[FM11Terugkeer naar Glorie/Revenez à la gloire/Return to Glory - Belgium back in the Elite

[DOMOMAN]

In the 80es Beligum was one of the top countries in the football world gaining a runners up spot in the 1980 Euros and a 4th in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. with stars such as Jean-Marie Pfaff, Michel Preud'homme and later profiles such as Luc Nillis, the Belgians were in every world cup from 1982 to 2002!

However, that 2002 World Cup was the last time this proud country was represented at an international competetion (Not counting the olympics)

But now, the young stars of Belgium are rising, talents such as Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Vincent Kompany and Mouranne Fellaini are paving the way for a return to glory, but will Beligum, currently stuck at 62nd in the FIFA World Rankings ever get back into the top of international football? Well lets find out!

Here is our preffered Lineup per August 2010

Due to a lack of wingers, i decided to go with a narrow formation utilizing our best positions (Central Defenders, Central Midfielders and Technically strong forwards/trequaristas) luckily, we have very few natural wingers-only players, so most of them will be able to slide into a offensive midfield position if they are worthy. As you might have already guessed, the roles on the team are pretty stricly defined. The defenders defend, but the backs will be allowed to go up and act as wingers, should they do so it will be the defensive midfielders duty to "fill in" if the ball is lost.

The central midfielder, (at the moment either talent Axel Witsel or Steven Defour) is the primary playmaker, it will be his job to distribute the ball around the field. The 2 attacking midfielders job will vary on the people occupying them, if it's Hazard and Dembélé they will both have Trequarista roles trying to get alot of goals from the attention the defence will give to our Target Man up front, in 2010 either Lukaku or De Sutter

Our first job will be to qualify for EURO 2012 in Poland/Ukraine, we have been handed a tough group with some good opposition, rules are simple the top team qualifies, the second placed best team goes to playoffs

1. Belgium
   
2. Germany
   
3. Turkey
   
4. Austria
   
5. Kazahkstan
   
6. Azerbaijan
   

It looks like a battle between us and Turkey for second place behind Ze Germans, so let the hunt begin and try to get the country united in Black, Yellow and Red once more

[SRL88]

Interesting to see a national carrer game.

Good luck

[DOMOMAN]

Due to the lack of games in the schedule, the match reports will be quite detailed, for your pleasure ^^

Before beggining the campaign for a trip to Poland or Ukraine, we needed to test the new system and squad out, the previous regime had decided that a trip to Helsinki, Finland would be the best way of preparing for matches against Germany and Turkey, a view i did not share, but one must play the cards one is delt and therefore we packed our bags and prepared for a visit to the Olympic stadium in Helsinki.

The Finnish squad is clearly highlighted by Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jääskeläinen and central midfielder Teemu Tainio from Ajax Amsterdam, but looking through the squad, i do not think this nordic nation will cause us much trouble.

Boarding the plane to Finland, is a Belgian team with only 2 men over the age of 30 (Goalkeeper Jean-François Gillet and Defender Daniel Van Buyten) with only two more guys between 26 and 29, truly this squad has immense potential, our starting lineup against the Suomi is our strongest lineup as described in the first post of this update, now onto the game!

August, 11th 2010: Finland - Belgium from Olympia Stadion in Helsinki

My debut as Belgian manager was as much a test if my narrow system would work as it was a concious effort to get 3 points and that clearly showed in the beggining of the match where the Finnish side was in control for the first 10 minutes, though Eden Hazard had a nice shot on goal early on, that missed target by a meter or two.

It was not a nice first 25 minutes to be Belgian manager, the team struggled to generate chances, but atleast kept an uninspired Suomi side from generating attempts at our goal, but after half an hour, it seemed as though the young Belgian side got over the jitters and started realizing that they were the best team on the pitch. Romelu Lukaku recorded the games first attempt inside the goal, but Jääskeläinen managed to punch it out for a corner kick, that was as close as we got though in the first half, which was certainly not a joy to watch, no matter who you rooted for.

Therefore i decided to make some changes for the second half giving a debut match for 21year old Nacer Chadli from FC Twente, and replacing Lukaku with the original Belgian giant man, Tom de Sutter.

It took the team 10 minutes to get into action again, and as predicted it was a dead-ball that breathed some life back into this snoozefest of a match, a perfectly placed free kick hits the head of Thomas Vermaelen in the box, but once again Jääskäleinen in the goal shows why he guards the net in the premier league, and we were still goal-less

Trying to energize the squad, i give more debuts to my young substitutes, but it's the experienced forces that are failing to live up to expectation, after 69 minutes Tom De Sutter get's a 1on1 completely free chance against Jääskeläinen, but fails miserably and with 20 minutes to go, i am starting to fear a 0-0 draw to begin my career..

But alas, with 15 minutes to go the Belgians seem to finally get it! a series of well timed short passes between Defour, Chadi and Dembélé gets another free shot for Tom De Sutter, who this time is very safe! 1-0 to the Belgians, and De Sutter gets his first international goal.

I had hoped the goal would create some passion and ignite the squad, but it turned out to do the exact opposite, the team inadverdanly got lazy and chaos ensued with 2 minutes to go when Daniel Van Buyten lost his head and almost concieved a penalty in a compeltely harmless situation, the ref was kind to give a free kick just outside the box, but Van Buyten had to head into the showers early!

It all comes to an end, with a victory in my debut, but that is the only thing i can take as a positive out of this match.. the Belgians seemed unable to create chances and the Finnish side was not interested in making this an enjoyable match..

Final verdict 4/10 for my belgian squad

Finland 0 - 1 Belgium

75. 0-1 (De Sutter)

88. Red Card (Van Buyten)

Next up, are those pesky Germans, a minor Rival for our team, and i therefore expect a sell-out crowd for my first home match as Belgian national coach

[noikeee]

Haven't had much success with narrow tactics in this version of FM, I suspect you may struggle. Hopefully not as it'd be interesting to see this generation of Belgian talent acheive something.

[jackripper]

good luck with Belguim. Some great youngsters to build with for sure.