[FM24] Hexagon Hijinks: Victor Oanase's Global Champions League Quest - Four Sixths sounds so much better than one third. Onwards to South America

[phnompenhandy]

Bit late to the party - a whole year, in fact!

 

This is a fascinating narrative. I popped in because I've started my own minor nations journeyman (only got as far as Wallis & Futuna and Seychelles so far). You've got a whole load of self-imposed targets I'd like to take inspiration from. I could ask a thousand questions, but I'll limit myself to just one: the plan to play at least one player from every nation in the world - love it! So, my question is ... how? If you are managing an amateur club in the Caribbean and you want to sign an amateur player from Tuvalu, overlooking the scouting element and how you learn of each other's existence for the moment, will the player actually agree to sign for you, half a world away?

If it's as easy as that, I'll incorporate it into my save straight away. If it requires a bit of noodling, I'll see if I can work it into my next journeyman-around-the-obscure-world career.

 

KUTGW - you have one more follower

[KibworthBull]

10 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

Bit late to the party - a whole year, in fact!

 

This is a fascinating narrative. I popped in because I've started my own minor nations journeyman (only got as far as Wallis & Futuna and Seychelles so far). You've got a whole load of self-imposed targets I'd like to take inspiration from. I could ask a thousand questions, but I'll limit myself to just one: the plan to play at least one player from every nation in the world - love it! So, my question is ... how? If you are managing an amateur club in the Caribbean and you want to sign an amateur player from Tuvalu, overlooking the scouting element and how you learn of each other's existence for the moment, will the player actually agree to sign for you, half a world away?

If it's as easy as that, I'll incorporate it into my save straight away. If it requires a bit of noodling, I'll see if I can work it into my next journeyman-around-the-obscure-world career.

 

KUTGW - you have one more follower

Welcome aboard, it doesn't matter when you enter a party, as long as you buy the host a drink - or something like that.

The idea isn't my own, someone I know on Twitter did a European one back in Fm17 or FM18. I did one on FM19 where I completed it in a made up league on the Island of Sodor, with some very relaxed rules around foreign player limits.

What I tend to do is stick to a continent at a time, so if we take Africa as an example, I started in Angola, from memory they were the 5th or 6th highest league at the time so most nations had keen players which allowed me to get ticked off whilst I tried to get the relevant Champions League. Once the Champions League was secured then I had a list of the more minor nations to work through, for them I went to a lower nation that was Amateur - Lesotho - and went through the national sides for each nation and approached every single one and signed them - Lesotho had NO restrictions so was able to fill my squad with international players from the minor nations. Within 1 or 2 seasons I'd burned through 10-15 nations - lots of squad rotation and moving players on - over time you realise that certain positions really perform well for certain formations - Right Wing for instance gets MoTM around 25-30% of the time - Assists are very heavily skewered towards MoTM - I've had an example where my Central Defender from an obscure nation scored a hattrick but was pipped to the award because my winger had 3 assists.

You find that naturally over time as your club gets bigger in that continent that your scouting improves so without any real chasing I have ticked off South America long before I arrived in the continent.

Right now I have 9 Asian nations to go and 45 in Europe. I'm not really chasing them yet, once I get the Copa Liberatordos (10-15 years) ticked off then I'll move to Europe, firstly to win the Champions League and then somewhere like San Marino to finish the rest.

Right at the start of the save, I clicked on "Load all players in International Squad" as I've found all nations have at least 4 or 5 players in there. Of varying quality.

[KibworthBull]

March 2075

We have an AA meeting to attend.

Sorry, a meeting with Alianza Atletico. It might cause some confusion.

Oscar Villacorta has a fine day at left back and we return with a 2-0 win.

We do appear to have found some sort of stride - a 5-2 win over Melgar took us top but Brandón Carrascal broke a foot - if we are still top when the Colombian returns (4-5 months) then all will be good with the world.

The injury meant we had to dip our toe (sorry Brandon) into the transfer market and bring in Cesar Bravo - he's not really good enough but will mean we have another option in the squad.

Sport Boys are unbeaten, but so were we. Sport Boys are still unbeaten.

César Guzmán gave us the lead in the last game of the month, but that was as good as it got.

A reality check?

8th is a fantastic position considering we are odds on favourites for the drop.

A new year and a new-looking Samoa squad

We play New Caledonia and Kiribati at the end of the month.

6 players could make debuts - Fauivi Tafola is a keeper who is 28 and has been overlooked for years - he's now the best we have so his time is now. Patrick Tapeni has the potential to make the Left Wing his own going forward. We don't have many young DMs so Steve Pupi at 16 is one to watch. Gavin Granger has been in previous squads but never made an appearance. Vea Talia and Tony Tafiaina are barely out of short trousers.

A shocker against Kiribati - they beat us last time, and this time we scrape a draw. Atili Amituana'i scoring his first ever goal for the nation in the dying embers. Bitner Taufaga with his record breaking 17th national team goal - Joe Sefo has 16 so this one will flip flop around a bit.

A destroying of New Caledonia, Sefo moves onto 18, as does Bitner. Amituana'i also on the score sheet again. Some cliche about buses...

We move to 146th in the world - our best position since 2007. Just one more place to go before we tick off our next achievement

[phnompenhandy]

3 hours ago, KibworthBull said:

Right at the start of the save, I clicked on "Load all players in International Squad" as I've found all nations have at least 4 or 5 players in there. Of varying quality.

Thanks. Inspired by you, I've made a list of all the nations that have never qualified for the World Cup finals (which will become a lot shorter when 2026 rolls around, but we're not there yet). Those will be nations eligible to manage in; I'm not yet sure whether to have one player from each of them, or extend it to literally every nation in the world/game.

You mention about adding/removing leagues. My rig is over a decade old and very limited, so I'll need to do that. How does it work - is it a matter of putting files of every nation in the editor data and then adding a few at a time? Does putting some that you won't manage in for the next few years on 'view-only' make a difference?

[KibworthBull]

19 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

Thanks. Inspired by you, I've made a list of all the nations that have never qualified for the World Cup finals (which will become a lot shorter when 2026 rolls around, but we're not there yet). Those will be nations eligible to manage in; I'm not yet sure whether to have one player from each of them, or extend it to literally every nation in the world/game.

You mention about adding/removing leagues. My rig is over a decade old and very limited, so I'll need to do that. How does it work - is it a matter of putting files of every nation in the editor data and then adding a few at a time? Does putting some that you won't manage in for the next few years on 'view-only' make a difference?

You'll need to have the leagues in the folder before you start the save and then I normally add my next league 12-18 months before I think I'll need it - so I have Peru as only nation loaded right now, and when I am closish to winning Champs League, I'll load my European nation - that gives enough time for managers to start getting sacked and jobs becoming available. If I'm really struggling to get a player from a nation, then I might load that nation for a year or two, but normally I'll only have 1-2 leagues loaded at a time.

I've never used view-only tbh.

[KibworthBull]

April 2075

I've convinced the board to spend over £1m on the training and youth facilities, so they must love me.

A third defeat on the spin at Bolognesi was painful - as with the other 2, Guzman scored our goal.

Late goals are our downfall. A 2-0 lead is squandered against Juan Aurich, but it's a point.

Municipal are sitting bottom of the table. It's not quiet a must win, but a need to win.

Francesco Baioni slams home a penalty after Guzman's normal goal. And relax.

Baioni celebrates by getting injured and misses the next month. As does Guzman. Never rains...

We don't need strikers, when we have wingers, Francisco Romero gets two and that feels like a massive result.

A better end to the month than start.

We are extremely light on numbers. Striker Eder Morales has joined on a free. He'll have to sit it out until June when the window opens but he's a decent-ish body to have around.

Nicely mid table though

 

[phnompenhandy]

7 hours ago, KibworthBull said:

You'll need to have the leagues in the folder before you start the save and then I normally add my next league 12-18 months before I think I'll need it - so I have Peru as only nation loaded right now, and when I am closish to winning Champs League, I'll load my European nation - that gives enough time for managers to start getting sacked and jobs becoming available. If I'm really struggling to get a player from a nation, then I might load that nation for a year or two, but normally I'll only have 1-2 leagues loaded at a time.

I've never used view-only tbh.

Cheers, I can do that in my current save, which I've tweaked to incorporate a scaled-down version of your rule. I've name-checked you in my latest update:

https://community.sports-interactive.com/forums/topic/587616-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-two-heroes-one-tale/

[KibworthBull]

May 2075

The Pacific cup is next month, and our Samoan side know the group now. We avoided New Zealand U23. We should be competitive for 2nd.

We have no injuries so it's the strongest 23 we can muster

A bad day at the office for our Peruvian side, as we fall to defeat at Cesar Vellajo, but we respond well to beat Cusco 2-1 with Daniel Salinas having a particularly good game. 

We've barely got the numbers for an 11 right now, let alone a strong one, so we take points where we can get them. A 2-2 draw thanks to Ndumba Mubili. Thats 5 key players watching from the stands.

But as long as we have Mubili we will score goals. He gets a treble, and we end the month with a win.

3 more games in the Opening Stage.

We are looking good for top 10

[KibworthBull]

June 2075

A busy month.

2 domestic games before the Pacific Games.

A defeat to UTC and then Cesar Guzman returns from injury with a last gasp winner.

For Samoa, we had a friendly against Antigua and Barbuda - two teams!! - Joe Sefo scored a record setting 19th national goal, just before they equalised and that's how it ended. Vital minutes before we enter competition football. Patrick Tapeni is ruled out of the tournament due to injury, Gavin Granger replaces him.

Fiji are our toughest test. They wipe the floor with us. Nuts.

A response is demanded. It takes an OG to get us going but we've finally arrived in the competition. 

It's between ourselves and Tahiti for the final qualification slot, everyone in the media is happy with the draw, but we know we are out. 

We need to win by 7 goals.

We get 4, Collin Foni gets 2.

Not the June we wanted

But we do climb to 144th in the World.

The highest Samoa have ever been.

[KibworthBull]

July 2075

The transfer window is open.

Yay!

We've signed 3 players:

• Clive Phirri is a right winger from Zambia, and will be first choice
• Fernando Córdova offers us good depth on the left hand side - especially further forward - he's Peruvian
• Eder Morales can now play after signing 3 months again. A striker

No one has departed.

Victory over Cienciano ensures we finish 5th in the opening stage.

In the closing stage opener we miss a penalty late on so have to settle for a draw at Cristal.

Both the new wingers get goals and we beat Leon in the 2nd game. We followed it up with another win, this time it was Phirri and Cezar Guzman with the goals.

Alianza Atletico will be playing 2nd tier football next season, we beat them with ease, before a much tougher test, away to Melgar. We stink the place out and get a controversial penalty for a huge win. We top the closing stage.

Sport Boys is the stereotypical game of two halves - we lead 3-0 after half an hour and then cling on for a point in the last few moments.

Tons of green. Yay!

[KibworthBull]

August 2075

After a great month last month, we look to continue the momentum at Alianza, but these boys are a bit decent so they have too much for us, despite Fernando Córdova's goal.

Back on the horse and we spaghettied Bolognesi - the traditional Guzman goal the killer one.

Eder Morales has finally scored - at the 10th attempt - mostly from the bench in his defence - and loanee Alberto Quiróz also notches his first goal as we come from behind to beat Club Juan Aurich.

Victory over Municipal means we end the month top of the Closing Stage. 2nd in the overall, but 13 points behind the leader. We might sneak Copa Liberatordos qualification.

Next month we have some Olympic qualifiers. Now that's a reason to stick around...

[KibworthBull]

September 2075

Full tilt boogie style.

Domestic and International. I was prepared to talk about the Olympic qualifiers and despite saying I wanted to manage them, I wasn't given a chance, so I had to watch on as we progressed through the group stage before falling to Fiji in the Semi-Final.

Our Samoan side faces India at the start of the month and it's a bit of a transitional squad.

Sivamalie Felise and Jefferson Lafai are due to retire at the end of the year, and Peni Tupou is injured, so Daniel Baylis and Jesse Tokuma come in. Baylis is 27 and can play either at Centre Back or DM and has never been capped before, Tokuma (28) has 2 caps from before my time and can play either at Centre Back or Right Back. It's fair to say, neither are long-term options. Patrick Tapeni is back after injury.

Pualele Talia gets a brace but we fall to defeat.

Domestically, we start September with a shocker - a 3-0 defeat to an average Huancayo.

The international break allows one or two to travel the globe before we host Cesar Vellajo and taste defeat again.

We've peaked a bit and now we are being found out as another defeat showed but César Guzmán helped us find some pride in the final game of the month. 

4 games of the season to go. At the moment we are missing out on Continental Football.

 

 

[DaneBramage]

I've read through this over the last few days, good stuff. It's impressive quite how many of the (ridiculous) targets you've hit.

Obviously the Champions Leagues are the priority, and becoming a legend will generally tie in with that, and you're well on track for having a player from every country.

But what about having a player from every continent making 500 appearances? Looks like that's one which will probably fall by the wayside.

[KibworthBull]

7 hours ago, DaneBramage said:

I've read through this over the last few days, good stuff. It's impressive quite how many of the (ridiculous) targets you've hit.

Obviously the Champions Leagues are the priority, and becoming a legend will generally tie in with that, and you're well on track for having a player from every country.

But what about having a player from every continent making 500 appearances? Looks like that's one which will probably fall by the wayside.

It might do - once I get the Champions Leagues done and the Nations I'll see how much energy I have left in the save. Brazil is good for lots of games so that might be the place for that.

[KibworthBull]

October 2075

The U23s are still in Olympic mode, which restricts who I can select for the 2 friendlies this month. A few of the older generations have had recalls.

We get a 0-0 draw against Papua New Guinea before Weinno Vaifale inspires us to a 2-0 win over Vanuatu. Daniel Bayliss makes his debut in the 2nd game

Domestically we get off to a good start, beating relegation-threatened Llacuabamba 3-0, then a 4-0 win over UTC before a double from Zambian Ndumba Mubili got us past Universitario. In truth, it's 3 wins against 3 poor sides, but it's what we needed as we hunt the top 2.

We have 1 more game left.

Victory should give us Copa Liberatordos.

[KibworthBull]

November 2075

We have reached the end....

of the season.

Just 2 orders of business.

One in the league and one friendly for the Samoan national side.

For the national team we have recalled the U23s who were away at the Olympics. Mark Magia is a new name. 3rd choice keeper.

It was my 50th game in charge. Bitner Taufaga scored in a fairly uninteresting draw.

In the race for 100 caps, Taufaga is up there, but Kudos to Weinno Vaifale who has only missed 1 match of my tenure. He's only 22 so should get to 100, possibly first too. Ssemujju was part of my Ugandan squad, many years ago.

On the domestic front, a victory should give us continental football next year.

A draw is what we got.

2nd overall in the league

There also appears to be a bug...

We not only beat this, we did it by miles. Thankfully every team in the division has been docked points, and the same amount, so let's ignore it.

We continue with the Championship Play-Off.

It's Cesar Vellajo over 2nd legs. They beat us in the league, but we beat them in the 1st leg, thanks to César Guzmán with his 21st of the season.

Shame there was a 2nd leg...

As first seasons go at the Peruvian top table, we can be happy with where we finished, but acknowledge that we have a long way to go yet.

[KibworthBull]

February 2076

You join us nearly 8 weeks later - the off-season has proved to be fairly quiet with not a lot of turnover.

We've found a Kuwati - who we can't register and we are paying him large sums of cash to sit in the stands. He can play in the Copa, but not the league.

Welcome Rashed Al-Fadhli.

He already wants to leave - because we can't register him. 

To appease him we've moved on Moses Mathebula who was 1st choice keeper last year - we've got options there.

We've gone Peruvian in the main.

• Alexander Luna is a 21-year-old striker who looks like he is an improvement on Guzman
• Bruno Alberca is 21, a goalkeeper, and will likely be close to No.1, especially as Mathebula has gone.
• Arturo Lozada is a 30-year-old Centre Back and will complement Avila and Obekop nicely.

In the out-tray are:

There maybe more as the month progresses.

First up is our first foray in the Copa Lib as we face a double header against Defensor Sporting from Uruguay. We feel a bit light on the ground still, but managed a comfortable 4-0 win to set us up for the home leg.

The 2nd leg is after the start of the league, and it's them Sport Boys coming over. dffddfdsfdfdfs

Alexander Luna gets going straight away with 4 goals on his debut. It took him 23 seconds to score his first.

£500k in the bank and we progress in the Copa Lib. Colombian side Club Deportes Tolima S.A. next.

£1.5m of that money goes into improving the training facilities... pretty much wipes out the cash we've got but the right decision.

Another point gained away at Juan Aurich, Ndumba Mubili with our goal. 

We have a shocker in Colombia - tough to turn around a 2 goal deficit - I don't think we have a fit and registered keeper either.

Ayachucho are Aya-No-Problemo 

Unbelievably Mubili manages to get a hat-trick to take the 2nd leg to penalties. But we blinked first and that's our first taste of the Copa done.

We do, however, get the Copa Sud as a 2nd prize.