A WELCOME TO HV & CV QUICK FC

Although my posts here at onthebreak.net have been real world football based. I wanted to try something different that I can hopefully be a bit more consistent with and give me something to focus on away from my stream save. Welcome to the Netherlands 4th tier.

OVERVIEW

HV & CV Quick – Founded 1896. Nickname De Haantjes which translates to ‘The Roosters’ … As a Spurs fan why I picked Quick should be nice and obvious now. Derde Divisie Zondag translates roughly to ‘Third Division Sunday’. Quite literally because one side of the league structure play on a Saturday and one side play on Sundays. This graphic should help show the league structure in the Netherlands.

Mid table finish – be competitive in the cup – very simple objectives, which should hopefully make life easier. The board want to make the play-offs inside 3 years. Having finished 3rd just 4 years ago, Quick have seemingly become a mid-table team.

One of the most interesting parts of this database, is that when set to early pre-season for the start date, you still miss the entirety of the friendlies and are thrown in the deep end with your first game being the opening day of the season with just a week to prep. Although I’m sure there would’ve been a way to address this problem, I liked the challenge element this adds to just your regular FM save.

SQUAD

The squad as a whole is not in a bad shape to start. There is only one major area of concern which is the defence. With essentially just 4 defenders to pick from the defence picked itself for the opening day. Not for the want of trying to sign players, but you’ll see further on why that proves to be an issue.

With players added to playable teams, we have one 5 star regen in the youth team. Sadly, due to facilities and lack of training unlikely to develop. But if he does, I’ll be sure to give you a look at him in a future piece.

There are 3 standout players in the squad –

Ronaldo Lima and out and out winger – mentally very good for 22 – high dribbling and passing, for this level his crossing is very good but with just 7 technique it will be interesting to see how badly that effects his performances. Also, our captain due to his high leadership. At 6 foot 2 he offers plenty of height from wide areas, something we can hopefully make the most out of with him attacking the far post when the ball comes in from the left.

On the other wing – Emre Bilgi – another youngster at 21, so plenty of room to grow, lots of 9-11 attributes in areas you’d like for an inverted winger. Perhaps due to the lack of training as an amateur team will unlikely grow into his potential. With any progress made likely to be minimal and due to simply playing games.

Finally, the star man. The only player in the squad to make the media dream 11 – Inverted wing back, Kai Van Hese. At 31 and in his peak, Van Hese has all the mental attributes in the world for this level. A perfect tutor for mentoring and a wealth of experience having started out for top division outfit Den Haag. Originally, I thought playing him CB was the best option but due to his low jumping reach and relatively small stature at just 5 foot 8, I’ve opted to play him in his preferred position.

OPENING DAY DRAMA

With just 2 days until our opening league encounter against HSC ’21, a team predicted to be in the relegation fight this season. We had still not brought anybody in to bolster the team.

With a lack of improvement to the squad, I found myself having to pick a makeshift team in the hopes we could get out unscathed in the hope come the following week we’d have made improvements.

Forced into playing Van Hese at centre-half due to nobody else being able to play there. Both left and right back have very little quality in terms of going forward. Elsewhere the squad needs very little improvement, both wide players are star men and in midfield other than our CM (A) we had a solid base to build on. A quick mention to ST Quincy Does, who not only looks a good player at this level, has a superb name that offers plenty of puns for the future.

It was a nightmare start for Quick and Quinn as HSC got off the a flyer inside 4 minutes, a ball over the top to the left hand side of the penalty area saw left-winger Ottink fire a half volley into the roof of the net from a quite impressive angle. Credit where it’s due it was a ridiculous finish.

Thankfully, we asserted ourselves into the game. Having the majority of the ball we quickly replied in the 21^st minute, yes, these puns will grow tiresome, no I won’t stop making them. After some good work from Ronaldo Lima down the right-hand side, he gets into the box and fires a cross along the floor to De Kruijff, our CM who’s made an excellent run into the box to fire home at the near post. GAME ON!

Plenty of positives to take at half-time with every stat in our favour, boasting 60 percent of the ball, plenty of chances and half-chances created and in typical FM style our opponents only chance flying in. However, every time our opponent has the ball, we seem dead set on showing how bad we are in defence.

DO NOT BLINK YOUR EYES – After one of the dullest second half exchanges I’ve seen with little to no highlights it’s 2-1 Quick! Cometh the hour cometh the man, 31-year-old Raymond Baton fires a free-kick in from 25 yards in the 86^th minute to give Quick all 3 points!

FULL TIME 2-1, Quick take all 3 points on the opening day. I NEED A LIE DOWN.

TRANSFERS

All transfers at this level are on amateur contracts. Meaning while no money is lost in the contracts, anybody that performs well is likely to be grasped away from you with relative ease.

With a small squad in very limited areas, it was important to get as many bodies in inside that first week before the league started, something which we failed to do. With trials being offered left, right and centre. We were focused on improving the defence first and foremost. Elsewhere depth was needed in CM as our only back-up midfielders where CAM, a position I don’t think I’ll be looking to play just yet.

It soon became clear that bringing in players was going to prove harder than imagined. With every contract offer made from ourselves being met with 3 to 4 other clubs immediately offering contracts as well. With the first 3 players we offered contracts to rejecting us and moving to clubs either in the tier above or in the Saturday division. All of my first 6 offers to players ended coming to nothing as every player except one moved to teams in the Saturday league. What’s wrong with playing on Sundays lads?

Next instalment – The opening 10 games, the system and hopefully, some business?