The Great San Marino Challenge

[choices]

2033-2034 Season (Part 2. World Cup)

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I was feeling uneasy when I found out that Argentina was in our group. Was nervous when I found out that we were opening up against them. Then started to feel better when some stars were missing and they were bringing in some old (33-35 year old players who were still had good stats) to their team. Then I felt like I could win when I saw that message.

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If anyone had me advancing with Argentina good for you. I would of said the same thing. Who would of though me (#10 in the world) and U.S.A. (#13) would be the ones advancing we congrats to you. That was shocking, but not as shocking as this message after the group stage ended.

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We took our team from #10 to #3 in the world and you think I would really leave my team that is advancing in the World Cup to take over a team I basically knocked out? Even if this wasn't for a challenge to manage the NT I sitll wouldn't do it. Maybe after the World Cup, but not right now.

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I don't know cause if we played them in qualifiers, and beat them twice, or the fact that I was more interested that I had the ability to play Italy again next round that I totally forgot about this game. Actually ran the wrong formation in this game (I went with a 4-2-2-2 instead of my 4-4-1-1) especially when Casadei was sitting out due to yellow cards collection.

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Italy would come and Casadei would put them asleep as we would tally a goal and an assist in this game. The mighty Azzurri's have fallen to the new mighty La Serenissima. First win ever against them in five tries under Coach Ryan.

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Made it back to the Semi's for the second straight World Cup. We would have to play the host's which means they got their home field advantage. I can't believe that it is Australia (#49). Wait that can't be true, really a 49th best team in the World made it to the Semi's. Either there was a major upset somewhere or they are better than their standings. Nope, just a major upset on the way as Casadei would score two goals and we would add in two more. At least they scored a goal against us.

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So we made it to the finals. Oh my and who is the team we have to play against. Not #1 since Argentina didn't even make it out of the group stage...well how about the other team that got out of OUR group stage. Oh no!!! Not the US of A. Oh my coach is torn. Playing against the nation (#10) he was born in. Just like in the group stage it was a victory and this time it was a blow out. Casadei would score two goals, and does that mean...I belie...yes it is...

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The Golden Boot really goes to a San Marino Player. Casadei would have 7 goals as the second and third place guys would have six. Not only was Casadei the Best Player in the World Cup, we also had the best Young Player as well in Serra (who is our other striker, but plays better behind Casadie in the 4-4-1-1). Also 8 players, yes 8 made the Dream Team. Of course only 4 were starters, but to have 8 of the 11 is pretty good. Although I was shocked to see my GK was a sub on the Dream Team. When give up only 2 goals in 7 games I would assume he would make first team, but I would be wrong if I assumed. We did score 15 goals which was a little over 2 a game.

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The Man, The Myth, The Legend. Sadly this is his second to last world cup. After the world cup both USA and Italy coaches resigned. USA you made it to the finals! Be proud and stick for another 4 years!!! But after the year my best defender who was 29 called it quits on the international front just like the last world cup with two other guys. So on those predictions he will be 30 and will either retire probably after it unless he gets a serious injury to keep his playing career going.






With that note of winning the World Cup, and honestly surprised I did, I though I would be a power house and would be favorites to win it next time in 2038, but was unsure about this year. Just everything fell right for me. No injuries (or well only 1 in the whole world cup), getting some lucky matches and having Casadei still on fire.

With winning the World Cup it should push me into hopefully #1 ranking for the national team. That is basically the only achievement I still need to get. If Kandersson you are keeping track there is having the scoring leader and some other ones I missed coming up so I could really just tank my team for a couple of years and then just blow everyone out of the water to collect that, but really don't want to do that with this team. So without keeping this going forever I think this save is now over for me since I can't do much more other than just start to improve the up-and-comers of the future national team (which would be fun, but tiresome with just playing all those games). My next save won't be far off as I will be doing with Scotty and some other people are doing and playing in the San Marino league. I had a blast guys reading your updates (Kanderrson, Scotty, Commando) and you are doing better than what I was in the early 2018-2022 era so maybe you will win your world cup before I did. Since I didn't even make noise really until 2028. Or at least be on the cusp of able to complete on a daily bases with teams. So at least my updates will just be about San Marino, just from a crappier side. Although I don't know if I will take over the national team yet since it was a little painful. Might want until they are decent enough to qualify first.


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[kandersson]

Choices are you kidding me!? World Cup winner in 2034 (after WC final in 2030) is absolutely amazing. You've done The Great San Marino Double, and you achieved that only using SM players at the club as well. I'm speechless! You're a true San Marino Legend

 

[choices]

Choices are you kidding me!? World Cup winner in 2034 (after WC final in 2030) is absolutely amazing. You've done The Great San Marino Double, and you achieved that only using SM players at the club as well. I'm speechless! You're a true San Marino Legend

I really don't know if I am a legend. You should hold off until you win yours. You guys have a better NT that I did in 2018-2022. So you are light years ahead of me. Only thing that helped me was the first 5 years prior to playing with just all Sammarines players were getting the guys that looked good on my senior team and starting them (yes I don't do the whole 20 minutes at the end of the game, or just cups). Straight starting and when they are tired which is actually like 2 games later they rest for a rull game. Then have top world class players also at their position and then tutor them every season.

It also helped my team ten fold when it was all just Sammarines players. Growth of players and still tutoring (buying really old guys who were good at stats and influence) to a one year contract. Sure it would cost around 150-200K for those salaries, but it turned my players into what I have now.

It's weird seeing some of these guys and I think they are in their prime of like 24-28 years old and they are still just 20 or 22 years old. I bring these people up when they are 15 or 16 and so they play for like 6 years and it just seems like they should be so much older.

I think for the new save I am not going to buy people and just do all free's until I can just run with San Marino people. I am not going to lie it was very fun. I know I flew through the seasons. Part due to having time off and getting done with work super early. Which is why I am continue to start one with San Marino league and take it hopefully to #1 league in the world. This should be interesting. Might even do a story on it. But I appreciate the challenge. I will admit for the last three years all I do is play in terrible leagues, so I might of had an advantage on who to look for and I just know the tactics I use to what I need for certain spots. Don't worry I will still be checking into this board to see how everyone else is doing.

I might just sim like 20 years in this save to see what the next stadium will be for San Marino. Can we break the 100K mark for seats!

EDIT: Also in the 2030 World Cup made it to the Semi's and lost not the finals. Lost the third place game as well so acutally finished fourth.

 

[supersaltyslug]

Started this challenge a while back, but never actually played through very far Cheeky question though, can youth contract players not play compettitive international matches? I have a couple of 15/16 year old regens in my NT but cant pick them

 

[kandersson]

Started this challenge a while back, but never actually played through very far Cheeky question though, can youth contract players not play compettitive international matches? I have a couple of 15/16 year old regens in my NT but cant pick them

I think players under 16 of age can't play international games at senior level? Happened to me a couple of times too, and when they turned 16 they became available for int matches.

in other news here's latest update of my story with 2022 World Cup group stage http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...-another-san-marino-story-18.html#post1503511

 

[supersaltyslug]

I think players under 16 of age can't play international games at senior level? Happened to me a couple of times too, and when they turned 16 they became available for int matches.

in other news here's latest update of my story with 2022 World Cup group stage http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...-another-san-marino-story-18.html#post1503511

I gave them their international bows in a friendly IIRC, buy show up as "inelegible" during qualifiers for the euros. o.0

 

[commando101st]

@choices: Mate, that's incredible! I think that counts as winning Football Manager! Taking the worst (technically, we all know it's the best!) nation in the world to win the WC!

Do stick around with us mere mortals still struggling to qualify for anything though!

Good luck in the CS too, it's actually really fun seeing your frankly dreadful club become semi-pro, then hopefully pro in a few years for me! Shockingly, my players haven't asked for obscene wages to become semi-pro! All very reasonable and well under budget!

 

[kandersson]

Choices I wanted to ask you one thing: when you played the dual nationality players at the club (before they accepted the NT) did Italy NT call them and cap them at senior level? I guess that should be a real risk as they'd play regularly for the best club in the country - in fact Italy always call up more or less every Italian player I have at the club (even if they're third choice for me). They even called a dual nationality player for a preliminary EURO squad despite him playing for our U20 club team all year...

don't know if it's just me but the vast majority of our best prospects are dual nationality players rejecting SM and always being selected for Italy youth teams - which means they'll reject the NT until they turn 24, and even worse I can't use them at the club until then as I'm almost sure they'd become full Italy internationals in that case (I currently have the next Buffon, the next Baresi, the next Totti, the next Gentile amongst others...). How did it work for you?

this is the most frustrating aspect for me: I can't develop properly the best SM prospects, have to freeze their career for 8-9 years and send them on loan basically until they turn 24. Not only I can't use them for the NT for such a long time, I'm forced to harm their development and actually "erase" 5-6 years of their football career...

2023 will be the year that four excellent defectors turn 24 and should finally accept SM, still I'm annoyed it took so long and also that they probably didn't reach their full potential... and I know it will happen again and again with other players... honestly this could get too frustrating for me to go on until 2030 or so...

 

[Safc-mad-scotty]

Choices I wanted to ask you one thing: when you played the dual nationality players at the club (before they accepted the NT) did Italy NT call them and cap them at senior level? I guess that should be a real risk as they'd play regularly for the best club in the country - in fact Italy always call up more or less every Italian player I have at the club (even if they're third choice for me). They even called a dual nationality player for a preliminary EURO squad despite him playing for our U20 club team all year...

don't know if it's just me but the vast majority of our best prospects are dual nationality players rejecting SM and always being selected for Italy youth teams - which means they'll reject the NT until they turn 24, and even worse I can't use them at the club until then as I'm almost sure they'd become full Italy internationals in that case (I currently have the next Buffon, the next Baresi, the next Totti, the next Gentile amongst others...). How did it work for you?

this is the most frustrating aspect for me: I can't develop properly the best SM prospects, have to freeze their career for 8-9 years and send them on loan basically until they turn 24. Not only I can't use them for the NT for such a long time, I'm forced to harm their development and actually "erase" 5-6 years of their football career...

2023 will be the year that four excellent defectors turn 24 and should finally accept SM, still I'm annoyed it took so long and also that they probably didn't reach their full potential... and I know it will happen again and again with other players... honestly this could get too frustrating for me to go on until 2030 or so...

This is exactly the same frustration I have Kandersson, in fact it's even worse for me in a way since the players come into my youth team aged 14 so I have to wait even longer before they will accept the national team. Also Choices, did you find that young players were more willing to accept San Marino once you started to perform well in the major tournaments or was there always a preference for dual nationality players to want to play for Italy despite how well you were doing? Congrats on the World Cup win, unbelievable achievement

 

[Safc-mad-scotty]

So Close!

Well, my 2024 European Championship qualifying campaign is over. Heading into the last match against Switzerland at home, we needed to win by two goals or more to move ahead of Switzerland on results between the two teams. We went two nil up early in the second half however the Swiss pulled one back with 20 minutes to go and despite our best efforts we couldn't grab that extra goal we needed to send us through, we had to settle for a playoff. We were then drew against a very respectable Wales side and were able to beat them 3-2 at home in the first leg. Unfortunately, the first leg had severe consequences as our main man Raffaele D'Aniello got injured, as did 1st choice right winger Cristiano Nappo as well as our best centre back getting a yellow card which meant he was suspended for the second leg. So...... this resulted in us getting hammered 4-1 in the second leg and just like that our Euro 2024 dream was over. The major positive from the tournament though was the impressive form of Rafaele D'Aniello, who finished the qualifying stages with the most MOTM's, highest average rating and the top goalscorer, despite San Marino having a group with just 5 teams in.

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Here is our qualifying group for the 2026 World Cup. I think the group is a pretty open one where most teams will be able to take points off each other. I'm hoping that we can at least claim second place and get into another playoff but I do think we may have a chance of sneeking 1st if we get a bit of luck!

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[choices]

Choices I wanted to ask you one thing: when you played the dual nationality players at the club (before they accepted the NT) did Italy NT call them and cap them at senior level? I guess that should be a real risk as they'd play regularly for the best club in the country - in fact Italy always call up more or less every Italian player I have at the club (even if they're third choice for me). They even called a dual nationality player for a preliminary EURO squad despite him playing for our U20 club team all year...

don't know if it's just me but the vast majority of our best prospects are dual nationality players rejecting SM and always being selected for Italy youth teams - which means they'll reject the NT until they turn 24, and even worse I can't use them at the club until then as I'm almost sure they'd become full Italy internationals in that case (I currently have the next Buffon, the next Baresi, the next Totti, the next Gentile amongst others...). How did it work for you?

this is the most frustrating aspect for me: I can't develop properly the best SM prospects, have to freeze their career for 8-9 years and send them on loan basically until they turn 24. Not only I can't use them for the NT for such a long time, I'm forced to harm their development and actually "erase" 5-6 years of their football career...

2023 will be the year that four excellent defectors turn 24 and should finally accept SM, still I'm annoyed it took so long and also that they probably didn't reach their full potential... and I know it will happen again and again with other players... honestly this could get too frustrating for me to go on until 2030 or so...

Umm well hopefully this breakdown will help.

Top player every year (if he was Sammarinese with Italian duality) if he was creme of the crop never accepted the first call up
Half of the players wouldn't sign as well
All Italian players who could be called up with second nation of Sammarinese wouldn't go until 24
Players that wouldn't accept call up's would when they turned 17 or 18 though (this is Sammarinese players with Italian second)

Of all the players that were Italian first with option to play did play for me except for one. He was capped by Italy, but it was when he was 21. Everyone else didn't get called up to senior squad or was dropped by 21, but still had to wait until 24 (although this was only 6 players)

My goal was mostly to use just Sammarinese players, but some classes I would only get like 1 or 2 of those so I had to grab the Italy/San Marino people then (although if there was one in the class, and majority they were terrible).

Even when I was ranked higher than Italy (when I was #10 they were #16) still couldn't get my players to come sign with me as they would still reject for Italy under 19 squad. To combat this sometimes before I could register for my team i would just go to my squad and see if I could add them (works better right after an injury since they aren't called back to Italy under 19 squad).

I should sim a season or so to see since I should be #1 if then I could get anyone I want, if not they should fix this in next year's game, but as of now I am not sure since I stopped right after the world cup.

As for you Scotty I hope that did answer your question. If it was too vague then it would be as of right now since Italy was too close to my ranking wise the answer was no. Although the good young Sammarinese players I had who declined at the beginning it did seem to get them a little easier to sign. Although they do start to sign a little bit more younger though, and from looking at Italy they seemed to still tend on the older players than the new (my average age in the world cup was 24. their's was 29)

 

[choices]

Here is our qualifying group for the 2026 World Cup. I think the group is a pretty open one where most teams will be able to take points off each other. I'm hoping that we can at least claim second place and get into another playoff but I do think we may have a chance of sneeking 1st if we get a bit of luck!

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During this time I was still trying to fight just to fight for a mid standing finish. Hope you succeed!

 

[JonoMUFC]

I finally won an international with San Marino!!!!!!!'

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My little star Chito bringing it home!!

Oh I also finally won Serie A and got into the Champions League. Oh I won the Italian Cup again to

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[kandersson]

Umm well hopefully this breakdown will help.

Top player every year (if he was Sammarinese with Italian duality) if he was creme of the crop never accepted the first call up
Half of the players wouldn't sign as well
All Italian players who could be called up with second nation of Sammarinese wouldn't go until 24
Players that wouldn't accept call up's would when they turned 17 or 18 though (this is Sammarinese players with Italian second)

Of all the players that were Italian first with option to play did play for me except for one. He was capped by Italy, but it was when he was 21. Everyone else didn't get called up to senior squad or was dropped by 21, but still had to wait until 24 (although this was only 6 players)

My goal was mostly to use just Sammarinese players, but some classes I would only get like 1 or 2 of those so I had to grab the Italy/San Marino people then (although if there was one in the class, and majority they were terrible).

Even when I was ranked higher than Italy (when I was #10 they were #16) still couldn't get my players to come sign with me as they would still reject for Italy under 19 squad. To combat this sometimes before I could register for my team i would just go to my squad and see if I could add them (works better right after an injury since they aren't called back to Italy under 19 squad).

yeah right now I'm not even bothered that I can't use my best players for the NT until they turn 24. Biggest frustration is I can't really keep them at the club, develop them and give them playing time in that 18-24 time, otherwise there's a HUGE possibility Italy might call the best ones for their senior team.

I have some Italian players at my club - former first choice Verratti now declining, a promising wonderkid striker playing very little and a decent back-up anchor man: well each of them got the call-up from Italy at some point (Verratti and the striker even made World Cup despite being third choice for me in their positions), mostly because they're Italian and they play for world best club San Marino...

I'm pretty sure if I was to play regularly my best dual nationality players at the club many of them would soon make the Italian team sometime between 20-24. Right now I have a 19 years old trequartista improving day by day, who is simply destroying Serie A coming off the bench and is obviously part of Italy U21 - labelled the next Demetrio Albertini, but seems to me the next Roberto Baggio really... I'd love to give him the No.10 shirt and make him undisputed first choice next season BUT I know this would most likely mean Italy will call him up for senior team. So I know I'll have to keep him under the radar and loan him out everywhere for next 4-5 years, which also means he migh not develop in best possible way. And THIS is my biggest frustration.

 

[commando101st]

I've been ****** sacked! Hmph. Well good luck to whoever takes over! HA! I'll give it a few months to concentrate on Serie A where I've gone W4-D5-L3, so obviously in need of improvement. Then I'll reapply!

 

[choices]

I've been ****** sacked! Hmph. Well good luck to whoever takes over! HA! I'll give it a few months to concentrate on Serie A where I've gone W4-D5-L3, so obviously in need of improvement. Then I'll reapply!

Why did you get sacked, and did they give you warnings on being on the hot seat before the sacking?

 

[Safc-mad-scotty]

We're coming for you Italy!

The latest world rankings saw us break into the top 20 for the first time and more importantly we are only 6 places behind Italy. I honestly don't know how they can say we are the 20th best nation in the world when we have never even qualified for a major tournament but I'm not complaining, it must have something to do with my strategic friendly planning of picking the worst team with a high world ranking

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[choices]

Hey someone else is playing terrible high ranking teams. I left it up to the AI, but it was always just terrible teams or teams that were on their way down by still like 70-85 rankings. It is a nice little thing that works if you can keep managing ties or wins.

 

[alexhollandmufc]

Second season completed. A rough ride

Here is the final league position of my second season after i got promoted. I really struggled to attract players with a minimum of 3* ability to get me up the ladder fast. The board increased my 14k p/w wages to 28k p/w so i got one or two good players.
Fast tracking my third season so should be finished by the end of today. Finances are in a poor state 800k in the red.

Question though my board keeps pumping the odd 366k into the running of the club...does this end???

 

[Safc-mad-scotty]

Was just searching through some Sammanirese players in my game and was amazed to find that Real Madrid had produced a Sammanirese player. OK, he is not the greatest but he is the first player I have seen be produced outside of San Marino so it was a shock to find him Anyone else had anything like this on thier game?

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