LocalSoccerUSCoach

Update #3 - Season 1 First Half Fun fact - this woman is 104 years old and still is an active lobster fisherman in Maine. Alright so after a little vacation (which actually was to Maine and Portland...I got to see the future field of the real Portland Hearts), its time for an update midway through our first season. It is clear that we have a competition rival in Rhode Island. What I didn't realize when editing the database and adding them to this league is that they have their real players from the USL Championship so they are miles better than this level. That being said, we are keeping great pace with them, only 7 points behind: The biggest challenge at the moment is that we have yet to find a way to beat them. I don't fully know how promotion will work yet so its anyone guess if that top stop is the only way up or if there will be a promotion playoff. My only hope is that other teams figure out how to beat Rhode Island and we don't lose. Elsewhere, we got knocked out of the US Open Cup in the Second Round proper by Charlotte Independence but we still held our own. A goal from new signing Jose Serrano kept us in it all the way to the 120th minute before Charlotte converted on a very very very questionable penalty (Harry Kane against Netherlands level questionable in my opinion). That one hurt but the boys continued their league momentum before once again losing to Rhode Island in the semi-finals of the New England Cup. This database has a lot of cups that don't exist in real life but this was one I was really hoping to win (luckily RI didn't and lost the final to Vermont Green). The New England Cup would've placed us in The States Cup where there is a lot more money at play even if we lose the first round to a higher level team. So this is what the results are looking like at the end of December: As you may be able to tell, clean sheets have not been a common occurence for the Hearts this season and GK is top of our list for needs come January. Luckily, our intake preview that a solid keeper may be rising up through our youth academy. We shall see! I will be back with any January transfer window news but until then Up the Hearts and DIRIGO!

Update #2 - Tactical Approach As hinted at in the Squad Overview, we will be rocking with a 3-4-3 to start off our save in the lower leagues. Few reasons: I wanted to keep things as simple as possible while not doing a standard 4-4-2 (our defensive oh crap this team is good shape) We have a club culture requirement to play entertaining soccer, therefore, the best defense is a good offense Wilfried Nancy Working bit by bit here, we will start with the simplicity. My team is still a semi-pro side. I have put in the request but the board doesn't seem ready for that jump yet. That's okay it just means I need to dedicate almost all my time to Tactical Familiarity in training. Therefore, keeping things simple is key. In Possession, Transition, and Out of Possesion all have the bare minimums when it comes to instructions. Where we are mostly seeing complexities is at the player instructions. I have my wingers sitting narrower and setting up overlaps. One CM is on attack and told to get forward and shoot more while the other sits back, acting as an option for a reset pass in the attacking third as well as help for the defense on a quick counter attack. Typically I struggle with the "Play Entertaining Soccer" culture but I do feel that this formation creates opportunity for that. The amount of overloads we create on the left and right sides allows for good crosses into the box all while sending players forward to create more goal chances. At any given time there is a chance for us to have 6 guys fully forward with a 7th close by. At this level, it seems like two things truly win games and leagues: dominance in possession and dominance in xG. We are going to try and exploit that with our aggressive tactics. Lastly, I recently watched this video on Wilfried Nancy (Columbus Crew coach) which is what inspired me to consider this style of play. His ideas around thoughtful possession is what really hooked me. I would love to be able to replicate the Crew's style of play with Portland. I think it is possible to as the new gen players I started with almost all fit perfectly with what I was envisioning. If anyone has any recommendations, feel free to send them my way. I am no tactical genius and am trying to get better with not just watching a "Best Goal Scoring Tactic FM24" video and actually building my own from inspiration from the real world. If you see anything I should change here with roles or have any recommendations for what I should drop back into when I am leading or facing a really strong opponent please let me know! DIRIGO - UP THE HEARTS!

Update #1 - End of Preseason 2023 We had a solid preseason with 2 wins, 2 draws, and a loss handed to us by FC Motown. Our best game came against our affiliate Hearts of San Francisco, where we won 8-1 in the hilly tech bro city. We have a yearly friendly against them so hopefully we repeat that result at home in 2024. Much of the preseason was getting set up with the squad and staff. For this level, our team is looking solid in the front and midfield but rough in the back. This will be our biggest focus as the season gets underway. Highlighted below are our best three players as we kick things off against the Boston Bolts. Javier Gonzalez will lead the team. 27 years old and from Jersey City, NJ, he is pure class in the midfield. Everything we saw from him in preseason makes it clear that not only is he the best player on the team but quite possibly the best in the league. Blake Pope is a new signing for us. Head cannon for Blake is that he took a gap year post high school and kicked around in the lower leagues (specifically MLS Next Pro) before realizing college was more his route. Being from Texas, he wanted to experience real winters and looked north and ended up at University of New England. With Portland being right down the road and the semi-pro schedule working better with his college coursework, he signed a deal for $22,000 per year. Not too shabby for a college kid. We also have signed Patrizio Sorrentino from Mexico. He hasn't looked as strong in the midfield but he will do good as a role player and will hopefully grow into the player I anticipate him becoming. Head cannon for Patrizio, his parents moved from Mexico when he was younger, he goes back in summers to his grandparents but loves Maine and is excited to be apart of this new club. Other Transfers Zar Chi Maung - Yadanarbon [Myanmar] (meets club culture expectations) Alan Salgado - Free Transfer Sadrallah Ashena - Esteghlal Mollasani (LOAN) [Iran] (meets club culture expectations) Club Expectations *yes this is a real photo Patrick Dempsey has high hopes for the club this season. We will need to achieve the following: Grow the club's reputation Record a top-half finish in the New England Conference Reach the U.S. Open Cup proper Challenge for the New England Cup (we come in at the Quarter Finals so this better be a win for the trophy, prize money, and overall vibes)

Interesting. I am playing on the most recent update and used that update within the Pre-Game Editor and had no issues. I have gotten good at using the editor but am in no way an expert so not sure if there is something I did that allowed me to make it compatible with the newest update.

The Squad It doesn't look great to start. All regens (as to be expected) but only one real standout in Javier Gonzalez, a 5-star Mezzala from Jersey City, NJ. The first challenge will be finding players with our measly scouting range and budget as well as keeping guys like Gonzalez on our club for the full year. It won't be long before the big clubs come knocking.

Introduction: With the World Cup only two years away, President Biden created a committee to analyze the state of soccer in the USA and compare it to the rest of the world. They identified three areas of focus: Structure - The closed-system of the MLS has created an ecosystem that encourages buy-in at the top while ignoring the immense development potential across the nation. The committee looked closely at England and Brazil's structures and analyzed how those could be implemented in the US without discouraging investment at ALL levels Culture - Football (American), Basketball, and Baseball fill the cultural headspace of sports for most Americans with Hockey being popular primarily in Northern regions. However, soccer has rapidly gained popularity over the years while baseball and hockey lose their footholds. One committee member traveled to Spain and witness the passion of local communities around their lower level clubs. When asked why they chose to support the local club over a bigger one like Barcelona, the fan responded, "This is all we have. Why would I support [Barcelona] who is an hour away by train?" National Team - While there has been some success in recent years, the USMNT has historically struggled at the biggest stages. One could argue that that is due to the coaching or the pool of players. However, Netherlands has had success at the international level and their domestic league is relatively smaller than its European Big 5 counterparts. What sets them apart is the heavy investment in youth development domestically before those players move on to bigger leagues. The committee organized a meeting with President Biden, US Soccer Federation, the MLS, the USL, the NPSL, and the UPSL. It's safe to say there were many differing opinions in that room on the future of soccer in the US but one thing was made clear by the President and his committee: the world is coming to watch the greatest game on our soil and we need a system that works and encourages growth. The American Soccer Pyramid System was born by the joining together of multiple leagues and with the help of a $1 Billion grant check from the desk of the President. Each club that joined the system would be placed based on historical success and relative size and would be given a slice of the billion based on their level. The Database I will be using this database from u/Coltons13 however with some significant changes. I have gone through every league from the Premier Division down to every States Conference and adjusted the budgets as I felt they were a little too high and unrealistic. Additionally, I made some teams semi-professional at the lowest level to add an extra layer as well as gave random teams rich benefactors. I used a Python script to randomly assign bank balances, wage budgets, and transfer budgets to every team and (after a lot of research and no real success) manually adjusted every team. I have also swapped out certain teams that from my own personal knowledge of the US soccer ecosystem made no sense to have in the database (ex. Youth only teams or "duplicates" of a parent club). The Club For those that don't know there US states, Maine sits in the most Northeastern corner of the country with its very rugged and forested border with Canada to the North, a mountainous region bordering New Hampshire to the East and 228 miles of rocky coastline (over 3,400 miles if you count every inlet and bay). It is nearly the same size of Portugal with only 1 million residents. Long story short, it is a northern backwater full of trees, lobsters, and a strange accent that seems to blend Boston and Aussie accents together. In early 2024, Portland Hearts of Pine SC was born with a goal to create an elite club that reflects the character of Maine and drives economic, community, and cultural value to the city and state. Portland is Maine's largest city with a very young and hip vibe. In my opinion, it makes perfect sense that they will be getting a pro club to start playing next season in USL1. They will also be expanding the historic Fitzpatrick Stadium, walking distance from the downtown, to seat 7,000 and rumors to be soccer-specific. There are a lot of cool clubs popping up around the US but, being from the area, I was craving a save that takes place in New England and has a sweet badge. Now for the fun fictional stuff for the save! Using the pre-game editor, I made the following changes which will all affect the rules of the save: Patrick Dempsey - Similar to Ryan Reynolds of Wrexham fame, Portland has its own actor turned club owner in Patrick Dempsey. In real-life, the American celeb (known for Grey's Anatomy) is from Maine, lives near Portland, and is a fan of the club and the soccer movement in the state. In this save, he will be the Hearts' Ryan Reynolds, owning the club and having very aggressive goals for promotion and reputation growth. Affiliations with Hearts - Hearts of Pine takes influence from the native pines of Maine as well as Portlands Dirigo Heart tradition but obviously there are other Hearts clubs around the world. Portland will have active affiliations with Heart of Midlothian, Hearts of Oak, AFC Hearts of San Francisco. The Club Philosophy We will be taking an approach that I am dubbing "Biloveham" or a combination of Bilbao, Wolves, and Wrexham philosophies. From Bilbao, we will be taking the regional focus of recruiting. It doesn't need to be perfect but Portland will always prioritize local talent over foreign. Therefore, we will recruit players from New England states (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut) as well as focus on building up our youth facilities and coaching. Here and there, we will make big moves but it will always come back to getting local talent first. From Wolves, we will be taking the foreign players from one area only concept. Yes, I know this is exactly the opposite of the last paragraph but Maine has a very strong asylum seeker and refugee program and I want to find a way to replicate that in the club culture. Most immigrants in Maine are from Somalia, Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Burma, Iran, and Iraq so these will be the only foreign countries will can pull from. From Wrexham, we will be taking their drive for the higher leagues. I don't think Hulu will come knocking any time soon but I did copy Ryan Reynolds and changed his basic info to Patrick Dempsey so the hope is he will drive the club culture and atmosphere to strive for higher levels. If he doesn't, I sure as hell well. So join me, bub, as we lead Hearts to glory and New England to its rightful place in the US Soccer ecosystem. Dirigo!