Pura Vida - Build a nation with CS Cartaginés in Costa Rica

[MrTepig]

Welcome and thanks for joining as I manage Club Sport Cartaginés in the Costa Rican first division!

I will be using MasterIgor's database for this, so shoutout to him.

Founded in 1906 in Cartago, CS Cartaginés is the 2nd oldest club in Costa Rica, though it is the oldest professional club in all of Central America. They have won the Primera División 4 times, with the first one coming in 1923, followed by 1936, 1940 and then finally breaking an 82 year dry spell in 2022. During that time, they've also come runners up on 11 occasions. They've also won the cup 5 times, with the last one also coming in 2022. Los Brumosos have appeared in the CONCACAF Champions Cup 5 teams from 1974 to 1997, winning the 1994 edition over Mexican club Atlante.

In summary, they're one of the Big 4 clubs in Costa Rica with a fanbase that spans the entire country. However, they're also the one that has won the least titles, trailing the disappeared CS Libertad by 2 in the ranking, then Herediano by 25, Alajuelense by 26 and Saprissa by 35. We definitely have our work cut out for us.

Now, in-game, our training facilities are good, while our youth have adequate facilities and average coaching. Our youth recruitment is above average. This makes us on-par with the rest of the big clubs in Costa Rica. Financially, we have $620k in the bank, but are spending $1.4 million per year on wages, which makes participating in CONCACAF competitions even more important.

It is June 26, 2023, practically one month before the beginning of the Apertura, in which the board expects us to be a top half team. In the next update, we'll go over the squad.

Bienvenidos a Cartago!

[MrTepig]

Alright, the magic spreadsheet has been filled and let's look at the team we have at our disposal. The spreadsheet rates players out of 100 by using a weighted average of main, secondary and other attributes and also takes into account the "hidden" attributes by adding or subtracting based on the coach summary.

I'll be using a 4-2-3-1 formation that focuses on keeping possession, being patient in attack and transitioning quick.

Starting 11:

GK - Kevin Briceño - 31, CRC - Rat: 54

Our starting goalkeeper is most certainly not the best in the world, but according to our assistant he is one of the best in the league. His true strength lies in his mentals, with excellent concentration and agility to go with good positioning. At 31, he's a very consistent player but one me might want to replace depending on performance.

DR - José Luis Quirós - 23, CRC - Rat: 53

Quirós is fine on both sides of the ball, with good enough crossing and marking. He must improve his off the ball movement and stamina to make a bigger impact on the offensive side of the game, but he's a good enough player for this level. He's just 23 years old with potential for growth, and he's one of the few players with a 2 year contract.

DC - Kevin Espinoza - 26, CRC - Rat: 48

Espinoza is a good defender. The problem is, that's it, he's just a good header and tackler but he might lose his man more often than not. The spreadsheet penalizes him because it's used to rating BPDs, and Espinoza will have 0 impact on the build-up/offensive game. Overall, he's a fine defender if a bit inconsistent, but good enough for now.

DC - Jose Gabriel Vargas - 33, CRC - Rat: 50

Vargas is versatile, and that versatility gives him alright attributes in passing to go with his good marking and tackling skills. However, his positioning lets him down and at 180cm tall, he doesn't have the best jumping reach. The veteran center back is decent for now, but at 33 years old is definitely a candidate for replacement in 2024.

DL - Diego González - 27, MEX - Rat: 56

The Mexican loanee is definitely good enough for this level, with his weakest "main" attribute being his teamwork. Diego doesn't excel at anything though, but he's a well-rounded player who knows the league after spending 2019-23 on loan at Herediano. There's no option to buy on his loan so we'll try to get as much out of him as we can this year.

MC - Bernal Alfaro - 26, CRC - Rat: 59

Bernal is the third highest rated player on the team currently, with good tackling, aggression and work rate. He's a very good defensive midfielder for this level, though he might need to work on his stamina before truly becoming a star. Renewing his contract is a priority these first months.

MC - Dylan Flores - 30, CRC - Rat: 62

His high rating probably justifies his very high wages, though we might see if he's willing to take a pay cut to stay at the club. Apparently, he's better suited as an attacking midfielder with a good finishing rating, but we'll have to play him a bit back and use him as our main creative force. He has the technique and mental ability to play this role at a good level, so he'll start as many games as we can give him.

AMR - Jeikel Venegas - 35, CRC - Rat: 56

At his age, Venegas is really not that fast. However, he has the technical ability and hard-working mindset to make an impact down the right wing. He's also injury prone and with a contract until 2025, we might just let that run down and get a better winger in the near future.

AMC - Marcel Hernández - 33, CUB - Rat: 61

Marcel is quick enough and technically good enough, but he really excels at reading the game, both in anticipation and off the ball movement. A very consistent player who shows up when it matters, the Cuban veteran is an important player in this squad and the reason why Flores is playing further back.

AML - Jossimar Pemberton - 30, CRC - Rat: 52

There's a lack of left-footed options for the wing, so Pemberton will play as an inside forward to exploit his speed and finishing skill down this flank. He's also injury prone, which adds another reason to replace him once his contract runs out at the end of the season.

ST - Marcos Ureña - 33, CRC - Rat: 55

Ureña is a well-traveled striker, having played in Russia, Denmark, USA, South Korea and Australia before returning to Costa Rica. But, he is aging and he only scored one goal in his return last season. Technically and mentally he's not good enough anymore, but he's still one of the fastest players on the team so we'll play him up front until he gets into a slump or gets injured.

Bench/Backup

GK - Darryl Parker - 30, CRC - Rat: 57

GK - Enmanuel Brizuela - 21, CRC - Rat: 46

DR - Victor Murillo - 28, CRC - Rat: 54

DC - Aubrey David - 32, TRI - Rat: 54

DC - William Quiros - 28, CRC - Rat: 43

DC - Isaí Molina - 22, CRC - Rat: 49

DL - Kendrick Enríquez - 20, CRC - Rat: 53

MC - Douglas López - 24, CRC - Rat: 50

AMR - Eduardo Valverde - 21, CRC - Rat: 53

AMR - Jossimar Méndez - 21, CRC - Rat: 47

AMC - Kenneth Cerdas - 27, CRC - Rat: 53

AML - Isaac Paris - 20, CRC - Rat: 52

ST - Justin Daly - 25, CRC - Rat: 58

Summary

So, our team is good enough for the expectations set upon us and maybe a bit more, though I won't expect to really compete for the title. Our starting 11 is on the older side and we also have two main problems financially: 1) all but 3 of the contracts expire at the end of this season and 2) we only have about $76k left of the budget available. On average, for some reason, our squad players make more than our regular players and our important players make almost 4x what the regular players make. Financials are definitely something to sort out before we're ready to become title contenders.

Youth-wise there's not much to talk about with only 6 players in our U20s team. Our top prospect is right-back Carlos Barahona, who could debut as soon as this season if we don't loan him out. In second place is midfielder Enmanuel Chacón, who'll stay put in case we need more depth at that position. The rest of them, as well as Barahona, have been listed for loan as our assistant thinks they're good enough to play second division football.

With that, we're ready to begin the preseason with a game against Guadalupe.

[MrTepig]

2023 Preseason Report

It's now the end of July 2023, and we've got news! First, let's talk about our results. We played 3 local clubs and invited the MLS Colorado Rapids to Cartago in our 3rd game. Results were overall good, but the defeat against the worst MLS team tells us there's still a lot of work to do before we can compete at the CONCACAF level.

Unsurprisingly, Dylan Flores was our best player this preseason, scoring 2 goals for a 7.18 average rating. His best game was against Guadalupe, where he was responsible for the win, while his worst game was against Colorado where he still was decent. We expect his creative contributions to continue throughout the season, and hopefully we can also work out a contract that doesn't have him making double what the next highest paid player earns.

We've also made a new signing, a backup for Dylan: Enmanuel Gamboa. Gamboa is a 23 year old Costa Rican midfielder signed on a free. He played 6 games for Grecia last year in his debut season. He signed a 2 year contract as a fringe player, my spreadsheet rates him at a 53 which we hope can at least slightly improve but is still good enough to be backup for Flores.

This year, we will be participating in the CONCACAF Central American Cup. We've been drawn into Group A alongside Universitario from Panama, Cobán Imperial from Guatemala, Jocoro from El Salvador and fellow Costa Ricans Saprissa. The board is expecting us to qualify into the CONCACAF Champions Cup, which means either making the semifinals, or being one of the 2 quarter final losers to win the following playoff. Overall, 6 out of the 20 clubs will qualify to the Concachampions. I believe we're more than good enough to make it out of the group with the game against Saprissa being the only real challenge. From there it depends on who we get as there are some strong teams in the region such as Olimpia, Real Estelí, Comunicaciones, Herediano, Alajuelense, Motagua or even Saprissa though I don't think we can face them in the quarter finals.

It was a short and simple preseason, which gets us ready ahead of a very busy month of August, where we play 4 league games (5 if you count the one on the 30th of July) as well as 4 CA Cup games. We'll need to keep the players fit, rotating when possible against local opposition, and hopefully also be qualified by the time the Saprissa game comes around. Here's the slate of games we'll cover in the next update.

Thanks for reading!

[MrTepig]

August 2023 Report

It was a long month, weighing heavily on our squad which lacks the depth to play 2 games per week. Even so, I think we managed it adequately, losing only two games. Despite the seemingly positive record, we're hanging around in the mid-table as well as being eliminated from the Central American Cup.  We've managed to extend 6 players, some with raises and other with wage cuts but the money just isn't there to extend all of them. This has led to backup defender William Quiros unsettling the whole squad because I wanted to see his performances this season before deciding whether to extend him or not. So, here are our results this month:

We had a bad start to the league season, failing to score against Sporting and Santos despite out-shooting them 31-11! Sporting managed only one shot on target, yet we couldn't find the way. Fortunately for us, our international opponents didn't share the same luck, with us winning our first two games comfortably. This seemed to spark something in the players as they beat Grecia handily, but then the tiredness caught up. We gave Jocoro their only point after leading the game and allowing a 70th minute goal. I decided to rotate the squad for the Pérez game with the goal of keeping the squad fresh for the very important Saprissa game coming up. Of course, it was very frustrating but still the rotated squad got us a point. Then came the all-important Saprissa game, which we needed to at least draw to remain in the race. Needless to say, it was a defensive disaster as we allowed 3 of their 5 shots on target to go in. Our goalkeeper Darryl Parker even got an "assist" (for the wrong team) which in the end made the difference as we took our second loss of the month. To end the month, we let all our frustration out against Heredia, smashing them for our second league win of the year.

We're now out of the Central American Cup, which means we can field a full-strength team week in and week out for the 16 games left of the Apertura. We've also been drawn against the winner of the Puntarenas vs Grecia game in the Cup quarter finals. Here are the tables so far:

7th place in the league is not good enough for the board or to make the playoffs, but being able to focus solely on the league will be important going forward.

2 points make all the difference as we're out of the competition. The draw against Jocoro stands out as the most disappointing result.

As expected, Dylan Flores has been a key player for us so far. The midfielder has collected an average rating of 7.62 in league play, along with 2 goals and 2 assists. We expect him to continue being a force the rest of the season, and hopefully he'll agree to lower his salary and sign a new contract for the 24/25 season.

Here's our fixtures for September, as we rest after a hectic August. I predict relaxed games against Puntarenas and Guanacasteca, as well as us making the cup semifinals. The Saprissa rematch is definitely the biggest game this month, followed by the Alajuelense game though they haven't been doing too well. This we'll cover in the next update, thanks for reading!

[Rick87]

Interesting start, I always enjoy a build a nation story, especially in countries like Costa Rica that you don't see much of in these forums. 

You're probably right about being eliminated from the Central American cup being a blessing in disguise so you can focus on the league and a strong Apetura.

[MrTepig]

September 2023 Report

September was a bad month, there's really no other way of putting it. Our dressing room problems came to a head, with the atmosphere hitting the lowest point this month. To appease the team leaders, we signed a new contract with Jeikel Venegas, he will now earn double wages on a shorter duration. I did manage to include a team option for an extra year. We've also signed William Quiros, who I didn't want to give a raise to. He's now tied up for another year, and hopefully he can keep up the 6.97 rating he's had so far. However, these issues weren't resolved until the end of the month was close so we struggled.

The draw against Puntarenas could have been tiredness from last month, but then we just struggled. Alajuelense and Saprissa are big teams, with Saprissa being specially tough. Getting knocked out of the Cup by Puntarenas does hurt, though. We started off by winning 1-0, even with a missed penalty, but then our defense just collapsed. At the end of the month, with our issues resolved, we managed to beat one of the weakest teams in the league.

The board is satisfied with our job so far, but the expectations are not for us to finish where we are. The positive part is that the club atmosphere is somewhat positive now, and team cohesion is about to start turning green. We play 7 games in October, but dealing with easier opponents and with good morale should mean our form turns better.

Aubrey David was our best player this month, averaging a 6.93 rating in 4 matches played. The Trinbagonian was key in defense, winning 7/9 tackles, including 4 key tackles, and 83% of headers. The central defender also contributed in the last game, scoring the first goal in our win against Guanacasteca. He's on loan from Ecuadorian team Aucas and his deal expires 6 months after he returns.

Here's our fixtures for October. It's going to be a tough month physically, no doubt, but facing a couple of the easier opponents in the league should benefit our rotations.

[MrTepig]

October 2023 Report

Another bad month goes by... The amount of injuries we got to end last month and begin this one didn't help either, though we had pretty much a full squad for the last 3 games. To put it nicely, it was very frustrating having to try and come back every single game, scoring 4 times in the last 20 minutes this month. It's like the players decided it's for real once they're losing. So, I changed from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-1-2-2-1 for the last two games of the month, hoping for a better defensive performance. And that's just what happened, this new tactic saw us be more calm when we have the ball and press very intensely when we don't, sort of balancing the efforts with a slower attack looking for spaces and tiring the opponent. The DM in the Anchor role pretty much means we have 5 at the back when we don't have the ball, helping us keep a more solid line. It seems like structure is what was missing from this team, as we won our last two games using this tactic. I'll keep using this 4-3-3 for the rest of the Apertura and re-tool the 4-2-3-1 to test out against weaker teams. Our second best player in AMC Marcel Hernández needs to be playing as much as possible, so we need to get a working tactic with him in it.

Here's how we did in October:

3 wins with a 4 game winless run in the middle. In the end it probably wasn't as bad as I make it out to be, but allowing 15 goals in 7 games is concerning. Of course with the tactic change we won 2 games and allowed only 1 goal (which was a terrible mistake from Briceño). Like I said, I think the 4-3-3 is the way to go, while I re-tool the 4-2-3-1.

Despite our struggles, we're left in a pretty good position. As you can probably tell by now, this league is very volatile and only 2 points separate the 3-8 positions. If we can extend our good run to the 6 remaining games, we should be able to be in the running for a playoff spot in either 3rd or 4th. Either way, it's good enough for the board and possibly good enough for me. Either way, I'll try and make some moves in January to have an even better Clausura.

In other (good) news, it didn't take long to get a call-up. Our goalkeeper Kevin Briceño has been called up to be Costa Rica's 3rd string goalie. He will of course be playing behind PSG backup Keylor Navas and 24 year-old Patrick Sequeira, currently playing for Ibiza. Sequeira has conceded 9 goals in 9 games in the Spanish 3rd division with 3 of his games being clean sheets. Briceño made his Costa Rica debut in September 2018 against Japan, which has been the only game he's played with the national team so far. His season has been just alright, allowing 20 goals in 14 league games, but he is tied in 3rd place with 4 clean sheets. This month, Briceño played 6 games, allowing 11 goals and keeping just one clean sheet. He has averaged a 6.72 rating, and made 15 saves from 26 shots faced (58%). Was it the most deserving call-up? Probably not, but I won't complain too much about having a player make the national team.

Here's the matches in November. The matches that will decide whether we're in the playoffs or not. We'll keep grinding with the more defensive 4-3-3 and hopefully we'll be in it come December.

Thanks for reading!

[MrTepig]

November 2023 Update

Our best month so far comes to an end! The more structured 4-3-3 definitely worked and we only lost one game this month, albeit against the second-worst team in the league. We also went 399 minutes without allowing a goal to start off the month, and only allowed 2 goals in the entire month (against the aforementioned Municipal Liberia). This final stretch led Kevin Briceño to come second in the league with 9 clean sheets. In the end, it truly was a special month which saw us fulfill the top half expectations, but the ending hasn't come yet...

After beating last-place Guanacasteca, we were in 5th and chasing Saprissa for the final playoff spot and losing to Liberia pretty much eliminated all hope in my mind. Until Saprissa went on a bad streak playing their games-in-hand, tying Pérez Zeledón and Guanacasteca 1-1 and losing 4-1 to Santos. This left us still in 5th place, one point away from Saprissa and having to face 7th place San Carlos. Meanwhile, Saprissa faced last-place Guanacasteca. I really thought it was over, even if we beat San Carlos, Saprissa would easily beat Guanacasteca. And it seemed to be going that way, as we were 2-0 up at half-time and Saprissa were also winning their game 1-0. With the final gameweek almost over, our hero sprung into action. Guanacasteca midfielder Josimar Olivero scored his second goal of the season, in the 80th minute, away at Saprissa to secure the semifinals for us!

One point makes all the difference in the end as we're in the semifinals! Beating Liberia or different results in literally any of the other games would have made a huge difference, positive or negative, but it's time to put the regular season behind us and focus on the task ahead: becoming champions.

Here's probably the time to make a small note about the Costa Rican playoff system. It seems like it could be a straight-forward semifinals -> final, and it is. Except the final isn't really the final. Whoever wins the final gets to play the Grand Final against the first place team. So essentially the first place team has two lives in the playoffs. If the first place teams wins the final then they're crowned champions without playing the Grand Final.

So now, Puntarenas. We faced them three times, twice away. Our record is 1-1-1, with them scoring 5 goals against us to our 3. It's certainly a tough tie, with them of course being the 1st place team as well as the cup champions after beating Guanacasteca 3-0 this month. We get to face them at home first, and hopefully establish a lead to keep when we face them at Estadio Lito Pérez next week.

Last month I talked about re-tooling the 4-2-3-1 to get our Cuban attacking midfielder to play. Well, it seems like we can re-tool Marcel Hernández to play as a playmaker further back. With Dylan Flores injured and only 3 midfielders in the team who eventually get tired, I tried Marcel out in central midfield and man, did he deliver! 4 matches, 7.15 average rating, one goal and one assist. We also didn't win the 2 games he didn't play, against Saprissa and Liberia. The Cuban was absolutely fantastic and it's great to know we can count on him to play that position from now on. I've started him on position training, and he's now awkward at MC but hopefully he can be great at it soon.

In the next update, we'll go over the semifinal results. We play Puntarenas at home first, closing it out in the Pacific coast on December 9th. I truly don't know how far this team can go, but I think we can already call this first half season a success.

[MrTepig]

Apertura 2023 Semifinals vs Puntarenas

Above: the city of Cartago, just outside San José's urban sprawl and the second smallest city of the Great Metropolitan Area.

Let's see how we did in our home game:

It was a fantastic game, very exciting if you were a neutral. For me though, I was on the edge the whole time. We start it off with a saved penalty from Kevin Briceño! He definitely wants back into the CR national team. They then converted from the resulting corner kick, meaning we now had a hill to climb. A handful of minutes yet, our left back Diego González made it 1-1 with a shot from just inside the box. The second penalty of the game was converted by Marcos Ureña, giving us the lead. Yet another penalty was called a few minutes later, putting both teams level once more. It seemed like we were going to have to go to Puntarenas looking for a victory, but central midfielder Gamboa tried a long shot that went past the goalkeeper's left. We won the first leg!

We were the best team by pretty much all metrics, with their high xG owing to 2 penalties, one of which they scored. With no VAR in the league, we'll have to put up with this. Either way, our xG suggests González and Gamboa's goal were a bit fortunate. Anyway, have a lead to protect when we go to Puntarenas. In the other match, Herediano beat Sporting 2-0 at home.

In the week between, Saprissa won the Central American Cup and one of our players won an award. We were also granted $160k for participating.

Now we visit a small peninsula in the Gulf of Nicoya. With a population of 46 thousand, the picturesque town is home to Estadio Lito Pérez, just one block away from the beach.

Beach picture from my visit to Puntarenas in December 2022.

Enough tourism, let's see how we did in the second leg:

After a great buildup play, right back José Quirós made a cool, easy finish inside the box. They immediately hit back though, with our center backs losing their marks. A 60th minute goal from Tarragona leaves us needing a goal once again. A penalty for them made sure we were out of it. Just like that, we give up a first leg lead and lose it 5-4 in the end. Our offense just sucked, generating pretty much no game up front, leading to us not scoring. Jeikel Venegas (6.3), Marcos Ureña (6.4) were subbed out for Isaac Paris (6.4) and Justin Daly (6.4) who were also terrible. On the defensive side, Kevin Briceño allowed 3 goals on 4 shots, leading to a 6.3 rating.

Now we rest until January, so I have until then to decide who to keep and who to let go prior to the Clausura. Thanks for reading!

[MrTepig]

End of 2023 Report

Well, the year has come to an end and while it was a disappointing semifinal exit, we were amongst the 4 best clubs in the nation, just where we should be. Losing out against the eventual champions of both the cup and the Apertura doesn't sting that much either. Yes, you read that right, Puntarenas did the double winning both the cup and the league. Now there a rumours swirling that the club could be taken over soon, which would be great news for a club who spent from 2014 to 2022 in the second division.

As for us, well, we got back to work. First, the board agreed to increase my wage budget, allowing me to extend pretty much all the players I want to keep around. Then, I asked the board and they agreed to support our youth, investing in the recruitment efforts and spending 1.6 million dollars on new facilities for the kids. We're now left with only $300k in the bank.  Our finances over the semester have proven to be very healthy as the monthly income from attendances is more than enough to cover for the wage expenses and participating in the Central American Cup generated around $200k.

And speaking of kids, our first intake isn't looking too good.

That was pretty much all the activity prior to the Clausura. I'm looking into bringing in another midfielder for relatively cheap, but no deal is close to done, you can probably expect more news in the January update. For now, thanks for reading!

[MrTepig]

January 2024 Update

It only makes sense to start off this update by talking about the signings we made. As I mentioned in the previous post, we need midfielders to add depth to our 4-3-3 formation. So our first signing is a young Argentinian who was released by River Plate earlier. Talo Colletta joins the club on a free, earning $45k until 2027 but his salary might increase to $60k after he plays 30 games for us. Colletta is alright technically and mentally, though we might want him to improve his stamina and work rate. He's just 20, so he's certainly backup to the likes of Dylan Flores and Bernal Alfaro but he'll certainly get a fair amount of minutes.

Seeing just how cheap he was, we went out and got another South American kid. Coming off a one year hiatus after being released by Libertad, we've signed Paraguayan Adolfo Cáceres. At 21, he's signed on for $7k over a year and a half. That's pretty much minimum salary, and we'll give him a nice wage hike if he performs to expectations. Cáceres is not as good as Colletta, but there's still plenty of minutes to go around. He's good in all the right places for the role we want him to play, with his passing skills and fitness being the highlights of his skillset. To add to this, he's also very consistent according to our assistant. If we can help him reach his potential, he can become a key player for us.

Onto the performances over the first 4 games of the Clausura. We won our first two games, which made a great start to the Clausura. But then our shots stopped going in, while our opponents scored all of theirs, giving us a 50-50 record to start the tournament. Our offensive record is great, but we've got to be more consistent defensively if we want to make the semifinals again.

It's an alright start, though I'm definitely expecting more consistency going forward.

Dylan Flores was once again the best player of the month, averaging a 7.32 with 2 goals and an assist. His creative play was great this month, barring the final game against Pérez Zeledón where the entire team just dropped off. If we get a bit more consistency from the attacking mids and striker, Flores should be able to keep on shining.

Here's our schedule for February, rotation will be key as we play 7 games including the other 3 big clubs and Puntarenas who eliminated us in the semifinals in December.

Thanks for reading!