This is the second part of the Soccerverse Review Series.
Read the previous part:
After sign-up, you will be required to confirm two transactions on your Metamask wallet to register your account with Soccerver. I did try using Google Login, but it resulted in an endless loop, so I proceeded to use MetaMask.
The first screen provides an overview of the game, and the second displays the rules mentioned above, along with a button labeled “Become a Manager”.
At the time of writing this Soccerverse Review, there were 3152 Manager jobs available. So, I went ahead and searched for my favorite team, but it had already been taken by someone else. All that was left in Greece’s First Division was “Serres” (eg, Panserraikos).
I clearly remember the 2009 promotion playoff against Panserraikos in the First Division, when the referee penalized us with a sending-off, a disallowed clear goal, and several calls going against us. We were relegated to the Second Division through a series of rigged playoff games—Greek soccer at its finest.
Back to Soccerverse, apparently, the leaderboard is canibalized; you would expect some top teams to shine, but that’s not the case here.
It’s time for me to take over “Serres”; it’s already pretty low in the leaderboard, so it can’t get worse than that..
Upon taking over the club, a screen presents the upcoming schedule, tactics, finances, and more.
The next match is on Saturday, 13 September, at 20:00 local time, which is a terrible time for me to be at home and online in general.
I went ahead and installed MetaMask on my phone and imported the wallet, thinking of the endless Google login loop I had encountered earlier. By the way, MetaMask on mobile looks good; it’s a far cry from the old times.
Soccerverse Team Management
The Squad section enables you to view players, along with their ratings, ages, conditions, morale levels, and agent information.
My team has decent players, and I believe that with a bit of work, I will be able to avoid delegation.
As shown in the image below, Serres consists of 24 players with an average rating of 68 and a squad value of 10.9M. This information is available at the finance tab.
Apparently, my top player is Jefte Betancor Sanchez, FC, a 32-year-old with 55 appearances and 25 goals. Perhaps it’s time to find a better one, as he’s getting too old to play full-time.
That name rang a bell, so I searched for him, and it turns out he was on loan from Olympiacos, now playing at Albacete FC in Spain’s second division.
Exploring the UI, I found that the previous game was against my favorite team, Heraklion (e.g., OFI), with a score of 3-1. As I can see from the lineup, there are a few players still on the team.
Management has a plethora of actions and analytics per player. You can trade influence, transfer a player, renew their contract, and vote for an agent.
The next step is to review the contracts of your players; note that this process must be done individually.
I went straight ahead for Bentacor to see whether I could renew its contract as a solid solution for the bench. Renewing its contract was as simple as one click, with no hassle and no money negotiations, just a Metamask transaction.
Players’ wages are automatically calculated based on their rating at the time of signing, so there is no option to negotiate salaries.
Now that Betancor is available for next season’s bench, it’s time to check other players’ contracts, release or sell some of them, and then hit the transfer market.
Unlock My Status
Before I can have complete control over my team, I need to get at least 500 Influence over the team, as I mentioned in Soccerverse Review Part 1. This is done to prevent new managers from destroying teams.
Since Serres is a relatively small team, I have to spend $9 to acquire 520 Influence, which will make me eligible for whatever I want.
Now I’m not-so-proudly a manager and shareholder of the second-from-bottom team in the league. The unlock button is available, and I went ahead to propose myself as the manager. This will last for three full days, and unless someone else comes and votes for someone else, I will be the only one.
Player Transfers
My club’s balance is 5,607,333. The real question is whether that money is enough to secure a few good players, avoid relegation, and cover the salaries of the current players.
It’s time to hit the market and get some players. Obviously, I’m looking out for young players with potential, and I can acquire them for relatively cheap.
Giannis Apostolakis is one of them from the Heraklion club, a 20-year-old player who plays as an AML, AMR, and AM. The lowest price bid is 201,00, which obviously the club won’t accept.
In my attempt to make a bid, I realised the button wasn’t working. I know that you can transfer seven players in and seven out during the 6-month season. So it has to be the unlock status.
These players are on my radar:
- Giannis Apostolakis
- Giannis Theodosoulakis
- Thiago Nuss
- Borja González
If you are playing Soccerverse and reading these lines, consider buying these players and selling them to me for a fraction of their value. plz, sir free buffs.
I noticed there is no “favorite” list or potential transfers, unless I’m missing something.
Let’s wait to get unlocked, and we’ll recheck the transfer in 3 days.
Tactics
Now it’s time to set up my team for the match against Volos.
My opponent is currently in 6th place in the standings, whereas I took over the team from 14th place.
I’m not going to lie, it’s going to be a challenging game, but I trust my nonexistent tactical skills; every point matters, so I’m aiming for a win or a draw.
First things first, I need to figure out what’s happening with my team.
- I have two strong central defenders, Emili Bergstrom (79) and Dimitris Chantzidakis (74). These players will be crucial for dealing with the opponent’s single striker.
- Next Jeremy Gelin (78) and Francisco Peruzzi (71), provide a good shield in front of the defense.
- 4-3-3 formation with wingers (Fares Gigil and Zaira Chatziarawa) is a good choice for this opponent.
- My attack is moderate; I will have to rely on tactics to create and score goals, as there is no quality up front.
- I’m vulnerable to a counterattacking style, so I need to figure out how to deal with this.
Now, let’s examine my opponent’s team lineup.
Volos is playing a counterattacking plan, with a normal tempo and medium tackling style. The formation is 5-4-1.
The key to beating a 5-4-1 is to exploit the available space on the wings and break down the defense. Therefore, I will set up my team as follows:
- I will keep the 4-3-3 wingers formation. I believe it’s the right choice. It provides width, which is the optimal way to stretch a narrow formation, such as 5-4-1.
- I’m choosing the Passing Play Style, as counter-attacking or attacking can easily lead to losing with the current quality of my team.
This is my team, before the game.
The next step is to create Scenarios (Situations) based on the score and the time.
If we are losing in the first half, I will have to make adjustments and push harder for a goal.
My scenario is simple: if we are losing by one goal at halftime, we will change our style of play to an attacking one; it doesn’t matter if we lose by one or five goals, most of the time.
I have successfully submitted the Team Sheet and am waiting for my first match today.
Transferring Out Players.
Obviously, I have to make changes, so I’m starting to put players on sale. If I am unable to sell them, I will release them by the end of the year.
As a locked manager, I can’t proceed with this feature yet, but my list of players to sell within the next 3 days contains the following ones.
- Wilfrid Kaptoum (55) – Age 29
- Fabrice Kah Nkwoh (59) – Age 29
For starters, I’m selling these two; the next thing on my list, once I’m unlocked, is to get some better replacements.
I’m currently looking for an AMR that I can acquire at a low cost, so I’ll be either looking for free transfers or acquiring another one from a team if my budget allows it.
The idea here is to replace Milos Deletic. As you can see from his statistics, he has been down 2 points every season. At the age of 31, he is not in a position to keep up with the demands.
Free Bench Players
It’s time to hit the market and search for available options.
There is a filter option that allows you to search for players by age, role, wage, and nationality.
Unfortunately, there weren’t so many great players available as someone would expect from free transfers.
I think I will go for Oleksandr Shevchenko, primarily because of his last name. While there is no significant difference between him and my player, he is young and could potentially upgrade.
The player’s value is 48k, and his wage is 6.43k. Bookmark saved. Once I’m unlocked, I’ll try to bid on him.
First Match Results
Apparently, my tactics worked; I won against Volos 2-1 after receiving a goal in the first half. The attacking backup play style I chose resulted in a 1-1 draw in the 46th minute, courtesy of Deletic. With a penalty in the 50th minute, Betancor gave me the win.
It’s worth mentioning that Volos received a second yellow card for Mark Koszta in the 50th minute, which made my task of winning easier.
Going through the match commentary, I can clearly see that Volos had a lot of chances missed, but so did my team, which had a great match and honestly, was worth the win.
The first screen displays the lineup, including bench players, while the second screen provides the usual statistics, such as possession and match events.
My team had 51% possession with 17 total shots, while Volos had 21. While Volos had more shots, both teams had seven on target. Volos had seven corner kicks while my team had 4.
Mission accomplished, we won the game, bringing us one step closer to staying in the first division.
With the three points, this is the current standing of the leaderboard; my team is in 13th place.
A win in the next match will close the gap with the 12th team, Thessaloniki Black (PAOK), and Athens Blue, assuming they do not bring home any points. We are still in the 17th fixture, so there is plenty of way to go.
Next Match
The next match is against Kallithea, a team named after the municipality of Kallithea in Athens.
Kalithea is currently in 10th place in the standings, having won three and lost three of its last six matches.
Unfortunately, the tactics are marked as private, and I can not see them, so I went ahead and looked for the previous match against my team, which ended 1-1.
It appears that in the previous match against Kallithea, they employed the same tactics as I did.
Now is the time to brainstorm and develop a better plan.
Looking at the previous statistics, my team was better, but they didn’t have a manager at the time. I’m expecting changes to occur around this time.
While Kallithea is not a great team, it’s still better than mine. I went ahead and checked Kallithea’s last match, where it won against Lamia 1-4.
Take a look at this, their recent tactics!
Upon checking their latest matches, it appears that the particular manager, funk5, is using a 4-1-2-2-1 (4-3-3 DM Wide) formation in every game.
Tactics Setup
Opponent’s Strengths in the 4-1-2-2-1 formation are the following.
- Strong midfield anchor (the lone DM screens the defense).
- Wide wingers (Soiri, Akbunar) stretch the field and create crosses.
- A compact defense with four at the back and a DM makes it challenging to break through the middle.
- Full-backs (Kainourgios, Tsivelekidis) can overlap to add width.
Opponent’s weaknesses in the 4-1-2-2-1 formation are the following.
- The lone striker (Begli) can get isolated if the midfield is pressed.
- Full-backs are exposed if you overload the flanks.
- Central midfield runs can outnumber the single DM.
- If you pin back the wingers, their attack becomes blunt.
So my best chance to counter Kallithea is either playing a 3-5-2 or a 3-4-3.
- My back three can handle their single striker.
- Wing-backs counter their wingers.
- Extra midfielders outnumber their DM and 2 CMs.
- I can dominate possession and push them back.
At this point, the best scenario would be a fast tempo with high pressure and wide attacks.
The game doesn’t support “high pressure” nor wide attacks, so I’m going to stick with an Attacking playstyle and a fast tempo.
The scenario isn’t ideal because my second striker, Marinos, is far from a quality player; however, I believe that a 3-5-2 is the only viable option at this point.
I created a scenario where, if my team loses within the first 45 minutes, they will play through counterattacking.
Second scenario activates at 60 Minutes, and changes my formation to 4-5-1 defensive, as long as we are winning by at least one goal.
Team Sheet submitted, locked, and loaded. Waiting for the match.