Another International Challenge

Livid...was playing my last qualifying game in 2013 and my computer crashed...last save was first friendly of the year!
 
2011 Summary

We performed well in the Euro 2012 qualifiers and managed to secure a play-off spot...just.

View attachment 255720

We then had to take on Greece in the play-offs. We played well in both games, drawing 2-2 away and then winning 1-0 at home.

View attachment 255721

The draw for the Euros was what followed next. We ended up in a group with Sweden, Spain, Scotland and Croatia.

View attachment 255722View attachment 255723

Jesus Christ look at group C!!!!:O:O:O

These performances also improved our world ranking miraculously.

View attachment 255724

BRING ON THE EUROS!!!
 
POLAND

2012 Cont....

Following the good performance in Euro 2012 Poland started off with a good friendly win over Estonia, coming back from 2 goals down to win the game 4-2. We had 4 World Cup Qualifying games this year and our aim was to get 3 wins and a draw against England.

We got our 3 wins but could not manage to get a point against England, the speed of Walcott and Lennon defeated us. Poland dominated the other 3 matches against Montenegro, Moldova and San Marino and we currently lie 3rd in the group behind Ukraine and England.

World Cup Quals. Group Standings:
View attachment 255762

We finished off 2012 with 2 fairly straight forward friendly wins which gave me a chance to experiment with a replacement for Blaszczykowski since he has a 2 match ban after being sent off against Moldova.

2012 Fixtures Montenegro (W 2-0) San Marino (W 4-0) England (L 3-1) Moldova (W 5-1)
View attachment 255765 View attachment 255766 View attachment 255767 View attachment 255768 View attachment 255769

I think I'm going to need to take some points off Ukraine and England in order to qualify and rise up the world rankings a bit. Our current ranking is 44th; the highest so far. Hoping we shouldn't drop too far if we fail to qualify as we should pick up at least another 3 wins against Montenegro, San Marino and Moldova.

World Ranking:
View attachment 255772

Poland U-21's rarely win a match and usually draw or lose. The U-19's however do rather well, they are into the second qualifying round for the U-19's Euros and they win most of their matches so far so hopefully these players can make it into the main squad in the future.
 
Russia 2013 Summary:

So I qualified top of the group above Portugal in what was the last games of the group. Look at the results at the bottom...

View attachment 255763

My results were similar to when I played them before the laptop crashed with the exception of my game with Israel when I beat them, but in this repeat I drew :( No matter, Portugal blew it at the last!

View attachment 255764

My best result was undoubtedly the 3-1 against England (who are no.1 in the world rankings) and Pavlyuchenko broke the Russian goalscoring record and is now on 44 goals in 64 caps. He was also top of the goalscoring charts for the qualifiers.

View attachment 255770

Spain came 2nd in the group to France but unfortunately beat Serbia in the play-offs :(

View attachment 255771

I finished the year in 12th place in the WR, which is strange seeing as I beat England and topped my group! My World Cup group means I'll definitely finish 2nd, with Argentina standing in my way of 1st...

View attachment 255773View attachment 255774View attachment 255775View attachment 255776View attachment 255777

The Euro 2016 qualfiers have been announced with my toughest opposition being Denmark and Sweden so will look to top that group with a couple of games to spare!

View attachment 255782
 
Last edited:
progress so far .won last 4 quali games to finish second in group to germany ,best result was beating germany 2-0 .euros here we come.
 
Russia World Cup 2014

OH MY GOD I DID IT!!! I can't believe I have just won the World Cup with Russia. I came 2nd in my group behind Argentina (just!!!), last game of the groups and Costa Rica were beating Argentina 4-3 until the latter equalised with the last play! However, looking at the draw after I'm glad I came 2nd as I drew Croatia instead of Uruguay, then in the quarter's France instead of Spain and semi's Ivory Coast instead of Germany! Thank you Argentina!!


View attachment 255884 View attachment 255885View attachment 255886View attachment 255887

One of my key victories along the way...

View attachment 255888

I was expecting my victory against Ivory Coast as they don't offer to much of a threat, but Germany in the final I just couldn't see myself winning that game. Until it got to half-time completely dominating them...

View attachment 255889 View attachment 255890

And then Ignashevich finished ze Germans off with a hat-trick! And with that he became joint 2nd on the top goalscorers list for the WC!

View attachment 255891 View attachment 255892 View attachment 255893

Izmailov was runner-up for best player at the tournament and somehow only 2 of my players got into the best 11, with 5 players on the bench...

View attachment 255894View attachment 255895

On top of the world.....yet only ranked 7th?!?!?

View attachment 255896View attachment 255897View attachment 255898

Board are pretty pleased, and so were England...

View attachment 255899View attachment 255900

Don't worry, I didn't accept, staying loyal to my Russian ancestry ;)
 
Good Job! Feel like I'm falling behind, I'll definitely finish Euro 2012 tonight.
 
jordalicious said:
WOW, great job with Russia Steve! Beating Germany 4-0 is pretty insane too :D
Click to expand...

Yeh it was sweet revenge for when they knocked me out of the Euro 2012 quarters! With my defender getting a hattrick shows how much I relied on my set-piece! I think their manager made an awful decision in dropping Schweinsteiger to the bench in favour of Rolfes!

Slightly annoying that I've got exactly the same ranking for when I got knocked out of the Euro quarters by Germany. 7th...
 
Euro 2012

We got off to a good start, beating Croatia 2-1, but we couldn't keep it up and lost our other two games 4-1 against Sweden and then 3-0 against Spain.

View attachment 255927
View attachment 255928

Oh well. I wasn't expecting to get through the group anyway and we did well to come away with a win at least.

The tournament was eventually won by Russia!

View attachment 255929

We dropped a bit in the world rankings, but we should rise a lot after the World Cup 2014 Qualifiers.

View attachment 255930
View attachment 255931
 
Russia 2014 Update

So a very good year for me - World Cup Winners, unbeaten in the Euro 2016 qualifiers and didn't concede in them either. Particular highlights were obviously the 4-0 win against Germany and a 6-0 win against Sweden. I also scored 15 goals in 3 games in the qualifiers so far...

View attachment 255947 View attachment 255948 View attachment 255949 View attachment 255950

Two Brazilians (Guilherme, GK, and Welliton, ST) both qualified for Russia this year which is great as the latter is 27 and ensures I have some quality when Pavlyuchenko (33) and Kerzhakov (32) retire. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any good regens at the moment and I desperately need to blood some youngsters as the average age of my 'best eleven' is 29.9. With my squad average most probably being in the 30s!

View attachment 255951 View attachment 255952

Winning 13 games in a row has helped me rise to 4th in the world rankings...

View attachment 255953 View attachment 255954 View attachment 255955

And hopefully I remain unbeaten throughout 2015 to break into the top 3 for the first time!

View attachment 255958
 
2012


So I ended 2012, with a mixed bag of results over the year, although the games I lost were probably expected.

View attachment 256011

My world ranking is also fluctuating rapidly, although again, due to not competing in Euro 2012, it was to be expected, with some teams doing well.

View attachment 256015

I need a good year in 2013 to try and cement a place in the 20's, and then look to push on and reach the World Cup, and hopefully see it rise. Alot of the players I am now using are youngsters, with the core of the team being made up by 3 22 year olds, in Silviu Lung jr, Vlad Chiriches, and Ionut Neagu.

I've also noticed a couple of regens coming through, as well as a few foreign players being close to gaining Romanian nationality, not ideal, but with facilities and finances so poor for practically every team, it will have to do.
 
POLAND - 2013


2013 Fixtures: ........... World Cup Qual Group:
View attachment 256032 View attachment 256033

The year was OK. Finished 3rd in my world cup qualifying group which I was disappointed with as I aimed to reach the playoffs. With a bit of extra luck we would of topped the group and qualified automatically if the 3 draws against England, Moldova and Ukraine were wins, games I feel like I should have won. England got an injury time equaliser against us, Moldova came from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 and the Ukraine draw was a close match that I feel we could have nicked a win in.

View attachment 256036 View attachment 256037 View attachment 256038

However we did not qualify and as a result our rankings have stayed much the same. Going to need to get into a tournament to make any push towards the top ranks. Finished the year off with two decent friendly matches including a 1-1 draw against 3rd in the world Holland.

52nd in World Rankings:
View attachment 256040

The current crop of players is generally young and Lewandowski is vital, he scores most of our goals or at least sets the other players up. He is progressing well and I hope he can continue to improve before peaking.

Lewandowski:
View attachment 256042

The Polish FA were "happy the team was competitive in qualifying" but have warned me that I will get the sack if performances do not improve so I really need to start beating teams like Ukraine or else I'm done for.

The U-21's and U-19s still do well, a few of them have broken into the main squad and there are at least a few decent regens that I hope will develop into good players.
 
...and just been handed a tough Euro 2016 Qualifying group consisting of Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria & Faroe Islands
 
2011

Decent year I guess, biggest disappointment being the draw vs Iceland.
View attachment 256062View attachment 256063

EURO 2012

I started with a 1-1 draw with Romania, then got defeated by Croatia 3-1. However, I then beat Ukraine 1-0 and I got to the QFs where I played Italy. Unfortunately I got beat 4-2 and that wass the end of the tournament.

View attachment 256064View attachment 256065View attachment 256066

As you can see, I deserved to lose but Overall the tournament went decently.

WORLD RANKINGS

View attachment 256067

Unfortunately we have slipped down a bit.
My WC qualification group includes Slovenia, Switzerland, Cyprus, Iceland, and Albania.
 
Russia 2015 Update

So not a bad year, carried on the previous year with a run of 23 games unbeaten until the loss against Italy in the last game of the year. I suspect I would have kept a qualifying clean sheet if it wasn't for Akinfeev getting injured from September to November :( As it ended up I conceded only 2 goals in the whole campaign, both against Sweden away. I also qualified with a game in hand which was nice :)

View attachment 256074View attachment 256085View attachment 256075View attachment 256076View attachment 256077

My squad is aging even more and it's becoming a worry I must say! Where are the Russian wonderkids that I find when I'm a club manager?!

View attachment 256080View attachment 256081

Unfortunately I don't have a World Cup qualifying campaign as Russia are the host nation. So I've had to make do with some poor competition as everyone else is competing in the qualifiers.

View attachment 256079

I expect my world ranking will suffer as I'm not facing meaningful competition but as it stands I am 5th.

View attachment 256082View attachment 256083

Been handed a straight-forward group for Euro 2016 and hoping to qualify top as the board expect me to reach the semi's!!

View attachment 256084View attachment 256078
 
Just a quick announcement that I have given up with Romania, unrealistic expectations and a frustrating lack of decent strikers has meant that I have decided to take on a challenge of Iceland, currently ranked 112th in the world, but with players that I feel can take us higher, and without any real expectation from the FA, I feel it will be much more manageable.
 
Excellent result in winning WC2014 Steve. Well done. A good Euro 2016 should see you move further up the rankings.

For everyone else, well done and keep the updates coming.

I'm loading up FM now and should hopefully have one or two myself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Top