Alta California

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With not long to go until FM23 was looking for a new challenge on FM22 and wanted to do something a little different. I remember on a previous edition of FM someone setting up a club side in the German league called Mitte Berlin - a side that was looking to capitalise on the Russian population in Berlin. With that in mind I started to think of something similar and straight away the Mexican immigrant population in America seemed an obvious choice. This was obviously not new thinking as Chivas tried this with the ill-fated Chivas USA project. So this time around I decided the Mexican diaspora would get a proper team they could support.

The side would be based in the US but play in the Mexican league, California seen the obvious home state to choose and was stuck between whether to base the side in San Diego or Los Angeles - I eventually decided for San Diego after changing my mind countless times. So now I bring to you Alta California playing out from the Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

With such a huge Mexican population in the US and for this project to work I decided that the team would be well funded, I created the new club and in terms of players decided that we would look to bring back Mexican players who were playing outside of Mexico (a team of immigrants for the immigrants to support!!). 

Will introduce the squad next post - my first time writing about a project so we will see how it goes - also I am awful at art/graphics so pretty pleased with how the kits look - home kit flying the Mexican colours, 2nd kit the colours of the old California flag from which the badge is taken from and finally the 3rd kit a nod to the old Mexican kits from 54/66 World Cups.

 

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So putting the squad together for my Alta California project, with the key theme being to return Mexican players back home (yeah I know that this might not be the hardest challenge ever with a rich club and what I hoped would be a strong squad). Also I was going to look at moving some dual national Mexican/Americans to the side as well. One problem I did not account for was that so many of the Mexican born players that I returned would not count as Mexican born due to their lack of youth football in Mexico, so had to play about with the editor to try and make all the players that were actually born in Mexico as Mexican born and therefore leave the American born Mexican's as not Mexican born.

Screenshots below show squad and boy do Mexico like to export Invert Wingers/Inside Forwards - I have a shed load. Central midfield was also a strong point, surprisingly strikers was not as strong as I expected after Raul Jimenez not great depth as most of the players that I thought were strikers or at worst DLF turned out to be really inside forwards/wingers (Carlos Vela and Rodolfo Pizarro who I thought were both strikers). Goalkeepers definitely need to improve as apparently my weakest spot and defence will need to be a focus - centre backs look ok but only have one 19 year old right back and left back needs improving to.

I mentioned on the first post about how I thought of Chivas USA side and I was determined to keep the team true to its goal of representing the Mexican community and here I struck lucky as once I loaded the game up I was informed by the board that Alta California can only sign Mexican players .. Perfect 

Transfer budget of £24million was given (think need to get the game into dollars if we are going to play in the US), and a wage budget just shy of £500,000 - unfortunately turns out that is exactly what I am spending already on wages so cut £5m from transfer budget to get me £100k in wage space.

Tactics wise I had in my head before even starting this a team that was mobile, fast and good to watch, then with all these Wingers I really need a formation to get the most out of them. Plan A when we are at home or favourites is an attacking 4-2-4 and plan B when we have to be sensible (or when reality strikes) is 4-3-3 which actually might be the better balanced formation for this side.

Pre-season tour was already decided for us - we are off to Barcelona  where we face 2 lower league sides either side of the glamour tie with Barca (sure as hell not going 4-2-4 for that one). Then back across the Atlantic we have games lined up with some MLS sides and 2nd tier Mexican ones before finishing off with the glamour tie with Shakhtar. 

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PRE-SEASON UPDATE

1st pre-season completed for Alta California and although we won every game with the exception of a goal less draw with a severely weekend Barcelona team, there is no doubt our schedule was to easy - although we were encouraged with a fine victory over Shakhtar in our last warm up game. Worryingly to begin with, especially through the games in Spain the one point where I though we were strongest - on either wing - was a cause for concern, no matter who we played out their they turned in underwhelming performances which thankfully improved once we returned across the Atlantic. Formation wise we went with our 4-2-4 for all the games other than against Barca & Shakhtar where we went with our 4-3-3, with the first game rapidly approaching we now need to decide how brave we will be.   

Transfer wise after cutting some of our budget to get us £100K in payroll space, we had £16m to spend with us only being allowed to sign Mexican (or dual Mexican) players. All signings turned out to be defensive which was pretty much planned due to how squad was balanced, in total spending just over £6m.

In game goalkeeper Sebastian Juardo from Cruz Azul for £1m upfront and some add-ons - will compete straight away for the no1 spot plus it gave me the confidence to loan out my 20 year old keeper to get some experience.

Also from Cruz Azul was our biggest outlay, £3m plus add-ons for Mexican CB Luis Romo, Romo arrived with a slight injury and disappointed in his first few appearances but by end of pre-season had found his form.

Two right backs coming in, first Vladimir Lorona for £2m plus add-ons from Tijuana to be first choice right back and then former Mexican international Israel Jimenez was signed on a free after a trial to provide some cover/competition and to allow me to loan out the young right back I had.

Finally experienced former American left back Edgar Castillo was signed for £15K from FC Cincinnati to provide us with some cover, Castillo was a plan B as my first choice Chivas's Cristian Calderon deal fell through as they could not sign a replacement and I had my doubts they would so Castillo should be a 1 season stop gap - plus adding some more Mexican/American's to the squad fells right.

Only position that I wanted to strengthen but did not manage to was a deep lying forward to provide competition with Alan Pulido who on paper is my only natural fit, I had hoped to try Carlos Vela in the role but he was injured most of pre-season. After giving up on signing a replacement we then experimented a bit Hirving Lozano paying the DLF role which allowed Rodolfo Pizarro to come into the team on the left flank - some potential in this and definitely gives me an option if Pulido loses form or is injured.

Youth wise we have a good few potential players around the 19-21 age group and we have worked to get as many out on loan as possible as 1st team places were going to be in short supply - although the U20 side got a rude awakening in their opening game going down 3-1away to Pachuca.

So history now beckons as Alta California prepare to travel to Guadalajara to face Atlas in their first competitive game

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LIGA MX APERTURA

So opening stage has been completed and Alta California remain on course to achieve our board's objective of reaching the opening stage final. With the bookmakers expecting us to finish top of the opening stage we come in 3rd place with a strong finish between top of the league Tigres to secure our bye in the play-offs.

Season was a mixed bag, only 2 defeats (to Necaxa & Puebla - easily our worst performance), but 7 draws. The stats tell their own story - we had a league high 57% possession, took the most shots, had the most shots on targets and by far had the most clear-cut chances (25% more than the next best team) but could not convert these into goals and wins (oh and VAR was killing me with disallowed offside goals). We had a crazy month in September when all 5 matches finished draws which was then followed by that horrible loss to Puebla. Play-off place was never going to be in doubt with 12 teams making it through, but the automatic spot was in the balance, going into the final game against Tigres we need a win to be sure and a strong first half performance had us ahead and we managed to hold out to the end

Raul Jimenez was top score with 10 goals in 13 appearances but the next best in the scoring charts only managed 3 goals (4 players). With assists 12 players had at least 1 but the most anyone had was 3 (3 players). Tactics wise we played most of the season with the 4-3-3 but finished using the 4-2-4 when at home. Bizarrely just like in pre-season the wide men proved to be a disappointment - I had expected Corona and Lozano to really be the driving force in the team but they disappointed to the point that both had spells on the bench (Vela had a strong start to the season out on the right wing while the left side had problems with injuries to Pizarro and poor form by others. However, both Corona and Lozano finished the first stage with some improved form so hopefully they are coming good at the right time.

Some other positions caused trouble throughout the season - none more so than the left back role where we constantly cycled between players, Goalkeeper also proved a position that was passed around with us using all 3 keepers and nobody really holding down the role. Surprisingly Romo my main signing struggled for game time (I'm blaming his injury in pre-season) as Alvarez really made the RCB role his own. Lorona impressed down the right side and biggest surprise was the impact Giovani dos Santos made once he returned late on after being injured in pre-season, I had expected him to be another option on the right wing but with my strikers (other than Jimenez) disappointing, Giovani slotted into the DLF role and in 5 games game up with 2 goals and 2 assists.

Have enjoyed the project so far and hoping the team and the big names come up trumps in the play-offs. Financially club is doing fine with over 45,000 season ticket holders in San Diego and with an average attendance of just over 55,000 with a high of 67,000 for our last game with Tigres.

On to the play-offs!!!!!

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LIGA MX APERTURA PLAY-OFFS

Well, much to my delight Alta California have been crowned Liga MX Apertura champions at first time of asking  (I know we were favourites and loaded but a win is a win).

Our 3rd place finish in the league gave us a bye to the 1/4 finals where we drew Monterrey, a side we had drawn 2-2 with at home during the league stage. These 2 games became the Raul Jimenez show as our top scorer really found his form scoring all 4 goals over the 2 legs. The 1st leg away saw us play awful in the first half but 2 headed goals by Raul Jimenez had us looking good before a header at the other end got a goal back for the hosts to ensure the tie was still alive going back to San Diego. 2nd leg was much more straight forward 2 first half goals by Raul Jimenez again had us cruising through 4-1 on aggregate. But we did learn a valuable early lesson - with only 3 days between the 2 legs and with a gameplan that involves a high tempo passing and pressing game, making the maximum 5 subs would be important as anyone who played the whole 90 minutes was going to be tired for the 2nd leg.

Next up in the semi-finals we had Santos Laguna (another side we had drawn with in the league stage at home), again the 1st leg was away and again we were awful - this time for the whole game. But just as it looked like we would escape with a draw Jurado in goal (my only fit goalkeeper for the 1st three play-off matches) decided under no pressure to roll a pass back straight to the opposing forward inside the box who said "gracias" and smashed it into the empty net. To make matters worse with us going on to lose by that single goal it meant having to make my substitutions later than I would have liked and as a result was left with having to make more changes to the team or the 2nd league than was ideal (thankfully one of my other keepers was back available and Jurado never set foot on the pitch for the remainder of the play-offs. Back at home for the second leg we were a different team, Corona put us ahead on the night and level on aggregate after only 12 minutes, a Raul Jimenez header on the hour mark put us 2-0 up and then an injury time penalty by Javier Hernandez (none of this Chicharito rubbish) put the cherry on the cake and a 3-1 victory on aggregate.

 America (another side we had drawn with in the league stage) awaited us in the final with the 1st leg in San Diego where we produced our best performance of the season in front of 69,000 fans. However, we had to wait until the 77th minute for Raul Jimenez to make the breakthrough and then 2 minutes later with what was probably his first touch Hernandez knocked in a rebound to see us win 2-0. The second leg in a sold-out Azteca stadium (that temple of football) saw America throw the kitchen sink it us in the first 15 minutes, we somehow survived and quickly told our full backs to forget about crossing the halfway line. Once we had weathered that early onslaught, we comfortably saw out a 0-0 to triumph 2-0 on aggregate which saw the new boys Alta California crowned champions of Mexico.

 

So, despite some dodgy moments in the league stage, including a run of 6 games without a win, the new boys are crowned champions. The club was a success of the park as well, we average over 57,000 at home to have the highest average in the league and with over 69,000 showing up for the America game. The team also ensure it stayed true to its mission to represent the Mexican diaspora (helped with the lucky break that the team is hard coded we can only sign players with Mexican nationality) - rather perfectly in the final match against America in the Azteca we finished the game with 8 Mexican players and 3 Hispanic Americans on the field - eat your heart out Chivas USA