Ana – FM 2011: Moroko Swallows, Season Thirteen

Hi everyone! And welcome to to my thirteenth season in my challenge! Thirteen is an unlucky number for some and I seem to have been struck by some as the ceiling in my living room partially collapsed leaving a big hole due to a leaky pipe that had rotted the floorboards.

Thankfully no-one was hurt as my boyfriend and I were both out at the time so have  had the exciting task of filling out insurance forms to repair the damage! As always these things take ages to sort out but enough on that and onto my season!

Last time I lost the Confederations cup final but was pleased that I could compete with the teams that would make up the African champions league. This update will include our champions league journey, the domestic season and both my world cup and African cup of nations with my new Senegal side, so get ready!

Career History :

— Cheonan (July 2010 – January 2013)

— South China (June 2013 – June 2016)

— F.C.A.K (December 2016 – November 2019)

— Moroko Swallows (November 2019 – Present)

International Teams :

— Morocco (Febraury 2015 – December 2016)

Honours :

Hong Kong League Title : 2014, 2015, 2016 (South China)

Senior Shield : 2013, 2016 (South China)

League Cup : 2014, 2015, 2016 (South China)

Asian Confederation Cup : 2014, 2016 (South China)

South African First Division :  2018, 2019 (FCAK)

South African First Divison Cup : 2019 (FCAK)

South African FA Cup : 2020, 2021 (Moroko Swallows)

South African Premier League : 2021, 2022 (Moroko Swallows)

South African Charity Cup : 2020 (Moroko Swallows)

South African Knockout Cup : 2021 (Moroko Swallows)

Just to clarify this is my career up to my last post, so will not include any of the things I will win in this post. Hope that makes sense! Anything in red was won last year to keep people updated!

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Transfer From Last Year

So I made no transfers this year in or out but I did forget a player I bought last season in the second transfer window. So here he is :

Sibussio Shongwe

I bought him in last season from the Orlando Pirates on a free transfer after he wanted to leave. He is a centre forward who has already scored a few goals last season so will be rotated with Josephs for this season.

The Halfway Point

Its fair to say that I focused my efforts on the African champions league playing reserve/youth players in most of my league games to keep my best players for the bigger games.

That said we had no luck in most games losing by the odd goal and playing well but just not clinical enough without my top forwards. The league and cups was a sacrifice for my champions league which I focused on so another league title is almost definatly over as we have lost too many games.

The World Cup — Senegal

I didnt expect too much and losing to Brazil in nothing to be ashamed off. We opened up against Wales winning 2-1 which should have been more for us but bad finishing made it a little closer than it should have been. Then a boring 0-0 with Germany and another draw against Paraguay saw us through.

We we brilliant against Brazil and we took the lead only for us to lose it in four mad minutes as they went 2-1 up. A last gasp equaliser on 95 minutes from Babacar forced extra time where the added quality of Brazil showed as they scored twice more to seal a 4-2 win.

But was very pleased and so were my board and the fans! So we had a good go but the sheer strength of the Brazil squad was simply too much for my team.

The African Cup Of Nations

The Final

Yay! The competition was all about Babacar who ended the tournament as the top scorer with ten goals! The group may have looked easy but as you can see we ended up beating the Cameroon twice and Mali are ranked top 30 in the world rankings so was delighted to win both games.

A comfortable win over Libya followed another comfortable win over my former team Morocco an inspired Babacar struck twice in the final as we lifted the African cup of nations! I resigned the day after as I felt I had achieved what I set out to do.

Cup Competition

The Super Eights (Forget to add, this was won last season)

The Final

As I have said before there are a few cup competitions here in South Africa! We managed to add another in the super eights after beating our big rivals Sundowns in extra time. Mhlambi was once a Swallows player so was annoyed when he opened the scoring but Molefe equalised from the penalty spot. Kirsten added the winner in extra time!

South Africa FA Cup

The Charity Cup

The Super Eigths

So we had a very dissapointing run in the these three cup competitions after losing before we got to the final. Twice Thanda Royal Zulu puts us out after a narrow (and undeserved) win in the FA cup and a penalty shootout in the charity cup.

We compounded the dissapointment getting beat 3-2 by the Kaizer Chiefs in the super eights quarter final.

The African Champions League

The Final First Leg

The Final Second Leg

Yay! After another mammoth campaign I finally clinched the first part of my challenge in claiming the champions league. Our group was easy as we comfortably went through after a few qualfication games. There is only two groups in the african champions league so we went into the semi final against Al-Ahly.

We went through with a narrow 3-2 victory and met Zamalek in the final, we played really well in both games and in the home tie we were unlucky not to take a bigger advantage but in the end a norrow 2-1 win was good enough and the African champions league is over!

Club World Championship

So all the champions league winners come together and we finished fourth losing on penalties to Esteghlal. A narrow win over the North America winners New York but we were just beaten by Palmeiras in the semi so ended fourth after losing another penalty shootout.

The End Of The Beginning

I resigned the day after the club world championship and decided not to see the rest of the season out, my squad was sold off as most wanted to leave for bigger clubs and myself included seeked a change from Africa. All in all I really enjoyed my spell in South Africa but having got offered a new job (Which will be unveiled in my next post!) I opted to leave the Moroko Swallows with my new champions league trophy.

The end of the first chapter I guess, as I embark on the next champions league in my search to win all five but a major one is down so four to go!

So thats that! Again a long read but had loads to cram in so I tried to include as many pics as I could! Ignore my CV at the top its a little muddled at the moment but it will be updated and correct in my next post.

Again thanks for reading and my next post will have my new club in the next part of my challenge.