AAR: Hull City Tigers

[Coqui]

I would say a 2-0 Chelsea win. Great AAR. I play FM Handheld from time to time and quite like it, but don't understand enough about soccer to go full-bore FM, I'm afraid.

[Reg]

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But the mighty Chelsea has struck the lowly Hull down

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From the get go Chelsea looked determined to dominate, and with their talent they would not be denied. Oscar slammed home a shot from just inside the penalty box just after the 10 minute mark and many Hull fans assumed the worst. Hull often looked lost and had trouble completing passes to keep possession while the speed of Hazard and Mata continuously opened up holes in the defense.

Hope sprang eternal though as center defender Curtis Davies headed a corner into the loving embrace of the net to pull the game back even just 10 minutes later. The game all even and the Hull crowd chanting infuriated the “chose one” and his players responded to his ire. Shot after shot was fired at Hull’s goalie, McGregor. And just two minutes and some change after the match being tied, an unmarked Frank Lampard found a deflection off of a corner that landed directly at his feet and he effortlessly sent it in.

Chelsea dominated in possession and in shots taken. While Hull’s side played hard, the game was finally put out of reach by Eto’o whose header made it 3-1 and put an exclamation point on just how heavy handed the defeat was. Chelsea’s 35 shots and 65% possession were a neatly wrapped welcome gift for new boss at Hull City Tanner.

Some pundits, in retrospect, have suggested that parking the bus would have been preferable to whatever it was that Hull City was trying to do during the match. Others have called for a bit of moderation as the onus was on Chelsea to win the game, and Hull City was known to be the underdogs. In other words, this was how it was supposed to go, no real news here, everyone just move along.

Chelsea 3 - Hull City 1

[Reg]

If you don't want to read informational stuff - then you can skip this post...although those interested in the system behind promotion and relegation in the Premier league may like this...as well as a short discussion on how the league handles parity (though UEFA are looking into financial regulations for the upward limits of spending money and incurring debt)...

Structure of the England Football Association:

Top Level- Premier League: The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders. Seasons run from August to May, with teams playing 38 matches each (playing each team in the league twice, home and away) totalling 380 matches in the season. At the end of the season the three teams with the lowest amount of points (points are awarded by earning 3 per win and 1 per draw) are dropped down to the top level of the Football league (currently called the Championship league). And the three top teams from the Championship league are promoted up into the Premier League.

Next level- The Football League: The Football League consists of 72 professional association football clubs in England and Wales. It runs the oldest professional football league competition in the world. It also organizes two knockout cup competitions. The Football League was founded in 1888 by then Aston Villa director William McGregor, originally with 12 member clubs. Steady growth and the addition of more divisions meant that by 1950 the League had 92 clubs. Financial considerations led to a major shake-up in 1992 when, in a step to maximize their revenue, the leading members of the Football League broke away to form their own competition, the FA Premier League, which was renamed in 2007 as the Premier League. The Football League therefore no longer includes the top 20 clubs who belong to this group, although promotion and relegation between the Football League and the Premier League continues. In total, 130 teams have played in the Football League up to 2007 (including those in the Premier League, since clubs must pass through the Football League before reaching the former).

Next Level- The National League System: At the top of the National League System pyramid is the Football Conference. Its top division, the Conference Premier (currently called the Skrill Premier), is the only division in the System which is organised on a national rather than regional basis. Although the Conference is the top level of the non-league pyramid, it is not the highest level of English football (it is actually the fifth overall division). The Premier League and The Football League comprise the top 92 clubs in the English game, and two teams from the Conference are able to achieve promotion to the lowest division of The Football League each season.

Below the Conference, the layers have progressively more leagues and cover ever smaller geographic areas. Some leagues have more than one division. At the lower levels the existence of leagues becomes intermittent, although in some areas there are as many as twenty layers.

All the leagues are bound together by the principle of promotion and relegation. Clubs that are successful in their league can rise higher in the pyramid, whilst those that finish at the bottom can find themselves sinking further down. In theory it is possible for a lowly local amateur club to rise to the pinnacle of the English game and become champions of the Premier League. While this may be unlikely in practice, there certainly is significant movement within the pyramid. The number of teams promoted between leagues or divisions varies, and promotion is usually contingent on meeting criteria set by the higher league, especially concerning appropriate facilities and finances. In particular, clubs that hope to be promoted from Step 5 leagues to Step 4 must apply in advance to be assessed for whether they meet the grading requirements. The teams must then also finish in the top 3 in their league to be considered for promotion, which is not automatic. For instance, in the 2005–06 season 100 clubs applied to be considered for promotion, of which 51 met the grading requirements, and 29 of those finished in the top 3 in their leagues (With an additional division commencing at Step 4 in 2006–07, all 29 clubs had their promotions accepted).

Really of the information above, besides being a fascinating way to run a professional league (if you lose you get demoted, no purposeful tanking of high draft picks here), is put forward in order to talk a bit about Hull City and parity in the Premier league...

Hull City is a pretty small market team - (average salaries of Hull City in my game currently 19k per week) versus teams like Chelsea and Man City at 70k per week - but the deal is the longer you can stay in the premier league- the more money you make - or at least the more money owners and other investors are willing to pump into the organization...this is especially true if you can qualify for the Europeans championship because it means more games, tv revenues, and the such....

So that's my long term goal - find a way to win enough with a small budget so that I can keep making money and get a larger budget. Oh yeah, it also works the same way as in other leagues, the best players want the most money, so that means that you have two choices...spend money and transfer in top players or spend money and develop your youth facilities...Hull's are unfortunately not that great, so right now it is a rock and a hard place...

[John]

Some pundits, in retrospect, have suggested that parking the bus would have been preferable to whatever it was that Hull City was trying to do during the match.

That seems an apt observation when Hull City gets outshot 35-6.

[Reg]

"Chelsea at home and Man City on the road? Sure, why not...what a great way to start our campaign to avoid relegation," Tanner dead panned to the reporters.

"How will you adjust your tactics to avoid a similar performance against Manchester?"

"Quite simply, I am going to do nothing. We put our best tactic out there and see what happens. It's early in the season yet, and definitely not time to start jumping off the horse that brought us here."

"How did you feel about your squad's team versus Chelsea?"

"Very disappointing...I won't be calling out names but I will say that I thought we had all around poor effort. For some of our players it was the first time under the big lights and against a team that was going to play professionally and at the top level from the get go. Quite simply we are a better team than what we showed, and if we can't make more headway in the future, then there may be some roster spots open up."

----

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Tiger supporters are certainly looking forward to the first Capital One Cup match versus AFC Bournemouth, because it will be the fist time in competition that truly counts the team shouldn't be outclassed.

Man City was clinical and controlling with 70% possession rate and 16 shots. The 16 shots is about half of what Chelsea got off, but still dwarfed the 5 that Hull City were able to attempt. Hull City hasn't necessarily set the league on fire with their first two performances, and it leaves on wondering just how far they might fall if the play continues in this vein.

An away match against little fish Bournemouth and a home match versus Sunderland should help to create a clearer picture of Hull City's hopes.

[Reg]

The games is way to addicting...each game has that next turn syndrome that Civ usually develops...


here is some results in rapid fire....

Capital One Cup Win

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Hull was supposed to win it and we did...2 -0 though it wasn't a very dominant performance...but hey a win is a win is a win...except when it is the Capital one cup...most major clubs play their bench warmers in this particular competition

Hull City versus Sunderland

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So there it is...first ever Premiere League win for boss Paul Tanner. Not really dominant, but enough.

Hull City 1 - Sunderland 0

[Reg]

Next up Everton..

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Everton went ahead in the 62 minute, but Ahmed Elmohamady (who has been Hull's best player so far) pulled Hull back into a draw in the 74 minute...

sorry Denny, no win for your team here

Hull City 1 - Everton 1


Tottenham was up next

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A tough but not unexpected defeat to the Spurs. Our inability to create shots and keep possession are very troubling stats.

Tottenham 1- Hull City 0

[Denny]

Next up Everton..

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Everton went ahead in the 62 minute, but Ahmed Elmohamady (who has been Hull's best player so far) pulled Hull back into a draw in the 74 minute...

sorry Denny, no win for your team here

Hull City 1 - Everton 1

A very lucky result for your club at Goodison