Career Scratch Tries: Andrea Pinamonti 1.5KC [Complete]

[samhardy]

On 25/10/2018 at 07:09, Scratch said:

Age is catching up with him. No way he would have missed this in his prime:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Newcastle should sign him up in real life with finishing like that!

[FuddledFox]

One final push this week @Scratch and then you can join the cool kids on FMM19 next week 😀

How does Pinamonti rank in your effections now compared to Armstrong and Colidio?

[Woody]

4 hours ago, samhardy said:

Newcastle should sign him up in real life with finishing like that!

Thats right ......kick us when were down(almost). 

[Scratch]

On 26/10/2018 at 19:14, samhardy said:

Newcastle should sign him up in real life with finishing like that!

Newcastle should sign him in real life! He missed a few clangers like that and is definitely not as good as he was, but he still managed a total that no real life player could match!

[Scratch]

On 26/10/2018 at 20:30, Foxy said:

One final push this week @Scratch and then you can join the cool kids on FMM19 next week 😀

How does Pinamonti rank in your effections now compared to Armstrong and Colidio?

Yeah, I might just do it. If I am late it will only be a little while! Can't wait to get my hands on 19!!

Armstrong will always be my favourite because that was my first 1KC and I thought I wasn't going to make for most of the journey. It was hard work and I was learning lots and it was super satisfying to finally make it.  

Colidio was a step up in quality and it seems Pinamonti is another step up. It's hard to pick between them. Pinamonti has definitely been easier and is fresh, so maybe I prefer him. Not sure. But I love them both! 😄

[FuddledFox]

4 hours ago, Scratch said:

Yeah, I might just do it. If I am late it will only be a little while! Can't wait to get my hands on 19!!

Armstrong will always be my favourite because that was my first 1KC and I thought I wasn't going to make for most of the journey. It was hard work and I was learning lots and it was super satisfying to finally make it.  

Colidio was a step up in quality and it seems Pinamonti is another step up. It's hard to pick between them. Pinamonti has definitely been easier and is fresh, so maybe I prefer him. Not sure. But I love them both! 😄

A bit like trying to pick which is your favourite child 😀

[Scratch]

16 hours ago, Foxy said:

A bit like trying to pick which is your favourite child 😀

Yeah, true that...Maybe I better stop doing 1KCs, it's hard work raising them and if I get too many I won't be able to keep track of them all!!

[Scratch]

I'm writing up the next season's update. This doesn't really belong in the update proper, so I figure I will give a special update here especially for @samhardy.

Sunderland has been pottering along in the mid to lower parts of the Championship ever since their brief promotion to the EPL and subsequent relegation. To be honest, I'd forgotten about them until this happened:

I got my evil laugh on, imagining posting a 10-0 victory in here! But, football is a funny game, and instead this happened:

Sunderland came within a sniff of knocking us out of the FA Cup! If it hadn't been for a goal 6 minutes (yes 6 minutes!) into stoppage time, I would have had to write that humiliating update here.

As it happens, FMM restored 'reality'. We snuck through and then hammered Sunderland in the replay (not 10-0 though). That next game is not the point though, we hammer teams all the time.  

The point is: this was my biggest scare in the game for many many years.... I very nearly soiled myself... Damn you Sunderland! 

[Scratch]

Update - Season 17

Only 88 goals to go for the 1.5K. Dare I dream that a 34 year Pinamonti can reach it this season?

I will tell you that he slowed down a little. There were more games than usual where he'd have a bunch of chances but not be able to put them away:

and other games where he didn't even get a single chance:

And yet... He still scored in most games and every so often he'd knock in a hat-trick (or more). So 88 goals is within the realms of possibility here. It's going to go down to the wire!

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Major departures this year:

• Sha'aban: Salah reborn and naturalised as an Englishman. I wanted to keep him, but couldn't give him enough playing time. His contract was up at the end of the season and he refused to sign a new one, so I let him go for free mid-season.

• Shackell: The Ashley Cole regen - world class, but no stamina. He'd been backup to Tierney for 15 years. Time to let him go.

• Carrera and Montilivo: Two top class Italian central midfielders. Picked every time for my Italy team, but not quite good enough to hold down a place at Newcastle.

• Mata and Galgano: Two top class keepers, one young (Mata) and one old (Galgano, shared first team duties with Rajkovic for most of this career). We have 4 top class keepers now, so these two had to go.

Incoming, it was all about Buchanan, a world class Welsh wide attacking midfielder. Sound familiar? I didn't really need him, but I figured why not splash some cash at this point (£2.5B in the bank and not long to go). He came in mid-season and only had limited opportunities, but he'll play more in an ageing squad next season.

 

Competitions - Club

Here's how we did this year:

• Won the Community Shield, beating Liverpool 3-0 (one goal from Pinamonti).

• Won the Euro Super Cup, beating Sevilla 3-1 (one goal from Pinamonti).

• Won the Club World Championship, beating Racing Club 3-0 in the final (one goal from Pinamonti).

• Won the League Cup, beating Man Utd 4-0 in the final (one goal from Pinamonti).

• Lost the FA Cup, going down 1-0 to Man Utd in the final (one of those games where Pinamonti could just not get into it).

• Won the Premier League comfortably again, with 114 goals in the For column.

• Won the Champions League, beating Juventus 2-0 in the final (one goal from Pinamonti, along with two disallowed goals).

Spoiler

 

 

 

Competitions - ITN

Time again for the World Cup. I'll include two games for you:

• The second round game against Brazil. Remember when the whole country of Brazil melted down after losing 7-1 to Germany in the World Cup a few years back? Well, at least they scored a goal that time. We're not so lenient as the Germans. We kept a clean sheet and beat them 7-0.

• Speaking of the Germans, we faced them in the final. We beat them 4-3 in a night to remember. Another World Cup in the bag, thanks.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Assists

Who is providing all the club assists?

Havertz was once again our top provider, even though he's getting on quite a bit and had a few injuries. There's a long gap to the next player, but I'm happy we have a bunch of players all chipping in.

Last season I shone the spotlight on Havertz, who still refuses to age. This year, I figure it should be Tierney. He only provides about 1 assist in 5 games, but has been consistently doing that for 17 years. This is what he looks like at age 36 halfway through the season and at age 37 at the end of the season:

Spoiler

 

 

At his peak, he was glorious and he's still good enough to play an important role - which is lucky as he only needs about 10 yellow cards (next season) to top the Bad Boys challenge. One of my favourite players in the game.

 

Injuries

After last year, I was happy to avoid any injuries this year, apart from this ghost injury:

Spoiler

 

 

 

Decline

This is what Pinamonti looked like at the end of the season:

Compared to last season, he's down a point of Pace and Strength, but Shooting and Movement hold steady, while Decisions and Dribbling actually increased a point. Amazing!

He'd lost another 2 points Pace by the end of the World Cup though. Here's his season chart from that point:

 

Goals - Highlights

Pinamonti had one 5 goal effort and one 4 goal effort (with a missed penalty and 2 offside decisions):

Spoiler

 

 

 

Goals - Club

This year he scored 70 goals in 56 games:

That's a very good total, but you can see that the ratio has dropped significantly compared to other years.

 

The Chase For 1.5K

Okay, before we move on to the ITN goals section, we need to talk about the chase for 1.5K goals.

Pinamonti needed 88 goals. He got 70 while on Newcastle duty. That means he needs 18 goals for Italy to make it to 1.5K goals this season.

As mentioned above, this was a World Cup Year. As you can see in the screenshot in the Decline section, taken after the domestic season but before the World Cup, Pinamonti already had 9 INT goals. That means he needed 9 goals in the World Cup finals to make it.

In the first group game, against Mexico, Pinamonti scored 2 goals. 7 to go!!

In the second game, against Russia, he didn't score. Still 7 to go.

In the third game, against Japan, he scored 3 goals! Only 4 more to go.

Next up we have Brazil. If they knock us out, then we'll have to wait for next year... Of course we trounce them, with 2 of the 7 goals coming from Pinamonti.

Only 2 goals to go, with Ivory Coast to face next in the quarter final.

BAM!! 5 goals!! The second goal took him to 1.5K!! Unfortunately, in my excitement, I forgot to save the game, so I couldn't get the video of it.

 

Goals - ITN

The formalities: Pinamonti had 0 international goals at the start of the year (after the 255 goal bug show last update):

And he finished with 23 goals in 13 games.

A great result!!

 

Progress

35 years old (EOY)	Season	Total
Club Goals	70	1259
ITN Goals	23	246
Totals	93	1505

He noticeably slowed down in the club games, but made up for it in the ITN games. The end result is 93 goals which is fantastic, especially for his age. This lad is golden!

 

The Future

1.5K baby!! We're there!!

So... do we play on? FMM 2019 is out later this week, so I won't keep going until he retires, but maybe I'll come back for one more season to see if I can top the leaderboard.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Scratch

[URz]

superb @Scratch 👏👏

Loved the slow reveal at the end. Pinamonti has really delivered 

[Scratch]

1 hour ago, URz said:

superb @Scratch 👏👏

Loved the slow reveal at the end. Pinamonti has really delivered 

Thanks mate! Yeah he is epic! At this stage in my other 1KCs it was a lot harder. I wonder if that's because they tweaked 2018 (vs 2017) or whether Pinamonti is just that good.

[Rob]

Well done on the 1-5kc!

[samhardy]

Congrats on the 1.5K!

How did you celebrate the 96th minute equaliser though? My guess is something like this...

[Scratch]

3 minutes ago, samhardy said:

Congrats on the 1.5K!

How did you celebrate the 96th minute equaliser though? My guess is something like this...

Thanks! Yeah, pretty epic celebration, but um no, definitely NOT like THAT particular goal celebration... 🤮

added 0 minutes later

10 minutes ago, Rob2017 said:

Well done on the 1-5kc!

Thanks mate! 

[smoggy90]

Amazing! Congrats mate, what a player!

[Scratch]

14 minutes ago, smoggy90 said:

Amazing! Congrats mate, what a player!

Thanks mate, much appreciated!

[Woody]

Congrats dude.....soo pleased for you!

Now you have no need to overlap and can start 19 with the rest of us.

Would love to see your name in lights on top of that leaderboard though mate.

Give us Geordies something to shout about atleast. 😂

[Scratch]

Just now, Woody said:

Congrats dude.....soo pleased for you!

Now you have no need to overlap and can start 19 with the rest of us.

Would love to see your name in lights on top of that leaderboard though mate.

Give us Geordies something to shout about atleast. 😂

Thanks mate. Can't believe I actually made it. Much easier than I thought too (compared to Colidio last time). 

Looking forward to 19 so much! Will try to get at least equal first. I'm toying with the idea of stopping when I reach @Nucleus' score, seeing he stopped early. Not sure yet, might be too tempting not to finish the season (assuming I do it this season that is). Anyway, we'll see! 😄

[Woody]

Nuke has taken 18 by storm so i wouldnt think he'd be too upset if you beat him.

Knock it out the park mate 😆

 

[Scratch]

Well, there is that 10th Champion's League title I'd like to win! 😄

[Nucleus]

Keep going mate, Mbappé is still the better striker and everyone knows it 😛

Spoiler

Congrats on the 1.5k 😎

Also note: I still have the power of Five save....😈

[Scratch]

Thanks @Nucleus! 

19 hours ago, Nucleus said:

Mbappé is still the better striker and everyone knows it

I thought we'd covered this already. Mbappe's decent, but his international record is average at best. Pinamonti is the complete package...  

19 hours ago, Nucleus said:

Also note: I still have the power of Five save....😈

Umm... Didn't you resign? I guess you can join another club and sign him? That would be a nice fake out - I totally bought your "it's over" vibe!! Maybe I still have a lot to learn!

Edited October 30, 2018 by Scratch

[FuddledFox]

Massive congratulations on the 1.5k 😁

I think you should take a few days off to recharge the FMM batteries But I can see the temptation to take it on for another season!

[Scratch]

49 minutes ago, Foxy said:

Massive congratulations on the 1.5k 😁

I think you should take a few days off to recharge the FMM batteries But I can see the temptation to take it on for another season!

Thanks mate! Thought about a few days off, but honestly it's hard to stop! With the other 1KCs the end has sort of been a relief because I'd been through those hard years at the end, but this time round it's all been smooth sailing... I don't have that "can't go on" feeling. 

In early December now, so may as well push on!

[Rob]

Days off from FMM? Pfft...

Keep this one going. It’ll be good to see what score you end up with.

[Scratch]

30 minutes ago, Rob2017 said:

Days off from FMM? Pfft...

Keep this one going. It’ll be good to see what score you end up with.

Yeah! There are no days off! 

That said, this career will be going until about Friday... After that, I'll be swearing about bugs in 19! 😂

[Scratch]

Update - Season 18

Last season the 34 year old Pinamonti scored 93 goals to edge past 1.5K. This season the 35 year old version needs 51 goals to pass @Nucleus and top the leaderboard.

Problem: He's slowing down fast. Is there enough left in the tank to make it? I'll tell you this: this is going to go right down to the wire!

 

This Is The Final Season

Whatever happens, this is the final season. Pinamonti's contract goes for another season beyond that, but FMM 2019 will be out in a day or so and I'm drawing a line under this career here.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

Not much action this year. I sold/released some unhappy players that I would normally have kept if the save was going longer and I signed Passlack's regen.

 

Competitions

We won almost everything this year. The big shock was being knocked out of the League Cup in round 4 by Crystal Palace.

We had a couple of other close calls, being taken to extra time in both the FA Cup Final by Man U (before scoring 4 in extra time) and the Champions League Final by Bayern (before scoring the winner in the 121st min).

Spoiler

 

Injuries

A couple of relatively minor injuries this year, but they had an impact on this attributes (see next section):

 

Decline

This is what Pinamonti looked like at the end of the season:

He's really showing his age and is down 2-3 points across most Physical and Attacking attributes. It was always going to decline, but the last injury had a major affect on him:

He went from scoring like this before the injury (some blanks, but some braces to even it out):

to this (goals much harder to come by):

 

The Chase For The Record (1556 Goals)

That decline really kicked in just as we were closing in on the record.

At one point he had something like 3 months to get less than 10 goals. Then he had time out with the injury, followed by the decline in attributes shown above and the resulting poor form.

It came down him needing 2 goals in the final 8 club games. There were also two ITN games after the season (vs Germany and Spain), but I decided I wouldn't be playing those.

He was struggling with his fitness so I gave him the first of those games off. In the next game he went scoreless, but picked up a knock that meant I had to leave him out of the third game. He went scoreless in the 4th game, missing some easy chances.

From needing 2 out of 8, he's all of a sudden down to needing 2 out of 4. At this point I felt like he was never going to score again... He came through in the game against Monaco though:

That took him to 1,555 goals, bringing him level with @Nucleus' M'bappe.

So, 3 games to go, just 1 goal needed to go top. Two of those games were finals against top opposition, so I really wanted to bring it home in the final league game against Fulham. We won 3-0:

But Pinamonti couldn't score. He had a few chances but was mostly wayward:

Down to 2 games to go to get the goal he needed.

Next up: Man Utd in the FA Cup Final. They pushed us, taking it to extra time, but we trounced them with 4 goals in extra time (yes we play much better after Pinamonti is subbed off).

No goals for Pinamonti. He toiled away, but only managed one shot:

This is it. The last game of this save. Pinamonti and M'Bappe are level at the top of the leaderboard. If Pinamonti can score in the Champions League Final against Bayern Muncich, he takes the lead. He's scored in so many Champions League Finals over the years, surely one more isn't too much to ask...

Once again we don't play so well while he's on the pitch and it goes to extra time. This time I don't sub him. This is it folks, his last game. He can keep play until his Condition is 0, I'm not subbing him. We eventually get the last minute winner. And..

Spoiler

Pinamonti is not on the score sheet.

He managed to get 7 shots in, with 4 on target.

When he was in his prime a couple of those would have gone in. But Pinamonti is at the end of a long long career and his sharpness is gone.

So that's it folks! He couldn't get the goal to take him to the top, he'll have to share it with M'bappe.

 

Let's wrap up the stats...

 

Goals - Club

This year he scored 44 goals in 49 games:

He was above a goal a game for the first half of the season, but fell away in the second half.

 

Goals - ITN

Pinamonti had 23 international goals at the start of the year (after the 255 goal bug):

And he finished with 29 goals, meaning he scored 6 goals in 6 games.

 

Progress

36 years old (EOY)	Season	Total
Club Goals	44	1303
ITN Goals	6	252
Totals	50	1555

 

The Future

It was massive fun to turn Newcastle into the undisputed best club in the world and Pinamonti was a smashing player who scored more that I thought he could. I was targeting 1.5K, but thought I'd need another 3 or 4 seasons to do it.

I'll be putting in requests to get him on the leaderboards for the 1KC (joint top), the ITN goals challenge (top) and the Calendar Year challenge (top). I'll also be putting Tierney on The Bad Boy's challenge leaderboard, but I won't tell you if he came first or second. Sorry @Nucleus you'll have to click through to see if you're still first. 😀

And... that's it! FMM 2019 is out tomorrow, so I'll shortly be swearing about bugs and planning a new 1KC - though I might try out the It's A Long Way To The Top challenge first.

Thanks for all your support!!

 

Edited November 1, 2018 by Scratch

[BatiGoal]

You haven't changed a bit, have you Scratch. Apologies for turning up only at the end of the show but ffs man your careers aren't for the faint-hearted on Vibe. 

Another incredible ride and another incredible career. Well done, mate! 

[Scratch]

19 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

You haven't changed a bit, have you Scratch. Apologies for turning up only at the end of the show but ffs man your careers aren't for the faint-hearted on Vibe. 

Another incredible ride and another incredible career. Well done, mate! 

Haha, Thanks mate. I thought I'd left all the close calls behind until this played out last night. Couldn't have scripted it any better (well except for Pinamonti scoring the last minute winner to take the lead).

This one is a little artificially constructed as I could have played the two ITN games at the end of the season, or I could have played another season - but I told myself when I'd finish and stuck to it.

I don't mind tying with Nucleus though, as he did it with a season less and while focusing on other challenges, so probably deserves it. Don't tell him that though! 

[Kanegan]

Well done mate.  Closing 2018 with a bang.