Hello!!
Am back again with another post on my journey in South Africa with the Black Aces. Last time we finished in our best ever position of fifth and for a large chunk of the season we were involved in a title race.
Our hopes were gone after losing too many games, but this season was one full of optimism as we tried to challenge again.
So lets see what happened during season five.
Managerial C.V
— Black Aces (June 2011 – Present)
First Division : 2012
——————-
So having gained yet another parent team I went into the season with good hopes of challenging for the title. Our prediction of 8th seems a little low but Andile Kwelete joined the favoured personnel but still no place for me yet. :(
Transfers In and Out
So finally a transfer window were we signed a decent amount of quality players, Simiso Cele was brought in to start at right back and far exceeds what we have at the club. Phakathi is an excellent left back bought also to start but De Villiers and Khwela were the real finds so they deserve there own profiles to be shown :
Philani Khwela
Oscar De Villiers
Finally some pace! Khwela was a late deal that I was so happy to conclude, he will start at AMR and has everything I would look for in that position. De Villiers can play as a front man but am tempted to re-train to play AML either way was delighted to sign him also.
Club Finances
So things are still looking really good, the extra funds gained for selling a few players helped push the balance to almost £3 million, making money in South Africa is a challenge in itself! So am really happy with how they look.
Results and Table 15 Games Gone
So a couple of defeats but besides that we look in good shape (but we looked good last season aswell!) so hopefully things wont fall apart.
Cant believe how good my defence is! Winning away at the Orlando Pirates and the Kaizer Chiefs were two brilliant performances.
January Transfers
Damn! I lost my first choice left back to the Sundowns for £500k and he had been brilliant for me, I did sign another player a midfielder nothing too special and he will act as cover in the center.
Results and Table With Three Games To Play
So we had a little more of a nervy time losing to the Sundowns and the Orlando Pirates and then dropping winnable points against Dynamos, AmaZulu and Jomo Cosmos.
That said we still lead with three games to play and have our fate in our hands.
Our final fixtures and we play two home games against Chippa who are near the bottom and the Golden Arrows who are also struggling near the foot of the table.
Black Leopards is our toughest test in sixth and pretty strong at home, we are so close to our first ever league title.
Result vs Chippa Utd
We did enough and won by two goals, Ntuli scoring the opener and settled the nerves after an even opening.
De Villiers sealed the win on 39 minutes as we took a giant step to the league title a point at the Black Leopards would be enough.
Results vs Black Leopards
Yay!!
Was so happy when the game had ended! I thought we would lose this game in all honesty but Khwela’s goal after 17 seconds was an absolute dream start. Leopards never really got into the game and we always looked like we would score again and thankfully centre back Mahashe headed in a Khwela corner and seal our first ever league title!
African champions league next season!! :)
Result vs Golden Arrows and End of Season Table
Tactical genius! :D
Unfortunately I dont often get called a genius, so that was nice but what was even nicer was looking at the league table!
Champions by five points and I must say we deserved it, amazingly we had the best defence in the league but still scored enough to be competitive, our fans must have doubly happy after seeing our big rivals Dynamos relegated they can celebrate even more!
Final Player Ratings
So was proud of my whole squad! Every player played some part in our success and the ratings back that up.
De Villiers had a fantastic start to his Black Aces career netting 15 times and Ntuli also played very well scoring 13 goals.
Right back Simiso Cele and Raymond Monama our holding midfielder was also brilliant but I couldnt pick a star player as I couldnt choose between our top two highest rated players so both were my star men this season!
Star Men of The Season : Philiani Khwela and Mzwanele Mahashe
End of Season Finances and Save Game Status
So with our £500k pounds from January and our prize money from our super 8’s win and league title success we are now close to a balance of £4 million.
I have asked for improvements to our training and youth structures but so far no luck! Hopefully with this extra money we can finally improve them our training facilities being more essential than ever!
Note : I ran into some problems after saving this season as my game just wouldnt continue. At a point it would just freeze and then crash and fearing the worst I thought it was game over. Cue my boyfriend to save the day by simply making a new save, hence why it says Ana 2 and every season I will save a new one to prevent it crashing again.
Cup Competitions
Super 8’s
Our first domestic trophy!!
Usually I dont care too much about the cup competitions as I tend to focus on the league but I have a vendetta with the Orlando Pirates after they laughed at me for applying to be their manager.
Final was a lucky affair but thankfully went our way, a disputed penalty was scored by Ntuli after we had two players taken of injured!
Season Round-Up
Well obviously I couldnt be happier!
We managed to win our first ever league title and in doing so have qualified for the African champions league. Am not sure what to expect as last year some teams were far too strong and it was through good luck we managed to win it.
However having done some looking, I feel that the teams in the African champions league are not as overpowered as last time but as always I just dont know what to expect.
The main challenge will be getting back to the champions league if we fail, Orlando Pirates will be far stronger having just saw a brand new player from there academy and the Kaizer Chefs threw a lot of cheap points away so expect them to be better aswell also Ajax Cape Town will be better so retaining the title will far harder next season.
All will depend on the type of player I can attract, and having been champions and having champions league football we should be able to unlock the better talent in the league and for once we have a bit of money to spend.
As always thanks for reading! I will bring the next part of my journey to you as soon as its played so bye until then!
Darren Smith
5 декабря, 2011 at 21:00
Excellent season Ana, you won the league and cup but most importantly will get your chance for an all important Champions League. Some inspired signings were certainly to thank and the fact you made a rather sizeable profit for your clubs stature is fantastic, very impressive well done.
Ana Garcia
7 декабря, 2011 at 14:09
Thanks Darren,
I knew as soon as I signed those players we would do well and even though I lost one in the January transfer window I did make a very nice profit.
Champions league is looking ok, South African sides have done pretty well getting to some semi finals and few finals but am not sure how well we will fair yet!
Cup win was nice but the prize money was even nicer about £300k which again helped our finances.
Kevin
5 декабря, 2011 at 21:12
Ola Ana,
Well done. I just knew you would win the league this time but doing the double is an extra bonus. You’ve bulit up the team nicely over the past few season and our now reaping the benifits. Hopefully you can keep the players you want to in the off season.
I’m really enjoying this story from South Africa and in some respects I hope you stay there as you seem to have settled into the league and our providing great entertainment with your seasonal updates.
Ana Garcia
7 декабря, 2011 at 14:13
Hi Kevin!
There are a few cup competitions in South Africa but winning one was a nice bonus especially against my new adopted rivals!!
Keeping players may be tricky but hopefully with the champions league football on its way my players will want to stay.
Thanks! Honestly I would be very happy to stay here until the next FM comes out but I need to complete that challenge! Having came so close last time I feel I owe it to myself to try and complete it.
David Wiggins
5 декабря, 2011 at 22:06
Fantastic as always Ana and I think you should be told more often that you are a genius!
I forgot that you now have to win the Champions League to complete this part of the challenge. With your talent of spotting players, I wouldn’t put it beyond you to do it within the next season or 2!
KUTGW!
Ana Garcia
7 декабря, 2011 at 14:15
Thanks David! :)
I really dont know what to expect from the champions league but it seems clubs from South Africa are doing ok in it.
We will need some new players but hopefully as league champions and the lure of the CL we can attract the better players.
I agree with your first sentence (especially the last part! ;))
LoL! :)
Stromson
5 декабря, 2011 at 22:56
Going to have to borrow the way Kevin and I comment on each other’s stories for this one:
1) Completely unrelated to the actual story, I love that despite the metric system being the «official» method, most UK-based folk still use the imperial system of measurements in day-to-day life. Love it.
2) I was really excited about Khwela when you posted him up at the beginning, and was even more delighted to see him be your star player by years end!
3) Fantastic job winning the league! I was a little nervous when you didn’t post the final three games with the others, but I’m glad to see you saw it out.
4) Real Madrid vs Barcelona this Saturday…excited? Can’t wait for the game personally, two of the best teams in the world…yes please.
Ana Garcia
7 декабря, 2011 at 14:25
LoL! Ok I will respond the same way!
1) I use both, but for weight and height I prefer feet and inches and pounds and stones and for distance I use center meters and meters am weird like that! :)
2) Same! He rejected the first contract I gave him but the second one was accepted and I knew he would be a start this season just need to keep hold of him now!
3) I honestly thought we would lose the Black Leopards so I thought it would go down to the final game so it was a bit of an anti-climax but at least we won it!
4) More nervous than excited its almost a must win game for Barcelona trailing by three points and with Madrid having a game in hand. I fear if Madrid win they will go six clear with a game in hand and could easily go nine clear which may leave Barca with too much to do.
TheZiggy
5 декабря, 2011 at 23:36
An excellent season, and especially love that you got revenge upon Orlando Pirates after the insult last season. As soon as I saw the attributes of Khwele, I thought he should be a star for you, because with that pace and dribbling he’s not easy for the opposition to handle. It’s good to see that he did turn out to be one of the stars of the season.
Glad you managed to keep the save going after that scare, but it’s a strange problem indeed.
Having won the title, players will also be less likely to be interested in running away to other clubs. Will be interesting to see what the African Champions League is like.
Ana Garcia
7 декабря, 2011 at 14:30
Thanks Ziggy!
The win against Orlando Pirates was very nice and gave us good confidence going into the season, Khwela was a player I tracked for a while and he wouldnt talk to me.
Then his agent offered him to me and I did everything to sign him, I knew he would be perfect in my formation.
It was I thought it had broke! Luckily I didnt lose anything and the new save file worked perfectly.
Honestly am having trouble keeping my players, most of asked to move to bigger clubs so it will be a struggle trying to keep them happy.
James
6 декабря, 2011 at 01:15
Really entertaining! keep it up Ana!
Ana Garcia
7 декабря, 2011 at 14:31
Thanks James. :)
CsAtlantis
6 декабря, 2011 at 01:17
Khwela was an amazing signing on a free, amazing dribbler, good crosser and very fast to boot
Seeing De Villiers attributes page reminds me of Kadlec for some reason :P
Congratulations Ana on winning the league and getting some revenge on Orlando Pirates in the cup final, good luck in the African Champions League, should be an interesting season
Ana Garcia
7 декабря, 2011 at 14:34
Thanks!
I agree Khwela was probably my best signing at the Black Aces, De Villers actually played against my team last season and tormented us scoring twice and setting up another was surprised he was released but was happy to snap him up on a free! :)
Hopefully it will! The Champions league is a little different in South Africa but I will explain that in my next post!
vaibhavc
6 декабря, 2011 at 04:08
Excellent season, you did very well. It will be a challenge to get back to being winners, since they might improve next season. But good luck!
Ana Garcia
7 декабря, 2011 at 14:36
Thanks!!
I agree even though we did win the title I know that an element of luck played its part at key moments and the teams around us will be stronger than this season.
But we will do our best to retain the title! :)
Erick Wolf
6 декабря, 2011 at 06:02
Very impressive double right there Ana!
Keep up the good work.
I must say, your signings were very good!
Ana Garcia
7 декабря, 2011 at 14:37
Thanks Erick!
I was delighted with the signings just hoping I can keep them this season! :)
Johnny Karp
6 декабря, 2011 at 06:34
Congrats on a fantastic season Ana, great job! You really are a tactical genius! :)
Ana Garcia
7 декабря, 2011 at 14:37
LoL! Thanks Johnny! :)
Martin Pickard
6 декабря, 2011 at 10:26
Way to go Ana…brilliant season! Cant wait to see how you do in your 1st Champions League journey :). All you need to do now is keep topping the League Table to be in the competition every year :). Looking forward to the next update :)
Ana Garcia
7 декабря, 2011 at 14:41
Thanks Martin!!
Same here! Am excited to see how we get on and how far we are from the other teams in the CL.
Topping the table every year will be tricky due to the other teams being stronger than us, am sick of teams picking my players off before I get a chance to see the develop!
At least we are selling them for good money but every season am looking for players in positions that I already had! :)
picks
8 декабря, 2011 at 14:22
best blog on this site :)
Ana Garcia
8 декабря, 2011 at 23:01
Thank you for your kind words! :) But there are many more great stories on her aswell.
Alex
8 декабря, 2011 at 15:07
Simply fantastic league campaign. Bring on the champions league, how do South African teams usually fair in the competition? Some of your players look pretty decent, I didn’t realise there were that many good South African Players. Can’t wait to see how close you get to the first ‘corner’ (of the pentagon).
Ana Garcia
8 декабря, 2011 at 23:08
Thanks Alex!
Usually not to well the last team to win it was the Orlando Pirates in 1995 and the Sundowns reached the final but lost in 2001, however since I have been playing the Kaizer Chiefs have reached a semi and a final losing both and the Orlando Pirates have also been to the semi finals.
So there is definite improvement of South African sides plus sides like Zamalek and Ismaily are not as overpowered as last years game.
If you select South Africa you get access to some very good players and the national side is fairing pretty well within the top 20 and winning the African cup of nations.
Alex
10 декабря, 2011 at 20:17
Thanks for the response Ana. It’s promising to know South African teams have faired reasonably well on the game. I’ve always thought it’s a little unrealistic how if you load a country they generally start to produced better players and also have more players, thus fairing better on the international stage. Good luck!
Ana Garcia
11 декабря, 2011 at 19:11
No problem! :)
I agree, its encouraging to see them doing well in the CL so am fairly optimistic than we can compete at least.
I find that too but I guess when you select country to play with there is an increased chance of producing better players than if that league was un-selected.
Oh sorry, South Africa are in the top 30 not 20! I miss typed! :)
Sears
8 декабря, 2011 at 20:29
Superb campaign Ana, congrats on winning the league. CL is next on the list! Most people hate managing in South Africa, so tis great to see that you enjoy lol.
Irrelevant, but a friend from school is going to the El Clasico game this weekend. I hope Madrid win ;)
Ana Garcia
8 декабря, 2011 at 23:15
Thanks Sears!
I do enjoy it! Its a challenge but its simple and competitive its rare to see one side dominate as you can lose most of best players very quickly.
CL will be tricky but am optimistic some of the bigger sides I have checked out are not much better that the Orlando Pirates or the Kaizer Chiefs so we should be competitive at least which is positive.
I think Madrid will edge it, am hopeful of a Barca win but I fear they will be too strong at the Bernabeu.
Hopefully Mourinho will respect the game and not act like a spoiled 7 year old losing in the playground. :)