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Watford
It feels like such a long time since I last wrote a preview! 11/5/21 ….
Watford have been overhauled this off-season with an English flavour running through the squad! The manager is always willing to change things up, adds a bit of excitement! The first game this season is a Home game Vs Man City… Not an ideal start to any campaign, while the manager is comfortable with preparation over the off season, the SLO style of City requires the manager to change things up a little, so a slight tweak to WHB, with Partey more focused on winning the ball back then setting up the play from deep, KDB drops a little deeper into PM to dictate the game and Sterling comes in for Maddison at ST to give a bit more up front. Not usually one for chopping and changing tactics, but after losing both games to City last season, a different approach was needed!


Charity Shield game Vs Plymouth! While I usually do well in the game, the manager has focused on the League game and with the switch to WHB against a Plymouth side that is playing FAS could lead to all sorts of trouble in the centre of the park! But the manager knows the importance of starting the league well and can’t afford to drop points to early.
 
Genk
Can Genk carry on where they left off? The Belgium outfit, where less active in the market over the off season having concluded most of their business prior to EOS, which allowed for a solid pre-season and little disruption. Another incredibly hard game, Away to Anderlecht who were last seasons runners up and I’m sure they will be wanting to put there mark down this season early on! Approach with Caution Genk can’t be taking anything for granted.


Super Cup opponents are Mechelen, who always put up a good game! The manager will be hoping that the experience of Mahrez, Griezmann and Eriksen can drive the team forward this season, as the blend with youth in the side will give the side some energy in the middle of the park with Gravenberch and Camavinga who could marshall the middle of the mark for the next decade.. or two!
 
Leverkusen
Quality over Quantity, so far, the recruitment process has been Quality rather then quantity of players in the squad. This has led to the team improving in all areas since the arrival of the manager, who missed last years preseason after a late appointment. This year’s preseason was robust and focused on gaining the skills trained up as fast as possible to help the team stay in the Bundesliga topflight. First game is away Vs Hertha Berlin! Who certainly won’t be push overs with the likes of Lasogga, Vuckic, Serdar, Dzagoev and Henrichs in the ranks. Leverkusen managed to bring in Gosens and Otto at fullback which will hopefully help getting forward on the counter, and Milinkovic-Savic is looking forward to midfield battle ahead knowing he will need to deliver to help setup the front two of Lewandowski and Mkhitaryan. Manager fell short in his attempts to find a backup LH/RH and CB. This recruitment will be on going but could cause an issue with lack of depth might struggle to rotate as much.


Botafogo
Surely got to start the season better this season if any chance of going for the league title! Last season the manger tinkered with SAM, no such luxury this year. The manager has been focused on CAT and how to get the most out of his team. After changing nearly half the starting 11 towards the end of last season, the manager knows that keeping things settled is the main objective of pre-season and has managed to keep to that mantra.

First game, Home to Cortitba which on paper is the easiest of my opening games… But not one to be taken lightly, so full strength squad with a good focus on training, eating right and team bonding looking to set the team up for the season. 3 points are a must to kickstart the campaign!

Super Cup opponents, Santos… the champions. Geoff did a remarkable job last season, and credit to him. Many years of experience, I’m sure he had nerves of steel on the final day of the season! Another team I managed to lose to twice last season, the manager will be hoping that the rejuvenated squad will put up a bit more of a fight! Fans certainly have high expectations with the likes of Neymar, Casemiro and Felipe forming the spine of the team. Hopefully can catch Santos on an off day!

Good luck to all!

Friendly games have kicked off, so we are on course for the normal kickoff time of 1000 hours Wednesday morning for the league games...

Paul Hemmings wrote:

Friendly games have kicked off, so we are on course for the normal kickoff time of 1000 hours Wednesday morning for the league games...

Had planned to do a preview but not managed to get round to it. If the game is awful tonight I might give it another go.

World Club Cup result

Man City 3 Sao Paulo 0

Super Cup results

Argentinos 0 River Plate 3
Santos 2 Botafogo 1
Watford 3 Plymouth 3 aet pens2-1
Nantes 2 Cannes 1
Schalke 2 Hannover 0
Barcelona 2 Real Betis 3
Celtic 3 Aberdeen 1
Genk 2 Mechelen 2 aet pens3-2
Emelec 1 ElNacional 0
Derry 3 Cherry 3 aet pens4-5
Ajax 4 Rotterdam 0
Inter 2 Lazio 1
Ruzonberok 1 Kosice 0
Nacional 1 Danubio 2
Chicago 2 Cosmos 1

Cheers Paul

No major preview this week, but the PIAT group are looking for a strong start to their league campaigns. Arsenal and Boca Juniors will be tough games for Plymouth and Independiente - although demanding nothing worse than draws! Will be disappointed if Atletico and Twente can’t get wins in their games.

Roll on CF Season 33!(?)

Kickoff is just minutes away, good luck to everyone this week...

The players are ready and the ref blows his whistle...

Anderlecht 1 Genk 0 Praet on 4 minutes.
Falmouth 0 Stithians 1 Coulthirst.
Limerick 1 Derry 0 Scardina.
Monaco 0 Etienne 1 Ganso.

Santos 0 Fluminense 1 Everton Soares on 5 minutes.
Waterford 0 Bohemians 1 Arter.
Liverpool 1 Birmingham 0 Higuain.
Soton 1 Wolves 0 Mitrovic.
West Brom 1 Wigan 0 Elm.
Twente 1 Sittard 0 Sigurdsson.
Heracles 0 Ajax 1 Stengs.
Valencia 1 Malaga 0 Tello.
Real Betis 0 Barcelona 1 Oyarzabal.

Cherry 1 Shelbourne 0 Delfouneso on 6 minutes.
Palace 1 Brighton 0 Aguero.
Paris 1 Lyon 0 Vinicius Araujo.

Galanta 0 Ruzomberok 1 Davitashvili on 7 minutes.

Corinthians 1 Cruzeiro 0 Maycon on 8 minutes.
Burnley 1 Everton 0 Lafferty.
Atletico 1 Santander 0 Borre.

Liege 1 Gent 0 Phellype header on 9 minutes.
Mechelen 1 Beerschot 0 Verschaeren.
Liverpool 1 Birmingham 1 Daehli.
Norwich 1 Tranmere 0 Welbeck.
Rennais 1 Guingamp 0 Dallas.
Lazio 1 Ancona 0 Ceballos.

Soton 2 Wolves 0 Duricic on 10 minutes.

Anderlecht 2 Genk 0 Schrijvers on 11 minutes.
Cherry 2 Shelbourne 0 Delfouneso penalty.
Ipswich 0 Leeds 1 Matic.
Woking 1 Port Vale 0 Van Wolfswinkel.
Real Betis 0 Barcelona 2 Benzema.

Santos 0 Fluminense 2 Marcelo Da Silva header on 12 minutes.
Gladbach 0 Leipzig 1 Lahm.
Berlin 1 Leverkusen 0 Kharaishvili.
Heracles 0 Ajax 2 Weghorst.
Valencia 2 Malaga 0 Vazquez.
Atletico 2 Santander 0 Dybala.
Fenix 0 Nacional 1 Sergi Roberto.

Liverpool 2 Birmingham 1 Lallana on 13 minutes.
Paris 2 Lyon 0 Malcom.
Atalanta 1 Juventus 0 Jose Ze Gomes.
Porto 1 Lisbon 0 Nelson Oliveira.
Chicago 1 Galaxy 0 Romario Guedes header.

Newcastle 0 Man United 1 Martial on 14 minutes.

River Plate 1 Velez 0 Icardi on 15 minutes.
Argentinos 1 Racing 0 Lanzini.
Bate 1 Slutsk 0 Rassadkin penalty.
Sao Paulo 0 Palmeiras 1 Kleber.
Rennais 2 Guingamp 0 Willumsson.
Gladbach 1 Leipzig 1 Herrmann.

Limerick 1 Derry 1 Lavezzi on 16 minutes.
Atletico 3 Santander 0 Borre.

Flamengo 0 Vasco 1 Kardec on 18 minutes.
Ipswich 1 Leeds 1 Forestieri.
Lille 1 Marseille 0 Matheus Augusto header.
Wolfsburg 1 Mainz 0 Thuram.
Real Madrid 1 Sevilla 0 Modric.
Cosmos 1 Kansas 0 Cowell.