Happy hump day everyone! Today is the turn of Nathan (@FMCM_FC) to review his Dortmund 1997 side, and I will be talking you through my Real Madrid galacticos of 1998. Nathan’s up first…
Taking charge of the team who start every CM97/98 save as defending European champions is Nathan, aka @FMCM_FC. His most recent blog involved bringing a legend back to one of his old clubs, so this competition should be right up his street. Here he is…
Hello and welcome to Borussia Dortmund 1996-1997. Having won the Champions League just two months prior to the 16th July CM97/98 start date, they start the season as defending European champions, so no pressure.
First up is Stefan Klos in goal. He played 339 times for Dortmund keeping 114 clean sheets. I’m hoping he can keep even more clean sheets for us.
In defence we have the rock solid Jurgen Kohler. On the original 97-98 game he is an absolute colossus of a defender and I’ve seen him win European footballer of the year plenty of times and he will be our player to build around.
Reuter at wing back will be another fantastic player. He always gives solid performances and hoping for the same here.
We have a legend in midfield, not Paul Lambert but Matthias Sammer. Sammer won Euro ‘96 with Germany, being named player of the tournament (As if we need reminding of that!) and winning the Ballon d’Or. He then went on to win the Champions League. Always handy to have the best player in the world in our ranks.
In midfield we have two quality players and another star of the Germany Euro ‘96 winning team in Andreas Möller. A World Cup winner as well and probably most famous amongst the English fans for “that” celebration after scoring the winning penalty in the Euro ‘96 Semi Final. He’s fantastic on the original database and I look forward to his creativity here.
Möller’s partner will be Lars Ricken. He scored an absolute screamer in the Champions League Final just 16 seconds after coming on as sub. I hope he can score a few more in this team.
Finally upfront we have future Liverpool striker Karl Heinz Riedle who on the game is actually really good but doesn’t get a chance behind Fowler and Owen.
He will be joined by the prolific Chapuisat, whose stats in the game aren’t great for some reason and Kirovski who was the first American to win the Champions League in the Men’s game. His stats are very good.
So that’s it. I think mid-table is the best we can hope for looking at the other ridiculously talented sides in this exciting experimental league. I hope you, like me, cannot wait for the season to get started.
And now for my team. When it comes to the Champions League (or European Cup in old money), no one has won it more than Real Madrid, and in 1998 at the Amsterdam Arena, a Predrag Mijatovic goal was enough to defeat Juventus and secure Los Blancos their 7th European crown. I have the job of trying to emulate that feat, and here are my thoughts on my team…
I wasn’t too disappointed with getting Real Madrid, but I’ve been robbed of Christian Panucci and Clarence Seedorf to Milan and Ajax respectively. They will be huge losses and their absence could mean the difference between success and failure for my side. That aside, let’s look at the positives…
Pedro Contreras is normally Real’s number one on CM97/98, but in reality he never made a single appearance for them that season, so I have Bodo Illgner and Santi Cañizares as my keepers. Let’s just hope that the latter doesn’t rule himself out of this tournament like he did the 2002 World Cup by dropping a bottle of cologne on his foot…
In the absence of Panucci, who has been stolen by Dave, I’m left with Miguel Chendo as my only right back, although I could deploy Jaime Sanchez in that position if desperate. Other than that, we’ve a solid enough defence with Hierro and Sanchís in the centre and former ‘Boro boss Aitor Karanka as backup, and arguably the best left back on the game, Roberto Carlos.
My loss is definitely Deano’s gain where Clarence Seedorf is concerned, he will no doubt leave a gaping hole in my midfield, but I do however still have Christian Karembeu, Predrag Mijatovic and Henning Berg’s nemesis, Fernando Redondo, while Victor Sanchez, Jose Amavisca and Savio aren’t terrible options on the wings.
Attack is probably the area of my team that I’m most pleased with. Raúl and Davor Suker will probably be my favoured partnership, but I also possess a young Fernando Morientes, and also Dani García, neither of whom are shy in front of goal.
Although not quite on a par with the names I’ve listed above, the rest of the squad is of a good enough quality to make my side capable of competing, as long as I can find a system that gets the best out of them, and after all, I’m only looking for one good season from them all, which isn’t much to ask, is it?
As far as predictions go, I don’t think I’ve got the best team, but I also don’t think I’ve got the worst, and I would like to think we can at least finish in the top four. I quite fancy Man Utd or Juventus to win the title, and Ajax won’t be too far behind I’m sure. I think Marseille will be dark horses, and my picks for golden boot are Erik Nevland of Man Utd, and my very own Raúl.
We’re back tomorrow for the final preview as Ross and Andrew review Man Utd 1999 and Bayern Munich 2001 before the action begins on Friday.