Romanian FM 2012 Story — All About Survival

Here we go folks, it’s time to find out whether my Viitorul Constanta managed to survive in the Romanian First League or not… Welcome back to my Football Manager 2012 story for the decisive episode of my second season in charge, the final two months of the 2012-2013 season. As you know we were 11th at the end of March with a thin 5-point cushion over the relegation zone (the bottom four teams get relegated). Let’s see how the survival battle went…

We had a crucial game right at the start of April as we were about to face 14th placed FC Brasov, a team that was standing just four points behind us…

Viitorul vs FC Brasov (Liga 1)

Starting Line Up: Alberto Cobrea — Ionut Peteleu, Chakib Benzoukane, Ionut Rada, Lucian Filip — Corado Carstoiu, Alexandru Lazar, Mihai Onicas — Georgian Paun, Vlad Rusu, Joabe

We started the game pretty well, we enjoyed a good spell of domination for a while but it was all in vain as the visitors broke the deadlock and that happened yet again on their very first (and last) shot on target! Luckily we managed to restore parity three minutes before half time as Mihai Onicas was brought down inside the penalty area and then converted the spot kick by firing into the top corner.

We went close to taking the lead six minutes after the restart when midfielder Alexandru Lazar fired one against the crossbar but Brasov came close as well after five minutes but we were saved by the woodwork. The game was in our hands, we were clearly dominating it and fortunately we made that count on the score board on 67 minutes when young midfielder Gabriel Iancu fired one right under the crossbar from the edge of the area. There was no reaction from the visitors after that goal, we kept things under control and clinched the very important three points.

Match highlights: click here to watch

I wasn’t expecting much out of the next game as we were facing 2nd placed CFR Cluj, I told the lads that we had nothing to lose there… That seemed to benefit my team as we fought back from 2-1 behind and managed a surprising late equaliser! This was an unexpected bonus point but I admit that we had some luck to get a draw there. Unfortunately midfielder Gabriel Iancu suffered a serious injury during the game, his season was over, so I decided to promote Alin Roman from the under 19s squad to replace him.

That point was not going to save us from relegation, we had to do well against the fellow survival battlers and that meant that we had to get something out of the next game, away at 13th placed Pandurii.

Pandurii vs Viitorul (Liga 1)

Starting Line Up: Alberto Cobrea — Ionut Peteleu, Alvaro Casanova, Chakib Benzoukane, Lucian Filip — Corado Carstoiu, Alexandru Lazar, Mihai Onicas — Georgian Paun, Vlad Rusu, Joabe

I decided to use the attacking version of my Barcelona tactic even if this was an away game, I thought that a more offensive approach would surprise the home side and hopefully give us the three points. My plan seemed wrong in the first half as we played rather poorly and nearly conceded a goal on the half hour mark but luckily our goalie saved us on that occasion.

We started to look a bit better after the break but the match was heading towards a goalless draw. Well, that draw would have been good… Pandurii broke the deadlock 18 minutes from time by taking advantage of some dismal marking from my lads on a free kick and then bagged two sensational goals to wrap things up (you really have to watch those goals!). Midfielder Corado Carstoiu then scored a consolation goal for us but it still was a painful defeat against a direct relegation rival.

Match Highlights: click here to watch

We were still in 11th place after that game and fortunately we had a bigger gap to manage, 8 points over the relegation zone! There were 7 games left though, plenty of time for things to go wrong…

Our last month of the season was going to be a lot easier with three points in the next game as we were facing 12th placed FCM Tg. Mures at home, I was quite optimistic before the game and was already calculating that we were going to be almost safe with a win…

Viitorul vs FCM Tg. Mures (Liga 1)

Starting Line Up: Alberto Cobrea — Ionut Peteleu, Chakib Benzoukane, Ionut Rada, Lucian Filip — Mihai Onicas, Alexandru Lazar, Georgian Marcu — Georgian Paun, Valentin Simion, Joabe

Well, the first half didn’t go as planned at all… It’s true that we dominated the game, we do that almost every time, but we were unable to create any really dangerous chances. Moreover, Ionut Rada left the pitch on a stretcher and substitute Alvaro Casanova ruined our first half with a wild tackle inside the penalty area while allowed the visitors to take the lead from the spot.

I was hoping to see some better stuff in the second half, I asked my lads to do better, but it was FCM Tg. Mures who played better… First they hit the crossbar on 50 minutes and then played even better after having a man sent off two minutes later. They made it 2-0 after a textbook move and we were suddenly back in relegation trouble again…

Match Highlights: click here to watch

But things were about to get a lot worse… We faced strong 8th placed FC Timisoara in the last match of the month and it was… horrible… The match was a total disaster for us, Timisoara ran us ragged from start to finish and bagged seven goals in the process! This probably was my most embarrassing defeat in Football Manager!

So, we were back to where we started the month, even a bit worse: 12th with five points over the relegation zone.

There were five games left and the situation was not looking good at all since we had three out of five games away from home.

What was even worse was the squad morale after that crushing 7-0 defeat but that was solved with a team meeting, I encouraged the lads although I would have rather slapped a few of them. Anyway, morale was back on track after that meeting but we had to play a lot better if we wanted to survive.

Five games left, did we make it? Go to the next page to find out!

Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.

Luckily the first game in May seemed like a perfect chance to get three points as we were about to face already relegated 17th placed CS Mioveni. Their morale was extremely low and their skills were not great either since they had just 16 points…

Viitorul vs CS Mioveni (Liga 1)

Starting Line Up: Alberto Cobrea — Ionut Peteleu, Alvaro Casanova, Chakib Benzoukane, Lucian Filip — Georgian Marcu, Alexandru Lazar, Nenad Grumic — Georgian Paun, Valentin Simion, Joabe

We had a slight problem in midfield as Mihai Onicas, our best player, was suspended for the game but I was happy to field Grumic again as he had recovered from a nasty injury that had him on the sidelines for three months. The lads seemed determined to get it over with quickly, we were all over them right from the start and the goal finally came on 20 minutes when Valentin Simion headed home on a corner kick. Our domination continued and Simion came close to scoring again but his good finish on 40 minutes came back off the upright. Mioveni had their first shot of the game seconds before the interval but they nearly did the damage as the ball bounced off the crossbar.

The game was fairly quiet after the break, nothing important was happening and we seemed to keep things under control with ease. Well, that was true until the 64th minute when Mioveni caught us on an unlikely counter attack and scored with their one and only shot on target… My team reacted, we pushed them against the ropes but unfortunately we missed a very good chance 20 minutes from time and that was that, we had thrown away two very important points.

Match Highlights: click here to watch

Our next game was an impossible one as we were facing league leaders FC Vaslui away from home, they were in a hot title race with Steaua so I was quite calm before the game because I wasn’t expecting anything good. I was just hoping to record a narrow defeat or at least not a humiliating defeat. Well, I was shocked! My team played probably the best game of the season, they fought back from 1-0 and 2-1 behind and won the game thanks to a Joabe brace! I was incredulous, I just couldn’t believe what we had done there as that game cost Vaslui the 1st place! (click here to watch the highlights)

Those unexpected three points dramatically improved our situation, we had an 8-point cushion with three games left and that meant that we only needed two more points to be 100 percent safe.

Since we were about to face 14th placed Gaz Metan in the next game we had a chance to wrap things up with two games to spare, we just needed three points but even one point could have been enough in theory…

Gaz Metan vs Viitorul (Liga 1)

Starting Line Up: Alberto Cobrea — Miroslav Sedlak, Alvaro Casanova, Chakib Benzoukane, Richard Asamoah — Corado Carstoiu, Georgian Marcu, Mihai Onicas — Georgian Paun, Valentin Simion, Joabe

We had a big problem on both flanks in defence as both full backs were suspended for the game so I decided to go for the counter version of the Barcelona tactic since full backs are less important in that version.  The game was very quiet in the first half as both teams seemed quite afraid of losing the match. Two goals were scored though, Gaz Metan had taken the lead on a free kick and then we made it all square two minutes before the break despite not playing too well.

The opening 20 minutes of the second half were quite tough for me as my lads were playing quite poorly and the home side came close to scoring twice: first on 49 minutes when they hit the crossbar and then shortly after the hour mark when they squandered a huge chance (you can see that in the highlights, as always). Then my lads woke up and made the final minutes of the game less painful for their manager, they kept possession just like I wanted them to and kept things well under control.

Match Highlights: click here to watch

Luckily 15th placed Brasov were unable to get more than a draw in their game so we were officially safe with two games to spare! Curiously enough the team played much better after getting rid of the relegation threat and we won the last two games of the season quite easily…

Those last two games pushed us up in 10th place at the end of the season, not too bad I guess but I wish we had conceded a lot less goals…

The player stats are not too impressive, I think that Vlad Rusu, Mihai Onicas and Chakib Benzoukane kept this team on their shoulders throughout the season. My goalkeepers were disappointing and my strikers didn’t do much better either so those two areas will probably need the most amount of work during pre-season.

You can probably tell that I’m not very happy with how the season went but somebody is happy for some reason: the board!

I hope they will convert at least some of that satisfaction into some cash into the club’s coffers because the financial situation is still looking… red! By the way, we received a stunning amount for our league position: 37,320 pounds! We should get a quite a bit more in TV rights before the start of the next season (almost 1 million I hope) but that won’t get us out of trouble.

That was it friends, thanks a lot for reading and for encouraging me during this tough season. I can reveal that I already have four major signings already lined up for July 1st (two Romanian goalkeepers, a Serbian central midfielder and a very exciting Argentinian striker) but I hope I’ll manage to bring in a lot more new players because we surely need them. Money will probably be a problem again though…