Career The Augusta Challenge: Ian Vs Foxy - 18th Hole Results

[Ian]

17 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Sometimes even the easy looking finals are tough and as we know they could go either way. So sitting on a birdie is a good position to be in. Well played @Ian. 

Cheers Bati, yes I’ve noticed finals can be even more random this year and also derby games so it was nice to get the wins this time, just a shame about the League Cup defeat but can’t be helped.

17 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Well played mate. This is really going down the wire. 

Thanks Kane, a lot hinges on the next couple of holes for me and if Foxy can hit an Eagle on this one then he’d be in a great position going forward.

8 hours ago, Foxy said:

Really unlucky with that League Cup Quarter as if you had got through the shootout you would have probably walked the next two rounds.

A birdie is an excellent result for this hole though.

Thank you Foxy, we had a few injuries and I maybe got my rotation slightly wrong and paid the price. I thought then that it could maybe turn into a disaster but fortunately everything went well after that and the squad was in a much better state for the second season.

[FuddledFox]

 

I was looking forward to this hole as although I knew it would never be easy it was nice to be able to build my squad how I wished and use which ever tactic I felt best without any restrictions on needing to play certain players or sell/buy certain players.

I need at least a 🐦 to keep ahead of @Ian otherwise he will have clawed back my two hole advantage in the last two holes we have played.

It wasn’t a great start as I lost in the WCC final but as this competition doesn’t count for this challenge as it is played every 4 years it didn’t matter that much.

Lets do this on a competition by competition basis.

Premier League

Let’s start with the easiest competition to win. I say that simply because I have a world class squad and even a few lost points if I rest players isn’t going to make that much difference over the course of 38 games.

Spoiler

There was no mistakes in the long run as we won back to back titles although there were no unbeaten seasons.
Season 1

Season 2

Champions League

Next up we will look at what I think is the 2nd easiest competition to win when you have a world class squad. I say this because you have a group stage and then 2 leg matches up to the final so the game can’t shithouse you and knock you out based on just one bad performance. The final is a different matter but then it comes a couple of weeks after the league finishes so your fit players are at 100% so again you go in with a good chance if you have a deep and quality squad.

Spoiler

We played the Zebre’s of Turin (I cba with the name fix) in both finals with the first match looking tight in t score line compared to the 2nd but the match stats telling a different story as we were simply more clinical in the 2nd game and Zebre weren’t.
Season 1

Season 2

Super Cups

The Super Cup and Community Shield come nice and early when the players are fully fit but they are one off matches and mistakes can happen.

Spoiler

I had some tough games with Man Utd twice in season 1 and then my bogey team Liverpool in Season 2 but again we got the job done.
Season 1

Season 2

FA Cup

So much depends on the draw you get but with replays in the early rounds at least there can be a 2nd chance to get through.

Spoiler

The win over Liverpool in season 1 was quite routine but I had a right ting dong battle with Spurs in the 2nd season.
Season 1

Season 2

League Cup

Spoiler

This is probably my least successful competition when I play in England perhaps because it is the least important cup but as most of the games come early in the season when the squad shouldn’t be as tired it is strange.

Season 1

I had a plum draw for the final as I took on mid table Bournemouth with predictable results.

That means if I won the League Cup in Season 2 I would have completed a clean sweep in both seasons and will get a coveted 🦅

Season 2

Spoiler

It was bloody close and only a goal from star striker Mula 6 minutes from the end got me the win I wanted.

 

That does mean I gained an 🦅 on this hole and re establish my two hole cushion as we go into the final 5 holes.

It also puts me at 10 under for the round which is exactly the same as @BatiGoal was on at this stage two years ago but it is three behind course record holder @Nucleus at this stage in his attempt.

 

Up next...

Hole 14 - Chinese Fir (Par 4)

A very attractive hole full of the originally Spanish turned Chinese flowers and one that is very possible to birdie. Just what is needed after a devilish experience in Amen Corner. It's a fairly kind challenge (really!) and shouldn't cause too much stress!

Challenge - Buy a strike force of a Spaniard and a Chinese. Must *combined* score as many between them in all competitions as possible in one season.

Birdie - 90 goals

Par - 70 goals

Bogey - 50 goals

Double Bogey - 25 goals

Triple Bogey - 24 or less goals

 

[Rob]

Great round Mr Fox

[BatiGoal]

The Fox did catch the Eagle. You gotta be one cunning fox to outsmart that eagle, impressive goings. A hole (😂) lot of pressure on @Ian now.. 

[Ian]

Nice Eagle Mr Fox and it’s looking highly likely you’ll be wearing the green jacket at the end.

12 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

A hole (😂) lot of pressure on @Ian now.. 

I’m at the stage now where I guess I’m just playing for my pride.

[Kanegan]

Well done @Foxy on getting the advantage back. Work cut out for @Ian now. 

[FuddledFox]

Thanks for the comments @Rob @BatiGoal and @Kanegan

As for the H2H there is 5 holes left and I think there is still plenty for me and @Ian to play for especially with another 🦅 opportunity after the next hole.

[samhardy]

Welcome back to another preview and after a 4th hole in a row that produced a result it was Foxy who regained his 2 hole lead. Ian has only won 1 of the last 9 holes which will be worrying for him as he will need to win 3 of the last 5 challenges to overhaul his opponent or 2 to take us into a playoff situation. It’s a big ask and the bookies don’t give him much chance but can he prove his doubters wrong?

Overall Odds

@Foxy - 1/8

@Ian - 13/2

Hole 14 will be a tough one for Ian to make any ground back as although it’s not the toughest of challenges you’d expect these two to be quite closely matched on this one. Foxy has the form books on his side and although the halve will be a comfortable favourite here if anyone is likely to snatch it it’ll probably be the Gloucestershire Gladiator.

The start of a very important run of challenges for Ian and he quite simply cannot afford to lose this one.

Hole 14 Odds (Chinese Fir)

@Foxy - 5/2

Hole Halved - 4/9

@Ian - 3/1

[FuddledFox]

 

This looked like another fun challenge with a birdie within reach if not exactly simple to get. I had to sign a Chinese and Spanish striker and then between them get as many goals as possible with 90+ being the aim for a birdie.

When myself and @Ian discussed doing this challenge as a H2H we decided that the Chinese league would be a good one to load as a couple of the challenges ask for Asian or Chinese players. This has meant we have a decent pick of players from over there and luckily I was able to get quite a good Chinese striker.

As for my Spanish guy that was never likely to be much of a problem although it was a shame that I had to buy one as I already had a couple of quality Spanish strikers already.

 

Here is my transfers to show I did buy them both this season.

Spoiler

After the hole when I had to sell most of the squad I managed to rebuild the squad using youngsters from my reserves and players I bought in as well as some big price players from other clubs. The youngsters are now in there early 20s and it has given me an excellent squad so I was hoping I wouldn’t need any real tactical magic for this challenge.

I went with a pretty simple 442.

 

I was relatively lucky with injuries with just a few knocks to both players although Chen missed a few games early in the season and a couple of weeks later in the season.

 

The simple tactic and quality squad and strikers  meant that they started like a train and by early March they had scored 77 goals between them meaning they needed just 13 goals in a minimum of 14 more games although it could be many more with CL games.

 

The lads had a down turn in form from then on especially Chen who only scored another 4 more goals in 13 more appearances. They had been scoring at 1.75 GpG but by the end of the season that had dropped to 1.66 GpG.

Luckily it was enough to get 93 goals for the season and secured me a birdie.

 

This puts me on -11 for the round.

 

Any Other Business

Competitions

Spoiler

Player Stats

Spoiler

Thanks for reading and all comments are appreciated.

[Ian]

Nice season there and good to see a good old 4-4-2 in action. My tactic was a bit more wild in comparison as you’ll see later on lol.

[Ian]

After we we saw @Foxy hit a Birdie yesterday it’s safe to say there’s practically no margin for error left for me and I just need a Birdie here. Can I get it?

I was fairly happy with the options available and ended up going for the highest valued players from both nationalities. You can see below that they are both decent players and I was confident they would be able to score goals. Neither were particularly good in the air though and I’d imagine plenty will be thinking they look too similar to make a good partnership so it’s up to them to prove their doubters wrong.

I went for something a bit different tactically which was as a bit risky but the idea had got stuck in my head so I had to try it.

The team missed out on the FA Cup as we lost out in the quarter final against Wolves in one of those hard to stomach games where we just couldn’t convert our chances. We did win all of the other competitions though whilst also going unbeaten in the league which is always a good thing as far as I’m concerned.

Spoiler

I have always had trouble getting the goals to spread out evenly with two up top and this season proved no different as the Chinese guy stole the show. He was on the right of the two and always near post for all corners but there wasn’t really a ridiculous amount of corner action going on here plus I often tried swapping them and frustratingly the Chinese guy would then usually score the next goal from the left to annoy me. Unfortunately the Chinese lad suffered a few injuries and only ended up playing 48 games and scoring 50 goals. The Spanish lad did seem to improve as the season went on and ended up on 33 goals from his 57 games so not quite enough to take the Birdie unfortunately. It would be easy to just blame the injuries to Ahmat but he still scored 50 goals and it’s more my inability to get the Spanish lad to score that I’ll look back on.

Stats and Transfers

Spoiler

So that Par puts me on -8 for the round and three shots behind @Foxy who will now surely go on to win the H2H. All is not lost for me though as I’m really enjoying the course and I can only play on and try to get the best score I can.

Here’s a preview of what awaits us on hole 15.

Hole 15 - Firethorn (Par 5)

Firethorn is one of the most famous holes at Augusta and is probably one of the easiest as well with the green make-able in 2 shots. In FMM terms, this is a great opportunity to gain back some much needed momentum going into the final three seasons.

Challenge - Buy a North American AMC who must get as many assists in 2 seasons as possible in all competitions.

Eagle - 90 assists

Birdie - 65 assists

Par - 45 assists

Bogey - 25 assists

Double Bogey - 24 or less assists

Thanks for reading.

[FuddledFox]

That injury really cost you there as he would have certainly got those extra 7 goals for you if he could have had just a few extra games.

I love that tactic as well especially with how basic my 442 was. That was the same tactic I used in my Foxy Jr/Kane regen DT last year and it relies on nothing but having great players tbh.

[samhardy]

Game set and match I think and the all important “surge” from @Foxy in the last 5 holes has won it for him.

[BatiGoal]

Time to show what you're made of @IanWith the @Foxy stretching his legs for a victory dance it's time to strike efficient and strike hard.

[samhardy]

The decisive blow was more than likely struck by Foxy in the last hole to put him within one of victory and it looks to be a procession to victory now especially with the par 5 hole 15 coming up. Ian needs to run off 4 straight holes if he is to win outright or 3 of the 4 if he is to take it to a playoff but that just doesn’t seem likely at all the way things are going especially with the Gloucestershire Gladiator really finding his top game at the perfect time.

Overall Odds

@Foxy - 1/25

@Ian - 10/1

With hole 15 being a par 5 and relying on assists which both have proven they are capable of doing in the past it’s hard to see Ian pulling one back here. Both will be expecting to make birdie here with possibly an outside chance of an eagle. Ordinarily the half would be a strong favourite here but the way Foxy is going at the moment it’s hard to see past him winning the hole which would secure him victory in the H2H with 3 holes to spare but as we know Ian will never give up and will be determined to delay the victory parade of his opponent for as long as possible.

Hole 15 Odds (Firethorn)

@Ian - 29/10

Hole Halved - 6/4

@Foxy - 4/5

[Ian]

So here we are with four holes to play and with me being three shots down you could almost say the pressure is off and I can just relax and enjoy my run in. This hole offers us another chance at an Eagle which does look tricky with our chosen player needing to hit 90 assists over two seasons and I suppose the quality of player available will more than likely dictate whether it’s doable or not.

My player was the American regen Colin Legendre who looks fairly decent. He was the highest valued option available and it was an easy decision to make.

As soon as I signed him I checked his profile in hope that he was considered at least a good corner taker. It was even better as he had the fantastic “an expert in dead ball situations” trait and a whole load of other nice ones to go with it so that gave me plenty of confidence going into the first season.

Here’s the transfers page to show that I did indeed sign him. I received the message last year that lets you know that the board just love you so I asked them for an increase in both the transfer budget and wages and ended up with loads of money to spend. Trouble was I didn’t need it last year so I’m kind of spending it now as a little treat to myself.

 

Season One

One good thing about just going for assists as opposed to also having a separate goal scorer is that you can also have the guy on free kicks as well as corners which will hopefully result in a good few more assists. Another good thing is that the Club World Championships are held at the end of this first season so a few extra games available which is rather nice. Anyway, Colin had a fine season and managed to get 46 assists in total to put the Eagle within reach. He was only injured once for a very short spell and the only other games he missed would’ve been due to fitness so we need a repeat on that front to have any chance of the Eagle next year but it would be a disappointment to miss out on a Birdie from here you’d feel.

The team also cleaned up this year in terms of trophies which was nice as we’ve missed out on a good few so far.

Spoiler

 

Season Two

After last season I felt we had a good chance of the Eagle and an Eagle we got as he assisted a total of 47 goals this season to give him a total of 93 for the two years. He didn’t score quite as many this season but who cares? A lot was dependant on him keeping relatively fit and that proved to be the case as he only suffered one small injury like last year so guess he’s fairly durable or either I’ve been lucky this time but I’ll take it regardless.

The team won everything except the Community Shield this year.

Spoiler

I went with this tactic and the instructions were fairly unusual compared to how I usually set up as we went wide with the passing through the middle to try and get him more space with plenty of passing options. He was sometimes played as an AP as I just never quite worked out what was the best role for him. Make no mistake a good amount of his assists came from set pieces which we don’t have any real control over but he did hit a fair few in open play so all in all I’m happy and this gives me confidence of maybe hitting some fairly decent numbers for assists in the future.

So that Eagle puts me on 10 under for the round with three holes left to play. We’ll see how @Foxy got on tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

 

[FuddledFox]

Perfectly played 🦅 @Ian with two very consistent seasons from your guy.

[FuddledFox]

 

@Ian got himself a quality eagle on this hole which keeps the H2H alive as even if I match him he will still be able to tie if he won the final 3 holes. That said if I can match his Eagle and half the hole I will be within touching distance of taking the Green Jacket.

Initially I was looking for an American and found a couple of possibilities but then a Jamaican caught my eye. I pinged @samhardy a message just to make sure by North American he meant anyone from a nation that play in the North/Central American and Caribbean football federation so I knew I could use him. This was confirmed by The Statesman so I brought in this guy straight away.

It took £47m to get him but I think he will be worth it as his report suggests he is good at corners. One down side is his passing and creativity isn’t the best but he is young and hopefully has some potential to improve.

 

He would be playing just behind a front three so hopefully he has plenty of options to pass to and put plenty of crosses from corners into as well.

 

Season 1

Hector had a couple of injuries during the season but nothing more than a week so he played plenty of games but he didn’t quite get the number of assists I wanted him to although he wasn’t far away.

He got 39 which is 10 below what I really hoped and around 6 less than I would have been happy with. He is well on target for a birdie but he will need 51+ if he is going to hit that magic mark of 90 in two seasons which will give me an Eagle.

 

S1 Competitions 

Spoiler

Season 2

One huge bonus was the WCC being held in the summer between season 1 and 2. This gave me some extra games and against some weaker teams so hopefully a few more assists this year.

It helped that Hector had improved nicely over season 1 and is now looking a proper player. That included a good increase in his passing and assists so hopefully he would get more assists in open play as well as corners where most of his gpcame last season.

 

I felt that I needed to improve my striker options as well so this guy was brought in and he contributed 30 goals this season.

This was on top of my star striker in the last few seasons Legg who (whisper it) I have high hopes might get a 1kc during this save in the final 11 seasons after this one.

Hector started the season well and by January he had got the 26 assists he needed for me to secure a birdie but I really want that eagle as I didn’t know how Ian would do but if I could get those extra 24 assists I knew that the H2H could be either won or as good as won.

 

This was the situation going into the final three games of the season.

Remember that Hector needed 90+ assists to get me an Eagle so 51 for the season. That leaves me needing just two more assists in my final three games would see the me get the 90 assists I needed.

This was my final three matches so a pretty easy league game and then two cup finals against good teams.

Match 1 vs Sheffield United

Spoiler

This felt like the game I could get the job done so I could relax in the final two matches.

That didn’t happen though as although he scored he didn’t get an assist.

Match 2 vs Man Utd

Spoiler

We lost the game but I didn’t really care as Hector got an assist 

Match 3 vs Juventus

Spoiler

One assist was what he needed.

Spoiler

And it was what he got 😅 

That gave me an Eagle by the skin of my teeth!!!

It was those extra games in the WCC that really made the difference for me this season I think.

That puts me on -13 for the round with three more holes to play. I have looked at them and think and hope I can get at least 2 more birdies which would give me a round of -15 which I would be very happy with.

If I match or better Ian’s score on the next hole I will take the H2H as well.

 

Season 2 Competitions 

Spoiler

Hole 16 - Redbud (Par 3)

A very short hole but one that is played entirely over water. As long as you as managers don't do anything daft then you should be in with a reasonable chance for a birdie, but don't under-estimate the challenge of the hole either otherwise you'll be falling back yet again.

Challenge - In half a season (Jan.15) a centre back of your choice must score as many goals as possible in all competitions. He can NOT take any penalties and can NOT play as a striker.

Birdie - 7+ goals

Par - 5 or 6 goals

Bogey - 3-4 goals

Double Bogey - 0-2 goals

[FuddledFox]

 

It seems that betting has been suspended on this H2H now with me three up over @Ian which is why @samhardy didn’t do an odds post last night and nothing to do with me completely forgetting to ask him to do it 

There is only two more holes after this one and Hole 18 looks all but impossible to get a birdie on so I really wanted another birdie here to give me a chance of the 15 under par round that is my target.

As this is a par 3 it was just half the season counting towards the challenge. We had to buy a CB and then get as many goals as we could with him but he couldn’t play as a striker and he couldn’t take penalties either.

The player could already be at the club so I had already signed my guy in the January I’d the previous season to get some training into him ready for this hole. He is a natural CB but I’ll be honest and say I don’t think he is a very good one as just look at his tackling and positioning before I signed him. He is certainly a BPD which is fine by me as this challenge requires someone who can play a bit and he has good movement, technique and pace.

 

A bit of training later and he had improved a bit including in his shooting and movement which is good to see.

 

He looks a fine BBM to me albeit not world class and I was tempted to play him in that role but in the end I got nervous of him being further back so I put him in the AM role instead as an AP as I find that can be a productive role and position for a few goals. I don’t normally use CM’s but my Hope was that they would simply sit in the middle of the park and pass instead of pushing too far up and nicking a few goals.

I was tempted to play strikerless or with FL/R but instead I went with what I know better and used a TM so that he would get plenty of goals but would hopefully bring Svein into play as well.

 

That was the theory but how did he do?

Spoiler

The target was 7 or more for a birdie and he did a bit better than that in the end with 11 goals so the birdie was relatively easily achieved. He did well as an AM all round as he also got 13 assists as well and I think he is a player I will be looking to keep in the squad as a midfielder but definitely not as a CB.

 

He improved a bit more as well although his shooting hasn’t got any better.

Here is the 10 matches that he scored in and proof that none of his goals were penalties.

Spoiler

He only played 17 times in the 2nd half of the season mostly from the bench and in a deeper position so he only added one more goal and 3 assists to his total by seasons end.

 

That birdie leaves me at 14 under par for my round with two holes to play so it isn’t possible for me to beat the course record of -17 set two years ago by @Nucleus but the course is now harder so I will hopefully avoid any bogeys in the final two holes and will finish within 1 or 2 shots of that score.

 

I played out the rest of the season and if you care here is how the competitions went including the earliest I have been knocked out in a cup during this save.

Spoiler

 

[Ian]

Nicely played Mr Fox, he looks like a nice player. I wasn’t totally sure about the position thing and ended up playing my guy at centre back lol. You’ll all see how I got on tomorrow anyway. 

[FuddledFox]

4 minutes ago, Ian said:

Nicely played Mr Fox, he looks like a nice player. I wasn’t totally sure about the position thing and ended up playing my guy at centre back lol. You’ll all see how I got on tomorrow anyway. 

Even more impressive when you smash a birdie then if he was at CB.

I read it as he could play anywhere so long as it wasn’t upfront and so long as he was a natural CB. I remember asking @samhardy for a clarification for this hole but I can’t remember if it was where he could play or if it could be a player we already own.

[Ian]

So for this hole we needed to get a centre back to score goals but he couldn’t play as a striker and couldn’t take any penalties. If I hadn’t been so far behind then I probably would’ve played him further forward but as I was I decided to just play him at centre back as I don’t recall ever going for goals with a centre back before so would be interesting.

Anyway, the player I chose to use was a Norwegian regen ball playing defender called Kristoffer Berge. I wanted someone with good shooting and technique to hopefully help him score a few free kicks or even long shots. His low aggression was a touch annoying as he may not be keen to go in for headers on our attacking corners but apart from that I was happy with him.

He started well with a goal in his first league game. The goal was a 30 yard free kick!

He then got injured for a month which isn’t the best thing to happen on a half season challenge although the international break fell in the middle of it so not quite as bad as it could have been.

He recovered slightly earlier than expected and wasted no time as he blasted home another free kick from some distance.

We had to wait a good while for his next goal and things weren’t looking good for even a Par at this stage. Again it was a thumping free kick which although nice was actually quite annoying too as I would’ve hoped for at least one headed goal from a corner by this stage.

Another goal followed shortly after and again it was a thunderbolt of a free kick to my amusement.

Time was rapidly running out on the challenge when he came up with a last minute goal away to Arsenal to clinch his fifth goal and a Par for the hole. This time his free kick attempt rebounded off the wall for him to blast into the top corner from about 30 yards out so unfortunately he couldn’t score a single goal from a header to my utter disgust.

Here’s confirmation of the five goals he scored from his stats. No point in going over anything tactical here as I just tried a few things with him usually in a two at the back system but occasionally a three. He was always going up for corners in all the systems I tried but he just never looked like scoring from any of them.

The team won everything except the Super Cup.

Spoiler

He’s confirmation of the score with two holes left to play.

Thanks for reading.

[FuddledFox]

Looks like we both used the same regen then 😆

As he played as a CB I think 5 goals is good total and it’s just a shame he didn’t get you a couple of headers from corners for that birdie.

[Rob]

Both did great though. Deceptively hard round this one.

[Woody]

Sorry chaps i've missed soo much of this.

Like Rob said this is a tough hole especially as you dont have alot of time to smash a haul.

 

 

[Kanegan]

Both good efforts in what was a pretty hard round.

[Ian]

16 hours ago, Foxy said:

Looks like we both used the same regen then 😆

As he played as a CB I think 5 goals is good total and it’s just a shame he didn’t get you a couple of headers from corners for that birdie.

Yes could well be the same regen, my guy was a good bit older but maybe the original had kept going longer on your save. He just couldn’t score from a corner with the majority going to the near post and I just couldn’t get him there so if set pieces come onto the game in the future I know where I’ll be targeting mine lol.

16 hours ago, Rob said:

Both did great though. Deceptively hard round this one.

Thank you Rob, highly appreciated. We’ve had everything on this challenge; goals from goalies, assists from attacking mids and wing backs, double trouble, clean sheets, goal difference, the lot really so great fun it’s been with still two holes to play.

5 hours ago, Woody said:

Sorry chaps i've missed soo much of this.

Like Rob said this is a tough hole especially as you dont have alot of time to smash a haul.

Cheers Woody, yes my guy just couldn’t get the headed goals but was fantastic at free kicks.

1 hour ago, Kanegan said:

Both good efforts in what was a pretty hard round.

Thanks Kane, much appreciated.

[BatiGoal]

Keep believing, Ian. Foxes are known to succumb under pressure. They are!!! 

Spoiler

Feelin the pressure, Fox? 

👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 

[FuddledFox]

7 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Feelin the pressure, Fox? 

Just between you and me Bati I am a bit nervous about these last two holes. Using a player 35+ is risky let alone needing PoM awards and the final challenge looks impossible to get a birdie.

As a veteran of the course do you have any words of encouragement for both myself and Ian?

[BatiGoal]

10 hours ago, Foxy said:

As a veteran of the course do you have any words of encouragement for both myself and Ian?

So glad you asked. Words of advice rather.. embrace the moment, share a good bottle of wine and aim for the middle 🕳 hole.