An old face in a familiar place

# Evo : Congratulations on winning all competitions! Good luck with the world cup, the England team looks capable but I'd be worried about that short ass centre back

My biggest concern is a general lack of depth. I think our starting eleven ought to compete against most teams on any given day. But if we suffer an injury or two I think we could be in big trouble. Positionally I'm least happy about left midfield. I'm probably going to swap James Jones out left and bring someone in to play wide right.

# 6294 : You've yet to win everything in one season. Don't forget the Euro Super Cup and Club World Championship! As minor as they are they're still trophies.
Also how's you hall of fame ranking?

Very true about the other competitions! We'll have our shot at those cups next season, so maybe I'll stick around at least one more season to see if we can't haul those in too.

This 2-0 victory was a lot closer than the final stats may suggest. Barry Spring got us off to a flyer with a goal in the 3rd minute, and then James Jones doubled our lead in the 15th minute. The game was a stalemate after that, however. In a game where we dominated possession and shots, Greece's defense held their own after we smacked them in the mouth early, and we were fortunate to get those goals.

Our first game against Greece was a step in the right direction. Our upcoming opponents will provide a different threat entirely, however. While Greece hangs their hat on a stout defense, Chile is far less defensive-minded and far more offensively inclined. They are led by Rodrigo Ahumada, Ivica Novakovic, and Felipe Toro.

Remember what I said about injuries to England? A 4-0 throttling of Chile advances us to the second round of the World Cup but it came at a steep price. Center back Sean Fraser got injured early in the game and had to be substituted. Then we lost poacher Mark Phillips in the second half. Luckily we had the game in hand by then.

The post game injury report is bad for Phillips. A pulled hamstring has him out for 4-5 weeks, meaning we will be without the services of our starting poacher for the remainder of the World Cup. Thankfully Sean Fraser only suffered a dead leg and is set to return in 2-3 days.

Tough break. Oh well, I think you can still manage it.

Compared to the first two games of group play, our game vs Egypt should be a walk in the park. It remains to be seen how motivated we will be knowing that we've already qualified for the next round. It will also be interesting to see how the team manages to get on without Mark Phillips at poacher. Egypt's main players are Amr Samy, Mohamed Abdel Rahim, and Atef Ghanem

Expectations were met with a 4-0 victory over Egypt that saw us win out during group play. Right midfielder Kieron Johnson stepped up in the absence of Mark Phillips, bagging a brace in the first half that took all of 8 minutes. Now we await our second round opponents.

Our second round opponent is Senegal. Of the five teams that qualified out of Africa, I would see them as the fourth most talented behind fellow qualifiers Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Morocco. I rank them ahead of Egypt, the team we just demolished on our way out of group play. Senegal's top threats are Khouma Babacar, Nampalys Mendy, and Babacar N'Diaye

As usual, Babacar's a beast. He's the Caca of Senegal. Watch out.

This match featured our attack coming out of the gates in a hurry. Before Senegal could even get settled, James Jones had given us a lead in the 6th minute. Barry Spring doubled our lead in the 20th minute, then the demolition was on as Steve Cooper became the third person to score when he bagged a goal in the 31st minute. James Jones secured a brace in the 39th minute for a 4-0 lead before Babacar finally showed signs of life with the lone goal for Senegal in the 42nd minute. Jones later scored a hat trick to round out the scoring.

After destroying Senegal in the second round, the degree of difficulty takes a big step up in the Quarter Finals. Our opponent? 22nd ranked Portugal. Their top players are Joel Carmo, Julio Pereira, and Antonio Cruz.

What was billed to be a close match turned out to be a fairly one-sided affair. Portugal was actually slightly favored in this contest by the oddsmakers but we went out and executed our game plan to perfection. We were staked to an early 2-0 lead and from there on, our defense took control of the game. Portugal only managed to get one real clear cut attempt at goal; when we gave up possession on a sloppy pass and they hit us on the counter. Otherwise, our defense really stepped up and didn't allow Portugal to mount much attacking pressure.

Our Semifinal opponent will be Croatia.

We interrupt this England run to the World Cup Final to bring you some breaking news from Newport County.



Ladies and gentlemen, the prodigal son is coming home! Mark Phillips put pen to paper today and completes his 23 million dollar return trip to Newport County. We had originally brought Phillips on board in 2021 after paying Ipswich 3 million for his services. Even back then, our scouts saw plenty of promise in the 16 year old. He got to learn behind Caca and was largely viewed as his eventual successor.

After only managing three appearances with the first team in three seasons, however, Phillips sought a move and used the Bosman ruling to make it happen. He moved on to Barca were he played 35 games and scored 19 goals in two seasons, showing that he could hold down a starting job for most any team.

With Caca starting to look a bit human, we began to approach Phillips about a potential return to Newport. Phillips was still very keen toward the club and myself as a manager and I think that played a big role in his decision. With only a 23 million dollar release clause in our way, we immediately made an offer to Barca and the rest was history.

Phillips returns to Newport and once again looks to be the successor at the poacher position; a position that Caca has elevated to dizzying heights, but one that I feel that Phillips can come close to matching.

At first glance you would think that our matchup against Croatia should be an easy one. We took care of Portugal with relative ease and our form is looking as good as ever. We're matching up against the 12th ranked country in the world, however. Croatia's top players are Vlado Guja, Alen Stojic, Stjepan Krizmanic, Nenad Rasic, and Damir Vranjes.