Crazy Canuck on Global Managerial Tour - This is the Big (FM12) One!!!

[rancer890]

2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup

Group Stages

[font=courier new]                 Group A                                             Group B                 [/font]
[font=courier new]                P  W  D  L  F  A  Pts                                  P  W  D  L  F  A  Pts[/font]
[font=courier new]1st USA         3  3  0  0  8  0   9                  1st Mexico       3  3  0  0  8  1   9[/font]
[font=courier new]2nd Honduras    3  1  1  1  5  4   4                  2nd Canada       3  2  0  1  8  5   6[/font]
[font=courier new]3rd Curacao     3  1  0  2  3  8   3                  3rd El Salvador  3  1  0  2  4  8   3[/font]
[font=courier new]4th Guatemala   3  0  1  2  3  7   1                  4th Haiti        3  0  0  3  2  8   0[/font]

[font=courier new]                  Group C            [/font]
[font=courier new]                P  W  D  L  F  A  PTS[/font]
[font=courier new]1st Costa Rica  3  2  0  1  6  2   6[/font]
[font=courier new]2nd Bermuda     3  1  1  1  3  3   4[/font]
[font=courier new]3rd Jamaica     3  1  1  1  3  4   4[/font]
[font=courier new]4th Panama      3  0  2  1  1  4   2[/font]

Knockout Stage

Quarter-Final

Mexico 3-0 Bermuda

Canada 5-0 Costa Rica

El Salvador 1-3 (e) USA

Jamaica (p) 3-3 Honduras

Semi-Final

Mexico 2-1 Canada

USA 1-0 Jamaica

Final (at San Jose Earthquakes Stadium)

Mexico 0-3 USA

----

After the Gold Cup, two head coaches have resigned. One of the job openings is at Guatemala. The other opening is Canada...

[Raware]

The other opening is Canada...

...do I need to ask?

[rancer890]

Canadian National Soccer Team - 2017

World Ranking: 69th

Facilities: BMO Field in Toronto (ON), home of MLS club Toronto FC

So, I've accepted a new job and am now the new head coach of the Canadian national soccer team! And here are our star players:

Adam McIntosh

Bart Dijks

Junior Hoilett

Mike Giezen

The squad seems to be pretty good (well better than what I had to work with in FM11..), and this was the squad that took Canada to the Semi-Finals of the Gold Cup:

(Name, Age, Club)

Goalkeepers: Stefan Frei - 31 (Toronto FC, Canada), Milan Borjan - 29 (Sivasspor, Turkey), Mike Giezen - 23 (Zurich, Switzerland)

Defenders: Dejan Jakovic - 32 (Al-Ahli, UAE), Andre Hainault - 31 (FC Groningen, Netherlands), Nana Attakora - 28 (FC Nordsjaelland, Denmark), Adam Straith - 26 (Cottbus, Germany), Wesley Gonsalves - 28 (Red Star, Serbia), Bryce Alderson - 23 (Laval, France), Bart Dijks - 23 (Catania, Italy)

Midfielders: Jonathon Bourgault - 28 (Leeds, England), Jaime Wheeldon - 24 (Winterthur, Switzerland), Guillaume Vitulano -23 (Mjallby AIF, Sweden), Abel Lopez Perez - 24 (Daegu, South Korea), Junior Hoilett - 27 (Napoli, Italy), Nick Olazabal - 24 (Djurgarden, Sweden), Russell Telbert - 24 (Boluspor, Turkey), Will Johnson - 30 (Motherwell, Scotland)

Forwards: Carlo Clark - 28 (Creteil, France), Simeon Jackson - 30 (Padova, Italy), Bojan Kajgo - 28 (AA Gent, Belgium)

----

I've only briefly looked at the entire national pool but there's some really good young players so we'll give them opportunities to succeed. We're in the Hex in World Cup Qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia so the main goal now is to qualify.

[rancer890]

...do I need to ask?

No need to.

[AK22]

I wondered how long it would take... good luck with Canada

[deltablue]

Ah yes, probably have a big job on your hands.

[ArsenalMetro]

O Canada, our home and native land...

Good luck! Except against the United States.

[CoachFlu]

Yeah, took you long enough to get the Canada job, rancer.

What does "in the Hex" mean? Is that the spot which would put you in the playoff?

[rancer890]

Cheers guys!

ArsenalMetro, you might have to start cheering against me early, because our first game is against...the USA at Salt Lake City (or Sandy, Utah).

It was only open for the second time in this save, Coach. I didn't fancy international management yet when Hart got sacked! Better late than never though.

The 'Hex' is the 4th and final stage of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying. There's 6 teams in the final stage so it's called a Hex (like a 6 sided figure is a hexagon).

[rancer890]

Canadian National Soccer Team - 2017 World Cup Qualifying

AUGUST 6, 2017

Final Phase

Pos Team P W D L F A PTS GD
1st Mexico 5 3 1 1 11 7 10 + 4
2nd USA 5 3 1 1 10 9 10 + 1
3rd Canada 5 2 2 1 8 6 8 + 2
----------------------------------------------------------
4th Jamaica 5 2 1 2 7 8 7 + 1
----------------------------------------------------------
5th Guatemala 5 1 1 3 4 6 4 - 2
6th Honduras 5 1 0 4 7 11 3 - 4

Results so far:

February 8th: Canada 1-1 USA

March 18th: Jamaica 1-1 Canada

March 22th: Canada 3-2 Honduras

May 31st: Mexico 2-1 Canada

June 3rd: Canada 2-0 Guatemala

Canada's Remaining Fixtures:

August 16th: USA vs Canada

September 9th: Canada vs Jamaica

September 13th: Honduras vs Canada

October 14th: Canada vs Mexico

October 18th: Guatemala vs Canada

For those of you who don't follow CONCACAF WCQ, top 3 automatically qualify for the World Cup, and the 4th place team goes to a playoff. Our goal is to finish top 3 and automatically qualify for the World Cup, so the next 2 matches are going to be crucial.

[cerud]

Canada!!! Bring it on, world! The national team is doing much bettrer in your career than mine. I think in mine, Canada has a FIFA ranking of about 108.

[rancer890]

Canadian National Soccer Team - 2017 World Cup Qualifying

AUGUST 16, 2017

We really played really well in my opinion, although deep down, the Americans were the better team and they would have won in the end. We didn't lose because of a lack of chances, because their goalkeeper was the Man of the Match. It was a good first game and we'll try and build onto this performance, and score some goals.

Final Phase

Pos Team P W D L F A PTS GD
1st USA 6 4 1 1 12 9 13 + 3
2nd Mexico 6 3 2 1 11 7 11 + 4
3rd Canada 6 2 2 2 8 8 8 0
----------------------------------------------------------
4th Jamaica 6 2 2 2 7 8 8 - 1
----------------------------------------------------------
5th Honduras 6 2 0 4 14 11 6 + 3
6th Guatemala 6 1 1 4 4 13 4 - 9

Other results:

Honduras 7-0 Guatemala

Jamaica 0-0 Mexico

Next match:

September 9th: Canada vs Jamaica

This is a must win game against Jamaica if we want auto qualification.

[rancer890]

Canada!!! Bring it on, world! The national team is doing much bettrer in your career than mine. I think in mine, Canada has a FIFA ranking of about 108.

Cheers cerud. I will try my best with Canada. Although the first game didn't really go to plan...

[HotChocolate]

Great season with Galatasary and good luck with North America in North America

[deltablue]

Jamaica will indeed be key.

[DodgeeD]

A fine decision to move to Galatasaray

And a great start too - irl, long gone are the days when GS could compete for the title and on the continetal stage as well.

Best of lcuk v. Jamaica!

[Deisler26]

Cracking first season with Galatasaray!

[City2000]

Great season!

That game with Jamaica certainly is massive, good luck!

[ManUTactician247]

A fine decision to move to Galatasaray

And a great start too - irl, long gone are the days when GS could compete for the title and on the continetal stage as well.

I think they're coming back soon, 3-1 win against Fenerbahce sends us top!

[Raware]

BIG game up next against Jamaica. How big would you rate it out of all of your matches in FM (any FM)?

[rancer890]

2017-2018 Offseason Transfers - Galatasaray S.K. - Spor Toto Super Lig

Transfers

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We didn't spend a lot this offseason as other teams didn't meet my price tag on some foreigners and I couldn't acquire some players that I really wanted.

Daniel Raboczki - he joins us on a permanent transfer and I'm looking to see if he can maintain his form from last season

Thomas Hilstrup - this young player didn't have a professional contract and there wasn't any compensation for signing him so we made the deal.

Murat Sahin - I'm really excited about this signing because he's a young German/Turkish 'keeper with lots of potential and he has been compared with Manuel Neuer!

I am happy to dump some players including Pacheco (although I'm still paying him $775k for another season). I couldn't get rid of Colin Kazim Richards' contract ($4.3 million a season to June 2019...ugh) who didn't even want to accept mutual termination and there's no way I'm releasing him outright so we will just let him rot in the reserves for another couple seasons if we have to.

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

UEFA Champions League

Group Stages

It's a tough group with Man Utd and Valencia, but all I want to get to a Knockout Round, whether it's Champions League or Europa League. Champions league offers more money while the Europa League is a good opportunity to get a very good coefficient for the future. Shocked to see a Macedonian club has made the group stages too!

[HotChocolate]

Tough group? Have you not been watching ITV? or seen the Man Utd score?

[rancer890]

BIG game up next against Jamaica. How big would you rate it out of all of your matches in FM (any FM)?

I wouldn't say it's the biggest match in FM for me. Certainly in FM11 I can name a few matches, like the Club World Cup Final with Henan, the Gold Cup QF match against Mexico that we won, the back to back Champions League appearances with Shakhtar. It would be one of the bigger matches as an international manager just because I rarely manage international teams.

A couple good results against Jamaica and Honduras would be really helpful....

[rancer890]

Tough group? Have you not been watching ITV? or seen the Man Utd score?

My ass man arranged some harder games this preseason against the likes of Arsenal and Malaga and we didn't have the best results...of course stranger things have happened.

[rancer890]

Canadian National Soccer Team - 2017 World Cup Qualifying

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

This isn't working....I guess we can plan for the next Gold Cup now. If we lose by 2-3 goals to the likes of Jamaica and Honduras, imagine Mexico....

Final Phase

Pos Team P W D L F A PTS GD
1st USA (Q) 8 6 1 1 15 10 19 + 5
2nd Mexico (Q) 8 4 3 1 19 9 15 +10
3rd Jamaica 8 3 2 3 10 9 11 + 1
----------------------------------------------------------
4th Honduras 8 3 1 4 18 13 9 + 5
----------------------------------------------------------
5th Canada 8 2 2 4 8 13 8 - 5
6th Guatemala 8 1 1 6 5 21 4 -16

Other results:

Guatemala 1-2 USA

Mexico 2-2 Honduras

----

Jamaica 0-1 USA

Mexico 6-0 Guatemala

Next match:

Oct. 14 - vs Mexico

Oct. 18 - @ Guatemala

If I can't even beat freaking Guatemala, then I might just resign after the qualifying rounds are complete. I'm already Insecure with the CSA so it might be a quick venture into international management with Canada....

[CoachFlu]

Ouch, some tough results there. Looks like either Jamaica or Honduras will be going to the World Cup.

Well, it's not over yet, of course. You might get lucky against Mexico.

I've had the "inexplicably poor first couple of matches" thing with the USA as well. Might get better soon once they're used to the new way of playing. Hopefully not too late by then.

[rancer890]

Ouch, some tough results there. Looks like either Jamaica or Honduras will be going to the World Cup.

Well, it's not over yet, of course. You might get lucky against Mexico.

I've had the "inexplicably poor first couple of matches" thing with the USA as well. Might get better soon once they're used to the new way of playing. Hopefully not too late by then.

I've tried some of the similar tactics where I've had success with at Santo Andre and DC United but the Canadian team really couldn't cope with my style of play in the Jamaica game so I just went back to default tactics against Honduras and our performance wasn't really that much better...

I would be happy to get a goal first regardless. This team looks lost out there on the pitch. There's no chemistry.

[Raware]

Oh dear . Mathmatically, you still have a chance.

[deltablue]

Could sneak a playoff place.

[dkpark51]

Congratulations on the Galatasaray job. Must be exciting playing in the UEFA games.

Congratulations with the Canada job! You still have a chance!

[HotChocolate]

Tough break on the results but it aint over till the fat lady sings my friend and she isn't singing yet!

[DSYoungEsq]

You haven't said who Honduras have left. If they have, say, the US and Jamaica, they might well fail to get two points from that, and you will go by them when you smash down Guatemala.

[rancer890]

You haven't said who Honduras have left. If they have, say, the US and Jamaica, they might well fail to get two points from that, and you will go by them when you smash down Guatemala.

Yeah, those two (USA and Jamaica) are the remaining two fixtures for Honduras. Jamaica have Honduras and Guatemala (I assume 3pts there for them) so Jamaica are probably going to automatically qualify. I need Honduras to get 1 point against USA and Jamaica and if we beat Guatemala we're in the playoffs. I absolutely cannot have Honduras get 2 points from those matches or else I will have to beat Guatemala by a large scoreline, and judging by the offensive firepower in my first 3 matches, scoring 1 goal is already a hard enough task.

[noikeee]

Ouch, looks like you're making an habit now of having really good runs only to fall at the final hurdles (Gala in the Europa League, Canada in the WC qualifying), that is tough to take. Congrats on the turkish double tho, hopefully you'll still turn around the Canada situation but it's looking difficult.

[rancer890]

Canadian National Soccer Team - 2017 World Cup Qualifying

OCTOBER 22, 2017

Honduras shocking beat USA after this game, so we're eliminated from even getting a playoff spot before we even face Guatemala.

I'm just relieved I got my first goals and win with Canada...my job status was Very Insecure before this match, which was deserved because we started 3rd and now we're 5th and out of WCQ.

Final Phase

Pos Team P W D L F A PTS GD
1st Mexico (Q) 10 6 3 1 23 9 21 +14
2nd USA (Q) 10 6 1 3 16 15 19 + 1
3rd Honduras (Q) 10 5 1 4 25 16 16 + 9
----------------------------------------------------------
4th Jamaica 10 4 2 4 14 13 14 + 1
----------------------------------------------------------
5th Canada 10 3 2 5 11 15 11 - 4
6th Guatemala 10 1 1 8 5 26 4 -21

Other results:

Guatemala 0-2 Jamaica

USA 1-3 Honduras

----

Honduras 4-2 Jamaica

Mexico 2-0 USA

Next match:

Nov. 18: @ Cuba

Nov. 22: @ British Virgin Islands

I sacked my Ass Man with Canada, Colin Miller after the final game.

[rancer890]

Ouch, looks like you're making an habit now of having really good runs only to fall at the final hurdles (Gala in the Europa League, Canada in the WC qualifying), that is tough to take. Congrats on the turkish double tho, hopefully you'll still turn around the Canada situation but it's looking difficult.

Yeah I seem to choke when the game is on the line. I have a lot of success in FM in general (like I win a lot of games) but have a bad habit of losing the important games (like Champions League Final and Europa League Final...)

[HotChocolate]

You were unlucky in the qualifications, it is a tough ask.

[deltablue]

Darn Honduras.

[AK22]

Blimey, second bottom, didn't see that coming!

If you keep your job, you can drag out the old 'we're on a four year plan, and right on track to qualify for World Cup 2022' chestnut!

[abulezz]

Man, thats a tough one. Sometimes the results just wont come - that seemed to have happened here.

[Raware]

You took over and you were sitting pretty in 3rd...4 games later and you're second from bottom of the group! You should get the boot . You know I'm only kidding rancer. That was tough to take, especially as a Canadian yourself I imagine. I agree with AK in that you should use the 'we're on a four year plan, and right on track to qualify for World Cup 2022' excuse .

[DSYoungEsq]

I find it amazing that Honduras managed not only to win against the US, but followed up with a win over Jamaica to pass them and take 3rd in the Hex. Some radically different results in the last few matches for everyone.

Well, there's always next time around. And plenty of Gold Cup action in the meantime.

[rancer890]

Canadian National Soccer Team - 2017 Friendlies

NOVEMBER 22, 2017

Cuba 0-2 Canada

British Virgin Islands 0-3 Canada

A couple of easy friendlies to end the international season. Joe Turner scored the most goals and I'm pretty pleased with his efforts even if it was against the likes of Cuba and the British Virgin Islands. Hopefully it'll give him some confidence back at his club team, AGF in Denmark.

I end the season with a 7 game record of 3 wins and 4 losses.

[rancer890]

And cheers for the comments again guys. It's a bit disheartening but looking at the other squads like Jamaica and Honduras I think they're better than us overall. I even have a Honduran at GS. It's disappointing but we'll get better after some experimentation in the friendlies.

Certainly wasn't expecting Honduras to shock USA and Jamaica but we should have taken care of our own games and it's my fault we couldn't. It was a bit crazy in the last 5 games considering the fact we went from 3rd to 5th and Honduras went from 5th to 3rd, and this was the team that actually lost to Guatemala earlier in WCQ!

It's all a learning experience and hopefully we'll have a better season in 2018.

[B.W.G]

Tough break with Canada but as others have mentioned,there is always the four year plan

[cerud]

Rough beats with Canada, but stick it out This was only the first competition with you at the helm. More and better is to come.

[rancer890]

I haven't updated in a while (4-5 days is a long time to me! ), but have been busy with exams and have lately been dealing with a lot of random crashes, sometimes after a game, sometimes after a team meeting, and sometimes during a match. A few times I had to play a game over again 5+ times (holidayed some games in the end out of pure frustration) and hoped the new patch would help but to avail, so probably gonna get it looked at in the Bugs Forum tomorrow after my 2nd of 3 exams...

[Raware]

Thought the lack of activity in here would be due to your Uni work. Understandable. Although having a life outside of FM isn't acceptable to all FM'ers

Doesn't sound too good about the crashes, hopefully the Bugs Forum can sort it out.

[rancer890]

Thought the lack of activity in here would be due to your Uni work. Understandable. Although having a life outside of FM isn't acceptable to all FM'ers

Doesn't sound too good about the crashes, hopefully the Bugs Forum can sort it out.

It seems fine now Raware. Should be able to get an end of season update in tonight (my time)!

[rancer890]

2017-2018 Season Review - Galatasaray S.K. - Spor Toto Super Lig

League Standings | Championship Standings | Fixtures 1 Fixtures 2 | Past Positions - I'm ecstatic that we managed to win the league at the very end of the season! If not for the Championship Group, we would not have won the league title and I really couldn't be happier in the end. It is games like these that give excitement and we worked hard for this title.

UEFA Champions League - Overall I would say it's a very good campaign. Facing a very strong Group with Valencia, Frankfurt, and Man Utd, we managed to finish 1st in our group, and the big highlight is a win at home against Man Utd. We did pretty well in the Knockout Stages too, like defeating Dnipro 6-2. However, we couldn't beat the big Ukrainian club Shakhtar, losing 2-0 in the 2nd leg.

Super Kupa - It wasn't a hard considering it was the previous season's cup final, and a game we won without much problem.

Turkiye Kupasi - It was a disappointing performance but we were struggling at the time.

Transfers - We made some moves to improve the squad in the middle of the season and it paid off for us. Here are the key transfers.

Daniel Raboczki - he was scoring a lot of goals till he got injured and it more or less ruined his season, but he still managed to lead the team in goals.

Murat Sahin - I wanted to play him in about 15 games this season and we were 1 game off that target. He did play the final 2 games of the Championship Group because he helped us get back into the match form we were capable of.

Alin Voicu - A young Romanian with very good potential once he learns the mental part of the game.

Vasile Gavrila - Another Romanian and another member of our young and talented group of players I want to develop in the future, he was pressed into action and did a fine job while averaging a goal every other game. A full preseason with the club will really help him in his first full season at Galatasaray.

Squad 1 Squad 2 - A decent squad which will get better next season. There will be some turnover.

Starting XI (excluding the Super Lig foreigner restrictions):

GK - Fernando Muslera

DR - Timothy Chandler

DC - Serdar Aziz

DC - Kemal Tokak

DL - Emilio Izaguirre

MR - Jiloan Hamad

MC - Guillermo Alberto Ramirez

MC - Nikola Loncar

ML - Steven Zuber

ST - Bogdan Stancu

ST - Daniel Raboczki

Young guns and youth intake:

ST - Sultan Demir

ST - Huseyin Yagmur - 2017 Youth Intake

DM/MC - Ramazan Gultekin - 2018 Youth Intake

These 3 homegrown youngsters (Demir was acquired from another club but will gain HG status after next season) have a lot of potential to become an integral part of the team.

Team MVP - Steven Zuber. I think he narrowly edges out Muslera because he really improved this production from the previous season, and I lost a bit of confidence in Muslera in the last couple games in favour of starting Sahin.

Overview | Facilities | Finances | Affiliations

Goals:

- Repeat as Champions

- Can we go even farther in the Champions League??

- Revamp this squad while keeping the main core intact, and continuing my emphasis of acquiring young talent.

- Improve the club and nation coefficients. The 6th best European league gets 3 Champions League slots so that's the short term aim

Summary

Year Team Country League Position Notes and Info Attendance
2011 EC Santo André Brazil Série C 1st Promotion 2,599
2012 EC Santo André Brazil Série B 3rd Promotion 3,228
2013 EC Santo André Brazil Série A 15th N/A 5,437
2014 EC Santo André Brazil Série A N/A N/A -----
2014 DC United USA MLS 2nd US Open Cup Winners 17,930
2015 DC United USA MLS 2nd US Open Cup Winners 20,342
2016 DC United USA MLS N/A CONCACAF CL Winners ------
2016-2017 Galatasaray Turkey Super Lig 1st Double + EL Finalists 45,556
2017-2018 Galatasaray Turkey Super Lig 1st Domestic Title 47,602