Brunei fairytale

This is a happy ending fairytale about a miraculus success of Brunei u20 team, lead by jolbe_ as well as written by jolbe_

It all started 8 seasons ago, when Brunei, Ghana, Cambodia and Mozabmique were introduced among the hattrick nations. Brunei and Ghana have grown little bigger than other two quickly and also became bigger "forces" in HT.
But, nobody thought that any of those small countries can become visible competitor worldwide soon. But they were wrong - and so was I, kinda.

When I was elected to u20 coach position in Brunei for the 4th consecutive time a season ago, i decided to go for a better, higher result than at previous competitions - 6th, 7th place is ok for a small and young nation , but it is far from spectatular. So, i decided to make an (too)optimistic goal to reach - top four in our qualification group.
But why did i decide to go for it that season?
Why not one circle earlier?
Because i got some great midfielders to play with that time - when I say great, keep in mind that this is a small nation and that most of those "great" players were pulled low passable or inadequate at age 17 years and 30 days.. So, those players would not be even close to consideration in our opponents countries.
Last season, i was completely without a wing player; the ONLY one i had was magnificient without any secondary skills..
So you see, that i didnt have a lot of players to play with; so we mostly played with central attack in mind.

I also decided to start thinking a little bit different about the matches and tactical decisions than i did in past;
- I decided that i will not care how the opponent might play - i will care how to make my team the best possible
- I learnt that if Benin could do it last season, Brunei can do it this season as well and qualify.
- I decided to try and win a midfield in all games - i often played with 4 or even 5 IMs..
- I decided to try and make as much PIC deals as possible, so i was able to play normal all other important matches
- I decided not to MOTS throught all the "tournament" - That was the most important decision if you ask me. That way, i got a chance to play NORMAL througt all the second round, with a very high TS (delirious and higher)

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So, my optimism grew even higher when i saw our qualification group;

1. Suomi
2. Makedonija
3. Bolivia
4. Bosna in Hercegovina
5. Azerbaycan
6. Brunei
7. Bangladesh
8. Nippon

I was happy with the group, because there was one strong favourite (Suomi), but others were quite tied together in a fight for a second place - Maybe Makedonija had some advantage with their experienced team(their NT is farming players for U20).

I decided to try and get as much points as possible in the first half of the qualifications and force some nations to "retire" from competing for a place among top 4, and get an easier match next round. That panned out, but the team that rebuilded and "gave" us three points was rather unexpected. But more about that soon.
So I called in 6 players, that were able to play only the first half of qualifications; 4 of them were midfielders, which gave us a little advantage right where we needed it in the first matches.

Lets look at our matches;

@ Bolivia
(234627280)
1:1
Normal, PC

First match was played in Bolivia. They were strong favourites and i knew that. I thought that they would play something conventional and win a midfield. I didnt have the players to play the pressing well(i didnt play ith throught all qualifications a lot), so i decided to risk with Playing creatively,as i had very nice spetialities on my players.
We shockingly won a midfield and got a 1:1 draw.. I was very happy with a succesfull start of qualification, but i knew, that every match will be very tought for us.

Azerbaycan
(234627283)
Normal
AIM

That was one hell of a match. Azerbaycan had very strong midfield as well as central defence.. So, i knew that i wont be able to win it playing normal, and I had to decide for something i dont like - I made their coach think that i will play AOW.. I was helped by a Slovenian user, who told Azerbaycani coach that he doesnt like me and that he would like to hurt me as he knows how i am going to play..
Azerbaycani coach prepared for my AOW, but i played AIM:)
HT God revenged for my "mind games" and my best midfielder got a red card. We won anyway, but the result 3:0 was too much

Suomi
(234627286)
PIC
Pressing

That was, for me one of the unwinable matches; Suomi had better TS, much better players, they were also hurt by a bad start in first two matches. I only wanted not to get too much goals and lose confiedence and get a lineouop experience boost, as i only played with 4 IMs till now, so i played with two WTMs and 3 IMs..
But the match panned out great. The Suomi coach did some strange experiments with 253 and we won with 2:1 with goals in 82nd are 83rd minute.. What a great finish
After this match we had 7 points and were first in the group.. Unforgetable!!

@Makedonija (PIC deal)
(234627291)
PIC
Normal

Again a hard match. We lost it - Makedonija was just far superior, they played at home, we PICed, got a red card on a midfielder(again:/).
Makedonija undoubtely deserved a win.

@ Bosna in Hercegovina (PIC deal)
(234627295)
PIC
AIM

That was a decisive match if you ask me; we needed at least a point from away game at Bosna, which was in trouble and was even more dangerous because of that. I tried to win a midfield, but so did their coach, merlin.
After scoring goals we closed ourselves in 451, so it was really hard to score for Bosnians.. So we won, luckilly but still - win is a win:)

Bangladesh (PIC deal)
(234627299)
PIC
Normal

That was the easiest match of the qualifications; we played at home, had much better TS, we had a pic deal, so i knew i wont be MOTSed (Cumos, Bangladeshi coach is a great person) and better players.. They decided to try pressing against us, but i wasnt nervous about it.. They scored a quick goal, but then we finished the game as it was supposed from us and won ; 5:1
We also boosted out lineoup experience in that match

Nippon
(234627304)
Normal
Normal

I had a feeling, that this match wont be as easy as the previous one..
Both had high TS, but we lost some key players due to too high age..
So i decided to play normal and i thought, that that would secure our easy win. But i was wrong.. They played with 5 midfielders and got a midfield battle.. But HT God helped us with three penalties!! Three penalties in one match; that is great:)
Our not so SP skilled SP taker shot all of them in the net:)
Just great!

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That was the half way throught qualifications. We were first in group, with a very very high TS ; Paradise on Earth
That was the first time i thought we can reach the world championships/be in the top 2 in a group.
But that was also a time when problems started for our small team; 6 key crucial players became too old to play matches for u20, we had problems with injuries/form of others; i was in a strange feeling - mix of strong optimism and a strong pesimism :) I was a realist; I knew that a top 4 result would be great for us and that only a miracle can bring us to world championships; That way i wasnt under a big pressure.

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The second half of matches started with us meeting Bolivia again, but this time with higher TS and playing at home

Bolivia
2:1
(234627308)
Normal
AIM

" We need to win this one if we want to qualify" was flowing througt my brain that friday. I knew that we can win at midfield, and that we have decent strickers which will get us at least a goal or two.
The Bolivian coach decided for CA. I dont line to play CA; it is quite a desperation choice usually. We won that match far and square 2:1 and were still first in the group. The same time we won that match, the Suomi coach decided to rebuild his U20; That meant a much easier game for us; another 3 points, as his TS was all the way down in Earths core..

@Azerbaycan
1:2
(234627310)
Normal
Pressing

Before that match everybody was talking that we were a clean cut favourites here. But i didnt thougth that way; They played at home, they had as high TS as anybody, we had big problems with lack of quality players and most of all, their coach was eager to revenge me for that little trick i made when we first met. So i decided for pressing with closed lineoup, as i expected a MOTS - suicide from him. He didnt MOTS, but he still beat us at midfield. We were very very lucky again with a penalty.. Thank you referee!!

@ Suomi
(234627313)
1:3
PIC
Normal

I was very happy that they decided to rebuild, as they would be very hard to beat at their stadium.
I needed to boost lineoup EXP a little, I got EXP to some younger players, i PICed.. A good game for us, with a very nice win ofcourse;)

Makedonija (PIC deal)
(234627318)
4:1
PIC
AIM

That was another d-day for me. I would be happy with a point i said before a match. But their coach didnt even try to win, so we got an easy 4:1 win. We were leading the group 9 points ahead of third Bolivia at that point; Everybody was singing about qualifying, but i was still standing on the solid floor. I knew that our team was very weak at that moment, as we lost a lot of players to age.. We lost another two after that match - disaster..
I knew that the following matches will be very very hard!

Bosna
(234627322)
1:3
Normal
Normal

That was an expected defeat for me.. Bosnian team was finishing strong, as they finnaly found their "idea" how to play.
Not much to say here - they were a lot stronger

@ Bangladesh
(234627328)
3:1
Normal
Normal

That was a defeat i was afraid of. Bangladesh had a very nice team, better ts, a good coach and a home ground.. We, again were just too weak to do anything, as we didnt have enough players to fight..
Congratulations to Bangladesh

And here comes the last, decisive match.
Before the match, we were 2nd in the group, with the same number of points as Makedonija, just with a little worse Goal difference.
We were 3 points and 5 goals ahead of Bolivia on 3rd spot.
Our last match was against Nippon, at their home ground; that is why i was a little bit afraid of this match. It would be such a big shame if we would lose our world cup spot in the last match.

@ Nippon
(234627333)
0:2
MOTS
Normal

The last qualification game is always played with MOTS - always!
I was, as said earlier, afraid of that game, so i decided to win a midfield with as much % difference as possible, so i played with 4 IM.
We won a nice game !

We qualifyed to world cup!! Yeaa...

We were second in the group, with the same number of points as Makedonija and 6 points ahead of Bolivia, which lost its last match against strong Bosna

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Our world cup group is very strong;

Romania
Lietuva
Ukraine
Brunei

Looks strange, ha;)?

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I would like to say something:
As something may seem impossible, unreachable,.. always think of what U20 Brunei had done. Everything is possible if you are really determined and if you really want it
The Slovenian saying is;
The luck follows the brave
Keep that in mind!!

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I would like to thank everybody who helps in Brunei, every player trainer who helped with his dedication and mostly all the Bruneians, which gave me a chance to lead the miracle

What brought as so far?
- Dedication of people around Brunei
- Good players
- My experience as U20 coach
- Some luck :)


Thank you very much guys!!


Sincerly yours,
jolbe_

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