South American Journeyman Challenge

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OK, I've decided to do the end of the 2013 season in text. Brief Recap of previous seasons in case you missed:

BRIEF RECAP
Join Atenas de San Carlos in the Uruguayan Second Division in December 2013. They have 8 points in 10 games
Finish as so:
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Get sacked.
Join Chilean First Division B (D1B) side Club Deportivo San Marcos de Arica on 27/05/2015. So I begin at the start of the season.
2015/2016 Finish 2nd in the opening stage and 6th in the closing stage, and 3rd overall. Qualify for promotion playoffs and win promotion to D1. Knocked out in Chile Cup 2nd round.
2016/2017 Finish 6 points clear of relegation, in 15th place. Knocked out in Chile Cup 2nd round.
2017/2018 Finish 14 points clear of relegation, in 10th place. Including a 5th place finish in the closing stage. Qualify for 2nd-5th place payoff, lose in final to Colo Colo on penalties, beating Universided de Chile for the first time in the semi's. Knocked out in Chile Cup 2nd round.
2018/2019 Finish on 61 points in 3rd place. Including a 2nd place finish in the closing stage. Win the playoff and qualify to Copa Sudamericana in the next season. Knocked out in Chile Cup semi final.
2019/2020 Knocked out in Copa Sudamericana 2nd preliminary Round. Knocked out in Chile Cup quarter final. Finish 5th in the opening stage and win the play off, beating Colo Colo in the semi final, and qualifying for the Copa Libertadores. Manage to win in qualifying round to make the group stage. Finish 2nd in group to qualify for the 2nd round. However it comes at the cost of 13th in the closing stage. Knocked out of the libertadores in the 2nd round against Palmeiras.
2020/2021 Poor league form continues, finish 12th in the opening stage. Knocked out in Chile Cup 2nd Round. Finish 3rd in the closing stage and win the playoff final against Colo Colo and so qualify for Sudamericana.
2021/2022 Knocked out of Chile Cup in the 2nd round but finish 2nd in the opening stage, one point of of Universidad de Chile. Win the playoff, beating Colo Colo in the semi final and so qualify for Libertadores group stages. Again get knocked out in the 2nd round of the libertadores and finish 2nd in the closing stage, this time to Colo Colo by 2 points. Lose in the playoff final to Universidad de Chile. Overall I have the most points and qualify for next year's Super Cup because of this.
2022/2023 Lose to Universidad de Chile in the Super Cup. Lose in the Chile Cup final. Win Opening Stage. Knocked out of Libertadores Group Stage in 3rd place.

Ok, I had four games left in the season to salvage the closing stage. I said in the previous video that if I win all four, I will most likely make it to the playoff. And that I did. I finished 4th on 33 points, a far cry from the complete domination in the opening stage.

Now, I made it to the final, to face Colo Colo. Having lost 1-0 at Home, I was feeling very negative about the away leg, however:

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Melivilu, a player who has been at the fringes this season stepped up to the plate with a thriller late winner. Now, I'm going to go through all of the players because I feel people will not know them too well at the moment.
 
Goalkeepers

Frank Etoundi

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He joined at the age of 18, when I went on a frenzy buying African youth. At the time he had 5* potential and was only slightly worse than the keeper at that time. He soon overtook and has kept his place since. His solid performances led to him being called up for Cameroon where he is now their first choice Goalkeeper.

Jorge Troncosco

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Signed on a free in June 2021, he has decent potential, but will never really put up a fight with Etoundi. He got his run of games when Etoundi was on International duty in the African Cup of Nations.

 
Defenders (I only use CB's)

Juan Cordova

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Been at the club longer than I have. Mr. Arica himself. As soon as I saw his potential I chucked him in the not so deep end of D1B, but when we got promoted, I held him back a bit for another CB who is still at the club. However, he adapted very quickly to D1 and has been a regular ever since. It's hard to believe he's still only 23. I also retrained him as a CM, although I'd only put him there as a last resort.

Felipe Millan

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Signed straight after we were promoted, he was meant to keep out Juan Cordova for a few years untill he had developed a few more years, however another defender made way and these two have been at the heart of the defense for the entirety of our D1 saga. I would like to say it's said he didn't renew his contract and he will be joining the Dutch League, but I feel right now is the best time to leave, we have a few defenders up and coming who will soon surpass Millan (hopefully) so at least we can say he spent his glory years at this club!

Davy Arnauld Yala

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Another one of the African regen crew. However, at the time he had to be sent on loan because we had too many foreigners in the squad. But after his below par loan spell, he has been another solid servant for us. I also retrained him to play in CM with a bit more success, and I sometimes do put him in there to help break up play with him being the tallest and heaviest player in the league. He's also been a regular for Gabon for years.

Aristide Nana

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Another one of the African regen crew. He took a season to adjust, but since then he has been a solid CB rotation option, who has just broken into the team as a regular starter. He's also been a regular for Burkino Faso for years.

Oscar Gallardo

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Signed as a backup when the old guard all retired. He is now a solid rotation option.

Juan Farfan
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Signed for the future, although with Millan leaving, he may be forced into being a Backup. With this in mind, im thinking of signing another CB.
 
Central Midfielders

Players previously written about that can play CM:
Cordova, Yala, Nana

Modeste Owona

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Another African regen. Since joining, he knocked the old guard out of CM very quickly and made CM his own. He's also our PK and FK taker which gives him a few extra goals. He's been improving year on year an quite rightly so got a call up to the Cameroon Squad for the 2022 World Cup. Since then he's been a reguler. However, since then, maybe with a massive confidence boost, he's had by far the best season of his career and must surely be fans' player of the year.

Sekou Ouattara

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Again, another African regen. Since joining, due in part to his versatilty, he has been a vital member of the squad. This was shown when Ivory Coast gave him a call up just before the 2022 World Cup and since then he's been flirting with a place in the starting line up.

Claudio Fernandez

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Now 21, Fernandez is another local boy, like Juan Cordova. However with stiff competition in CM, he has had to settle as a rotation player so far.

Rodrigo Castro

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Another local boy. Now 20, he's only just this season seen himself on the fringes of the first team.

Zulu

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This Brazillian Regen made an impact as a rotation player straight away. However with competition coming from the African players, Zulu was trained as a RM where he is found even more success.

Pablo Cifuentes

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Signed on a free from Huachipato, Cifuentes has been a handy backup player when the squad is thinned out through injuries and weekday fixtures.
 
Wingers

Players previously written about that can play on the wing:
Zulu, Ouattara

Cristian Valladeres

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Another player who came through the ranks of the club, originally a striker, as seen in the season where he scored 15 goals, he was converted to RM due to my variety of strikers at hand.

Juan Sanhueza

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Signed originally as a striker, but he wasn't putting the goals away so since he was equally at home in LM, he was put there.

Edgardo Fica

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At home both on RM and Striker, he was brought in after Sanhueza to bring the goals. Sadly he fell short of standards and became a backup.

Eduardo Navarrete

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Brought in as a solid LM, and since joining has been great down the left. Sadly he will be playing his football in Portugal next season. He will be missed.

Jose Sepulveda

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Signed for a record fee of 205k, he was to be the replacement for Richard Estay and Mauricio Hidalgo in CAM before him. Although he fell short, he was nonetheless a top play, having been retrained to play in LM I get the feeling Navarrete may be forgotten. He was on loan this season since some stupid club decided to pay 140k for it.
 
CAM

Players previously written about that can play CAM:
Ouattara, Sepulveda, Castro, Cifuentes

Camilo Melivilu

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After Sepulveda was not quite what I was looking for in CAM, Melivilu was signed and he had the desired impact, claiming two fans' player of the years in a row. However this past season he has been unsettled with clubs coming in with big offers for him.

Fabian Carmona

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Seeing that he was running out of contract and he had similar stats to Melivilu, I pinched him from Rangers. This coincided with Melivilu's unrest so it worked out perfectly as he picked up the mantle.
 
Strikers

Players previously written about that can play Striker:
Fica, Valladares, Sanhueza, Melivilu, Carmona

Fabio Henrique

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Being Brazillian, he was sent out on loan for the first two seasons. Had he been Chilean, he may have been in the team earlier but my quota of a maximum of 7 players meant he went out on load longer than he should have, which may have aided his progress incidentally. He could also play in CM and I trained him to play CAM for backup purposes but he is clearly most at home up front. Since he stopped going on loan, he is the goalscorer the club have needed since Savio in D1B. Hopefully he can do this for years to come.

Alejandro Urra

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Just before Henrique burst onto the scene, I was still looking for a striker. I found this scout report showing 5* potential and then looked at his stats and was blown away for a player of this level. I checked his club, and it was Santiago Morning, who had just been relegated to D1B!!! So I managed to sign him for a decent fee, and since then he had grown tremendously. Although he doesnt get quite as many goals as Henrique, he gets a lot more assists and brings other into the game. He brings a more balanced game. This was noticed by Jorge Sampaoli (Yes, he's still manager somehow, just resign so I can take over) and he now has 3 caps for Chile and he looks poised to have a fundamental role for Chile in the forseeable future.

Ricardo Aravena

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I saw his record, and although I had Henrique and Urra, I couldn't resist. He now rotates with the other 2, although those two always play if their condition is 90+. He would have had more games but I forgot that he had played for Cobresal in the opening stage so he didnt play any games for the first half of the season.
 
Another thing to add, most of my foreign players do not count as foreign any more. After 5 consecutive years in Chile, you may acquire citizenship so the only foreigners are Zulu and Henrique.

I'm now going to do some notable players from the past:

Richard Estay

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My first big signing at the club. Yes it was only 7k, but the impact it had was immense. At the age of 15, he was our playmaker and helped us win promotion, while winning fans' player of the year and D1B Young player of the year and coming 3rd for D1B player of the year. He had another 2 seasons with us, winning D1 young player of the year and coming runner up the following season. It was clear from the start that he was too big a player for us and he moved to Lazio for 2.8 million. For a club worth 250k, that was immense, and that helped us put together the solid infrastructure we have now. He's had 3 caps for Chile and has remained on the fringes of the squad, although he is Lazio's star playmaker and is now worth 13 million.

Mauricio Hidalgo

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After Richard Estay, I desperately looked for another CAM. In stepped Hidalgo for 44k. He trumped Estay's achievements by winning not only fans' players of the year back to back but also D1 young player of the year back to back. Again, he moved on, this time to Ajax for 5.5 million. Although he isn't a starter by any means, he has been on loan to some decent clubs and Sampaoli clearly sees more in him than Estay. Although 3 years younger than Estay, he already has 11 caps for Chile.

Sergio Cardenas

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As a backup to Hidalgo, Cardenas joined and although he was somewhat an understudy to Hidalgo, Panathinaikos saw a lot in him and signed him for 1.2 million. He then went on loan for 2 seasons in D1B where he was on top form. However he stayed at the club for the next season and only made one appearance. I saw that his contract ran out in 2023 and so decided to re-sign him!!!
 
Now that's done, I will start by copy and pasting the players that will be leaving/joining for the next season under the Bosman Ruling:

JOINING
Sergio Cardenas

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As a backup to Hidalgo, Cardenas joined and although he was somewhat an understudy to Hidalgo, Panathinaikos saw a lot in him and signed him for 1.2 million. He then went on loan for 2 seasons in D1B where he was on top form. However he stayed at the club for the next season and only made one appearance. I saw that his contract ran out in 2023 and so decided to re-sign him!!!

LEAVING

Eduardo Navarrete

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Brought in as a solid LM, and since joining has been great down the left. Sadly he will be playing his football in Portugal next season. He will be missed.

Felipe Millan

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Signed straight after we were promoted, he was meant to keep out Juan Cordova for a few years untill he had developed a few more years, however another defender made way and these two have been at the heart of the defense for the entirety of our D1 saga. I would like to say it's sad he didn't renew his contract and he will be joining the Dutch League, but I feel right now is the best time to leave, we have a few defenders up and coming who will soon surpass Millan (hopefully) so at least we can say he spent his glory years at this club!


The next post will be on the season ending.
 
So, with the closing stage playoff ending, that meant the end of the D1 season. So out came the awards and these were the honours for me and my team:

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I'd won manger of the year! Which should not have come as a surprise after breaking the Universidad de Chile/Colo Colo streak. But we had 4 players in the team of the year!! And that excited me. So what now? The season has ended so I held a team meeting and here it is

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It was strange that Millan had the best reaction seeing as he was leaving, but meh. The Club honours don't come for another month, don't ask why, but the board see the end of the season then. So that will be my next update.
 
Facilities

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For the past 3-4 seasons, I have continuously upgraded my facilities. This year is no different. I may have to alternate with the upgrades now as they are getting fairly expensive. From a club with basic facilities to this!! If I can keep this up, it won't take long untill we're a real threat in South America!!

Kit Sponsorship

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A giant leap in the sponsorship deal shows that we're going in the right direction. I remember back when we first started and this deal was about 10k.... Not long before it's 75 million per year.

Copa America 2023

With Copa America happening in July, players were looking to impress. But unfortunately some will still be left out.

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Urra was left out of the provisional squad!! However, Richard Estay was brought in to this provisional squad.

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Unfortunately, Estay didn't make the cut, but Hidalgo is still firmly in the squad.

Fans' Player/Team of the Year

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No real surprises here.

Club Reputation

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Although it says there were slight changes in reputation, we overtook Colo Colo!!! Now we're 3rd. This only confuses me further since although they did not win a stage in the previous season, they did make the libertadores quarter finals, and more interestingly, Universidad Catolica are still 1st with a Continental reputation!! I don't understand this!! They haven't even finished in the top 3 in any stage since 2020!! Why is their reputation still top???

Average Attendance

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Slowly, our average attendance has increased, and this year we broke the 9000 barrier. This means the average attendance percentage last season was 93.2%. Is a stadium expansion on the horizon?

Next Season

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So, the fixture list out, and my Chile Cup group is simple as always. But, finally I'm being treated as a top team, with the same odds to win the league as the big boys!! Before we were underdogs. Now we're the real deal. Will we be able to cope with the pressure? Also, we made the Super Cup, and again it's against Universidad de Chile, let's settle the score after losing in two consecutive finals against them!

Goals
A big goal of mine was to win the Chile league. Now what? Here's my goals for the next two seasons.
1) Win the Chile Cup
2) Reach the Quarter Finals of the Libertadores
3) Win 2 Chile League stages

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We shall see how this goes. My next update will be after the Chile Cup Group Stages and the Super Cup with details of any transfers as well.
 
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Season Ticket Sales

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For the first time, season ticket sales made a sizeable jump from 2712 to 2991. Usually we get about 20-30 more holders, but I guess the success has attracted a few more supporters.

Transfers out

Melivilu

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He was unhappy at the club, and I had plenty of CAM players and so, although I could have sold him for a lot more than 71k, it was still double what I signed him for.

Chile Cup Group Stage

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Breezed through it, but what impressed me was that we didn't concede a single goal.

Chile Super Cup

We came into this after two 4-0 victories. However, this is a different kettle of fish. We went down 3-0 at half time, at which point I laid into my team. This seemed to do the trick, as Urra got a goal back. However, a few minutes later, the already yellow carded Nana conceded a penalty and got sent off. So down to 10 men, I changed the tactic to counter attacking, playing 3-4-1-1. Luckily, they missed the penalty and we got another goal back, but it wasn't enough and that's how it ended.

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Injuries

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The 3 that matter are Sepulveda, Cordova and Carmona. Although the only long-term one is Speulveda. However Cordova being out of the opening game means there are only 4 CB's in the first team squad, but I play 3 at the back!! So called up to the first team on the bench was 16 year old Cesar Saez.

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Although he lacks pace, he's solid in the air and with promising stats at 16, he is definately one for the future.

Chile Cup 2nd Round Draw

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For the 2nd time in 3 years, we will be facing Cobreloa in the 2nd Round.

Refusing to Sign Contracts

With a Director of Football employed, I generally don't worry about contract extenstions.

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Oscar Gallardo, 23, has now made himself the 4th choice CB and is knocking very hard on the door to be one of my first 3. With one year left, he's rejecting a contract extension. For now I will leave it be, but when there's only 6 months left, that may be when I need to do something.

Looking ahead to the opening stage

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The league looks a lot less daunting with the only team I fear being Universidad de Chile. With a head to head record like so, you should understand why:

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Apart from them, the only other team on my radar are Colo Colo, but i will go into that match with the confidence to see myself through with a win. Apart from that, the games should be won. This will just come down to rotating my squad and avoiding injuries.

I guess with that said, my next update will be after the Colo Colo match!
 
Injury

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Straight after the previous update, Fernandez was ruled out for a month. Him being a rotation player and the fact that I have so many options in CM led me not to be too concerned about this.

So the League begins
Huachipato-H 3-0
The opening day saw us face top half side Huachipato. There's not much to be said about this. We ran away with the match with a 3-0 victory. However, the major talking point was that we got two penalties, and up stepped our reliable penalty taker, Owona, who I can only remember missing one penalty before, but he missed both!! After the match I looked at the stats, and he was the joint top penalty taker with Aravena, who had better composure so the Penalty taking responsibility was handed over to him. However, Aravena is usually on the bench, so there was still a big chance that Owona would face plenty more penalties in the coming games.

Man of the Match - Nana
When a CB scores and his team gets a clean sheet, it's always going to be him

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San Luis-A 4-1

This match was a lot closer than the score leads us to believe. In the 2nd minute, San Luis gave us a scare from a corner that had to be saved off the line. However, after this we enjoyed a spell of dominance and with that a goal. However, the problems from set pieces weren't over in the match, as San Luis had a goal disallowed from a FK for offside. Our team responded positively to this with Urra putting the ball into the back of the net only for that to be called offside too. Now, early in the second half, we got a penalty. And up stepped Owona to redeem his earlier misses, in a slightly higher pressure situation, only for him to miss! Luckily the rebound fell nicely to him so he slotted it away. However, San Luis scored from a corner with the scorer being former Arica boy Matias Blazquez. Then next key play saw San Luis have a corner, so I was fearing an equaliser. However, the ball was cleared and led to a counter attack with Ouattara carrying the ball down the right flank before laying it off to Henrique to make it 3-1, from there the game was comfortable.

Man of the Match - Ouattara
With 2 assists, the 1st and 3rd goal both being crucial. Ouattare who started the game on the left wing and then later moved into the centre was influential in both positions.

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Rangers-H 2-0

It didn't take long to get of the mark. 10 minutes in, Ouattara with an early cross from the left wing met by Urra who glanced it into the far corner. Then on the right wing, Valladares with a cross met by the head of Urra. The second half provided Urra with another chance from 10 yards out only for him to slice it and with that his chance of a hat trick. A professional performance, where we never looked like conceding and we got the job done!

Man of the Match - Urra
With the only goals of the game, it had to be him.

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Not only players are up for sale

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So, Fluminense come in for one of my youth coaches!! Given my coach's stats, I was not willing to let him go, and I had a chat with him and convinced him to stay!

League Standings

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So with 3 games gone, it's the usual suspects at the top of the pile. But this is still early days. With a big game against Colo Colo next, there's still a lot of movement in the table to happen.
 
That's impressive!!! Well done!
Did you have a second tactic to play hard games for example? Or to play into Libertadores da América?
 
Thanks, I'm still not done yet at this club. I try to play possesion football in every match, but if it's not working, my backup is the same formation, but I play a direct style on the counter attack.
 
Injury

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He's been a top player for the past two seasons, and although Colo Colo is a big match, I'd rather have him for the extra games. I have a solid squad so an injury here or there shouldn't hurt me too much.

Transfers

Deadline Day has passed, and no further major transfers were made. Here's a full list.

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Yes, a lot of Loans out, and half of them are playing in D1 too!! However, this does not mean my players are safe from the clutches of big clubs, their transfer deadline is far from over!!

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Yes, he's missed 3 penalties but he's still a top player, so unless a bid a lot closer to 10 million is placed, he isn't going anywhere. Plus he's got 3 years on his contract.

The Big Game - Colo Colo - Home

Now, the first big game of the season. We'll see how much credibility our title challenge holds. We go into this match as slight favourites.

After 20 minutes of controlling possession, the first clear opportunity also fell to us. From a Zulu cross from the right flank, Henrique brings it down and shoots, but the keeper makes the save and the defender does a poor clearance out toouch near the corner flag. From this, Owona takes a shot from 20 yards which the keeper saves but it rebounds into Carmona's path for the first goal of the match.

However, from a FK 40 yards out, Colo Colo equalise. It looks like we need more practice defending these. Then straight after half time, Colo Colo lump a ball upfield, which should easily be dealt with by Cordova, who somehow misjudges it putting their striker through to make it 2-1.

At the 60 minute mark, Cardenas and Aravena came on for Henrique, who wasn't having the best of games, and Carmona, who had picked up a knock. But this did not change much, and the score ended this way. Undone by poor defending.

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This just about sums it up.

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Additionally, I had taken Carmona off because of a knock, but his replacement Cardenas also picked up a knock, which developed into an injury.

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Deportes Concepcion - Away

After I week training defence intensely, we set off to face Deportes Concepcion. Not much to say but a solid performance, although we could have done with a clean sheet.

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However, Urra went off injured and it was found to be quite serious.

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Although we have a few backups up front, you will always miss someone of his calibre with already 3 goals in 5 league games.

Audax Italiano - Away

Newly promoted Audax Italiano have not done so bad so far. They've had a mixed bag of results which include a 1-0 victory over Colo Colo, so although I believed we should thrash them, there was still this in the back of my mind. However, they played as expected, a comfortable 3-0 win was the outcome

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League Standings so far

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Unhappy Players

I'm always nervous when speaking to players who want more game time. Pick the wrong option and suddenly they want to leave! Luckily I handled this one well. He's my Backup Keeper so I won't be affording him much game time!

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Chile Cup - Cobreloa - Home (1st Leg)

So the 2nd Round is now underway. After an International break, can we push on to begin another decent cup run like last year?

Due to the International matches, Yala and Ouattara missed this game which gave some fringe members a chance in the team (Urra is also out with injury). This combined with the fact that Cobreloa are the best team outside of the title challengers meant that this game could be tough.

15 minutes in, Henrique misses an easy 1 on 1 leaving me thinking this may not be our day. And I was right to think this. Just after half time a free kick from a wide area comes across out 6 yard box and Gallardo puts it past his own keeper.

On the 68th minute, on came Valladares for Aravena and Cardenas for Cifuentes(injured), both
just coming back from injury. But this did not make too much difference.

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And here were the next few games:

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The O'Higgins defeat was bitterly disappointing. We dominated possession and went behind to a freak own goal by Zulu from a corner. Alejandro Urra had just come back from injury and was on the bench. He was put on in the 2nd half only for the best chance of the match to fall to him, and he messed it up completely. This left the league table like so

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My players are not up for sale

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Clubs have been interested in my players. This is the biggest bid put in. After this, Owona was not happy so I had to have a chat with him:

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That promise should hopefully be kept.

International Break

Now, there is an International Break, and there were some interesting choices for Chile:

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I give the manager benefit of the doubt since he's just recovered from injury. But this one is more interesting.

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No, not Valladares, but Bryan Villarroel

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Signed from bitter rivals Deportes Iquiqe, he hasn't played for us yet. But he's been on loan and has played decent. He's currently at Cobreloa, yes the one I'm losing 1-0 in the Chile Cup. So he's playing a decent standard. I can't see me sending him out on loan next season.

Hunt for a feeder clubs
I've requested this of the board many times but they just can't seem to find anyone for some reason. Fingers crossed.

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My next game is against Cobreloa in the cup after International Break so stay tuned!!
 
Feeder Club Verdict - fuuuuuuuuu

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Injury News

On the day of the game, I find this in my News feed:

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He wasn't going to start, but he was a nice sub to be able to put on if things weren't going to plan.


Chile Cup - Cobreloa - Away


After the disappointing 1-0 defeat at home, we had it all to here, especially with our Keeper, Etoundi and CB Nana still travelling back from International Break. I told them to avenge their defeat and bring us back into the cup. This seemed to provoke a reaction out of them but there were no chances in the first 30 minutes.

The first chance fell to Sepulveda on the counter only for their keeper to pull off a decent save. Another chance appeared for him later in the first half after some beautiful possession football only for the outcome to be the same.

However, early in the 2nd half disaster struck and we were a goal down, now needing 2 goals to stay in the cup. This sparked us back into life and we instantly got a chance which fell to Henrique but he couldn't find the net. Then a few minutes after that we were two down. In the 60th minute Henrique found himself through on goal again only to squander the chance yet again. At this point I'd had enough and he was off and on came Aravena. Also coming off was Owona and on came Cardenas. And sadly the only remaining chances fell to Cobreloa. And we were out

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The Remaining Fixtures

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A great run of form with a blip against Catolica. In the end the league finished like this:

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And our second title was here!!! But the most touching thing was this:

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When he's by far our best striker, he has to be playing ASAP. In the end, he was out best player with 10 goals and 5 assists in 13 league games.


 
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