wesl

March 28, 2020

Brazil vs. Argentina. September 1st, 2028. Beira-Rio. WCQ.

I was worried about Argentina's offensive prowess, which made me play Edilson at DM, but they showed up to park the bus. The rest of our starting XI basically picked itself.

There was a definitive lack of space for us, with Austregésilo, Paquetá and Paulinho drifting towards the same places. The best chance for us came 34 minutes in, with a deep cross from Totó to Paulinho which the latter crashed into the crossbar. Argentina created some danger with left-winger Gordillo. We created one CCC (the former, I believe) and four half chances, but there was no clarity in our offense, and Argentina fielding two low blocks made it hard. Lodi was subbed out at half-time due to lack of fitness. Arthur was subbed in looking for more offense from our midfielders. It seemed to have a chance to help create more until the last substitution. Lincoln came in for Zilio, and I placed him as a striker. After that, we didn't do anything. So it seems like playing with no striker is the way forward.

Brazil vs. Uruguay. September 5th, 2028. Maracana. WCQ.

Perhaps there were too many changes to the starting XI. It started with me changing the AML role to raumdeuter, which I hoped would give Austregésilo more space as the AML could drift wider. Rodrygo seems better fitted to this role than Paulinho. In turn, Panda started at left-back because he's stronger defensively. I also went with Arthur over Paquetá, because I liked how he looked against Argentina, and he seems more capable of making game-changing passes. With me less worried about Uruguay's offense, I picked Gallo in the DM spot. He will start as a vanilla DLP(d). Finally, I went with the younger Felipe Daniel at centre-back, because we might as well.

The raumdeuter change worked immediately, as Rodrygo beat Uruguay's left-back on the outside and got fouled to get a penalty. Austregésilo converted it 90 seconds in. At the 11th minute, Rodrygo did the same thing and squared the ball to an unmarked Austregésilo for the second goal. Totó got subbed out at half-time, he's completed a shameful 1/28 crosses in 135 minutes. I thought maybe Ribeiro would be able to replicate his Corinthians form, but he went 1/8 in the second half. Zilio scored a third goal from a corner, after a header from Felipe Daniel. With us up by three, I decided to give Lorenzato and Amaral their debuts. Arthur and Lorenzato had close calls with shots from the edge of the area down the stretch, but we didn't score more goals.

I would like to create more but it's a great result, all in all.

It appears that qualification will be fairly painless. Peru quailfied with 19 points in 2026, so we might already be in.

This is what my tactic looks like after two games. Already quite happy with how we looked against Uruguay.

March 28, 2020

Brazil national team - September 2028 (squad selection)

We're facing Argentina and Uruguay at home. I agonised over squad selection for a couple hours, so it will get an entire post to it. I've even rebuilt the national pool from scratch, to give overlooked players a real shot. From there, I narrowed it down as much as possible before comparing players (attributes and form) head-to-head. This is what the end result looks like.

The aim is deploying a similar style to Corinthians (something gegenpress based) but I didn't want to copy that tactic wholesale, in order to truly pick the best players available. This makes the process harder, but I pretty much knew from the start we're playing a 4-1-2-something, with a defensive midfielder to increase defensive solidity.

Goalkeepers: Alisson will be our #1, he's still amazing. César Leal seems to be next in line, which means he should debut as soon as we get a friendly or an easier fixture. I omitted Ederson, Man City's #1. He's fantastic (clearly better than César) but he's never been better than Alisson and is of a similar age. Instead, I've called up 22-year old Carlos Augusto from Flamengo. He leads Série A in clean sheets and isn't too far behind César in his development.

Right-backs: We have too many options here. I had to pick two from Porto's Wallace Azevedo, Shakthar's Dodô, Benfica's Totó and Ribeiro from Corinthians. Going by performance, Ribeiro is far ahead from the rest (albeit in weaker competitions), but he has the weakest attributes. I'll use a WB(A) in this tactic. With this role, Ribeiro has been among the best players in the continent for a few years going, so he's earned a call-up for now. Totó already looks like the best of the group, and he's also the youngest. He'll be our starter. Dodô has the best attacking attributes, so he can be a valuable option in future fixtures. Azevedo is obviously incredible, but I don't see him having any major advantages over the rest.

Left-backs: I narrowed my options for the starting position down to Sevilla's Guilherme Arana and Santos' Renan Lodi. There isn't much to separate the two, I ended up going with Lodi because he's a year younger. Arana has been the national team starter for a long time, but he's gonna be 33 when the Spain World Cup starts. I've omitted him entirely from the squad as Panda seems like a stronger defensive alternative, as well as the best player under 28 in the position. I'm not sure Panda is good enough to be a long term starter compared to the rest of the team and there don't seem to be many more options. Azevedo could end up playing here.

Centre-backs: Militao and Luiz Felipe were locks here. They're also narrowly on the wrong side of 30, but they are world-class and should be good enough for the WC. The two back-ups had to be decided between Roma's Lyanco, Lille's Thiago Maia, Benfica's Felipe Daniel, Jiangsu's Léo Santos, Paulo Marcelo and Santos' Amaral. Seeing how this is a huge group and none of them are unseating the two starters (for a while, at least), I took everyone over 28 out of the question. This left us with Felipe Daniel, Paulo Marcelo and Amaral. Felipe Daniel is a cut above the other two, which leaves us with one spot. Paulo Marcelo may have the best physical attributes out of the group, and Amaral has amazing mental attributes. I couldn't decide based on this, but Paulo Marcelo has just not played enough for Corinthians. I think he's the best of the lot at Corinthians attribute-wise, but he's been outperformed and I pick heavily based on form. Amaral has been key at Santos for years, so he gets this spot.

Defensive midfield: I narrowed it down to two out of Benfica's Edilson, Lazio's Iago Gallo and Guangzhou's Victor Bobsin. They can all be playmaking midfielders from the DM spot. 22-year old Gallo is an exciting player in this regard. I think he can be a long term key player with the right role. I picked Edilson over Bobsin because of his better physical attributes.

Central midfield: I had three locks here with Joao Pedro, Lucas Paquetá and Arthur. The remaining spot came down to Benfica's Lorenzato and Jiangsu's Matheus Henrique. Like at centre-back, the choice came down to age, so Lorenzato got the call-up.

Attacking midfield/strikers: This was the hardest group to pick, because of the wealth of options. I know Austregésilo and Luan Zilio (a Grêmio academy product, and formerly a nightmare at Caxias) have to start, as they might be the best players we have. Zilio not being capped yet might be the reason Brazil is underperforming. Either way, both of these are playing as central attacking midfielders, which is an awkward starting point.

I had 4 remaining spots, and after a few cuts I managed to narrow it down to.... 15 players. It was untenable to narrow it down just by comparing head-to-head, so I made a crude spreadsheet based on what I want to see from whoever plays in these positions.

I'm pleasantly surprised that Corinthians' Roberto Carlos topped this list, which makes him a lock as back-up to Austregésilo and Zilio. Guangzhou's Lincoln also scored highly, and will get a call-up. The natural thing would've been calling up the top 4, but Everton and Gabriel Jesus made me balk. They can still be useful but as they're older, their physical attributes are slightly weaker than the rest of the group. Since the spreadsheet didn't take into account this at all, I decided to call up the next two, Paulinho and Rodrygo.

This choice makes the team less versatile as Rodrygo (as well as Roberto Carlos, Austregésilo and Zilio) can only play in one AM position. I realized eventually that the only shape that made sense was the one used by @ManUtd1's 'shadowganche' tactics. So I'll take that and build a much inferior tactic.

This is what I'm starting with against Argentina, developing the DM role into something exciting is on hold for now. I'll have to tweak heavily on the fly given the importance of the match, but I think it looks good enough to not concede 3 within 10 minutes or whatever.

March 28, 2020

2 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

VERDICT: In this case - I have no reason to drop Puig and his attributes are still holding up, despite what his star rating says. I think that Fulvio needs a spell out on loan - either to a La Liga side or another top tier. I'll re-evaluate this one next summer.

It's always been weird to me that you have Puig play every match. Why not split starts between him and Fulvio at a 70:30 rate or something?

March 27, 2020

2 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

Are you Brazilian? Any clubs you'd recommend getting to know ready for a game there in future?

No, but I'm a native Spanish speaker which has helped me read about Brazilian football since I started this. I think what's best about playing Brazil in FM is you can find something intriguing about almost every club.

I think ABC would be very interesting, they're the biggest club from one of the 2014 host cities. They have 55 state league titles, which I believe is the most in Brazil, but they've never achieved much nationally. Amazonas' Nacional has a similar case.

Sao Caetano is another interesting one, they came close to winning the Libertadores early in the 2000s, but they've fallen hard since. Unlike the former two, they wouldn't start the 2020 season in Série D. They're actually in the Sao Paulo 2nd tier, which is playable in the MRT90 file. Sao Paulo has a state cup for lower division teams starting in July, which makes the "offseason" shorter but can be annoying when you're in Série C. I had a similar competition with Caxias.

Another option would be starting as a club from one of the smaller states (Tocantins, Rondonia, Roraima, etc.). These states didn't have professional leagues until the 90s, so most of their clubs can be a blank slate, a bit like your Guadalajara.

There's also very compelling "fallen giant" clubs like Guarani in higher tiers.

March 27, 2020

2 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

Will winning the state league increase the chance of getting them into Serie D? That would be my perfect starting point for a game in Brazil - especially a few years of just regional football before joining a national league.

I've only ever managed in the top flight there - I had a great save with Gremio that lasted about three years (which was over 200 games!) and a return is overdue. Thanks to the detail of your save, I think it's now completely sold to me!

Yes, actually the top finishers (who don't play in higher tiers) from each state league qualify for the following year's Série D. If a "non-league" team wins their state league they are surely qualifying. This also means sometimes teams that were perhaps a goal away from getting promoted get effectively relegated if they performed poorly in their state. It can all be very dramatic.

March 27, 2020

31 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

Good luck in your new venture with the national team - are you planning to stay for a while and then move to a club or go for a new club at the same time?

Thank you. I plan to stay at least through the 2030 World Cup, but I will try to go for a new club at the same time. My intended destination is a club in one of Brazil's poorest states. Those clubs usually only play their state league, which means they have no fixtures for 7-8 months. Taking over Brazil will help up break some of the monotony of just pressing continue for that stretch.

35 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

I've not managed in Brazil for a few years but I feel that my next long term save, be that on FM20 (with all of this isolation time, I'll have done what I needed with time to spare!) or on FM21 will be in Brazil. I think the cup competitions give a massive scope for player development and the relatively low economic standard means that you're always a conveyor belt for the best talent going to Europe.

Said it before but can't recommend it enough, especially starting with a club in Série D. It seems like MRT90 won't make more editor files, so hopefully someone picks up the slack for FM21 and beyond.

March 26, 2020

This was not the best time to get rid of our best midfielder, but letting players who want to leave go has been my policy so far and I don't want to change it in what's hopefully my last year here. Arrieta was pretty great, a rock in midfield. He evolved into a national team player in his time here. We make a large profit and sell him off for about as much as we can get European clubs to pay us in this save. It still feels wrong.

With this transfer, I've unlisted Mohlala, as he's no longer surplus to requirements. This also frees up a foreign player spot, which can be used to have one of the foreign teenagers I've signed as an option off the bench.

Additionally, Sevilla signed several of my shortlisted players for big money. It would be interesting to see how they would fare if I had Spain loaded but, I do not.

March 26, 2020

2028 Série A

We were unbeaten through the stretch without our international players! Despite the perfect record, it's become clear that I'll have to get creative (and lucky) to meet expectations. We are just not performing as well as in previous seasons. This is partly down to our squad being weakened thanks to world class players leaving and no direct replacement for them. I've stocked up on blue-chip youngsters but haven't made many marquee signings in the past two years. To make matters worse, our forwards have all been quite disappointing. Hurtado has been a non-entity for most of the season, and no one else has picked up the goalscoring slack. Part of this comes down to form. I've seen several players miss chances they would've scored in previous years. But I've also noticed teams playing two low blocks almost every game against us, which comes down to our increasing reputation. Since our defense is already threadbare, I don't feel comfortable throwing even more men forward. The solution has been playing a more patient possession game, since the spaces needed for the neckbreak pace we used to play are just never there anymore. 19-year-old Ademar has become a starter in this setup, thanks to his elite vision and flair, but most of our forwards were better suited to our previous style. Ribeiro has been another constant. He probably won't reach his 2028 tally of 23 assists, but he's up to 13 so far and still our best perfomer.

The winning stretch involved much more micromanaging of games. It's been tough, like someone turned up the difficulty setting. Even CSA limited us to one goal. We had to claw back after an early goal by Oeste, but we broke through in the 64th minute to tie it up and won it down the stretch. I went to the 4-1-2-3-0 tactic from the outset against Santos and we played one of our best games all season. We went ahead with a penalty scored (thank god) by Elenilton. Eli made a couple key saves in the second half, but we shut out Santos after a mentality change and Ecuadorian forward Tutalcha secured the win in injury time.

The match against second-place Flamengo may be the most important of our season. There was a 2-point gap between us and them. We played very defensively by our standards, conceding possession and shooting less than our rivals at home (a rare occurence). Substitute Roberto Carlos won it late after a great through ball from Tutalcha. It was Caxias-esque robbery. We went into the game against Bahia with a similar defensive gameplan. I was content to get a draw, with our lead having widened to 5 points. Bahia is also a team that breaks really quickly and has been a headache since Osmar Loss took over. We got even less chances against them than Flamengo, but we also gave up nothing on defense.... until the 94th minute when Palhinha beat Marquinhos to a cross. Bahia is our bogey-team. We're up to 3 consecutive losses against them.

We closed out the first half with a draw at Allianz Parque and yet another hard-earned win against Vitória.

We've only scored 30 goals, still the most in the league but about one goal per game less than last year. Five points is a fantastic lead, but the second half will be a grind. We'll have less fixture congestion, but I don't expect that to help much since all our players are performing at a similar level when called upon.

Caxias look set to compete for Libertadores football for the first time ever, which is great to see.

Copa do Brasil

We lost the first leg on a goal from a corner. The second leg could've been a disaster, Hurtado missed a penalty 2 minutes in. And after that, he got on the end of every cross but he could barely even get a shot on target. Elenilton came through to tie it up with a half-volley from a Ribeiro cross. Hurtado scored the winner, thanks to our high pressing! Him and Ademar pressed Palmeiras' keeper and Hurtado stole the ball to get us through to the semifinal.

In the semifinals we'll be facing... Bahia.

Copa Libertadores

We played very well at home. One of the few matches where we've looked like 2026 Corinthians. Hurtado scored again at Racing's stadium. Racing got a late goal, but we're through to the quarter-final.

Naturally, we'll be facing the bastards at Bahia in the next round. We'll face our bogey-team four Wednesdays in a row, and losing the Libertadores to them twice in a row would be dreadful.

March 26, 2020

On 18/02/2020 at 15:21, wesl said:

Brazil offered me a job. I though about it long and hard, but decided to turn it down. A job would've allowed me to keep playing elite football even after I leave for the rainforest, which I'll have to do eventually but I just wasn't that interested in managing a national team right now. Maybe in a few seasons.

This was after the 2026 World Cup. Since the 2020 Copa América, Brazil haven't won anything. Their last three WC finishes are two quarter-final losses and a third round exit. They failed to get past the semifinals in Copa América this year. So the CBF offered me a job again.

I've accepted this time! I believe I'm leaving Corinthians this year after all, and I might have to wait for a job in the right state to turn up.

This is Brazil's Copa América squad. You can see that it errs on the older side, and there's also a lack of world class wingers. But it's still Brazil, which means you can probably field a team of 11 world class players with the right tactic.

The country's best player is exactly who you'd expect.

This is our schedule for 2028. Debuting against Argentina is far from ideal, but we should qualify for the World Cup easily.

March 26, 2020

9 hours ago, Nickh92 said:

Thanks! Very big things hopefully, but it's been really tough with the financial situation - just trying to make the best out of the squad!

If you aren't limiting yourself to national players, I would recommend scouting for Ecuadorian and Colombian players. I've found quite a few underpriced regens from those countries in FM19.

March 26, 2020

I enjoyed reading about the save and looked forward to seeing you turn the corner, but I wasn't the one grinding through all those matches. It was a great run nevertheless. Kudos.

March 25, 2020

March 25, 2020

So Serbia is crashing out after the Euro group stage, but Martinovic will be out until August.

I hate international football.

March 25, 2020

Great job getting past Inter! Big things seem to be in store for Newells.

March 25, 2020

This update will be too long, it covers six months

2028 Campeonato Paulista

Perfect march through the group stage. Narrow wins over our three traditional rivals, but we beat everyone else comfortably.

Santos and Palmeiras nearly matches our goal difference, which seems to indicate the gap between us growing smaller. On the other hand, SPFC were very poor and were bested by Oeste in their group. We will face Red Bull Brasil in the next round, they seem to be improving to the point where they should get promoted to Série C soon.

Only needed one half to win this match, we rotated at home and got only a narrow win.

The draw pits us against Palmeiras, with the other semi-final being Oeste/Santos.

Same result as we got against Red Bull. Comfortable win away followed by a rotated side edging the return leg. This was gratifying, with the win including a goal from youngster Neuza.

Oeste upset Santos, reaching the Paulistao final for the first time in their history.

The final got crammed into a stretch where we had 7 matches in 15 days. This year, we had a couple weeks off, but the game still couldn't schedule the matches at the right time. The other semifinal still took place a week later for no reason.

We won away. I fielded a strong side at home, but we couldn't break Oeste down. We're still champions but I would've liked to win every match!

Copa Libertadores

We always seem to get drawn with the same teams, and we've faced all of these clubs during my stint here. We've faced Talleres four years in a row! They beat us for the second year going, this time in their building.

They also edged us out in goal difference, and I think this is the first time we don't win the group. That said, qualification was never in doubt and we didn't draw Boca so it's all good.

We got drawn against Racing in the second round, we beat them in the final two years ago. The quarter-final draw for the winner of this tie is the winner of Bahia/Colo Colo. I would love to get some sort of revenge on Bahia.

2028 Série A

Although still unbeaten, we're far from the unstoppable force of previous years. The Cruzeiro and SPFC matches were thrillers, but we couldn't win them. After that, we won the next three matches, but we sort of controlled the match without creating much, and limped over the finish line with game management and possession control after scoring deep into the second half. We got properly FM'd by Vasco, who only needed one chance to score while we were limited to 19 shots, most of them from long range. The Grêmio scoreline flatter us, thanks to late goals, but it was largely the same.

We actually controlled Chapecoense thoroughly but couldn't score. Finally Vila Nova's keeper, put on a great first half (even saving a pen), before we broke them down in the second. The last few games have been encouraging but we're now losing 10 players to international football for a month.

It's all very tight, and surprisingly none of the teams close to us presented a challenge in previous years, with Bahia, Santos and Palmeiras closer to mid-table.

Flamengo beat us in the 2025 cup final. Other than that, they have been spending their money poorly since the start of the save, but they're still rich and they seem finally have put a league contender together.
Chapecoense always start very strongly but fizzle out.
Oeste have improved year by year and after qualifying to the Libertadores last season and winning their group, they seem to be one of the best teams in Brazil.
Fluminense were in Série B two seasons ago, and we've poached their two best players and best youngster since, but they've somehow started very strongly and have the third best goal difference.
Bahia were in the lead after 5 games, but they've lost the last four. They are still Libertadores champions, and their striker Rato is unstoppable.
Santos and Cruzeiro perhaps should be higher than they are, I think they may have better squads than at least half of those above them. They're very capable of going on a run.

Being in the lead at this point doesn't matter. I would like to get a one game lead over second place by the mid-point, but without half the first team for a month, we're gonna be lucky to stay in the top.

Copa do Brasil

We got a very difficult draw. Losing wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world since this is the least important competition we play, and we've won it twice in a row alreadt. Roberto Carlos gave us a narrow lead in Arena Corinthians. I played a weakened team away, but they managed to do the job with a great performance from Terra and some tweaks after the second goal to manage the game.

We will be facing Palmeiras in the quarter-final. They are much worse than they were a few years ago, and we've routinely beat them recently, but it's a derby so they will surely upset us eventually.

March 22, 2020

The Paulistao bled over well into the Brasileirao season, so I'm mixing the first two 2028 updates together. I still have half a dozen games to play before publishing that. I can say that our start in Série A has been lackluster for our standars, but not disastrous. But there's a huge roadblock coming up for us.

We have eight players leaving for Copa América (and Martinovic for the Euro). This may come off as a humblebrag but my heart sunk when I saw this screen. I've fully gone from wide-eyed pride at having players called up when I took over this team, to absolutely hating international football because Série A never stops during international breaks. It's not a problem for most Série A sides, who may have one player called up by Brazil and a couple South American internationals. At the same time, we've gone from only having Austregésilo called up by the seleção to having 5 players in Brazil's team.

This is our schedule for this stretch. That's eight league games which we'll have to play without most of our best players, add in two possible quarter-final cup matches in early July, if we make it past Santos in the fifth round.

The only precedent for this is the 2026 World Cup, where we sent off five players if I'm not mistaken. But Série A actually stopped during that time, because it's the ****ing World Cup.

If we don't keep up with whoever the leader is during this time, we're not winning the league this year. This has made me question what's the next step for this save. My goal was becoming the winningest Série A team, which seemed easy enough based on the past three years. We're currently tied at 11 titles with Santos. If they win, I'm leaving (defeated and exposed as a failure). If Corinthians wins, I'm also leaving (triumphant and as a Corinthians legend). If someone else wins, I'm staying another year.

March 22, 2020

6 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

with all my squad being able to speak Spanish to some degree

Combining this with your recent links to West African clubs, I think you might want to look into getting an affiliate in Equatorial Guinea.

March 21, 2020

As always, really interesting posts.

On the topic of stars and youth development: Do you have a range of ages for when to "give up" on B-team/lower-end prospects? For instance, if Palacios isn't ready for the first team after next season, would you just ship him off? If you don't but he improves enough after another year, would you sell off a first-team player to give him the chance?

I've found a handful of 21-24 year old players who were never highly rated by staff becoming above average performers in my Corinthians run (fringe starters, impact subs, etc.). Obviously it's an embarrasment of riches there but I think I've never truly struck a balance between giving up too early and too late. Also, every time someone rated as having average potential can become a valuable part of the first team, they become one of my favorite FM players.

March 19, 2020

Our U-20 team has won the Libertadores Sub-20! This is the equivalent to the UEFA Youth League. They won all games fairly easily, except for a semifinal clash with Deportivo Cali, which went to penalties. Unlike the senior side, they had no trouble with their pens and scored 4 of 4.

Neitzke was named as the best player in the tournament. He's a good prospect and quite well rounded, although he doesn't excel in finishing or playmaking, so he's stuck in no man's land between AM and ST. He should get a first-team chance within a couple of years but after seeing what happened to the generations of promising youngsters at Caxias, I doubt an AI manager will give it to him after I leave.

This competition is quite hard to win, since it takes place every two years and only one team per nation qualifies, along with the host and the defending champions.

We earned our ticket by winning the U-20s cup. It's also quite difficult to win this thing, as it has 256 teams in 8 single-game elimination rounds. As you can see a couple small teams have won it, in América (RN) and Comercial (MS).

América has become a constant Série B team, and they keep several academy products in their first team. Comercial on the other hand, have barely ever progressed past the group stage in Série D, despite winning their state league regularly. As far as I can tell, only one of Comercial's winning generation went on to amount to anything.

Playing in Portugal, Ederson José could start for about half of Série A sides. It seems like he won the youth cup single-handedly.

This is a meaningless tangent but falling down these rabbit holes is half of what I do in FM.

March 18, 2020

With most Brazilian teams being unwilling to sell blue chip prospects (or perhaps the last couple year have yielded poorer intakes?), I've focused the youth signings on cheap low-risk gambles. This is all going to be reaped (or not) by whoever Corinthians' next manager is.

I did make one major first-team signing.

César Leal is Brazil's third-choice keeper at 22. He has five years of first-team experience at Fluminense. He's obviously very good and has upside. His composure is quite bad, but I don't know if the low volume of shots he'll face with us will make that matter more or less.

Wuilker Fariñez has been a mainstay for Corinthians since before I arrived, he was a huge plus for the team my first two years here but he dropped off in 2027. He actually costed us a handful of points and while he is still good enough to start at Corinthians, he is 7 years older and won't improve while Leal could. Leal would surely go to Europe if he improves any further, so it was a matter of getting him while he was still at Fluminense.

The difference between the two is negligible, but will widen as years go on. Fariñez will be listed, and we will keep Diego Eli as our backup.

The other new player in our first team is Adriano. He is an academy product from the 2025 intake with a high PA rating. He's already got good enough ratings in every area expect for most passing-related attributes and positioning.

Fariñez finds a home in Atalanta, which is good for us since he won't come back to haunt us. Eduardo and Ferreira are sold off, as I whittle down my squad to be more manageable. We currently have 23 players in the first team. I tried to sell Mohlala but got very shortchanged by European teams. His value stands at R$40M, and they were trying to pay R$5M, slightly less than what we bought him for. He's still useful and if we don't sell him it's not the end of the world, the next manager might make him an important part of his team. When I got here, Gabigol, Eduardo and Jailson were listed and I ended up using all of them.

As is now customary, we have a long list of outgoing loans. The youth and reserve teams are stacked with potential rotation players, which should help Corinthians be dominant for a few years at least. Mardones was the best of the lot, and could've broke into the first team as a centre-back. I chose to keep the Paulo Marcelo/Marquinhos/Kunrath triumvirate, with Belao (who was developed very nicely) as back-up.

I usually ignore all friendlies, but I scheduled a special one this year. As in the CWC final against Real, we were the more offensive team but this time we only got a draw. Diego Eli couldn't repeat his heroics from our prior encounter with Real. It was a fun game, Austregésilo is still a devastating player and set up Miguel's goal with a through ball. Elenilton is becoming one of my favorites, as he's capable of scoring against literally any team in the world from the left wing, despite his poor attributes for our standard.

March 17, 2020

2027 season

Série A

Third in a row for Corinthians. Another season with no title drama, although a new contender seems to have emerged in Santos.

Sport, América-MG and Atlético Mineiro are relegated.

Série B

CSA, Coritiba, Tombense and Vila Nova have been promoted. Ceará, Naútico, Sampaio Correa and Desportiva were relegated.

Série C

América-RN won the title. They are promoted alongside Jacobina, Sao Jose (RS), and Vitória da Conquista. The teams relegated are CSP, ASA, Cianorte and Portuguesa (RJ).

Série D

Ypiranga (AP), Sao Raimundo (AM), Guarani (MG), and Brasiliense win promotion. Sao Raimundo is the first Amazonas state team to be promoted from Série D.

Copa do Brasil

Second in a row for Timao.

Red Bull were this year's surprise, reaching the quarter-final as a Série D team.

State leagues

Campeonato Acriano: Rio Branco (AC) (33rd title)
Campeonato Alagoano: CSA (44th title)
Campeonato Amapaense: Santos (AP) (10th title)
Campeonato Amazonense: São Raimundo (AM) (11th title)
Campeonato Bahiano: Vitória (33rd title)
Campeonato Cearense: Ceará (46th title)
Campeonato Brasiliense: Real (DF) (1st title)
Campeonato Capixaba: Desportiva (23rd title)
Campeonato Goiano: Vila Nova (GO) (18th title)
Campeonato Maranhense: Sampaio Corrêa (41st title)
Campeonato Mato-Grossense: Uniao Rondonopolis (6th title)
Campeonato Sul-Mato-Grossense: Comercial (MS) (12th title)
Campeonato Mineiro: Cruzeiro (45th title)
Campeonato Paraense: Remo (47th title)
Campeonato Paraibano: Campinense (22nd title)
Campeonato Paranaense: Coritiba (40th title)
Campeonato Pernambucano: Sport (47th title)
Campeonato Piauiense: Altos (PI) (11th title)
Campeonato Carioca: Flamengo (39th title)
Campeonato Potiguar: América (RN) (36th title)
Campeonato Gaucho: Grêmio (42nd title)
Campeonato Rondoniense: Rondoniense (9th title)
Campeonato Roraimense: Sao Raimundo (RR) (13th title)
Campeonato Catarinense: Chapecoense (12th title)
Campeonato Paulista: Santos (25th title)
Campeonato Sergipano: Sergipe (40th title)
Campeonato Tocantinense: Tocantins de Miracema (8th title)

Copa Libertadores

Bahia won their first continental trophy, with the upset over us. Their run was amazing, they beat Brazil's top 2, Santos and Corinthians, and before that Argentina's champions, Boca. It hurts but they are deserved champions.

Copa Sudamericana

Last week, there was a brawl in an Inter-Grêmio Libertadores group stage match. Naturally, the game gives us a Gre-nal final! It went all the way to pens, with Grêmio winning thanks to an Evaldo Campos miss.

El Nacional are the rare team to make it far in South America without being Argentinian or Brazilian, but they got destroyed in the semifinal.

March 17, 2020

Série A

There was no drama in the end, we beat Santos thanks to a great long shot from Jose Elenilton and an injury time breakaway from Godoy. With all our internationals back, we won the derby against SPFC. We secured the titlte against Caxias. We missed a lot of penalties down the stretch, but more on that in a bit.

Santos were the best runner-up we've faced since I took over. But we beat them twice in the league, which all but secure the league for us.

Caxias stayed up, which is good to see.

Copa Libertadores

Elenilton won the semifinal for us.

Bahia beat Santos on away goals, with a goal from our loanee right-back Wellington Thiago. We'll face them at Monumental.

We were slightly better but had terrible finishing. Bahia won the tactical battle as they put pressure on our defensive line and got a handful of chances out of it. Rato once again beat us, winning a 50/50 ball against Paulo Marcelo and slotting it in past Fariñez.

We got a penalty in injury time. Hurtado took it (only his second in the season)... and he missed. Bahia are the last team to win Série A and Libertadores that's not named Corinthians.

We end the season with 13 goals scored from 26 penalties. It's shameful but I'm not signing someone only for one attribute (and we rotate too much for anyone to be guaranteed on the field to take important penalties), and I already have half our forwards on penalty individual training. I don't know, we still won four Libertadores in a row and reached the final this year. This loss sucked but I think we're fine.

I used the spreadsheet til the better end. These are the 11 players that started most games. The big surprise is Elenilton, who scored 14 goals (5 in Libertadores and 6 in Série A). Most forwards were out injured, but he didn't miss a single day, so he stepped in and did a good job. Hurtado scored 29 goals and was our best offensive player, he stepped up massively after Osni and Rodríguez were sold.

Other players who did well were centre-back Paulo Marcelo and forward José Tutalchá.

Our player of the year is Ribeiro once again. He broke his record, with 23 assists total this year. He's amazing.

March 16, 2020

Série A

Everything was going smoothly, with 4 straight wins where the highlight was a dismantling of Cruzeiro. Then, we hit a skid as Marquinhos and Paulo Marcelo revolted over broken promises over playing time. Every player has roughly been playing the games I assigned to them in the spreadsheet at the start of the season, but those two expected more. I got the promise status to green at some point but it wasn't enough as when the period elapsed they hadn't played enough games.

We should've beat Fluminense, but Fariñez had a mistake playing the ball with his feet in the 82nd minute. It was his first such mistake since I took over. Backup Diego Eli had a similar one a couple months ago as well. After that, we went on a three game winless streak, with which our recent exploits is akin to the sky falling. It seemed like things were going to get really bad after the Bahia game, where our defense looked completely helpless. Despite their constant disarray, we "only "allowed 6 shots on goal, but Fariñez was also sub-par since he shipped three goals from those. We've lost three of five games at Salvador in the last two years. Last year, Bahia beat us in the cup and Vitoria beat us in the league. Bahia's forward Rato scored four goals in his team's wins. I'm tempted to poach him just to keep this from happening.

Luckily, we stole a win against Flamengo thanks to a goal from Hurtado (who has stepped up and become our best player after the July departures). Two more great wins against America and Inter fully steadied the ship. I think we have this under control now, and should be able to keep both Marquinhos and Paulo Marcelo for next season. A reason for this downturn were morale issues, but we also have a weaker squad and I need to be quicker to adapt in adverse games.

The gap between us and Santos actually shrunk by a point during this stretch. Our very next game will take place at Santos' Coutinho Park, with 8 players on international duty for us. I don't expect us to win that, and if we don't we might actually have a title race this year.

Naturally, the dream of reaching 100 points is basically over. However, as far as meaningless records go, we're still unbeaten at home in Série A since I took over. Our only two losses at Arena Corinthians have been against Inter in the 2025 cup semifinals second leg (where we won the tie), and in the first leg of this year's Paulistao final against Santos (which we lost).

Copa do Brasil

Our hegemony over Cruzeiro continues. The return leg had some drama after Luizao's goal but we shut them out in the second half and Hurtado's goal put it beyond doubt.

Santos humiliated Grêmio to book a place in the final.

We had to play Diego Eli due to Fariñez's injury. First game felt unlucky. We outshot them 28-4, but Pizarro scored a free-kick and César (playing as a right winger) conceded a nonsense penalty in the right edge of the area. He redeemed himself with a winner minutes later, but we went into Coutinho Park only one goal up. The return leg was the reverse, we only shot 8 times but scored three goals. This is one of the few games where I've actually outcoached the AI recently. We gave up the ball and they were willing to keep possession but couldn't break us down (although Eli did have another major save in a final), and we were more efficient. Terra created two assists on top of his goal. Destroying teams in auto-pilot is fun but it felt great to have this challenge again. This came right in the middle of our tiny league crisis, and it was great to see the team function like this.

Copa Libertadores

Our other rivals didn't present much of a challenge. We had the tie won after leg 1, where we outplayed them easily. I rotated the side for the home leg, and young left-back Cléber got his first senior goal.

We play Vélez in the semifinal. They've just sold three players for R$50M+ each. The best of them, Domingo Gordillo, might the best AMR inside forward in the world and was a transfer target but PSG swept in for him so he'll never play for us. They're very irregular, and currently sit 15th in the league. Nevertheless, they still have several good players. Centre-back Rafael Borriello might be better than all of our central defenders, which is saying a lot.

The other semifinal is Santos-Bahia, both of whom have beat us. I would like to play Santos, for rivalry reasons, but I know of them would be trouble in a final.

We were lucky to get a draw. They carved us open twice early on, so I tried to switch it up to hoard possession. That didn't work, so I decided to drop deeper to play it safe. This got things under control but also stifled our offense. This might be the less creative game we've ever played. We didn't really have any good chances to score. I hope the return leg at home unfolds differently.

March 15, 2020

I'm currently handling a playing time squad mutiny, so I feel justified selling off whoever threatened throwing a tantrum if their bids got rejected.

March 12, 2020

Serie A

We got a great win over Santos. We lost to Botafogo while playing Eduardo and Belao as our centre-back pairing. Both goals came in plays where Botafogo linked up through the middle. The game cemented my thoughts that Eduardo and Belao aren't good enough to rely on them too much, even if they have really good stats. Osni missed a penalty here, and we are in the middle of a five penalties missed streak.

Everything after that was smooth sailing, with the exception of the Chapeconse game where Jose Elenilton tied it late after an even game.

Santos looks like the clear #2, with Palmeiras getting worse. We lost the state league final to them, but I'm confident with a 10 point lead halfway through. We're also right on pace for the 100 point record.

Copa do Brasil

Osni won it for us in the first leg, coming in as a sub in what was his last Corinthians game.

We got Cruzeiro in the semifinals, they're a good team but we beat them more often than most teams in their tier.

Copa Libertadores

We played a great game in Cordoba, and that was enough. Diego Eli was rotated into the side for the return leg, and he had a bit of a mare.

We will play Sao Paulo in the quarter-final. Last year we beat Palmeiras and Santos handily in this competition, getting past SPFC would feel like some sort of achievement completed.

I said before that we probably wouldn't be able to keep everyone and sure enough, another one of Spain's big clubs came in with an offer for Edwin Rodríguez. I've decided I won't keep any players who want to leave so I negotiated to an acceptable offer. We bought him from Emelec for R$23.5 M, and sold him for R$128M, which is good profit. Rodríguez was a natural inside forward, he spent a lot of 2026 injured but was consistently one of our most dangerous offensive players. He was our second top goalscorer this season (with 18 goals). With him and Osni leaving, we lost our top two goalscorers. Hurtado will have to pick up a lot of the burden going forward.

I once again used the sale to promote a youth player. One of our best passers and FK takers already, and he's also got great pace. I've grouped together everyone who plays in our front 4 as "forwards", but we've lost a lot of versatility since Ademar and Godoy only play in one position. I don't think Ademar would fit in as one of our inside forwards so we'll have to adjust in some other way.

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