18 matches into the season I'm in good position to win my department.

Pos   Team Manager Actions Last 5 MP W D L GF GA GD Pts 1   Real Madison skellygreen DWWWW 18 16 2 0 39 3 +36 50 2   KOOLGOALRIDERS FC goalriders 4 DWDWW 18 12 6 0 41 5 +36 42 3   Kings Eagles moneymike   WWLWW 18 12 3 3 31 13 +18 39 4   AberScun AberScun 3 DLWLW 18 10 3 5 25 17 +8 33 5 Irish Warriors Fast10   WWDLW 18 9 3 6 28 19 +9 30 6 India United bunty 16 DWLWW 18 8 4 6 31 21 +10 28 7 Omaha Jays CorncoastFootballers 4 LWDWL 18 8 4 6 28 18 +10 28 8 FC Icy Nelsan 4 WLWLL 18 8 4 6 20 17 +3 28 9   FC Hood FC Hood   DLWLW 18 8 4 6 18 17 +1 28 10   sambas Reds evil 13 WLDWW 18 8 2 8 22 22 0 26 11   Melbourne Knights Arabett   DWWWL 18 6 3 9 11 19 -8 21 12   Emerycat FC emerycat   LLWLL 18 6 1 11 18 24 -6 19 13   Kotoko FC Lordras   DLLLL 18 5 1 12 12 33 -21 16 14   Warrenton AFC samu3l   LWLWL 18 3 4 11 11 32 -21 13 15   TheDreams N9H9D   LLLLL 18 1 2 15 7 37 -30 5 16   Bot36475 Bot-manager   DLLLL 18 0 2 16 2 47 -45 2

I played 9 of my first 15 matches on the road & won all 9 of those. Both draws have come, disappointingly, at home. Nonetheless, I hold an 8 point advantage over 2nd place & a 17 point advantage on the playoff mark. What's more, of the 3 goals I've conceded in the league, 2 have been own goals & I haven't conceded a goal in the league for 14 matches. 

REVIEWING MY SEASON GOALS: 

These are taken from the Season 69 Preview post, for reference: 

Season 69 Goals:

1. Win my department -- so far so good. A further discussion is in the next segment of this post. 

2. Have all players 20 & under gain 4Q -- I should have qualified that this was for outfielders only. Either way, both keepers have gained +2. Two of my three defenders should get +4Q easily including 20 year old Angel Browning which would bring him up to Q83. All of my midfielders look to be on track for a +3Q gain minimum & I think 3 of the 4 will get the fourth. Both attackers have gained +2Q already & one is one the verge of another. This was a rather ambitious goal, but I'm doing fairly well. 

3. Turn a profit of at least $25.000.000 -- I don't know if I will hit this mark or not. I've been working on trying to grab an attacker or keeper around Q86, age 30-32 & if I can do this, I'll likely fail this goal without selling a player or two. But I'm ok with that because the player purchase is really an advancement on next season which will allow me to fill in whatever gaps remain after retirements. 

4. Improve my team stats by a total of 66 (excluding morale) -- at the moment I'm sitting at +41 so I feel confident I can hit this mark. 

THE LAST 12 MATCHES

 7 of my last 12 matches are at home. 6 of the matches are against teams vying to avoid relegation. 2 of the teams are almost mathematically eliminated from even reaching the relegation playoffs. The real matches of interest come in rounds 27 & 29. Rd 27 will likely see the top two teams in the department in what would be KOOLGOALRIDERS FC (hopefully) last ditched effort to take control of the department--that is if KGR FC doesn't stumble along the way. I only managed a draw in round 12 at home. Similarly, in rd 29 I'll take a trip to India United, who I also pulled down a draw against at home the first go-around. 

My next 3 matches should be easy as all three teams are below 10th place. A trip to Omaha & back home for Irish Warriors & then home for thee easy matches plus the bot in round 28 will lock up the department. Now it's a matter of avoiding injuries. 

A QUICK SEASON 70 PREVIEW

In all likelihood, I'm losing one starting defender (Q83), one starting midfielder (Q78) & a starting striker (Q80). Angel Browning will step in & likely be just as good as the retiring defender, Armando Calhoun is the same quality as the retiring midfielder & Jack Rodgers can capably step in for retiring attacker Alistair Thomas. There's a chance a second defender retires & my keeper is age 37 though I may be purchasing a better one anyway. My starting team quality is about 82.5 at the moment & with the expected retirements I'm looking to drop just a hair thanks to backups that have developed well. Promotion to Division 2 will give me quite the challenge next season. So I'll certainly be looking to use the money I have to up the quality of my midfield & hopefully finding a quality, veteran striker. 

Good luck to all the last 12 matches!