SoccerProject country: People’s Republic of China

Official name: 中華人民共和國

Capital: Beijing

Location: China (as it is commonly called) is the largest country in East Asia and its neighbouring countries are Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar/Burma, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan,Vietnam,India,Iran and Indonesia.

Area: 9,598,086 km²

Highest mountain: Mount Everest (8848 metres)

Population: 1,321,851,888

Number of SoccerProject managers: 243

SoccerProject translation: 爷就是个神话 ( pronounce as [u][di][tfen][hua:])has taken over the translating job from the original translator tnds who finished the translation on March, 3rd 2008. The Chinese SoccerProject was translated in is Beijing dialect.

Soccerproject survival tip: 我在哪我可以找到年轻的协调员 [wc:][zai][na:][ke][i:][zau][dau][niai][tring][de][siei][tiau][iue:n] Which means: “Where can I find a good Chinese youth coordinator?”

In the news: China is never out of the news nowadays. The 2008 Olympics take place in Beijing. The western world has probably learned more about China the last year than it had ever before. But it is still hard for Chinese people to learn about the rest of the world. SoccerProject for example is virtually non-existant in the ‘Chinese google’ Baidu and when I refer 爷就是个神话 to our Newsletter blog, he is unable to reach it. No single chinese server has wordpress on it ….

However, an effort of making SoccerProject more popular has been made. You can find it on several Games websites, for example.

Maybe we can try to make our vote?!

Talking dirty

SoccerProject is great because it is a versatile game. There are as many reasons to play SoccerProject as there are managers. Some like trading, some like the community most, some like building a huge stadium and some like talking dirty ….

These are the results of my, once in a few weeks, SoccerProject crusade to eradicate all these four-letter word team and manager names.

The words fuck, shit, lul (Dutch synonym for penis), tet (Dutch for tit) are very popular. Sometimes I also find references to politics and racism.

You might start thinking that I’m a bit of a nun. But I’m not. I simply think these words (names) don’t belong in an environment like SoccerProject. And in general the sheriffs agree with me. As you can see, they agreed with me this time as well: they changed the offensive names into something else. And sometimes the new names are hilarious! (Thank you sheriffs for that!) Mind that some of the names aren’t changed, but those are the names of teams or managers that received a permanent ban for other reasons than their names.

 

If you want also want to catch foul-mouthed managers: go to manager / other managers / cheaters. You can even make suggestions which name you want the sheriffs to change it in. (Great fun!)

SoccerProject Music Top-50 (BEL/NL)

Forummers/music-lovers Sex Pistols and Sjoerd have made a list of the most popular songs by forum-members.
All Dutch and Belgian readers could send a Top-15 list to them, from which they compiled a nice Top-50 that was released during the days before Christmas.

I would like to highlight the top-15 from this list in the newsletter:

#15 Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen
#14 Foo Fighters – The Pretender
#13 3 Doors Down – Kryptonite
#12 Radiohead – Paranoid Android
#11 Marco Borsato – Rood
#10 Gorki – Mia
#09 Deep Purple – Child in Time
#08 Coldplay – Clocks
#07 U2 – One
#06 Oasis – Wonderwall
#05 Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge
#04 Nirvana – Smells like Teen Spirit

Then we get to the top-3, that deserves some more attention:

On third place we find AC/DC with the song “Thunderstruck”.
Nice guitar-play and the typical voice of singer Brian Johnson make this song a true rock-classic.
The story goes that Angus Young was flying in a plane that was struck by lightening and nearly crashed. He came up with the riff and based the song on this experience.

#02 Metallica – One
I took two facts from www.songfacts.com that I just have to share with you:

*) This song is about a soldier fighting in a war and a mortar blows off in his face. He can’t hear, see, smell, talk, taste and he doesn’t have arms or legs. He comes out of a coma in a hospital. During the time he is in the hospital he reflects on his life and things his father told him. Eventually the doctors get worried because he’s having spasms all the time, but he doesn’t seem to be dying. They call in the general and he can’t figure it out either but the soldier with the general recognizes it. “Its Morse code,” he says. The general asks what he is saying and the soldier looks for a minute and then says, “He is saying K-I-L-L- M-E over and over again.”

*) The lyrics are based on the novel Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, which is about World War I. A specific passage that inspired the song is: “How could a man lose as much of himself as I have and still live? When a man buys a lottery ticket you never expect him to win because it’s a million to one shot. But if he does win, you’ll believe it because one in a million still leaves one. If I’d read about a guy like me in the paper I wouldn’t believe it, cos it’s a million to
one. But a million to ONE always leaves one. I’d never expect it to happen to me because the odds of it happening are a million to one. But a million to one always leaves one. One.”

Text, story and music complement eachother perfectly in the brilliant video:

And the number One:
Metallica – Nothing Else Matters
A very slow and nice song of this band.
Originally the song was about a girlfriend of one of the band-members, but it has lost it’s meaning, and i now more of an ode to their fans.

Many thanks to Sex Pistols and Sjoerd for organising this contest, and of course the people who contributed by sending their favorite songs.

Of course this is based on the voice of the Belgian and Dutch forum-people. If any other SP-forum has succesfully done a similar thing, please let me know, so I can look into that as well and possibly show it in the newsletter.

For the complete list and links to all the videos, click here: SoccerProject Top-50

SoccerProject country: Greece

Official name: Ελληνική Δημοκρατία

• Location: neighbouring countries are Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Albania
• Area: 131.957 km²
• Highest mountain: Mount Olympus, 2917 metres Number of inhabitants: 10.706.290

• Number of SoccerProject managers: 194
• Translation: Since April, 1^st 2006 by dare_for_me, 149 managers play SoccerProject in the Greek version
• Community: Greek SoccerProject Association
• SoccerProject survival tip when travelling to Greece: Πού μπορώ να βρω την κοντινότερη καφετέρια με ιντερνετ??
  pronounce like: Pu boro na vro tin kontinoteri cafeteria me internet?? (Where is the nearest cyber café?)
• Top managers: The manager that’s on top of the Greek ranking is Duinenpiepertje, but he turns out to be a rather unsympathetic Belgian who goes to Greece for his holidays every year. Next on the list is Bryan Brigden: “I’m sort of Greek material. I’ve lived in Greece half my life, 10 years, but my parents are English and Italian. Although, believe me, I’m more of a foreigner in those countries than in Greece. Greece forever!”
• In the news: We saw some haunting images of Greece in the news: large forest fires were ravaging the country. The newsletter is worried about the safety of the Greek managers and we send a message to kstelios: “Yes I am safe. I live in Crete, Heraklion (biggest island in Greece).We don’t have a single fire yet. But…the rest of the Greece is burning. Burning is a small word to describe the facts. Hell!!! Most of Greece’s forests are dust ..pure dust. The situation is very bad. 65 dead people till now, Thousands of people homeless, most of Greece’s forests burned…Terrible, tragic. I don’t know who is behind all this, that’s not my problem now… Pain, I feel pain and I am very angry. Hope it will stop soon.”

Pictures of Czech and Slovak managers (some hot, some not :-P )

| View Show | Create Your Own

New Lay-out!

All the beta testers have noticed already: a new lay-out has been designed for SoccerProject and it’s now being tested. It looks clean and a lot less blue than the current version of SoccerProject. We congratulate Sjarel with the design: “The lay-out was something that needed to be taken care of for a long time already. It was a real eyesore. One of my colleagues, also an ex SoccerProject manager[Longhair;-)] designed it and I have been working on it since December, I guess.” It seems like a great deal of work indeed, everything has changed. I can find the same menu on top, but there is no ranking on the right hand side of the page anymore, the entire manager overview page has changed, the way a player is displayed has changed drastically. Sjarel must have been working on it on daily basis, because it isn’t as simple as desinging something in paint. Every singleSoccerProject page had to be rewritten. Sjarel: ” Apart from the design we also faced quite a few technical difficulties such as how create a new layout while keeping the old one alive, and how to make sure that once we launch the new layout, old links will be redirected to the new layout. We chose the colours because we wanted to keep it clean and wanted to stick to the bluish tone.” I wonder whether it’s going to be launched on the the www site in the near future: “A few dozens of managers are now testing it. It’s hard to say whether it’s going to take a long time. There will be some bugs surely and we’d like to have as much fixed as possible before we launch.”

We also ask a few beta testers for a reaction. Matt:”I like it a lot. It’s a big improvement compared to what the site looks now. The colours are a bit softer and it looks professional now. Maybe it’s a bit too white on some pages, but I’m a big fan! And I like the new logo as well “

Also nespereira expresses his opinion on the lay-out: “Has Sjarel made this? Good work! SoccerProject deserved a new lay-out!” And finally sjlivovica on the beta forum: “What a shock! I expected subtle and minor changes, but I haven’t got my final opinion ready yet, I need far more time “

Cup Campaign knows its winner and so do we!

Verbroedering Robbeke

Ronde 11 – Maandag 29 januari 2007

KVOllivier 2 – 1 Lazio 1900

 

Ronde 12 – Dinsdag 30 januari 2007

AS Vlalex 1 – 0 KVOllivier

 

Ronde 13 – Woensdag 31 januari 2007

Darwen Town 0 – 1 AS Vlalex

 

Ronde 14 – Donderdag 1 februari 2007

FC Stumperd 0 – 0P AS Vlalex

 

Ronde 15 - Vrijdag 2 februari 2007

Verbroedering Robbeke 2 – 1 AS Vlalex

 

The last week in Soccerproject has lined up 32 managers and their teams against each other. A battle, in which everyone realised that next friday, there would be only one winner. Because getting this far in the cup, the only thing that counts is victory. It wasn’t clamoroso, the newcomer in A Division and the team which we followed last round, that took the trophy home. No, between all the dutch violence, the Cup Title was won by Verbroedering Robbeke and the always cheerful and friendly manager Isis! Isis, indeed one of the editors of this Newsletter!!

With clever management and an excellent team performance, Verbroedering Robbeke knew to overcome every obstacle, triving on a genial amount of talent, good football, intelligence and efficience. Even the strong team of AS Vlalex had to acknowledge defeat in a magnificent final! Isis has managed to be the very first female cup-winner, shall there be more in the future?

With Verbroedering Robbeke, season 15 has a rather surprising Cup Winner, after SLB Carcavelos the season before. But thats the beauty in sports and SoccerProject, I think. I wonder if someone from division A succeeds to win the cup in season 16, and manages to break the dominance of division B.1. Or will another strong team from the lower regions rise to the occasion?

Have a wonderful Cup-season!

By Badbuffalo, translated by Visje69

Season 15 Cup enters last week

Round 7, Wednesday the 10th of January

LORETO FC 1 – 0 Animorphs

With Animorphs, led by manager Anima-t3d (BEL), Loreto FC welcomed a team from the E-division on its ground. One of the top teams from F versus one of the lower middleclass of E, it was bound to be an exciting game. Both teams didn’t play at their full power, but partially thanks to the enthusiastic supporters of the home team, Loreto FC was the strongest on the pitch. Little after the first fifteen minutes of the game, this advantage resulted into a fine goal.

Animorphs had a few chances further in the match, but couldn’t undo the goal difference. angelotecadi survived cup round 7 and put his team among the final 256 of the cup.

Round 8, Wednesday the 17h of January

LORETO FC 0 – 1 Tungri

Like in round 8, Loreto FC faced a Belgian team from the E-division, Tungri from E11, managed by Mylex, on its own field. But not like Animorphs from the previous round, this team was quite high ranked in its division, so this would be a tougher challenge. The advantage in the game was now at the side of the visitors, and just before break Tungri was given a penalty. This resulted into a goal and after the break, Tungri managed to consolidate the victory. Sadly, the participation of manager angelotecadi to the cup ends in round 8. But as the world keeps on turning, just like the Soccerproject universe, we will follow the adventures of Mylex and his team Tungri from here, starting with round 9.

Round 9, Wednesday the 24^th of January

Lazio 1900 2 – 0 Tungri

Having to face Lazio 1900 on its own territory, random had no mercy with Tungri. The leader of B1 surely had a lot of top class players to set up. Though Tungri resisted very bravely in the first minutes, the difference in mere class couldn’t be kept hidden. Before the break, Lazio 1900 already managed to score 2 goals which led to the final outcome. Lazio 1900, managed by clamoroso (IT) can easily be considered as one of the outsiders for the cup title, so it shouldn’t be a shame for Tungri to lose from such a team. As sudden as we focussed on Tungri, we already have to keep an eye on another team in round 10, named Lazio 1900.

Round 10, Friday the 26^th of January

Lazio 1900 4 – 2 Drambuie United

The second cup match in one week brought a second home game for Lazio 1900, this time against Drambuie United from the A division. It seemed to become a very nerve breaking game, but afterwards it’s clear that Lazio 1900 was reasonably stronger than Ally’s (NL) team. It needs to be said though that Ally didn’t play with his best line-up. Drambuie United didn’t stand a chance and was surpassed on every level in the first half by Lazio 1900, which led to a comfortable lead. It is a motivating result for Lazio 1900, who go into the final week. The only negative point could be the many cards that could count in this campaign and even make a difference. But it looks like it’s going to be an exciting competitive week for clamoroso and his Lazio 1900.

by Badbuffalo, translated by Matt

Visje69 in the SoccerProject jungle

Visje69 meets ‘Random’

Recenlty it was decided a column would be regularly posted on the SoccerProject Newsletter. Not a bad idea, I first thought, until we discussed the first subject: Random….

First I thought of killing myself, no way was I doing that!! But then again I started thinking writing this was a better option. I met a huge task to describe and discuss the most controversial subject in the Soccerproject history. As for myself I’m not the perfect person to say anything about that, since my team has won only one game in two seasons time. Because of the entire change in my team I haven’t found the time to study upon the random. So therefore I went looking for some games that ended with the ’smallest’ difference or an ‘unjust’ draw. Where else to start my quest than on the forum, THE place where managers make each other’s life a living hell.

After a few pages I ran into a manager (not literally of course) that claimed the random had become worse, but as fast as he put on that statement it was taken off the edge by some more experienced managers in the game. A change in random seems excluded, because Sjarel should have said something about it then.

The first two matches that I investigate in my own division, nothing strange happened there. First we have a 0-0 draw with a line difference of 1 and in the other game there was a 0-1 victory with a line difference of 2 in the advantage of the winning team. Also in the next two matches that I watched, nothing strange happened. It seems like random doesn’t strike in my division? Or maybe Sjarel loves me and saves me from Random? So I went to division A. The first match between the glassbell and rollerball was very close but won by rollerball despite of a line advantage of 7! But also in the other 5 close games in A, nothing strange happened. So after investigating 27 games in E12, A, B1, B2 and B3, there was only one case that could be seen as a case of random. In the match between Team#soad and FC Diepenbeek, where the home team had a line advantage of 3, but the match ended in a 0-0 draw. Not that much of a surprise right? My personal conclusion: The random is not so marked as most people think (certainly not with me, thank you Sjarel!), but it seems like that because people complain when it works in their disadvantage!! But since I’m not playing this game alone, more opinions are required.

So I looked for some managers that knew more about this and asked for their reactions.

bLo0dHunt3r: “Well, everyone is fanatical about the random, but I’m glad that it’s there. A team that can’t manage to score, can play a superb game, but it shall never win. It makes it more realistic, you’re a trainer with a worked out strategy, but in the end it’s up to the players. Without the random, everything would be too determined.”

Alisa: “Oh well, of course it’s a shame for the team that was better and lost. But in real life it happens too that the better team loses (Vitesse – Ajax, 4-2). Because of that there still is some tension in the game. Otherwise if you played a game between an A and a D team, you would know beforehand that the A-team would win.

Random isn’t only to be found in matches, this shows after I heard this story from Loreback (aka David Joosen): “I had a youth coordinator that didn’t give me enough players, and if I received one after all, he was way too aggressive! So I decided to fire my youth coordinator and hire a new one. But when I looked back to my old one, I saw that in his new team, he immediately delivered a superb player! So you see that random strikes everywhere!”

Also the story of Akki makes us think about the random: “I have the bad luck that 5 times in a row, my youth player was rejected because of the random, my patience is running out. Random itself should be there, I don’t mind that you lose a game once against a team that’s supposed to be weaker, it happens in real life too, but it has to be realistic. You shouldn’t lose 5 games against a weaker opponent in one season, but 2 to 3 times is all right.

To make a final conclusion, after this investigation we did not get much further. (Wasted all this valuable time!) Random is hitting randomly but not as bad as most people think. Random doesn’t have to change. And for the managers who think they are harmed by the random, don’t worry, because it doesn’t occur that much and only makes the game more realistic. If perhaps you feel the uncontrollable urge to kick your computer out of the window now, try to reconsider, because there are better options

By Visje69

We want to thank Sybke for this wonderful cartoon. She won our cartoon contest this week. Several other people did a good job as well, they might want to try again next week. And if you’d like to see your cartoon in the newsletter, please enter our contest on the forum!

Cup campaign continues

Round 4, Wednesday 27th of December

LORETO FC 2 – 1 HYPERLINK “http://www.soccerproject.com/team_detail.php?tid=6499″ \o “ madmax’steam ” madmax’s team

Madmax received a visit with Spanish manager Angelotecadi in round four, a match that, comparing with his 3 previous confrontations, foretold lots of difficulty. The completely sold out stadium also meant a huge disadvantage for madmax’s team, that knew a hard game. A commanding presence in the midfield was simply not enough to end the game on the winning hand, because the hometeam was playing way better in attack and defence. A crazy three minutes gave us a 1-1 draw at half time, but in the second half Loreto FC showed themselfs stronger, and knew to win the game no less than deserved.For madmax, the cup story ends here, and our eyes are pointed to agelotecadi and his team LORETO FC

Round 5 , Friday 29th of December

beatnuts 1 – 1 LORETO FC

Just two days after the victory against madmax’s team, the away game against beatnuts was at schedule. Beatnuts, managed by giuliopulina (ITA) and playing in one of the 81 E-divisions, seemed a pretty hard customer for LORETA FC, but wasn’t able to finish their chances in an evenly matched game, after which it ended at a draw (1-1). LORETA FC succeeded to keep their calm, and score every single penalty. With a good dose of luck, angelotecadi managed to reach into the next round, and so is able to go through the winterstop with a cup ticket in hand!

Round 6, Wednesday 3rd of January

jortes dream 0 – 0 HYPERLINK “http://www.soccerproject.com/team_detail.php?tid=6954″ \o “ LORETOFC ” LORETO FC

The cup draw for round 6 gave LORETO FC another away game, this time a little trip to Jortes, holland. Jortes team, managed by de generaal(the general) (NED), just like LORETO FC playing in one of the F-divisions, was able to hope for a ticket to the next cupround because of their first place in their division. In a very equal, though very weak and scoreless game, once again penalty’s had to make the difference. And yet again manager angelotecadi knew to give his players the best advice in shooting, which they followed and survived a second penaltythriller in an awaymatch. Again the Dutch were beaten by penalty’s. On to round 7!

By Badbuffalo, translated by visje69