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Post by chaodck on Mar 2, 2020 15:49:10 GMT
Chile and Universidad de Chile C&C - IntroductionOverview Yeah, I'm onto FM20 and I'm back to a classic. After a disastrous 2019 that saw La U almost dropping into the "Primera B", and the October Revolution not allowing the 2019 season to finish, 2020 has been a breath of fresh air for La U in real life, with good results and football which eventually led me to start FM20 on this save rather than the one I had planned before (a long winded journeyman). I also went for the C&C as the Chile NT poses a nice challenge with almost all of our golden generation in their early 30's and downhill, and no visible prospects in their immediate generation, at least not in the level of the current crop of the first ones. So, here it goes.
Background The save starts at January 2020. La U is starting their 2020 season, after a rocky 2019, but brought in a few great transfers and has a strong squad for the league and to compete in the early stages at least of the Libertadores 2020.
Chile is currently in a tough position regarding the future. Still a great side, coming from a 4th place in the 2019 Copa America, bouncing back from not qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, the big problem is that the stars of the team are not getting younger and in troublesome spots in their own clubs. Alexis isn't wanted at United and hasn't played much on his loan at Inter, Bravo is a Cup GK at City, while Vidal is clearly not on Barcelona's long term plans. Vargas and Aránguiz have good stature within their teams, but aren't on the level of Alexis, Vidal and Bravo. Those are Chile's current stars, all past 30, all either in smaller clubs or not playing much in bigger sides. Behind them, the current 25-30 generation isn't really a homerun, there are a few good players, Erick Pulgar and Guillermo Maripán are the best two, both playing in Europe albeit on smaller sides (Napoli and Bournemouth in game), while Paulo Díaz, Diego Valdés, Nico Castillo, Felipe Mora, Lorenzo Reyes, Ignacio Jeraldino and Martín Rodríguez play either in Argentina or México, all being important players for their teams. Behind them, thoogh lies a better generation, with hopes of reaching European sides. Ángelo Araos already got there, as he was bought by Brest from Corinthians (in game). Other good players are, Sebastián Vegas, Pablo Aránguiz, Pablo Galdames, Camilo Moya, Ignacio Saavedra, Sebastián Galani, Marco Bolados, Benjamín Kuscevic, Víctor Dávila and Gabriel Suazo.
So, this is the situation, a resurgence year for La U and a year of adaptation for Chile, trying to mix the fading talent from the golden generation, with a younger generation who isn't ready for international football, mixed in with a intermediate generation who didn't have much potential.
Objectives Chile: - Win a World Cup - Establish as a big South American side, challenging for the Copa America every time - Export as much young talent to Europe as possible - Win the Olympics and a U-20 World Cup
Universidad de Chile - Dominate the Local League - Become a fixture in the Copa Libertadores Semifinals and up - Win a Club World Cup - Become South America's most reputable side - Surpass Colo Colo as Chile's most winningest side (Need 13 more leagues)
I already played the first season, to see if it stuck and it did. I'm super excited for the save, already with great results on both the club and the country side. I'll have a couple of reports during the afternoon.
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Post by chaodck on Mar 2, 2020 16:28:07 GMT
Universidad de Chile 2020 Season ReviewOverviewAs I said above, La U had a terrible 2019. We finished 14th (out of 16) in the league, saving on the drop by goal difference (IRL there was no relegation due to the protests ending the season early, but I like to say we saved on the pitch, as only the 15th and 16th had direct relegation and there was no relegation playoffs). For the 2020 season, we brought in a few good players, specially former La U star Walter Montillo, who at 35 still is a star calibre player for a Chilean side. I started the save in January 2020, with the transfers update.Just like real life, La U was placed in the Libertadores Preliminary Round, and we also played in the League and Chile Cup.
Transfers I play with the "add players to playable teams" feature in order to have a few newgens early in the save. Brian Villegas jumped out of the scouting pool a few weeks in, and I got him for La U quickly for €375k, a super bargain. Read below to see how he ended up playing. Another one who was singled out was Piero Pino, but he's much more of a long-term prospect.
Gonzalo Espinoza was deemed surplus early and I decided to cash on him, as we needed money (we started around €8M in the red), and went to Cerro Porteño for €550k. With Villegas in the first team I decided to cash out on Angelo Henríquez, and he went to Israel to Hapoel Be'er Sheva for €400k. I could've got more for both, but they had big wages and just getting rid of them was great. At the winter window México came knocking for Camilo Moya one of our top young players. He was a key starter, but in the end the "cranes" lift the players they want to lift. He went to Queretaro for €5M and 50% of his next transfer.
Primera DivisiónWe absolutely dominated the league. I really didin't expect it to be this easy, as Universidad Católica have a great team and Colo Colo is good in FM. But we smashed it. The first semester saw us only lose a single game a classic FM game where nothing happens for your side, and Curicó obliterated us 4-0.We lost 2 more games in the end, against Cobresal when amidst international callups (and guided by the AM) and against Universidad Católica in the last game of the season when we were already champions.Copa ChileWe played most of the Cup with prospects, and also while on international duty (thus managed by the AM). We still had a decent cup run, beating Barnechea and Universidad de Concepción, before losing on penalties in the Quarter-Final against Universidad Católica.Copa LibertadoresWith much more luck than the real La U (who played in the preliminary round against Internacional from Porto alegre), we faced Cerro Porteño and Emelec in the preliminary round, beating the Paraguayans easily and the Ecuadorans narrowly. We landed in a hell of a group alongside Corinthians, Boca and Jorge Wilsterman. We ended up qualifying on goal difference with 10 points, in a great performance.We drew Defensa y Justicia on the 2nd Round and dominated them at home to seal the tie, in a 4-2 aggregate win. Atletico Paranaense was next and they managed to eliminate us after a strong first leg at home, 2-4 on aggregate.Squad and PerformancesIt was a great year. We had strong individual performances, and a great tactical showing as well. Brian Villegas was our best player, scoring 16 goals and adding 4 assists on 27 games, with a 7.42 rating. Walter Montillo, Sebastián Galani and Joaquín Larrivey were also in great level.We have a big issue regarding wages, with a hellish disparity between top earners and the rest of the team. It's something to work on for next season, as most of those bloated contracts end up in December.Forecast and Future- Regarding the playing squad there will be a few changes for next year. I plan on playing with a 4-2-3-1 so will shift personnel a bit - Financially we're deep in a hole. We started off the season €8M in the red, and we're making a monthly profit, plus the sale of Moya put us on the blue again. But at the end of the season, we paid out around €11M to shareholders putting us again on the red, around €7M
All in all a terrific first season. I'll do the NT update for the afternoon now.
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Post by chaodck on Mar 2, 2020 19:53:01 GMT
Chile NT 2020 Season ReviewOverviewA super busy year to start, with 4 competitions to play. The World Cup Qualifiers had already started and we were in a decent position, having played 4 tough matches from the calendar. Also there was the Copa América 2020, yes another Copa América which will set the calendar for it to be played alongside the Euro Cup, every 4 years offset with the World Cup. Finally the Tokyo 2020 Olympics also are played in 2020, and thus the U-23 Qualifying Tournament at the start of the season. 2020 Tokyo Olympics and QualifyingWe kicked off the year in Colombia for the U-23 Olympic Qualifiers. As I said in a previous post, the current U-23 generation for Chile is quite talented, with around 15-20 players having already senior squad experience as there is a minutes-rule for U-20 players in the Chilean League. We landed in a tough group, with Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, with only the top 2 qualifying. We beat Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador while losing to Argentina to qualify in 2nd place behind Colombia, as Argentina beat us, but lost against the hosts and Ecuador. Then, a "final four" was played with all teams facing each other, and the top 2 getting the Tokyo tickets. We started off staving Brazil's attack and landing a 1-1 draw, while in the second game we narrowly beat Colombia 1-0. We arrived to the third game, against Paraguay with 4 points and they had 3, having beat Colombia as well and lost with Brazil. A heart-wrenching 0-0 draw handed us the 2nd place in the tournament and the tickets to Japan!
At the Olympics, unfortunately we couldn't bring our top 3 over-23 players as the squad announcement clashed with the Copa América, and we had our best players there. Still, we put up a great 18-man squad and went on to play the tournament. Our group had France, South Korea and Morocco. We kicked off against the French, whose squad included Mbappé, and managed to get a 1-1 draw. We then beat easily Morocco 1-0 and South Korea 2-0 to advance to the Quarter Finals as 1st placed. There, we faced Romania, and also managed to get a win, with a single goal from Junior Fernandes, one of out O-23 players. Then came the semifinal against Germany, I was super happy to get there and fight for a medal, but we kept surprising ourselves and with a brace from Brian Villegas, we beat the Germans 2-1 and advanced to the Gold Medal game. There, the French really showed their power, and demolished us 1-5. Still going home with a Silver Medal was amazing!
Copa América 2020Then came the Copa América. A really strange organisation, played with 2 hosts (Colombia and Argentina), with 2 groups of 6 teams each, top-4 advancing to the Quarter-Finals. The COMEBOL reallt outshines themselves with each and every move. We got a group with Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela and Qatar, and had one of the most strange group phases I've ever seen. As we only needed a top four finish, I rotated heavily at the "easier" games in order to have a fitter squad for the playoffs part of the tournament. We ended up drawing all 5 games from the group, 2-2 against Colombia, 0-0 against Paraguay and Uruguay, 3-3 against Bolivia and 2-2 against Qatar. With 5 points we narrowly managed to get out of the group on goal difference as Bolivia also had 5 points. We drew Perú in the Quarter-Finals and beat them with a great performance, 3-1. But then, Argentina handed us our first loss of the tournament, with a heavy 0-5 beating. We beat Venezuela 1-0 in the Third Place Playoff in the end. It was a mediocre Copa América really, and we were lucky to get out of the group and get Perú in the QF. The FA wanted semifinals though and we delivered.
CONMEBOL 2022 World Cup QualifiersAs I said above, the qualifiers had already started before 2020 came, and thus were managed by the former manager. Fortunately, the draw was 4 tough games and the team managed to salvage points, having lost against Brazil (A), beat Colombia (H) and draw against Perú (A) and Uruguay (A). Five points from 4 tough games was good to start. 2020 came and we had to face Ecuador and Venezuela at home in March to start. I wanted 6 points and the team duly delivered beating Ecuador 6-2 and Venezuela 2-0 with a brilliant Arturo Vidal. After the 2020-21 European season started, we had to face Bolivia and Argentina at home also in September. I decided to call up then 17-year old Brian Villegas who was having a terrific season at La U (see previous post). Bolivia managed to scare us as they scored early and we didn't seem to have luck, until Villegas scored in the first ball he touched after coming in as a sub at '75 to level the game. Charles Aránguiz scored the winner at '85, so a 2-1 win over Bolivia. Against Argentina we battled hard and ended up with a 2-2 draw. The October date saw us play our first away game, in Paraguay and we managed to get a great 2-1 win. The second game was at home against Brazil and playing at a high level we managed to get a 1-0 win. Then in December, we went to Colombia and also managed to get a 1-1 draw, while the second game was a beating of Perú at home, a 5-0 with 4 goals from Alexis Sanchez.
With 25 points from 12 games, we're in 2nd place on the table, 7 points above the qualification line (8 above the playoffs). Squad and PerformancesWe're currently playing with a 4-3-2-1 tactic with wingers, as our strongest part of the squad is the central midfield with Vidal, Aránguiz and Pulgar playing at a high level. Brian Villegas ended up sealing the forward position after the Copa América (really after his strong showing on the Olympics, including two goals on the Semifinals) and behind him Alexis and Vargas are on the wings. After the Copa América, Claudio Bravo retired from international football, and his place was taken by Gabriel Arias. At the back, the usual 4 are Isla, Maripán, Paulo Díaz and Eugenio Mena. Arturo Vidal was brillant in the 11 games he played, scoring 5 goals with 3 assists and a 7.60 rating, while Alexis Sánchez scored 8 and had 1 assist in the same 11 games, with a 7.37 rating. Other great performances include Mauricio Isla, Paulo Díaz, Diego Valdés and Charles Aránguiz.Forecast and Future- I'm happy with the depth of the squad so far. We need a few players here and there to start improving, but the base for the team until the World Cup is somewhat set.
A super busy terrific season to start. I think we're already with one foot on the World Cup, and next year will be quieter, with only the WC Quals to play.
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Post by ttgb on Mar 3, 2020 12:14:34 GMT
Great start to the thread and excellent kits
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Post by Robson on Mar 4, 2020 12:02:35 GMT
The great man is back where he belongs. The President of Universidad de Chile returns to save day. Things shall now return to order. All hail 'Charles Aránguiz is bigger than your problems'. Repeat after me.
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Post by chaodck on Mar 4, 2020 23:13:22 GMT
Thanks for reading and for the comments gents, this save has got off to a great start. I'm already at midseason in 2021, so expect an update soon.
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Post by chaodck on Mar 9, 2020 14:28:02 GMT
Universidad de Chile 2021 Season ReviewOverviewAfter a terrific first season, the second season brings hopes of winning the league again, and getting further in the Copa Libertadores. Also a bit of a squad better suited to what I want to do with the team and trying to nurture and develop some potentially NT choosable players. It was a season without much international interference unlike 2020, where we lent a lot of players for the U-23 competitions, so here's hoping for an even better year.
Transfers As I said above it was a busy summer, with several interesting transfers both coming in and out of the team. Four first teamers left the team in the summer, Luis Casanova's loan wasn't renewed nor I excercised the buy fee, Joaquín Larrivey's contract wasn't renewed, Pablo Aránguiz didn't want to extend his loan and despite having a great €900k buy fee, his salary demands where too high for us so he left and finally we sold Augusto Barrios to Coritiba for €400k (plus €100k in future fees). Aránguiz was the only one I wanted to keep, but his salary was above what the board allowed me to offer, I tried negotiating with him 4-5 times during the season and in the end it wasn't meant to be.
We brought in 3 first team players in the summer, the first being Fernando Cornejo, who was on loan last season and had a €475k buy fee. The second was Bastián Campos Toro, who came from Audax Italiano for €350k (plus €350k in future fees), filling a need on the team as we didn't have a true backup for the LB position and also a short-term replacement for the aging Jean Beausejour. Finally, the third one was the best transfer of the season, Matías Cavalleri from Curicó for €1.5M (plus €2M in future fees), an expensive deal specially for a Chilean player, but he's quality and will allow us to play with wingers/inside forwards.
The winter window brought two departures as good offers came for them. The first was Fernando de Paul our starting GK who left to Al-Arabi for €2M, while Diego Carrasco went to Emelec for €1.3M (plus 50% of a future fee). I needed a solid GK to replace de Paul as no true prospects were ready, so I knocked River's door and went for Augusto Batalla, for €600k. A terrific upgrade I think as Batalla and de Paul are somewhat on a similar level, but the former is 5 years younger. To replace Carrasco, a backup CB I went for Ignacio Tapia, from Huachipato for €450k.
Primera DivisiónLast season we aced the league, dominating it from start to end with no real team making a run for it. This season was different as Universidad Catolica had a terrific campaign and dominated the first third of the league with an unbeaten run, handing us our only defeat in the first semester. We also lost key points in draws against Everton and Colo Colo. But we had an amazing 8 win run at the end of the first half of the season, which captured the league lead for us, despite Catolica's great campaign. The start of the second semester was tight and we arrived to the return match in September equal in points. We outplayed them at our home, winning 3-1 and getting a 3 point lead, which we lost 2 games later, as Iquique surprised us. By this time, Colo Colo was near the top as well, 6 points behind both la UC and us and eventually they beat Catolica was well, and gave us the first place with 3 games to go. After Catolica and us won their next game, we only needed 1 point from the last 2 games to become champions. We screwed up the first, losing 1-2 against Curicó, but fortunately Catolica also lost and everything transferred to the last matchday. Our laast game was shaky business as we started losing, but in the end won the game 5-3 and got our second straight Championship!This was a really interesting season in the league, fighting against UC and Colo Colo, our top two rivals makes things fun, specially if we beat them.Copa ChileShort Cup run this season as we still can't seem to find the ideal second string team to play on the Cup. We beat Melipilla 4-2 on aggregate in the 2nd Round but the luck of the draw wasn't nice, pitting us against Colo Colo in the 3rd Round, who eliminated us after a 1-2 aggregate result. The good thing is we won the Supercup at the start of the season obliterating Curicó 7-0.Copa LibertadoresWe drew a horrible Libertadores group, with Santos, Sao Paulo and River Plate from Montevideo. The Board's expectations were to get to the group phase, so I felt really confident of trying to get a 3rd place spot and qualify for the Copa Sudamericana and try to make a good run from there. But the team wanted more, and we got off to a brilliant start, beating Santos 2-1 at Vila Belmiro and followed it with a 1-1 draw against Sao Paulo at home. We thoroughly beat Uruguay's River Plate 4-1 and 3-1 to put us in a strong position with 10 points from 4 games, before Sao Paulo squashed us at Morumbi 0-4. We arrived to the last game against Santos at home and we could even lose by 2 goals and qualify. The team stood up to the challenge and won 3-1 to qualify for the Second Round. There, the luck wasn't much better as we had to go face Flamengo, arguably South America's most reputable club. We started at home and played a great game, winning 4-2. The second leg, played at Maracanã was super tense, but in the end a 1-2 loss meant we qualified 5-4 on aggregate. In the Quarter-Finals again a Brazilian side and the most hated rival of our previous opponent, Fluminense. Again at Maracanã this time on the first leg, we played a good game, losing 1-2, which left the door open for qualification in Santiago. But they dominated us there, and the 2-2 draw was too good a prize for the game we played. Again at Quarter-Finals, again against a Brazilian side, that seems to be our rock wall in the Libertadores.Playing 8 games against (big) Brazilian teams, the overall record was 3W-2D-3L, not bad but not great.Squad and PerformancesAnother great season for the team regarding performances. Sebastián Galani was by far out top player and swept all the league awards at the end of the season, the dynamic midfielder played 30 games, scoring 7 goals with 8 assists and a 7.52 rating. Aging playmaker Walter Montillo had a great season as well and we'll miss him next year, he played 43 games, scoring 7 goals and 10 assists with a 7.30 rating. Fernando Cornejo, Brian Villegas, Luis del Pino Mago, Matías Rodríguez and Osvaldo González also had great seasons (the last two will also retire at the end of the season). Villegas was our top goalscorer, with 21 goals but 12 of them came from penalties so I'm not that happy with the season of the young striker. I'm struggling to find a role for him as he's most suited as an Advanced Forward, but that's not a great role to play alone on top. Here's hoping for a better 2021 for him, as there's high hopes put there.Forecast and Future- For next season we're set to lose 4 starting players to retirements, Osvaldo González, Matías Rodríguez, Jean Beausejour and Walter Montillo all retire at the end of the season. On the pitch, positions are somewhat covered, but what scares me a bit is the leadership void it'll leave. Rodríguez and González are the team captains, while Beausejour was always recommended to be the captain. - Again, financially we're in problems. The dividends and shareholders payouts left us with around €5M in the red. Better than last season, and as we make a monthly profit we'll recoup it, but ending each year on the red isn't good.
Great progress so far, two seasons in.
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Post by chaodck on Mar 9, 2020 14:48:57 GMT
Chile NT 2021 Season ReviewOverviewAfter a super busy 2020 season with the Olympics, WC Quals and a Copa América, 2021 is far quieter, with only the end of the World Cup Qualifiers on sight, and just 6 games in the whole year (I couldn't set up friendlies, don't know why). CONMEBOL 2022 World Cup QualifiersThe last update left us in great position, placed 2nd on the table with 6 games left and needing only 7-8 points to qualify. The calendar wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy as well as the CONMEBOL Qualifiers are always a daunting task for all teams. The first double date saw us face Ecuador in Quito and we played great to win 2-0 with goals from Alexis and Junior Fernandes. We then host Uruguay at home and despite dominating the game ended up losing 1-2 with a single goal from Alexis. The defeat left us in 3rd place, still with good hopes for the future. In September, we had two "easy" away games, going to Venezuela which ended up in a boring 0-0 draw and then to Bolivia, where we extended Chile's great run at the high altitude La Paz, with a solid 5-0 win, with braces from Charles Aránguiz and César Munder, plus a goal from Alexis again. We recouped the 2nd place, and only needed a point from the last two games to secure our place in Qatar. We duly delivered in Santiago facing Paraguay, where a hat trick from Erick Pulgar secured a 3-1 come from behind win to seal the deal. In the last game, with both teams qualified, we went to Buenos Aires to face Argentina and they dominated us 5-2 with goals from Maripán and Villegas to end the qualifiers in 3rd place.Squad and PerformancesIt was a good run of games, despite losing two of them and only getting a point in Venezuela. We need to step up our game in order to face teams like Argentina and Brazil. We currently are 11th on the FIFA Rankings so the 1st seed spot won't be a thing and we'll face a tougher World Cup group. Alexis Sánchez seems to have regressed a ton, but he still puts up great performances scoring a lot of goals. I might play with 2 forwards in the World Cup as we have a few good strikers and not much quality on the wings. 4-3-1-2 might be the way to go. Erick Pulgar was the best player in 2021, he was transferred to Napoli last season and he's shined there becoming their best player. Forecast and Future- Short update, with a few games only. I'll try to do a squad report before the World Cup.
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Post by chaodck on Mar 16, 2020 18:53:59 GMT
Universidad de Chile 2022 Season ReviewOverviewDue to the World Cup being in November/December instead of at the end of the European Season, this season was a bit congested at times, which caused a bit of troble along the way. It was another season of growth, solidifying our local stature while trying to keep improving on the Copa Libertadores side of things. We had a bit of personnel shifting both at the start and during the season, specially as 4 starters from last season retired.
Transfers Four great players left us at the end of 2021 due to retirements, fullbacks Jean Beausejour and Matías Rodríguez, centre back Osvaldo González and playmaker Walter Montillo. All of them were regular starters and some had been key players at least in 2020 and good solid players in 2021, so we had voids to fill quickly during this summer. No other important players left the team until the winter window as Sebastián Galani was poached by São Paulo, who took him to Brazil on a €6.5M fee, plus 50% of his next transfer fee. Galani was our best player in 2021 and also for the first half of 2022, he'll be missed but the offer was great and he'll keep improving at a higher level which is great for the National Team, where he's a decent squad player so far. We brought in 2 first teamers in the summer window, José González a great young Centre Back from Everton for €750k and Simón Ramírez who came in from Universidad de Concepción on a free transfer, they'll both slot into the starting 11, with the other two replacements coming from in house. In the winter window, we had a 3 incoming transfers limit and we took advantage of a few available players. Top striker prospect Nicolás Durán came in from Unión Española for €900k after dazzling in the Primera B at just 17 years old, then Pedro Campos a Cuban-Chilean winger from Toluca who was on sale for €165k. Finally in what on paper seemed like a coup de grace, we brought in Alexis Sánchez on a free after his Man Utd contract expired, unfortunately Alexis is just a shadow of the player he used to be and too injury prone. His mentoring will be a welcome addition though.We also bought several interesting youth prospects for smaller fees. Primera DivisiónThe league was again a tight affair with rivals Colo Colo and Universidad Católica posing a credible threat throughout the year. Colo Colo had a terrific unbeaten first semester, and at times they had a 5-6 point advantage over us, as our last 8 games of hte first half of the season were pretty bad, with 3W-4D-1L form. The start of the second half of the season was better for us with 5 straight wins before a horrible couple of games ended up in our first couple of consecutive losses in the league since taking over. After another draw in the next game, we managed to get ahold of ourselves and inspired by a terrific 5-1 beating over Universidad Católlica, closed the year with 6 wins in the last 7 games to win our third straight league. Copa ChileThe season kick-off was against rivals Colo Colo in the Chilean Supercup, and boy it was sweet. A 5-1 thumping and our second straight Supercup! In the Copa Chile though things were different and again we couldn't mount a real cup run. We beat Temuco on the 2nd Round, then narrowly Everton on the 3rd, before Universidad Católica beat us on penalties in the Quarter-Finals.Copa LibertadoresIn the Copa Libertadores we drew a straightforward group, with Independiente (ARG), Olimpia (PAR) and Unión Magdalena (COL), but as easy as the group seemed on paper it was a pretty tough one as all teams played great football. We beat Magdalena 2-0 on our first game in Colombia, while Independiente beat us back home at Estadio Nacional 0-1 despite us dominating the game. We then beat Olimpia both away 4-1 and at home 1-0, before Independiente beat us again this time in Avellaneda 0-2. Fortunately other results meant we'd already qualified with 5 games, as Unión Magdalena beat us in Santiago in the last group game 0-1. The knockouts draw saw us again play against Flamengo, but this time the Brazilians came out on top, after a 3-3 draw in Santiago and a 2-4 loss at Maracanã. For the first time in the save, we didn't reach Quarter-Finals in the Libertadores, fortunately The Board still only asks for Group Stage. Squad and PerformancesDespite the loss of hierarchy amongst the players and having a much younger squad, we had a good year overall. We're still not remotely close of being on par with big Brazilian or Argentinean sides, but we're improving at least on the personnel side. After Galani left, I shifted from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-4-2 tactic with wingers, playing Luis Rojas as our playmaker in the middle of the pitch and adding Durán up top. Despite a lot of talent and tons of potential, we're still a bit off from being competitive with this young squad, specially on a continental level. Here's hoping we can keep improving. Brian Villegas ended up having a wonderful season, with 43 games 29 goals and 1 assist, for a 7.22 rating, while newcomer Pedro Campos was a great addition playing in 20 games, scoring 9 goals and 4 assists, with a 7.26 rating. Matías Cavalleri, Luis del Pino Mago, Luis Rojas and José González also had great seasons.Forecast and Future- I'm still a bit lost regarding on how I want the team to play next season. I think the 4-4-2 is a decent tactic, but sacrificing Luis Rojas' performances as he plays deeper. Going back to a 4-2-3-1 seems possible but I want to give ample playing time to Nico Durán, and with Villegas up top and playing just 1 striker it won't be. We'll see if there comes a good offer for Villegas come the Summer window. - After taxes and shareholder payouts we're around €1M in the red, which isn't great, but isn't as bad again.
3 seasons, 3 league championships.
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Post by chaodck on Mar 16, 2020 20:46:58 GMT
Chile NT 2022 World Cup ReviewOverviewSo, at last the first real test of the save, the Qatar 2022 World Cup! We qualified from the South American qualifiers in 3rd place, just behind Brazil and Argentina after getting a terrific 35 points in 18 games. For preparation I used all friendly dates to try and get into the NT some younger players who had had great performances either in the U-23 or U-20 teams or also on the local league. We beat Mali, Nicaragua, Curacao, Greece and Bahrain, only losing to Mexico, all in all great preparation for the torunament.Squad The 23-man squad was cut off at the start of November and it features 3 keepers, 4 fullbacks, 4 centre-backs, 6 central mids, 2 attacking mids, 2 wingers and 2 strikers, with several of those players able to play in multiple positions. It's a fairly new squad, with only a couple of "Golden Generation" players, specifically Charles Aránguiz and Arturo Vidal.
Keepers: De Paul is the obvious first choice as Arias has regressed a bit. Collao earned his place in the friendlies and will serve as 3rd GK.
Centre-Backs: The Díaz brothers (real life), Paulo and Nicolás are our top two choices, they are both great players and have a feel for playing alongside each other not only as brothers but also as they both play for River Plate. Bournemouth's Guille Maripán is a serviceable third choice and La U's own José González a youth prospect backup.
Fullbacks: By far our weakest position in both flanks. José Bizama and Sebastián Vegas are our top choices, with the first being a decent player at most and Vegas being a converted centre back. Raimundo Rebolledo and Bastián Campos Toro feature as backups with the last one being more of a youth prospect than a full time player.
Central Mids: Six players for 3 spots, divided into 3 tiers. Erick Pulgar is our top player in the whole NT setup right now. A key player for Lazio (on loan from Napoli where he was Serie A Champion in 2020/21) who are on the hunt for european positions in Italy. Charles Aránguiz is also on the top tier, still a key player for us and a star for Porto. In the second tier come Ignacio Saavedra who after making a big money swap to Palmeiras has found himself in a lack of playing time due to an injury at the end of September, while Arturo Vidal is more than a serviceable backup/alternate starter despite losing his quickness. Finally on the third tier come Sebastián Galani and Tomás Alarcón.
Attacking Midfielders: Angelo Araos is another of our star players, who has become a key item in Brest after making the jump from Brazil in 2021, his backup is Diego Valdés who is a decent squad player.
Wingers: César Munder has been amazing in limited play time at the NT, scoring 5 goals already, while Matías Cavalleri is one of the top players at La U and has earned his place in the NT squad. The initial tactic has no wingers though, so they both start at the bench.
Strikers: Brian Villegas and Felipe Mora make for a good partnership up top. Villegas has surely a lot more of potential than the AM gives him and he's been amazing at La U, while Mora struggled a bit in a stint on Sevilla where he only played 9 games in 2 seasons, and has moved to LASK where he's one of their best players.World CupSo, the draw was super friendly with us and we landed in Group A, alongside hosts Qatar, Austria and Morocco. I expected to top the group, albeit not as easily as it would seem and that would mean, on paper, to face either Japan, Cameroon or the USA in the Second Round as they shared Group B with Croatia who should top their group.For the second time in history (the first being in Chile's 1962 World Cup) we played the tournament inaugural game, facing hosts Qatar. We played a good game, dominating the whole time and eventually managed to get a 2-0 win with goals from Charles Aránguiz (pen '33) and Matías Cavalleri ('78). In the second game of the group we faced Austria, arguably the toughest side, and despite dominating we ended up with a 2-2 draw, coming twice from behind with goals from César Munder ('56) and Matías Cavalleri ('87). We had to either draw or beat Morocco to qualify in the last game, and we were favoured to get the 1st place, even in a draw. Again we were the better side, and despite an early goal from the Africans we pushed through and finished the first half 2-1 with a brace from Charles Aránguiz ('20 and '43). In the second half though, goals at '48 and '50 put us 2-3 behind. Finally in the last part of the game a goal from Brian Villegas ('82) put the 3-3 draw in the end that secured our qualification to the Second Round in 1st place.In the second round, Japan was our rival and in a game where we kept a few starters in the bench to keep fatigue and bookings in check, we still played at great level improving a ton defensively and getting a 2-0 win with goals from Diego Valdés ('20) and Arturo Vidal ('27). For the first time since 1962, Chile was amongst the best 8 National Teams in the World. Again, the draw was gentle and we had to face Ukraine in the Quarter-Finals, who had beat Uruguay in the Second Round (1-0). I was super confident of getting into the Semifinals, but we had a big loss as Erick Pulgar had to miss the game due to yellow cards. It was a super tight game, with no team being superior, they had the ball more but we had 3 CCC's, when the game was almost definitely going for Extra Time, a lightning counter attack from Mykhaylo Mudryk ended up in the game's only goal ('90+3), and thus with a 0-1 defeat ended our participation in the 2022 World Cup.Similarly to 2018, Germany eliminated Brazil in the semifinals (now with a less exagerated score), en route to tie Brazil as the most successful NT in history with 5 World Cups. Ukraine ended up in 3rd place, after beating Brazil on the "Saturday Final".Forecast and FutureIt was a decent effort. Getting to the Quarter-Finals is amazing, don't get me wrong but with a draw as gentle as this was I expected a bit more. We had a few defensive misshaps on the group games and against Ukraine we just couldn't get the ball into the net and ended up losing on a 30 metre solo run in the last minute.
The squad is young and with no important fixtures in sight for 2023 I expect to have much more development in the younger players. Looking ahead at the 2026 World Cup (which includes a new format), there are two main points of concern, the fullbacks and the goalkeepers. That's where I need to find desperately new talent, hopefully to be ready in 4 years.
Here's to the future!
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Post by Reiver on Mar 17, 2020 12:20:45 GMT
Not bad at all for the first World Cup!
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Post by chaodck on Mar 22, 2020 23:20:03 GMT
Universidad de Chile 2023 Season ReviewOverviewFour seasons in, this save has been soooo much fun so far. Already started to build a squad that suits my footballing taste and already filled with newgens. The objectives this season were to try and challenge for the Copa Libertadores and also keep winning the league which still is a bit hard as we aren't up to the level of big Argentinean and Brazilian sides.
Transfers At the start of the season I decided we needed to sell a few players, either because they didn't live up to their potential and were using a roster space or because I had a good prospect ready to step up into the senior squad role. Franco Lobos went to Curicó, for €600k, Esteban Valencia to Palestino for €250k, Alexander Valencia to Velez for €200k and Nicolás Guerra to Deportivo Cali for €700k. Venezuelan Luis del Pino Mago was a great player for us, but there was an interesting CB prospect at Everton (CHI) so I cashed in on him, selling to Vasco da Gama for €3.5M. Finally in April, after the chilean window had closed, Corinthians came in knocking for Matías Cavalleri, one of our top players. I was reluctant to sell him, but they made an offer too good to refuse, so he went to Timão for €13.25M (plus €5M in clauses and 30% of his next fee). We had little activity on the winter window, not actively selling anyone, but unfortunately losing a top prospect Fabián Gutiérrez who went on to Leeds for a €500k compensation fee (plus clauses and fees).
Not too many players came into the senior squad this season, as most of the newcomers came in from the youth system, either from the academy or youth prospects bought from other teams at 16-17. Juan Carlos Añasco was bought from Palestino for €550k and he'll slot straight into the senior squad as a backup CM and RW, while Martín Rivera will be a starting CB, he came from Everton (CHI) for €700k and Nicolás Aravena will be the backup GK, coming in from San Luis de Quillota for €350k. In the Winter Window we brought Patricio Ruiz from Barnechea for €425k to replace Cavalleri in the squad.
As always, several youth prospects came in, who'll have their senior squad oportunity down the road. Primera DivisiónWe had a brilliant start to the season, winning 10 of the first 12 games of the season (1 draw, 1 loss). After the initial push things started to cool down a little, specially after the break where we even lost a couple of games in a row in August. This meant the last part of the season was still a bit tight in spite of our brilliant first half. We ended up winning the title (our fourth straight) in the previous to last game against La Calera.Copa ChileWe started off the season winning the Supercup against Universidad Católica 3-1. And finally we had a great Cup run and won the Copa Chile!! We beat Colo Colo, O'Higgins, Palestino, Ñublense and Universidad Católica en route to our Domestic Treble this season.Copa LibertadoresWe landed in a tough group in Libertadores, alongside Santos, Alianza Lima and rivals Universidad Católica. We started off brilliantly, beating Santos 4-0 at Vila Belmiro, but UC trumped us on the second game, with a 1-2 loss. We then beat Alianza on both games, 3-0 and 2-0, before a vengeance against UC beating them 4-0. Speaking of revenge, Santos beat us 2-0 at Nacional to close out the group in 2nd place. After that hellish group, we had an awful draw for the Knockouts, in Boca. We won 1-0 at Santiago, and then with a brilliant Brian Villegas, and a 90+3' goal, we qualified on away goals, losing 2-3 in Buenos Aires. In the Quarter-Finals, Sao Paulo awaited and I thought, ok here's our wall, quarter finalists again. But an amazing come-from-behind win in Santiago, where we turned a 0-2 to a 4-2 again fueled by Brian Villegas allowed us to get into the Semifinals, despite a 0-1 loss at Morumbí. The Semifinals saw us face Flamengo a team that we eliminated in 2021 and lost in 2022, both times in the Knockouts. Another come-from-behind win, this time turning a 0-1 to a 2-1 in Santiago had us with hopes, but after standing tall for 78 minutes at Maracanã, we conceded 4 goals in the last 12 minutes to lose 0-4 and a dishonorable exit from the Libertadores.Squad and PerformancesWe had a brilliant season. Sure we lost some unexplainable games, but when we were at our top, almost all teams suffered against us. Fixture congestion was a topic at a few times, with 3 competitions all the way to the end and all with important games. That meant we used more players than ever, specially in the Copa Chile and in the league, where we used 30+ players.
Brian Villegas had a wonderful season, the best individual season I've seen so far on this stint, absolutely unplayable at times. He was by far our top player, playing in 48 games, scoring 44 goals and 8 assists, with a 7.51 rating. He won the Copa Libertadores Best Forward and Top Goalscorer awards and was runner-up on the Copa Libertadores Best Player, while also winning both Chilean Best Player awards (press and coaches), and the Top Goalscorer from the Chilean League. He also won the CONMEBOL Best Player (Rey de América), was on the CONMEBOL Best 11 and ended up second on the Best Young Player (Chico Maravilla). Luis Rojas had a great year as well, despite playing further behind his natural AM position, he played 38 games, scoring 2 goals with 9 assists and a 7.23 rating. Other notable performances came from José González, Martín Rivera, Pedro Campos, Nico Durán and backups Simón Contreras and Jason González.
Forecast and Future- Obviously big brazilian sides and even a few european teams have been snooping around Brian Villegas. I tried to negotiate a good deal while allowing him to leave at the end of the Chilean season, but none came to a real deal. He then renewed his contract until 2028 so I guess teams won't snoop a bit until the european summer window. Also Nicolás Durán who also received a bit of attention from european clubs and I managed to steer them away and renew his contract until 2027. - After taxes and shareholder payouts we've got around €20M in the bank, as we sold a few players worth some good bucks last season.
Another season, another league win. First treble!
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Post by chaodck on Mar 22, 2020 23:57:16 GMT
Chile NT 2023 Season ReviewOverviewShort season again, a few friendlies and the start of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers for the Senior Squad, plus the Pan American Games for a U-22 side. CONMEBOL 2026 World Cup QualifiersIn preparation for the start of the 2026 WC Quals, we played a couple of friendlies, beating Costa Rica, Haiti and Senegal, while narrowly losing to Germany. We started off the qualifiers with a tough double date, hosting Ecuador then travelling to Maracanã to face Brazil. Against the Ecuadorans we played good and dominated most of the game, but a last minute goal ended up costing us 2 points as the game ended on a 2-2 draw. In the second game, we shook the world and beat Brazil 2-0 at their home turf to start off with 4 points. The second double date was tough as well, facing Argentina at home, then going to Asuncion to face Paraguay. The Argentina game was tight, we had a few chances but couldn't score and they didn't generate much, in the end a 0-0 was a proper telling of the game. At Asunción we played well, but the stern defence from the Paraguayans almost left us without chances, a lone header from Paulo Díaz gave us a 1-0 win and 8 points in the first 4 games.2023 Pan American Games We qualified as hosts for the U-22 Pan American Football Tournament, to be held in the context of the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile. We drew in group A, alongside Brazil, Honduras and Costa Rica. In an amazing showing we absolutely smashed the group, beating Costa Rica 4-1, Honduras 6-3 and Brazil 3-1. We drew Colombia in the Semifinals and in a horrible game, lost 1-2. In the Bronze Medal game, we also lost, this time against Brazil 1-2. After an incredible group phase, we just lost momentum and ended up losing the chance to compete for a gold medal. The base of this U-22 side was my Universidad de Chile team, with 9 of the 18 players. This team will also be the basis of the U-23 side we'll feature in the Summer for the 2024 Olympic Games Qualifiers.
Forecast and Future- Short year really, basically focused on the club side. Next season will be super crammed, as it'll have 8 WCQ games, the 2024 Copa América and also the aforementioned Pre-Olympic Tournament and hopefully the Olympics where we'll try and defend our 2020 Silver Medal.
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Post by chaodck on Apr 7, 2020 2:40:55 GMT
Universidad de Chile 2024 Season ReviewOverviewAfter five seasons we've become Chile's most dominant team, but in spite of the local dominance we're still a step below the big South American sides. This was another strange season, where we sold a few big names in the winter break, causing a bit of havoc amongst the squad, also as it was a big year for the National Team there were a few games managed by the AM and with a lot of younger players, with some interesting results.
Transfers We started off the year selling Luis Rojas arguably our top player who went to Chongqing for €16M (and 50% of a future fee), I really didn't want to sell him but the Chinese came in with a great offer and as we already had a replacement lined up in Johann Astudillo. Pedro Campos another of our top players went to Pachuca, for €4.5M, starting keeper Augusto Batalla went to Fullham for €5M and backup CB Ignacio Tapia to Emelec for €1M. In the winter window, we sold both of our star strikers, Brian Villegas to Cruz Azul for €18M (and 50% of his next fee) and Nicolás Durán to Lyon for €15M (and 50% of this next fee), both amazing deals for two players who were looking to leave the club for a bigger challenge. Their departures hurt and made us a worse team, but there wasn't much I could do as they both left for great money and wanted to further their careers.
We brought in 6 players, 3 of them for the u-19 side, 3 for the senior squad. From all the player sales we only had to replace the GK position as we had no first-team ready player in the youth sides. Gonzalo Collao was the name we went for, a former La U prospect who had left to Spain before the start of the save and never really got interest from a team above the segunda B, his contract was ending and we signed him for €650k from Extremadura. The other two players who'll feature in the first team are Ary Casanova who came in from O'Higgins for €1M and Héctor Pane from Magallanes for €600k, both of them will be backups.
We racked in a ton of money. I really don't know what to do with it, as there isn't much to upgrade on the facilities side still and I'd rather get promising youngsters than big name signings. Primera DivisiónIn retrospective it ended up being a pretty easy league season, but we only managed to separate ourselves in the last third of the season as it was a tight race between UC, Colo Colo and ourselves. In the end, fueled by wins over our two rivals in September and October we won our fifth straight league.Copa ChileAnother successful Cup season, where we managed to sweep al National competitions with a local treble. We won the Chilean Super Cup over Universidad Católica 2-1 at the start of the season, while we won the Copa Chile beating Cobresal, Palestino, La Serena, Iquique and Universidad Católica to seal the treble.
Copa LibertadoresWe had an easier draw on the Libertadores group, with Gremio, Cúcuta and Deportivo Táchira. We ended up in 2nd place, aftear beating the Colombians and Venezuelans in both games, while drawing and losing against the Brazilians. The second round draw was hard as we had to face Boca Jrs. right in the middle of the Olympic Games where we had 7-8 players from our team in the side. The Assistant Manager ended up losing 1-2 at home and 0-3 in Buenos Aires to be unceremoniously knocked out of the competition.
Squad and PerformancesIt was a season filled with great individual performances despite us selling our best assets. Our top player was Johann Astudillo, who filled right in the shoes of Luis Rojas and ended up scoring 10 goals with 7 assists in 42 games, with a 7.33 rating. Closely behind him Juan Carlos Añasco scored 12 and had 10 assists with a 7.24 rating in 46 games, Agustín Mabil scored 11 and had 4 assists in 23 games with a 7.22 rating, Mart[in Rivera had 5 goals and 1 assist in 38 games with a 7.15 rating and Simón Contreras scored 16 with 2 assists in 30 games and a 7.13 rating. Other good performances came from Ary Casanova, Mario Ramos, César Ordóñez, Patricio Ruiz, José González and Rodrigo Hernández.
Forecast and Future- After a busy year in the player departures I don't expect much movement in the next season. As most of the squad now are newgens I plan on doing a squad report before the season report next season. - After taxes and shareholder payouts we've got around €63M in the bank. - The Board upgraded the Youth Coaching, Youth Facilities and Training Facilities with the moneys we brought in. No dice on getting our own stadium yet.
We are now league dominant, here's hoping we can improve in the Continental side of things.
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Post by chaodck on Apr 7, 2020 3:24:29 GMT
Chile NT 2024 Season ReviewOverviewAnother long winded season, with the U-23 Olympics Qualifying and Olympic Games, a Copa América and a few 2026 World Cup Qualifying games.2024 Paris Olympics and QualifyingThe Olympics Qualifying tournament was held in Uruguay and we landed in a group with Argentina, Bolivia, Perú and Uruguay. We crushed it beating Bolivia, Argentina and Perú, while drawing with the locals Uruguay. In the Final stage, we beat Argentina again and Colombia, while drawing against Brazil to secure the Olympics qualifying spot and also winning the tournament!
In the Olympics we drew a hell of a group, with locals France, the Netherlands and Japan. We drew both games against the Europeans, and beat Japan to secure our pass to the Quarter-Finals in second place, where we drew Senegal, whom we beat 3-0 comfortably to sneak into the Olympics Semifinals again. In the Semifinals we faced Argentina and I was pretty confident given we beat them twice in the Pre-Olympic tournament, but they crushed us 5-3 and left us fighting for the Bronze medal, but the Netherlands robbed us of the consolation prize by beating us 2-0.In the end we couldn't repeat the terrific Silver Medal performance from 2020, but getting into the semifinals is still a terrific result.Copa América 2024The Copa América draw saw us pitted in a group alongside Qatar, Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. We had a great group phase, topping the group after beating Bolivia 4-1, Uruguay 4-2, Qatar 3-0 and Paraguay 3-1, while drawing against Argentina 1-1. In the Quarter-Finals we beat Perú 2-1, and Uruguay 4-0 in the semifnials, before Brazil beat us narrowly 2-3 to prevent our third (and first of the save) Copa América.CONMEBOL 2022 World Cup QualifiersWe started off the Qualifiers in 2023 with two wins and two draws. In 2024 we started off losing against Colombia and beating Bolivia, before the Copa America. In the second half of the year, we beat Uruguay 1-0, drew Venezuela 1-1, beat Ecuador 2-1, lost against Perú 1-2, drew against Brazi 1-1 and beat Paraguay 3-1. We're currently in 3rd position pretty comfortably in the qualification zone, with just 6 games left.Squad and PerformancesWe had a great year overall. The successful U-23 side has seen a few of his best players already promoted to the Senior Squad, Brian Villegas (38 caps, 13 goals) is the most experienced one, having been a part of the adult team since 2020, other players promoted are Luis Rojas (15 caps, 1 goal), Nico Durán (11 caps, 1 goal), José González (8 caps), César Ordóñez (4 caps), Bastián Campos Toro (4 caps), Martín Rivera (1 cap) and Matías Bórquez (1 cap) have been part of the WCQ's process this year. All of them, except Bórquez have either been part of La U or play there, so there's been a ton of nurturing through the club side.Forecast and Future- We've set up a fairly safe 30-35 men squad where the callups are taken from, trying to privilege players who are getting regular football at their clubs. - 2025 brings a short year again, with the last remaining WC Quals games and some friendlies.
It's been a good year, with important placings in both the Copa América and the Olympics. Next comes the 2026 World Cup!
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Post by Dirk Nowitzki on Apr 12, 2020 8:57:39 GMT
Always live these C&C saves! Really tough loss to Brazil in the Copa America final, but on the other hand it leaves something to fight for with the new generation! I had Araos at Corinthians doing really well for me, hope he will run the show for you too!
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Post by fmamerican on Apr 12, 2020 18:58:30 GMT
@chaddock: how do you handle youth intake day and identifying new players to watch for the U19 and U21 teams?
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Post by chaodck on Apr 13, 2020 4:03:11 GMT
Always live these C&C saves! Really tough loss to Brazil in the Copa America final, but on the other hand it leaves something to fight for with the new generation! I had Araos at Corinthians doing really well for me, hope he will run the show for you too! Cheers mate, yeah the loss against Brazil was tough but it leaves room to keep growing. Araos has been good overall, he's still our top AMC for the NT but I guess soon a newgen will take his post as he's stagnated a bit. chaodck: how do you handle youth intake day and identifying new players to watch for the U19 and U21 teams? Only U-20 side in South America, both at club and international level. Regarding the annual youth intake I manually scout the whole country via the Transfers section of the Continent menu. Dual nationals not produced in Chile are quite harder to get but once a year I try and locate them via the player search function. I buy the best prospects that don't come from our direct rivals (as the players won't even negotiate with me), and add to the national pool every player above 4-star PA according to my scouting team. Then once every couple of years I put all the national pool players in the national team (without confirming it, obviously) to get the NT AM's opinion about the player's CA and PA and thus narrowing down the National Pool to around 100 players, including high potential youngsters. I also regularly check the U-20 nominations to see if I've missed someone. As a side note there's a horrible bug in the youth selection for many iterations of the game ago, youth elegible players who have already played or been a part of a senior squad nomination don't get selected for the youth teams anymore. I have a lot (around 8-10) players who could've been in the U-20 World Cup this season and weren't because they were or had been a part of the senior squad. Thank you both for taking the time to read mates!
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Post by jawzy on Apr 13, 2020 18:24:05 GMT
Feels odd seeing Uraguay down the bottom there.
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Post by fmamerican on Apr 13, 2020 19:20:22 GMT
Thanks. Doing a club and country with MTK and Hungary at the moment. MTK starts out in the second division so I can't see all of Hungary yet. Scouting budget isn't big enough.
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Post by chaodck on Apr 13, 2020 19:47:41 GMT
Feels odd seeing Uraguay down the bottom there. Yep feels weird in game as well, we've dominated them in our 3 last games, 4-2 and 4-0 in Copa America 2024 and 1-0 on the WC Quals also in 2024. I really don't know what's the reason really, but if they don't qualify for the World Cup with 6/10 teams qualifying, means they're quite shitty. Thanks. Doing a club and country with MTK and Hungary at the moment. MTK starts out in the second division so I can't see all of Hungary yet. Scouting budget isn't big enough. Yeah I'm a big club, the biggest in Chile money wise and a top one in the continent so the scouting budget is big as well. It'll eat up a good part of the budget the manual scouting, so try to work with what you can manage, maybe scout the top tier only, then start working yourself down.
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Post by chaodck on Apr 29, 2020 0:16:27 GMT
Universidad de Chile 2025 Season ReviewOverviewSorry for the long time without updates, but this game took a bit of a hit during the start of the pandemic as with a bit more of free time I started playing other things. But it rekindled in the past few days, specially seeing that the forum is a bit more active and the dawn of the new succession save made me finiish through the 2025 season and update you guys. This save has been pretty easy so far on the club side domestically, despite not being able to make a good run for the Libertadores still. 5 leagues in 5 years is remarkable but having bred and sold several of our star players puts us at a disadvantage against the bigger Brazilian and Argentinean sides, specially as we aren't replacing them with star players, but starting to breed the next generation of youngsters instead. Still, we make progress, put out more good players, keep winning domestically and being competitive on the continental side.
Transfers We sold a few backup players at the start of the year, Simón Ramírez went to Ceará for €250k, Daniel Navarrete to Cruz Azul for €500k, Piero Pino to Santiago Wanderers for €750k, Simón Contreras to Bristol City for €2.7M. We also lost youngster Sergio Gómez to Pachuca on a compensation fee of €725k plus future clauses. We only sold one starter and it was on the winter break, selling Patricio Ruiz to León for €10M, plus 50% of his next sale.
In return, we brought in a few players, mostly for the youth team, with two senior squad exceptions, Paraguayan/Chilean Claudio Carvajal who came in from Cerro Porteño for €800k and brazilian naturalisation prospect Acássio from Regatas on a free transfer. Primera DivisiónFrom the 5 previous titles this was by far our best performance and easiest win by far. We won the first 14 games of the league, including wins over Colo Colo and Universidad Católica. We lost our first (and only) game of the season against Colo Colo in their stadium 2-3 in a game where we hit the woodwork 3 times and they shot 3 times. We ended up winning the title with 7 games in hand and with a 29 point advantage over the 2nd placed team. Truly fantastic.Copa ChileWe won another Supercup, beating Universidad Católica 2-0. Then in the Copa Chile we managed to get to the Quarter Finals after beating Audax Italiano and Everton, before the same Universidad Católica managed to exact their revenge on us winning the Supercup after a terrible first leg by us.
Copa LibertadoresWe drew a terrible group alongside River, Gremio and Red Bull Bragantino. I though we might end up in 3rd place and into the Sudamericana, but we managed to get a few good games and finish in 2nd place, despite not being able to beat Gremio. In typical fashion we drew a big brazilian side, Corinthians. We destroyed them in the first leg, 4-0 in Santiago before a terrible second leg saw us 0-3 by 15 minutes. Fortunately Jason González scored for us at '21. They still managed to get two more goals and made the last 10 minutes heart wrecking, but we managed to hold on to a 1-5 loss and qualify into the Quarter Finals. Internacional de Porto Alegre was our rival there and they proved to be too good a team for us an beat us 3-5 on aggregate. Another Continental heartbreak for us.
Squad and PerformancesJason González was our top player this season, scoring at a terrific rate and proving to be a menace to all teams who faced him. He ended up with 35 goals in 40 games (38 starts) with 6 assists and a 7.68 rating, Jeisson Correa his understudy was our second best player despite playing just 28 games (14 starts), scoring 19 goals, 5 assists and a 7.30 rating. Mario Ramos, José González, César Ordóñez, Johann Astudillo, Juan Carlos Añasco and Martín Rivera also had great seasons and were amongst our top players and the best in the league.
Forecast and Future- There are a lot of teams knocking our door for our top players. Jason González, José González, Johann Astudillo, Rodrigo Hernández and Marios Ramos might leave the club if a good offer comes for them. - After taxes and shareholder payouts we've got around €70M in the bank. - Not much news on the facilities side this year, I'm pushing for a new stadium as we rent the current one we use, but as we don't fill it they refuse to build one.
There isn't much competition on the league by now, but we need to get through the Libertadores.
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Post by chaodck on May 3, 2020 1:27:33 GMT
Chile NT 2025 Season ReviewOverviewAnother one of those short years for the NT, between two busy years (Olympics+Copa América in 2024 and World Cup in 2026). Only six games, with the end of the World Cup Qualifiers. CONMEBOL 2026 World Cup QualifiersWe started off 2025 in 3rd place in the World Cup Qualifiers, with one foot already in USA, Canada and México. We just had 6 games to go and to secure qualification we needed 6 points. The first game was against Argentina at Monumental de River, we played a great game, dominating for passages but in the end a 0-0 was the fair result for both teams. In the second game of that matchdate we went to Bolivia and beat them 3-1. The second matchdate, saw us face Colombia at home and in a very professional performance, we secured the World Cup qualification with a solid 2-0 win. The second game was away against a complicated Uruguay side who were on the verge of not qualifying (in this new, TOO easy format) and we piled on their misery with another 2-0 win. Having already qualified and with 2 home games against lower rated teams I went for a batshit crazy selection trying several young players and leaving most regulars out of it. We ended up beating Perú 1-0 and drawing against Venezuela 0-0.
We ended up in 2nd place, far from leaders Brazil, but still above both Colombia and Argentina who are our most direct rivals so far. Uruguay ended up bottling it and not qualifying, first time in a World Cup for Venezuela, and Perú managed to barely get the nod over Uruguay, Paraguay and Ecuador. Bolivia had a shambolic participation (with the altitude factor not being considered in the game, I'm afraid Bolivia would get this kind of performances without their geographic advantage).Squad and PerformancesNothing much to say here, we settled for a 4-2-3-1 tactic in the end, as the emergence of real alternatives there like Patricio Ruiz, Mario Ramos, Juan Barón, Ary Casanova and Claudio Carvajal have meant I turn back to this tactic instead of the boring 4-3-1-2 we were using before. I've got the 23-man squad for the World Cup already on my mind, barring any big injury and I think, despite being a very young squad, we're in it for a surprise. performance. At least repeat the Quarter-Finals appearance from Qatar, back in 2022. With the new format, and 48 teams in the competition, I really have no clue on how the Round of 32 pairings will occur.Forecast and Future- We are ranked #7 in the World, and thus were one of the Group heads for the World Cup Draw. We landed in an easy group, alongside Ukraine and Honduras. Ukraine was the team that eliminated us from Qatar so I'm aiming for a bit of revenge. - Two teams qualify from the group, and if logic indicates something we should either face Japan (less likely), Turkey or Argentina in the Second Round. Winning the group is a must to try and avoid our Andean neighbours. - I'll do a squad report for the World Cup, trying to highlight also some of the players who ended up missing the tournament but could be important down the road.
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Post by chaodck on May 5, 2020 15:56:33 GMT
Well, a bit of spoiler regarding the 2026 World Cup (to which I should have the writeup sometime this afternoon) Four times before, in Chile 1962 (2-4), France 1998 (1-4) , South Africa 2010 (0-3) and Brazil 2014 (a.e.t. 1-1, pen. 2-3) Chile has ended their World Cup road trip against the allmighty Brazil. In Qatar, we lost against Ukraine in the Quarter-Finals, and now, in USA/Canada/Mexico 2026 we'll face our usual excecutioner in the Third Round (Round of 16). We'll see if I fare better than my predecesors.
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Post by chaodck on May 5, 2020 17:27:47 GMT
Fifth time's a charm!!!! COME ON!!!! We struggled at times, specially after getting the lead, which didn't last long. The second half was a tight affair and they were slightly better. But La U youngster and super sub César Ordóñez scored a beautiful time on stoppage to secure our Quarter-Finals bid! Now we face Ivory Coast!!!
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Post by chaodck on May 7, 2020 2:15:00 GMT
Chile NT 2026 World Cup ReviewOverviewThe second World Cup trip of our save, this time bringing us into the first 48-team, 3-hosts World Cup in the USA, Canadá and México. We qualified easily from the South American WCQ's in 2nd place, with 36 points, just behind Brazil. We drew a group alongside Ukraine and Honduras, so I prepared the games facing two eastern european countries in March and two CONCACAF teams in July. We beat Serbia 2-1 and Canadá 5-2, while drawing 3-3 with Russia and 2-2 with Jamaica, not the best results, but unbeaten still.Squad and Prospects I'll do a bit of a squad review here. I'll show you the 23 chosen players that made the trip to the North American Union (should I bring my 2007 issued Amero coins and bills?), but also I'll show you some of the top players who didn't make it into the squad and that have enough ability or potential to be a part of the squad down the road.
Keepers: The three keepers to make the trip are fairly balanced in terms of ability, specially Gonzalo Collao and Brayan Cortés. In the end I went for Collao to start as Cortés had been relegated to the bench on his current team and had no pitch activity in a long time. The third keeper selected was Mauro Pizarro a player from La Serena who had been one of the top keepers of the local league.
We don't have much in terms of quality coming right behind this three. They are young and will surely hold on to their squad status at least until the next World Cup, unless one of this three prospects bloom or a new prospect comes. Bryan Hontavilla was at one point my big hope at goal, long term. We bought him at 16 and in two years he hasn't really been a serious threat to Collao at La U, he's had a couple of good loan stints, but no real development so far. Still he has good tools and potential left and is just 18. Alberto Quiñonez is another interesting prospect in the La U youth teams, but far from ready. Finally, the third is Alex Donoso from rivals Universidad Católica, I think he's the one that can be the top of the three in a few years, if he gets developed the right way.
Centre-Backs: The same pairing from 2022 World Cup, the Díaz brothers Nicolás and Paulo. Paulo has gotten a bit old and thus regressed a bit, while Nicolás has developed into our top centre back and one of the best in the continent. Behind them I chose a couple of young players with tons of potential instead of going with more established players, whom I'll talk about after. Luis Figueroa is a great prospect, currently playing in Pachuca where he has earned a place as a rotation player. Diego Gamboa still hasn't taken the leap and still plays in Colo Colo, but he's one of the top defenders in the league.
The ones that didn't make the cut include two players who have been a part of the squad during the Qualifiers, Martín Rivera and José González. Rivera has recently been sold to América from La U, and González is still La U's top centre back. The third player worth of a shout is José Martini a talented youngster who spent a couple of years in Mexico before Universidad Católica secured his transfer (the bastard chose them before us). He should blossom into a talented player at UC.
Fullbacks: Still a bit of a weak spot, the fullbacks have had a bit of newer players come into the fray at least. At the right, Sebastián Galani has evolved from a central midfielder into a good fullback, despite not being his natural position and has owned our RB position for some time now, he plays in Russia after a long career at Sao Paulo. At his backup, former La U player Rodrigo Hernández has grown quite a bit after his transfer to Estudiantes de la Plata becoming a regular starter for them. At the left flank, Matías Bórquez is one of our younger starters, at 20 he's won the position over Sebastián Vegas who still serves as the backup. Bórquez was bought by Cruz Azul a few years ago and after spending two years on loan at León is primed to be an important player for La Máquina Cementera this season. Vegas still starts at Boca as their left back and is serviceable due to his ability to play in the middle as well.
The cut offs again don't show much potential down the road. I'm really thinking into trying to convert players at La U in order to bolster the ranks in this particular position. Bastián Campos Toro is the current La U LB starter and was at some point ahead of Borquez at the NT, but Matías has far more potential than Bastián and thus he's been off the NT since some time. Cristián Silva looks poised to take over Campos Toro at La U, but his ability to play at CB will make him a starter following Rivera's departure, so Campos Toro is safe so far. Finally, another La U player, Gonzalo Céspedes was brought in this year to replace Hernández and he's been a high point so far, I don't think he's starting NT material, but he could feature at some point due to the lack of talent in this area.
Central Mids: Erick Pulgar is still our top midfielder. He has recently left Europe, having been transferred to Palmeiras where he'll probably end his career in a few years. The second CM position is contested between Tomás Alarcón, a great more defensive oriented CM who plays in Gremio and César Ordóñez a much more offensive alternative who's the star of my Universidad de Chile side. To round up the squad, I chose one of the top young prospects in Chile and the youngest player of the team, Jorge Contreras from Colo Colo. Already a star at our rivals I envision he won't be there for much more time.
As thin as we are on the fullbacks department, we're deep on the central mids. I'll pick 4 of the best either ready players or potential prospects to showcase. Ignacio Saavedra has been a part of the NT for a while now and he missed the squad this World Cup only due to the emergence of Contreras, Saavedra plays at Monterrey and is considered a regular starter for los Rayados. René Aguilera is currently the key sub in my La U side, and has played amazingly since erupting into the main squad last year. Juan Carlos Añasco was bought from La U last season and is currently a regular starter for arguably Mexico's biggest team. Finally, Claudio Carvajal, another La U player who we bought from Cerro Porteño and is a dual Paraguayan-Chilean national declared to play for Chile. Añasco and Carvajal are two players who naturally play on the wings but have adapted to a central role as well. They are my perfect central wingers, and could feature a lot down the road, specially Carvajal who's immensely talented.
Attacking Midfielders: Another player who repeats from the 2022 campaign, Araos still is our top AM player. He is good and reliable but nothing out of this world, after 5 seasons at Brest, he is now at Aston Villa and has been an on/off starter for them. His backup is Luis Rojas, a player formed at La U who plays for Chongqing in China. He could make the leap to a bigger league but I doubt any team would take on those wages for a player his ability.
Three good players come in right behind them, with Johann Astudillo being the most ready one, already a decent alternative for the NT and probably will steal the backup role from Rojas soon. Astudillo played at La U until this season where he was sold to Flamengo. His former backup at La U and current starting AM Héctor Pané comes in 2nd, he's got more potential than Astduillo and could be the starting AM for the NT down the road. Finally, a former La U player that we lost on a non contract signing, Fabián Gutiérrez has played in second tier clubs on loan before this season being touted as a starter at Leeds, he's got plenty of potential as well.
Wingers: After refusing to use wingers for some time in the NT, we changed back to the 4-2-3-1 tactic in the second half of the qualifiers and got back to playing with these bad boys. At the right flank, Patricio Ruiz is the starter, a former La U player who was sold to León in Mexico lñast seasons where he ended up having a marvellous season scoring 10 goals. His backup is César Munder a player who has always played great for the NT. In the left, Matías Cavalleri is the starter, who just arrived to Gremio and has been a part of the NT for a while now as well as Munder. His backup is Mario Ramos, another former La U player who was sold to RB Bragantino this summer and has struggled a bit since.
The waiting list for the wingers include both current starters for La U, Ricardo Sánchez and Ary Casanova. Both players are touted to be more talented than Ruiz and Ramos who once where above them in the team, and have shined this season, their first playing as starters, Casanova is already stated to depart to Sao Paulo, at the end of the Chilean season. Also in the list is Juan Barón, from Universidad Católica, one of the top local league players and Ismael Carreño from O'Higgins, one of the few players of smaller clubs in this shortlist.
Strikers: Finally, up front. Not much news here as the players on the squad are both known to this save as they were at some point the starting strikers pairing of La U, Nicolás Durán and Brian Villegas. They were both sold a few years ago, Durán to Lyon, where after starting for the first season he's lost his spotlight there and spent last season on loan at Sampdoria where he just scored 6 goals in 30 games. Villegas on the other hand was sold to Cruz Azul and despite playing a lot of games hasn't scored much, only netting 13 goals in 53 games in 2 seasons. Worrying? Absolutely, specially as they both had brilliant yet short La U careers, combining for over 150 goals between the two.
Again, there isn't really much behind them, at least on paper as they are clearly the most talented and ready players of the bunch. Diego Valencia has played a bit for the NT and scored some goals, he currently plays in Paranaense but is a backup. Jaime Alarcón is perhaps the biggest prospect at the position, a kid from Colo Colo academy who was bought by Santos after one season as starter and was loaned to Angers in the Ligue 1 after a semester at Vila Belmiro. He's got tons of potential, here's hoping he gets play time and develops. Finally, a third interesting player is current La U starter Jeisson Correa, he's got the tools but has struggled to secure the starting job.
World CupNew World Cup format. 16 Groups of 3 teams, each team plays each other once, and top two teams qualify for the new "Round of 32", named Second Round. Then direct elimination until the Final. That means, getting out of the group is super easy. Just need to beat one team. We drew an easy group with Honduras and Ukraine, and were lucky enough to have the bye round at the end, meaning longer rest before the Second Round. We aced the first game against Honduras, 3-1 with a brace from Villegas and another goal from Luis Figueroa. We played great and the central americans never really had a chance, despite tying the game at '51. We then faced Ukraine, a rematch from the 2022 World Cup Quarter-Final where they eliminated us from the competition on a last-minute goal. Villegas scored again, at '51 after a tense first half, but a VAR penalty goal from Tsygankov at '61 put the game back on level terms. We generated a few more chances but in the end the 1-1 was a fair result given the circumstances of the game. Ukraine did their part and beat Honduras 2-1, meaning we qualified to the Second Round as 1st placed on goal difference.
We had to face the 2nd placed team in the F group, which consisted of Turkey, Argentina and Japan. Argentina drew Japan in their first game and I was afraid I would have to face them, but they ended up beating Turkey 1-0 to claim the group and send us to face Turkey in the Second Round. Turkey is a tough team, with physical big players something which against we struggle. We were better on the pitch though, and thoroughly dominated the game, in the end winning barely 1-0 with a goal from Pato Ruiz, we deserved more. The third Round, saw us face a familiar foe in Brazil. Our usual excecutioner in World Cups, beating us on this same phase (despite being called Second Round), in 1998, 2010 and 2014, and also in the 1962 Semifinals. But this time it was different. We held them, and controlled them setting their dominance to the middle of the pitch, but not on our area. We scored on a VAR penalty via Erick Pulgar at '37 and they equalised shortly at '39 via Callegari. They could've scored again after that but we lucked out a bit. The second half was tense and nerve-racking, at 90+2, when everyone was thinking overtime and maybe penalties, a mistake from one of their CB's led to a shot by César Ordóñez and into the net, sending 18 million souls into a drunken state of happiness. Finally, after 12 years, The Woodwork of Pinilla Curse (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApW1y5fY_5M) was lifted. So, into the Quarter-Finals for a second straight World Cup! We're making progress in this save! Here, our rival was Ivory Coast, another strong physical team, who had eliminated Colombia and Czechia en route to the Quarter-Finals. The game started off weird, and by '21 we already were 1-1 as a couple of VAR penalties were converted by Kessié and Erick Pulgar. We improved after the tying goal, and Matías Cavalleri scored at '45+3 to send us to the locker room ahead 2-1. Patricio Ruiz scored on '71 and I felt in the semifinals. But we let our guard down and became a bit fatigued allowing them to come back, with goals at '80 and '90. So we went to extra time. We played well on the ET, and found our prize at '105 with an own goal from their keeper. In the end, and after 120 minutes, we won 4-3 and advanced to the Semifinals! The Netherlands awaited us there, a hard game of course as they are a big european side. But boy they were lucky. We started off great and missed two clear chances before 30 minutes, and right after the second missed chance, on the counter attack, they found their first goal, and three minutes later, doubled their lead. Demoralized we went to the locker room down by two. In the second half we fought, but it just wasn't meant to be and only found a goal from Durán at '81. We exerted ourselves too much against Ivory Coast, we lost our chance at the title by conceding those two late goals and push us into Extra Time in the Quarter-Finals. We then played the game for the Third Place against Portugal. Another game where we were totally exhausted and had a few players over 90% condition. We were lucky for the result to have been merely a 1-2 loss, we scored early at '18 via Araos and then suffered a barrage of attack from the Portuguese, who generated 8 clear chances, making Gonzalo Collao our top man. Diogo Jota equalised at '42 and Ruben Neves put them ahead at '78 via a VAR penalty to give them the bronze medal and leaving us 4th.The Netherlands ended up winning their first World Cup, beating Italy on the Final.
Forecast and FutureIt was a great World Cup. I think we are a good young team, but we're far from being a top contender yet. Most of our players either play in Brazil or in Mexico, and with the sale of Pulgar, we have no players either on the Champions League or the Europa League. I might be a bit guilty regarding that, as I've hoarded most of the good players on each youth intake (except the ones that start on Colo Colo or Universidad Católica as they aren't interested in coming to La U), and I might have been a bit too jelous to let them go whenever they needed it. I think Durán and Villegas for instance could've developed a lot more if they were let go earlier. That's why I'm starting to sell younger players that have potential, like Ary Casanova who has already agreed to go to Sao Paulo and he's 19. We're on road to something great, but we need better players for that. To compete at high level on the latter stages of the World Cup I need to have players who play on the Top European leagues and the Champions League. I haven't bred any wonderkid so far, for instance. So yeah, good progress, given the players I've been handed so far. But I expect more.
Thanks to anyone still reading, as this was a long ass writeup.
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Post by Dirk Nowitzki on May 7, 2020 12:28:45 GMT
Like you said, great World Cup Chaodck and it must have felt sweet to finally beat Brazil! This new group stage format still seems odd to me, there is just so much potential for undesirable outcomes. For instance if the first 2 games end in 0-0, the teams playing the third game will both advance if they just draw 1-1. Great to see my country finally win the World Cup though, if only FM would have some predictive value for this to actually happen in 2026!
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Post by chaodck on May 7, 2020 14:41:29 GMT
Like you said, great World Cup Chaodck and it must have felt sweet to finally beat Brazil! This new group stage format still seems odd to me, there is just so much potential for undesirable outcomes. For instance if the first 2 games end in 0-0, the teams playing the third game will both advance if they just draw 1-1. Great to see my country finally win the World Cup though, if only FM would have some predictive value for this to actually happen in 2026! Thanks for reading matey Dirk! Yeah, the new group stage is primed for the "man of the briefcase" and teams plotting together against the third team in the group. The Dutch were lucky against us, really. We played better in the semifinal, albeit most of our shots came after being 0-2 down. But they totally outplayed the Italians in the Final, so well deserved methinks.
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Post by dalenichol on May 7, 2020 19:42:43 GMT
Trying to catch up with this as much as possible Chaodck, but rest assured I am reading. That's a bummer in the World Cup, but still a great performance!
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Post by chaodck on May 7, 2020 21:03:18 GMT
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