corinthiano

Association Sportive Lössi Association Sportive Lössi, or AS Lössi, are a team from the capital of New Caledonia, Nouméa. Despite being established in 1963 they did not have success until 2008 when they won their first of 3 Coupe Nouvelle-Calédonie, the top domestic cup competition in the country. They have never won the top flight, having finished runners-up in 2014 and 2016. They play their games at the Stade Numa-Daly, which is where most top clubs from the city play in. Season Preview The league is pretty straightforward with teams playing each other twice for a total of 22 games. The top two make the Champions League and the bottom two are relegated. 7th to 10th do go into a Relegation Playoff so it could be easy to slip into danger. The board want a mid-table finish and the media have us at 4th which will do nicely as there seems to be a gap to the big two and Tiga Sport who won the league last year. Finances Seems like a healthy bank balance, lets see if money get drained here although I suspect it is limited by the small wage budget we have. Transfers In Out There was very little wage budget and time left before the transfer window shut, so only two players were brought in to bolster us up front at right back. The loan out was already arranged when we arrived at the club. First XI The squad is pretty thin and we will need to rely on youngsters as back-ups, but the first XI feels pretty decent for this level. Top Rated Players Exactly the sort of left back I like in my team, could be a great attacking threat and is still young. Also a good young player, seems to be the best striker at the club. The veteran in the squad, seems to be more suited to be a Mezzala, but we dont have a lot of options at AP so it is probably where he will play. Initial Fixtures A tough game to start life at the club and another potentially trick fixture away before we host promoted side AS Qanono Sports.

New Caledonia New Caledonia is an archipelago and French Overseas territory located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, with the closest countries being Fiji to the East, New Zealand to the South, Australia to the West and Vanuatu to the North. The Territory is divided into three provinces, the North and South Province in the main island "Grande Terre" and a Loyalty Islands Province that encompasses the three smaller main islands. A British Explorer first discovered the main island and name it New Caledonia as the north of the island reminded him of Scotland, however it was the French under Napoleon in 1853 that took formal possession of the island. It was used primarily as a penal colony at first, with over 22,000 prisoners being sent there until 1897, although the majority returned to France instead of settling in the colony. Nickel was discovered in the island in 1864 and the French brought in laborers from other countries for mining, largely excluding the native Kanak people, which wre confined to reserves. Revolts were attempted across the years but the indigenous population suffered as a result of new diseases and their population declined and would only grow again in the 1930s. In 1946 New Caledonia became a French Overseas Territory and all citizens became eligible for French citizenship. There has been a movement since to make a New Caledonia and independent country, but three referendums were held, and despite some being controversial the decision has remained to stay a French territory. New Caledonia has one of the strongest economies in the pacific due to French financial help and the fact 25% of the world's Nickel being located on their territory. Despite it being located in the Pacific with plenty of scenery, tourism is underdeveloped compared to other countries in the region, with only around 100k visitors per year. Football in New Caledonia Football has popularity in New Caledonia due to French influence, but the size and location of the country limit its global impact. New Caledonia only became a member of FIFA in 2004, but have been part of OFC for longer and have always participated in the OFC Nations Cup. They are one of the strongest countries in the region, having been runners-up and third twice in the OFC Nations Cup. They highest ever FIFA ranking was 95th back in 2008. At club level there has been a top flight running sporadically since 1950 and continuously since 1993. Currently the New Caledonia Super League is the highest league in a 4-tier structure. AS Magenta is the most succesful club at domestic level, having won 12 titles. They reached the final of the OFC Champions League once, but lost to compatriots Hienghène Sport, who are only one of two teams outside of Australia and New Zealand to win the trophy. You can see that both sides are the most reputable in the country and the only two with 1.5 stars. You can probably also see that the third most reputable club have got a new manager in place...

Here I am again with yet another thread - I will blame this on playing the same save for almost two years and then being to eager to play new ideas and not really thinking it through. So this time I have planned and tested it out, so if this one doesn't stick you can kick me out of the forum . I was looking for the following on a save: Playing in obscure countries and raising their profile Having diversity in the countries I picked so that it didn't feel samey moving across them Stitching the countries together across a common theme. This is where I came across the idea of doing a hexagon, but with the most sparsely populated countries in each continent. Some of these countries are huge, but their terrain is so harsh or they are that isolated that there is a lot of empty space. This does provide a pretty unique set of countries that will need some building up, some more than others. To change things up a bit I will also not be moving from weakest to strongest continent, instead we will go from the biggest to smallest population density. Here are the countries we will venture to: New Caledonia (Oceania): 292,100 people across 19,100km2 - 15.3 people per square kilometers Bolivia (South America): 12,388,571 people across 1,098,581km2 - 11.3 people per square kilometers Canada (North America): 38,782,292 people across 9,984,670km2 - 3.9 people per square kilometers Iceland (Europe): 375,319 people across 103,000km2 - 3.6 people per square kilometers Namibia (Africa): 2,604,172 people across 825,229km2 - 3.2 people per square kilometers Mongolia (Asia): 3,447,157 people across 1,564,116km2 - 2.2 people per square kilometers I will be starting unemployed with Sunday League Experience and no bages with the aptly named Khunbish Mongkebaghatur - which are Mongolian names and (i believe) mean "Not human" (Khunbish) "Eternal Brave Warrior" (Mongkebaghatur). There will be no specific rules other than following the list of countries as above and not moving until we win the continental cup in each of them. We can move move clubs freely as just getting these countries to be competitive will be a challenge in itself. Khunbish has already applied for jobs and found his first gig in New Caledonia.

Echo the compliments, love following the save and have a huge respect for the patience you have to get through it

So it turned out that the Oceania leagues I downloaded had a lot of qualification errors in them, didnt find another database to my liking so decided to pivot again... Belize is a country on the northeastern coast of Central America, bordering Mexico to the North, Guatemala to the West and South, and the Caribbean Sea to the East. It is the smallest and least populated country in Central America. It is also culturally very different, as it has a strong Caribbean influence and is the only country in the region where English the is the official language. It is often thought as a Caribbean country located in Central America. It is also a bit of an ugly duckling in footballing terms, whilst some of its neighbors like Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have had success at a continental level, both at club and national team level, Belize has almost no history and success to speak of. The national team have made one appearance in the Gold Cup in its entiry history, losing all three games in 2013. At club level there were three appearances in the history of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, with a combined record of 1 win, 1 draw, 6 losses, 3 goals scored and 52 conceded... The difference in quality and historical record is reflected in the newly formed Central American Cup, which acts as a qualifier to the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Most countries have 3 qualifiers to it, other than Nicaragua, who has two, and Belize with a solitary team. That solitary team is not expected to make much noise. And this is where we come in. Wagiya Sporting Club are a team from the town of Dangriga in the South of Belize and play their games in the Carl Ramos Stadium, which is beautifully set by the Caribbean Sea. It is the team predicted to finish bottom of the appropriately named Caribbean Motors Cup, Belize's top and only professional league, which is one of the reasons I picked them. They also have never won the title, but most importantly the town of Dangriga is considered the culture capital of Belize in part due to the Garifuna influence, an Afro-Caribbean culture. The aim of the save will be to bring glory to Belize, first in the Central American Cup, and secondly in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. But the Caribbean identity is important here, so we will be doing so signing only Belize and Caribbean players. I loaded a bunch of Caribbean leagues to help us with a scouting pool, but can remove them if the game becomes too slow. At some point I may consider taking this to the national team too, but we'll see about that as we progress. The manager in charge of this will be Arlie Petters, inspired by the famous Mathematician born in Dangriga. Up next I'll introduce the initial squad, the Caribbean Motors Cup and its format, as well as our initial expectations.

Ah got it, I didn’t realize there were that many Spanish Basque players.

Are you using the database from Timo for Papua New Guinea? Doing an Oceania save so want to prepare myself for it

Is there a reason why you wouldn’t open it up to signing Spanish Basque players?

2023 Season Review I wanted O-League qualification this year and happy we got it, winning the title was a bonus, although beating Auckland City next season will be tough. Shame we exited so unceremoniously in the cup to lower league sides as most strong teams were out, but in a busy last week of the season we had to prioritize. Squad by Appearances We have a lot of appearance makers as we kept signing players throughout the season and the average age of the squad is ridiculously high. Be interesting to see how many retire in the off-season. Top Performers Didnt play a lot for us as he arrived late in the season and got injured a couple of times, but when he was on he was fierce down the left despite his age. Worried he might not recover from another injury, but we have good back-up down the left. This is what I mean by good cover down the left, Achraf has also been solid and is one of our younger players. Came in halfway through the season to controversially replace Hatem Ben Arfa. Worth the hassle though as he was a game changer for us. Finances Would have been positive if I didnt put my assistant in charge of friendlies, he invited Adelaide Utd over and we paid a cool $50k for that... Progress Great first season, now lets see if we can win the O-League at the first time of asking.

I hadn't noticed that, looked at it now and feels repetitive haha

Thanks! Yeah I'll imagine that if I get to the end of the saver with the 11 CL's needed I should pass him, but I'd also think the leagues in the other countries are probably worth a lot less than the NZ league.

October 2023 A very good performance against Auckland United before we collapsed against a second tier side in the Quarter Finals of the Chatham Cup. To make it worse Luke Freeman dislocated his shoulder and will be out for 4 months, which might put him out of the first few games in the O-League. On to the last game where to my surpise we were 2 pointds ahead as Auckland City lost at home to Western Suburbs. We faced the same Western Suburbs in our last game and a win would guarantee the title, and a draw would be enough if Auckland did not win by more than 5 goals. When Auckland raced to a 3-0 lead and we were still at 1-1 I got a little concerned, but Auckland City conceded twice and we scored a late winner to seal the title! The title automatically puts us at 18th in the Oceania Hall of Fame, but we still have a long way to catch up to the top who is a former Auckland City Manager with 294 points and 7 OFC Champions Leagues.

September 2023 We have done well to win 5 out of 6 games in a hectic schedule, but the loss to Auckland City could ultimately cost us the title. The scheduling was unfortunate as we had a game two days before and they were fresh, and in the end we were never in the game. We are looking good for a top two finish and O-League qualification though. Transfers Out A couple of outgoings as a B team player leaves for another top club in New Zealand and Michael Binns leaves after being unhappy down the pecking order. Next Fixtures Just two more league games with a Chatham Cup Quarter Final squeezed in the middle.

August/September 2023 We end the Central League season in style, winning all three last games and clinching the title. Amazingly Petone collapse, losing the last 3 games and missing out on qualification to the Regional Series altogether. In the Chatham Cup we progress comfortably as predicted. Transfers In Only one transfer as we bring in a new central defender for our first XI Next Fixtures We are now into the Regional Premier Champions Playoff, where the three best teams from the Northern, Central and Southern League play once against each other for a total of 8 games. The scheduling is terrible, with some fixtures only two days apart, so its a good thing we have decent squad depth. Top two qualify for the O-League, so this has to be the aim.

July 2023 Good performances in the Central League and Chatham Cup before complacency set in on the brink of qualification to the National League. We were terrible against Western Suburbs, letting in three goals before half time and despite improving in the second half we left ourselves with too much to do. Hopefully this is just a blip and with qualification ensured it would be nice to finish of with a Central League title. Transfers None, finally Next Fixtures We play a second tier side in the Chatham Cup Last 16 and can hopefully progress further. In the Central League we finish the season at Petone, so hopefully we can seal the title before then.

Thanks! Glad to have you along on this one too!

That’s not great Have you tried holidaying into next season to see if this is a one season bug? Had this in my save in West Africa where the league in Ivory Coast didn’t run for year, but resumed after a season.

May/June 2023 We have really hit our stride in the Central League and whilst the fight with Petrone is still a good one, I think qualification to the National League is pretty close. In the Chatham Cup a very encouraging result in a crazy match against Auckland City. We scored two quick goals early, but less than 10 minutes later Auckland City were level at 2-2. In the second half Auckland City went before we turned it around quickly again. They didnt take long to equalize and we in turn did not take long to get ahead again with a penalty in the 65th minute. After that the game went a strange 25 minutes without a goal and we went through having knocked out the favorites! Transfers In Out We have started slowing down on the incoming transfers but good players still pop up, and three out of the 4 we signed are first team players. On the outgoing front we release two unhappy strikers and a B team player heads back to his homeland in England. Great name, decent player and a current international, the only one in the club. Really solid player. Ben Arfa was not happy about him joining and got the rest of the squad to back him up, Luke could end up being trouble. Definitely getting on, but I think he can do a job for us at DLP. Next Fixtures Some tricky games in the Central League and in the Catham Cup we play a side struggling in the Northern League so hopefully we can make a good impression.

He is on an amateur contract so there wasn’t much to claim. He was also OK with us fining him half his $0 weekly wage

April 2023 We are still not playing fluid football but it is getting better, with some nice wins in the League and a convincing performance in the Chatham Cup. The game against Napier City Rovers was frustrating as we should have won easily but went down to 10 men 16 seconds into the game, which made it a lot harder for ourselves. We still managed to go ahead a couple of times but were denied by a 87th minute equalizer...there is a big gap to Petone now, but we still look good to qualify for the National League. Transfers In Probably part of the reason we are not fluid yet is that I keep adding players to the squad, but these all improve the first XI so it had to be done. An exciting signing even though he is a shadow of what he used to be and physically he is declining a lot. Comes in to be our AP. Versatile player, can play at LB or in centre mid for us. Is an improvement at RB but was sent off 16 seconds into his debut so I immediately mistrust him. Another ageing star, had a very decent debut with a goal and an assist. We have gone from a Jamaican to a Senegalese centre mid pairing with Diandy and Sankhare. Next Fixtures A crucial game against Petone this month and in the Chatham Cup we get the hardest draw we could get.

March 2023 A sluggish start at North Wellington as the team is still gelling, we almost nicked it with a goal late on only to have North Wellington equalize straight from the kick-off. We then hit our stride in a comfortable win over Waterside Karori. Transfers In Out As you can see we have been busy. Our transfer strategy seems to be to put together the best international retirement home in New Zealand, but they are a lot better than the players that we have at disposal so hopefully the signings will have enough legs to perform for us. On the outgoing front the only big departure is starting centre back Ben Mata to big boys Auckland City. Here are the players who currently made it to our First XI. Huge coup despite him being almost 40 years old. Probably our youngest signing, should do a decent job at left back. Another veteran in our defence. Our centre back pairing has a combined age of 69... Another oldie, this time from Spain. Ewan is young by comparison, but not as strong as some of the older guys. Michael completes our Jamaican midfield pairing. A Brazilian playmaker sounds exciting, but this is the weakest area of the team. Decent striker, has already bagged a couple. Craig makes it 3 Jamaicans in our starting XI to give us a Caribbean feel. Next Fixtures Things pick up in the league and we enter the Chatham Cup in the Second round and will play a second tier side away.

Thanks, great to have you on this one! Should last longer than my last save Yes that’s my thinking too, could even get Nez Zealand done in a season with a bit of luck depending on how strong Auckland City will be.

Wellington Olympic AFC Wellington Olympic Association Football Club, or Wellington Olympic, are an amateur team from New Zealand's capital Wellington. They were founded by Greek immigrants in New Zealand and were originally known as Apollon AFC. The Greek community is still heavily involved in the club and historically a lot of players have been from Greek decent. They don't have a lot of success historically but seem to be a team on the rise, being runners-up of the New Zealand National League in the last two years. They have won the Central League which feeds into it twice, as well as the Chatham Cup, New Zealand's main cup competition, once. They play at the Wakefield Park, which is not much a stadium, more like a field in a park The Squad The First Team Squad is small, but the club has a B and C team full of players. They dont look great so we'll probably recruit instead of promote. Also a couple of the better players dont fit the 4-1-2-1-2 I will use in the save so will probably be released. The players that fit in best for us are: Seems to be a decent Goalkeeper Also not bad and I love the fact he is from the Cook Islands. Experienced and versatile defender. Finances Looks like an OK amount of money for an amateur club, and we don't have any wage or transfer budgets naturally. Initial Fixtures We have about a month before the Central League starts, which is a very simple 10 teams division, where after 18 games the 3 top teams go to the National Soccer League and the bottom two are relegated. We are favorites behind Wellington Phoenix's reserve team so will be expected to qualify. The board also want us to finish above our rivals Miramar Rangers.

The Premise Football in Oceania has always been far from something professional or overly structured. The OFC Champions League is a good example of that. First played in 1987, it would only resurface in 1999 and in 2005 it finally became a yearly tournament (with the exception of 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19). Initially it was dominated by Australian teams, but when Australia moved to the AFC in 2006 the domination moved over to New Zealand. And from New Zealand it came from Auckland City, who have won 11 out of the 20 editions in the history of the competition. The only other winners outside of Australia are Waitakere United, who won it twice but have since then folded, Hekari United from Papua New Guinea in 2010 and Hienghene Sport from New Caledonia in 2019. The aim of the save will be to win the OFC Champions League with a team from all 11 countries that qualify for the tournament, with the condition that they must not be the three teams that have won it before or any others that may win it during the save. We will start the journey in the most reputable nation, New Zealand and move our way down, where American Samoa currently have the lowest ranked league. The manager in this save will be Manu Tuiasosopo, who was the first Samoan American football player to play in a Super Bowl. He is of American Samoan decent and I like the name and his look Country 1 - New Zealand New Zealand is the 6th largest island country and the last large habitable land to be settled by humans when Polynesians arrived in the island between 1280 and 1350, developing a distinct Maori culture. In 1840 it was declared a British territory, which sparked a number of conflicts and resulted in alienation and confiscation of large amounts of Maori land. The island gained full independence in 1947 but the majority of the population is of European decent, with the Maori's being the largest minority. It is considered a developed country and was the first to introduce a minimum wage and introduce women's voting rights. The capital of the country is Wellington, which has close to 300k inhabitants. The largest city however is Auckland with 1.5M out of the total 5.25M population. The country is known for its amazing scenery, with some of its national parks being included the World Heritage Site List. Lord of the Rings is one of the famous films recorded there due to the scenery. Football in New Zealand Football is the third most popular sport in New Zealand after Rugby and Cricket. The National team has little success on the World Stage, with two World Cup qualifications, but has dominated Oceania since Australia left for AFC, winning two out of the 3 OFC Nation Cups held since then, and are the most successful country with 5 titles. Wellington Phoenix is the biggest club in the country but plays within the Australian structure. The New Zealand league system is primarily amateur with the exception of Auckland City. It is organized into three Regional Leagues since 2021, from which the best clubs qualify for a National Championship. Auckland City are the most successful side in the country, with most clubs that have had success in the past not being around today. There are only two two-star clubs in the country and Manu will take over one of them seeing as the challenge of the save will be in the latter countries, which meant I decided to start at the top in New Zealand as opposed to having to go up through the leagues. Next up we'll introduce Wellington Olympic

Thanks @KibworthBull and @phnompenhandy for the suggestions. I did debate making changes but in the end opted to go with another save. Even at L10 the save would have been a bit slow so I ended up going with a set-up more familiar to what I know my laptop can handle - more obscure nations with fewer leagues