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Episode 19 - Two Games to do the Double! We start off with youth intake for Ślęza Wrocław where there looks to be an "elite talent" goalkeeper who is 15. Is this our first peek at the future of Silesia? Then we move on to the draw of EURO 2024 in Germany which is just a couple months out. Silesia are in Pot 4 but a lucky draw could see them with a chance to make a sneaky run to the latter stages. On to the games, where two trophies are up for grabs for Ślęza. They can seal the Second Division crown today but more importantly, in the second game they face a monumental challenge. Can the overachievers Ślęza take down yet another Premier League side in Ruch Chorzów and qualify for Europa Conference as a Second Division side?

SILESIA ● Road to EURO 2024 This is a recap episode of the run Silesia made in attempt to qualify for EURO 2024 in Germany. Silesia has become a new European nation and their first test of strength is in the Euro Qualifiers. Will they make the high reputation tournament in their first ever attempt at qualification? In their way stands Denmark, Finland, Slovenia, Northern Ireland, and San Marino.

Episode 18 - Cup Semi-Final and League Double-Header Ślęza Wrocław take on KS Górnik Polkowice in back to back games. Both second division sides have heroically fought to make the FA Cup Semi-Final but Ślęza look on pace to win the league so they could potentially secure a double in Captain Nelas' first season in charge. In the build up to the games we scheduled two international friendlies for the Silesian heroes who are set to take part in the upcoming EURO 2024 in Germany. We decided to invite our gracious former landlords and new rivals, Poland and Czechia for some tune up games. Both of them directly qualified from their groups as well. In the first game, against Poland we got off to a strong start and an early lead but they ran circles around us in the second half, finishing the game 3-1. In the second game, Adam Hlozek (who was formerly Silesian before it was uncovered that the FM database was incorrect about his "region of birth") came back to haunt us as he scored two goals. Two goals of our own from young winger Jakub Kaminski, who is back from a long injury, gave us some encouragement after finishing the match 2-2.

Episode 17 - How Could Things Go This Well? We're really rolling now. We offloaded a couple players who weren't contributing for a little cash and brought in a couple depth options and one under-20 gem, Marcel Misztal, in the midfield on loan through next season. Under-21 players are very important because one must be on the field at all times in all competitions in Silesia. In the first game, Ślęza Wrocław vie for a chance in the semi-final of the FA Cup as Captain Nelas and his team take on Trinec, who currently sit at the bottom of the Silesian Premier League table. Each of the four games in this round of the cup is a Second Division side vs. a Premier League side with Ślęza having the easiest draw of the bunch. Can they make it three for three against higher division opponents? In the second game, Ślęza take on Polonia Bytom in the second meeting of the two top Second Division sides. Ślęza are on 42 points and Bytom are on 40 with both having played 19 games of the 30 game season. The goal at the beginning of the season was promotion but a win would lay down a marker of intent for the Second Division title and notify the Premier League teams that we're coming for them. Let's keep rollin'.

Episode 16 - Can a Second Division Side Make an FA Cup Run? Ślęza Wrocław take on their second difficult test in the FA Cup. Captain Nelas and his team take on KGHM Zagłębie Lubin, who currently sit at 2nd in the Silesian Premier League table. This is the most challenging match up for Silesia so far this season, but they are at home. Can they take advantage of this and topple one of the contenders for the Premier League this season? In European Qualifier news, after Silesia's heroic and magical run to qualification, we are keeping an eye on the playoffs because some major nations have been struggling. Notably, England and Spain failed to directly qualify from their groups. They are both in the playoffs but are slated to meet each other if they get through the first round, meaning one of these two giants will not be taking part in Euro 2024 in Germany.

Episode 15 - Silesia Have Qualified for the Euros! Or have they? The only thing standing between Silesia and a trip to Euro 2024 in Germany is San Marino. As fixtures stand, even a draw would likely qualify Silesia from Group H. There's no way San Marino could do the impossible, could they? It's do or die for Silesia as they don't have a Nation's League performance under their belt to potentially qualify via playoffs. But San Marino is easy, right? Right??? The table leading in to the match looks like this: Denmark 17 pts, Silesia 16pts, Slovenia 16pts, Finland 15pts, N. Ireland 13pts, and San Marino 0pts. Denmark plays Slovenia and Finland plays N. Ireland. If somehow San Marino managed a draw then Finland could jump back above Silesia with a win over N. Ireland. The other spot would go to Denmark if they draw or win their tie, or Slovenia if they were to win.

Episode 14 - One Game to Qualify for the Euros In Group H of the Euro Qualifiers it all comes down to this. Finland are at the top of the table, Silesia are two points back. Elsewhere, Denmark plays Slovenia. Meaning that a win would all but guarantee qualification to the first ever major tournament for the young nation of Silesia. A loss would certainly see them fail to qualify and a draw would require extra help. The game is played at home, where Silesia currently have an unblemished record. Most of the serious injuries which plagued Silesia in the last international window have been healed, except Piotr Zielinski who only has an outside chance of featuring in the next match against San Marino. Will Silesia be partying in the next match or will they be biting their fingernails, hoping for results to go their way elsewhere? It all depends on how they perform against Finland in game 9, the most crucial game of young Silesia's international footballing career.

Episode 13 - Silesian FA Cup Action Things are just getting started in the FM24 Build-A-Nation series as Ślęza Wrocław take on their first difficult test in the FA Cup. Captain Nelas and his team take on Miedź Legnica, who currently sit at 3rd in the Silesian Premier League table. This is the first ever Silesian FA Cup and Ślęza Wrocław just scraped past a 4th division side on penalties in the previous round. The game was made extremely difficult from the off as right midfielder Slawomir Musiolik got sent off within 20 minutes. It required a 90th minute equalizing goal as well as another equalizer in the second half of extra time, ending the open field play at 2-2 and requiring the penalty shootout. Ślęza won the contest 5-4 on pens. Now they step up the level of competition in their first ever contest against a Silesian Premier League side in the FA Cup third round. Can they raise their game and make a serious cup run?

Episode 12 - INJURIES! Injuries, Injuries, Injuries. It can derail any title push, any qualification chance, any double, treble, etc. In our case, at the Silesian National Team, it could serious put a dent in our aspirations of qualifying for our first ever major international tournament. After heroically shutting down table leaders, Denmark, Silesia is suffering from a rash of INJURIES. FOUR (!!) regular starters are out with long term injuries that will see them miss at least both upcoming games in this international window. Captain and striker, Krzysztof Piatek is out. Vice Captain and best player Piotr Zielinski is out. Starting GK Kamil Grabara is out. Starting young winger Jakub Kaminski is out. Can Silesia cope with a young team on the road for two games? Critical games which could seal the fate of Silesia are away to Northern Ireland followed by away to Slovenia. Captain Nelas is also out sick, and has decided not to travel with the team. In the interim, assistant coach Dennis Bergkamp will take over management of the team. He has some interesting team talks before sending the team out in these two games.

Episode 11 - We're Just Getting the Ball Rolling in Silesia It's been a fairly strong start for Sleza Wroclaw since Captain Nelas took over. In this episode we recap the goings on around Silesia. The three teams from the Silesian Premier League that were competing in Europe were Banik Ostrava who started in the Europa League and made it to the Conference League group stages, snatching up some much needed coefficient points. Elsewhere, disappointing performances from Slask Wroclaw and Piast Gliwice saw both of them crash out in the qualifying rounds of the Conference League. In the second half of this episode, Sleza take on Piast Zmigrod. Sleza are in 3rd on 20pts and Zmigrod are tied at the top of the table on 25pts, making this a crucial early season game. Thanks for watching!

Episode 10 - Silesia Wants Revenge (in FM) Silesia lost 4-1 in Copenhagen in their second game of the qualification cycle. This time, however, Silesia and Captain Nelas are at home in Slaski and are slowly turning the historic stadium into a fortress of sorts. The Danes have struggled going into the game dropping points to both Finland and Slovenia. Can Silesia pile the pressure on and drive themselves up the table?

Episode 9 - PLEASE Fix Player Interactions in FM Young left winger Mikolaj Wawrzyniak is the best player on the Sleza team. He's only 20 and he was Vice Captain when Captain Nelas took over. Before any signings could be made or any staff hired, young Miko already started kicking up a fuss about wanting to play in a higher division. Captain Nelas attempts to reason with him in the opening skit of this episode. Even the weight of the national team manager doesn't seem to be enough to overcome the logical fallacies presented by FM player interactions. Many thanks to "Silesian Patriot" for providing the voice work for Miko and speaking in his native Ślōnskŏ Gŏdka (Silesian). His YouTube channel is in the description of this video. After attempting to reason with the young man, Nelas and Sleza take on top-of-the-table Polonia Bytom in the Silesian Second Division. In this episode we have also added in commentary to the games so its not just crowd noise. Enjoy.

Episode 8 - Sleza Wroclaw After months of deliberation, Captain Nelas has decided not to take over first team management of a Silesian Premier League side in favor of a second division side, Sleza Wroclaw. The reasons laid out are as follows: First, FM should always be a challenge. Sliding right in to a title contender would be useful but not as fulfilling. Second, Wroclaw needs a strong cross town rivalry and Slask vs. Sleza could be the premier rivalry in the region in years to come. Third, they have a cool badge. It's an eagle. Sick. The club is set up to be successful but they nowhere near where they need to be to start fighting for promotion. Lots of staff need to be hired and free transfers brought in to fill out a team which has a semi-solid base. In the pre-season prediction, Sleza were picked as favorites to finish in 9th position out of 16 second division teams. Financially, they are going to be stretched but the goal in the first year has to be promotion. Captain Nelas takes a look over his players and picks his first 11. They travel to Dolni Benesov for their first game. An inferior opponent proves to be a great way to get things started for Sleza and Captain Nelas. They win 3-0 and the Silesian club experiment is officially underway.

Episode 7 - Which Silesian Club Will I Manage? Captain Nelas is set to make his decision about which Silesian club he will take over for the upcoming inaugural Silesian Premier League season in FM24. Silesia cedes the ill-gotten territory of Lesser Poland and loses two top flight clubs in the process. Rakow Czestochowa and Zaglebie Sosnowiec have been re-incorporated back into the Polish league system. The Silesian Premier League no longer has a Champions League contender as it no longer has a champion (Rakow won the Polish Ekstraklasa in the previous season.) European contenders from Silesia (based on previous season performance) will be Banik Ostrava in the Europa League as well as Slask Wroclaw and Piast Gliwice in the Europa Conference League. To make the database work and get rid of all the clubs, players, staff that made up the small portion of Lesser Poland which lied within the borders of the Slaskie Voivodship was quite the chore. After it was done, I had to reload a new save so all four of the international fixtures matched those previously played by Silesia. Then simulate the results so they matched what had already been played. Annoyingly this took an entire afternoon and left me with scar in the form of the little greyed out editor on my save because it saved me loads of time by not bothering to select a club each time I had to reload in and hope for the right fixtures. Oh well, we made it back and Lesser Poland is no longer in Silesia. The National Team fixtures are as close as they can be and after nearly a straight hour of waiting for the Finland beating Denmark fixture to be realized, the save is back on the rails. Which club do you think I will choose?

Episode 6 - Perkele Silesia travels to Turku, Finland to play the second game of this international window against a Finnish team who shocked Denmark and shook up the table for these Euro Qualifiers. This is Silesia's second away match ever and it's safe to say the first one did not go well, where they drubbed by Denmark 4-1. Captain Nelas is hoping for better result here and tries to encourage the team pregame in what they were told was a "Traditional Finnish Locker Room." The match gets off to a great start for Silesia as CM Mateusz Bogusz is fouled just inside the penalty box in the 3rd minute of action. Krzysztof Piatek would convert from the spot, putting Silesia up 1-0. Finland worked their way back in to the game and created some good chances with quick passes in the left side of center midfield and counter-attacking dribbles mostly by Glen Kamara. One of those moves was enough to level the score as Kamara set off on a magnificent dribble and pulled a pass back from the byline for an easy finish from Joel Pohjanpalo in the 42nd minute. Score at halftime Silesia 1 - 1 Finland. Captain Nelas attempted to tweak his tactical system to manage to surprising attacking prowess of Kamara at half-time and the teams headed back out. It seemed that Finland made the better half-time adjustments however as Silesia were caught attempting to build from the back and gave the ball away for a quick countering strike from Teemu Pukki in the 54th minute. Finland would strike again from a corner when, in the 65th minute, the ball pinged around the box, eventually landing at the feet of Marcus Forss and in to the back of the net. Finland 3 - 1 Silesia. The game was rapidly getting away from Silesia. However, a horror tackle from Sauli Vaisanen in the 67th minute on Silesian striker Arkadiusz Milik gave Silesia plenty of time and a chance to work a comeback against ten men Finland. One goal came from Lukas Hejda when he collected a floating ball from a corner and dribbled around the inside before being granted with lucky deflection. Silesia were down only 1 now with still 15 minutes to play. Chances came thick and fast but Silesia was struggling for the tying goal. Until the 86th minute, when a low cross from Filip Jagiello found Piotr Zielinski inside the 6 yard box for tap in that would bring the scores level. Silesia pushed for a winner but were denied, despite having a few clear cut chances. The final score, Silesia 3 - 3 Finland.