10 Years With Peru

So after my Celtic Nation game failed, I decided to embark on a little projected I had intended to do since FM12 to be honest, and that's conquer the world continent by continent! I'm not quite sure how I'll do this, as I might go for a South American, North/Central American, Caribbean, West Europe, East Europe, North Africa, Mid/South Africa, Oceanian, Middle Eastern, Central Asian and South East Asian nations......or I might just do it one per continent. Depends how lazy I get.

Anyways I put all the teams from the criteria into this site: random.org/lists/

Randomise it as many times as there are teams, and pick the first one out the hat. Which in this case, was Peru.



A nation full of footballing history, including four World Cup births at the inaugural tournament in 1930, the 1970 edition, and the 1978 and 1982 editions, making the Second Round in 1970 and 1978. Controversy struck when they lost 6-0 in the deciding match of the Second Group Stage to Argentina in 1978, as Argentina needed a four goal win to ensure qualification to the Final. Rumour has it that munitions and grain were exported for free to Peru from the Argentines prior to the match.

During the years around 1970-1983, Peru were at their most successful. Along with three World Cup qualifications from four, they won the Copa America in 1975 and reached the Semi Finals in the following two editions. They also won a Copa America in 1939.

The nation has seen somewhat of a baron run since the early 80s however, with just two Copa America semi final appearances since, and some rather pitiful World Cup qualifying campaigns. That's where I come in, Mr. Dan White, Welsh Extraordinaire...

Let's begin with the semantics.





...Second, you say?



Luck of the draw. Unlike previous editions, this year's FM didn't factor in real life results into the World Cup qualifications. So by chance, I'm third in the table with six games remaining. They weren't going to be easy, mind...



My first bit of good news, before the nation had ever kicked a ball in anger under me:



Not sure how Peru are that high up, but I'll take it!

First match was up next, away at Colombia:



...And we sucked. Against a top class player like Falcao, we crumbled very easily and they dominated. 3-0 up in 20 minutes, they could have hammered us but mercifully left it at that. We pulled a consolation with the last kick of the game.



Unfortunately it got much worse and we were proving inept at playing teams with a top player. Sanchez this time ripping us apart and sending us from third to sixth in two games. Not good news.

Following this, we had a few Friendly opportunities so I took them with great strides in order to get some morale-boosting wins:



Some comfortable wins. Suriname never looked like threatening despite their 1-0 lead.



Disappointing but with the players we had out, 2-0 to Brazil is somewhat acceptable, right?

We went back into the Qualifiers then with two wins from three and it showed:



Despite a rotten refereeing performance, we pulled it back from 0-1 and 1-2 to take a respectable draw off Uruguay. Three games left and it was in our hands to make a World Cup spot or at least, the Fifth Place Playoff spot.



Told you the referee was corrupt.

I quite enjoy international stories so will be interested to see how this goes

Good luck!

I would like to add that while I had this idea for a while, George14brfc's career here really inspired me to go forward and do this, as I've really been enjoying his career:

http://sortitoutsi.net/careers/story/8582

Good luck with this, interesting idea and I liked Georges Canada one, hopefully this is along the same lines.

Good luck mate!! And thanks very much I am still hoping to continue it just need the time! At the moment I have Ross County our succession game so I will hope to play it after that ! Decent start too hoping you can qualify

We had three games to save our World Cup campaign, and two winnable away games.



Nervy against Venezuela, but the lads managed to pull together to take victory, reclaim 5th place, and hand me my first competitive victory.

Unfortunately, the squad was dwindling game after game. I know that value isn't a sure-fire way to judge players, but I have set it to the most valuable players in the Peruvian National Pool and you can see that I had problems:



An away game at Paraguay would follow, knowing that a draw or victory would guarantee me at minimum the playoff spot.



It was edgy. Extremely edgey. But I managed to steal a a late goal and then took a second on the break to confirm that we'd be going to the Playoffs, minimum!

We had a home game remaining against fourth place Ecuador. A win would see us finish in the top four and a draw could have even seen us providing Colombia lost their final fixture.

However, the FM gods weren't exactly going towards us.



Again, judging on value but that's 14 of our top valued 25 players injured in some way or another. We would be playing a scratch team, this was Air Bud stuff. We'd be able to go against the wrath of the Gods and qualify automatically for the World Cup for the first time since 1982....right?





...Ah.

There may have been circumstances but the truth is we were appalling. I like to think Ecuador took pity on us after the hour. On the right hand side you can see the final table, and we were resigned to the Playoff.



Interesting. Would always prefer the home leg second.

Cautious. Scrappy. All to play for.



Nervous. Talisman. OptaJoe.



It of course meant that we'd qualified for the World Cup. We'd nearly shot ourselves in the foot after I'd inherited a fantastic start to the campaign, but it doesn't matter because we're over the line now.



A tiny bit harsh seeing as we did qualify after all, but it does mean that I'll have to watch over my back.



Incredibly tough group, but I don't mind too much as I'm just happy to be at the bloody tournament.



Fitting that we'd pick a bloody Fourth Division side to train at.

So that's the end of the year, one down with there being a Copa America on this in 2023 I see that as the final year of this career, so ten (unless I get sacked...) to go!



5-2-4 record for the year. Not too terrible.



The Peruvian League Review, in case anyone was interested.



Team of the Year.



Finally, a look at the U20s. Not a bad year by all accounts!

Well done on getting to the World Cup, did that the hard way and what a tough group!!

Great work in reaching the World cup

2014

Into the new year and I still held my position as Peru manager. The FA weren't incredibly pleased with the manner in which we qualified for the World Cup so this would be a year where I really had to impress.

Here's our fixture list in the build-up to the World Cup:



Our ranking graph:



And the teams around us in the rankings:



Right, down to business. First on the agenda was what I call a "morale boosting friendly", normally against a side of low stature. This brought us to travel to the tiny peninsula of Gibraltar. And we fairly gave them a hammering.



6-0 at halftime, it was almost a shame to not make it double figures but I won't lose sleep over it. But there was something interesting about this fixture:



Ballin' and breakin' records since 2014! If I ever get the sack then I'm at least taking this result as a reason why I'm a Peruvian hero.

Our following fixtures were within close proximity as the build up to the World Cup really began. I had a mix of playing a local side (just to give it that "Big Event" feel), and then a few sides that I figured would play similarly to the teams in my group.

First up, Easter Road and Scotland...



Great comeback, Farfan pulling his finger out his arse for once. Carrillo had come on like ten seconds before scoring as well, so I was rather pleased with that.



A great win against one of Brazil's finest.



A calm, confident win to help the lads keep up their confidence.



And, well, a somewhat disappointing result against Honduras, but every cloud has a silver lining:



Something to celebrate before entering the abyss. England, Japan, Spain. What's Quechuan for "gulp"...?

Time for the big 'un



The World Cup. La Coupe de Monde. Or something along those lines. And it was the big, bad England in the first game:



Guerrero got us up and running with a stunning goal that sent a country into party mode. Unfortunately about thirty seconds later it was 1-1. Still, we held on to credit a solid draw that helped our credentials. Japan and Spain drew 0-0, so we were up to second in the group!

Japan was next, and prepare for an absolute classic...





Heartbreaking as well. Flores flourished, Guerrero galvanised. But Farfan's injury hindered us. Morales took us down ten men with his injury and then our Right Back who is classically a DM due to having nobody left to put there, went in on a rash challenge and Japan were able to pull it back. Absolute sickener, I tell you.

England beat Spain 1-0. It meant that we were still second in the group on goal difference. If we could get a draw against Spain and England/Japan was the same draw, or if England won, we'd go to the Second Round. Or we could win, but that wasn't our game plan for the final match.



And as you can see, going all-out-defensive worked an absolute treat. We managed to hold the Spaniards back enough to come through with a goalless draw. Better yet, England/Japan was also 0-0, meaning that despite not winning a single one of my games, I'd gone through to the Second Round, which I think is a World Cup first! Commiserations for Japan, as they also didn't lose a game. Not.



Ultimately, the journey could only go on so far but I feel we exceeded expectations and did ourselves proud, even if we did fail to win a game.



And the Ivory Coast only went on to win the whole bloody thing so to lose to the eventual champions isn't too bad!



The FA were happy, so I'm happy.

And finally, my player of the tournament is this man:



He had an excellent tournament.

Copa America would come in 2015, so plenty to build on for the next year!

Very well done on getting out of the group your keeper and defence must have been heroic with all those shots! And unlucky against Ivory Coast that youngster looks class

Cheers for the comment! Yeah, the Spain game was a backs to the door job but there were only about three or four proper highlights so I presume there were a ton of long range desperation shots that didn't really trouble the keeper!

The end of 2014 was dealing with a bunch of friendlies.



Quite annoyed me this one actually, because the original game was 4-3 to Italy with half an hour still to go (and coming from 4-1 down) but my laptop overheated and shut itself off, which was frustrating. So I guess it's a tiny bit of a cheat result but not wanting to do a couple of months again I just holidayed it until this and my next friendly were over.



Here's that second result. Easy ranking points.



Bit of a damp squib. If anyone's ever followed my seasons they'll know I don't care a huge amount for friendlies anyway.



And the Far East Asian once again coming back to cut out any win attempt.

Then, the Copa America draw:



Winnable. And a chance to beat Japan. Must mention that Chile are the hosts.



I had no recollection of booking this match but it happened, and it was pretty terrible haha. Scored from a corner in the first seconds and that was it. An annoying red card followed but apart from that not too much happened!

Here's my fixtures for the year, then:



6-6-2 for the year, not too bad at all. 11-8-6 is my overall Peru record!

Quick look at the Peruvian First Division review:



Avila had a good season, top scoring in the league and scoring his first Peru goals.

Finally, my team of the year:



Dubious. I'd have had Guerrero and Pizarro over Ruidlaz and Avila. Right not to have Farfan in the team, though. He's such a disappointment.

Doing very well, especially that run in the World Cup!

2015


2015 was a Copa America year and we started the year off with a frankly horrible result at home to Guatemala.



1-0 up and cruising, Guatemala shook us with two goals in a minute and we never recovered. Not great.

Then, it was the build-up to the 2015 Copa America in Chile. We had the hosts, Japan's Under 23 side, and our rivals Ecuador in the group. Was going to be a tense one, but this update is all about the build-up (to be honest there will be a few updates today as I'm off work).



Not a fantastic result either. We dominated large parts of the game but were unable to finish Australia off.



Comfortable victory, just to help the team get even more used to South American opposition.



Finally, a bit of a boring game to finish off with. The press saw this as an excellent result. Me? Meh....

Build-up would be ranked as a 6/10 if I was to rank it. Could have been better, but we didn't lose those immediate three fixtures, I guess.

Tournament time!

We were kicking off against the Japanese. A year previously, they seriously jeopardised our chances of making it through the World Cup Group Stage with a comeback from 3-1 down to draw, but we managed to hold on to claim second place in the group and knocked them out on goals scored.

This time though it was against their Under 23 side, and we had as good a chance as anyone to win...



We did, and it was somewhat comfortable, Guerrero adding more goals to his overall national tally. And my first ever group stage victory in any tournament!



An excellent game against the host nation followed. 1-0 down at halftime, we thoroughly deserved the draw to retain our position at the top of the group. And with the results in other groups and the format of the tournament (two best third-place teams also qualify for the Quarter Final), we had qualified from the group.



It allowed us to play some fringe players in this final group game. Annoyingly though, Chile and Japan U23 ended in such a way that Chile nabbed top spot, and a game against Venezuela in the Quarter Finals. Us? We'd have to play Colombia in a very tricky match....



By halftime I was fretting, thinking a hammering was on the cards but we turned it around and got one back. The entire second half was attack atfter attack after attack, but unfortunately we couldn't get the equaliser and we were out of the tournament. A shame, but we certainly weren't humiliated by any means.



Argentina won, Chile runners up. That could have been us.



At least the FA are happy.

Next up begins the start of the 2018 World Cup qualifying. With Brazil added to the qualifying process, it was going to be a rather tricky occasion...

Least the FA are pleased with where you got to chap, it wasn't a bad run!

Big update as we wrap up the end of the year. We began with a couple of friendlies:





The Jamaica game, it has to be said, was one of the most fun games I've ever had on FM. end-to-end, full of goals, just a really entertaining game to watch and manage. The Iceland game was less so. Deza got a goal to help us get back into it but we were hammered possession wise and never threatened to get an equaliser. Landmark goal for Guerrero though...



Another record broken under Mr. White. Call me butter 'cos I'm on a roll.

Up next was our first World Cup qualifier. Away at Argentina. Gulp...

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Or not so! Guerrero headed in a cross against the run of play, and we managed to absorb the frenetic Argentine pressure before Deza (who is fast becoming my favourite impact player) scored a second 13 minutes from full time. We held on for a remarkable start to qualification.



Comfortable against Bolivia in our second qualifier. Interesting results though saw Uruguay batter Argentina 5-1, Paraguay draw 5-5 against Chile despite being 3-0, 4-1 and 5-2 down, and Venezuela winning their first two fixtures.



Amidst all this it appears there's another Copa America for 2016. Turns out this is the Centenary version of the tournament which hasn't even been authorised by CONMEBOL or CONCACAF, but FM have decided to include it anyways. I don't mind, we're here for tournaments.

Two more qualifiers now. Firstly, against Uruguay away. We wouldn't get the luck that we were offered against Argentina...



Once again, I was led to believe that I was screwed against Uruguay, so my feelings made it to the press, and the FA didn't disagree.



Shame. I like Uruguay, but that's the second time in this career I've been screwed by them, so screw them!

I did however manage a victory against an old rival in my next qualifier:



Well and truly put the 0-6 to bed. What a game. 2-0 down, only for Carrillo to score twice in quick succession. Ecuador then nabbed an undeserved goal to go 3-2 up in the Second Half, but we persevered, with Guerrero getting an equaliser. Carrillo then managed to score his hatrick goal late on with a close range tap in to secure a phenomenal victory. Lord knows how we were doing this well but I was loving it!

And that was it for the year. Here's the usual statistics:



6-4-4, taking me to 17-12-10 for my all-time Peru record, which I think is very reasonable.

Team of the year:


And the rankings. We've picked up after slipping a little:





So not a bad year, really. Started slow, had a respectable Copa America campaign and ended it with some great World Cup qualifying results.

Outstanding start to the qualifiers. Also "call me butter cause I'm on a roll" is one of the best lines I've read in an FM story

Must admit, it made me snigger a little!

2016

So into 2016. We had qualifiers and another Copa America to enjoy this season.



Lost to Ivory Coast at home. They were the only non-American side willing to travel to Peru. They're top of the World Rankings though, having lost once in 44 games so it's not too bad.



A big win against Chile and I finally beat them in my fourth game against them. All the other "big" nations won so it was important to keep up the home record, if I want to be sure of qualifying for the World Cup. Scored early, held on and Guerrero finished it off. Easy.



...and how!

We could have won this by far more than 2-1, it should have been three or four but I don't care. We've been to Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil in our three away games so far and we've picked up six points. Amazing start to qualification.



And the final friendly, the trademark hammering before the tournament starts.

Looking forward to the cup!

So, it's the start of the 2016 Copa America, hosted in Brazil! Different format to the usual Copa Americas, this being the celebration of CONMEBOL's 100 year anniversary. Instead of 10 teams +2 invitees in three groups of four, there are the ten CONMEBOL sides plus 6 CONCACAF sides, making four groups of four. The good news is that there's a chance to play weaker CONCACAF sides, but the bad news is there's no chance for getting a reprieve in finishing as one of the best third place teams...



A convincing but unflattering win, it could have been a lot more as we completely dominated the match.



In our second game, we just couldn't take our chances. We were reduced to ten men on the 80th minute, but luckily a mistake by a Costa Rican defender allowed Farfan to tap the ball into an empty net and secure our place in the Quarter Final.

Argentina's second win of the group however meant that we needed to win to avoid the hosts, Brazil. It wouldn't be easy...



We got the draw, but as you can see on the right hand side, it was not enough to finish in top spot. It meant a fixture against Brazil in the next round.



And like the previous month, I more than matched them.



Brazil had chances but couldn't take them away. The red card left them vulnerable and we attacked, winning the match and making the Semi Final.

Incredibly, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago also made it to the Semis. Chile wiped Jamaica away 4-0, leaving us with the misfortune of playing two teams (>_> in the semis.



We went behind twice, but managed to peg it back twice and take the game into extra time, where we were able to see the game off and make the final of the Copa America.

Brilliant mate! Top work!

Unbelievable work

Cheers guys! Still the rest of 2016 to play out:



A result that we struggled to win, but a win nonetheless. We're still joint top of the group and on good course for qualification.



A star is born! We win 2-0 against a strong Colombia, with Hinostroza becoming Peru's new hero.



I think I've just found a permanent CM.



With half of qualification now done, I have managed to climb to the top of the group with an emphatic victory over Venezuela. I thought it was going to be double figures but we eased off at 3-0 and let them get back into it in the second half. Regardless, we won, we were top, and it was excellent. Farfan was in the form of his life for his nation.


Unfortunately, great things don't last for ever and then this happened:



First defeat since losing to the USA before the Copa America and it was a demolition job. We just capitulated.



Luckily, we finally pulled our finger out against bottom-placed Bolivia. Uruguay's recent bad form meant we were five points clear of second place, ten points clear of the playoff spot, with seven games to play.



12-1-3 for the year, and what a year 2016 was! 29-13-13 is my overall record now, I've won more than draws and losses combined!



Fifth. Incredible.



Really climbed after the Cup victory.



Top 15 at the end of the year. Look at all those teams that are crapper than us.



Finally, team of the year.

I doubt I'll get a better year than 2016 but here's to hoping! 2017 will see the culmination of the World Cup Qualifiers, and the 2017 Confederations Cup

2017

So, 2017 now and straight into the Qualification:



A big away win against our biggest rivals. Farfan continuing his good form.



It helped us rise to fourth place in the World rankings, which is just fantastic for us!

Some other news:



Not sure how to think of this. We got caked by the USA in 2016 and Russia are hosts. And I don't seem to do fantastically against African sides either...



Uruguay completed the double over us in disappointing conditions as far as we were concerned. Paraguay got thumped at home to Colombia 7-0, which helped their cause. Still, 11 points off Brazil.



And we kept it at 11 points, although Colombia jumped over Brazil into that playoff spot, so I was 9 points clear (and still top) with four games to go. I wouldn't say I have one foot in the finals, but I'm doing well, despite this little hiccup.

Anyways, Friendlies time prior to the Confederations Cup! And I chose to kick it off with games against African sides, and both results were rather standard:





Both times went 3-0 up to concede, and I made it a bit better against Cape Verde than Guinea.

On to the finals!

2017 Confederations Cup

No poster has been released yet and I'm terrible at photoshop so that headline will have to do. And we would begin against the big bad hosts, Russia:



Jean Deza has a habit of coming off the bench to score late goals and he didn't disappoint here! An absolute Worldy settled this one and shaped us up well for the group.



Unfortunately we were stuck to a stalemate by Cameroon in a thoroughly boring match. The USA had beaten them 3-1, but then got battered 4-0 off the Russians. We could easily slip out of this tournament with a defeat to the USA, a team that had beat me 4-1 just over a year ago...



...Buuuut it didn't matter as we absolutely battered the USA! 4-0 at halftime, and we eased off knowing we were probably going to play Spain in the Semi Final.




But somehow, Iran beat Spain, which meant I played Iran.



And we won. Yay! Early goal and a late goal settled it, standard Peru way of winning games.

It meant we were into another major final!

Not a bad run in the cup, shame you couldn't beat Ivory Coast but you've come so far!

We resumed qualification for the final part of 2017.



A result that we were losing in twice, the second time after an 88th minute goal that I thought really screwed us over. But Deza did his late goal trick again to save our skins. Sadly, we lost top spot in the continental group, but we were 7 points clear with three games left from the playoff spot.



And we did it with a fantastic away win at Colombia! Like last time, we scored two early goals to sort ourselves out. Colombia had three disallowed goals, but it was fruitless as we managed to qualify for the World Cup for the second time running.







An incredible game came about against Paraguay, where we were 5-2 up and playing ten men, but we managed to get pegged back to 5-4. We still held on though, and could finish top yet.

Also, if you notice, Brazil failed to qualify for the World Cup!



Last game of the group and a disappointing draw as we failed to defeat the lowly Venezuela. Argentina lost, but Uruguay won meaning we still finished in Second place. Like the Grand National, the horse that takes the early lead almost never wins the race. But at least we qualified for the World Cup!



Chile qualified for the World Cup as well.



We drew with Romania in another incredible match where we were 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 up, yet 4-3 down. The draw was important to stay in the top seedings for the World Cup.



World Cup draw was made and we were indeed a top seed. I reckon had we had this draw in 2014 I would have been uneasy, but this time round I really fancied us to win the group!



Results from the year of 2017 show another positive year of 8-5-2. That's 37-18-15 for everything.