A Toffee Dream - Everton vs Newcastle United (Game week 5) [A CM2006 Story]

[Bala]

The stats with Martin Tyler

Everton vs Fulham

Everton turned in one of the more dominant of performances this week as they came out 2 - 0 winners over Fulham. We can easily say the the Toffees played a team game which was a bit too much for the league leaders.

Lets take a look at the stats.

Everton had a good game with more shots on goal with a percentage of 80. Thats a great improvement from the side which had a shots on target percent of around 25 before this game.

Everton had also better game in terms of passes completed (75%) and crosses completed (67%) which is an almighty leap from the previous Premiership match in which they failed to convert even a single pass. The defenders were good winning 87% of the tackles and 43% of the headers. Fulham were equally good, but Everton's midfield engine was on song today.
Now, lets take a look at the player's ratings.

James Beattie's performance earns him a perfect 10. He needs to churn in more performances like this if he wants to get any closer to pulling on an England Jersey again. Oguchi Onyewu was a rock in the back and gets a 9. Papa Bouba Diop too earns 9 for his solid performance on the other side of the field.

Maniche, Yobo, Arteta, Nuno Valente and Ferrari all earn 8 for their seamless performance. Easy conclusion: Everton were heads and shoulders above Fulham and they look to be improving with each passing game in the field.

The new regime at Goodison are clearly putting together a meticulously arranged team that is bound to click. How it transpires, we will have to wait and see, with the next test coming up at the Reebok.
​

 

[plympilgrim]

Great story Bala, really detailed. Are you after anymore players?

 

[Bala]

Great story Bala, really detailed. Are you after anymore players?

Thanks mate. I still am on look out for some players but whether I could get some deals done in the last few days before the close of transfer window remains to be seen.

 

[Bala]

UEFA Champions League - Group Stages

Seedings

The seedings for the UEFA Champions League group stages have been released. The draw is scheduled to occur this evening at Istanbul. Me and club skipper James Beattie are jetting out to IStanbul for the draws.

Pot A

1. Liverpool
2. AC Milan
3. Real Madrid
4. Juventus
5. FC Internazionale Milano
6. Barcelona
7. Manchester United
8. Arsenal

Pot B

9. FC Bayern Munchen
10. Olympique Lyonnais
11. FC Porto
12. Chelsea FC
13. PSV Eindhoven
14. Ajax Amsterdam
15. LOSC Lille Metropole
16. Werder Bremen

Pot C

17. Everton FC
18. Rangers FC
19. Benfica
20. Villareal
21. Monaco
22. Real Betis
23. Olympiakos
24. PAO

Pot D

25. Sparta Prague
26. Schalke
27. Fenerbache
28. FC Rosenborg
29. Club Brugge
30. Maccabi Haifa
31. Dinamo Kiev
32. Lokomotiv Moscow

8 groups are to be drawn from the four pots and in all likelyhood we are to run in against atleast one of the top dogs. Let's see what transpires.

 

[MWaugh]

oh this is a great opportunity if you can get a relatively easier draw

bala how did you actually get that list? its not in the game is it?

 

[plympilgrim]

you could end up with a difficult group with Barcalona, Chelsea, and Fenerbache. Yet you could end up with lille and macabi.

Are you looking for young players or expereinced ones??

Good luck in the draw!!!!

 

[MWaugh]

Are you looking for young players or expereinced ones??

i think, especially after signing Lita, that he is looking at building the club through talented youth players

 

[sid_19840]

Looking forward to the draw,I hope you'll be paired with Liverpool so that we can show you how true CL Matches are played. Good to see how the story is progressing btw.

 

[Bala]

oh this is a great opportunity if you can get a relatively easier draw

bala how did you actually get that list? its not in the game is it?

The seedings were made up by me. Its fairly simple as the previous year's winners are seeded 1 and clubs with traditional glory are seeded better. I got the list of 32 teams in the group stage from the game and it was quite easy to hit upon the seedings.

you could end up with a difficult group with Barcalona, Chelsea, and Fenerbache. Yet you could end up with lille and macabi.

Are you looking for young players or expereinced ones??

Good luck in the draw!!!!

Cheers mate! I am looking for players who I feel would do something better for the club. So far I have roped in Vampeta, Umit Davalla and Nuno Mendes on free. Frey and Maniche fall in the experienced campaigners and Lita, Daniel Carvalho and Onyewu are young players. A fair mix, I can say.

Looking forward to the draw,I hope you'll be paired with Liverpool so that we can show you how true CL Matches are played. Good to see how the story is progressing btw.

Maybe I prefer that as well. Just to prove Istanbul was a fluke! You can feel content that El-Poole are seeded 1.

Thanks for the support Siddo!

 

[Bala]

The Group Stage draw...

We were gathered at the grand convention hall at the Ritz Hotel in Istanbul for the Group Stage draws for the UEFA Champions League. Quite an exciting place to be and to think I was in company of personalities like Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Rafael Benitez, Jose Mourinho, Felix Magath, Fabio Capello and Frank Rijkaard was just overwhelming.

Mourinho was ranting of how the seedings were totally unfair that placed Chelsea at 12 where they run the risk of meeting clubs like Barcelona, Real or any of the other Premiership clubs.

Though his claims were a bit valid, I felt being in charge of ranks that Chelsea boasts, he was behaving a bit childish. Sir Alex wished me luck and congratulated me on my succesful start. He was confident that ManU could easily overturn their horror start to the season.

Arsene Wenger shared a couple of pointers with me and appreciated me on my buys so far. I also walked around sharing pleasentaries with few of my fellow managers. I found that Frank Rijkaard was keenly monitoring the developments at Everton.

At around 20.00 hours the meeting started with the UEFA Chief Lennart Johanssen and other board members pulling out the draws....

The drawing of groups is about to begin

He read out the teams to be pooled in Group A

"In Group A we have AC Milan, Ajax , Lyon..........and Everton"

That one is ours!

F**k! What a draw! Milan, Lyon and Ajax! Thats encouraging! Beattie clearly reflected my thoughts as he said "F**k indeed!"

I asked him to be confident and put on a composed face where I was far from being composed.

The other groups were drawn as well.

What a bitch lady luck is! Real Madrid with their plethora of stars get PAO, Club Brugge and Maccabi. Chelsea did get Juventus, that match would be something. Arsenal and Barca would clash in a couple of epic matches.

A press conferance is being scheduled in an hour where we could express our confidence, rant, moan, brag about the draw....

Oh well! What has to happen, has to happen.
​

 

[plympilgrim]

what a group for everton, that's sounds difficult to get out of and i agree with the madrid group.

Just think in 4 or 5 years time that will be Plymouth!!!:what

 

[Bala]

Press Conference

It was the time for us, the managers to ramble on about our chances in the Champions League.

Rafa Benitez (Liverpool)

"There is pressure on us as the defending champions. We are in a tough group. Werder and Monaco are no push overs. But I am very confident ahead of the season."

Fabio Capello (Juventus)

"We have been in the finals before. We know how important each and every game is if we need to be there again. We weren't lucky last time, but I believe we have what it takes to do well."

Frank Rijkaard (FC Barcelona)

"Fairly tough group. Arsenal would be our greatest threat. But I do know what Olympiakos are made off. Would be interesting to see the progress of the matches."

Juan Ramon Lopez (Real Madrid)

"I have to accept that the draw has been a bit kind to us. Though I would never underestimate any of our rivals. I do hope they provide us some great football to play"

Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United)

" We haven't had the greatest of starts to the season. And we have drawn a couple of tough opponents in Villareal and Benfica too. But the confidence level is still there. We can overturn any opposition on our day. "

Jose Mourinho (Chelsea)

" Tough group. Very tough group! I would certainly ask UEFA to look into the seedings. Real have not won the league title for 3 years now and they get a better deal. We have won almost every other domestic cup for the past two years. I believe that should be given greater importance. But I am confident of our players to deliver "

Arsene Wenger (Arsenal)

" Barcelona will always be tough. A decent group to be in. We do have a good chance of qualifying. I have belief in the team to do well. But I wouldn't state that we will qualify. Its like a wish to marry the Miss. World. You want to do it, but then she has to agree. So we need to win the games first."

Carlo Ancelloti (AC Milan)

"A good group to be in. We have to overcome 3 good teams to progress to the next round. We have reached two successive finals and would love to do it again. We are primed up for the games but are quite cautious of our chances as well"

Gerrard Houllier (Lyon)

"I wouldn't say the draw has been quite generous to us. In fact I can call ours the group of death. We need to take one game at a time and go on from there"

Danny Blind (Ajax Amsterdam)

"I would certainly agree with Gerrard Houllier. This indeed is the group of death. All 4 teams are good. We do hope we have that extra in us to pull us out of here."

And the stage was all mine as I stepped amidst these famous managers.

" We are up against Milan, Lyon and Ajax. Any other day when I was just an Everton fan, I would have said "Are you kidding me?". But not now. Houllier, Ancelloti, Danny all spoke about being drawn in tough groups. It means they do accept we can match them strength for strength. We wont curl into a corner and let us get smacked. Even if we are out in the group stages, I know would be in a position to say that we did well but there were a couple of teams who were just better than us. I can guarentee the Everton fans that."

And that was done with. Its now back to England to concentrate on our next match against Bolton.

 

[MWaugh]

easy group for the toffee's . its going to be tough but youve only got to play 6 games. anything can happen. looks like the big fella is smiling on the beautiful real madrid.

and bala you do realise im going to just basically copy all of your presentation ideas dont you thats just how good they are.

 

[sid_19840]

Excellent presentation,Liverpool have a pretty good draw there,they should top their group.Everton although they have a tough group,have a chance of making the second spot with some luck and then will have a chance of playing us in the knockouts,which would be great.

 

[m_vaughan]

Tough group. Lyon and Milan are easy favourites. Ajax and Everton will both be trying to upset atleast one of those two clubs.