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Having decided to have another crack at Brazil after my last attempt was undone by 4.04 (and the bug where the leagues wouldn't initialise after the first season), I thought I'd have a look around for a different team to mould in my image (dirty-blonde and with dubious choice in facial hair - in case you're wondering).
Season 1
Americano (RJ) - Brazil 3rd Division
The day after I take over, 8 players get promoted from my youth setup. Rio State: after a bad start, I stuck two of the youngsters in up front and they started whacking the goals in. We finished 5th, with the highlight being a well-deserved win over 1st Division Portuguesa. Brazilian Cup: We got through to the 4th Round without any real problems. And even then we got to half-time 4-1 up. At which point things got suck-ass. They scored, then 2 of my players got their marching orders before Nautico scored twice more, including one in the 92nd minute. In 13 penalty shoot-outs (friendlies included), I haven't won a single one. 3rd Division: A new £55k GK (to replace the one injured in my final friendly with cruciate ligaments ) helped me keep 5 clean sheets from the first 5 games, 4 of which I won. I got 2 points from the next 4 games before I changed my tactics and bought a winger kindly offered to me for £12k. We won the last 5 games to finish top of the group and go into the playoffs. The knockout stage was embarrassingly easy. The league stage was not. There was only ever one team in it - Tubarao, who won 5 out of 6 with a MIGHTY goal difference. Thankfully, the other two teams were hopeless and I scraped though in second.
[COLOR:YELLOW]Americano get promoted!!![/COLOR] (just)
Fan's player of the year was a 17-yr old striker (who got 15 goals, 14 assists and 7 MoMs in his 32 games) which was a bit unfair on his younger colleague (who ONLY bagged 19 goals plus 4 assists and 6 MoMs from 24 games), but still, I can't disagree. One underperforming striker refused to sign a new contract, so will be leaving for the 1st Division in January.
Season 2
Underperforming striker heads off to Ponte Preta to play with the Reserves (he's now worth £1m). Not that that bothers me much - selling off my high-earning duds and replacing them with under-paid slave players has brought me riches. The club's bank balance is above the £1m mark and they've given me £500k to play with. So, in comes a 15 yr-old striker to join the Player of the Year (or Chupacabras as his nickname now is) for the princely sum of £200k compensation. Other than him, it's been quite busy. Scrabbling around in the dirt got a stack of triallists in - all released from Div 1 teams - some of whom looked pretty good and now call me "boss". I also picked up a 17 yr-old DL from a non-league outfit for £20k, and had a 17yr-old DMC offered to me for £5k. Neither are that good yet, but look promising, and picked up a DC who was recommended by my scouts 5 months AFTER I spotted him as a potential decent signing. Rio State: dire. We finish 8th, which only goes to show how badly the 4 teams below me played. After the heroics of last season, the comedown. We probably deserved to win most of the games on 'Shots on Goal' and 'Shots on Target', but seems like the computer didn't want that to happen. Brazilian Cup: we went in at the 4th Round. We went out in the 4th Round. Again penalties were our undoing. The opposition GK saved all 3. 2nd Division: A forward I picked up on a free from Flamengo underperformed all season (ironic, considering I got him to replace last season's underperforming striker). 12 games in I get a message after a 3-0 win over Gama. "Americano FC (RJ)'s goalkeeper Dozy The Dwarf will be out of the team's crucial match against fellow relegation strugglers Mogi Mirim on July 12th". That was a 3-0 win that took us top of Division 2. Hmmm... We don't stay first for long (a day), but second suits me fine, with there being 8 places for the playoffs. The first playoff stage is a doddle, winning 6/6. The second isn't. (deja vu?)
We go into the last game (against Gama) needing a win to leapfrog Gama into the 2nd promotion slot. They take an early lead before two second-half goals from my underperforming forward (playing as an emergency left winger) leave me with a very nervous last 20 minutes of constant long-shots by Gama. We scrape through in 2nd. Sound familiar?
AMERICANO GET PROMOTION!!! (just)
The 15- (now 16) yr old I got for £200k did the job I bought him for. 28 goals, 8 assists and 4 MoMs in 41 appearances also earned him 2nd Division Top Goalscorer. Enough for Fan's Player Of The Year? No, Chupacabras walked away with that prize again, with 21 goals, 17 assists and 12 MoMs to his name from 40 games. A D/ML is heading off for £50k plus extras. The 9 month transfer window has seen 18 players join the club. I've got a 1st Division SIZE squad, without the quality (yet).
Elsewhere, Sao Paulo's manager is given the job of Brazil. 18 days, and an early exit from the Gold Cup later, he's no longer manager of Brazil. [/snerk]
Season 3
Again, a number of triallists pop by in the close season, some of whom are now playing in the Reserves / Under-20s. One of them, a D/DM LC released by Cruzeiro, is good enough to demand at least Squad Rotation and get it. A couple of my scouts spot a 14-yr old striker playing for a non-league outfit - he'll join at the end of the season. Rio State: Americano (RJ) becomes the first new name on the Trophy since 1960 and only the 9th team ever to win it (in a hundred years) !! This is achieved with a solid league stage; and finished with a 5-0 first leg win over Fluminense (29 times winners) followed by a 1-1 draw in front of 72000 people at the national stadium. Gate receipts are higher than the prize money. Brazilian Cup: with the 4th Round falling between the league and knockout stage of the Rio State, my Reserves get a match and get beaten 2-0. No-one seems to care. World Cup 2006: 1st: Italy. 2nd: France. 3rd: South Africa. 4th: Bulgaria. 1st Division: confusing. The group of misfits that included 7 players from my days in the 3rd Division aquitted themselves reasonably well in the opening stretch (until the 1 month break for the World Cup - excessively long since Brazil crashed out without a point or a goal [snerk]). Those 13 games were notable for 2 things. 1: Schizophrenic form and 2: Chupacabras not getting one goal.
A month off gives my players a breather and an opportunity for Chupacabras to get injured. The match he gets back, it's clear he's found some more gears. He gets 11 goals in the next 3 matches and continues to belt them in for the rest of the season, ably assisted by Bridesmaid, the poor git who simply CAN'T out-score or out-assist the goat-murderer. Even the top-scorer from my first season gets lifted out of the under-20s to join in the festivities. A lack of any credible opponents means that even a bad run-in can't prevent the 2000-1 outsiders from scooping the title. By a point, granted, but ignore the points and look at the goal difference of +41. We rule.
AMERICANO ARE CHAMPIONS OF BRAZIL!!! (just)
A bunch of players are off to pastures new including the under-performing striker who saved my bacon last season - he wasn't much better this season either. I picked up a right-back who at long last has managed to play well more than once a season - well enough that the centre-back who was playing there went back where he belongs (and was much better there). A DC I splashed out £450k for hasn't justified his fee yet, while the rest of the players I snapped up are playing for either the reserves or the under-20s.
Player of the Year... well, Bridesmaid got 28 goals and 14 assists and my left-winger got 24 assists plus 5 goals. But, yet again, Chupacabras is Player Of The Year with 32 goals, 16 assists and 14 MoMs from his 47 games. His statue can go next to mine.
The board have upgraded my training facilities. Nice of them.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by turnip:
it's clear he's found some more gears. He gets 11 goals in the next 3 matches and continues to belt them in for the rest of the season, ably assisted by Bridesmaid, the poor git who simply CAN'T out-score or out-assist the goat-murderer. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Any chance I can get him on loan for a season, My strikers Can't hit a coo's backside with a banjo
Brazil Nuts 
) helped me keep 5 clean sheets from the first 5 games, 4 of which I won. I got 2 points from the next 4 games before I changed my tactics and bought a winger kindly offered to me for £12k. We won the last 5 games to finish top of the group and go into the playoffs. The knockout stage was embarrassingly easy. The league stage was not. There was only ever one team in it - Tubarao, who won 5 out of 6 with a MIGHTY goal difference. Thankfully, the other two teams were hopeless and I scraped though in second.
Linear Mode
