Chasing Fidel: A Season in the Life of Cuban Football (3way save)

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Cahoon

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My two brothers and I have battled for years in Football Manager. This year we've all got things going on outside the game and haven't had a lot of time to play. Mike doesn't even own this years version. So, we've selected the Cuban Football League (special thanks to Claassen, on another site for the database. If you're interested just google him and you'll find it).

The League plays 18 games, and we will probably get in 1 game per week. We will try for more, but life does get in the way.

The rules are as follows:
-We will each draft 4 players from around the world to bring in to our teams, without restriction.
-We will then select one uncapped player from anywhere in the world, bringing our total to 5 outsiders.
-We will be given enough cash to cover the salaries of the new players.
-As far as staff/transfers, it's all out of our hands. To keep things fair, and to prevent weakening the other teams even further, we will leave our chairmen in charge of hiring staff and controlling all incoming/outgoing transfers. The only thing we can control personnel-wise is which 5 superstars we bring in.

And that's it, 18 games to decide our 2015/16 Family Champion!



Participants:
Myself, Boss Tweed is my manager name, I last tried to log a save a few years ago when I was in control of Sporting CP and tried to nationalize Brazilians in an attempt to win the World Cup with Portugal using only players from my team. I failed. I've been playing Football Manager the longest of all my brothers, we've played a few saves against one another and I've done well.

My brothers, Mike and Lou. Both have been playing FM for years. Mike is clinical, he does everything well, including this game, so he's my big threat. Lou is not as hands on, he doesn't make changes, he is usually a plug and play guy. I've never seen Lou make a profit on a player and he'd rather try to beat you 5-0 than nurse a lead.

We've completed the draft and most of the preseason, but the actual games won't start until later this week. Until then, I'll log what's happened so far, including the team selection, the draft, and some preseason signings. Should be fun!
 
Teams

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I'd love to say I did lots of research to see which club fit my playing style the best, but in truth I chose Cienfuegos simply because I love the place. I've been there many times and have lots of friends there and I'd love to bring them a Championship, even a fictional one.

I'm sure Mike did his research and chose the team that suited him the best, and I'm also sure that Lou chose his team because of the name and logo.
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The Draft
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Draft order is snake style (1-2-3-3-2-1). I got the second pick, which means I'll have the 5th as well, and then again for the 3rd and 4th round, then I'll get the 2nd choice for the uncapped player round. Lou got the 1st pick, Mike got the 3rd.

1st Round
1. Las Tunas: Lionel Messi
2. Cienfuegos: Cristiano Ronaldo (Obvious choice)
3. Santiago: Neymar

2nd Round
4. Santiago: Luis Suarez
5. Cienfuegos: Paul Pogba (I'm gonna try to control the midfield, was a bit of a reach but I wasn't sure he'd still be there for my next pick)
6. Las Tunas: Sergio Aguero

3rd Round
7. Las Tunas: Alexis Sanchez
8. Cienfuegos: Toni Kroos (midfield set)
9. Santiago: Manuel Neuer (this was a surprise pick for me)

4th Round:
10. Santiago: Sergio Ramos
11. Cienfuegos: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (there were better strikers available, but he's one of my faves)
12. Las Tunas: Andres Iniesta

Uncapped Player Round:
1. Las Tunas: Fernando, DM Manchester City
2. Cienfuegos: Kingsley Coman, ST Bayern
3. Santiago: Paulo Dybala, ST Juventus


I already regret my picks. I think I should have selected a keeper, I have a feeling that Mike may have a huge advantage if that Neuer selection pays off.

In an added bonus, all these players must be edited to become Cuban, so they will all be part of the Cuban National Team. Too bad this season only runs from January to April though.
 
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Season Preview

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The season kicks off this week, whenever we can all get together. All the preparations have been made and, as far as the game goes, we are on gameday. Surprisingly, there were very few transfers made leading up to the start of the season, none of any importance anyway.

All of the superstars brought in are ready to go with the exception of Andres Iniesta who now plays for Las Tunas. He will miss the opening match against Ciego da Avila, due to a cold. His teammate, Sergio Aguero has recovered from his injury which had out him out of action since his transfer in November.




CIENFUEGOS TEAM PREVIEW
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FC Cienfuegos begin their campaign with a visit to Holguin, a popular vacation resort. The team will have two games to get familiar with their tactics before their first real test of the season, a visit to Santiago to face Mike's Santiago de Cuba featuring Neymar and co. (There were no preseason friendlies scheduled for any teams, it's very much a trial by fire).​
View attachment 168633

I favour a 4-2-3-1 formation and I'll be sticking with that for this save for the time being. Ivan Gimenez is probably the luckiest man in Cuba as he will play in the number 10 slot. To his right will be Kingsley Coman, to his left will be Cristiano Ronaldo. In front of him he sees Pierre-Emerick Aubemayang, and behind him are Toni Kroos and Paul Pogba. I think Gimenez is about to have the best season of his career.​
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I've purposefully gone for an extra long pitch to take advantage of my teams blazing speed up front and will be playing a lot of long balls from the back. The back four have specific instructions to boot any ball they see.​
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My strategy is to secure wins early in games and take my big players off. Goal difference doesn't come into play so it really doesn't matter if I win 2-0 or 10-0, and I will be playing smart and try to avoid serious injuries. My brother Lou has a bad habit of trying to run up the score on you and it's gotten him into trouble in the past, but more on his team in a future post.​
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Besides my 5 studs, the team is pretty ordinary with Gimenez and keeper Arael Arguelles the main stars. Mostly, I'm going to try to clog the midfield, keep possesion and, when necessary, have my back four play long balls over the top to the speedsters. I've no idea what to expect here, the scores against the regular teams could be crazy or they could be competetive games, I've never played in Cuba so don't really know what the level is and I've not done any practice run throughs, it's pretty exciting. First up, Holguin!
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View attachment 168634
Cienfuegos
The City I Like the Best!




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Las Tunas Preview

2 days until the season opener

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My brother Lou, surprisingly, didn't select 5 strikers in the draft. That would have been in line with his history. Expect lots of goals, for and against. I've never seen him try to protect a lead, and it's cost him may times but he remains steadfast. "It's a game" he always says, "I want to see goals, that's fun!"


The big surprise, to me, was that he selected a defensive midfielder in Fernando. I don't take that as a sign of him trying to be more defensive minded, though. I still expect him to come at me with all guns blazing.

He opens the season at home to Ciego da Avila, a team that was favoured to win the league before the influx of world stars. Sergio Aguero will be fit for the match after being out for two months, but Andres Iniesta will miss the match with a cold.

His first test will be against me in week 4. There are no preseason matches so the teams should just be hitting their groove by then, so it should be a good match. I have a test against Mike in week 3 so my team will be battle tested.


As for the manager, Lou is a huge trash talker, losing to him will not sit well with me, or Mike. When he wins, it's because he is the best, when he loses it's because he was cheated. That's how he is, I need to beat him, twice.

View attachment 168267

2 days until the first match vs. Ciego da Avila!
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Santiago de Cuba Team Preview
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On the Eve of Matchday 1, we look at our final contender for the crown, my brother Mike and his Santiago de Cuba club. Not surprisingly, he has assembled a more balanced side than either myself or my other brother Lou. Mike is always calculated and always does his homework. His selection of Manuel Neuer has me a little worried as it's the kind of move that can win you a league. Just how important will a great keeper be in a crazy season such as this?



I know for a fact that his original plan was to select a keeper and a back 4, but it was impossible to stare at Neymar on the board and not choose him. In the end he chose a front 3 with a central defender and a keeper. It's a gamble, but Mike always goes his own way, and the worrying thing is that his gambles usually pay off.



His team begins the season away to Guantanamo, then home to Holguin, before he gets a visit from my club. It will be the first big game of the season.
Mike is the quiet one in the bunch, so losing to him isn't a tough pill to swallow, but you have to swallow it more often as he is much for successful at FM than Lou.
Look for a solid, balanced side in Santiago de Cuba, I wouldn't be surprised if he sits back and plays on the counter, even against lesser teams.
The road to the Championship definitely runs through Santiago de Cuba, and I'll be driving through in week 3!
 
Matchday 1 fixtures:

Guantanamo vs. Santiago de Cuba
Holguin vs. Cienfuegos
Isla de la Juventud vs. La Habana
Camaguey vs. Sancti Spiritus
Las Tunas vs. Ciego da Avile
 
I have to say I was surprised when you said Mike was the clinical one rather than Lou, considering how well Lou did in the last two, but I guess they were more experimental than actual FM
 
PatrickLFC said:
I have to say I was surprised when you said Mike was the clinical one rather than Lou, considering how well Lou did in the last two, but I guess they were more experimental than actual FM
Click to expand...

Yeah, there wasn't much control involved in those ones. Lou likes to download the latest tactics and plug and play. Mike will spend hours preparing his tactic. Playing against him is an exercise in patience because he is constantly pausing the game to see where his players are.
 
MATCHDAY 1, JANUARY 24, 2015


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Before the first matchday, we all agreed that, no matter, what the league rules were set at, we would all go by goal difference as the first tiebreaker. I was unable to edit that into the game so we'll just do it ourselves. The reason being, we wanted to make every game important. Otherwise we envisioned a season in which 14 of our 18 games were over in the first 20 minutes and then all the stars would be subbed out in order to keep them fresh. This way, we would have to keep pressing in order to gain the goal difference advantage.


Holguin vs. Cienfuegos
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I began the game playing a 4-2-3-1 with the mindset at 'Overload' because I wanted to set the tone in the first league match. This quickly turned bad for me as I found myself a goal down after only 7 minutes. I changed the setting back to 'Attack' minded and pulled my number 10, Ivan Gimenez back a little. The Holguin defense are relatively slow, so I instructed my players to play long balls over the top and it paid off in spades as Aubameyang outraced everyone for breakaway after breakaway. In the end he struck for four goals on the way to a 6-1 victory!

View attachment 167804


It was an important win, the 5 goal difference was promising, especially after the early deficit. I think I sent a message to my brothers, especially Lou as he set his team up to do the same in his later game.


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Guantanamo vs. Santiago de Cuba

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On the heels of my huge 6-1 win, Mike came out and was not bothered. His team were quickly up 2-0 after 8 minutes and then he did a very Mike-type thing. He pulled his team back to protect the lead. He loves his cleansheets, but I have a feeling he is gearing up for his game against me and trying out his defensive approach. He saw how easily I dismantled the Holguin defense and wants to make sure his players are capable of playing in a way that counters that. He does have Ramos at the back and he was constantly switching him from right to left centre half, not sure if that helps him or not, but I plan on attacking both sides of his defense so that tactic won't work against me.

He got another first half goal and then parked the bus. Yes, he parked the bus. If I didn't see it, I wouldn't have believed it. Well, maybe I would have.
 
Las Tunas vs. Ciego da Avila

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Iniesta was not dressed for the game.

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In a very Lou-like performance, Las Tunas went up 2-0 very quickly. Much like Mike, he was up 2-0 after only 11 minutes. He came out on 'Overload' and was playing a 4-3-3 with Messi, Sanchez and Aguero up front with Fernando sitting back. Even up 2-0, he stayed on overload and Ciego pulled one back and went into the locker room down 2-1. I noticed that Lou was playing a high defensive line and I really hope he does that against me because his back four are slow.

When Messi scored to make it 3-1, Lou pulled all of his front three off. This was strange, but with a heavy fixture list in the coming week, I can understand it. I must admit, when I played my game I didn't realize that we were playing again midweek before my two big games against Mike and Lou. I should probably have rested some of my big guns as well.

It didn't pay off for Lou, however, as Ciego roared back to tie the game 3-3. As Lou didn't have any strong attackers left, he tried desperately to get the 4th goal. He had both wingbacks pushing up at the same time, which would be absolutely criminal if he did that against me.

He was unsuccessful and wound up dropping a huge 2 points here, with the final score 3-3. He played it off as not so important, but as our teams get more familiar with our tactics (remember, there was no preseason) it will be tougher for us to drop points, so I see this as something can could potentially cost him the title!
 
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It was a good start for me, I expected the win, but I didn't expect the draw for Lou. That took some pressure off as I head into a difficult week ahead. Mike looked impressive and showed restraint in protecting his lead. In other games, Camaguey got the only other cleansheet of the matchday as they blanked Sancti Spiritus 2-0. La Habana defeated Isla de la Juventud 4-1 to take second place in the table.
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The belly aching has started early for Lou
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Matchday 2 and 3

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The next two matchdays will take place in the space of 4 days. With all of our players running at about 60% match fitness already, it will be a bit of a chess game for me as my second game is against Mike while a match with Lou looms in week 5. I'm planning on resting all 5 of my stars for midweek. This decision became easier after Lou's draw in matchday 1, I feel like it's not as crucial to win every game and I can risk the midweek fixture in order to get rest for my squad. My issue is that, once again, my game is first. So, the others can copy me if I'm successful. It's a huge disadvantage for me as most of my games are before my brothers games, I should have looked at the schedule before selecting my team.
 
If I were you I'd split them for the matches, two superstars should still be enough to get a win over a Cuban side
 
PatrickLFC said:
If I were you I'd split them for the matches, two superstars should still be enough to get a win over a Cuban side
Click to expand...

I thought long and hard about this in the buildup. In the end, though, I wanted to have as many fresh players ready for Sunday as possible so I decided to rest all 5 of my stars. I went into the game with my heavy hitters ready to jump in if needed, but I was hoping I wouldn't have to use them!
 
Matchday Two
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The midweek matches presented a problem for us, specifically Mike and myself and we had a big match against each other on Sunday. As mentioned above, I decided to rest my stars and made 5 changes altogether.

I'm not sure how many of you have played a multi-person save on the same computer, but basically when the matches are all scheduled for the same time, everyone has to set their lineups before the any match is played. So, I went first and rested all my bug guns, then my brothers went and neither of them rested any players. This made me incredibly nervous but the lineups were set. Mike was the first match to be played.



Santiago de Cuba vs. Holguin

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Luis Suarez takes a bite out of Holguin
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Between matchdays, Mike took a bit of ribbing over his overly conservative style in the first game. It must have made him rethink things because he came out a lot more aggressive. With the best keeper in the world he could afford to be more aggressive, but he wasn't in the first game. It's kind of a waste to have Neuer if he doesn't have to face any shots, open it up!

He sure did that. It was 5-0 at halftime, and 8-0 in the end. I had beaten the same team 6-1 in the first week so it's not a good sign for me heading into our match this weekend. Santiago dominated possession, allowed only 2 shots, none of which were on target, and Luis Suarez had a hat trick.
Mike stuck with a 4-4-2 but pushed his players further up the pitch and was a lot more aggressive. Will he play this way against me or go back to the defensive approach of matchday 1? One thing I can guarantee is that he won't have to worry about Neuer not facing any shots next game!
 
Cienfuegos vs. Camaguey


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Ronaldo and co. were not happy to be sitting


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With word of all the goals in the other match coming through the wire, the superstars of Cienfuegos were stewing on the bench as I suffered through a nailbiting match. I basically managed a normal Cuban league game here and I was fortunate to take an early lead which I tried to sit on. That lasted only 5 minutes as Camaguey tied it up on 14 minutes. I was happy to stay level as I was planning to sub on some strikers late on to secure the win, but things turned my way in the second half with two goals to take a 3-1 lead. At this point I pulled everyone back and tried to weather the storm.

One of my players picked up an injury but was still playing, be it at 29% fitness. This is when it hit me, I didn't have any defenders on the bench. I had my 5 stars, my AMC and a backup keeper! When Camaguey scored to make it 3-2 I had to ride out the remaining 10 minutes with basically 10 men. If they tied it I would bring in some firepower, but I had made it this far and was determined to not have to bring in my big guns.

In the end I eeked it out, and it was one of those truly satisfying wins in FM. Sure, I didn't get the big win, but I got 3 points and got to rest my players for the weekend. I'm sure Mike was not happy to see my result after his big players all went the full 90.

 
Sancti Spiritus vs. Las Tunas

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Messi was...Messi


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The last match of the day was Las Tunas away to Sancti Spiritus. I had actually left for work while Mike supervised this match (We are usually all together, but I allowed the match to be played under Mike's watchful eye), and when I returned and opened my laptop, it was left on the game screen to show me the score, 9-1. There was also a post-it note detailing how my goal difference lead was erased. I responded with a text to Lou letting him know that it could have been 100 goals, it didn't matter as he only had 4pts.

The numbers don't lie, 40 shots, 25 on target. It was actually scoreless after 38 minutes, so all this happened in just over an hour. He definitely played with an overload mindset. I hope and pray that he does that against me.
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Messi with 4 goals and 2 assists
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