Hello dear friends, I’m so happy to be posting again after going through a busy schedule in my day to day life. I didn’t play the game since last Sunday but I hope to catch up during the week end. Anyway, back to the point. The Uruguay national team had still a long way to go in order to qualify for the 2014 World Cup although we were on course at the halfway point, the team was in 2nd place in the qualifying group at the end of 2012. We had 8 more games to play, so there were still lots of points to conquer.
The first game of the year was at home with Peru, a team that can always surprise the opponent with their skillful forwards. We desperately needed the three points, that was quite obvious. We played pretty well in the first half, left winger Albin and veteran poacher Diego Forlan gave us a 2-1 lead at the break. We couldn’t hang on to that advantage though and the second half turned into a wild chase for the winning goal. We missed quite a few chances but our old time striker did it again, Diego Forlan (age 34) gave us a priceless win with one of his trademark placed headers. The defending was rather poor again, that was a bit concerning.
One month later we had a much easier game to play, away at the weakest team in the group, Venezuela. I couldn’t accept anything else than a win and the players looked quite motivated too. The game was entertaining as well, we didn’t care much about defending after being 4-0 up in the 27th minute. Just about any player got to score at least once, it was a demolition job but still only three points…
A few days later I had the chance to test a few players in a friendly game with Saudi Arabia. We won the game quite clearly, 4-1, but the defending was quite poor again. The good thing was that it looked like I found the man to replace an aging Forlan: Abel Hernandez, a 22 year old striker that plays in Italy for Palermo.
Back to the battle for points, the next game was at home with Paraguay. It started quite badly for us, some poor defending again left us trailing 2-1 at the break. Fortunately our star player, Edinson Cavani, was in full strength and compensated for the other players’ mistakes. We should have won the game though, we dominated it quite clearly but it looked like Cavani was the only man determined to do the job on that day. We dropped two points that could have proven to be quite important.
With the morale a bit down we had to face a tough away game a few days later, in Colombia. We won the home game 3-1 last year, I can say that it was the start of an enthusiastic period for the team. Now I hoped to do that again and get one hand on the tickets for the World Cup. We looked well in the first half, solid in defense and decent upfront. A strike of genius gave us the lead, midfielder Nacho Gonzalez struck home a free kick from 35 yards out, right into the top corner. We pulled back to defend in the second half and we did that quite well, Colombia didn’t seem to be too threatening. Disaster struck in the last seconds of the game, we stupidly conceded a goal and postponed the celebrations.
Next up, a friendly game with Finland. I was hoping for a quiet win but the game turned out to be another disappointment. We should have won it easily but got only a draw due to some atrocious defending and extremely poor finishing. Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
Lye
12 февраля, 2010 at 20:35
Good job there mate, you should be progressing to the second stage fairly easy. I bet you can at least progress to the quarter finals. Good luck.
Calum
12 февраля, 2010 at 20:36
Well done on qualifying for the World Cup Johnny!
I think your team will be able to get through the group stages but then it is just a matter of luck who you get drawn against. You have a strong team though that should do well.
My prediction: You shall progress through the group stage and first knock-out round but shall get beat in the quarter-final.
Good Luck and I am looking forward to reading your progress with Notts County!
Laxeyman
12 февраля, 2010 at 20:36
Well done Johnny, pretty decent qualifying campaign there. I feel you should pass through your World Cup group easily enough, with a bit of luck you could go along way in the tournament!
Kevin Mayo
12 февраля, 2010 at 21:06
Hi Johnny
Congratulations on reaching the finals in Brazil. I’d say you have a good chance of reaching the last 16 but try and win the group as the runners-up could face Germany. I’m sure you will do well and I’m looking forward to reading about your World Cup adventure. Is your Uruguay tactic much the same as Notts Co but with a slightly deeper defensive line?
Johnny Karp
12 февраля, 2010 at 21:15
Thanks for the comments folks!
@Kevin
The tactic is the same as the one I’m using with Notts County but I do use a deeper defensive line when playing with Lugano in the team, he’s a bit slow.
@Calum & Lye
Reaching the quarter finals would be great, I’d be happy with that.
@Laxeyman
I think we can qualify but I don’t know about Iran, they always were a dangerous counter attack team in real life.
Dan Monksfield
13 февраля, 2010 at 00:17
Things are looking good Johnny. International management is quite hard from what i have experienced on FM2010, even when I took on the Brazil job after 2010 world cup I scraped wins against poor opposition. Awesome win against Venezuela though keep it up :)
Johnny Karp
13 февраля, 2010 at 11:02
@Dan
Thanks for the comment. International management is quite tricky indeed, it’s more difficult than managing a club. The Venezuela game was entertaining, they didn’t park the bus although the goals kept on flowing into their net, I have to admire that.
TheZiggy
13 февраля, 2010 at 18:16
Well done on getting Uruguay into the World Cup. You seem to have a reasonable group in the finals. Quarter finals seems to be a reasonable target.
Johnny Karp
13 февраля, 2010 at 18:38
@TheZiggy
Thanks for the comment mate, I hope we won’t have any major injuries to first team players, that could cause lots of trouble as I don’t have too many worthy replacements.
badboy
6 июля, 2010 at 19:07
is it really true that the world cup begins wit uruguay and will end wit them just because of 2012?
Johnny Karp
6 июля, 2010 at 19:19
@badboy
Sorry, I can’t really understand the question. I know that the World Cup began with Uruguay but I hope it will never end :)
Javier
9 июля, 2010 at 23:14
Good work! I also enjoy playing the SAQ. It would be more realistic if they introduce the altitude factor (less stamina when playing in cities with altitude, I guess). Playing in La Paz (11,942 ft) is specially hard. Argentina lost 6-1 last time.
Johnny Karp
11 июля, 2010 at 18:39
Thanks Javier. The altitude factor would be a nice realistic touch indeed, all the teams have some problems when playing in La Paz or Quito.