false start

[Young Drachma]

This project has been three years in the making for me. Finally, there's an editor in FM that's made it easier than ever to edit the game and adapt leagues.

In the past iterations of FM, I've always wanted to play in a US league that could compete with the best in the world. Of course, this usually meant going overseas and trying to graft together a USA league in Europe.

Not anymore.

I've created a seven-tier US pyramid that will gradually help the U.S. of A churn out the best talent in the world.

Ok, maybe not. But in any case, no more trying to play in obscure cities all over England, now we get to do it in the vast greatland of the United States. Not only that, but we'll get to play against the best teams in the world too, as I've created a few cups that give the chance to see where we stack up on the world stage, too.

I began my career with the Haitian national team, though. After the devastation in Haiti, execs from shoe companies, Gatorade and the Gates Foundation partnered on an academy in Florida for Haitian students to attend, but the plan was also to train a top level squad for Haiti to compete at the world level in soccer.

I've simmed to November of 2012, Haiti has advanced to the 3rd round of qualifying for the World Cup, but now I'm also looking for a club job. The only active league I'm playing with is the U.S. leagues, so that's where I'll remain.

So far, there's no job that really interests me, so I think we're just going to keep going and wait until something comes in.

Here's a link to the original setup of the league, though it's changed as teams get promoted and relegated in the few years I've simmed ahead.

I'll be chiming in with results and reports from things that happen, once they're interesting enough to report to you.

[bbgunn]

Nice! I'll be cheering for Portland Rose City.

[Young Drachma]

I purposely made my manager a Sunday League player who starts with Haiti and then tries to work his way into the upper echelons of football in America. At first, he can't even land a 7th division job in the U.S.

But I turned the game on and simmed until I woke up and it was 2022. I could start over so I could play with contemporary players, but not this time. I think I'll just see this one through with regens since that was sort of my goal anyway.

As I mentioned earlier, Haiti is now the class of the world stage, having won two previous World Cups and now challenging for their third, playing in the 2022 World Cup in the United States.

This season, I'll look for a job in the U.S. and start my climb to the top. I could take over a top club in the league, but I think I'm going to start with a lower division club, despite the rep to go higher, because I'd like to bring a new team to the fray and upset the natural order of things.

Let's take a look at the American leagues and how things have gone the past few years, to give you a sense of who owns the football universe.

The PLA has been pretty boring. Los Angeles has been dominant, winning five of the last six titles. No upstars have broken through. Houston, Santa Fe and New England are on their heels, but that's about it.

In the Champions League of the Americas, Los Angeles has won five titles since 2012, the only USA side to see the winners circle at the tournament. Six other USA teams have been runners up at different times, showing they can compete with the region's best.

However, in the Virgin Super League, the USA has never sniffed the finals. In 11 years of the tournament, no USA team has ever reached the final. A few have made the semis, but that tournament remains the domain of top teams from all over the globe.

One upstart team that's been a huge surprise, that hasn't won the PLA yet, but has made the climb from the 7th division to the top are Wyoming 1890. The game was on autosim, so I had nothing to do with their ascent, they do own their own stadium, but they won the Triple-A league 2011, captured the Spring Division title the following year, followed by wins in the Continental League in 2013 and League Two in 2014. It took them 3 years to get out of League One as the runner-up and finally, in 2019, they captured the Major League title to advance to their first PLA season in 2020 and they've managed to stay up since then. It's a truly impressive feat.

I'm scouting out a club to take over now, once I've found one, I'll let you know. We'll also do dispatches from the World Cup.

[Young Drachma]

The Fall River Marksmen of the Major League of America have offered me a job to be their new head coach. After some negotiation, I got them to double their offer of $225k per year, to $500k per year for four years and I'll be accepting the job to become the new head man at New Mark's Stadium.

[Young Drachma]

The story of the Marksmen goes like this.

The team won the Verizon League One back in 2011, but were relegated in 2017 from the Major League of America. The team were promoted again in 2019 and have been in the 2nd tier ever since.

Right now, the ballclub sits tenth in the MLA, clearly in the relegation zone.

Here are the rules of the Major League of America:



Meaning, we have four games left in which to salvage our season. No pressure, right?

[Young Drachma]

Here are the standings at the end of the regular season.



Troops were rallied and for the first time in the three seasons, the Marksmen will not be in the relegation playoff. Which is fantastic.

[Young Drachma]

I'm gonna start over with this. I'm too far into the future and it's harder to play than I thought with no real players around to begin with.

So lemme try again and not play with a national team, only a club side and start from scratch with a team and see how it goes.

Oh and add a club for Minnesota since I managed to end up moving both before I started.

[Rawhide]

21 goals in four games, you were doing alright.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Rawhide

21 goals in four games, you were doing alright.

I have a crazy offense scheme I run. And I brought up a bunch of youngsters that the AI wasn't playing and just outran the opposition by rushing them.

I think mostly, I like to play the PLA with the US as a dominant force financially on the world scene and I toned it down for release, since I know some people prefer the struggle.

I need to edit the file I use though and put more money out there, because if the best talent isn't in the U.S., then it defeats the purpose of me doing all of that. For me, anyway.