Where Can Football Take Me?

For a second division player Martinez should be incredible, 4 star rating for a side that expected to be promoted should mean something along the lines of he will be a good player for the Brasileiro (Division above mine) so I was delighted to get him for just £115k!

Thanks for the comments mate, feel like i've kind of landed on my feet a little bit at Vitoria, for this season at least, hope I can make the most of being one of the favorites.

Could not have gone better! Started the month with a club record win beating Pocoes 12-0 and ended the month with 6 wins from 6 scoring 33 and conceding only once! As much as I might be impressed with my side the quality of the sides we are playing at the moment are poor and we ended our group with maximum points but top on goal difference over rivals Bahia. We have also progressed to the Cup 2nd round where we will face Icasa, slightly tougher than the 1st round but i'd still expect to go through comfortable, the 2 legs of the cup are side by side with the 2 legs of the state final so I may rotate the squad a little.

Our 5-0 win at home in the first leg of the semi final should be enough to see us through to face Bahia in the final given the fact that they won their first leg 10-0 away! That's gonna be huge! Our midfield 3 of Andrade, Martinez & Vagner all managed 5 goals each this month which is a fantastic return, Marquinhos however started to show the ability that he promised at the start with a stunning 7 goal haul this month! I was also impressed with the hat-trick from striker Jonatas who has undoubted talent but hasn't been able to get in to the first team so far despite being a better striker than Fabinho Fuba who has started to go off the boil.

12-0 WOW! well done! KIU

Cheers, that game was nuts I actually got distracted and missed the second half, was 4-0 at half time and came back to that haha. Mental game!

May 2022

We opened May by securing an easy passage to the state final with another 5-0 win (10-0 aggregate) to face rivals Bahia in the two legged final. A Jonatas hat-trick in the away leg put us in a great position with a 3-2 win and despite being the better side in the second leg we fell to a 2-1 defeat meaning the tie ended 4-4, now for the crazy part ... we won the state championship by virtue of being the higher seed, as opposed to actually winning it on the pitch! I mean i'll take it but that is pretty messed up, i'd be pissed to lose in that way!

In the midst of this we secured our passage to the third round of the Copa do Brasil despite a first leg scare, we made plenty of changes to the line up which produced a dis-jointed performance and ultimately a 2-1 reverse. A very confident second leg performance saw us through safely with a comfortable 3-0 win. Our league campaign opened in disappointing fashion as a late goal denied us a deserved victory but the players responded well winning our next 3 games without conceding and notching 9 goals ourselves.

In terms of players it's tricky to single anyone out as the whole squad have been excellent and there's so many to choose from, Osmar, Andrade, Martinez, Jonatas, Marquinhos and more have all been fantastic and long may it continue. The league now takes a break for just over a month but we have the cup third round to tackle early in June against Sao Caetano from the division above us.

July 2022

First leg of our Third Round tie couldn't have started any better, we went into the break 2-0 to the good and Marquinhos added a superb third shortly after the restart to put us in a deserved and comfortable lead. Out of nowhere Sao Caetano pulled a goal back and then quickly added another to put the tie in the balance ahead of the second leg, very disappointing to go from such a comfortable position to a frankly perilous one, the defence got a rollicking after the game to say the least!



Things instantly went downhill when we conceded in the 3rd minute leaving us vulnerable on the away goals rule, Marquinhos pulled us back in the tie and we managed to hold on until the break. we managed to hold out until the 73rd minute but having conceded 2 in 3 minutes we found ourselves needing a goal just to take it to extra time. I was preparing the changes to push for the goal when all of a sudden a cross from Osmar had found the head of Andrade and it was 3-2, 5-5 on aggregate!! Disaster struck in the 89th minute and Sao Caetano were almost there, we created a few chances in stoppage time but couldn't find the goal to deservedly take us through, it was pleasing to pretty much match a side from a higher division for 180 minutes but to go out like this was a right kick in the teeth!



The only other news from June is the incredible capture of this Bolivian attacking midfielder from Newells in Argentina, we paid just £11k for his services due to his contract being almost up which is an absolute bargain, he looks fantastic!

We also captured 4 youth prospects who will join up with the reserves for now, if any of them break through to the first team any time soon i'll put screenies up.

July 2022

Fantastic news ahead of a busy month, our keeper will be out for 5 to 6 weeks, with just one keeper in reserve I decided to see what was available in the loan market given that the transfer window was open, he is nothing special but is certainly a good enough replacement in the mean time, I managed to get this young lad in from Internacional until the end of the season.



With 6 games approaching in June it would be a busy month for us, opening with a 3-0 win away at Boa before a really entertaining but frustrating 3-2 win at home to ABC that saw us go ahead twice in the first half before being pegged back each time, the excellent Santiago Martinez popped up late on to secure a deserved victory. 3 straight comfortable wins against Ceara, Luverdense & Bragantino followed scoring 8 goals and letting in just 1 to make it 8 straight wins in the league. The final game of the month was massively disappointing losing to an injury time strike despite having 26 shots on goal, the goal was America MG's 2nd effort on goal! Not great preparation for 2 tough games coming up as we travel to Mogi Mirim before visiting our rivals bahia within the space of 3 days!



It's early days but we are sitting pretty in 2nd with a 9 point cushion back to 5th and dropping out of the promotion spots, a great start to the campaign.

August 2022

We went into this month looking to bounce back from a shock defeat but knowing we had 3 tricky fixtures in a row, we started away at 3rd place Mogi Mirim and in all honesty I would have took a draw pre match and that is exactly what we got, disappointing however that we twice took the lead and were denied by stoppage time equaliser. We picked ourselves up and prepared ourselves for a massive game against our rivals Bahia who had just moved into the promotion spots, we got off to a flyer with Marquinhos smashing us into an early lead in the 3rd minute but were pegged back before half time and that's how it ended, 1-1 is certainly a respectable result.

The rest of the month went exactly to plan starting off by demolishing league leaders CRB 7-2! Jonatas & the unstoppable Vagner grabbing a hat-trick each before a cameo goal from 15 year old wonderkid Juninho who burst on to the scene this month. Vila Nova visited expecting a hammering but managed to hold us out until the second half but the pressure finally told and we ran out 2-0 winners, then came a highly entertaining trip to high flying America RN that saw us fight back from an early goal to run out 4-2 winners. We rounded off a busy month with routine wins over Chapecoense (3-1) and Nautico (5-0), young Juninho came off the bench to score again and was rewarded with a start against Nautico which saw him yet again pop up on the score sheet.



So, almost half way through the season and we find ourselves sitting at the top of the pile having dropped just 9 points so far, the gap to Bahia just outside the promotion spots is a healthy 9 points and I can;t really complain with how things are going.



Player of the Month

A new thing i'll be doing each month is giving a personal player of the month award, this will be incredibly tricky as there have been so many fantastic performances, the award goes to impressive right winger Adriano Vagner who has terrorised defences this month and been directly involved in 11 goals with 6 assists and 5 scored, Special mentions also go to Santiago Martinez, Marquinhos & Juninho who have all impressed this month.

Wow, looks really awesome. What a steal!

September 2022

We welcomed Protuguesa to the Barradao to get our month underway and comfortably brushed them aside with a brace from top scorer Marquinhos. Next up was a trip to lowly Joinville and we left there stunned, we dominated the match from start to finish but failed to take any of our chances and not for the first time this season we lost our concentration at the death and conceded a late winner, unbelievable and unexpected defeat. We got straight back to winning ways with a 2-0 win over Figueirense but it took a lot longer than i'd have liked to get the first goal with Martinez putting us ahead in the 64th minute, Paulinho wrapped the points up with a screamer in stoppage time.

A trip to Paysandu gave us far more problems than we anticipated, especially after going 2-0 up inside 10 minutes through Martinez & the returning Jonatas who had just won his starting place back from young Juninho. We managed to throw away the advantage before the break heading in at 2-2 but a scrappy own goal in the second half gave us a deserved but fortunate win. A much tougher tie then faced us with 5th placed Ponte Preta the destination, Jonatas was the focal point bagging a first half brace to put us in a strong position, we let them back in midway through the second half which made it a tense finish but we held on to extend the gap between us and the promotion places.

A 4th straight win was to follow and a much more comfortable one with a 5-1 demolition of Atletico Goianiense, Jonatas continued his sensational scoring run with a hat trick and his 6th goal in 3 games, Joilson came on at half time for the injured Vagner and extended the lead before we let one in, Baldivieso then rounded things off by hammering home what turned out to be the divisions goal of the month. We rounded off the month with a comfortable 2-0 win away at ABC, Marquinhos scored a brace to secure the win having gone 5 games without a goal prior to this.



The table makes good reading for us, a massive 15 point gap back to 5th with 14 games left to play, things are looking good for the expected promotion. We have a 4 point lead over CRB in 2nd place but with a game in hand i'll be expecting that to be back at 7 points after our home game against Boa.



Player Of The Month

Two players were in contention this month, Jonatas only started 4 games this month and with a return of 6 goals he put himself in the frame, but the performances of left winger Santiago Martinez have earned him the award, with 2 goals and 5 assists in his 7 appearances and an average rating of 7.5 he has been in typically consistent and menacing form again this month a deserves the accolade.

October 2022

An unbelievable start to an unbelievable month for us, but for differing reasons. We opened the month with an emphatic 8-1 win at home to Boa to restore our 7 point lead, however our next match away at Ceara was completely the opposite as we failed to create anything significant and had to settle for a bore draw. A Jonatas brace and an own goal secured a 3-1 win against Luverdense before Marquinhos & substitute Fabinho Fuba scored the goals in a 2-0 win at home to Bragantino.

The month went downhill from there with some trickier games to come starting with Mogi Mirim, having trailed for most of the match it was looking like we would be defeated at home but Marquinhos popped up with a sensational leveller late on. Our trip to America MG wasn't much easier but an earlier strike from Jonatas secured the win, we were then looking at a trip to 3rd place CRB before hosting rivals Bahia, the less I say about these 2 games the better, we were absolutely awful in both games creating no chances at all and ended up with back to back 1-0 defeats. It seems that we don't want to win the league!!



So this is how the league looks now, our lead is cut to just a single point and dramatically we look in danger of being overtaken! We still need 2 wins to secure promotion too but that hopefully shouldn't be an issue. It's gonna be an intense scrap for the title by the looks of it.



Player Of The Month

With the side so far off the boil at the end of the month this is tricky once again, but I guess it has to go Jonatas for his 5 goal haul this month, i'd like to say nobody though really.

November 2022

Results

After back to back defeats at the end of October we managed to get ourselves back to winning ways but it was scrappy, an early goal from Danilo was enough to secure a narrow win. The next 2 games produced more lackluster performances from us, we had been averaging around 4 goals per game this season and after losing 1-0 to lowly Vila Nova and then being held 0-0 by another struggler in Nautico we had now managed just a single goal in the last 5 league games!

We finally found our shooting boots again when we welcomed Chapecoense to our stadium with a thumping 5-0 win and 5 different scorers, this result not only secure our promotion at last but also pushed us over the current record for goals in a season in this league. An entertaining but nerve wracking 3-2 win at Portuguesa managed to keep the pressure on Bahia going into the final day, a hat trick from Jonatas including an 86th minute winner was enough to pick up 3 points.

So we head in to the final day of the season a point behind rivals Bahia, both teams had a home game to finish up and I know there is very little chance that they will slip up against relegation battlers Vila Nova, especially given Bahia's sensational form in the second half of the season.



The Final Day





We struggled in the final game again creating plenty of chances but just unable to take them, our pressure finally paid off when their defender diverted a Santiago Martinez corner into his own net in the 85th minute to hand us the 3 points. Unfortunately for us Bahia picked up an expected thumping win over Vila Nova beating them 4-0 to deservedly lift the title, they have been awesome over the last 20 games dropping just 5 points, our little slump towards the end ultimately cost us the title but i could have few complaints really.

Season Summary

A productive season without a doubt securing the promotion that the board demanded, it was gutting to lose the title given the position we had ourselves in after 30 games but I can't complain really as Bahia were deserved winners. We also managed to life the State Championship and came runners up in the Regional so it's been a good year with many great performances.



Top Scorer: Marquinhos - 35
Most Assists: Santiago Martinez - 32
Player Of The Year: Santiago Martinez
Best Newcomer: Santiago Martinez
Promising Youngster: Jamelao

Gutted to see you missed out on the title by a point

Cheers Johno, was in such a great position but just had a spell where nothing would go in and it cost us dear. It was so frustrating.

I was kind of keeping an eye out on the job front following our promotion but mainly because I feel the Brazilian teams play far too many games and I might be tempted to get away, however an opportunity turned up that I could not turn a blind eye to, having been linked in the media after the clubs previous manager had stepped down I couldn't ignore this opportunity. I had stiff competition from the current Cruzeiro manager but after impressing during the interview I was offered the chance to manage one of Brazil's top clubs.





Botafogo! Another new chapter in my career is about to get underway and i'm incredibly excited about, they finished 2nd in the league last season and will no doubt expect to be up there again at the end of this season, i'm particularly looking forward to the Copa Libertadores as well. The offer of £36M to spend and wage budget of £1.5M is utterly ridiculous and gives me plenty of room to improve an already very talented squad.

My initial assessment of the current squad has lead me to setup our general formation as a 4-4-2 diamond with a very attacking and slick style of play, the whole squad is very attack minded and I would anticipate some goal frenzy's this season. Attacking midfielder Otavio is tipped as our best player by the current assistant manager.





First thing on the agenda is to restructure the staff levels to my liking, then i'm going to work on transfers. Competition for Jefferson in goal is my top priority, then getting in a top quality left back and an improved left winger complete my initial shopping list.

Can't wait for this!

January 2023

Transfers

The first signing I made was to bring in keeper Homero Jaime from Nurnberg on a season long loan, if the chance to sign him arises then I will certainly look to do that. We were crying out for some competition for Jefferson between the sticks and i've also signed 2 15 year old prospects but I won't bother with screenies of them just yet. Jaime is a fantastic keeper and will most likely be the main man for us this season, I can't quite understand why Nurnberg wanted to loan him out but i'm not complaining.



I then made a trip back to former club Vitoria to snap up their player of the season Santiago Martinez, he will provide cover on the left wing for us and although he probably isn't quite the standard I need to be looking at for this level, I know what he is capable of and i'm confident he will be a good addition to the squad.



My final signing was the big money move of the month, despite our current left back withdrawing his transfer request we were still light in that position so I raided rivals Santos for 26 year old Fabio Luiz, he has been consistent at this level for years and his attributes perfectly fit the adventurous, wing back like player we were after. The transfer probably set me back a little more than I wanted but i've got no doubt that Fabio will be a fantastic acquisition for Botafogo.




Results

We opened our state championship with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Bonsucesso with goals from Josef Martinez, Otavio & Blanco. A trip to Boavista was next and we smashed them 6-0, Camilinho got things going early on and Josef Martinez grabbed a brace, there were also goals for Otavio, Herrera & Bica in an easy win. The final game of the month was another easy game, these state championships can be very tedious given the lack of ability we come up against, Volta Redonda were on the end of a humbling 8-0 defeat. Josef Martinez got himself another 2 goals and right back Herrera continued to show his talent going forward with a brace of his own, Camilinho, Otavio, Juan Jesus and Duvan Zapata were the other names on the score sheet.




State Championship Table

Only a few games in but this is how things stand, the top 4 are far too good for the rest of the teams is starting to show already. All teams play each other once and after those 15 games the top 4 go into a playoff to decide who wins the title.




Player Of The Month

A tough choice between free scoring Josef Martinez, the talented Otavio and adventurous right back Michel Herrera. All 3 have been a cut above in these 3 games with 11 goals and 8 assists between them but Martinez's 5 goal haul plus 2 assists and his general play over the 3 games has been truly exceptional and for that reason I am giving the award to him.

Fantastic start with Botafogo

Jaime looks very solid, nifty acquisition.

Good luck

Thanks for the comments guys. State Championships have a bit of a pre season feel to them to be honest, can't wait to get stuck in to the Libertadores.