Thanks a lot for the encouragement Saint Angelo! I will have to look into taking screenshots; I have loads of replays stored in the game itself but I don't think there is a way of exhibiting those. A shame, because I just scored a beauty this evening with Mancini and saved it- I am the only one who will ever see it!
Regarding the defaults, I am actually rather pleased with Stein now; he is 29 in 2010 and performs very well defensively as either a CB or DMF, as long as I don't expect anymore from him offensively than giving the ball to someone else. Dodo is a big favourite of mine, I always recognised him for his fine stamina and defensive work, and decent passing, but he actually has a good shot accuracy in his mid-20s too. I've always been a fan of Ximilez; though he lacks great pace and actually has mediocre technique, his good dribbling accuracy and crossing accuracy make him a favourite with me. Ordaz is undeniably useful with some of the best shooting in the game, of course. I seem to get great results out of Burchet, though naturally he can't shoot for toffee when he surges into the box, so he needs support.
Sadly, 2010 has proven to be another year in which I failed to win Serie A. My terrible start of losing to Lazio and Siena didn't help, and AC Milan have proven to be the strongest team this year- with two games left they are five points clear of Roma, and are therefore on the verge of taking the title. They have only lost three times, twice to me. Juve, last years champions, have been very poor by their standards and it was clear by halfway that they were out of the title race. They are currently fifth, behind me. They have scored fewer goals than me, and I haven't had a bumper year compared to last season (I've been less clinical with my midfielders; Dodo, Platt and Cerezo have been less prolific this year, and Valeny hasn't scored despite getting forward a lot). It has been a bad year for Benfica too; remember how I said they had been steadily improving in the last couple of years? Last year they finished in the top half of the table, this year they are in the relegation zone, with a slim chance of staying up. Macco has scored once this campaign, it will be sad if he goes down to D2 as he may not be young enough for a return to D1.
I performed well in both cups, but fell short at the final hurdle in both cases- I had won my Euro group, despatched Juve and Chelsea in the knockout stages, but against Newcastle in the final I was rather dire. Conceded an early goal to Chopra, but Minanda (in his final season) scored a fine free kick on 70 minutes. He was playing instead of a tired Mancini. I subbed him after his goal for Ordaz, joint tournament top scorer with 6, to get fresh legs and pace on for the end. Ordaz had a good chance but rather rushed it, hitting it first time narrowly wide. Vialli too had a good opportunity that he really should have put away in the last minute of extra time, but missed. In penalties I was actually leading at one point after young Pagliuca saved Eusebio's pen, in fact I think I saved twice, but Castolo missed his penalty (barely moved the stick to the left, but it practically went 90 degrees away from the goal

) to send it to sudden death, which I predictably lost.
That final was when I was rather jaded in the wake of the Coppa Italia against AC Milan (who only failed to make the Euro final when losing to pens against Newcastle). I had had loads of red arrows for the match, and I played really well in the first half. Gullit sent over a long diagonal ball from the right flank, bouncing past Kaladze. Vialli headed it back across into the path of Mancini, who volleyed it hard and low close to the centre of the goal, past an advancing, sprawling Dida. I was very pleased with it. Minutes later I broke on the left with Ximilez, put in a first time cross, and Platt volleyed it in, but he was offside. If he had held back, Mancini would probably have reached it and scored his second. I kept playing well for the rest of the half but to no avail. During the second I had another offside goal, and criminally was not given a penatly. Ximilez turned sharply and Seedorf took his legs. It wasn't a heavy connection but he took him down and clearly didn't touch the ball; the referee wasn't interested. This proved critical, as AC Milan started creating a bit more and Gilardino volleyed in a fine goal to take his tally to 6 in the cup. I lost a bit of heart after this, and perhaps was a bit careless. They brought on Shevchenko as a third striker, and this helped Vieri get a chance, which he took. I failed to get going again, and lost. This was my greatest disappointment, more than the European Cup, because I had been playing so well early in the game. Victory would have been the perfect culmination to a recent upsurge in form and results as well; I had scored 13 goals in the previous three league games, and dominated Chelsea in our Euro semi-final with consistently good passing, winning 4-0.
Montella is on 18 in the league for third placed Roma, he is favourite to be top scorer though there are close contenders, including Vialli a few places down on 15 (his total for last season, but I have two matches left). Ordaz made a fair number of league appearances this year, though mainly as a sub, but only scored once, in stark contrast to his cup experiences. I shall update folks on the end of the season results tomorrow, probably. Oh, and Arsenal won the UEFA cup against Autostadt (are they German? Not sure but they've been strong in this playthrough because they bought, among other players, Di Stefano), so both european trophies went to England.