International challenge

[BS_8]

SheffieldTim how good are the regens coming through?

Brigadier KUTGW

[BS_8]

Ahh well 7-3 agg defeat to NZ, it started so well but fitness played its part.

5 players have now retired

[BS_8]

I'm curious how do OCE teams qualify for the World Cup, after NZ beat me they didn't play anyone and were not in the WC?

[BS_8]

I undertsand the format now, however have another 7 players retiring

[anagain]

Looks like a fun challenge so I'll give it a go.

Started as Central African Republic manager (wanted Sao Tome but couldn't choose them).

The scary world of African management

Running leagues: Game Status

I believe CAR is a French speaking nation so their best players would likely play in French lower leagues. The Portuguese league was for Sao Tome and the other leagues are for my own preference and other possible nations.

Wish me luck.

[CoachFlu]

Decided to have a go at this challenge as well. (in part because it seems like a setup that is less affected by all the bugs in the beta-patch )

Nations running:

Australia, Brazil, England, France, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, USA. All to the lowest division, large database.

(I wasn't sure which country to pick yet, so I picked some leagues from all over the world.)

I also retained all the players of about 50 small nations, heh.

And after some consideration, I chose to take charge of Belize. Sounds like a nice holiday location.

Made myself Belizian with American as second nationality, with semi-pro footballer as past experience.

53 Belizians in the national pool, and a total of 176 eligible to play for Belize in the database. Could be worse for a nation ranked 201st.

We're in no competitions at this stage, but both the Gold Cup as the North-American World Cup Qual section haven't been scheduled yet - I'm hoping we're entered in both of those.

It's now June 2007, there's one friendly scheduled for November, but it looks like I can schedule a few more in September and October.

I have an Ass-Man, with a JPA of 7 and a JPP of 4. The only other Belizean staff member in the dbase is an unemployed manager with both those attributes at 1. Not sure how inclined non-Belizeans will be to take a job as a coach for Belize... but I'll try.

A brief look at the 26 players currently selected as my Main squad:

One thing that stands out is that none of them have any caps to their name. So we'll all be starting with a clean slate.

Another oddity is that there are two players named "Shane Orio." Both are goalkeepers. One plays for Puntaneras, the other for Puntaneras FC.

That may just get a touch confusing.

None of them are playing in a playable league at the moment. Most in Belizean teams, one in Honduras, and the Puntaneras teams ore in Costa Rica.

So I won't be flying all around the world to watch my star players perform for their clubs, for now. Guess I'll just have to trust the judgment of the assistant manager with a 7 in JPA, then.

[BS_8]

CoachFlu you can hire Ass, Coaches from other teams who will be much better.

[BS_8]

Soo, the end of 2014 and a mixed season.

P7 W3 D1 L3 F24 A19

My 3 defeats all came against NZ in the OCE Nations Cup.

AS 4-5 NZ

NZ 5-2 AS

AS 1-2 NZ

However, some of my better regens didn't get clubs and have retired, as well as 7 30 somethings, hopefully around june time I receive some youngsters as I'm short on players. My ranking is in the post above.

[anagain]

Well just played my first game in charge of the Central African Republic. It was a crunch away tie against Guinea. We had to win (after 3 draws in previous games) to stand any chance of qualifying for the African cup of nations. We then had to hope that Tanzania could beat Guinea at home.

It wasn't the match that I expected, and we took them close:

Guinea 5 CAR 3

The first two Guinea goals were complete mix ups in my defence (the second the worst of the lot) and we found ourselves 3-0 down at half time.

I gathered the boys together and told them to get back out there and show the world what we were made of. That they did and we clawed the game back to 3-3.

We had to win, of course, so I pushed the boys forward in the hop of stealing the decisive goal. It wasn't to be as luck turned its' back on us. The final Guinea goal was a total fluke from 70+ yards with all my team forward and no goalie to defend the net.

We didn't deserve to lose 5-3 on our second half display.

Well it's Lesotho next, in the world cup qualifiers. I believe we can beat them.

[CoachFlu]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by BS_8:

CoachFlu you can hire Ass, Coaches from other teams who will be much better.

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yep, so I discovered.

There's a geographical factor though - staff based in Europe doesn't seem to be interested in a part time job in Belize as well. Which is as it should be, really. Would be a rather cumbersome commute.

With Mexico and USA active, I searched my staff there. Hired a few coaches and a physio from various teams in the Mexican top division, and another Physio who works for the New York Red Bulls. With a little luck, this may result in one or two Mexican/Belizean regens at those teams in 5 years or so. I hope.

I did keep the Belizean AssMan though, and hired the guy I replaced as Belize manager to be the U20 manager (his attributes are terrible, but I felt a bit guilty).

[anagain]

Can we set up a second manager on the same game and manage another of the worst nations? I have set up games in the past with 2 or 3 managers in the international game and I have all the start nations players.

I quite like the idea of managing Bhutan but don't want to stop the CAR game I have going.

[anagain]

I hate referees, especially bad ones.

After a poor first half against Lesotho we began to get it together in the second when the referee intervened and gave the worst penalty decision anyone could expect to see.

[anagain]

Whoops, pressed 'post now' by mistake.

CAR 1 Lesotho 2

A wrongly given penalty made it 2-0 to Lesotho (the first goal was a complete lack of coordination in our defense) and we were up against it.

I made a couple of changes late in the game and my Equatorial Guinean based striker scored a nice goal to make the final score 2-1.

We're going to have to go for it in the second leg in Lesotho. We need 2 goals.

[anagain]

I told the players "if you keep conceding stupid goals then you're gonna lose". So what did they do?

Lesotho 3 CAR 2

All three Lesotho goals were defensive balls ups. Our two goals were rather impressive.

I don't think my defense trust my keeper and the fact that my best keeper is Bertrand Ningamba would suggest the reason.

My outfield players are probably no worse than English league 2 or conference standard but my keeping department lets that down.

[CoachFlu]

September 8th 2007

Well, my first match in charge of Belize went fairly well.

Belize - East Timor

After 7min.14sec., Striker Jason Hall was the first Belize player to score an international goal, and he doubled his tally 5 minutes later. He had a few good chances to get the international debut hattrick, but he ran out of steam in the second half. As did most of the team, in fact, making the half time score also the final score. I guess they didn't hear the first word of my "don't let your performance drop" advice.

Ah well, a good start nonetheless, and hopefully we'll rise into the top 200 in the rankings now.

We'll be playing Aruba next month, and Tonga and St. Martin in November.

One little disappointing aspect: no Belizean has played an official match with his club yet, so my coaches haven't been able to provide match reports. I was hoping to get reports on the players involved in this match, but that wasn't the case. So I'm still selecting players rather blindly. (Well, not entirely, I kept the 26 players who were already selected, and then let the coach pick the team and made minor changes, so it should be fine, but still. Hard to tell which of the other Belize players might have enough quality to get called up without some sort of coach reports.)

[rlipscombe]

really tempted to give this a go... seems like a bit of fun and an alternative to a 'main game' i don't normally like losing but maybe this is a bit of therapy to help mellow my mood following defeats!!

[anagain]

The November 2007 world rankings have just been announced and the outcome wasn't as bad as I expected.

We only dropped one place.

November 2007 rankings

2 friendlies against Chad and Eq. Guinea coming up so I'm hoping a few players can impress and grab us some wins.

[sheffieldtim]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by BS_8:

SheffieldTim how good are the regens coming through?

Brigadier KUTGW </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

This sounds stupid but how do I know which players are definitely regens...are they just all the ones who are 16 and 17 now?

My scouting set up is not great. As far as I can ascertain they are fairly crap but just finding the odd decent one will do for now. I will check now and post later when I post today's update.

[anagain]

What was I saying about conceding sloppy goals? The week of friendlies started ok and then went very pear-shaped.

CAR 2 Chad 1

I think we deserved to win this, but yet again the goal we conceded was sloppy.

CAR 1 Eq. Guinea 4

This was just embarassing, but was actually a lot closer before my center half got himself sent off for a clumsy challenge. There is a doubt as to whether he should have got sent off as it was not really the professional foul it was deemed to be. Equatorial Guinea's third goal was clearly offside too.

I guess referee's aren't on my side.

[CoachFlu]

October 17th 2007

Our second friendly also went quite well.

Aruba - Belize: 1 - 5

Quite pleased with that, especially after having to shift the squad around a bit due to low condition.

Unfortunately, we are still 201st in the Ranking. I assumed winning friendly matches would earn us a tiny amount of points, but since we're still at 0 points, I guess that's not the case. Unless the teams I beat were too low-rank to earn me any points.

Guess I'll have to try for some slightly stronger opposition in the near future.

[sheffieldtim]

Started with a nice trip away for the players...just a relaxed friendly before the qualifiers begin again.

Australia 7 - 1 Faroe Is.

They score an off-side goal after 25 minutes. We immediately equalize within seconds!!! The fat Magpie restores Aussie pride on 32 minutes.

My goalkeeper gives away a penalty which is converted on 53 minutes....and then a rocket free-kick from a Blackburn player makes it four a minute later. The fat fat Magpie's goal on the hour mark is so unfair on us as we have been equal to the Aussies for large parts of the game despite the score. The sixth goal a few minutes later just makes it even worse. A late second for the Blackburn man rubs salt in the wound.

Honestly the first half was so even you would be surprised.

Still we have climbed 158th in the world rankings.

Anyway on with the qualifiers.

Faroe Is 0 - 4 Switzerland

A comical own goal in the first 2 minutes set us off to a bad start. A better goal four minutes later was easier to accept. It took the Swiss half an hour to add a third. The fourth came just five minutes into the second half. After that we held out until the final whistle.

Faroe Is 0 - 7 Iceland

Could we nick our first qualification points in my time in charge today?

3 minutes it took for my hope to evaporate. After 10 minutes I felt foolish enough for thinking we could nick it. By half time we were 6 down due to catastrophic defending from corners.

The second half was quiet and we only conceded 1. It didn't stop me from giving them a rollocking at the end. I was majorly hacked off!!!

Faroe Is 1 - 7 France

Now I really feared the worst after the Iceland game!

Own goal after 16 minutes was the starting point.

Sloppy defending off our own throw in leads to the second goal on 31 minutes.

A third from a poorly cleared cross just before half time really kills our mood and France add a fourth from distance just a minute later. The even add a fifth deep into injury time as we have fallen apart. Wasteful finishing sees France not add number 6 until 61 minutes. Then my teenage striker scores a solo effort straight away in reply...if only I had 11 of him. A very late strike from a Juventus substitute gives the second half a bit more polish for France but we did ok.

I wonder how it would have panned out had we not given them a 2 goal start trough defensive stupidity. The 3 goals in the final 3 minutes of the half were another disaster!

[sheffieldtim]

ps

BS8 - My regens seems to be utter carp unfortunately!

[Recury]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by sheffieldtim:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by BS_8:

SheffieldTim how good are the regens coming through?

Brigadier KUTGW </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

This sounds stupid but how do I know which players are definitely regens...are they just all the ones who are 16 and 17 now?

My scouting set up is not great. As far as I can ascertain they are fairly crap but just finding the odd decent one will do for now. I will check now and post later when I post today's update. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If you have facegen turned on (it is by default) then regens will have a facegen pic and real players will just have the grey silhouette. All the players you start out with should be real.

[sheffieldtim]

I have just scoured my under 21 team and found a few regens my scout screen did not list. Among them a goalie with better stats than any of my senior keepers and a midfielder with a super high creativity and passing stat plus a striker with great finishing. Needless to say I have promoted them all. Now the squad news item says I believe it is 'possible to win with youth' having brought in lots of new talent.

[sheffieldtim]

Here are the final qualifiers...can we get just a point even?

Cyprus 2 - 0 Faroe Is

4 minutes before the break Cyprus shatter the deadlock with a goal from a tight angle. My keeper may be disappointed with himself.

We miss 3 glorious chances in the spell just after half time and eventuall give away a second on the counter with 10 minutes to go. We could have had this agme if my teenage striker had not been suspended.

Norway 3 - 0 Faroe Is

Excellent header from big Villa striker breaks the deadlock on 32 minutes.

A goal straight after the restart for the second half is heart breaking. Disappointing clearance from a corner at the end makes it three and that is not a fair reflectionon how tight we were today.

Faroe Is 0 - 3 Czech Rep

5 minutes we held out...5 minutes!!!

An absolute scorcher doubles the deficit on 39 minutes.

The third on 89 minutes is cruel as we were having quite a dominant spell of the game. Never mind...a reasonable performance.

-------------------------------------------------------

I have promoted several players from the under 21 set up to cover injuries and suspensions...several of my new players look very tasty and are not out of their teenage years yet...here goes.

20 yr old goalkeeper,

20 yr old AM,

16 yr old centre back,

19 yr old right back,

16 yr old midfielder

19 yr old midfielder

plus a 19 yr old striker on the bench

Switzerland 3 - 0 Faroe Is

They score after 29 minutes from a headed flick on. It looked a bit offside. The header from a corner 6 minutes later was not. A bad decision by the goalie makes it three on the hour mark spoiling a good performance otherwise. We hit the post with a great free-kick in injury time but overall a very respectable performance. All 7 of my debutants will stay in the squad as they all look like having an international future of some description.

[sheffieldtim]

A couple of friendlies to end the year and give my new young players more international experience.

Faroe Is 1 - 1 American Samoa

My young goalie saves a dodgy penalty on 25 minutes and the new teenage striker nets his first 10 minutes later...all is going to plan.

A second is ruled out for a foul, though the cross from my 16 yr old is delightful and then to make it worse they equalize with 10 minutes left. A bit gutted really as we had the chances today.

Canada 4 - 1 Faroe Is

Not picking up runners from midfield costs us dear after 5 minutes. Not marking on corners 2 minutes later is worse though as Canada double their lead. An unfortunate deflection leads to a third on the stroke of half time and we look inexperienced for the first time, though right on the whistle one of my more experienced players scores with a rocket of a shot.

Second half we go to three up front and match Canada until 20 minutes from time I have a player sent off. It takes them 7 minutes to exploit the extra space. We miss a couple of late chances to make the score look better and chalk this one up to gaining experience.

[Konquest]

I've decided to start this game with Belize, as a first try at international management.

We'll see how this one goes, but so far, I'm surprised at the quality I find in my national pool. I expected waaaay less.

[Konquest]

Season 2007 - Belize

With only one friendly already arranged when I took the squad, I was heading for a quiet year. Especially since it was against the US Virgin Islands, ranked 208th.

We were ranked 201st at the start of the season. I then arranged friendlies against regional rivals: Anguilla, Aruba, Netherlands (Antilles) to add to my Virgin Island game. The best team in this group is NedAntilles, who are ranked 175th.

I have 176 players to my disposition, mostly playing in Belize with a couple of guys playing in Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago.

Results

Belize 3 - 1 Anguilla

Belize 3 - 0 Aruba

Belize 4 - 0 Netherlands Antilles

USVir. 1 - 2 Belize

Undefeated! Not against strong opposition, but it's much better than nothing. Confidence is running high among our team

Player of the season

Nadler Canul AM/FC: 3 goals in 4 games, 7.5 avg. rating

Shane Orio GK: 2 GA, 7.25 avg. rating

Roll on next season!

[Konquest]

Sorry for the triple post, but while UK is at sleep, I'm not...

Forgot to update my world ranking...

World Ranking

195th (up from 201st).

[MadWoodster]

Good to see all that has been going on while I've been away, it'll take me a little while to get caught up.

However, congratulations to BS_8 for qualifying not only for the OCeania Nations Cup group stages but for going on and qualifying from that to the final, a fine achievement, shame you couldn't beat New Zealand in the final, but I'm sure you have plenty of confidence now.

Welcome to all the new comers. anagain you asked about managing two international teams at the same time. I wonder what others think? Provided they were from two different continents they wouldn't clash until the world cup, assuming there weren't any players who had dual-nationality for both countries concerned which would again create a conflict of interest. But I'm not sure what should happen if you were to meet in the world cup or the confederations cup???

[CoachFlu]

December 12th 2007

Done with friendlies for a while. A quick overview:

Belize - East Timor: 4-1

Aruba - Belize: 1-5

Belize - Tonga: 3-0

Belize - St. Martin: 2-0

All these fine results earned us a grand total of 1 ranking point, moving us up from 201st to 198th in the World Ranking. (I assume we got that from the match against Tonga, as they had a few points, while the three other nations had 0.)

Done with friendlies for a while now. We have a home and away match coming up in February against St Kitts and Nevis (146th), for a chance to play Cuba next in the World Cup Qualifying campaign.

After the friendly matches, I can only be confident of our chances - at least against St Kitts and Nevis.

[sheffieldtim]

Just a quick update...the draw for the World Cup 2014 was made and pitted Faroe Is with...

Turkey

Moldova

Hungary

Czech Rep

Romania

Brazil here I come...!

[Axefighter]

I'm looking to take up this challenge. Wondering if the guy who started it can tell me - are there any teams on the list on the first page that aren't being used by someone else already?

Hopefully I can be a team that isn't in use =)

[MadWoodster]

CoachFlu glad to have your successes, the complicated FIFA points system means that the opposition stenngth multiplier is between 0.5 and 2.0 with 0.5 for teams below 149 and a sliding scale up to 2.0 for the top team.

The ranking points you should get for each victory for a lower team is: 100*3*1*0.5*0.85*1 = 1.275

However the system takes an average over the year so if you have 8 defeats giving you 0 points and 4 wins getting you 127.5 points you have a total of 501 points, which over 12 games is an average of about 41.75 which they probably round up to 42. However, bear in mind that the system only takes in 12 matches and probably discounts friendlies first if you play more than that.

SheffieldTim well you've managed to avoid any of the really big sides but whether that is good or bad, remains to be seen as it may make 2nd spot harder to get.

Axefighter good to hear of your interest, I will have a look for you, I'm fairly sure no one has chosen Boliva but there has been some dispute over their entry in the challenge as they are not a lower nation, but they are still the worst team in South America. I will have a round up ready in the next hour or so and will list the teams.

[sheffieldtim]

MadWoodster Yeah I avoided the bigger boys but have been thumped by Turkey and Czech Rep previously and Romania are a decent side. Even my rival minnows are very tricky away. Still once my youngsters get a bit more experience I'm off and running.

[sheffieldtim]

A quick friendly or two again to get the blood pumping before I take on my unfairly difficult WCQ group.

Faroe Is 1 - 0 Central African Republic

Dull, dull, dull! Until our 80th minute free kick. Worst game ever!

Faroe Is 0 - 1 Syria

We almost break the deadlock after 10 minutes. In fact we dominate the midfield without scoring. On the stroke of half-time my teenage full back is sent off for nothing and I decide to play on with 3 at the back.

A great strike from a quiet Syria opens the scoring on 57 minutes against the run of play. After that they shut up shop and we lose a game we should have won.

Faroe Is 1 - 1 San Marino

Hard to put into words how bad this match was....well until my teenage debutant striker poached one on 81 minutes. After that it was better with an great 20 yard equalizer on 88 minutes.

Still on with the real business of qualifiers

[CoachFlu]

February 13th 2008

After 4 friendlies, finally a competitive match, as the North American qualifiers for WC2010 got underway. I was quite confident that we would be able to get a result against St Kitts and Nevis, and the team performed above my expectations.

St Kitts - Belize

The first half was quite even and we went one behind shortly before the break, but came out of the dressing room with, as they say, fire in their belly. We scored from the second half kick-off, scored again a few minutes later, and it was smooth sailing from then on.

The return leg is a month and a half away, but we can hardly mess that one up now. So it'll be Cuba after that, in the... erm... World Cup North American Qualifying Secion Second Phase First Round... I think. Or first phase second round. Whatever.

In any case, this win should get me a bit more than one pathetic ranking point, I'd expect.

[Jonny Kaufman]

Ok i think i may restart this game,

let me take you through the year i just had, we started off against Djibouti winning 4-1..then it started, we lost 3-1 to Bhutan 3-2 to Benin 2-1 to Comoros now those results i can live with fair enough my teams crap not compeletly crap but crap none the less.

Then we get results like 5-2 loss against Belize, 9-0 loss against Aruba and 11-0 loss to Cook Islands, Every game except the Benin game was played in my stadium. Oh but thats not it, we then start the 2011 year lose 4-0 to Eritrea. Now up to now i didn't really care, ok we were losing but that wasn't the point, i was hoping we would improve.

So as a little joke for myself to see how much we could win by i arranged a friendly against Tonga u18s, Tonga the first team are ranked the worst country in the world at this point, so surely we could beat their u18s easily......wrong we lose 4-1??? that was the final straw. Although becasue I have developed a bond with Guinea-Bissau i have decided to take them again. This time i will load portugual aswell.

[MadWoodster]

Ok here is a break down country by country of who is managing who and who has done what. However, I think I need to be a bit stricter on updates. While it is good to see the results you are getting, there are two things that count. Your final position in your confederation's cup qualifiers, your confederation's cup, your world cup qualifiers, the world cup itself and the confederations cup. Backed up by screen shots showing either your group or the cup tree.

As far as world rankings go, I would like to see end of year reports (either December or January is acceptable) with the graph uploaded as a screen shot. If you forget, don't panic as the graph does go back a year or two, so you can post it late. Also if mid season you get to some dizzy heights then feel free to post that as well.

Other screenshots and updates are most welcome and encouraged.

Ok that's my little rant over, now on with the breakdown.

Boliva (South America) 109th

NO-ONE!

Papua New Guniea (Oceania) 180th

Recury

End 2007: 172nd, Qualified from the prelim of Nations Cup

Tahiti (Oceania) 181th

NO-ONE!

Comoros (Africa) 182nd

NO-ONE!

Nepal (Asia) 183rd

Svettot

End 2007, 191st, Lost 1st qualifying round of Asian world cup

End 2008, 192nd, friendlies

Cayman Islands (North America) 184th

NO-ONE!

Central African Republic (Africa) 185th

Fatski

Anagain

End 2007

Dominica (North America) 186th

NO-ONE!

Macau (Asia) 187th

Gilbster

Afghanistan (Asia) 188th

JeffHardy

Faroe Isles (Europe) 189th

SheffieldTim

End 2007: ?

End 2008: ?

End 2009: ?

End 2010: ?

Combustion

End 2007:

End 2008:188th

End 2009: 146th, 6th in Europea World Cup qualifying

Guniea-Bissau (Africa) 190th

Jonny Kaufman

End 2007: 142nd, 2nd in African Nations cup qualifying

End 2008: 154th, friendlies

End 2009: 150th, friendlies

Samoa (Asia) 191st

NO-ONE!

Somalia (Africa) 192nd

NO-ONE!

Tonga (Oceania) 193rd

NO-ONE!

Peurto Rico (North America) 194th

NO-ONE!

San Marino (Europe) 195th

NO-ONE!

Anguilla (North America) 196th

NO-ONE!

Bhutan (Asia) 197th

Brigadier

End 2007: 200th, Lost 1st qualifying round of Asian World cup qualifing

Resigned

Cook Islands (Oceania) 198th

MadWoodster

End 2007: 179th, 3rd in Oceania Cup Prelim

2008 game suspended due to crash problem, have bee assured this will be fixed when the patch eventually comes out.

American Samoa (Oceania) 199th

MadWoodster

End 2007: 196th, 5th in Oceania Cup Prelim

End 2008: 172nd, only friendlies.

End 2009: 163rd, 5th in Oceania Cup Prelim

End 2010:

BS_8

End 2007: 174th, 3rd in Oceania Cup Prelim

End 2008: ?, friendlies

End 2009: ?, 5th in Oceania Cup Prelim

End 2010: 163rd, friendlies

End 2011: 142nd, 5th in Oceania Cup Prelim

End 2012: 138th, friendlies

End 2013: 64th, 1st in Oceania Cup Prelim

End 2014: , Oceania Cup runners ups!

Aruba (North America) 200th

NO-ONE!

Belize (North America) 201st

Dane0

Brigadier

CoachFlu

End 2007: 198th, friendlies

Konquest

End 2007: 195th, friendlies

Djibouti (Africa) 202nd

NO-ONE!

East Timor (Asia) 203rd

NO-ONE!

Guam (Asia) 204th

Littleliam

MachinegunHead

End 2007: , out in 1st round Asian world cup qualifying

Montenegro (Europe) 205th

Thrown out for being too good, they are a very new nation formed by yet another former Yugoslavia split and therefore have plenty of good players

Montserrat (North America) 206th

NO-ONE!

Sao Tome and Principe (Africa) 207th

NO-ONE!

US Vigin Islands (North America) 208th

NO-ONE!

Other teams

Andorra (Europe 169th)

While being one of the worst teams in Europe they are ranked too highly to strictly take part in this challenge. But it will be interesting to see how they get on.

Peter G

All new comers are most welcome however, please note do not choose teams outside of the FIFA ranking as they do not take part in any world cup qualifiers, and may not take place in confederation cups either.

[MadWoodster]

Oops forgot to post a leaderboard as well:

Best end of season World ranking:

BS_8 (American Samoa) 2013 64th

Jonny Kaufman (Guinea-Bissa) 2007 142nd

Combustion (Faroe Isles) 2009 146th

Qualifiers for their confederations cup:

Recury (Papua New Guinea) 2008 Oceania Cup

BS_8 (American Samoa) 2014 Oceania Cup

[MadWoodster]

Well it had been a disastrous couple of years with American Samoa.

Some disastrous results had left me entering 2010, 182nd in the world.

But still the goals kept flying in [to my goal]

0-11 Bhutan

0-11 Guadeloupe

However there was hope when we lost on 5-0 to Barbados. But that was soon followed by a 17-0 humiliation by Chad. By this time even the FA were starting to be disappointed with my performance having been supportive throughout my tenure so far.

IT was nearly a year since we grabbed a 2-2 draw against Samoa, our only result in the last two and a half years.

A 5-0 defeat against Tahiti in October wasn't too badly received but still no goals in nearly a year.

Final friendly was against Vanuatu surely a thrashing here and the FA would finally have got fed up with me. It was time to ditch the adventurous 4-3-1-2 that had left me badly exposed at the back, and failed to grab a goal, and switch to a 4-4-1-1, hopefully providing two brick walls for them to get through.

6 minutes into the game, American Samoa's fans can't believe it, for the first time that year, they've scored through attacking midfielder Savaliga Afu. But would the defense hold out? Alas it was not to be Vanuatu equalised half an hour later and then in the 2nd half, scored twice in quick succession to win 3-1, but at least we had scored, and not been embarressed again. The fans as always weren't impressed but at least the FA were of my back.

What would 2011 bring? Another chance to battle for the Oceania Nations Cup no doubt.

[MadWoodster]

Time for my 4th post in a row, where is everybody?

Somehow despite a season full of defeats I am up in 162nd.

World Ranking at end of 2010, 162nd

Why is this?

Well the FIFA ranking gradually forgets about results.

This season's score count 100%

Only 75% of last season's score counts

Only 50% of season before that score counts

Only 25% of season before that score counts

Also everyone else around me may be doing rubbish, and may have done better in years before so have therefore lost vital ranking points. Remember if you start with notihng then even a few points can make a difference if other people don't keep getting their ranking points.

[Axefighter]

I've taken up the challenge as manager of Tonga!

It's a bit late tonight so I'll get started tomorrow

http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tongastartug8.png

[MadWoodster]

Axefighter

Welcome to the challenge and especially to the Oceania confederation, it seems fairly popular possibly as it is one of the smallest confederations and also it gives you a straightforward enough chance of qualifying for their nations cup through the preliminary group stage, a top 2 place there, and you are well away.

[Axefighter]

Cheers, I've never even tried taking over a national team before so I'll be scouring the thread for help.

Main question to start is - What kind of backroom staff should I be looking to have?

[MadWoodster]

I normally try to fill all the roles possible.

A couple of physios help with injury prevention and recovery this is useful in the group stages.

Coaches and assistant managers are useful for getting an idea of who you should pick. And possibly for scouting out new talent, though unless they happen to play in the Oceania Club Championship you will have to hope one or two of your players make it to the Australian A-League before this makes a big difference to you.

I also normally appoint managers to my U-21 and U-19 for completion, not sure how much difference it makes.

As for who to go for, that's where the fun begins, you will find a certain top Italian club's youth coach who used to play in their defence more than willing to come as an assistant manager, apart from that, you will have to just see who you can get with a national or regional rating, unless you manage to grab a continental or world class coach.

[CoachFlu]

March 26th 2008

NAM WCQ Ph1 R1:

Belize - St Kitts & Nevis: 0 - 0 (4-1 agg)

After trouncing St Kitts 4-1 in their stadium, the scoreless draw at home was slightly disappointing. We were the stronger team, but it was one of those matches where the ball just didn't want to go in.

Still, a draw isn't bad, and we're through to the next round. That will be played in June, a home and away leg against Cuba (104th). I guess that will be the first real test.

Ranking-wise, things are finally moving. Last month's 4-1 win saw us jump from 198th to 171st place, making us the high riser of the month. I suspect today's draw will be good for another handful of places.

So in the short run, things are going smoothly. In the long run, there's cause for some minor concern, since there are absolutely no young Belize players in the database yet. There's one 22-year old and three 23-year olds, and that's it. (There were a handful of 21 year olds at the start of the game, but I guess most of those retired.)

So there better be some regens coming through pretty damn soon. Being in Central/North America, I'm not sure when the game creates new regens, but I hope it's in the summer - the sooner the better.

Most of my squad is between 25 and 31, so I should be good for a few more years, but if I don't get some quality regens relatively soon, we're gonna get in trouble eventually.

[anagain]

For some reason I can not organise any friendlies between November and September so it has been a barren stretch of late. I can't wait until the next qualifying for the African Nations.

I have 3 organised friendlies coming up in September and October but here is the rankings for May in the meantime:

158th in the world!!!

At the start of June at the moment. I really hope I get a decent keeper in the yearly regens.

[anagain]

As for the question as to whether I cold run a couple of managers at once, well I decided not to in the end. I couldn't actually choose the team I wanted anyway.

I figured there could be some way it could influence things.

It may go some way to easing the boredom from having so few matches to play most of the year though.

[anagain]

What the...

I only go 2 regens in July 08...

One was okay but no keeper.