Ana, FM 2012 : Season 5 Black Aces 2015-16

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!