The same thing Makoto is doing, kinda, but it's FM22 and it's World Cup 2030 and it's a modded WC format

[noikeee]

Hi I am noikeee and I am an idiot who abandons careers midway through, because my computer continually keeps on breaking because this is just a game who cares and sometimes I get bored and I've been playing FM/CM and its variants for a slightly embarrassing 20+ years now so that happens. So idk if I'm going back to Leyton Orient or not, this is a new one.

I am also an idiot who lately hasn't really been interacting with anyone else's careers, buuuuut I've noticed @Makoto Nakamura's World Cup Extravaganza, where he does the World Cup over and over again with several teams, and I thought, hey, that actually looks fun. What about doing the same and shamelessly copying it.

Few changes though.

FM22 instead of FM23. I do have '23 but I haven't tried it yet and am more comfortable with FM22 tactics. One of the things I want to do is mess around tactically team-by-team so there we go.

I also though World Cup 2030 would be more interesting for me than just replaying 2022. It's kinda of a mix of real players and regens coming through, so there's this excitement of finding new players! Unlike Makoto I'm just doing the World Cup matches and leaving immediately after the WC, not playing anything extra.

One problem is World Cup 2030 has that rubbish 48 team, groups of 3 format. So I picked up an editor file. 40 teams, 6 groups of 5.

 

So here we are in the 20th of May of 2030. Qualification (which is also edited-in) has resulted in the following things.

France has done rubbish in European qualifying! But don't worry as there's an edited-in wild inter-confederation playoff...

 

On this format Africa still only qualifies 6 teams automatically, plus Morocco are hosting this World Cup. But, 6 extra are sent to the playoffs. Gambia have made the World Cup!

 

A very interesting quirk of this format is North America and South America qualification is merged. Chile were in an awful group and are out of the WC. Bolivia made the WC! Ahead of Paraguay and Costa Rica.

 

The other intra-confederation extravaganza is Asia-Ocenia and it has thrown Uzbekistan into the World Cup! Finally!

 

Onto the playoffs... it has a semi-final and a final for some reason and I don't know why some teams do the semi-final and others do the final. But this is what happened.

I don't really know how this works, but. It saved France. It killed Denmark (knocked out by Scotland!), Croatia, Colombia. The most interesting qualifier is probably Israel... beating... Suriname?! Beyond that it's really just a bunch of European teams. Bulgaria and Erling Haaland's Norway finally return to a World Cup.

 

The groups for the final competition:

It all seems very balanced with not too many favourites in the same group, possibly other than Brazil-England (but you'd expect them to beat Austria, Guinea and Uzbekistan), and Belgium-France (also heavy favourites over El Salvador, Ghana, Iran).

 

I'm gonna do this alphabetically so we start with.... Algeria!!

[noikeee]

They hired me because they're saving on alphabet letters, just slightly re-arrange them.

 

I mean, yeah, but I'd like a more cheerful message first day on the job, come on.

 

Does seem a little daunting.

 

The team that's there by default, I still need to search players etc but these are the best ones

 

Lots of old DMs and no young talent! What a fun way to start!

[noikeee]

We have a World Cup squad!

Everyone is old as ****!

I had to call-up two 19yo rightbacks but other than that, almost everyone is in their 30s. Damn. I also went for the "completely stack the midfield strategy", basically loaded up my Ergotelis 4-3-1-2 and pulled back one of the strikers to AMC, because we're absolutely stacked in midfield and nowhere else. Well, maybe leftbacks. I'm betting the house on flooding the midfield then.

[noikeee]

More cheerful messages!

[noikeee]

One day after the World Cup final. I like his thinking.

[noikeee]

A good test ahead of the World Cup, the tactic with the pulled back 2nd striker as AMC seemed to work, but Poland are rubbish now they don't have Lewandowski.

[noikeee]

 

 

Awful start to the World Cup. We seemed to have started well but they took their chances in quick attacks. We're already struggling in this group as this was a must-win match if we're to qualify.

 

Edited November 24, 2022 by noikeee

[noikeee]

Hey look, I downloaded a new skin!

... to distract from the fact that we're out of the World Cup already, really. We seemed to be dominating this match, but the penalty ruined everything. Hugely frustrating.

The group is wide open, though. If we beat Switzerland and Spain we might just have an outside chance.... but really, are we gonna do that?  

Edited November 24, 2022 by noikeee

[noikeee]

The dream's alive!! Barely. A set piece goal at the very end finally rewarded us for having a lot of the ball around our opponent's box in this tournament, and never really using it.. until now.

Now we just need to beat Spain (easy!) and hope that's enough because it might still depend on the Switzerland-Ecuador match if it comes down to a 3-team-tie.

[noikeee]

We were actually not completely rubbish! Scored one on open play too... because their keeper decided to play out from the back straight into our strikers feet. But hey, a good result!

... And we're also out of the World Cup! What a shock! Nobody saw that coming!

[noikeee]

Algeria's World Cup stats

2 goals from 4 matches is bleak, but hey.

Best players on joint 7.10 average rating:

 

Next... Argentina!

[noikeee]

Expectations might be slightly higher here...

 

Uhhh... possibly, yeah... Wait, how are we this good, we don't have Messi anymore.

 

Okay, I'm getting mixed signals here then. Quarterfinals is enough. Are we sure? Really?

 

One thing I'm not a fan of in this skin, is the blue stars. I can't see who's good at a quick glance!

 

But, no surprises, these are the currently 3 highest rated players in the squad.

 

I can already imagine a Lautaro-Julian partnership upfront. We're definitely going to build up around those two, but there are other players... unlike Algeria I actually have a few interesting regens here... most notably the hottest thing in Munich at the moment

So a front 3 might be ideal, Lautaro Martinez - Julian Alvarez - Matías Roca

Time to hit the tactics board, and to search to see which star players has the previous national team manager missed.

One last note... Argentina are a particularly interesting team to manage because of this:

So in-game they've lost the 2022 and 2026 World Cup finals to Italy and France, respectively. This means Argentina are on a run of having lost 3 of the last 4 WC finals, and a total of 4 finals lost since 1990. Quite the responsibility I have on my hands to try to break this pattern!

[noikeee]

I'm gonna try to do a 4-4-2 with DMs similar to what @smp20 uses with his Arrigo Sacchi tactics. I don't usually do this, so I'm adapting my own tactics and seeing where it goes.

This because I figured out we actually have a nice wide range of wingers to choose from. Though I might've messed up the call-ups a little, looks like I left Buendia out and he could've been a nicer option for the right flank than Almada who's maybe more of a pure 10 and is slightly out of form...

Edited November 25, 2022 by noikeee

[noikeee]

I'm not super convinced by the game plan, it didn't seem to work amazingly well in this match, England looked slightly better than us.

 

It was just a friendly though.. the real World Cup starts soon.. We do have a favourable group.

[albertluque]

I do wish FIFA would extend the group size when they go to 48. 3 teams will.be crap. 

 

Nice thread so far. 

[noikeee]

14 hours ago, albertluque said:

I do wish FIFA would extend the group size when they go to 48. 3 teams will.be crap. 

 

Nice thread so far. 

Thanks. Yeah groups of 3 are ****. I think they're considering changing the format but there's nothing that suits FOURTY EIGHT teams properly.   Just absolute shambles, there are going to be so many bad teams in there, too.

[noikeee]

Results between our opponents as we sit out round 1.

[noikeee]

That was absolutely shambolic.  I don't think I know how to play with this formation, and I don't know if tactical familiarity is hindering us a bit as I'm joining tournaments immediately before they start, without being able to train it. What happened is we went down not just to 10 but to 9, and conceded on the 93rd.  We're in trouble guys.

[noikeee]

This is not going well is it. I think it's the familiarity thing. We did have a few good chances this time, but we're giving the opposition an unacceptable amount of them too.

We pretty much need to beat both Bolivia and Wales. Doable, but the way we're playing...?

[noikeee]

I think we're out. We need to beat Bolivia and wait for USA and Wales to draw. ****ing hell.. We didn't play well (again) but I didn't need to concede a 90th minute freekick...

[noikeee]

We finally win! We play well! The tactic finally feels like it's been fine-tuned enough to work!

And we're out of the tournament! Yay!

[noikeee]

Argentina's memorable World Cup stats

The best player was... *drumroll*...

Surprise! The hattrick vs Bolivia seals it.