Last year, I did a 15 years long save with PSV, making them into a giant, threatening for the CL title every year, mass traficking wonderkids to the point of reaching 1.3 billions in transfer budget (that's when the game stops counting, you cannot have more than that btw). It was fun but this year I wanted something different.
So I set my mind on trying an Hexagon Challenge. For those of you who might not know, it is winning the 6 prime continental competitions, the Champions League of every continent. I will try to do it only with clubs who have never won the competition before, but we'll see how that turns out. So I downloaded Timo's database on the workshop (I started my save a while ago so sadly I do not have all the leagues he's done).
I packed my bag and went to Oceania to start my journey. Most people who do this challenge start unemployed, but one of my childhood heroes is actually Tahitian and went back home to play after his professional carreer in France. So I chose AS Dragon, out of Tahiti.
AS Dragon
AS Dragon is quite the newcomer on the Tahitian scene, but won the title 3 times in the 2010s (2012, 2013 and 2017). Far far away from the 20 titles of AS Central or even the 10 titles of AS Vénus but they're becoming a force to reckon with. Our goal will be to assert the domination locally and if possible expend it to the continental scene.
Speaking of the continent, the club does not have much of a history there. A few participations, getting out of groups once, only to lose to Fiji's Lautoka in the Quarters in 2018. Tahiti is not one of the best leagues in the continent, NZ of course but also Fiji or New Caledonia are usually better. The Tahitian League is 6th in the rankings.
They finished the 18/19 season in sixth, so that means no CL for our first year as only the top 2 qualifies. We will be able to focus on the League and building our team. Which, at this point, I have no idea how I will do it.
Season 1 - 2019/2020
When I take possession of the team, the first thing I do is check how is how is the guy I'm here for. Well, he's one of my best players, even though he's 39.
Marama Vahirua
We have no transfer budget, and a wage budget of about 4000€/m, with a good chunk available. The first opportunities soon comes, with agents offering up their players. I propose trials to everybody, and end up signing 2 argentinians, way better than anyone else on the team, and that is reflected in their salary. Combined, they account for about 20% of our wages !
Agustin Godoy
Gonzalo Maldonado
Both are on the defensive side of the ball. They may not help us win that much, but we shouldn't lose too much neither.
I set my tactics to a 4-3-2-1 with a DM and wingers, and a possession based playstyle. We do not only want to win, we want to win playing beautiful football.
Our first official game is against one of the best teams in the country, and we fall 2-1 to AS Central in a game we dominated. Our offensive players are bad, there will be a lot more dominant displays that will go unrewarded
Bad start !
We don't wait long for our revenge, as we play them again the next week in the Cup and beat them 1-0.
Overall our season goes well, we don't score much but we don't concede many goals. We're able to perform well, but this day 1 defeat to Central will prove costly as we finish 2nd 1 point behind them. We also win the cup to get the first silverware of my career as well as a qualification to next year's French Cup !
But the most important thing is the qualification to the Oceania Champions League this 2nd place gives us. Onto better things !
19/20 Table
Season 2 - 2020/2021
At this point, my problem is that I have the ball but too few chances and goals. We need talent in that area. So we raid the other Tahitians teams, signing a lot of players on non-contracts and seeing who will work out.
We manage to bring in Dylan Windust, a midfielder from New-Zealand with a few NZ Premier League under his belt a few years ago. His stint will be short though, as NZ will call him back before the season could end.
https://preview.redd.it/trpo0ebrjeg41.jpg?width=1184&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d5b5276bcece0fb94a8ce68c2f0965febde7cc0
But our biggest grab of the summer is undoubtedly Denis Bahic, a bosnian proposed by his agent. As the argentinians, he is miles ahead any of our players. We will use him as a winger, as I deem his finishing too low to play up front
Denis Bahic
Later in the season, we will also bring in a Kazakh left back.
The season starts well, but we're out of the Cup immediately, as we fall to a lower division team after pens. In the French Cup, we draw Auxerre, a Ligue 2 team ! The question is not "will we go through" but rather "how much will we concede". Well, 5 goals it appears, as they take care of us easily 5-0 with 37 shots. (To note, the database is bugged there, my players are all considered foreign and I can't align more than 4 of them, so the game is played with grey players)
In the good new department, I finish 2nd in the French Manager of the Year. Yay !
In the league, everything is going according to plan, we're improving in all departments. We end up scoring 15 goals more than last year (in 18 games !) and winning it all this time.
20/21 Table
In the OCL (or O-League), we draw a not so difficult group (read : no NZ) that we get out of without difficulties
O-League Group - 20/21
Then came the Quarter-Finals and ... we drew Hamilton Wanderers, from New-Zealand. As expected, they proved to be too much for us. Even though we brought a lucky 0-0 back from New-Zealand (they shot 23 times but couldn't score), they beat us 2-0 in Tahiti, and we were now aware of the gap we had to fill. Hamilton went on beating Ba in the semis only to lose to the other new-zealanders of the competition in the Finale.
Season 3 - 2021/2022
Having crossed path with the mighty new-zealanders, we knew we had a lot of work before being competitive. As scouting outside of Tahiti is not an option, we offered a trial to just about every players that had played the last O-League, and signed who could help us.
A first also occured that summer, as someone showed interest in buying one of our players ! Yes, with money ! A club from the Phillippines offer 30k for Bahic.
This is the year our squad became more and more diverse, with the signings of more kazakhs, a maltese and our first brazilian, our best player to date. (the screen is 2 years after he signed but he hasn't progressed much as my facilities are shit)
https://preview.redd.it/lwmhd5pfoeg41.png?width=1390&format=png&auto=webp&s=2c21803cd220c7a52c09a365c5c48af48c81e9e6
As we become better, our location domination becomes greater, and we go undefeated in the league, only conceding a draw to the 2nd place Tefana and we lose in the Cup Semis after pens against AS Vénus.
21/22 Table
The O-League is something else, as this season is a great disappointment. We dominate our first game against Tafea but are incapable to score and even concede a last minute blooter to lose 1-0. From then, we would need to beat Auckland City to qualify. We would not, and would go out in the Group Stages.
O-League Group - 21/22
Season 4 - 2022/2023
This is our year. I can feel it. We do a great mercato. And we're lucky ! The club has been bought and the new board must have been drunk when giving us our budgets. Our wage budget went from 5000€/m to 40000€/m ! We won't spend it all, but basically this means we don't have to be wary of that at all. I can sign all the players I want (since we're paying no one more than 800€/m at this point).
Striker Mohamed Saad joins us as well as CB Dominique Thiam (more on him later). They're great compared to what we have. We are making a leap. Later in the season, we add a great goalkeeper, reinforcing further our defense
But the biggest signing of the year comes in february with Juninho, a young brazilian midfielder. We needed someone able to take control of the midfield and direct play from there, he's perfect for that.
Juninho
In the league, same story as last year. We improve, still concede a draw on the way but are champions comfortably. To note, we cut our goals against by 2. That defense is scary good by tahitian standarts. We also win the Cup.
For some reason (I don't really get why), we also got to play the French Cup despite not winning the Cup the year before. Anyway, we got trashed 10-0 by Brest.
22/23 Table
In the O-League, we start directly against Hamilton. We go toe to toe but concede a late goal and lose 1-0. We still get out of the Groups this time
O-League Group - 22/23
No luck on the draw, as we get Auckland City in the Quarters. Again, two good games, but we end up going out on away goals (0-0 in NZ, 1-1 in Tahiti). We're getting closer, we're almost there. Auckland would go on to win it all that year.
Season 5 - 2023/2024
One last push and we're there. We're still drowning in money so I'm signing a shitload of players, at almost every position. I can't risk a good player passing by me. We get new starters at CM, LW, CB and ST. We break the 1000€/m barrier for a player's wage.
And a first happens. Our CB Dominique Thiam has been called up with Sénégal U20, and apparently that caught the eye of someone. Offers from the Gulf start rolling in. The player is becoming upset, and at some point the money is too good to turn down. We have 90k€ in the bank, we sell Thiam for 220k + 30% on the next sale + a friendly (that will end up earning us 35k€) and he's on his way to Al-Ahli. Following this, we also get offers from the Phillippines for Denis Bahic (who at this point is not a starter anymore) and our backup RB, for 50k + 50% of next sale each. Drowning. In. Money.
On the pitch, we once again miss out on the perfect league season because of a single draw
23/24 Table
We lose in the Cup Semi-finals to Tefana. Who cares. We have bigger fish to fry.
The O-League ! Easy group, we get out with 3 nice wins. It's a formality.
O-League Group - 23/24
In the Quarters, we draw our fellow tahitians AS Central. That sucks, I wish we could've crossed path later, but that's how it is. We discard them without trouble, 5-1 on aggregate.
In the Semis, it's another story. We draw Auckland City. I know my team is good but I'm not too confident. And then, to my utmost surprise, we demolish them 4-1 in Auckland for the first leg. A boring 0-0 at home and we're through to the Finale !
It will be against another NZ club, Canterbury United. They beat Auckland in the NZ League Finale so I'm expecting a good level. It turns out they're not up to the par, and are incapable of creating a chance for themselves. They defend well though, and their keeper is having a good game. We even miss a penalty. 0-0, we go to extra-time. Our striker will finally break the deadlock with a bullet header. We'll hang onto the 1-0 and win the 1st Oceania Champions League in Tahiti's history !
https://preview.redd.it/awkpcbr6xeg41.png?width=1390&format=png&auto=webp&s=faea28d31d7c9e517d6f0479df201d0168181391
The heroes
That's it ! After 5 seasons we've done it !
My contract runs to the end of next season so I'll stay to play the Club World Championship, and then I'll move on to the next continent. Asia or Africa, I'm unsure yet.
I wish I could've put more images but no more than 20 ...
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