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The Reinvention of Dustin Powers, International Manager of Mystery


DodgeeD

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That was a shocker! They got tanked in the rest of their games though :D

Got the 2025 Confederations Cup done (report to come later) and the 2026 World Cup seems a good place to round this thread off before FM13. I've just realised however that I haven't actually competed in any of the extra competitions I loaded :rolleyes:

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2025 England Update: Confederations Cup

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Group Stage

We spent the month of June in Mexico looking to defend our Confederations Cup crown. Our group was very easy with only China seeming capable of posing a threat. They didn't, however, as we dominated the game and were left frustrated that we couldn't win by a greater margin than 2-0. New Zealand were up next and again we dominated scoring two batches of three goals in 5 minute spells in the first half and right at the end for a 6-0 win. Wİth top spot assured, we took it easy against the USA, who needed a win to qualify. We didn't let them have it though as we strolled to a 3-1 victory.

China then followed us out of the group with the final tables looking like this:

2025CCGroupStage.png

No Brazil in the last four then but a few dropped points meant we would face world champions Spain in the semis....

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2025 England Update:
Confederations Cup
Knockout Rounds

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Semi-final

After the breeze that was our group, we faced a tough tie in the semis with Spain. We went behind to an early goal but recovered to go 2-1 up by the break. A dodgy penalty award allowed Spain to level the game midway through the second half and that would be the end of the scoring as the game went all the way to extra time and then penalties. Luck was not on our side though as
marking our second tournament elimination by the Spanish in three years...

3rd Place Play-Off

We then had to play one more match for thirs place. Surprisingly, we faced Mexico who had suffered a 1-0 defeat against China. In a reverse of our game with Spain, we took an early lead but were 2-1 down at the break. We then drew level with a second half penalty. Unlike the previous match, the socring did not end there as Michael Sims popped up with a late header to give us
right at the end of extra time.

Final

China made a good showing of themselves in the final but ultimately, Spain were too strong for them and ran out
.

A shame then that we couldn't defend our title. There were promising signs for next summer though, especially the
, who is still a key player for us even at 33.

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2025 England Update: World Cup Qualifying & November Friendlies

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World Cup Qualifiers

We were back in action in September and October to complete our World Cup Qualifying programme with three home games and a trip to Wales. Bulgaria were the first visitors to Wembley and we made up for our 3-3 draw earlier in the campaign with an emphatic 4-0 win. That meant we travelled to Cardiff knowing a win over the Welsh would put us firmly in the driving seat at the top of the group. A fantastic first half showing got us what we wanted as we raced into a 3-0 lead and that was how it stayed.

That meant a point against Scotland in the next game would be enough. We went one better, scoring an early goal and claiming a 1-0 win. With our pace in Mexico assured, the players switched off a bit for the last game and we played out a dull 0-0 draw with the Croats. We did lend the Scots a helping hand though as that scoreline meant they secured second and a place in the play-offs.

That left the final table looking like this:

WorldCupEuropeanQualifyingSectionOverview_Stages.png

Friendlies

In November, we hosted Chile and the usual suspects (Bacon and Wilshere) starred in a 3-0 win. We then decided to try something different and travlled to Tehran to take on Iran. It took a while to get the breakthrough but two quick goals on 70 and 75 minutes were enough for a 2-0 win.

We now wait to see who we get in next year's World Cup - one last shot at glory!

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2025 Review: England

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Quick Overview

2026 World Cup Qualifiers: 1st in UEFA Group 4

Confederations Cup: 3rd place

2025 Results:

2025Results.png

Another year of solid results with the only disappointment being the penalty loss in the Confederations Cup semi. Still, we can go to next year's World Cup confident of our chances.

Speaking of the World Cup, we've been drawn in Group H, which brings me together with my old friends from Honduras. :cool:

2026WCGroupH.png

Honduras are not wuite as good as they once were (indeed, Efrian Diaz took the decision to retire from international football last season aged just 29!) but Portugal and Colombia are bound to be tough opposition.

The Story So Far...

[font=courier new][b][u]Year[/u] | [u]Nation[/u]        | [u]World Ranking[/u] | [u]Notes 
[/u][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7839277&viewfull=1#post7839277"]2011[/url] [/b]| New Caledonia | 167th (+3)    | Pacific Games QF
[b][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7843543&viewfull=1#post7843543"]2012[/url][/b] |[/font] [font=courier new]New Caledonia | 136th (+11)   | OCE Nations Cup finalists, Coupé DOM Group Stage, Sacked Nov 2012[/font] [font=courier new]
[b][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7846515&viewfull=1#post7846515"]2013[/url][/b] | Haiti         | 126th (+19)   | Friendlies...[/font]
[font=courier new][b][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7853557&viewfull=1#post7853557"]2014[/url][/b] | Haiti[/font][font=courier new]         | 142nd (-16)   | Caribbean Championship Winners![/font][font=courier new][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7885425&viewfull=1#post7885425"]
[b]2015[/b][/url] | Haiti         | 131st (+12)   | Gold Cup Group Stage; resigned June 2015
[b][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7887107&viewfull=1#post7887107"]2015[/url][/b] | Honduras      | 30th          | Took job June 2015
[/font][font=courier new][b][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7900475&viewfull=1#post7900475"]2016[/url] [/b]| Honduras      | 35th (-5)     | Reached 4th Round of WCQ; Olympics[/font] [font=courier new]Group Stage
[b][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7904723&viewfull=1#post7904723"]2017[/url][/b] | Honduras      | 40th (-5)     | Copa Centroamericano Finalists; Gold Cup Semi-finalists; Qualified for World Cup
[/font][font=courier new][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7912815&viewfull=1#post7912815"][b]2018[/b][/url] | Honduras      | 20th (+20)    | World Cup Second Round[/font][font=courier new]
[/font][font=courier new][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7920331&viewfull=1#post7920331"][b]2019[/b][/url] | Honduras      | 34th (-14)    | [/font][font=courier new]Copa Centroamericano Winners; Gold Cup Finalists[/font][font=courier new]
[/font][font=courier new][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7932707&viewfull=1#post7932707"][b]2020[/b][/url] | Honduras      | 27th (+7)     | Resigned June 2020
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7932707&viewfull=1#post7932707"][b]2020[/b][/url] | England       | 1st (-)       | Took job June 2020[/font][font=courier new]
[/font][font=courier new][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=7937025&viewfull=1#post7937025"][b]2021[/b][/url] | England       | 1st (-)       | Confederations Cup Winners; Qualified for World Cup[/font][font=courier new]
[/font][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=8053910&viewfull=1#post8053910"][b][font=courier new]2022 [/font][/b][/url][font=courier new]| England       | 1st (-)       | World Cup Quarter-finalists[/font][font=courier new]
[/font][font=courier new][url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=8056172&viewfull=1#post8056172"][b]2023[/b][/url] | [/font][font=courier new]England       | 1st (-)       | [/font][font=courier new]Qualified for Euro 2024[/font]
[url="http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/307332-The-Reinvention-of-Dustin-Powers-International-Manager-of-Mystery?p=8142424&viewfull=1#post8142424"][font=courier new]2024 [/font][/url][font=courier new]| [/font][font=courier new]England       | 1st (-)       | [/font][font=courier new]Euro 2024[/font] Winners!!
[font=courier new]2025 | England[/font][font=courier new]       | 1st (-)       | Confederations Cup 3rd place; Qualified for World Cup[/font]

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2025 International Review

A quiet year on the tournament front with just four finals to report on:

African Nations Cup Final: Cameroon 2, Mail 1

Confederations Cup: Spain 2, China 1

Gold Cup: Mexico 3, Honduras 0

Mediterranean Games: Spain 2, Slovenia 0

December 2025 World Rankings:

2025WorldRankings.png

The main event next year (and indeed the final stop for this career) will be the World Cup in Mexico. You've already seen England's group but now here's the group stage draw in full:

2026WCGroupsA-C.png

2026WCGroupsD-F.png

2026WCGroupsG-H.png

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  • 2 weeks later...

So the FM13 BETA game came along before the World Cup came along and, you know how it is, despite best intentions, I left this save hanging. However, with both my FM13 saves halted by bugs, I thought I'd return to this to keep me ticking over until my copy of FM13 and a new patch arrives. :)

A few friendlies to do first then it's World Cup time!

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2026 World Cup: Warm-up matches

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We had five friendlies arranged ahead of the World Cup, three against demanding opposition in the shape of Spain, France and Russia, one away to Ecuador (suggested by my assistant as a way to get used to playing at altitude) and one against Mexican club side Zacatapec. Results were as follows:

2026friendlyresults.png

Against Spain and Russia, we were brilliant. Unfortunately, we were only brilliant for about 60 minutes in the France game as we blew a two-goal lead late on. We had plenty of chances against Ecuador but struggled to take them (although I did give my first choice strike partnership of Sheldon and Bacon a rest) and we were trigger happy againt Zacatapec.

In cae you're wondering about the Holland game, I was wondering about that too! In order to get to the World Cup more quickly, I didn't arrange a friendly for March and then holidayed the game from December 2025 to the start of May 2026. It would seem that my assistant manager Martin Keown then took it upon himself to arrnage a match with the Dutch, which he also took charge of and we promptly lost 3-1. Especially annoying as that ended a 50 game unbeaten run stretching back to the last World Cup. :mad:

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2026 World Cup: Group Stage

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Matchday 1 v. Colombia

Our opening game was a potentially tough one agasinst Colombia. However, we quickly asserted ourselves on the match dominating the first half and taking the lead mid-way through. There was cause for concern as veteran captain Jack Wilshere had a rush of blood and got himself sent off for a rough tackle just before the break but the team retained control of the game. Late drama ensued as Michael Sims extended our lead, Colombia hit back immediately and then had a few good chances to equalise. Luck was on our side though as an own goal late on gave us a 3-1 win.

Matchday 2 v. Portugal

The next game was the toughest of our group matches. Again we took control early and two first half goals gave us a commanding position. Portugal came back into after the break a little and made the score 2-1 but that was where the scoring finished.

Matchday 3 v. Honduras

And so the final game was against one of my former employers, Honduras. We dominated the game from start to finish but struggled to out the ball in the back of the net, relying on a header from Sims to give us a 1-0 win.

That put us through to the next round on top of the group. The other groups finished as follows:

2026WCGroupsa-C-1.png

2026WCGroupsd-f-1.png

2026WCgroupsg-h-1.png

One of the biggest surprises must be the early elimination of Italy, especially as they were top going into the last game only to lose to South Africa. Germany also slipped up with three draws but they have not been a major force for the last decade or so in my game.

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2026 World Cup: Going out with a whimper...

Second Round

One side effect of Italy's early exit was that we ended up with Uruguay in the second round. We were in the weaker half of the draw and if we could get past Uruguay, we would have a good chance of getting to final. Alas, despite dominating the game and playing the last 15 minutes and all of extra time against ten men, we just couldn't score. The game went to penalties and we lost our nerve, missing three and losing out 3-2.

So the dreams of finishing this career on a World Cup high were only dreams in the end as we go home disappointed.

The rest of the knockout rounds went like this:

2026WCKO.png

It was Spain in the end who retained their title and beating a decent Czech side 3-2 in the final.

That's it for FM12 for me. I guess it just wasn't meant to be as my main club career ended with Champions League disappointment and this career ends without the World Cup. I may do something similar for FM13 if the extra competitions are available again from the editor's forum. Hopefully this time I can have some more success with the smaller naitons.

Thanks for reading. :)

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That was a bit of a limp lettuce of an ending. Never mind! :D
I know... :( When it went to penalties, I got a sinking feeling and sure enough, we lost.

There's a pttern of this developing my careers though - back on FM10, I was in the running to win the Champions League and the World Cup in my last season and lost both and in FM11, my career came to a halt in the Dutch second tier... Who knows what failiures await me next time :p

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