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Career Sam v Nucleus: A H2H Series


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15 minutes ago, Mikee1984 said:

50 games unbeaten between you well done lads, looking forward to a tense finale.

Kind words? Are you ill mike? 😂😂

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Final challenge poll

For the finale we have decided to put up four of our favourites from this H2H on a poll so you the viewers can decide on which one you want to see used for the decider.

The options are:

  • The World Cup challenge - Where we could use players valued only under £1M
  • The Solo Striker - Where we got a point for every goal scored by our striker, but lost one if any other player on the pitch scored.
  • The challenge where all our outfield players had to score in the shortest time possible.
  • Longest unbeaten run - self explanatory.

Here is the strawpoll link 

https://www.strawpoll.me/16046223

We will leave this open until Thursday evening so we can play it from Friday - Sunday before the final update on Monday.

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Poll closed

We will be revisiting the World Cup challenge, only using players with a value lower than £1M for the final decider. It will be played over the weekend and we will be doing one update each, one on Monday and one on Wednesday.

@Nucleus has already promised to use Costa Rica for this challenge and I'm yet to decide who I will use.

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Final Challenge - World Cup 2.0

As stated in the post above it's the World Cup challenge that won the poll and will be used for the finale! Nucleus won a controversial first attempt at this challenge and here's a brief recap of what is in store for us:

It's simply a case of who can get the furthest in the World Cup using a squad entirely made up of players with a value less than £1M.

Strap yourselves in and get prepared for this finale, we're updating separately and it's me to get us underway here.

My Update

I decided to be patriotic and select England for this final challenge. There's some good players lurking in the lower leagues and potentially some 'past-it' players that can still produce the goods.

Qualifying

This is how qualifying had gone before I took over. Couldn't ask for much more and we were pretty much at Russia before I started.

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Here was the squad I used for the remaining qualifying games. As you can see, I used a lot of free agents and golden oldies as actually there was some good players lurking who's value I didn't want to raise like Gabby Agbonlahor and one of my favourite strikers Peter Crouch who heartbreakingly missed out on the WC squad as his value was £1M at the time :(

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This squad got the job done in qualifying anyway, performances not great but we only needed a few more points to secure qualification and that's what we did, not many of this squad will be in the official squad.

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The final qualifying table looked like this. No dramas this time unlike my first attempt in which I had to go through the playoffs with Italy.

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World Cup

Here is the elite 23 who made it to the WC finals. Unfortunately Crouchy didn't make it but some names on that list that everyone will recognise so I'm hoping there's enough here for a decent run.

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We were handed a fairly straightforward group on paper. No complaints from me.

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The campaign kicked off against Australia and we won the game 3-1 thanks to Ryan Ledson but the main game changer was that Australian-Welsh powerhouse Gethin Jones going off injured.

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We followed that victory up with another one against Colombia, all but securing our place in the KO rounds. Ben Watson struck the winner in a bloodbath of a game.

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We'd already qualified ahead of the final game so I rested a few players and we drew 2-2 against Hungary but still topped the group.

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Into the important stuff now and it was hosts Russia who awaited us in the last 16. This was the stage both me and Nucleus fell at last time so did they topple us or do we march on to the Quarter-Finals?

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We ran away with it in the end and booked a date with Ireland in the Quarters! A kind draw I must say.

Surely it was a comfortable win?

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It was anything but! They equalised in stoppage time to take it to the lottery of penalties, nervous times but they bottled it in the shootout and Ryan Ledson slotted home the winning penalty.

Surely a world superpower awaited us in the semi finals?

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I wouldn't exactly call Chile that, a tough game but one I'd be disappointed not to win! Can we reach the World Cup final with a bunch of no-hopers?

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Yes we can! We dominated the game and should have won by more but it was left to Sunderland striker Josh Maja who sends England into the World Cup final!

Finally a decent side awaited us in the final though. Belgium. Could we do the impossible?

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Sadly not. It was a game too far against Belgium. It could have been all different if Agbonlahor had scored the penalty but we didn't deserve to win the game.

Overall

I managed to reach the final of the World Cup but ended as runners-up.

This means @Nucleus must reach the final to prolong the challenge and send it into a shootout however if he can go one better and win the thing he'll walk away with the 4-3 H2H victory!

Exciting times await and not too long to wait as he'll be updating on Wednesday.

Thanks for reading :)

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5 minutes ago, samhardy said:

game changer was that Australian-Welsh powerhouse Gethin Jones going off injured

😂

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Final Challenge - World Cup 2.0

So we’ve seen how Sam got on, I know what I have to do. It’s winning the whole damn thing or bust! 

Qualifying:

I decided to stick with Portugal for this one, I felt like they have an abundance of quality players valued at under £1m plus I obviously knew a few from last time around.

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Qualifying table looked like this when I took over, one foot on the plane to Russia already it seems, and with the first two matches against Andorra and Hungary I knew that two wins would more than likely be enough for me to top the group.

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Heres the squad for those first couple of games, there’s a couple of names in there that I know of 🤔 I think. How did we get on in our first match in charge?

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It took an 85th minute winner but we eventually prevail against Andorra in what was a largely one sided contest, we just couldn’t find the target as often as we should have.

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Same scoreline against Hungary, although the stats were considerably more in our favour for this one. Anyhow, that was enough to send us to Russia as group winners!

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With two games to play against Switzerland and Latvia respectively my intentions for them was to simply drop them as to not raise the value of players I may need for the finals. So for the final two qualifying games I made up a squad of players whose value was less than £100k.

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Should be absolutely trounced by the Swiss with this lot...

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Yeah, pretty much 😂

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We do hold the Latvians to a draw mind, after dominating the game we were pegged back by them in the 91st minute. Never mind, it was a match with no consequences and we are off to Russia as group winners either way!

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World Cup Finals:

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This is the squad that will hopefully lead me to a World Cup glory. Saved using a few of these in qualifying as I knew it would raise their value by having a call up. Zé Gomes being one of them, along with Mika.

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A kind group all things considered, with the Germans not having any players I should beat them (I did last time) South Africa should be a breeze and I’d be happy to take a draw against the Koreans. Simples

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Smashed the Koreans in the first game by 4 goals to 1, and we were playing with 10 men for 75% of the match. Great start either way. With South Africa coming next we could seal a place in the knockout rounds with a win...

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Win we did. Just. A cagey game where neither team wanted to make an error. Just the one clear cut chance throughout and Rui Pedro puts it away for 1-0, and that my friends is a place in the knockout rounds secured. All we needed to do now was beat Germany in the final group game to top the group and seemingly get an “easier” tie in the next round.

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Another win, another 1-0. That’s top spot secured, although the lack of goals we’re scoring concerns me. A familiar foe awaited us in the next round, Switzerland to be precise. It could be considered a kind tie but it could also be a perfect opportunity for a slip up. Could we go one better than last time out and reach the Quarter Finals?

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Never in doubt, it was 3-0 before the red card and we breeze into the quarter finals with our squad of under £1m players. Would the draw be kind as it has been for Sam? Could we avoid another big team? 

The answer is Yes. Australia awaits us in the Quarters and we have massive opportunity to reach the Semi-Finals of the World Cup.

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Which we did, with ease! Dominated the game from start to finish, but still that finishing touch evades us as we can only muster another 1-0. 

Last time out, we were eliminated by Argentina in the last 16, they trounced us if I remember correctly. This time we would meet them in a semi final.

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The winner would take on my home nation Wales in the final! Oh the irony 😮 

Could we take one more giant step? I’d be very confident against Wales, but Argentina is a different beast...

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Heartbreak! Sergio Agüero breaks Portuguese hearts along with mine too! It was an even game but again, we just couldn’t find the target and that’s what came back to bite us on the arse in the end.

Sam takes the round, and Sam takes the H2H.

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We went on to find the net four times when it didn’t matter 

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Whilst Argentina broke my heart for the second time in the save.

A third placed finish was something I was very happy with, but the luck of the draw had it Sam’s way as he gets an easier route to the final, and that’s taking nothing away from him as he was a tough opponent and a very deserved winner. It’s been a pleasure taking you on and I hope it’s not the last time.

So congratulations Sam for winning the H2H!

Final Score

@samhardy 4-3 @Nucleus

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Thanks for reading 

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:O

What a tight final challenge that could've gone either way. It ultimately was decided by a penalty shootout!

Fitting end to the H2H not only with the closeness of it but the fact that I won :P

Well played @Nucleus.

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Fantastic H2H there and I have to feel for my fellow countryman @Nucleus as he fell just short, but you gave the Devil @samhardy a great run for his money and I'm sure (though he'd never admit it) he had a few squeaky bum moments during this great save

congrats to you both for a great bit of entertainment 

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18 hours ago, Taff said:

you gave the Devil @samhardy a great run for his money and I'm sure (though he'd never admit it) he had a few squeaky bum moments during this great save

Under control from the first moment.

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Wonderful challenge lads, @Nucleusdid well as I've not seen many people push @samhardythat far! I didn't know human players could beat the AI in shootouts so I've even learnt something new :p. 

I'm not sure if the rules made being a European team a must but I'd have found Brazil or Argentina tempting as their talent is always massive undervalued in game, that is said without checking the options though. I tend to always load France and Germany just due to the cheap players so if I did this I'm sure France would have been very tempting. 

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33 minutes ago, Ashez said:

Wonderful challenge lads, @Nucleusdid well as I've not seen many people push @samhardythat far! I didn't know human players could beat the AI in shootouts so I've even learnt something new :p. 

I'm not sure if the rules made being a European team a must but I'd have found Brazil or Argentina tempting as their talent is always massive undervalued in game, that is said without checking the options though. I tend to always load France and Germany just due to the cheap players so if I did this I'm sure France would have been very tempting. 

To be honest I did think of going Brazil/Argentina but stuck to Portugal. Thinking about it now I should have gone for Argentina as they couldn’t have beaten me in the semi final! Lol

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