Conquering Europe........from scratch.

Hello guys.

I finally convinced myself to start writing a story here. It starts a bit late, since I just started my second season and already switched clubs, but I will do my best to give you an impression of what my first season was and why I left the club.
I don’t consider myself really good at writing, so I will just give explanation of how my games are going. I think that it will be best to do it on monthly updates, unless something major happens in between.
First of all, this will be a Journeyman save. I used the real me for the manager profile-29, from Bulgaria, only English as another language, no coach badges or previous experience. I started the game unemployed and tried my luck. Let’s see, where it will take me.
And it took me here:



Tempo Overijse is a small club from Belgian Derde Klasse B, which is the third tier of the football pyramid of the country. The club is semi-professional and the expectations are not very high. The goal in front of me and the team was top half finish in the league and eliminating two clubs in the Cup.


The squad had enough depth, I felt that not much of improvement was needed. I settled with the tactic, which seems to be used by everyone-and-their-dog at the moment: 4-2-3-1. The best line of the squad was the attacking trio behind the striker and I put that to good use.


And the season was a blast!!! The league was destroyed, at some point we reached 19 games without lose in the league. The first place was secured with 3 games to go.




In this league though, the first place means almost nothing. It just sends you to a playoff game, with the winner of the other group, Derde Klasse A. Even winning this playoff, which we managed to do, means almost nothing-because the promotion is won through a complicated 3 year classification system, which, I admit, didn’t quite understand. This will be changed from next season, when the whole Belgian football system will be reworked, but at the moment, the awesome season we had was good for nothing-no promotion. Still, the guys in the team performed admirably through the whole season and deserve recognition. Here are some of my best players, who contributed mostly for the success:


And the whole squad, sorted by average rating:

Note-the final screenshot was taken after I left the club, the guys at the bottom are the youth intake.

So, why I left?
First of all, the whole promotion or no promotion thing is too much of a wait. In the best scenario, I had to spend at least two more years in this level, of course if I managed to keep the team winning through the course.
Second, the club couldn’t offer me coaching qualifications. I asked the board three times and the answer was always the same. Since I started the save with no badges at all, waiting 2-3 seasons to get my first one, felt like too much.
And I decided to switch clubs. There were many jobs available during the summer, I applied on many places. Eventually, I ended up here:


Note №2: yes, I can’t pronounce it either.
Weirdly enough, this happened while I was watching the Hungary game vs. Norway, which sent the country on their first big tournament for 30 years, and I was thinking if managing in this country will be fun. Well, I am about to find out.
The club is nothing big, it is old, but has never won a trophy:

Here are the budget and the expectations, that I have for the season:



Thankfully, they supported me from the start, and guess who is starting his coaching qualifications-yes, me, finally.
Since the squad is quite different this time, I will be using the good old 4-4-2 this time. This will be my K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) tactic. I have possibilities to change that through the seasons, if the things don’t go as planned, but for the moment, it is the best for the club.


The squad is solid, I need some backup for the right back, and I have a player coming on loan, so I feel that pretty much every option is covered for the time being. Here are the best players in the team, and also some young guns, waiting for their chance:








I plan to stay at least 3 season in this club, unless I am sacked, or really far better option comes by. My goal will be to promote them in the first tier, and survive, if this happens before the third season. If I don’t achieve this, I will consider staying for one more season, if I am close, or moving on, if I am not.
As I said, I will do my best to provide you with monthly updates and I hope that you will be interested in my attempt to conquer Europe.

Cheers, Hells.

First game in charge-first win. And it is against an opposition from the top division – Szeged 2011. We couldn’t have wished for a better start. Just 3 minutes into the game, a cross from Szabo found unmarked Szini in the penalty area. An easy shot followed and we were 1:0 up. In the 15th minute, wonderful through ball from midfield reached Balasz, who made It 2:0. After that, both teams had chances to score, but it was a terrible mistake in our defense, to make a difference. Olah gifted the ball to their striker into our penalty area, and he didn’t miss-2:1 in 89th minute. But that was about all-more or less deserved win in our first friendly.




The second friendly is also against a team from the top league. This time it went a bit worse. They were cruising, we barely left our field and it was a matter of time for a goal to come. In the 21]st minute Sidibe found space in our defense and managed to open up the score- 0:1 for the bad guys.
On the half time I was a bit harsh to the guys and made some subs, but it seemed to work. Lovely ball from Toth found Szini in a good position, just a minute inside the second half. The young striker didn’t need an invitation and scored, to put us back on level terms 1:1.
It seemed that we have found our spark, but it was quickly extinguished. We couldn’t cope with a corner, the ball was given back to Horvath on the edge of the penalty area, and he blasted it into the top corner- 1:2.
We tried to get ourselves back in the game, but instead we were caught on a counter attack and Bodi scored in the 88th minute for 1:3.
Just a minute later, Balasz with great individual effort pulled one back- 2:3. He had another chance to earn us prestigious draw, but it wasn’t meant to be. Still, a spirited defeat, against a higher level opposition, it has to count for something.




The third friendly was our first test against weaker team-Maglod. I don’t know in how many games in the league we will be clear favorites, but wanted to check how the players will perform in such game.
And we started well. In just 15 minutes, Szini picked another long ball from midfield and made their keeper helpless- 1:0.
It seemed that the guys thought the game is over. We were nowhere near as dominant, as I expected to be. Still, in the 70th minute we managed to make the win a little more convincing, with Illes picking up the ball from not well cleared corner and scoring for 2:0. The game was closed and won, but it wasn’t top performance by any means.




Another game versus weaker opposition followed-this time Szentlorinc SE.
And I thought we weren’t dominant in the previous game…………There may have been worse first halves in football, but not many and not by far. I was angry at the half time, shouted at the boys to show some passion in the second. It didn’t happen for the first 10 minutes. And every single one was subbed in the 56th.
That seemed to work though, just 4 minutes later Kollega hit a rebound from the post, to make it 1:0. In the 73rd Bardi capitalized magnificent cross from the fullback to make it 2:0.
And just when I was about to think that the game is done, they were back into it-Laver was left alone on the edge of our penalty area and scored with ease-2:1.
Still, we managed to finish the game without further trouble, but again, not convincing at all.




So, it comes the day-the first competitive game of the season. We are hosting Bekescaba 1912-recently relegated team, which is slight favorite against us.
The first half was even, without many chances in front of both goals. Still, in the stoppage time Bonfiert was left unmarked in the penalty area and scored with nice volley for 1:0.
Not much changed in the second half, only this time they were the ones to score-71 minutes into the game and Bagi was left with time and space to make a rebound on his saved shot-1:1. But this wasn’t the end. Nice pass from their midfield sliced our defense and found Szilagy, who made it 1:2 in the 80th minute.
We gave it everything to the end of the game, but alas, no luck on our side. First home game of the season is lost.




July was a month, in which we were busy on the market too. Four players left, the only one I wasn’t keen on losing was Gulyas, but the offer was too good to turn down and he wanted a move, so I didn’t have much choice there.



He and the others were replaced by not worse players on a free transfers, so at the end of the day, we made some decent busyness.







Also, you may recognize my new coach:



The fixtures recap closes the month of July. Let's hope that August will be better and we will step on our feet in the league and the cup.