Once again a cracking season mate! Well done and keep up with the good work. Aitor getting so close to finishing off his playing life isn't a nice feeling. What type of coaching job will he end up getting?
 
Another brilliant season, getting closer to the unbeaten season. It's only a matter of time :p unbelievable how easy it is :p
 
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SPAIN

PRE WORLD CUP FRIENDLIES


Spain 7-0 Senegal
Gutierrez 3, Perez Villarroya, Herrera, Aranbarri, Torres

Cameroon 0-1 Spain
Rogelio

Brazil 2-2 Spain
Perez Villarroya, Toni

SQUAD FOR THE WORLD CUP

Goalkeepers

David (Athletic Bilbao) 155 caps
Josu Kortina (Valencia) 1
Francisco Pinillos (Athletic Bilbao) 1

Defenders
Jon Bergara (Athletic Bilbao) 37/1
Ivan Busto (Athletic Bilbao) 7/1
Oceano Hondo N'Dongo (Athletic Bilbao) 144/23
Sergio Martin (Athletic Bilbao) 11
Rogelio (Athletic Bilbao) 17/1
Gontzal Ruiz (Athletic Bilbao) 98/1
Koldo Sesma (Athletic Bilbao) 4
Albert Torres (Athletic Bilbao) 67/4


Midfielders
Pedro Jose Cidoncha (Barcelona) 211/14
Damia (Athletic Bilbao) 13/1
Unai Garmendia (Athletic Bilbao) 105/23
Jaume Gutierrez (Athletic Bilbao) 70/16
Aitor Herrera (Athletic Bilbao) 249/70
Jose Luis Izurza (Athletic Bilbao) 106/46
Gaspar Perez Villarroya (Athletic Bilbao) 141/44
Toni (Athletic Bilbao) 44/4
Juan Pedro Vinas (Athletic Bilbao) 38


Forwards
Antonio (Barcelona) 21/5
Alfonso Aranbarri (Athletic Bilbao) 14/8
Jose Fernandez (Atletico Madrid) 23/8

Missing Out: Meza, Alfredo, Alcalde (Athletic Bilbao), Melendez, E.Ruiz, Salva (Real Madrid), Muralha, Martinez Cid (Atletico Madrid), Vallecillo (Napoli), Charles (FC Porto), M.Ruiz (Chelsea), Reginaldo (Palermo), Ayechu (Juventus), De la Torre (Valencia)

18 out of the 23 players are mine! lol. To be fair only Aitor probably shouldnt be there but the rest are there on merit. Where there was a choice of picking a backup player from Bilbao or another club I picked the Bilbao player naturally!
 
Once again a cracking season mate! Well done and keep up with the good work. Aitor getting so close to finishing off his playing life isn't a nice feeling. What type of coaching job will he end up getting?

Either coach or first team coach with an outside chance of an assistant manager
 
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WORLD CUP 2034

(in Australia)

GROUP C

Turkey 2-2 Spain
Garmendia, Aranbarri


Line Up: David, G.Ruiz, Hondo N'Dongo, Torres, Rogelio, Cidoncha (Damia), Garmendia, Izurza (Gutierrez), Herrera (Toni), Perez Villarroya, Aranbarri

Disappointing result as we threw away the lead twice here and couldnt grab the winner despite dominating. This was Aitors 250th game for Spain.

Uruguay 1-1 USA

-----------

Spain 1-0 USA
Perez Villarroya

Line Up: David*, G.Ruiz, Hondo N'Dongo (Sesma), Torres, Rogelio (Bergara), Cidoncha, Garmendia, Izurza, Herrera (Damia), Perez Villarroya, Aranbarri

Not good enough really - the fact David got the man of the match award says it all.

Uruguay
1-3 Turkey

-----------

Uruguay 0-2 Spain
Hondo N'Dongo, Pereyra (og)

Line Up: David, Martin, Hondo N'Dongo*, Busto, Rogelio (Bergara), Cidoncha, Garmendia (Toni), Izurza, Herrera, Perez Villarroya, Fernandez (Antonio)

Thats a bit better! Dominated throughout and deservedly won the match thanks to a goal in each half.

USA 5-0 Turkey

TABLE (wont load up)


SPAIN 7pts
USA 4pts
Turkey 4pts
Uruguay 1pt
 
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WORLD CUP 2034

2nd Round

Ukraine 1-2 Spain
Aranbarri, Perez Villarroya

Line Up: David, Ruiz, Hondo N'Dongo, Torres, Rogelio (Bergara), Cidoncha (Vinas), Garmendia, Izurza, Herrera (Toni), Perez Villarroya*, Aranbarri

Through to the quarter finals we go. We were fairly comfortable until the last 10min when Ruiz got taken off injured and we had already made our subs. Ukraine naturally scored straight after!

USA 2-1 Algeria
Argentina 2-1 South Korea
Senegal 3-2 Croatia
Belgium 2-0 Italy
Germany 4-0 Mexico
Morocco 2-0 South Africa
Serbia 1-0 Chile
 
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WORLD CUP 2034

Quarter-Finals

Senegal 1-2 Spain (aet)
Garmendia, Damia


Line Up: David, Ruiz*, Hondo N'Dongo, Torres, Rogelio, Cidoncha, Garmendia (Toni), Izurza, Herrera (Damia), Perez Villarroya (Gutierrez), Aranbarri

Dodgy!!! Considering we put 7 past these lot before the tournament this was a disappointing performance. We went a goal down early doors but equalised just after half time. Garmendia then got himself injured and will miss the rest of the tournament.

Argentina 3-0 USA
Belgium 0-2 Morocco
Germany 0-1 Serbia
 
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WORLD CUP 2034

Semi-Finals

Spain 2-0 Morocco
Izurza, Gutierrez

Line Up: David, Ruiz (Martin), Hondo N'Dongo, Torres, Bergara, Cidoncha (Vinas), Toni*, Izurza (Gutierrez), Herrera, Perez Villarroya, Fernandez

Going into the tournament Morocco were 3rd in the FIFA rankings but I was still delighted with the draw! It was a tough game though and we left it very late in getting the 2nd and killer goal. Unfortunately Ruiz will miss the final through suspension.

Argentina
2-5 Serbia!!!!!!!!
 
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WORLD CUP 2034

3rd PLACE PLAY-OFF

Argentina 2-0 Morocco

FINAL

Serbia 3-5 Spain (aet)
Herrera, Toni (pen), Perez Villarroya, Aranbarri, Gutierrez

Line Up: David, Martin, Hondo N'Dongo, Torres, Rogelio, Cidoncha (Vinas), Toni, Izurza, (Gutierrez), Herrera (Bergara), Perez Villarroya*, Aranbarri

Serbia: Cimesa, Vukotic (Vujnovic), Curcic, Petrov, Rudic, Radisavljevic (Kral), Stajkovac, Urosev, Petrovic, Ilic, Lazarevic (Skorupan)
Scorers: Petrovic, Lazarevic, Ilic

Yay!!!! What a match! We went a goal down early on before Aitor equalised - what is it with him and finals??? We went ahead before being pegged back and then Martin got sent off on the stroke of half time.

Perez Villarroya scored a wonder goal to put us ahead but Serbia came back again to take it into extra time. Somehow we managed to get 2 more goals as my players were shattered!!!!

AWARDS
Best Player: Bojan Ilic (Serbia)
Golden Boot: Ali Benali (Morocco)
Best Young Player: Alfonso Aranbarri (Spain)
Best Goalkeeper: Sebastian Demuth (Germany)

DREAM TEAM

Demuth (Germany)
Ruiz (Spain)
Dimoutsos (Germany)
Hondo N'Dongo (Spain)
Loos (Germany)
Garmendia (Spain)
Petrovic (Serbia)
Izurza (Spain)
Ilic (Serbia)
Benali (Morocco)
Bernhardt (Germany)

David, Perez Villarroya and Torres were subs


 
Another late night stream of tournament updates. Loving It!!!
 
Right the time has come for my Newcastle story to start - seems a good time to start as I have just done the World Cup and I have been thinking about things for my Newcastle save for a few days now. Keep an eye out for updates on this story though as Aitor hasnt retired yet!!!!!!

Although this isnt the end of the Bilbao story I have got to say that it has been great fun playing as Bilbao. The fact that patience with younger players does get rewarded will affect in my future saves as I always had a habit of buying the next wonderkid regen.

Undoubtedly the highlight has been Aitor Herrera of course and the fact that Sky Sports has him down as a real player still amazes me!

Anywho as I have said I will do the odd update here and there with this save as I have such an amazing u19 squad (even have a player valued at £7m down there!) and I would like to see how Aranbarri develops and to wave goodbye to Aitor/David/Perez Villarroya/Izurza etc - obviously planning a special Aitor post when he does hang up his boots!

Thanks for reading/posting/commenting and I hope you will come read my Newcastle story (should start it up this evening).
 
It has been by far the most interesting and in depth story I have read on this forum, very much looking forward to the Newcastle save...
 
One of the best stories I've seen. Countless trophies as well. Definatly be looking for your Newcastle save.

You mention that its got you to give more time for your own talent, and it's done the same for me strangely, since reading this, I've not spent as much money on my saves, and have started to bring youth through earlier than I used to.
 
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I saved over the Bilbao save with my Newcastle one and although I have backup saves they start at the beginning of the season just played!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**** sake!

Still have Aranbarri though!!
 
****! That's not so good! At least you haven't got to go back any more than one season.
 
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