corinthiano Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 The Premise Mau Penisula is a frustrated figure. His country Tuvalu is not affiliated to FIFA and will never be able to even try and qualify for a World Cup. He knows he can't change that, so instead he sets out to help other countries have their time to shine. He aims to venture into each continent with two aims. Win the Continental Trophy with a Nation that has never won it before Qualify a country from the Continent to the World Cup for the first time These two do not have to be achieved with the same country. Mau will start with the lowest rep Continental trophy and work his way up, from Oceania, through CONCACAF, Asia, Africa, South America and finally Europe. At the end he will try to win a World Cup with a country that has never won it before. In terms of the game set-up we will have a few leagues loaded for whichever continent Mau is in so that enough players get generated locally. There will be no club management at any point whatsoever, only international roles will be taken. Which is why Mau is starting with all necessary badges, but a Sunday League reputation. So, on to the first continent, Oceania and the OFC Nations Cup. Oceania is the weakest of the continents from a footballing perspective, with only two nations making it to a World Cup, Australia, which is now part of AFC and New Zealand. The OFC Nations Cup has also only been won by three nations, again Australia, New Zealand and a solitary win by Tahiti in 2012. The tournament is held every four years, with the last being in 2016, won by New Zealand and 2020 cancelled due to the Covid Pandemic, with the next tournament in 2024. As can be seen not a lot of countries high up in the ranking and Mau took a job with the only country with a vacancy. Cook Islands One of the weaker countries in the continent, the Cook Islands only participated twice in the OFC Nations Cup, losing all 4 games they played, scoring 1 goal and conceding a massive 41. The bar is low for Mau to do better for the country. The aim will be to see how far he can take the country before deciding if a jump to one of the bigger nations will be needed to complete the continent. Let the journey begin 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 March 2023 Two decent draws in the first friendlies. The game against Solomon Islands was already set up and they are above us in the rankings, but Pakistan were the lowest we could play (200th vs us at 187th). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 June 2023 Friendlies were picked on having one higher ranked team (Chinese Taipei - 152nd) and one lower (Anguilla - 209th). In the end two easy victories. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameronFM Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 Love a crazy journey, particularly one where you have no input on the quality of players coming through! Wish you the best of luck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 September 2023 The first defeat of the save and one that does not bode well for our chances in the OFC Nations Cup, although we took them close. Hong Kong was up in 144th in the rankings but we beat the easily and with that we moved from 187th to 183rd. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 37 minutes ago, CameronFM said: Love a crazy journey, particularly one where you have no input on the quality of players coming through! Wish you the best of luck! Thanks! Yes it could be a long and painful journey but at least we'll get a lot of obscurity out of it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 October 2023 Mixed results against some of the bigger boys in Oceania, which leaves me thinking we'll not embarrass ourselves when it comes to competitive fixtures. Talking of which we have the first chance at that in the Pacific Games coming up next month. They are essentially a preview to the OFC Nations Cup with the exception that New Zealand play with an U23 side. Only the top side goes to the final so it'll be tough but as some of the friendlies have shown we should keep it close most of the time. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 2023 Pacific Games Squad All players are based in Oceania, with the better players in Australia, New Zealand and Vanuatu. Ben Mata from Wellington Olympic is our best player and the only one worth any money. Warm-up Friendlies Invited over islanders from the Caribbean to very mixed results. Group Stage A very respectable campaign where we ran the bigger boys close. If the tight games against Fiji and Solomon Islands had gone differently we would have had a chance at making it to ast least the Third Place Playoff. In the Final Fiji beat Vanuatu to claim their third title. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 2024 OFC Nations Cup - First Round Squad No major changes to the squad other than Harlem Siliona being back in the squad after being injured, which is big news as he is our best midfielder. A few 15 year old newgens popped up in Cook Islands too and I called up 3 of them to the main squad. First Round The 4 worst teams in Oceania compete in a separate First Round out of which only one qualifies for the Main Group Stage. We easily dispatched the other teams and comfortably qualified. Up Next We avoid New Zealand in the Second Stage and with us having run Fiji close before I think we have a small chance at making top two and progressing to the Semi Final. We do have to wait until June to play though... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 OFC Nations Cup - Second Round Squad There was one big miss in Tylerr Barringer-Tahiri, our by far second best defender. Second Round Very respectable again, but not quite good enough. We lead against Fiji and Vanuatu at points but couldnt capitalize on it. Up Next We didnt qualify for the Semi Finals, but by not finishing bottom of our group we did qualify for the next stage of the World Cup Qualifiers, which start in November. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 September/October Friendlies A very mixed set of results, seems like we are not good enough against the weaker Asian nations. Big plus though has been finding two Cook Islanders playing in the depths of Europe, they are now amongst the best players in the squad. Playing in the lower Dutch leagues, could be starting goalkeeper for years to come. Playing in Switzerland, could be an excellent goalscorer for us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 November 2024 - Word Cup Qualifiers It is not looking good in the qualifiers for us as again we run the bigger nations close, but not close enough. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 March 2025 We thought we got a late win against New Caledonia when we scored in the 90th minute, but they equalized with the last kick of the game, surely ending our World Cup qualification hopes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 June 2025 An international break to forget as we lose clearly to the Solomon Islands and then let a 4-1 lead turn into a 4-5 defeat against Tonga. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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