Part 194: Epilogue: Taken 4, Taken Again.

Epilogue: Taken 4, Taken Again.
May 25, 2016-June 10, 2016

This will take us right up to the start of the World Cup, and we have three friendlies to play as we finish our preparations to play host to the world.



There goes the second of our starting centerbacks. Yeesh, at this rate we won't have anyone fit to play come the actual games.



Now I can finally accomplish my real goal, destroying Wrexham from within! Chester forever! :unsmiggh:



That Mercado has declined is no surprise, he's 34 years old, but Mujkic and Ünsal have slipped is concerning. Meteor is only 28, and Ünsal only 26. I'm guessing this is because of their injuries, if you remember Mujkic missed three months with a damaged Achilles at the start of last season and Ünsal missed three months between damaging his hip in November and breaking his arm in late April. Hopefully they can both rebound next year, though it's certainly not like Mujkic was anything less than brilliant down the stretch for us. The dude was the Premier League player of the year and had an average rating of 7.86 from March through the end of the season.



We have a lot of Wrexham players going to the World Cup, so I've set our pre-season to begin as late as possible. That means we'll have about a month to get into playing form before we contest the Community Shield against Manchester United.




Some final bookkeeping from the Champions League sees String win Champions League honors, his goals against United in the final placed him just above Thiago for the Golden Boot with 13 goals to the Brazilio-Italian Welsh striker's 12, and probably tipped the scales for his Best Player award.



Meanwhile, we are the team of the tournament.



I have no clue what Argentina's coach is thinking. Mercado is old but he's relatively fresh and was dynamite off the bench for us all season. He's still a world class player even at 34.



It seems that Justin Bailey isn't the only snub on the English team.



Tate has good reason to feel aggrieved, he missed out while uncapped Callum Allan was kept on the squad. I like Callum Allan, but Tate is a starter on a great team while Allan is a backup.

Los Angeles, United States
11pm, May 25, 2026

(COACH and three young Americans, MICHAEL ENRIQUEZ, XAVIER HUGHES, and ANDREW PAREDES, are outside the home of BRENT WOODS)

: Ok, let's see. Enriquez, you jammed the cell tower?

: Aye aye, boss.

: Hughes, you got the security system?

: Uh, I think so.

: Paredes, is that stun-gun charged?

: Coach, is this legal?

: Don't worry about it.



: No one says no to me.

(The AMERICANS climb over the fence into WOODS' driveway, then COACH unlocks the side entrance)

: Coach, why do you have a key to this house?

: I have keys to all of my players house, Paredes. Makes it easier to drop in and say hi.

: Wait... does that mean you have keys to our houses too?

: Don't worry about it.

(Upon entering the home, the alarm starts to beep)

: Damnit, Hughes, I thought you got the alarm!

: I'm a 20-year-old soccer player, what were you expecting!?

: We're going to have to do this the hard way, then!

(The four barge into BRENT WOODS' boudoir, where he is groggily awakening)

: What in tarnation?

: Zap him, Paredes!

: Ahh!

(PAREDES frantically jabs the stun gun into WOODS' side until the older man passes out)

: Alright, Paredes and Enriquez, carry him out to the van. Hughes, you take the decoy and drive off when you see the cops show up. Get them to chase you, then after a few minutes pull over and surrender.

: That wasn't part of the plan!

: The plan was for you to cut the alarm system! Don't worry, I'll have you bailed out and make sure Woods drops any charges.

A Shipping Container, Los Angeles Docks
(Later that night)

(WOODS is tied to a chair under an arc lamp, facing the COACH)

: I'm sorry about this, I just wanted to have a chat with you.

: You are fucking crazy, do you know that?

: Yes. I am crazy. But I'm also the best goddamned coach in the world. And I want the best goddamned American player of a generation to step up beside me and help me make some noise at the World Cup.

: That's what this is all about?!

: What else would it be about? Come on, don't you want to advance out of the group stage for once in your career? How long did you spend working for coaches who lost to Trinidad and Tobago?

: Heh, that happened more than once...

: This is your last chance at glory.

(COACH pulls an armband out of his pocket and offers it to WOODS)

: Don't you want to show what you can do, captain?




He came around, but he's still not happy with me.



Woods coming into the fold marks the time for us to make final cuts. Some of them will be easy, like our trio of helpers Enriquez, Hughes, and Paredes.



Let's hope I made the right choices.




Lang is the last cut, and it was a hard one to make.




Daniel Bennett also just missed out to Scott Dolinsky for the final striker spot.



Chris Ramirez and Scott Stevens get a ring to let them know that I wish they could be playing for me, and to tell them not to worry about their positions on the squad. I also called Xavier Hughes to tell him I'm looking forward to seeing his progress over the next four years, but apparently he hasn't made bail yet.



You could form a hell of a club with our cast-offs.



I thought for sure when I read the headline that he'd torn up his leg while training for the World Cup, but he's perfectly fine. He also wants to talk to me about a new contract, so nothing has changed.



Team USA has three friendlies before the World Cup starts on June 12. We play host to Iran, Wales, and Sweden. Wales is in the World Cup, facing a tough group of England, Uruguay, and Honduras. Iran and Sweden missed out, but will get to come to the United States anyways to tune us up.



That was not a good result. We required a last minute own goal to scrap a draw, and while we create three clear cut chances we failed to capitalize on any of them.



Club football doesn't rest while the World Cup is coming, and a brilliant striker I've been keeping a close watch on just signed a new deal with Chelsea. I was tempted to go after him as a rotational striker in large part because he was born in Wales.



Ok, one, why the hell are most of the games being played on the West Coast when the northeastern corridor will have a population of near 60m in 2026? The only two stadiums on the entire Eastern Seaboard are in Philly and near NYC, meaning that whoever is playing there has at least a flight halfway across the continent to Chicago, Dallas, or Houston for their third match.

But more importantly... HONOLULU?! That's madness! Hawaii is a five hour flight from Los Angeles! By way of comparison, that's about the same as the flight from Boston on the East Coast to Seattle on the West Coast.

At least we don't have to go their. Our matches are being played in LA and Phoenix, the only thing I'd change is when we have to travel to Phoenix*, the Coliseum in LA is a 20 minute drive down the 110 from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

*(and play in the desert where the average June temperature is 104 degrees Fahrenheit/40 Celsius, I don't care that the stadium is domed and air conditioned, who the hell thought that would be a good idea?)



Might as well make it easy for our players and I to get from the World Cup to training camp. I'm expecting to be out of the tournament when training camp comes, unless we've done something crazy like made the Semifinals.




Sure, let's get our international scheduling done now.



Good job, board! Our training jersey sponsorship is now worth almost as much as our actual kit sponsorship... whoever negotiated that a few years ago really duffed the deal as we're getting paid like Swansea instead of Manchester United.



Damn you, George Osbourne! That comes atop the £17m in taxes we'd already paid to the Crown.



Huh, I didn't know the board could do that as a fan trust. Our 200,000 members get a payment of about £105 each... or the board just embezzled some serious scratch under everyone's noses.



I've never seen this happen, but it's not surprising considering that City just spent two years without any Champions League money while running one of the highest payrolls in the world. It certainly gives a leg up to their competitors, including us.



That's not stopping them from shopping for reinforcements, though. Darby is going to cost somewhere around £25m-£30m, and it's going to be at the higher range because I plan on bigfooting City if they move for him.




That should put the cap on the Premier League season, as the final monthly awards are given. Enrique did very well during Loseille's absence, but I'm just not sure how far a defensive player with a 1 Bravery can go no matter how good their other stats.



Let's hope Collins doesn't show us up right after signing his new Chelsea deal.



We did well in the first half, and poorly in the second. Mario Carroll might have just played himself out of the starting job, he missed on two easy chances and denied us a victory.



De la Fuente, on the other hand, has almost certainly locked down the starting keeper job after a stellar performance between the sticks.



50-1? I'd put a tenner on us for that.



Hey, when FC Barcelona calls, I have to take the interview. Especially considering my current contract situation.





I was never going to leave Wrexham for them, and their refusal to bow and scrape to my every demand is one big reason why. I was hoping they'd give me a gigantic contract offer, though, which I could take to the board and use as leverage.




That got your attention. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.




As soon as the board signs off on the budget, you'll be getting a new deal. You're our Golden Boy, and that will be the truth once I back the dump truck up to your door.



Bruno Santos is the luckiest man alive. Manchester City's financial woes keeps them out of the Champions League, and means that Chelsea qualifies through a back door for the third straight year.



This is going to make things harder. Jimenez is our starting left back, and he's not going to get into a single match. We have an acceptable backup, but unlike Jimenez he's entirely defensive minded, and seeing as scoring goals is a real problem for this team we needed all the offense we could get.



Sweden are the easiest of our three warm ups, I wanted to make sure we took a good attitude into the real thing.



We outclassed the Swedes in every way but the scoreline, and that's because there's a decided lack of finishing on this team. Until Dolinsky scored in stoppage time to salvage a draw we hadn't scored a goal off of a US foot or head since last October.



There were positives to take away, though, such as the inscrutable Bobby Padilla putting out a man of the match performance, his best performance in a US jersey in several years.



String also racked up 22 assists, making him a deserving winner... but it still frustrates me that Thiago is ignored after a season where he scored 61 goals and picked up 14 more assists. It's not like he's been a slouch for his nation, either, Thiago's netted 7 goals and an assist in 8 appearances with the Italian side.



I mean, just look how far out ahead of his opposition he was for the European Golden Boot.




The award goes straight to Stringel's head, but since he just got a new contract last year I'm in no mood to give him a raise.



I wish I could be that optimistic, but our inability to put our shots on net is concerning me. Our defense has been solid, at least.



It's that time again.



Time for me to welcome all of our new youth players to the club.



Time to count up our jersey sales, and wonder why Mujkic isn't in the top five while marveling at the number of Minami jerseys Japan ordered.



Time to complete the sale of one of our former youth prospects who never made good.



Time to prove that the United States is so a good soccer playing nation!



I've proven that I can build a winner from nothing, but success in the World Cup is a whole other animal. I can't bring in talented young stars from all over the world for Team USA, so I'll need to use every last ounce of my motivational skills and tactical nous to overcome opponents fielding far superior teams. Trebel or not, I still have critics to silence.



Remember that the Board Votes will be open until 12:00 am EST, January 21, 2015