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Journey in America
Topic Started: Feb 1 2012, 02:56 AM (1,460 Views)
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November 2012

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Well our playoff run started very well, thrashing Portland 5-1 over the two legged semi-final.

Then this happened-

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Another soft (AND I MEANING F*ING SOFT) red card given to Attakora put our side down a man early on. And despite this we went all the way to penalties. It's a shame my guys don't know how to score 10 yrds away from the friggin' net, or else we would have gone through to the MLS final. I was super pissed. F*ing NY with their measly 55 points compared to my 77, beating my team. After this game I really want to leave this piss poor league and go to Europe or something. If it wasn't for the NACL I would've resigned right then and there. I mean how can I compete in the playoffs when NY and LA can just buy their whole squad for 10x what my highest paid player makes? If we do lose out in the NACL, I might just retire and head for greener pastures.

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The media get their wet dream matchup of LA v NY. Who cares, I'm off to Hawaii.

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Offseason: December 2012, January/February 2013

I'm done throwing things after losing last season, so my offseason begins.

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I get 2 new faces in Jones and Evans, and 2 of my draft picks here I think might be able to make an impact one day.

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I've also had a change of heart tactically. I started this save with a 4-3-3, then in season 2 moved to a 4-1-3-2. Obviously that worked well, up to our losing against NY in the MLS Eastern Final. But now with Rowe coming into form, and picking up a pretty decent 1st round AMC in the draft, I'm considering going forward with a 4-1-2-1-2.

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So we sweep our 4 preseason games in style, hopefully a good sign of things to come ahead of the new season. Our next two games before the season are against Seattle in the NACL two legged quarterfinal, which means my new tactical change will get its true test before the season begins.
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March, April 2013

Despite a healthy preseason, Ched Evans got injured for half a year, so I went out and got Jackson Martinez to supplement that loss, and I also found a young DM just for kicks.

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Anyway, Jackson is looking to be a good signing, when Evans is fit I'll waive him since the MLS has a pesky salary cap. I hate to do so since Evans did well in the preseason, but I need healthy players.

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Oh yeah baby! I achieved my goal of winning the NACL! It was a disappointing loss in Mexico, with my star Jermaine Jones receiving a double yellow late in the game. We did well to hold them to one goal. In the 2nd leg, Schilawski, who has been playing well recently, scored a nice goal to tie the aggregate, then Attakora scores from a corner to put us ahead and eventually win it all! This win kinda makes up for losing in the playoffs last season, so I'm really happy about it!

We've also beaten LA 3 times already this year, and Seattle twice, and seems like we can score better overall, so it looks like my current tactic is doing well this early in the season. My draft pick Jaime Smith is playing well for a young 'un so far.

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Fierce rivals Chicago start the season off on fire, but we are right there with 2 games in hand to close the gap. With the MLS just starting, and the NACL groups to be drawn in the summer, this looks to be another grueling campaign to reclaim our MLS title, and to three-peat the US Cup.
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This just in, Swansea City have offered me a job in the npower Championship. They sacked coach Rodgers after failing to win the playoff this year. In my game they never got into the Prem like they did in real life, so if I take charge, that would be my first goal. It's tempting. I have had all the success I can have in the 3 years in the MLS, but do I want to jump into England right away?
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May 2013

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Not a bad month of games for us, we handled everyone quite well. We broke New England's record for most game not conceding a goal so that's always a plus.

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As for the Swansea job, I told them I'd think about it. I'm kinda torn. Seems right now I have the best team that can beat anyone in the MLS. I just won the NACL. Playing in the MLS is hard, in that normally I could just end the season on a high note and quit before the summer, then pick up a job before the fall season starts. But in the MLS, I just won the frickin' NACL! Yet, it's only a quarter of the way into the MLS season, so if I left now, I'd feel like I'm giving the Boston fans and my players the middle finger. I don't know. My board is pretty tight with money, the MLS has that damn salary cap so I can't create a superteam...I've won all there is to win in America, anything else would just be a bonus. I guess the only reason I'd stay is to see the youngsters develop on my team (pretty much my favorite part of FM). I've got one more game before I make my decision, so we'll know by next month's update what I did.
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June 2013

Well, I didn't take the Swansea job, for a few reasons. One, although I feel very accomplished in the 3 years in New England, I want to see how far I can take this club. A few added cups can only help my managerial CV in the long run. Two, although I think I'm the best in the MLS, Real Salt Lake have a regen striker that is literally tearing up the league right now, 18 goals, 17 appearances. Also, I've felt like in the years I've been here, I've created rivalries with LA, Seattle, and Philly, through playing those teams numerous times, or because Pietr Nowak is a whiny little girl, and I love destroying the Union (now his former team) every chance I have. Three, I shouldn't back down from a challenge, in terms of the MLS rules and restrictions. I personally believe that greatness comes from limitations, and as such I need to find out how to build my superteam within the confines of the MLS system. Four, I specifically modified the American youth rating in order to give the US some good regens (like in RSL), and only being here 3 years, I cannot see if that will have much of an effect in the long run for the MLS and the US, so I need to stick around, and hope for good draft picks. And finally, I'm still under contract. I hate it when players leave early in their contracts, so I'm gonna see my contract out before I make anymore decisions. Unless Liverpool offers me a job. Then I'm disregarding everything I just wrote. Unless that happens though, like Han Solo said, it can wait.

Anyway! Here's our current form-

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Another good month, although the lack of goals has me a bit disheartened. I find the hardest thing now is to accept failure. Whenever I start a save, I'm so lackadaisical I don't care about results really. But I've won the cup twice, the MLS once, and the NACL once. I demand wins every games now! I need to dial it back a bit a realize you can't win them all.

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Hard to believe the season is halfway done at this point, but we again hold onto first, 7 points ahead of Philly. Donnelley, the regen, is really helping RSL this year in 1st place in the West. Maybe LA has a worthy opponent now.

Also in the news-

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He finally leaves. Usually he doesn't stick around that long, so I surprised stayed in LA until now.


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He's back......

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July 2013

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Another unbeaten month. I honestly thought we would lose out to NY after going 3-1 down. But credit to my boys, they fought back for a thrilling 3-3 result. Very satisfying getting a 4-1 rout over Houston, but disappointed we couldn't capitalize against Philly.

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Philly's 2 games in hand have them closer to us than they should be. I'm anticipating a long August and September, full of MLS and NACL games. July was light on games due to the Gold Cup being played. By the way, the US got bounced out of that tournament early, and Klinsmann was fired. I applied for the job, but Dom Kinnear got it instead. Seems wining the NACL, the MLS, and 2 US Cups isn't good enough to command the USMNT.

Anyway, Chicago after their hot start have faded away a bit, while Toronto have come on strong lately. NY are still not playing to their potential and lag in 5th place. Salt Lake is really scaring me right now. We might not have an answer for them if we play them in the US Cup final or the MLS finals. Definitely the team to beat IMO.

Some roster moves- Benny Feilhaber is no longer a Rev. After telling me his desire to move to a bigger club, I sell him to Standard Liege for $3.5m.
-I pick up Samuel Galindo for a cheap price of $1m from Arsenal to help give me some good depth at the AMC position.
-And Bobby Shuttleworth could be going to Randers FC if his work permit goes through. I can't believe some team is interested in a backup GK, but seeing as Westberg is pretty solid right now, Bobby can go and we can take them money.
-My young left back Brasilia is aching for more playing time, so I trade Tyler Polak for a high draft pick in order to let the young Brazilian into the 1st team.
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August 2013

First here's the draw for the NACL group stage and who we're up against.

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A pretty tame draw for us and I'm confident we'll make it through to the quarterfinal round.

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An off month for us, if you can call it that. We started off well against the Whitecaps, smashing them 3-1. But then concerns come up in my mind. We only draw with a midtable Colorado, a game we should have won. Then Salt Lake, we were lucky to get the point. Wonderkid Donnelley scored twice for Real and I thought we were sunk. Luckily we crawled two back to tie it 2-2. Then Real score a long distance goal to take the lead late, but Blair Gavin scores even later to scramble the 1 point and keep our streak alive.

Unfortunately, we plain didn't show up against SJ. They played well, we didn't, and our unbeaten streak was broken. We quickly rebound with wins in the NACL and a thorough win against Chivas USA. The LA game was another thriller. LA, by the way, signed Jermaine Defoe on a free to make up for losing Donovan. But we did well to take a 2-1 lead only for a freak goal to end the game in a draw.

My concern is this. If we keep drawing or barely winning against playoff pontential teams like RSL, LA, Philly, NY, we won't go very far in the postseason. I just worry we'll crash out again this year, and I'd really like to get my 2nd MLS trophy.

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Still in first with a slim 4 point advantage, but a massive two games in hand. We'll need to win those games in order to cement our playoff bid. Credit to Philly, they've played well all season, so we can't drop points now. The Eastern wildcard is very much up for grabs as of now, too.

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September 2013

The year is flying by and we've finally reached the last month of the regular season. Let's take a quick look at how we did in the year's penultimate month of play.

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A good thrashing of Atlanta sees us playing.....GULP Real Salt Lake in the final. I think they are a good enough team to take the trophy from us this year...

In the NACL, a draw against the tough Mexican side Toluca and a big win over Guatemala's Municipal puts us in prime position to qualify to the knockout round.

In league, great wins over Kansas and Portland have us qualifying for at least the Semifinals in the MLS playoffs. We stutter a bit with DC United, but we ultimately turn in another solid month of soccer.

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Looks like Philly will eventually qualify too. Only 10 points separate NY from Houston amazingly, so the final 5-6 games are crucial in the East for that wildcard spot. In the West, Real and LA are looking to lock up playoff berths, while Portland, San Jose, and Seattle still battle for playoff spots as the season draws to an end.
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October 2013

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This month is where it felt like the wheels fell off. We start by beating Alajuelense to qualify for the NACL knockout round with a solid 2-0 win. But this is the month of all months to have a congested fixture list. Days later we lose out to Columbus at home, then we turn right around and face the up and coming Real Salt Lake for the US Cup. They say repeating is easy, but three-peating is hard, and that was definitely the case for us. Credit to my boys, they played their socks off and keep the fantastic Donnelley at bay the whole game. But when you don't score, you can't win, thus we lose in the final to Salt Lake by the narrowest of margins. I tried really to pull out all the stops for this game, but the players just couldn't win it.

My disappointment continued with a draw to Toronto and then another loss to San Jose. At this point, we were tied on points with Philly and I really had my doubts whether we could retain first place this year. To be fair though, the Toronto, SJ, and Seattle games were all scheduled within 6 days, so I understand it was hard on the legs for those 3 games.

Luckily we smashed Seattle, and then we get a surprise win over Toluca at Toluca to win the NACL group with a massive 16 points total. We finished the year again facing Chicago at home and we barely beat them, coming back 1-nil down to win it 2-1. We retain first place and are set for the playoffs once again.

Columbus finished 6th and fired their head coach Warzycha. The press indicated that I am a front runner for the new job, and just to stir the pot I say I'm really interested would the Crew approach me. Of course my board is PO'd that I'd say such a thing, especially to a division rival, but I really don't care. I've become really apathetic to this team. They have talent, but I don't know, something isn't clicking like it did the first season I had them. Whether I leave or not, the team I would coach next year would be gutted and I'd sign young American players and try to win it all with young stars.

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In the NACL, it's pretty much USA v Mexico now, with all the US sides in the next phase, and all the Mexican sides, sans Toluca.

Here's how the final table ended up

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Obviously the major difference this year was drawing 12 times. Those lost points really kept us in check and almost gave away the first place spot.

After crashing out of the playoffs last year, and losing to Salt Lake in the Cup this year, I've become lax in my expectations for us to win this year. Sure, I'd love to win the title, but I don't think we will, and maybe losing early will give me a way to go to Columbus or somewhere else in America.
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2013 Playoffs: Semi Final

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Facing our fierce rivals once again, we handle them with ease, taking the semifinal victory on a 3-0 aggregate. It was a nervy 1st game away, but some fine finishing by Agudelo gave us the narrow lead we needed going back to Foxboro. Agudelo scored again to give us the 2 goal advantage on the home leg, and Blair Gavin sealed the win with a goal from a corner.

We go on to face Philly in the Conference Final, which should be a good game. I am desperate to beat these guys and get back into the MLS final game. In the West, the biggest surprise is that Toronto FC absolutely battered the mighty Real Salt Lake with a 5-1 aggregate. For me, that's a sigh of relief, as I didn't want to face RSL should we make the final. Good play to TFC and they should prove stiff competition against reigning champs LA Galaxy.
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2013 Playoffs: Eastern Conference Final

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It was almost deja vu all over again. Memories of last year losing in penalties to NY came flooding back after Pajoy scored late to take this game into the shootout. However, my boys came out on top this time, and we go onto the MLS Final to face LA Galaxy, who are ready to defend their title. Nana Attakora was injured in the game and is now out for 3 months. My side really is playing on a shoestring lineup, and we'll have to do well against LA to reclaim the MLS title.
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2013 Playoffs: MLS Final

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What a final!! Going into the break we were 2-nil up and cruising. My rookie Smith scores what turns out to be the winning goal to make it 3-nil, and the boys hold on to win the final 3-2. It shouldn't have been that close to be honest, since Quentin Westburg fumbled the ball and Becks capitalized on his mistake to close the gap to 1 goal. I was fearing extra time again, thus why I didn't make any subs, not knowing whether I needed to save my penalty takers again. It feels great to be on top once more!!

We are losing Jackson Martinez because he and his agent are not re-signing a contract with us for the 2014 campaign, but I'm trying to stock up on draft picks in order to pluck out a few talented boys and really focus on building a good, young American squad for next year. Honestly, when my bankroll is so limited, and the team is only worth a measly 40mil, that's the best I can hope for.

Now I'm off to Hawaii for the offseason....
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2013 CWC Quarter Final

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Pretty straightforward win. Good all around win to progress further in the competition, though surely against stiffer competition.

Speaking of stiff competition, we are drawn with Cruz Azul in the NACL quarterfinal. Hopefully we can play up to their level and get a good result. I've added the Mexican leagues since last summer, so now I think it'll be interesting to see these Mexican sides play the MLS sides in the NACL.
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2013 CWC Semifinal

After the game against Al-Ittihad, we are drawn with the mighty Santos.

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And we won!!! Both goals were scored from set pieces, Soares from a corner, and Barnes from free kick. We dominated with 58% of the possession and never seemed to be in trouble, far from what I would have guessed before the game. It seems we did the impossible today and I'm very happy to be in the CWC Final! We got a massive $1.5mil for our hard effort. Absolutely awesome!!
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