Beam me up, Scotty - Rangers & Scotland CM Story

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
One down, one to go.
A domestic double, then?
It'll be interesting to see if Celtic win the Europa.
It's a pity that none of the other Scottish teams seem able to put in a challenge domestically. One of them needs an Alex Ferguson, I think.

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Yes, well, I don't expect another Alex Ferguson to drop by anytime soon though. But truly, what he achieved with Aberdeen does really emphasize what kind of generational talent he was as a manager. Never since has a non-Glasgow side won the Premiership. Rangers were even thrown several tiers down a few years back, and still no one else were able to go up and make a proper challenge in the title race.

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
Super substitution to win the cup - excellent when that happens.

From the sound of it, there are likely to be quite a few changes coming up on th squad front.

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Yeah, maybe there are. I haven't really thought it through yet, just trying to build up some talk in the media. I have a few ideas, and the Marcus Tavernier on left back test in the cup final could be something I'm looking more into in the coming season. As a result I expect to sell left back Ridvan Yilmaz and forward Cyriel Dessers, both with 1 year left of their contracts. And with both already replaced in-house (Oli Burke having replaced Dessers centrally), I would maybe wait until I see a few departures, before I start purchasing. But hey, that's a worry for tomorrow, I guess. First the World Cup with Scotland!

No Brazil.  Now that would make a headline in itself.

Interesting group paired with England.

No Celtic players in the squad?  Has that ever happened before?

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@CO88LER5 wrote:

No Brazil.  Now that would make a headline in itself.

Interesting group paired with England.

No Celtic players in the squad?  Has that ever happened before?

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No Brazil, yeah that was kind of a shock. But I know there's been some licensing issues, don't know whether that had anything to do with it. At first I was a bit frustrated, but they are actually struggling a bit in their IRL qualifiers, so if ever they were going to miss one, this could actually be it. It would be nice with a few other South American teams present then though. Netherlands and the other teams absent, I think that's more random, given there are no world cup qualifiers in the game.

No Celtic players, yeah I didn't really think about that myself, perhaps still counting Callum McGregor as such. But I suppose you're right, and even though I'm too lazy to check it just now, I'm inclined to agree with you; this has to be a first major tournament Scotland squad without a single Celtic player. To be fair, Greg Taylor might have a case that he should be called up, captaining them now (in game), taking them to the Europa League final (where they lost though) and having a nice 78 OVR to show. However, he would just have been ANOTHER left back in my already stacked group, and I'm no Southgate, am I?

" It would be nice with a few other South American teams present then though"

I'm beginning to wonder what is going on, as the number of countries you can send scouts to, especially in South America, has shrunk to almost nothing.  Yes, you can still scout for the academy, but not for first-team players.

If EA doesn't get its act together, it's going to be quite farcical soon. 

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@CO88LER5 wrote:

" It would be nice with a few other South American teams present then though"

I'm beginning to wonder what is going on, as the number of countries you can send scouts to, especially in South America, has shrunk to almost nothing.  Yes, you can still scout for the academy, but not for first-team players.

If EA doesn't get its act together, it's going to be quite farcical soon. 

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Yes, I agree. On one hand we have the organization FIFA, who are SO tied up on having and maintaining a worldwide appeal. Even if the quality drops, it's all about including more teams/nations, referees from smaller leagues etc. And then we have EA, who are completely opposite, only focusing on Europe, well, and then the occational South American league, but not having the full inclusion to actually make it interesting. Sad. So much wasted potential.

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
Good win, especially with the dearth of shots you managed. The kind of shot conversion rate that most teams would envy, especially United IRL at the moment (bottom of the shot conversion table, at 7.4%!).
Looks like you have a good draw in the next round, too, before it gets tricky.

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Yes, I can't complain about the path so far. There are some proper players in both these African teams, but historically they should always be considered easier than the "giants". And with only half of the remaining 8 teams having won it before, we could be in for an upset here. I mean, with France out, Brazil not qualified etc. 

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
Semi final against the Auld Enemey. Couldn't have set it up better, really.

Surely whoever wins that will face Germany, but you never can tell...

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Haha, no you can never tell. Mexico beating France in the Quarter Final, I did NOT see that coming. Especially after Mexico lost 2-1 to Finland in their first game and 3-0 to Spain in their second. But I have to say that their attacking trio, Vega, Giménez and Lozano have put some impressive numbers in so far.

Edit: Which is quite opposite to Kylian Mbappé, I might add. I did expect him to score at least 4 at tie Klose as the most scoring player ever in World Cup history. But he's scored 0 and only has one assist to show. What a let-down!