[FM16] San Giovanni - A Sammarinese youth only challenge

[Bedese]

Now that's how you start a qualifying campaign!

[sherwinriga]

Amazing youth players coming to your team! Um, what about the Red Bull Salzurg during their run in the Champions League, because you forgot about them whom they beat San Giovanni closely. By the way, the Wales and San Marino race is going to be just getting started. I hope you nail at least 4 or 5 wins for San Marino while any upset win by Wales will be a big boost for the small Blue-and-white country. Good luck in the Euro Qualifiers!

[Bedese]

Amazing youth players coming to your team! Um, what about the Red Bull Salzurg during their run in the Champions League, because you forgot about them whom they beat San Giovanni closely. By the way, the Wales and San Marino race is going to be just getting started. I hope you nail at least 4 or 5 wins for San Marino while any upset win by Wales will be a big boost for the small Blue-and-white country. Good luck in the Euro Qualifiers!

Thank you!

Red Bull Salzburg got one point in the group, drawing with Atletico.

[Bedese]

70th in the world!

[Jimbokav1971]

​

Youth Intake Day!

Youth Intake Day!

I know the team is weaker so obviously by comparison the PA marks will be higher, but looking at the players themselves, this seems to be actual progress.

Any suggestions as to a trigger other than a change of the Ass Man and if it is down to that, (must admit that it looks to be significant), what do you think was wrong about the last one and what is better about this one?

[Bedese]

Season Review

Campionato Sammarinese:

Table

Schedule

Back to our unbeaten ways.

Coppa Titano:

Table

Schedule

Yay.

Squad

Key Players:

Highest Average Rating:

Roberto Spinozzi (YP155) - 8.15

I don't like that his potential has dropped off at 2.5* PA, so we'll see if he develops any further.

Top Goalscorer:

Mirko Masotti (YP147) - 38

Our best striker, the NT's fifth best.

Manager's Player of the Year:

Diego Peralta (YP141)

He's great, but he wants to move to a bigger club so he's going to be leaving.

Aims for next season:

Europa Knockouts/CL Groups I guess, but I don't think that's all that realistic.

Other teams:

League Winners:

Cup Winners:

How the team in CL qualifying did: We lost to Red Bull Salzburg in the Playoff.

How the teams in Europa qualifying did: We got 4 points in the group. Libertas lost 3-0 to Zilina, Pennarossa lost 3-1 to Zaglebie Lubin from Poland and Virtus lost 4-0 to Trencin.

San Marino National team:

2126 Results -- 2127 Results

I'm very happy with our start to life as the NT manager (my first game was the 4-0 against Malta). 70th in the world!

[Bedese]

​

I know the team is weaker so obviously by comparison the PA marks will be higher, but looking at the players themselves, this seems to be actual progress.

Any suggestions as to a trigger other than a change of the Ass Man and if it is down to that, (must admit that it looks to be significant), what do you think was wrong about the last one and what is better about this one?

Actually, we haven't changed the Assistant Manager. My current one has been here for 9 years so far (20 JPA, 18 JPP). As far as I can tell, nothing significant has changed. (I did bring in a U19 manager two years ago, but surely that hasn't made a difference to the quality of our intakes?). Which means that it's probably just down to luck - but is the luck that my old intakes were unlucky, or that these last two have been lucky? We'll find out soon enough.

Personally, my suspicions are that we just had a run of terrible intakes, and now we've had two that are better than I'd expect (the most recent one especially). They'll probably start to plateau out soon enough, but it's nice to get some real quality through after some terrible past intakes, whatever the reason.

[Jimbokav1971]

Sorry. It was the HoYD I was thinking of rather than the Ass Man.

[Bedese]

Sorry. It was the HoYD I was thinking of rather than the Ass Man.

Our HOYD has been here for 7 years - he's still the balanced guy with 19 JPA/17 JPP. We couldn't find anyone to replace him that we could afford, and now we have the money I don't want to change it after the last two years.

[Bedese]

[Bedese]

There goes our RM. He thinks he's got bigger things in him, so he's leaving to find them. I doubt he'll find a new club, to be honest.

[Bedese]

We were seeded, and this should be fairly routine.

[Bedese]

[Bedese]

Sigh.

[Bedese]

Ooh, our journalists have been trying out a bit of Sun Tzu's Art of War. Let's see if it works.

[Bedese]

Not quite.

[Bedese]

An interesting group. Qualifying is possible - but so is 0 points.

[Bedese]

Now that's how you start off a group!

[Bedese]

We weren't terrible, but they definitely showed why they're the #1 seed.

[Bedese]

So, so close

[Bedese]

Really poor, and that hurts us. Losing at home to Zurich means we're going out, unless we can return the favour in Switzerland.

[Bedese]

Here's the group:

I don't like our chances. Assuming we don't get anything against Kyiv, we need to beat Saint-Etienne and then have Zurich not beat them and lose to Kyiv (if my maths is right).

[Bedese]

That's not bad. Two wins over Israel is superb, and we got a good point against Cyprus to finish the group. Considering I was targeting 1 point, I'm very happy.

But the real interesting part isn't our group. If Wales have qualified, we'll be going to the Nations League Playoffs for a chance to get a place in the Euros.

So, so close. It's worse than it looks, too - Wales played Montenegro in their final game. A win would give them the group, a draw send them through as a best placed second team. They lost. It hurts.

[Bedese]

I come back from my holiday to get this:

Why? I can't work out why we're in it. Wales won our group and are in it, so why are we - as the runners up - also in it?

I have no idea, but it doesn't matter. Wales were way too strong for us in the group, and that won't change here. Still, it's nice to at least get a taste of what this feels like.

[Bedese]

I'm disappointed that after a 3-0 win in our first game, we got 1 point from the last 5.

[Bedese]

Youth Intake Day!

He looks like he could be pretty good. We don't use an AM and I don't plan to, so I'll be retraining him to a CM as an advanced playmaker, but he definitely has the stats for it.

A little more rough around the edges. He's too small to CB so I'll be retraining him to a LB, and he needs tutoring, but his potential is pretty good.

[Bedese]

Here's that striker they mentioned:

I'm under no illusions - I think we'll lose 3-1 or 4-1, most likely. We played them twice in our Nations League group and lost both times (2-0 and 3-1), and their players are clearly superior to ours. But it's a one off game, and it's the highest stakes match that I've been the NT manager for. We're going to give it our best shot.

[Bedese]

I'm really proud of how we played. We fought tooth and nail and so nearly got ourselves back into the game, but their quality ultimately shone through.

EDIT: If we'd gone through, we'd have met Cyprus in the final. Wales beat them 2-0 to make it into the Euros.

[Bedese]

Season Review

Campionato Sammarinese:

Table

Schedule

We blew one playoff game, but recovered well.

Coppa Titano:

Table

Schedule

We slipped up a bit in the groups, but no such problem in the knockouts.

Squad

Key Players:

Highest Average Rating:

Roberto Spinozzi (YP155) - 8.51

That must be the highest average rating in our history.

Top Goalscorer:

Mirko Masotti (YP147) - 21

We're really missing that star striker we've often had.

Manager's Player of the Year:

Denny Selva (YP154)

He's still unambitious (it's hard to find a tutor that actually works because he's so different to everyone), but he's developing nicely.

Aims for next season:

Europa Knockouts/CL Groups is always the ambition, even if it's not likely.

Other teams:

League Winners:

Cup Winners:

How the team in CL qualifying did: We lost to Celtic in the Playoff.

How the teams in Europa qualifying did: We got 4 points in the group. Libertas lost 3-1 to Pogon from Poland, Virtus lost 4-0 to AaB and Folgore lost 3-1 to FC Inter from Finland.

San Marino National team:

2127 Results -- 2128 Results

Pretty happy with that year. We're currently 95th in the world.

[Bedese]

We should beat Malta twice, Lithuania are definitely beatable (but might be tricky), but I'm not sure about Georgia. They're 65th in the world but they're definitely worse than Wales, and they're not massively strong. This could be a winnable group.

[Bedese]

I was just doing some reading on the Nations League, and here's what it says on wiki:

Each Nations League division will be allocated one of the four remaining UEFA Euro 2020 places. Four teams from each division which have not already qualified for the Euro finals will compete in the play-offs for each division, to be played in March 2020. The play-off berths will be first allocated to each pool winner, and if any of the pool winners have already qualified for the Euro finals, then to the next best ranked team of the division, etc. If in any division, there are fewer than four teams which have not already qualified for the Euro finals, the play-off berths will be allocated to the next best ranked team of the following division, etc.

So:

Division 1, 2, 3 and 4 all get four spots in the Playoff if there are 4 teams who need them - if, let's say, all but 3 teams in Division 1 make the Euros through Euro Qualifying, then one extra space in the Playoff will go to a Division 2 team.

There are four pools in Division 4 (four groups of four). If you win the group, you make it to the Playoff. But if a pool winner has already qualified for the Euros, their place in the Playoff gets given to someone else - not necessarily the team who came second in their pool, but the next best ranked team in the entire division. (I can't work out if that means based on world ranking or points gained in the group, so if anyone knows...).

Also, in the Playoff, it's the first ranked team vs the fourth ranked team, and the second ranked team vs the third ranked team (again, no idea if that's referring to world ranking or performance in the group. Nowhere on the internet has any idea, either, because everyone just says 'best ranked'.)

So, to sum it up...

If we win the pool, we'll definitely be in the Playoff. After that - no idea. All depends on if they mean performance in the group or place in the world rankings.

[sherwinriga]

Wow! Nice research about the UEFA Nations League! How's the youth national teams doing well? On the other hand, since many small nations are there in Asia, I considered about smaller ones not much bigger than China or India. So, that means, which smaller nations (based on area or population) are proved to be qualified in the AFC Asian Cup? (i.e. of small Asian nations are Kuwait, Qatar, Macau, etc.)

[Bedese]

[Bedese]

Wow! Nice research about the UEFA Nations League! How's the youth national teams doing well? On the other hand, since many small nations are there in Asia, I considered about smaller ones not much bigger than China or India. So, that means, which smaller nations (based on area or population) are proved to be qualified in the AFC Asian Cup? (i.e. of small Asian nations are Kuwait, Qatar, Macau, etc.)

I can't find the AFC Asian Cup, but I see the Asian Nations Cup which I presume is the same thing, so:

2127/28: Maldives and Myanmar qualified, coming bottom of their groups.

2103/04: Phillipines made it and came bottom (they're not a small country, but they are ranked 190th in the world).

Qatar, Kuwait, Turkmenistan, Bahrain, Syria and Kyrgyzstan often make it, but they've never done that well in it.

[Bedese]

He's not as good as Muccioli (not even close), but this is great to see. I hope he can develop further, because my assistant thinks he's already hit his potential.

[Jimbokav1971]

Definite progress with the NT.

A couple of decent Youth Players, (Playmaker Marani looks great!).

A good result to open the group stage.

[Bedese]

Seeded again, and this should be routine.

[Bedese]

Definite progress with the NT.

A couple of decent Youth Players, (Playmaker Marani looks great!).

A good result to open the group stage.

Cheers Jimbo!

[Bedese]

[Bedese]

Red Star or Legia.

Well, it's better than Celtic.

[Bedese]

We're in a bit of a transition phase right now, and it'll take us a few years to get to our peak strength. One thing we do really need is another striker - not necessarily a star one (although that'd be nice), but someone fairly competent is all I'm after.

[Bedese]

We could get something off Haifa.

[Bedese]

All was looking lost until 2 minutes from time, when a ball into the box was blocked and fell out to Daniele Felici (YP152) who absolutely belted his volley home from about 14 yards to give us a point. I'm happy enough with it - sure, we were at home, but Andrea Zavoli was out (I'm not sure he'll be back for the return game, actually) and Diego Rinaldi (YP138) was recovering from flu, so we were a little light upfront. Even if we can't beat Georgia out for first spot, this draw gives us an excellent chance of being one of the best second placed teams should a pool winner not need it (which I think is how making it to the Playoff works...)

[Bedese]

We struggled to get going for a while, but in the end it was pretty comfortable.

[Bedese]

Well, that's our chance of first place probably out the window.

[Bedese]

We were terrible once we'd taken the lead, and Marco Mancini (YP157) deciding to palm a shot that was going harmlessly wide into the path of their striker from one yard out was the icing on the cake. We aren't winning the group, and I don't think we're even going to make it to the Playoff.

[Bedese]

Innaurato was born in 2026. Modern medicine must be fantastic, because he's still watching football at the age of 101! Fair play.

[Bedese]

[Bedese]

I'm not sure if we'll have done enough to get into the Playoff. If I'm right (and I very well might not be) we came third out of the non pool winners, so to make the Playoff we need three of Georgia, Finland, Lichtenstein, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Slovenia to make the Euros through Qualifying.

If I am right, it's going to be close. Slovenia probably can, but can Georgia? Can Finland? Can Lichtenstein? I don't have much hope that Azerbaijan or Moldova will, so we're really banking on three out of four making it themselves (and even then, if I've worked it out wrong, it might not be the case). We're going to need a fair bit of help.

[Bedese]

Pathetic.