An Oceanic Adventure

[cpfc543]

Hello and welcome to my latest documented save that I am going to be doing. My last save didn't turn out very well as I didn't realise how much of a failure the add or remove league system is. Fortunately now that I know how bad it is I won't fall into the same trap this time.

The aim of this save is to develop the continent/region of Oceania and make it the power-house of the world regarding football. To do this I will try and advance all of the club's youth systems of the 11 different countries in Oceania. Therefore unlike my last save this won't be a one club save, however it will be a youth project meaning I'm not allowed to buy any players.

World Rankings (as of July 11)

American Samoa - 203rd
Cook Islands - 197th
Fiji - 141st
New Caledonia - 163rd
New Zealand - 94th
Papua New Guinea - 206th
Samoa - 191st
Solomon Islands - 178th
Tahiti - 183rd
Tonga - 194th
Vanuatu - 165th

Game Setup

Database Size - Large
Player Count - 9000
Manager Experience - Sunday League Footballer

Rules

• I cannot buy any players as this is a youth challenge
• I must not manage outside of Oceania
• I must stick with a club for at least a couple of seasons (unless I get sacked)

Aims

Short Term:
Take over a national team
Manage in New Zealand
Raise the profile of the smaller nations of Oceania

Long Term:
The overall aim is to get all 11 Oceanic countries in the top 20 of the world rankings.
Win all the leagues at least once.
Win the World Cup.

Database Used

I am using the Project O database created by FMUpdates. You can download it for yourself here.

[cpfc543]

American Samoa

The American Samoa national association football team represents American Samoa in association football and is controlled by the Football Federation American Samoa, the governing body for football in American Samoa. American Samoa's home ground is Veterans Memorial Stadium in Pago Pago and their head coach is Thomas Rongen, who previously ran the United States U-20 team. Regarded as one of the world's weakest teams, up until November 2011 they were the joint lowest FIFA ranking of all countries registered for full internationals. The team hold the world record for the largest defeat in an international match, set after their 31–0 loss to Australia.

[cpfc543]

Cook Islands

The Cook Islands national football team is the national team of the Cook Islands and is controlled by the Cook Islands Football Association. With a population of around 24,000 people it remains one of the smallest FIFA teams.

[cpfc543]

Fiji

The Fiji national football team is the national team of Fiji and is controlled by the Fiji Football Association. Their best finish in the OFC Nations Cup was third in 1998 and 2008.

[cpfc543]

New Caledonia

The New Caledonia national football team is the team of New Caledonia and is controlled by the Fédération Calédonienne de Football. Although they were only admitted to FIFA in 2004, they have been participating in the OFC Nations Cup since its inception. They have been one of this relatively small region's strongest teams finishing second in 2008 and third in 1973 and 1980. They were the top ranked OFC nation at number 95 in September 2008, making them only the fourth country from the confederation to have reached the global top 100.

[cpfc543]

New Zealand

The New Zealand national football team, nicknamed the All Whites, is the national association football team of New Zealand and is governed by New Zealand Football (NZF). The team plays in an all-white strip rather than the traditional New Zealand sporting black due to a former FIFA regulation that reserved black for the international referee strip. Its nickname is also a play on the New Zealand national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks. The silver fern, a symbol of New Zealand, appears on the All Whites uniform.

The All Whites played in the 1982 FIFA World Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In 2010, New Zealand exited the competition after the first round despite turning out to be the only team that remained unbeaten in the World Cup finals.

Because most New Zealand football clubs are semi-professional rather than fully professional, most top New Zealand footballers play abroad for clubs in Europe, in the United States, or in the Australian A-League.

New Zealand formerly battled Australia for top honours in the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). However, Australia now plays in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), leaving New Zealand as the only seeded team in the OFC. New Zealand has won the OFC Nations Cup four times – in 1973, 1998, 2002 and 2008.

[cpfc543]

Papua New Guinea

The Papua New Guinea national football team is the national team of Papua New Guinea and is controlled by the Papua New Guinea Football Association. Its nickname is the Kapuls, which is Tok Pisin for Cuscus.

As of March 2012, Papua New Guinea was ranked 194 by FIFA. Papua New Guinea had previously left the FIFA rankings, having not competed in a match between July 2007 and August 2011. Their games at the 2011 Pacific Games saw them return to the rankings, and they will be competing in the 2012 OFC Nations Cup in June 2012.

[cpfc543]

Samoa

The Samoa national association football team represents Samoa in association football and is controlled by the Football Federation Samoa, the governing body for football in Samoa. Samoa's home ground is Toleafoa J.S Blatter Soccer Stadium in Apia. It was known as the Western Samoa national football team until 1997, and is one of the weakest teams in the OFC. Samoa's weakness is due to the popularity of rugby union, the national sport, and American football, baseball and basketball.

[cpfc543]

Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands national football team is the national team of the Solomon Islands and is controlled by Solomon Islands Football Federation. The team shocked the (Oceanian) football world in the 2004 Oceania Nations Cup (which doubles as World Cup Qualifying), tying Australia 2–2 to nip heavily-favored New Zealand for second place and a spot in a championship playoff against Australia. Although they lost to the Socceroos 5–1 and 6–0, finishing second in the confederation is a remarkable achievement for the island nation.

The Solomons would get a second chance against the Socceroos in a two-legged series in September 2005, this time with the winner advancing to a two-legged series against CONMEBOL's fifth-place finisher for a berth in the 2006 World Cup, and lost 7–0 on the first leg and 2–1 in the 2nd played at home.

The Solomons were knocked out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup particularly as they were seen as the favourites to challenge New Zealand for the Oceanian qualifying slot. They got off to a good start winning every game in their qualifying group and comfortably progressing to the knockout rounds, but defeats to New Caledonia and then to Vanuatu saw them knocked out of the competition.

[cpfc543]

Tahiti

The Tahiti national football team is the national team of French Polynesia and is controlled by the Fédération Tahitienne de Football.

They finished second in the OFC Nations Cup in its first three installments, 1973, 1980, and 1996. In 2009 the under 20 team qualified for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt. Tahiti has won the football section of the South Pacific Games more than any other nation (excluding New Caledonia), with five victories.




The league hasn't started yet so I can't provide an image

[cpfc543]

Tonga

The Tonga national football team is the national team of Tonga and is controlled by the Tonga Football Association.

[cpfc543]

Vanuatu

The Vanuatu national football team is the national team of Vanuatu and is controlled by the Vanuatu Football Federation.



The league hasn't started yet so I can't provide an image

[cpfc543]

Project 1 - Kiwi Soccers, American Samoa


Club's Profile

An amateur team with a local reputation and a insecure financial status in one of the world's worst leagues... great!

Club's General Information

Not the biggest of clubs in the world, that's for sure. A ticket price is a hefty 70p and the season ticket is £2. 25 people have bought season tickets... a nice £50 overall.

Club's Facilities

To put it politely, absolutely rubbish. The youths coming through are going to be of poor quality and our training facilities are far from amazing.

[cpfc543]

Year on Year World Rankings for the Oceanic Countries

2011/2012

American Samoa - 203rd
Cook Islands - 197th
Fiji - 141st
New Caledonia - 163rd
New Zealand - 94th
Papua New Guinea - 206th
Samoa - 191st
Solomon Islands - 178th
Tahiti - 183rd
Tonga - 194th
Vanuatu - 165th

[cpfc543]

Reserved (10 chars..)

[cpfc543]

Reserved (10 chars...)

[nie jem frytek]

Good luck, you'll need it a lot.

[gooner83]

Good luck and i am looking forward to seeing how you get on with this challenge

[cpfc543]

Good luck, you'll need it a lot.

Good luck and i am looking forward to seeing how you get on with this challenge

Thanks guys, I will need it. My biggest worry is that due to most of the clubs in Oceania being amateur I may loose a lot of players and as I can't buy players I may be short on players.

Although my Andorran save had monthly updates, this one will not. I will probably do the pre-season, mid season and end of season update format.

[FMtillidie]

good luck excellent challenge dude.

[Tricky-Jigsaw]

Good luck mate.

Will be following this with interest.

[cpfc543]

Project 1: Kiwi Soccers, American Samoa

Pre-Season Summary 2011/12

The squad was better than expected with some players that looked good. I looked at the squad and made a tactic that would suit it the best.

Squad





The defence and attack look good enough for the level but the midfielders are simply rubbish. I will definitely be hoping for some midfielders from the youth intake, whenever that may be.

Tactics





I have never used the 4-1-2-2-1 but it seems to be the best formation that I could think of to suit the team's players. I will be looking to see the team take advantage of the width of the pitch but also be secure in defence. This theoretically should mean we will score loads and concede few - which is the ideal situation... but will it work?

[cpfc543]

good luck excellent challenge dude.

Good luck mate.

Will be following this with interest.

Thanks for the support .

[AcidBurn]

Very interested in this save once you get to a team and regularly win the O-League you will make loads of money from the Club World Championships.

[arinceo]

Be interesting to see how you go with this, getting all the nations in the top 20 might be a little bit of a stretch though

[ShanghaiNugget]

Ahh, you git, I was going to start an Oceania thread!

Good luck!

[deltablue]

Interesting indeed.

[chile_paul]

Interesting and daunting challenge, I expect you might find the Amateur set up a challenge?

[cpfc543]

Very interested in this save once you get to a team and regularly win the O-League you will make loads of money from the Club World Championships.

That's the plan

Be interesting to see how you go with this, getting all the nations in the top 20 might be a little bit of a stretch though

Nothing wrong with being optimistic

Ahh, you git, I was going to start an Oceania thread!

Good luck!

Thanks

Interesting indeed.

Yep .

Interesting and daunting challenge, I expect you might find the Amateur set up a challenge?

Definitely being amateur is the hardest part of the challenge but hopefully once I'm winning a league with a team enough times players won't want to leave. Hopefully.

[cpfc543]

Mid-Season Update: End of the Regular Season

What's happened?

The regular season is played between the 25th of September and the 9th of November. During this time 6 matches are played in group A and 7 in group B (the group we're in).

We began the season with a less than comfortable 3-1 win against Ilaoa & Toomata which included multiple injuries and a missed penalty. The second match was at home to Black Roses, who we beat comfortably 6-0, which told me that we were a real force in the league. We followed up the amazing win the a 2-1 win against Pago Youth A but then lost to Vailoatai Youth 2-1 shortly after. We were second place in the league and needed some more wins... and we got them. 3 good wins later and we ended the season top of the regular league. A great start to my Oceanic adventure.

Results
League Table

What's going to happen?

Due to winning the group we have been automatically placed in the semi finals of the league's knock out stages. If we win the semi and then win the final we will be representing American Samoa in the OFC Cup. If by some miracle we win that cup we will be entered into the O-League which is the biggest competition that is exclusive to Oceanic countries. If we then go on to win that we will be entered in to the Club World Championship, which will be where we get most of our income from. Obviously it will take a long time to get to the Club World Championship, but it is possible.

Transfers

Due to being an amateur club we don't have the ability to comfortably hold onto our players. Since taking over the club we have lost 3 players but luckily for us the players have only been there for back up. So far I haven't released anyone as I want to keep as many players as possibly just in case a lot of players leave us in the coming seasons.

Transfer Summary

[nie jem frytek]

I love/ team name. Go Kiwis!

[cerud]

Interesting save! I'm curious though...what was the problem with the add/remove league feature? It has worked great for me.

[cpfc543]

I love/ team name. Go Kiwis!

Thanks

Interesting save! I'm curious though...what was the problem with the add/remove league feature? It has worked great for me.

The main problem is that my computer isn't very good. What seems to happen is when you add a league, however small it is, it seems to add a ridiculous amount of players to the database. I added the Premier League on my Andorran save and the number of players rose from 7500 to 120,000 which my computer struggles to handle. You probably don't notice it because you have a good computer. Also when you remove a league it only reduces the players in the database by a few thousand. Check out this thread if you want to know more.

[cpfc543]

Had an idea: as I'm currently playing this save I'm using the youth challenge system. This is a great challenge but for this save I think it could be used differently. Basically what I'm now going to be allowed to do is buy or loan players but they have to be from the country I'm managing and under 20 years old. This should mean I will have the ability to get new players (as with amateur clubs you lose loads of players) and it also means I should be helping the country progress.

[deltablue]

Sounds sensible given the high loss-rate of players.

[nie jem frytek]

Any news from the Kiwis?

[Razer82]

Interesting concept taking on the youth facilities of an entire continent!

Good luck, look forward to seeing where this goes.