Bolivia - Tears of the sun

Well first at all Hello to everybody here. I was following these lovely stories in this forum quite a time. A few days ago, I decided to register here and writing up a story myself.

I wasn´t sure about the team, of taking up a club or a national team. I´m playing the Football Manager now for over seven years and I did already lot of things. From youth challenges, over LLM, to club and country. But I always loved the South American football, especially now on the World Cup. It seems they have something mystic in there way of playing football. So I was sitting long time around here, and finally decided to take over Bolivia, a country which is very beautifull and is situated in the heart of South America. A look back at the history shows us, that the national team of Bolivia, participated already on three occasions to the World Cup. The last time was in 1994 in the United States. They even won one time the Copa America in 1963. It´s a long time ago.

You may ask yourself why I chose the name of the story, well it´s quite simple. I was watching the Film ´Tear of the sun´ when I decided myself to chose Bolivia and leed them to glory.

I hope we are gonna have a nice time here and a good story to follow. I´m always happy to get some critics and feedback, or things I may can do better about the layout.

Very difficult challenge, good luck!

good luck!

Please tell me Marco "El Diablo" Etcheverry will be the manager haha

Thx
@BayernAmerica well, I remember his 3 minute spell during WC 94´ against Germany


We´re in the late January, and everyone at the club is focussing on the next Qualification game against Paraguay on 5th of february in La Paz.
There´s alot of work to do for the new manager, especially when you consider that there are only two weeks time to meet the players, study new tactics and setting up a team. The whole country got no player playing in Europe. Nearly everyone is playing in South America, and one or two in Asia.

The league table doesn´t look brilliant. In 9 games, the previous manager only got three points and Bolivia´s staying in the 8th position. Only Venezuela managed to do worse.

In this World Cup Qualification, I will take my time to experiment a bit with the players, and trying to build up a solid squad, so that we may can attack for the World Cup 2018. Bolivia got a bunch of young talented players, with a lot of potential. I also hope that one or the other young player may be discovered by a european scout.

In terms of the Paraguay game in February we selected this 23 strong squad.



As we are going to play at home in the Estadio Hernandes Silo, which is situated in La Paz, in over 3600m altitude, I will try to play a 2-3-1-3-1 wide open possesion game with 2 wingbacks. As we got a team with a lot of pace and stamina we will try to control this game over the entire 90 minutes with an athletic and physical football.

Fulltime: 1-1 (0-1)
Goals: Cardozo (42´), Vaca (72´)

Attendance: 45.000
Estadio Hernandes Silo, La Paz - February 5th 19h30

Bolivia - Guilhermo - Melean, Raldes(c) - Vargas, Garcia, Gutierrez - Saucedo - Vaca (85´J.C Arce), Campos (62´Chumacero), J.L Chavez - Moreno

Paraguay - Barreto - Caceres, da Silva, Alcaraz, Samudio (69´Rodriguez) - Perez (66´Vera), Ortigoza, Riveros, Benitez - Cardozo, Valdez (73´Estigarribia)

It was a very tough game for us. In the first 30 minutes, Paraguay got no chance, they didn´t even appeared in front of Guilhermo. We played very good football, especially our ball possession was superb (63% Possession), but we failed to make our chances.

In the 42th minute, Oscar Cardozo shoot a lovely goal after a mistake in our defense. After the brake, it was an open game, witch chances on both sides. In the 72th minute, it was finally Joselito Vaca, who profited from a very good pass in the space from Moreno.

In the end, it is a well deserved point for us. Paraguay can even be lucky to get a draw.
Now we have a month time to prepare ourself for the next game against Chile on march 26th.

Great layout and good luck! I love South American football so I will of course follow!

Well thank you very much Walter. I´m of course a follower of your Lisbon save, as it was one of my inspirations to write a story


Fulltime: 1-3 (1-1)
Goals: Paredes (2´), Campos (12´), Moreno (58´, 71´)

Attendance: 47.000
Estadio Monumental David Arellano, Santiago - March 26th 19h30

Chile - Bravo(c) - Ponce, Andias (58´ Rojas ), Contreras - A.Sanchez, Medel (58´ D. Pizarro), Vidal, Mena - Pinilla (63´ A. Henriquez), Paredes, H. Suazo

Bolivia - Guilhermo - Melean, Raldes(c) - Vargas, Garcia, Gutierrez - Saucedo - Vaca (12´ J.C Arce), Campos , J.L Chavez - Moreno

A very breezy spring evening at Santiago. We took the same line up as against Paraguay, only a bit more defensive. The start was horror. Paredes took zwo minuted to score, again from an individual error of Melean. But the team showed charakter and it was Jhasmany Campos who scored for La Verde.
Chile tried to manage the game, but we made a solid game at back. We attacked very early and made a lot of pressure. Chile got a few more chances, but we secured ourself into half time.

The begin of the second half was quite slowly. But after 58 minuted played, we countered very strong and Moreno scored a lovely one. After, Chile tried something to do, but they failed. We played very strong at the defence, and Chile got difficulties to break trough. In the 71´ Moreno made his second, after another counter.

At the end, we can be very proud of that victory in Santiago. We played a proper game, especially in the tactical view. We took our chances and scored.


As we see, we are already more competitive. 4 Points in 2 games is a good one, and hopefully we can hold our form.
Another good news for my team is that National Player Rudy Cardozo was transfered from Bolivar to Dinamo Bucarest. He´s now our second player, who earns his money in Europe, after our talent Galindo, who plays for Arsenal.

The next months should be a bit more calm. Next fixture ist Colombia at home on june 7th

Amazing victory!

Great win against a strong Chile side! Love the use of bbcodes and the layout altogether!

Love the layout, where did you get the flags from? Try to include more in game screen shots of results etc but I'm going to be a Kern follower

Colombia is pretty harsh, but let's hope you can beat them. How's Juan Carlo Arce m8

@ Griffo & Walter thank you very much

@ Jord well these are the flags of my Logopack, it´s called Shiny Logos 14´. Well for the screens I will try to add more, if you want to see something special, only ask.

@ Pauker We´re playing at home, so maybe we get something out of this game. Arca is doing quite well. He came on two occasions as joker on the pitch, and he´s really impressing me as winger. Maybe he will start from beginning against Colombia

Very nice start buddy, especially for your first ever story.
The layout has been great here so far and I wish you all the best in the save as well as your story of course!

Thank you very much pompeyblue. Great to hear that from a moderator


Fulltime: 1-2 (1-1)
Goals: Moreno (7´), Raldes (o.g 10´), Guilhermo (o.g. 89´)

Attendance: 45.000
Estadio Hernandes Siles, La Paz - June 7th 19h30

Bolivia - Guilhermo - Melean (19´ L. Mendez), Raldes(c) - Vargas (62´ Hoyos), Garcia, Gutierrez - Saucedo - Vaca, Campos (79´ Chumacero) , J.L Chavez - Moreno

Columbia - Ospina - Arias (62´ Cuadrado), Mosquera(c), Balanta, Armero (62´ Soto ) - Aguilar (62´ C. Valdes), Vargas , Guarin - J.Rodriguez - Bacca, Falcao


Well, what can I say, I should be happy, we scored three goals against Columbia.
From the beginning on, we were the better team, and in the 7th minute Moreno made a brilliant header. Only three minutes later, our Captain made a mistake, and he stroke a poor ball in his own goal.
Columbia seemed to be happy with this draw, the pressure was off. We tried a few attacks in the first half, but nothing dangerous.
After the break, it was another game. Maybe Pekerman freaked out, maybe Columbia found there pleasure in playing football today. They played a lot more agressive, an attacking football, but our defence did an incredible job. In the 62th minute, Columbia did three changes, but they got no luck in front of our goal.
Another time, we had to help them out. In the 89th minute, it was our Keaper, Guilhermo, who deflected the ball in his own goal. A terrible moment for the manager. We played very well for our individual quality, but again, two mistakes took us the point.
At this stage I have to say, that it is a very tricky and difficult challenge, because nearly nobody of my players gets any match fitness. The most of them are only reserve player or are on the bench. Another thing is, that I have no control in development of the players, because FM doesn´t think it makes sense of adding a training category to the national teams.
So I´m dependend on other managers. I try my luck only with tactics, in the hope, that my players are maybe scouted an make their way to Europe or good South American teams.
A huge challenge, but I´m enjoying it.
Next, we got friendlies against Cuba, Sint Maarten, and in the august against Anguilla. A good time to try some new things out.