[FM18] Chasing Sir Alex - Season 4: FC Orsha (Belarus) - Domestic Season Draws to a Close

[DarkSleeper]

Nice read so far!

Especially love ur campaign with Martinique. Never seen anything from the caribbean cup before! I wish u luck with ur though draw, u will need it.  

[Sheriff7]

IRL Bailey said he wont play for Jamaican national team until their football standards wont improve but still they have many good players who play in MLS,Premier league,Championshil anf Scadinavian leagues..Leicester captain and premier league winner Morgan,Marriapa,Mclearley,Macnuf,Pratley are some of them...

[yatesiboi37]

6 hours ago, DarkSleeper said:

Nice read so far!

Especially love ur campaign with Martinique. Never seen anything from the caribbean cup before! I wish u luck with ur though draw, u will need it.  

Thanks DarkSleeper!

I did not even know that it was a playable competition before taking on this job. I would love to progress to the semi-finals but that is looking like a tough ask from here on in. 

5 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

IRL Bailey said he wont play for Jamaican national team until their football standards wont improve but still they have many good players who play in MLS,Premier league,Championshil anf Scadinavian leagues..Leicester captain and premier league winner Morgan,Marriapa,Mclearley,Macnuf,Pratley are some of them...

I really wish he would make that decision in-game! 

In their latest squad they have him and some pretty good MLS players. They also have a pretty good regen keeper who is currently at Huddersfield in my save. I also hope you realise Sheriff that I am totally blaming you for this draw... you jinxed it as soon as you said that Jamaica would enter in the 3rd round. 

[Sheriff7]

3 hours ago, yatesiboi37 said:

Thanks DarkSleeper!

I did not even know that it was a playable competition before taking on this job. I would love to progress to the semi-finals but that is looking like a tough ask from here on in. 

I really wish he would make that decision in-game! 

In their latest squad they have him and some pretty good MLS players. They also have a pretty good regen keeper who is currently at Huddersfield in my save. I also hope you realise Sheriff that I am totally blaming you for this draw... you jinxed it as soon as you said that Jamaica would enter in the 3rd round. 

Sorry mate they are one of my favourite national  teams so i love speaking about them.....

[yatesiboi37]

Update 19: June & July 2020

Club: FC Orsha
Division: Vysshaya Liga

With a lengthy break before the third round of the Caribbean Cup, we switch our focus back to Belarus and our domestic progress with FC Orsha in the Vysshaya Liga. As you may remember from before, we had started excellently in the league, dropping just four points, but we still only found ourselves in 2nd place and Dinamo Minsk eclipsed all expectations and won every single league fixture. 

This update we cover our progress in the Vysshaya Liga, in the hope that Dinamo Minsk slip up somewhere along the line. It will also see the start of our Kubak Belarusi campaign, a competition that I am determined to do better in this season, as well as cover some fairly interesting transfer news. 

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TRANSFERS:

As usual, the month of July sees the mid-season transfer window open and again we did a little bit of business. Despite only transferring a few players, we did find ourselves receiving a club record transfer fee for a player!

(Out)

We allowed two youngsters to venture out on loan deals in a bid to get the some first-team football. Goalkeeper Moussa Coulibaly, was is actually pretty talented, just not on the same level as Kelvin Uzochukwu, returns to his native Ivory Coast on a season-long deal. We also shipped attacking midfielder Carlos Mikue to Vysshaya Liga rivals Isloch, who say that he will become a vital member of their first team, which should provide the 19 year old with some valuable, high-level first team experience. 

We allowed four players to depart for minimal transfer fees. None of these guys were featuring very much, if at all, so transfers were sort to remove their wages from the bill. Back-up left fullback Sergey Kondratjev joins Slutsk in our division having made just one league appearance for us through the first 11 games. Fellow fullback, Seregy Schegrikovich, who also joined at the start of this season, is sold to Naftan in the Persha Liga. He made just four appearances for us but failed to impress. We also allowed Maxim Pavlovets to join Schegrikovich at Naftan. The young central midfielder was a useful rotation man last year but he had been replaced by more youthful options this term and therefore was deemed surplus to requirements. Additionally, we allowed Dmitriy Zinovich to join Granit, also in the Persha Liga. The central defender was a key figure in our Persha Liga winning side from a few seasons back but did not have the required ability to step-up and play at the next level. 

Finally, and this was a big one, we sold star forward Alex Ajayi. The 19 year old Nigerian joined us on a free transfer at the start of last season but his remarkable form last year led to big interest from abroad, mainly from Russia. When the big clubs starting putting in offers, Ajayi was determined to move. Obviously I was very reluctant to let him go but given the improved form of Ignacio Lobo this season, Ajayi was not as vital as one may think. In the end, the young forward was sold to Kuban Krasnodar in the Russian top tier for a record received transfer fee of £75,000. 

And then, to make things even worse, on deadline day our chairman decided to allow Ousmane Niang to be sold to title rivals Dinamo Minsk. This was a genuine stinker given just how much Niang had improved this season and because I was not even given the option to argue against the sale. Granted the price is at least quite good, with a potential fee extending over the £100K mark but I still would have preferred to retain the Senegalese youngster. 

(In)

Not so much in the way of players joining the club, with just three new faces joining. 

Firstly, we picked up two new youngsters in the form of Moussa Abeid (18) and Kevin Vance (18). Abeid is an attacking midfield of Mauritania nationally who will be folded into a shadow striker to play behind the main forward in our formation. Vance, who is of Trinidad & Tobago heritage, but actually came from the academy of English Premier League club Chelsea, is a right fullback who fits my tactical philosophy perfectly. Both will hopefully be developed into starters in the near future. 

The final signing was a big one, as I broke my personal spending fee for a player in order to bring in right fullback Dmitriy Aliseyko (27) from fellow Vysshaya Liga side Dinamo Brest. For whatever reason, the attacking fullback had found himself out of favour at our rivals and I was more than happy to bring him in. He fits into our tactic excellently, with good dribbling, crossing and pace meaning I am hoping he can link up with Alexandr Kovalev on the right flank to form a devastating attacking duo. 

Belarusbank Vysshaya Liga RESULTS:

W = 5, D = 1, L = 0

Another unbeaten couple of months as we continued our brilliant start to the league season. 

We kicked off June with an exciting 2-2 draw away at a lowly Gorodeya side but we quickly got back to our winning ways with an emphatic 4-0 victory at home to BATE Borisov on national television, led by a brilliant brace from Ignacio Lobo. We then easily defeated bottom of the league Slavia Mozyr before following that up with my highest ever league victory to date; a 6-2 win against 3rd placed Gomel that featured a first FC Orsha hattrick for Lobo. We ended July with a pair of closely fought wins against Isloch and then against my personal nemesis Torpedo Zhodino.

The most pleasing aspect of our play through these six fixtures was our prolific form in front of goal as we scored an outstanding 20 goals. We were also a little better on the defensive end, keeping a pair of clean sheets but we did concede two goals on three separate occasions. 

Kubak Belarusi RESULTS:

For some reason, we were awarded a bye in the first round of the Kubak Belarusi this season but we entered the competition in the second round and were awarded a pretty straightforward draw against FC Chist' of the Belarusian third tier.

Round 2: vs FC Chist' (Non-league)

Despite being drawn away from home, we made this tie much more complicated then it needed to be. We scored two goals in the first half as we dominated proceedings, both of which were netted by Rolando Rivas, our young Saint-Martin forward who has been in excellent form. 

In the second half we made things a bit more tricky as we conceded from a corner on the half hour mark. The final thirty minutes saw us cling on and avoid what would have been one of the biggest upsets of the second round. 

The third round draw saw us avoid Torpedo Zhodino for the first time in the last two seasons...

We get drawn against Dinamo Minsk, who are currently 7th in the league this season but whom we did beat early in the year. We are drawn as the away side but a victory here would see us through to the quarter finals for the first time in our history!

PLAYER STATISTICS:

Our continued run of excellent team form sees us currently have a remarkable 17 players with an average rating of 7.0. 

The key man right now is Ignacio Lobo (7.86). The Argentinian forward has found a renewed run of form in our revamped tactical set-up and has thrived with an astonishing 14 goals in just 13 appearances. In addition, he has played 25 key passes from hi striker position, the second most in the squad.

Also impressing has been Yuriy Kovalev (7.80). The winger signed at the start of the year has been remarkable on the right flank and leads the team with nine assists, 43 key passes and 33 completed crosses. He has been exceptional and a big reason for Lobo's impressive scoring record. 

In defence, Brazilian centreback Igor Brondani (7.26) has had a much improved second year at FC Orsha and leads the squad with 109 defensive interceptions. His defensive partner Igor Shumilov (7.11) and new addition Alexandr Pozynak (7.12) have helped solidify a decent defensive unit. Goalkeeper Kelvin Uzochukwu (7.07) has continued to be a staple between the posts whilst fullbacks Terence Kethevoama (7.10) and Kirill Aleksiyan (7.00) have both impressed. 

In midfield, the development of Jean-Baptiste Arcelin (7.42) on the left wing has been very pleasing and the young Haitian is quickly becoming my favourite player. The youngster has seven assists, 21 key passes and leads the team with 3.10 dribbles/game. Oleg Patotskiy (7.35) and Alexandr Kugan (7.25) continue to impress in the centre of midfield and should mask the unfortunate departure of Ousmane Niang. With the Senegalese midfielder gone, I will be relying more on youngsters Amadou Diallo (6.95) and Ryan Gatti (6.97). 

In attack, we already have a second player to reach a double digit goal tally on the year as Rolando Rivas (7.62) has now netted 10 times in just 10 appearances. Attacking midfielder Fillip Ivanov (7.19) continues to show his versatility as he has scored four goals, collected four assists and played 25 key passes. 

LEAGUE TABLE:

Dinamo Minsk, who had won all of their first 11 fixtures end up drawing one and losing two of their last six. Amazingly their defeats came against 9th place Dnepr Mogilev and bottom placed side Slavia Mozyr! Still, I am not complaining as it means we overtake our title rivals and take a three point lead going into the final 13 games of the season.

The two promoted sides now find themselves in the bottom two, a theme that seems to be very prominent in Belarus (and in FM in general for that matter). Shakhter Soligorsk (6th) and BATE Borisov (8th) find themselves miles off that pace as it looks as though two of Belarus' former giants are falling away. 

Our 44 goals scored is easily a league high, nine ahead of Dinamo Minsk and Gomel but our 17 goals conceded is only good enough for a 5th placed defensive record. Dinamo Minsk still lead the way in that department, having let in just eight goals in their 17 fixtures. 

OTHER NEWS:

Mikhail Shibun was a player picked up at the start of the season who I had high hopes for. Unfortunately, the winger has been somewhat injury prone as he picked up his third significant injury of the season. At this point, the 24 year old has only appeared in two fixtures and is starting to look like a bit of a dud.

In what is slowly become a more prominent feature of our club, we have had some exciting news on the international front. 

Firstly, young attacking midfielder Carlos Mikue, who was recently sent out on loan, made his full senior debut for Equatorial Guinea in June. He has since gone on to make a second appearance and it can only be a good thing for his development. 

Also of interest was the call-ups for Amadou Diallo and Kelvin Uzochukwu for their respective Olympic teams. Both players featured heavily in the starting line-ups for the nations but it was Uzochukwu who had the greatest success, leading his team to a silver medal as they lost out in the final, losing 1-0 to Germany. 

In other international news, June and July saw the completion of the UEFA European Championships:

In what turned out to be a pretty thrilling tournament, two old favourites battled it out in the final with Germany eventually defeating Italy. 

Reigning World Cup champions Belgium lost in the second round as they were knocked out by Poland. The Poles had a very good tournament overall, only losing to Germany in the semi-finals during extra time. Elsewhere, there was a surprise second round appearance for Kosovo and England lost to Italy in the most English way possible - via a penalty shootout. 

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So that concludes my midseason update from FC Orsha. We have a genuine shot at a league title this season but it will be a tight run affair with Dinamo Minsk still looking in pretty good form. Either way we should be able to claim a European spot come the seasons end. 

It will be interesting to see how we cope with the loss of two key youngsters in the form of Ousmane Niang and Alex Ajayi. It was always going to be the case that bigger sides would start coming in for our key players what with our stellar league performances. I am hoping that we do not lose anymore of our key youngsters but there is already growing interest in the likes of Kelvin Uzochukwu and Amadou Diallo. 

There was also a key milestone from my individual performances:

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

[Kubson]

 How is Rivas looking like?

[yatesiboi37]

46 minutes ago, Kubson said:

 How is Rivas looking like?

Genuinely, nothing all that special. He does have exceptional pace and strength for this level of football though which I think is what sets him apart. 

He was born in Saint-Martin but holds dual French and American nationality making him a pretty unique kind of player. Along with Jean-Baptiste Arcelin (Haiti), he is one of my favourite regens ever in FM - got to love an obscure nationality player!

[Kubson]

He doesn't look that bad for a 18 year old either and has time to improve and can score so many at such young age, will be great in a few years!  

[kidthekid]

It looks like this could be the season. Great work

[yatesiboi37]

On 30 December 2017 at 22:36, Kubson said:

He doesn't look that bad for a 18 year old either and has time to improve and can score so many at such young age, will be great in a few years!  

Yeah he is fairly decent and my scouts reckon he has 4-5* potential so could develop into something pretty special. Having seen most of my youngsters struggle last year it has been pleasing to see them play well this season. Jean-Baptiste Arcelin (Haiti) and Kelvin Uzochukwu (Nigeria) have become regular first teasers and the likes of Rivas (Saint-Martin), Ryan Gatti (Canada), Vyacheslav Sakovich (Belarus) and Amadou Diallo (Guinea) have all contributed amongst the rotation. 

6 hours ago, kidthekid said:

It looks like this could be the season. Great work

Thanks kidthekid. 

Things are looking pretty good but there is still a ways to go yet and Dinamo Minsk are still a very much superior side in terms of talent. We have to play them next month so that could turn out to be a very very important fixture. 

[yatesiboi37]

Update 20: August & September 2020

Club: FC Orsha
Division: Vysshaya Liga

We are very much in the thick of the domestic season now as we move past the halfway stage and into the autumn months. We ended the last update top of the league but only just slightly above our main rivals, and current league holders, Dinamo Minsk. We had found some excellent form but we ended the mid-season transfer window by losing key youngsters Ousmane Niang and Alex Ajayi. 

This update will look at our results from the next two months as we look to maintain our decent run despite some key player departures. 

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TRANSFERS:

The transfer window for Belarusian clubs was closed but that still did not prevent bids for our players from coming in. 

(Out)

We lost young winger Vyacheslav Sakovich to Orenburg in the Russian top division. I did want to keep the Belarusian national, as he was developing pretty well but as soon as offers from Russia started coming in for him he was determined to depart. An offer that could rise to £50,000 was easily more than what the youngster was worth so he was allowed to, reluctantly, depart.

Belarusbank Vysshaya Liga RESULTS:

W = 6, D = 1, L = 0

Despite losing some key players in July we were able to maintain our fantastic run of form as we won six of our seven fixtures during August and September. 

We started August in a sluggish manner, only just scrapping through with a 1-1 draw away to Slutsk. We bounced back though with probably our biggest win of the season, an emphatic 4-2 victory at home to title rivals Dinamo Minsk:

This game was shown live on television and also featured (the traitor), Ousmane Niang, who turned out for his debut for Dinamo Minsk following last months transfer. We duly showed the youngster that he had made a terrible decision to leave as a superb first half performance put us in the ascension. Goals from Filipp Ivanov, Jean-Baptiste Arcelin and Yuri Kovalev gave us an emphatic 3-0 half-time advantage. Our rivals did play better in the second half. conveying an early penalty but a fourth home goal, from Ignacio Lobo, gave us an extremely important three points that could have a huge impact on the title race. 

We followed this fixture up with a solid away victory against a strong Shakhter Soligorsk side. The final four games saw us play magnificently in front of goal, as we recorded four wins, including a brilliant 5-0 win against Dnepr Mogilev. Overall we were superb in attack, netting 23 times in just seven fixtures. Our defence also played much better, conceding just six times and keeping two clean sheets. 

Kubak Belarusi RESULTS:

Round 3: vs FC Minsk (Vysshaya Liga)

Having just about scrapped through the first round against non-league opposition, we found ourselves in the third round with a fixture against FC Minsk. Our league rivals proved to be a tough opponent but we managed to progress through to the quarter finals for the first time in my managerial reign. 

We got off to a flying start, when in-form youngster Rolando Rivas headed home from the far post. We sat back too much though in the first period and allowed Minsk back into the tie on the half hour mark. Fortunately, experienced midfielder Oleg Patotskiy smashed home a first-time strike from the edge of the area on the hour mark to give us a third round victory that has proved elusive thus far. 

The draw for the quarter finals has already been made, despite the fact that the actual fixtures will not be played until the start of next season!

Reigning champions Dinamo Brest and Shakhter Soligorsk are already out of this competition but Dinamo Minsk and BATE Borisov remain, with the former likely favourites to win overall. We were awarded an extremely favourable tie as we were drawn against Belshina, a side who currently sit 15th in the Vysshaya Liga and who are in danger of getting relegated. 

This fixture is scheduled for March next season meaning, realistically, we could end up playing Belshina after they have been relegated to the Persha Liga. 

PLAYER STATISTICS:

I have never had a squad this dominant on an FM save before, where we amazingly have an outstanding 21 players who hold an average game rating of at least 7.0.

There have been some absolutely remarkable individual performances thus far but the standout has been Yuriy Kovalev (7.71). The winger, who joined at the start of this season has played a team-high 51 key passes in his 22 appearances whilst also reaching double digit numbers for assists, with 10. He has also scored six goals ad collected five Player of the Match Awards. 

In defence, club record signing Dmitriy Aliseyko (7.40) has been superb in his first nine appearances for the club. The right fullback has played 18 key passes and connected on 15 crosses, filling the exact role that I wanted him to. Igor Brondani (7.26) has been the best central defender, racking up a team-high 138 defensive interceptions. New signing Alexandr Poznyak (7.15), central defender Igor Shumilov (7.03) and fullbacks Terence Kethevoama (7.13) and Kirill Aleksiyan (7.11) have all contributed to an improved defensive effort. Goalkeeper Kelvin Uzochukwu (7.12) continues to be excellent between the sticks. 

In midfield, Jean-Baptiste Arcelin (7.67) is running Kovalev close for our player of the season. The young Haitian winger has a team, and league high, 12 assists on the year and also averages 2.84 dribbles/game. Back-up winger, Vladislav Zhuk (7.45) has struggled to get into the first eleven this year given the form of Arcelin and Kovalev but he has impressed recently, contributing six assists in just nine club appearances. Central midfielder Oleg Patotskiy (7.34) has had another excellent year in the centre of midfield, scoring five goals whilst both Amadou Diallo (7.07) and Alexandr Kugan (7.07) have been fairly solid. 

Up top we have been superb. Ignacio Lobo (7.67) and Rolando Rivas (7.59) have provided an exceptional one-two punch at the forward position and both players eclipsed the 15 goal mark earlier in the month. Lobo has been a revelation in his second season in Belarus, collecting a team-high six Player of the Match Awards. Shadow striker Filipp Ivanov (7.24) has also been impressive, scoring seven times and providing six assists. 

LEAGUE TABLE:

Our continued excellent league form and victory over rivals Dinamo Minsk has meant that we are in prime position to achieve a league title with just six games left to play in the season. Dinamo Minsk lost against us but also slipped up away from home against Torpedo Zhodino. Our current points total means, that no matter what happens in our final games, we cannot finish any lower than second so European football is guaranteed for next year.

Both Shakhter Soligorsk and BATE, regular European qualifiers, are both in danger of missing out on continental football as they sit 6th and 7th respectively. In their place Gomel and reigning cup holders Dinamo Brest have both had strong seasons. At the opposite end, the two newly promoted sides, Belshina and Slavia Mozyr, are both looking likely to instantaneously return to the Persha Liga. 

We have now scored an incredible 67 goals this season, which is 19 more than anyone else in the division. Defensively, we still are quite a way away from having the best record in terms of goals conceded. We have let in 23 whereas rivals Dinamo Minsk have only allowed 16 goals against. 

OTHER NEWS:

Wear and tear seems to be becoming more of an issue at the moment, especially at the defensive end. We lost central defenders Alexandr Poznyak and Igor Shumilov to pretty severe injuries which left us with just two healthy central defenders. We also then lost central midfielder Alexandr Kugan, our primary emergency centreback and fullback Dmitriy Aliseyko meaning our depth in defence has been extremely depleted going into the final six games. 

To make things even worse, and to ensure we have a proper injury crisis, we also lost star winger Yuriy Kovalev to a fractured toe. His main back-up, Mikhail Shibun was also lost to injury, his fourth major one of this season - meaning he can definitely be labelled as injury prone. 

Jean-Baptiste Arcelin has been exceptional this season and his 12 league assists have now tied the Vysshaya Liga record. With just six games to go, the young Haitian winger has a chance to write himself into the record books, needing just one more well-placed pass to set a new Belarusian record. 

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So with just six league game left to play, the chance at a Vysshaya Liga title is a very real possibility now. Our final few fixtures see us take on some pretty tough opposition, including BATE Borisov and FC Gomel, but our nine point advantage should be enough of a buffer to ensure our first ever top division title. 

I will be back shortly with an international update from Martinique where we enter into the third round of the Caribbean Cup with fixtures against Jamaica and French Guiana. 

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

[yatesiboi37]

Update 21: September & October 2020

Team: Martinique
Competition: CFU Caribbean Cup

After a fairly lengthy absence from the international scene I return to action here with Martinique in the all important third round of the Caribbean Cup. The group winners from this round not only progress to the semi-finals but also gain qualification to the next edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, making this an extremely important couple of games for our small Caribbean nation.

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SQUAD SELECTION:

Not too many changes with regards to my latest Martinique squad. 

There is a recall for Sonhy Sefil, a 26 year old central defender with 21 previous caps. He is pretty talented from the looks of it but has been without a club for ages so has never been match fit. However, he recently signed for Colomiers in France and is getting some game time there so he was called up. 

There are a couple of injury concerns, with national captain Jean-Sylvain Babin and experienced winger Geoffrey Malfleury both dealing with small niggles that caused them to miss the Jamaica fixture. 

Friendly RESULTS:

W = 2, D = 0, L = 0

For the first time the international friendlies were scheduled for before the round of professional fixtures which allowed me to experiment a little with lineups and tactics.

We firstly played Cuba at home, and waltzed to a fairly straightforward victory courtesy of an own goal and a Christophe Herelle header from a corner. In the second fixture we took on a fairly poor St. Vincent & The Grenadines side away from home but struggled mightily and with just 15 minutes left we trailed by a goal to nil. We finished the game phenomenally though, scoring four times in the final 14 minutes to give us a victory by a scoreline that we did not really deserve. 

All in all, not terrible preparation for our Caribbean Cup games where we would face the almighty task of an away trip to Jamaica for our first Caribbean Cup third round fixture.

CFU Caribbean Cup RESULTS:

Third Round: vs Jamaica (World Ranking = 67th)

Not a great start. In front of a 30,000 strong crowd in Jamaica we were well and truly humbled. Our opponents fielded a ridiculously strong side that featured the likes of FC Bayern winger Leon Bailey and Newcastle forward Dwight Gayle. 

We fell behind after just 17 minutes when MK Dons winger Kieran Agard smashed a close range shot beyond Xavier Lenogue in goal. Despite falling behind we tried everything to get back into the tie but we just could not find a way through a resolute Jamaican defence. We managed just five total shots, with only three on target and held just 39% of the possession. 

Defeat in this fixture meant that we had no choice but to win our final fixture, and then had to hope French Guiana could defeat Jamaica, if we were to have any chance of qualifying for the semifinal stage. 

Third Round: vs French Guiana (World Ranking = N/A)

French Guiana, like ourselves, are a French territory and therefore are not included within the world ranking system. They have a pretty decent squad, which is actually pretty similar to ours in terms of strength and depth.

Despite both teams desperately needing a victory, this fixture never really got going and was a scrappy affair from the outset. Young regen forward Jean-Sylvain Jobello headed home a free kick on the half hour mark to give us a deserved lead which we would not lose. We did create a number of other chances but our finishing was very poor, as we hit the target just four times. Our defence was very solid though, and we limited our opponents to just five total goal attempts.

Victory here meant we would have a small chance at progressing to the next stage but it would totally depend on the result between French Guiana and Jamaica. 

PLAYER STATISTICS:

Stephane Abaul (7.60) has been our best international player this calendar year and has won an outstanding four Player of the Match Awards in his 12 appearances. 

Jordy Delem (7.28) was named Player of the Match during our French Guiana victory and the experienced right fullback averages 4.64 tackles/game. Overall our defence has been pretty solid throughout my time in Martinique, with central defender Christophe Herelle (7.25) leading the way. 

Our leading scorer this calendar year has been youngster Jeremie Porsan-Clemente (7.22), who has netted seven times in his 12 international appearances. He also leads the squad with a team-high four assists. 

STANDINGS:

Unfortunately our victory against French Guiana was not enough. Jamaica ended up beating the other French territory convincingly, by a 3-0 scoreline, and therefore progress into the semifinals as the group winners. 

Fortunately though, our tournament is not quite over just yet...

Although we no longer have a chance at winning the Caribbean Cup we end up qualifying for the Fifth Place Playoff. The top four sides, those that reached the semifinals, all qualify for the next edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup but there is a chance for a fifth team to qualify. In order to do so, we have to play two more fixtures and win the following group. The winner then plays a two legged playoff fixture against the fifth placed nation from the Copa Centroamericana, with the winner also progressing to the Gold Cup. 

The aim now is to win our Fifth Place Playoff group and on paper we have a very good chance. We get drawn against Aruba (currently ranked 161st) and St. Lucia (currently ranked 149th). Given that we have already comfortably been St. Lucia earlier in this tournament I like our chances of winning this and getting a solid chance to qualify for the Gold Cup - a feat Martinique have achieved 5 total times before in their history but have only managed twice since 2003. 

This fixtures take place in January, so yet again we have a bit of a wait. There are a few other international jobs that I would like to take on but for now at least I would like to see things out with Martinique and try and get qualified for the Gold Cup.

In terms of the Caribbean Cup, the above four sides qualified for the semifinals and will all be present in the next edition of the Gold Cup. 

There were a few surprises, with Trinidad & Tobago and Curacao both finishing bottom within their groups. Jamaica have surely got to be favourites for their game at this stage, considering we have beaten Cuba once before this season. Haiti have a fairly strong squad but will have to overcome a pretty decent Guadeloupe side, another French territory, if they are to progress to the finals. 

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So that concludes our latest international update with Martinique and despite being knocked out of the Caribbean Cup, we have a chance at qualifying for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, so I am looking forward to getting back to action with this squad in January 2021. 

Elsewhere though I had some interesting news...

They are currently 11 games into their latest Championship season but find themselves 23rd in the league table and struggling massively. Whilst it would be very exciting to try and revive a big Championship club from relegation trouble I am on the verge of winning a title in Belarus and a bit reluctant to depart.

What do you guys think I should do? 

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

[noikeee]

That job offer sounds familiar.  It's a difficult one, Derby are much bigger than Orsha, but you're just a few matches away from the title and from qualifying for the early rounds of the Champions League. I'd pass it up. Your reputation is gonna take a big boost after becoming Belarrussian champion so that's gonna open new doors, too.

Great season you're having in Belarus, and I love it that Dinamo Minsk completely fell apart after that 11 wins in 11 start. 

[yatesiboi37]

On 2 January 2018 at 12:31, noikeee said:

That job offer sounds familiar.  It's a difficult one, Derby are much bigger than Orsha, but you're just a few matches away from the title and from qualifying for the early rounds of the Champions League. I'd pass it up. Your reputation is gonna take a big boost after becoming Belarrussian champion so that's gonna open new doors, too.

Great season you're having in Belarus, and I love it that Dinamo Minsk completely fell apart after that 11 wins in 11 start. 

Haha, given what you have achieved at derby already I'd be under pressure to recreate something similar... 

I've grown a bit attached to Orsha and would love to at least secure a league win and have a little run through Europe before considering a move. Since that Derby offer though I have been approached by a few other English teams!

[yatesiboi37]

Update 22: October & November 2020

Club: FC Orsha
Division: Vysshaya Liga

Having most recently failed to qualify for the semifinals of the Caribbean Cup with Martinique, I return to domestic league action with FC Orsha in Belarus. When we last addressed this aspect of the save, you may remember that I was closing in on a historic Vysshaya Liga victory.

This update will cover the final six fixtures of the league season as well as highlight a few more job offers that came my way. 

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Belarusbank Vysshaya Liga RESULTS:

W = 4, D = 2, L = 0

A couple of drawn games to end the season as our injury crisis hampered our performances somewhat. We still managed to the final two months unbeaten which actually means we end the domestic campaign having accumulated a run of 28 unbeaten that extends back to April. 

We firstly battled to a 2-2 draw away against Minsk before bouncing back with a hard fought victory on national television against our local, fierce, rials, Vitebsk. We then soundly beat a struggling Gorodeya side before collecting a point away to the reputable BATE Borisov. We needed the year with a pair of convincing victories, including a brilliant 3-0 away win against high flying Gomel. 

We continued our fine goalscoring form, netting 11 times in these six fixtures and, despite our defensive injury problems, we kept three clean sheets and conceded just four goals. 

PLAYER STATISTICS:

I do not think I have ever had such a dominant squad, in terms of individual performances, on any FM save before this one. We ended the domestic season with an astonishing 19 players holding an average rating of at least 7.0. 

There have been so many key players this season but defensively we were much improved on last year. The key difference maker in the centre has been Igor Brondani (7.20). The Brazilian centreback had an amazing second season in Belarus, having struggled to gel with the squad last year. He collected a team high 170 defensive interceptions whilst averaging 3.10 tackles/game. Also impressing has been the newly signed, and club record signing, Dmitriy Aliseyko (7.33). The right fullback fits into my tactical system perfectly and that is shown through his 26 key passes played and 23 crosses completed, in just 15 appearances. Fellow new signing Alexandr Poznyak (7.15) impressed despite battling a few injuries, whilst young Zimbabwean fullback Collen Phiri (7.10) looked good in some end of season action. Goalkeeper Kelvin Uzochukwu (7.07) had another terrific season in between the sticks, whilst Igor Shumilov (7.02) played well at the other centreback position and Terence Kethevoama (7.13) was solid at right fullback.

Our midfield was excellent this season, with our wingers easily being the biggest upgrade over what we had last year. Leading the way was Yuriy Kovalev (7.57) and Jean-Baptiste Arcelin (7.48), who between them contributed 23 assists. Kovalev, a new signing at the beginning of the year, finished second in the team with 52 key passes whilst Arcelin led the way with 47 completed crosses and 2.65 dribbles/game. Also impressive was backup winger Vladislav Zhuk (7.24), who added a further six assists in his 14 appearances. The central positions were dominated by Oleg Patotskiy (7.47). The experienced veteran netted seven goals, collected five assists and led the squad with 58 key passes played. Alexandr Kugan (7.07) had a slight regression after being named Player of the Year last season but he was still solid throughout. Youngster Amadou Diallo (7.02) finally looked to be realising his potential as he led the team with an 85% pass completion rate and added 4.96 tackles/game. 

Our forwards were absolutely fantastic, especially considering we sold our best forward, Alex Ajayi, during the season. Ignacio Lobo (7.55) had a stupendous second season in Belarus, finishing with 19 goals in just 26 games. He also provided a huge asset to his teammates, playing 48 key passes and racking up 13 assists alongside 6 Player of the Match Awards. We also saw the emergence of teenage forward Rolando Rivas (7.49). The Saint-Martin senior international was incredible, often coming off the bench, enroute to 19 goals in just 22 appearances. We had a third player reach a double digit goal tally in the form of attacking midfielder Filipp Ivanov (7.26) who scored 10 times playing behind the lone forward. 

LEAGUE TABLE:

CHAMPIONS! 

Just two seasons since gaining promotion to the Vysshaya Liga and we are named champions. Dinamo Minsk won 11 of their first 11 games but had too many slip-ups along the way and eventually we needed up winning the league by comfortable 15 point margin. We lost just once all season, a 1-0 away defeat against Dinamo Minsk early in the season, but won 25 of our other 30 league matches. A league victory also means another piece of silverware needs to be added to James Yates' growing collection. 

BATE Borisov and Shakhter Soligorsk both struggled throughout the year and Dinamo Brest ended up sneaking into 3rd position, just ahead of a Gomel side who definitely overachieved. Both newly promoted teams, Belshina and Slavia Mozyr, instantly return to the Persha Liga following pretty disastrous first seasons. 

Our +51 goal difference is one the highest I have ever achieved on FM and this season in itself has been one of my most successful. We played excellently throughout the year as the new tactic turned us into a powerhouse going forward, and ended up thoroughly deserving of the clubs first ever Vysshaya Liga title. 

OTHER NEWS:

Youth Intake:

The end of October in Belarus sees the annual youth intake take place. We have received a few decent looking players in recent years but as of yet none have broken into the first team. 

A couple of decent prospects but not much in the way of depth here. We signed the top five and I think Dmitriy Digilevich could turn into something useful in the future. The player I am most excited about however is forward Anton Kovba.

A 16 year old local lad, Kovba has a helpful personality (determined) alongside a pretty decent set of starting attributes. He already has a decent level of pace and acceleration whilst already possessing a high level of finishing and dribbling. His composure is solid and I think he has the makings of a good future forward for sure. He is also one of the scariest looking 16 year olds I have ever seen...

Manager Profile:

The completion of the season meant that I was not needed on the training ground at all so I set about requesting the following from the board.

Following our recent success, they were more than happy to accept and I set about working towards my first Continental licence. In addition to working on building my attributes, I also achieved a nice first milestone.

100 games deep. I have had a bit of a journey, starting out life with the Chinese Under-23 side before signing up to FC Orsha when they languished in the second tier of Belarus. I have since returned to international management having opted to take on the role of Martinique manager. The different challenges I have experienced already, having visited three continents already, is what have made this save incredibly enjoyable. 

Job Offers:

Despite not improving my managerial attributes all that much throughout the season I was, as previously mentioned, offered the Derby County managerial position at the end of the last update. I turned that down, as I was determined to see FC Orsha reach their first ever top division title, but since then I have been approached regarding two more struggling Championship sides in England.

Both of these sides were hovering just above the relegation zone, having completed about a third of their seasons games. Offers like these are very intriguing considering I would love a return to England at some point. The whole Brexit scenario though, and with it being a struggle to sign foreign players, puts me off somewhat. Still, there is no denying these jobs would be a step-up from a Belarusian league side but surely people want to see FC Orsha in the Champions League? What do you guys think? 

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

[yatesiboi37]

Update 23: End of Season Review (2020)

Club: FC Orsha
Division: Vysshaya Liga

Last year, the clubs first ever in the Belarusian top flight, we performed superbly enroute to a fourth placed finish. This year we exceeded all expectations and collected our first ever Vysshaya Liga title, to go alongside the Persha Liga trophy we won just two years ago. I could not have asked for any more this season; we were an attacking powerhouse, qualified for European football and won another piece of silverware. 

This update will take a look back at our title winning season, James Yates' third at FC Orsha and will act as the platform for the clubs' end of season awards. 

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COMPETITIONS:

Belarusbank Vysshaya Liga. Final Position: 1st 

Played: 30 (W = 25, D = 4, L = 1)
Goals Scored: 78, Goals Conceded: 27, Goal Difference: +51
Points Total: 79

I honestly could not have asked for much more than what we achieved this season. Despite only gaining promotion two years ago, we have now been crowned champions of Belarus, the clubs' first ever top tier trophy. Our ability in front of goal has improved in every season that I have spent at FC Orsha and this year was easily our best as we netted a league high 78 goals, 22 more than we managed last year. I wanted to improve our defensive performances and that definitely happened  as we conceded 15 less goals than last season. This all lead to us finishing with an astonishing goal difference of +51. 

As previously mentioned, we beat out last seasons champions Dinamo Minsk for the title. Our main rivals started the season in amazing form but fell away as the year progressed. Despite that, they still ended with the best defensive record in the division, conceding just 22 goals. They will be joined in the Europa league qualifiers next year by Dinamo Brest, who sneak into third position ahead of Gomel. The two new promoted sides, Belshina and Slavia Mozyr, are both instantly relegated back down to the Persha Liga. 

Despite our exceptional league performance, we did not win many of the leagues end of season awards. We had a number of players finish 2nd or 3rd in their respective categories but we did have one winner:

Jean-Baptiste Arcelin, our young Haitian winger, won the league award for Best Legionary - essential the leagues best foreign player. He did play exceptionally well throughout the season but somehow beat out Gomel forward Ablai Balde, who scored a league high 25 goals!

Kubak Belarusi. Final Position: Reached the Quarter Finals

Played: 2 (W = 2, D = 0, L = 0)
Goals Scored: 4, Goals Conceded: 2, Goal Difference: +2

So, as you may know by now, the Kubak Belarusi follows a weird format whereby the main games are played during the current domestic season but the final rounds (starting with the quarter finals) take place at the start of the following season. For the first time during my spell at FC Orsha, we will be partaking in the quarter finals of the only Belarusian domestic cup. 

We were given a bye in the first round, although I am still not sure why, and then were drawn against non-league opposition in the second round. We made life difficult for ourlseves but eventually progressed with a 2-1 victory over FC Chist'. In the third round we were drawn against FC Minsk, a fellow Vysshaya Liga side, but we again progressed with a 2-1 scoreline courtesy of goals from Rolando Rivas and Oleg Patotskiy. 

The quarter finals, which are played over two legs, see us drawn against Belshina, a side recently relegated to the Persha Liga and therefore one that I expect us to beat comfortably. We will have to wait for March for this game however, but I guess that is another reason for wanting to stay at Orsha for now. 

PLAYER STATISTICS:

We finished the season with a whopping 19 players holding an average rating of 7.0 or higher, a single season record for me in this save. Below are some key stats from our maiden Vysshaya Liga victory campaign:

• Ignacio Lobo and Rolando Rivas finished as the clubs joint top scorers, both netting 19 times throughout the course of the season. Another player managed to reach a double digit goal tally with Filipp Ivanov meeting 10 times.
• The leading assist provider this season was also a tied award, with both Jean-Baptiste Arcelin and Ignacio Lobo creating 13 goals each. Winger Yuriy Kovalev reached double digits for assists, as he created 10 goals.
• Forward Ignacio Lobo ended the season with the most Player of the Match Awards, picking up six. Yuriy Kovalev and central midfielder Oleg Patotoskiy finished with five apiece.
• Defensive midfielder Amadou Diallo again led the team with an impressive average of 4.96 tackles/game in his 19 appearances. Central defender Igor Brondani led the way with 170 defensive interceptions. 

All-time Best XI:

I never really understand how these things work on FM but a number of our current players are now entered into the FC Orsha all-time best XI. 

Kelvin Uzochukwu is now named the starting goalkeeper, with Terence Kethevoama and Igor Brondani coming into the starting defence. Kirill Aleksiyan, the only player who still remains from our Persha Liga winning season, remains as our starting left fullback. 

Understandably, wingers Yuriy Kovalev and Jean-Baptiste Arcelin both enter the starting eleven. Somehow, Alexey Plyasunov, who left the club three years ago, still remains a part of the best eleven but I am hoping he will be replaced soon. Also surprisingly, Rolando Rivas gets named in the starting side ahead of Ignacio Lobo, despite only playing 19 league games for the club. 

Filipp Ivanov and Amadou Diallo are both now named amongst the teams' substitutes. 

PLAYER AWARDS:

1) Player of the Year: Ignacio Lobo (ST) - 29 matches, 2 goals, 13 assists, 48 key passes, 80% pass completion, 2.12 dribbles/game, 6 PoM Awards, Ave Rating: 7.55

Signed on a free transfer two seasons ago, Argentinian forward Ignacio Lobo really came to life this year in the Vysshaya Liga, which was even more valued given the departure of Alex Ajayi. The 24 year old netted an impressive 19 goals in just 24 appearances, to give him a total of 29 in 50 games for the club overall in his Orsha career. What was even more impressive this year was Lobo's value to teammates. He created a team-high 13 goals, played 48 key passes and had an exceptional pass completion percentage. 

Overall, his attributes are not amazing but he is pretty solid throughout. His physical attributes are all rated above a ten and he has decent levels for finishing, dribbling and composure. I was surprised that he contributed so many key passes and assists given that his passing is not all that excellent. He will definitely be returning next season and I am hoping he can continue his fine form.

2) Defensive Player of the Year: Igor Brondani (CD) - 29 matches, 2 goals, 3.10 tackles/game, 170 defensive interceptions, Ave Rating: 7.20

The Brazilian central defender, Igor Brondani, was another player who had a superb second season in Belarus. He led a resurgent defence that performed miles better than they did last season and this was aided by Brendan's solid all around play, including a team high 170 defensive interceptions. 

The 25 year old is a physical beast for this level of football, with a high rating for strength and a very decent amount of pace and acceleration. His technical attributes leave a lot to be desired but he has solid ratings for heading, marking and tackling. As you can see, he is currently wanted by a few clubs including Dinamo Minsk and Sao Bento from his native Brazil. Hopefully we will be able to retain him and he'll be back leading the defence next season. 

3) Midfield Player of the Year: Yuriy Kovalev (RM) - 25 matches, 6 goals, 10 assists, 52 key passes, 43 crosses completed, 5 PoM Awards, Ave Rating: 7.57

Purchased from FC Minsk at the start of the season for £16K, Yuriy Kovalev became an absolute revelation on the right wing. The 27 year old helped transform our attacking prowess as he scored six goals, assisted on another 10 and played a team-high 52 key passes. He is equally adept at playing on both wings and easily proved to be our signing of the season for this year. 

As you can see, his attributes are very well rounded. As with most of my signings, he is a bit of a physical specimen, with high levels for strength, pace and acceleration. What sets him apart from everyone else though is his decent ratings for technical skills, including high ratings for crossing, dribbling and finishing. At his age, he is not likely to improve anymore but there's no reason he cannot continue to be a stalwart in this side for a few more years to come. 

4) Attacking Player of the Year: Rolando Rivas (ST) - 22 matches, 19 goals, 3 assists, 25 key passes, 2.13 dribbles/game, 4 PoM Awards, Ave Rating: 7.49

This guy is quickly becoming my favourite player. Rolando Rivas, who barely figured at the start of the season, quickly became more and more involved after a string of brilliant performances off the bench. The Saint-Martin international netted 19 times in just 22 appearances , not a bad effort for an 18 year old in a foreign league. We signed Rivas on a free transfer at the start of the year from Seattle Sounders Academy in America and he helped cover the loss of Alex Ajayi with ease. 

I continued the theme of looking for players with good physical traits when signing Rivas. The 18 year old has excellent strength, pace and acceleration for a teenager but there is still plenty of room for growth in terms of his technical attributes. His superb league performances caught the eye of our rivals Shakhter Soligorsk, and they are now currently interested in signing our latest teenage star - something which I am not planning on allowing. 

5) U21 Player of the Year Award: Jean-Baptiste Arcelin (LM) - 25 matches, 4 goals, 13 assists, 41 key passes, 47 crosses, 2.65 dribbles/game, Ave Rating: 7.48

For the second consecutive year, our U21 player of the year award goes to Jean-Baptiste Arcelin, our young Haitian winger. The 19 year old had an excellent season, scoring his first career goals and notching a team-high 13 assists. He impressed with his ability to run at fullbacks as he led the squad with 2.65 dribbles/game and had a team-high 47 crosses completed. This is another player that we signed on a free transfer and considering he is still only being paid £80 per week he is proving to be an absolute steal. 

The most exciting aspect of Arcelin is his ridiculous levels for pace and acceleration, which are phenomenal for this level of competition. His technical attributes are steadily improving and he now has solid ratings for crossing and dribbling. There was some interest in him earlier in the season but that seems to have cooled off and it now looks as though we will be able to retain the young winger. 

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Overall, this has been one of my best seasons ever on FM in terms of performances. We absolutely dominated the domestic league, playing fast, attacking football that our opponents physically were unable to keep up with. We have also qualified for the quarter finals of the domestic cup, opening up another opportunity for some silverware. I love how we are developing youngsters at the club. We did sell Alex Ajayi and Ousmane Niang but we still have Jean-Baptiste Arcelin, Amadou Diallo, Collen Phiri and Kelvin Uzochukwu to go along with new signings Rolando Rivas, Ryan Gatti who both look like they have bright futures at the club. Going back to silverware though...

Our Vysshaya Liga victory means that manager James Yates yet again accumulates some points towards his Hall of Fame score. The Vysshaya Liga is a fairly reputable division and our league title hands us an additional 75 Hall of Fame points, which when coupled with our Persha Liga points from a few seasons ago, means that I now have a grand total of 108 points. 

It turns out that 105 points is a pretty high total for a manager in Belarus and enough to see me enter the Hall of Fame for the nation.

Marek Zub is the most successful foreign manager to have coached in Bealrus, collecting two league titles and a domestic club whilst in charge of Shakhter Soligorsk. Viktor Goncharenko, who currently manages in Russia, is the most successful manager in the nation having guided BATE to a record five league titles. A few more pieces of silverware could easily see us work our way up to 2nd place in this list, which would be a nice achievement.

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Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

[yatesiboi37]

Hi everyone!

My successful season in Belarus last year has seen me attract a number of highly sought after job offers from England. Despite some of these being pretty tempting, I want to at least experience European football with FC Orsha. Given that we also qualified for the quarter finals of the Belarusian domestic cup, I would also like to see that through to some extent and try to add another piece of silverware to collection before thinking of moving on. 

I really hope you have all enjoyed this as a rad so far, it has been a bit of a journey (flicking between domestic and international management) but I hope it has been an interesting one. Before we get back into the preseason updates I would firstly like to welcome you back to FC Orsha. 

Club Background:

Our first ever Vysshaya Liga title victory last season saw another rise in terms of our clubs reputation. We have now reached a 2* rating and still remain at the national level but we have made it into the top five major Belarusian clubs.

The four clubs above us are all pretty established. I think it will be tough, and require a period of sustained success, to break into the top four but still, to have reached where we are now, considering Orsha had never played in the Vysshaya Liga, before me joining is a superb achievement. Indeed, this seasons trophy adds to the Persha Liga title we won a couple of years ago as the only pieces of silverware won in the clubs history. 

Yuriy Kovalev joins us in the clubs list of favoured personnel and, despite leading the most historic season in FC Orsha history, I am still not listed as an icon or legend.  

Facilities:

This is the part of this save where I have been letting myself down. Despite our title winning season last year our finances have not been amazing and therefore the board have been reluctant to improve any of our facilities. Hopefully now, given our Vysshaya Liga champions prize money and a spell in Europe to come, we should be able to afford to improve some aspects of the club. 

I would love to do this before I leave Belarus. It would set up FC Orsha far better for the future if their facilities were up to the standard expected of league champions  and hopefully mean that they do not just crumble when they eventually turn to a CPU controlled side. 

Competitions:

This season sees the first time that we will be participating in more than just the usual two domestic competitions.

The main competition, the Belarusbank Vysshaya Liga, remains pretty much the same as last year but it has fallen five places in the European competition rankings, to 31st. 

It is the highest domestic league found in Belarus, running from March to November, and consists of 16 teams who play each other twice (once home, once away) leading to a total of 30 games per club. The bottom two sides are automatically relegated to the Persha Liga whilst the top team qualify for the Champions League and the teams placing 2nd and 3rd qualify for the Europa League. 

The only registration rule is a limit of 5 foreign players allowed within the first XI. There are no rules dictating the number of U21 or homegrown players that must be used. 

The past five seasons have seen four different sides win the league title. Given the apparent slide of both BATE and Shakhter Soligorsk that seems to be happening, it is easy to imagine a scenario where a fifth different winner emerges this year. Obviously I am expecting to see Orsha's name up there again but I guess you never know...

The second, familiar, competition that we will participate in is the Kubak Belarusi. The countries only domestic cup starts midway through the league season and finishes at the start of the next domestic season - a format I still do not really see the point to. For the first time in this save we have reached the quarter final stage of this competition, with fixture scheduled to be played in March, just before the first league game. 

As some of you may remember, we have been drawn against Belshina, a side who were in our division but were relegated back to the Persha Liga and therefore one that we should be beating comfortably. In the other fixtures, our main title rivals from last year Dinamo Minsk, provide the biggest threat and it is looking like we could meet them in the semi-finals if they manage to come through a tricky tie against our fierce local rivals Vitebsk. BATE Borisov are still in the competition as well and they should not be discounted. 

The third domestic competition that we will participate in is the Superkubak Belarusi. We get to play in this one off game as reward for winning the domestic league title and it is essentially the Belarusian version of the FA Community Shield, with the winner of the domestic league facing off against the winner of the domestic cup. 

We will be taking on Dinamo Brest, a side that we have beaten comfortably the past three times we have played against them. This is a pretty meaningless game in terms of the grander scheme, however I would still like to win it though. It comes with a pretty hefty chunk of prize money, another trophy and hopefully some additional Hall of Fame Points. 

The fourth, and final, competition that we will be participating in is the UEFA Champions League. Due to our low country coefficient, we enter this competition in the First Qualifying Phase, meaning we would need to get through four rounds to reach the group stages, a feat that has only ever been achieved by BATE Borisov. We will get an opportunity to qualify for the UEFA Europa League should  we get knocked out in one of the qualifying rounds. I am not expecting much from our European exploits - since starting this save, no Belarusian side has qualified for any of the European group stages. 

Belarusian Football:

As previously noted, the four most reputable domestic sides in Belarus are BATE, Dinamo Minsk, Shakhter Soligorsk and Dinamo Brest. 

On the international front, Igor Kriushenko remains the national team manager, having held the post since the beginning of my save. The 55 year old has not done much to turn around the fortunes of the nation though. 

Firstly, they were relegated from the UEFA Nations League Division C, after finishing bottom of their group. They managed to somehow win a fixture against Bulgaria but that became their only victory of the calendar year as they lost all other Nations Cup games and multiple friendlies, including games against Malta and Moldova. 

The next big competition for them is World Cup qualifying, for the 2022 tournament due to he held in Australia. 

I mean, other than Italy, that is really not that daunting of a group but I genuinely expect them to finish 5th - likely ahead of only Gibraltar. The squad is getting older and older and there is not much in the way of young talent coming through. I may have to start developing some of my own youngsters more in a bid to help out a national side that seems to be increasingly in decline I mean they are now ranked 142nd in the world, below Sudan, Singapore and Bermuda. 

World Football:

In terms of domestic competitions here is a run down of the league winners from the most reputable European divisions:

• Barclays Premier League: Chelsea
• Liga Santander: Real Madrid (2nd consecutive title)
• Bundesliga: Borussia Dortmund
• Serie A TIM: Napoli
• Ligue 1 Conforma: Monaco (2nd consecutive title)
   
• UEFA Champions League: Manchester United (defeated Manchester City 3-1 - 3rd consecutive Champions League title) 
• UEFA Europa League: Tottenham (defeated Wolfsburg 2-0)

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So that concludes my reintroduction to FC Orsha. I will likely be back soon with a preseason update which will detail some pretty big transfer news! I will also be playing the Fifth Placed Playoff games in the Caribbean Cup with Martinique, which may end up in us qualifying for the CONCACAF Gold Cup!

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

[yatesiboi37]

As well as continuing with FC Orsha for another year I have decided to remain in international management. It does not take too much effort and it has been really fun to experience another sort of challenge. For the time being at least, I would like to welcome you all back to Martinique. 

Team Background:

Martinique is an overseas island territory of France located in the Lesser Antilles, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It is located just above Saint Lucia and Barbados but since it is technically a part of France, Martinique is considered a part of the European Union. Its status as a French territory means that Martinique cannot qualify for the World Cup and they do not hold an official world ranking. 

The senior Martinique national side have been partaking in international fixtures since 1931 but the nations football association was not formed until 1953. The national stadium is the Stade Louis-Achille, which has a pretty impressive capacity of 9,300. The nation has a couple of main rivals, including France itself and two of the other French territories; Guadeloupe and French Guiana. 

Competitions:

As you may remember from last season, the main competition that we are currently participating in is the CFU Caribbean Cup. We have played through the main group stages but unfortunately failed to qualify for the semi finals having lost out to a strong Jamaica side. 

What makes our exit even more annoying is that the other three teams that remain are all easily beatable, I mean we beat Cuba in the earlier rounds anyways. You would have to imagine that Jamaica are favourites here but Haiti have a pretty strong senior side on my save so may have a chance if they can get past a  tough Guadeloupe side. 

Fortunately, our tournament was not over despite our defeat in the third round. We finished as one of the three best third placed sides and therefore entered the Fifth Place Playoff. We play both Aruba and St. Lucia once each, with the group winner heading through to a one-off, two legged playoff against a Central American side for qualification to the CONCACAF Gold Cup. 

These fixtures take place fairly early on in the calendar year. I want to stay at Martinique and at least attempt to qualify for the Gold Cup. If we fail to do so, I might resign and/or look for a different form of international management challenge. 

Martinique Football:

The domestic leagues in Martinique are nothing special with the top flight, the Division d'Honneur, being made up exclusively of semi-professional teams. Despite that, a number of the current squad still player their club football in the country with the majority coming from the top two sides, Club Franciscan and, the superbly named, Golden Lion. 

In terms of international performances we had a fairly good year, losing just the one competitive game. Unfortunately, it is difficult to judge exactly how much we have improved since we have no World Ranking data to analyse our performance. They have only qualified for the CONCACAF Gold Cup five times in their history, with their best performance coming back in 2002 when they amazingly reached the quart finals.

The Squad:

Although the squad varies every now and then in terms of personnel what with injury setbacks and club performances it is, for the most pat, the same collection of players. 

The most capped player in the history of Martinique is defensive midfielder Daniel Herelle who has a record 81 caps. He is definitely nearing the end of his international career though as his attributes are seemingly on the decline. Fellow midfielders Stephane Abaul and Karl Vitulin both also play their domestic football in Martinique but are both still vital members of the first eleven.

The most capped foreign-based player is Jordy Delem, who currently plays for North Carolina in America, and is equally adept at playing right fullback or in a defensive midfield role. One of the most talented players in the squad is Harry Novillo, an attacker who is currently based the United Arab Emirates. He currently has 25 international goals, just 11 behind the countries all-time record scorer.  

The best player in the squad is Christophe Herelle, a central defender who only agreed to represent our nation last season. He currently plays for Bursaspor in Turkey and he is the clubs most significant player in terms of monetary value. 

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We are scheduled to play Aruba first at home before travelling to St. Lucia for an way game. Although I expect both games to be tricky, I presume we will be earmarked as favourites for both. 

I hope you are all enjoying my time with Martinique. There are a few other international management opportunities around at the moment but I would really like to see if I could get this small Caribbean nation qualified for the Gold Cup!

I'll be back soon with an update on all the preseason goings on at FC Orsha, before we return to Martinique for our Fifth Placed Playoff ties. 

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

[yatesiboi37]

Update 24: Preseason 2021

Club: FC Orsha
Division: Vysshaya Liga

Having rattled through a number of updates recently I have a fairly lengthy one to write now in the form of our preseason actions with FC Orsha. We obviously had an amazing year last time out, being crowned Vysshaya Liga champions in just our second season in the top tier. 

This year will see us continue our campaign in the Kubak Belarusi, having reached the quarter finals during last season. We will also be partaking in European competition for the first time in our history and all these extra fixtures have meant that I felt the need to address the depth of the squad. This update will cover all the transfers, provide a squad overview and look at our main tactic that we will be employing this term. 

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BOARD ROOM:

FC Orsha are still fronted by a general manager named Alexandr Demidovich. Our financial situation has somewhat improved following our league victory and that is reflected in our sufficient budgets for this season:

• Transfer Budget: £70,540
• Wage Budget: £12,460 per week

These numbers are a slight improvement on last year but will still be more than enough to support what I want to do. Our finances have been relatively poor throughout this save, a fact that is not helped by only the top 3 sides in the Vysshaya Liga receiving prize money.

Board Objectives (2021)

Belarusbank Vysshaya Liga - Top Half finish
Kubak Belarusi - Reach the Quarter Final
Superkubak Belarusi - Don't be Outclassed

CLUB STAFF:

Having won the league last season, the board finally decided that I should be allowed to expand the backroom staff to something more befitting of a top division, title winning club. 

We started off by adding a reserve team manager, in the form of Russian Nasyr Tagirov and an U19 boss in the form of Denis Staroverov, both of whom are undertaking their first roles with the club. We signed another new Russian as Dmitriy Sadovnikov becomes our new Head of Youth Development, a decision I made following some rather average youth intakes. 

We signed a new goalkeeping coach, as we were able to lure Sergey Bekish away from Vysshaya Liga rivals Neman Grodno. We added a pair of Belarusian general coaches, Andrey Arkhiptsev and Alexandr Degterev, who have both recently retired as players. We also expanded our U19 coaching staff with a pair of coaches, Sergey Ivanov for Russia and Marko Zivkovic from Serbia. 

TRANSFERS:

(Out)

Just the three players were released this season and all were fairly insignificant. Sergey Voronov was a young central defender who definitely did not progress enough to be considered a long-term project. Mikhail Shibun had some quality but was seriously injury prone last season, appearing in just five games, but more about him later on...

The big release was that of Terence Kethevoama, the 31 year old Central African Republic fullback. The experienced defender had a very successful career with us, playing in 30 matches over the course of the last two seasons, and has already found a new home having recently signed for Neman Grodno in our division. He was deemed surplus to requirements given the emergence of Dmitriy Aliseyko at the rightback position.

The biggest transfer news of my short managerial career happened during this offseason. 

Firstly, we loaned out fullback Collen Phiri. Given the limit of foreign players allowed in the starting eleven, I did not think Phiri would get that much playing time but then, having completed a few deals later in the month, I changed that opinion and the young Zimbabwean was quickly recalled. 

We did sell a young fullback as Kevin Vance left to join Queens Park Rangers in England for a very substantial fee of £76K. The youngster was signed on a free transfer midway through last season and played just three games for the club before moving on. He had a decent amount of potential but did not want to stay and I made a hefty profit on him. 

We then lost Kelvin Uzochukwu, our standout Nigerian keeper. The youngster was sold for a record transfer fee of £100K to Amkar in Russia and leaves following a brilliant two years in Belarus whereby he conceded just 50 goals in 47 appearances. He was named our Defensive Player of the Year two years ago and had been a superbly consistent player throughout his time at the club. 

The final transfer of the window was that of Amadou Diallo. The young Guinean midfielder become the target for a barrage of offers and when Legia Warsaw of Poland offered up a huge club record fee of £215K I simply could not say no. He was solid last season for us, but never really performed to the level his potential suggested he was capable of. In his two seasons with the club he played 40 times, scored three goals and was known best for his tackling ability in the centre of the midfield. 

(In)

This may look like I have been extremely busy but the majority of these signings are depth or youth related purchases.

We again continued our policy of purchasing youngsters with a view to develop them for the first team in the future. We signed three Belarusian youths in the form of central defender Evgeniy Fomin (18), left fullback Artem Boltrushevich (18) and central midfielder Egor Maschenko (19). I highly doubt any of these three will get much in the way of first team action this season, although Boltrushevich looks like a good one for the future. 

We also picked up a few foreign youngsters in the form of two fullbacks; Evans Musonda (18) from Zambian and Jacques Pierre Ronald (19) from Haiti. We also picked up Kingsley Jibrin (18) a central defender from Nigeria and Hafsteinn Helgi Olafsson (18), a forward from Iceland. 

We made a couple of depth signings for the first team squad. Firstly we picked up Roman Babaev (28) a keeper from Granit, who will act as a back-up this season having been number one for his previous team last term. We also signed a pair of wingers in the form of Dmitriy Tamelo (28) and Mikhail Shibun (25), the later of whom returns after we released him at the end of last season. We also signed utility man Alexandr Skshinetskiy (31) from Minsk who's versatility means he is capable of playing in central midfield or all the way across the backline. 

The biggest two signings this year are Brian Shoko (18) and Alexandr Selyava (28). Shoko is a teenage central midfielder from Zimbabwe who will look to replace fellow Africans Amadou Diallo and Ousmane Niang, who have both departed recently. The youngster looks like a superb playmaker and should see plenty of gametime this season. Selyava joins from league rivals Torpedo Zhodino and should get a fair amount of playing time in the centre of midfield. He brings with him a wealth of experience having played 224 times in the Belarusian top flight throughout his career.

THE SQUAD:

Goalkeepers:

Having seen Kelvin Uzochukwu leave during this offseason it meant that we will have a new number one between the sticks this year. That is most likely to be Moussa Coulibaly (21) who was signed on a free transfer a few seasons ago but spent the whole of last year on loan in his native Ivory Coast. He is not as gifted as Uzochuwku just yet but I have high hopes for the youngster. 

He will be backed up by Maxim Bud-Guasim (20) who did a reasonable job last year in limited action. We also picked up the experienced Roman Babaev (28) as a third string option. 

Defenders:

The best fullback we have is Dmitriy Aliseyko (28), who is still the clubs record signing and who had an amazing first year with us last season. Collen Phiri (20) will compete with Alexandr Poznyak (26) for playing time on the left, although I prefer Poznyak as a central defender. We have a number of youngsters with decent potential in the squad at fullback including new signings Evans Musonda (18) and Jacques Pierre Ronald (18) and Cesar Bizama (19), who was here last season playing for our under-19 squad. 

Igor Brondani (26) had a brilliant season last year and has developed into one of the most talented players at the club. Again, he will be primarily partnered by Igor Shumilov (27) in the centre with Poznyak acting as the main backup, although Semen Smunev (25) looked quite good at the end of last year. 

Central Midfielders:

The newly signed Brian Shoko (18) leads the way in terms of our central midfielders. Oleg Patotskiy (29) and Alexandr Kugan (29) are both ageing a little but still have the required talents for this division. New signing Alexandr Selyava (28) also figures to see some playing time in the midfield of the park and young Canadian Ryan Gatti (19) is a defensive minded player with huge potential. 

Wingers:

Our Player of the Year from last season, Yuriy Kovalev (28) will lead the way in terms of wingers. He, along with Jean-Baptiste Arcelin (20) on the left formed one of the best wing duos in the league last year and I am hoping they can both continue their previous form.

We have a few decent back-ups now in the form of Vladislav Zhuk (26), Mikhail Shibun (25) and Dmitriy Tamelo (28). Alexandr Kovalev (18) is one of the best youngsters to have come through our academy in recent years. 

Attackers:

This is the area of the squad whereby we have the least depth. Ignacio Lobo (24), Rolando Rivas (19) and Filipp Ivanov (30) form a pretty solid trio in attack but the rest of the players here are young, underdeveloped and inexperienced. Carlos Mikue (20) is probably the best of the rest, having recently represented Equatorial Guinea at senior international level. 

TACTICS:

We continue with the same tactic that proved so effective last season, a slightly asymmetrical 4-2-2. 

We played much of last season on a control mentality but given that we have lost a few key players I might have to tone this back a bit or slightly adjust some individual instructions. All players yet again have individual position instructions and we will be utilising the following specific team instructions:

• Pass into Space
• Clear Ball to Flanks
• Look for Overlap
• Play Wider
• Run at Defence

Our wingers, on the whole, are quick. In fact, Jean-Baptiste Arcelin is blazingly quick, and I want them to really attack the opposition fullbacks, even more than we did last season. I am hoping this structure and team instruction focus should help. 

RESULTS:

W = 3, D = 0, L =1

Just the four friendly matches this offseason as all the other competitions that we enter this year mean competitive football starts much earlier than usual. 

We lost our first game of the preseason, a home defeat to a very strong Orenburg side from Russia. We then returned to our usual winning ways with three very strong attacking performances, albeit against fairly weak opposition. Our 13 goals in just four fixtures bodes very well for our goal scoring ability this coming season. 

OTHER NEWS:

The massive piece of negative news was a big injury to Jean-Baptiste Arcelin. The young Haitian winger torn a hamstring during the second friendly of the season and is slated to miss a very significant amount of time. He may return at some point during the mid season but this was a massive blow all things considered. 

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So, that rather lengthy update concludes our goings on from this current offseason. We lost a couple of significant players during the transfer window and it therefore remains to be seen as to whether or not we are able to retain our Vysshaya Liga title this coming season. 

We play in the Superkubak Belarusi early on during the season and then the quarter finals of the Kubak Belarusi take place right after. The aim this year will be to add at least one more additional piece of silverware to the cabinet before possibly moving on and finding a new challenge. This season (number 4) was the first one that Sir Alex Ferguson won a trophy in - when his St. Mirren side lifted the Scottish Championship trophy. 

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

Season 4:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 2

[yatesiboi37]

Update 25: January 2021

Team: Martinique
Competition: CFU Caribbean Cup

Juggling both an international job and a domestic job would be almost impossible in real life, especially one with so much travelling between Belarus and Martinique, however I am going it my best shot in this save. 

The international fixtures for this calendar year started very early this season, with our Fifth Place Playoff games for the CFU Caribbean Cup taking place in January.

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As you might remember, we had been drawn in a group with Aruba and St. Lucia, with the winner qualifying for a playoff fixture and the chance to make it into the CONCACAF Gold Cup. 

SQUAD SELECTION:

I named a pretty much unchanged squad for the two Caribbean Cup fixtures however there was one key man missing.

Stephane Abaul missed out having suffered a pretty severe injury at club level. The central midfielder had been influential in the middle of midfield and I am hoping that we do not miss him too dearly. 

CFU Caribbean Cup RESULTS:

Fifth Placed Playoff: vs Aruba (World Ranking = 163rd)

An absolutely excellent start to the group as we completely outclassed an Aruban side who lacked creativity in the final third. 

We took the lead within the first six minutes as Jeremie Porsan-Clemente tucked home from close range following a beautiful swinging cross from Geoffrey Malfleury. We completely dominated the early proceedings and created chances with ease, doubling our advantage on the 20 minute mark following an own goal. The game was over on the half hour mark when Harry Novillo smashed home a beautiful strike from the edge of the area.

We spilt possession pretty evenly but looked far more creative in the final third than our opponents, who really struggled to get through our organised back four. 

Fifth Placed Playoff: vs St. Lucia (World Ranking = 158th)

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... considering our first game we knew that a victory in this second fixture would guarantee us qualification from the group! 

Having defended quite brilliantly against Aruba we did the complete opposite against St. Lucia and made them look like an attacking powerhouse. They took an early lead, after just six minutes, and meant we were up against it right from the off. Young forward Jean-Sylvain Jobello then netted twice in the space of seven minutes to give us the lead and I thought that we would be able to hold on from there. 

That was not the case unfortunately, as St. Lucia netted a penalty just after halftime and then fired themselves into the lead with around 15 minutes left to play. We again created more chances than our opponents but could not find a third goal to even the game up. 

Defeat meant we would have to wait and see what happened in the Aruba - St. Lucia fixture before knowing who would win the group. A draw or victory for the St. Lucians would mean they win the group and qualify! 

PLAYER STATISTICS:

Jean-Sylvain Jobello (8.80) did not appear at all in the first fixture but was one of the only players to turn up in the St. Lucian game as he netted twice and completed 87% of his passes. Geoffrey Malfleury (7.85) had two very good games, creating five chances an averaging an astonishing 8.00 dribbles/game. 

Overall we played pretty well in this two games but I was disappointed with our defensive work in the second game. 

STANDINGS:

Well, well, well... I honestly did not see that coming. 

Aruba defeated St. Lucia by a scoreline of 2-0 in their game meaning we all finished with the same points total but we are crowned group winners courtesy of a superior goal difference. This is a big deal for us and a fantastic achievement because it now means that we have an opportunity to qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. 

So, we get drawn in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Playoff game against Panama. Our central American rivals are ranked 70th in the world and have a squad that is far superior to ours. We play them in a two-legged tie with the aggregate winner gaining qualification to the 2021 Gold Cup. The first leg will be played in Panama and if we can gain anything from that fixture I feel as though we will have a small chance of progressing.

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So that concludes a fairly quick international update but we will be back to action with Martinique in March. I am very pleased with what we have achieved with this small Caribbean nation. We have a squad full of players based in the nation but they have played extremely well to get to this stage whereby we are two games away from qualifying for the Gold Cup. 

I think my next update will likely be another international one and will then be followed up by one detailing the start of the domestic campaign in Belarus. 

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

Season 4:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 2

[yatesiboi37]

Update 26: March 2021

Team: Martinique
Competition: CONCACAF Gold Cup Qualifier

As you may recall, we ended the last international update having emerged victorious (just) from our Fifth Placed Playoff group from the Caribbean Cup. That meant we had a chance at gaining qualification to the CONCACAF Gold Cup. All that stood between us and that achievement was a one off, two-legged, playoff tie with Panama. 

Our opponents were ranked 70th in the World and were going into this tie following a 2-0 victory over a strong Costa Rica side in the World Cup Qualifiers. They have a genuine chance at qualifying for the World Cup as well, they are only three points behind Mexico in the final group stage with just three games to play. 

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SQUAD SELECTION:

A pretty similar squad to what we are used to. 

The three goalkeepers all remain the same, although Xavier Lenogue has recently overtaken Joan Hartock as my preferred number one. There is a regen keeper that I recently found, who is currently playing for Nice U19s in France and looks like a very handy prospect for the future. 

In defence, experienced central defenders Christophe Herelle and Jean-Sylvain Babin lead the way. Patrick Burner and Jordy Delem are both very decent players at the right fullback position, with Delem also being used in the midfield occasionally. 

In midfield we recall my favourite Martinique player Stephane Abaul. The 29 year old has clocked up 75 caps now and returns to the squad following an injury that forced him out last time. He joins attacking winger Harry Novillo in a very experienced midfield. 

Up front we have a pair of young strikers who seem to finally be settling in for their country in the form of Jean-Sylvain Jobello and Jeremie Porsan-Clemente. 

CONCACAF Gold Cup Playoff RESULTS:

Gold Cup Playoff First Leg: vs Panama (World Ranking = 70th)

The first leg was played in Panama, in front of a 25,000 strong crowd. Although a fairly dull game for any neutrals watching, it was one that I was more than happy with.

Our defensive performances have been excellent since I joined and this was the same here. Although our opponents edged possession we limited them to long range shots and a number of half-chances, with just 3 of their 14 goal attempts actually hitting the target. We tried our best to play on the counter but our stronger, quicker opponents were difficult to break down. 

We did have one excellent chance in the first half though when a Harry Novillo cross was poorly headed away but Karl Vitulin shot straight at the keeper from about 12 yards out despite very little in the way of defensive pressure. Still, a pretty good result overall and we travelled back to Martinique knowing that a positive result would see us through.

Gold Cup Playoff Second Leg: vs Panama (World Ranking = 70th)

Yes! Gold Cup here we come!

I genuinely have no idea how we made it through this game... Granted, we defened well in the first leg but here in Martinique we were truly outclassed. Our opponents constantly looked threatening going forwards and after our key defender, Christophe Herelle received a red card, with 30 minutes still left to play, of normal time, I thought there was no way we would hold on. 

Panama had an incredible 26 shots (granted we somehow had a respectable 15) with 14 of those hitting the target as Xavier Lenogue had an absolutely thrilling game in between the sticks. We did manage to get to the end of the 90 though and then somehow lasted out through extra time to force a very undeserved penalty shootout. 

The Martinique boys stayed truly focused; with Jordy Delem, Harry Novillo, captain Jean-Sylvain Babin and substitute Sonhy Sefil all converting their kicks, Panama scored their first three attempts but a smart save from our player of the game, Lenogue, followed by a horror fifth attempt that sailed over the bar, meant that Martinique had somehow won the playoff! 

Two games, zero goals, 1 red card, 64 shots, a penalty shootout and we had done it!

Friendly RESULTS:

W = 1, D = 0, L = 1

Not that anyone really cares but we did play a couple of friendly games after the Playoff victory. 

We started with a really disappointing defeat against a very average Madagascar side at home. We just did not turn up in this one but I suspect the lavish celebrations from the Playoff might still have been affecting many of our players. We did rebound though in the second fixture, as we absolutely tore apart a strong Haiti team away from home, with Jean-Sylvain Jobello netting a second half brace. 

PLAYER STATISTICS:

Jean-Sylvain Jobello (8.10) has only appeared in three of our six games this season but he has been fantastic, scoring four goals. Also impressing have been wingers Geoffrey Malfleury (7.88) and Harry Novillo (7.42), who between them have scored two goals, collected five assists and created 16 chances for their team. It was also great to get Stephane Abaul (7.12) back from injury as he provided a solid presence and bit of experience in the midfield. 

One player managed to score his first ever international goal. Right fullback, Patrick Burner (7.13) netted the final score during the win against Haiti, giving the 24 year old his first Martinique goal in his 28th appearance. 

STANDINGS:

I mean, this is not entirely true, as a little bit of Wikipedia research clearly shows that Martinique have qualified for the Gold Cup before but that sort of data unfortunately is not stored by FM. Still, it is an absolutely brilliant achievement for us and means we will now be competing with some of the big international sides from this region. In fact, we already know who we will be playing against:

I'm left a little bit confused by this draw.

Firstly, lets start off with United States B. Their main senior side will be away playing in the Confederations Cup when the Gold Cup begins so I am assuming they were unable to enter. That being said, they are the host nation of the Gold Cup so I guess they had to enter and therefore their B squad will take part! I mean, either way they are likely to have a far superior side to our own. 

We then get Haiti, who we have met before in a recent friendly and whom also competed at the Caribbean Cup. They are a solid side but one that we have a chance against. 

Finally, we get El Salvador. I know nothing of the El Salvador national team in real life but in my save they are very good. They recently won the Copa Centroamericana, their equivalent of the Caribbean Cup and recently smashed fellow islanders Anguilla 7-0 in a friendly. They seemingly have had a flux of superb regens from somewhere and are led by five very good players aged just 19 or 20. They were knocked out of World Cup Qualification by Jamaica though so maybe we stand a small chance against them? 

These are the other two groups and, to be fair, neither are that much easier than our own. Group B has Jamaica, who are really growing into a good side on this save, and Mexico whereas Group C has three very solid sides in the form of Canada, Honduras and Costa Rica. 

the format for this tournament is that everyone plays teams in their groups once, with the top two sides and the best two third placed teams all qualifying. essentially, after the group stages, just four sides will be lost and then the tournament becomes a simply knockout format starting with quarter final fixtures. 

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We shall be taking a bit of a break now from international action as the Gold Cup is not scheduled to start until July. In the meantime, I will be returning to FC Orsha where we are nearly finished with the first two months of the new season. 

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

Season 4:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 2

[yatesiboi37]

Update 27: March & April 2021

Club: FC Orsha
Division: Vysshaya Liga

Having been focused on international exploits earlier in the calendar year we now switch back to the start of the domestic campaign in Belarus. We are coming off a title winning season in the Vysshaya Liga, a historic one that has seen FC Orsha become one of the top five teams in the nation. 

This season sees us enter European competition for the very first time in our history, as well as continue our journey into the quarter finals of the Kubak Bealrusi, the countries only domestic cup competition and one that we have never won before. We obviously lost a couple of key players this offseason, in the form of goalkeeper Kelvin Uzochukwu and midfielder Amadou Diallo, so it will be interesting to see how we cope with their absences.

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Belarusbank Vysshaya Liga RESULTS:

W = 5, D = 2, L = 0

A pretty solid start to the season as we go unbeaten. 

We started out with a sluggish performance in our season opener at home to Dnepr Mogilev, struggling to a 1-1 draw. We rebounded with a trio of excellent performances, albeit against some of the weaker league opposition. We started off with an emphatic 4-0 victory against Isloch. We then put together a superb away effort against Gorodeya, scoring another four goals. We followed this with a simple victory against newly promoted Smolevichi. We finished April with a trio of away games, firstly beating Torpedo Zhodino, keeping another clean sheet. Our toughest opposition of this span was Shakhter Soligorsk, one of the nations most reputable sides, but we managed to overcome them by a 2-1 scoreline. We finished the month with a 1-1 draw against fierce local rivals Vitebsk, only avoiding defeat thanks to a 93rd minute leveller. 

We managed to continue the rich goalscoring form that we became so prolific with last season, netting 17 times in our seven fixtures. We also played brilliantly at the defensive end , keeping three clean sheets and conceding just four goals. 

Kubak Belarusi RESULTS:

As some of you may recall, we reached the quarter final stage of the Kubak Belarusi during the last domestic season. Thanks to the weird scheduling in Belarus, we did not start playing the quarter final games until this calendar year. 

Quarter Finals First Leg: vs Belshina (Persha Liga)

The quarter finals stage saw us drawn against Belshina, who were in the top division last year but ended up getting relegated. Their current status as a Persha Liga side meant that we were obvious favourites going in. 

An emphatic first half performance saw us comfortably take control of this tie. Ignacio Lobo netted twice and back-up winger Vladislav Zhuk smashed home a vicious left footed strike to give us a sizeable advantage. We failed to add any further goals in the second half but did concede a late consolation that helped our lower league opponents stay in the tie. 

Quarter Finals Second Leg: vs Belshina (Persha Liga)

The second leg saw us adopt a counter attacking philosophy as I was more than satisfied that our defensive structures would be sufficient enough to stifle our Persha Liga opposition. 

We limited Belshina to just nine total shots, although they did hold 57% of the possession. In all honesty, we never really looked like conceding and our Persha Liga opponents only had one single shot on target during the whole contest. Filipp Ivanov did net a late goal meaning we won the match and comfortably progress through the tie and move on to the semifinals. 

Semi Finals First Leg: vs Neman Grodno (Vysshaya Liga)

The semifinals saw us drawn against Neman Grodno, a side who had had a fairly good start to their Vysshaya Liga season, and whom were currently sitting in 7th place. They were a side that we had beaten twice last season, by scoreline of 5-1 and 4-1, so it is safe to say I fancied our chances. 

The first leg was a pretty tight affair as both sides struggled to create chances in the first half. We started the second period much better and opened the scoring when young forward Rolando Rivas headed home from a superb cross. It honestly looked as though that would be how things ended but a frantic final 12 minutes turned the tie around. 

In the 78th minute, Neman Grodno scored, a goal that levelled the game and gave them the advantage in the tie. Amazingly, there was still some more drama to come in this one. In what was easily the most hectic one minute of FM football I have ever experienced, we scored two goals and took a huge lead in the contest. Firstly, winger Yuriy Kovalev tucked home at the far post following a chipped cross from Rivas. Then, from the resulting kickoff, Rivas stole possession and played a sublime through ball to substitute Carlos Mikue. The young Equatorial Guinea international rounded the onrushing keeper and gave us a third goal. 

Semi Finals Second Leg: vs Neman Grodno (Vysshaya Liga)

Another brilliant attacking performance saw us cruise through to the final with a 6-2 aggregate win. An earlier Neman Grodno own goal essentially ended the game early, although a 26th minute strike for the home side age me a few nerves. 

Those were quelled just after the halftime break, as Argentinian forward Ignacio Lobo smashed home from the edge of the box. There was still time for Moussa Abeid to come off the bench and score his first ever professional goal and give us a convincing 3-1 away victory.

The other semi final game saw Torpedo Zhodino take on Dinamo Minsk, with the later side easily being favourites. Their tie was nowhere near as exciting as ours however, with both games resulting in 0-0 draws. Eventually, the contest was decided via a penalty shootout which Torpedo went on to win. 

I would have much preferred to play these guys than Dinamo Minsk, given how good Minsk had been last year and challenged us in the title race. That being said, Torpedo Zhodino knocked us out in the third round of this competition during my first two seasons in Belarus and for a while became a bit of my bogey team. They have been in a bit of a free fall recently though and currently sit 13th in the Vysshaya Liga. We have also beaten them once this year already and I genuinely think we have a brilliant chance at securing another piece of silverware in this one. 

Speaking of winning silverware...

Superkubak Belarusi RESULT:

Final: vs Dinamo Brest (Vysshaya Liga)

This game is the Belarusian equivalent of the Community Shield in England, with last seasons Vysshaya Liga winner (us) taking on the previous Kubak Belarusi winner (Dinamo Brest). 

This one off fixture, played in front of a fairly sparse crowd of just over 6,000 fans saw us create chances at will and romp to a 4-1 victory. We got off to an absolute flyer when winger Yuriy Kovalev tucked home a close range finish after just two minutes but went into the break on level terms after our opponents equalised just after the half hour mark. 

The second half saw us quickly restore our lead as Vladislav Zhuk, filling in for the injured Jean-Baptiste Arcelin, smashed home from about ten yards out. Our star forward, Ignacio Lobo, then struck two goals in eight minutes towards the end of the match to ensure that we finished with a scoreline that was befitting of our performance, one where we had 20 total shots. 

The best thing about this victory was that we add another piece of silverware to our ever-growing collection and gives James Yates another career achievement as he attempts to chase down Sir Alex ferguson in the Hall of Fame. 

PLAYER STATISTICS:

Our unbeaten start to the league season has been the result of a number of excellent individual performances. Currently, we have 15 players who hold a rating of at least 7.0. 

The star man thus far has been young Saint-Martin forward Rolando Rivas (8.20). The teenage striker has been simply superb, scoring seven goals and providing a further seven assists in his seven league games this year. His 10 chances created are the most in the entire squad and his three Player of the Match Awards are also tied for the lead. 

Our defensive performances have improved every season that I have been at the club and it finally feels like the back four are on the same page. Dmitriy Aliseyko (7.52) has been excellent at the right fullback position, not only on the defensive end but as an attacking presence. He has three assists, 16 key passes and a team high 18 crosses connected. We also seem to have found a stalwart at the left fullback position with Zimbabwean Collen Phiri (7.43) playing very well, averaging 3.21 tackles/game. The two central defenders Igor Shumilov (7.21) and Igor Brondani (7.17) have also both been very solid, whilst back-up defender Alexandr Poznyak (7.10) has been a reliable rotation option. In goal we have not missed Kelvin Uzochukwu, with Ivorian stopper Moussa Coulibaly (7.07) proving to be equally as effective. 

Our midfield play has been the most surprising aspect of our performances this year. When we lost Jean-Baptiste Arcelin during the preseason I genuinely thought our wide play would take a massive step back. Amazingly though, Vladislav Zhuk (7.78) has stepped up and played excellently. The right winger leads the team with 19 key passes whilst collecting five assists and chipping in with a pair of goals. His 3.84 dribbles/game are excellent and he is constantly willing to take on opposition fullbacks, exactly what I require in my tactical system. On the other the wing, Yuriy Kovalev (7.40) and Mikhail Shibun (7.38) have both been effective, with Kovalev playing 16 key passes in his eight appearances. In the centre, two new starters have emerged in the form of young Canadian Ryan Gatti (7.18) and new signing Alexandr Selyava (7.21), with the late playing in a ball winning role, averaging 5.35 tackles/game. 

In attack, Rivas has obviously been superb but Ignacio Lobo (7.43) leads the way in terms of goals scored, netting eight times in his nine appearances. Filipp Ivanov (7.02) has also managed to score five goals from his attacking midfield position, whilst youngster Carlos Mikue (6.98) has impressed in his rotational role. 

LEAGUE TABLE:

Despite going unbeaten through our first seven games we still are two points off the top spot and actually find ourselves in 3rd place. The current league leaders are Dinamo Brest, the side that we defeated comfortably in the Superkubak Belarusi at the start of the year, but they are tied with a resurgent BATE Borisov side.

The big news is the fall of Dinamo Minsk, the side who challenged us for the title last year currently find themselves in 6th and then there is Shakhter Soligorsk who are having an appalling start to the year by their standards, having only collect four points from their seven games. At the other end, the two newly promoted sides Lida and Smolevichi are both finding life very tough and it looks as though they are both favourites to be relegated. 

Our goal difference of +13 is the best in the division and our four goals conceded give us the joint best defensive record, alongside BATE. 

OTHER NEWS:

We lost Yuriy Kovalev for a few games during this span but this simply provided more opportunities for the likes of Mikhail Shibun and Vladislav Zhuk, both of whom have thrived. It will be really interesting to see if I can fit these three wingers and Jean-Baptiste Arcelin into my plans when all four are healthy. 

I had not really realised that this had occurred but it turns out that we are on a mammoth unbeaten run that stems all the way back to last April. Our current unbeaten run stands at 40 games in all competitions and 33 in the Vysshaya Liga, both of which are records. I am not sure how long this run will last for but it is still pretty pleasing to be a part of nevertheless. 

Our improved finances mean that the board have been a bit more accepting of my requests lately. Firstly I managed to complete my first ever Continental coaching badge, setting me up for my next management job hopefully. In addition, the clubs director decided to allow a youth recruitment improvement which should hopefully help to enhance our youth intakes, which have thus far been underwhelming  

FC Orsha's trophy cabinet was entirely bare when I joined three seasons ago but now I am one game away from winning every domestic trophy that Belarus has to offer. The Superkubak Belarusi is obviously not a superbly reputable trophy but it still adds some much needed Hall of Fame Points to my total and I am slowly climbing up the rankings:

I am now up to 5th in Belarus, with a total score of 154 points, meaning the Superkubak Belarusi was worth a fairly impressive 46 points. A win in the upcoming Kubak Belarusi final could genuinely see me enter the top three managers ever in Belarus. The leader, Viktor Goncharenko, won the top league title with BATE Borisov on five occasions and therefore will be very difficult to catch unless I plan on sticking in Belarus for the considerable future. 

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So, a fairly exciting first few months in the domestic season. We have been excellent in the Belarusian cup competitions thus far, winning one trophy and successfully reaching the final in the other. We also extend our massive unbeaten run but it still was not enough to lead the division and we found ourselves in third place trailing Dinamo Brest and a strong looking BATE Borisov side. 

I will be back shortly with another domestic update that will also include the Kubak Belarusi final where we have ended up being drawn against a very beatable opposition in the form of Torpedo Zhodino. 

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

Season 4:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 3

[yatesiboi37]

Update 28: May & June 2021

Club: FC Orsha
Division: Vysshaya Liga

The past update saw us start the domestic season unbeaten but still trailing Dinamo Brest and BATE, as our rivals started their league campaigns in even more convincing fashion than ourselves. We did however add to our trophy collection with victory in the Superkubak Belarusi and then eased into the final of the Kubak Belarusi and therefore giving us the opportunity for more silverware. 

This update will see us take part said final whilst also continuing our league season. We will also be finding out whom we get drawn against in our UEFA Champions League qualifier, whilst there has been another interesting job offer sent my way. 

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Belarusbank Vysshaya Liga RESULTS:

W = 4, D = 2, L = 1

A defeat?! What are those? 

We continued our unbeaten start to the season; firstly with a brilliant away performance against Minsk before a very efficient victory at home to last years title rivals Dinamo Minsk, winning by a 2-0 scoreline thanks to goals from Mikhail Shibun and Igor Shumilov. We then suffered our first competitive defeat since 22nd April 2020, so over a whole calendar year ago, as we slipped to a disappointing defeat against Dinamo Brest. We actually played pretty well but could not find a way through the best organised defensive unit in the division. Our unbeaten run was unfortunately ended there though, spanning 42 games from April 2020 to May 2021 - not a bad effort...

We finished May with a solid pair of home victories against a struggling Neman Grodno side and then in a thriller against a high flying BATE Borisov team. We also had a pair of very disappointing away draws against Slutsk and Lida, two sides who are really struggling. 

Again, our attacking efficiency was excellent as we scored 15 goals in these seven fixtures. We only managed two clean sheets though but, again, did not concede many goals, allowing just six. 

Kubak Belarusi RESULTS:

The most exciting fixture of this league though did not come in the league. We had managed to reach the final of the countries only true domestic cup, the Kubak Belarusi, where we were drawn against Torpedo Zhodino, a side in our division and one that we had lost too twice in this competition in two previous attempts. Also, despite not really impressing in the league, our opponents have had some recent success in the cup competition:

They won the competition back in 2015 and last season they also managed to make the final, losing out to Dinamo Brest, meaning they were likely pretty motivated going in this fixture, as I cannot imagine they would be happy with another runners-up medal this year. 

Final: vs Torpedo Zhodino (Vysshaya Liga)

Unfortunately for our opponents, another runner-up deal was all they could manage. 

In a tightly fought, cagey affair, neither side could keep possession with much success and instead the match was dominated by fairly solid defensive work and a lot of misdirected passes as both sides finished with pass completion percentages of just 71%. In fairness to ourselves, we probably deserved to win the tie in normal time but some poor finishing meant we could not find a way through. We had 16 total shots, nine of which were on target whereas our opponents had 11 shots, with just one testing Moussa Coulibaly in goal. 

In the end the match entered extra-time and an unlikely hero gave us the lead just before the halfway break of the extra period. Young midfielder Artem Skitov, who was on as a substitute, stopped low to plant a diving header into the bottom corner following a bit of a goalmouth scramble. Not a bad time for the 19 year old to score his first ever professional goal. Just two minutes later we ensured there would be no nervy moments in the final 15 minutes when Rolando Rivas robbed a Torpedo defender of possession and planted a neat finish into the bottom corner. 

Vladislav Zhuk was awarded Player of the Match for his tireless work on the right flank. The winger created four chances and played five key passes en route to an 8.3 match rating. 

A win here meant another trophy to add to the clubs' collection and more Hall of Fame points for James Yates, but a bit more on that later! In the meantime there was still more cup football to be played. Just two weeks after the final, the next iteration of the Kubak Belarusi kicked off and we were drawn against FC Chist' for the second time in as many seasons.

First Round: vs FC Chist' (Non-league)

We comfortably beat the non-league side last year and easily repeated that success this time around. Two first half goals from the impressive Vladislav Zhuk ensured no cup upset was on the cards and we easily cruised through to the second round. 

The second round saw us handed a fairly tricky tie this early in the competition as we have to play Isloch from our division. They currently find themselves 14th in the top division so are not having the best of seasons, plus we have beaten them in our past three meetings so we should definitely be favourites to progress. 

PLAYER STATISTICS:

We have managed to maintain our form somewhat and the individual performances of our players have been a joy to behold. We currently have 15 players in the senior squad who hold an average rating of 7.0 or higher. 

The key man continues to be Saint-Martin forward Rolando Rivas (7.79). The young striker has had a phenomenal season and currently has nine goals in just 15 appearances. Where he has really impressed though is in his distribution, collecting a team-high 14 assists, playing 32 key passes and creating 18 chances. He pass completion percentage of 82% is also way higher than his attributes suggest he is capable of. He had been a hugely valuable asset within the squad and one that I am keen to retain despite growing interest from foreign clubs.

Our defensive performances have been solid with starting fullbacks Dmitriy Aliseyko (7.39) and Collen Phiri (7.36) being the stars. Aliseyko has again been a solid attacking presence from his right fullback position, completing 25 crosses whilst it is amazing to think that I was prepared to send Zimbabwean Phiri out on loan at the beginning of the season given how important he has become. Central defenders Igor Shumilov (7.29) and Igor Brondani (7.24) have both been exceptional, with the former having racked up 122 defensive interceptions in just 18 appearances. Moussa Coulibaly (7.06) has performed brilliantly in goal whilst Alexandr Poznyak (7.03) and Semen Smunev (6.93) have proved valuable back-up options. 

In midfield, winger Vladislav Zhuk (7.64) has been phenomenal. The Belarusian impressed at the end of last year and has thrived in his starting role this season enroute to seven assists and a team-high 26 crosses completed. Fellow winger Yuriy Kovalev (7.41) also returned from injury and has been exceptional, playing a team-high 32 key passes thus far. Mikhail Shibun (7.20), having been an injury-prone mess last season, has shown that when fit he is a superb rotational option. Our central midfielders have been solid but not exceptional. The best thus far has been the newly signed Alexandr Selyava (7.15) who averaged a pretty impressive 4.95 tackles/game. Youngsters Ryan Gatti (7.02) and Brian Shoko (6.83) have both been reasonable and have outplayed former stalwarts Oleg Patotskiy (6.59) and Alexandr Kugan (6.73). 

In attack, Ignacio Lobo (7.41) has helped form one of the most disruptive duos in league alongside Rivas. The Argentinian forward, who is now in his third season with the club, has scored a team-high 13 goals in just 16 appearances this year. Elsewhere, Filipp Ivanov (6.93) has been outplayed in the shadow striker role but young Equitorial Guinea international Carlos Mikue (7.31). The 20 year old has scored four times in his 12 games but also played 20 key passes. 

LEAGUE TABLE:

Our defeat to Dinamo Brest has meant that our rivals have opened up a six point lead atop the division as we near the halfway mark. We have managed to climb above BATE and it is starting to look like we are part of a two horse race for the title. That being said, if Brest can continue their recent form then we are going to have no chance of catching them. They did recently lose their first game of the year, against Gomel, so hopefully they start dropping some more points elsewhere. 

Last seasons challengers Dinamo Minsk have seen a slight resurgence and are now 4th but are still a massive 13 points behind the leaders. Shakhter Soligorsk fired their manager and have had a bit of a revival since. They still are currently in 9th though, way off the pace and are definitely starting to look like a side on the decline. 

Amazingly, we have the best defensive record in the division, conceding just 10 goals in our 14 fixtures. In attack though we are second best, having netted 32 times in comparison to the 36 times that Dinamo Brest have. 

OTHER NEWS:

Our Kubak Belarusi win means that I have now won all the possibly trophies in Belarus. We won the lower division title, the Persha Liga, before securing the Vysshaya Liga title, the Superkubak Belarusi and now the Kubabk Belarusi. All this silverware means I am now the second best manager in domestic Belarusian history, having collected an additional 46 points for our cup win, meaning I now have a fairly impressive total of 200 points. 

There is still a long way to go if I want to become the best ever manager in Belarus. That title is currently held by Viktor Goncharenko, who won five Vysshaya Liga's with BATE Borisov. 

Just after I won the domestic cup, I received this rather interesting job offer. Celtic are still dominate in Scotland and recently won the top division title yet again. I saw this as a pretty good opportunity to add some more silverware to my collection so genuinely considered making a move here and attended the interview. 

The board were very keen to prevent my departure though and opened talks to try and encourage me to stay. 

They were unwillingly to develop any of the training facilities but did agree to boosting the junior coaching budget as well as agreeing to formulate a link with an affiliate club, something which I have been trying desperately to do as I need somewhere reliable to develop my up and coming Belarusian youngsters. 

It was eventually decided that I would stay at the club and we agreed to a partnership with Lokomotiv Gomel of the Persha Liga. With the transfer window just around the corner, this should act as a perfect opportunity for some of my youngsters to go out an get some first team football. I am surprised that I am receiving offers from sides like Celtic though but it is nice to know that my progress in Belarus is not going unnoticed. 

The best bit of news from this month was the return from injury of my favourite player, Jean-Baptiste Arcelin. The young winger was brilliant last year but had failed to get going this term following a serious injury in preseason. He has made a couple of substitute appearances thus far and has been rehabilitating in the reserves but that did not stop him from getting called up to the Haitian senior squad and then going on to win his first full international cap during a Caribbean Cup victory against Cuba. 

It is always nice to see my players getting experience at the international level and Arcelin, along with Zimbabwean Collen Phiri, are now two players whom have developed at our club and gone on to represent their respective nations. 

Finally, and possibly most excitingly, is the news that we will be starting our Champions League qualifying campaign very soon. The draw for the First Qualifying Phase was made recently and we were matched up with NK Olimpija Ljubljana, the current Slovenian champions. 

The first leg will be played in Belarus but I honestly have no idea how we will get on. Looking through their squad they look pretty good but not massively superior to ourselves. Eno matter the result, it is exciting to think that we will be playing in European competition for the first time in the clubs history!

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So that concludes my most recent domestic update with FC Orsha. Another piece of silverware means that I am way ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson currently in terms of number of trophies won. There is obviously a very long, long way to go before I get anywhere near surpassing the Scotsman in the Hall of Fame but I am very much enjoying the journey there. the next update from Belarus will see us continue our league challenge, where we are looking more and more likely to lose our title, whilst also competing in European football for the first time ever. 

The next update however will be an international one, as we take Martinique to the CONCACAF Gold Cup. We are in a group with USA, Haiti and El Salvador, so whilst qualification is not likely a strong possibility, it will still be fun to take the small island nation to a big international competition. 

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

Season 4:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1
James Yates - FC Orsha (2 trophies won). Cumulative total: 4

[yatesiboi37]

Update 29: June & July 2021

Team: Martinique
Competition: CONCACAF Gold Cup

So, as some of you may remember, I had successfully managed to guide my Martinique side to qualification for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. We finished top of our Fifth Placed Playoff in the Caribbean Cup and overcome a tough Panama side via a penalty shootout in a qualification playoff to secure our place at the premier international competition or North America, Central American and Caribbean countries. 

This update will start with our pre-tournament friendlies and eventually track our entire Gold Cup tournament. 

The Gold Cup takes place every two years and is almost always hosted by the United States. Caribbean teams do not tend to fair too well at the tournament although Jamaica did finish as runners up in 2015 and 2017. The tournaments most successful nation are Mexico, who have won a total of seven trophies. 

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SQUAD SELECTION:

A pretty straightforward squad selection for me. Martinique are not a nation with an abundance of national talent so if the key players are fit I tend to select them. There is a recall for back-up left fullback Axel Thimon who replaces the ageing Gerald Telga. There is also a first call-up for 17 year old goalkeeper Gerald Lepel who recently agreed to represent us over his adopted France. The youngster will act as the third option but has decent potential for the future. 

Elsewhere we are reasonably healthy although right fullback Jordy Delem, forward Jeremie Porsan-Clemente, midfielders Geoffrey Malfleury and Jean-Emmanuel Nedra are all carrying small knocks that should hopefully be healed by the time the Gold Cup gets started. The main disappointing news is that star central defender Christophe Herelle and veteran midfielder Stephane Abaul are both banned for one competitive match, meaning they will miss our tournament opener. 

Friendly RESULTS:

W = 2, D = 0, L = 1

We played a trio of friendlies prior to heading off to the United States, winning two and losing the other. 

We opened with a disappointing defeat to a fairly strong New Zealand side at home before bouncing back with a hard fought away victory against fellow Caribbean islanders Guyana. We then hosted a very weak Fiji side and, although we won, I would have liked to have put more goals past them.

These games did highlight the fragility of our defence when Christophe Herelle does not play, with all five goals conceded coming when he was not on the pitch. At the other end, forward Jean-Sylvain Jobello is become a bit of a favourite of mine and slowly overtaking Jeremie Porsan-Clemente as the nations top front man. Jobello netted three goals in these friendlies and looks sent for the Gold Cup. 

CONCACAF Gold Cup RESULTS:

As you may remember, we were drawn in a group with United States B, Haiti and El Salvador, where we would play all three in that order. The key thing to remember here is that the top two sides qualify for the quarter finals with the best two third placed sides (from three groups) also progressing. Martinique have only made the quart final stage of the Gold Cup once in their history, way back in 2002, and have only qualified for five of the past 15 editions of this tournament, so just being involved is a fantastic achievement. 

Anyways, enough of that, lets get to the action!

CONCACAF Gold Cup Group A: vs United States B (World Ranking = 14th)

This was by no means a full strength United States side. Their main national team is away playing in the Confederations Cup but they still had to enter a squad given that they are hosts I presume. This squad is predominantly filled with youngsters but was still pretty talented in comparison to ourselves.

We actually played pretty well in all honesty. We held onto the ball well but struggled to create chances in the final third. The United States had a high number of shots but most of these were half chances or long-range efforts. They did net a goal early in the first half though, one that proved to be the decider, when their talented regen forward smashed home from close range. 

Our best opportunity fell to substitute Gregory Pastel midway through the second half but the winger failed to hit the target, instead firing over the bar from about twelve yards out. The fact Rosario Latouchent won Player of the Match from his left fullback position shows how well we frustrated and limited our stronger opponents. 

CONCACAF Gold Cup Group A: vs Haiti (World Ranking = 64th)

An absolute thriller against fellow Caribbean nation Haiti. We had beaten this guys comfortably in a friendly game earlier in the season but this matchup proved to be much more tricky. 

Both sides created chances but the quality of finishing on offer was not of an excellent standard. That being said, Harry Novillo certainly showed his class having failed to standout that much in previous games for his country. The superb winger fired home a fine headed finish in the early stages to give us the advantage but we could not hold on to that lead for very long after we conceded just 11 minutes later. 

The rest of the match saw us fail to hold onto possession as well as we did in our opening fixture. With things looking likely to end all square, which in truth would have been a fair result for both teams, a bit of late drama turned our competition on its head! Novillo again popped up at the far post, outrageously unmarked, and nodded home another headed finish to give us a winner with literally the final kick of the game. 

A vital win given that my aim is to sneak into one of the qualification places. It meant we entered our final fixture knowing that any form of positive result would give us a good chance at progressing...

CONCACAF Gold Cup Group A: vs El Salvador (World Ranking = 85th)

Another thriller and one that we certainly did not deserve to come away from with anything. I knew El Salvador were going to be a tricky opponent, they have a number of quality regens who have recently broken into the senior side and we really struggled to contain them. We only held 39% of the possession but still managed to create a decent amount of chances as we switch to a more counter-attacking focus. 

Amazingly, this fixture was tied at 0-0 at the half, but a frantic 20 second half minutes produced some fine viewing for the neutrals. Just five minutes after the break we conceded a rather tame penalty following a push at a El Salvadorian free kick. Looking at the replays it was hard to judge but after the game the media felt that we had been very harshly done by with regards to the award. Fortunately though we responded brilliantly when Jean-Sylvain Jobello swept home a fine finish from inside the area just after the hour mark. Two minutes later and we miraculously had the lead. Karl Vitulin, who was awarded Player of the Match, pulled his free kick back to the edge of the area when everyone appeared to be expecting a cross. Waiting was central defender Christophe Herelle, who smashed home a vicious first time finish, a fine way to grab his first international goal.  

Unfortunately for us things did not finish there, with El Salvador getting back on level terms just six minutes after we had taken the lead. In the final moments we almost conceded again, with a long-range effort smashing against our crossbar and fortunately falling to safety. 

Despite the frenetic second period, this was definitely the most exciting game and one that maybe meant we would progress to the next round. As always with tournaments such as this, we would also be relying on results to fall in our favour elsewhere...

STANDINGS:

We did it! Our record of one win, one draw and one defeat was enough to see us finish second in the group as United States defeated both other sides in our group and with Haiti beating El Salvador in their head to head. 

That victory was enough for Haiti to also qualify as one of the best third placed sides. Elsewhere there were not too many upsets, fellow Caribbean side Jamaica made it through along with Mexico from their group whilst the trio of Canada, Costa Rica and Honduras also all made it through. Cuba, who finished above us in the Caribbean Cup suffered a horrendous tournament whilst fellow French territory Guadeloupe also exited after failing to win a game. 

The draw for the quarter finals was made and we received a familiar face...

Jamaica... ugh. 

They knocked us out of the Caribbean Cup earlier in the year and now we face them again here. They are a really strong side on this save, with star winger Leon Bailey leading the way alongside a couple of powerful regens, one of whom is currently at Tottenham. If we were to get through we would end up playing against United States (again) or Honduras. 

CONCACAF Gold Cup RESULTS:

CONCACAF Gold Cup Quarter Final: vs Jamaica (World Ranking = X)

It just was not to be. 

In fairness, we were truly outclassed from the get go and failed to really make an impression on the game, holding just 37% possession overall. We conceded an early penalty, which Xavier Lenogue managed to spectacularly save, giving us a moment where I thought maybe luck was going to be on our side. In reality though, their early chance was merely a sign of things to come. 

Leon Bailey terrorised our defence and the Jamaicans created chances freely, finishing the tie with 21 total shots. They scored twice in the first half and, despite a more attacking focus in the second period, we never even glanced a way back into the fixture. 

A fairly disappointing way to go out, at the hands of our fellow Caribbean islanders yet again, but we had done amazingly well to make it this far. 

STANDINGS:

I obviously decided to keep an eye on the remainder of the tournament and here is how it panned out:

So having defeated us, Jamaica steamrolled a strong United States side before defeating Costa Rica in a well fought final, all the while without conceding a goal in the knockout stages. The Jamaican squad on this save is seriously good and is only going to get better with a couple of very talented regens on the rise. 

Elsewhere the big shock was Mexico losing in the quarter finals, knocked out by the Costa Ricans, who themselves had a very good tournament in reaching the final. The other Caribbean nation Haiti was also defeated by a 2-0 scoreline in the quarter finals like us, losing to Canada.

Unsurprisingly, Jamaica were named as the tournaments overachievers  ad Mexico the underachievers. There was not much in the way of quality on offer for the neutrals, which I guess is highlighted when the 'Best Match' is a 1-1 group game draw. Still do not know how that game was more thrilling than our 2-1 win over Haiti or our frantic 2-2 draw with El Salvador. 

OTHER NEWS:

The Martinique FA were obviously delighted with our tournament and very happy with the role I had played in not only guiding the nation to the Gold Cup but in also reaching the quarter finals stage. With not much in the way of tournament football lined up in the near future for Martinique it seemed like now was a good time to call it quits on the small Caribbean island. 

I did not realise that I had been in charge of Martinique for such a long amount of time, 566 days. Over that period we played 27 matches, winning 17 of them enroute to a brilliant winning percentage of 62%. We finished 5th in CFU Caribbean Cup and gained qualification to the CONCACAF Gold Cup where we reached the quarter finals - tying the nations best ever performance in said competition. 

I am definitely not finished with regards to international management and will be on the lookout for any available jobs in the near future. i would definitely prefer a nation with a world ranking this time, one that has the chance to play in World Cup qualifiers. A country like El Salvador or Haiti would be nice, they both have some good regens coming through and seem to be on the rise overall. 

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That concludes my international dealings for the time being unfortunately. I will be returning to FC Orsha with my next update, which will include UEFA Champions League action and a continued push for a second Vysshaya Liga title. 

In the meantime I hope you have enjoyed my time in Martinique and please leave a comment if you would like to see me take on another international management position.

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

Season 4:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1
James Yates - FC Orsha (2 trophies won). Cumulative total: 4

[yatesiboi37]

Update 30: July 2021

Club: FC Orsha
Division: Vysshaya Liga

So, here is my 30th update from this save. Thanks again to everyone who has read through this so far - I hope it has been as enjoyable to read as it has been to play through. 

This update only spans one in-game month and that is because July 2021 has been extremely busy for FC Orsha, seeing us participate in four different competitions! As you may remember I recently departed Martinique after managing to reach the quarter finals at the CONCACAF Gold Cup and therefore, for the time being at least, I will be solely concentrating on the domestic side in Belarus. 

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TRANSFERS:

Similarly to every season, the month of July sees the Belarusian transfer window open again and I was involved in a fair amount of business. 

(Out)

To begin with I decided to loan out a number of our younger players. The loan moves panned out well for players such as Carlos Mikue and Moussa Coulibaly last season so I thought it might be worth trying it again this year with some others. 

Firstly, we moved a number of players to other sides in our division. Left fullback Evans Musonda and defensive midfielder Artem Skitov both joined Gomel until the end of the year. Moussa Abeid opted for relegation threatened Smolevichi whilst young keeper Maxim Bud-Gusaim linked up with Isloch. We also sent a pair of players to Lokomotiv Gomel, our Persha Liga affiliate, in the form of young winger Oleg Bolotov and right fullback Valeriy Sorochinskiy. Young central defender Evgeniy Fomin also joined a Persha Liga club, as he signed to play for Osipovichi until the end of the season. 

Haitian fullback Jacques Pierre Ronald, Nigerian central defender Kingsley Jibrin and Chilean Cesar Bizama all signed loan deals with clubs in their respective native homelands. 

The final transfer was a big one... as Rolando Rivas, our star young forward was sold to Tom in Russia for a club record fee of £275,000. I did not want to let this guy leave at all but once the interest came in for him he was determined to get out. Firstly he requested a transfer, then he started missing multiple training sessions and unfortunately he had the support of the majority of the squad when doing so. I received a fair few offers and in the end just could not turn down a fee as large as that, especially considering that I had purchased him on a free a couple of seasons ago. 

He may have only remained in Belarus for a season and a half but he had an insane average rating here and scored 24 league goals in just 23 games. His attacking presence will surely be missed but it will be interesting to see how he gets on in Russia. He was one of my favourite players that I have ever had on FM, hailing from Saint-Martin, the youngster was superb and hopefully he will go on to have a successful career. 

(In)

Despite the large number of players going out on loan, we only brought in one player during this window. That player was Stanislav Dragun, a 33 year old central midfielder from title rivals BATE Borisov. We were not really in need of another central player but the minimal fee made this a very attract option. There is no doubt that Dragun is in the twilight years of his career but he brings with him a wealth of experience having racked up 392 career league appearances as well as an additional 58 international caps for his native Belarus. 

Belarusbank Vysshaya Liga RESULTS:

W = 3, D = 2, L = 0

I included one result from August in this update as it helped the league table become a bit more balanced in terms of number of games played. 

Overall, we had a pretty successful month yet again, going undefeated in our five games. We had three home victories, including an important 3-2 win over title challengers BATE Borisov and an emphatic 4-1 victory against a very strong Gomel side. Away from home we were not as efficient, struggling to score enroute to a pair of drawn games against two relegation threatened sides.

14 goals scored in five fixtures is not something I can complain about though and defensively we were fairly solid, conceding just five times. It is getting to the stage of this save where drawn games feel like a disappointment and almost as though they are dropped points. 

Kubak Belarusi RESULTS:

Second Round: vs Isloch (Vysshaya Liga)

An absolute classic of a cup tie!

As you may remember we had been drawn against Isloch in the second round of the Kubak Belarusi having defeated a non-league side in the first round and our fellow Vysshaya Liga opponents proved a tough opposition. 

We started the game excellently, with new signing Stanislav Dragun smashing home from the edge of the area to notch a goal on his debut. We created a host of other chances in the first period but could not take advantage with winger Vladislav Zhuk wasting our best opportunity when he fired over from close range. We were made to pay for our poor finishing when Isloch got back into the game following a goal just three minutes into the second period. 

The rest of the half saw both sides cautiously attack, clearly playing with a fear of conceding. However, it looked as though we had won the game in stoppage time. A whipped cross travelled all the way to the far post and unhand was youngster Alexandr Kovalev to tuck home his first professional goal. These celebrations were very short lived though, when inexplicable we conceded just two minutes later as Isloch scored with the final kick of regular time.

Extra time went excellently for us, with former superstar Rolando Rivas heading home from close range to give us an early advantage. Things were made even better when we took a two goal advantage as Dragun netted his second of the game, to cap a wonderful debut for the club, in the closing stages of the first extra time period . There were a few nervy moments late on when Isloch netted their third with just a couple of minutes to play but we managed to hold on and progressed to the next round. 

The third round saw us get drawn against another Vysshaya Liga rival in the form of FC Minsk. Luckily we are again drawn as the home team and should have a good chance at going through. This is obviously the final round of the competition that takes place this calendar year and I would love to make it through to the quarter finals yet again. 

UEFA Champions League RESULTS:

Having won the Vysshaya Liga last season we were awarded the opportunity to play European football. We entered into the first round of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League where we were drawn against reigning Slovenian champions, Olimpija. They have a pretty talented squad, predominantly made up of Slovenian nationals and I knew it was definitely going to be a tough matchup.

First Qualifying Round, First Leg: vs Olimpija (Slovenia, 2.5 star rep)

That being said, we played excellently in the first leg and ended up scoring an astonishing five goals. 

We took an early lead when Filipp Ivanov smashed home a penalty kick and that was the way things remained until the interval, a fairly tame start to the fixture and not really a prediction of things to come. 

The second half was an absolute goal-fest, with both sides seemingly forgetting about the concept of defending. Ignacio Lobo and winger Vladislav Zhuk both added goals just after the break as we took a 3-2 lead. Olimpija equalised for a third time in the game in the 72nd minute but we restored our lead when Mikhail Shibun dispatched our second penalty kick of the match. Then, to make things even better Alexandr Selyava netted a last minute goal to give us a two goal advantage going into the second leg. 

We obviously conceded three away goals but this was a remarkable first European fixture and one that will go down in FC Orsha history. 

First Qualifying Round, Second Leg: vs Olimpija (Slovenia, 2.5 star rep)

Those three away goals conceded in the first leg proved to be costly as we got totally outclassed in Slovenia. Seemingly trying to make amends for the two penalties awarded for us in the first leg, the referee here gave the home side a pair of penalties to even things out. 

Mikhail Shibun did net a goal just after the hour mark to give us some hope but the second Olimpija penalty put the game to bed and gave our opponents a pretty thrilling 7-6 aggregate advantage. 

We obviously crashed out of the Champions League in the very first qualifying round but we get a second stab at European football as we enter into the UEFA Europa League. 

The draw was made and we got a very difficult tie against CFR Cluj of Romania. On paper these guys are a more difficult opposition than the Olimpija side that we lost to in the previous qualifying tournament. They have eight players in their squad valued at over £1million and, unlike our previous opponents, the majority of their squad is made up of foreign players. 

UEFA Europa League RESULTS:

Second Qualifying Round, First Leg: vs CFR Cluj (Romania, 3 star rep)

We ended up playing out a pretty boring first leg at home, somehow managing to claim a clean sheet despite the away side having 17 total shots and hitting the woodwork once. 

We actually did create some chances of our own though but in honesty neither side were able to fashion many clear-cut opportunities, with most chances being limited to long range efforts. Ignacio Lobo came closest for us, as he headed over the bar from inside the six yard box midway through the second half. 

A goalless draw was not the best result but neither was it the worst. We travelled to Romania knowing that a positive result would see us progress...

Second Qualifying Round, Second Leg: vs CFR Cluj (Romania, 3 star rep)

Amazing stuff! We again wee on the back foot for most of this game but somehow we managed to keep another clean sheet and therefore hold CFR Cluj to no goals scored in the entire tie. This was thanks mostly to the play of goalkeeper Moussa Coulibaly, who had a tremendous game in the second leg, making multiple reaction stops to keep our Romanian opponents out. 

Rolando Rivas provided the club with a fitting send off as he scored twice in a fixture that turned out to be one of his last for the club. Mikhail Shibun continued his incredible, and rather unexplainable, run of scoring in Europe as he netted his third goal in his third European appearance. 

Victory meant we progressed to the third round of qualifying where we were finally handed a kind draw as we were matched up with Zalgiris of Lithuania. Having a look through their squad there is no doubt in my mind that we will go into this tie as the clear favourites but, as we have shown ourselves, anything can happen in Europe. 

PLAYER STATISTICS:

Rolando Rivas was having  terrific season before left the club recently. In his place, the key men have been wingers Yuriy Kovalev (7.51) and Vladislav Zhuk (7.50) who between them have scored 11 goals and collected a further 13 assists. Zhuk in particular has been a willing runner when in possession, averaging a team high 3.16 dribbles/game. 

In defence, the main back four have all played excellently. Central defenders Igor Shumilov (7.22) and Igor Brondani (7.17) have both had very strong seasons whilst fullbacks Collen Phiri (7.21) and Dmitriy Aliseyko (7.19) have both been solid, with the later having played a brilliant 31 key passes and connected on 32 of his crosses. Goalkeeper Moussa Coulibaly (7.10) has had a brilliant first season as our full-time number one. Alexandr Poznyak (7.01) has been a solid rotational option as our third central defender and back-up left fullback. 

Outside of our two excellent wingers, our midfielders have been solid if not spectacular. The best central player has been Alexandr Selyava (7.09) who has averaged an impressive 4.52 tackles/game from his ball-winning midfielder role. Young Ryan Gatti (6.94) has played well but Brian Shoko (6.76) has found life a bit difficult in his first year in Belarus. New signing Stanislav Dragun (8.40) has only played two games but excelled in both and the early signs suggest that he could be a brilliant addition. In terms of other wingers, Mikhail Shibun (7.17) has been excellent after being struck by the injury bug for most of last year whilst Jean-Baptiste Arcelin (7.35) is finally back at full fitness following an extended lay-off. 

With the departure of Rivas, we are left a bit short of options at the forward position. Ignacio Lobo (7.47) has obviously has an incredible year enroute to netting 17 times in his 23 appearances. Filipp Ivanov (7.08) has added six goals of his own bt he, alongside young Carlos Mikue (7.26) will likely be relied upon far more heavily then when Rivas was in the side. 

LEAGUE TABLE:

So we drop back down to third position, although we do have a game in hand over the top two, which could see us return to second place. Our league position is somewhat disappointing when you consider that we have only lost one single game all season. Unfortunately our five draws are a few too many at this stage and we will need to convert some of those types of results into victories if we are to stand any chance of retaining our title. 

Dinamo Brest look like they will be tough to catch though and, with just 12 games left to play, they are eight points clear of ourselves. It is looking as though we should securing a top three place, guaranteeing some more European football next season, with our local rivals Vitebsk currently occupying 4th place but a comfortable seven points back. Last seasons challengers Dinamo Minsk have dropped to 6th and have recently just fired their manager - leading me to being linked with the opening. Shakhter Soligorsk are still in deep trouble, languishing down in 11th position. 

At the foot of the table, Smolevichi have endured a torrid time in the top division, collecting just a single point all year. Fellow promoted side Lida have not fared much better and are up against it if they want to avoid the dreaded straight-up, straight-down curse that seems to haunt FM.

OTHER NEWS:

Not much in the way of other news this month. The main bit of concern was another short-term injury to winger Yuriy Kovalev. He is obviously still playing at a very high standard but I could really do without him missing these little spouts of a few weeks every now and then. Luckily for me, Vladislav Zhuk has been absolutely superb when Kovalev and or Jean-Baptiste Arcelin have been injured, making winger a very strong position within the squad. 

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So that concludes a rather lengthy update that has seen us compete in two domestic and two European competitions within a single month of football. It is looking increasingly unlikely that we will be able to retain our Vysshaya Liga crown unfortunately but we still are alive in the Kubak Belarusi and have European football to play. 

The loss of Rivas is obviously a massive one and it will be really interesting to see how we cope with out him and his attacking prowess. Check back soon for another FC Orsha update!

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

Season 4:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1
James Yates - FC Orsha (2 trophies won). Cumulative total: 4

[kidthekid]

Good progress so far.The Europa league money should help you immensely. There's still time to catch up in the league though, so everything is still in play!!

[yatesiboi37]

13 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Good progress so far.The Europa league money should help you immensely. There's still time to catch up in the league though, so everything is still in play!!

Oh definitely, our European games are bringing in some much needed funds! Hopefully I'll be able to use it to purchase some upgrades, which the club is in dire need of. 

Plenty of time left in the league but Dinamo Brest look really unlikely to slip up!

[yatesiboi37]

Update 31: August 2021

Club: FC Orsha
Division: Vysshaya Liga

Once again, this update will only span a single in-game month, predominantly due to the number of competitions we are currently competing in. As you might remember, we not only had league football to contend with but we also took part in the Kubak Belarusi as well as European qualifiers. We failed to progress in the first round of the Champions League but had a bit more success in the Europa League, beating a very strong CFR Cluj side to progress into the third round. 

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Before we get stuck into the European fixtures though, we will have a look at the domestic side of our competitive play. 

Belarusbank Vysshaya Liga RESULTS:

W = 1, D = 1, L = 1

Just the three league fixtures in August as we had a lot of games rearranged due to all our other commitments. 

All in all, this was a fairly disappointing run of results. We started off pretty well, cruising to a comfortable home victory against Torpedo Zhodino thanks to goals from Ignacio Lobo, Yuriy Kovalev and new signing Stanislav Dragun. Our next fixture saw us fall to a very disappointing defeat away to a poor Isloch team. We created a number of chances but just could not find a way through and suffered a damaging loss. The final league game of the month saw us battle to a 2-2 draw at home to a strong, yet underperforming, Shakhter Soligorsk side. 

Our inability to keep a clean sheet cost us dearly during this three game stretch as we ended up conceding four times. We were again prolific in front of goal bar the blip against Isloch 

Kubak Belarusi RESULTS:

As you may remember we played out a thrilling second round Kubak Belarusi tie in the last update, ironically, against Isloch. Having won that game we were then drawn against another Vysshaya Liga side, FC Minsk, in the third round. Victory in this game would see us through to the quarter finals stage for the second consecutive season. 

Third Round: vs FC Minsk (Vysshaya Liga)

And win we did!

Very comfortably in the end. Yuriy Kovalev scored in the first half and then the resurgent Oleg Patotskiy smashed home a second just after the break to put the game to bed. FC Minsk then were reduced to 10 men following a horror challenge from one of their forwards. We added a third courtesy of an own goal and cruised through to the next round. 

I had honestly expected a tighter game than this. FC Minsk had been doing rather well in the league, sitting mid table, following some fine recent form. In the end, this was a very routine victory for us as we dominated possession (58%) and limited our opponents to just two shots on target for the entire game. 

As in previous years, the quarter finals of this competition take place during the next calendar year, so if I am to participate in this tie I will have to commit to staying in Belarus beyond this season. 

If I choose to stick around, I will be facing a rather tricky tie against a very strong BATE Borisov team. The reputable side finished 5th in the league last year, their worst Vysshaya Liga performance since 2005 but they seemingly have found their form again this term and currently find themselves in second place. 

UEFA Europa League RESULTS:

Having been knocked out of the Champions League at the first attempt we then battled to an extremely unlikely aggregate win over Romanina side CFR Cluj in the Europa League qualifiers. That victory saw us facing a second round clash with Lithuanian side Zalgiris, a tie that on paper appeared one we would have a real chance in. 

Third Qualifying Round, First Leg: vs Zalgiris (Lithuania, 2 star rep)

The first leg saw us host our Lithuanian opponents and, given that I did not really know what to expect, I fielded a very strong side. This proved to be a wise decision as we easily dismantled the opposition, enroute to six goals and 24 total shots. 

We started off the game at a lighting fast pace with forward Rolando Rivas, who turned out to be playing in his final game for the club, smashing home twice within the first 10 minutes. Things got even better for us midway through the first period when Jean-Baptiste Arcelin tapped home at the far post and then Brian Shoko cracked home a 30 yard screamer, to give him his first professional goal and one that surely will win the clubs' Goal of the Season award. Arcelin netted a fifth just before the interval, heading home at the near post before we eased off in the second half. There was still time for club captain Filipp Ivanov to side foot home a neat finish from the edge of the area, giving us a 6-0 victory and a very commanding lead in the tie. 

Third Qualifying Round, Second Leg: vs Zalgiris (Lithuania, 2 star rep)

The second leg saw us travel to Lithuania with the knowledge that we would have to perform amazingly badly to suffer an exit from the competition. We fielded a very young side, full of reserve team players and youth products but they proved more than capable of getting the job done, cruising to a 3-0 victory and giving us a huge aggregate victory. 

Firstly Alexandr Poznyak headed home from a corner after just eight minutes into the game, ended any hopes of an unlikely comeback by the Lithuanians. We took things fairly easy for the rest of the game as we kept possession well, holding 59% of the ball. The second period saw us net a further two goals, with Jean-Baptiste Arcelin continuing his fruitful return from injury and youth academy product Alexandr Kovalev netting just his third professional goal.  

The win saw us progress into the Fourth Qualifying Round, a tie where a victory would see us progress into the Europa League group stages, a feat that would be a historic one for our club and for the country of Belarus. Only two domestic sides have ever participated in the group stages of a European competition. BATE Borisov have reached the Champions League groups a couple of times and have also appeared in the Europa League on a number of occasions. The only other side to reach the group stages are Dinamo Minsk, having done so on two separate occasions in the past. 

The draw saw us handed a fairly favourable tie as we were matched up against Qarabag, the reigning champions of Azerbaijan. Having a quick look through their squad it was easy to ascertain that they have some very talented players and I would put them on a similar level to the CFR Cluj team that we defeated in the earlier rounds. 

There are a number of talented full internationals within their squad and they were only recently knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers, losing in the third round to Swedish side Malmo by an aggregate scoreline of 2-0. 

Fourth Qualifying Round, First Leg: vs Qarabag (Azerbaijan, 3 star rep)

The first leg saw us host our Azerbaijani opponents and we got off to an excellent start!

Despite looking like the underdogs on paper, we took the game to our opposition and created a host of chances. Qarabag slightly edged possession, finishing with 52% of the ball but we totally outplayed them in terms of chances created, having 24 total shots in comparison to their eight. 

Ignacio Lobo headed home an early goal following a fine chipped pass from Filipp Ivanov. We then quickly doubled our advantage, with both players switching roles and Lobo squaring for Ivanov to smash home for around 12 yards out. We then conceded from a corner, which put a bit of a dampener on a fine first half performance. We could have allowed Qarabag to get back into the tie after conceding but instead we got back on the front foot and attacked. This approach was rewarded just before the half time break when Ivanov scored his second, heading home a fine cross from Yuriy Kovalev. 

This victory gave us a real chance of reaching the group stages of the Europa League, although the away goal we conceded meant that our Azerbaijani opposition still had a chance going into the away fixture. 

Fourth Qualifying Round, Second Leg: vs Qarabag (Azerbaijan, 3 star rep)

Group stages here we come!

Filipp Ivanov smashed home a sweeping finish from the edge of the area to give us a very early advantage and left the hosts requiring three goals just to send the match to extra time. 

This fixture saw Qarabag dominate in a way I had expected them to in both matches though. We set up to play on the counter but even still our opponents finished the game with 61% possession. They struggled to do much with the ball though and we limited them to just 12 shots, with only three on target. Ivanov was awarded Player of the Match for his fine attacking performance but the play of Igor Brondani and Dmitriy Aliseyko at the back proved to be decisive in leading us to another European victory. 

This win, 4-1 on aggregate, means that we will be be participating in the Europa League group stages this season! You can find the group draw further below in this update. 

PLAYER STATISTICS:

Some very good European performances have seen 17 of our players reach an average rating of 7.0 or higher. 

Again, the play of our wingers has been most impressive, specifically that of Yuriy Kovalev (7.58) and Vladislav Zhuk (7.55). Zhuk has been a magician when it comes to creating goals, connecting with 50 crosses and adding 14 assists this year in his 27 appearances. Kovalev has scored seven goals and created a team-high 23 chances this season. 

In defence, the starting back four have been very efficient. Fullbacks Collen Phiri (7.29) and Dmitriy Aliseyko (7.21) have both played very well, with Zimbabwean Phiri averaging 3.72 tackles/game and Aliseyko playing a brilliant 41 key passes. In the centre, Igor Shumilov (7.23) and Igor Brondani (7.22) have both been very solid, with the former racking up 200 defensive interceptions. Alexandr Poznyak (7.08) has provided a very beneficial rotation option whilst goalkeeper Moussa Coulibaly (7.11) has played excellently all year round. 

The midfield unit has been dominated by the play of our wingers, namely the aforementioned duo of Kovalev and Zhuk. In addition, Haitian left winger Jean-Baptiste Arcelin (7.84) has been superb in his eight games back following injury, scoring four goals and creating 12 total chances. Mikhail Shibun (7.17) has provided a very good rotational option having spent the majority of last season on the injury list. My central players do not seem to grab the highest ratings within our tactic but Alexandr Selyava (7.07), Ryan Gatti (6.92) and Brian Shoko (6.88) have all been reasonably efficient. The standout has been Stanislav Dragun (7.41) who, since joining the club, has scored four goals and is averaging 4.04 tackles/game in his eight appearances. 

Up front, we obviously lost Rolando Rivas but that has not stopped Ignacio Lobo (7.43) from firing on all cylinders. The Argentinian forward has netted 18 times this year in his 26 games as well as providing nine assists for his teammates. Filipp Ivanov (7.32) has surpassed double digit goals for the second consecutive season, having scored 11 times this season, whilst young attacker Carlos Mikue (7.15) has looked good in his rotational role this year. 

LEAGUE TABLE:

The excellent European progress this season has kind of diverted attention from the below par league campaign we are currently enduring. We are still find ourselves in 3rd place, 10 points behind leaders Dinamo Brest with just ten games left to play. We do have a game in hand over our rivals but things are looking ever-increasingly dire with regards to retaining our league title. 

BATE Borisov have had a much improved season following last years disappointment and find themselves in second place. Our fierce local rivals Vitebsk are having a brilliant year and are just five points behind ourselves in 4th. At the other end of the table, Smolevichi have endured a historically ad season and are still yet to win a game all year. Lisa have improved somewhat and are now close to saving themselves from the drop, with Isloch, Slutsk and Dnepr Mogilev getting drawn into an unwanted battle. Shakhter Soligorsk have been unable to turn their year around despite a change in manager and still languish in 10th position. 

OTHER NEWS:

Europa League Draw:

The most exciting part of this update is the fact that we qualified for the UEFA Europa League Group Stages. The draw for this stage was recently completed and we were handed a very tough schedule. 

Ajax, Bordeaux and HNK Rijeka. 

Immediately Ajax standout as the toughest opponent here. The Dutch side have won the Champions League on four occasions in their history and have been crowned Eredivisie champions in three of the last four seasons. They are led by former Chelsea attacker Andre Schurrle, a player who has won 60 caps for his native Germany. Also amongst their squad is former Leicester midfielder Daniel Amartey and South African keeper Itumeleng Khune, who has rocked up an astonishing 122 international appearances. 

Bordeaux have been a very solid side in the French leagues for the past few seasons, finishing 5th in each of the past three campaigns. They also finished runners up in the main French domestic cup, losing out to a very strong Monaco side. They have a four star, continental, rating for reputation but do not have a squad with any real superstars, just lots and lots of solid players. 

The easiest team in this group, if easiest is a word that can be used, is probably HNK Rijeka. The Croatian team finished 4th in their repetitive league last season but are struggling this term, currently hovering just one place above the relegation zone. They are still ahead of us in terms of reputation, holding a 3 star national rating but their squad is predominantly made up of Croatian nationals.

This will be a lot of fun but I genuinely could see us finishing with zero points overall. We take on Ajax in our group stage opener, which should be... interesting. 

Injuries:

Our central midfielders have not been excellent this season but our two best, Alexandr Selyava and Ryan Gatti both succumbed to serious injuries. Selyava's looks very severe and will mean he will miss the rest of the season as a minimum. This knocks will put a lot more pressure on new signing Stanislav Dragun and youngster Brian Shoko. 

Improvements:

Reaching the Europa League Group Stage meant we received a huge financial boost, one that essentially triples our current financial state. As exciting as is it is be competing in this stage of the competition, the most beneficial factor is the huge monetary reward. 

These financial benefits meant I could finally get the board to agree to some facility improvements as they approved upgrades for both the senior and youth training assets. Although these are helpful, we are still some way behind the big clubs in Belarus in terms of facility levels and therefore have a lot of work left to do. 

International News: 

The most international call-ups I have had thus far on this save! This actually crept up to 11 players when Carlos Mikue received a late call-up to the Equatorial Guinea squad. Brian Shoko and Moussa Abeid both received their very first senior call-ups and went on to make their full debuts for their respective nations. Jean-Baptiste Arcelin and Collen Phiri have both become regulars in their national squads nowadays. 

We also had four players called up to the Belarus Under-19 team, which is very exciting and promising for the future. Jacques Pierre Ronald and Evans Musonda, who are both currently out on loan, also received call-ups for their Under-20s teams. 

Job Offers:

I had a couple of job offers from the UK earlier on in this save but this was the first time I had been offered another position in Belarus. 

Dinamo Minsk are a very reputable club, one that challenged us all the way in the title race last season. They are not playing very well this year, currently languishing down in 5th position in the table, but it would probably be easy to turn things around there given their financial power and level of facilities. I turned this down though as I still think there is work to do with FC Orsha. 

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So that concludes another FC Orsha update. I hope you are all looking forward to seeing how our small Belarusian club get on in Europe and I will hopefully be back soon with another update! 

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

Season 4:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1
James Yates - FC Orsha (2 trophies won). Cumulative total: 4

[Dev'o]

Loving this save. Can't wait for the next update!

[yatesiboi37]

14 hours ago, Dev'o said:

Loving this save. Can't wait for the next update!

Thanks Dev'o! Really appreciate the comment. 

I am aware that it takes me a little longer than most to get updates out but it is good that someone is enjoying things so far! Do you prefer the domestic or international side of things? I have been debating whether or not to take on another national team job...

[cerud]

Really enjoying reading this. Just read it all in a single sitting and will be following you from now on. Looking good in Belarus! Any job offers tempting you lately?

[Fola]

Loving this- absolutely brilliant read!

[Dev'o]

19 hours ago, yatesiboi37 said:

Thanks Dev'o! Really appreciate the comment. 

I am aware that it takes me a little longer than most to get updates out but it is good that someone is enjoying things so far! Do you prefer the domestic or international side of things? I have been debating whether or not to take on another national team job...

Honestly, stick it out with the domestic side of things and only when an international job interests you should you take it!

[yatesiboi37]

On 24 January 2018 at 10:02, cerud said:

Really enjoying reading this. Just read it all in a single sitting and will be following you from now on. Looking good in Belarus! Any job offers tempting you lately?

Thanks cerud! 

I bet that was a bit of a mission to read through the whole thing in one sitting?! I have had quite a few offers recently from England/Scotland but I am not overly keen on a move there since Brexit happened. Any country that you would like to see me manage in next?

On 24 January 2018 at 10:38, Fola said:

Loving this- absolutely brilliant read!

Thanks Fola! Really appreciate the comment!

On 24 January 2018 at 12:48, Dev'o said:

Honestly, stick it out with the domestic side of things and only when an international job interests you should you take it!

I think that is the plan for now. The only international jobs currently available are Saudi Arabia and Guadeloupe, neither of which inspire me much. There are a couple of very insecure ones (Chile, Wales and Greece) but they are likely out of my reach at the moment. 

[cerud]

2 hours ago, yatesiboi37 said:

Thanks cerud! 

I bet that was a bit of a mission to read through the whole thing in one sitting?! I have had quite a few offers recently from England/Scotland but I am not overly keen on a move there since Brexit happened. Any country that you would like to see me manage in next?

Are you looking at staying in Europe? Or are the leagues on other continents that interest you?

[yatesiboi37]

16 hours ago, cerud said:

Are you looking at staying in Europe? Or are the leagues on other continents that interest you?

I'm very much undecided, I like managing in the smaller European nations but would maybe like to venture further afield. I have most of the South American leagues loaded up so might fancy trying something there. 

[yatesiboi37]

Update 32: September & October 2021

Club: FC Orsha
Division: Vysshaya Liga

I am finally back with another update - I am struggling to get this written now that I am back at work - but I am slowly getting through this save and it is definitely fun to see all the comments you guys are giving me, so thanks again for those!

As you may remember, the last update saw us sitting in 3rd place in the league, quite a way behind the leaders Dinamo Brest but we miraculously managed to qualify for the Europa League, where we were drawn in a group alongside Bordeaux, Ajax and Rijeka. This update will cover a two month in-game span and will see us get through plenty of domestic league games and tackle the opening three fixtures of Europe!

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Belarusbank Vysshaya Liga RESULTS:

W = 7, D = 1, L = 0

We had a pretty busy two months in terms of league fixtures, playing eight games in total. Having struggled to find a consistent domestic form for most of the season, drawing far too many games, we came away with a very impressive seven victories. 

We kicked off September with a convincing 4-1 win over our fierce local rivals Vitebsk, in a game where we again had four different scorers. We then made life very difficult for ourselves against bottom placed Smolevichi, coming back from two goals down to record a closely fought victory. We then had a similarly thrilling game against a strong Dinamo Minsk but came away with another victory following a last minute Stanislav Dragun winner. We followed this with our only slip-up of the moth, only managing a 2-2 tie against Minsk. 

We then had a superb, important, victory over title rivals Dinamo Brest with youth academy teenager Alexandr Kovalev netting an 85th minute winner. That result seemingly got us focused and we finished October with a pair of 3-0 victories, including a brilliant away win at BATE Borisov. 

We were outrageously good in front of goal during this stretch, netting 26 times in just eight fixtures and scoring at least two goals in every game, ensuring the local TV audiences were in treated to some truly exciting football. Defensively we were exposed a little, conceding 11 times and managing just two clean sheets.  

UEFA Europa League RESULTS:

W = 0, D = 0, L = 3

We might have been cruising in the league but we struggled in our first ever European adventures. As you may recall we were drawn in a group with three pretty solid teams and we failed to pick up any points from our first three games, despite giving a relatively good account of ourselves. 

We were totally outclassed by Ajax in our opener but Igor Brondani headed home a late corner to give us our first ever goal in the European group stages. We then travelled to Croatia where we took on Rijeka. We actually played pretty well in this one but just could not find a way through their organised defence, even after they had been reduced to 10 men. 

The biggest heartbreak though came in our final fixture, a home game against Bordeaux. We took the lead in the first period and from then on managed to limit our French opponents to half chances. They pulled a goal back with 15 minutes to play but it really did look like we had done enough to secure our first point but then... heartbreaker...

 

PLAYER STATISTICS:

Our amazing league form has been the product of some fine individual performances. We now have 17 players who hold a rating of at least 7.0. We have also played 48 competitive matches this season, what with all the European games and domestic cup fixtures. 

Ignacio Lobo (7.47) has been leading the way with regards to our attacking onslaught, smashing in 24 goals in his 34 games. The Argentinian forward has also added a further 12 assists to go along with his team-high seven Player of the Match Awards. 

In defence, Brazilian central defender Igor Brondani (7.20) has been a stalwart and he has been able supported by fellow central defenders Igor Shumilov (7.18) and Alexandr Poznyak (7.15). Zimbabwean fullback Collen Phiri (7.18) leads all defenders with 3.73 tackles/game whilst rightback Dmitriy Aliseyko (7.11) has connected on 57 crosses and provided nine assists. Ivorian shot-stopper Moussa Coulibaly (7.10) has appeared in 41 fixtures and has been a regular solid influence in between the sticks. 

Our wingers continue to thrive in the tactical system that we employ. Vladislav Zhuk (7.44) and Yuriy Kovalev (7.42) lead the way, with a combined 14 goals and 22 assists whilst also connecting on over 100 crosses between them. Mikhail Shibun (7.10) has provided a superb rotational option, scoring six goals and collecting three assists whilst academy product Alexandr Kovalev (7.60) has exploded onto the first team scene with three goals and five assists in his 17 appearances. Central midfielder Stanislav Dragun (7.32) continues to show that he was a steal during the midseason transfer window whilst youngsters Ryan Gatti (6.98) and Brian Shoko (6.93) have both played well. Even more impressive has been the play of Oleg Patotskiy (6.99), who endured some appalling form at the start of the year but has bounced back brilliantly following an injury to Alexandr Selyava (7.07). 

In attack, Filipp Ivanov (7.36) has found some excellent goalscoring form and the attacking midfielder now has notched 16 goals in his 34 appearances. Also impressing has been young Equatorial Guinea international Carlos Mikue (7.22), who now has eight goals scored, five assists and a team-high 68 key passes. 

LEAGUE TABLE:

Our excellent domestic form has seen us overtake BATE Borisov and leapfrog them into 2nd place. We still have a game in hand (against 11th placed Gorodeya) over league leaders Dinamo Brest but still trail our rivals by five points. We only have three games left to play so we will essentially need to win out and hope that Dinamo Brest slip up somewhere; with their final two games being against Gomel and Gorodeya, that scenario seems unlikely. 

Elsewhere, Smolevichi are still yet to win a game and are obviously going to be relegated. They will be joined again in the Persha Liga by Lida, who improved as the season went on but still found themselves trailing the rest of the pack by some distance. Shakhter Soligorsk have mounted a mini revival of sorts and have climbed up to 6th, just one place behind 4th placed Vitebsk. 

Our attacking prowess has been amazing this season and our +41 goal difference easily leads the league. We have also scored nine more goals than Dinamo Brest whilst simultaneously conceding three less goals - how are we not top?!

UEFA Europa League STANDINGS:

Obviously we are not doing so well in Europe... 

We are rock bottom of our group and although we do have a mathematical possibility of still being able to qualify, that dream seems very unlikely. Bordeaux have won all of their first three fixtures but surprise package Rijeka are currently above Ajax, although I am not sure how as both sides have the same records but they Croatians have a worse goal difference. 

We still have to travel to France and Holland over the next few months so I could genuinely see us losing all six of our group games. Can we pick up a single European point somewhere along the line? 

OTHER NEWS:

Injuries:

Only the one major injury and it coincided with our dip in defensive form. We lost Belarusian central defender Igor Shumilov to a concussion of the last three weeks of October. He was replaced in the lineup of Alexandr Poznyak, who actually played pretty well himself, but I am still looking forward to getting Shumilov back!

Annual Youth Intake:

October in Belarus sees the annual youth intake occur and, despite our facility upgrades, we still can only manage a fairly average looking group. There are a few players here with some decent potential but their starting levels do not look very impressive. I signed the top four of these guys, along with Maxim Kabachevskiy who I liked the look of a lot more than my scouts did.

The best player in this intake is without a doubt Artem Pinchuk.  

The forward is a local lad from Orsha and has a pretty decent set of starting attributes. He has fairly average physicals but does have a bit of pace and he has good finishing, first touch and technique for a 16 year old. 

I will look to try and develop him into a poacher but his jovial personality is not exactly ideal. 

The other layer I like the look of is Alexandr Baranok, an attacking midfielder. 

He is another who is born and bred in Orsha. The main thing that stands out with this youngster is his pace; 15 is a very high rating already and I have already seen that speed in this league can be killer. He does not have much in the way of scoring ability just yet but he has some solid passing and a decent set of mental skills already. 

He also has a fairly professional personality so I am hoping he can be developed into something useful in the future. 

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That concludes yet another update from Orsha and, with just a few league games left to play, we are winding down to the end of another successful year in Belarus. It is looking very unlikely that I will be able to surpass Dinamo Brest atop the league but you never know, I just have to hope they slip up somewhere in their final two games!

I am also desperate to pick up at least one point in Europe, which would really cap off a historic first year in continental competition. I will hopefully be back soon with the final league update of the season and I hope you guys are all enjoying this story!

Season 1:
Sir Alex Ferguson - East Stirlingshire (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 2:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 1

Season 3:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (0 trophies won). Cumulative total: 0
James Yates - FC Orsha (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 2

Season 4:
Sir Alex Ferguson - St. Mirren (1 trophy won). Cumulative total: 1
James Yates - FC Orsha (2 trophies won). Cumulative total: 4

[cerud]

9 hours ago, yatesiboi37 said:

I'm very much undecided, I like managing in the smaller European nations but would maybe like to venture further afield. I have most of the South American leagues loaded up so might fancy trying something there. 

So no MLS run then  Fair enough. If you have most South American leagues loaded, perhaps helping a Colombian club regain lost glories?