Managing Bhutan - The team that won 'The Other Final'

[Adriano Rossi]

While a Bhutanese National football team has existed since the 1970s, it was officially founded in 1983 and joined FIFA in 2000.

On June 30, 2002, the day of the final match of the 2002 World Cup, Bhutan, then the second-lowest ranked team in the world, recorded their first victory ever. They played against the lowest ranked team, Montserrat, in a friendly match known jokingly as The Other Final, winning 4-0 at the Changlimithang Stadium in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. "The Other Final" was organised by Dutch filmmakers.

Prior to the 2010 World Cup, they were the only FIFA member not to have attempted to qualify for the World Cup. Bhutan withdrew from the 2010 World Cup qualifiers because their stadium would not be ready in time for their matches vs. Kuwait.
Recently the team saw action in the 2008 South Asian Football Federation Cup tournament, reaching the Semifinals, where they lost to India (2 - 1) during stoppage time of extra time. The team also played on 2009 SAFF Cup.





After being somewhat inspired after seeing the documentary 'The Other Final' I have decided to try to take Bhutan to new heights. Bhutan seem like a happy, peaceful country and football isn't even the national sport, Archery is, back in 2002 when The Other Final was filmed, Bhutan had only 920 amateur footballers in the entire country.

[Adriano Rossi]

Our assistant rates the squad very highly it seems, even though we've just hit a new low of 203rd in the rankings, here is our best player:




Definitely not a world beater but good for the countries that are around us. I've set up some friendlies against teams ranked lower than 200 with a rematch against Montserrat to look forward too among others.

[deltablue]

Don't fancy your chances much

[Adriano Rossi]

2011 - The year of experimenting

Pretty poor, even though we were able to get 2 wins against San Marino & Montserrat taking our all time winning tally from 4 to 6!


We were entered into my first tournament as a manager which was the SAFF Championship



We finished bottom of the group but atleast we scored 3 goals, in real life Afghanistan put 8 past Bhutan so it's definitely an improvement!


The Final was between Maldives & India with Maldives winning it with 2 extra time goals even after going down to 10 men.


Best 11 - I'll probably be changing the tactic next season to try and get some more possession and shots.


"Best" Player:




A tough one since no-one was very good but I've decided to give it to Yeshey

[TheGreatTraveler]

Good Luck with Bhutan!!

[Lenzar]

Have you pressed the wrong Bhutan? You're managing a very poor side indeed. :P

[DodgeeD]

Looks like quite a challenge you've set yourself! Best of luck.

Btw, what set up do you have loaded? Any active leagues featuring Bhutan players?

[jcoll]

Have managed at this level before with Papua New Guinea, it really is a struggle and all the players seem equally bad on ability.

[Adriano Rossi]

Good Luck with Bhutan!!

Thanks!

Have you pressed the wrong Bhutan? You're managing a very poor side indeed. :P

Haha, I see what you did there

Looks like quite a challenge you've set yourself! Best of luck.

Btw, what set up do you have loaded? Any active leagues featuring Bhutan players?

Thanks DodgeeD, I've only loaded the league from Bhutan along with Current Internationals from every continent. Our only professional player plays for Royal Wahingdoh in the Indian Second Division.

Have managed at this level before with Papua New Guinea, it really is a struggle and all the players seem equally bad on ability.

Yea, all our players are bad, but on the plus side atleast the regens that are coming through aren't any worse than the players already existing in the team.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Very interesting and different. Good luck.

[SRL88]

Good luck fella .

[Adriano Rossi]

2012

A mixed year, 4 wins, 1 draw & 4 defeats, we were also entered into Challenge Cup Qualifiers:



Also, against San Marino I noticed how low our reputation really is...




Overall Best 11

Key Player:

[deltablue]

Well done with a couple of wins, though couldn't beat Montserrat again.

[TheGreatTraveler]

You atleast beat San Marino again.

[Adriano Rossi]

2014

Another year with more defeats than wins, I suppose you could say we did quite well only losing 5-1 to Japan and got a great 3-0 win over Macau and a good win over Laos!

We were in the SAFF Championship again but this time we could only score 1....and that was an own goal.




Overall Best 11:



Best Performer:



With him being the best player it sort of gives a sign on why we're barely winning. This year we also hit a new highest world ranking of 175th!!!..

...We're now back down to 188th.

[deltablue]

Wow, some player! I think I've just broken the sarcasm detector.

[ri916]

Wow, some player! I think I've just broken the sarcasm detector.

I dunno... He's got decent heading (6) got make a solid target man in the future if his jumping (2) is worked on

[Nobby_McDonald]

His top attribute is aggression.

[himan]

His top attribute is aggression.

That's quite interesting in Bhutan indeed

[WRIGHTYBOY]

Interesting thread my man, definitely keeping up with this one

[MeLikeFM]

Love the film The Other Final, so good luck with this.

[Antonio Viviani]

Currently I'm playing with Bangladesh but can't play the SAFF Championship. How can I enable this?