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Attempt No. 2 at a story, hopefully this one will be a lot more succesfull!
Belo Horizonte 20:15 PM January '04
As I walked onto the lush pitch of the 66,000 capacity Mineirão, I took in a deep breath. The contract papers I had just signed felt odly heavy in my jacket pocket as I paced towards the centre circle. The club for which I had been thrown into the managerial deep end with was Cruzeiro EC. The champions of 2003, were famous enough amongst Europeans. Most notably for briefly taking a gamble on Rivaldo before he moved on to join Olympiakos, dashing Bolton's dreams of signing him. Standing in the cavernous arena, I realised this was the perfect stage to get myself noticed and bag a bigger job back home.........
Tech Info.
FM 2005 5.05 with data update
Brazil, First Divison
Spain, First Division
Italy, Serie A
England, Premier Division
Squad:
Fabio, 23, GK
Artur, 22, GK
Edu Dracena, 22, DC
Marcelo Batatais, 29, DC
Gladstone, 18, DC
Regis, 27, DC
Maurinho, 25, D/DM R
Fernandinho, 23, D/DM R
Alemão, 21, D/DM R
Athirson, 26, D/DM L
Patrick, 23, D/DM L
Ruy, 25, D/M R
Sandro, 23, D/AM LC
Augusto Recife, 20, DM RC
Maldonado, 24, DM C
Leandro, 24, DM C
Leo, 26, MC
Martinez, 22, AM L
Kelly, 28, AM C
Adriano, 26, AM C
Wagner, 18, AM C
Michel, 23, AM/F C
I had taken charge of Cruzeiro on January 5th, leaving me exactly 100 days until my first league match against Vasco. After viewing the squad it was plain to see that we had a lot of young talent, however we needed some experienced veterans to make the squad complete. Looking to see who was availble on a free, i was able to snap up legends Edmundo and Djalminha plus the experienced and highly rated Arilson without spending a penny of my 2.5 million pound transfer budget. Fernandinho and Cristian looked to be on their way out of the club for 20k each but despite numerous bids for both players, they fell through as no-one could afford the transfer fee. Fred and Jean both represented the Brazil U20 and U23 teams and a 1.5 million pound bid for 15 yr old Celsinho fell through as he didn't want to leave his beloved Portuguesa. A big gamble on a player that would not be eligible until October but he was undeniably a major prospect with the following stats:
After the disappointment of losing out on Celsinho, I placed a bid for another 15 yr old and one of Brazil's brightest stars Anderson. Already capped at U21 level, he would be eliglbe for senior football in mid April after his 16th birthday. Another bright star from Gremio's fantastic academy. Worried that the lack of football would affect match fitness for the squad I arranged a friendly between the first team and the U20's. The U20's despite losing as expected showed that there are several players looking to make the jump to the first team, Kerlon in particular shone. Fred and Edmundo grabbed the goals for a 2-0 win, however both picked up knocks and had to be substituted.
Originally posted by -Xenon-:
If "fb" is a positive thing then yeah i do know, I saw that amazing video of him juggling the ball with his head in a U17 International.
March 2004
March would see me take charge of my first competetive match, a mouth watering fourth round cup tie against Flamengo. The reigning champions of the cup were Santo Andre, a lower league outfit proving that there is romance in any domestic cup competition. Not only would we have to travel to the intimidating Maracana but Flamengo were frsh and match fit from playing in the Rio de Janeiro State Championship.
A rusty and at times lacklustre performance saw us stoop to a 3-0 defeat.
April saw the start of the league campaign with openers against Juventude (originally scheduled to play Vasco which was re-arranged because of Vasco's cup tie) and Fluminense. Defeat at Flamengo in the cup didn't exactly fill me with confidence but with the young talents of Fred and Wagner, we should have won these games comfortably. However this was not to be, against Juventude, Fred had given us the lead with 15 minutes to go. Only for us to collapse in the final 10, gifting Juventude two easy goals and missing out on the points. It was a similiar story at home to Fluminense. After seemingly having the game under control and taking a 2-1 lead into the final 30 minutes again we fell asleep letting them equalise. We seemed to be condemned to just a point when it got worse. Edmundo was given a straight red for an elbow which got him a two match ban 3 minutes from time. Then in stoppage time the predictable happened a close range header from Mauro burgled the gam and the 3 points for Fluminense.
After a nightmarish past two months, both myself and team had to get their act together. My first action in May was to bring in former Milan and Brazil legend, Leonardo in as assistant manager, using his scouting and coaching skills to develop the youth setup, which in my opinion is key to winning the title as any major talents usually set sail for Europe and keeping a high level of talent rolling through the youth teams is vital. For the next game against Vasco there was some chpping and changing in the tactics and the line-up with Kerlon making his senior debut. He played well in a tight 1-1 draw. Next was my biggest challenge yet at home to Corinthians, the pace setters at the top of the table. Kerlon continued on the left and again played superbly with two assists in a hard fought 3-2 victory. This was followed by a narrow 1-0 defeat at Ponte Preta. Relegation battlers Botafogo provided little resistance as we won 3-1 at home. Again success was followed by narrow defeat against Vitoria again 1-0. A month full of ups and downs which left us smack bang in the middle of the table, 12th.
Have you chosen only the Brazilian First Division?
If you had chosen the 3 divisions you would have been able to play the Minas Gerais State Championship too, during the months before the Nat`l League start.
Welcome to the Mineirão........ 
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