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chile_paul

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A crucial 1-0 win in the away leg in Japan allowed us to move into the second leg with confidence, but a couple of suspensions to key players including central defender Muller really meant that this tie was still wide open. It turned out to be an incredibly wide open game, more resembling a basketball game at times with play flowing up and down the field at huge speed - we ended up with 22 shots on goal compared to their 19.

The opening 15 minutes was incredibly frenetic and whilst we had the most shots on goal we were struggling to find the target whilst they were stretching my goalkeeper to his limit - we made the first breakthrough though in the 21st minute and then hit again within the next 7 minutes with 2 sucker punches which really secured the tie for us in the absence of a 5 goal miracle fight back from Sanga. Straight after half time I was worried that was exactly what we were going to see as they scored twice in 5 minutes, but we managed to calm down, tighten the gaps in defence and secure the final result.

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So - we're into the Asian Champions League final for the first time since we were runners up in 2012 (the one and only time Guangzhou have made it to the final) and will be facing up to Zob-Ahan of the Iranian league - they have also only once been in a Champions League final back in 2010 where they were also runners-up. They finished 3rd in the league last season, but currently are struggling almosty halfway through the Iranian season in 8th place.

One of us will be going home very happy on the 17th November.........

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The title had been won, but we had two important fixtures still to come against teams at the very top of the league - there was always the worry of complacency setting in as the players minds started to drift forwards to the Champions League final, but we managed to keep our feet on the ground and pick up 2 very respectable if unspectacular wins to really enforce our dominance at the top of the league.

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So we finished 14 points clear at the top of the league and picked up the record for the most points in a season and the most goals scored - I can't ask for much more than that, other than perhaps a Champions League trophy to top it all off!

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My second excursion into a Champions League final, this time on a different continent, and I was desperate to put the disappointment of my defeat in the African Champions League with Bamboutos behind me. On paper both teams looked fairly equal and it's fair to say would have been surprised to have made it to the final, having seen some of the tournament favourites knocked out along the way. I wasn't letting on, but I was quietly confident that this might be our best chance to pick up a Champions League win in years!

Route to the Final - Guangzhou

A few dodgy results in the group at one point put our qualification in doubt, but after the thrashing of Seongnam our confidence was on a high and the results since then look very impressive

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Route to the Final - Zob-Ahan

A similarly impressive run, only marred by a couple of draws in the group stage and the impressive knocking out of Seongam in the Quarter Final's - based on this record they will be tough opponents in the final

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I was delighted to see a comprehensive victory by my team which really could and should have been by more - we dominated throughout the game, and on the occassions when Zob-Ahan did make it into a shooting position they continually failed to test Ding Kun in our goal. Duan Xin was the real hero of the day, picking up the first goal and what was his 12th goal in the last 9 games of the season - what a player!

So we'd done it, we'd won the Champions League and I'm now proudly holding the first of the 5 Champions League trophies that I want to attain in my career!

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This competition really wasn't a priority this year, especially given that we'd just lifted the Champions League trophy and because I was jetting of to manage the Chinese U-23's at the East Asian Games, as a result I was using it as an opportunity to give a few of my younger players a run out. Even so, claiming the treble would be a very nice way to end the domestic season........

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It wasn't to be in the end though - we put up a very good performance against Dalian, again thanks to a stunning performance by Duan Xin - but Tianjin striker Joilson put us on the back foot when he scored in the first minute and then kicked us when were down by scoring a 2nd in the 29th minute. Despite fighting back and having the most chances we struggled to hit the target and in the end we were well beaten.

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Nice victory! By the way, in the screenshot of Zob-Ahans route to the final, the final result is on it ;).

Schoolboy error :eek: Given that the full result is on the next post down, I don't think I'll have spoiled the suspense too much though!

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Chile_Paul's Career - Season Review - 2018 - Guangzhou Hengda

A complete turnaround compared to the disaster of last season as we ran away with the title, eventually winning with 14 points back to 2nd place. We now hold the all time record for the most goals scored in a season and the most points achieved. At times we really did look unbeatable and the highlight of the season had to be the 7-0 demolition of eventual runners-up Shandong. As the season progressed, other teams started to cotton on that we would destroy them with pace and started to sit back more and park the bus in front of the goal - this frustrated us and made the opposition much harder to break down which resulted in several points slipping away to draws.

Being crowned Champions League winners really was the icing on the cake, whilst we could have had a tougher draw in the knock-out rounds and were lucky to be facing a team of similar stature in the final rather than a previous winner, we were worthy winners and will be looking forward to representing Asia in the FIFA World Club Cup during the off-season.

The side really needed to be freshened up with some youn, enthusiastic faces and the players that I bought in really did make the difference, many of them becoming regulars in the first team far sooner than I'd expected:

Joseph Njock (YP16) - Joseph followed me from Bamboutos and had a solid, if unspectacular season. There are a number of other Chinese teams sniffing around with a view to bidding for him, but I think he has a solid role within the squad

-
Star Signing
An absolute star up the right wing, Nan made a large number of our goals and managed to stick a few away himself. I've slapped a £7m price tag on his head, but FC Twente are still supposedly interested in his services!

-
Wu had been propping up the U-21 side for Shandong before I found him, now he's one of the top scorers in the league and a regular for the Chinese national side!

- A great young Argentinian striker, who's biggest weapon is his pace. He would have scored plenty more if not for his injury record - if he can't go for a prolonged period of time without picking up another injury he might find he's lost his place in the squad

- I didn't expect Ma to break into the first team this season, but after a good few early sub performances he was thrown in at the deep end and thrived on the opportunity. He became one of my most regular and consistent performers during the season and has now picked up his first international cap

- A not dissimilar story to Ma, I had bought Zhou in as my 3rd choice central defender but he pushed his way up the rankings and became one of my regular starters - he too is now in the Chinese national side

A solid season helped massively by the Champions League run and improved attendances saw us break even - the forthcoming upgrade of the Training and Youth facilities is going to set us back a cool £7.25m however!

Squad

Player of the Season - 34 year old
was once again the star performer this season. I'm not sure how long he's got left in his legs, but he'll definitely still hold a starting place in the team next season.
came a very close second place with an impressive 20 goal tally, but I can't over-estimate the importance of Jian's playmaking performances in the middle of the park

- the fans agreed with my decision once again and handed the award to Liu Jian

Season Summary

Next Season?

I've one more year left on my contract, aim has to be to retain both the league and Champions League crowns and have a respectable showing in the World Club Cup
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With the domestic season over and done with it was time to focus on my responsibilities with the international U-23 team. To be honest I very nearly handed in my notice with the Chinese FA before a ball was kicked in anger after I found out that I wouldn't get to pick the squad - I'm not sure whether this is a bug or whether it represents reality in that the manager of the senior team picked the squad?

After a good deal of consideration I decided to stick it out at the job, it actually played into my hands nicely - I would have picked a few more of my Guangzhou players in the squad and given that they were all called up a few days before the Champions League final it might have resulted in a different outcome against Zob-Ahan.

In the groups we had been drawn against Uzbekistan, Oman and Bhutan - two teams qualified for the second round, so it as fair to say that I wasn't too worried and was looking forward to 9 points and a good few goals.

It wasn't quite that straightforward though, in the first game we found ourselves 2-0 down to Uzbekistan - facing an embarassing defeat in my first game in charge I really laid into the players at half time and they responded pulling 2 goals back and we were looking favourites to get the 3rd. It wasn't to be though, Uzbekistan got a third on the break and we were lucky to get a last minute equaliser. Whilst I as still looking favourite for qualification I couldn't leave anything to chance after that result so put my first team out against Oman, which resulted in an 8-0 spanking followed by another convincing 5-0 win over Bhutan to secure qualification in first place with a more impressive goal difference than Uzbekistan

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The three other major threats in the tournament - Japan, South Korea and Iran had also safely negotiated the groups and I was keen to avoid them in the draw as long as possible.

First up in the second round we faced Vietnam - we dominated the game but struggled to break through their Vietnamese defence and had to wait until extra time before we broke through, eventually winning 2-0. Japan and Iran had the misfortune to be drawn together so early in the competition and it was the defending champions Iran who won through, winning convincingly in extra time. South Korea also dropped out in a huge shock as Malaysia knocked them out on penalties.

So that only really left Iran to worry me in the draw - in the QF's we comfortably beat Thailand and Iran again struggled and had to rely on extra time to know out neighbours Iraq. It would have made for a great final, but the draw forced us together in the semi-final; could we make the most of the tired Iranian legs to progress to the final?

Sadly it wasnt to be, and I was really disappointed because we threw the tie away - we were 2-0 up and looking comfortable at half time - it took Iran until the 75th minute to claw one back, and they then equalised in the 88th minute - both goals coming from poor defending at corners which we really should have prevented. In extra time we faded quickly and lacked options from the bench to make a difference as a result of injuries in previous games. It looked as though it as heading for penalties, but in the last minute the Iranians showed the cutting edge and stole the victory - gutting!

The final was there for Iran to take, but maybe the consecutive extra time performances had taken it out of them - it once again went to extra time in the final against my old foes, Uzbekistan, but this time Iran couldn't make the crucial breakthrough and in the penalty shoot out it was the Uzbek's who triumphed to lift the trophy!!

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Despite barely being able to field a team because of injuries, we went on to a comfortable 3-0 win against Singapore in the 3rd place play-off to take the bronze medal

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Realistically I knew that I didn't have a chance in hell of winning this competition, not with the likes of Juventus and Santos in the way - however it was going to be a good test for my players to assess how good they really were - there is some good money involved as well if you can progress to the later stages of the competition.

We entered the draw at the Quarter final stage, but were unlucky in the draw picking up Monterrey of Mexico, and missing the chance to face one of the undoubtedly easier African teams in the draw.

We put up a really decent performance against a much stronger side, taking the lead in the first half with a 10th minute goal from Duan Xin - but we were pegged back in the second half and then for the second time in only a few weeks one of my teams fell in the dying minutes of extra time to miss the opportunity to take the tie to penalties.

We went on to take 5th place in the competition with a comfortable 3-0 win in the 5th place play-off against HUS Agadir

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all, just a quick apology for not updating in a while - been really busy with work and have been to see a couple of real life football games at the Olympics so no time for FM!!

Should be returning back to normal service next week!

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  • 3 weeks later...

First update in a while guys - sorry about that.

Anyway I've got a few updates to make over the weekend to catch up with where I am in the game, the first news though is that the Chinese FA were obviously not too upset in my failure to win the Asian games with the U-23's as following the retirement of the senior team coach they appointed me into the senior role!

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With a significant proportion of the Chinese team playing for Guangzhou their shouldn't be too many club v country rows!

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Chile_Paul's Career - Season 8 Preview - Guangzhou Hengda

Board Expectations:

Chinese Super League - Win the CSL

CFA Cup - Not considered important

AFC Champions League - Reach the Quarter-finals

Super Cup - Not considered important

Media Expectations:

Media Prediction: 1st

My Expectations:

Chinese Super League - Dominate throughout and beat last season's points and goal tally

CFA Cup - Regaining my crown of the overall champions of China

AFC Champions League - Go for the treble and retain my Asian title

Squad:

Given the strong performances last season, I didn't need any major surgery in the close season. I'd been looking for a while for a non-Chinese Asian player to maximise the potential of my foreign players quote (I'm limited to 3 foreigners in my starting 11, but can have one additional foreign player if they're Asian) and I've also brought in a number of young future Chinese stars who I can develop in the club side to replace some of my older stars and also develop to be future stars for the national team. At the back of my mind I know that some of my top players are going to start courting interest from Europe, so I need to establish a conveyor belt of talent.

Transfers:

£6m spent and £2.5m received from the sale of my first choice centre back Muller to Legia - he was getting restless and wanted European football and was refusing to enter contract negotiation talks - a trend that I expect to increase over the coming seasons if we continue to be successful.In return though I've bought in a couple of young Chinese centre backsto replace him who I'm sure will develop to be as good as he was.

Ri Ho-Jin: Arriving on a free transfer Ri is a young but experienced North Korean striker / inside forward. Whilst not an immediate first team player, the foreign player rule means that he will almost always be on the bench as it will give me more versatility in my selection.

Yu Qinglu: Yu has the tough job of replacing Muller in the defence - I've now got more choice and flexibility in this position though, should Yu not live up o his billing.

Zhang Lei: My undoubted weak spot last season was on the left hand side of midfield. Zhang looks to be a star of the future however and with him on the left and Lu Nan on the right I've got two frighteningly good wingers for this level of competition

Su Qichen: The young star of the Chinese set up Su scored 16 goals in 24 games for Dalian last season and has 12 U-21 goals from 14 appearances. He won't play that many games for me this season as I'll need to rotate my front line, but he looks to have the potential to be a regular goal scorer.

Karen Martisoryan: A real risk on this young Armenian striker - will he settle in China and will he get enough game time in an already flooded front line? However his stats for a 20 year old were too good not to bring in and he arrives as my most expensive acquisition of the close season

Finances:

Wage Budget: £244,700 p/w (£228,484 p/w) +£16,216

Wage Bill: £137,818 (£123,362 p/w) +£14,456

Transfer Budget: £14.95m (£8.86m) +£6.09m

Bank Balance: £24,650,037 (£21,690,581) +£2.96m

Average Ticket price: £9.10 (£8.70) +£0.40p

Season Ticket Holders: 2,580 (2,477) +103

Season Ticket price: £112 (£102) +£10

Estimated club value: £25.5M (£19.25M) +£6.25m

Reputation:

Club Reputation: Continental

Ranking within China: 2nd (5th) +3

Chinese world ranking: 48th (65th) +17

CSL competition ranking within Asia: 9th (9th)

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The draw for the Champions League offerred little to frighten me after our stunning run to lift the title last season - Antlers posed the biggest challenge, but Newcastle United Jets and Daejon provided little concern.

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Indeed, the first 3 games offerred little to concern me - against Dajeon we dominated with our height, 3 goals coming from defenders including a debut goal from Yu Qinglu. The game against Antlers was tighter, but we scraped through to win thanks to a goal from new boy Ri Ho-Jin just before half time after which we shut up shop and controlled possession - and then against the Jets we tore them apart with an incredible 30 shots on goal, it was only down to their goalkeeper and our atrocious finishing (of the 30 shots only 11 were on target) that we didn't win by a cricket score.

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So we're sitting comfortably in top spot with a bit of a surprise in the form of the Jets occupying second place.
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I wasn't sure how the team would react to our Championship win last season and whether the competition would have adapted to our tactics, to make this a tougher run this season - but I got the answer on Match Day 1 against fierce rivals Beijing who we obliterated much to the delight of our fans. Lu Nan was a destroyer on the right wing picking up 2 goals in 14 minutes and by the end of the month had an astonishing 7 goals in 4 games from the right wing! CSKA Moscow and Seville are both stalking him, how long can I hold on to him for?

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The first half of the group stage had gone well, but I needed the team to stay focussed as we threw into the mix the additional complexity of playing in the League inbetween each group game.

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Things couldn't have gone better in the Daejeon game as we took the lead thanks to a penalty in the 6th minute, but after taking that early lead, despite dominating throughout we struggled to find a way through to add to the score - the 6 yellow cards picked up by Daejeon perhaps bets sums up the tactics that they were using to try to battle a way into the game. That win, alongside other results in the group effectively saw us qualify for the second round, but we needed to secure top spot in the group in order to avoid a difficult away tie in the second round - this was achieved in the next match away to Antlers; we really should have won this game after going up 2-0, but Antlers pulled back to 2-2 after half time and despite us going back into the lead we couldn't prevent Antlers from rescuing a point. Away in Australia we didn't dominate anything like as much as we had done in the home tie, but ended up winning by a higher scoreline thanks to a fantastic hattrick from Argentian Nicolas D'Assero

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Moving into May we continued to see some great individual performances in the first game with both my wingers scoring and picking up assists for Wu Xinghan's 2 goals. I had high hopes for these two coming into the season and boy are they living up to expectations. In the next 2 games we slipped off the boil though and really struggled to dominate in the way that we had been doing. In fact against A'erbin we were heading towards defeat and the fans were leaving the stadium already when Robinson soared up at the far post to head home a free kick from the captain, before Ri Ho-Jin bought on as a substitute cut in from the left wing and lashed the ball home across the face of the keeper. Business returned to normal against 4th placed Fuli and Ri Ho-Jin had clearly kept his lucky pants on as he scored another 2 sensational goals to give us a 100% record after the first 8 games.

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The second round in the Champions League is always tricky, being the only round in the competition that is one legged, therefore introducing the risk of a real upset. Our dominance in the group had secured us a home advantage though and we made this pay in what was otherwise an unexpectedly tight match, eventually nicking the tie 1-0 thanks to a 40 yard screamer from captain Liu Jian - a real goal of the season contender!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi all,

Sorry it's been a while since I last updated, I've had loads on and have also set up another career game that I'm now running alongside this one - however I can promise a few updates today and early next week to keep you up to date with the tales form China and to see how long my 100% record lasts for!

Thanks to everybody for the supportive comments!

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Roll of Honour

Premier League

2011/12 - 1st Liverpool 2nd Man City 3rd Man United

2012/13 - 1st Man City 2nd Man United 3rd Liverpool

2013/14 - 1st Man City 2nd Liverpool 3rd Man United

2014/15 - 1st Liverpool 2nd Arsenal 3rd Man City

2015/16 - 1st Liverpool 2nd Man Utd 3rd Chelsea

2016/17 - 1st Man Utd 2nd Liverpool 3rd Arsenal

2017/18 - 1st Liverpool 2nd Man Utd 3rd Man City

2018/19 - 1st Liverpool 2nd Arsenal 3rd Man Utd

FA Cup

2011/12 - Winners Aston Villa Runners-Up Brighton

2012/13 - Winners Man Utd Runners-Up Stoke

2013/14 - Winners Arsenal Runners-Up Bolton

2014/15 - Winners Sheff Utd Runners-Up Man Utd

2015/16 - Winners Chelsea Runners-Up Wolves

2016/17 - Winners Wolves Runners-Up Sunderland

2017/18 - Winners Stoke Runners-Up Bolton

2018/19 - Winners Man City Runners-Up Southampton

League Cup

2011/12 - Winners Man Utd Runners-Up Watford

2012/13 - Winners Derby Runners-Up Arsenal

2013/14 - Winners Stoke Runners-Up Wolves

2014/15 - Winners Liverpool Runners-Up West Ham

2015/16 - Winners Man City Runners-Up Tottenham Hotspurs

2016/17 - Winners Aston Villa Runners-Up Man City

2017/18 - Winners Tottenham Runners-Up Everton

2018/19 - Winners Liverpool Runners-Up Aston Villa

Champions League

2011/12 - Winners Real Madrid Runners-Up Lyon

2012/13 - Winners Real Madrid Runners-Up Liverpool

2013/14 - Winners Real Madrid Runners-Up Man City

2014/15 - Winners Man City Runners-Up Man Utd

2015/16 - Winners Barcelona Runners-Up Arsenal

2016/17 - Winners Barcelona Runners-Up PSG

2017/18 - Winners Juventus Runners-Up Real Madrid

2018/19 - Winners Man Utd Runners-Up PSG

Europa League

2011/12 - Winners Sevilla Runners-Up Marseille

2012/13 - Winners PSG Runners-Up Arsenal

2013/14 - Winners Fiorentina Runners-Up Lyon

2014/15 - Winners Wolfsburg Runners-Up Arsenal

2015/16 - Winners Man Utd Runners-Up Basel

2016/17 - Winners Liverpool Runners-Up Napoli

2017/18 - Winners Dortmund Runners-Up Man City

2018/19 - Winners Leverkusen Runners-Up Chelsea

European Championships

2012 - Winners Spain Runners-Up Italy

2016 - Winners France Runners-Up Germany

African Cup of Nations

2013 - Winners Mali Runners-Up Congo

2015 - Winners South Africa Runners-Up Cameroon

2017 - Winners Morocco Runners-Up Ghana

2019 - Winners South Africa Runners-Up Tunisia

World Cup

2014 - Winners Mexico Runners-Up France

2018 - Winners France Runners-Up Germany

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A great return to form, with the league being won on the last day of the season following a run of 5 straight wins

[TABLE=class: grid]

[TR]

[TD]Team

[/TD]

[TD]Season

[/TD]

[TD]League

[/TD]

[TD]Position

[/TD]

[TD]Notes

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Bamboutos

[/TD]

[TD]2017/18

[/TD]

[TD]Elite One

[/TD]

[TD]3rd

[/TD]

[TD]-

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Bamboutos

[/TD]

[TD]2018/19

[/TD]

[TD]Elite One

[/TD]

[TD]1st

[/TD]

[TD]-

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

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Continued progress in upgrading our facilities - the chairman seems to be quite content to keep bank rolling the club so hopefully further improvements still to come - I'm hoping that continued improvements will deliver more talent for the Chinese national team as well

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