Hexagon

[Daniel Evensen]

It's been a little while!  As promised, I'm back with another save — this time one that will hopefully last for a long, long time.  As you can tell from the title, I'm planning on doing a bit of hopping around.

Special thanks as always goes to the editor data community, particularly those who work so hard to reproduce the game in even the most obscure countries as accurately as possible.

I'm going to try to limit myself to updating twice a week, mostly to avoid low-effort posts quickly cobbled together late at night.  Alas, it is around 9 PM as I write this.  I suppose old habits die hard.  Anyway, I'm going to try out a few different things with the posting style and will try to keep this as interesting as I can.  Enjoy!

The 15 Year Old Phenom

Toa Maile is a bonafide wonderkid.

I know that it’s strange to say that. When you think of football in American Samoa, the word “wonderkid” usually doesn’t come to mind.

But it’s true. And I don’t care if the media agree with me or not.

Born in El Paso, Texas, Maile gave up a conventional mainland education to go back to the islands. Rather than falling for the common Polynesian trap of playing the line in American football, Maile has shown himself to be a man of real culture, playing the beautiful game with flair and technique rarely seen around these parts.

I’m happy he’s on our side.

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The Fickle Youth

They tell me that Maile is a bit fickle. He seems to waiver from one opinion to the next, and has some problems with selfishness.

Frankly, I think the kid can be as selfish as he wants. With that kind of foot, I’ll fine him if he passes.

My illustrious career, consisting now of a grand total of 4 matches managing PanSa East F.C. here in American Samoa, has been a success due solely to the goal scoring prowess of that young phenom.

We’ve scored 19 goals in our 4 matches, including a massive 6-3 victory over Pago Youth, the team considered most likely by the media to win the FFAS Senior League this year. We also slipped by Ilaoa & To’omata, last year’s champions, by a slim 4-3 margin.

Maile has scored two hat tricks in those four matches, netting 7 goals in all. Yes, he’s that good.

He might be fickle — but, seriously, what 15-year-old has a good head on his shoulders? He might be selfish — but, honestly, I’d say he can afford to be a bit selfish. What matters is that he’s a goal scorer, and a natural born winner.

I just hope he can keep up the winning ways.

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Youth Explosion

Actually, Maile might not be the best player on our squad.

Attacking midfielder Corey Nortey has also netted 7 goals in our 4 matches. The two teammates are neck-and-neck for the league scoring title.

And, yes, Nortey is also only 15 years old.

The real star, though, would have to be Afa Leatualevao. Also 15, Afa prefers playing in the left midfield, and is easily one of the most talented players on the squad. He is inconsistent, though, and doesn’t quite have the level of ambition that we’re looking for. Having said that, when he’s on, he’s on — and the defenses in this league simply don’t know what to do with him.

I don’t think I’ve given any game time to any of the players over 25 years old on this squad. And I don’t need to. We’re doing just fine with the kids.

[Daniel Evensen]

It’s Not The Tactic

I learned an important lesson the other day.

The success we’ve seen at PanSa East F.C. here in American Samoa hasn’t tailed off at all. However, you can rest assured that it’s not because of any tactical acumen on my part.

I decided to take a risk in our match against media darlings Vaiala Tongan. I was so sure of potential victory that I put out a team of older players who haven’t looked quite as impressive in training.

Out went Toa Maile, and in when Han Jong-Sung, a 25-year-old Korean striker who has found himself occupying a fringe player role for an amateur team here in the islands.

Afa Leatualevao was replaced by Pela Malani. Corey Nortey, our great star, was replaced by Peyton Malani. And, yes, it was hard to tell the two Malanis apart.

And, well, it didn’t work.

We went down 2-0 after 10 minutes, and were down 3-1 at halftime. I finally brought Toa Maile on the pitch shortly after half time, in time for him to provide us with 2 goals en route to an amazing comeback.

Maile’s second goal was a beauty, an amazing goal scored as he snuck in behind the defense to level the score at 4. There wasn’t a winner in the books for us, but I’m perfectly happy with the draw.

However, we can clearly see here that it’s all about the players, not the tactics. We’ve been blessed with an early golden generation.

---

Dominance

We’ve been dominant in every other match. We’re undefeated after 7 matches, and the only match we haven’t won was that 4-4 raw. Our most recent victory was a 7-2 thrashing of Utulei.

It’s only looking up from here, too. The team’s weakness is defense, but we’ve got reinforcements coming in before next season begins. The biggest joy of amateur management is that you can pick up players for free. I’m not sure it will be enough to allow us to compete in the Oceania Champion’s League, but we’ll give it our best shot.

At the very least, it should be enough for me to catch the eye of some larger clubs in the region.

We’ve only got 20 matches overall in the season. We’ve got a 6 point lead over the second place Tafuna Jets at the moment, although they do have a game in hand on us. Our goal differential of 15 is easily the best in the country. Maile has 12 goals so far, easily the best in the league.

If we can keep him healthy, we should cruise to a title. If he is injured, I’m not sure there’s a plan B.

[EvilDave]

Great to have you back writing, Daniel, and looking forward to what is hopefully a long-term challenge here - looks like you've landed on your feet with Maile and PanSa! I tried a hexagon back on FM17 (still probably my favourite version of the game) as part of some ridiculous 'ultimate challenge' where you were supposed to win 25 leagues and cups along the way - I think if memory serves me correctly I managed titles in New Caledonia and NZ, Hong Kong, China and Iran along with CLs in Oceania and Asia before getting ground down by a combination of registration rules in Morocco and my laptop taking an age to process. A lot of fun though, so I hope that's your experience too!

[Daniel Evensen]

13 hours ago, EvilDave said:

Great to have you back writing, Daniel, and looking forward to what is hopefully a long-term challenge here - looks like you've landed on your feet with Maile and PanSa! I tried a hexagon back on FM17 (still probably my favourite version of the game) as part of some ridiculous 'ultimate challenge' where you were supposed to win 25 leagues and cups along the way - I think if memory serves me correctly I managed titles in New Caledonia and NZ, Hong Kong, China and Iran along with CLs in Oceania and Asia before getting ground down by a combination of registration rules in Morocco and my laptop taking an age to process. A lot of fun though, so I hope that's your experience too!

Thanks, man, and good to see you again as well!  It's been a lot of fun so far, though I've been absolutely flabbergasted by the fact that we've been winning.  I was expecting a much more difficult start!

[Daniel Evensen]

Wave of Success

Our wave of success has continued.

I’m not sure how to explain it. We’re 11 games into the 20 game season. We haven’t lost yet, have an 8 point lead on our nearest competitors (Vaiala Tongan), have a goal differential of 21, and have been simply amazing.

Aside from the single 4-4 draw we manged to eke out, we haven’t been in danger of losing — or even drawing — in any other match.

This is certainly not the start I was expecting when I came to American Samoa!

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Defense

The crazy thing is that we probably owe a lot of this to our defense.

We don’t really have the best defensive unit in the league. We’ve given up 21 goals, which ties us for 3rd best in that department.

Of course, it could always be worse.

I credit most of our good defensive form to 18-year-old centerback Pama Fetuao, an extremely consistent centerback who has worked wonders for us on the back line. Fetuao has played well in every single match he’s featured in, and recently made his debut for the American Samoa national team, helping the team along to a 0-0 draw against the Cook Islands.

19-year-old Ioane Palepua, who also made his international debut against the Cook Islands, has been our other anchor at centerback. I’ve played him in almost every single game because of his dominating presence and consistent performances. In fact, I usually cringe when I have to take him out, worried that his replacement will wind up making silly mistakes to give up the lead.

Fortunately, that hasn’t quite happened yet, though it could be worse.

It’s sad to say this, but I can’t really credit much to our 17-year-old goalkeeper Penieli Atu. Atu has been anything but consistent, has a bad habit of blasting goal kicks straight to opposition players, and is a player I’m looking to replace. Incidentally, Atu also made his international debut in the same match against the Cook Islands.

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Consistency

Otherwise, we’ve been the same consistent club — good at scoring goals, stingy enough on defense, and capable of playing extremely entertaining football when push comes to shove.

Toa Maile is now second in the league in goals scored with 17, only 1 behind Petu Pouli of Vaiala Tongan. By the way, I convinced Petu Poli to sign an amateur contract with us starting next season. Maybe we’ll go to a two striker system.

I don’t think we’re good enough to compete in the Oceania Champions League. However, I’d be shocked if we didn’t win the league this year.

[Daniel Evensen]

Mission Accomplished?

The beginning of October was just the other day, and I had my monthly review.

I was surprised by the results.

The board gave me an A+ across the board, ostensibly because I’ve taken a team that was predicted to finish 5th and have led them to an undefeated season.

The supporters also rated my performance as an A+, giving me an uncanny double — especially considering how early in the season it is.

We’re only 13 games into the 20 game season. We’re not quite guaranteed a first place finish yet. Vaiala Tongan, the media favorites to win the whole thing and the only team we haven’t yet beaten, are 8 points behind us with a game in hand. If we’re not careful, we really could see it all slip out of our fingers.

Still, it feels like we’ve already just about accomplished all we can here in American Samoa.

---

Match Update

There’s actually not much to report on as far as the matches are concerned.

We had a few close ones. We barely squeaked by Royal Puma, winning by a slim 4-2 margin after a really poor defensive performance. Taputimu Youth also gave us a scare, holding back our scoring and keeping the score close. We won that one 2-1.

The rest, though, has been easy. We beat Pago Youth 4-1, and then demolished Ilaoa and To’omata by a ferocious 6-3 score.

Toa Maile now has 22 goals, and is once again the league leader. We’ve also been able to rest him, a luxury I initially thought we’d never be able to afford.

Maybe that’s why I got the A+ ratings.

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Looking Ahead

We received a youth intake preview a few days ago. It looks fairly promising, I suppose. It’s always hard to tell with these amateur teams. Of course, if we had another Maile on our hands, I’d be absolutely ecstatic.

We might not need to focus on youth all that much, however. In these amateur leagues, players are very quick to sign on with you, and success is attractive. We’ve got a number of transfers lined up for the beginning of the transfer window, which takes place right after the season ends in November.

In other words, as good as we are now, we’re only going to get better in the future.

Now, I still don’t think we’re good enough to compete for the Oceania Champion’s League title, which is what our true goal is. However, if we can dominate the league and put out a somewhat decent showing in the international competition next year, I’ve got a feeling that some bigger clubs might come knocking on my door.

That’s the hexagon challenge way, after all.

[Daniel Evensen]

Champions

It feels like we just started — and we’ve already gone up as champions.

We sealed the deal with a big 4-2 victory over Lion Heart in the 18th game of the season. Our win, in front of a moderate crowd of 432, clinched the trophy for us and served as the first major win of my career.

It’s the first time that PanSa East F.C. have won the FFAS Senior League title since 2005. The board is simply beyond belief, as they thought the best we could hope for this season was a mid-table finish.

Hopefully it will only get better from here!

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The Stars

I’ve already talked about a few of our stars.

Toa Maile will likely win the top scorer award here in American Samoa. His first half hat trick against Lion Heart puts his goal total up at 29.

As I’ve mentioned before, the man in second place is Petu Pouli, who has scored 23 for second place Vaiala Tongan so far. Pouli is going to join PanSa East F.C. once the season ends in mid-November.

Third in the scoring is Antonio Pouli with Utulei, who has scored 21. I’ve also got an offer in for him. Isn’t the world of amateur teams fun?

Other star players include Pela Malani, an attacking left winger who overcame a few rough mid-season starts to explode as one of our best players, and Corey Nortey, a 15-year-old midfielder who managed to score 9 goals from way out there.

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Champions League

It feels like we’ve barely started, and yet we’re already making our first Champions League appearance.

We’ll be in the Oceania Champions League. I believe we’ll start out with a few qualification matches, and will move up from there if we win.

I don’t think we stand much of a chance, but we can always hope. My plan is to try to get as much attention as I can in hopes of moving on to a more established club in some place like Fiji or New Zealand. It might take a while, though. For some strange reason, most people don’t tend to think very highly of football in American Samoa…

[Daniel Evensen]

Takeover?

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that a penniless amateur club in American Samoa would be the subject of takeover rumors.

And yet here we are.

Not long after dominating the league and winning PanSa East F.C.’s first domestic league title since 2005, rumors shot up in the press about some mysterious consortium that might be buying the club.

That’s pretty heady stuff for a club that has a whopping 65 season ticket holders.

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Investment?

I’m not sure who this consortium group is, but they really must be optimistic if they think they’re going to get much money out of this project.

Oh, we’ve made money — that part is for sure. We have no expenses, after all. “Our” stadium, Pago Park Soccer Stadium, is actually a field jointly shared by all 11 teams in the league. We have to carefully schedule our friendlies and practices around what the other teams do, though, to be honest, that’s not really that hard — most of them hardly practice anyway.

The point, though, is that we have no expenses. Nobody connected with the club earns a salary. We have no stadium maintenance fees. We do nothing but make small profit off the 400 to 500 people who bother to show up to our matches.

Seriously, though — if a consortium group tried to buy this team, how much would they even pay? What are we worth? We have no training facilities, an awful youth setup, and “hire” players by convincing them that our shirt colors look cooler. What is there to buy?

And what would a new ownership group do? It would be hilarious to see some sort of sugar daddy owner come in, only to realize that our club would never attract foreign talent, and that all players in American Samoa play for free.

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Impact

Chairman Nofomuli Scanlan did his part by publicly ridiculing the talk of a pending takeover.

However, he then announced that he will retire from his hands-on roles and will focus on part-time roles connected with the club going forward.

This has me really confused. Is anybody running the ship? Does the board plan to bring anybody new in? Am I technically the person with the most power at this completely amateur club?

I suppose the biggest impact this could have on us would be temporarily putting a halt to transfers. However, I completed my transfers before the window even started, arranging to bring in 30 new players to make our excellent side even better. They can pause things all they want, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve got the team I want, and I feel fine.

[Daniel Evensen]

Oceania Champions League

Well, our first trip to the Champions League wound up being a bust.

We took on Vaipuna from Samoa in our opening match and wound up losing, 3-1. The highlight was undoubtedly the fact that we played in front of a crowd of 1,000, which is the largest crowd we’ve ever seen. I’m wondering if the boys weren’t a little bit spooked by how large the audience was.

We then took on Lotoha’apai from Tonga, and fought them to a 2-2 draw.

Our final attempt at qualifying for the Champions League proper was a match against Titikaveka from the Cook Islands, which we also drew, this time 1-1. And that was all we could do.

Toa Maile scored twice for us, as did new signing Chris Fa’amoana. If we could have managed wins in either of our two final games, we would have won the group. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

Here’s hoping for better luck next year!

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New Signings

Speaking of which, we do have a number of new signings to report on.

Chris Fa’amoana, an American Samoa national team player, highlights the group. We wound up bringing in 30 new players, which is saying a lot for a team that completely dominated the league last season. I just hope I haven’t upset the balance too much.

That’s what happens when you’ve got an amateur club, of course. It cost us nothing to bring those guys in. We might as well bring in some more!

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New Tactic

I also made a few small changes to the tactic.

It wasn’t much. I’ve been trying to stop our boys from lumping the ball forward all the time, and am trying to get them to focus more on building up play slowly from the back. We love to try to play a counter press offensive game, but we’re actually pretty poor at it. We’d be better off slowly working the ball into the box, dominating possession, and scoring goals the beautiful way.

I also changed our shadow striker attacking midfield role to a second forward, this time one lying deep. The idea is to allow the likes of Toa Maile to play deep, occasionally feed balls in to Chris Fa’amoana, and maybe have a chance to score a goal or two himself.

All these changes might have led to our Champions League failure. Still, it’s worth a shot. Honestly, I’m happy that we did as well as we did. It could have been a lot worse.

Note: Due to a strange bug, I was unable to actually play the Oceania Champions League games in Football Manager.  I was unable to register any of the players for the competition.  We were able to play the games when I holidayed through them, however.  I think the bug has something to do with the fact that the Champions League took place before our next season officially began.  I'm going to keep an eye on this and will see what happens in the future.  In the hopes of saving the project and the save, this bug might force me to move to another country in Oceania earlier than expected.

[Daniel Evensen]

Second Place?

After our Champions League disappointment, we started the season ready to dominate.

We beat Royal Puma by a comfortable 6-2 margin.

And that’s when things went bad.

We took on Ilaoa and To’omata in front of a home crowd of 524 (don’t laugh — that’s big for American Samoa). And, well, we lost.

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What Happened?

You know, I’m actually not quite sure what happened.

It’s not like we started a bunch of bad players. We went with Mark Taga’i and Petu Pouli up front, two new signings. Petu Pouli finished second to Toa Maile in the race for top scorer in the league last year. I thought he’d be good, but he wound up looking really poor.

Our new goalkeeper, Hengihengi Ikuvalu, simply had an awful match. In fact, the entire defense looked poor. Even star centerback Ioane Palepua couldn’t save things when he came on.

We went down 1-0 in the 34th minute, and then gave up a second goal in the 91st minute. Our only hint at a comeback was a single goal scored by King Moe (another new signing) in the 94th minute, giving us a somewhat reasonable final score of 2-1.

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Looking Forward

So what happens now?

Well, we hope that Ilaoa and To’omata lose. We’re in second place at the moment, and we really need them to give up ground to give us a realistic shot.

One of the problems with playing in this league is that there are only 11 teams. That means a season of only 20 games, which means that a single loss can really sting. It’s not unreasonable to expect Ilaoa and To’omata to go undefeated the rest of the way.

We might be able to beat them when we face them again, though. That’s really our one hope.

 

[Daniel Evensen]

Another Ridiculous Loss

Things have gone from bad to worse.

We rebounded nicely after the 2-1 loss to Ilaoa and To’omata. We crushed Taputimu Youth, destroyed Pago Youth, and beat Utulei pretty easily.

We were in second place, only 3 points behidn Ilaoa and To’omata (who, of course, haven’t lost anything).

And then we stumbled again.

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Vaiala Tongan

Vaiala Tongan were picked to finish 4th this season. They stumbled somewhat coming out of the gates, losing 3 of their first 4 and finding themselves near the bottom of the charts.

And, well, they simply destroyed us.

I don’t know what happened. I can’t explain it. We lost, 2-0, and simply put up our worst offensive performance of the season.

I suppose the offense might have been the problem. Mark Taga’i and King Moe played up front. Both had horrible games, shooting with extremely low accuracy and not bothering to pass the ball. Moe finally gave way for Petu Pouli in the second half, but it was too little, too late.

We also had poor performances from players who I would have expected to be at least somewhat decent. 16-year-old Zion Sione, for example, played absolutely horribly in the back, and has been sent down to the under 18 squad. Peyton Malani, who was one of last season’s stars, also played poorly, and has been demoted as a result.

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Cause For Alarm?

Look — we’re a better team than this.

But this really is a cause for alarm. Ilaoa and To’omata don’t show any signs of slowing down. And now we are 6 points behind them.

I can’t explain it — I really can’t. We played Vaiala Tongan no fewer than 4 times in offseason friendlies, winning every single one of those matches. In fact, our under 18 squad played them 3 times, winning 2 of the 3.

I hate to say this, but a loss like this might hasten my departure. We’re a better side than this, and I simply don’t have the time or patience to deal with this level of inconsistency.

[DeadPanda]

Always disheartening when the inconsistency kicks in like this... they must have learnt from all those friendlies just what not to do!

[Daniel Evensen]

Saving The Season?

I told you we were a good team.

We’ve recovered nicely from that awful loss to Vaiala Tongan.

We’ve won 5 in a row, most of which weren’t anywhere near close.

We destroyed Black Roses a week after that loss, 3-0. Toa Maile scored 2, and new signing Chris Fa’amoana added in a goal of his own.

Next came Green Bay, who we slaughtered at home, 4-0. Petu Pouli scored 2 goals in that one, showing that he isn’t all that bad after all.

We then squeaked by Lion Heart, 2-1, and ran Tafuna Jets ragged, winning 4-2.

And that set us up for our second match against Royal Puma.

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Blowing It?

This match was much closer than it should have been.

Toa Maile came storming out of the gates, scoring a hat trick by the 20th minute and putting us up, 3-0.

Chris Seleni, an occasional midfielder playing in a Mezzala role, added one in the 31st minute, putting us up 4-0. I thought we might wind up with 7 or 8 goals by the end of it.

Royal Puma came back with one on a goal by Mark Ashley, but I didn’t think much of it. In fact, Petu Pouli came right back with a goal of his own in the 1st minute of injury time at the end of the first half.

Royal Puma scored another one right before halftime. I don’t know what the referee was thinking, but it didn’t seem to matter. 5-2 is a great halftime scoreline.

And then came the second half.

We just didn’t show up. Mark Ashley scored again in the 50th minute, and then finished up his hat trick in the 62nd.

We simply had no momentum. We got the ball in good positions, all right, and maintained quite a bit of possession. But we couldn’t stop them.

We survived the barrage, thankfully, but still wound up winning by a very slim 5-4 margin.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

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The Big One

That sets up our rematch with Ilaoa and To’omata.

We absolutely have to win this match if we’re going to stand any chance at winning the league. The season simply isn’t long enough for us to rely on second and third chances.

I know we can do it. We beat then 4-2 in a friendly during the international break. We’ve got more talent than they do, a better tactic, and the best goalkeeper in the country.

But I’m scared.

[Daniel Evensen]

Moving On

The good news comes first. We beat Ilaoa and To’omata.

It was close. Chris Fa’amoana scored in the 44th minute after a tight, defensive first half.

Roy Ledoux, our unheralded left winger, scored a rare goal in the 52nd minute, after which Fa’amoana added his second in the 66th. I thought we’d be able to coast to the finish line.

Not quite. Takai Faaoga finally broke through our defense in the 80th minute, making the score 3-1.

And then, right when we thought it was over, Raynel Krishna (what a great last name) scored in the 4th minute of added time, making it 3-2.

They didn’t touch the ball again, thankfully. But it really made me sweat.

---

The Bad News

And now, of course, comes the bad news.

We had a full week between the Ilaoa and To’omata match and our next match against Taputimu Youth.

Taputimu Youth aren’t a good team by any stretch of the imagination. We beat them 4-1 in our first encounter with them, and manhandled them 6-1 in the next to last friendly we played before the season started.

They’re in 8th place and don’t show any signs of competing this season.

But, well, we lost.

It was a close lost — but, then again, all of our losses have been close. We had a 2.10 xG to their 0.61, had 9 shots on target to their 2, and had 61% of the possession.

Petuliki Tualaulelei scored a goal in the 24th minute, though, after 34-year-old (and soon to be retiring) left back Liatama Amisone was too slow to get back to his defensive position.

And, well, we didn’t really come close to scoring.

Toa Maile did his best. Chris Fa’amoana, on the other hand, played very poorly, forcing me to bring Petu Pouli on at halftime.

It didn’t matter what I did. I shouted, I screamed, I cajoled, I swore — and we still couldn’t get the ball into the back of the net.

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The End?

The problem is that we can’t overcome this deficit.

I suppose it’s mathematically possible. We’re only 6 points behind Ilaoa and To’omata with 7 matches left. We’re playing against the worst teams in the league.

But so are they.

Our goal differential is a mere 19 compared to their 24. In other words, for us to have a realistic chance, we would either have to blow our opposition out (something we haven’t done this season), or we would have to hope that they lost 3 out of 7.

It’s not going to happen: that much I know.

Now, I’m not in any danger of losing this job. While all of this was happening, PanSa East FC Chairman Nofomuli Scanlan stepped down. He was replaced by Samaraki Ah Sam, who is suddenly more than happy if we finish in the top half.

But you know my ambition. I’m not here to finish in the top half.

I need to win the Oceania Champions League, not battle for supremacy in American Samoa for years on end.

And so we’ll see what happens. If there was ever a time to jump to a new team in Oceania, it would be now.

[Daniel Evensen]

It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue

Well, the promised comeback never materialized. And now the season is officially over.

We did our best. We fought as hard as we could. We came up short in the end, sadly.

Ilaoa & To’omata have officially clinched the season after 18 games played. They’ve collected 48 points against our 40.

We’re a cinch for second place, but there’s simply no way we can overcome them from here. Even if they lose their final two matches and we win both of ours, we’ll still be 2 points short.

It’s sad but true.

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So Close, Yet So Far

The kicker for us was a 2-2 draw with Green Bay for our 18th match of the season.

We should have won. We’re a better team than they are, hands down. But we just couldn’t get it to work.

We had an xG of 3.20 to their 1.36. We dominated possession, winning about 60% of it. We’ve done a good job of slowing down our offense, holding on to the ball and looking for incisive shots rather than just lumping it forward and hoping for the best.

And we still couldn’t win.

I mean, a win against Green Bay wouldn’t have necessarily saved our season. This draw, though, is a good symbol for what our second season has been like. We’ve had a lot of good opportunities wind up wasted.

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The Dagger

The worst part of it all came a few days ago.

Ilaoa & To’omata were on their way to a loss when we came up against Vaiala Tongan, a team that has been a real thorn in our side for my entire time at PanSa.

It was one of those matches where we dominated everything but the scoreline. We had 58% of the possession, completed 75% of our passes to their 64%, won 60% of the headers, and seemed to be in control.

However, none of our 9 shots were anywhere near the target. They won, 1-0, on a well-placed header by Sekone Vaiali’i on the counterattack.

It’s hard to blame the defense for giving up a single goal. And I just don’t understand where our supposedly excellent strikers have gone.

Just wait ‘till next year.

[Daniel Evensen]

Aftermath

Well, our second season didn’t go quite as well as we would have liked.

It wasn’t an awful failure, of course. We wound up in second place, finishing with 43 points. We won 14, lost 5, and drew one. In the end, we were only 5 points away from Ilaoa & To’omata, who finished with 48 points after an end-of-season collapse.

I want to take credit for at least part of that collapse, by the way. We were out of the running in the end, but I decided to woo all of Ilaoa & To’omata’s best players away anyway, mostly out of spite. Perhaps it wasn’t the kindest thing to do, but at least it made it look like we were closer than we really were.

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New Strategy

From here on out, we’re going to put together a squad the right way.

I’m getting rid of those inconsistent players, the ones who have a good match today and a poor match tomorrow. I can’t stand it anymore. From now on, I’m going to listen less to the recommendations that come from my scouts and will pay more attention to signs of consistency.

We’re going to focus a lot more on personalities as well. I’m tired of being surrounded by players who are willing to give up once the slightest challenge comes their way. If your head isn’t on straight, there are plenty of other clubs in the league that you can play for.

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The Purge

This has led to a purge — one that is deep and far-reaching.

It’s not just a few players that we got rid of. We got rid of quite a few, including players who are on the American Samoan national team.

There are too many players to mention here, of course. It’s a completely new squad — one that might not have the same international accolades, but a squad that is younger, more dedicated, and hungry for victory.

I’m not sure we’ll be able to win the league in our third season. However, I’m convinced that I won’t find this team as frustrating as the team we had in our second season was.

[Daniel Evensen]

Slow Start

It’s been a slow start to our third season here at PanSa East F.C.

We were up 5-1 against Vaiala Tongan in our first home match, and looked like we were going to win it in a laughter. And then they started to come back.

After an awful second half defensive performance on our part, we were lucky to get out of it with the shirts still on our backs. 5-5 was the final score, and we didn’t score a single goal in the second half.

I’m not sure if I should chalk it up to our rivalry with Vaiala Tongan, or to poor defense. Whatever the problem is, I hope it doesn’t last.

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Bad Defense

The bad defense only continued from there.

We went up 4-1 over Utulei in our second match at halftime, and scored a 5th right after the second half started.

I thought that we might score 7 or 8. We had a few matches like that during the preseason friendlies. Besides, Utulei look like a really bad team this year.

True to form, though, we gave up a couple of second half goals, barely escaping with a 5-3 victory.

We had 10 goals in 2 matches, and yet only had 4 points to show for it. Maybe there’s something in the air.

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What Next?

We followed all of that up with a disappointing 1-1 draw at home with Lion Heart.

I’m not sure what to think about our team this season. We’re not horrible, but we also aren’t as dominant as we were the first year.

It might be the tactics. It might be some of my transfers. Or it might just be bad luck, combined with unfamiliarity on our squad in general.

Whatever it is, we’ll see if we can’t turn this season around. We’re in 6th place right now, which is simply unforgivable.

[oche balboa]

Liking this story. Please keep up the good work 

[Daniel Evensen]

Building Back Up

Well, things have been pretty inconsistent since I last reported to you.

We responded well to those frustrating early season draws, destroying Royal Puma by a 5-1 margin and crushing Green Bay, 4-1.

I thought that we might be able to keep ourselves in the title hunt for a little while longer. Toa Maile was scoring goals for fun, and right winger Robert Kaleopa was getting in on the act.

And then the other shoe dropped.

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We Lost To Them?

We somehow managed to blow a match to the Tafuna Jets, losing by a 3-2 margin.

Paneta Kuresa scored a hat trick for the Jets in the end. The first goal came near the end of the first half, when we had a 1-0 lead. Central defender Ueli Tualaulelei, usually one of my favorite players, gave up a penalty that I simply cannot forgive him for. Kuresa scored that one easily, added a second shortly after we went up 2-1 around the 50th minute, and then put us away in the 80th.

It was simply an awful blow - there’s no better way to describe it. Our title hopes have not necessarily been completely dashed, but it’s hard to imagine us coming back strong from that one.

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Hatred of Big Matches

I think we’ve got a lot of young players on the squad who secretly hate big matches.

We followed up that loss by crushing Pago Youth, 5-3, and then blanking Black Roses, 2-0. We played well in both matches, though I worry a lot about the propensity our defense has for giving up goals.

My worry is what will happen when we play Vaiala Tongan, Ilaoa & To’omata, and Lion Heart again. We can’t win the league unless we beat the other elite teams, and we don’t really deserve to call ourselves an elite squad until we do so.

It’s going to be an uphill road.

[Daniel Evensen]

Back In The Mix

We’ve made it back to the top of the league. We’re solidly in second place, right behind Lion Heart — and I think we can overtake them. This season has quickly advanced from a lost cause to something absolutely doable.

We started it off with a big win against Taputimu Youth, a team that I always knew we were more than capable of beating. We destroyed them, 3-0. Maybe the defense isn’t so bad after all!

18-year-old Elama Atu had a goal. Atu has risen up as our most exciting young player, by far. It feels like there’s nothing he can’t do. He seems to give the rest of the team a boost of energy when he makes his runs, and is quickly becoming a fan favorite.

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The Big One

We then had the real big one — a match against Ilaoa & To’omata, the team we’ve been fighting with tooth and nail for the past two seasons.

I was ready for everything. I thought this was going to be one of those crazy matches that was going to come down to the wire. I thought it might be an all-time classic.

It wasn’t, of course. We beat them 3-0. It wasn’t even close.

Atu and Maile scored, which is the way it should be. This win has me thinking that we might wind up winning the league this year.

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Revenge

Finally, we got our revenge on Vaiala Tongan.

We destroyed them in this match, 5-1. It wasn’t even close. We scored early, and we scored often. We scored goals like gangbusters, and we didn’t take our foot off the gas at all.

We do have a good team. I just don’t think we fully realize it yet. We should be winning the league, not drawing a few matches here and there and losing to a team near the bottom of the table.

I just hope we can figure out who we really are as a team.

[Daniel Evensen]

Ominous Signs?

You know what? I’m actually not sure we’ll win the league this season.

The beginning of my worries came with our match against Utulei. We won, yes, but only by the slimmest of margins — an embarrassing 1-0 triumph against the worst team in the league. Our young centerback Hengihengi Pouli scored our only goal, which is the part that stings the most.

Even our fan support waned. We only attracted 276 customers to that stinker of a match. We usually have right around 500.

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The Big One

That’s when we faced Lion Heart.

Lion Heart have established themselves as our only real competition this season. They came into this match in second place, with 27 points to our 29 and with a game in hand.

And, oh man, did they ever beat us.

We lost the match 5-2, and weren’t in it at all. After Jermaine Sione scored in the 40th minute for them, Toa Maile came back with an equalizer. Sione scored again in the 64th minute, but Rock Kaleopa game back a few minutes later to tie it up again.

And then we just fell apart defensively. Sione got his hat trick, Junior Teoni added two more, and it was a disaster.

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It All Falls Down

We followed that up with two poor matches: a 2-2 draw with Royal Puma and a 0-0 draw with Green Bay.

We managed a 5-2 win against the Tafuna Jets to make it somewhat interesting, but I really don’t think we have a chance at doing anything better than second place this season.

I’ve got no idea what happened to the magic we had the first year.

[Daniel Evensen]

The Ultimate Humiliation

I had my hopes up, I’ll admit.

We came out of that funk looking impressive. Toa Maile scored 2 goals in a 3-1 win we enjoyed over Pago Youth, and then scored 3 more in a masterful 4-0 defeat of Black Roses.

We were really close to Lion Heart, and we had a better goal differential than they did. All we neeeded to do was to win out to give ourselves a fighting chance.

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Game Over

Of course, we didn’t do that.

We came up against Taputimu Youth for the 19th match of the season, needing a win to stay alive.

I went nuts with my transfer policy. I signed the best players from Lion Heart, Ilaoa & To’omata, and Vaiala Tongan. I figured I’d try a scorched earth strategy to prevent them from winning.

It didn’t work. Lion Heart won — and then we inexplicably lost to lowly Taputimu Youth.

It was a 1-0 loss, but it wasn’t really close. Joe Seong scored in the 65th minute, and we basically rolled over and died.

And that was it for our season.

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The Plan

As if our season wasn’t dead enough, a 3-0 loss to Ilaoa & To’omata sealed our fate.

We wound up in 4th place at the end of the season, after being up near the top all year long.

It’s a long offseason, but I’ve got a plan. I’m going to go around to all of the amateur countries in the world, and will sign anybody who is willing to come along.

We don’t have the budget to scout these players, but I’m not afraid to sign them outright to amateur contracts and then release them. Let’s see if we can’t get some sort of super team put together for next season.

I’m tired of losing, after all.

[Daniel Evensen]

Apologies for the delay - being gone on vacation for a few days has thrown me way off schedule.

Do You Believe In Magic?

If you don’t believe in magic, you should check out our start to this season.

We’ve been absolutely spectacular. We destroyed Ilaoa & To’omata by a 5-1 margin, exacted our revenge on Lion Heart by a 2-0 score, and have been spectacular since.

Our only blemish was a 1-1 draw with Vaiala Tongan, and even then we looked like the better team.

The plan is working. We’ve had 3 clean sheets, have won 5 of 6 games, and have yet to lose.

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Dark Clouds Ahead

There are storm clouds on the horizon, however.

Pago Youth are playing just as well as we are, and keep jumping ahead of us in the standings. We play against them next, and I’m not entirely sure how this is going to work out.

The problem is that I released a bunch of the young players we signed from abroad when they started showing consistency and personality problems. Once they were dropped by us, they promptly signed with other clubs, leading to a real Pandora’s Box situation in American Samoa.

We’re not the only club with foreign players now — and we’re in danger of slipping away.

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New Tactic

Part of the success came from a new tactic that I designed.

It’s a possession focused 3-4-2-1 system, designed to wear down the defense and play the ball up the middle. Ideally, we score goals after holding the ball for long periods of time and wearing out our opponents.

It doesn’t always work, sadly. The American Samoan players seem especially prone to lumping the ball ahead and trying to outrun everybody when they are under pressure.

Still, we’ve been able to maintain possession for large chunks of time each game. This could wind up being a great success for us in the long run.

[Daniel Evensen]

The Big Change

Things have changed a lot.

It didn’t go well at PanSa, unfortunately.  I started to lose the clubhouse quickly, and we went on a small losing streak.

I looked around the world, and found myself with an interesting option to move forward. Naturally, I wanted to stay in Oceania to keep the Hexagon Challenge spirit alive. However, there was an intriguing challenge looming not too far away, one that I simply couldn’t turn down.

Mars FC of Taoyuan, Taiwan, was in last place in the Taiwanese league when I arrived. They weren’t just in last place, actually. They were in last place with only 6 matches to go, in an absolutely desperate situation.

My challenge was to prevent them from being relegated. I had a little bit of money — not enough money to get anybody really impressive (besides, it’s Taiwan: we’re not signing Messi, lol), but enough to do something respectable.

Tactic in hand, I set out to do my best.

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Great Results

The results were positive, to say the least.

My first match was against Taichung Futuro, the best team in the league — and, as it turned out, the eventual winners of the league. We were in dead last and were favorites to sink like a rock.

We won, 4-1.

We followed that one up with a 6-3 shellacking of Tainan City.

And then came our first close match - a 3-2 victory over Athletic Club Taiwan.

We had arrived.

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Doing it the hard way

Of course, that wasn’t quite enough to keep us afloat.

After a few draws and some bad luck, we wound up finishing the season in 7th place. That meant we weren’t automatically relegated, thereby saving my new job. However, it also meant that we had to play a relegation playoff battle against Ming Chuang University.

We won both legs, though it wasn’t easy. We had two 2-1 victories, two matches that really could have gone either way.

And, well that’s how we did it. I came in as a total unknown, a random coach from American Samoa going out on a little vacation. And now I’ve got a reputation for saving clubs from disaster.

I think we’ll stay in Taiwan for a few seasons before returning to Oceania. It provides a welcome distraction.