Breaking the glass ceiling - A Samoan Youth Only Challenge

I'm back with another career since my computer got wiped and I lost my Perfectionist save Now I have started up a challenge in the challenges forum for these types of careers but I'm going to try a Samoan Youth Only Challenge (I was 5 seasons into a Brazil save but I got sacked).

Why Samoa? I hear no-one ask. Well simple, I would have chosen American Samoa but regens there have American as their 2nd Nationality so if I got any great regens they would all play for the USA so I've chosen American Samoa's neighbours, also because in Samoa there are 22 league games which is more than in most other Oceanic nations.

For this challenge I've got to start unemployed and holiday for one season and take over one of the 2 teams that gets promoted to the Samoan Premier League. I've made 1 change to the challenge to make it harder for me which is I'm loading all the Oceanic leagues in claassen's megapack. One other change I have made is that I WILL be adding players to playable teams because a lot of teams in Oceania have no players.

Leagues Loaded - Database Size

I will update with an end of season report and a brief showing of Youth Candidates that come through on the Youth Candidate Day.

Let's do this!!

Great to see you at it again, it's a real shame that you lost that last save but looking forward it looks like a very ambitious and challenging challenge (very redundant, I know). Good luck!

Great to see you at it again, it's a real shame that you lost that last save but looking forward it looks like a very ambitious and challenging challenge (very redundant, I know). Good luck!

Thanks Tas! It is a shame but it's time for a whole new challenge now and I love trying Youth Challenges and seeing Jupjamie & Abulezz's threads it's really inspired me! I've also done something else I never do, edit the detail level. I always put detail level to none but not this time. This time I'm setting up like this: Detail Level and I've also changed My Subscriptions already.

Wow, the rest of the world will be pretty much dead to you!

Wow, the rest of the world will be pretty much dead to you!

It's still the most detailed the world has ever been for me

I'm back with another career since my computer got wiped and I lost my Perfectionist save

It's ok to drop a save mate, no need for excuses

It's ok to drop a save mate, no need for excuses

I know it's okay to drop a save but there is no excuse I had a day of computer problems which led to some sort of blue screen error, then my pc wouldn't turn on and then when it did, shizz went bye-bye

Much like you did with San Giovanni, will follow avidly.

Now that's one extreme idea! I'll follow as usual.

I like your idea of coming up losing both saves for a good challenge! Hope to make Samoa good so that they can be more dominant in the WC qualifiers!

Very sad to hear you lost the perfectionist save. Will be following this one.

Much like you did with San Giovanni, will follow avidly.

Now that's one extreme idea! I'll follow as usual.

I like your idea of coming up losing both saves for a good challenge! Hope to make Samoa good so that they can be more dominant in the WC qualifiers!

Very sad to hear you lost the perfectionist save. Will be following this one.

Thanks everyone for following! I'll have the first season update soon along with a brief overview of what's happened in other Oceanic leagues

Apia Youth - Samoan Premier League - 2016/17

League Table

League Positions Graph

We were up at the top end of the table for the entire season and to finish in 3rd in my first season is great in my opinion, the league was also very tight with just 4 points separating us from 8th placed Adidas and in the end One Way Win won the league being top from game 6 onwards.

Samoan Cup - Finishing 3rd in Group A meant that we just missed out on qualifying for the Semi-Final. One Way Win ended up winning the double by beating Lupe 1-0 after extra time.

Under 20's League - Our Under 20's were crowned champions of the Under 20 league as even though we had no players in that team they still scored a hell of a lot of goals!

Squad

Transfers - None.

Finances - Steadily going down but I decided to take a pay cut to help the finances, going down from £270 p/w to £80 p/w.

League Rankings - The Samoan League stays in 10th between the Cook Islands League & the Tongan National League.

Key Players:

Kaliasi Toteu

Ben Kapisi

Teariki Laloata

Jason Fealofal

Season | League Pos. |   Samoa Cup  | O-League | Est. Value | Avg. Attendance | League Rank | NT Rank |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17|     3rd     | 3rd Group A  |     -    |  £28,000   |       240       |    10/13    |  198th  |

Elsewhere in Oceania:

American Samoan Division 1 - FC SKBC and Lion Heart had a fierce battle at the top of the table but the South Korean Baptist Church narrowly won the title with 24 points from 10 games and an unbeaten season. In the Cup, 2nd Division side Vaitogi Utd beat Lion Heart 1-0 in the Final.

Ligue des Isles Cook - Takuvaine won the league by 3 points with 22 points from 12 games with Nikao finishing in 2nd. Bottom club Titikaveka beat Tupapa Maraerenga 1-0 in the Cup Final.

Fijian National Football League - A very close season saw Navua beat Suva by just 3 goals as they both finished on 25 points, Ba finished down in 4th on 20 points. In the Fijian FA Cup Lautoka beat Suva 2-0, in the Fijian Interdistrict Championship Navua beat Rewa 4-1. In the Fijian Battle of the Giants Navua beat Nadroga on penalties after a 2-2 draw and finally, in the Fijian Champions vs Champions, Ba beat Tailevu/Naitasiri 2-0 on aggregate.

New Caledonian Super League - As Qanono stormed to the title by 10 points in a league which has 4 points for a win, 2 for a draw and 1 for a loss, the "big" club of New Caledonia AS Magenta finished down in 6th on 53 points. In the Cup FC Gaitcha beat 2nd tier Mouli Sport 4-1 on penalties.

New Zealand Premiership - Auckland City finished 4 points clear of Team Wellington to finish 1st in the league but they weren't crowned winners due to the playoffs where they lost in the final to Waitakere United 4-2 on penalties.

Papua New Guinean National Soccer League - Unitech Lae ended up defeating PRK Hekari (who I believe are the big team of Papua New Guinea) 4-3 on penalties after a 0-0 draw in regular time.

Telekom S. League - Solomon Warriors won the league by 5 points to 2nd placed Koloale and 3rd placed KOSSA who were separated by just 1 goal in goal difference. In the Cup KOSSA beat Western United 2-0.

Tahitian First Division - AS Dragon finished 2nd to AS Pirae but ended up winning the league due to beating 4th placed AS Temarii Faa'a in the Championship Playoff. In the Cup there was a shock as 2nd Division side AS Excelsior defeated AS Tefana 4-3 on penalties in the Final.

Vanuatuan Port Vila Premier Division - Amicale absolutely ran away with the league winning by 8 points to 2nd placed Tafea and only conceding 3 goals in 14 games! Amicale also won the Vanuatuan National Soccer League which is run at the end of the season by beating Severners United 3-2 in the Final. Amicale also gained a 3rd and 4th piece of silverware by beating Tafea 3-1 in the FA Shield and by beating Yatel 3-3 in the TVL Smile Cup.

Champions League Preliminary Round - Group Stage - Semi-Final & Final - A big shock in the Champions League as Tahitians' AS Tefana beat New Zealands' Waitakere United 1-0 in the Final!

EDIT: Just a question, would people like it if I carried on doing this kind of review of other leagues every season or not bother and just do my club review?

Good to see another Oceanic save! I'm trying a similar thing but in American Samoa with Lion Heart. It's definitely a challenge of the very long-term variety It's cool to see what happens in the other leagues so keep doing the reviews

This should be interesting.

Good to see another Oceanic save! I'm trying a similar thing but in American Samoa with Lion Heart. It's definitely a challenge of the very long-term variety It's cool to see what happens in the other leagues so keep doing the reviews

Okay Dudge I'll keep doing the reviews what season are you in with Lion Heart?

This should be interesting.

Thanks delta

Okay Dudge I'll keep doing the reviews what season are you in with Lion Heart?

2024, I'm now pretty dominant in the league and cup and have managed a Champions League final appearance, but still stuck as an amateur team. The good thing is the league is only 10 games long so you can fly through the seasons.

Apia Youth - Samoan Premier League - 2017/18

League Table

League Positions Graph

A terrible season. We were as high as 8th for one game but that was it, we finished the season in the Relegation Playoffs and thankfully we came out with a victory to keep us in the league, and yet my job status is still stable.

Samoan Cup - We did even worse in the cup this year as we finished down in 5th in Group A, Faatoia Utd ended up defeating Moaula Utd 4-0 in the Final!

Under 20's - Our Under 20's were crowned champions of the Under 20 league again as they utterly thrashed everybody else, finishing 17 points ahead of Mouala Utd.

Squad

Transfers - We lost our first youth player as Apimeleki Laloata (YP1m) went to 2nd tier Central Utd and scored 9 goals in 43 appearances.

Finances - Again they're pretty steady as we don't have a lot of money coming in or going out.

League Rankings - The Samoan League moves up one place to 9th between the Tongan & Papua New Guinea League. The Ligue des Isles Cook were the biggest climbers, going from 9th to 3rd.

Key Players:

Kaliasi Toetu

Jason Fealofal

Jone Fuimaono

Season | League Pos. |   Samoa Cup  | O-League | Est. Value | Avg. Attendance | League Rank | NT Rank |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17|     3rd     | 3rd Group A  |     -    |  £28,000   |       240       |    10/13    |  198th  |
2017/18|    11th     | 5th Group A  |     -    |  £26,000   |       239       |     8/13    |  203rd  |

Really bad season, but at least your U20 team still winning.

I'm following this great challenge, good luck in the next season.

Elsewhere in Oceania:

American Samoan Division 1 - FC SKBC and Lion Heart again had a fierce battle at the top of the table and this time Lion Heart came out on top by just one goal on goal difference and in the cup relegated Kiwi Soccers defeated PanSa 2-1 after extra time.

Ligue des Isles Cook - Takuvaine couldn't retain the title and ended up finishing 2nd from bottom, this season, Nikao won the league by 3 points ahead of Titikaveka who also met Nikao in the Cup Final where Titikaveka's James Samson scored 2 goals...own goals which gave Nikao a 2-0 victory.

Fijian National Football League - Another tight season saw Rewa win the title although just 4 points separated the top 4. In the Fijian FA Cup Tournament Lautoka beat Navua 2-1 in the Final, in the Fijian Interdistrict Championship Suva beat Lautoka 2-0 and in the Fijian Battle of the Giants Suva and Lautoka met again and Suva won again but this time on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

New Caledonian Super League - As Qanono finished down in 6th and miles off the pace with the top 5 being separated by just 5 points and AS Lossi come away with the title with AS Magenta finishing even further down the table in 8th. In the cup relegated Belep Mont-Dore defeated JS Baco 1-0.

New Zealand Premiership - Team Wellington finished 9 points clear of Auckland City and Waitakere Utd in the league but when it came to the playoffs Waitakere Utd beat Team Wellington 2-1 after extra time.

Papua New Guinean National Soccer League - PRK Hekari came back to the big time as they had an unbeaten season which culminated in them winning the Championship Playoff against Besta PNG Utd on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

Telekom S. League - Solomon Warriors were ousted by a very dominant Koloale who won the league by 9 points, Koloale also made it to the cup final but ended up losing 3-1 to Western Utd.

Tahitian First Division - AS Pirae finished 2nd in the league this time but ended up winning the playoffs where they faced AS Excelsior and won 2-1, the entire league was very close with 8 points separating 1st from 6th, and that's in an 8 team league where the bottom 2 get relegated. In the Cup AS Central Sport defeat AS Venus 3-0 in the Final.

Vanuatuan Port Vila Premier Division - Amicale won the league again but by just 1 point to Severners Utd and in the Vanuatuan National Soccer League Amicale and Severners Utd met in the Final with Amicale winning 2-0. In the Vanuatuan Port Vila FA Shield Severners Utd made it to another Final, this time against Tafea and Severners lost again, 2-1 this time. Finally in the TVL Smile Cup Amicale met Tafea, and Amicale won 2-0.

Champions League Preliminary Round- Group Stage - Semi-Final & Final - One Way Win made it through the Preliminary Round! They also got a win against AS Tamarii Faa'a but it wasn't enough and in the goal-fest (sarcasm) of the Knockout Stage Waitakere Utd defeated Amicale 4-2 on penalties.

Really bad season, but at least your U20 team still winning.

I'm following this great challenge, good luck in the next season.

It was an awful season the only way is up else the challenge is over, thanks for following

Good luck with this hopefully there is improvement in the next season.

I am looking to try something similar, maybe in New Zealand. What logo pack are you using? It looks pretty comprehensive.

Apia Youth - Samoan Premier League - 2018/19

League Table

League Positions Graph

Things started off so well and I was briefly very optimistic as we had 2 wins and a draw from the first 3 games, then things went downhill. Fast. What followed was just 1 win from 13 and only 2 draws, this was only stopped by a change in tactic which saw finish our last 6 games with a form of 4-1-1 which kept us safe and just 1 point away from 8th.

Samoan Cup - The complete opposite happened in the cup where we sailed through the Group Stage and beat Faatoia 3-2 in the Semi-Final which set us up against Lupe in the Final, it was a very close final where we had the most of the possession (64% - 36%) whilst Lupe had most of the shots (5-11) it went to penalties where we defeated Lupe 4-2 and it gives us our first piece of silverware!

Under 20's - Our Under 20's couldn't make it a hat-trick and finished down in 4th with One Way Win U20's taking the crown.

Squad - The eagle eyed among you may notice that our young players are beginning to get Youth International appearances (4 players) whilst Paul Lapalapa (YP2a) made his full blown international debut coming on in the 51st minute in a 2-0 defeat to Vanuatu.

Transfers - Just the one departure with (YP2b) joining Cruz Azul.

Finances - Still going down

League Rankings - The Samoan League moves up once again up 3 places from 9th to 6th.

Key Players:

Tagi Pio (YP1a)

Teariki Laloata

Baffet Estee Bureta

Kaliasi Toetu

Paul Lapalapa (YP2a)

Season | League Pos. |   Samoa Cup  | O-League | Est. Value | Avg. Attendance | League Rank | NT Rank |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17|     3rd     | 3rd Group A  |     -    |  £28,000   |       240       |    10/13    |  198th  |
2017/18|    11th     | 5th Group A  |     -    |  £26,000   |       239       |     8/13    |  203rd  |
2018/19|    10th     | Cup Winner!  |     -    |  £18,000   |       225       |     6/13    |  202nd  |

Elsewhere in Oceania:

American Samoan Division 1 - FC SKBC regains the league title beating Pago Youth by 4 points. FC SKBC did the league and cup double as they defeated Pago Youth 2-1 in the Final.

Ligue des Isles Cook - Nikao retained the league and easily by finishing 5 points clear of Avatiu in 2nd. Puaikura finished bottom of the table with no wins and just 2 draws to their name with a GD of -19. In the cup there was a shortage of goals with both semi-finals going to penalties after finishing as 1-1 draws and the final between Avatiu and Takuvaine going to penalties after finishing 0-0, Takuvaine ended up winning 5-4.

Fijian National Football League - Nadi win the league title by 6 points to Navua with just the one defeat, the shock was at the bottom of the table where the 19-time league champions Ba see themselves getting relegated to the Fijian 2nd tier after getting 10 points from 14 games. In the Fijian Interdistrict Championship, despite being relegated, Ba beat Suva 2-1 in the final. In the Fijian FA Cup Tournament it was a one-sided final with league winners Nadi beating Rewa 3-0. In the Fijian Battle of the Giants Suva found themselves as the winning side as they beat Rewa 3-2. Finally in the Fijian Champions versus Champions Rewa and Suva met up again and Rewa got the win as they defeated Suva 6-5 on aggregate.

New Caledonian Super League - As Qanono were back at the top of the table finishing in 1st on 63 points just 1 point ahead of AS Poum. There was almost another shock as AS Magenta found themselves finishing in 8th, just 1 point off of the drop although they had a better GD than the teams around them. AS Poum came out on top against FC Gaitcha in the New Caledonian Cup winning 1-0 after extra time.

New Zealand Premiership - Auckland City finished 2nd in the league table but in the playoffs they defeated Team Wellington 4-4 on away goals to face Canterbury Utd in the final as they defeated Waitakere Utd 5-1. Auckland City came out on top though as they defeated Canterbury Utd 4-2.

Papua New Guinean National Soccer League - Gelle Hills came out on top in the playoffs despite finishing 2nd to PRK Hekari in their league group, Gelle Hills beat Unitech Lae 4-3 on penalties in the Championship Playoff.

Telekom S-League - Solomon Warriors are back at the top of the league winning by 2 points but Western Utd were the big entertainers during the season with them scoring 4 goals on 4 occasions and even had an 8-0 victory over Marist Fire right at the start of the season. Western Utd and Solomon Warriors met in the Coupe des Isles Salomon with Solomon Warriors winning 3-2 after extra time.

Tahitian First Division - Again it's a case of whoever finishes 2nd shall finish 1st as AS Dragon finished in 2nd behind AS Tamarii Faa'a in the table but they beat AS Tamarii Faa'a 5-3 on penalties in the Championship Playoff Final. In the Tahitian Cup AS Dragon and AS Tamarii Faa'a met again with AS Dragon winning 2-0.

Vanuatuan Port Vila Premier Division - Amicale smashed the league this season winning by 12 points despite there only being 14 games in a season! They also conceded just 6 goals! In the Vanuatuan National Soccer League Seveners Utd met non-league Ifira BB in the Final and won 3-1 and in the Vanuatuan Port Vila FA Shield Westtan Broncos beat Yatel 2-1 in the final.

Champions League Preliminary Round - Group Stage - Semi Final & Final - Moaula Utd topped the Preliminary Round despite scoring just one goal and they very nearly made it to the Semi-Finals as both them and Amicale finished on 6 points but I think Amicale made it through by 1 goal on GD. It was an all New Zealand final as Waitakere Utd beat Team Wellington 2-0.

A slight change in staff has seen me terminate the Director of Football who was on £35 p/w as well as terminating 2 of the 3 scouts that the Chairman brought in who were only on £8 & £7 p/w but still this adds up to £2,600 per year! I also terminated my HoYD Ian Maposua's contract in order to bring in recently retired Masi Toetu to replace him. Will he find a better standard of player to come through? Maybe, maybe not, but it's a darn sight cheaper than increasing the Junior Coaching.

Shame you lost your perfectionist save! I may have to open a thread to show my achievements in the challenge as i'm still going (although I may wait until I really achieve anything... just currently finishing Andorra haha).

GL with this new challenge

Shame you lost your perfectionist save! I may have to open a thread to show my achievements in the challenge as i'm still going (although I may wait until I really achieve anything... just currently finishing Andorra haha).

GL with this new challenge

You should open your own thread Thanks for following!

Apia Youth - Samoan Premier League - 2019/20

League Table

League Positions Graph

A much better season! We were top of the league for 11 of the 22 games but unfortunately had a bad bit of form in the last 3 games and ended up losing the title by just a point to Moaula Utd!

Samoan Cup - We started off slowly with no win from the first 3 games but with us winning the last 2 it snuck us into the semi-finals where we lost to Vaimoso 2-1 after extra time with the winning goal being scored in the 121st minute.

Under 20's - Our Under 20's had an even poorer season this season as they finished down in 7th.

Squad - The squad is getting there, a few of our older players are retiring with our 1st choice goalkeeper Keith Matagi being the main player to retire since he's started close to every game for me between the sticks.

Transfers - None in, none out.

Finances - We made a profit!

League Rankings - Somehow the Samoan League moves up another 3 places to 3rd and now we're just behind the Telekom S-League and the New Zealand Premiership!

Key Players:

Anoanga Maliko (YP1o)

Alex Mobberley (YP3e)

Kaliasi Toetu

Stephen Kapisi (YP2c)

Season | League Pos. |   Samoa Cup  | O-League | Est. Value | Avg. Attendance | League Rank | NT Rank |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17|     3rd     | 3rd Group A  |     -    |  £28,000   |       240       |    10/13    |  198th  |
2017/18|    11th     | 5th Group A  |     -    |  £26,000   |       239       |     8/13    |  203rd  |
2018/19|    10th     | Cup Winner!  |     -    |  £18,000   |       225       |     6/13    |  202nd  |
2019/20|     2nd     | Semi-Finals  |     -    |  £24,000   |       241       |     3/13    |  176th  |

Elsewhere in Oceania:

American Samoan Division 1 - Lion Heart win the title back finishing 5 points clear of PanSa and Pago Youth with FC SKBC finishing down in 4th. In the President's Cup Second Division side Vaiala Tongan defeated FC SKBC in the Final.

Ligue des Isles Cook - Tupapa Maraerenga win the title with Titikaveka sitting one point behind in 2nd and Nikao five points further back in 3rd. In a surprise victory in the Cup Puaikura who have won just 1 league came in the last 2 seasons defeat both Titikaveka and Tupapa on penalties before beating Takuvaine 2-0 in the Final.

Fijian National Football League - Nadi retain the title winning the league by 2 points with Rewa and Lautoka in 2nd and 3rd both on 25 points. In the Fijian Interdistrict Championship Suva defeats Lautoka 1-0, in the Fijian FA Cup Tournament Lautoka defeat Nadi 2-1 in the final, in the Fijian Battle of the Giants Suva defeats Lautoka again but 2-0 this time and in the Fijian Champions versus Champions Suva defeated Nadi 4-3 on aggregate.

New Caledoinan Super League - FC Gaitcha come out on top with 68 points to AS Mont-Dore on 65 points and Thio Sport on 64 points, it finally happened though. AS Magenta were relegated having finished the season on 47 points, 2 points behind JS Mare who finished in 9th and in safety. Despite being relegated AS Magenta made it to the final of the cup where they met AS Lossi, and lost 2-0.

New Zealand Premiership - Auckland City finished 2nd in the league table again despite finishing unbeaten but they won in the playoffs again beating Team Wellington 2-1 in the Semi-Final and beating Southern 3-1 in the Final.

Papua New Guinean National Soccer League - Another new team wins the league as despite Bulolo Utd going 9-0-1 in the league they lost 1-0 to PRK Hekari in the Championship Semi-Final, Eastern Stars came out on top defeating PRK Hekari 3-2 in the Final.

Telekom S-League - KOSSA blew it, they finished 1 point behind Western Utd and won just 1 of the last 5 games, losing the other 4! Even then KOSSA still finished 10 points clear of 3rd place Solomon Warriors! KOSSA also blew it again since they made it to the Cup final but ended up losing 2-0 to Makuru.

Tahitian First Division - For once the team that finished 1st in the league table ended up winning the Champions Playoff, AS Tefana won the league by 8 points to AS Venus and a further point ahead of AS Arue in 3rd. AS Tefana met AS Arue in the Championship Final and defeated them 3-1. In the cup there was almost a big upset as non-league (3rd tier) AS Taravao made it to the Final but they couldn't complete their fairytale as AS Venus ended up winning 4-1.

Vanuatuan Port Vila Premier Division - Amicale didn't win!! Amicale lost the title on goal difference to Seveners Utd since both of them finished on 29 points! In the Vanuatuan National Soccer League Sheperds Utd beat Tafea 2-1 after extra time, in the Vanuatuan Port Vila FA Shield Amicale made it to the final but lost, 1-0 after extra time to Spirit 08 and in the TVL Smile Cup Amicale made it to the Final again but this time they won, defeating Shepherds Utd 2-0.

Champions League Preliminary Round - Group Stage - Semi Final & Final - Faatoia Utd finished rock bottom of the preliminary round and didn't even score a goal, Auckland City made it look rather easy defeating Nadi 4-0 in the Semi Final and narrowly beating Amicale 2-1 in the Final.

So funny that Fuimaono is your best pickup in the YC's.

My old landlord had the surname.

Sorry to hear this. Out of interest, what database were you using?

Sorry to hear this. Out of interest, what database were you using?

I was using Claassen's leagues.

I do have a couple of ideas for what to do next but I also don't want to spam the board with another thread..even though I probably will if my next idea can be turned into a valid albeit still difficult save.

I think you should restart doing this in different time and I hope you can do another Youth Only Challenge very soon.

You really are out of luck at the moment.

I think you should restart doing this in different time and I hope you can do another Youth Only Challenge very soon.

I will definitely do another youth only challenge at some point

You really are out of luck at the moment.

Tell me about it

It's sadly why I've chosen to stick to 'custom' teams in existing Leagues.

As a long shot, why not try with teams from other countries playing in strong leagues. For example, F.C Andorra who play in the Spanish sixth tier, iirc the nationality is slightly broken (they must be changed to their correct location in Andorra) but they produce Andorran newgens and it'll enable a save file that should be without crash dumb potential error, plus the leagues levels can be switched off as you progress up the ladder meaning a faster experience as time goes by.