How I planned my "Dream Cup"

6th April 2014: the team named AC Spondinig loses 3-0 against NaOH (a BOT team) the qualification match for a place in III division.

21th May 2014: 45 days after, the same team, renamed as FC Green Arrow, draws 3-3 against Cashfiesta, 3 times Liga Perdana champions, after 90 minutes, in a cup match.

This article is about the emotions of the national Cup and how I have planned my cup road to face the best managers of Malaysia, since last season.

My adventure in Piala Malaysia has just finished. My players fought like tigers, but they surrendered to the stronger opponent after 120 intense minutes. I would have written this article regardless of the outcome of this match, because our season target has been achieved when this match started.

Season 41 has been the first entire season since our team has born. We have played in Piala Malaysia for 5 matches, then we have been defeated by doeh FC (73089): our opponent signed two goals in the last minutes, after an injury that had weakened our midfield when the match was standing on 1-1 (467834914).

Since our division was full of BOT teams, our motivations for that season were turned off after the cup elimination. We had two choices: to be promoted immediately in III division or to dedicate another season to train players in IV division, and to try to do something more in the national cup. Then I thought that if I had been able to face a team from Liga Perdana during the national cup, this would have been more exciting and useful than playing in a III division.

So I planned to lose the promotion: it was not easy to be defeated in a league full of BOTs because i did not want to lose training for my players. I managed to lose a game to not be promoted directly, then I had to play a qualification game against a III division team (this meant to have more training and EXP for my players). Unfortunately the team I had to play in the qualification game was a BOT, again... and I had to do my worst (523, LS, PIC) to lose that match (469425141). After that I started to think about the next season.

Season 42: I have changed the name of my team, I have remained in the same league in IV, with 6 BOTs and 1 new manager. This situation is good because I can play always PIC in league games to increase my TS. The leadership of my coach was only weak, but anyway I could maintain the TS level high enough.
This is how I played my first 8 games of this season.

TS level before match	Match	Team Attitude
4.5	Cup I	PIC
5.68	League I	PIC
7.05	Cup II	PIC
7.98	League II	PIC
8.53	Cup III	PIC
8.23	League III	PIC
8.53	Cup IV	Normal
7.53	League IV	PIC

This management was useful to face the 5th round of the cup with TS level = 8.53

Piala Malaysia, Season 42, 5th round
The opponent team is codottcore (398840), managed by ajapis (2230530) who is the current coach of U20 Malaysia. "This is the match I was looking for" I think and then start to prepare the match. To honor the importance of this match, we have realized a special kit with the colors of Malaysia (/Community/KitSearch/?KitID=2064916)

The difficulty of this game was tied to my opponent's strong defense. But he usually do not use all their best players in cup, because he have to preserve them for the league. Anyway I was sure he would have played 532 CA or 541 CA, so I had to increase my offensive ratings. This was quite easy because I knew my confidence would have been completely exaggerated, after my sunday league game. So I bought 3 defensive forwards to play 253 AOW (with 2 offensive wings and 2 midfield towards wing) because it was impossible to increase significantly my central attack. Team attitude: Normal.

The game (482291763) went well, we conceded 2 CA but we were able to score 5 goals, even if an injury could be annoying for us. Luckily, the withdraw event arrived only after 83 minutes, when the match was over. I am sure I would have lost if my opponent had fielded his best players, but I am proud to say that 6 of my players who took part in this game are from the original group I received in November 2013.

Piala Malaysia, Season 42, 6th round
After winning against the U20 coach, another well-known manager is waiting to face my team: redbig (8830284)
"Wow! This is REALLY the match I was looking for" I think, incredulous.

Cashfiesta (398993): 3 times Liga Perdana champions, 2 times cup winners, 4 won matches in Hattrick Masters, they have played the last 2 cup finals.

Our plan has been successful. This is really a "Dream Cup". To honor the importance of this match, we have realized another special kit (/Community/KitSearch/?KitID=2064704).

This match is like a "mission impossible", but we have to do everything to make it possible. Unlike the previous round, the opponent will certainly use his best players because his opponent in the Liga Perdana game does not exist (walkover). So TS of Cashfiesta is certainly at a good level.
To win this match we were looking for the MOTL button = Match Of The Life, it means that all of your ratings become divine, but we did not find him. So we have another plan:

1) to spend 40000 MYR for a weak coach with solid leadership: this can increase our TS from 8.53 to 9.13, we'll fire that coach after the cup match
2) that coach has to be "fond of attacking"
3) to have max confidence like the previous round
4) to play 253 AOW with 3 titanic / extraterrestrial normal midfielder
5) to play with AOW = divine level
6) Team Attitude: MOTS

The only formation Cashfiesta uses recently is 3-5-2 so we have to overtake their midfield (this can be possible playing home, with high TS) and then to attack strongly. The only tactics he can use are AOW or AIM or none, but we do not care about this because we have decided not to defend. In this way we have prepared a match we can win (33%), draw (33%) or lose (33%), with the same probability.

The match starts very well: After 3 minutes, Gerwazy Sułkowski came in from the right, feinted, then sped past the off-balance defender to make the score 1 - 0, giving Arrow the lead. Then we avoid a goal from SE corner.

Rating details after 10 minutes:

Arrow midfield

titanic (very high) 69%

Cashfiesta midfield

magnificent (very low) 31%

Arrow Right Attack	Arrow Central Attack	Arrow Left Attack
titanic (high) 51%	outstanding (very low) 30%	extra-terrestrial (high) 51%
Cashfiesta Left Defense	Cashfiesta Central Defense	Cashfiesta Right Defense
supernatural (very low) 49%	brilliant (very high) 70%	titanic (very low) 49%

Unfortunate episodes: if we want to win, everything has to go well (or better). But the injury of our best defensive forward reduces our midfield / attack ratings and our possibilities a lot when there are still 78 minutes to play. Even if we are leading 3 - 1 after 60 minutes, we know that the victory is far.
Other episodes are the 2 negative SE rain and the spontaneous CA who punish us in the second half when Cashfiesta scores the 2nd goal.
But we can still extend the game to extra time... and we do it.
Then the stronger team has won (482431924)

Congratulations to redbig. We are happy to have played this challenge. I like to remember that 5 of our players which took part in this game are from the starter group. I hope to have a rematch one day in the future. In the meantime, we will work to improve ourselves and gain experience in this fantastic game that Hattrick is.

Link directly to this article (HT-ML, for the forum): [ArticleID=18017]