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Lam Dong - Season 11 - 2030 - Vietnam - Wake UP 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 1st Well this was a fun season. After winning the league last year, we entered automatically into the group stage of the AFC Champions League where we faced Shanghai Shenhua, Ulsan Hyundai and Guirare Yokohama. I wasn't sure how we'd fare - we'd performed okay a couple of seasons back and we looking stronger, but this was better opposition. The group turned into one of attition with lots of draws early on. Then a home win against Ulsan put us top of the group with one game to go. We won that game and topped our group. We got a favourable draw in the second round and saw of Hachioji Tigre. In the Quarters we faced Shandong Luneng who thumped us 3 - 1 in the first leg. In the return at home we scored two early goals and I was believing but then they scored and deservedly went through. Still, a good run and signals good things to come. The only potential issue is that Vietnam's coefficient went down so I will go into the 1st prelimnary round next year. We won the league eventually. We were heavily resting for the Champions League and lost some games we shouldn't have. But after it went to one game a week, we hit form and won with a game to spare. Nothing special in the cup. We had one "fun" cup game though. For the 3rd qualifying round we had 14 players away on international and 4 injuries, meaning we fielded 5 greyed out players. We've now become a club legend. Only one downer of the season was the board selling my left back. Nothing I could do. Any other position on the pitch I could've dealt with but I have very little talent there. Depending on how next season goes I might post again in two seasons.

I guess you could add another manager to manage that team, immediately resign, then apply with the original manager. Would that work? Would have to carefully plan the reputation.

I feel the same way. The only issue I have is I wanted to do North America with an added database. Is it possible to add a custome database during a game, or do you have to do it at the beginning of the save?

Lam Dong - Season 10 - 2029 - Vietnam - Wake UP 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 1st - Champions! And there's the first part of the challenge complete - Vietnamese League Champions! After almost qualifying for Asia last year, i thought we had a chance of maybe challenging for the title. I'd noticed our position in the season predictions had started to improve a lot, and that is usually a good indicator. We started really well and were 2nd halfway through the season. Then we went on a run of 7 straight wins, and opened up a 7 point lead at the top. Despite losing to the 2nd place team Gia Lai, we managed to win the title with 2 games to spare. We also had a good cup run that saw us reach the final, but ultimately get knocked out by Hanoi FC, who've now won it 3 years straight. We will go straight into the AFC Champions League Group Stage. One potential issue I see is that Vietnam's coefficients is now getting low meaning they have less places in Asia. If it goes much lower then the league winner would only go into the first preliminary round, and there are some good Asian teams waiting in those rounds. So I feel I need a run in Asia this season to keep the rankings up. That, and hopefully some of the Vietnamese teams will do well in the AFC Asian Cup. That cup seems to be split into 4 regional sections, so there's a good chance there. Youth-wise, we're now fully maxed in Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment following the prize money from the league and cup. There were some good Youth Candidates, with a couple maybe coming into the first team. The recent few years have seen a lot of striker but not many midfielders, so I might look at changing from a 4231 to a 442. We also had our first cap, with Truong Trung Sang making his debut.

Lam Dong - Season 9 - 2028 - Vietnam - Wake UP 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 4th Probably back to only 1 season in each season report now rather than the two. We're no longer stuck in mid table it seems so I'm going to holiday a lot less, and seasons will take longer. We finished in 4th, our best position so far in the save. We started well and decided to prioritse the league over the cups. We didn't give up on the cup, but previously we were rotating the whole squad before a mid- week cup game, whereas this season we were rotating where we could without harming our chances in the league. We were knocked out early in the cup, as we had an away tie against a top flight team. In the league, the AFC Champions League place went down to 3rd and with two games left we were 3rd on goal difference. Unfortunately, we lost our penultimate game, then lost the last game away to the team in 3rd. Still, it marked a good amount of progress, and I feel in the next two seasons we can qualify for Asia, and an outside chance of challenging for the title. We gained two improvements in both Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment, once in the off season and another at the end of the season when the league prize money came in. The facilities now stand at Exceptional Junior Coaching and Excellent Youth Recruitment. We're now lising 50k a month so will go into the red soon, so qualification for Asia will be pretty important. Youth-wise, it was an okay group. The best player, Dinh Manh Dung (great silver beard), become our first choice striker immediately and he looks a good one. We now have 6 players in Vietnam U19s, so I feel things are progressing.

Thanks for the advice. I'd had Jamaica and Costa Rica on my list. I was looking at Canada as well, but there's not many teams on the official database.

Lam Dong - Season 7 & 8 - 2026 & 207 - Vietnam - Wake Up 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 7th & 6th We continue to grind through the seasons quickly. The last three updates have all now been 7th and 6th in the league. Inch by inch. However, in Season 7 we took a big leap, what could potentially be the key season in the save. Before I'd identified the cup as key. We're not going to win the league yet, but the cup prize money was higher than the league. Also, the cup was mid week so I thought if I could rotate for the league I could surprise a few teams in the cup. I certainly didn't expect to win it! We had an incredible easy draw. We played a top division club's B team in the quarter finals, and then a team bottom of our league in the semis. I was already happy as this was 300k in the bank already. We played Gia Lai in the final, a top 3 team. They battered us but, through a combination of missed penalties, disallowed goals and bad luck, it went to penalties and we took it. More money and qualification for the AFC Champions League (preliminary). We immediately got approved for more improvements in Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment, and there's plenty left in the bank. In Season 8, we played Yadanarbon from Maynmar in the second qualifying round of the AFC Champions League, and then got drawn against Goungzhou Evergrande in the Playoff final. Oh dear, I thought, but we managed to beat them 3 - 1. I looked at their team before and realized their team wasn't particularly fit. The game was in January, so I had 3 pre-season friendlies plus the previous match. They'd only played one friendly. In the Group Stage we went and we played against Urawa Red Diamonds, Busan Ipark and Chonburi, and we were shown what real football looks like. We did manage 3 draws along the way and pulled in another 500k or so from the competition. I then asked for another upgrade in Youth Facilities, and then saw it cost 575k, which was half my balance. I wonder if it is worth improving Training and Youth Facilities early on in the save? We put together another cup run in Season 8, reaching the final, but then lost out to Ha Noi FC. Youth wise, Season 8 was much better than 7. A couple of players went into the squad and there's some decent looking youth. I'm guessing we're be mid table for another couple of seasons, so we'll continue pushing for the cup. I think we can get more improvements through this season, and I think we can challenge for the league in 3 - 4 seasons.

Which Central American countries do you recommend? I was looking at Canada for North American but the Caribbean does look tempting after seeing the Barbados one.

Lam Dong - Season 5 & 6 - 2024 & 2025 - Vietnam - Wake UP 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 7th and 6th Well, not much has happened since the last update. We've managed to play another 2 seasons in a day. We continued to finish mid-table these two seasons. No cups runs in either season unfortunately - first we were knocked out by a Division 2 team. That one really hurt as that would have put us into the Semi Final, and a guaranteed 100k. In Season 6, we came up against a good team. The Youth was average in both seasons. one left back came straight into the first team but, other than that, I only took the good personalities to fill out the squad. We got another increase in Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. We've gone up to 1 star reputation. Also, the prize money in the league has gone up. Slowly, I feel we are making progress, but it's inch by inch.

I've actually set myself this challenge. The Pentagon Youth Academy Challenge perhaps? So far, I've completed Africa and am working on Asia at the moment. I think I will try to add Oceania as well. XaW - I love the idea of doing it in one save, Only thing that stops me is that the computer processing speed would slow down a lot. Would be great to have a 5 continent completion leaderboard for the motivation.

Lam Dong - Season 3 & 4 - 2022 & 2023 - Vietnam - Wake Up 247 V. League 1 (Tier 1) - 7th and 6th Managed to complete 2 seasons in one day. I don't think I've done that since the old CM days. As mentioned previously, there's only 26 games in the season, one cup which is mostly only 2 or 3 games at the moment, and no scouting/transfers obviously. Also in both seasons it's been pretty obvious we'll come mid table so I've holidayed a lot of the second half of the season. Finally, Vietnam's reputation is still low, so nothing really happens - very little media or anything. Last season (season 2) we got promoted to the top flight. With only 1 team going down for sure, and one going into a playoff, I thought we had a good chance to stay up. We played a lot of pre-season friendlies, and had good team dynamics and form at the start of the season. We lost our first two games, but then played well, and were never in danger of going down. Mid table is fine for now. We struggled for money again, but a cup run netted us around 100k but we were still in the negative. Going into season 4, we guessed we'd be mid table again, so I decided to prioritse the cup. The cup gave the most money, and a fluke victory would get us into the AFC Asian Cup which would be more money. Unfortunately, we had a bad draw and got knocked out early. We finished 6th, mid table again. At the end of season 4, the prize money from the league put us at 80k in the bank, and we were able to get more improvements. Only our second in the save so far but we're up to Average Junior Coaching and Fairly Basic Youth Recruitment. Before this, we had a couple of really nice youth players come up. I think Truong Trong Sang is the first player from the academy that might be part of the first league winning team. Slowly, the youth is taking over the team. I still think we need a couple more improvements to get enough good players to win the league, so a cup will be needed at some point.

Lam Dong - Season 2 - 2021 - Vietnam - LS V. League 3 (Tier 2) - 1st - Promoted Being on holida, only 22 games a season, no scouting or transfer. You can fly through the early seasons. I've also started holidaying a bit in the second half of the season when it's obvious what the league position will be. Makes the early save grind a bit easier. Anyway, a very nice season. The quality isn't great at this level, and our excellent dynamics made the difference. We won our first 5 games, then there were no majors incidents from there. We did get one updgrade in Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. And another load of 5 star potential youngsters helped to fill out the squad. the only negative was accidentally selling my best defender. I refused a bid from a team and then clicked quickly through, before realizing the board had accepted a bid on my behalf.

Lam Dong - Season 1 - 2020 - Vietnam - LS. V League 2 (Tier 2) - 5th We took over newly promoted Lam Dong, near Dalat in Vietnam. Only one team is promoted from the third tier so there wasn't much choice. There were 14 players in the squad, and with some retraining we were able to put out a decent team. Predicted to come 11th with odds of 18 - 1, we finished comfortably in mid table. With only 22 games in the league, we raced through the season without much incident. We're already in debt, and have had no increase in Youth Recruitment or Junior Coaching, so not sure how this will go. We had an okay youth intake. Lots of 5 star potential players but that's more to do with our low levels that talent coming through. It will allow us to put out a whole squad next season. I'm copying the transfer history as well as the club signed one player. However, this was on the 19th December and I joined on 22nd December as shown in the manager profile.

Challenge Start - Vietnam - Lam Dong I just can't stay away from this challenge. I've set myself the goal to finish this challenge in all 6 continents. Going to take a few real years. After finishing South Africa, I also like the idea of doing it with nations that no one else has finished. I'm now off to Asia. I wanted to do Thailand but none of the databases I found worked. So I'm off to Vietnam with Lam Dong. I'm using Timo's database and there are two divisions.

Reflections on this challenge It's been a couple of days and I've reflected on this challenge. It's amazing how a computer game can affect your life, but this challenge lived with me for a few months of my life. It's all-consuming in the pursuit of trophies and goals. I started the challenge back in April originally as a pure Pentagon challenge, then I came across this thread and realized it had to be this challenge instead. In the first month, I did the first 9 seasons, completing Asia and South America. Then I went away and tried (and failed) the Youth Academy challenge. Then I came back over the summer and finished all but one of the 32 trophies (the World Cup). After ten years of trying to win that one cup, and losing in the final twice, I'd had enough. Part of the challenge of this challenge is the grind. It's so many trophies to win, and losing in another cup final means you know you have another season at that club. That can be difficult on the mind. Then this week, I thought I'll have one more go at completing the challenge. I gave myself two more World Cups to finish it, but luckily won the first one. A big relief. This is by far the best save I've ever had on FM/CM. Some of the memories it creates, the highs and lows, some of the places in the "world" it takes you. I really enjoyed the Youth Academy challenge but this one is my favourite - and a big thank you to vikeologist for organizing it. I'm not quite sure which save to do next. Part of me wants to say I'm never doing this challenge again, and another part of me is tempted to start another go at it right now. Hardest and Easiest country to manage in I found Brazil the hardest country to manage in and this country took me the longest to win the league. My reputation wasn't quite high enough for one of the big teams, so I took over Vasco de Gama. Every team has Brazilian wonderkids, and you don't have hundreds of millions to buy all of them, so it took me a while to assemble the squad on the cheap. That, and also the large number of games you play. Fun league though. China was tough as well, until I realized I should spend the money on Chinese players rather than foreign players. In terms of easy, none of the leages were easy as such. I've always found England one of the harder leagues to manage in because of the competition, but it was relatively straight-forward this time. South Africa also, as none of the domestic players cost that much money. Best Season Undoubtedly, the 18 months spent at Chelsea. I left Vasco de Game and took over a struggling Chelsea team. In the first 6 months we won the Europa League, enabling us to qualify for the UCL. Then in the next season, we won the UEFA Super Cup, Carabao Cup, Premier League, Champions League and World Club Cup. The Club cup was especially satisfying as I'd never won this competition this version of the game. There's something about the timing of the competition which makes it a challenge. Worst Season Probably the second season at Cruz Azul. Lost in the Clausura Final and the CONCACAF Champions League final to the same team two weeks apart. Times of wanted to give up Numerous. As mentioned above, 9 seasons into the save, but this was more of a break that a quit. Losing in the 2035 Asian Cup final to Australia was really tough. I was already behind in trophies in the International side compared to the club side because it took me ages to win the African CON, and then it took ages to get the South Korea job. Losing the final meant I had to wait another 4 years to have a chance, and I couldn't leave the job to go elsewhere as it took me so long to get the job. Later on, I'd won the 10 domestic leagues, but still had to win 4 more cups, so I had to move around countries to win those. This was a bit of a grind. Then finally, as mentioned above, losing the second World Cup final. Favourite players So many, but I'll keep it to 3. Firstly, Santiago Soto, a striker from Colombia. He first joined me at Vasco de Gama for 27.5m, and scored a goal a game across two season. I struggled to win without him. Then when I moved to Chelsea he joined me there for 45m, and continued to score a goal a game. Unfortunately, I never managed him again. When I moved to other club, Chelsea refused to sell him. Went on to win numerous Ballon d'Ors. Still, he's probably my favourite player in all of FM. Secondly, another striker, Pablo Sanchez. Joined me at Cruz Azul when I poached him from division rivals Monterray. I used every trick in the book to afford his transfer but I knew he was the key. Then when I joined Dortmund he followed me there and became at legend there. I forgot to take his careeer stats screenshot but he scored 272 goals in 388 games at Dortmund. Lastly, Hossam Samir, a right winger, who I managed at 4 different clubs. He first joined me at Junior in Colombia, then followed me to Vasco de Gama. When I moved to Chelsea I tried to sign him, but strangely he chose Spurs on a much lower salary. I then signed him at Real, and even managed him for the Egypt National team. How I would approach the challenge if I do it again I'd definitely take it slower and enjoy the journey more. I was too single-minded in winnning. I might add some characteristics to the manager to make it more realistic. I would also change the order I do the countries. I got a bit stuck at time because of reputation. For example, I moved from Asia to South America, meaning I couldn't get one of the big jobs in Brazil. Perhaps moving to Mexico first would have been a good stepping stone. Mexico jobs did come up but not ones I wanted, so perhaps I could be less choosey. The order I'd probably choose would be Africa, Asia, North America, South America, Europe. I finished the 10 leagues but still had 4 cups left to go. There were times when I'd win the league with a team, but not the cup, then I would move clubs as I was bored. But moving clubs meant to you had to build the team again to win the cup, so it might have ended up taking more time. For the other league titles you have to win, I would prioritize leagues with 2 cups, such as Scotland, Northern Ireland and Portugal. I'm not sure how I would do this, but I would try to speed up the international trophies (in fact I'm not sure you can choose to do this). I thought that North America and Asia would be the hardest internationally, as I rarely see Mexico, Australia, South Korea jobs coming up.

Challenge Complete! World Cup 2058 - Spain - Winners This challenge has been hanging over my head for the last six months. Back in July I won the 31st out of the 32nd trophy required. I only had one trophy left to win - The World Cup. I lost in the final in both 2050 and 2054 with Belgium and I just couldn't go on, I ran out of steam. But it's been sitting in my mind for these 6 months, so I thought I'd have one more go. After losing in the final in 2054 to Spain, I stayed with Belgium and managed to win the Euros again in 2056. They also had a number of talented youngsters coming through. However, Spain did poorly and, after looking at their team I thought they were the better chance. Their team was stacked. Their 4th best striker would have gotten into most teams in the world. We got through an easy group beating Ecuador and China 6 - 0 and 3 - 0, then battered Switzerland in the Round of 32, 5 - 0. Then the draw gave us Belgium, our old team, in the Round of 16. Of course it did.... In the first half we completely dominated but couldn't score - missing a penatly, hitting the woodwork twice. Then Belgium could us on the break at the start of the second half to go one up. We piled on the pressure but just couldn't score. Going into injury, I was thinking to myself whether to have one more go or just give up on the challenge. Then a goalkeeper howler gave us a late equalizer. Going into penalities they missed early, but we missed the winning kick. Then they missed their 7th kick and we were through. From here, it was relatively straight-forward as the draw opened up. USA beat France and we easily beat them in the Quarters. Turkey beat Portugal and we won 2 - 1, though they gave us a scare by taking the lead. Then we beat Italy 4 - 0 in the final to finish the challenge. Honestly, one of most funs I've ever had on a computer game. The highs and lows that this save gave me were unbeliveable. I've almost given up on this challenge mutliple times. I'll write a longer post tomorrow with some of the memories and lessons learned along the way. For now, I'm going to make one final save game and then retire my manager gracefully at 79 years old.

That's a good question. So far the big nations I've managed are only Belgium (who i won the Euros with), Argentina and Brazil. Looking back I've had 2 stints with Belgium and Argentina, so must have quite before I was fired. So hopefully all countries are still open. Currently in December, holidaying to the next world cup.

So I'm coming back to try and finish this challenge. Here's a link to my last update a few months back. Just need the World Cup to finish the challenge. I'm now with Spain in 2057, so World Cup next year.

South Shields - England - Season 2 Season 2 - 2021/22 - South Shields - Vanarama National League - North - England - 4th (lost in playoffs) Another good, solid season. We started the season really well and were in the battle for 1st place for the first half. Then, we had a cup run and form declined as we rotated and had fixture congestion. Still, we finished 4th, but got knocked out in the first round of the play offs again. The cup run was fantastic financially. I'd never given much importance to the FA Cup, but the run to the third round must have netted us around 500k, with 240k alone coming from TV money and prize money. The youth intake was good again. We've upgraded facilities again to Good/Excellent, and we should start seeing some really nce talents coming through. Three have broken through into the first team and a few are starting to become bench warmers. Two talents came through with 2 star CA. No stand out talents in the youth intake but good quality and personalities throughout.

South Shields - England - Season 1 Season 1 - 2020/21 - South Shields - Vanarama National League North - England A good solid start. A start to the season with lots of draws, saw us then move up the table as draws became wins. Then we yoy-yoed around, eventually finishing 7th, before losing in the first round of the playoffs. Already I feel this is a better squad than Salisbury FC. Also the facilities started better at Average/Average - I can see why they are popular in this challenge. We had one upgrade to each approved. The Youth Intake was pretty decent. A 16 year old GK, Dan Brunt, comes straight into the team and could be our GK for the next 10 seasons. Also a right winger on the bench. There are another couple who might see the first team one day. Good start, hopefully we can avoud the sack this time.

South Africa was fun. Short seasons - 30 games (though 2/3 cups). Some diversity - mostly within Africa in the intake, though I mostly had South African players in the intake. The team I started with in the second division was already professional.

One more go in England. Better facilities.

Sacked. Again. Have tried this 3 times in England now, and failed each time. A frustrating season allround. Conceded lots of late goals. Then would get a good result and the morale would go high, then I'd face 1st away or something. Scored 45 points in a 46 game season, which feels a bit harsh as well. Frustraing also as I'd survived 3 seasons and got the facilities upgraded. I'd just had a good youth intake and some of the youngsters were breaking into the first team. Not sure whether to try again in England or go elsewhere.

Thanks! Much easier in South Africa than I'm currently experiencing in England.

I'm not sure I'm the right person to ask. I'm not really a tactics person, and generally use the same tactic - an attacking 4231. With Salisbury I'm using a variant where I put the AMC as a striker. The team I took over had two good striker so 2 up front was obvious. But then then weren't any good enough players to change anything else. With 424, I score a lot but concede a lot. I'm only just above relegation in the 3rd season. The original team is decling and there aren't any youth coming through yet. No more improvements but hopefully some towards the end of the year. I find morale to be more important than anything. Time a team meeting before an easier fixture, and then if you win it you might go undefeated for a few. That's how I've survived so far. I'm playing on FM20 btw.