O Clássico: Pre Match

I sat in my seat in front of the large advertising board with the logos of the league and all its sponsors. Bright lights shone in my face and the flashes of cameras didn't make it any easier. I was also sitting in front of a big bunch of journalists which could make the happiest of person miserable.

They fired questions at me and I answered, usually with the shortest response possible so they couldn't fiddle with my word choice and make me out as something I wasn't to the rest of Portugal.

After answering a few questions the press conference ended and I left quickly.

As I walked down the tunnel into the Estádio do Dragão I could hear the roar of the Dragões already. It was an atmosphere that could only mean one thing: O Clássico. A derby of this magnitude for my managerial debut was quite nerveracking. This was my chance to win over the fans. I came in with little managerial experience and I don't think that pleased them but I was confident in my own abilities and would never give in to the media or fans alike.

"Excuse me," I heard a man yell behind me. He had an American accent and was in a polo shirt with biege pants. I think he was a journalist but I wasn't sure. I wasn't particularly fond with the media, they tended to twist my words.

"Hi, I'm Alexander Opisov, from ESPNFC.com - I've got one quick question for you," he said quickly and professionally. He was obviously looking for one last bite from me before the big game. I'd been to the pre match press conference and not liked one bit of it. The lights, the cameras, the scrutiny on me.

Now I was being interviewed in the tunnel. This was something new, how'd he even get in here?! I turned around to face the reporter. He was short, had brown hair swiped to one side. His polo shirt was navy blue and his pants were biege. He was obviously fashionable, part of the trendy new reporting generation.

"You can talk to my assistant manager, thanks," I nodded and continued on down the tunnel.

"Oh come on! Your decision to-"

"My assistant manager, he'll be here soon," I interrupted, continuing down the tunnel and into the fire.

I emerged and took my place in the dugout. Scanning the stadium, all I could see was a sea of blue and white. Flags were waving behind the goal and the crowd was jumping up and down in synchronization. Someone was beating drums and the noise that was being made made your hairs on the back of your spine tingle.

I was finally here.

Credit to: Tallery for the graphic.

Another quality update Walt, love the attention to detail of the American journalist xD.

Firstly, brilliant graphic from Tallery. Secondly, what kind of weakling doesn't answer the reporters Thirdly, you best win this game

Glad everyone likes me graphic

Good luck Walt, usually I would support Benfica due to a mate, but as it is you

Josh_MU Oh yeah that description am i right?
Nealão Ya, na, ya. I will, just watch.
tallery It's an awesome graphic, tyvm for making it.

O Clássico

The match begun tentatively. Both teams were in awe of the occasion and were nervous to commit too many numbers forward. Still, I wanted to play to win, not to "not lose" so to speak. I kept encouraging the team but at half time it was a goalless stalemate.

"Alright boys, that's an okay first half," I started in the changing room. "I think we're just a little nervous but that can change if we get an early goal! Go out there and start the first fifteen minutes with some good attacking play and put the pressure on them, then, I think, if we can get the goal, I make us favourites - get out there and do it!"

The boys seemed relatively pumped up but I think I still had a fair way to go in terms of earning their respect, despite such a good preseason. The referee signalled the beginning of the second half and I sat in my dugout, awaiting what would come next, would it be good or bad?

Then, disaster struck. The little contingent of travelling fans was sent into a frenzy as Luisão managed to put us behind. I remained calm - just as The Special One would've done. "Come on boys!" I said assertively. "Show me something else!"

Now the players played with some urgency. I was getting a bit frustrated and told them to sort it out from the touchline, but in the end decided the best thing was to let the players do their thing so I restricted myself to as little instructions as possible.

Just over fifteen minutes later we earned a free kick. This was the perfect time to put in to practice our training as I mentioned before. Benfica would set up a zonal marking system, and if we played our cards right that was easy to capitalise on. Juan Fernando Quintero stood over the ball and waited for the whistle to take the free kick. He sent the free kick in low and hard, just floating over the pack of players heads, all the way to.... Maicon!!!

The Estádio do Dragão erupted and the noise was defeaning. I celebrated quietly with a fist pump but reiterated that we had to stay focused. "Concenrate, boys!" I reinforced. The next ten minutes it was truly a ding-dong battle, no side could really pick a winner from anywhere and chances were wasted.

Closing in on the last five minutes of original time, Jackson laid the ball down to Quintero, and the Colombian danced past Luisão and into the box, before getting caught by the Benfica captain.

There were cries from the home support for a penalty and those cries were answered when the referee consquently pointed to the spot. I punched the air and then silently prayed to the heavens that we could take our chance. Quaresma was the designated penalty taker and it was him who stepped up to the task.

The Porto fans cheered and waved, encouraging this controversial yet brilliant athlete. It was his time to shine - he could win the derby for us. The whistle went and he began his run up. The stadium went into a hush, and his boots connected with the ball. It was a powerful penalty, but a placed one, too. Nothing Julio Cesar could do...

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLL!

I will admit to celebrating wildly. I will admit the pressure was getting to me. I will admit, that this still, today, is one of the greatest moments of my career. With twenty minutes to go all hope looked gone, but now with four minutes remaining we may have just snatched an incredible vital victory.

The final whistle sounded and I turned round to the fans and fist pumped the air, a big grin on my face. They didn't stop yelling and as I left I heard the same noise I'd heard as I entered this fortress.

Two top quality updates Walt, and a great win!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOL QUARESMA! MAYBE NOT SO SHITE AFTER ALL!

Don't ever use the same graphic twice, golden rule

This ruined what otherwise would be a great result

Another great update and a superb win!

THE COMEBACK IS REAL ERMAHGERD!!!! QUARESMA YOU LITTLE RIPPER!!

PS- Tallery, shut up

pompey, Neal, Josh, Tal, Feliks Thank you all, but...

Having thought over the last couple of weeks, I.ve realised that this story is dieing off a bit. I have most of the first season's results and screenshots to go along with it, but I haven't updated in a while and with exams just around the corner I feel like my motivation's only going to drop even more and it just doesn't make sense to drag out something that's going downwards in quality.

Getting my exams out the way is priority number one unfortunately, and I doubt I'll be able to juggle Football Manager, studying and writing a story. After all, I'm not Neal, who is known for his ability to do such things. Down below the USA we aren't so smart (lol jk).

Furthermore, I'd like to apologise for ending this story before the season has even started. I hope you'll forgi.ve me because I've actually played ahead a lot and I could've kept this going if I had the motivation and exams weren't here, it's just I wasn't feeling up to it and was going to start forcing updates out.

Clearly, I find managing big clubs boring and that was apparent in this save. Right now I'm about six games from finishing the season and I think I've lost twice in the whole save - which is really, really boring. It's obvious to me that LLM is where I need to go and so once I know I can stick to a save then I'll consider writing a story about it. For now, though, I shall just be reading and commenting (if you don't PC me specifically to nag me for one!).

(P.S I'm heavily ashamed with myself.) THERE ARE LOTS OF HIDDEN CLUES IN THIS POST AS TO WHERE MY POSSIBLE NEXT STORY WILL TAKE PLACE. IF YOU KNOW OR DO FIGURE IT OUT PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL IT FOR OTHERS!

Dis.a.ppointing

Yeahh you really aren't as smart as me, are you

In all seriousness, quite sad that this is over :((

Man, what a shame this has to end...
We understand though Walt (at least I understand what it's like), in the meantime I'll just read back over your Oriental story so I won't miss your lovely story writing