The Football Ambassador Challenge Journal

2014 Recap
Even though we won Simadeildin, Cup and League Cup three years in a row, we are still only the 6th most famous team in Iceland. This is bull*

The "plan" is to keep on going to the Group Stage, enhancing youth facilities and training centers as we go. We won 8M last year and spent 4M, we need more.
I signed all my team pro contracts (with the exception of 4-5 filler dudes who expire in the end of 2015) and I ended up with a 550K/year global wage. That's less than the double of what I had, so I'm very happy.
We have 2500 people even in our frendlies, so we will need another stadium/enhancement soon.

I won Worldwide Reputation by beating FC Porto. Players will want to sign with me now. :)


Iceland got to the 36th place of UEFA (+4 since 2011, +3 since 2013) meaning we still send :
-Champ to C1
-2nd to Europa League 2nd round
-3rd to Europa League 1st round
-Cup winner (or 4th) to Europa League 1st round
But it's on the rise, and we will go up as the years go.

Iceland (the country) is in the 62th position. We will get back on that later...

Before doing the 2015 report for Vikingur, I told you last post I took over Ireland. This is the Irish report.


2015 : The luck of the Irish

I'm doing this purely to help my challenge : I go from country to country, to spot the nice regens thanks to the U19-U17 teams, and win trophies and enhance my reputation. I'm starting in Ireland.

We start after 2 defeats in the Euro 2016 Qualifiers, and a last place. President wants us to be 3rd and to go through the playoffs.
Reminder : Euro 2016 has 24 teams, meaning the top 2 go through and the best 3rds have a playoff.

My team is composed of endurant, fast players and a very good defense. However, we're only Ireland, and we can't play a normal game against the likes of Italy, France...meaning my "main" strategy will be a 4-2-3-1 counter attack.
After tweaking the tactics (first post crosses, high tempo, low defense, a lot of work done by the two DMs) my starting 11 is :


Westwood - Coleman, Wilson, McShane, Clark - McCarthy, Gibson - McGeady, ***, Sheridan - Long


4 nations tournament :

Ireland 3-3 Scotland
Sheridan, Doyle, Long

Ireland 2-1 Wales
McGeady, Long

Ireland 2-0 Northern Ireland
McCarthy, OG


Which allowed me to modify the tactics a bit after seeing some problems in the game. We won! :)

Group G of Euro 2016 Qualifiers

Netherlands 0-2 Ireland
Sheridan, St Ledger

Counter attack at its finest. We had 4 shots, all on target, they had 19, one on target. My attacking midfielders/strikers are very efficient and score often when given the chance.

Ireland 6-0 Faroe Islands
McCarthy, St Ledger, Long (3), Sheridan

We played this one 4-2-4. Not spent much time on this tactic because we will keep the 4-2-3-1 against everyone else.

Ireland 5-1 Georgia
***, Long (2), Mc Geady, Doyle

Friendly game :
Ireland 1-3 Montenegro
***

Meh. A bit scary before facing the two monsters of our group, but...

Group G of Euro 2016 Qualifiers

Switzeland 1-1 Ireland
Long

Ireland 3-1 Netherlands
Long, Sheridan, Mc Cann

They quickly pulled ahead thanks to Huntelaar scoring a penalty, and we were 0-1 until the 81st minute. We scored, they wanted to win the game and left spaces here and there. Three goals in 10 minutes.

Faroe Islands 1-7 Ireland
*** (2), Long (2), McGeady (2), Sheridan

This made us go up in the group!

View attachment 311730

As you can see, Netherlands is not one of the best in 3rd place, so they are already out! We are going to France 2016!

And the huge shocker in the other group....ICELAND IS TOO!!

View attachment 311731

Iceland won against Norway in the playoffs.


---------

I should note at this point that I'm not planning on taking over Iceland anytime soon. The reason is simple. Even though Iceland has good players now (Gylfi Sigurosson, etc), they are not going to be around for long, and once that happens, the country is finished (because I can see the Iceland regens, and trust me, they aren't even Simadeildin level)
Which means if I get Iceland now, I'm going to get sacked FOR SURE in 5 years. I'd rather wait top quality regens.

---------

Still, it's good if the country goes as far as possible.

EURO 2016 Groups

Group A
Wales
Portugal
Ireland
England

o_O that's harsh...CR7, Bale and the English? We have to play serious counter attacking football to ensure 3rd place (yes, the 2 first team go through along with the 4 best 3rds)

Group B
Iceland
Turkey
Slovakia
Scotland

Iceland can make its way out of this with a little luck.

Friendlies

Italy 1-1 Ireland
Long

France 0-1 Ireland
Wilson

That's good, even if stupid Giovinco scored the equaliser in the 94th minute.
​
 
2015 : Smooth sailing

Signing all pro contracts made my salary jump to 500K/year, but it's not that far away from the other Icelandic teams (they have like 40 players)
I aim for group stage again.

I recruited two good French defenders regens, Francois and Lukaku. I got Solem on a loan. All of them are 18. Sending scouts around the world really is powerful, you can get the rejects of the big European teams for free.

Matola, I recruited from Tanzania.

Pohjanpalo came to me in the beginning of the season and wants to leave to a bigger club! Ok dude, I'm going to sell you.

Tactic : still the 4-4-2 :
Olsen - Naes, François, Savolainen, Solem - Matola, Zazu, Loland, Dedola - Eboigbe, Agoye

Bench :
GK : Eriksen
Def : Justinussen, Jensen, Dahlin, Lukaku
Mid : Vasshaug, Pohjanpalo, Schmidt, Wagner, Olsen, Navarro
Str : Jonsson, Colombo, Udsen

I managed to win easily League Cup and recruit the number 2 top striker, a Iceland regen (why? Because homegrown numbers are really important for C1) named Hjaltason. And a Russian striker named Chumachenko, who will be as good as Eboigbe in two or three years.

Simadeildin can be summed up in two pictures, really...

View attachment 312251

A stupid draw prevent us from doing a perfect season, but that's now 44 games undefeated across 2 seasons.

View attachment 312252

Eboigbe is really a monster. The best player to play in Simadeildin, ever.
On a funny note, Eidur Gudjohnsen took control of Fylkir after the end of the season. And judging from his stats, they will be back in Simadeildin soon.

We won the cup, of course.
At the end of the season, I managed to sell Pohjanpalo for 300K. Not bad for a player who was never my first choice and paid 11K/year.

2015-2016 : The European run

We drew NK Maribor, just like last year. We were confident. Our team was stronger.

2nd round

Vikingur 3-1 NK Maribor
Eboigbe, Dedola, Zazu

NK Maribor 0-3 Vikingur
Illum, Zazu, Agoye

We drew Strum Graz. After a bit of research they are one of the toughest teams out there. Still, I was sure we could own them.

3rd round

Strum Graz 2-2 Vikingur
Agoye, Eboigbe
Ouch! We scored a last minute equalizer, but we didn't deserve to get a draw or a win.

Vikingur 4-0 Strum Graz
Eboigbe (2), Agoye, Chumachenko

We drew FC Copenhagen for the play offs. Once again the biggest team possible >_<

Play offs

FC Copenhagen 0-2 Vikingur
Dedola, Agoye

Vikingur 2-1 FC Copenhagen
Loland, Dedola

Another 7 million! I upgraded the training facilities, but that costed me 6M!! But that's the last time we will have to do so, I think.

Champions League Group C
Inter Milan
Schalke 04
Sporting Lisboa
Vikingur

No chance in ****, but I want to steal a match or two because 800K a win is a lot.

Schalke 04 2-2 Vikingur
Zazu, Agoye

Our two CB got injured that game, meaning we will have to play reserve defense for the next few games...

Vikingur 0-4 SLB

Inter 3-0 Vikingur

Vikingur 1-2 Inter
Chumachenko

Vikingur 1-1 Schalke 04
Pohjanpalo

Our GK got injured!

SLB 6-0 Vikingur
Now that's bull* We deserved to lose 2-0, but my 16 year old GK can't stop 40 meters long shots...

View attachment 312255

Two points and 800K for the two draws. That's good.
The year was a bit dull, and I admit I was bored at the end of the year. Going to group stage every year and win 7M, that's routine now.

After playing 2016, I realise I couldn't have been more wrong.
​
 
Another quick post to post a random thought :
-As of 2016 I can't upgrade my training center (even though it only has 16/20), my next focus is youth production. My youth are horrendous, so are all of Iceland's youth, and if I have to use 8 Icelanders in C1, that only leaves 17 "good" players", which is barely a team.
 
A very quick post and a question for you all :

That's the third time I change the grass of my stadium, and after a month, the grass is again in a "very bad" shape.

I'm sick and tired of having 3-4 injured players per month, does anyone know what this is? A bug? Iceland climate? I need ground heating?
 
Not sure of the problem my friend but the country you playing in could be a big factor. Try getting under soil heating, even better would be to get a roof!
 
2016 : Where it all goes to ****, part 1

The year started nicely, with Eriksen starting to resemble a decent goalie. We recruited a lot of -18 European dropouts, which didn't change our team's level, but in a few years' time, we will be competitive in Europe.

Or so I thought : During the two first January weeks :
-Zazu wants out
-Loland wants out
-Agoye wants out
-Vasshaug wants out

Bam. 4/11 of our starting 11 is fed up with our "lame" team and wants to go to Norway or Sweden where they never see C1 Group stage. Or C1 altogether. Great.

Tactic 1 : The classic 4-4-2
Tactic 2 : The classic 4-4-2, with more tacles, pressures, and the AMC put as playmaker. Higher rythm.

The 2nd tactic was created during the 2 months of friendlies to keep me busy, and to try to make a better tactic, for European competitions. It works better on low-rythm opponents who like to keep the ball, with uncreative players. Not exactly Europe, but I'll find another one next year.

Starting 11 :
Eriksen - Lukaku, Francois, Savolainen, Solem - Vasshaug, Zazu, Loland, Dedola - Agoye, Eboigbe

Bench :
GK : Embers
Def : Naes, Caton, Illum, Andresen
Mid : Matola, Wagner, Schmidt, Olsen, Navarro
Str : Chumachenko, Hjaltason, Jonsson

I went and recruited 4 players for the summer, because I will lose 4 players by the end of the year. Still, losing Agoye will hurt. The other three can go. Wagner is already better than Zazu.

Our 16/20 training center came at this moment, along with our 9/20 youth center.
Still 5 for youth recruitment. 14 for youth academy :)

We won League Cup but for the first time in three years we drew a game (the first one), because I was using tactic 2.

We rocketed the start of Simadeildin with a chain of victories. However, after 7 games, Vikingur had a game-free month of June and July. Euro 2016 was about to start.

The problem was clear : I had to play all those games on August and September, along with the Cup and the crucial Play Offs of C1 :(

Still, I was confident that with our team, we could pull it off. We needed a bit of luck in the C1 to go to group stage.


Up next : France 2016
​
 
2016 : Where it all goes to **** : Euro 2016

I had the usual March friendly game with our usual 23. And I saw something horrible. My AML, Sheridan, can't play AML anymore! He only played ST for the Shamrock Rovers so he forgot. :/

Ireland 1-0 Belgium
Long



He didn't make it to the 23 for Euro.

Starting 11 : (4-2-3-1 counterattack)
Westwood - Coleman, Wilson, St Ledger, Clark (c) - McCarthy, McCann - Collins (regen), ***, Mc Geady - Long

Others : Lonergan, Gibson, Whelan, Deegan, Ward, Foley, McShane, Kelly (r), Doyle, Murphy, Walters, Keogh

Euro 2016 Preparation

Russia 3-1 Ireland
McShane

Well, Vikingur's own Chumachenko made his Russia debut (at the age of 19) and made a crappy game :D
The other Russians however were very tough. They were stronger physically than our players, and crunched through our defenses. We couldn't attack through the wings either...

Ukraine 1-0 Ireland

Ouch.

Ireland 2-1 Sweden
OG, Kelly
Now that's more like it. Our counters were smooth and our defenses tight. Let's hope I can keep going with this kind of results.

Ireland 8-0 San Marino
Keogh (3), Collins, McShane, Mc Geady (2), Kelly

Yeah, I know, San Marino. I wanted an easy friendly to end in order to have good morale for the competition.

EURO 2016

Group A
Wales
Portugal
Ireland
England

Expectations : Get out of the group alive

First game against Portugal!

Portugal 1-2 Ireland
Long, Collins

Unfair first half where we fended off Portugal except for one CR7 dribbling 5 people and scoring with a power shot. We had more success in the 2nd half.

England 5-3 Wales
Bale provided 3 assists but it wasn't enough for the Rooney-Walcott duo.


Iceland got trashed in their first game :/

-----------------------------

Ireland 5-0 England
McCarthy, Long (3), Collins
!!!!
We owned them. It didn't even look like we were counterattacking because we were sitting in their 20 meters. Joe Hart had a bad day too.

Wales 0-2 Portugal

Perfect result, we're ensured first place!

And Iceland won their 2nd game!

-----------------------------

Wales 2-0 Ireland

England 1-0 Portugal

Ouch! First time since I took over that Ireland don't score at least one goal.

Still, we finished first....and ICELAND TOO! (lol you're not serious FM)

Round of 16 :

France - Sweden
Ireland - Scotland
Austria - Denmark
Italy - Croatia
Iceland - Portugal
Turkey - Spain
Belgium - England
Germany - Serbia

I don't see Iceland beating Portugal. If we win against Scotland, we face France or Sweden, and we already have beaten both of them in friendlies this year.

I was interrupted in my Euro Rush by a sad news :

-My chairman accepted in my stead a 2M bid on Agoye by PSV Eindhoven.
Ouch! I didn't expect to lose him before the end of the season. 2M is good but ****.

I decided to sell Loland, Zazu and Vassahug now and get it over with.
-Sold Loland for 1M!
-Sold Zazu for 400K
-Sold Vasshaug for 1M

Loland isn't even worth 200K, btw. Vasshaug will be soon worth more than 1M so I'm sad to see him go. I was hoping to win more money with Zazu's sale, but he's already 28.

Thank god Simadeildin is at a halt, because my team is a bit empty...my reinforcments from Africa and Belarus are coming in July (soon)

Back to Euro......

-----------------------------------

Round of 16

Ireland 3-1 Scotland
Long 6'
Fletcher 14'
Fletcher sent off (25')
McCann (29')
Wilson (62')

A good game perfectly orchestrated by my counterattacks. Fletcher was on fire, he scored alone his goal, but he got sent off shortly after.


France 0-2 Sweden
Ireland
Austria 2-2p Denmark
Italy 5-2 Croatia
Iceland 0-3 Portugal
Turkey 0-2 Spain
Belgium p0-0 England
Germany 4-0 Serbia

We face Sweden! France lost in their homecountry. Iceland's run is over too. Round of 16 is **** impressive.

-----------------------------------

Quarter Finals

Sweden 1-3 Ireland
Long (16')
Ibrahimovic (22)
OG (61')
*** (90+3')

Yeah, Zlatan is still here. And he scored a goal from 40 meters o_O We were in control of the match.


Denmark p1-1 Italy
Portugal 3-3p Spain
Belgium 1-2 Germany

We face Christian Eriksen's Denmark! He became their playmaker and is worth 40M, and is playing for Marseille. They won both rounds on penalty shootouts, so I'm hoping to end it in 90 minutes.

-----------------------------------

Semi Finals

Ireland 3-0 Denmark
Collins (5')
Long (13')
Keogh (70')

Was that really a semi-final? Denmark wasn't even playing.

Spain 1-2 Germany

Ouch! I was hoping for everyone but them...In my FM, Germany players are all grey players (some sort of copyright issues I guess) and they are ALL broken.

Oh....and Shane Long got a COLD the day before! In France! In June! SERIOUSLY??? I have to miss my key striker! In a 4-2-3-ONE :(

-----------------------------------

Euro 2016 Final

Ireland 1-1 Germany
Rosenthal (=Hummels) (13')
Doyle (19')

Ouch, we were pummeled. Don't deserve the draw here. I wanted to go to the penalty shootouts.

Extra time : nothing

Penalty shootouts...
Ireland 2P-3P Germany

It was a fair penalty exchange until the 5th one where Kuhn (=Lahm) scored, but my keyman Mc Geady decided to pull a Roberto Baggio and shooted the 5th penalty in the air :(
TBH, we didn't deserve to win this one.


Well, this was a good run. I learned a good tactic, and enhanced my reputation a bit. I resigned the day following the final because we were now ranked 10th in UEFA and the President had unrealistic aims for World Cup 2018.

I'm hoping to join another country soon, to win the World Cup.
But I came back to Iceland soon after I heard the news.

Anderlecht bidded 3.9M on Eboigbe.
The board accepted the offer in my stead.

Coming soon : The B-team takes on Simadeildin and the Champions League
​
 
please post as much as you can, this is very interesting and i am interested to see what will happen when you lose your big players
 
Long story short, I'm almost done with this challenge. I'm in 2020 and there's a glass ceiling I can't get past. This has nothing to do with skill or frustration, but the game mechanics, more precisely the Reputation system.

I will make a post to explain what the flaw is, and then close this topic.

To summarize my seasons :
-Iceland : Always won everything, achieved perfect season (only wins) in 2018.
-C1 2016-2017 : 4th in Group Stage
-C1 2017-2018 : Quarter Finals (3-2 1-3 v. Barca)
-C1 2018-2019 : Quarter Finals (1-2 1-1 v. City)
-C1 2019-2020 : Round of 16 (1-0 1-6 v. Man.U)


Okay, so for Iceland there's four different things to look for in your progression :
-UEFA ranking : Depends on European performances of all the Icelander teams, added up and averaged.
It's the most honest ranking, and it's the easiest one to climb. We started 39th in 2012, and we're now 10th.
It affects League Ranking and which round your teams go in C1/C3.

-League ranking : Depends only on UEFA ranking, a bit slower to move.
When you win the League in question, you recieve a reputation boost that is determined by the League ranking. It also acts as a glass ceiling.
For example, if Swiss League Ranking is 6000 (out of 10000, meaning 3 stars) and a team with 4000 rep. wins it, that team will have a reputation boost. But if the team has so much as 6003 rep, winning the league will do *nothing*, meaning your teams can never go above your League Rep.....unless they go to the final of the C1 or C3.
Going the final will increase it because C1 has a fixed 9500 reputation.
To increase your rep, you NEED to be in the top 3 (Championships, Cups with 3rd place) or top 2 (Cups, C1, C3)
Yes, if a team goes to C1 semi-final 45 times in a row, she will not have a reputation increase.

-Team ranking : Depends on your players' rep and titles won.
That's very simple : Having higher level players means an increase in reputation. Think David Beckham and PSG.
Selling higher level players = Lose rep.
Year without winning title (or 2nd or 3rd place) = No increase, sometimes decrease (depends on your starting rep)

-Player rep : Depends on player performance and league ranking.
It's very simple too : Player reputation will increase if the player has an average of 7 or more, and decrease if the average is less than 7.
The glass ceiling of League Reputation applies...meaning if you only play Swiss League, player rep can't go above 6000 (lower Continental)
Once again, having good matches in C1/C3 will drastically improve the players' rep.
Itdirectly affects sale value.


Okay, so after all this, I can easily say that I'm in an endless yearly circle that starts in July :
-Initial rep : 3500 (1 star and a half)
-Win Simadeildin, Iceland Cup and League Cup (Rep increase to about 5500)
-Have a C1 run (Player's rep will go to 6500-7500, usually stuck in Quarter Finals)
-Players moan and whine to go to bigger teams, I sell them
-HUGE drop in rep, to about 3500

Yes, this means in July 2020, Vikingur is only the 7th most popular team in Iceland. Keflavik is more popular than me, and they're in 2nd division. (because they never go to C1 and never sell their useless players)

To break the cycle, I need to make it to a C1/C3 final, and that's not likely to happen anytime soon...I have a good sense of tactics in this game, so I can go very far with lesser players, but there's a limit.

I have to face it, the game is scaled for bigger countries, and going against that isn't fun or fulfilling. I quit.
 
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