I am in England!

I started playing Fifa 09 Manager Mode with ST. PAULI from 2. BUDESLIGA. The reason for that is that I am current unable to play in manager mode with my favorite team: Corinthians. Since Corinthians played last year national second division in Brazil and Fifa 09 only has the first division available, there is no way to choose Corinthians on manager mode (its listed on Rest of the World). So, the initial strategy was to choose a team from the second (or third) division of another country and start transferring players from Corinthians to that team. And the chosen one for this first attempt was ST. PAULI in Germany.

It turned out that some Corinthians players are just not good enough if you are planning to win the most important tournament in Europe which is the Champions League. So, as long as I was going through my first attempt with ST. PAULI, it turned out that I start buying not only Corinthians players, but also other players for Corinthians weakest positions. And the players I brought were EDUARDO RATINHO, THIAGO SILVA, ANDRE DIAS, P.GUINAZU, G. HERRERA, NILMAR, and C. TEVEZ. So at the end, only for part of the midfield and the defense I was able to use Corinthians players.

By the way, if you are starting a Manager Mode and need a good Central Defender, THIAGO SILVA is the one. He is very good and, if you are playing with player auto growth enable, you will realize that after one or two seasons he will be one of the best players of the market.

After playing a while in Germany, I realize that most of teams I was playing against, I didn’t know so well, and this can make the matches kind of boring. So, after losing the Champions final to TOTTENHAM, I move to Italy to play the SERIE B with PARMA. And there the things got much more exiting, because I had the first season to make the changes I needed to the team during the first season, and on the second season I was ready for the big matches. And it is amazing playing against INTER, MILAN, LAZIO, FIORENTINA, ROMA and JUVENTUS. Not only because these teams are very popular here in Brazil, but also because they have a lot of Brazilian players.

After playing two seasons on Italy, EA released the updated squad file and there was a lot of interesting changes in Corinthians. I think that the most important one was that RONALDO finally showed up and could be used. Also, Corinthians younger’s players like DIEGO, RENATO and BOQUITA were available.

This makes me start a new Manager Mode with PORTUGUESA. The problem was that after playing the first season, I realized that the only tournaments I was able to play were LIGA DO BRASIL and COPA BRASIL. It’s really frustrating not been able to play LIBERTADORES DA AMERICA on Manager Mode, since we have so many good teams in Brazil , Argentine, and since tree of the five editions of FIFA Club World Cup were won by Brazilian teams. So this is something that EA should really fix in future versions.

Well, and this brings me where I am right now, England!

I have started a new manager mode in England’s COCA-COLA LEAGUE 2 (equivalent to Brazilian fourth division) with LUTON TOWN F.C., and it’s been really challenging.

First, because the players overall are very low and second because the matches are tough with closer marking and this makes it harder to keep or pass the ball. I am current playing on Professional difficult level with a half length of 5 minutes and I am on the math day 20 of the league. I am on the top of the table with 39 points followed by DARLINGTON with 37 points but I am 2 matches ahead. I leaved the ENGLISH LEAGUE CUP on the second round, been defeated by A.VILLA (It’s almost impossible beat a 4 stars team playing with a single star one).

What helped me a lot until now to keep me in the first positions were the players I bought in the beginning of the season, the reserve backs from Corinthians DIEGO and RENATO, the midfielder I have got from Mexico, M. TRAORE (scout recommendation) and the striker G. HERRERA. For this manager mode, I also created myself (CRISTIANO) to play as forward with HERRERA. And, of course, it would be impossible to be in this position without improving the FITNESS COACH at least to level 7.