[Second Teams] Interview with Koulou

Thanks to 2nd teams, Ireland got plenty of new coachs coming from different countries. Some of them are here because they love Ireland as they came in holidays once, to play against IRL friends or just because there wasn't any place left in Jamaica or Cuba. Some are real Irishs living abroad, some are real Irish living in Ireland, and... there are others.

Wherever they are coming from, whatever is their reason, all of them got something special and deserve this highlight.

We will start by koulouu and his "The Kseftills" team (280310).
He is coming from Greece and was for a bit more than 3 seasons, the best of the 2nd teams in Ireland.
Some of us already met him... and probably lost.

koulouu and the The Kseftills (280310) has been the best 2nd team after 3 seasons in term of statistics and results.

3 times serie winner, in Division V and twice in Division IV.
8th round cup reached during his 3rd season and he lost against Swords city ... the Cup winner.

When the interview has been started, koulouu was still the leader of his serie and he was still in the Cup ... but now the situations have changed due to an earlier loss in Cup.

However, he made an impressive start here and deserve to be known as a dangerous coach ... in the way to conquer Ireland soon!!

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Filooo-Poulidor: Could you please introduce yourself?
koulouu: My name is Dimitris, I'm 30 years old and I live in Athens. My hobbies are poker and hattrick. I also like football and basketball, but, as I'm getting older I mostly like watching than playing.


Filooo-Poulidor: Tell us about your teams. What is the inspiration for your teams' name and logo?
koulouu: The name(s) of my teams it's a long story. I have to write a lot of lines to explain it. Xeftila in Greek means shabby or worthless in a free translation. About the logos... well I actually have changed my teams logos recently. They look ridiculously but they are drawn from my (girl)friend and you know, what should I do? I had to put them as my teams' logos...


Filooo-Poulidor: Why you chose Ireland and why Waterford ? Are you connected with the country/city in RL or HT ?
koulouu: We had a discussion in a Greek federation about where we will have our second team. We chose Ireland because of the language and because the matches are on Sunday afternoon. Waterford was just a random choice


Filooo-Poulidor:How do you interact with locals, if at all?
koulouu:As for now, I haven't. I don't feel as a part of Irish community. I will try to change that in the future


Filooo-Poulidor:You made an impressive beginning in Ireland with Kseftills... the best one of all the 2nd teams here. Could you spare some details of your strategy/plan to build-up your team?
koulouu:From the start of my second team I had a clear plan. I have a long training plan with my first team and I will not be competitive for some seasons. Thats why I wanted to be competitve with my second team since the first day. I only had overaged players. I didn't train anything, or only just to keep my players skills.


Filooo-Poulidor:What was your first target this season? The Cup? To climb one more step as fast as possible?
koulouu: My target is to have fun with my 2nd team. I was having fun with the cup, but I lost early so now I have to make a small restart.


Filooo-Poulidor:Do you think that climbing series very fast leads to earn more money faster? Or does a club needs always some time to grow in a sustainable way?
koulouu:No it doesn't. If you want to make money you have to stay for some seasons at the bottom leagues.


Filooo-Poulidor:What was the reason of changing your strategy after 3 great seasons, winning nearly all your series games ?
koulouu:My only income was from cup matches. Since I'm out, I had to change my strategy and train some youngsters just to make some money. But I will not do that for more than a couple of season, it's boring.


Filooo-Poulidor:Have you encountered huge issues by playing with oldies in Division III?
koulouu:No! Actually if I had kept my team I am sure that I would be in division II next season


Filooo-Poulidor:What is the lesson you have learned of these 3 first seasons... and this 4th one?
koulouu:The lesson that I learned those 3 first seasons was that there are more than 1 optimal way to play hattrick. The lesson that I learned this season is that I need a more SE optimized team.


Filooo-Poulidor:What is your opinion about the new staff system? Do they influence your plan or do they improve your performance or finance ?
koulouu:I really like the changes. They force everyone to be more competitive and to have some headaches about who to choose in their staff.


Filooo-Poulidor:Let's imagine you are in charge of developing the game. Tell us what kind of improvement/changes you would bring to the game. (staff/game engine/community...)
koulouu:I would nerf the side attack and make the central attack stronger. Right now the engine forces all the big teams to play with df's, the normal forwards are kind of useless in 90% of the matches. For the community, I would let people troll and spam as far is it stays as a joke. I also think that we should not have non-hattrick forums. Everything should be in the hattrick forum.


Filooo-Poulidor:What was your best HT-moment ever?
koulouu:My best hattrick moments were the success that Greek National team had in the previous seasons. We were two times in a row only one win away from medals

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Interview took place in 2 times, 4-6th of May 2014 and 12-13th May 2014, before and after the loss in Cup and the strategy changes.

Link directly to this article (HT-ML, for the forum): [ArticleID=18000]