[FM13] C.D. Constància: Trading places (Page 5)

Jer

12 years

What a cliff hanger! You can do it and those regens look quite good for your side! Keep the updates rolling.

Login to Quote

Northwood

12 years

PaukerJ : What a cliff hanger! You can do it and those regens look quite good for your side! Keep the updates rolling.

With a three point lead with three game to go there is no excuse not to win the division. Only problem is that all the other likely division winners looks much stronger than we do.

I have little experience with regens on this level so I am glad you say they looks good. That gives me some hope for the future.

Updates will come. Got another season ready.

Login to Quote

Northwood

12 years

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/CDC_zpsfd0594e5.jpg

Going up or staying down?

We stumbled in to the playoffs with a win, a draw and a loss in the final three games. Luckily for us, Ontinyet F.C. did not do much better and we hung on to win the division by a single point.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/24_04_16_zps76a3be5b.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/Finalstanding_zps8aafaf17.jpg

The division title guarantied us at least two shots to win promotion back to the LIGA adelante. First, we would have the chance in a home-and-away cup game against one of the other three other division winners. The two winners would win direct promotion while the two losers would be entered back in to the playoffs together with the teams from the four divisions that finished the regular season in second to sixth place.

In the direct playoff game, we were drawn against S.D. Eibar S.A.D. They had won the Second division B2 by an impressive thirteen points in front of Alaves S.A.D.

For the first game at home a record 8982 people showed up, adding another much-needed £85K to the clubs empty bank account.

The game, as it was becoming a tradition when playoff football was played in Inca, was a poor showing. We had to play the game without our best player Eloy Alvarez who was late returning from an international with the Spanish U19 team.
S.D. Eibar looked to be satisfied coming away with a draw in the away game and we struggled all day to get quality shots on goal.
The game ended in a 0-0 draw.

In the return road game, we had Alvarez back on the left midfield but were now without our creative mastermind and playmaker Fullana who had picked up a yellow card in the first game that gave him a one-game suspension.

The start of the game was not good and we were down already after twelve minutes after a defensive blunder. Instead of folding up we came right back. First Igarki scored his 25th goal of the season on an easy header on a perfect cross from Eloy Alvarez. Then after thirty minutes of play Cristian Reyes, who was replacing Fullana scored his fourth goal of the season when he caught the S.D. Eibar keeper outside the penalty box.

The remaining of the game we played excellent counterattack football. The entire team finished the game with a rating over 7.00 and when the 90 minutes was up the score was still 1-2 and we were back in the LIGA adelante.

Login to Quote

Jer

12 years

Congrats for bouncing right back into the Liga Adelante! Hopefully, you will get some cash to spend on some freebies! It was close at the end, but you managed to do it!

Login to Quote

DerAlte

12 years

I knew you would get the promotion

keep up the good!

Suggestion: use 4-1-2-2-1 with defensive mentality and counterattack in Liga adelante, it worked like a charm in my Oviedo save

Login to Quote

Northwood

12 years

PaukerJ : Congrats for bouncing right back into the LIGA Adelante! Hopefully, you will get some cash to spend on some freebies! It was close at the end, but you managed to do it!

Thanks PaukerJ
The board is not exactly big spenders but let’s see what happens.
The goal is to stay up this season.

DerAlte : I knew you would get the promotion keep up the good!

Suggestion: use 4-1-2-2-1 with defensive mentality and counterattack in LIGA adelante, it worked like a charm in my Oviedo save

Now that’s a useful tip. I want to play attractive attacking football but I guess that will have to wait until later.

Login to Quote

DerAlte

12 years

Well even it´s mentality is defensive it does not mean you don´t attack

Usually I made 2-3 goals per game with that tactic

But now back to your story which is great and interesting, waiting for update

Login to Quote

Louis O.

12 years

Great story! I have managed Estepona on FM11 in Second Division B4 but I didn't do anywhere near as well as this!

Login to Quote

Northwood

12 years

DerAlte : Well even it´s mentality is defensive it does not mean you don´t attack Usually I made 2-3 goals per game with that tactic
But now back to your story which is great and interesting, waiting for update

Implemented it for the new season. Now I got someone to blame if it all goes horrible wrong next season.
Got another eight chapters written, just need to format and add pictures.

LJO200 : Great story! I have managed Estepona on FM11 in Second Division B4 but I didn't do anywhere near as well as this!

Welcome aboard LJO200.

I’m not sure I am that god a manager compared to others on this board but its good fun.

Login to Quote

TheNorthman

12 years

Great story, really good to see you keep going when going down and bouncing back

keep up the good work

Login to Quote

Northwood

12 years

nufcfan : Great story, really good to see you keep going when going down and bouncing back keep up the good work

Thanks for reading nufcfan
Don’t start a story with a team like C.D. Constancia if you are not ready for a bumpy road.

Login to Quote

Northwood

12 years • Edited

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/CDC_zpsfd0594e5.jpg
In the summer of 2016, the order in the world of football was restored when Spain again could raise the trophy as European Champions after their collapse in the last World Cup. In the final, they beat a surprise Slovakia team that had made the final after quality wins over Belgium and Italy.
It was Spain’s third European Championships in a row and the fourth overall.
The player of the tournament was Bayern Munich’s Fernando Llorente who scored nine goals in seven matches including both goals in the final.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/EUChampionship_zpsa1c3702f.jpg

Teams that did not have a good tournament was Holland who finished last in there group with Romanian, France and Bulgaria.
Denmark also failed to make it out of the group stage and Morten Olsen was promptly sacked. The hottest candidate to take over his job, as the Danish national coach was no other then Michael Laudrup.

In Inca on Mallorca, there were no time for champagne and campaign.

First, there was the matter of my contract. That was easily done and I signed a new contract worth €3.000 per week.

We had finished the previous season with a €1.3 mil deficit in the budget. That was almost equal to the total salary cost (€1.25mil). It did not help that the governing body in Spanish football (RFEF) decided that we had to improve our stadium even more. This time to add even more seats and a new balcony. This time we did not have to move to another stadium while they were building.
The irony was that while we kept improving and expanding the stadium, the people of Inca still stayed away for the most part. Only 782 seasons tickets were sold of a budgeted 1300.

The price for the latest rebuild of the stadium was expected to be close to €500.000. That was money that could have been well used in the transfer budget instead. Now we were left with a transfer budget of just €40K. We did have some leeway in the salary-budget but once again we were very limited in our ability to attract new quality players.

In our pervious visit to the LIGA adelante, our main problem had been creating chances and scoring goals. Our first two signings was there for both offensive minded players. Juan Antonio was a fantastic young prospect at AMC who could also substitute as striker while César Valenzuela was a pure AMC brought in to relieve Fullana when he needed rest.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/JuanAntonio_zpsc5e316a0.jpg

We also added four new defenders and a goalkeeper in Jesùs.

The only player of significance we lead go was now 38-year old Javier Farinos. The board would have liked to keep him around for another season. He got a better offer from Benidorm and with his skills rapidly declining, I decided to let him go.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/innout2016_zps306352e7.jpg

The last player inn was perhaps the most interesting of all the signings this pre-season. Andrea Orlandi arrived the day after the season kicked off. With a career including appearances in both La Liga (Barcelona) and the EPL (Swansea) Orlandi had now decide to return to Spain and we hoped he had still something left in the tank. Hopefully his presences would help push Eloy Alvarez in his development and Orlandi could also replace a struggling Sergi Compoy in the middle.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/Orlandi_zps0485f777.jpg

Login to Quote

Northwood

12 years

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/CDC_zpsfd0594e5.jpg

I already had a starting lineup laid out in my head. My plan was to play the 4-4-1-1* again. That formation had won us the Spanish third division the year before and the players knew the formation well.

Striker:
Igarki Mayor
Igarki had scored twenty-five goals the previous season when we won our first ever trophy (I never mentioned that we beat F.C Cartagena 4-2 in the two games played for the overall division three title) and would get another chance even if he struggled mightily the last time we played in the LIGA adelante.
Igarki was also getting up in age and even if he still stayed in fantastic shape and his attributes did not seem to decline, it was a huge concern that it looked very empty behind in the depth chart.

Attacking midfielder;
Francese Fullana
Francese Fullana would be the player to both provide the balls for Igarki to work with and to move forward and support him when necessary. In the game where Igarki struggled Fullana would be the natural choice to move forward and have César Valenzuela taking charge of the midfield.

Midfield:
Eloy Àlvarez - Sergi Campoy - David Karg - Jorge Miramòn
If we were to stand a chance to stay up this season, I needed the midfield to work. On paper, I liked the chances as we had assembled a good group of players. Àlvarez was still improving by the day and in the middle, Sergi Campoy and David Karg did a good job complimenting each other when one of them had a bad day.

Defender:
Mossa - Ramon Soria - Carlos Akapo - Moises Jimenez
This was the big question mark. Carlos Akapo was an easy choice in the middle. Ramon Soria had finished the previous season with an AvR of 7.14 and was also given another chance.
On the right and left, it was trouble. We had brought inn Mossa from Girona FC to play on the left and on the right, it would probably be Moises Jimenez for another season. None of them I felt too good about letting loss in the LIGA adelante but I had no better choice.

The warm-up games went relatively well. We won the game we were supposed to win and lost narrowly to Toulouse from the French first division.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/16_07_16_zps82e67e48.jpg

* I get ready to start the new season just a few days after one of the new patches is released. I really hope that the new ME don’t screw me over once again.

Login to Quote

Jer

12 years

2-1 loss against Toulouse shows that you are making progress by almost beating teams in the Ligue 1. Get another striker if Mayor isn't scoring goals.

Login to Quote

Northwood

12 years

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/CDC_zpsfd0594e5.jpg

Against all odds

Sergi Campoy and Fullana were the only two players remaining from the newly promoted team I took over back in 2012. That team had just won promotion from the fourth level of Spanish football were they played mostly against other teams from Mallorca and the surrounding islands on pitches of highly questionable standards.
Playing a cup match against C.P Arroyo on a clay/ dirt pitch was a huge step back in time for many of the players. It was a long way from the matches we were playing now on perfect pitches with more than twenty-five thousand in the stands when we were playing away from home.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/Arroyo_zpse6c94460.jpg

Once again, the raw force and speed of the LIGA adelante almost knocked us off our feet’s in the first month of the new season, and we quickly dropped below the relegation line.

The problem was not creating chances but turning the chances in to goals. We had terrible luck in front of goal.

But then it turned. We still struggled to get the ball over the line but we did a lot better in the other end as well with Kiko still guarding the goal.

We did so good that we went on an unbeaten streak. We did not win all the games, but a few wins and a few draws was a nice change of pace and kept the moral up in the twenty-five man player group.
We even managed to squeeze thru to the fourth round of the Spanish Cup. That is the round when the La Liga team is entered in to the draw and that gave us the first chance in my career to go up against the top-level teams. There were three teams I would have loved to be drawn against.

Real Madrid, Barcelona or Mallorca.

We were not that “lucky” and was instead pitched against Real Sociedad and when they came to Inca in late October we were still undefeated (in now 8 games) and had moved up to 11th place in the table, but only three points clear of the relegation line.

Before the Real Sociedad game, I had to make a tough call. The fourth round of the Spanish Cup is played over two games, home and away, and if those two games were played a hundred times we would win maybe two or three times. Add to that the forty-two games of the regular season in the LIGA adelante.
Could I afford to risk even more injuries and to wear out my already tired starters even more?

So even with Nou Camp d’Inca close to sold out for the first time ever, I made the tough call to sit most starters.
The first twenty minutes was not pretty. The players looked star-struck and Real Sociedad players like Ibrahim Afellay and Siem De Jong was allowed to do run wild. They scored twice in the 20th and 23rd minute and my worst fears looked to be coming thru.

However, after a much-needed talk at halftime we stiffened up in the second half. We still allowed chances but Kiko closed the goal, and the cheer from the close to 8000 in the stands when Christian Reys scored to make it 1-2 with just ten minutes left could be heard all over Inca.
That was also the final result. It left us with little to no chance to advance after the return leg but that night both fans and players went home happy.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/14_08_16_zps6705262e.jpg

A man not that happy was Danish national coach Michael Laudrup. After taking control of the Danish national team, he had seen it drop to an all-time low 55th in the world in the official FIFA raking. The team did have wins over Lichtenstein and Luxembourg but they still found themselves in all kind of trouble in there World cup qualifying group and were in danger of being knocked out of the tournament before it had even begun.

Another Scandinavian manager with success was Ståle Solbakken and his Wolverhampton. After winning promotion to the EPL back in 2013, the team had
lived an uneventful existence around mid-table. But this year was different. After nine games, the Wolves found themselves undefeated and in first place in the EPL, eight points clear of the closest rival, Newcastle, Liverpool and Man U.

Login to Quote

[FM13] C.D. Constància: Trading places

Going up or staying down?

Against all odds

FMS Chat–