welcomed Arema Cronus, who had finished above us on head-to-head record last season. We took the lead through another goal from Fatahillah and doubled the advantage with Rudi’s first goal for the club on 52 minutes, however the majority of the action was saved for a memorable final 20 minutes as first Arema pulled a goal back from the penalty spot, before Sulaiman restored the 2 goal lead just 3 minutes later. Another goal from Arema with 5 minutes remaining ensured a nervy finish, particularly when Rudi missed the opportunity to win the game from the penalty spot just 2 minutes later. This was a mistake we were made to pay for as Arema equalised in the final minute of normal time to clinch a point.



We followed that disappointment up with an away trip to Persita Tangerang, and again we conceded the first goal, but fought back to lead 2-1 just before the break. An early goal in the second half made the game 2-2 and with both teams going in search of a winner, substitute Fauzi was on hand to poke home in the 89th minute.



Table
Following the excitement of the opening few games we managed to pick up 10 more points over the next 4 games and currently find ourselves in 2nd place, 5 point off of top spot. We are however 4 points ahead to 3rd so I am very happy with the start we have made. The most pleasing thing so far is that we have only conceded once from a set piece (which was a direct free kick), so clearly the addition of Aryanto has been a good one.



Player performance
Our new left winger Fatahillah has been the standout player so far this season with an impressive 6 goals and 4 assists in just 9 games. He has really hit the ground running and has just earned his first callup to the Indonesian national squad.
Ahmad has also made a good start to the season with 5 goals in 9 games, as well as Rudi who has accumulated 4 goals and 3 assists so far. Once again, Fauzi has seriously impressed me so far. Despite him now being 31 years old he has continued to score goals when given the chance, which is amazing when you think that he was our 3rd choice striker the season we got promoted! He has managed to get 4 goals and 2 assists so far and has ousted Sulaiman who has started the season very poorly, scoring just 1 goal.



Summary
Overall, I am very happy with our start to the year. To be second at this point is very pleasing and we have only lost 1 game out of 9 which is much better than our other starts to campaigns since I have arrived. The only thing I am a little concerns about id that we have so far failed to keep a single clean sheet with our new stand in goalkeeper, and the performances of Sulaiman have been very poor so hopefully he will pick up over the next few games.

*We now have a months break due to the international tournaments (not the World Cup as this takes place in December this year), so my next update will be covering the next couple of months of fixtures as we enter the Piala Indonesia cup in search of a trophy. Thanks again for everyone’s support on these, it really means a lot and I hope you are all excited for this season – I have a good feeling about it! Glad to see my journey has inspired you MCFMCapes! Your journey from FM12 sounds fantastic!*

Surely Cronus's form isn't sustainable so we should see a drop-off over the next run of games where you can hopefully take advantage. Regardless, this has been a pleasing start.

I think you’ve got it this year, any plans on whether you’ll look to win the Champions League based in Indonesia or move to a bigger football nation first?

2020-06-10 19:08#273783 MCFMCapes : I think you’ve got it this year, any plans on whether you’ll look to win the Champions League based in Indonesia or move to a bigger football nation first?

I'll definitely be moving to a different nation, as much as I would love to win it in Indonesia! I have been keeping an eye on the other teams from the country in continental competition and they struggle to win any games in the Champions League. Unfortunately teams from China, South Korea and Japan are just too good compared to us

Good start to the season but you are right, to win this title you need to be in another league in Asia

Pretty solid start that, and I'm sure Cronus will drop some points soon. After a title win in Indonesia I can foresee you joining a nice team in South Korea, Japan or Australia to win the Asian CL with!

Mitra Kukar – Club 1 – Season 4 – Update 2

Following our great start to the season we returned from the mid-season break in high spirits. We are soon going to be entering the Piala Indonesia, a competition that we will be hoping to win as it offers continental qualification.

Fixtures
We started as with an impressive 6-2 win over Pusamania Borneo with goals from Fatahillah, Fauzi, Syahroni, Aryanto (first headed goal) and Rudi rounding off the scoring in the 87th minute.



We followed this up with a close 2-1 home victory against Serui before a 2-3 defeat to Persiba Balikpapan, which was not as close as the score line suggests. We then followed this up with a terrible 2-2 draw against Persib Bandung. We had comfortably led 2-0 since the 17th minute, however we conceded in the 91st and 94th minutes to throw away another 2 points!



Our next game was a cup tie against Babel Utd which marked the first game back for Stojanovic following his length hip injury. Unfortunately, he couldn’t quite keep a clean sheet as we conceded late on in the game, but still won 4-1 to progress to the next round. The next 2 games we both boring 0-0 draws, however we did at least have our first clean sheets of the season.

Cup progression was the main focus for the next month an a half as we first played PSMS Medan, sneaking through in extra time, before knocking out PSBS Biak Numfor 6-2 over two legs. Our next round opponents are league rivals Persib Bandung in what is sure to be a tight fought duel.

During the cup excitement, our league form has taken a bit of a dip and we have now only won one of our last 8 games. This came in a 1-0 victory over rivals Putra, which in previous years would have been quite a good result, however this season the find themselves rooted to the bottom of the table so I was hoping to put a few more past them.



Table
Our poor league form has seen us pick up just 13 points in our last 10 games, meaning we have dropped down to 3rd place in the table. We are only 6 points off top, however there are also 3 teams just a point behind us so the league is definitely not going to be as easy as I had hoped.



Squad performance
As I said in the last update, you just can’t stop Fauzi scoring goals. He now leads the way with 12 goals in all competitions this season, ahead of Ahmad who has bagged 10 goals already in his first year in the first team. Aryanto (our 6’2” centre back) has now scored 4 goals this season, 2 from corners and 2 from the penalty spot so I am starting to think his transfer fee was actually a bit of a bargain. His presence is also a massive help defensively as we have conceded just 2 goals from set pieces so far this season, when last year we conceded 22.

In terms of under performers, Fatahillah has been unable to follow up his fantastic opening spell with the club and has only managed to contribute 1 more goal since the last update (that coming in the 6-2 victory), additionally Rudi has been rather quite but typically has just picked up a lengthy injury as he was starting to come into some form. Sulaiman and Talipudin have been the two most disappointing players so far with just 3 and 6 goal contributions between them. I am struggling to understand how someone who has scored almost 20 goals in each of the last 2 years is struggling to score any in a better team this season. Let me know what you think is up with him.



Summary
Once again, a poor spell of from has come around just as we looked like the real deal as we have slipped away from top spot. The silver lining is that we have managed to progress in the cup and we still have a good chance at top 2 if we are able to turn our form around. The next month is going to be crucial for our season as we could be knocked out of the cup and the title race if we don’t start to play a little better.

*My next update will be covering the rest of September and October as we hope to continue our cup run and turn around our league form. Thanks so much for your support and it looks like you are all impressed with my transfer business over the summer! *

Hope the form picks up! Seen a couple of 7k attendances, has it improved much since you joined? Wonder whether a sustained income from gate receipts might lead to some more money... you’ve got the stadium!

2020-06-11 17:57#273871 MCFMCapes : Hope the form picks up! Seen a couple of 7k attendances, has it improved much since you joined? Wonder whether a sustained income from gate receipts might lead to some more money... you’ve got the stadium!

Yes I've actually been very impressed with how quickly the attendances have increased. When I joined it was some where between 2,500 and 3,000 per game so we are definitely getting more people through the door and of course that means more money! If all else fails we have given Mitra Kukar great base to continue to improve on when we eventually leave.

Performances seem to be around the same level as last season, that can be frustrating. Stick through this period and hopefully things will begin to click as you get deeper into the season.

You've dropped a lot of points but still aren't too far behind the top two which is somewhat promising.

Mitra Kukar – Club 1 – Season 4 – Update 3

During my last update we had slipped into yet another bad spell of form in the league, however our cup dreams are still alive as we aim for our first silverware of the save.

Fixtures
We kicked off this update with the first leg of our 4th round tie against Persib Bandung, which ended in a bore 0-0 draw. I wasn’t too dismayed considering this was the away leg and we always tend to do better in the home legs.

The next game was against second in the league Tira as we aimed to move above them. We took the lead with another goal from Fauzi, before Ahmad scored his 11th goal of the season just before the hour mark. Tira looked like they might make a comeback as they made it 2-1, but just 8 minutes later we destroyed any hopes they had as Kamal made it 3-1 with a rare goal.



Our second leg against Bandung followed as progression to the last 8 of the cup loomed large for the first time. Once again it was a very close fought game, however Ahmad managed to grab the deciding goal with 65 minutes on the clock. Next up we faced Persatu Tuban who I was hoping were a favourable tie.

We came into the game in high spirits following a comfortable 2-0 win over bottom of the league Sulut and the confidence flowed throughout the team as we went 2-0 through Rudi and Kamal. A late goal for Persatu Tuban gave them hope in the second leg, however the 2 away goal looked to be crucial.

Another comfortable win in the league split the two legs and we effectively killed the game off with an early home goal, meaning they needed to score 3 without reply. They did find an equaliser in the second half but we held on to progress to the semi finals!

Semi-final
The semi finals were always going to be a thrilling encounter as we were drawn against 4th placed Persiraja who we had battled with all season long. The first leg was at home so I was hoping we could perform well and effectively kill off the tie before the second leg. And things couldn’t really have gone better as we dispatched a penalty inside 2 minutes. Persiraja equalised on 29 minutes but we immediately struck back within a minute as Sulaiman made it 2-1. Once again Persiraja pulled level and I was slightly concerned about the away goals they were totting up, but 2 goals in the last 15 minutes from Fauzi and Kamal made the scoreline a little more comfortable going into the second leg.



Given that we were now the favourites to get to the final and probably win the cup, I decided this was the best chance we had of champions league qualification, as the winners were assured a group stage position, I rested some player for out league game and could only muster a 1-1 draw with Makassar. That did however mean that we were fit for the second leg and our dominance showed as we secured a crucial away goal early on through Ahmad, before seeing out the game comfortably, despite a late goal from Persiraja to make it 1-1 on the night. However that meant we were into the final where we would face bitter rival Putra in a moth watering clash!



Once again the final will be played over two legs so I definitely fancy our chances to bringing home some silverware.



Table
We have only played 5 league games since the last update and have manged to remain unbeaten, despite our cup distractions, however we have now dropped to 5 point behind 2nd place with 8 games to go. I think we might now struggle to overturn that difference, but if we can win the cup then our league finish doesn’t make any difference.



Squad performance
Once again, Ahmad tops the goal scoring charts and has had a really solid first season. Ideally I would prefer him to be around the 20 goal mark, but his 7 assist make up for this. Fatahillah has also now hit the 10 goal mark in a decent first season as well, although I would prefer his assists to be a little higher. Fauzi is still having another amazing season and now has 14 goals in 22 starts, as well as 8 assists. Rudi has also come into some good form following his injury and now has 9 goals and 5 assists which I am fairly happy with.

The only players that have really under performed this season are Talipudin who has only contributed 7 goals so far and Sulaiman who has 8 goal contributions , however he has recently started to perform a bit better.



Summary
Overall, I am delighted that we have made it to our first ever cup final as a manager! Our league position isnt quite where I was hoping for at the sart of the year, however the main goal was to qualify for the champions legaue which I hope we will through the cup.

*The next update will be covering the cup final as well as the end of season run-in as we try and qualify for the Champions League! I hope you are all excited to see if we can win some silverware and thanks for your support!*

A huge opportunity to win some silverware which will really aid you in the future. Good luck!

Great run of results but a few too many draws, going to have to put together a winning streak to claim the title here

As you said yourself, a cup win will compensate a possible third place in the league, but of course it would be nice to move into second or first in the remaining games! Think it will be difficult though.