[FM14] It's The Climb...

[R1zzo23]

Just started a new game with FM14 after downloading this USA & Canada mod to add sub levels with promotion and relegation to the pyramid. I’ve fooled around playing FM14 here and there, most recently with Tottenham, but am still considered a “Sunday League” coach in the pantheon of FM managers.

My goal is to start at the lowest rung of the USA pyramid and work my way all the way up to the MLS. I’ve always loved challenges and this is no different. I have no idea how long it may take me to make it to the top or what route I plan on taking to get there. It would be a miracle to take my first team to the MLS but maybe that’s my plan. Either way, whatever happens, Coach Rizzo’s goal is to get to the top.

The Team

I was surfing through the teams on the bottom rung of the pyramid. While I do like a challenge, starting in the lowest level is a challenge enough. I looked for a decent team to start with and settled on Jacksonville United. They are expected to finish in the top-6 of the table so there’s a chance of making something happen with them. Here's a look at the team's profile:



And here's a look at Rizzo's profile:

[R1zzo23]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...

After preparing for the season with a scrimmage against the Jacksonville United Reserves (in which the senior team won 2-0) and a friendly against the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the Chevron Championship division (a 1-4 loss for Jacksonville), JUFC's head scout Andy Burke came back with two finds that will greatly help the chances of promotion for Rizzo's squad. While everyone loves the flashy goal scorers that get the fans to cheer, Burke knows the value of keeping opponents off of the scoreboard and his two findings should be a huge help.



The first player to sign was 32-year old Joe Barton. While bouncing around different clubs, he ended up on the LA Legends but never making a league appearance. He was contemplating retirement before JUFC came knocking. Guaranteed a starting position over young keep Craig Sakuda, Barton decided to lace up the cleats once again.



To give Barton some help in front of him Burke found a defender to clean up in the penalty box in Mark Nerkowski. At 29-years old, JUFC thinks that Nerkowski could be around for a few more years. His tackling ability to go along with his great size and strength should make him a force on the defensive side of the ball in the Home Depot East division.



With these two signings becoming official, Bet365.com came out with some updated odds on promotion from the Home Depot Eastern Division. While picked to finish 5th in the division, things are so close at the top of the table that a group of seven teams, including Jacksonville United, were given 6-4 odds of promotion to Chevron League 2. A top-2 finish in the table will get them to the next level of the United States soccer pyramid, a goal that is certainly achievable this season.

[R1zzo23]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...

In Rizzo's first game as manager of Jacksonville United they were able to edge Cheyenne FC 1-0 in Wyoming. The game was the first round of the Verizon Cup and Rizzo's squad was favored to win. The game was played to a 0-0 draw by halftime but a goal by Kallum Scully off of an early corner in the second half was the winner. Newcomer Joe Barton posted a clean sheet in his first appearance with the team while captain Mark Nerkowski had a decent game with a 6.6 rating. With the win, JU moved on to the second round of the Verizon Cup, drawing Sioux Falls FC. Sioux Falls FC defeated the Buxmont Torch out of Souderton, PA 3-2 in their opening round game.



In divisional play, Jacksonville United traveled up the East Coast to Brooklyn to take on the Italians. While the Italians put on some pressure in the first half, keeper Joe Barton made crucial saves to keep it knotted up at 0-0 by halftime. In the second half, David Ledson broke the tie with a 70th minute goal off of a corner kick. To seal the deal, a floating cross off of Ledson's foot into the box landed in front of Mitch Brunner, who got free in space, and drilled it into the back of the net. A great start to the season for Jacksonville United and the young career of Coach Rizzo!

[R1zzo23]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...



In the opening round of the Sam Adams US Open Cup, JUFC takes an embarrassing loss to Kutis FC. Kutis striker Mychal King could not be contained as the 24-year old put home both goals for the huge underdogs. Rizzo never expected to go undefeated his entire career but to suffer a first loss of this magnitude was not what he had thought either.



Editor's Note: I do not plan on updating after every game but I believe these cup games and monumental games like the first game of my career deserve to be noted. Hopefully we are able to go through many more games faster without reporting on all of them.

[R1zzo23]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...



After an embarrassing loss to Kutis FC in the US Open Cup, Jacksonville United got back to Home Depot East play by hosting AFC Cleveland. The game was tied up until captain Mark Nerkowski was sent off with his second yellow card of the game in the 70th minute. Just nine minutes later, Cleveland's Carlton Hodges netted his second goal of the game that would lead to a 2-1 win for the visitors. Playing without their best player, Coach Rizzo decided to change their tactics just a bit by going from a control-minded philosophy to attacking. On the road at FC Buffalo the squad made Coach look like a genius as they snatched a 3-1 win. They followed it up with a tight 1-0 home win over Boston United.



The back-to-back wins pushed the young squad into the second position in the table behind local rival Jackson Villa Soccer Club. Sure, we have a game in hand on Panama City but we are still playing some good football. Hopefully we can keep this run of play up. The offensive attitude seems to be working (albeit in a very limited sample size) but the defense could use a little help.



Enter in Max Sweet...but just not yet. After acquiring the youngster's rights from the Rhode Island Reds' reserve squad, Sweet will join the team at the end of the year. While just 14-years old, Sweet should add good depth behind some of our "grays" that are currently on the roster but, according to scout Andy Burke, should develop into a "decent Chevron Championship central defender in the future". For a team looking for all the help they can get, this wasn't a deal we could pass up at this time.

[R1zzo23]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...

The last time we checked in, Jacksonville United got off to a hot start in Home Depot East division play with three wins in their first four matches and were trailing only rival Jackson Villa in the table. Things were looking up for Rizzo's squad.



The next four games yielded one measly point. The first game against Vermont United not only saw the visitors score in the 61st minute to take the lead 3-2 but it saw team captain Mark Nerkowski pick up a red card leading to a two match ban. After further investigation by the league, the ban was increased to four games and it didn't look good for JUFC. Over the next three games Jacksonville United failed to register a single goal while giving up four of their own. They were luck enough to hold Detroit City to a 0-0 draw to earn a single point. The squad had tumbled way down the standings to 17th place. The fans weren't happy. The board was unsatisfied. Rumors started floating around.



Win or go home. That was the ultimatum that JUFC's board was putting out there through the media. Rizzo heard the calls loud and clear. He didn't want to start his career off by being sacked before managing two hands worth of professional matches. After countless hours of tinkering with lineups and pondering tactical changes, it was time to take the pitch for the Verizon Cup game against Sioux Falls FC. A red card for SFFC's Marco Antonio Glasspool in the 36th minute opened things up for an anemic Jacksonville United offense but a 0-0 draw at halftime had Rizzo feeling the heat.

At this point, it was imperative for the team to pull out a W or there would be no reason for Jacksonville to keep Rizzo around any longer. Luckily for his career, Nick Martin netted a goal in the 51st minute after Sioux Falls failed to clear a corner kick. Striker Ed Cook added an insurance goal in the 85th minute to lock up a 2-0 win, advancing JUFC in Verizon Cup play.



With Mark Nerkowski returning just in time for a string of divisional games, Rizzo got his team on a role with four straight Home Depot East wins to run their win streak to five games in a row. Not only had Jacksonville United netted eight goals but they held their opposition to just two of their own with three clean sheets by keeper Joe Barton. No win was bigger than beating their chief rival Jackson Villa Soccer Club at home in Patton Park in front of a capacity crowd (of 1,000 total fans)! After this string of five games with amazing form, where is the team in the table now?



And just like that, JUFC is now sitting in 2nd place in the league table as they hold on to the second promotion position. There is still a ton of football to be played this season and clearly there are going to be ups and downs throughout. Right now, Rizzo and JUFC fans will enjoy the winning while it lasts!

[smpipkin]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...

Tough luck with the red cards, but at least after Nerkowski returned you ran off a string of wins. Is there a Knoxville team in the league anywhere?

[R1zzo23]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...

Tough luck with the red cards, but at least after Nerkowski returned you ran off a string of wins. Is there a Knoxville team in the league anywhere?

He's our key guy so getting him back was huge for this team (and my job!). I don't know the entire pyramid off the top of my head but I'm almost positive there is a team from Knoxville.

[R1zzo23]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...



After rattling off five straight wins to basically save Rizzo's job, JUFC promptly lost two straight games, one of which eliminating them from Verizon Cup play. While losing is never fun, the cups have not been a main focus for Jacksonville United so we were able to rest a couple key players for that one. With our first eleven on the field, we rattled off four straight wins to get back to our winning ways. We finally started experimenting with player instructions in our 4-1-2-1-2 formation and boy did it have an effect! The goals started flowing now that I had a couple defenders coming up the pitch in support along with a poacher looking to test the opposing back line. Our winning streak came to an end with a 1-1 draw at Georgia. We followed that up with a bad loss to Pocono Snow where our only goal was put in the net by an opposing defender. We finished the calendar year off with a 2-0 home win over the Brooklyn Italians.



We head into the year 2014 with a one-point lead atop the table over Vermont United. We have only suffered two Home Depot East losses all season long but Vermont has a much better goal differential so those points will be absolutely crucial as the season wears on. Either way, it's been a great first 20 games on the sidelines for JUFC.



It hasn't been all great news for us though. Just as he was about to join the club at the turn of the calendar, 15-year old defender Max Sweets tore his ACL and is now scheduled to be out between eight and eleven months. Get well soon kid and see you next season.



Still hoping to bolster the back line we needed to find another target to bring in with Sweets on the mend. We have sent out an offer to young Paul Buckley of the Seacoast United Phantoms of the NPSL. The semi-pro club isn't known for producing elite talent but Buckley could certainly carve out a role with Jacksonville United as a reserve this season and hopefully grow into a first eleven player in the near future.

[R1zzo23]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...



We started the new year with two abysmal performances in losses to AFC Cleveland and FC Buffalo with a combined score of 0-5. It was just one of those situations where as a coach no matter what you did or instructed your team to do it just wasn't going to happen. Nevertheless, we followed that up with three straight victories, one of which over Vermont United on the road. At the time of that game, Vermont was atop the table and threatening to build a point lead from us. With that win and a 3-0 dismantling over the Erie Admirals, we have finally righted the ship.



Now 25 games into the season and on a three-game winning streak, Rizzo has Jacksonville United in pole position with just 13 league games remaining. Their goal of promotion is within their reach. We had dropped to 4th place for a brief moment but now not only are we in first but have built a 5-point lead over current 2nd place Panama City Pirates and a 6-point cushion from the Pocono Snow in the promotion spots. Barring a bad run of games down the stretch, JUFC should have a great chance at being promoted at season's end!

[smpipkin]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...

Good job! Vermont really dropped off the table, eh?

[R1zzo23]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...

Good job! Vermont really dropped off the table, eh?

Yeah they are in a bad stretch right now but I'm not complaining. After they beat us earlier in the season I was glad to grab a win over them as well as see them tumble down the standings.

[R1zzo23]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...

With 13 fixtures remaining since our last update and holding just a 5-point lead for the Home Depot East crown, things were far from over. We knew we needed to continue our good form and winning ways in order to guarantee promotion. But promotion wasn't good enough for us. We wanted a division title.



Our first six games were a mixed bag going 2-2-2 and allowing our lead to shrink to as little as just one point. We needed to get back to the dominant football I knew we could play. Over the next six games we were able to win four while drawing two, grabbing 14 crucial points. With our 1-0 road win over Pocono Snow, we were able to clinch the Home Depot East title with a game still remaining on our schedule! The board, fans, players and staff were ecstatic about how the season had finished up!



Not only were the club's supporters excited about me being their manager but I was happy to be here, deflecting any thoughts of me leaving for other squads. I want to see this team into their promotion to the next level and continue to add hardware to their trophy case. Here's a look at the final table in the division:

[R1zzo23]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...



We had two members of Jacksonville United in the running for end of season awards. One of them was GK Joe Barton. He was the front runner all season for the Golden Glove award and with his 15 shutouts it was a no-contest. The second closes was Joaquin Reyes with 11 shutouts but also allowing two more goals in one less appearance. Congrats to Barton! Without him, JUFC would have been doomed this season.

The second member was none other than the coach. After leading a team to a league title you would think he would be the favorite to take home the hardware. Not so fast! The voters were partial to Sean Murphy from Vermont United as his team played an exciting brand of football, scoring 75 goals in 38 games. For Jacksonville United they were only able to net 54 goals of their own in the same amount of contests. However, our defense was far better as we allowed one goal for every game played while Vermont allowed 20 more goals on the season than JUFC. We think this vote was wrong!

[R1zzo23]

Re: [FM14] It's The Climb...



When you win your division, better players want to join your squad. Welcome to the squad Kraig Chiles! The former LA Legends attacking midfielder started his career at Chivas USA in 2008. The 30-year old was offered an immediate starting position in Rizzo's vaunted 4-1-2-1-2 formation. In 43 appearances last season he was able to complile 13 assists and one goal while compiling an average rating of 7.29. Chiles will play an integral role for JUFC next season as the club looks to acquire as much talent as possible to compete in the Chevron League 2 next season.