Can you beat my game's craziest historic moment in the history of football?

The Cayman Islands had finished 4th in the final stage of N.American World Cup qualification, despite only getting one point against the top 3 (Mexico, USA, Canada), and that was at home to Canada (they'd also never got past the first stage of qualifying until now). So they qualify for a playoff against Colombia, where they should be destroyed in the first leg as CI are the away team.

CI come back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2. So it's all on the second leg, CI at home. Their goalkeeper is playing despite a stubbed finger injury. The odds are 50-1 CI, 1-33 Colombia. Doesn't look good. I decide to watch it anyway.

Colombia go 1-0 (3-2) up at 13 minutes and continue to barrage the goal. By the time they have about 8 shots, at the half hour mark, one of their players gets sent off, giving CI a chance now that it's 11 v 10. Colombia still dominate, constantly breaking free of the attacking defence but just shooting off target.

At 90 minutes, it is revealed there will be 4 minutes of stoppage time. A ball is punted up the pitch and a Cayman Islands striker outpaces the defender into the area, he keeps running until the angle is horrendously narrow and shoots.

He scores. ******* hell.

Cayman Islands, ranked about 175 when qualifying began, are in the World Cup, winning on away goals against a team who finished 3rd in the last World Cup.

NOT ONLY THAT but this is only 11 years into FM 2007 and I hadn't even loaded any players from Cayman Islands AND I wasn't the manager of either team. No epic regens eithers.

I think it's awesome. I wonder how they'll do...(see post #18)

THE 2022 SEQUEL HAS BEEN ADDED - SEE POST #22!

The Cayman Islands had finished 4th in the final stage of N.American World Cup qualification, despite only getting one point aginst the top 3 (Mexico, USA, Canada), and that was at home to Canada. So they qualify for a playoff against Colombia, where they should be destroyed in the first leg as CI are the away team.

CI come back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2. So it's all on the second leg, CI at home. Their goalkeeper is playing despite a stubbed finger injury. The odds are 50-1 CI, 1-33 Colombia. Doesn't look good. I decide to watch it anyway.

Colombia go 1-0 (3-2) up at 13 minutes and continue to barrage the goal. By the time they have about 8 shots, at the half hour mark, one of their players gets sent off, giving CI a chance now that it's 11 v 10. Colombia still dominate, constantly breaking free of the attacking defence but just shooting off target.

At 90 minutes, it is revealed there will be 4 minutes of stoppage time. A ball is punted up the pitch and a Cayman Islands striker outpaces the defender into the area, he keeps running until the angle is horrendously narrow and shoots.

He scores. ******* hell.

Cayman Islands, ranked about 175 when qualifying began, are in the World Cup.

NOT ONLY THAT but this is only 11 years into FM 2007 and I hadn't even loaded any players from Cayman Islands AND I wasn't the manager of either team.

I think it's awesome. I wonder how they'll do...

Wow thats brilliant please post updates

That's quality, hope you're going to detail their progress at the world cup

I bet is going to be somthing along the lines of

Brazil 24 - 0 Cayman Islands

Cayman Islands 0 - 5 Camaroon

England 15 - 0 Cayman Islands

Cayman Islands out

Yay, Canada qualified.

I bet is going to be somthing along the lines of

Brazil 24 - 0 Cayman Islands

Cayman Islands 0 - 5 Camaroon

England 15 - 0 Cayman Islands

Cayman Islands out

Dont you mean England 1-0 Cayman Islands. Well thats how it would turn out irl

Did they have any regens or was it all greyed-out players?

lol classic FM! why i love this game. Well written post, hope you keep us updated

That's awesome... I'm going to keep an eye on whoever qualifies for the 2022 world cup in my game now..

Australia is hosting so they're already in.

Do they happen to have got one or a few amazing regens from that nationality?

Did they have any regens or was it all greyed-out players?

Do they happen to have got one or a few amazing regens from that nationality?

Well yeah, like I said it was 11 years in so there's going to be regens. However none of them were of great quality. The screenshots say it all.

CI have only 5 players better than £1m, then it gets bad. The best club there is Bolton:

However for Colombia, well...here's why they finished 3rd in the last World Cup:

And here is Canada's team, who CI finished 3 points behind:

So a much better squad than CI and one player who is past the £10m mark.

Indeed, there are no catches, this was simply an epic giantkilling.

That's awesome... I'm going to keep an eye on whoever qualifies for the 2022 world cup in my game now..

Australia is hosting so they're already in.

I always note particular dates (such as the date before the final round of games in a competition/stage) not just for scouting purposes (the player stats section) but for my own entertainment if I decide I want to see a possible historic moment or exciting match, such as this.

That's quality, hope you're going to detail their progress at the world cup

Wow thats brilliant please post updates

I will do then but it'll be a while, it's still 8 months away, which will take at least a few weeks I think.

I think the best club represented is DC United, not Bolton

Here's a li'l update for ya. Cayman Islands have been drawn in the same group as Uruguay (hosts), Australia (finished 3rd in this year's Confederations Cup) and Republic of Ireland (finished 3rd in the 2010 World Cup).

At least they didn't get Rwanda's group of Spain, Czech Republic and (IIRC) Brazil.

On a bizarre if less interesting side-note, I got a message telling me that Somalia had leapt 47 places up the FIFA listing. Checking the details, they'd gone from last place on 0 points up 47 places. Looking at their fixtures, they'd finished bottom of a world-cup qualifying group with one point. No idea how the increase in FIFA points came about.

Actually in real life my adopted country Cambodia moved up one place in the FIFA rankings - without playing a single fixture. We're up to 173rd in the 207-nation list.

On a bizarre if less interesting side-note, I got a message telling me that Somalia had leapt 47 places up the FIFA listing. Checking the details, they'd gone from last place on 0 points up 47 places. Looking at their fixtures, they'd finished bottom of a world-cup qualifying group with one point. No idea how the increase in FIFA points came about.

Actually in real life my adopted country Cambodia moved up one place in the FIFA rankings - without playing a single fixture. We're up to 173rd in the 207-nation list.

I must assume that one point came recently which would be why they moved up, right? And yea, teams don't have to do anything to move up in the FIFA rankings if the teams directly above them lose.

Slovenia won the WC in my game.

Following that, Wales won...

In FM05 (I think, but possibly FM06), I once saw an AI managed N.Ireland finish as World Cup Runners Up, fired almost all the way by a super-charged Super Kyle who was running rampant for my Premiership Hitchin team.

Here is the update for those asking and are interested in how they did.

Cayman Islands' first match was against Australia. CI scored just before half time to lead 1-0 at the break. In the 2nd half, the Aussies scored a penalty and then a winner to win the match 2-1.

CI's next match was against the Republic of Ireland. CI were dominated but only lost 1-0.

Unable to qualify, their final match was against the hosts Uruguay. CI lost 3-0.

Better luck next time?

Other things of interest:

Ready to find out how Brazil did? Their first match was against the Czech Republic. Brazil lost 5-0. They then lost against Spain 2-0.

This set-up a possible historic World Cup moment as Brazil's final game was against Rwana, who were actually ahead of them in the group standings due to conceding 2 less goals. No shock though, Brazil won 3-0.

Along with Brazil, Germany went out in a very poor manner. In a group with the might of Northern Ireland, Canada and New Zealand, the Germans finished 3rd, only winning 1 match (against NZ) and losing the other two. Scored 2, conceded 3.

Also, in the second round, the champions Argentina were knocked out after Iran came back from 1-0 down to draw 1-1 and win on penalties.

And for completion's sake:

Spain won their first ever World Cup on penalties (5-4 after 10 rounds of penalties) against Turkey.

Turkey threw away the lead twice to make it 2-2 at full time. Just as annoyingly for them, Turkey had reached the final of the previous European Championships, but lost to my England team whilst going down to 9 men. This year they topped the disciplinary list again.

And Mexico, the 2014 finalists, beat the Brazil-bashing Czechs 3-0 to get third place. Still a very good performance considering it was the Czech's first World Cup in 12 years. Didn't stop the manager vacating his position...

finally, an update 3 losses in WC is unfortunate, but c'mon, it's a superb achievement to get CI in WC at all..!

On a bizarre if less interesting side-note, I got a message telling me that Somalia had leapt 47 places up the FIFA listing. Checking the details, they'd gone from last place on 0 points up 47 places. Looking at their fixtures, they'd finished bottom of a world-cup qualifying group with one point. No idea how the increase in FIFA points came about.

Actually in real life my adopted country Cambodia moved up one place in the FIFA rankings - without playing a single fixture. We're up to 173rd in the 207-nation list.

Canada moved up 13 spots without playing a game. It seems whenever we don't play, we move up the rankings, and when we do play, we move down the rankings.

Nice work by the Cayman Islands to get to the World Cup!! And Canada too in your game!!

finally, an update 3 losses in WC is unfortunate, but c'mon, it's a superb achievement to get CI in WC at all..!

Yes, congratulations to...wait, I don't know if CI even had a manager...

Nice work by the Cayman Islands to get to the World Cup!! And Canada too in your game!!

In case you're a canuck then, just for you:

In the group stages Canada lost to Northern Ireland 2-1 (Canada's goal being an own goal), then beat the Germans 1-0, and finally drew with New Zealand 0-0. Canada finished 2nd behind N.I. (who won all their games), one point ahead of Germany.

They then beat Japan 3-0 before losing 2-1 after taking the lead against Mexico in the quarter finals.

Ready for your Cayman Islands update for the 2022 world cup campaign?

Round 1

CI 5-1 Antigua & Barbuda on agg.

Round 2

In the second phase they were paired with Montserrat, Guatemala and...USA.

Their first match was against the Americans at home...and they got a 1-1 draw. Against USA away, they drew again 1-1!

In fact, up to their last game, CI drew all their games and conceded in all of them, apart from at home to Guatemala which they won 4-1.

Despite losing at home to Montserrat 3-2 in their final game, denying them the chance to finish the round unbeaten, they beat them to 2nd place on goal difference and qualified for Round 3.

Round 3

Round 3 consisted of: USA, Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, Bermuda and Cayman Islands.

CI lost both their matches to the US this time, as well as Mexico, losing 3-0 and 1-0 to both of them.They did beat Costa Rica 3-1 at home and drew away. CI also drew away to Canada. However, they also only managed a draw to Bermuda. This time, however, CI kept one clean sheet: 0 - 0 at home to Bermuda.

CI got a 1-1 draw at home to Canada in the final game, which meant they finished 4th, with a record of W1 D5 L4.

However, this meant CI qualified for a playoff. They were one more agg. win away from a second successive world cup.

Their opponents?

Colombia. The team they beat in such dramatic fashion 4 years ago at the exact same stage.

Play-off: Cayman Islands v Colombia - The Rematch

CI lost 2-0 away to Colombia in the first leg (no comeback to draw 2-2 this time).

Once again, CI played at home but this time needed to win 2-0 or by a 3-goal margin to win...

CI took the lead...

But the match ended 1-0.

So Colombia beat CI this time, and that was the end.

Incidentally: Cayman Islands boast a 27 year old right back recently signed by Man Utd, although he played a dozen games in reserves in his debut season.

Notably, the CI U20 team's record in the year 2021 was: P16 W1 D0 L15 F1 A42

you should post this in the careers forum itl be a good read

Awesome story to follow!

Nice thread mate

Didn't FM07 geneate a large number of British players with odd Caribbean second nationalities? I seem to recall having a number of good regens from the footballing powerhouses of St Kitts & Neves, Trinidad & Tabago & Barbados.

you should post this in the careers forum itl be a good read

I don't think I can as this is entirely AI, my teams aren't even in the same continent.

Could put it in Stories though, just this was originally meant to be a one-off thread but I naturally updated their World Cup progress, then this rematch/deja vu happened.

I love a good underdog story.

Back on FM2005 Burkina Faso reached the World Cup final in 2014!

Didn't FM07 geneate a large number of British players with odd Caribbean second nationalities? I seem to recall having a number of good regens from the footballing powerhouses of St Kitts & Neves, Trinidad & Tabago & Barbados.

I haven't noticed that, might have something to do with what leagues you loaded, players you loaded, and the nationality of yourself and staff.

I love a good underdog story.

Back on FM2005 Burkina Faso reached the World Cup final in 2014!

Now that's just silly. >_>