[FM12] One more time - moonwalking my way through 'mo clubs

[cerud]

Congrats on the Copa Sudamericana! Looking good in the Closura stage too

[Animosama]

look at that form.Both of those guys look like future wingers IMO. What level will the youth facilities be after the upgrade ?

[noikeee]

Congrats on the Copa Sudamericana! Looking good in the Closura stage too

Thanks.

look at that form.Both of those guys look like future wingers IMO. What level will the youth facilities be after the upgrade ?

I hire fullbacks that look like wingers, because we don't play wingers, instead I expect my very attacking fullbacks to handle the flank by themselves.

Youth facilities are "average" at the moment, I suppose it'll be whatever's next, "good" I think?

[laBOMBA]

Nice work with getting money from Benitez. I never managed in Argentina before but might consider it after reading your progress.

[deltablue]

Good work on the Sudamericana, despite the loss of Benitez.

[noikeee]

Nice work with getting money from Benitez. I never managed in Argentina before but might consider it after reading your progress.

I really recommend Argentina, didn't think it'd be this much fun. I quite like the Apertura/Clausura format, the way Sudamericana/Libertadores is structured makes it fun once you reach this stage too (club capable of qualifying for both). I like that because there's several different trophies and goals to fight for at every stage of the season, plus there's no shortage of talent to pick up from the other clubs and the youth academy.

Good work on the Sudamericana, despite the loss of Benitez.

Cheers.

[noikeee]

Board takeover

Looks like the takeover circus is finally over, after months and months of back-and-forth news messages, seems like nothing much will change but for the record I have a new boss.

[cerud]

Much ado about nothing, it seems.

[noikeee]

The big man stays, after all

This was a shock, after months of negotiating and many rejected contract offers, Netto suddenly decided to take it. I was pretty damn sure he was never going to sign, so I'd be forced to sell him - and he's completely irreplaceable at the moment. However this contract is not ideal - it involves plenty of bonuses, it includes a 10M€ release fee for foreign clubs (so he may still leave at any point), and it raised the wages of Israel Salazar and Raúl Santos from 27K to 34K/month as they had "match highest earner" clauses.

However we did lose a key player, transfer agreed a week later (will be completed at the end of the season):

This was much like Benitez's transfer in January, São Paulo suddenly showed up with a bid that was above his maximum asking price, if partially paid in installments - so I felt compelled to accept under a grey area of my rules. I really quite like Santiago Brunt Lewis for his wide skills set, huge potential and his absolutely fantastic name, but fear not, as I already have lined up a player to replace him next year that is every bit as good if not better!

[noikeee]

Independiente Rivadavia - Youth intake 2022

Best player

Juan Ignacio Caceres (DR)

... worth checking out Ignacio Vigna (DM / D/MC) and Antonio Harkes (DM)

I'm not entirely sold on this year's bunch, sure there's an abnormally high amount of mildly useful players which is nice, but I'm not seeing a true star. Caceres is the one that could get somewhere as he has some characteristics I look for in a fullback, he has the potential but will need an awful lot of work to get there.

[Animosama]

Nice sales and youth intake.

Any chance of any facilities and stadium upgrades ?

What are your finances like now ?

[AK22]

Done very well to get Netto to sign a new deal. He'd be a massive loss for you, as you'd be lucky to find another prolific scorer of the same ilk.

[noikeee]

Nice sales and youth intake.

Any chance of any facilities and stadium upgrades ?

What are your finances like now ?

I don't want a stadium upgrade, we never pack it, in the future maybe. Youth facilities upgrade is still under progress, training facilities the board won't agree to it.

Finances are a very comfortable 7.8M€ in the bank.

Done very well to get Netto to sign a new deal. He'd be a massive loss for you, as you'd be lucky to find another prolific scorer of the same ilk.

Yeah he is almost irreplaceable, I do have Bruno Galván lined up to replace him in the long term (he's improved MASSIVELY thanks to Netto tutoring) but he's no way ready yet; also there's a young River Plate forward in the same vein who is very exciting but they want 16M€ for him IIRC, not gonna happen.

[noikeee]

March-April 2022

Fixtures

March/April were another two incredibly busy months in terms of fixtures, let's start by the competition of the first match, the Copa Argentina. We're doing uncharacteristically well in this, beaten Argentinos in a difficult away tie in the 6th round then just about beat Unión at home to qualify for the quarters, where we'll meet All Boys at home.

The competition we're doing really great in, however, is Clausura. March didn't actually start very well, we drew to Vélez which set up a 1st vs 2nd on equal points explosive tie vs Boca - which we drew in a very open, even game. We however followed that up with a few comfortable wins whilst Boca lost points and Lanús were starting to emerge as another opponents for the title - and gained some proper momentum by beating us with a 91st minute goal. That could turn the league in their favour, however we won the next 4 matches again (including my first time ever derby win vs Godoy Cruz!), if stretched by massive tiredness, most of them by minimum advantage - and that has given us a massive momentum back again. The title is within sight!

Unfortunately our star striker Nicolás Netto picked up an injury in the early March match vs All Boys, then when he came back a month later, picked up a more serious one in only his 2nd match vs Instituto - 3 to 4 months stoppage, the season is now over for him!

In the Libertadores, we were highly unlucky to lose twice to Lanús by a single goal (which no doubt influenced the league match vs them as well), but thanks to other matches going our way we only needed a win in Paraguay to qualify - and we did so in style with a 4-0, job done. This set up the funniest match I ever had in FM in the final pointless group game vs Alianza. This decided absolutely nothing, and I was desperate to rest players so told them in tactical terms to do the bare minimum (no pressing, defensive strategy, retain possession, etc). We got a 3rd minute goal, Alianza got a man sent off early on and gave up too, so almost the entire match was made of our defenders passing the ball around each other!!! 87% possession and just 4 shots attempted.

In the 1st KO round we face Mexican side Tigres and failed to turn home domination into a big lead, altho a 88th minute goal by Brunt Lewis gives us a 2-goal advantage into the 2nd leg.

Player on focus

Noberto Morales (ST) - In the absence of Netto due to injuries, his partner upfront has risen up to the challenge of scoring the goals himself. Up to 31 goals this season after a particularly nice run in March.

Competitions

Primera Divisón - Torneo Clausura:

Copa Argentina: set to host All Boys in the quarter-final, if we go through we face Independiente.

Copa Libertadores:

Now leading Tigres 2-0 in the 1st knockout round.

Summary

The scene is set up for the club's maiden league title, as we've been managing to juggle our players' extremely tired legs just about enough. We need 5 points from the final 3 matches which is doable even if 2 of them are away. We also have a relatively easy path to an all-time-first domestic cup final, and are leading the Libertadores tie even if only very difficult opponents remain after this round.

... but can we do any of this without Netto? It's really a massive blow to have lost him to injury!

[cerud]

Losing Netto will be tough, but that title is so close! Hope you're able to hold on for the final push!

[noikeee]

Losing Netto will be tough, but that title is so close! Hope you're able to hold on for the final push!

I really think it's going to be ours - at this stage with that lead the title is our #1 priority and I will be managing player fitness in order to maximize it for the league matches. It may result in us throwing away the cup or the Libertadores but it's justified.

[deltablue]

Hang in there.

[JackJCFC]

Doing well to compete on all fronts so far. Is that Brunt Lewis part English or something? Such a strange South America name!

[AK22]

Good luck! You can do it!

[B.W.G]

So close,hope you can hold onto your lead.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Hopefully you have enough in the tank to see you over the line. I've been really impressed with how you've coped in Argentina so far

[Nobby_McDonald]

If you had my chairman, he'd be selling your players before you could even consider your asking price rule.

[noikeee]

Hang in there.

Good luck! You can do it!

So close,hope you can hold onto your lead.

Hopefully you have enough in the tank to see you over the line. I've been really impressed with how you've coped in Argentina so far

Cheers folks, meanwhile both us and Lanús won the next league fixture, which means a win over Tigre in the following match (or the next one away at Rosario Central) will crown us champions of Argentina.

Doing well to compete on all fronts so far. Is that Brunt Lewis part English or something? Such a strange South America name!

It's an awesome name isn't it! The lad is 100% Argentinian. There's quite a few English sounding surnames around, check out for example Antonio Harkes from our latest youth intake.

If you had my chairman, he'd be selling your players before you could even consider your asking price rule.

Ha! I've not really had a lot of chairman interference, only time was when he sold Angel Reyes beyond my back a few seasons ago, think that was my 2nd year in Argentina? Ever since I've kept a good bank balance, I think that has helped on that front.

[noikeee]

Title decider

The league situation was like this going into the penultimate day:

... which meant a win over Tigre would give us the club's first ever title. Unfortunately I messed up a little the fitness levels to make it to the Libertadores quarter-finals, and had to bring in a couple backups into the starting lineup for this match.

It was a tense match. We dominated from early on but struggled to create chances, and even got a scare or two from Tigre on set pieces. I switched tactical settings a few times out of nerves, slammed my players at half-time, yet nothing really seemed to work. Finally on the 76th minute, Morales combined with substitute Luis Salinas who scored a beautiful curled shot into the back of the net. All over, surely?

No, incredibly we were still celebrating when Tigre equalized just 2 minutes later! I panicked back-and-forth from attacking to defensive to attacking settings and in the mess we created a chance through a nice passive move in the middle, another sub Bruno Galván assisted Morales and he scored! 2-1 by the 82nd, and we held on until the end. Champions at last!

Amazing day for the club, but we cannot party hard as we'll play a Libertadores quarter-final vs Santos in just 5 days, and there's still the Copa Argentina to play as well!

[B.W.G]

Congrats on capturing the title,well deserved and the best of luck in the other competitions

[cerud]

Nice job on the title and a well fought campaign

[noikeee]

Congrats on capturing the title,well deserved and the best of luck in the other competitions

Nice job on the title and a well fought campaign

Thank you!

[noikeee]

Copa Libertadores Quarter-final 1st leg

Facing the superpower Santos still led by world class legend Neymar (and to a lesser extent a 32yo Ganso in midfield), I decided to drop club captain Sergio Palacios, playing Bruno Galván next to Morales upfront instead, as well as Luis Salinas in the AMC spot, who is on good form and has even been called up for the Chile World Cup squad, surprisingly.

It got off to a frenetic start as my choices were immediately vindicated, Salinas assisted Galván for the 1st goal as soon as 3 mins into the game. But Neymar was left criminally unmarked in a set piece just next, and Santos equalized - only for us to score AGAIN through Galván in the very next minute. The 18yo target man was just having by far his greatest ever day for the club yet, nearly made it a hat-trick still within the first 10 minutes, hit the post later, finally got his hat-trick in the 35th in a corner, and added a 4th early into the 2nd half. Immense performance! Centre-back D'Ippoliti scored in a corner too, and we won by a massive 5-1.

We're gonna make the semi-finals again, surely?

[noikeee]

Copa Libertadores Quarter-final 2nd leg

This was a mildly cagey game where our progression from the tie was never really in doubt. Santos got a slice of hope late in the first half, as Neymar scored thanks to lingering around outside of the area in a corner and the ball fell to him; but still before the break we equalized through a penalty committed over Galván, which Chilean midfielder Paulo Fernández converted. Nothing happened in the 2nd half.

The semi-finals draw put us against the reigning Libertadores champions, the team that beat us last year at this very stage, the team we just beat to the Clausura title, and the team we're about to steal their glorious young midfielder from - they're all one and the same: Lanús, who are coming across our path remarkably often. We're facing them next August for the Recopa Sudamericana, too (the South American equivalent of the UEFA Supercup).

[Animosama]

Nice but it seems your performances always drop dramatically away from home. Are you changing you tactics away from home ? Is the pitch size a factor ?

[noikeee]

Nice but it seems your performances always drop dramatically away from home. Are you changing you tactics away from home ? Is the pitch size a factor ?

I play the exact same settings at the start of every match - high pressing, trying to retain the ball at all costs in order to let the attacking wingbacks have the time to advance, and to exploit the extra amount of men we have in central midfield to pass around the opponents. Pitch size could be a factor too yes (from memory I think we have a pretty big pitch), but I believe our playing style is just more naturally suited to playing at home. Away our opponents will be less submissive, more agressive letting us have less of the ball.

It still sort of works pretty regularly away though, notice we only dropped points 3 times in the Clausura. It's only really an issue against the bigger sides in the Libertadores who are too good for us to dominate - and we very rarely lose by more than a goal, it's either a positive away draw or a narrow defeat which is offset by a more positive home leg. Plus I am yet to find a tactic that can allow us to be a bit more defensive without radically altering our core ideas, like the formation.

[SRL88]

Been a cracking campaign so far. Time to clame the Libertadores now .

[berty1978]

Excellent season overall and a well deserved clausura win, good luck in the final stages of the Libertadores.

[deltablue]

Good luck against Lanus, sounds tough though.

[JackJCFC]

Congrats on the title! Made easy work of Santos too . Good luck against Lanus!

[B.W.G]

Excellent victory over Santos,best of luck against Lanus

[Animosama]

I play the exact same settings at the start of every match - high pressing, trying to retain the ball at all costs in order to let the attacking wingbacks have the time to advance, and to exploit the extra amount of men we have in central midfield to pass around the opponents. Pitch size could be a factor too yes (from memory I think we have a pretty big pitch), but I believe our playing style is just more naturally suited to playing at home. Away our opponents will be less submissive, more agressive letting us have less of the ball.

It still sort of works pretty regularly away though, notice we only dropped points 3 times in the Clausura. It's only really an issue against the bigger sides in the Libertadores who are too good for us to dominate - and we very rarely lose by more than a goal, it's either a positive away draw or a narrow defeat which is offset by a more positive home leg. Plus I am yet to find a tactic that can allow us to be a bit more defensive without radically altering our core ideas, like the formation.

Mauve you could move on of the CM's or maybe 2 of the CM's to DM ?

[AK22]

Congratulations on the league title!

Good luck making it a double; I expect Lanus will be after revenge.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Well done on winning half a league title.

[noikeee]

Been a cracking campaign so far. Time to clame the Libertadores now .

Excellent season overall and a well deserved clausura win, good luck in the final stages of the Libertadores.

Good luck against Lanus, sounds tough though.

Congrats on the title! Made easy work of Santos too . Good luck against Lanus!

Excellent victory over Santos,best of luck against Lanus

Congratulations on the league title!

Good luck making it a double; I expect Lanus will be after revenge.

Thanks all!

Mauve you could move on of the CM's or maybe 2 of the CM's to DM ?

That would be an option yes, except the main reason the central midfielder on defend duty is a CM, is to stretch the other 2 midfielders wider - if I pull him back to DM our midfield is going to look awfully narrow. That makes for a considerably poorer shape not just for attacking but for defending as well. Sounds stupid but on this particular case a MC for me is better than a DM to defend.

Well done on winning half a league title.

I take your point, but from what i understand from South American footballing culture, I consider a Clausura or Apertura the equivalent of a Premiership or Serie A. Just because the whole world awards national titles yearly there's no specific reason they can't do this over a different period, shorter or longer - after all the World Cup and Euros are only awarded every four years, the African Cup of Nations is awarded every two years (and they randomly did it on consecutive years in 2011 / 2012), yet the equivalent trophies for clubs ex. World Club Cup, Champions League are yearly. It is all arbitrary, if seemingly logical to our footballing minds used to this.

The flipside is, we may be Argentinian champions yes, but if we want to be the holders for more than just 6 months we need to prove ourselves in Apertura again!

[noikeee]

May 2022

Fixtures

On the Libertadores we lost the round of 16 2nd leg in Mexico but that was never in doubt as we had won the first leg 2-0 then scored first. To be paired with Neymar's Santos next was hugely alarming but somehow we totally battered them 5-1 at home, which made the 2nd leg very easy. Next we face Lanús but the competition has been interrupted by the World Cup, so the fixtures are only late June/early July which is so late that we already have new signings, I'll lump it in with the pre-season update.

The league was our great triumph in May though, as I've posted before. A surprisingly easy away win at Belgrano put us within sight of the title, and it did happen next vs Tigre, even if it was super tense and the goals only came in the final quarter of an hour. INDEPENDIENTE RIVADAVIA ARE CHAMPIONS OF ARGENTINA FOR THE FIRST TIME! A meaningless game at Rosario Central closed the season, it was entertaining though even if we played youngsters and backups, as Palacios equalized for us in injury time.

The one competition I haven't posted about our fate yet is Copa Argentina. We were nervous vs All Boys, struggling to score, even more so after Alcaraz was sent off, but finally even with 10 men we scored 3 in the final 20 minutes. This set up a Independiente vs Independiente in the semi-finals, which unfortunately the Buenos Aires side won on penalties after we utterly failed to convert domination into goals. It was a lenghty shootout, Paulo Fernández and Palacios missed the very first 2 spotkicks, yet we still somehow came back from that, only to succumb to another missed one by young full-back Iván Ruiz.

Player on focus

Luis Salinas (AMC, MC) - Superb end of the season for the young Chilean midfielder who scored a handful of goals, relegated club captain Sergio Palacios to the bench, got his first cap for Chile and was called up for the World Cup. It was all going beautifully for him until he picked up an injury on the first WC match that will drop him for the remainder of the competition, ouch.

Competitions

Primera Divisón - Torneo Clausura:

Joint league table (Apertura + Clausura)

Copa Argentina: lost to Independiente on penalties in the semi-final.

Copa Libertadores: facing Lanús on the semi-final.

Summary

Historical month for the club as we claim our first ever title. We got to be on the Libertadores semis again too, but you all already knew that - we did drop out of the cup which was underwhelming after coming so far, but still a great run in a competition we always flop in.

I think overall this season has been a massive turning point for the club, from occasional challengers, to trophy winners and consistent challengers in all competitions. We can still win the biggest prize of all, the Libertadores, too. My plan is to stay one more season then finally go back to Europe - it's great here and I fully enjoy it, I'd love to continue building these youngsters, but am also getting a bit tired of JUST SO MANY FIXTURES. So, one more year, folks.

[Animosama]

Man what a season

[noikeee]

Season review 2021/2022

Tactics and usual starting eleven

Plan A remains the same as ever, I did try a couple of new B plans though, with some success. My favourite is going attacking, no short passing, no retain possession shout, sometimes play wider shout. This makes us more direct.

Another variant is to counter a specific case - aggressive 4-4-2s who have two very good forwards that cause us problems 2 vs 2 with our centre-backs (our attacking fullbacks often leave them unaided). The solution is very simple - drop the AMC and bring another centre-back on cover role. This was the way I finally managed to win the derby vs Godoy Cruz. Ocasionally I'd take off one of the strikers for the extra CB, but this doesn't work as well as I use the strikers to mark the opposition full-backs.

Squad

Top 5 key players of the season

5. Luis Salinas (AMC, MC) - The 20yo midfielder was doing alright on the MC position, but absolutely exploded later on in the season when I moved him more permanently to AMC, where he is able to use his finishing skills. He started off as a backup, but will almost certainly be the starter on that position now. 14 goals, 9 assists.

4. Marcelo Contreras (DR, DC) - He's always been a very promising centre-back but failed to play at the level he's capable of - until this season. A vacancy opened up at the right as Paul Ramos was sold in the pre-season, and he claimed the position thanks to successful re-training. His ratings this year just sky-rocketed both on the centre and the right, and he'll be one of the hardest players to keep hold of, being wanted by half of Europe and some Brazilian clubs.

3. Sergio Palacios (AMC, ST) - Our captain probably had a slightly better season than the previous few, yet it's still telling that he is not player of the year for me anymore, and lost his place to Salinas by the end - I think he has already peaked and the club is moving forwards. 12 goals, 16 assists.

2. Norberto Morales (ST) - If last year he underwhelmed me with goalscoring, this year he surprised me pleasantly, particularly in the final months as he stepped up brilliantly with Netto injured. Getting better and better at finishing, and he creates, too. 34 goals, 13 assists, a remarkable record for a 21 year old.

1. Nicolás Netto (ST) - It looked like he was going for a dream season of breaking all imaginable records (he did still break a few), but sadly injuries robbed him of the final few months. Still, an utterly ridiculous 42 goals in 39 starts and 6 sub appearances, including an amazing 14 goals in the Sudamericana, in the road to our trophy. Fabulous!

Career overview

[b]Season   League                  Cups                     International               Notes[/b]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Torns IF (Sweden)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012     Div.2 Södra Göt. - 1st  n/a                      n/a                         Champions, promoted
2013     Div.1 Södra - 11th      Svenska Cupen 2nd rnd    n/a                         Avoided relegation
2014     Div.1 Södra - 1st       Svenska Cupen 1st rnd    n/a                         Champions, promoted
2015     Superettan - 3rd        Svenska Cupen 1st rnd    n/a                         Lost in promotion playoff
2016     Superettan - 1st        Svenska Cupen 3rd rnd    n/a                         Champions, promoted
2017     Allsvenskan - 13th      Svenska Cupen 1/4 final  n/a                         Avoided relegation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Independiente Rivadavia (Argentina)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18  Nacional B - 11th       Copa Argentina 6th rnd   n/a                         Joined in November
2018/19  Nacional B - 1st        Copa Argentina 5th rnd   n/a                         Champions, promoted
2019/20  Primera - 5th / 14th    Copa Argentina 6th rnd   n/a                         Just missed out on continental football
2020/21  Primera - 3rd / 7th     Copa Argentina 5th rnd   Libertadores 1/2 final      Apertura+Libertadores challenges
2021/22  Primera - 5th / 1st     Copa Argentina 1/2final  Sud. winners, Lib.in prog.  Clausura+Sudamericana titles!

[deltablue]

Excellent year, lets see what happens in the Libertadores.

[B.W.G]

Excellent season Hopefully you can topple Lanus in the Libertadores.

[noikeee]

Excellent year, lets see what happens in the Libertadores.

Excellent season Hopefully you can topple Lanus in the Libertadores.

Thanks, we're trying our best albeit the first leg was a bit below expectations.

Copa Libertadores Semi-final 1st leg

With the World Cup interrupting this competition, the semi-finals and final are freakishly late, so much that some transfers have already taken place. We are now without Santiago Brunt Lewis who finally completed his move to São Paulo, but likewise Lanús were deprived of Enrique Moreyra who... joined us. Fantastic player but we can not play him yet. Unfortunately we are in a bit of a midfielder crisis with both Sergio Palacios and Luis Salinas injured, so Lisandro Recalde started as MC and Jorge Correa as AMC. Netto is nowhere near fit yet as well, so Bruno Galván started upfront yet again.

We got off to an horror start conceding a goal in a corner in the 2nd minute, but dominated the rest of the match. In the first half it looked like we were going to equalize sooner or later with very high pressure, we got a disallowed goal, compensated by an awarded penalty kick that Paulo Fernández missed, then right after Bruno Galván hit the crossbar only for minutes later him to hit the crossbar again! Half-time came, and finally the goal as well - atypically a long shot from Jorge Correa, who was the man of the match. Unfortunately that was the only goal we scored despite cornering Lanús the whole match really.

An unfair result really, the performance is encouraging for the second leg but it's going to be pretty hard with them having the away goal.

[noikeee]

Copa Libertadores Semi-final 2nd leg

With pretty much the same players unavailable, I used almost the same starting 11 for the 2nd leg - still nowhere near maximum strenght.

It was a considerably different match from the 1st leg - a lot more divided between both sides. Thankfully we drew first blood, through teenage forward Bruno Galván who scored from just within the area in a messy passage of play. This put us on a winning position but Lanús got more and more dangerous, and we started accumulating a lot of yellow cards. Somehow we managed to make it to the end with 11 men, and most importantly, without conceding. We're in the final!

Our opponents will be Corinthians. The heavy wins we got over São Paulo and Santos throughout this season makes me mildly optimistic even if Corinthians are very, very good, but I've got a new problem: bids are flying in for many of our players. I've got a ridiculously good deal for Israel Salazar, and a asking-price-rule deal for Norberto Morales. I'll have to stop both, breaking my own rule in the process because this is a wild exception - I'm not going to sell key players just before a continental title final!

[AcidBurn]

Well played reaching the final and I don't blame you at all for breaking your own rule, you simply cannot sell your best players before such a big match for the club. Good luck in the final!

[noikeee]

Copa Libertadores Final 1st leg

Luis Salinas returns to the side after his World Cup injury, but sadly we just lost right-back Andrés Fernández to a very serious virus for the next 7 to 8 months - Contreras starts on the right, with Rodriguez and D'Ippoliti as the centre-backs duo. This is Mauricio Rodriguez's 61st start of the season!! (plus 2 sub appearances). Corinthians play a similarly narrow formation led by their fabulous forward Camilo.

This was surprisingly an extremely dull match as the similar formations seemed to nullify each other. I watched in utter disbelief as we failed to even attempt to shoot for a whole 30 minutes. To our delight, our first attempt ended in a goal - teenage forward Bruno Galván continued his tendency to excel in the Libertadores by scoring an absolutely excellent free-kick.

With ourselves in a position of advantage, and the match clearly not prone for many goals, I let it run out without making any tactical changes and really nothing happened at all. Remains to be seen whether this was a good decision as we contest the 2nd leg in Brazil, but we just need a draw. However, remember: there is no away goals rule in South American finals.

[noikeee]

Well played reaching the final and I don't blame you at all for breaking your own rule, you simply cannot sell your best players before such a big match for the club. Good luck in the final!

Yeah it would be pretty extreme to do that, even if it's a rule. I did try to delay the transfers which put them past the 1st leg, but couldn't delay further. My workaround is to offer them and try to get similar fees for them later after the 2nd leg.