European Conquest

[gamersnsd906]

While waiting for FM 2013 to come out (and getting through this summer - aside from work that is haha), I've decided to take the European Pentagon Challenge, which is winning the league and top domestic cup in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France, while also winning the Europa and Champions League at least once. I'm pretty familiar with the features of the FM series, but I wouldn't exactly consider myself a tactician. But I'm hoping to use this as a learning experience, upping my game every now and then, and hopefully create a few strategies of my own.

I'm going to use these first few posts to keep an overall track record (e.g clubs managed, national career, achievements, etc)

Europe

England - Down to Championship

France - Ligue 1

Germany - Bundesliga

Italy - Serie A

Spain - Down to Liga Adelante

North America

USA - MLS

[gamersnsd906]

Career Summary

Club Career Summary

2011 - 2012: Stade Rennais FC -> Ligue 1: 5th placed

National Career Summary

2012: United States Under 23s - > Olympics 2012: 3rd placed

Club Achievements

2012: Stade Rennais FC - Coupe de la Ligue winner

Personal Achievements

Soon to be filled

[gamersnsd906]

I decided to start with the Ligue 1 in France since it has the lowest UEFA ranking out of the European leagues. After looking at all the clubs, I decided to sign for Stade Rennais FC, and was given a contract until June 2013.

Club History:

On to the Club:

[gamersnsd906]

Jonathan Pitroipa, Burkina Faso international, is my best player and judging from the positions he can play, I will most likely use him as an Inside Forward. Next is Yann M'Vila, who I'm sure a lot of you will know, but unfortunately, I don't like using a defensive midfielder - so I'm either going to retrain him to center midfield or sell him. Next up is Youssouf Hadji, a Moroccan international, and Kader Mangane who is currently wanted by two clubs – Juventus and Liverpool. As for the Reserves, John Verhoek, Johann Carrasso, Franck Julienne are out on loan and I got rid of players who were too old or those I deemed not good enough.

Pitroipa

M’Vila

Hadji

Mangane

Moving on to address the issue of the backroom staff, I fired the majority of the staff because they were overpaid not good enough. I went out and hired several new coaches and scouts who were willing to enter contract negotiations. This was extremely hard to do because I started off as a manager with a Sunday League reputation.

[gamersnsd906]

Regarding any possible transfers, I was not given a transfer budget, so it’s going to have to be free transfers for now. However, I could sell M’Vila or Mangane since Liverpool and Juventus wants him. That could free up some cash to buy players, but highly unlikely I will do this.

After going through the free agent players, I decided to enter the transfer market in search of a good Deep-lying playmaker. I ended up bidding for Ruben Yttergard Jenssen and managed to fight off two other clubs for his signature. Of course, with no transfer budget, I had to sell a few players to generate the cash needed for Yttergard – who will be my first and probably only transfer this season.

Season One Transfer:

Yttergard Jenssen

SEASON 1:

August

We started off the season with a win over Domzale for the first leg of the Europa 3rd qualification round, but unfortunately, lost the second leg. But we were able to advance based on goal differences, 5-0 (Home) and 1-2 (Away). Right away, we had to deal with injuries, specifically Youssouf Hadji was struck with a twisted knee during training shortly before my second Ligue 1 match against Paris Saint-Germain and was out for 4 weeks. This was a bad start for my team because I had to move Hadji down to compensate for Julien Feret, who was my first choice playmaker, was already out for 3 weeks with a fractured arm from one of the pre-season friendly.

Because both of my advanced playmakers were injured, the team suffered a 1-4 (Home) against Paris Saint-Germain, the combination of Javier Pastore and Kevin Gameiro were simply too much for my team. But we bounced back from defeat to hammer Vit. Guimaraes 5-1 (Away) in the first leg of the Europa 4th qualification round. Despite a relatively good start to our Europa campaign, our domestic Ligue 1 performances began to drop following our defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.

September

After our initial loss to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the Ligue 1, we continued without winning for six games. It was rather frustrating because three of those six games, we were predicted to be favorites. But unfortunately, the team’s defense was not great, as we gave away our lead again and again – specifically the Nancy and Sochaux games. It wasn’t until the match against Saint-Etienne that our luck began to change.

The players finally seem to be familiar with each other and with several tactical tweaks; our defensive line began showing more consistency and solidity.

[gamersnsd906]

October

October saw us continue our good run after beating Saint-Etienne. We went five matches undefeated, these included matches in Ligue 1, Europa League, and the Coupe de la Ligue. But unfortunately, our good run created some complacency, as we lost to Toulouse 1-2 (Away) despite being favorites to win.

November

After Toulouse, we were held to a draw by Valenciennes and suffered two straight losses to Lyon and Evian TG. While our Ligue 1 performances have yet to show consistency, our performances in the Europa continues to hint we might have a successful continental campaign this season.

December

Against Athletic Club, Jonathan Pitroipa put in a solid performance to put us in the lead, before center defender Jean Armel Kana Biyik scored with a crucial header to give our side a 0-2 (Away) victory. But unfortunately, with the win over Athletic, Pitroipa suffered a torn calf muscle and will be out for 4-5 months.

[gamersnsd906]

January – February

During this time, the position to coach National U23 teams for the 2012 Olympics were available, and I chose to apply for the United States U23 Head Coach position. I was appointed head coach and will divide my time between Stade Rennais FC and the United States U23 national team. But unfortunately, during this period, we suffered injuries one after another, which resulted in a slight decline for our Ligue 1 performances. But we continue to advance through the Europa, but we were eliminated by Lyon in the Coupe de France 11th round.

March

This month marked the beginning of the CONCACAF Olympics Qualifiers for the United States U23. Serving as the head coach for the national side, I had to go through the national pool and grouped together a squad I believed capable to conquering the Olympics 2012.

We got off to a slow start for the CONCACAF Olympics Qualifiers with a 1-1 tie against Honduras. We had several shots but we just could not convert them into goals. Anthony Lozano gave Honduras the lead at the 78th minute before we were given and converted a penalty at the 89th minute. Following our disappointing performance against Honduras, we re-grouped and blew past Trinidad & Tobago and defeated Jamaica to secure first place in our group.

The match against Costa Rica in the Semi-Final started off slow for us, we were down by one early in the match, but managed to bounce back with brilliant performances from Freddy Adu and Issace Acuna to secure a solid win. Against Mexico, we had a bad start again, with Freddy Adu earning a red card for a malicious tackle in the 15th minute. I was very concerned because we were a man down against a strong Mexican team with the likes of Carlos Fierro, Jonathan Dos Santos, and Erick Torres. But fortunately for us, they only had three shots on target out of ten and failed to convert. With the win against Mexico, and a very solid CONCACAF Olympics Qualification performance, we will head into the Olympics 2012 full of confidence.

[SRL88]

Comfortably made it to the Olympics.

[gamersnsd906]

Hey thanks for checking out my thread! Definitely comfortably made it to the Olympics (can't say that in real life though...).

I was a bit skeptical at first, but Freddy Adu has been doing fine as an Inside Forward, and the midfield of Okugo and Diskerud has been solid

[gamersnsd906]

Despite my success at the national level with the United States U23, I continue to struggle getting consistent performances from my players at club level, Stade Rennais FC. I was faced with the issue of trying to find some way that would allow my defense to stop leaking goals. My strikers were not prolific in front either. Because of our inconsistency, we were knocked out of the Europa knockout round by PSV.

April

We started off with a defeat against Lyon, Hugo Lloris was solid in front of the goal and denied my team any chance of getting a goal. This month also saw the turn of my star player, Jonathan Pitroipa, who played for the reserves team and was able to slot right back into the first team as if he was never injured and out for 5 months.

Coupe de la Ligue Final 2012

Our biggest moment this month was the upset win over Paris-Saint Germain to bring home the Coupe de la Ligue trophy. The score definitely could have been different as they had more shots and possession, but we were lucky enough to get two penalties in which we converted.

[SRL88]

Great work lifting the Coupe de la Ligue .

[gamersnsd906]

May

Despite some inconsistency, we managed to end the season with two wins, the win against PSG could be consider our revenge for the thrashing they gave us at our home stadium at the start of the season. We managed to achieve 5th place in the Ligue 1 table, which could be consider an accomplishment since we were predicted to finish 7th.

[gamersnsd906]

Olympics 2012 – Great Britain

The group stages for the Olympics 2012 were drawn and the United States U23 was placed into Group B with: Great Britain, Japan, and Nigeria. I’m most worried about Great Britain, because their three over 23 aged players included Wayne Rooney, James Milner, and Leighton Baines. Even aside from the over aged players; there are some great talents in their U23 squad, including Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Gareth Bale, Phil Jones, and more.

[gamersnsd906]

In anticipation of a difficult game against England, I had to make adjustments to my U23 team that conquered the CONCACAF Olympics Qualifiers. The three over aged players I chose were Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, and Tim Howard. While Sean Johnson gave a solid performance during qualifiers, I needed Tim Howard’s experience in order to stand a chance against England. The same goes for Landon Donovan, as for Michael Bradley, I’m hoping he can produce a solid performance in the midfield after impressing enough to secure a move to Inter Milan this summer.

United States Under 23s vs Spain Under 23s (Score 3-3: 3-2 Penalty)

In a match involving two very evenly-matched teams, The United States of America Under 23s recorded a somewhat fortuitous win over Spain Under 23s. Midfielder Rodrigo got Spain off to a flying start by scoring a close range finish which was timed impeccably in the 3rd minute. Striker Jozy Altidore than equalized for The United States of America in the 16th minute with a curled effort from eighteen yards.

Rodrigo than added his 2nd goal of the game with an incisive in the 36th minute. Defensive midfielder Koke’s red card for persistent fouling in the 50th minute put Spain’s under question. Midfielder Freddy Adu than equalized for The United States of America in the 61st minute with a placed shot. Commanding center-back Alvaro Dominguez put Spain in front in the 110th minute with a close range diving header.

The Spain fans might have hoped that Dominguez had scored the winner but it was not to be. The United States of America’s equalizer came through Landon Donovan as he seized on Jordi Alba’s mistake to score a penalty in off the pole. In the shootout that followed, it was left to industrious midfielder Michael Bradley to keep a cool head and smash home the winning penalty for The United States of America.

United States Under 23s vs Great Britain Under 23s (Score 3-4)

Despite battling hard The United States of America Under 23s were unable to prevent Great Britain Under 23s from coming away with a 4-3 victory. Explosive striker Theo Walcott gave Great Britain the lead with a header in the 32nd minute. Amobi Okugo equalized for The United States of America with a screamer from some distance out in the 34th minute.

Tim Howard was left red faced as he put the ball past his own goal in the 47th minute. Wayne Rooney score in the 55th minute to give Great Britain a further lead. Jozy Altidore gave The United States of America hope by scoring in the 80th minute with a real poacher effort.

Midfielder Michael Bradley seized on Theo Walcott’s mistake to score a header. Great Britain’s winner came through Daniel Sturridge as he seized on Michael Bradley’s mistake to score a close range finish.

Olympic 3rd Place Playoff vs Uruguay