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#148106 A Tenure With The Philippines
danwhite89
2015 Asian Cup
So, we kicked 2015 off with the Asian Cup, the Philippines' first ever time in the famous tournament, courtesy of the Asian Challenge Cup win last year. We didn't have an easy group, and unfortunately we were introduced to the big boys in a not so favoured way.
I'm not gutted, to be honest. We gave them a fight, scoring at 2-0 down but hey, it's South bloody Korea. To go down 5-1 and at least score at a critical stage of the game is a fantastic achievement and something we can build on.
Saudi Arabia were next and absolutely hammered us in the first 20. Yet although they had the vast majority of the possession for the rest of the game, we by far had the better chances. Schrock got one back with 16 minutes to play and we had the chances to equalise, but just couldn't take them. Still, a valiant effort by the lads. Unfortunately as you can see in the table, we were out.
Almost a carbon copy of the Saudi game. Another 2-1 defeat, but we had scored again and kept it competitive after a worrying start and we shared the possession stat.
So overall, the Asian Cup was an experience. We were bridging the gap between the Asian Elite and the Asian Undercard (where, unlike in Europe or Africa to an extent there is a MASSIVE gulf), and we've sparred with the big boys. Got knocked down all the time, but we were reasonably competitive and scored in every game. I can take that to heart.
Japan won the cup. South Korea went out in the Quarters.
And the start of the Asian Cup 2019 qualifiers starts already. I can qualify for the 2016 Challenge Cup, win that, and that gives me one of the two Challenge Cup spaces (the other being the 2018 tournament) reserved for the Asian Cup. If that makes any sense....!
#147772 A Tenure With The Philippines
danwhite89
So here we are with the knock out stage. We had Vietnam up, in a unique twist which has the Semis and Final as a two-legged home and away format. Unusual for an International tournament like.
A mega away victory set us on our way for a final birth. We dominated from start to finish and nailed the victory.
Buuuuutttt I need to confess something of sorts. As with what has happened with my Peru file, my piece of crap laptop sometimes overheats, particularly when not plugged in (which in itself wrecks the charger, so I'm in a lose/lose situation really). The original game was 7-1 to Vietnam after 75 minutes when the laptop blew. Perhaps it was absorbing some of my own hot-headedness but there we go. I'm going to see it as an abandonment with a rescheduled match haha!
Ground out a draw in the second leg, and I was eager not to let them get too far ahead. We won 7-4 on aggregate (or lost 10-4 if you prefer), to book our place in the final against our old friends, Myanmar.
But first...
Records, records, records.
And, well, you can't really say much about that apart from that I'll be lucky to get 0 points. Le gulp.
Anyway, on with the final.
A nervy first leg at home, but a two goal advantage ought to see us through.
Happily, it did! An early first half goal saw us take the reigns and Younghusband secured a second to see us win the South East Asian Championship for the first time!
Yeah, all that tradition of previously having won nothing >_>
It's all about meeeeeee
Nailed the All-Star team
And dominated the stats. We scored 30 goals in our nine games.
What a year. Two titles (albeit somewhat minor in the grand scheme of things, although the World Cup and the Asian Cup are a million miles away from what we are capable of), and a massive amount of games. We ended up with a record of 15-2-4 (19-3-5 in total) which is mammoth, to be frank. Incredible stuff!
#147743 A Tenure With The Philippines
danwhite89
We began our South East Asian Championships with a run of three friendlies.
Our first two games were almost a carbon copy; 2-0 up, pegged back to 2-1 before finishing the tie off. The Taiwan gmae however was yet another example of how we struggle against supposed bad sides.
I think cautious is the word to use. Regardless, we won and it was a good start.
Another good win against lowly opponents. Good to get these wins out the way before we hit the big teams. With a game every two days though, my squad was going to be stretched come the final group games.
Nearly mucked it up but Singapore were group favourites, so it was a big victory to give us one foot in the Semi Final!
And another fantastic victory! This confirmed qualification to the Semi Final and barring a defeat to Thailand by two goals or more, we'd be doing it as group winners.
We needn't have even worried. Phil Younghusband smashed in four goals as we completely romped Thailand, who ended up going out of the tournament! 18 goals scored in those five games was a fantastic return, and happily it would be a couple of weeks before the Semi Finals, giving my players a chance to rest!
#147627 A Tenure With The Philippines
danwhite89
We kicked 2014 off with a friendly match against Macau, which brought us a standard victory, and five in a row. It wasn't all simple and was 0-0 at halftime, but three goals in five minutes settled the tie:
Forgot about the World Rankings in the previous post so here's where we are now. It's a record high for us (from the game, at least).
We followed it up with a pre-Challenge Cup friendly arrangement as usual, which saw the good, the bad and the ugly with the national side.
The Good:
Comprehensive win over one of the tournament favourites.
The Bad:
A defeat to the hosts, who were significantly lower than us in the rankings. They had also missed a penalty.
And The Ugly:
Lost our club friendly to a Maldives side. Shocking.
REGARDLESS.
We began with an entertaining draw with Myanmar, against whom our matches were proving to be quite the spectacle. 1-0 up in five minutes, the game had been turned around in a matter of moments (like our friendly in late 2013), before we again turned it around in a few minutes (albeit over halftime). However we were unable to hold on and took the 3-3 draw.
A big win against the group favourites. We were hopeless until halftime when a fortuitous own goal went our way. Second half, we steamrollered them and took a big win.
All that was left was a match against the weakest side. Easy three points?
...Not so. Once again we prove ourselves complacent against apparently inferior opposition.
Still, we qualified for the Semi Finals. Just.
A nervy victory, but ultimately we had the stamina to win. Eide with two fantastic goals from out wide took us to the final, where we would meet Afghanistan.
And we nailed it! 2-0 up and then conceded almost immediately, but we held on for our first major piece of silverware. It means qualification for the 2015 Asian Cup!
Huzzah!
My ultimate goal is to break the Top 100, and I became one step closer to doing that with this tournament win!
#147493 A Tenure With The Philippines
danwhite89
Not a great start, but in these early days a draw isn't too bad despite my vastly inferior opposition, as I get used to my good players and the formation to suit my team. Phil Younghusband is going to be an important player, I feel.
Unfortunately this is a rubbish result. Bhutan are even worse than Guam! Maybe I'm worse than both...
Thought we'd turned it around but Bhutan then scored a frankly excellent winner to get the win. We dominated the shots tally but didn't take advantage, so we didn't deserve anything really.
Bit of fortune as we picked up our first win with myself at the helm. An own goal and then a dubious winner (allegedly hit Caligdong's han) snatched victory.
We then spanked Tajikistan's neighbours Turkmenistan 5-2! We were 4-0 up at one point ink the first half, and just steamrollered them. Excellent victory and we were putting those early defeats swiftly to bed.
Apparently we're in the Challenge Cup, which gives us scope to qualify for the Asian Cup itself. I'm confident we can qualify from that group.
This was one of those wins where we were always looking over our shoulder, with being 2-0 up to 2-1, then 3-1 up to 3-2. Thankfully, our best player Own Goal contributed to see the game off in what has been by far my best Philippines result, and one of the best results with this file and the Peru file combined.
Like at Lebanon, we had fewer chances but took them. We were turned around in four sloppy minutes, but two goals in four minutes of our own took us to victory and to our fourth win on the spin.
And that was 2013!
4-1-1 for the year, fantastic after an awful start.
Challenge Cup and the South East Asian Cup for 2014, I believe, so plenty to play for!
#146330 A Tenure With The Philippines
danwhite89
At £220 that's less than I'm on a week in real life!
They expect us to reach the final stages of qualification for the World Cup, which was an incredibly tall order anyway, let alone the fact that we've already been knocked out...
Yep.
A nation of 102 million but football is far down the ranks of popoular sport, lagging behind the likes of boxing, basketball and volleyball. As a result, there has been limited success for the nation, and a ranking position of 144 is an example of how little attention football may have received.
My best player, and only one with a value of over £1million.
#146329 A Tenure With The Philippines
danwhite89
Anyways, as I did with my Peru story, I have randomised an area of the World (which I had split up into 8 remaining regions) and came out with South East Asia.
From here, I then randomised all of the AFF nations, from this list here (with the exception of Australia, as they hadn't joined the sub-confederation when FM 2014 was released):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASEAN_Football_Federation#Men.27s_National_Team
And the nation that came out the hat were the Philippines.
The Philippines National Football Team have not been particularly successful. As far as the World Cup goes, they hadn't even attempted qualification until 1998, and since then they have still only ever played 13 qualifying games, having decided not to compete for 2006 or 2010. As for the Asian Cup, the nation has competed ever since the first tournament in 1956, but again have failed to qualify. Since 2000, the nation has been condemned to the Asian Challenge Cup due to a lack of competitiveness.
Even there, The Philippines have been unremarkable. Though they reached third place in 2012, they had failed to qualify for the previous two tournaments and finished with just two points in the inaugural tournament in 2006.
The final tournament that mattered is the ASEAN Championship, the South-East Asian football tournament. The Philippines may have reached the semi finals on the two previous occasions, but they had failed to qualify in 2008 and never made it out of the group stage in six successive tournaments prior.
It was going to be a tough call to make anything with this nation. But there were plenty of tournaments for me to dip my fingers into, so let's hope that we are able to give it a go!
Tournaments and Qualifications
2014 Asian Challenge Cup: WINNERS!
2014 South East Asian Championship: WINNERS!
2015 Asian Cup: Group Stage
2016 Asuian Challenge Cup: Runners Up
2016 South East Asian Championship: Group Stage
2018 World Cup Qualifiers: Third Round
#143343 Classic Mode
danwhite89
#143307 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
Game status:
The many saves is due to having once a fortnight saving, plus saving before every match as my laptop is so unreliable and prone to overheating that it's just as a precaution. As you may have seen in some of my comments, this has been a problem in the past.
All time leaderboard:
List of players that were ace for the side (still playing, as I forgot to tick the box for retired players' biographies to be retained, otherwise Farfan and Guerrero would be here):
Jean Deza
Renato Tapia
Josepmir Ballon
Carlos Zambrano
And my player of the campaign. The one, the only, the magnificent Edison Flores:
2019 Results:
6-1-1 for the year. 52-23-18 for all time. 189 goals for, and 100 conceded (I think). Biggest win was 9-0 over Gibraltar, while our biggest defeat was 6-0 to Ecuador. I'm not going to work out how many players I used or who scored the most but there's the important stuff. Highest ranking was 3rd, and the lowest was around the low 40s.
I ended this on my terms, which I'm delighted about as it's the first from four I've been able to say I've done so with. I was aiming to resign after the 2023 Copa America but following the 2018 World Cup, I realised we've probably gone as far as we were going to, and I could see the game becoming slightly tedious with the same expectations each competition. So I made the decision before the 2019 Copa America to resign after the tournament no matter the result. We didn't win, which was a shame, but I've had a great time with this file. We won a tournament, had a competition every Summer sans the first year, so it was plentiful.
I intend to continue going around the International scene and picking regions and teams. Five years might be more realistic, however. We'll see, depends how I feel. I've identified like nine regions in total for the World and it would be great if I could nail them all (I tend to buy FMs every two years, so I've got plenty of time!). I've also got another couple of projects in the pipeline. I'd like to try Celtic Nation again one day, the Pentagon sounds quite tempting and I have a variation of the British Steel Challenge that I'm thinking of starting. We'll see.
Thanks everyone for reading and I'll be back shortly!
#143294 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
What time is it? Why, it's time for yet another Copa America!
This one is also held in Brazil, and we were one of the favourites for the cup. We started off against Colombia:
Bit of a dull game, unfortunately from my squad of 22 by this point I had about four injuries to the team. Over the course of the tournament, this would only worsen.
A fantastic turnaround against one of the enemies, I was now comfortable keeping Ecuador in my back pocket. Ruidiaz picked up where he left off from last year's World Cup, and we were top of the group with the (in theory) easiest team to go in the group!
And we hammered them. 1-1 at halftime, in the second we turned on the style with superhero Jean Deza bagging a hatrick, our first under my regime at a major tournament. And for the sixth consecutive time, we've qualified from the group stage of a major tournament!
Unfortunately, the Zambrano booking led to a suspension. It meant for our Quarter Final tie, we were seven men down. I was only able to bench five players, two of with were goalkeepers.
Oh, and of course, I win the group and end up playing the hosts, Brazil....
Andy Polo, our reserve reserve striker, injured after three minutes.
Downhill after that and 1-0 flattered us. Disappointing way to leave the tournament but given the circumstances it's a fantastic achievement to get as far as we did in the style that we managed it.
FA weren't very happy...
...Neither was my now former captain. Bit of an overreaction, in my eyes.
Argentina win again, blah blah blah
#143043 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
Entered into my sixth year of management with Peru in 2019, and there was a Copa America on the horizon. So as usual, the first set of fixtures were the pre-season warm-up games.
Comfortable win over Cuba.
Then...
An incredible result! No idea where this came from.
Mr. Own Goal finally defected to the good side!
Normal game against a host club team.
18 goals in 4 games though, not a bad warm up at all!
#143021 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
Now to round up 2018, just friendlies to go, as South American World Cup Qualifiers for 2022 won't start until after the 2019 Copa America:
A win in Africa, and a late goal settled it. Dour game, but friendlies often can be.
Followed it up with a fantastic win over Turkey. 1-0 down, changes were made and we managed to nab the win, with De Silva getting his first international goal. With me looking for an established Number 9, he's made a great claim for his case!
The great run continued, with De Silva bagging another goal and Cueva, who has always been on the cusp of the first team, getting a couple. We should have made it an even higher scoreline in the second half, but I'll settle for a 3-0 away win.
And we just kept on avoiding defeat! Cueva and Ballon adding to their previous Autumn Friendlies goals.
The Copa America 2019 draw. If that was 2015 I'd have been nervous, but now I consider that extremely winnable. Funny how things change, eh?
Wrapped up the year with another away win. It meant that I'd won on every continent aside from the Americas in Autumn!
As it's been five years I've given an all-time team, as opposed to a year best. Can't really argue too much with the lineup, although maybe I'd have Flores on the left wing and take Yotun out, and have Tapia in Central Midfield.
Forgot to edit this pic but here's the results from the year:
9-4-2 for the year. That's 46-22-17 for all time. The only defeats coming to Argentina and bloody Lithuania!
#142597 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
Russia 2018!
We began against the Arab country of Saudi Arabia. And...well...
4-1, an emphatic result against the weakest nation in the group. It was a match we were expected to win, but to achieve such a thrashing was fantastic. Also, Deza in the last ten minutes.
It came at a consequence, however. The injury table after the first game:
Ballon was the only bona fide first teamer in the side, but De Silva was someone I was looking to to become the next star striker.
Spitting distance of the top of the group, which we would have made if not for a last minute goal. The match saw injury to Jefferson Farfan, who had decided to retire from football after the World Cup. As such, this was his last ever professional game.
Annoying. Moutinho scored a freekick to equalise, and they held on. Meant I was in the Second Round be I was secretly disappointed with the second place result.
Sometimes things just go your way.
Set up defensively, and we went all the way to penalties. Missed one, but scored the rest and went into the Quarter Final!
Against Argentina...
...
...
After riding the penalty luck against Croatia, we were within spitting distance of the Semi Final, only for Ruidiaz to hit the post from the spot...
It was a heartbreaker. Argentina took the lead from a corner and Aguero knocked in a freekick to make it two. Ruidiaz scored a fantastic one on one and two great pieces of play turned it right around for us, only for Aguero to score another freekick (the third against me this tournament!). The penalty incident happened, then in extra time, Rescaldani capitalised from a defensive error to win for Argentina.
Heartbreaking.
Italy won the cup, beating Belgium 4-2 in the final.
We got further than last time, progression!
Not sure if I mentioned earlier but we were as high as third in the rankings at one point. Down now.
#142571 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
2018
World Cup year!
The pre-tournament matches, then, and we started with a convincing win against Aruba. Secretly wished it was a lot more, but I can't be too fussy with a 4-0 win.
A disappointing last minute own goal cost us a win against Qatar, which was majorly disappointing.
DEZA
Unfortunately, our defensive
frailtiesGIFTS were again on show as we let a team 75th in the world rankings beat us. Terrible, terrible result.Standard thrashing of a local club team but still, 2-1-1 in games I should have comfortably won in with.
Mixed emotions then before the tournament.
#142360 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
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.
#142086 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
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!
Sadly, we couldn't follow it up with another win, and the Ivory Coast would secure their third win in succession against us. I thought after the early goal it would be a thrashing, but we held our own for as long as we could. Ah well, at least we made Second place.
At least the suits are happy.
And at least I won something!
#142044 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
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!
#141959 The JK Alphabet Challenge
danwhite89
#141936 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
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
#140633 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
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 (>_>
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.
Ramos gave us the lead with a headed corner, but Chile came back with two goals that also stemmed from corners. It looked like disaster, but Flores nipped in a freekick that Araujo got to first, taking the game into extra time, our third bout of the stuff. There, Carrillo managed to get on the end of a Flores cross. We managed to hold on to win the Copa America for the third time and incredibly, I've won a major tournament! It wasn't the classic, arguably harder Copa America format but sod it, I've won a cup!!
Now some niceties:
Too bloody right they ought to be happy.
I'm already the third most successful Welsh manager of all time. Somehow, that's rather demoralising, haha.
Finally, the tournament review:
Jamaica finished third, a massive accolade for them. Luton Shelton scored twice against me in the previous year in a friendly, and he really lit the tournament up.
Champions!
#140607 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
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.
Admittedly, I don't remember too much about this. I didn't set it up, and just let it happen in the background. Bad result, let's move on quickly.
[center]
...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!
#140585 Blue Sea of Ibrox [FM14]
danwhite89
#140477 Local Hero
danwhite89
#140457 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
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...
.
.
.
.
.
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.
#140449 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
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...
#140434 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
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.
#140431 Local Hero
danwhite89
#138741 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
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.
#138695 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
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!
#138684 10 Years With Peru
danwhite89
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"...?