Rise of the Incas

[Muttley84]

First time after a long while of playing FM we go through a change of rules in the league. From the next season there will be 18 teams in the league and not 20, which means a couple of less games to play. All the other rules seem to be left the same. And we get another sign of our growth as a club, as the boardroom decides to get an affiliate in the second division - CD Pacifico.

 

[Muttley84]

Long shot of qualifying from a group which includes Flamengo and Atletico Nacional (and the 4th team most likely going to be better than us also). But maybe, just maybe we can sneak into 3rd to progress into the Sudamericana.

 

[Muttley84]

Final improvements and announcements before season starts.

 

[Muttley84]

Sure, still no world-beaters at the club but we strengthened the team considerably, we added depth to be ready to play continental games also (at least 6 in the group stages) and achieved another objective by removing all the foreign players. At the beginning of the season our team is 100% represented by Lima-born players and academy products. As an added bonus we actually made a profit out of the transfer window, so only wins for us. Now let the games begin, I already feel like I've spent to much time between seasons.

 

[Crayth]

Good luck mate, will follow this from now on!

 

[Muttley84]

Good luck mate, will follow this from now on!

Thanks, its fun to be outside of Europe, learning new stuff with each month.

 

[Muttley84]

A mediocre start of the season - do not get fooled by all the green icons in the pics, they are mostly friendlies. Only played 4 games in the league and we scored just 3 goals, already losing at Cantolao and drawing at home to Sport Boys (which kinda upset the fans as they are rivals). In March we will begin the Libertadores Group Stage (the 4th team from the qualifying to join our group is Sao Paolo), but we are not confident at all in our chances.

 

[Muttley84]

The Libertadores hit us with a first game we won't forget for a long time, a 4-0 defeat at home against Flamengo. We were pretty bummed about it and I even thought we were going to be the laughing stock of the competition, but a more cautious approach in the next two games brought us two wins - in Colombia against Atletico Nacional and at home to Sao Paolo (that might be our biggest game so far in the career - totally deserved that big win). Of course, fixating so much on the Libertadores meant we slipped a bit in the league, including a defeat at Juan Aurich and a draw against rivals Sporting Cristal. We are sitting in mid-table but it's only 5 points to the first position and 10 more games to go.

 

[Muttley84]

Already seen a pattern in the transfer windows - the best players over 30 in the Peruvian league are moving to the Gulf leagues. And we are talking at least 10-20 players each transfer window. Not sure if that pattern is actually happening in real life also, but it makes it incredibly difficult for us to attract experienced players as there is no way we can compete with them on salary levels.

 

[Muttley84]

We couldn't sustain our performances in the Libertadores and we lost both games in April. Somehow we are pretty much guaranteed third place and we are to continue in Sudamericana. I say that because in the last games we are travelling to Flamengo and I doubt it we can win it there. On the positive side we have won all four games in the league and climbed to 4th in the league, just 5 points separating us from first places Huancayo with 6 games left to go.

 

[Muttley84]

As predicted we didn't qualify for Libertadores and finishing third we went down to Sudamericana where we will meet ... River Plate! Lucky for us it is not the Argentinian giant but the much smaller Uruguayan side and I think we have a decent chance of promoting to the next round.

 

[Muttley84]

We are a long way to go behind the likes of Sporting Cristal, Alianza Lima and Universitario in terms of producing first-league quality players. Maybe this statistics will see us increase in the following years, but I doubt we will ever reach them.

 

[Muttley84]

A solid month where we achieved two important landmarks of the season: we won the First Division Opening Stage in the last two games, thanks to a win in the 91 minute from a penalty against Alianza Lima and we also progressed another round in the Copa Sudamericana.

 

[Muttley84]

Good enough so far to get a contract extension from the board. Happy to be here.

 

[Muttley84]

The annual summer stages of the Cup - where we qualified against some pretty poor teams overall.

 

[Muttley84]

We kicked off the second part of the season in style, as we disposed the Colombian side Junior in Copa Sudamerican and also won 2 and draw 2 in the league. Things are looking good at Municipal now. At least in the moment, as the perspectives of our youth intake are rather poor for the second year.

 

[Muttley84]

We went another round in the Copa Sudamericana by passing over fellow Peruvian side Huancayo. Unfortunately we are out of the cup losing away at Sport Rosario. We continued our good run in the league being undefeated so far, and if we win the second stage also there will be no playoffs and we will be crowned Copa Movistar Champions. Still 9 games to go and Universitario is keeping close to us.

 

[Muttley84]

Don't really need a takeover now, but who know, FM moves in mysterious ways.

 

[Muttley84]

The semifinals was our end to the adventure of Copa Sudamericana. Palmeiras proved to be to strong for us and won both matches, but we are very satisfied to how we performed and raised some nice money for our budget. Now all is left to concentrate on the league and we already have a 4 points lead with 6 games to go.

 

[Muttley84]

As the season ends we are such in good shape. Only green good relationships everywhere between the main players.