Welcome back to Jiggly’s Guide to Strategy. Last week the Chicago Fire got back on track with a clean 2-0 win over the San Jose Earthquakes. I say “clean” because it was honestly quite boring of a match. It’s only been 3 games and while there’s been a single loss, this team is showing its class. Continue reading “Jiggly’s Guide to Strategy: The 4-4-2” →

Welcome back to Jiggly’s Guide to Strategy. We had a hiatus last week due to personal reasons, but we’re back now with another weekend of the Chicago Fire looking like a good soccer team for once. Except, last week Jiggly’s All-Stars actually lost in what ended up being a tactical battle. After the Whitecaps realized that the Fire would sit back all game, they put just the slightest bit of pressure on and Chicago fell apart. But that was last week. Let’s look to the future now.

Over the course of the week leading up to this game, there was a single very unexpected thing to happen: Megumin got called up to the US national team. For clerical reasons, she is Japanese, but I gave her American citizenship so that I wouldn’t get screwed over by dumb MLS roster rules. And I guess she’s gained enough recognition to get her first cap alongside another youngster looking to get his first cap: Christian Pulisic. Clint Dempsey was dropped from the squad in order for this to happen and nothing of importance was lost from it. Aside from this strange situation that I will keep you all posted on, Vigne is injured for this game and Komi-san seems to be completely fit to start. Continue reading “Jiggly’s Guide to Strategy: The 4-4-1-1” →

Welcome to another episode of Jiggly’s Guide to Strategy. Last week Jiggly’s All-Stars demolished the LA Galaxy in the first game of the season and we learned about the standard 4-2-3-1 and how many crosses we can put into the box. This week, we’re going to see a very familiar looking formation. But first, some mid-week housekeeping.
Continue reading “Jiggly’s Guide to Strategy: The “Galaga Formation”” →

Welcome back to the wacky world of tactics. After a truly dominant preseason that saw the team score a total of 32 goals over the course of just 6 games, conceding only a single goal against the New York Cosmos, I’ve realized that I have unleashed something truly horrifying upon the world of MLS. But, we persevere. Continue reading “Jiggly’s Guide to Strategy: The 4-2-3-1” →

It’s time to do some tactics!!! But first, I want to introduce you to your “camp counselors”. Basically, I’ve put together a team of players in Football Manager 16 (because it’s the only one that won’t crash on my stupid old computer) that will be used to give examples of different player types and playing styles. I’ll be using these players to provide an easy reference to certain archetypes that can be used when building a team. Instead of using real players which there can be heavy debate as to whether or not they are a certain archetype, I decided to create my own players. Not only did I create my own players, but I just made them all anime girls. But maybe cute girls can help you remember where they play easier. Continue reading “Jiggly’s Guide to Strategy: An Introduction” →

“Who am I?”
“What is my purpose?”
“Where should I be?

These are questions that every philosopher has asked dating back probably even before the Ancient Greeks. But as much as I’d love to whip out my “Existentialist Football” literature, that’s not the context I’m bringing up these questions in. Instead, I’ve seen a lot of people asking questions about how to build their characters. While there’s an explainer on what stats affect what things, there’s still plenty of questions from new people. There a lot of people joining who don’t exactly follow soccer too closely and aren’t even sure of what position they want to play, let alone how to be the best in that position. Continue reading “Jiggly’s Guide to Player Building” →