International challenge

[MadWoodster]

Electronicmaji apart from lots of players called the same name how are you getting on?

Blowcrapup sorry to hear about your goalkeeping problems, is it worth trying to find a coach with good goalkeeping stats?

Annihilator666 always arrange at least 5 friendlies in a season or your FIFA ranking suffers big time. Your ranking is an average taken across all the games you played in a season but if you play less than 5 games then instead of taking your total and dividing it by the number of games, it gets divided by 5 which means you lose a lot of points, which means even your draw against Madagascar didn't count for as much as it could have.

[Scab]

Myanmar 2009

Another uneventful year. Worryingly, my players are still getting worse, so unless some talented regens appear soon I'm going to be in trouble in a couple of years. Unfortunately, the regens that I've called up really aren't showing any improvement either. :/

2008 Results

Nothing too spectacular until the very last game. Could've done without the Mozambique result... >_>

World Ranking Graph

Still improving. 102nd now.

I have no fixtures for it yet, but it seems like I'll be qualifying for the Asian Nations Cup next year. Yay for more competitive games. \o/

[DodgeeD]

Axefighter More than happy to oblige. The following are the key players in my team and, as you will see, all of them were present at the start of the game and most of them play regular first team football in Europe, which helps.

I think Sierra Leone is a good team to start the challenge with first time tbh as the potential is there. It's strange that most of the players I've included only had a handful of caps each at the start of the game despite being in their mid-twenties and palying in Europe. I'm not familiar with the state of Sierra Leone as a footballing nation or generally irl but I suspect mis-management and/or external factors has prevented these players from turning out regulalry, thus giving Sierra Leone their poor ranking.... Anyway, I'm going to take this challenge as far as I can but afterwards I may well start again with a team ranked below 175th and see how I do

Star Players: Sierra Leone

Mohamed Kallon: This is the one player I had heard of before starting this challenge as he was in the Inter team a few years back at the same time as Martins. Much like Martins, he hasn't fully reached his early potential but he's still a star for the national team (when he can score penalties that is ). Starts the game out of contract, signed for M. Tel-aviv in my game.

Ibrahim Kargbo: star of my defence. Can play anywhere across the back and DM too. Regular for FC Twente in the Dutch League

Gibril Sankoh: Another solid defender playing for Sparta in Holland now in my game. The hero with the two goals v. Ivory Coast

Al Bangura: A relative newcomer to the full squad due to the strange situation where he was in the U-21s and 'happy to be part of the set up' but didn't want to join the senior team because he was 'declared for England'. However, he answered the call when he was 22 (I guess McClaren over-looked him ) A DM, which is great as it allows Kargbo to play DC.

Paul Kpaka: Quickly became the all-time leading scorer (though the previous record was only 10 goals!). Started the game at a Finnish club but later transfered to Belgium, where he has been in great form

Those are the main stars. I have just started 2010 and I've got about 40 regens Hopefully, some of them will sign up for clubs soon!

If anyone's thinking of starting a game with Sierra Leone, they should defintely load the Dutch and Belgian leagues as a lot of players start there and possibly Finland and other Scandinavian leagues too. (I didn'T load Finland and lost a lot of players later because of it). Also, load the French leagues to get/keep Bangura.

[electronicmaji]

Had 2 friendlies with Solomon Islands and both were lost 2-1.

The first friendly was at home and Solomon Islands scored 2 goals followed by a late goal by my Tongan side.

The away game we score the first goal and held the lead until the 75th minute were Solomon Islands forward who plays internationaly decided finaly to open up and scored 2 goals within minutes of each other.

We finally scored our first victory against the Cook Islands 2-0

I'm now preparing to start the OCE Nations Cup Preliminary. My next games is against American Samoa who I had tied last time.

My best players are injured and im trying to make do with the talent from the u-21 squad....so hopefully I can do well...

[Scoham]

Just found out there are a few nations in the game that aren't even on the FIFA rankings.

You can manage Reunion if you load the French leagues and retain players from French and Reunion.

Same with Martinique.

[Annihilator666]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by MadWoodster:

Annihilator666 always arrange at least 5 friendlies in a season or your FIFA ranking suffers big time. Your ranking is an average taken across all the games you played in a season but if you play less than 5 games then instead of taking your total and dividing it by the number of games, it gets divided by 5 which means you lose a lot of points, which means even your draw against Madagascar didn't count for as much as it could have. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I did arrange 5 friendlies, but 2 of them were against European teams and got cancelled because of Euro Championship qualifiers. For some reason, I then couldn't arrange new friendlies on those dates. Must be a bug.

[Annihilator666]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Scoham:

Just found out there are a few nations in the game that aren't even on the FIFA rankings.

You can manage Reunion if you load the French leagues and retain players from French and Reunion.

Same with Martinique. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

They're not members of FIFA, and therefore will never be in the world rankings and will never participate in World Cup qualifying, or any other competitions.

[MadWoodster]

Scab not sure why but I couldn't get your screenshots to come up, but good to hear you are moving on up the ranks. Keep an eye on where your regens end up as it may be useful knowing which leagues they are playing in. Also to get an idea of how your youngsters are coming on, get your coaches to scout all your U-19 and U-21 players, whenever they play a game you get a report on them and how good they are.

DodgeeD a good selection of players there, thanks also for the league suggestion, need to expand the website's help info on this.

Electronicmaji, Solomon Isles are the 2nd best team in Oceania so don't be too disheartened. Well done on beating the Cook Isles, be interesting to see how you get on in the OCE nations cup.

Annihilator666 I thought I had the same problem as you, not suddenly being able to arrange friendlies, but when I chose teams from other continents to my original choices I could have them, so I think it depends on what tournaments are going on at the same time.

Scoham, Machinegunhead tried managing Guadelope, right at the beginning of this challenge and as Annihilator666 says they don't get any FIFA ranking points as they are not FIFA registered nor do they participate in World Cup qualifying. Theoretically they could get called upon to play in the Gold Cup but no one has seen this yet. I did try at one point making some of these nations FIFA registered using the editor, but it just messed up the World Cup qualifiers, as it randomly selected teams not to compete.

[blowcrapup]

I've had the same problem as Annihilator666 it wouldn't declare the date vailible for a friendly do I was stuck with to less games so I had to wait months for my next game.

[electronicmaji]

My debut in the OCE Nations Cup Preliminary saw me easily beating American Samao 3-1 and stealing Fijis win 1-0.

My debut against American Samao was a easy win. We started with a goal at 15 minutes. At 75 minutes American Samoa scored a goal but we came back at the 80 and 90 minutes scoring 2 goals

My difficult win against Fiji was achieved by scoring early on at 16 minutes and then holding Fiji back against the goal for the rest of the first half. Fiji came out the second half fighting and nearly scored 3 or 5 times but we got very lucky and even had one or two of their goals dissalowed. Ultimately we just squeeked past with a win that was totally worth it.

With one more win we can probably qualify for the second half of the cup.

[MadWoodster]

Blowcrapup I wonder if the game enforces some sort of minimum time period before which a friendly must be arranged? Might be worth you or Annihilator666 posting it in the bugs forum and see if you get any response.

Electronicmaji certainly a good start to the campaign there.

My final game in the world cup qualifiers was against Scotland and we lost 0-4 none to surprisingly.

So on to the November friendlies (while the world cup play offs were going on).

0-5 Estonia, we never stood a chance.

0-2 Malta, I had hoped we might get a point here especially as with 10 minutes to go we were only a goal down, but then my star striker had a moment of madness and got sent of for a headbutt. Not only did Malta manage to get another goal, but he then got a 6 match ban! Meaning he will miss the first half of the european championship qualifiers.

So we ended the year down in 181st, having lost all 10 games and scored just 3 goals. At least 2010 can't be any worse!

2010 began with the European Championship Qualifying groups being drawn. Somehow despite being the worst ranked team in Europe, we weren't one of the 2 teams seeded 8th (that went to San Marino and Luxembourg.

We were seeded 7th and drawn in group B which meant we will face Holland, Croatia, Macedonia, Ireland, Latvia, Slovakia and Luxembourg.

Not sure how the seeds are worked out, it may well take into account previous tournaments or it may be hardcoded. Have made a note of all the seeding groups and will see if they are the same in 4 years time.

So on to the spring friendlies. First up Andorra, maybe a chance to grab a result here. With the score 1-1 at half time, things weren't looking too bad. But the 2nd half was a disaster with us letting in 4 goals and so losing 1-5.

Next it was San Marino, surely we could grab a draw here. It was about 18 months since either side had won a game, would one of these two losers win a game? Things started badly for us, as San Marino took the lead after some lax defending just before half time.

Time for some half time words of wisdom and then to send them back out.

10 minutes into the game, we let another goal in, things are looking bleak.

Despite some substitutions and one or two promising attacks the score ended 0-2.

Will ever win again???? Will the FA finally have enough of me and sack me?

[DodgeeD]

Sierre Leone 2010 Update

2010 was set to be a busy year for African football with the African Nations at the start of the year and the world cup in South Africa in the summer. unfortunately, Sierra Leone's year looked pretty quiet as we were not involved in either tournament, plus we only had one friendly arranged for the beginning of the year followed by a 7 month gap to the next. That changed, however, when the qualifying groups for African Nations 2012 were drawn giving Sierra Leone 2 competitive fixtures later in the year. Hopefully, those games would give us the chance to improve on our world ranking of 79th.

Friendlies:

home v. The Congo (ranked 72nd) won 1-0, a good result against a team ranked slightly higher.

home v. Bolivia (ranked 86th) cancelled due to clash with African Nations qualifiers.

African NAtions Qualifying Group 2:

We were drawn in a group with Central African Republic, Angola and Gabon, the last two of whom were expected to battle for top spot with us as a good outside bet. Certainly Angola wouıld provide a tough test while Gabon would offer a chance to test how far we'd come since the challenge began.

away v. Central African Republic (181st) won 3-0, not that easy. maybe the pressure of being favourites for once got to my players as we needed a lucky own goal to gain the advantage then two more in the last five minutes.

home v. Angola (54th) won 1-0, helped by one of the Angolan side seeing red after just 4 minutes. A victory was vital here if we were to stand any chance of qualifying.

The good start to the group saw us climb the rankings all the way up to 59th. in October.

Three friendlies to round off the year.

away v. Qatar (86th) lost 3-1, was going well at 1-1 but then Qatar got a contoversial penalty and an injury-time strike as we chased the game.

away v. UAE (79th) drawn 2-2, decent result.

home v. Northern Ireland (54th) lost 1-0, unlucky here as we had the better of the game but lost out to an early goal.

It ended up being a decent year. 2011 will be make or break time for the qualifying group with two matches against Gabon and the away fixture against Angola. Hopefully we can get the results we need.

Again though, there was dissapointment with the regens. I had 80+ players in the national pool at the start of the year but only 34 to choose from for the Northern ıreland game as they all 'retired' early. Even one player who was straight into the 1st team scoring 3 goals in 4 games retired without ever signing for a club at the age of 19!! They aren't even being picked up by the domestic clubs for some unknown reason....

[MadWoodster]

DodgeeD a very good year in 2010, which if you can repeat in 2011 could see you become the first qualifier for the African Nations Cup. Sorry to hear you are still struggling with regens.

We interrupt this report to bring you some shocking news from the Faroe Islands, we are hearing they are 3-0 up at home to Latvia at half time in a World Cup qualifier, more on this as we get it.

[MadWoodster]

Faroe Isles managed to find some good young regens during the summer, the manager MadWoodster decided to risk a few of them in the first team, against Slovakia and they promptly lost 0-4. Had he blooded them too soon, would they recover from this?

MadWoodster decided it was time to go defensive, picking a new look 4-2-3-1 formation with 4 defenders, 2 defensive midfielders, 3 midfielders and 1 striker. They got of to a wonderful start against Latvia, 3-0 up at half time. As time went on Latvia started sending up the kitchen sink and eventually with 10 minutes to spare they pulled 1 back but surely this was too little too late.

As the brave youngsters from the Faroe Isles started to tire Latvia, poured on the pressure, a minute into injury time they pulled it back to 3-2 but surely even this was too little too late. Whistles were coming from all around the ground but still no full time whistle, then 4 minutes into injury time, Latvia got their equalizer, Faroe Isles cannot believe they came so close to finally winning a qualifying game, but had to settle for their first draw in 6 years of qualifiers. (their last one was 9th October away to Cyprus)

Faroe Isles last won a qualifier way back in 2001 when they beat Luxembourg home and away. With Luxembourg in their group again, can they repeat this?

[Ash_Chelsea_Fan19]

American Samoa

I decided to start with these its gone quite well heres my fixtures so far:

Friendly's

Tahiti - 1-3 (L)

Burundi - 1-5 (L)

Vanuato - 0-2 (L)

Cook Islands - 0-2 (L)

Papua New Guinea - 2-2 (D)

OCE Nations Prem Cup

New Caledonia - 2-0 (W)

Soloman Islands - 0-0 (D)

Vanuato - 1-2 (L)

Samoa - 2-1 (W)

As you can see didnt start well in the friendly's but in the tournaments were going great.

Are next group is:

Tonga

Papua New Guinea

Soloman Islands

New Zealand

Wish me luck hehe.

[DodgeeD]

Sierra Leone 2011 Update

This was a make or break year for Sierra Leone with a big chance to qualify for the African Nations plus the preliminary qualifying round for the 2014 World Cup.

African Nations Qualifying Match

home v. Gabon (ranked 63rd) won 3-1, a huge result which sent us top of the group, 3 points ahead of Gabon and 3 ahead of Angola

Friendly match

home v. Morroco (50th) lost 4-2, a step up to tougher opposition in friendlies proved a bit too tough

African Nations Qualifying Matches

home v. Central African Republic (192nd),lost 1-0, the easiest game of the group on paper ended in a poor defeat. With Angola and Gabon drawing 1-1, a win here would have left us needing just a point from our last two games to qualify but the boys buckled under the pressure, meaning we had to get results away to Angola and Gabon to progress.

away v. Angola (80th) won 2-1, right back in it! A fantastic win with Sierra Leone going for the win from the start. We scored after just 30 seconds then added one more early in the second half. Angola pulled one back in injury time as we tired but we held on for the vital 3 points.

Going into the final match the situation was this: standing 2 points clear of Gabon, we had to avoid defeat to qualify. Even if we lost, there was a chance for us to claim the best runners-up spot as long as South Africa didn't win.

away v. Gabon (71st) lost 4-2, a real thriller of a match. Sierra Leone withstood early pressure to hit Gabon on the break and take the lead. Gabon then scored either side of half-time to take the advantage until we equalised with 20 minutes left. However, Gabon regained the lead with 80 minutes on the clock. Then the controversy - Sierra Leone were denied a clear penalty which would have given us the chance to draw level again. I didn'T hold back when speaking to the media after the gameand I was proved right!! Gabon then hit a goal late on as we were throwing everything forward.

The group finished with us in 2nd place.

After the game, the news filtered through that South Africa had scored an injury time winner to claim the best runner-up spot. No African Nations for Sierra Leone

World Cup Qualifiers Preliminary Round

There was no time to dwell on the defeat as 5 days later, we had a tough match against Uganda, who had topped their African Nations Group in style.

home v. Uganda (78th) won 2-0, a convincing performance as Sierra Leone picked themselves up and got back to winning ways.

away v. Uganda (78th) won 2-0, picked off two easy goals in the first half as Uganda went all out leaving gaps at the back. Aggregate 4-0.

The tie with a high-flying Uganda didn't give me much hope for an easy draw in the group stage. Easy was definitely not what we got. Zimbabwe and Sao Tome and Principe should be beatable but Republic of Congo, Guinea and Cameroon will provide a tough obstacle to World Cup Qualification, as well as breaking into the top three to secure an African Nations place for 2014

Friendlies

home v. Republic of Congo (49th) lost 2-1, a reminder of the task ahead of us.

away v. Togo (99th) won 3-1, ended the year on a high.

Our wins against Angola, Gabon and Uganda helped our ranking peak at 46th in the world rankings, though we dropped a few places towrads the end of the year.

Obvioulsy, I was gutted to miss out on the African Nations. The home defeat to CAR was to blame; even a draw would have been enough to see us claim the runners-up spot. The regen situation is now getting ridiculous. 45 appeared in January, all bar 15 had 'retired' by July and all of them had gone by December. On top of that, several of my original players have retired after being released by their clubs leaving only 30 eligible players in the database at present. I only have one GK and one ML available and soon only one DR as my first choice has announced his retirement for June 2012 at the age of 27 The regens just don't got to domestic clubs and aren't picked up by European clubs despite my coaches now having very high knowledge of Sierra Leone. I've even reported this in the bugs forum but got no answer. If it continues like this, I may well quit and start again with a new team...

[The Shaman]

Nicaragua - 2008 Update

Ok, well 2008 isn't quite finished as of yet, but my WC qualifiers for the year are.

I drew Belize in the first phase and was confident. It shouldn't have been easy, but I felt I should go through.

Belize 0 - 2 Nicaragua

Two away goals left me feeling pretty good about myself and while I wasn't as dominant as I'd hoped in the home leg we still managed to pull it out with a 4-1 aggregate.

Nicaragua 2 - 1 Belize

The second phase drew Honduras and the media put long odds on both matches, and with good reason as this was a country that really should outclass us. First leg was at home and to be honest I was a bit shocked at the result.

Nicaragua 2 - Honduras 1

Even still, I was apprehensive going into San Pedro Sula for the return leg. This is a place I've actually been to in real life and I know that a Central American stadium for a WC qualifier is a pretty intimidating place to be. I know that doesn't really affect what happens in the game, but it had me a bit nervous nonetheless.

Honduras 5 - Nicaragua 3

It was a goalfest, and a nail-biter as well. Honduras scored first, but I pulled one back and even held a brief 2-1 lead before an own goal put the game level at the half. Knowing a draw or one goal loss would put me through on away goals I was hoping for the best. I really did manage to hold my own for the better part of the second half and almost thought I would do it, but a couple of lapses in the back and Honduras managed to just nip me on the 6-5 aggregate.

Frustrating though it was, I have to be happy with this. Getting to the group phase would have been nice though, especially seeing Honduras grouped with Panama, Jamaica, and the USA. Aside from the Americans I really think I could have held my own there and with luck advanced to the Hex.

A few friendlies to round out the year, then another four years before I get another competitive fixture (I just assume I won't get a Gold Cup invite).

[MadWoodster]

Ash_Chelsea_Fan19 welcome to the challenge. Just getting American Samoa through the prelims is a success in itself, they normally get thrashed at this stage. Don't forget to update the website so we can keep track of your progress.

DodgeeD a very encouraging campaign even if you did fall at the last hurdle due to a dodgy refereeing decision. Do you know what seeding group you got given for the African Nations?

TheShaman a good start again Belize, and an encouraging result against Honduras at home. Don't forget to organise at least 5 friendlies a season while you haven't got any competitive games to keep your ranking points up. Also don't forget to update the website as you get points even for getting through the first round of qualifying.

[Ash_Chelsea_Fan19]

I've joined your website my only problem with American Samoa is ive just got 4 new players to choose from two of them being really good but the rest of my team are just getting worse and worse there loosing ability. i'm not sure what to do i cant see why they are gettin worse after i got into the group stages. i have had 2 friendlys with Cook islands drawing the 1st 1-1 and winning the 2nd 2-1 but after that i had a friendly with england which i lost 10-0 which is fair enough then i had a friendly with Brukino Faso and i lost 11-0 lol my players are loosing CA i dont know what to do anyone else had this problem??

[MadWoodster]

Ash_Chelsea_Fan19 unfortunately this is one of the joys of managing American Samoa, because all the players play in the American Samoa league the training facilities available to them are poor as are any coaching staff. However, if you are patient you will find one or two of your players will start to get signed by Australian teams and even South Korean teams depending on what leagues you have running, then your players will start improving a lot and you can start to climb up the rankings.

Looking at the website the best performers are still Axefighter (Tonga) and BS_8 (American Samoa) who have led their respective nations to the Oceania Nations Cup final and into the top 50 in the world. Both have 61 points (at least BS_8 would have if he had registered his world cup qualifier appearance)

Just below them are DodgeeD's up and coming Sierra Leone, 4th place in the world cup african qualifiers group stage followed by 2nd place in the African Nations Cup qualifiers combined with a top 50 ranking gives him 35 points.

Combustion also managing Sierre Leone is in 4th place wih 10 points having got into the top 100 and would have more points if he registered his competition performances.

And in 5th place is Annihilator666 who nearly broke into the top 100 FIFA ranking having led his team to 3rd place in the Gold Cup group stage.

[DodgeeD]

Sorry MadWoodster but I was holidaying through the game when the draw was made so I didn't see the seedings. I suspect I was seeded 4th though based on the expectations for me to beat or lose to my opponents. It's strange that the reputaion doesn't seem to change - after my loss to CAR, the fan reaction said 'pleased to have creted so many chances against a more reputable side' despite them veing ranked 120 places below me at the time I wonder if the same is true for seedings...

[The Shaman]

Well, much to my surprise Nicaragua has been entered into the 2009 edition of the Gold Cup.

WooHoo! Competitive matches. I'm hoping to get through the tournament tonight (since I won't be around the computer for the weekend) and will update when I do.

[MadWoodster]

Dodgee no worries, I am hoping that the seeding is done on world ranking or past form in qualifying as it is in real life, but I may be hoping a little too much. We have seen in Oceania, that it is the highest ranked team that gets the bye to the main group stage, so that isn't done to reputation otherwise it would always be New Zealand.

The Shaman good to hear you got invited to the Gold Cup, it may be based on how well you are doing compared to other nations in your region as opposed to the continent as a whole.

If work stop sending me all over the country I might just get to spend some time playing the game!

[polomint1971]

Well I've been reading this thread for a while and decided to start a game with Afghanistan. Only one game has been played so far (World Cup Qualifier) against Syria (first leg) Goals flying in everywhere - Syria won 7-3. This was in Damascus!

[Axefighter]

Tonga - August 2023 Update

A nice 2-1 friendly win over San Marino set me up for a good OCE Nations Cup. I wasn't highest rated this time and so the prelims needed to be taken care of first.

First match against Samoa was a slim 1-0 win. Second match a 5-0 demolition of Fiji. Third match an easy 3-0 win over New Caledonia. I took the last match easier and drew 2-2 to Papua New Guinea. The

Moving into the main Group Stage, I was yet again expected to get through to the final. The first match was a close 3-2 win over Papua New Guinea, with my goals all coming within 5 minutes of each other. The second match a rather easy 3-1 win against Solomon Islands. As per usual lost 3-0 to New Zealand >_< then a 3-1 win over American Samoa. It put me through comfortably, but my star man got injured in that last game so I needed to count on older players against New Zealand in the final.

The big showdown against New Zealand...again. In the away leg I went into half time at 2-2. However during the second half NZ finally broke the Tongan defence down and scored to win the leg 3-2. So the final match meant I needed a home win against my rivals to win the cup. It was to be a match to remember. New Zealand got off to a flyer with 2 goals in the first 8 minutes. A quick reply made it 2-1. In the 37th minute NZ scored again to make it 3-1, but just before half time my team managed to pull it back to 2-3. The second half now and my Tongan team put all they have into the game to equalise! However a cruel last minute goal by New Zealand mean we lose 4-3 and thus lose 7-5 on aggregate.

With most of the youngsters now at clubs, the rest of the year's friendlies went extremely well. A 6-2 thrashing of Solomon Islands was great, but the 1-0 wins against Andorra and Luxembourg were personal highlights.

http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/5615/tongafixturesnw6.png

In news of my top striker - he has continued to go from strength to strength and was worth £825k. However, a sudden rush of interest from teams such as FC Twente, Pompy, Boro and Celtic meant his value went up. He ended up at Celtic for a deal worth a whopping £950k. That makes him worth, ooh, £948k more than my second best player

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/770/bestplayerkx4.png

Onwards to a year of friendlies! >_>

[MadWoodster]

Polomint1971 welcome to the challenge and good luck with Afghanistan.

Axefighter not good about your star man getting injured at the last hurdle, but well done on another final appearance and the friendly results. Also good to hear of your striker making the big time, lets hope a few more follow.

[qweasdhead]

Just signed up with Kzyr... Kryg... Krygzs... however it's pronounced, manager name Borat Sagdiyev (Kazakh/Kyrgyzstani), loaded China, Hong Kong, Singapore (because they're also Asian).

[qweasdhead]

And just found out that the best player in my national pool (worth £42,000) is a complete clown. Ah well.

[seniorfan]

just started this challenge with Central African Republic ranked 174th will update soon

[rhinosrule]

Started this challenge as manager of Central African Republic. Here is me accepting the job accepting job

[MikelLUFC]

Say Hello to the new Cook Island manager!

[MadWoodster]

Welcome qweasdhead, seniorfan, rhinesrule, MikelLUFC and good luck with the challenge. Keep us posted how you get on and also if keep the website up to date, you will be awarded points based on your performances and be able to see how you are doing compared to everyone else.

[MikelLUFC]

Well not a good start to my career as the Cook Islands lose 3-0 to a superior Solomon Islands side. Not a good day for http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh22/MikelLUFC/untitled.jpg

[MikelLUFC]

COOK ISLAND UPDATE

After dissapointing friendly results (0-3 v Solomon Islands,1-2 v American Somoa,1-4 v Fiji) I wasn't confident going into my group. First game against Samoa managed to snatch a late 2-2 draw.

Second game was a heroic game for us. 50-1 to win were the odds as we stepped on the pitch against the Solomon Islands. We promptly went 3-0 down in the first 30 mins and i feared the worst. With 17 mins to go it didn't look good for us, then the left winger scored a fluke to make it 3-1 then 2 mins later a smashin goal as the ball broke kindly to the CM 14 yards out and he fired a rocket past the flailing keeper. 3-2 with 5mins to go. I threw on the sub striker as a last resort. He then has a 1 on 1 and skies it. It's all over surely, but wait the sub striker has just beaten two defenders and slotted it home. 3-3!!!!! It's not over though he's through again OMG he's scored! COOK ISLANDS WIN!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!

[MikelLUFC]

When do regens appear btw?

[Scab]

Myanmar 2009

Another good year, finally with competitive games! The Asian Nations Cup Qualifiers proved far more entertaining than friendlies.

2009 Results

While the Vanuatu game must be the highlight of the year, I'm mostly pleased with our defence. 7 in 13 was far better than I could've hoped for.

Asian Nations Cup Qualifying

Close, but not quite good enough. We need to score more. Still, we were in with a chance until the very last game, so I can't complain too much.

World Ranking Graph

Asian Nations Cup did wonders for our ranking. 75th now. \o/

In other news, all my players are still playing in Myanmar. I really think the whole view-only thing I went with for the other leagues is going to be a problem... :/

[Guest Arsenal_Loving_Fiend]

I like the sound of this challenge. I'm thinking the Vigin Isles or maybe Taihiti. I'll post soon what I've chosen and my first few games.

[DodgeeD]

Just to let you know, I'm still in the challenge - just slowed down a bit lately due to my online game getting into full swing. I'll post my 2012 and 2013 updates soon. Doesn't look like I'll be qualifying for the next world cup and I'm now down to a pool of just 30 eligible players.... One regen has appeared in Holland though, hopefully more will follow

[rhinosrule]

well my game crashed so had to start again.I am now with Tonga ranked 189 will post images soon

[rhinosrule]

well so far results are so so

Drew @ home to Fiji in a friendly 1-1

Lost away to Fiji ina friendly 1-0

then played in the Oceana Nations Cup Prelims

Lost 2-0 to Fiji

Lost 2-1 to Vanuatu

Drew 2-2 with American Samoa

Won 3-1 against New Caledonian

this caused me to move up to 172 Proof of ranking

[MadWoodster]

Sorry I've been a bit busy in the lead up to Christmas and it is only going to get busier so my apologies if I don't get on this forum much.

MikelLUFC it varies from country to country, if I recall correctly American Samoa get them around August time.

Scab very good performance getting yourself up to 75th in the world has also pushed you ahead of ash_Chelsea_Fan19 and into 4th place on the website leaderboard

Arsenal_Loving_Fiend welcome to the challenge.

DodgeeD glad to hear you are still with us, sorry to hear on the lack of players but great news about the regen appearing in Holland, maybe he will lead an invasion!

Rhiosrule sorry to hear about your game crash, good luck with Tonga.

[Guest Norseen]

Encouraged by previous threads I'm signing up as San Marino. My hope is that there will be plenty of players around Europe to choose from and there is also the slim chance that the club become great and produce some starlets.

My only stumbling block is that my PC and Laptop are showing worrying signs of refusing to stay on for longer than 30 mins. If only I knew a reactive software development engineer who could help...

[Axefighter]

I'll do the full update later but I've managed to get up to 37th in the world and I've beaten New Zealand on away goals to win the Oceania Nations Cup!

[Flashman\'s School Days]

Just been reading about everyones progress and thought i would give it go myself, ive started with Brunei Darussalam, who are 188 in the world as of 17th of december.

[ManU@oldtrafford]

MadWoodster - Great Idea for this Challenge

Well I've decided to be American Samoa

Loaded Australian A-League. Plus all players from American Samoa

Manager: Melvin Finchett

Nationality: Welsh

2nd: American Samoa

Former international footballer

[rhinosrule]

well things are looking good for me as i gained my first points on the website. Since my last update i have played 14 games won 5 drawn 4 and lost 5. I finished second in the prelims of the Oceania Cup and then finished 3rd overall getting hammered last game by New Zealand to stop me finishing 2nd

3rd place in Oceania Cupand Ranking of 87

[ManU@oldtrafford]

end of 07 Friendlies update

I tried a tactic which I thought would do good but it produce the following 2 Results

American Samoa 0-1 Aruba

Wallis & Futuan 6-0 American Samoa

which force me to make a change straight a way

so I change my tactic and got the following results

New Caledonia 1-3 American Samoa

American Samoa 2-2 New Caledonia

American Samoa 2-1 Fiji

so a good improvement I think

here is my Group for the OCE Nations Cup

American Samoa

Fiji

Papua New Guinea

Tahiti

Tonga

My aim is to try to get 2nd but we will see

[ManU@oldtrafford]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by ManU@oldtrafford:

end of 07 Friendlies update

I tried a tactic which I thought would do good but it produce the following 2 Results

American Samoa 0-1 Aruba

Wallis & Futuan 6-0 American Samoa

which force me to make a change straight a way

so I change my tactic and got the following results

New Caledonia 1-3 American Samoa

American Samoa 2-2 New Caledonia

American Samoa 2-1 Fiji

so a good improvement I think

here is my Group for the OCE Nations Cup

American Samoa

Fiji

Papua New Guinea

Tahiti

Tonga

My aim is to try to get 2nd but we will see </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

End of 07 Update

I finshed 3rd in Group and very unlucky not to make it

Here is the table Here

It's not right on the site could you ad the link above to the site

Well here the results

American Samoa 2-1 Papua New Guinea

American Samoa 2-2 Tahiti

American Samoa 0-2 Fiji

American Samoa 1-0 Tonga

Plus Check My rank Here

[ManU@oldtrafford]

Start of 08 Update

Becuase I'm not in the ONC I'v arrange a few Matches here they are

Solomon Islands A

New Caledonia A

Barbados H

Bangladesh H

New Zealand H

Anguilla H

Brazil H

I'm looking Forward to Brazil

[DodgeeD]

Dodgson Quits as Sierra Leone Boss

After a disastorous qualifying campaign for the 2014 World Cup, Diamond Dodgson has quit as the manager of West African nation Sierra Leone, slamming the lack of investment in the country's youth players as he did so.

The campaign started promisingly with fans and pundits alike optimistic. The world cup seemed an unlikely target but a top three finish and a place at the African Nations seemed well within their grasp. The start was tough with away ties to Cameroon and Guinea. A fantastic performance saw Sierra Leone winning 1-0 at half time, only to concede 2 goals in the second half despite dominating. Guinea was a similar tale of narrow defeat, though this time Sierra Leone came back from 2-0 down to draw level, only to lose out to a last minute goal. The season finished with another good performance and a 2-2 draw with Republic of Congo. Despite only picking up 1 point, the three toughest games were out of the way and it seemed the matches against Zimbabwe and Sao Tome and Principe would be easy while there was a good chance of picking up valuable points in the return games against the big three in the group.

Then came the summer.... It was no surprise when all the new stars disappeared as had happened in previous years but it was a worry when no new stars appeared in thier place. Then the big names started to go. Wobay, an ever present under Dodgson, retired. Medo and Kpaka soo followed. Kallon was then released by his club and promptly vanished from the database. For the first game of the new season against Zimbabwe, Dodgson was forced to call on several uncapped players, including some aged over 33, just to make up the numbers. 2 days before the match, the only goalkeeper in the squad also retired. Sierra Leone lost 5-0.

Similar scorelines followed against Sao Tome and Principe, Cameroon and Guinea. By the new year, more players retired meaning a squad of only 21 could be picked as there were only 21 players eligible for Sierra Leone in the entire world

All the remaining matches were lost and Sierra Leone finished bottom of the group. Their world ranking dropped back below 150 and in his final match, Dodgson was forced to play strikers a full backs because no-one else was available. Unable to believe the complete lack of interest in the new talent of previous years by both domestic and international clubs, Dodgson resigned.

And so ends my Sierra Leone adventure. I have absolutely no idea why the regens were never sigined by clubs I must have used over 100 different players in 6 seasons but most of them were never in the game for more than 12 months. When the regens stopped and the big names retired, the game was over. I will restart the challenge in the new year, maybe with a new team or with Sierra Leone again but with different leagues loaded this time.

I'll finish by wishing all those in the International Challenge a Merry Christmas