24 replies to this topic

[Almaars]

Hi guys and welcome to my first Football Manager Story. I've been reading through all yours posts for a while now and I've really been inspired to start my own.

Now I know it's not long before FM13 comes out so I've gone for a really quick game for the last couple of months.

I'm only managing international sides from all over the world, trying to win as many turnaments as I can with fairly low ranked team. So I wont be managing the likes of England, Brazil or Spain. In fact my first challenge is...

Any guesses? No-one? It is of course...

EQUITORIAL GUINEA

They are the lowest ranked playable African nation. They're ranked 164th in the world with only one tournament win in their history: The Central African Economic Community Cup ( ) and unlikely to evr improve on that.

The National FA havent set any expectations so I'm just hoping we can qualify for the African Cup of Nations. No idea what to expect from this to be honest but I'll give it a good go none the less.

Here's some of our best players

Thanks for reading

[ConDon89]

That looks like a really tough challenge - but it would be no fun if it was easy so fair play to you! Good luck!

[Wicklander]

Looks like you have a strong foward with good headers and a fast forward with nice finishing. Guess Bodipo would get the crosses and Tazemeta gets the passes (ground balls).

Good Luck with the challange

[NUFCdan]

Good luck

[Ana Garcia]

Well done for trying something completely unique!

Best of luck!

[eightnight]

holy macaroni! in websters, under "challenge" they should put this story
but seriously, good luck. looking forward to the continuation...

[Rodd]

Hey mate, this will be a very difficult challenge, i don't know how will you do it to achieve your goals, you have very strong sides in Africa. Looking forward to the next update, good luck.

[Almaars]

Hey Guys, thanks for all your comments. This really is alot harder than I thought, as you'll soon see.

FRIENDLIES:

We had a mix of games, the hardest against the African might of the Ivory Coast.

That 6-0 was pretty harsh on us, because it was one of our better games. And if we played well in a 6-0 defeat, then you can guess how bad we were in the other games. But on another day, we might have got more lucky.

My first game against Congo, I was expecting to lose but we surprisingly took the lead. They soon showed they're quality and ended up winning comfortably.

Somalia and Sao Tome were meant to be the run-of-the-mill victories, but they were incredibly frustrating. We dominated the Somalians for the whole game but they scored 2 set-pieces and only an injury time equaliser spared us.

Center-back Hebert was the unlikely hero against Sao Tome with a set-piece hattrick, for our only win so far.

We were terrible against Zambia.

Came close to upsetting Rwanda.

And we should have beaten Lebanon, especially after the red card.

WORLD CUP:

But the big game was against Niger in the World Cup qualifyer first round. A win would put us into the qualifying group stages. Niger were ranked 102nd whilst we had only moved up to 144th. They had some good, fast, tricky players including Moussa Maazou, LEMANS FC's top striker. We wanted to make home advantage count, so...

Unlucky, but they probably deserved it. We could still upset them a few days later in Niger and...

Oh well, we tried but they were too good. The FA werent happy, but allowed me to stay on for a few months more. Thankfully we dont have to qualify for the African Cup of Nations because we're co-hosts. But we have got one of the hardests groups and frankly I'd be happy with just a point.

So there we go, I will bring you the ACoN in a day or too, but then I'll be moving on, probably to an Asian team, whatever's available really. Thanks for reading.

[Almaars]

Hi guys, Im really motoring through the year, seeing there's only a few games a season. Its time for our African Cup of Nations adventure, but we're going to have to pray for a miracle.

Before that we played a couple of friendlies. We got an excellent 0-0 draw against South Africa, before defeating Eritrea 6-3 (I forgot to take screenshots). And now the big one.

AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS 2012

HOSTS: EQUATORIAL GUINEA / GABON

HOLDERS: EGYPT

GROUP A:

Angola (83rd)

Cameroon (37th)

Egypt (35th)

EQUATORIAL GUINEA (132nd)

Match 1:

EQUATORIAL GUINEA vs Angola

A very disappointing defeat against a good Angola side. They took the lead very early on and we couldn't get back into it after that. We werent helped by the fact our first choice keeper was injured in training and will miss the whole tournament, and we havent got another decent back up.

Egypt 1-3 Cameroon

Match 2:

Cameroon vs EQUATORIAL GUINEA

We were outplayed but still kept the score respectable. Eto'o put them 2-0 up, and I knew the game was over after that. We did pull it back to 2-2, but they took the lead straight from the kick-off. The miracle was almost definitely over, unless Egypt could beat Angola.

Angola 2-1 Egypt

Nope, we were out, but we could still beat Egypt to avoid the wooden spoon.

Match 3:

Egypt vs. EQUATORIAL GUINEA

YESSSSSSSSS... What a win!!!! We beat the holders, scored 4 goals. We regained our pride for one of the countries best results. We are still out but I'm very proud we manged to stay competitive in all games.

Cameroon 4-2 Angola

A very good performance from the rank outsiders, but after this I quit as manager. We're out of the running for the world cup so the only thing I'll be playing for is the ACoN again.

Cameroon went on to win the tournament, beating Ghana 2-0.

I wanted to change continent, but nothing was available, but I have a new job already.

NIGERIA

I know theyre not exactly African minnows, however, they are in the Olympics, and certainly not favourites. We have some very good players including Obafemi Martins, Vincent Enyeama, Victor Moses, Joseph Yobo and John Obi Mikel.

​This is our Olympic group, which could be difficult.

This is our Word cup qualifying group. We shouldnt have any problems getting through that.

Next update coming soon, thanks for reading.

[GChaddah98]

Some alright results their mate but sure things will look up, good luck in the Olympics, hopefully you could snatch a medal.

[NUFCdan]

good luck in the olympics. I think you will bring a medal home!

[Almaars]

Some alright results their mate but sure things will look up, good luck in the Olympics, hopefully you could snatch a medal.

good luck in the olympics. I think you will bring a medal home!

Thanks guys, we've actually got quite a good team and we honestly could challenge for the gold.

[Wicklander]

The Olympics is handled by your U23 team. Although you are allowed to have 3 over 23 year old players.

The Olympic group should be easy enough if you have a healthy squad. And the qualifying group should also be yours.

A tip is to choose a tactic and stick to it. And arrange as many friendlies as you can without tiring your squad.


Good Luck!

[Almaars]

Hey guys, I said I was really motoring along so I've already made it through the Olympics.

WORLD CUP

But first we had a couple of World Cup qualifiers against Zambia and Madagascar.

I had already been well beaten by Zambia with Equatorial Guinea so I knew that they were a better side than they look. Thankfully we exacted that deafeat with a simple victory, debut boy Ighalo scoring a fantastic hattrick. I'm not sure how he hasnt been capped before, because he's already better than Obafemi Martins.

That was followed by a convincing win against Madagascar. Martins showed he's not past it yet with a hattrick of his own. Dickson Etuhu of Fulham scored an amazing volley from 20 yards, before Utaka completed the rout.

We were firmly in control of the group, and were almost certain to make the World Cup finals. So lets move on to the Olympics...

OLYMPIC GAMES 2012

First up we had a tough warm up game against one of the favourites: Spain. They had a very tough team, with the Casillas, Pique and Fabregas their overage players.

I wasnt expecting such a good performance! We definately have a good chance if we keep playing that way.

The team's been announced, and we have a bit of a problem in some areas. I called up Enyeama, Taiwo and Mikel as our overage players. I needed Enyeama and Taiwo because they were the only good players we had as GK and at left back. However, Mikel picked up an injury and will miss the group stages. But on the whole we have a very good first team.

We're a bit short in defence, and a few injuries would really hurt us.

GROUP B

Japan U23s

NIGERIA U23s

Switzerland U23s

USA 23s

Match 1:

A terrible start to the tournament. We played well enough to win but a 30 yard screamer from Shaqiri won it for the swiss. We really needed to win the next two games to stay in.

Japan 1-1 USA

Match 2:

We played really badly, I though we might of held on. But I had took take Taiwo off, and our back up LB is shockingly bad. Straight after that sub, they scored, then he made a stupid tackle to hand them the win via a penalty.

Switzerland 0-0 Japan

That draw meant that USA and Switzerland both had 4 points and, for the second tournament for a row, we were out after just two games.

Match 3:

Well, it was just one of those games. They have 1 clear cut chance, and still score 5?! So, unfortunately, despite my initial optimism, we left with 0 points.

Switzerland 3-1 USA

As in real life, Mexico won the gold, beating Great Britain 2-1 AET. Brazil took bronze.

And then, I quit.

I wasnt planning to, but another job came up. It's quite a large step down from where we are now with Nigeria, a huge step to be honest. I am now manager of...

HONG KONG (CHINA PR)

Ranked 177th in the world, this team really is awful. The FA have set me no expectations except "learn from the experience". This is going to be alot harder than Equatorial Guinea. The most valuable player is worth 20k, the fastest player in the whole country has 11 pace and the team has recently been beaten 7-1 by Uzbekistan.

Nevertheless, I'm going to try and qualify for the Asian games. We almost certainly wont, but it will be an interesting experience.

Thanks for reading.

[NUFCdan]

Another move! Good luck with Hong Kong

[Wicklander]

If you scout South China (the team) then you have about your half squad. Other than that it's problably Sun Hei and Kitchee.

[vaibhavc]

Wow another move! Good luck!

[Almaars]

Thanks for your comments guys. I'm on holiday atm so I won't be updating for a couple of weeks. I can tell you that I've already finished at hong kong and have gone to another asian team, but I'll post it properly when I'm back. If you're still interested.

[Wicklander]

We are eagerly awaiting your post.

[GChaddah98]

Looking mate. I am starting to really enjoy this, coming along really well, love this challenge, keep going!