Part 148: Prologue: Dos a Cero.

Volume Eleven: We're the champs.
Prologue: Dos a Cero
June 9, 2023-July 8, 2023

It's all international competition all the time, with the primary focus being the Gold Cup. There's also the transfer window to consider, but I don't know how active we're going to be. I do know that we're going to get a lot of offers from the biggest clubs for our players, so we might be doing more wheeling and dealing than I expect.



We did what we had to do, scoring four against a good Romanian squad. Unfortunately...



We're knocked out on goal differential as Morocco finishes even and we finish -1. There's some positives to our performance, our offense was pretty impressive even against France, but it's clear that we need to find defenders worth a damn.

vs. El Salvador, June 11, 2023
CONCACAF Gold Cup, Group A


There's two reasons we have a realistic chance to win this tournament. The first is that we're straight up better than any team other than Mexico. The second is that we've got home field advantage. For example, this match is being played at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. El Salvador are pushovers, so many of our starters are young players I think might be useful pieces in the World Cup three years hence.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Control
Starting 11: Toninho, Parsons, Needham, Latham, Erlic, Romaneiro, Hartman, Munk, Burman, Baker, Carroll.
Subs: Gomez, Bruno, Brown, Ramos, Woods, Anderson, Lenz.

It doesn't take us long to take the lead, just 61 seconds until 23 year old winger Matt Baker heads in a cross. Mario Carroll adds another late in the first half and just before the break we're given a penalty that Theo Munk converts. The second half is not so fun. 20 year old midfield prospect Isaias Hartman is injured right after the break. Then El Salvador score on their first shot of the day, and score again on their second shot to draw back within one with twenty minutes left. Clearly work needs to be done, we could have taken only a draw thanks to lackadaisical play in the second half.

Man of the Match: Isaias Hartman.




USMNT 3-2 El Salvador



This preliminary squad will get changed a good deal once the U20s are available again after returning from Toulon.



Which just happened. We acquitted ourselves well, only France outscored us over three matches, and we deserved to make it to the semifinal. The best of the U20s will be joining the U23s for the Copa America.



In Wrexham news, Chelsea was uninterested in re-signing a 23 year old keeper who has the potential to be at least as good as Kovacevic. They let us have him for under £600k, which is £2.4m less than we'd have had to pay if we'd signed him on a pre-contract.

Paul Fitzgerald
Goalkeeper

.
We'll either loan him out this year or sell El Sayed, who he already roughly matches in ability. Regardless, we profit at the expense of one of our four primary rivals.



Ben Dixon never had a real chance at breaking into our first team, and with his contract up in a year it was time to cash in. We bought him from Barnet back in 2019 for £33k, and even after accounting for his wages turned a profit of nearly £4m. I'm a little amused that Newcastle supporters think Dixon at £4.6m is a coup while Wrexham supporters think we did great to get that much for him. He's not the only sale we make at the start of the window.



It pains me to see Todd go, but £30m was just too much to turn down. I didn't expect them to accept my counter offer, honestly. Chris had been with us since the rough days of our first League Two season, and had turned into a quality Premier League centerback. But we have plenty of centerbacks who can become better him on our roster, and again £30m is too much money to refuse.



Hah! One cap at age 18 for Japan and they're giving him a work permit. He'll stay on our youth team for the next year, he still needs to learn English, then be on loan for a few years thereafter.




He seems to have let bygones be bygones over the whole painkilling injection thing last winter. Winning solves most team chemistry and clash of personality problems.



An all Premier League final will certainly improve the ol' national coefficient.



So will winning the Champions League for the ol' team coefficient. We're still going to be a two seed, but even if we finished fourth in the group stage next year our coefficient would rise drastically as our last lower league season would be replaced by the upcoming year. It's possible that we could get screwed and end up a three seed for the second year in a row, depending on who else makes the Champions League group stage.

vs. Curacao, June 15, 2023
CONCACAF Gold Cup, Group A


Curacao has one decent player, the 30 year old Jeroen Rozema. This is our chance to claim a victory over the Kingdom of the Netherlands without having to actually play the Dutch. You're going down, King Willem-Alexander!

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Control
Starting 11: Gomez, Parsons, Latham, Brown, Bruno, Woods (c), Hartman, Ramos, Lenz, Gordon, Mancini.
Subs: Toninho, Erlic, Noyes, Romaniero, Munk, Carroll, Anderson.

We're dominant but taking too many long shots. My pep talk isn't as frightful as it might have been, though, because Florian Lenz puts us ahead just before halftime. Our defensive miscues continue when we allow Curacao to equalize on their second shot in the 58th minute. We rapidly reassert ourselves, taking the lead right back with a crack from Italian Serie B Golden Boot Piervito Mancini. Winger Jamie Gordon takes advantage of the terrible opposition keeper to score directly from a corner kick five minutes later to squelch any Curacaoan dreams of an upset. Finally, Lenz scores a second and Isaias Hartman nabs his first senior goal to give the appreciative Tampa crowd the rout they expected.

Man of the Match: Florian Lenz




USMNT 5-1 Curacao



We need to make it to the finals just to match expectations.




I think I've figured out how to handle players who weren't in our youth team when they score goals.

vs. Honduras, June 18, 2023
CONCACAF Gold Cup, Group A


We've got the top spot in the group locked up, the goal here is going to be to avoid injury and rest our better players for the knockout rounds. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the scheduling, though. We've gone from New Jersey to Florida to Texas in nine days. That's about 2000 miles of travel.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Control
Starting 11: Gomez, Noyes, Needham, Brown, Erlic (c), Romaneiro, Ramos, Munk, Burman, Baker, Carroll.
Subs: Toninho, Bruno, Latham, Parsons, Woods, Hartman, Anderson.

Our first shot goes off the woodwork 16 seconds in. It's our best chance of the entire opening 45. We have 72% possession over that time, but nothing to show for it at halftime. Our lack of killer instinct leads me to engage in a bit of shouting, but it doesn't appear to have worked. We go off the crossbar again in the 63rd minute, and again in the 84th minute. The breakthrough comes at last with two goals in stoppage time, the final score matches our overall quality on the day even if it took us more than 90 minutes to get them.

Man of the Match: Matt Baker




USMNT 2-0 Honduras



Real Madrid wants him too, and I have a replacement in mind. Let's see if I can start a bidding war.



Jefferies is the first of our young players to find a spot on loan, heading up to Scotland to play with the Thistle, who are in the Europa League this year.



Crud, we're on a collision course with Mexico in the semis, unless Trinidad and Tobago pull off one of the greatest upsets in Gold Cup history.



Real Madrid were only willing to offer me £24.5m, but I did negotiate PSG up to £36.5m. Real Madrid will have to top that if they want a shot at Suslov.



Suslov's replacement will be 24 year old Cristian Taffarel, who will be our biggest transfer splurge ever if he accepts the contract offer I made.



I can't give Harley away, I was asking literally zero in return for him.



The Super Cup is a glorified friendly between the winner of the Champions League and the Europa League. Inter will have a little bit of home field advantage with the match taking place in Rome.



The new owner isn't a sugar daddy. Manchester City will remain incredibly rich, but not to the point where they're easily outspending their crosstown rivals.



De Blasio will have a chance to prove himself as a Premier League quality striker playing for Leeds next year.




Top 5! Now players will mostly stop complaining about wanting to go to other clubs. Their only reasons for kvetching will involve money and playing time. The first we can do something about, the latter only so much.



It took a little bit of untoward fiddling with the editor to arrange the U23 team, I didn't realize the game wouldn't let me swap players out of the preliminary team selection. If I had, I'd have taken more care in picking that preliminary squad and kept more room open for U20 players that I wanted to bring into the squad after they returned from Toulon. It all ended up working out, but it's something I should remember for the future.



He'll get his work permit without a hitch.



Meaning Suslov can head onto PSG on twice the wages he was earning with us.



We end up making a £5m profit on the swap.



That's pretty good considering Taffarel is younger than Suslov, just about as good as him on defense, and much better as an attacking fullback.

vs. Guatemala, June 24, 2023
CONCACAF Gold Cup, Quarterfinal


It's back to New Jersey for the quarterfinal. A win here puts us in the semis against Mexico. One thing that can screw the USMNT up a little bit is that they're in a very weak conference where only one other nation, Mexico, is very good. It means that the team gets used to playing against a bunch of minnows who try to park the bus and grind out results, and then are forced to turn around and play counter attacking football when they're playing the best teams in the world. That's gotten a little better recently with Costa Rica having a good crop of players, and away matches in San Pedro Sula are no joke, but it still raises the question of how the US is supposed to run with the wolves come night when they spend all day sporting with the pups.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Control
Starting 11: Toninho, Latham, Needham, Brown, Erlic (c), Romaneiro, Woods, Ramos, Burman, Munk, Carroll.
Subs: Gomez, Bruno, Noyes, Hartman, Baker, Anderson, Lenz.

Guatemala gifts us the lead with an own goal after a shot that ricochets from the keeper to a defender and into the net in the 7th minute. Then Carroll scores ten minutes later when the opposition is caught ball watching. We control the match, and Guatamala are profligate with what chances they have. Carroll finishes his man of the match performance with a goal in the final minutes, and we're looking very confident going into the showdown with Mexico.

Man of the Match: Mario Carroll.




USMNT 3-0 Guatemala



Just call us Atletico Madrid. We're selling off the players who are highly rated because they did well with us and buying players who are just as good for less.




Of our all time team only Danny Higgs has hung up his cleats, retiring after this past season with Everton.



Shirra scored 20 goals and notched 13 assists over 42 matches, he's clearly the best player on our team now at the tender age of 22. And to think people were skeptical when I splurged £105k to bring him in from Falkirk back in 2017.




The fixture list is out, and we've been treated kindly. We've got late season matches against Manchester United and Arsenal, but other than that we don't face another title competitor after February. We also don't appear to have any back to back matches with our major rivals.



Huh, I thought Rouissi and Ikeda would have another year in the U18. I'll be keeping them with the club, I need Rouissi to shake his “unambitious” personality via some tutoring from Mujkic, and Ikeda is having trouble learning English.



I've always said that winning the title was only the start. We need to prove that we're the greatest team in the world, not a one hit wonder.



That's a lot of raises. The largest percentages go to players earning the least, so it's not as large as it might seem.



You're telling me that Trinidad and Tobago didn't pull off the greatest upset ever? Shocking.



We'll blow through this next year, I wouldn't be surprised if we average over 27,000 once the expansion is complete.



This time I'll make sure to keep room to bring the players from our U23 squad in once we're bounced from the Copa America.

vs. Mexico, June 28, 2023
CONCACAF Gold Cup, Semifinal


Time to prove that we're Americans and not Americants. We have to hope the home field advantage overcomes the difference in quality between the two squads, if we slip past Mexico we're very likely to win the tournament. Hey, Stringel, I'll give you more minutes next season if you play like you've got concrete shoes.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Counter
Starting 11: Toninho, Parsons, Needham, Brown, Erlic (c), Romaneiro, Woods, Ramos, Baker, Gordon, Carroll.
Subs: Gomez, Bruno, Latham, Munk, Hartman, Burman, Lenz.

Mexico has a lot of great talent in their midfield and on the attack, but their defense is awful. A cross from Baker in the 5th minute goes unmolested by three Mexican defenders, allowing Jamie Gordon to score an impressive volley. In the second half Isaac Parsons sends a cross into the box which two Mexican defenders should have no problem clearing. Instead they fumble it back and forth for what seems like an eternity until Jose Francisco Ramos steps up and knocks it from their feet and into the net. That ludicrously poor defending allows us to make it dos a cero in the 53rd minute. That's still the score at the final whistle, and we're through to the final over the defending World Cup champions and the #1 ranked team in the world.

Man of the Match: Jose Francisco Ramos




USMNT 2-0 Mexico




DOS A CERO.



This is like playing Puerto Rico in the final, in that we'll be beating up on another part of the United States.





We're worth £846m, in a couple years we'll be above a billion. Real Madrid are worth £1.5 billion, so we're some way off from being the most valuable sports entity in the world.




That took a bit longer than I expected, but the transfer goes through a full week before training camp starts.

Cristian Taffarel
Left Back


I've wanted him for years:


Last year he was bought by Marseille for £3.6m, and finally started getting into Argentine national team matches. He's eligible for that work permit now, but we had to pay through the nose to get him. Marseille is making a £20m profit for their one year ownership of Taffarel. C'est la vie, it's not like we don't have money to burn. He needs to work on his marking and his quickness, but otherwise is already one of the best fullbacks in the world.

vs. Canada, July 1, 2023
CONCACAF Gold Cup, Final


I wouldn't put it past us to screw this up considering that we drew last fall against North Korea. But I think we're on the cusp of our first international trophy in my tenure. The team is pretty tuckered out, but I don't expect Canada to be any better rested.

Starting Formation: 4-5-1 Control
Starting 11: Toninho, Paulinho, Latham, Noyes, Erlic, Romaneiro, Woods, Munk, Burman, Lenz, Carroll.
Subs: Gomez, Bruno, Parsons, Brown, Ramos, Baker, Mancini.

Canada are playing hockey, earning two yellows in the first 10 minutes. Brett Woods responds by crunching their winger and forcing him out of the game. He does it without getting carded. Canada draw first blood in the 26th minute with a Janeil Boytchuk goal, and Bruins fans everywhere wish Johnny's kid had stuck to hockey. A brilliant long ball from Toninho finds a streaking Carroll onside and past the Canadian defense, and it's all tied up in the 33rd minute.

The Canadian ground war grinds on, they've racked up 6 yellow cards within an hour, but they're keeping us from taking a lead. After 90 minutes they've picked up a total of 8, but it's still going into extra time as we can't find the winner. We can't do jack all in the extra period, other than watch Burman blow the winner with a Wondolowski, and it goes to penalties.

Penalties:

Canada makes their first.

Mancini answers.

Boytchuk makes it 2-1 Canada with a shot Toninho should have stopped.

Woods answers.

Toninho is a sieve.

But so is the Canuck goalie.

Toninho finally makes a save!

Theo Munk puts all the pressure on John Oppong.

Oppong doesn't feel it, and the pressure shifts to 33 year old Martin Noyes, in his 102nd national team appearance.

Noyes scores and spares our blushes. I add a Gold Cup to my quickly accumulating horde of honors.

Man of the Match: Paulinho




USMNT p 1-1 Canada




This is an accomplishment that your prior two coaches only managed once. I did less than a year after being appointed. Turns out we didn't need to win to get a spot in the Confederations Cup, though, since we're hosting it and the following year's World Cup.



Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere.



The team heads off in fine fettle. We'll be back for away matches against Germany and Greece.

Fabio Gabbianelli
Striker


Gabbianelli comes to us from Lazio on a free on a £24k/wk deal. He's got two main weaknesses at this point in time, the first being his limited aerial ability and the more serious being his piss poor mental attributes. The worst of these is his very poor Anticipation, but everything other than his composure is poor for this level. He also needs some work on his technique. He or Aarts will end up being shipped off for the season for polishing, while the other serves as our third striker.

Callum Allen
Midfielder


Arsenal decided that they didn't want Allen anymore, and I'm happy to give him a home. He'll make a good offensive substitute in the Julio mode, and at 22 years old he has time to grow into his considerable potential. He's likely to go out on loan as he's not yet good enough to win playing time on our side, but he was free and is now under our control until 2027.



Wait, WHAT?!



I've made a huge mistake. When I renegotiated a contract with Bastable this past winter I meant to put a relegation release clause of £0 into his contract to reduce his contract demands. Instead, I accidentally put a minimum fee release clause of £0. I'm lucky that Real Madrid didn't lowball us and pick him up for a pound. Ugh. We're not going to be able to beat Real Madrid on wages, so I better start looking for a superstar to lead our attack.



Christ I'm an idiot. We'll get another £9m when he scores 20 goals for Real Madrid. The only silver lining is that we have nearly £135m to find a replacement.

His new contract ties him for highest paid player in the world, at nearly £13m a season. His incentives will raise that to roughly £19m a year. By comparison we were paying him just over £5m a year with another £1-2m from incentives.



Make that £150m to find a replacement. Hammatt and O'Hanlon are both ready for more action, ergo Feruga was surplus to requirements. He was also in the last year of his contract, and due a sizable raise.



I'm frantically looking for a Bastable replacement, and my eyes first alight on Mark Bloem. He doesn't seem likely to come through. City have refused an offer of £75m, and the player himself isn't pushing to join us.



Great. Someone get me copious amounts of baiju so I can literally drink myself blind because I lost the Bastard.





We might not have gotten anywhere in the Toulon Tournament, despite playing very well, but we knocked off the top team in the world and won ourselves pride of place in CONCACAF. The USMNT is now on an eight game winning streak. I'm looking forward to seeing the change in our FIFA ranking, as little as it really tells you about the actual quality of a nation. We've also got the Copa America coming up, and we're going to get run off the pitch. We might get a single point.



Meanwhile, Wrexham is rich as all heck and about to depart for China. I've arranged a friendly with a top division club that washed out of the domestic cup competition early. Jiangsu Sainty play in Nanjing and while they're nowhere near as well known as Guangzhou Evergrande they're still going to be very good for our exposure in the country. I'm waiting to schedule more friendlies as I'm hoping that the board will announce a tour of the United States against MLS teams. If they don't I'll be setting up a Mini-Cwp and an impromptu tour in America. In the mean time I'm searching for a replacement to Bastable, it's fair to say that had I not just won the double and had the transfer fee not been the largest seen in over a decade I'd have been run out on a rail after my huge mistake came to light.