S.C. Braga: A Portugal Story

T

TractorBoy7

Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2014
Messages
344
Reaction score
0
Points
0
View attachment 368684


Hello and welcome to my story. This story is inspired by the ever aging Portugal national team.​

As everyone knows, Cristiano Ronaldo isn't getting any younger and neither are Pepe (31) and Moutinho (27). With the so called 'Golden Era' of Portugal looking like it will never achieve any form of success, the nation looks to the future. Enter S.C. Braga of the Portuguese Premier Division.

Braga are the next best team behind the 'Big Three' of the Portuguese League (FC Porto, Sporting Lisbon and Benfica). However with Braga's youth system set up as it is, that may be set to change.

Here is a small screenshot of their facilities:
View attachment 368674

As you can see, the youth facilities, junior coaching and youth recruitment network all look fantastic and the future is looking bright for Braga and Portugal fans.

This story follows my attempts at Portuguese Premier League glory and eventually (hopefully) National glory. The aim is to produce as many Portugal international players at Braga as possible. Whether it be from my youth or raiding other teams youth. I will also be aiming to take the Portugal national team job at some point but first I need to prove myself with S.C. Braga.

To add something to make it a little more challenging and entertaining, I've set myself the task of only buying Portuguese players for my team (and U17s from other nations in the hope that i can persuade them to switch nationalities by the time they have developed).

The first update will be of the pre-season and transfers in and out.



I hope you follow the story and enjoy!​
 
Pre-season


Braga 1 - 1 Dnipro

Braga 1 - 4 Morelia

Braga 2 - 0 Pachuca

Volendam 2 - 2 Braga

Augsborg 1 - 0 Braga

Hull 1 - 2 Braga

Braga 2 - 0 Crotone

Braga 1 - 1 Inter

Parma 1 - 1 Braga


​
In summary, a very interesting pre-season. Very disappointed with Morelia loss. Happy to say though that the Hull game was the first game where all my transfers had gone through and then we looked a lot better from there on out so I'm not too worried. Now on to the transfers!


Transfers IN
​

Very pleased with my signings as I had a pretty tight budget, but as you're about to see I managed to acquire some true bargain buys!

Miguel Rosa (£230k from Belenenses)
View attachment 368650
Although not particularly stronger than what i've already got, it's his versatility that I bought him for. He can play every position in my midfield as I'm using the 4-2-3-1 tactic!

Cédric Soares (£500k from Sporting Lisbon)
View attachment 368649
Pretty annoyed that he refused to sign anything other than a one year deal however he is a top class player and has great current ability and very promising potential. Hopefully he'll sign an extension later on.

Rubén (£775k from Maritimo)
View attachment 368647
As you can see I've saved the best until last. Not sure how we got him so cheap as he wasn't on the transfer list, but hey, I'm not complaining! My entire back four is now 4 star current ability which i'm absolutely delighted with.

Transfers OUT

Not much to report here really. We sold 33 year old Alan to Ámerica for £600k as well as selling 30 year old Custodio to Monaco for £1.6m. Although they were good enough to start in the first XI they had long contracts despite being old so I decided to cash in.

​

Next update will be for August, 2013 and our first competitive matches!

--Also we have drawn Esbjerg fB in the Europa League play-off draw so our chances of qualifying are pretty high!

--Not to mention the board have accepted my request for the junior coaching and youth recruitment to be improved further. Junior coacing will be 'Exceptional' and youth recruitment will be 'Well Established'




​
 
Last edited:
August, 2013

Belenenses 0 - 2 Braga (Rafa 70, 72)

61% possession tells the story here, a good win. Rafa is out for 5 weeks.

----------

Europa League Playoff 1st Leg

Esbjerg fB 0 - 1 Braga (Miguel Rosa 58)

----------

Braga 1 (Kappel 72) - 1 Vit. Guimaraes (Maazou 54)

Because of the mid-week travelling and huge list of injuries I'll let my team off for this. Should be winning these normally.

----------

Europa League Playoff 2nd Leg

Braga 2 (Flindt o.g 30, Pardo 90) - 1 Esbjerg fB (van Buren 42)

58% possession but only 3 shots on target is disappointing.

----------

​

Not a bad month then! Injuries to Ruben Micael, Rafa and Leandro Kappel have really plagued this month and put a lot of work on the shoulders of a few back-ups. However Portuguese international Éder is almost fit and back in the squad so that should be a boost!

--New signing Rúben got called up for Portugal squad and could earn his first cap!

--I also loaned Jorginho Sousa (AMR) from Vit. Setubal to help with injuries and, ironically, he got injured in training and is out for 4-5 weeks. He's nothing special so not worth a screenshot.

--We have been drawn with Feyenoord, Elfsborg and Red Bull Salzburg in Group B of the Europa League. High chances of progressing through.


Player of the month
Miguel Rosa
View attachment 368558



​
 
Last edited:
September, 2013

Gil Vicente 1 (Viana 48) - 2 Braga (Pardo 30, Miguel Rosa 68)

Kappel is out for 4 months.

----------

Sporting Lisbon 4 (Wilson Eduardo 32, 45 Leonardo 39 Nuno o.g 42) - 2 Braga (Pardo 9, Miguel Rosa 23)

Injury for Miguel Rosa after he scored secured our downfall, we only had one player in their actual position in midfield after he was taken off.

----------

Europa League Group B

Braga 1 (Agdon 12) - 3 Feyenoord (Armenteros 60, 68, 80)

No complaints here. Injuries have pushed us to the point where we only have one midfielder and no capable youth players to step in. Agdon got injured in training after this.

----------

Braga 1 (Moreno 23) - 2 Benfica (Rodrigo 7, Gaitan 73)

Not too bad considering the injuries.

----------

Braga 3 (Joaozinho 9, Rusescu 15, Rafa 68) - 0 Rio Ave

Rafa's return from injury made the difference here.

----------

​
Injuries are killing me! I had 5 key players out this month and i think that shows in the results. Returns for Edér and Miguel Rosa are on the horizon so hopefully we'll see improvements.

League Table

View attachment 368549


Player of the Month
Joaozinho

View attachment 368548


​
 
October, 2013

Big pressure going into this month as the Braga hierarchy thought I wasn't doing a good job. I thought this was a bit harsh considering the injuries but Éder and Rúben Micael were back for this month, so no excuses. This month should show the actual ability of the squad

Europa League Group B

Red Bull Salzburg 1 (Fisa 16) - 2 Braga (Nuno 53, Moreno 84)

----------

Vit. Setúbal 1 (Terroso 3) - 5 Braga (Miguel Rosa 12, 36, 87, Éder 32, Carlos 88)

----------

Taca de Portugal 3rd Round

Nacional de Madeira 4 (Sequera 2, Mexes 43, Harrison 58, Rondon 91) - 3 Braga (Rafa 11, Pardo 34, Moreno 92)

Meh.

----------

Europa League Group B

Braga 4 (Nuno 14, Miguel Rosa 33, Joaozinho 53, Éder 77) - 1 Elfsborg (Hassan 70)

This puts us top of the group

----------

Maritímo 0 - 4 Braga (Pardo 5, Miguel Rosa 33, 44, Nuno 59)

They were third before this game, so i'm happy we kept a clean sheet away from home aswell as a few goals

----------


​
So if you take out that unlucky cup loss we would have had a perfect month! The returns of injured players really helped here as I expected and Éder really impressed. Rafa is playing really well despite not having great abilty and is averaging an 8.16 in the league so far...

View attachment 368093

As you can see we also have the top scorer in Miguel Rosa which is very satisfying considering I got him on the cheap.

--Rúben has now got his 3rd International cap for Portugal and scored his first goal!


League Table

View attachment 368092

Player of the Month
Miguel Rosa

View attachment 368091
​

Please ask any questions if you have any. Feedback is always welcome! Hope you're enjoying the story as much as I am, literally cannot wait until that youth intake day!
 
November, 2013


Braga 2 (Kadu 29, Moreno 73) - 1 Olhanense (Dionisi 24)

----------

Europa League Group B


Elfsborg 1 (Lonn 23) - 2 Braga (Miguel Rosa 8, Rafa 43)

----------

Braga 1 (Miguel Rosa 29) - 0 FC Porto

This felt good. Getting one over our historic rivals and probably the best team in the league

----------

Europa League Group B

Feyenoord 2 (Pellé 36, 45+1) - 2 Braga (Rafa 11, Rúben Micael pen 31)

Annoyed we couldn't hold onto the win here.

----------

​
This was probably our best month yet, the win over Porto being the highlight. Miguel Rosa and Rafa are still our surprise star players. That win over Porto means we move into 1st place in the league. Also those Europa league games assured us qualification into the knockout stages.


League Table

View attachment 367953

Player of the Month
Miguel Rosa

View attachment 367951

​
 
Last edited:
great start pal and interesting story.. really like your signings!
 
samillyroy said:
great start pal and interesting story.. really like your signings!
Click to expand...

Cheers mate, yeah i've been thrilled with the start, never thought we'd be contending from the start! Miguel Rosa thinks he's Ronaldo i swear haha
 
December, 2013


Académica 1 (Lopes 86) - 2 Braga (Agdon 1, Miguel Rosa 71)


----------


Braga 3 (Éder 42, Pardo 49, Moreno 74) - 1 Arouca (Simao 51)


----------

Europa League Group B


Braga 2 (Ruben Micael 61, Miguel Rosa 66) - 3 Salzburg (Ilsanker 8, Klein 31, Fisa 67)


----------


Braga 3 (Éder 26, 49, Rafa 90+2) - Estoril (Nathan 22, Sebá 42)


----------


Madeira 1 (Rondon 33) - 1 Braga (Pardo 4)


----------

League Cup 3rd Phase Group A


Braga 2 (Rafa 55, Pardo 80) - 1 Olhanense (Rafael 83)


----------

​
A long month but the lads dealt with it well. The loss against Salzburg is merely a constellation for them as we still finished 1st in the group and they still finished last. Rafa's late goal in the 90+2 minute against Estoril has cemented his place as my favourite player on the save so far and he is developing so quickly too, I can see him either having a long career here or being sold for some serious £££.


League Table

View attachment 367812

Player of the Month
Felipe Pardo

View attachment 367810
​
 
The next update will be January fixtures as well as January transfer window ins and outs. I'll also be posting the squad and the tactics too, so stay tuned! Hope you're all enjoying so far :)
 
January, 2014


Braga 1 (Miguel Rosa 29) - 1 P.Fereira (Rangel 69)

----------

League Cup 3rd Phase Group A


Braga 2 (Miguel Rosa 14, Nuno 25) - 1 Vit. Setubal (Martins 45+1)

----------

Braga 3 (Miguel Rosa 29, Rafa 39, Pardo 67) - 0 Belenenses

----------

League Cup 3rd Phase Group A

Rio Ave 1 (Velikonja 38) - 3 Braga (Nuno 14, Miguel Rosa 17, Éder 35)

----------

​
Really, really good month here. We qualified for the semi-finals of the league cup and the 3-0 win against Belenenses was particularly pleasing. Injuries to Rúben and Luiz Carlos have perhaps plagued the month as they are two of our key players.


----------
​

So the transfer window was pretty quiet. We had around £600k to spend so there wasn't a lot of room to manouvre for instant ability so I bought a couple of prospects and loaned in someone to replace Rúben while he's injured for the next two months.


Transfers IN

Not sure how there was already a regen in the game but i bought this prospect from Farense for a mere £56k
View attachment 367686

£400k from Benfica seems a great bit of business to me. Already good enough to start and he's got a lot of potential. Just need to improve some key attributes such as quickness, dribbling and passing but he can play either wing which is good for versatility within the squad.
View attachment 367685

Another prospect, bought for £275k from Sporting and has a lot of potential, and at 16 there's a lot of time for development. I am very excited to see what he can become.
View attachment 367684

Here's the loan that we brought in to cover for Rúben, he looks more like a left wing to me so I might buy him in the summer as he's available for £700k and then train him to be a left winger. Look at that potential and that age, so watch this space!
View attachment 367682

Transfers OUT

Sold for £185k and was shocked to see his value rise. In hind sight I could've got more for him but he never played a game for us so i'm not too bothered.
View attachment 367680

League Table

View attachment 367677

Player of the Month
Miguel Rosa

View attachment 367670

Scoring a goal in all 4 games this month grants Miguel Rosa with yet another player of the month.

----------

Very pleased with this month as a whole. The results and the transfers have made this month my favourite yet. Two months until youth intake!

​
 
Last edited:
As promised here is an update on the squad.

Tactics

View attachment 367654
As you can see I'm using the 4-2-3-1. I've put injured players in to where they would start if they weren't injured. So you're looking at the main starting XI. The trequartista is the centre of the team and is vital to us winning games. Mainly if the trequartista has a bad game, we don't win. Highly recommend using one if you have an AM with good finished and passing!


Squad

View attachment 367655View attachment 367656



​
 
February, 2014

Vit. Guimaraes 1 (Plange 84) - 1 Braga (Éder 30)

----------

Braga 2 (Éder 6, Rafa 90) - 1 Gil Vicente (Peixoto 40)

----------

League Cup Semi-Final

Braga 3 (Guerreiro 41, 67, 72) - 0 Maritimo

When was the last time your on-loan, back up left-back scored a hattrick in a semi-final? :p

----------

Benfica 5 (Markovic 15, Garay 17, Cardozo 58, 86, Gaitan 89) - 1 Braga (Moreno 60)

----------

Europa League Knockout Round

Schalke 3 (Meyer 7, Clemens 60, 84) - 0 Braga

Braga 3 (Pardo 16, Soares pen 36, Guerreiro 74) - 2 Schalke (Meyer 69, Boateng 79)

Schalke win 5-3 on aggregate

I hate my goalkeeper.

----------

Braga 3 (Nuno 15, Miguel Rosa 26, Éder 41) - Lisbon (Capel 72, Slimani 90)

----------

This month was OK. The Benfica loss was because I rested key players for the Schalke game which went equally as bad. Eduardo, my keeper, has been performing awfully as too has Kadu one of my centre backs. We will not be able to progress as a club with those two starting next season. Expect change.

On the bright side it's not long until youth intake which could change the club.

In other news 3 of our players got called up to the Portugal U19s. Three got called up to the Portugal U21s and three got called up to the main Portugal national squad. Good progress.

League Table

View attachment 367478

Player of the Month
Raphael Guerreiro

View attachment 367477
​
 
youth intake just gave me what looks like a jewel of a player! Update coming soon...
 
!YOUTH INTAKE!

​
I've just about scouted all Portuguese regens that i thought look good and also evaluated my own regens produced at club. There's four in particular regens produced that are screenshot worthy.


​



View attachment 367454
First up is Paulo Castro. Out of the four he is probably the weakest. However if he reaches his potential he will be on the same level as Miguel Rosa and i can't complain with that! His personality is balanced meaning his development will be fairly average speed wise. It says his role is Inside Forward however to me he looks more like a straight out winger so that's what I will train him as.


View attachment 367451
Augusto is up next. He is our only good looking defensive prospect so he's got a lot of weight on his shoulders. His potential is only a good premier division centre back so we could be looking at a develop and sell situation here. However his personality is fairly determined meaning he might develop quick and surpass his potential and have a place at the club.


View attachment 367452
As you can see Manuel is actually Spanish rather than Portuguese which I'm disappointed about considering he's got Star Player potential. Although being currently worse than Paulo Castro you can see that his potential is higher. Hopefully by the time he's ready for international football he'll switch nationalities and be eligible for Portugal.


View attachment 367453
PRAISE THE FM GODS! Five star potential! Wow, I'm over the moon with this guy. As you can see he's already a great player who'd be a leading player for second division sides! His personality is fairly professional meaning he should develop the fastest out of the four too. I'm caught in two minds with him. Shall I put him in the B team to play regular second division football, or keep him on the bench for the first team and getting playing time maybe a couple minutes a month? Even so he looks like the building block to Braga's and Portugal's future. Let me know what you guys think!

---

Obivously those aren't the only four that can become good as you can get players who sneak through development and actually become better than those who had better potential than them in the beginning. But this is a good start to building a team from youth and I'm delighted.

I have found two prospects willing to join me for £200k each.

View attachment 367447View attachment 367446

Both with very good potential, hopefully i can snap them in the summer transfer window as I don't have the funds at the moment!

---

What do you guys think?

:D

​
 
March, 2014


Braga 1 (Nuno 31) - 2 Vit. Setubal (Coronas 30, Lucas 70)

----------

Rio Ave 1 (Miranda 38) - 1 Braga (Éder 56)

----------

Olhanense 1 (Vantaggiato 38) - 2 Braga (Miguel Rosa 22, Moreno 64)

----------

Porto 2 (Herrera 39, Ghilas 90) - 0 Braga

----------

Braga 2 (Rafa 10, Nuno 27) - 2 Maritimo (Dias 38, Adailton 69)

----------

Awful month, I'm so vexed. We almost gave up that precious 3rd place spot. If you didn't already know the top 3 places are champions league so if i drop to 4th thats the dream of Champions league football gone...

There's no player of the month this month as everyone wasn't good enough.
​

​

League Table

View attachment 367311

​
 
April, 2014

Braga 1 (Miguel Rosa 9) - 2 Academica (Valente 30, Salvador Agra 64)

----------

Estoril 4 (Babanco 23, Pedro 61, 64, 76) - 1 Braga (Miguel Rosa 24)

This basically cost us the champions league play-off spot :'(

----------

Braga 1 (Battaglia 85) - 0 Madeira

Not a bad time to score your first goal for the club!

----------

League Cup Final

Porto 0 - 1 Braga (Éder 5)

Worst. Final. Ever. Porto were awful and we took advantage and parked the bus after Éder scored that early goal. CHAMPIONS BABY.

----------

In short we did awful against the awful teams and good against the good teams. Getting two clean sheets in a row is nothing short of a miracle considering my goalkeeper can't even catch a cold. We qualify for the Europa League thanks to the cup win, however it's still possible for us to ****** 3rd in the league and get into the Champions League!


League Table

View attachment 367307

Player of the Month
Miguel Rosa

View attachment 367306

​
 
May, 2014


Arouca 1 (Nouioui 71) - 2 Braga (Éder 11, Miguel Rosa 48)

----------

P.Ferreira 0 - 4 Braga (Rafa 5, Battaglia 23, Miguel Rosa 51, 83)

---------

That's all folks! Nice way to end the season, we sneaked third! Madeira dropped points in the last two games and we stormed right past them! Champions League next year!

Season review will be in the next update



Player of the Month
Miguel Rosa

​
​View attachment 367242​
 
13/14 Season Review


My Player of the Year - Miguel Rosa

My Young Player of the Year - Rafa

Fans' Player of the Year - Miguel Rosa

-

Portuguese Premier League - FC Porto

Taca de Portugal - Benfica

Portuguese League Cup - Braga

-

Player of the Year - Cristian Rodriguez (FC Porto)

Top Goalscorer - Miguel Rosa (Braga)

Most Assists - Rafa (Braga)

Manager of the Year - Manuel Machado (Nacional de Madeira)

-

Liga BBVA - Real Madrid

Premier League - Manchester United

Bundesliga - Dortmund

Serie A - Juventus

Ligue 1 - Paris-Saint Germain

-

Champions League - FC Bayern

Europa League - Paris-Saint Germain

~~~~

All in all it was a good year. We had the top goalscorer, the young player of the year in Rafa and he also topped the assists charts. We had a gem come through the youth named Hilário who will be used in the first team next season as per the point of this story! FC Porto are still a level higher than us in terms of quality but hopefully we can develop as a team considering most of my team are now under 24 years old and developing. The cup run was pleasing, let's hope we can go far in the champions league next season to get that money! We only have one Portuguese international at the World Cup in Rúben, who had a marvelous debut! He's now worth £5.75mil after buying him for less than half a million.

We might be selling a few players a year before their contract runs out to cash in if they are foreign. This is because if they sign a new contract that's going against the challenge i set myself of only having Portuguese players aside from foreigners who come through the youth system.

That's all folks, next update will be pre-season and I might add in Portugal's world cup results.

In-case you're interested here is the final league table:

View attachment 367188


​
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Top