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

[broodje kip]

45 minutes ago, samhardy said:

Just because @BatiGoal posted a bogey doesn’t make it a hard hole. Terrible manager.

Lol Sam could basically flex to anybody because of his Gateshead career

[Ian]

Little preview for the next hole. My keeper got injured for two months during the first season so I put another keeper up front as I was tweaking things as I was going so made sense to keep a goalie up top. Anyway, he had the audacity to score a hat trick of penalties in one game which was highly frustrating with all the ones my main guy had missed. 😂

 

[FuddledFox]

21 hours ago, Woody said:

Well done you 2. You have to admit that Pavon is still an absolute god. 

 

15 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Great work Foxy. Pavon is certainly a class player. 

Thanks Woody and Kane, he still has it after all these editions of FMM that he has been a go to winger.

17 hours ago, Lord Danish said:

Great work Foxy.

The next hole seems impossible though

I wouldn’t say impossible as so long as we don’t get sacked we can continue and I think a par isn’t out of the question for either of us.

4 hours ago, samhardy said:

Just because @BatiGoal posted a bogey doesn’t make it a hard hole. Terrible manager.

I notice that Bobby the Greenkeeper has made the hole longer compared with the 2018 edition 🤬

12 minutes ago, Ian said:

Little preview for the next hole. My keeper got injured for two months during the first season so I put another keeper up front as I was tweaking things as I was going so made sense to keep a goalie up top. Anyway, he had the audacity to score a hat trick of penalties in one game which was highly frustrating with all the ones my main guy had missed. 😂

 

You are a better man than me @Ian as I would have pretended that Maher was my main man!

[BatiGoal]

On 31/12/2019 at 19:23, samhardy said:

Just because @BatiGoal posted a bogey doesn’t make it a hard hole. Terrible manager.

The hole was pretty easy tbf. If only my adversary stuck to the rules 🙄

Spoiler

 

[smoggy90]

Great to see Pavon doing the business for you both, what a player.

Good luck with the next hole, a real tough one.  

[samhardy]

Another hole down and still the competitors are level however there is a feeling amongst Black Cat Betting that this is about to change. The injury screenshot provided by Ian above is enough to tip the odds for both hole 8 and subsequently the challenge in Foxy’s favour.

But was this simply a tease or is that injury a game changer? It’s up to vibe’s gambling addict @BatiGoal or anyone else to decide that.

Overall Odds

@Foxy - 1/2

@Ian - 6/4

A tricky challenge made even harder by 2 month injuries. Foxy is the narrow to moderate favourite to win this one and take the lead.

Hole 8 Odds (Yellow Jasmine)

@Foxy - 4/9

Hole Halved - 5/4

@Ian - 3/1

[FuddledFox]

Once we get to the end of this hole we are half way through the H2H and the round itself but this is a long, two season grind of a par 5. The aim was to sign a GK from a team that plays in yellow and then get him to score as many goals as possible.

Tough stuff and my aim was to try and get a par which would involve my GK scoring 35 goals or more over the two seasons.

My chosen GK came from Norwich and is a regen.

Its hard to know what to look for in a GK who might score some goals but this fella has pace and aerial so maybe that will help to a certain extent and the stamina means he can play a lot of games hopefully. I don’t know if kicking has any impact on it but this guy doesn’t have great attribute there and the less said about his technique the better.

Either way he was the best I could get from a yellow wearing club.

Season 1

I felt like season 1 would be the tougher of the two as I was training Hardy as a striker so maybe he would get a bit better as the time went on and score more in season 2. My aim was for at least 20 goals in this first season so that 15 next season would get me a par, I never once considered that 50 goals for a birdie would ever be achieved.

Spoiler

He did ok in the league as he got half the goals that I wanted in season 1 in those games.

The cups was a different matter though and he failed to register a goal in either the Champions League, League Cup or the Community Shield. He did better in the FA Cup though.

That gave him a total of 14 goals in season 1 which was way off what I wanted but it at least keeps him in with an outside chance of a par if he can get 21 next season.

Season 1 Competitions 

Spoiler

Season 2

Spoiler

The first aim was for 11 goals as that would at least get me a bogey and obviously +1 is better than +2 on my score and maybe it would just be enough to take the hole over @Ian. If I could get those 11 goals in decent time maybe I could push on for more and get another 10 and secure a par.

Scoring less in league really didn’t help my cause though.

Again he failed to register in the Champions League or any super cups and this season he didn’t score in the FA a cup either.

That meant it was all down to the League Cup whether I got a double bogey or a bogey.

Spoiler

Three goals was enough to get me 25 goals over the two seasons and left me with a bogey for hole 9 so my first dropped stroke of the round.

He did worse in the 2nd season than the first and after he got his 11th goal of the season in mid March during a win over Wolves he never scored again in the remaining 15 games of the season.

 

Either way if Ian has got it right and can secure a par he can go back in front of our H2H with 9 holes to play.

 

 

Season 2 Competitions 

Spoiler

 

[Ian]

Nice hole there @Foxy!

We’ll see how I got on shortly.

[BatiGoal]

This is a terrible hole to play. Two seasons struggling to score feels like an eternity. My least favorite by a mile. 

Don't think you're taking the lead with this score @Foxy but you minimized the damage. Could still be a/s afterall. 

[samhardy]

That’s more like it!

[Ian]

So we’ve seen my fierce opponent @Foxy could only manage a Bogey on this hole but in fairness, I think we’d all agree that it’s a tough little hole this one. The door has been opened for me though as if I could manage a Par I’d grab myself a little lead but as most of you know, I lost my challenger for a couple of months during the first season so maybe even the Bogey could be tricky.

Player: Meho Pasalic

I found a player from Porto who have a yellow away kit and he had some decent numbers in certain attributes I was looking for. I wanted good physical attributes and he seemed just okay in that regard but aggression was another one I wanted a high number in so he’d be more keen to go in and give those defenders hell and 15 fitted the bill. His aerial was 15 before we signed him but dropped to 14 once we’d unveiled him which was annoying but quite common and 14 was okay with me. I also wanted a decent number for technique and 12 is certainly that for a goalkeeper so overall I was happy with my choice.

Season 1

He managed to hit eight league goals in the first season and frustratingly for me as mentioned previously, I managed to get a few goals out of another keeper whilst he was sidelined through injury.

He scored a further two goals in the Champions a League, one in the FA Cup and two in the League Cup to put his total for the season to 13 which I was happy with in the end. You can see below that he scored practically all of his goals in the first half of the season but then went on a horrible run where it looked like he’d never score again but luckily after his injury he scored a goal in the FA Cup semi final which give me hope for next season. 

Spoiler

Other Business

Spoiler

We slipped up in the Community Shield against Spurs as our challenger set the tone for the season in missing two penalties in normal time and one in the shootout but we managed to win the rest of the competitions we entered.

Season 2

In the second season he scored 11 league goals which puts him very close to the Bogey threshold but with all of the cup games still to reveal, could he hit a Par?

Well, he couldn’t as he could only manage a further five goals in the cup games to take his season total to 16 and his hole total to 29 which means I also get a Bogey which I’m happy enough with.

Spoiler

Other Business

Spoiler

We lost out to Everton in the quarter final of the League Cup and also suffered an early defeat in the FA Cup as Man Utd dumped us out in the fourth round but we did win everything else.

Here’s how my challenger looked at the end of the hole. He’s now valued at a nice £56m.

So that keeps us level going into Hole 9.

Here’s a preview of what challenge awaits us on Hole 9.

Spoiler

Make the most of this hole because after this it really starts to get tricky. You may want to go for the birdie however be careful as if you underestimate it, you'll end up dropping back.

Challenge - Buy an MC from Bournemouth and play him in that position. Total up his goals and assists at the end of the season in all competitions. Then, if his average rating is above 7.50, add 7 to the total. If it's below 7.50, then remove 7 from the total.

Birdie - 65 overall

Par - 50 overall

Bogey - 35 overall

Double Bogey - 34 or less overall

Thanks for reading.

[BatiGoal]

The purpose of this hole is just to mess with a golfer's confidence. Now that you have both undergone a small glimpse of what goes on in @samhardy's turbulent mind, it's time to find out who's come out with the least amount of mental suffering 😂 

[Kanegan]

At least both of you restricted the damage to a minimum in this insane hole. KIU

[Rob]

Well played lads. Tricky one that.

[FuddledFox]

I was hoping for a double bogey from you @Ian 

[samhardy]

The two competitors are still locked as we approach the turn as both just keep taking what the opponent throws at them and gives it back. Ian managed to secure a half on the last hole despite a lengthy injury to close up the overall odds again. Foxy is still a narrow favourite but it’s too close to call.

Overall Odds

@Foxy - 8/15

@Ian - 5/4

Hole 9 is a good birdie opportunity before the very tricky series of holes coming up after that. Another half is probably likely here but if anyone can strike a blow it would be the perfect time going into “Amen Corner”, after which we will know a lot more about the destination of this H2H.

Hole 9 Odds (Carolina Cherry)

@Ian - 5/2

Hole Halved - 4/5

@Foxy - 2/1

[BatiGoal]

Both contenders are back on the grass after a night's heavy drinking. Therefore, my life savings on double bogey x2 pls! 

[Ian]

We are all square going into this hole and things look like they might get rather tricky for a spell after this one so if one of us could grab a lead here then it could be significant.

For this hole we had to buy a cm from Bournemouth, play him there and have him score and assist as many goals as possible in all competitions. We had to take his combined goals and assists at the end of the season and if his average rating was above 7.5, we would add 7 to his total and if below, we’d subtract 7 to give us our total. If he could get 65+ in total, we’d score a Birdie, above 50 we’d score a Par, above 35 we’d score a Bogey and anything below 35 we’d score a dreaded Double Bogey.

Player: Tom Bourne(mouth)

I had four players to choose from with two being young regens and two being older veterans. Lo Celso was 34 and had really declined and I never fancied Douglas Luis for goals and assists so it was between the two regens. Bourne looked by far the best of the two so that was the way I went. He was a bit rough in places but had nice physical attributes for a youngster and it looked like he would develop into a fairly decent player. He also had on his coaching report that he was an ‘effective set-piece taker’ which gave me confidence for this hole.

I set up in a way to try and get him involved in the action as much as possible with him playing the box to box midfield role as I find that to be a good role for player ratings which could be important.

Halfway Stage of the Season

He was doing well and had scored 10 goals, assisted 21 and his average rating was 7.75 so all was looking good. His high stamina meant he was playing a lot of minutes for a younger player, he was good at both corners and free kicks, not bad at penalties and he hadn’t suffered any real injuries at this point so I was quite confident going into the second half of the season.

End of Season

He kept his decent form up for the second half of the season and ended up with 38 assists and 22 goals to give him a total of 60 combined for the season. His average rating was above 7.5 so he earned us a Birdie for the hole. It was quite tight going by the numbers but it always felt like he’d do it as his average rating never looked like it would drop below the threshold but losing in the fifth round of the FA Cup and the semi final of the European Cup took away a few games which made getting the 58 combined goals and assists a little harder than it might’ve otherwise been.

Other Business

We had a comfortable league campaign but as mentioned above the cups weren’t all great as we missed out on both the FA Cup and European Cup. The system I used throughout wasn’t so great I’d say but our squad is really strong so we got away with it and it’s good to try new things every so often. This course forces you to use different systems and such and that could come in handy later or on the next hole in particular if we end up depleted in certain areas.

Spoiler

So that Birdie puts me -6 for the course and in a good position going into the tricky holes that follow. We’ll see how @Foxy got on later.

Thanks for reading.

[BatiGoal]

Interesting formation with those two DMs. I quite liked this challenge but if I remember correctly think I only managed a par on this one. Got a real chance to take the lead here. 

[Woody]

Yeah defo some formation @Ian mate 😂

Obviously did the job. 

[Ian]

11 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Interesting formation with those two DMs. I quite liked this challenge but if I remember correctly think I only managed a par on this one. Got a real chance to take the lead here. 

 

4 hours ago, Woody said:

Yeah defo some formation @Ian mate 😂

Obviously did the job. 

Thank you both.

It was totally untested and I would’ve changed it if needed but he was doing alright. The vast majority of his goals and assists were from corners, free kicks and pens but I didn’t want to have another player alongside him at cm level incase they took some of his glory. It didn’t work out too well in the cups though but it may have potential with a tweak or two or even just a better BBM.

[FuddledFox]

I am again playing catch up as @Ian posted a very tasty birdie.

I have a point to prove as well with @BatiGoal completely writing off my chances of match Ian birdie.

12 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Got a real chance to take the lead here. 

Luckily Bournemouth are still in the Premier League so they have a few options although they are weak in midfield in my save. I had a couple of options to go for but I settled on this Turkish regen in the end who initially I wasn’t all that interested in.

What was putting me off was his physical attributes as he needs to play CM and he lacks any pace to get forward and score goals and make assists and I need him to play as often as possible and he has no stamina either.

What swayed him for me though was when I scouted him I got a few clues that he might be worth going with. His coach report shows them as well as he is an expert in dead ball situations and he is consistent as well.

Corners, free kicks and penalties are going to be key so I think he was worth the punt even with his obvious flaws.

I needed a tactic that could make him perform and I went with the tactic I used for the majority of my Promotion Hunter save last year. I found that the AP was a consistent assister each season in that save even if he wasn’t on set pieces so I felt it might work.

I have some excellent BBMs with plenty of pace and I was hoping they could compensate for that flaw in Aslan’s game and get up and down the pitch. I then have an array of attacking talent up top for the Aslan to play in but also with some strikers that excel in the air hopefully get on the end of some corners and free kicks.

 

In terms of competitions it couldn’t have gone better as we went unbeaten in the league and won all the trophies going which bodes well for next season when that is the challenge.

Spoiler

How about Aslan then?

With his 9 for stamina (went up to 10 mid way through the season) he struggled to play all the games and in total he missed 12 matches in a 70 match season simply so I could keep him fit to perform. A lot of the time this would be him resting in a trickier game so he was fully fit for an easier game.

At times that policy paid off with performances like this with 3 assists and a goal.

All this is great but what you really want to know is how many assists and goals he got.

Spoiler

He actually hit 65 without the bonus for a 7.5+ AvR with 26 goals and 39 assists. He got the 7 point bonus as well with a 7.65 AvR so he really did the job for me even with his limitations.

Total Points: 26 gls + 39 assists + 7 bonus pts = 72 points 

 

He improved a bit during the season as well but he won’t be staying for next season as I need to clear out most of the squad for the next challenge.

This keeps the H2H all square but things get serious now as we enter Amen Corner.

Next Challenge

Hole 10 - Camellia (Par 4)

An absolutely monstrous challenge for anyone of any skill level. Arguably the toughest hole on the course, this season will require a total squad revamp. Before this point you've been able to keep *pretty much* whatever players you want. Not now. Even a bogey is tricky to get on this hole.

Challenge - At least 15 members of your 30 man squad must be Asian or American. On the 30th of every month, you must demote your 2 best performing players (Av.R wise) and never use them again. In January you may promote two players back up from the reserves of your choice. Win as many trophies as possible.

Birdie - Win all trophies

Par - Win all but 1

Bogey - Win all but 2

Double Bogey - Fail to win 3 or more

[Woody]

Now that was impressive! 

[BatiGoal]

Just when I thought The Dog had his opponent cornered and down on his knees, The Fox hits back from unimaginable angles. 

[Kanegan]

Impressive from both of you again. Bravo

[Ian]

Excellent performance there Mr Fox!

[broodje kip]

Impressive work @Foxy and @Ian 

Good luck on the next one

[FuddledFox]

19 hours ago, Woody said:

Now that was impressive! 

 

2 hours ago, Lord Danish said:

Impressive work @Foxy and @Ian 

Good luck on the next one

 

13 hours ago, Kanegan said:

Impressive from both of you again. Bravo

Cheers guys.

2 hours ago, Ian said:

Excellent performance there Mr Fox!

We both did well here and it was interesting to see the different approach’s  we took with our tactics although we both got the same end result.

15 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Just when I thought The Dog had his opponent cornered and down on his knees, The Fox hits back from unimaginable angles. 

I need to stop getting myself cornered and start to fight back and corner The Dog I think.

[smoggy90]

Excellent hole from you both again, best of luck with the next one!

[samhardy]

Absolutely nothing is “giving” in this colossal matchup as we reach the halfway point, 7 of the first 9 holes have been halved. Which means there has been hardly any change in the overall odds throughout. Can you pick a winner at this stage? What about you @BatiGoal? 🤔

Overall Odds

@Foxy - 8/15

@Ian - 5/4

Hole 10 is a brutal hole if not played correctly. There are simply too many variables in this challenge for accurate predictions to be made. None of the 3 outcomes would be a surprise here. I’m hoping for 2 big fat Andy Reid shaped double bogeys myself.

Hole 10 Odds (Camelia)

@Foxy - 29/20

Hole Halved - 5/2

@Ian - 9/5