Grêmio FBPA - Biggest in Brazil (?)

[I apologize for any grammar mistakes made below (:]

So, for my first career in Football Manager 2013, I decided to manage Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense, or simply Grêmio FBPA. The reasons for this were many: I managed Grêmio before in FM 2008 and 2009 (and were really happy with them) and they also happen to be the club I have the most simpathy, aside the one I cheer for, Palmeiras. Grêmio is a really traditional club in Brazil (just like 10 others from the top division), and they have amazing fans.

In earlier versions of FM, I always played in my brothers/friends PCs, so I never got farther than one or two seasons. I don't have experience in raising players or planning for the future, so that's something I'll have to worry about now. I plan on playing at least 5 seasons with Grêmio, with my goal being to win AT LEAST once the Brazilian League, Brazilian Cup, Copa Libertadores da America and the FIFA World Club Championship. Actually, I'd rather get at least one of these titles every year. Let's see how that goes.

So, onto my first season.

I wasn't really watching too much soccer this year (been really busy), so I didn't have a good idea of what Grêmio's squad would look like. And boy, that was a good surprise. Featuring Kléber (ex-Palmeiras) and Marcelo Moreno, two leading stars strikers, Elano and Zé Roberto, both experienced at the Brazilian National Team and good playmakers, a good duo of defenders (Saimon and Werley) and Júlio César on loan from Fluminense on the left wing, I knew that was a team destined for some good stuff. I loaned some strikers to get some depth in there, and Paulo Henrique and Nixon proved to be good surprises. Nixon wasn't good enough for Grêmio (even if he always scored) so I sent him back to Flamengo. I kept Paulo Henrique tho, he looks promising, and I kinda like the boy. I also find two good regens, for free:



Maylson should have been sold, but looking back, maybe I should have kept Marquinhos. He would have been a good sub for Elano and Zé Roberto.

Miguel Peinado, one of the regens:



Paulo Henrique:



Santiago Vásquez (this sonofa... got an injury that last almost a year.):



Highlight: I really can't believe Zé Roberto's stats at 39 years:



I also bought Danilo, but since he had played for other clubs, he wasn't allowed to play in the Brazilian League, just in the Cup. I was thinking in 2014 (also, I thought it was a bargain):



Okay, so the first competition was the Gaúcho State Championship. It's not like Grêmio really has a competition here, the only contenders are Internacional, which we managed to beat. Despite a shaaaaaaameful loss to Lajeadense (who are these guys?) it was a good title win to start the season. States Championships don't have a lot of reputation, but the fans like them, so I was happy to win it.



Not on chronological order, but we also won the Brazilian Cup, which I didn't expect. Beating Flamengo (spoiler: the League winners) at their own home was a pleasure, and I wasn't so confident against Bahia or Santos either. Played with the best team selection possible, and had a lot of comebacks (specially against Figueirense, on both matches, Flamengo Away and Santos Away). Better, impossible.



And finally, the Brazilian National First Division. I told the board that I expected to qualify to Copa Libertadores da América (the 4 first places, unless one of them wins the Cup, then the 5th also qualifies), and I thought that was all I could do, barely. Instead, we mounted a serious title challenge. I am pretty convinced that our biggest problem were injuries. In crucial times we had key players on the medical department. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the result:

Matches:



Final league scores:



Best Eleven (I reeeally don't agree with it, but...):


A game that deserves a highlight (against our rivals, away from home... even though they got relegated, International squad is pretty good. i don't understand how their coach managed that.):
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I'm currently on the second season and I plan to do frequent updates. Stay tuned!

Really struggle to get to grips with the Brazil rules and the MLS for that matter, but I will follow this to see how you get on and hopfully learn along the way, good luck and great start

Thank you for the feedback, it's good to know someone is reading your story

I don't see how Brazil rules are any different than the ones in European countries. Our season starts at the beggining of the year (so instead of Season 2012/2013, 2013/2014 we have 2012, 2013, 2014...), the National First Division is pretty much like the EPL or Serie A, etc, the only difference is that we have the States Championships. For most states, they work as a pre-season for the biggest club on the state, and it's just a minor title. In the Gaúcho one, for example, the only teams from the First Division are Grêmio and Internacional. Juventude is from the Second and all others are Third and below. The only exception is São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro State Championship, since the first features Palmeiras, Corinthians, São Paulo, Santos and a lot of medium teams, and the second has Flamengo, Vasco, Botafogo and Fluminense.

2 friendlies before Gaúcho State Championship started, tried to test a new tactic and it didn't work out. We have a saying here, "Em time que está ganhando não se mexe", which would be something like "You don't make changes to a team that is winning", so I changed back to our traditional 4-3-3 with wingers and got some good results:

(also, I'm not so lazy anymore and I'll be posting the images in a more fashionable way, like you guys do ):



I also bought 2 DCs, Thiago Heleno from Palmeiras and Naldo, from União São João. I was expecting to see Thiago Heleno on the first-team, along with Saimon, while Werley would come now and then to rest them. Naldo was more of a backup. Until now, with Saimon injured, Naldo has been playing wonderfully, scoring goals and totally dominating in the air and in the tackling department. A good surprise:



Júlio César and Facundo Bertoglio had their loans extended, which is good because they're both important players on this team.

Gabriel was a promising kid being sold by a reasonable price, and I got the youngster Bruno Dybal on loan just to check him out, maybe I'll buy him. I'm having less trouble to find promising youngsters than I thought I would have.

Our midfield rising star, Fernando, has been sold to SL Benfica, for R$36m (I really don't know how much that is in euros. Maybe something like 13m), But he only departs in the middle of the year, so he's going to help us win the Copa Libertadores da América.

Our first game in Libertadores was both exciting and disappointing:



I'm happy with the way the team reacted, specially because after we went to 10 players we kept attacking and applying pressure. Elano shouldn't have missed that penalty, though ):.


That's it