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Results - Las Vegas Grand Prix With an average score of less than 4 points, needless to say this was a rough weekend all around. Only @MUFC and @Tommy put faith in Mercedes' positive Practice performances to translate into a big performance ahead of the competitive running. It was @MUFC though who picked the points up in qualifying as George Russell stormed to pole position. The bonus question was also resolved on Saturday, with @OrangeKhrush backing the lowest margin between pole position and 2nd place, which was 0.098 seconds, meaning that he takes the 5 points. Everyone else was within 0.1 seconds of the actual margin, meaning that they picked up 2 consolation points, with the exception of @Whiskey who was outside of the window by a mere 0.002 seconds. Harsh but these are the margins in the pinnacle of motorsport. Onto the race and no less than six people predicted a podium containing Leclerc, Verstappen and Norris in some order or another. @Stan, @nudge, @Dave, @Coma, @DeadLinesman and @OrangeKhrush could only watch on as these three proceeded to finish line astern in 4th, 5th and 6th. @MUFC didn't back Mercedes to carry their qualifying form into the race but at least picked up 2 points for putting Russell on the podium. @Tommy put both Mercedes cars in his top three but wasn't quite able to nail either of their positions for 4 points. @RandoEFC is the only one to get a direct hit here this week, with Sainz' 3rd place rewarding him with 5 points. Finally, nobody could even bag the full 5 points for this week's random driver (which was Liam Lawson not George Russell contrary to my screenshot above). A disappointing 16th place for the RB driver saw @Dave pick up 2 points for coming closest with a prediction of 15th. Here's the updated table: With such low scores, there is unsurprisingly no change at the top. @MUFC performed the best out of the top four but only has two races left to make up a 20 point deficit to the leader. @Tommy still holds a 7-point lead moving into the last two weekends. There is movement in the Constructors' standings though. @MUFC and @Dave were the only pairing to scramble together enough points between them to get into double figures, and it sees them nick the lead for Mercedes ahead of Red Bull. McLaren are still in with an outside chance with two to go. Finally, a little reminder of how things stand in the Season predictions: Remember that I have already added these scores provisionally with a few changes that could happen: - @Tommy will gain a further 10 points if Ferrari are able to outright win the Constructors' championship ahead of McLaren. - There will be quite a few wholesale changes in the "Constructors to Score a Podium" prediction if another team other than McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes or Alpine manage to bag an unlikely top three finish in the last two rounds. - Someone will be taking home an extra 10 or 5 points for the Most Retirements prediction. I'll look at this at the end of the season. It does say "Most Retirements" though so I think I'm going to count DNFs only and ignore "Did not starts" or "Disqualifications". - Gasly vs Ocon is still the only championship battle that's at all likely to swing the other way. If it does, then @Dave will win the 10 points alone for getting the full set, instead of @Coma joining his as an equal winner of this prediction. Qatar predictions will be posted tomorrow.

You at the end of the season

Would be the best thing to happen to football in England in a long time though.

Thank You Jack Perry.

Having an absolute belter of a save here in Czech Republic. I'll do a proper review of it. Could be on the cusp of something pretty outrageous.

Loads of time till the new one comes out, so plenty of time to get stuck into a new save. Académica de Coimbra Back in 2012, Académica made it to the final of the Taça de Portugal for only the fifth time, for the first time since 1969 and had the chance to lift the trophy for the first time since 1939. They were facing Sporting, one of Portugal's "Big Three", on that day so it wouldn't have been particularly pessimistic to say that the 73 year wait for a trophy might go on a little longer, however, after four minutes Marinho scored what turned out to be the only goal of the game. Wild celebrations ensued and European Football for the following season was confirmed. Atletico Madrid, Viktoria Plzen and Hapoel Tel-Aviv were the opponents at the Group Stage and despite an impressive 2-0 win over Atleti, 'Briosa' finished third and failed to qualify for the knockout stages. Since that jubilant day back in 2012, life hasn't been too good to Portugal's oldest club. Relegation from the top flight in 2016 was soon followed by relegation to Portugal's third tier in 2022, finishing twenty points from safety. Portugal's oldest club languishing in the third tier, a weird league format and promotion system, a 29,744 all-seater stadium built for Euro 2004 and youth and training facilities ranked as "Great" and this is very much something I can get my teeth into for a bit of fun. Portuguese Third Division - The third tier is split into two sections, a Northern and a Southern section, made up of ten teams each. You play the other nine teams in your region home and away and after eighteen games, the league splits. The top four from each region goes into the Championship Group and the bottom six from each section goes into their own Relegation Group, where you then play everyone in your group home and away. The top two in the Championship Group goes up automatically and third go into a play-off with a team from the bottom end of the second tier. Hopefully I won't find out but the bottom two of the Relegation Group goes down to the fourth tier of Portuguese Football. --------------------------------------------- Finances are pretty good upon starting, which is not usually the case with some big clubs in lower leagues. £901,685 is in the bank, which is a nice surprise, and the projection predicts a profit come the end of the season, which is even better. Being a little greedy and seeing a potential profit, I couldn't help but arrange for a money spinner of a home friendly against FC Porto, to go with the home friendly against Braga, who are an affiliate club. --------------------------------------------- The playing squad is reasonable for the level. It's definitely workable. There's very few real standout players but it should be enough to challenge at the top end of the table. Nwankwo Obiaro is a 31 year-old Nigerian international centre midfielder who will boss this level despite his age. Having played in his homeland, Spain, Italy, Romania and Greece before discovering a love of Sagres and Pastel de Nata, he'll lead this team. I've no plans to make any signings, the squad size and depth is sufficient for now and I don't think I need to do much. Lucas Henrique has left as quickly as he joined the club. He's a number 10 and I'm going to be playing a 4-4-2 and he simply didn't fit and he's returned to Brazil's third division, for a fee of £950 that may rise to £1,300 and has shaved £350 per week from the wage bill. We're predicted to finish 5th but that is a list of all the twenty teams at this level. I'm quietly confident we can do slightly better.

"Would have prefered to stay on the bench" after you sub in a player is a bit overused, isn't it?

@nudge full focus. We can win the Championship!