The Big Change
Bringing the Story Together
Note: this summary is largely intended to make sure that this blog is synced up with my FM Stories thread. I realized that the two got out of sync in recent weeks, due in large part to me lacking the time to write. Apologies for redundant information!
The Big Change
Things have changed a lot.
It didn’t go well at PanSa, unfortunately. I started to lose the clubhouse quickly, and we went on a small losing streak.
I looked around the world, and found myself with an interesting option to move forward. Naturally, I wanted to stay in Oceania to keep the Hexagon Challenge spirit alive. However, there was an intriguing challenge looming not too far away, one that I simply couldn’t turn down.
Mars FC of Taoyuan, Taiwan, was in last place in the Taiwanese league when I arrived. They weren’t just in last place, actually. They were in last place with only 6 matches to go, in an absolutely desperate situation.
My challenge was to prevent them from being relegated. I had a little bit of money — not enough money to get anybody really impressive (besides, it’s Taiwan: we’re not signing Messi, lol), but enough to do something respectable.
Tactic in hand, I set out to do my best.
Great Results
The results were positive, to say the least.
My first match was against Taichung Futuro, the best team in the league — and, as it turned out, the eventual winners of the league. We were in dead last and were favorites to sink like a rock.
We won, 4-1.
We followed that one up with a 6-3 shellacking of Tainan City.
And then came our first close match - a 3-2 victory over Athletic Club Taiwan.
We had arrived.
Doing it the hard way
Of course, that wasn’t quite enough to keep us afloat.
After a few draws and some bad luck, we wound up finishing the season in 7th place. That meant we weren’t automatically relegated, thereby saving my new job. However, it also meant that we had to play a relegation playoff battle against Ming Chuang University.
We won both legs, though it wasn’t easy. We had two 2-1 victories, two matches that really could have gone either way.
And, well that’s how we did it. I came in as a total unknown, a random coach from American Samoa going out on a little vacation. And now I’ve got a reputation for saving clubs from disaster.
I think we’ll stay in Taiwan for a few seasons before returning to Oceania. It provides a welcome distraction.