The theme for this season? Injuries.
- Javier Palacios, a broken ankle, out 3 months.
- Ben Dahan, a torn Hamstring, out 3 months
- Alexandr Panchekha, a damaged Achilles tendon, our 4 months
- Michael Keßler, knee tendonitis, out 3 months.
Holy hells, I don’t know what the heck is going on with my medical department, my Technical director is responsible for hiring/firing them, but I swear a lot of them are going to be losing their job this keeps up.
The season got of to a rip roaring start, with one exception:
Other than that one blip, we were firing on all cylinders, including a 5-4 win over Man City (AKA BFC Dynamo B, more on that later) in the League Phase. Several close victories (but victories nonetheless) followed, but the highlight of this portion of the schedule was beating Dynamo Dresden 5-2 in the Pokal. The only other blip was drawing to HSV, but they kept the ball away from us, and when we did have our chances, we couldn’t make the most of them.
The draw at Augsburg was very annoying, as we were better than them across the board, but the two word work hits we had certainly didn’t help, and neither did the defensive lapse we had that allowed Altmeier to score in the 73rd minute. We were lucky to escape Madrid with a draw, as they thoroughly outplayed us from beginning to end, but ending the first half of the season with just the one loss across all competitions was very nice. Beating Man City and a very good Rennes team were definitely highlights.
The only transfer of consequence was Park Jong-sun in, a South Korean keeper recommended to me by my scout. Our depth at keeper wasn’t the best, and with the injuries we were having I realized that a 21 y/o Egyptian International with next to no experience wasn’t a good plan.
He’s not a bad keeper, in fact I would have been happy to have him in our Bundesliga 2 days, and he can do a solid job for us if required.
The number of games and injuries started catching up to us in January:
FC Koln is a decent squad, they’re fighting for European football and they earned the draw when our defense decided the game was won and the last ten minutes didn’t matter. Union Berlin though, they are fighting relegation. Palacios had a goal called back by VAR for being offsides (it was the right call), then Grgic made not one but two saves on PK’s that saved the draw for us. We should have lost that game.
HSV held us to a draw, again, this time Ohayon saving us with a an 82nd minute goal, but as we were drawing BVB was winning, and they were neck and neck with us.
We got out of League play no problem, then beat PSG 2-1 on aggregate.
We then beat a very good Wolves team in the Quarters, and an excellent Sheffield United Team in the Semi’s, to face Dynamo B (AKA Man City) at Wembley. That was the good news. The bad news? drawing at Wolfsburg, which let BVB pull even with us, and losing at BMG, which let them pull ahead. And so, despite winning the Pokal in extras time at Hertha, and getting to the Finals of the Champions League, we finished 2nd in the League, losing by 1 point.
Now, why do I call Man City “Dynamo B”? This is why:
Curbelo, Schau, Jiminez, Montanaro, and Popovich. All former BFC Dynamo players. All former starters. Montanaro we found very early on, and if we’re being fair (and I don’t want to be but OK) he ended up in Man City via Newcastle and RB Leipzig. Jiminez went to Angers, then City paid €203M(!!) for him. They paid Madrid €174M(!) for Schau, then they paid €52M for Popovich, and €83M for Curbelo. They finished 2nd in the Prem behind Chelsea. They were playing essentially a home game, as this years final was in Wembley.
And with out best striker and one of our better AM(C)’s out, we won:
In City’s defense (pft!) the Vasiliu goal was very close, but VAR clearly showed he was offsides. Sadler was BEHIND Popovich when he got the goal and scored, and how Grgic ended up on a 6.9 I am not sure, but we got to celebrate in front of the English crowd, and it felt good:
Befitting a Champions League Winning Season, several players had amazing years:
A keeper with 1 or 2 POM’s isn’t out of the ordinary. Grgic with 7 though, that’s more than a few games won. I knew Navarro had a good season, I didn’t realize it was 20+ goals AND assists, and the scary thing is he still has some room to grow IMO:
Yoneyama was very good again, and resting him for Ohayon was not a huge dropoff. Palacios stepped up when needed, but the biggest surprise for me this season was Panchekha. 17 goals and 14 assists while missing 16+ games is phenomenal.
Lars Eller was living the good life. As the President of BFC Dynamo the past six years, he hat sat at the top of the boardroom table, watching as the club worked it’s way to the top of the table not once, but three times, and less than a week ago lifted the Champions League trophy. That Coach Schmidt hadn’t smiled at him when he handed the Cup over was galling on a personal level, and it was something he was going to bring up in today’s meeting. Coach’s ego was getting big, and it was time to remind him who was in charge of the club.
There was a knock on the door, and his secretary came in a few seconds later, marched to his desk, and put an envelope down, then turned and left without a word. There was no name on the front, but he opened it, took out the letter, and started to read.
Herr Eller,
Eighteen years ago I I was hired as head coach of BFC Dynamo. They are the club I have supported since childhood, the club I wanted to coach since I was young, and the journey since the day I was hired has been a very good one. In these 18 years i Have coached a total of 6546 days, won 15 awards. In 773 games played, we have won 403 of them, drawn 176, and lost 194, with a +444 goal difference. We have won 7 Cups, 4 Leagues, and have been promoted 3 times.
The past three years the club has fallen behind. I have asked repeatedly for improvements to the training facilities, the youth facilities, and training grounds. I have asked numerous times for new affiliates, and have been repeatedly turned down. This club has a vision, a goal, and a desire, but in order for those things to be attained, the tools must be present for them to be made possible. The last time I asked you, if you will remember, you told me I had to make do with what I had.
I find I can no longer do that anymore, and I prefer to go out on top. Therefore I must inform you that as of 7AM this morning, June 5th, 2040, I resign as Head Coach of BFC Dynamo.
I wish you and the club success in it’s future endeavors.
Regards,
Nicholas Schmidt
His hands were shaking as he read the end of the letter, and when his phone rang he picked it up without a thought and yelled “What!”
“Hello, Herr Eller, this is Klaus Schneider with Voetbalzone, I was wondering if you could comment on Herr Schmidt resigning this morning?”
Eller slammed the phone back down on its cradle.
One more entry in the Der Bär Wird Wieder Brüllen universe is up, as we take a look at what happened to the club after Coach left, and take a look at what happened with some of the players who built the club, and helped carry it to the top. An interesting (at least to me) note, if you go to Club Vision -> Board you will see a board request data section. For the entirety of my duration in Berlin, the board turned down 60% of my requests. The final straw for me this season (what with FM24 having been released) they rejected all of my requests for Youth Improvement and Youth Facilities and affiliates, and I had to threaten to quit to get the training facilities upgraded as well. This whole save I have fought the board in one fashion or another, hell it almost ended after the first year when the club put in in so much debt to build a new stadium that it could have been over before it started, and I hate fighting the board. It’s time to travel, and see the world.
This has been a fun save, and I’ll expand on that more in the last post. Thanks for reading!
THE FOOTBALL MANAGER BLOG OF FM_JELLICO 