Razer82's FM11 Small Club To Big Club Americas Challenge

The Aim

To take a previously unplayable team from the lower leagues of a nation from the Americas to their domestic title, the Copa Libertadores or NACL and then onto the Club World Cup! These do not have to be won in the same season.

The Club World Cup has been added to the challenge in order to bring the USA in as a playable nation. A game with just winning the NACL could be over rather quickly with a side from the MLS so an extra degree of difficulty has been added for longevity.

The Setup

Leagues that can be used:- Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, USA

Reputations of Leagues eligible for this challenge

Argentina 15

Brazil 15

Chile 11

Colombia 12

Mexico 14

Peru 8

Uruguay 12

USA

Getting Started

Load all the available division within the nation you select (Only one nation is allowed)

A Large database should be selected (Although you are free to use other database sizes if you wish to)

Attribute Masking should be enabled.

You can load all players from the nation that you have selected to manage in and also select the option to load players from the Top Clubs in the continent but NO other additional players from any nation should be loaded.

The extra levels of detail that you can change while in the game are up to you, as they shouldn’t make any difference.

Add yourself as an unemployed Manager, the details of which are unimportant.

Then go on holiday until the new seasons teams are generated, see below for actual dates, and select one of the newly promoted teams.

League Reset Dates

Argentina 1st July

Brazil 3rd January - Save game provided by viiralx

Chile 1st January

Colombia 10th January

Mexico 20th July

Peru 28th January

Uruguay 31st July

USA 27th December

These reset dates have been taken from profiles loaded for the previous version of this challenge, so may not be 100% accurate, if you find that one is not correct, please let me know and I'll update the list.

Then retire your original manager profile.

Add a new manager with the experience set to ‘Sunday League Footballer’, or if that is not available then ‘Automatic’.

Take over one of the clubs newly promoted into the lowest division within your selected nation. If you are unsure about which clubs have been promoted then check the clubs’ history of league positions, it should be blank.

It is now up to you to manage the club to their domestic title, the Copa Libertadores or NACL and then onto the Club World Cup.

You are not permitted to move between clubs unless you are sacked; If you are sacked, you can either take over at another club the meet the original challenge criteria or just quit the current save and start again.

Any form of international management is not allowed until the challenge has been completed.

There are no restrictions on assigning feeder / parent clubs.

Scouting Guidelines

You can only sign players that you are able to scout or trial at the club first, so in short the player must have the 'Get scout report' button on his profile screen. The one exception to this is when you ask a current squad member to recommend a new signing, It is then ok to sign him as the player who recommended him knows of him anyway.

No external utilities should be used and the database should be un-edited. Should SI release a data update, this would be allowed. It is advised that people should update using the latest patches as they are released.

Created Leagues

With the addition of the Competition Editor it will be inevitable that new leagues will be created that will qualify for this challenge but I will not be adding these new nations to the challenge. Only the leagues that come with the retail version of FM10 will be eligible.

Rules for this Thread

Player naming is allowed. (This is a warning for those of you who do not wish to see this)

Discussion on tactics is allowed. (This is another warning for those of you who do not wish to see this)

Screenshots for anything are encouraged.

When you join the challenge, could you post a screenshot of your manager's profile on the date you take control at your new club.

Progress of your club should be documented using this thread. We want to hear the story of your club all the way through (success and failure), so please keep us updated, even if you are doing really badly.

At the end of every season, could everyone post some kind of season review, including the minimum of a screenshot of the league table. If you give this a title in bold it makes it a bit easier for others to pick out.

How to Post a Screenshot

1. While in FM, press the 'Prt Sc' button (usually next to F12 on your keyboard).

2. Open an image editing program such as Paint and paste the image

3. Save the file as a JPEG

4. Upload the image to an image hosting website such as Photobucket or Imageshack

5. Post the direct Url to the image here.

Good luck to everyone taking part this year.

Yay.. time to holiday I hope a team iv never heard of comes up. I usually do get the same teams in Brazil.

I'm currently holidaying in Brazil myself.

Decided that all my challenge saves will be in different countries from last year.

Good luck for you game viiralx.

Brazil holiday completed and my new team chosen.

It's time for myself and Joinville to start our rise up the leagues.

I've got a squad of players, but who knows if they'll cut it.

I have decided to give this a go and have got quite lucky with my team. I was always going to do this in USA and luckily I got Columbus Crew. Here are the important screenies:

League Table . Manager Profile . Squad Inherited

Will report back after the first season

So after getting to the 5th October the Columbus board decided that sitting in 6th position wasn't good enough and I was sacked. Going to wait till the end of the season and have a look at who finishes bottom of the MLS and probably start again.

I'm currently holidaying in Brazil myself.

Decided that all my challenge saves will be in different countries from last year.

Good luck for you game viiralx.

Thanks and good luck to you to, also to everybody else who decides to join this challenge.

So after getting to the 5th October the Columbus board decided that sitting in 6th position wasn't good enough and I was sacked. Going to wait till the end of the season and have a look at who finishes bottom of the MLS and probably start again.

Woah.. Thats harsh O.o

--

I'm currently re-loading to try get a cool team up If no rare club comes up within the next 20 reloads il start my save..

Brazil 1st January save if anyone want to manage in Brazil.

Large DB and all players based in Brazil.

http://www.fileserve.com/file/AnQwxTj

Watson - Shame you were sacked before you could really get into the game. Hopefully you'll have more luck with the next team.

viiralx - I'll add the link for your save into the first post if you don't mind.

Razer82 - Go ahead

Razer82 - Go ahead

Thanks.

If anybody else has a save for any of the other countries then upload them & I'll add those in too.

Right then since I got sacked at columbus I holidayed until the end of the season and yet again columbus finished bottom so I decided to start a new game and try and get Philadelphia Union. I have started about 30 new games and still they have never finished bottom. Joint bottom a few times but never bottom. But during this time I have saved games that have had different teams finishing bottom. I am going to give this another go with Chicago.

So if anybody wants to start a game in the MLS with a specific team then let me know and I MAY be able to help.

Manager Profile . 1st Season MLS Table . Chicago Squad

There are a few names that people may recognise. Freddie Ljungberg, Nery Castillo & Dominic Cervi. Had a quick look at players who's contracts are expiring in the next 6 months and am a bit annoyed that if a player isn't interested in coming to the team you cant offer them a contract. That was how I got all my best designated player signings on FM2010. Oh well

There are a few names that people may recognise. Freddie Ljungberg, Nery Castillo & Dominic Cervi. Had a quick look at players who's contracts are expiring in the next 6 months and am a bit annoyed that if a player isn't interested in coming to the team you cant offer them a contract. That was how I got all my best designated player signings on FM2010. Oh well

I would think this is probably to do with agents. If a players doesn't want to join a team then their agent isn't going to be interested in listening to what you have to offer.

I would think this is probably to do with agents. If a players doesn't want to join a team then their agent isn't going to be interested in listening to what you have to offer.

Yeah bloody annoying though!!

Transfers

I decided that I wanted to make a bit of a statement and started straight away by bringing in some new players. The draft was pretty successful bringing in three young players who I believe will be very good in about 2-3 years. The next big player to come in was Robbie Findley from Salt Lake. We were desperate for a striker who could find the back of the net and it turned out to be a very good investment. The next two players were already agreed by the previous manager and they turned out to be pretty good players. I was very lucky in the waiver draft to bring in two real players of quality. Will Johnson and Marvell Wynn slotted straight into starting roles and played a massive part. Finally the last signing of real means was the youngster Corey Schramm. I took a bit of a gamble but he has turned out to be a player of real quality. He has already quadrupled his value and looks set to be a quality player not just for me but also for USA.

League Table

I wanted to make the playoffs this year. That was my only goal. Anything less would have been a failure to me. Thankfully we did it. We ended finishing a close second in the Eastern Conference to New York who decided to sack Hans Backe despite being top of the table but the main reason for our success was the 60 goals that we scored and made us the top scorers in the whole of the MLS. Our defence was pretty poor conceding too many goals and if we can sure that up then we would have turned some of the defeats into draws and the draws into wins. That is something to work towards.

In the playoff we were drawn against Toronto in the Semi Final. We beat them 5 : 4 on aggregate thanks to a 3 : 1 win away in the first game. The home game should have been 2 : 2 but they scored in the last minute but this meant that we would play FC Dallas in the final who thankfully managed to beat New York on penalties. The final finished 1 : 0 to us and we deserved the win. We dominated them only allowing them 3 shots on goal and none of them were on target.

In the Grand Final we played Los Angeles who were the best team in the whole MLS. This was going to be a really tough game but we started the game well but just couldn't find that first goal. It finally came in the 2nd half thanks to Findley but Beckham scored from the penalty spot in the 75th minute and that goal would be enough to send the game into extra time. They looked so tired in extra time and this was our trump card as we scored not once but twice in extra time to win the game 3 : 1 and become the new champions of the MLS.

Squad

The squad performed really well. I still don't think that it is a completely dominant team but it is one that we can build on and improve season by season. I am looking to bring in another designated player but really not sure who to bring in. The players that I want are not interested in coming to me. This could well be Freddie Ljungberg's last season as his stats are starting to decrease but you never know he may be able to go for another season after this.

Star Man

I cant speak highly enough about this guy. He won us so many games that we should never have won thanks to his incredible speed and his ability to hit the back of the net. He ended up as the MLS top goalscorer with 24 goals one above Thierry Henry and a three above Omar Bravo, who are both well known players around the world. His biggest award was yet to come. After winning the MLS, Findley was announced as MVP. He was awarded 61 points by fellow managers and was 16 points above David Beckham in second place and 26 above Thierry Henry who finished in third place.

Story So Far

Season     League     Position	     Achievements/Wins
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011       MLS        4th Overall    MLS Champs

Razer82 – Joinville EC– Brazilian National Third Division – 2011

Brazilian National Third Division – Prediction – 5th in Group A – Actual – Runners Up – Promoted

Santa Catarina State Championship – Winners!

Team Stats

Transfers

Top Scorer: Charles (17)

Top Assists : Merclo Silva (11)

A large number of players were brought in on free transfers to strengthen the squad for an attempt at avoiding relegation from two separate competitions.

The state championship started in the best possible fashion, a 4-0 home win that was the start of a 6 game unbeaten run. Two more wins in the final 3 games secured us 3rd place in the First Phase. A win over on penalties over Avai saw us into the First Phase final. A narrow 2-1 win over Chapecoense put us into the overall final.

We opened the Second Phase with 5 straight wins but this was not enough to allow us to secure top spot come when all the games were over, a defeat to Figueirense & a draw with Avai saw to that. It was again Avai that we faced in the semi final where they managed some revenge for own earlier victory.

We would again face Avai over two legs to crown the overall state champions. They would triumph 1-0 at but end up on the wrong end of a 4-0 defeat that crowned Joinville Santa Catarina State Champions!

We were predicted to finish last in our group in the Third Division which would have seen us relegated, something that I was keen to avoid. After taking just a single point in our first two games things were not looking good, but 5 wins from the final 6 games secured us 2nd place in the group and a place in the quarter finals. The quarterfinals left us just two games from promotion.

A 3-2 aggregate win over Fortaleza secured our promotion at the first time of asking. We could now concentrate on trying to win the Third Division title. CRB were our semi-final opponents and we managed to dispatch them 4-3 on aggregate to set up a final with Guaratingueta. They turned out to be a bit too strong for us taking the title 2-1 on agg.

The focus now shifts to strengthening the squad to be able to stay in the Second Division next season. We are also given entry into the Brazilian Cup for making the final of the state championship, time to prepare for games with some of the big boys of Brazilian football.

Congratulations on winning the MLS Watson156. Onwards to continental glory!

good to see this challenge going again... i'll hopefully get to give this a good crack this year....

Transfers

I was determined to continue to improve the team but only in small parts. I didn't feel like we needed a massive overhaul but we did need another striker to help Robbie Findley. I took a risk and bought in Edson Buddle and it didn't pay off. He got injured straight away and when he returned he was rubbish. Heath Pearce came in and was probably my signing of the season. I only bought him in as back up but turned out to play most games and scored some important goals. As you can see after July I bought in some well known players. Pavel Pogrebnyak came in as my first designated player and he has been steady. Hasn't set the MLS alight which is what I was hoping that he would do. Tim Howard came in as Luis Robles had decided that he wanted to leave and was going to moan and moan until he did so. Thankfully Howard came in and I was able to get rid of Robles to Houston in exchange for Bobby Boswell who I had been after for a while. Freddy Adu came back to the MLS and was very hit and miss. When he was good he was amazing but otherwise he was very average. The main downside to bringing in all these players is that it has put a huge pressure on the wage balance. I had to let some good players go just to fit these players in.

League Table

We started off like a team on a mission to to win every single game by a margin of five!! Unsurprisingly it didn't last and we started to suffer really bad run of results to teams that we shouldn't. In the end we scraped through to the playoffs thankfully and at least that gave us a chance to retain our MLS title because on our day we are the best team in North America.

In the playoff we were drawn against Kansas City in the Semi Final. We beat them 6 : 4 on aggregate thanks to a 4 : 1 win at home in the return game. We would go onto play New York in the conference final. New York had also had a bad year by their standards and finished lower than us but scraped through. These games are always close and this one was no different. We ended up winning on penalties although the game could have been over in extra time had Pavel Pogrebnyak scored from the penalty spot. He subsequently scored in the penalty shoot out.

In the Grand Final we played Seattle who were not the best team in the MLS but like us got lucky to qualify and did well in the play offs. This was going to be a lot different to the game last year. It was always going to be an open game and it was going to be down to who could score the most goals. Neither team had been defending really well all season. In the end the final was all about one man. Lerato Chabangu took the game by the scruff of the neck and single handidly won us the game by scoring a hat trick. The final score was 3 : 2 and we had amazingly retained our MLS title.

Squad

The squad had a season of two halves. First half of the season they were excellent and carried on from last year but then towards the halfway point of the season things started to go downhill. A few results went against us and the players just couldn't seem to remember what it was like to win. Finally we managed to scrape a 1 : 0 win somewhere and it seemed to lift them. They kept scrapping away and while we didn't always win we did manage to keep picking up points and in the end I think that is what managed to get us into the play offs.

Star Man

It was a completely different outcome to last year. With Findley being out injured for most of the season we needed somebody to step up and try to score some of the goals that Robbie had. Chabangu who had a respectable season last year improved this year and by moving him upfront scored a lot more goals and indeed was man of the match in the MLS grand final. It was nowhere near as good a year as Findley had last year but the contribution by Chabangu was probably more important than Robbie last season as the team wasn't playing that well.

Other Competitions

At the start of the year we were entered into the Pan Pacific Championship against teams from China, S. Korea & Japan. We scrapped around but thankfully managed to win the competition overall by beating Frontale from Japan 1-0. It comes at quite a good time as it can work as a pre season trip while being competitive football. We will be looking forward when the Asian teams come over to USA and hopefully we can retain our title on home soil.

In the North American Champions League we are getting into the business end of it. In the group stages we qualified on the last game of the season. It wasn't a tough group but because it came when we were playing so badly we really struggled. We came up against Toronto, Cruz Azul & Motagua. Cruz Azul walked away with the league but thankfully we managed to draw with them at home which was enough to see us qualify in 2nd place with 6 points. Motagua were 3rd with 5 points and Toronto bottom with 4 points.

We have been drawn against Monterrey in the quarter finals. The first game will be in Mexico and hopefully we can come away with a result and finish the tie at home in front of our fans. Other fixtures are Los Angeles v Rochester (won the US Cup last year and are still going) Veracruz v America (MEX) and finally San Jose vs Cruz Azul. There are some tough teams in the competition and I can see us being able to win the competition this time around but you never know.

Story So Far

Season     League     Position	     Achievements/Wins
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011       MLS        4th Overall    MLS Champs
2012       MLS        7th Overall    MLS Champs, Pan Pacific Champs, NACL Quarter Finalist*

* = Still going in competition

Watson, how did you sign Tim Howard..keep it up mate.

I'll have a go at this challenge, hopefully at TFC. Since they're so horrible irl, getting them to finish last in the game shouldn't be a problem...

Watson, how did you sign Tim Howard..keep it up mate.

I'll have a go at this challenge, hopefully at TFC. Since they're so horrible irl, getting them to finish last in the game shouldn't be a problem...

Because when I started the game I selected MLS as the only playable league and because of this alot of the players in the premiership are on the transfer list. Thankfully Everton released Howard and I moved quickly to snap him up. He also didn't want a lot of wages which makes him my favourite player at the moment. Although at the moment he is hot property if I can keep hold of him I can see him playing till he is at least 38 (34 now) and his wages should be getting lower all the time. Or I could sell him if we get a good offer for him. (currently valued at £1.4m)

I must say that I reloaded the game about 50 times and I never came across Toronto being near the bottom of the table.

2 out of 3 done

Just fantastic. Really happy with the squad at the moment and they are coming together. Now to wait and find out when the World Club Championship is. Also won the Pan Pacific Championship again.

2 out of 3 done

Just fantastic. Really happy with the squad at the moment and they are coming together. Now to wait and find out when the World Club Championship is. Also won the Pan Pacific Championship again.

Well played!

You'll be the first to have a challenge complete at this rate.

Transfers

This season was all about adding the missing pieces to the puzzle which I did. I finally managed to bring in Nate Fisher who I had been after for 2 seasons. Along with him came Stephen King who was a underrated controlling midfielder and I made him mine. A few of the other players that came in were only backup but the other main player to come in was Oguchi Onyewu after he was released from AC Milan. I see myself as doing the USA a favour by brining back some of its better players.

League Table

This was the complete opposite to how the other seasons had gone. We completely dominated the league and had already qualified for the play offs by game 25. We also set a couple of records along the way. We hold the biggest win which is 7 : 0 vs San Jose, Most goals by a single player which is Chabangu who scored 5. Finally we scored the most team goals which is 92. I don't think that will be broken anytime soon unless it is by us.

In the playoff we were drawn against D.C United in the Semi Final. We beat them 5 : 4 on aggregate thanks to a 2 : 1 win away to secure the tie. We played Toronto in the Eastern Conference Final and we dispatched them 3 : 0. The best thing about this game was the fact that I played without 7 first team regulars and still finished with a great scoreline.

In the Grand Final we played San Jose who were an interesting team to play against. They had beaten us at their place and when they came to our place we stuck 7 past them without reply. In the end the final was quite a close affair but thankfully it ended with us prevailing thanks to a 3 : 1 scoreline. San Jose scored first but thankfully that was the last shot on target that they had. Robbie Findley got the scores back level and it was left for Bobby Boswell to add the second from a corner and that man Chabangu to score the final goal from the penalty spot which confirmed our third MLS title in a row.

Squad

This is possibly one of the best teams that I have ever assembled or has ever been seen in MLS history. There is quality all around the team and no matter who gets injured or is unavailable somebody can come straight in and do just a good a job.

Other Competitions

Pan Pacific Championship

At the start of the year we were entered into the Pan Pacific Championship against teams from China, S. Korea & Japan. We managed to retain our title on home soil thanks to 3 : 0 win in the semi final against Tianjin from China and we followed it up with a 1 : 0 win in the final against F. Marinos from Japan. It was great to win in front of 50,000 people in Honolulu and we received a very healthy gate receipts allowance.

North American Champions League

So after we had won the Pan Pacific Championship we got into the business part of the NACL. We started of by playing Monterrey and despite losing 2 : 1 away we pulled the tie around by beating them 3 : 1 at home thanks mainly to Chabangu and then Findley scored in extra time to take us into the Semi Final where we would play fellow MLS team Los Angeles. I always felt more confident against a fellow MLS team then I did against the Mexican teams mainly because I am more accustomed to playing them and know that we can beat them. We played them at home in the first leg and beat them 1 : 0 thanks to a goal from none other than Chabangu. In the away leg it was going to be tough but the final result says it was a bit easier. The game finished 4 : 3 to us which meant that it was 5 : 3 on aggregate but realistically it should have been 3 : 3 on the night but Santino Quaranta scored his only goal for us while Los Angeles had everybody up front for a corner including the goalkeeper. However this meant that we would be playing our original group team Cruz Azul in the final.

Now the weird thing about the final is that we had already played 5 league games before the first leg and would play another league game before the second leg. The only saving grace was that the game before the first leg at home we had smashed Houston 7 : 1 and the good form carried on into the first leg by beating them 1 : 0 at home. I rested everybody that I could for our league game (which we unsurprisingly lost) and yet again that paid off as we travelled to Mexico and beat them in their back yard 2 : 0 to clinch Chicago's first ever NACL title.

US Open Cup

We hadn't done very well in this before this year and thanks to a lucky cup draw we were able to win this. In the third round we played Rochester who we beat 3 : 0. Next up was Seattle in the quarter final and although it was tougher than Rochester we overcame them 3 : 1. The semi final was another lucky draw this time against Austin. This was a lot tougher than it should have been but thankfully managed to overcome them 2 : 1. The final was going to be against New York who had struggled this season. Their form showed as we beat them 2 : 0 and it was time for another party!!

FIFA Club World Cup

This was the big one. I had to win it this year. This was the best team that I was going to get. The draw came out that in the quarter final we would play Wydad Casablanca in a game that we should have won easily. We found it so hard to score but eventually we scored in extra time and the game finished 1 : 0. We were then drawn against Santos in the semi final and I thought that this was going to be a tough game. It didn't turn out to be and our quality shone through in buckets as we won 6 : 0 I couldn't believe it.

In the final we were going to play English giants Chelsea and although they didn't have anywhere near the same quality that they start of with they still had Cech, Terry, Cole, Lampard, Ramires & Malouda. Thankfully for us they also had Alex, Essien and John Obi Mikel but they were all injured. We started of the game well and by half time the score was 2 : 1. We had scored the first 2 but then Ramires went on a skill full run straight through our defence and slotted past Tim Howard (who was playing his last game before moving to Porto) In the second half it was all hands on deck. They kept coming but they just couldn't get past Howard who was inspiring. I made the call to bring of Freddy Adu who scored the second and bring on Robbie Findley to hopefully run past everybody and score us a third. It happend. The assist came from Chabangu (who had scored the first) who played a through ball Findley sprinted past Terry and around Cech and scored into an open net. I went mental and thankfully the game finished like that and the final score was Chicago 3 : 1 Chelsea

My Amazing Team

Tim Howard

Sean Johnson

Bobby Boswell

Dasan Robinson

Heath Pearce

Marvell Wynne

Nathan Sturgis

Oguchi Onyewu

Oscar Recio

Rob Valentino

Tim Ward

Freddy Adu

Nate Fisher

Rodrigo Lopez

Stephen King

Will Johnson

Alvaro Castro

Corey Schramm

Lerato Chabangu

Pavel Pogrebnyak

Robbie Findley

Story So Far

Season     League     Position	     Achievements/Wins
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2011       MLS        4th Overall    MLS Champs
2012       MLS        7th Overall    MLS Champs, Pan Pacific Champs, NACL Quarter Finalist*
2013       MLS        1st Overall    MLS Champs, US Cup Champs, Pan Pacific Champs, NACL Champs, Club World Cup Champs, NACL Quarter Finalist*

* = Still going in competition

So I have completed the Challenge. If anybody wants to see any other screenies then feel free to ask. Im going to have a break from this game now for a while but will probably come back to it at a later date.

Well played.

That's the beauty of somewhere like the MLS, a team can jump from bottom to top very quickly & then head off on a great run. A superb result against a strong Chelsea team.

Congratulations on completing the challenge.

The reset date for Argentina is 15 July.

Knowing absolutely bugger all about South American football but eager to escape the cold climes of Dafuge's Challenge, I have holidayed a good deal in Argentina and have had a range different clubs cropping up. Are there any fans of Argentine football who can recommend one from the following?:

Ben Hur

Gimnasia y Esgrima de Concepcion del Uruguay

Huracan de Tres Arroyos

Tristan Suarez

Villa Mitre

Club Almagro

Atletico Atlanta

Racing de Cordoba

Los Andes

My copy has finally arrived from Zavvi almost 2 weeks after release date so I'm starting in Brazil as I did for the last 2 years. Introducing the new manager of JV Lideral FC who as you can see played no Division 3 fixtures in 2010

Good luck daemonic, nice to have someone else joining the challenge & in Brazil too.

Razer82 – Joinville EC– Brazilian National Second Division – 2012

Brazilian National Second Division – Prediction – 18th – Actual – 1st – Champions!

Santa Catarina State Championship – Winners!

Brazilian Cup – Second Round – Lost 5-4 on agg to Vitoria

Team Stats

Transfers

Top Scorer: Fabio (25)

Top Assists: Fabio (15)

After winning the state championship last season I was aiming for the same this season, as it would show that we’re still able to compete with the First Division sides in our state.

The first phase of the state championship did not go as well as expected as we were inconsistent but we were still able to second 2nd place & a playoff spot. It would take a penalty shootout to secure our place in the final against Figueirense. A narrow 2-1 defeat in the final meant we’d need to win the second phase playoffs to have a change at retaining the state championsip.

The second phase league stage could not have gone better, 9 games, 9 wins & our only conceded goal coming in the final game. Our semi final opponents this time round were Chapecoense & we would again need penalties to make the final. Our surprise final opponents were Circiuma, another 1-0 win put us into the overall final & give us a chance of retaining the state championship. We were set to meet Figueirense & immediately stamped our authority on the tie, a 2-0 home win.

The away leg also saw some goals, 2 each, which left the final score at 4-2 with us retaining the Santa Catarina State Championship.

Our introduction to the Second Division couldn't not have been any better as we racked up 5 wins in the opening 5 games. From then on we would never lose back to back games for the entire season.

A slight hiccup in the middle of the season saw us drop points in a run of 6 games without a win. How do you follow up a run of form like that, 7 consecutive wins, that's how. After another slight blip, we strung together 4 wins to leave us sat top of the table by 6 points with 6 games to go.

It was at this point that things began to go wrong, with our fate in our own hands, we didn't manage to secure another league win for the rest of the season. This saw our lead slip to 3 points with one game to go. Thankfully our 5th draw in 6 games allowed us to win the Second Division but just a single point.

Winning the state championship last season qualified us for the Brazilian Cup.

The first round saw us travel to River Plate (SE), where a 3-0 victory secure our place in the Second Round. This is due to some bizarre rule that if the away side wins by 2 or more goals in the first leg winning the tie.

Our reward for the victory was a tie with Vitoria. A narrow 1-1 home game left us with it all to do in the second leg. With Vitoria being a division above us the extra quality showed with them winning 4-3 to progress.

So after two seasons, we’re now mixing it up with the big boys of Brazilian football. My main aim for next season would be to avoid relegation, but with the top 13 sides qualifying for continental competitions that would be the best end to next season.

What's with the limit of 4 links in a post?!?

Has something been changed on the boards?

Congrats on promoton Razer, trying to complete the challenge quickly I see

I see you got the problem of 4 links sorted. Know why it happened as I tend to have quite a few in my updates?

Congrats on promoton Razer, trying to complete the challenge quickly I see

I see you got the problem of 4 links sorted. Know why it happened as I tend to have quite a few in my updates?

Thanks! I don't know if the rest of it will be quite so easy though. Need to build the squad up quite a lot first.

There was no issues with the links, it was a user error. Stupid me was using the wrong links from photobucket!

Razer82: OMG! You beat my favorite team in the state championship. *Figueirense*

Congrats on promotion.

I have yet to start my save due to various reasons. i'l start soon c,")

JV Lideral FC - Brazilian Série C

Transfers

Maranhão State Championship

Predicted: 5th | Final Position: Winners || Opening Stage || Opening Stage Final || Closing Stage || Closing Stage Final

Half the fun of Brazil is working out the weird State Championship rules. The Maranhão State Championship has an Opening Stage with 10 teams playing each other once and the top 4 qualifying for knockout games to decide the Opening Stage winner who qualifies for the Championship Final. The Closing stage follows the same rules.

With the Opening Stage starting just a week after I arrived at the club we got off to a slow start with 3 draws but we began to find our feet and qualified for the knockout stages having finished 2nd in the table. Our good form continued as we won the Opening Stage final to setup our place in the Championship Final against the winners of the Closing Stage.

The Closing Stage was a bit of a procession as we easily qualified for the knockout stage but a loss in the Closing Stage Final meant yet another final, which we won to claim the Maranhão State Championship.

Brazilian Série C

Predicted: 5th (of 5) | 1st Stage Final Position: 1st | Playoffs: Runner-Up

Tipped for the drop, we confounded the pundits by storming through the First Stage, qualifying for the playoffs after 6 games. Promotion was easily achieved with a win in the Quarter Final but we couldn't quite win the title as we lost in the final to CENE.

Brazilian Cup - 1st Round

Other News

Finances

Club Records

Stars

Most Assists: Roberto - 10

Most Goals: Kaká - 16

Most MoM: Kaká - 5

Highest Avg Rating: Rogério - 7.57

Fan Player of the Year: Rogério

Best Eleven: Season | Overall

JV Lideral FC Trophy Room

Maranhão State Championship x 1 - 2011

Career History

       Maranhão  National           Brazilian
Season  State     League    Pos.     Cup         South America       Achievements
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
2011    1st       Série C   2nd      1st Rnd     N/A                 Promoted, State Champs.                    

Well done Razer and daemonic for their progress in Brazil so far.

I have to say I am dissappointed that the Serie D has not been created for Brazil, in the same way Serie C used to be. Will be giving this a go nonetheless once I get the game at Christmas. Actually had a game goin g for FM10 where I got Juventus (SP) to the Serie A, but never got round to updating on here, will try to this time!

Good luck to all!

I've recently started playing this challenge with lowly Villa Mitre in Argentina, and must say I'm thoroughly enjoying life in the Argentine second tier after my Dafuge's challenge nightmare. I hope to provide an update and initial manager screenshot once I reach the halfway stage of the season.

Thanks corinthiano, it is a bit disappointing that Serie D isn't in and I'm not a fan of the current Serie C format, I only had to win about 8 games to be promoted. Much preferred the format from a couple of years ago when it was 128 teams and about 4 stages.

Best of luck BaritoneTrouble.

JV Lideral FC - Brazilian Série B 2012

Transfers

A lot of activity as I went about overhauling the entire squad in an attempt to bring it up to Série B standard.

Maranhão State Championship

Predicted: 1st | Final Position: Winners

Opening Stage: 1st | Opening Stage Final: Winner | Closing Stage: 1st | Closing Stage Final: Winners

Cruised through both stages and wins in the Opening Stage and Closing Stage finals meant no need for a decider.

Brazilian Série B

Predicted: 20th | Final Position: 5th | Graph

We started the season with a lot of draws and a bad habit of letting a lead slip in the last few minutes but we eventually started to click after about 10 games and climbed closer to the promotion race than the relegation dog-fight.

With just a dozen games to go we were 3rd, 6 points clear of 5th and looking odds on for promotion, but a horrendous run of 5 defeats and a draw left us trailing 4th by 3pts. A few decent results in the next 5 games allowed us to close the gap on 4th leaving us and Goiás both on 61 pts going into the final game of the season. With Goiás only drawing a win for us and we'd be up, but our opponents Vitória had their own motivation as they chased the title and despite a decent effort they won 1-0 claiming the title and leaving us to finish 5th.

Happy we didn't go up really as we're no where near ready.

Brazilian Cup - Quarter Final

Great run which included wins over Série A sides, Coritiba and Paraná.

Other News

Finances - Not sure if there should be prize money but no Série B payout left a serious hole in the finances.

Club Records

Awards

Maranhão State Top Scorer - 1st Reinaldo (14 gls) | 2nd Paulo (9 gls)

Maranhão State Best Player - 1st Reinaldo | 3rd Robinho

Série B Top Scorer - 1st Paulo (18 gls) | 3rd Adriano (10 gls)

Stars

Most Assists: Marcelo - 13

Most Goals: Paulo - 31

Most MoM: Adriano - 5

Highest Avg Rating: Fábio - 7.35

Fan Player of the Year: Paulinho Criciúma - Over 50 appearances during the season and always solid.

Best Eleven: Season | Overall

JV Lideral FC Trophy Room

Maranhão State Championship x 2 - 2011, 2012

Career History

       Maranhão  National           Brazilian
Season  State     League    Pos.     Cup         South America       Achievements
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
2011    1st       Série C   2nd      1st Rnd     N/A                 Promoted, State Champs. 
2012    1st       Série B   5th      Qtr Fnl     N/A                 State Champs.            

Unlucky on missing out on promotion daemonic, but like you said it is probably better as the gap between Serie B and Serie A is pretty big. Is Palmeiras your parent club? I ask because I saw that you have loaned a lot of players from them. In my games its what usually gets me through the bottom divisions as it is so difficult to control finances and the youngsters at top clubs are of very good quality.

Good luck next season

Thanks corinthiano, yep I have Palmeiras as a parent club and needed them more than ever this season. Getting no Serie B prize money (not sure if I should have) left a huge hole in the finances so my wage budget was reduced from 27k per week to just 17k, destroying all my plans of building a squad ready for Serie A. I have a reasonable squad but I'll lose a lot of them on frees this year if I can't get the wage budget expanded as I'm only allowed to offer a max wage of £200 p/w to players already earning £1000 p/w.

Just started the Serie B season, the State championship was very easy as I won 26 straight games.

I dont remember ever getting prize money for the Serie B, but unfortunately I dont know whether clubs to receive it IRL. The big problem when you play with a club from a small state is that yiou also lose a lot of money in the Ste Championship. I played a game as Juevntus (SP) and my finances were alleviated because I had games againta the big four in Sao Paulo and the other mid-sized clubs there.

Seems like loans will have to be the way forward, maybe try scouting the reserves and U20s games, I found a lot of players I could loan doing that, and eventually even sign once I moved up.

Razer82 – Joinville EC– Brazilian National First Division – 2013

Brazilian National Second Division – Prediction – 18th – Actual – 15th

Santa Catarina State Championship – Winners!

Brazilian Cup – Quarter Final – Lost 7-1 on agg to Sao Paulo

Team Stats

Transfers

Top Scorer: Aldair (27)

Top Assists: Aldair (16)

This season saw us struggle slightly in the state championship, we were able to secure big wins over the smaller sides but at times couldn’t compete with the bigger sides, Avai & Figueirense. We still managed to qualify for the first stage playoff final & it was there that our season began to click as we took Figueirense apart securing a memorable 4-1 win.

The second phase saw us pick us 6 wins, but again Figueirense were able to beat us during the league stage. We took our revenge in the playoffs again beating them on penalties this time around. Despite winning both playoff finals we still had to complete a two legged playoff to retain the state championship. We pushed our way past Figueirense once again, this time 4-3 on agg, to win the state championship for the third consecutive season.

After a surprise promotion last season we were always going to struggle in the National First Division, as we were not able to bring in a large number of new players due to budget limitations. This would mean the same squad would have to attempt to secure our survival.

We lost our opening 3 games before managing to go on a run of 5 unbeaten games in an attempt to avoid sitting the relegation zone. After a run of indifferent form where we couldn’t secure more then one win before losing again. The run of poor form got worse when we only managed 2 wins and 2 draws in a run of 18 games, this left us 11 points from safety with only 8 games to play.

A quick change of tactics adjusted our luck and we managed to secure 4 wins on the bounce to begin our run for survival. A draw with Botafogo stalled the run a little but a win over Internacional With two games to go we were tied on points with Atletico Mineiro who were our next opponents. A 1-1 draw and some other results going our way left us needing a win over Fluminense, who were pushing for a the championship at this point.

What followed could possible be described as our best result of the season, a 2-0 home win saw us jump from 17th to 15th to avoid relegation on the final day of the season.

We had our best run in the cup this season, managing to get all the way to the quarter finals this year, but it was not an easy journey. We ended up winning 2 games 4-3 to progress to the next round. It took two poor results against Sao Paulo to knock us out, the 5-0 hammering in the second leg the poorest game of our cup run.

So we managed to secure our survival in the first division but it took us to the final day, next season I’d like to secure our place with a few more games left. Again we’ll be doing it with pretty much the same squad as there is still no more money to spend. It’s going to be another tough season next year.

Nice to see you guys are getting on well in Brazil.

I don't remember if I got prize money for Seire B, but that might help explain the poor state of my finances.

I dont remember ever getting prize money for the Serie B, but unfortunately I dont know whether clubs to receive it IRL. The big problem when you play with a club from a small state is that yiou also lose a lot of money in the Ste Championship. I played a game as Juevntus (SP) and my finances were alleviated because I had games againta the big four in Sao Paulo and the other mid-sized clubs there.

Seems like loans will have to be the way forward, maybe try scouting the reserves and U20s games, I found a lot of players I could loan doing that, and eventually even sign once I moved up.

I'm finding the U20 players in FM11 are very poor. I've already managed to sign a couple of former loanees fulltime including Adriano from Palmeiras who was one of the stars of last season.

Razer82 – Joinville EC– Brazilian National Second Division – 2013...

Congrats on staying up Razer. Looks like I'll have the same challenge next season, we're 17 points clear of 5th with half the season gone

BTW, you still have Second division in your season report

JV Lideral FC - Brazilian Série B 2013

Transfers

Lots of players in again as I tried to upgrade.

Maranhão State Championship

Predicted: 1st | Final Position: Winners

Opening Stage: 1st || Opening Stage Final: Winner || Closing Stage: 1st || Closing Stage Final: Winner

Very straight forward, 26 wins on the bounce, 85 goals for and just 4 against.

Brazilian Série B

Predicted: 14th | Final Position: Winners | Graph

We kicked off the season with a bang, hammering Ponte Preta 6-0 away from home in the first game and remained unbeaten until the 15th game by which time we were top of the table. Our reaction to losing was brilliant as we bounced back to win 9 in a row allowing us to open up a 17 point gap at the top of the table.

With our fantastic form continuing, promotion was sealed with 8 games to spare and we were champions 2 games later.

Brazilian Cup - Second Round

Hammered by Internacional, which shows the gulf in class between us and Série A.

Other News

Finances - A sorry state of affairs as we lost money throughout the year. The constant struggle with the wage budget means a number of players are leaving at the end of the season because I can't offer them wages even close to their current salary.

Despite playing in front of a half empty stadium each week the board has decided to build a new stadium. Not sure if this is a automatic thing to comply with Série A regulations but it's gonna screw the finances even more over the next couple of seasons. The undersoil heating will come in handy considering we're based just 6 degrees south of the Equator.

Club Records

Awards

Maranhão State Championship Top Scorer - 1st Adriano (17 gls) | 2nd Pereira (14 gls) | 3rd Reinaldo (7 gls)

Maranhão State Championship Best Player - 1st Vinícius | 2nd Adriano | 3rd Gomes

Brazilian Série B Player of the Year - 1st Gomes | 2nd Adriano | 3rd Pereira

Brazilian Série B Top Scorer - 1st Pereira (16 gls) | 3rd Adriano (14 gls)

Brazilian Série B Young Player of the Year - 1st Quinha

Stars

Most Assists: Vinícius - 24

Most Goals: Adriano - 32

Most MoM: Pereira - 7

Highest Avg Rating: Vinícius - 7.49

Fan Player of the Year: Adriano - Fantastic free signing after spending the previous season on loan from Palmeiras.

Best Eleven: Season | Overall

JV Lideral FC Trophy Room

Brazilian Série B x 1 - 2013

Maranhão State Championship x 3 - 2011, 2012, 2013

Career History

       Maranhão  National           Brazilian
Season  State     League    Pos.     Cup         South America       Achievements
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
2011    1st       Série C   2nd      1st Rnd     N/A                 Promoted, State Champs. 
2012    1st       Série B   5th      Qtr Fnl     N/A                 State Champs.            
2013    1st       Série B   1st      2nd Rnd     N/A                 Série B Winners, State Champs.

Congrats on staying up Razer. Looks like I'll have the same challenge next season, we're 17 points clear of 5th with half the season gone

BTW, you still have Second division in your season report

So I did.

All fixed now.

You had a cracking season there, well done on getting into the first division. I think you'll easily stay up if you can keep that sort of form for next season too.

Thanks. Just glad I have a few months of the State Championship to rebuild before Serie A starts. The horrible finances left me with just 14 players on the 2nd of January

I've got another multi-club career underway for FM11 but do still find myself missing these challenges. I'm tempted to join the guys in Brazil but have a query that corinthiano could perhaps help me with: are there any tems from Pernambuco state in Serie D likely to be promoted and eligible for the challenge?

Well done on staying up and getting promoted respectively Razer and daemonic

DodgeeD: Actually a pretty big team from Pernambuco is in Serie D and likely to be promoted, Santa Cruz, who amazingly managed to have a 35k average attendance while playing pretty poorly n Serie D this year. I believe that with their reputation they should get promoted into Serie C quite easily on FM. Maybe Razer and daemonic can see whether thye have been promoted in their game.

I am between picking them and Joinville atm. The latter because Joinville is the city from which my grandparents are from and I used to go there quite often when I was younger. But I will have to see what other sort of teams come up once I get the game next friday.