37 replies to this topic

[AlexBRFC]

After beginning a game on the new FIFA World Cup game with the British Virgin Islands, I thought I'd start a game with a similarly-small nation on FM, and see how far I can take them.

As of the 26th May 2010, the Cook Islands are ranked 181st in the world by FIFA, just behind Belize, and just in front of Bahamas. In July 2000, they reached the dizzy heights of being ranked 169th, which to date is their highest ranking.

They are part of the Oceania Football Confederation, which is the smallest, and certainly the most unsuccessful of the six confederations in international football, having being represented only four times in the World Cup; twice by Australia (who since 2006 have been part of the Asian Football Confederation) and twice by New Zealand (now the dominant side in the confederation).

With a population of just 24,000, the Cook Islands is one of the smallest FIFA teams. All of their eligible players on FM play their club football in the country itself, and James Nand, a 31-year-old winger, has the most caps for the country, having represented them on 12 occasions.

I've got a feeling this one's going to be tough...

[localhero]

Good luck mate, often fancied doing something similar. Never had the guts though. crr

[Smog_on_the_Tees]

ouch, that will be a tough one.

[AlexBRFC]

I'm starting to think this is going to be a lot harder than I first thought. The Cook Islands' squad is, rather predictably, poor. No, actually, I'm being kind there. It's horrendously crap. Saying that, it wasn't as if I wasn't expecting it.

Nevertheless, here are three of the star players. 'Star' being the operative word:

Michael Varney
Tuka Tisam
Don Hallin

Picking a squad for my first friendly against 134th-placed New Caledonia was a tough job. Looking at the players, it was as though I'd been wrongly given the Cook Islands Hockey squad instead, if that even exists. However, I eventually scraped a few players together, including two who were player-managers in the country's national league.

My reign as Cook Islands' manager got off to a rather disappointing start:



Back to the drawing board, I reckon.

World Ranking: 188th (down 2)

[killie97]

The Cook Islands are managable?!?  
Never knew that, good luck with that anyways
How long do you think it will take to get a regen who is good enough to leave the island for a 'bigger' club?

[ChrisOrmie]

Class idea and really interested to see if you can do anything with them. Hope it goes well for you but this will be a tough one!

[AlexBRFC]

killie97, on 29 June 2010 - 03:44 PM, said:

The Cook Islands are managable?!?  
Never knew that, good luck with that anyways
How long do you think it will take to get a regen who is good enough to leave the island for a 'bigger' club?

You have to load Australia to play them I think. I can't remember - got about 20+ playable nations running!

Not sure about the regen thing! Hopefully not too long Saying that, one of my best players (Varney) plays for some Chinese First Division side. Everyone else plays for a Cook Islands team!

[AlexBRFC]

Second friendly didn't go too well either...



Still not gelling too well really. But, I'm not too disappointed. Both teams I've played so far have been above me in the rankings, albeit not by too much.

When I was browsing for players, I came across a player called Lai Gukisuva, who at 53 years of age, is the oldest player I've come across on any FM game I've ever played. It's quite funny really too, because he's actually no worse than my current squad. I might even call him up

Got the OCE Nations Cup qualifying draw coming up soon. I'll definitely need to get a couple of wins under my belt before then, though!

[ChrisOrmie]

I think you should call up Gukisuva! There's no substitute for experience

[killie97]

Call up the old man!
I'd laugh if you got a decent regen with dual nationalities and he picks the other nation

[AlexBRFC]

killie97, on 30 June 2010 - 08:28 PM, said:

Call up the old man!
I'd laugh if you got a decent regen with dual nationalities and he picks the other nation

There's only about 20 nations below us in the World Rankings, so I'd be very surprised if they didn't pick the other nation tbh!

[AlexBRFC]

Went for a change of formation for the next game away to the British Virgin Islands. Instead of 4-1-4-1 which I'd played in the previous two games, I went for a simple 4-4-2. It didn't make too much difference though...



Just four days later, we faced the Netherlands Antilles, a notoriously tough team to beat (ha!). I once again changed formation; this time going for a narrow 4-1-2-1-2, therefore scrapping any wide players.

To be fair, we were overloaded with central midfielders, so it was the most obvious formation for us to play anyway.

It seem to work, and we were unlucky not to come away with a win...



van Eijk and Oti both scored their first international goals, with Oti's coming on his international debut.

I'm not going to say the future looks bright for the Cook Islands, because it doesn't. But it's a start. And hopefully something we can build on!

[JackHammer]

Read about that 53 year old guy on twitter, hope you can get a win eventually

[AlexBRFC]

JackHammer, on 01 July 2010 - 08:23 PM, said:

Read about that 53 year old guy on twitter, hope you can get a win eventually

Thanks mate. It's a dream of mine as well

[AlexBRFC]

After the relatively impressive result against the Netherlands Antilles, we went into the next game against the Solomon Islands full of confidence.

It's fair to say that the confidence was unfounded, though. We were outplayed in every part of the pitch, and failed to create many noteworthy chances...



A month or so later, we came up against the Central African Republic who were, according to FIFA, the second worst nation in the world.

However, this fact didn't seem to matter, and were once again on the receiving end of a defeat...



I believe we've got the OCE Nations Cup coming up soon, but I'm not too hopeful about qualifying to be quite honest.

We've dropped a fair few places in the rankings too.

Time to actually start playing football now I think.

World Ranking: 198th

[JackHammer]

Play the pensioner!

[AlexBRFC]

Next up were Anguilla, ranked 182nd in the world. It was an overall even game with a disappointing finish. We deserved more...



On a lighter note, at 53 years and 295 days, Lai Gukisuva became the oldest player to represent the Cook Islands by some margin. He's probably the oldest player to have ever played international football too, thinking about it. Although I could be wrong.

The groups for the Prelimiary Round of the OCE Nations Cup have been drawn:

Preliminary Round Group A:
Cook Islands (World Ranking: 202nd)
Fiji (WR: 102nd)
Papa New Guinea (WR: 200th)
Samoa (WR: 155th)
Tahiti (WR: 189th)

Preliminary Round Group B:
American Samoa (WR: 204th)
New Caledonia (WR: 104th)
Solomon Islands (WR: 139th)
Tonga (WR: 160th)
Vanuatu (WR: 146th)

We're probably the worst team out of either of the groups: both on paper, and on form, but hopefully there'll be a few surprises along the way.

World Ranking: 202nd

[AlexBRFC]

OCE Nations Cup Prelimary Round

We began the campaign with a home game against Samoa...



A good performance. Slightly disappointed that we gave the lead away, though. However, Samoa are a good side (relatively speaking) so I wasn't too worried.

Next up were Tahiti, against whom I earned my first win as Cook Islands manager...



To make sure we kept the lead, we were basically playing a 4-3-2-1 formation, with 3 defensive midfielders, and to defensive central midfielders. It seemed to work though, and we held on!

The strongest team in the group, Fiji, were our next opponents...



The result didn't really do us justice. We let in three sloppy goals, yeah, but they came quite early on, and after we'd let the third in, we started to play a bit better, and probably had the best of the second half as it turns out.

We went into the final game against Papua New Guinea in 3rd, on 4 points, behind Samoa, who were playing Tahiti in their final game. There was no doubt about it, this was a must-win game, and we needed Tahiti to get something from Samoa...



A 91st minute winner. So, so, so valuable. Tahiti, against all expectations, beat Samoa 2-1, but the win was still brilliant, as a draw wouldn't have been enough.

Here's the table...



So, we've qualified for the OCE Nations Cup. I seriously wasn't expecting it, whatsoever. We'll come up against the reigning champions New Zealand, our group winners Fiji, and the two qualifiers from the other group: American Samoa and New Caledonia.

I literally don't know what to predict. My Cook Islanders have surprised me so much

World Ranking: 168th (+34 places)

[JackHammer]

WAHEY!
Two wins!
And qualification!
This is the start of the Cook Islands world domination!

[AlexBRFC]

I don't like all this pressure!