Leagues to load to manage USA

[mudsterman]

Hey guys, I am thinking of a game as USA manager and was wondering what leagues to load to give me the best experciance possible. I want a reasonably large pool of players to choose from, preferbly in an active league, and for the other major CONCACAF sides to be competitive. I can run only one playble league, and four view-only on a small d/b due to a crap PC. I was thinking of USA, Mexico, Canada (if availible), England and Australia (not sure, but may be a few players there as they speak english?). Does this sound good to you guys?

[Saxonaitor]

hmmm 1 playable ( your Favourite League or the MLS) 4 view only (Brazil, England, ?France?, Argentina)

[Wiitastic]

I dont have the US Leagues on at all, and I can still manage USA if I was offered the job. I have all main Premier Leagues on from all over Europe.

[mudsterman]

Thanks, that sounds okay, my only question is whther the other North American teams will still be competitive without thire leagues loaded? Also, do you know if the US are often invited to the Copa America in-game as one of the two guest teams?

[mudsterman]

Wiitastic, thats is good, but are most of the US players actually playing matches at club level? I usally pick players based on form which I can't see if they are in a non-viewable league?

[DivineOne]

If you want to go for a long term game you really should take the US leagues. Maybe use "retain american players" too. And players that are in non loaded leagues still play games btw.

[Raware]

How about Germany? There are a few playing there. And also some Scandinavian league's have a few U.S. players, namely Denmark and Sweden.

[mudsterman]

Okay, didn't know that DivineOne, but will I be able to get an indication of whether they have been playing well?

[DivineOne]

You're able to see their stats in the profile screen. You can't see the matches themselves offcourse but the stats like games played, goals, assists, average rating, ... .

[mudsterman]

Oh, thats great, thanks for that. I am also thinking of loading the SPL as Rangers have a couple of players. Australia seem useless so I have dropped them from my list, and the Canadian league is not on FM. So thta leaves with the top leagues from USA, England, Scotland and Mexico (The only other NA league included.) Am still thinking for the final league, Brazil is one idea as there do not seem to be many other usefull options.

[mudsterman]

Thanks for your help guys, went with Brazil in the end. Maybe we should have a sticky thread for questions like this in the GPTG forum?

[crouchaldinho]

Canada isn't available.

Definitely load Mexico. Obviously load MLS.

Player-wise, the USA has players playing in the following countries (according to Wikipedia): Norway, Germany, Sweden, Portugal, Denmark, England, Spain.

Given what you have said about your PC, I would probably pick the following:
USA (MLS) - playable
Mexico (top two) - view only
England (top two) - view only
Germany (top two) - view only
Denmark (top only) - view only

If you feel it won't slow things down too much you could also load:
Spain (top two) - view only
Portugal (top only) - view only
Sweden (top only) - view only

Small database and make sure you load all players from USA.

That's based on the players listed as recently having played for USA on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...al_soccer_team

C.

[CarlHighfield]

I managed USA once and i only had England loaded

[crouchaldinho]

Ah, I'm too late!

I think I loaded this post up earlier this morning and forgot about it until now.

C.

[DivineOne]

I managed USA once and i only had England loaded

It's possible in the beginning of the game. But you should try it in 2020 or something. Barely any players left. Played with Ivory Coast myself in 2014, there were only 2 ivorian GK's left in the game. A 36yo and a 18yo that was really bad.

[drogba]

Could you not load all platers in USA in this example rather than this?

[jw252]

i once managed ivory coast but didn't have the french league loaded and didn't have a keeper. i had to use a greyed out player, and because he's an international player not a club player, i couldn't offer him a contract.

[DivineOne]

i once managed ivory coast but didn't have the french league loaded and didn't have a keeper. i had to use a greyed out player, and because he's an international player not a club player, i couldn't offer him a contract.

You don't need to have the french league loaded for Copa.

Could you not load all platers in USA in this example rather than this?

That's only good for the start of the game. Loading all players for a country doesn't enable making regens for it.

[Frame]

That's only good for the start of the game. Loading all players for a country doesn't enable making regens for it.

Are you sure? When I have loaded all players from small countries like Guam or Turkmenistan they have produced enough regens to make their national teams available 30 years on.

[MarkyMark]

I recently started a new game in which I'm only going to manage the U.S. I'd recommend running the MLS as playable and maybe Mexico as view only. I wouldn't bother with any others.

To help my crappy laptop along I chose a small database and loaded only all of the Americans. If you want to load more you can the other big CONCACAF nations: Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Canada, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago, Canada, etc.

[Sir_Liam]

Are you sure? When I have loaded all players from small countries like Guam or Turkmenistan they have produced enough regens to make their national teams available 30 years on.

On an experiment I did I altered some things in the editor for the Cook Islands, and retained all of their players, but they just didn't produce any regens. I've also noticed on my save game when I've retained some of their players that they're not producing regens.

I've had no problems with other countries though.

[Amaroq]

I just started a game for the purposes of managing the U.S. and went with the following:

Medium database

USA (top) - playable
Mexico (top) - playable
England (top two) - playable
France (top two) - playable
Germany (top two) - playable
Italy (top two) - playable
Spain (top two) - playable

I used "Options | Detail Level" to turn those leagues down to "None" detail, while cranking up to "Full Detail" all of the International tournaments, MLS, and the other U.S./CONCACAF competitions.

You might also want to add a couple of fringe countries which have current U.S.N.T. members in them - I think Denmark (top), Scotland (top), and Norway (top), in addition to the leagues crouchaldinho indicated.

In addition, I ticked "Load all players from" not just the U.S., but from all CONCACAF nations, to give myself the best possible experience in World Cup Qualifying and the Gold Cup.

Hope that helps!

(The reason I went "Playable" instead of "View Only" is that that gives those leagues more AI movement, which leads to better opportunities for your American players down the line. Also, even "None" detail, I think, gives better starts, injuries, fitness, etc, for those leagues than does "View Only".)