Well I'm not 100% throwing the first game. I'm playing PO normal, and playing my backup team, so then I rest my starting players, and I get my enthusiasm up. Also I am playing away so if I lose that I don't mind because my next game is at home so I will have a big advantage. And if I win the game at home, then my next game is the day after, which means I will be playing away, but I will have very high enthusiasm, and I will play my starting team which should make me win. And also I'm not worried about game shape in that last week because game shape gets reset after that anyway and all players go back to repectable game shape.
I understand what you mean about throwing the first game, and generally it isn't recommended, however in this case the team is inactive (they haven't logged on in over a month) and so I think its safe to assume that they won't change their tactics etc.