Having lots of fun with this mode. Completely different experience then the normal matches.
Top player. Low transfer frequency,Shadow striker.
Jurgen. nicknamed ""der Kaiser"". Lets see if i can match up to that nickname.
Started in the eredivisie. Other Groups were Spanish and English league, And italian league, with a handful of belgian, scottish, turkish, french, portugues etc. top teams added as well.
Had a good amateur match. Scored two headers and hoped for a good team.
3 were interested. Heracles, NAC and Roda JC. I went for NAC as Heracles is a very low ranked team, and Roda JC might prove hard to get a lot of playtime.
Unfortunately no one wanted to play me at my favuorite position, putting me as a central striker.
Thus started my career, but its been a bumpy one so far.
In training the coach often put me as an attacking midfielder. Which was hard as I had not focused mutch in dribbling and passing. After 5 weeks though he felt i had a shot at the bench and put me in the inter A team.
To bad i did not had a very good match then. Hardly getting the ball as my whole team had a collective off-day. Next week I found myself in the B-team training again.
But several solid games where I held the ball, completed my passes and scored a goal. Saw me back in the inter team, and then on the bench in week 8.
Ahh the bench...my main job was to keep it warm for my teammates i believe...cause the coach hardly played me.
2 games went by where i did nothing but spectate. Then he substituted me at the 80 minute mark in a losing game. My team had troubles getting past midfield! so i had only a few touches and no chances.
Apparentely that annoyed my coach cause next game it was spectating once again. Then a few minutes, then spectating whole match again. WHat was he expecting? me to do wonders in those handful of minutes cold from the bench?
My team was also performing poorly. Strikers not scoring...slowly moving to the bottom places. Kwakman however gave several 5.0, 5.5 performances as a striker. I smelled my chance.
And next game i scored the equalizer when brought in at 70 minute mark. This jumpstarted my career. I played second halves. And eventually became a starter. Seeing as my stamina was pretty good at such a low age (81...apart from speed the rest was 60-70 though....) i even had a few games where i played the whole game.
But chances were slim...and i seemed to have lost my eye for the goal. The team just wasnt playing smoothly. Backs losing the ball to forwards when merely setting up the attack..wingers who'se crosses landed nowhere. A coach who regularly substituted me. I wasnt feeling loved or at home.
And the opponents defenders were hard and resilient. Hard to get by.
Still i wanted playtime, and not having to fight my way into a team again. Thats why i stayed at NAC halfway with negotiations. (the teams offering me a place..Willem 2 and Heracles again werent too impressive anyway)
seeing as my replacements did a poor job of scoring as well this resulted in a string of 0-0, 1-1 or losses. NAC sinking to the degradation zone.
Luckily we did better in the cup. In which i scored a extra time winner by dodging past two defenders and shooting past the keepers reach top right corner. The semi final i played pretty badly and got substituted fast. Only to see my team snagging a win for once. Making a late equalizer and winning by penalties.
In this disaster season we might actually win a prize! the cup final lay ahead. Against FC utrecht!
But it was not to be. at the 5 minute mark an Utrecht attacker shot a slow ball straight to our keeper. Who slided to it and seemed to grab it. Laying on top of it.
But then he fumbled. Let go of the ball...and FC utrecht scored. 1-0 behind. Never had i wanted to beat up a teammate more then at that time.
A defender losing the ball shortly thereafter saw us 2-0 behind. And allthough i tried my best. Made almost no mistakes. It was impossible to get back seeing how all my teammates had terrible performances. Lost the ball everywhere, bad passing. 5.0 and 5.5 everywhere. Me at a lone 6.5
So we only became runners up.
. There goes my chance on early prizes.
Luckily we started winning more easily just in time. Team playing better. I myself snagging two goals. This resulted in 16th place. And we stayed in the league allthough it was close (we were 19th at one point)
So my first year i saw little playtime and only made 5 goals, 4 in season, 1 in cup. With an average rating of 6.3
The team wasnt performing. bad passes, little chances. But it finally seemed to improve at the end.
So when the offers came and they werent that impressive (Willem 2 and Heracles again, but also Spartak Moscow...but i didnt like to move away from home so far at this young age, i needed playtime and experience before making that step) I decided to stay with NAC.
I felt like i had to prove myself. Make up for last year and turn the team in a winning side.
Next year we had a difficult start though with the coach again substituting me quickly. But then it started rolling. I had 2 assists, scored a goal. And NAC was winning games!
Until a defender thought it would be fun to assault my right leg. A serious injury. I had to recover for 3 weeks.
In which my team was back to its old self again. Losing games and worse being thrown out of the cup at the start!
We are ranked 14th now so with little that suggest a great turn around. Another year in the shadows..with a coach that doesnt give me support and trust.
I am back from the injury now and trying to regain my form. But unless things change and the team finally gets a feel for eachother. I am now thinking about transfering after half a year.
may move depending on offers.
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