Mpejkrm's World Cup Challenge

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Mpejkrm

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Hey guys, I'm Mpejkrm. Longtime FM Player and lurker to the forum but decided to finally join. This is a personal challenge I've been wanting to do for a while and decided I would finally sit down and do. It's going to take a long (very, very, long) time to finish but I'm hoping to have a lot of fun with this.

The challenge is to win the World Cup with every nation in the game. Yep, that's right, every nation in the game. From the top tier countries (Argentina, Spain) to the worst in the game (Bhutan, San Marino). I came up with this idea while doing the San Marino challenge. I wasn't really having a ton of fun with the Italian team, but I love managing national teams.

How I'm going to do this is simple. Each country will have its own save file so I can start each game from 2013. The only playable leagues in the game will be the English Premier League, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Serie A, and La Liga. To choose which country to play with, I am going to rotate by continent. I chose the order by pulling each country out of a Random Number Generator (each country got a number). The order is below:

I will be rotating by continent like this: Europe --> Africa --> Asia --> South America --> North America

The first five countries I will be using are Bulgaria, Chad, Oman, Chile, and US Virgin Islands​. Hope you all enjoy this long journey.
 
Part I: Welcome to Bulgaria
​

Part I of our challenge brings us to Bulgaria, a country on the lower east part of Europe, bordered by Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey. The official language is Bulgarian and the population is just under 7 million. The capital city is Sofia, which is also the largest city with a population of just under 1,250,000 people.


(Forgot to mention that my name, Mitch Collins, will be the manager name used in this game. I will also create myself as the nationality of the team I am managing.)

Now let's take look a quick look at the squad. The Board expects us to be competitive in our only competition at the moment, the UEFA World Cup Qualifiers. We sit in fifth in Group 2 through six matches.

The rest of the schedule is not too difficult, we get Italy, Malta and Armenia at home and travel to Denmark. We should be able to beat Malta and Armenia and could give Denmark and maybe even Italy a fight. We will tune up once more before the competition with a friendly match against world power Argentina at home.


Velizar Dimitrov, while old, is our best player at the central attacking midfielder role. He fits best as a trequartista.

Georgi Milanov is a young, talented attacking midfielder. He will play left attacking midfielder and play as an advanced playmaker.

Todor Nedelev is our starting right attacking midfielder. He can also play central attacking mid and is young. He fits best as an inside forward.
Ivelin Popov is yet another talented attacking midfielder. Since there is no room for him to start, he will be a rotation option. He is a great shadow striker.


Ventsislav Hristov is our best striker. At 24 he has room to grow, and backup Ilian Micanski can help him out. Micanski is another good option.


Simeon Slavchev is the brightest young talent on our team. At 19, he is already set to start at central mid or defensive mid, and clubs such as Atletico, AC Milan, Dortmund, PSG, and SLB are interested in him.



Svetoslav Dyakov is our best defensive midfielder, but he is currently injured for at least two to three months, meaning he will miss the Argentina friendly, Italy game and potentially the Denmark game. Vladimir Gadzhev is another option at DM.

Stanislav Manolev, Ivan Ivanov, Valentin Iliev, and Petar Zanev make up our back four. There is a lot of depth here so we can go a few different ways.


Nikolay Mihaylov is our starting keeper, he's a solid keeper who does his job. Vladislav Stoyanov​ will back him up, another solid option.


The tactics we will be running:


Our main tactic is a 4-5-1 Defensive. Why defensive, you ask, when the mentality is counter? Well, defensive because we push our two midfielders back to DM and the tactic is meant to help control the ball in our own third and get it in to the midfield, which is why the mentality is counter. The attacking full backs and wingers help expose space on the sides to get the ball through from the final third.


Our secondary tactic is a 4-5-1 Attack. This tactic will be used in must-win games and other games where we have a clear advantage talent wise. The idea of this tactic is that it is similar to the defensive just with the DMs moved up to central midfielders to add more attacking power. With a higher tempo, it allows the attackers to get moving and create more chances near the goal.


Our final tactic is a bit of an unorthodox one, a 4-1-2-2-1 Control. In this tactic, the idea is to control the game while still attacking. The full backs will join the attack with the strikers and midfielders. The only potential downside to this tactic is that there are no wingers - that is why we need to control the midfield and the middle of the pitch.
 
An interesting starting team with Bulgaria, good idea as well, I was on the verge of something similar recently too! All the best with it, I'll be keeping tabs :)
 
Going to take you ages but good luck. I started an international game but just clicked random and don't intend on winning the WC with every country :p
 
Good luck with this. I can't imagine winning England winning it :p, so Bulgaria will be a real challenge especially if you can't develop young players.
 
Thanks lads, will be a challenge but excited to get this started. And yes it will be difficult to develop young talent with a small country but I think I can do it with the right tactics.
 
July 2013 Recap: Bulgaria

View attachment 409321​

So first month in charge of the squad and there are injuries galore. Here are a list of the players that will miss the upcoming friendly against Argentina with their injury and recovery time:

  • Ivan Ivanov (Broken Leg, 7-8 months)
  • Petar Zanev (Damaged foot, 2-3 weeks) (Game-time decision)
  • Yordan Minev (Sprained Ankle, 3-5 weeks)
  • Zhivko Milanov (Torn Groin Muscle, 7 weeks-2 months)
  • Svetoslav Dyakov (Dislocated shoulder 5-7 weeks)
  • Vadislav Stoyanov (Broken finger, 6-7 weeks) (sustained injury in August)
  • Georgia Milanov (Sports hernia, 4-5 weeks) (sustained injury in August)

That's seven important players that will miss the match with injury and at least one, maybe two more that will miss the next set of World Cup Qualifier games in early September.

Team Transfers

​
  • Our promising young midfielder Simeon Slavchev moved from Litex to Spain, moving to Atletico Madrid, and he was loaned right back to Litex for the season.
  • Svetoslav Dyakov (who is currently injured) moved to Holland, going from Ludogorets to PSV.
  • Stanislav Manolev moved to Sporting (POR) on a free transfer, inking a $16.5K p/w deal.

We fell nineteen spots to 72nd in the World Rankings despite playing zero games since the last rankings. It's not a huge deal, but hopefully we can move up some spots with a good result against Argentina.
 
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This is an amazing idea, will be following, Good luck mate!
 
Matchday: Argentina v Bulgaria

​
Terrible pre-game news, right before the game, we learned that Edisson Jordanov, a young midfielder called up as a backup due to injuries, has suffered a torn hamstring and will miss 3-4 months. As a 20 year old he has lots of time for the squad but this will set us back.


Running the base 4-5-1 defend in this game against a talented Argentina attack. In fact, their attack is so talented that they have multiple world class players on the bench. The defense is talented too and we will need to play together as a unit if we want to score and defend.
What a wonderful result! A nil-nil draw against the No. 2 country in the world, while missing multiple of our star players injured. This is a huge step in the right direction. We were shaky throughout most of the first half but got some key stops in goal and really turned it on in the second half. In the end, we managed a very close possession split and got just one fewer goal on target. Was Argentina coasting and not really playing full strength? Maybe. Regardless, this is a big starting point on our journey to international stardom.

NEXT MATCHDAY: 6/9/2013 v Italy​
 
Matchday: Italy v Bulgaria

​
Left back Petar Zanev is back for this one, everyone else still out injured.

Preview
​

Match odds: Bulgaria 7-1; Draw 3-1, Italy 1-3 (Favorite)

"Italy will continue their recent impressive form by beating Bulgaria today. You never know quite which Bulgaria are going to turn up at home and I can't see that changing for this game." - Volkan Yildiz, worldsoccer.com​


Running the base 4-5-1 defend once again against another talented offensive unit. Italy is running a compressed 4-3-1-2 with no wingers, so we will need to control the flanks of the pitch if we want to win this game. Italy's defense is also very talented so it will be tough to get through them. However, our defense has shown it can be sturdy (i.e. the game against Argentina).

MAN TO WATCH (ITALY): ST Mario Balotelli
MAN TO WATCH (BULGARIA): AML Ivelin Popv


Disappointing, but expected loss to Italy. We played well though, winning in possession and scoring a nice early goal. Two goals right out of each half from Italy definitely hurt, and their penalty in the 78th minute was a really poor decision by the ref, if I must say so myself. We just need to move on and prepare for our next upcoming match.


NEXT MATCHDAY: 10/9/2013 v Denmark​
 
Unlucky against Italy, Good luck against Bendtner and Eriksen.
 
Matchday: Bulgaria v Denmark

​
No new notes about the team since the last match. Same squad as last time out.

Preview
​

Match odds: Denmark 4-6 (Favorite); Draw 9-4; Bulgaria 7-2

"I fancy Denmark to win this one. Denmark's home form hasn't been the best of late but Bulgaria haven't been playing well recently either." - Casper Kaalund, The Danish Football Review

Running the same 4-5-1 defend as usual due to another strong opponent but changed the squad around a tad to keep the boys fresh. Bandalovski is in at right back for Manolev, Terziev is in for Alexsandrov at right central defender, and Micanski is in for Hristov at striker. Denmark doesn't have a terrific squad but they have some some talent attacking and defensive.

MAN TO WATCH (BULGARIA): DM Simeon Slavchev
MAN TO WATCH (DENMARK): AMC Christian Eriksen
Another game, another poor penalty decision by the ref. Admittedly, we played much worse this game then we did against Italy, but I believe the aggravating penalty decisions have hurt our team's confidence. We got on the board early, then allowed two quick goals (including the penalty) and that really let us down. The poor results before I took the job basically eliminates us from any chance of World Cup qualification, but we need to keep working hard in the final two matches v Malta and Armenia, two teams I believe we can beat.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Lasse Schone, Denmark

NEXT MATCHDAY: 11/10/2013 v Malta​
 
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Nice to see this is going strong. Best of luck against Malta!
 
Matchday: Malta v Bulgaria

​
We stayed at 72nd in the latest World Rankings. Not too surprising considering the two disappointing 1-3 losses we've had since the last rankings.

Ivelin Popov and Nikolay Bodurov, both key players, will miss the two matches with injury, a pretty serious blow for the squad. Svetoslav Dyakov and Emil Garagov were both called up to replace them. Slavchev is also suspended for the Malta match due to too many yellow cards. Georgi Milanov will miss the Malta match due to a dead leg, but will be back in time for Armenia.

Preview
​

Match odds: Bulgaria 1-6 (Favorite); Draw 5-1; Malta 10-1

"Malta's away form has been woeful recently. Home win." - Zhivko Kostov, The Bulgarian Football Review

Going with the 4-5-1 attack today against a much weaker Malta side. This is the tactic we will normally run against much easier sides. A few subs are in due to the injuries/suspension but mostly the normal side we have out there. I'm feeling a pretty easy win for us.

MAN TO WATCH (MALTA): AMC Martin Deyanov
MAN TO WATCH (BULGARIA): AMC Velizar Dmitrov


First win as manager of Bulgaria, and what a win it was. Should have ended 9-0 if not for Malta's very late salvo in the 90th minute (that was followed up with a red in extra time). Micanski stole the show with a tremendous DOUBLE hat trick and has certainly earned himself a permanent spot at the striker position. Even against a lower opponent, this was a marvelous performance, but the fouls need to be cut down a bit.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Ilian Micanski, Bulgaria

NEXT MATCHDAY: 15/10/2013 v Armenia​
 
Interesting idea, would love to see you pull it off with weaker nations. Good first win, more to follow.

To win with every country - it just sounds like an impossible task for me. But will stay tune here and good luck.
 
Micanski for ballon d'or!
On a serious note why didn't lord Bendtner play for the Danes?
 
thokazu said:
Interesting idea, would love to see you pull it off with weaker nations. Good first win, more to follow.

To win with every country - it just sounds like an impossible task for me. But will stay tune here and good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, probably is impossible, but thanks for the words

Amanado said:
Micanski for ballon d'or!
On a serious note why didn't lord Bendtner play for the Danes?
Click to expand...

He was hurt
 
Matchday: Armenia v Bulgaria

No team news to report since the last match.


Preview
​

Match odds: Bulgaria 5-4 (Favorite); Draw 11-5; Armenia 7-4

"A draw is on the cards in this game as I can see Bulgaria and Armenia cancelling each other out." - Zhokar Tanev, The Bulgarian Football Review

Again running the base 4-5-1 defend. Armenia aren't a fantastic side, but we are about level and this is the formation we run in games like that. As we have guaranteed fifth place in our group as well this game doesn't really mean much.

MAN TO WATCH (ARMENIA): GK Nikolay Mihaylov
MAN TO WATCH (BULGARIA): MC Henrikh Mkhitaryan
We really didn't deserve to win this game as we got out possessed by Armenia and got a bit of a lucky bounce on our goal. But either way we got more shots and finished up our World Cup Qualifiers on a high note.

The final group table:

View attachment 405597

Our next international competition will be the 2016 European Championship qualifiers which will be drawn on 9th February 2014.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Emil Gargarov, Bulgaria

NEXT MATCHDAY: 15/11/2013 v Chile​
 
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