The European Alphabet Challenge

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/Zambo/European%20Alphabet%20Challenge/kT3m3h1_zpsa63a0fe8.png

Greetings all! Zambo here with what I hope will be a future smash hit FMScout story!
I've decided to try my hand at completing a version of the 'Alphabet Challenge'. I haven't gone for the full-blown challenge, but a European only, default version that I think is much more achievable, but slightly insane all the same!

What is it?

The Challenge is simple in it's goal; to win the top league at every European Nation. I will be playing using FMC mode as I want to be able to make progress during my save and I will be loading every single European Nation.
I'll be trying to complete this during one continuous save game, with no cheats or mods and will only move clubs where there are actual vacancies in the game. (No Adding New Manager!).

I'll try to keep the updates fairly entertaining and fairly frequent, but I may have to condense several months in to one update (depending on how much time I have to spare) from time to time!

In keeping with the core ideals of the Alphabet Challenge, I'll only move from one nation to another in alphabetical order. Movement between clubs in the same nation will be permitted, but I will only be able to move on to the next Nation in the list once I have won the top league in the Nation before it in the list.

There will be one exception to this, I plan to finish my illustrious career (if I make it) in England. The English Premier League is my favourite in real life and I hope to end the challenge on a high note by lifting the trophy that means the most to me!

The Nations

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v302/Zambo/European%20Alphabet%20Challenge/kT3m3h1_zpsa63a0fe8.png

Episode 1

So taking on this challenge means my decisions are somewhat made for me. I have to start in Austria and this is the only time I'll be able to choose a team to start with. The lowest league I can load in is the Austrian First Division and I've decided to choose the team that the game predicts will have the toughest time; FC Liefering.



FC Liefering are an Austrian First Division team that have been playing in the First Division since 2012. Originally a "farm club" for Austrian giants FC Salzburg, the team has recently been given permission by the Austrian FA to register as it's own stand alone team and will be allowed promotion to the Premier Division, should it be successful enough to achieve promotion.

The team play their home games at the Red Bull Arena, home to FC Salzburg and still enjoy a feeder / farm club relationship with FC Salzburg, with loans still being permitted between the clubs.

The Team

Looking through the squad list, the team is a lot better than I thought it would be. There are a lot of young, talented players in the team and while it may not be possible to achieve success in the first season, if I can hold on to some of these gems I'm sure to start winning trophies eventually.

Tactics

I've decided (as I don't really know the players, or the league), to go with a tactic I have used to some degree of success in the past. It's a 4-3-3 system played with a Control mentality. I hope to be able to teach the team to play a fast paced, high pressing possession based style of football. And I hope to win plenty of games along the way of course.

Pre-Season

For a team with such a small budget and little hope of success (according to the game's own predictions anyway!), I knew my activity on the transfer market was going to be slim. I decided to try and crack on with the Pre-Season games using the squad I had been given. This would allow me a chance to see how the players I had would actually fit the tactic I was going to use and would also allow me a decent chance at watching how they play.


This was a game we were expected to win comfortably and it looked as though we were going to do that when we managed to stretch our lead to 1-4. However, some particularly sloppy defending and the inability to stay switched on lead to us conceding two goals late in the game. Luckily for us, we managed to keep our heads and see the remainder of the game out for the win.

Another game we were supposed to win comfortably, yet we only scraped a draw. Seemed like we were sitting behind the ball for long periods of the game. I tried desperately to inject some life in to the team with subs and tactical tinkering, but we just couldn't find enough to grab a winner. Disappointing.


A game we were expected to win, and we did. With some style. The team executed the game plan to perfection, our opponents were woeful and almost every time the ball was hit at goal it found the back of net. An exceptional team performance!

This was our annual friendly against our feeder club and the current champions of Austria. We did a lot better than I thought we would, limiting the champs to a narrow 2-1 victory. We made our own chances but lacked that killer instinct in the box. Not a bad performance and I was mildly impressed.

Aaaarrrggggh. What a terrible, terrible performance. I expected to get beat, but not in this manner and with such a woeful performance. RBL are a second division german team, who I would say are not as good as FC Salzburg. Despite sticking to our guns and playing as we did against Salzburg, our game plan was undone and we were put to the sword.

All-in-all, a mixed bag of results. Some positives, some negatives and some neutral sentiments towards the team and tactics I ran with during the pre-season. With the official season looming in the not too distant future, I still feel like I know nothing about this new team whatsoever....

Good luck - will be following.

wow nice im a red bull fan so hope u get to top div and give em a game

A monumental challenge even with this watered down version.

Best of luck, i'll be following!

This story might take a while...

Good luck!