The Road to Europe - an MLS Story

2015 Season - January to July

The next step in my career takes me to the national level for the newly-opened US U23 post. While searching for a European club, this will provide a good first step to accomplishing our world-cup objective.

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Our fixtures don't begin until March, giving me a nice break from constant management activities. For the Olympic Qualifiers, I've brought in 23 players under the age of 23 who all have a chance to prove their worth on the international stage.

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You'll notice a number of familiar names here. Bradford Jamieson will get his chance in the team, alongside Victor Mansaray who was seen in our first season. Mikey Lopez is also former SKC player, though he's been moved to LA. Jon Kempin is in a similar situation, having been traded to Portland. My successor really wanted to clean house..

DeAndre Yedlin, Gedion Zelalem, John Brooks, Julian Greene, and Wil Trapp are all fairly reputable players and will be joining the squad.

Neil Baker is our captain, and was a 1st-round pick Superdraft regen during our first season.

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Fixtures - With no time to play friendlies, we jump in to our first group stage match against Canada, where we really dominate the northern cousins.

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We fall against El Salvador to a 70' goal, but I'm not too concerned - nearly none of our players are above 80% fitness and it's tough to put in enough effort with games every other day. Are all national teams like this?

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An extremely convincing win against Honduras puts us past the group. Neil Baker stored two goals and had a near perfect game.

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Before the semi-final, Baker suffers a bruised shin and 2 other players go out injured. I can't call up any replacements, so we'll just have to make do with our very tired squad.

After our first two goals, I try and rest the team with instructions to get as much fitness back as possible.

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The final puts us against Mexico, who are extremely fierce rivals. They've got easily the best national pool on the continent..

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And we've won! Bradford absolutely loves to pull off theatrics in important matches, and he continues that tradition for me here. A great start to my run with the USA.

For the Olympics, we're running up against Brazil and Ukraine to somehow get through. Not the easiest group, but it could be worse.

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Not to be too teasing, but I've just finished up interviewing for a club and am the leading candidate, just prior to the OG starting up. My first run in Europe will be with a club who has an extremely strong tradition of building youthful players, something I've proven myself to be good at during this story. Take a guess if you'd like!
 
Love the story! Being in Kansas, it is always nice to see MLS being well represented! Quite the run to the Olympics too! I am curious to see where you land next!
 
All good thoughts so far, but no one has hit the mark. I'll be posting the next update either tonight or tomorrow night - as soon as I find some free time.
 
Possibly a tad optimistic Barcelona Man U and bayern have promoted a couple of young players if not maybe sporting or athletic bilbao. Possibly PSG or Real Madrid squads loaded with youngsters
 
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2015 Season - A New Club

So, here's the big reveal...

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Ajax is a youth-focused organization, and an absolutely wonderful opportunity. The job became open after a retirement, and I immediately applied. The Eredvisie seems like the perfect place to dive in to European management and continue my tradition of building young players.

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It does leave me with some big shoes to fill - remember, this was a retirement and not a sacking. The board expects no less than total victory.

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My first action is to rebuild the staff at the club. I bring in a whole host of additions:
  • five scouts
  • one first team coach
  • one firm team goalkeeping coach
  • three physios (first team, B team, youth)
I'm still looking for a new assistant manager; the current one doesnt have enough JCA/JPA for my liking. My reputation is showing here though, and I can't attract the best candidates. I'll also be looking in to bring a B team head coach as well, and have already placed an advert.

Here's what our training looks like.. absolutely stellar.

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Next up, I start moving players around between the youth, B team, and first team. I immediately notice that we are extremely attacking heavy, and lack any defensive depth. In fact, I can't seem to find any in the entire league. It's going to be.. interesting, to say the least.

Prior to the pre-season, I've offloaded 9 players and brought in none. All previous transfers were not done by me, including a wonderful striker that we have no replacements for; just loads of CAMs and wingers. This is becoming an issue.. I'm not really used to having a transfer budget like this, and I usually am much more patient in bringing in an older player.

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Speaking of budgets, Ajax seems to be a money farm and has absolutely no lack of it. Seriously, we're not even playing any games and I've somehow made $18,000,000?

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Players - So, I'm in completely unknown territory and don't know any of these players. My post in this area is going to be a little bit short in that regard.

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Our best player seems to be Davy Klaassen, a superstar AMC with the ability to play up top. My tactics almost always make heavy use of a #10 role, so I'm very pleased with him.

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Side-note, sorry for the constant skin changes. This one will stick, I promise!

Riechedly Bazoer is a wonderkid (a first for me!) who is already first-team ready at the DM spot. He's still 20 years old, and I can't see any future that doesn't include great things for him.

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At the AMC position, Ruud Beumer is a world-class rated player (another first!) who already has very good mental and physical stats. Sky is the limit for him!

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Elvis Koops is a five star rated regen at the DM position with a killer work rate and personality. I'm not sure how he isn't world class with those stats. I could wish for a little more positional flexibility, but it's really hard to complain about this 17 year old!

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Vaclav Cerny is a first team ready 18 year old and the pick of a whole host of incredible wingers on my team. I'm going to need to get rid of some of them at some point in fact, because I certainly can't play them all.

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Ricardo Kishna is the runner up in that class of wingers, with arguably better stats in some ways. It will be tough to find a place on the field for him, but I'm still going to try.

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I'll post more players as I get a little more understanding on who is good - I don't fully trust my assistants ratings.

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Pre-season - I had almost no opportunity to do anything with the pre-season, so these fixtures were pretty much set in stone.

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I'm worried that my tactics have not had nearly enough time to set in. But, we're here and there's no going back now.
 
I think you got off to an interesting start with your story in the MLS, it's a league I've flirted with several times on FM but have never fully settled with a save.

Good luck at Ajax, too!
 
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