SkiIIs Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 On 02/01/2024 at 10:55, JamLUFC said: Any tips on managing in the MLS? I managed to get the LAFC at the end of October when they finished 4th in one league but 15th in the overall league. I then had a two legged game in the round of a cup which I think is actually the league against LA Galaxy, drew the first leg but lost on penalties, then drew the second leg and won on penalties so needed a third leg which I lost! I don't know whether that was the league or cup or what but I'm out of that, which is fine as preparing for next season was more important. So what counts as winning the league and what's a valid cup to win in the MLS? It all seems to blend into one. That's not even starting on the drafts and contracts! I'm in mid January and already had three drafts so far, my squad is a bit of a mess tbf and I have no idea how to buy other players from MLS teams, and buying foreign players have too many different contracts! I think I'll give it a year in the MLS but I'm not going to be against a move to Mexico next year! i try avoid MLS and head to Mexico instead. I tried once with LA Galaxy but just didnt understand it and found transfer complicated Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiIIs Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 (edited) Season 2039/40 - RB Leipzig Took a bit of a break from the game over the Christmas break but finished my first season with RB before doing so, so the memory is a little sketchy for this update. We started the league off slower than I would have liked, having lost 3 out of the first 8 league games against opposition that we should have won. We also drew with Munich at home in those first 8 games which meant we were always playing catch up to the leaders. We then went 15 games unbeaten and only drawing two of those games to somewhat put us in a title contention with Munich. However the following game was a loss to them which was then followed by 2 losses out of the next 4 games to all but rule us out. We did finish off the campaign well but it was too late by then. I didnt really take the Champions League seriously and hence lost twice to Barca in the round of 16 however we did get an achievement for this challenge this season in the ilk of the DFB Pokal. We were given a dream run having to avoid any of the big teams (im not considering Wolfsburg one of them despite them winning the Bundesliga last season) through the Cup with our biggest challenge being against Paderborn from the second division against my back up team. On the international front, i cant remember if I have updated you all yet but I am now the manager of Spain after their poor showing in the Euros getting knocked out of the second round to Slovakia. Edited January 9 by SkiIIs Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg88 Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 @skills Getting close-ish mate! Jealous of you getting in and getting out of that South African league Hate it every year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiIIs Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 2 hours ago, Gregg88 said: @skills Getting close-ish mate! Jealous of you getting in and getting out of that South African league Hate it every year. been quite lucky to date with the clubs ive joined... although i feel like its a bit of a struggle in Europe tho. Bit of a heads up im not going too well with RB in my second season Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiIIs Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 (edited) Season 2040/41 - RB Leipzig Second season in with RB with only the Bundesliga on my radar, i was pretty confident going into the season which was highlighted by the fact I didnt apply for the Bayern Munich job which became available right before the season. In hindsight I kind of regret that because the team just did not gel together at all. We started off really bad which I attempted to rectify with multiple tactical changes but just couldnt get this team of superstars to perform and control games. We finally made a late charge towards the end of the season but Dortmund were well and truly uncatchable and hence we finished second to them by 12 points. In a repeat of last season, we again won the DFB Pokal which is nothing more than a consolation prize. Really disappointing on how the season went. Mid way through i was exploring other opportunities and even contemplated resigning to start a chain reaction. I even had an interview with Marseille which i was offered the role but the reneged after two delays. Luckily I did as we have the Club World Cup after the season so will play that and stick out for one more season. Edited January 12 by SkiIIs Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 Sporting Lísbon: 2039/40 Review I joined Lisbon on Christmas Day with the side sat in 3rd and very much in with a shout of winning the Portuguese league title. My arrival was exciting for all and I was especially keen to see if we could pick up any silverware and get my reign off to the perfect start. My arrival saw me gifted a £50,000,000 war chest for new arrivals and although initially I didn’t expect to use it, I did indeed end up spending a chunk of it. The biggest arrival was that of one of my former players. I went back to Palmeiras to bring in 20-year old left back Vanderson Costa Silva in a £16,000,000 deal. He’s a really exciting signing though and could go on to be one of the top players in European football over the next few years. The eagle eyed amongst you will see that we finished a fair bit further off the title than we were when I started here. That’s true but in honestly doesn’t tell half of the story. My arrival saw us strong together a superb winning streak that culminating us defeating FC Porto to temporarily climb top of the league. At that stage the wheels came off though. A run of straight defeats and a record of just one win in eight saw us slip way back and although we finished with four straight wins by then it was simply too late. I arrived with the club still in both cups, although that ended pretty quickly. First up we were eliminated disappointingly from the FA Cup before we bounced back to beat FC Porto on penalties just days later to book a League Cup final against Benfica. As you can see it didn’t go to plan, but we did at least show a competitive spirit that bodes well for next season. In the Europa League we made it through to the Quarter Finals before being eliminated by AS Roma. I didn’t care much for this competition anyways and actually used it as an opportunity for fringe players to get some game time. In the end we put together a pretty decent half of a season with me as manager. Granted we didn’t get over the line in any competition but we were at least competitive. We were bang in a title race for three quarters of the season and that was without me really managing to build my own squad. There are some really talented players in this squad and it’s full of youth too. I’m confident that with a strong summer transfer window we can definitely end the clubs trophy drought. A drought that goes back thirteen years at this point. I’m confident but it’s definitely going to be a case of rolling up my sleeves in order to do it. The most disappointing part is that the previous regime have already conducted some summer business and it’s cost a lot of money. Annoyingly it’s on players that I certainly don’t see having a future here with me at the helm. Season Team Position Notes & Achievements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2023/24 Pretoria Callies 5th (hired in 10th place) 2024/25 Pretoria Callies 1st(C) 2025/26 Cape Town City 12th (hired in 11th place) 2026/27 Cape Town City 1st (C) SA Premiership winners 2027/28 Cape Town City 3rd SA Knockout Cup & African Champions League winners 2028/29 Cape Town City 12th (resigned in october) 2030 Ulsan Hyundai 3rd Asian Champions League winners 2031 New York City FC 10th 2032 New York City FC 7th 2033 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield & MLS Eastern Conference winners 2034 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield, MLS Eastern Conference and Champions League winners 2035 - 2036 Palmeiras 4th (hired in 7th) 2037 Palmeiras 4th Sao Paulo State winners 2038 Palmeiras 1st (C) First Division, Sao Paulo State & Copa Libertadores winners 2039 Palmeiras - South American Super Cup & Brazilian Super Cup winners 2039/40 Sporting Lisbon 3rd (hired in 3rd) 2040/41 Sporting Lisbon tbc Challenge Progress Club 3/10 Domestic Leagues (26/27 SA Premiership, 2033 MLS Cup, 2038 Brazilian First Division) 1/10 Domestic Cups (27/28 SA Knockout Cup) 4/5 Continental Championships (27/28 African Champions League, 2031 Asian Champions League, 2034 NA Champions League, 2038 Copa Libertadores) 0/1 Club World Championship International 2/5 Continental Tournaments (2035 Gold Cup, 2036 Copa America) 0/1 World Tournament TOTAL: 10/32 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg88 Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 (edited) Brief Update Still England manager...... Just left Man Utd after winning the Champions League & Club World Cup. Hoping to start that manager merry-go-round! The favourite for the job is the current Bayern manager, so here's to hoping. The annoying thing is that I had some great youth players coming through at Man Utd and I wanted to introduce them into the first team more. Luke Williams being one.....gave him his first team debut against Norwich and he did this.... Challenge progress Update to the Update.... Got the Bayern job after their manager joined Man Utd. Perfect! Edited January 13 by Gregg88 Quick Update 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 Sporting Lisbon FC: 2040/41 Review My first full season in Portugal was all about trying to win silverware and it was an exciting time for everybody associated with Sporting Lisbon. We did some really strong transfer activity in the summer, clearing out some deadwood and bringing in some key players. The sale of right back Miguel Perreira to Barcelona for £50,000,000 would fund the bulk of our activity and we actually ended up making profit. Striker Edwin Casillas would be our most expensive signing, joining from Cruz Azul of Mexico in a £22,000,000 deal. We would score 18 league goals across 33 appearances. This season would end up almost identical to last as we would once again finish in 3rd spot behind FC Porto and Benfica. We would finish almost identically behind and with just one less point than we managed last season. In truth we were pretty good, but simply couldn’t close the gap. The table being a fair reflection on the overall campaign. For the second season in a row we would be defeated in the final of the League Cup. We did well to make it that far but unfortunately just weren’t good enough to win it. In truth we are quite simply behind FC Porto and Benfica in terms of quality in Portuguese football. Thankfully against the odds we would win silverware, defeating FC Porto by a single goal to lift the Portuguese Cup trophy. We were good in the final and after taking an early lead rarely looked like we wouldn’t hold on to it. Our toughest encounter actually came in the semi finals against Benfica. After losing out 1-2 at home in the first leg we produced the best performance of my reign in the second. A 4-1 away victory saw us stroll into the final. I’ve been in charge a season and a half and we have made three cup finals and finished 3rd in the league twice. By no means is that disappointing and I feel proud that we managed to win a trophy this time around. It ended a trophy drought stretching back fourteen years and I’m glad I was the one to do it. I’m not actively going to hunt a route out of the club but winning the league could prove difficult. If an opportunity elsewhere at a club built for winning becomes available then I will take the opportunity to try and move on. If not I’m happy to stay though and at least if I do we would be able to focus solely on the league. We’ve also qualified for the Champions League and although we’re unlikely to go far it gives me an opportunity to manage in it for the first time. Season Team Position Notes & Achievements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2023/24 Pretoria Callies 5th (hired in 10th place) 2024/25 Pretoria Callies 1st(C) 2025/26 Cape Town City 12th (hired in 11th place) 2026/27 Cape Town City 1st (C) SA Premiership winners 2027/28 Cape Town City 3rd SA Knockout Cup & African Champions League winners 2028/29 Cape Town City 12th (resigned in october) 2030 Ulsan Hyundai 3rd Asian Champions League winners 2031 New York City FC 10th 2032 New York City FC 7th 2033 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield & MLS Eastern Conference winners 2034 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield, MLS Eastern Conference and Champions League winners 2035 - 2036 Palmeiras 4th (hired in 7th) 2037 Palmeiras 4th Sao Paulo State winners 2038 Palmeiras 1st (C) First Division, Sao Paulo State & Copa Libertadores winners 2039 Palmeiras - South American Super Cup & Brazilian Super Cup winners 2039/40 Sporting Lisbon 3rd (hired in 3rd) 2040/41 Sporting Lisbon 3rd Portuguese Cup winners 2041/42 Sporting Lison tbc Challenge Progress Club 3/10 Domestic Leagues (26/27 SA Premiership, 2033 MLS Cup, 2038 Brazilian First Division) 2/10 Domestic Cups (27/28 SA Knockout Cup, 2040/41 Portuguese Cup) 4/5 Continental Championships (27/28 African Champions League, 2031 Asian Champions League, 2034 NA Champions League, 2038 Copa Libertadores) 0/1 Club World Championship International 2/5 Continental Tournaments (2035 Gold Cup, 2036 Copa America) 0/1 World Tournament TOTAL: 11/32 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CertFM Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 2030 Season Review After leaving South Africa and finding my new home in Brazil, I picked the team up 10 games through the season, loitering in the relegation places. I had no fear though as this squad was strong and with plenty games in hand, it would be sooner rather than later that the club would be back in the continental places that they belonged. I had a strong start to my campaign in Brazil, keeping the tactic that worked so well in South Africa as we charged up the league table into 4th place as I went on a run of winning 14 of my first 20 games in charge. Unfortunately, the task was too strong this year as we crashed out of the Copa Sudamericana in the Semis, and starting too far behind to really challenge Flamengo. However I will take the positives and will stress that qualification for the Liberatadores was a really positive sign of how far I can take this team. We eventually finished in 4th place, but some strong recruitment in the off-season might be all I need to help claim the title next year. Season Team League Position Notes and Achievements 2023/24 Venda FC South African First Division 2nd Promotion to South African Premiership 2024/25 Venda FC South African Premiership 11th 2025/26 Maritzburg Utd South African Premiership 13th National B Licence 2026/27 Maritzburg Utd South African Premiership 1st South African Premiership Winners, National A Licence 2027/28 Maritzburg Utd South African Premiership 2nd South African KO Cup, Continental B Licence 2028/29 Mamelodi Sundowns South African Premiership 1st Super 8 Cup, KO Cup, SA Premiership, Confederation Cup, Continental A Licence 2029/30 Mamelodi Sundowns South African Premiership 1st Domestic Quadruple, African Super Cup, African Champions League Continental Pro Licence 2030 Corinthians Brazilian National First 4th Division (hired in 17th) Challenge Progress Club 1/10 top domestic leagues: South African Premiership (Maritzburg Utd, 2026/27) 1/10 domestic cups: South Africa KO Cup (Maritzburg Utd, 2027/28) 1/5 club continental championships: African Champions League (Memelodi Sundowns 2029/30) 0/1 club world championship International 0/5 continental tournaments () 0/1 world tournaments () 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gammonds Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 Season 2032 – SEP / Uruguay I ended up staying at SEP for one more season to take another shot at the league and domestic cup. We’d finished 2nd in Brazil and the Libertadores, had on paper one of the best squads in the division, and I thought we had room to improve on last year’s performance just a bit and that should be more than enough to win us the league at least. Here’s the end of season results: Spoiler As you can see, things did not go to plan. For a second consecutive year, we crashed out of the Brazilian Cup early. I can blame a less than favorable draw – it’s unfortunate to have to open against one of the better teams in the competition rather than a patsy, but you’ve got to win those games eventually. Not only did we not, we were embarrassingly thumped in the second leg. Our league results were in fact better than last year’s – team records for both wins and points. INT improved even more. It was still in our hands to win, but we didn’t pull it off. Going into matchday 37, we were tied on points and held the tiebreaker – number of wins. All we had to do was win our 2 remaining matches against bottom half teams. We failed miserably to do so. The Libertadores final was the cherry on top of this unfortunate sundae. Our opponent was my least favorite Brazilian rival INT, who beat us 5-1. Despite all this, the fans were still mostly happy with me, and the board really wanted to keep me. I turned down 3 offers to extend my (expiring) contract during the year, and resigned after the Libertadores final. To sum up my time in Brazil, I could have left after 6 months and a wonderful Libertadores win to largely the same effect. I haven’t won a meaningful trophy in the 2 years since. I still don’t feel like staying was necessarily the *wrong* decision, but it certainly didn’t work as I’d hoped. On the international front, a decent chunk of jobs came open after the summer international window. The most notable was France, 2nd in the world in this little alternate universe. They were not interested in me, but my second choice, Uruguay, was. They’d just finished 3rd in the Copa America, and while clearly not the best of the South American teams are quite decent – ranked 10th or 11th in the world, depending on the month. We were 6th in SA World Cup qualifying when I took over, and 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss were sufficient to take us to 5th with both a bit of a cushion and room to improve a bit more. Getting into the World Cup should be no issue, but winning anything here might be a bit of a challenge. Domestically, I think I’m at a point where I can afford to be a bit picky about my next job. My preference is to head to North America or Asia to chase those continental cups, but we’ll see. I’m not aiming to start my run through the European big 5 yet but won’t rule a trip that way out either. Challenge Progress: (4/32) Spoiler 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Art of Drowning Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Since my last update 2030/31 - Deportivo Guadalajara and Nigeria Finished 2nd in the opening stage, before making it all of the way to the Final only to lose to Monterrey. Then managed to win the closing stage League before making it to the final and losing to Tigres. 2031/32 - Deportivo Guadalajara and Nigeria We had a very large budget so went about rebuilding the side, spending an absolute fortune on some of the best young talent in Mexico. We won the opening stage and the Champions League (Every team bar one was from Mexico) meaning this region is now complete. With Nigeria we were quite a weak squad compared to some of the others, Osimhen never came out of retirement but we still made it all of the way to the Final of the African Cup of Nations. Unfortunately we then lost to Ghana after extra time in the final. I immediately resigned and took over the vacant managerial role at Ivory Coast, they have a much better squad so I'm optimistic we can go one step further and win it with them. 2032 - Corinthians and Ivory Coast Took over with Corinthians midtable in Serie A, didn't have as much money as previous teams and only limited percentage of sales available too but still set about a massive rebuild of the squad as it was pretty old and poor. Signed several new players and promoted some promising young players too. We improved massively and managed to finish in 2nd behind runaway winners Sao Paulo to qualify for the Copa Libertadores. We also made it to the Final of the Copa Sudamerica and continued my recent tradition in finals by losing that one too We've signed more players to prepare for the new season and I think we have a very good squad now, defensive midfield is probably the only position I want to upgrade in, we have 28 year old Andre Santos coming in on a Free midway through the season but they want £15m for him to join now which I'm trying to scrape together but we might have to wait. We've made a 100% start to qualification for the African Cup of Nations so it's looking good there. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreV1313 Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 SEASON 2032 Our second season in MLS begins, in which we face as defending champions after last year's great victory. MLS In the regular season, we are doing much worse than last season. A setback also due to a complicated market due to regulations. We finish in sixth place, six points from the top, in a fairly quiet manner anyway. In the playoffs we literally destroy Philadelphia, whom we beat 5-1. In the semifinals we won on penalties, beating Montreal 6-5 after the 2-2 draw in 120 minutes. It was the extra time that doomed us in the final, being defeated 2-1 by Atlanta United. LEAGUES CUP The Leagues Cup lasted just one game for us, with elimination in the quarter-finals against the Vancouver Whitecaps, who beat us 2-1. CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE In the Champions League, we started off on the right foot, outscoring Atletico San Luis 6-4 in the first round. The same fate befell Santos Laguna, whom we beat 6-4, thanks mainly to the 2-0 win in the first leg. The most difficult match of all is the one in the semifinal, against Monterrey, which we beat only on penalties in the return leg, after a 1-1 double. The US derby against Colorado, finally, was the one that gave us the cup, with a 2-0 win signed by Steven Moon's two goals, a three-goal striker from Saint Louis. US OPEN CUP A less positive fate has the US Open Cup, where. Everywhere we started well, beating Orlando City in a pyrotechnic challenge that ended 5-4. We then narrowly beat Tampa Bay 1-0 and on penalties the LA Galaxy in the quarter-finals. Our dream was shattered in the semifinals, where we were comprehensively beaten 4-1 by Austin FC. CAMPEONES CUP Finally, honourable mention for the Campeones Cup, where we faced Santos Laguna, beating them 2-1. Season Team Position Notes and Achievements 2023/24 Black Leopards 1st Motsepe Foundation Championship winner, promotion to DStv Premiership 2024/25 Supersport United 4th Nedbank Cup winner 2025/26 Supersport United 4th Telkom Knockout Cup, Nedbank Cup and CAF Confederation Cup winner 2026/27 Supersport United 1st DStv Premiership winner 2027/28 Supersport United 2nd CAF Champions League winner 2028/29 Sydney FC 4th/2nd 2029/30 Sydney FC 2nd/1st Australia Cup and Isuzu UTE-A League winner 2030/31(1) Sydney FC 1st/1st Isuzu UTE-A League and ACF Champions League winner 2030/31(2) Inter Miami 1st MLS and Leagues Cup winner 2032 Inter Miami 6th CONCACAF Champions League and Campeones Cup winner Challenge Progress Club 3/10 top domestic leagues (DStv Premiership 2026/27; Isuzu UTE-A League 2029/30; MLS 2030/31) 2/10 domestic cups (Nedbank Cup 2024/25; Australia Cup 2029/30) 3/5 club continental championships (CAF Champions League 2027/28; ACF Champions League 2030/31; 2032 CONCACAF Champions League) 0/1 club world championship International 0/5 continental tournaments () 0/1 world tournaments () 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldManGravz Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 On 13/12/2023 at 11:55, OldManGravz said: Been a while since I posted on here but a lot has gone on! On the club side of things: I managed to avoid relegation in the Black Leopards first season in the DStv Premiership, but I was unceremoniously fired at the end of the 24/25 season for not giving youngsters enough opportunities (I'm calling b**locks on that one). I watched with glee as my turncoat AssMan took over my position before being sacked for poor performance in November. Unfortunately, his replacement kept them up - Hope I don't sound too bitter. After a season out of the domestic game, I got a job at JDR Stars, back in the National First Division, at the beginning of the 26/27 season. I had the team up in 9th place with 5 games to go when an opportunity came up. Royal AM were struggling to survive in the DStv Premiership but had a decent squad and with 5 games to go were only a point below the playoff place and 3 points below survival. I figured worst case, I would go down and have a chance at immediate promotion with a stronger squad and more money to play with. Following a swift interview process I moved across South Africa to my new home and, though I only made the relegation playoff, I managed to keep the club up in the end. Due to the playoffs I only had a week before pre-season began again and, with a short break, my players tired easy in my second season. However, with a full season at the helm and a few moves in the transfer window, I was able to improve the first team and guide the team into tenth position at the end of the 27/28 season (present day). Unfortunately, the board still won't allow me to take my coaching badges at risk of losing me, which is halting my progress on that front as I still only have a National B Licence despite being 5 seasons into the challenge. On the international side: My time with Fiji was going well but I knew I had no real chance at any sort of trophy while I was with them. During the 25/26 season when I was unable to get a domestic role, a job with the Reggae Boyz of Jamaica came available which I threw my hat into the ring for. Jamaica sat 48th in the world rankings when I took over despite a plethora of championship and premiership level talents. After some tinkering with the tactics, I was able to settle on a positive 4231 formation with attacking wingbacks which proved successful. After qualifying from a group which contained Portugal, Paraguay and Iran at the 2026 World Cup, I lost 4-3 in the second round to a star studded Moroccan team in a real humdinger of a game. My performances were able to raise Jamaica's ranking into the mid 20's, where it remains. A fourth place finish in the NA Nations league in March 2027 was followed by a Gold Cup victory later that year, earning me my first trophy which qualifies towards this challenge. We broke the record for goals in the tournament finals as we walked the competition, even beating Curacao 8-0 in the final. Weirdly, the USA, Canada and Mexico all failed to qualify for the Gold Cup, but I won't let that diminish our victory. 2028 has so far been eventful. We managed to improve in the Nations League, narrowly losing to Mexico in the semi finals on penalties after beating them in almost every important metric during the game but finishing 3rd in the tournament after beating Suriname 6-2 in the playoff. World cup qualifiers are about to begin and we sit in the same qualification group as the USA, although thankfully two teams go through. We have also been invited into the Copa America this summer, which is about to start, drawn in a group with Chile, Colombia and Argentina. I'm not holding out much hope. Next steps are to hopefully improve again with Royal AM or move to one of the big teams in this division. As I don't think I will be able to improve the Reggae Boyz much further I'll be on the lookout for a new international team this year also. With the Copa America, European Championship and Oceania Nations Cup all taking place this summer I am hoping for a couple of job openings. #Season by Season: Season Team Position Notes and Achievements 23/24 Black Leopards 1st Promotion to the DStv Premiership. National C Licence achieved 24/25 Black Leopards 14th National B Licence achieved. Became manager of Fiji. Fired after season ended 25/26 Jamaica Left Fiji. Took job as manager of Jamaica. Did not get a club job. Jamaica's highest ever ranking (26th) after second round exit in WC 26/27 JDR Stars 9th Left JDR Stars in April with the team in 9th and 5 games to go (JDR Stars finished 8th) 26/27 Royal AM 15th Joined when 16th in DStv Premiership with 5 games left. Avoided relegation through the playoff league. Won Gold Cup with Jamaica Challenge Progress: Club 0/10 top domestic leagues (Insert nations) 0/10 domestic cups () 0/5 club continental championships () 0/1 club world championship International 1/5 continental tournaments (Jamaica - Gold Cup - 2027) 0/1 world tournaments () I keep forgetting to post updates but this feels like a milestone so I will try to post a bit more often. We will start with the club side of things. When I left off at the end of the 27/28 season, I had just guided Royal AM to tenth in the league. Another few years of adding some real quality to the squad and clearing out dross led me to 5th in the league the following year, and 6th in the 29/30 season. I the 29/30 season we were also beaten finalists in the Super 8 Cup, which is a great achievement for a team our size. The board began letting me study for my coaching badges again, and I achieved the National A Licence during the 28/29 season before completing my course for the Continental C coaching badge during the 29/30 season. I was offered an interview for the Boro job in March 2030 out of the blue, when I never even applied, but they went in another direction and it worked for them as they were promoted at the end of the 30/31 season. Unfortunately, I was unable to complete my Continental B badge before an opportunity came up that I couldn't pass up. The rich, fallen Kaiser Chiefs had an opening and I jumped at the chance to spend big and finally succeed in Africa. I moved into my new digs and set about correcting the wrongs of previous managers, putting together not just a starting XI, but a backroom team which would ensure the Chiefs would get back to being the best team in Africa, with or without me at the helm. To be honest, when I took the job I expected it to last a few months as KC had finished 5th in the league, so I thought they weren't in Europe. However, they had just won the African Champions League so had automatically re-qualified that way. After beating Orlando Pirates in the Be The Coach opener, I drew my first 3 league games, although I did play some of the hardest teams in the League in a baptism of fire for my new role. Supersport Utd proved to be a worthy opponent and pushed me throughout the league, finishing with 73 points, which was the record points haul for a team who did not win the league. I finished with a record of 25 wins, 4 draws, and 1 loss (Curse you, Sundowns!) as I won the league by 6 points from our nearest rival. It was the first time the Kaiser Chiefs had won the title since 2015, although they had finished second a few times. Towards the end of the season, I completed my Continental B badge began coaching for my Continental A Licence. I played Supersport Utd 8 times in all competitions, which is probably the most I have ever played one team in a season in all my years of playing FM. They were one of the 3 draws at the start of my league campaign (I beat them in the reverse fixture later in the season). We also played them over two legs in the semi finals of both the Super 8 and the African Champions League, but more about that later. I beat them in the African Super Cup too, to claim another trophy. However, I was knocked out of the South African Knockout Cup in the first round by them, which was a great disappointment to both the fans and the board. They were beaten by Cape Town Spurs in the next round, who themselves ended up as beaten finalists. In the Nedbank cup, we had a fairly easy run, Beating Golden Arrows, Sekhukhune Utd, Stellenbosch and Casric Stars on the way to the final, where I played my old team the Black Leopards. The Black Leopards have haunted me throughout this game following my unceremonious dismissal a few years in which set me back. I've played them as every domestic team I have managed since and, before taking the Kaiser chiefs role, they have had my number at every turn. Black Leopards were having a good season themselves, finishing 8th, and had just beaten Sundowns in the last round, so I went into the final with a bit of worry. Thankfully, we came out on top to add the first domestic trophy to the challenge board. In the Super 8, we overcame Cape Town Spurs in the quarter final before demolishing Supersport Utd over 2 legs in the semis to reach Sundowns. A routine victory in the final meant we added another cup to our collection. But the big one, the reason I had moved team again, was the Champions league. After demolishing Mogadishu club 16-2 over 2 legs in the preliminary rounds, we sailed through the first round against Ethiopian Coffee over 2 legs. The group stage drew us against CS Sfax from Tunisia, wonderkid factory ASEC Mimosas from the Ivory Coast, and TP Mazembe from DR Congo. Mazembe and Mimosas were both past winners of this competition so this was definitely not going to be an easy group. Thankfully, we came through unbeaten (with the help of a last minute goal or two). We made light work of Morocco's Wydad Casablanca in the quarter finals before coming up against the villain of this season, Supersport Utd, in the semis. A 1-0 loss in the first leg was a real kick in the teeth, and when the second leg arrived I was missing around half of my first team due to international callups. Thankfully, I think Supersport must have also been missing a lot of players as we were able to overcome them quite easy. In the final we played Chabab Riadhi de Bélouizdad over two legs. This was probably one of the easiest ties of the competition considering it was the final and we demolished them to retain the Champions league and to help me leave Africa. For a while, I planned for the next season as it looked like there weren't many good jobs available, but then a role came up which I couldn't ignore. Former Premier League champions who had spent most of their recent years in the second tier. They had just been relegated from the Prem again, were in debt and had an aging squad, but I am hoping I can make a decent fist of it in the Championship to gain promotion again at the first try (the board are happy for this goal to be completed in two years). Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the new manager of.......... International Management: At the timing of my last post, I had just been invited to the Copa America with the Reggae Boyz, but had felt that my time had run it's course. I was in charge when the Copa America happened - We were drawn in a group against Colombia, Chile, and Argentina. Though we didn't make it out of the group, we only lost in our first game against Chile, earning a credible draw against Colombia and even beating Argentina, who have been a shadow of their former selves. We actually had a chance to qualify going into the last game against Argentina but we needed the result in the other game to also go in our favour, which it did not. At the end of the tournament, as expected, jobs opened up, and one which caught my eye in particular. Uruguay were ranked 16th in the world but still boasted players like Araujo, Ugarte, Bentacur and Nunez. Although some of the squad was aging, I took over the reigns and hired a few scouts to identify younger players coming through. I've been at Uruguay three years now and during that time we have changed shape from a defensive 4-3-3, through an attacking 4-3-3 with 3 centre forwards, to our current incarnation which is a 3-4-3 with defensive wingers and three strikers. We made it to the semi finals of the world cup in 2030, being beaten by USA (losing finalists to Italy) before we were also beaten in the 3rd place playoff by Ecuador - At this point, I was still running the 4-3-3 formation and had some older legs in which ran out of steam and were too fatigued by the end. We currently have a great batch of youngsters coming through (one or two of which I am aiming to steal a march on and get them into my Blackburn team) and I am hopeful for the Copa America tournament. We've been testing the 3-4-3 in friendlies and adjusting it slightly and I feel now that we could give anyone a run for their money, which we can hopefully showcase in the world cup qualifiers which begin later this year. Season by Season: Season Team Position Notes and Achievements 23/24 Black Leopards 1st Promotion to the DStv Premiership. National C Licence achieved 24/25 Black Leopards 14th National B Licence achieved. Became manager of Fiji. Fired after season ended 25/26 Jamaica Left Fiji for Jamaica. Did not get a club job. World Cup second round with Jamaica. 26/27 JDR Stars 9th Left JDR Stars in April, with the team in 9th in Motsepe Foundation Championship and 5 games to go (JDR Stars finished 8th) 26/27 Royal AM 15th Joined when 16th in DStv Premiership with 5 games left. Avoided relegation through the playoff league. Won North American Gold Cup with Jamaica 27/28 Royal AM 10th Third in N/A Nations League with Jamaica 28/29 Royal AM 5th Left Jamaica in July 2028. Became manager of Uruguay. National A Licence achieved 29/30 Royal AM 6th Beaten Super 8 finalists. World Cup Semi finals with Uruguay. Continental C licence achieved. Left Royal AM in the Summer for Kaiser Chiefs 30/31 Kaiser Chiefs 1st Won African Super Cup. Won Super 8. Won Champions League. Won League. Won Nedbank Cup. Left to join Blakcburn in Summer Challenge Progress: Club 1/10 top domestic leagues (Kaiser Chiefs - DStv Premiership 2030/31) 1/10 domestic cups (Kaiser Chiefs - Nedbank Cup 2030/31) 1/5 club continental championships (Kaiser Chiefs - African Champions League 2030/31) 0/1 club world championship International 1/5 continental tournaments (Jamaica - Gold Cup 2027) 0/1 world tournaments () 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamLUFC Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 2029 - LAFC / Nigeria This season made me remember why I love FM so much! The MLS started as a bit of a slog - not helped by me forgetting to register centre backs so needing to scrape together a couple of players who had been waivered. We lost to San Diego in the Cup early on and just couldn't muster together any consistency no matter what I did tactically, so much so that I considered taking the Atlanta United job at the end of the regular season but decided against moving as their form was just as patchy. We did make the end of season playoffs finishing in 6th in the Western Conference and 14th in the overall Supporters Shield so I decided to move from the 4231 asymmetric system to a diamond - and whilst I wouldn't say everything clicked we managed to ride our luck perfectly! First up was Houston Dynamo in a best of three where we traded 2-0 home wins, but in the decider away to Houston we won away 3-1 scoring decisive goals in the 84th and 85th minutes. That took us away to FC Dallas who again took the lead but we pulled it back level before scoring a 92nd winner. The Western Conference final though was where the madness really hit for me An insane game where I have no idea how we managed to pull it back, the first time I've ever scored whilst going Very Attacking! Extra time I was just bringing penalty takers on as the game had no highlights until the very last kick where Curtis Jones (who had been dreadful all season) rescued up. That took us into a final where we won away to Montreal 4-3 to take the MLS and getting another league in the bag (I think that's the league anyway!) After that it was the African Cup of Nations with Nigeria, and despite losing our opening game to Cameroon we responded by beating Zambia and Tanzania to qualify in second place. In the knockout stages we got past Algeria and Egypt with relative ease before facing former side Ivory Coast in the semis who we stuffed 4-0. In the final we faced the side who had beat us in our opening game, and much like with LAFC a late goal sealed the win to get my fifth trophy in the bag. So for next steps, the immediate focus is on winning the North American Champions League with LAFC and have North America ticked off by May and then maybe look at ticking off one of the European leagues following that unless a big job comes up in South Africa. I quit the Nigeria post straight after the final, I'm not going to win the World Cup with them so best to get out now with reputation in tact and hope I can pick up either the USA, Mexico, Japan or South Korea jobs after the World Cup. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiIIs Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 (edited) Season 2041/42 - RB Leipzip My third season with RB started off with the World Club Cup in which didnt really coincide with any major international tournament meaning we had a pretty close to full squad to play with. However, I wasnt really confident given we havent really come close to winning the league, nor have we managed to boss the big boys in the champions league either. My confidence levels were on point this time round as even though we won all our group games (we had Utrecht as the only team from Europe in our league) we were frustratingly knocked out of the second round by Palmeiras 2 - 0. I did rotate the squad a little with one eye on the next round but no excuses, the team I put out there should have won. Going into the season proper, I was a little nervous for another season of donuts given our poor showing in the World Club Cup but the season started off really strange with both Dortmund and Munich dropping a heap of points. Dortmund lost 2 of the first 3 (one to us) and Munich had 2 points after 4 games. So it didnt take us long to hit top spot and once we did, we did not relinquish it. Leverkusen kept up with us for a chunk of the season, but they dropped a couple of games and we didnt and thats all she wrote. It had been 10 long years since RB last won the league so it was nice to break that streak. We also won the DFB Pokal again and lost in pens against Tottenham in the Champions League final. So with that I have finally conquered Germany which in my opinion took longer than it should have with this team, but what is done is done. I've set this team up nicely now and they should go on and be competitive for a long while going forward. I will resign and hopefully start a merry go round and hopefully something big opens up in Spain or France. We also have the World Cup up next with Spain. Edited January 19 by SkiIIs 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gammonds Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Season 2033 – LA Galaxy / Uruguay While I waited for the right club opening over the winter, I received a few offers for interviews without expressing any interest in the positions. A couple of international teams similar in stature to my Uruguay team offered me jobs, but as they seemed to have an even harder path to a major trophy I declined. On the club front there were also some interesting openings that didn’t fit my target for the time being. Most notably to me, INT, my tormentor of the past 2 seasons, offered me an interview in March, right before the start of the Brazilian league season. They were still favored to win pretty much everything in Brazil, but I have no real appetite for another of those long seasons and would feel a least a couple of seconds of guilt for moving so swiftly to a former rival. The club opportunity I’d been looking for came in April when the LA Galaxy fired their head coach after a weak start to the MLS season. They were 9th in the conference when I took over, in the last playoff spot and unfortunately already out of the NACL. They’re also among the richest teams in the league and have what should be a better than decent squad. On taking over, my agreed goal with the board was to get the team into the playoffs at a minimum. Spoiler My external view of the squad was promising. When I took over and got into details from the inside, things were less than ideal. The first team lacked mental strength – several key players are inconsistent or don’t handle pressure well. There was also a lack of quality depth, or really much depth at all, that wasn’t apparent from the outside. Those are normally the sort of problems money can solve, but while I had plenty of actual money available, my funny money (cap space and tools) were much more limited. I did take a shot at one of my former SEP defenders for a bit over $20 million, which is a ton of money in the MLS. He ended up turning down the contract I offered him in favor of a 2. Bundesliga side. I ended up only bringing in 3 new players by the end of the summer window – a good CB as third choice with room to improve, a back GK, and a winger I pulled out of my academy. So, the squad I inherited was pretty much what I played the season with. Fortunately for me, it was just about as good as predicted. We weren’t great in the cups as we made midpoint – ish exits in both the US Cup and Leagues Cup. The former was a minor disappointment at worst, the latter was a nice break for some needed rest. Once the team adapted to my system and got out of their tired rut, we did quite well in league. From 9th when I took over, we climbed to 2nd in the Western Conference and Supporter’s Shield by the end of the season. I found it noteworthy that there were no truly outstanding teams – RSL won the Shield with 66 points from 34 games. Our run through the Western Conference playoffs started very well before becoming increasingly nerve wracking. We thumped San Jose across 2 legs. In the semis we opened up a 3 goal lead to Seattle, let them back in the game with goals on either side of the half, and made it look a bit better with one more goal to win 4-2. We played the same way against Salt Lake in the Western Conference Finals – a 2 goal lead in the first 16 minutes, conceded one to make it a game, then conceded a very late equalizer. After a quiet bit of extra time, we won the penalty shootout to get to the cup final. Spoiler The cardiac kids came out one more time in the final. Red Bulls were up 2-0 in the first 30 minutes, but we clawed our way back into the game in the second half with a goal in the 57th minute. An 82nd minute equalizer was followed by an 89th minute winner, and LA Galaxy won the MLS Cup. Spoiler I’m obviously staying with Galaxy next year and chasing the domestic and North American cups. 2 long-serving players with just over 500 appearances for the club will be on the way out over the offseason. Both are highly paid, well past their best, and suffered season ending injuries in the fall. The more noteworthy is the club’s icon, a 34 year old Riqui Puig who can at least leave with credit for his first ever MLS Cup win in his final season. Those 2 will open up quite a bit of budget (real and funny money) space, and an all-important Designated Player spot. About half a dozen of my other players have been attracting a bit of interest, and I expect to sell 1 or 2 of them out of the MLS. I could offload as many as 4 I think before I run into trouble replacing them, but am not planning that much of an overhaul. I will be looking for a few depth options in the drafts coming up regardless. Internationally, Uruguay met expectations by qualifying for the World Cup, now about 6 months out in my save. We finished 4th, which is neither great nor terrible, but also qualified with plenty of room to spare. Most importantly from my perspective I think we’ve demonstrated our ability to compete with the best teams in the world. Brazil is ranked 1st, Argentina 4th, and we collected 2 draws against the former and a win and a loss against the latter over the past 18 months. My current tentative player pool is almost 30 deep as I’ve got some choices to make between a few senior players on their last legs and youngsters on the cusp of their breakout. Spoiler Challenge Progress: (5/32) Spoiler 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiIIs Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 2042 World Cup - Spain My first meaningful tournament with Spain and we head into it ranked as the best nation in the world with the expectation we make it to Wembley Stadium on the last day. With a group consisting of Turkey, China and Ghana, we really shouldnt have any issued getting out of that group and we didnt, winning all three games. In the second round we face Qatar Second Round Spoiler a 7 - 1 demolishing. Next up is Japan Round of 16 (if applicable) Spoiler a 6 goal margin again as we win 6 - 0. Up next we have Belgium Quarter Final (if applicable) Spoiler and we're out. Cruising at 1 - 0 we copped an equaliser in the 89th minute and then copped the only goal in extra time. Very disappointed Semi Final (if applicable) Spoiler Final (if applicable) Spoiler yes i resigned on the spot Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreV1313 Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 (edited) SEASON 2033 We leave the United States in a hurry after the success in the Champions League, going a few, relatively, kilometres away, to Argentina. We take the helm of Atletico Tucuman late in the season, around May, having to revive a good team in great difficulty, even in 25th place. LIGA PROFESIONAL DE FUTBOL The first of the three competitions we look at is the championship, which is divided into the regular season and the second phase, consisting of a first part with a fourteen-team group and a second with a knockout phase. In the regular part we raise the team slightly, climbing six places to nineteenth. In the group stage, we qualified for the knockout phase, finishing third with nine wins and five losses in fourteen matches. In the quarter-finals we won 2-1 against Barracas Central thanks to Watson's double, qualifying for the semi-finals. However, it went badly for us in the semifinals, where we met Banfield, a team that was really too strong for us. It ended 4-1 for our opponents, and so we were eliminated. COPA SUDAMERICANA In the Copa Sudamericana we also arrive in the running, and we do a good job. Our first match, by far, is the first leg of the quarter-final against Santos, where we pass thanks to the return match, where with a clear 3-1 we overcome our opponents after the 0-0 first leg. More difficult is the semi-final clash against another Brazilian team, Botafogo, which we manage to eliminate thanks to a 4-2 first leg victory, despite suffering incredibly in the 1-0 return defeat. In the final, however, our dream was shattered, with the victory, once again, of Banfield, who beat us 4-2. COPA ARGENTINA AXION ENERGY Finally, let's talk about the Copa Argentina, where we once again reached the final. In the seventh round, the first we played, we beat Patronato 3-0. We then beat Nueva Chicago 1-0 in the quarters. We beat Union SF 5-3 in the semifinals. In the final we lost again, but this time not to Banfield but to Gimnasia La Plata, who beat us 3-0. We also took charge of Sweden national team, and qualified to the World Cup. After the tournament in the next season i will make a recap of that, too. Edited January 19 by AndreV1313 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeClarke Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 (edited) Jumping in with this challenge. I've just done a Marine to PL champions but used downloaded tactics throughout and felt like it was easier than it should of been. Starting with Asia/SA divisions and dropped into holiday mode to skip the initial team options. Took over a team in the Indonesian League 2 as the structure looks different to what I'm used to. Board expectation is a mid table position but the budgets are all tight and most squad looks quite poor. Couple of months until my first official fixture so trying to clear some dead wood and will look to bring in some young talent. League requires 8 younger players and my team only has 4 so looks like rectifying that will need to be a priority. Thinking 4-3-3 DM WIDE as my starting point strategically but will see what talent I can bring in and how that affects things. EDIT: Profile picture attached, club agreed to coaching during interview Edited January 20 by MikeClarke Forgot to include image 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg88 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 FC Bayern & England Did someone ask for a clean sweep? Wellll..... That's the Bundesliga & DFB-Pokal ticked off! We are currently £151 million in debt. But I find that issue is evident with any team in Germany really. The income just isn't there! Making a loss every month and the expenditure isn't even that big. The AC Milan and Porto job has just come up, so both have been applied for! Now I have the world cup to try and win. Currently ranked 2nd in the world with England, so I've got a pretty good chance. Hoping whatever happens, I can snap up a job like Brazil or Argentina afterwards. Depends if I win the world cup or not. If i do win it, then that opens up U.S.A, Mexico and the Asian countries. Will the world cup be my 10th challenge trophy? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg88 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 Get In! Challenge Progress 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 Sporting Lisbon: 2041/42 Review My first full season in Portugal brought with it the joys of a domestic cup. I was hoping my second could bring a league title and see me depart the club at the end of the season with the expiration of my contract. In the end we would enjoy a phenomenal season as we lifted a whole host of silverware. First up was the Portuguese Super Cup, where a narrow 1-0 victory over Benfica saw us grab a winners medal. Our form would go from strength to strength as the season wore on. This coming despite the disappointment of exiting the Champions League during the qualifying rounds. We would put that to bed in the Europa League however. More on that later. We would win the league title and we would do so during a sensational campaign. We benefited from the fact both FC Porto and Benfica would suffer various little blips, but in truth we were comfortably the best team in the division. We had a squad full of depth and it would pay off as we juggled domestic and continental competitions. We won the title and that was the number one goal I had for the season. On top of that we breezed our way through to the final of the Portuguese Cup again, beating a second division side in the final to defend our trophy with relative ease. The League Cup wasn’t quite as successful as we made it to the semi finals before being beaten on away goals by FC Porto. Finally the Europa League also saw us lift the trophy, my first continental crown in Europe. My fringe players helped us through the League stage before we saw our way through to the final with ease. French side Rennes awaited us and we won it 4-1 to lift the trophy and cap off a truly sensational season. With that my contract with the club runs to its expiration and I will depart Portugal for a new challenge. The board have desperately tried to keep me but it’s time to move on. I’ve picked up both domestic competitions I need in this country and in truth we don’t really stand a chance of winning the Champions League. I’m not sure where I will head to next but there are a host of international tournaments this summer so hopefully a managerial merry go round will occur and I can pick up a big job somewhere. I’d also like the opportunity to return to international manager if given the right situation. I’ve enjoyed Portugal but I’m more excited for the next leg wherever that may be. Season Team Position Notes & Achievements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2023/24 Pretoria Callies 5th (hired in 10th place) 2024/25 Pretoria Callies 1st(C) 2025/26 Cape Town City 12th (hired in 11th place) 2026/27 Cape Town City 1st (C) SA Premiership winners 2027/28 Cape Town City 3rd SA Knockout Cup & African Champions League winners 2028/29 Cape Town City 12th (resigned in october) 2030 Ulsan Hyundai 3rd Asian Champions League winners 2031 New York City FC 10th 2032 New York City FC 7th 2033 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield & MLS Eastern Conference winners 2034 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield, MLS Eastern Conference and Champions League winners 2035 - 2036 Palmeiras 4th (hired in 7th) 2037 Palmeiras 4th Sao Paulo State winners 2038 Palmeiras 1st (C) First Division, Sao Paulo State & Copa Libertadores winners 2039 Palmeiras - South American Super Cup & Brazilian Super Cup winners 2039/40 Sporting Lisbon 3rd (hired in 3rd) 2040/41 Sporting Lisbon 3rd Portuguese Cup winners 2041/42 Sporting Lison 1st (C) Portuguese Premier League, Portuguese Cup, Europa League and Portuguese Super Cup winners Challenge Progress Club 4/10 Domestic Leagues (26/27 SA Premiership, 2033 MLS Cup, 2038 Brazilian First Division, 2041/42 Portuguese Premier) 2/10 Domestic Cups (27/28 SA Knockout Cup, 2040/41 Portuguese Cup) 4/5 Continental Championships (27/28 African Champions League, 2031 Asian Champions League, 2034 NA Champions League, 2038 Copa Libertadores) 0/1 Club World Championship International 2/5 Continental Tournaments (2035 Gold Cup, 2036 Copa America) 0/1 World Tournament TOTAL: 12/32 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 Atletico Madrid: 2042/43 Update The 2041/42 season would be my first season of success in Europe as I managed to guide my Sporting Lisbon side to a quadruple of silverware. The previously elusive league title was joined by the Portuguese Cup, Portuguese Super Cup and Europa League as we enjoyed a fantastic campaign. Those successes saw me reaching the end of my contract though and it felt like the right time to walk away and into a new challenge. The board tried time and time again to get me to sign a new deal but I had already made up my mind. With nothing left to achieve towards the challenge in Portugal it was time for me to move on. I walked away just a few days after our Portuguese Cup victory and it would take just three weeks for me to find a new position. Diego Simeone finally walked away from the job with Atletico Madrid and I walked in just a few days later. Success has very much eluded Atletico but they’re comfortably the third best team in Spain. Behind only Barcelona and Real Madrid I was confident in my ability to build success and put an end to that lack of trophies. I don’t expect this to be a quick portion of my journey but I’m confident I can achieve what I plan here. The club is mega rich and that spending power will be needed to topple the two giants of Spanish football. I’ve inherited a strong but small squad and my first job will be to add some depth to that. I’m keen to get stuck in though and I’m confident that I can enjoy a good reign in charge of Atletico. Season Team Position Notes & Achievements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2023/24 Pretoria Callies 5th (hired in 10th place) 2024/25 Pretoria Callies 1st(C) 2025/26 Cape Town City 12th (hired in 11th place) 2026/27 Cape Town City 1st (C) SA Premiership winners 2027/28 Cape Town City 3rd SA Knockout Cup & African Champions League winners 2028/29 Cape Town City 12th (resigned in october) 2030 Ulsan Hyundai 3rd Asian Champions League winners 2031 New York City FC 10th 2032 New York City FC 7th 2033 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield & MLS Eastern Conference winners 2034 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield, MLS Eastern Conference and Champions League winners 2035 - 2036 Palmeiras 4th (hired in 7th) 2037 Palmeiras 4th Sao Paulo State winners 2038 Palmeiras 1st (C) First Division, Sao Paulo State & Copa Libertadores winners 2039 Palmeiras - South American Super Cup & Brazilian Super Cup winners 2039/40 Sporting Lisbon 3rd (hired in 3rd) 2040/41 Sporting Lisbon 3rd Portuguese Cup winners 2041/42 Sporting Lison 1st (C) Portuguese Premier League, Portuguese Cup, Europa League and Portuguese Super Cup winners 2042/43 Atletico Madrid tbc Challenge Progress Club 4/10 Domestic Leagues (26/27 SA Premiership, 2033 MLS Cup, 2038 Brazilian First Division, 2041/42 Portuguese Premier) 2/10 Domestic Cups (27/28 SA Knockout Cup, 2040/41 Portuguese Cup) 4/5 Continental Championships (27/28 African Champions League, 2031 Asian Champions League, 2034 NA Champions League, 2038 Copa Libertadores) 0/1 Club World Championship International 2/5 Continental Tournaments (2035 Gold Cup, 2036 Copa America) 0/1 World Tournament TOTAL: 12/32 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 @Gregg88 Welcome to the leaderboard. Great example of how to do the challenge Europe first, (instead of last as most do). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeClarke Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 Persijap Jepara : 2024 & 2025 Update First year at the club I did a cull of the worst players and tried to bring in replacements, unfortunately finding anyone to play DL/AML was a severe weakness and I lacked any depth. I opted to go with a 4-3-3 DM WIDE formation which was working ok compared to my original expectations but the struggle was as much as we could score, we conceded alot. A couple of injuries really made things a struggle. Ultimately we missed out on Phase 2 of the league by 1 win, which means the entire year consisted of just 18 matches. Lost my key striker (loan player) during the off-season as his club wanted to him to experience other challenges to further his development. Second year, my board thankfully allowed me to get another coaching qualification. Added more depth to the squad and we were a force to be reckoned with, went unbeaten in Phase 1 of the league despite a string of draws in November that started to narrow the race for Phase 2. Quick return to form and we were through to Phase 2. We suffered our first loss of the domestic league but the team rallied and put us through to the final - at this point we had secured promotion but felt the season deserved the cherry on top which we achieved with an extra time goal. Outside of retiring players I secured the contracts of everyone who appeared in at least 10 games (subs includes). The board gave me a contract extension but I am still looking abroad at my options. As much as a domestic top division win would be nice early on I want to try and find a way to challenge for the ACL which I'm feeling Japan/Korean leagues would be a better place to build up and take a run for it. Season Team Position Notes & Achievements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024 Persijap Jepara 3rd 2025 Persijap Jepara 1st(C) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiIIs Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 Just a quick update that I have taken the job at Real Madrid (luckily they approached me as I was too busy playing the World Cup with Spain) and post a disappointing World Cup campaign with Spain, will try my luck with Brazil. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeClarke Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 (edited) Persijap Jepara : 2026 Entered the season with the intent of signing for a different club applying to every Korean 2nd division or Japanese 2 or better job that became available. Continuously knocked back (even by 2 teams in the J3) without any interviews. I was desperate to get the Mito job, partly because I love the logo but they seemed to be underperforming and set to improve. I flew through the season with some up's & down's but didn't really do any transfers so overall pleased to avoid relegation. Allowed my contract to run down then resigned from the club. Mito : 2026 Mito had expectations of a top table finish in the J2 but found themselves in a relegation battle and fired the boss. When I applied (and declared interest) the fans laughed me off and I failed to get the shortlist. Skip forward to when I'm unemployed and the job had come back up. Despite hiring someone else this person had done a stellar job and had them relegated to L3 then the team was positioned 9th. That made no sense to me as they were clearly over resources for the division, thankfully when I applied this time they weren't so dismissive and I got the job! Did my usual cull straight out the gate & brought in some depth for the upcoming transfer window. The team however was ridiculously strong with 4 top division loanee's in key places, lost my first game in charge because I used the 4-2-4 the AM recommended then took a closer look at what I had available (and incoming). A switched to the Gen Gen 4-3-3 DM WIDE with positive mentality was all that was needed to run through the entire remainder of the season unbeaten (opposition individual instructions used). I always expected we would get promoted but to was amazed at our run. The scary part however, is the finances, the club operated at a loss of just over £2.7million last season. As I want to make Mito my Asian home for the foreseeable seasons addressing this will be priority one in 2027, aiming for mid-table next season and hopefully another badge. * Updates will be slower moving forward had a quiet weekend and now a storm has kept me up to 5am so got a little challenge obsessed, back to work now though. Season Team Position Notes & Achievements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024 Persijap Jepara Indonesian L2 3rd 2025 Persijap Jepara Indonesian L2 1st(C) Promoted to League 1 2026 Persijap Jepara Indonesian L1 8th 2026 Mito Japan L3 1st(C) Promoted to J2 Edited January 22 by MikeClarke Confirming leagues 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreV1313 Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Hi guys, I have a question about the argentinian league. To win the league title, should i win in the knockout stage at the end of the season or being top of the tale after the 'regular season'? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted January 23 Author Share Posted January 23 2 hours ago, AndreV1313 said: Hi guys, I have a question about the argentinian league. To win the league title, should i win in the knockout stage at the end of the season or being top of the tale after the 'regular season'? Sounds like you'd have to win the knockout stage. Rule of thumb is winners are whoever appears as competition past winners in history screen. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeClarke Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Mito : 2027 A season of two halves we began with a loss but quickly took form and held top spot for quite a while, typically 5pts ahead of our 2nd place chasers. Around about the time I started to envision us claiming back to back champion status my squad decided to take a few to many dives and began dropping like flies and we couldn't find a win to save ourselves and we slipped to 2nd and back with the play-off pack in close touch whilst Kyoto ran away with the title. Opted to spend some money to shore up our defence in hope we could avoid a play-off and this definitely helped. We had a close run with the team in 3rd but just about saw them off to avoid a dreaded playoff. We had a great run in the cup, when we got to the SF I was certain we were going to be exiting but managed to control the game and book a place in the final. However, despite a long break allowing my squad to heal we went 2-0 in 15minutes which was a good sign today was not the day for our first domestic cup. Realistically this squad shouldn't compete to well in J1 and will take a season or two to increase ability of our younger players with a focus on trying to shore up weak points with a key signing or two rather than a dozen. My primary objective this year was to fix the finances and I spend under my wage budget, spent 575k on transfers whilst selling 1.5m in players and yet we still found ourselves running at a loss. Around 600k further in the whole than we were end of season last year. We had a story for a while that the chairman was going to step down so hoped for a big cash injection but that story vanished with no new money. Club objectives for next season is to avoid relegation and repair financial damage over the next 2 years - hopefully J1 pays better as it also requires our stadium to be expanded and I doubt they will do that for free perhaps I'll stick with my A coaching badge and not ask the club for any more until were on better ground. Season Team Position Notes & Achievements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024 Persijap Jepara Indonesian L2 3rd 2025 Persijap Jepara Indonesian L2 1st(C) Promoted to League 1 2026 Persijap Jepara Indonesian L1 8th 2026 Mito Japan L3 1st(C) Promoted to J2 2027 Mito Japan L2 2nd Promoted to J1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiIIs Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 (edited) Season 2042/43 - Real Madrid I was given a warchest with Real and I knew if I could spend it wisely, it would be a short stay here as they had 5 - 6 world class players but also had some gaps that needed filling. The fun was buying players and none were better than Sergio my Spanish AM that I had in last year's World Cup who scored 26 goals and 17 assist from 35 league starts. That sort of performance, along with others helped me cruise towards the title wrapping it up with about 5 or 6 games to spare. Most of the dropped points came when it was fait a complis and I was instant resulting games. This title, breaking a run of 4 straight championships for Barca. The other competition of note is the Copa del Rey which we had an almighty battle getting through the easiest fixture on paper being that of Granada from LaLiga 2 in the third round. For all our dominance we could not get the win despite 35 shots and 4.69 xG vs 0.43. We even missed our first 3 pens but held our nerve in the end to win 4 - 3 in pens. We then romped through Levante and Espanyol to make the semis. We smashed Real Sociedad 6 - 2 at home in the first leg and rested our started in the away leg and almost cost us the chance to meet Barca in the final. In the final, at half time it was 2 - 2 with both times going ahead but being pegged back. We then were awared a penalty in dying minutes of the game which was scored by Sanchez to do the double. With this i have resigned hoping for a team a decent team in France to pop up, but there's nothing yet. I may go and win another league which is needed for the 10 for the challenge and wait for the right opening to come up. Edited January 24 by SkiIIs 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 (edited) Atletico Madrid: 2041/42 Review I took to the season as Atletico Madrid manager confident of a strong showing and armed with a ridiculous transfer budget of £180,000,000. I managed to increase this to £300,000,000 after a host of player sales before spending the majority of that on improvements to the squad. We went into the season with hopes of doing well and I was happy with the squad I had at my disposal. Our league form was pretty consistently strong but we didn’t get close to challenging at the top of the league. We forged a big gap to 4th from an early point of the season but we never endangered Barcelona or Real Madrid for the title. We consistently sat around seven to ten points behind but that was about as good as it got for us. A disappointing end to the season saw us slip away from Barcelona and we finished in 3rd spot. Not a bad showing but I would’ve liked to be closer to the top two than we ended up. Cup competitions didn’t go much better for us as we didn’t end our trophy drought. We got knocked out of the Spanish Super Cup by Barcelona and then Real Madrid ended our Copa del Rey run at the semi final stage too. Toppling those two giants of Spanish football is going to prove a real big challenge. We also put in an embarrassing showing in the Champions League, winning just once. An early elimination was no less than we deserved in truth. We’ve already made moves in the summer market as I look to plug some of the gaps in our squad. We’ve got some high earners leaving at the end of their deals and I’ve replaced those who have been regulars in our matchday squads. We’ve got plenty of money in the bank so I’m confident in improving the squad further as the summer goes on. Season Team Position Notes & Achievements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2023/24 Pretoria Callies 5th (hired in 10th place) 2024/25 Pretoria Callies 1st(C) 2025/26 Cape Town City 12th (hired in 11th place) 2026/27 Cape Town City 1st (C) SA Premiership winners 2027/28 Cape Town City 3rd SA Knockout Cup & African Champions League winners 2028/29 Cape Town City 12th (resigned in october) 2030 Ulsan Hyundai 3rd Asian Champions League winners 2031 New York City FC 10th 2032 New York City FC 7th 2033 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield & MLS Eastern Conference winners 2034 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield, MLS Eastern Conference and Champions League winners 2035 - 2036 Palmeiras 4th (hired in 7th) 2037 Palmeiras 4th Sao Paulo State winners 2038 Palmeiras 1st (C) First Division, Sao Paulo State & Copa Libertadores winners 2039 Palmeiras - South American Super Cup & Brazilian Super Cup winners 2039/40 Sporting Lisbon 3rd (hired in 3rd) 2040/41 Sporting Lisbon 3rd Portuguese Cup winners 2041/42 Sporting Lison 1st (C) Portuguese Premier League, Portuguese Cup, Europa League and Portuguese Super Cup winners 2042/43 Atletico Madrid 3rd Challenge Progress Club 4/10 Domestic Leagues (26/27 SA Premiership, 2033 MLS Cup, 2038 Brazilian First Division, 2041/42 Portuguese Premier) 2/10 Domestic Cups (27/28 SA Knockout Cup, 2040/41 Portuguese Cup) 4/5 Continental Championships (27/28 African Champions League, 2031 Asian Champions League, 2034 NA Champions League, 2038 Copa Libertadores) 0/1 Club World Championship International 2/5 Continental Tournaments (2035 Gold Cup, 2036 Copa America) 0/1 World Tournament TOTAL: 12/32 Edited January 24 by goonergez 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeClarke Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 Mito : 2028 First year up in J1 and interesting to say the least. Start of the season went very smooth, rose to the top of the table and seemed to be holding it but a few injuries and a persistent chaser in Kobe watched us slip out of 1st and fall a fair bit short of retaking it. Finished 2 with no shiny silverware in the cabinet. Mito : 2029 Started with a Super Cup win, not that it really matters and did some strengthening to the squad. Despite this we suffered some vital injuries (Keeper, AMR & Striker the most severe) we never really challenged for the top spot this year and imploded at the end of the season leaving a lot of "what could have been" on the board. Running into 2030 with more questions than answers. On the bright side, club finally in a profit. Mito : 2030 Core of the squad was solid but brought in a few new international players to provide bulk, restrictions meant only 5 in the matchday squad but they were cheaper to acquire than the local talent so this gave me some injury support as needed. Stepped away from my 4-3-3 gen gen to a 4231 approach with more time spend creating individual tactics and wow it made a huge impact, won pretty much everything on offer (apart from ACL). League Title, All Japan Cup & Japanese League Cup means I can finally start my tally. Added some additional leagues to give me future options. Mito : 2031 No transfers/changes to the squad, focused on claiming the ACL (successfully). Opted to rest my squad for league games and holiday mode through league games so we could go full strength for the title. Close final winning the first leg away 2-1 and losing the return leg 0-1 meant we claimed it on away goals. Swiftly resigned after to see what I can find on another continent. P.S This challenge game is incredibly addictive, spent some Annual Leave and neglecting sleep to keep pushing forward Season Team Position Notes & Achievements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2024 Persijap Jepara Indonesian L2 3rd 2025 Persijap Jepara Indonesian L2 1st(C) Promoted to League 1 2026 Persijap Jepara Indonesian L1 8th 2026 Mito Japan L3 1st(C) Promoted to J2 2027 Mito Japan L2 2nd Promoted to J1 2028 Mito Japan L1 2nd 2029 Mito Japan L1 3rd Super Cup Winner 2030 Mito Japan L1 1st League Winner, All Japan Cup, League Cup 2031 Mito Japan L1 Resigned ACL Winner Club 1/10 Club Domestic Leagues (Japan 2030) 1/10 Club Domestic Cups (Japan 2030) 1/5 Continental Championship (ACL Japan 2031) 0/1 Club World Championship International 0/5 Continental Tournaments 0/1 World Cup 3/32 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 Oh @MikeClarke I agree this challenge is unbelievably addictive. Many annual leave days can be wasted. Every now and then you do end up with a boring campaign though. I for one am enduring one now where it’s a bit of a slog to get through it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeClarke Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 I'm in SA just now managing Orlando and they are far to good for the division. Because I'm not needing to really do anything to run away with it I'm already eyeing up an escape to a new division. I love the challenge of bringing up an underdog, cant wait to escape to a division with that huge gap between top teams and everyone else. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreV1313 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 SEASON 2034 It is a very full season between club and national team the second one we face in Argentina, at the helm of Atletico Tucuman. Starting with the market, where we are very active and reinforce the team enormously with the right mix of young and experienced players to make an assault on the title and improve our performance, which last year saw us finish in the semi-finals of the knockout phase. LIGA PROFESIONAL We had a good regular season which, with ups and downs, saw us occupy third place, just six points behind first-placed Banfield and minus four behind River Plate. With 75 points, we can consider ourselves fully satisfied before advancing to the second phase. In the Copa de La Liga round we finish first, never in doubt, scoring four points more than River and winning the round two days in advance, allowing us to field reserves in the last games. In the knockout phase we were even more infeasible, winning 5-3 in the quarters against Velez, even 7-1 against Racing in the semi-finals and 2-0 taking our revenge against Banfield in the final. COPA SUDAMERICANA Ours is also a clear path in the Copa Sudamericana, where we first won the round with 16 points out of 18 against Fortaleza, Blooming, a Bolivian club, and Uruguayans Danubio. With eighteen goals scored and only three conceded, our qualification is never really in doubt. In the second round we faced Independiente del Valle, who made things more difficult for us than expected but whom we still managed to beat 5-4 on aggregate despite losing 2-1 in the return leg. The same fate befell Cruzeiro, whom we beat 4-3, winning the return leg 3-2, and Belgrano in the semi-finals, who, after a 1-1 draw in the first leg, we literally destroyed in the return leg, defeating them 8-0. In the final we won the tournament on penalties, beating Cuiabá after a 2-2 draw in the first 120 minutes. COPA ARGENTINA Finally, let's look at the Copa Argentina. We start immediately in the fifth round, where we win 4-1 against Lujan. In the sixth round we immediately have a difficult task, being drawn against Lanus, which we manage to overcome by a narrow margin, winning 2-1. Equally difficult is the seventh round, where we still win against River, 2-0. The complicated path continued first against River, whom we beat on penalties after a 2-2 draw in the 120 minutes, and then against Independiente in the semi-finals, where we won 3-2. Paradoxically, the easiest match was the final, where we won 2-0 in ease against San Martin, in the derby of Tucuman. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreV1313 Posted January 27 Share Posted January 27 WORLD CUP UPDATE 2034 The first update also arrives for the national team. We are recruited at the end of 2032 by Sweden and, after a poor Nations League, we make a good World Cup qualification that sees us go into the World Cup as runners-up in the group. Although seemingly simple, with Tunisia, Venezuela and India, the round turned out to be more difficult than expected and we overcame it as first but only on goal difference, finishing tied on points with Tunisia and Venezuela. In the second round, or the round of sixteenths as we like to call it, we pull off a feat, overthrowing Japan, who had taken the lead in the first half, in ten. The feat, however, failed again in the round of 16, where we only managed to take England into extra time, who from 100 minutes onwards went on the rampage. The English national team would eventually be the winners of the World Cup, with the coveted cup 'coming home' after so long. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gammonds Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 I thought I posted this a while ago, but it seems to have been sitting in the forum composer for a while, so this one's a bit late and will be followed directly by another update. Season 2033 – LA Galaxy / Uruguay While I waited for the right club opening over the winter, I received a few offers for interviews without expressing any interest in the positions. A couple of international teams similar in stature to my Uruguay team offered me jobs, but as they seemed to have an even harder path to a major trophy I declined. On the club front there were also some interesting openings that didn’t fit my target for the time being. Most notably to me, INT, my tormentor of the past 2 seasons, offered me an interview in March, right before the start of the Brazilian league season. They were still favored to win pretty much everything in Brazil, but I have no real appetite for another of those long seasons and would feel a least a couple of seconds of guilt for moving so swiftly to a former rival. The club opportunity I’d been looking for came in April when the LA Galaxy fired their head coach after a weak start to the MLS season. They were 9th in the conference when I took over, in the last playoff spot and unfortunately already out of the NACL. They’re also among the richest teams in the league and have what should be a better than decent squad. On taking over, my agreed goal with the board was to get the team into the playoffs at a minimum. Spoiler My external view of the squad was promising. When I took over and got into details from the inside, things were less than ideal. The first team lacked mental strength – several key players are inconsistent or don’t handle pressure well. There was also a lack of quality depth, or really much depth at all, that wasn’t apparent from the outside. Those are normally the sort of problems money can solve, but while I had plenty of actual money available, my funny money (cap space and tools) were much more limited. I did take a shot at one of my former SEP defenders for a bit over $20 million, which is a ton of money in the MLS. He ended up turning down the contract I offered him in favor of a 2. Bundesliga side. I ended up only bringing in 3 new players by the end of the summer window – a good CB as third choice with room to improve, a back GK, and a winger I pulled out of my academy. So, the squad I inherited was pretty much what I played the season with. Fortunately for me, it was just about as good as predicted. We weren’t great in the cups as we made midpoint – ish exits in both the US Cup and Leagues Cup. The former was a minor disappointment at worst, the latter was a nice break for some needed rest. Once the team adapted to my system and got out of their tired rut, we did quite well in league. From 9th when I took over, we climbed to 2nd in the Western Conference and Supporter’s Shield by the end of the season. I found it noteworthy that there were no truly outstanding teams – RSL won the Shield with 66 points from 34 games. Our run through the Western Conference playoffs started very well before becoming increasingly nerve wracking. We thumped San Jose across 2 legs. In the semis we opened up a 3 goal lead to Seattle, let them back in the game with goals on either side of the half, and made it look a bit better with one more goal to win 4-2. We played the same way against Salt Lake in the Western Conference Finals – a 2 goal lead in the first 16 minutes, conceded one to make it a game, then conceded a very late equalizer. After a quiet bit of extra time, we won the penalty shootout to get to the cup final. Spoiler The cardiac kids came out one more time in the final. Red Bulls were up 2-0 in the first 30 minutes, but we clawed our way back into the game in the second half with a goal in the 57th minute. An 82nd minute equalizer was followed by an 89th minute winner, and LA Galaxy won the MLS Cup. Spoiler I’m obviously staying with Galaxy next year and chasing the domestic and North American cups. 2 long-serving players with just over 500 appearances for the club will be on the way out over the offseason. Both are highly paid, well past their best, and suffered season ending injuries in the fall. The more noteworthy is the club’s icon, a 34 year old Riqui Puig who can at least leave with credit for his first ever MLS Cup win in his final season. Those 2 will open up quite a bit of budget (real and funny money) space, and an all-important Designated Player spot. About half a dozen of my other players have been attracting a bit of interest, and I expect to sell 1 or 2 of them out of the MLS. I could offload as many as 4 I think before I run into trouble replacing them, but am not planning that much of an overhaul. I will be looking for a few depth options in the drafts coming up regardless. Internationally, Uruguay met expectations by qualifying for the World Cup, now about 6 months out in my save. We finished 4th, which is neither great nor terrible, but also qualified with plenty of room to spare. Most importantly from my perspective I think we’ve demonstrated our ability to compete with the best teams in the world. Brazil is ranked 1st, Argentina 4th, and we collected 2 draws against the former and a win and a loss against the latter over the past 18 months. My current tentative player pool is almost 30 deep as I’ve got some choices to make between a few senior players on their last legs and youngsters on the cusp of their breakout. Spoiler Challenge Progress: (5/32) Spoiler 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gammonds Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 Season 2034 – LA Galaxy / Uruguay At the end of last season, my backroom staff thought Galaxy had the best squad in both the MLS and the NACC. I generally agreed but thought there was a need to improve the squad’s depth a bit and expected some turnover among my important players. I think it was goonergez who noted recently in this thread that you shouldn’t expect to get great players in the MLS draft, at least outside the first few picks. I’ll agree with that but note there is room to get backups and prospects on cap friendly contracts, which is pretty important. I had the 6th overall pick, which netted me a quite decent AM(C) with a very high ceiling. My picks in the later rounds were all backups at best – 2 defenders and a 3rd choice GK. Still, all the outfield players made their competitive debuts for me within the season’s first month. I also brought in a versatile attacker and a CM from second division European sides – England and Italy respectively – both of whom ended up being rather important for me. Between that and managing to hold on to all of my real quality players through the winter European window I started the MLS campaign quite confident. Having won the MLS Cup last year, and with the Supporters’ Shield of no real importance, I focused my efforts on the NACC and US Cup. Our path through the NACC’s knockout rounds was relatively smooth. Seattle put up a bit of a fight, but none of the teams we faced on the way to the final looked likely to handle Galaxy over two legs. Spoiler The final matched us against Mexican side CF America, winners of 2 of the 3 previous editions. Spoiler Exactly a week later, we opened our US Cup campaign against USSL side Tampa Bay Rowdies – one would think that should be an easy win. Spoiler It would be fair to call those 8 days in early May disastrous from my point of view. At that point, I decided one of two things would happen – either I’d find a job with a top Mexican side and chase the NACC from there, or I would perform far more radical surgery on my Galaxy side who still really are about the best team in North America. Despite my frustrations with the cups, Galaxy were still doing quite well in the league – comfortably first in the MLS Western Conference, and level on points with a game in hand in the Supporters’ Shield. This brought us to the summer, and the World Cup, but no mid-season break in the MLS. World Cup (Uruguay) The side I took into the World Cup wasn’t quite the one that had qualified. A handful of veteran players had decided to retire, and while most of them were still planning to play in the cup 2 suffered serious injuries that ruled them out of the tournament. Fortunately, a couple of younger players had established themselves at good clubs, and I trusted them to make a positive impact. We didn’t look particularly sharp in the 2 friendlies we played as warmups, but I also wasn’t too worried about that. Our group wasn’t a pushover but looked pretty easy to get out of. We still managed not to open well. Playing Saudi Arabia, who were the weakest team in the group, we failed to put the game away like we should have and conceded a late equalizer to slump to a draw. We were a bit better securing a 1-0 win over Costa Rica, which set up a clash with Norway to determine the group winner. That ended in a scoreless draw which suited both teams well enough, and while I was satisfied to be through to the knockouts our form was a bit concerning. Spoiler Second Round – Ecuador vs Uruguay We started the match looking fairly strong and seemed in control of proceedings. After a couple of decent half-chances in the first 15 minutes, we trailed off a bit and didn’t generate much going forward. Ecuador had their only real decent chance early in the second half off a poorly cleared corner but weren’t able to convert. We found our breakthrough late from a well-placed cross delivered from the right corner flag into the 6 yard box. I thought we were in a bit more control than the scoreline indicated, but we’re going to need to generate a bit more offense if we’re to make a deep run. Spoiler Ro 16 -Uruguay vs Spain Spain started the match on the front foot, generating a couple of decent chances in the first 10 minutes. My Uruguay side had more of the ball, especially early, but it was sterile possession that wasn’t generating chances. Spain got their breakthrough shortly before the half, and we went into the break down 0-1. I made one change at the half hoping to enliven the attack, and 2 more shortly after 60’. It didn’t help as Spain went on to score 2 more and send us crashing out of the World Cup. Spoiler While I found the results a bit disappointing, the federation was content. The manner of the loss wasn't great, but getting to the round of 16 at least met their expectations. I hoped the coaching carousel would spin quickly at the end of the World Cup. It did, at least on the international level. I waited a day after the mass firings, then resigned from Uruguay to apply for different international jobs. South Korea was my first choice, not because they’re the best team but because they’re well postured for an Asian Cup in the near term. They were relatively quick to give me the job. Spoiler There wasn’t any movement at the top North American clubs, really the Mexican ones, that would have attracted my interest, so by late summer I had already accepted I’d stay with Galaxy for another run at the cups I need. The MLS continued during the World Cup, and by the time my Uruguay side had gone home, Galaxy were well in control of the league table. My roster churn also started in early July as I finally agreed a sale for a wantaway wonderkid midfielder. He was followed out the door near the end of the summer window by two of my most senior and expensive players. Both remained quite good, but were also the two player’s I’d need to shift to make major improvements. I didn’t try to sell them but was more than happy to negotiate reasonable transfers in response to offers they were interested in. Getting the right players to join was a bit harder. I had a couple of transfers fall through when players (or agents really) got stubborn about silly contract demands, typically expecting a Designated Player contract despite a salary ask that would work well as a Senior contract. The joys of managing in the MLS I suppose. I ultimately only brought in one paid transfer to replace the 3 outbounds – this wonderkid from the Scottish leagues: Spoiler My first thought was that he’d be my starting striker, but I don’t think he works all that well as a sole #9. He’d probably work well in a 2-striker setup but I generally don’t play those and certainly haven’t set up Galaxy to play that way. He works very well as the most attacking CM in a 4-3-3 that has one DM though, and that’s how I used him across the end of the campaign. Three starting quality players out and 1 in left me a tiny bit short on depth, but I wasn’t very concerned about that as the last few months of the season were much less busy than the first half. I also do like to worry about squad depth, and signing a CB prospect out of my academy made me feel a bit better. Galaxy continued their generally strong form across the fall. We won the Leagues Cup in a run that included a win on penalties, a 5-1 win, and winning the final 1-0 in extra time. Unfortunately, we slipped a bit at the very end of the regular season and missed the Supporters’ Shield on a tiebreaker after losing 2 of our last 3 matches. That rough patch continued into the MLS playoffs, and we were lucky to make it out of the first round after this nightmare in the second leg: Spoiler That’s the single worst performance I can recall one of my teams ever putting on, and it lacks a clear explanation to me. What the match rollup doesn’t show is that I made 3 changes during the first half, including my keeper because they were all terrible. As you can see, it didn’t help. Fortunately, the MLS doesn’t treat aggregate scoreline as the decider. That round is actually a best of 3 series, with only the first 2 matches actually scheduled unless a 3rd is needed. It’s a very odd system in my view, but it’s also the one that got Galaxy to advance. Unfortunately, we failed to put away a very winnable game against Seattle in the Western Conference semis and lost in a penalty shootout that took 10 rounds to decide. Spoiler That marked a poor end to an overall disappointing campaign. It was in fact bad enough that my position with the team was under a bit of threat – the board summoned me to a meeting to discuss why we’d failed to meet expectations by not winning the league. The good news from my perspective is that I should have plenty of flexibility in attempting to strengthen an already solid squad. My scouts also claim several potential targets I’ve been monitoring are amenable to joining over the winter, so we’ll see how that works out. My next season will begin with South Korea in the Asian Nations Cup in January, which really should be a good chance at my first international trophy. Challenge Progress: (5/32) Spoiler 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted January 28 Author Share Posted January 28 11 hours ago, AndreV1313 said: Welcome to the leader board. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg88 Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 Progress Update! Following league and cup success at Porto, I then went and won the Gold Cup with Mexico (Pretty easy going). I'm now unemployed and waiting for that November time when managers start getting sacked. Strangely, the end of June didn't chuck up any managers going out of contract or moving big clubs. Fiorentina being the "biggest" vacancy - I didn't want that job. I have a feeling that this may be the time when years are added to the challenge without progress being ticked off. Partly down to the fact I forgot to add further leagues to help during the off-season. Challenge Progress..... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamLUFC Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 2030 - Cruz Azul I started the year with MLS side LAFC for a crack at the Champions League, but we lost over two legs on away goals to Monterrey. The combination of that, not enjoying the MLS and most of my squad hating me made me resign and take the Cruz Azul job before the start of the Apertura stage was to begin. We were dominant in the league stage, only losing one match to Club America and winning 12 out of 17. We finished top although only by one point. This took us into the knock out stage where we qualified for the quarter finals where we play Tigres, and were lucky to advance after both games were level but we went through as the higher place team. We then turned round a first leg defeat to Mazatian to beat them in the semis before playing Club America in the final and beating them 3-2 on aggregate to win the league. Unfortunately we didn't win the League's Cup. I'm now in a bit of a sticky one. The Champions League begins in two months but seems to be based on the previous two seasons so I'm not in it this year. So it's either staying in a country for 18 months that I don't need to be in, or looking to move. There are jobs at the bottom end of the English Premier League which I have loaded which I may go for to build my rep at for the big European jobs, but I'm also going to load the Brazilian league up for the start of Jan so hoping I can bag something there too. South Africa also are loaded but nothing is coming up for them nor has it for a while. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Paris St-Germain: 2043/44 Review Having finished my first season with Atletico I set about strengthening the squad for a push at the La Liga title. Then the Real Madrid job became available and I couldn’t resist trying to jump across the Spanish capital. That would end up with my rejection, but instead I would leave Atletico for the new Real Madrid managers former club, PSG. I felt that I could’ve pushed Atletico on but in truth finishing ahead of the big two was something I didn’t feel optimistic about. Jumping to Paris was an easy decision and at worst it should only last for a season anyways. That’s exactly what happened as I handed in my resignation at the end of the campaign having achieved what I wanted to with the side. On a side note I also took on the job as the French national manager with the European Championships coming at the end of this campaign. A simple stroll to the title was expected and was exactly what was delivered. The squad was packed with quality and we won it with four games to spare. We actually lost our opening league game to Marseille before embarking on a 27 match unbeaten run that saw us climb to top spot early on and never relinquish it. The title was secured early and I was delighted to achieve it at the first time of asking. Incidentally this was a 20th consecutive league title for Paris. Other than that it was a season full of disappointment. We lost my first match in charge against Marseille to lose the Trophee de Champions, and ironically they also knocked us out of the French Cup to. That one was more annoying as we had navigated our way to the semi finals with ease before they defeated us on penalties to deny us the domestic cup. In the Champions League we got through the league stage to face a play off. That saw us progress before Juventus knocked us out in the round of sixteen. With that I bid farewell to Paris and got ready for the European Championships with my France team. We would enter the tournament ranked 3rd in the world and as one of the favourites to win it. For me this would be a good opportunity to try and grab another international honour. My first since leaving the USA back in 2036. I was confident of having a good showing although in truth I thought going all the way was a stretch too far. Season Team Position Notes & Achievements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2023/24 Pretoria Callies 5th (hired in 10th place) 2024/25 Pretoria Callies 1st(C) 2025/26 Cape Town City 12th (hired in 11th place) 2026/27 Cape Town City 1st (C) SA Premiership winners 2027/28 Cape Town City 3rd SA Knockout Cup & African Champions League winners 2028/29 Cape Town City 12th (resigned in october) 2030 Ulsan Hyundai 3rd Asian Champions League winners 2031 New York City FC 10th 2032 New York City FC 7th 2033 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield & MLS Eastern Conference winners 2034 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield, MLS Eastern Conference and Champions League winners 2035 - 2036 Palmeiras 4th (hired in 7th) 2037 Palmeiras 4th Sao Paulo State winners 2038 Palmeiras 1st (C) First Division, Sao Paulo State & Copa Libertadores winners 2039 Palmeiras - South American Super Cup & Brazilian Super Cup winners 2039/40 Sporting Lisbon 3rd (hired in 3rd) 2040/41 Sporting Lisbon 3rd Portuguese Cup winners 2041/42 Sporting Lison 1st (C) Portuguese Premier League, Portuguese Cup, Europa League and Portuguese Super Cup winners 2042/43 Atletico Madrid 3rd 2043/44 Paris St-Germain 1st (C) Ligue 1 winners Challenge Progress Club 5/10 Domestic Leagues (26/27 SA Premiership, 2033 MLS Cup, 2038 Brazilian First Division, 2041/42 Portuguese Premier, 2043/44 French Ligue 1) 2/10 Domestic Cups (27/28 SA Knockout Cup, 2040/41 Portuguese Cup) 4/5 Continental Championships (27/28 African Champions League, 2031 Asian Champions League, 2034 NA Champions League, 2038 Copa Libertadores) 0/1 Club World Championship International 2/5 Continental Tournaments (2035 Gold Cup, 2036 Copa America) 0/1 World Tournament TOTAL: 13/32 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 France: European Championships 2044 After winning the French league title with PSG and then handing in my resignation we headed to Italy for the European Championships with my French team. The squad was packed with quality and ranked 3rd in the world so I was confident of a good showing. We were handed a nightmare group though. Top ranked side England were joined by 12th in the world Belgium and Bulgaria as the groups whipping boys. Our campaign got off to an awful start as we were humbled 0-4 by a rampant England side. A late goal then saw us beat Belgium by the odd goal and then we comfortably saw off Bulgaria 3-0 to progress to the knockouts. The hosts Italy awaited us in the first knockout round and we produced an outstanding display to win 3-1. At this stage I began to feel a little more confident in our chances and thought that the poor display against England in our opener was beyond us. Unfortunately we produced a drab display against Germany to exit the competition. We conceded a goal just before half time and then failed to produce anything of note throughout the second half. We got caught on the counter in the closing stages as we chased an equaliser and we lost 0-2 to crash out. Unsurprisingly the French FA were far from happy but neither was I. I handed in my resignation before we even jumped on the plane home and that was that. I found myself chasing new managerial positions at both club and international level. Season Team Position Notes & Achievements -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2023/24 Pretoria Callies 5th (hired in 10th place) 2024/25 Pretoria Callies 1st(C) 2025/26 Cape Town City 12th (hired in 11th place) 2026/27 Cape Town City 1st (C) SA Premiership winners 2027/28 Cape Town City 3rd SA Knockout Cup & African Champions League winners 2028/29 Cape Town City 12th (resigned in october) 2030 Ulsan Hyundai 3rd Asian Champions League winners 2031 New York City FC 10th 2032 New York City FC 7th 2033 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield & MLS Eastern Conference winners 2034 New York City FC 1st (C) MLS Cup, Supporters Shield, MLS Eastern Conference and Champions League winners 2035 - 2036 Palmeiras 4th (hired in 7th) 2037 Palmeiras 4th Sao Paulo State winners 2038 Palmeiras 1st (C) First Division, Sao Paulo State & Copa Libertadores winners 2039 Palmeiras - South American Super Cup & Brazilian Super Cup winners 2039/40 Sporting Lisbon 3rd (hired in 3rd) 2040/41 Sporting Lisbon 3rd Portuguese Cup winners 2041/42 Sporting Lison 1st (C) Portuguese Premier League, Portuguese Cup, Europa League and Portuguese Super Cup winners 2042/43 Atletico Madrid 3rd 2043/44 Paris St-Germain 1st (C) Ligue 1 winners Challenge Progress Club 5/10 Domestic Leagues (26/27 SA Premiership, 2033 MLS Cup, 2038 Brazilian First Division, 2041/42 Portuguese Premier, 2043/44 French Ligue 1) 2/10 Domestic Cups (27/28 SA Knockout Cup, 2040/41 Portuguese Cup) 4/5 Continental Championships (27/28 African Champions League, 2031 Asian Champions League, 2034 NA Champions League, 2038 Copa Libertadores) 0/1 Club World Championship International 2/5 Continental Tournaments (2035 Gold Cup, 2036 Copa America) 0/1 World Tournament TOTAL: 13/32 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg88 Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 How progress changes in a flash! I was unemployed for about a month. For some reason, the Nigeria job came up ahead of the Cup of Nations. Naturally I took it.... Job done! Left Nigeria shortly after. But..... I did pick up the PSV job too! Joined them when they were sat in 4th place, 5 points off top. First 7 games have been positive to say the least. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiIIs Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 With only the French league required as part of the Big 5, i resigned from Real Madrid hoping that the PSG job would become available as part of the merry go round that usually happens. Unfortunately it didnt work and the only role that popped up in France was Nice, but for some reason I wasnt able to apply for it as they had already found their man really quickly. I still need 1 more league outside of the Big 5 and a few more cups so have taken the FC Porto job for now but will also keep an eye out if anything juicy in France pops up/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreV1313 Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 (edited) SEASON 2034 Third season in Argentina at the helm of Atletico Tucuman, with the goal of finally winning the Copa Libertadores and making it to Europe. LIGA PROFESIONAL We got off to a great start in the championship, with an even better rhythm than last season, but then in the long run we dropped in the regular season, finding ourselves fifth, minus fifteen from the leader, which this season is Talleres. The round also saw us perform poorly, finishing fourth at minus six but showing little interest as we reached the final stages of the Copa Libertardores. In the knockout phase we narrowly but deservedly won the quarter-finals against Tigre and then destroyed Talleres in the semi-finals by beating them 5-1. As in the first year, however, it was Banfield who were fatal to us, beating us 2-1 in the final and winning the title. COPA ARGENTINA Our Copa Argentina lasted very little, although we faced it as defending champions. After beating Argentinos Juniors 2-0 in the sixth round, in the seventh round we met San Lorenzo who defeated us with the same result. SUPERCOPA ARGENTINA AND SUDAMERICANA The two Super Cups saw us triumph in a big way, defeating Flamengo in the South American Supercopa on penalties after a double 2-2 draw and River, again on penalties after a 2-2 draw, in the Argentine Supercopa. COPA LIBERTADORES The Copa Libertardores is the greatest joy of our season. In the round we had five victories and one defeat, easily overcoming Libertad, Audax Italiano and Sporting Crystal. The clashes were difficult from the start, as in the second round we faced Penarol, whom we beat with luck 5-4 on aggregate, with a pyrotechnic 4-3 in our favour in the return. Our eternal challenge with Banfield continues in the quarters, where we win 5-2 on aggregate, eliminating our rivals. The semi-final is against the Brazilians of Internacional, a tough challenge that we win thanks to a fabulous return match that we win 3-0 after the defeat in Brazil. The final sees penalties smile on us again, winning the title against Santos after the 1-1 draw in regulation time. Edited January 30 by AndreV1313 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gammonds Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Season 2035 – LA Galaxy / South Korea The first competitive matches on the calendar for the 2035 campaign were the Asian Nations Cup beginning in mid-January. The Korean player pool looked more than decent to me, we were just about favored to win the tournament, and the group stage draw was if anything friendly. So, off we went. Group Stage: Spoiler Oman, Palestine, and Syria didn’t exactly pose a challenge. The 3-0 and 4-0 wins over Oman and Palestine were if anything not as close as they looked. We left it a bit late in a 2-1 win over Syria to secure the group, but with progress secured before the match started weren’t overly concerned with the outcome. Second Round: Spoiler A comfortable 4-0 win over Kuwait, with not much to say about the match. Kuwait had an oddly high amount of possession, but we were in control throughout. Quarter Final: Spoiler Kyrgyzstan defended with intensity if perhaps not skill, but a 4-1 scoreline if anything flattered their efforts a bit. Their one goal was a bit of a fluke – a fairly weak drive from distance where my goalkeeper seemed to trip over his own feet trying to get down for a ball close to him. Semi Final: Spoiler Iran was the first real challenger we faced on this run, and this match really could have gone either way. I felt like we were the better team for much of the match, but we didn’t generate quality chances. Iran’s late goal had probably been coming, but after they equalized neither side generated much in extra time. On penalties, my takers held their nerve, and my keeper came up with consecutive saves to send us to the final. Final: Spoiler If South Korea wasn’t the favorite to win the Asian Nations Cup Japan would have been. Japan was ranked about 6 places higher in the world, but there wasn’t much to pick between the teams on paper. The match was a cagey affair to start, and while both sides generated a couple of good chances on either side of the intermission neither could finish. The breakthrough came in the 85th minute off a set piece, and the second goal 2 minutes later was a nice bit of insurance. With that, South Korea won the Asian Nations Cup and gave me my first international trophy for the challenge. Back at LA Galaxy, I’d done all the cleanout I really had in mind over the previous summer window, so what I needed to address in January was bringing in the additions that I needed. Those were a CB, DM, and backup goalkeeper; all good enough for the league and with room to improve. My hope was that I’d be able to integrate those players quickly and get off to a strong start. Unfortunately, the playing staff, board and fans all suffered a bit of a hangover after last season’s disappointments. It took the board and fans several months to get out of their funk, and the players felt the effects even longer. The hangover effect showed up mostly in weaker than ideal player morale, and some spotty league form early on. In the NACC, we opened with a relatively tough draw against defending champion’s CF America. That was a nice bit of revenge as we beat them 3-2 and 3-1 to advance. Next up was Leon, where a road draw and home win got the job done. This took us to the Quarter Final against Tijuana. Losing on the road 2-0 was at least a bit harsh on us – we were the better team for much of the match, but conceding an early penalty did us no favors. We were absolutely dominant a week later at home, and the 2-0 scoreline flattered Tijuana more than a little. On to penalties we went – and lost in 13 rounds. Spoiler In the US Cup, we saw off 2 fellow MLS sides before losing 1-0 to rivals LAFC. That left me in the first week of June with nothing left to play for I actually cared about. However, I need the NACC for the challenge, and another domestic cup certainly wouldn’t hurt. There were also no jobs open that had a better chance of winning either of those things, so I stayed at Galaxy. I was however keeping an eye out for an ideal opportunity, or a good option internationally as I was at this point somewhat of an absentee manager for South Korea. In the second half of June some major jobs opened up, and as the shuffle proceeded, the French manager moved to Bayern. I of course resigned my position with South Korea post-haste, but the French federation was equally quick to reject me. This version of Galaxy never felt like it reached its potential with any regularity for me. We would absolutely hammer a couple of teams, then slump to limp defeats. That was a bit frustrating, but ultimately didn’t matter in the fall. Last season 73 points in the regular season was enough to tie for the Supporters’ Shield, this year we won the Shield with 72 while 10 points clear of our closest challenger. Last season I learned that the playoffs first round in the MLS is 2 legs which actually means win 2, not win on aggregate. This year I was surprised to learn that win 2 means win 2, not win one draw one. I won the first leg comfortably, and was draw the second rather than win. Much to my surprise, that went straight to penalties. We won there, and proceeded to win the MLS Cup in solid if unspectacular fashion. Spoiler With the benefit of hindsight, I did not get the squad building and balance quite right for this season. I bought 3 players and expected them all to succeed. Only 1 truly did. The DM I brought in met expectations. The CB is skilled enough but I’m overpaying him, and can’t quite trust him in the biggest matches so will probably look to move him on after only a year. Then there’s the GK. That’s been a bit of a problem position for this team so far, and must get fixed. The player who’s been first choice my entire time with Galaxy is above average for the league but has been prone to vanish in the occasional game – and did it in a couple of really important ones the previous season. His runs of bad form got to the point I benched him twice this season, but had to come back to him both times. He’s also leaving in the winter window – he wants star player money and wasn’t likely to be happy as a backup. The GK I brought in is, on (virtual) paper, a fair player for the league with potential to outgrow his competition. He plays like a traffic cone. Said new GK started 4 out of 5 playoff matches after an injury to the one who’s leaving. Outside of the penalty shootout mentioned above, said new GK made exactly zero saves. He’s a traffic cone in a jersey, and must be replaced. So, if it wasn’t clear the priority for my offseason with Galaxy is to find a GK with hands, who knows how to use them. After that, there’s a couple of other positions where the squad is aging a bit and could do with fresh blood. Then it’s off to another run at the NACC and US Cup. I’d hoped for some international turnover, but nothing came out of the Gold Cup so it looks like I’ll be waiting a bit longer on that front. Challenge Progress: 6/32 Spoiler 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiIIs Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 10 hours ago, Gammonds said: Season 2035 – LA Galaxy / South Korea The first competitive matches on the calendar for the 2035 campaign were the Asian Nations Cup beginning in mid-January. The Korean player pool looked more than decent to me, we were just about favored to win the tournament, and the group stage draw was if anything friendly. So, off we went. Group Stage: Reveal hidden contents Oman, Palestine, and Syria didn’t exactly pose a challenge. The 3-0 and 4-0 wins over Oman and Palestine were if anything not as close as they looked. We left it a bit late in a 2-1 win over Syria to secure the group, but with progress secured before the match started weren’t overly concerned with the outcome. Second Round: Reveal hidden contents A comfortable 4-0 win over Kuwait, with not much to say about the match. Kuwait had an oddly high amount of possession, but we were in control throughout. Quarter Final: Reveal hidden contents Kyrgyzstan defended with intensity if perhaps not skill, but a 4-1 scoreline if anything flattered their efforts a bit. Their one goal was a bit of a fluke – a fairly weak drive from distance where my goalkeeper seemed to trip over his own feet trying to get down for a ball close to him. Semi Final: Reveal hidden contents Iran was the first real challenger we faced on this run, and this match really could have gone either way. I felt like we were the better team for much of the match, but we didn’t generate quality chances. Iran’s late goal had probably been coming, but after they equalized neither side generated much in extra time. On penalties, my takers held their nerve, and my keeper came up with consecutive saves to send us to the final. Final: Reveal hidden contents If South Korea wasn’t the favorite to win the Asian Nations Cup Japan would have been. Japan was ranked about 6 places higher in the world, but there wasn’t much to pick between the teams on paper. The match was a cagey affair to start, and while both sides generated a couple of good chances on either side of the intermission neither could finish. The breakthrough came in the 85th minute off a set piece, and the second goal 2 minutes later was a nice bit of insurance. With that, South Korea won the Asian Nations Cup and gave me my first international trophy for the challenge. Back at LA Galaxy, I’d done all the cleanout I really had in mind over the previous summer window, so what I needed to address in January was bringing in the additions that I needed. Those were a CB, DM, and backup goalkeeper; all good enough for the league and with room to improve. My hope was that I’d be able to integrate those players quickly and get off to a strong start. Unfortunately, the playing staff, board and fans all suffered a bit of a hangover after last season’s disappointments. It took the board and fans several months to get out of their funk, and the players felt the effects even longer. The hangover effect showed up mostly in weaker than ideal player morale, and some spotty league form early on. In the NACC, we opened with a relatively tough draw against defending champion’s CF America. That was a nice bit of revenge as we beat them 3-2 and 3-1 to advance. Next up was Leon, where a road draw and home win got the job done. This took us to the Quarter Final against Tijuana. Losing on the road 2-0 was at least a bit harsh on us – we were the better team for much of the match, but conceding an early penalty did us no favors. We were absolutely dominant a week later at home, and the 2-0 scoreline flattered Tijuana more than a little. On to penalties we went – and lost in 13 rounds. Reveal hidden contents In the US Cup, we saw off 2 fellow MLS sides before losing 1-0 to rivals LAFC. That left me in the first week of June with nothing left to play for I actually cared about. However, I need the NACC for the challenge, and another domestic cup certainly wouldn’t hurt. There were also no jobs open that had a better chance of winning either of those things, so I stayed at Galaxy. I was however keeping an eye out for an ideal opportunity, or a good option internationally as I was at this point somewhat of an absentee manager for South Korea. In the second half of June some major jobs opened up, and as the shuffle proceeded, the French manager moved to Bayern. I of course resigned my position with South Korea post-haste, but the French federation was equally quick to reject me. This version of Galaxy never felt like it reached its potential with any regularity for me. We would absolutely hammer a couple of teams, then slump to limp defeats. That was a bit frustrating, but ultimately didn’t matter in the fall. Last season 73 points in the regular season was enough to tie for the Supporters’ Shield, this year we won the Shield with 72 while 10 points clear of our closest challenger. Last season I learned that the playoffs first round in the MLS is 2 legs which actually means win 2, not win on aggregate. This year I was surprised to learn that win 2 means win 2, not win one draw one. I won the first leg comfortably, and was draw the second rather than win. Much to my surprise, that went straight to penalties. We won there, and proceeded to win the MLS Cup in solid if unspectacular fashion. Reveal hidden contents With the benefit of hindsight, I did not get the squad building and balance quite right for this season. I bought 3 players and expected them all to succeed. Only 1 truly did. The DM I brought in met expectations. The CB is skilled enough but I’m overpaying him, and can’t quite trust him in the biggest matches so will probably look to move him on after only a year. Then there’s the GK. That’s been a bit of a problem position for this team so far, and must get fixed. The player who’s been first choice my entire time with Galaxy is above average for the league but has been prone to vanish in the occasional game – and did it in a couple of really important ones the previous season. His runs of bad form got to the point I benched him twice this season, but had to come back to him both times. He’s also leaving in the winter window – he wants star player money and wasn’t likely to be happy as a backup. The GK I brought in is, on (virtual) paper, a fair player for the league with potential to outgrow his competition. He plays like a traffic cone. Said new GK started 4 out of 5 playoff matches after an injury to the one who’s leaving. Outside of the penalty shootout mentioned above, said new GK made exactly zero saves. He’s a traffic cone in a jersey, and must be replaced. So, if it wasn’t clear the priority for my offseason with Galaxy is to find a GK with hands, who knows how to use them. After that, there’s a couple of other positions where the squad is aging a bit and could do with fresh blood. Then it’s off to another run at the NACC and US Cup. I’d hoped for some international turnover, but nothing came out of the Gold Cup so it looks like I’ll be waiting a bit longer on that front. Challenge Progress: 6/32 Reveal hidden contents Enjoying your updates! Just curious on the playing naming symbols you're using and what do they reflect?? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gammonds Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 1 hour ago, SkiIIs said: Enjoying your updates! Just curious on the playing naming symbols you're using and what do they reflect?? Thanks, glad you like them. The symbols are for player traits: + / - for likes / dislikes big games, * / % for consistent / inconsistent. It's an idea I took from someone else a while back, and have probably been overdoing it with them on this save, but it helps me keep those attribute straight without constantly diving 3 levels of menu deep. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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