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Showing posts from March, 2021

15. Getting Our Feet Wet

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  International News I start this post with some International News on how Cambodia fared in the South East Asian Championships.  Cambodia were slightly unlucky to miss out on qualification for the knockout stages of the tournament after finishing in third place. They managed to beat Laos and Brunei 1-0, but lost out to the same score against Myanmar and Singapore, who qualified from the group. Unfortunately for my sole representative in the Cambodian national side, Sok Chanraksmey he failed to get on the pitch and warmed the bench for the entire campaign. Never mind at least he will be nice and fresh for ours. Match 7 – EDC v Svay Rieng 1 st May 2021 First of all nobody gives us a cat in hell’s chance, but it was nice to be described as a ‘Talented manager!’ On paper Svay Rieng have a better team than us, but they are in 7 th , while we are having nosebleeds in 2 nd . We have had some easier fixtures of late and Svay Rieng’s visit is our biggest test since the opening day against Vis

14. Onwards and Upwards

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Sok Chanraksmey, a 31 year old journeyman Cambodian striker who is enjoying the best spell of his career so far at EDC. A striker with a bit of everything, can run in behind, can hold the ball up, is good in the air and is a good finisher, in fact one could say in some ways an old fashioned English centre forward. He can play up front on his own, or with a partner in crime in the shape of Phanny Y Rotha and this season, Keo Udom.  International Recall EDC striker Sok Chanramskey has been rewarded for a fine start to the C-League season by being called up to the Cambodian national team for the South East Asian Championships, which will see the Angkor Warriors take on Laos, Singapore, Myanmar and Brunei in Group B of the tournament which kicks off on 11 th April 2021.  Chanraksmey has won 11 caps and scored 5 goals, which means he had a good start to his international career. I am not sure why they have not selected him since, but perhaps it was down to injury or loss of form. Match 4-

13. Restarting The Season

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After all the shenanigans with the bug, the editor and the unregistered players I am now ready to re-start the season, starting with my trip (again) to Vishaka, complete with their foreign stars and first team players. Season 2 Match 1 20/03/21   – Vishaka v EDC (Match Replayed) While I don’t envisage a comfortable 4-1 win, I hope we can make life difficult for Vishaka and cause a few problems ourselves. We line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with 2 DMCs and defensive full backs to negate the threat of North Korea. I think we have made some good signings in pre-season, but they still do not match up to the quality of teams like Vishaka. Good luck boys!  Team: 4-2-3-1 Channou, Channeroun, Daravon, Khemarin, Ratana, Raksa, Sedsody, Sung Rot, Veasna, Fasal, Chanraksmey Vishaka 2-4 EDC Kim Kyong Hun 17. ///   Chanraksmey 9,36,45,68 Mihaljevic 92                    Registered players or unregistered players, North Koreans or no North Koreans.. I think it was written in the footie manager stars

12. Staging An Intervention

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 So I'll immediately put you all out of your misery... The North Koreans of Vishaka are thankfully safe, well and still on Cambodian soil... However there is a problem, a big problem which threatened the entire integrity of The Ultimate World Football Manager Game and even led me to contemplate starting the whole thing again. You see the reason why there were no North  Koreans, or their Croatian team mate, Mihaljevic in the opening game of the season for Vishaka was because there was a huge bug in the game. It centred around the registration of players for the new C-League season, which happens during two windows, one at the end of pre-season in early March, around where we are now and the other at the end of the mid season transfer window, which is in mid-June The end of the registration window was on 5th March 2021. While I, as the only human manager duly registered 35 players from the first team, reserves and youth team, the AI managers failed to do this. It seems on further ins

11. The Start of Season 2, but what's going on here???

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 I'm going to start today's post with a question...  What do Cambodia and Spain have in common in footballing terms?    Answer:  You have to register a maximum of 35 players to play in the League. There the comparisons end between the former World and European Champions and Cambodia… The 35 Registered Players at EDC for the 2021 C-League Season Goalkeepers Um Channou  Kong Rafat -------------------- Kouch Vandeth Kouch Rithy Defenders Ouk Ratana (DLRC) Leng Sophaon (DL) Khek Khemarin (DC) Suon Makara (D/MC) Rouem Channerouen (DR) Nhem Theara (DRC) Sorn Sophina (DC) --------------------- Mom Veasna Yth (DR) Ly Chandara Yth (DC) Chea Sambath Yth (DC) Midfielders Savy Sedsody (DMC) Nan Punlock (DMC) Moun Nara (D/MC) Yun Raksa (D/DMC) Ouch Udom (MC/AMC) Sann Suhana (MC/AMC) Sung Rot (MC/AMC/FC) Tum Saray (AMRLC) Suon Veasna (MR/L) Math Fasal (MR/L) Long Rothsery (MLC) ----------------------------- Mao Mol Yth (M/AML) Math Ramasky Yth (MR/AMR) Molly Yth (M/AML) Tuy Oudom Yth (MR) Fo

10. C-League Season 2- Pre Season

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Happy British New Year!  01/01/21 Happy British new year everybody! The first day of 2021 and it's about 32 degrees out there in sunny Cambodia! I am reliably told by my players and staff that the Cambodian New Year is actually in mid-April and is a time of great celebration, so today is just a normal day in Phnom Penh. The players are still a month away from coming back from their holibobs to start the pre-season in earnest. Therefore it's a good time for me to tell you about the new leagues I have introduced onto the game. As you remember at the very start of the Ultimate World Football Manager Game I drew ten random countries from a random country generator on t'interweb, well many of these such as Namibia, Bolivia and Lithuania for example are thousands of miles away from Cambodia and therefore of no real use in the game. These outlying countries were replaced with Asian Countries which neighbour Cambodia using the 'Add/Remove Leagues function on FM21.   Out of the

9. Wheelin' 'n' Dealin'

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It's early pre-season and the opening of the transfer window is a few weeks away on 9th December. Things are a bit topsy turvy when the season is March to October. Since the day after the final league game against Kampong Cham, my thoughts have been solely on how I am going to improve the squad for next season.  My First Signing It was bonfire night, 5th November during the day and the players were training with our team of coaches outside, while I was in my office mulling over some scout reports for some potential signings and thinking about the fireworks, hot dogs and jacket potatoes that would be part of the festivities back home. Suddenly there was a knock at the door and my Assistant manager Nen Borey came in. 'Boss we've had a player come to training ground. He says he wants to play for us?' Do you know anything about this? 'No, we have not offered any trials yet' Is he any good? 'Well we don't know yet boss, he's just come asking to train with