The Balloon Boys

[Juventino]

Club Atlético Huracán​

How Jorge Newbery's air balloon continues to inspire​

It's the year 1903. While kicking around rocks one day, a bunch of bored boys from the Nueva Pompeya neighbourhood in Buenos Aires decide their city needs yet another football club. They call their club "Verde Esperanza y Nunca Pierde", which is quite a long name and God knows what it means. They later admitted they were just trying to be interesting. Later that day, they go to a stationary store to get a rubber stamp, which is what you do when you start a football team apparently. The owner of this store says the name for their club is too long for a rubber stamp. It would look silly and they ought to shorten it up. The boys mock the man, tell him his wife is fat and throw a rock through his window. But then their eyes fall on a calender in the store which reads the word: ''Huracán'', accompanied by the most glorious image they had ever seen. This word and image captured their imagination.

Meanwhile, aviation-pioneer Jorge Newbery is wooing all the damsels and wowing all the young lads in Argentina with his hot air balloon, ''El Huracán''. This balloon could travel THREE countries. That's right, three. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. This man was a hero. The Nueva Pompeya boys all had a poster of him and his glorious balloon in their bedrooms. Jorge inspired them to follow up on their own dreams. They decide to write him a letter and ask him if they could use his balloon as the logo for their newly founded football team inspired by it. A few weeks later, a letter arrives in the mail.

''I give my most complete approval to the request, hoping that the team will honor the balloon that crossed three countries (Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil) in a unique trip. Signed, Señor Jorge. P.S. Tell your mothers they're welcome for a flight any time.''

The boys are stunned. They call their mothers. Their mothers faint. They call their fathers. They give their sons a tap on the shoulder. The iconic image of Club Atlético Huracán is born.

Recently I've been having great fun playing with Huracán on FM. I know I started some other threads that didn't quite work out, but I'm already quite far in the second season. It's going to be a great one, I can feel it.

I'm looking to win my first Copa Libertadores ever and have some great triumps and legends in the making on the way! And of course I'll try to honor the legacy of Jorge Newbery and his hot air balloon, whom continues to inspire generations.

A summary of the first season in the Second Division will follow.


SEASONS

Primera División
2011-2012 - Primera B Nacional: 3rd - Won Promotion Play-Offs vs. Unión de Santa Fe
2012 Apertura: 3rd
2013 Clausura: 13th
2013 Apertura: 1st
2014 Clausura: 2nd
2014 Apertura: 2nd

Copa Argentina
2011-2012: Lost in Semi-Finals vs. San Lorenzo de Almagro
2012-2013: Lost in Sixth Round vs. Club Almirante Brown
2013-2014: Winners vs. Vélez Sarsfield

Copa Libertadores
2014: Lost in Group Stage

Copa Sudamericana
2013: Lost in Second Preliminary Round vs. Boca Juniors
2014: Lost in Semi-Finals vs. Peñarol

PALMARES

2013 Apertura & 2014 Copa Argentina

Let's get the ball rolling.



(This is the actual Huracán stadium from the movie ''El secreto de sus ojos''.)

​

 

[Juventino]

2011-2012
Primera B Nacional

The Huracán squad starts out as one of the strongest in the Primera B. Only River Plate could be considered significantly stronger, starring Juventus legend David Trezeguet. I decided to immediately invest money in talent. Two of those talents went on to have an immediate impact: the strong central defender Gaston Sauro signed from Boca Juniors and Lucas Villafanez signed from Independiente.

Another prospect already present at the club is defensive/ central midfielder Rodrigo Battaglia. He could become a Marchisio-type box-to-box player, but he has to improve his mental attributes especially.

The established stars and veterans of this team are veteran striker Javier Campora and midfielder/all-round attacker Mauro Milano. Those are the guys that need to carry this team to consistent results.

Because I loved my strikers and the addition of Villafanez, I decided to go with a very offensive 4-2-4. It worked out great. I recorded win after win in the first half of the season and we became Winter Champions. Unfortunately we crumbled at the start of the second half of the season. Rosario Central and River Plate kept up with us the entire way and never looked back after taking advantage of our crumbled points. It got close at the end, but I finished 3rd. Rosario Central and River Plate won immediate promotion. I did beat River Plate in both encounters with them: 3-0 at home and an epic 4-3 away.

League Table:

Because I finished third, I had play First Division side Union for promotion. It didn't prove to be that difficult.

Promotion Playoffs:

Pow-pow. Promotion. The second leg of the Play-Offs featured some new signings that I will introduce during next season. They arrived right in time to have an impact on this encounter.


Copa Argentina:

Meanwhile, I also had a great run in the Copa Argentina, albeit with some penalty luck. Eventually I lost to our biggest rivals San Lorenzo in the Semi-Finals in a close encounter. It was not to be.

Javier Campora finished as the season's top scorer with 37 goals, an absolute animal. This guy scores the most spectacular goals, he especially loves chipping the goalkeeper Messi-style. He once even scored an overhead kick from a corner, but I forgot which game that was to upload it. In any case we'll see him back next season on Argentina's highest stage.

 

[Juventino]

2012
Apertura

During last season, I was already able to contract a few talents from abroad. Chilean bomber Felipe Mora signs from Audax Italiano, while he was joined by three other Chilean talents: Igor Lichnovsky, Bryan Rabello and Andres Robles. For now, only Felipe Mora and Bryan Rabello will be part of our first team. Because of Mora's positive impact the end of last season and his promising skillset which includes great passing, Mora will partner Campora in attack.

Other additions include Hugo Nervo, whom will partner Gaston Sauro in the center of defence, and former Juventus player Marcelo Estigarribia, an instant star for this side. I also signed Daniel Villalva and Lucas Ocampos from River and Leandro Paredes from Boca Juniors. Yes, I play with a sugar daddy because I want this side to eventually challenge any European elite team. It's fun.

I'm still playing a 4-2-4, but I switched to a classic FM tactical set-up inspired by one I saw on another forum. It suits my team perfectly and it's my preferred formation right now. The downside is that it's very risky to play like this away from home and it cost me here and there. We spent matchday 9 to about 13 in 1st place. Unfortunately we then lost the decisive game vs. Boca away heavily and were unable to recover. Still, finishing 3rd is an excellent result in our first season back in the First Division.

Results:

League Table - Apertura 2012:

Jose Campora is currently top scorer with 21 goals in only 19 games. Unfortunately he's already 33 years old and this may be his last season, even more so to make way for a very special player that I signed from Rosario Central ahead of the Clausura. A player that could be (and probably will be) a top 5 striker in the world one day: Jorge Canelo. Let's see what kind of impact he can make in the Clausura.

 

[Juventino]

By the way, I noticed there's a club called Guillermo Brown in Argentina. I just imagine this to be the founder and president of this club:

The coach of this team? Guillermo. Goalkeepers coach? Guillermo. Physio? Guillermo. Groundsman? Guillermo. Motherf*cking Guillermo Brown. All you suckers gather 'round, there's a new club in town: Guillermo Brown, Guillermo Brown!

 

[Filipower]

*grabs popcorn*

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Canelo looks AMAZING

 

[Filipower]

His composure is a bit off. He's 17 though, his mentals might explode yet.

 

[Back Door Skip]

 

[ShiftyPowers]

His composure is a bit off. He's 17 though, his mentals might explode yet.

Yeah, and you can specifically train composure too. It'll hit 15 right about when Barcelona buys him.

 

[Juventino]

2013
Clausura

Disaster mode. Estigarribia broke his leg and would miss the entire Clausura, and Battaglia demanded a transfer. Because I was in a bad mood, I gave the motherf*cker what he wanted and sent him on a ship to Sicily (Catania to be more precise). What I didn't know is that you can only sign 2 players in the transfer window between the Apertura and Clausura, and I spent those on Canelo and another youngster. Selling Battaglia basically f*cked up the entire balance of my team in any formation; there was no one left that could run and defend. That, and the youngsters had a bad season. Felipe Mora didn't do anything worthwhile on a consistent basis and Campora stopped scoring. Canelo could not make an impact either, apart from scoring the winning goal vs. River Plate. I finished 13th.

I was also knocked out in the 6th round of the Copa Argentina on penalties to Club Almirante Brown. It was just very, very disappointing. This season may have been my worst management job in a while.

League Table - Clausura 2013:

This is the overall league table, which I guess means no Copa Libertadores next year.

Overall League Table:

Jose Campora did finish as the season's topscorer (Apertura and Clausura combined) with 27 goals. 20 of those were in the Apertura. I still haven't decided whether to keep him. He's 32 now and only getting worse. On the other hand he's more reliable right now than any of the youngsters. Especially Felipe Mora was very disappointing... Tough decisions!


During the season I did get busy on the transfer market for the future. Carreras is one of the best midfield prospects in the entire game. Soon nobody in South America will talk about Ganso and Neymar anymore, but about Carreras and Canelo. These are some of the players that will arrive now:

And these will arrive in two years. Especially Augusto is someone I can't wait for. He may form the Copa Libertadores winning midfield tandem with Carreras.

Because there are only 4 foreigners allowed in Argentina there will be a ''survival of the fittest'' type situation with the foreigners. I have an idea which foreigners will make it...

 

[Juventino]

The progress of Mora and Canelo (and Londono could be great third option). This is only a couple of months' progress and all of Canelo's attributes are improving steadily. He's going to be epic.

Barcelona can have them after we beat them in the FIFA Club World Cup.

 

[Juventino]

What kind of formation would you guys recommend to see Carreras, Mora, Canelo and possibly Londondo thrive? Diamond? What roles would you give them? Carreras is an attacking midfielder, so I'd prefer to play him there instead of CM. It would also be a formation that will eventually suit Augusto, but I'm not sure Pizarro would be a great DM in that system now. It's just that I have little experience with the 4-4-2 Diamond, I always played that sh*t flat.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Yeah that probably makes the most sense, but it doesn't look like Carreras is quite ready. A 4-4-2 might be better at this point.

 

[Back Door Skip]

I concur with 4-4-2, then maybe if one of the strikers is ineffective you can sub in your AMC and play 4-4-1-1.


Oh and Guido.

Too bad he shows no pic, I totally picture a full blown spray-on tan, metrosexual Italian.

 

[Juventino]

2013
Apertura

(I'm not even a Star Wars fan.)​

Already posted the most important additions to the team. Good ol' Guido proved to be a perfect addition to this team of youngsters (and he's still pretty young himself). I went with a 4-4-2, but I did practice the 4-4-2 Diamond in training and some easy matches. Carreras will have to become the star of this team eventually, but he didn't get a lot of playing time in the '13 Apertura.

Unfortunately I lost pretty heavily in my first Copa Sudamericana appearance. After the first leg it was pretty much over... Fortunately our next continental cup experience will be a step higher: Copa Libertadores.


Results:

... Champions on the last matchday! Boca drew at home vs. Velez while I f*cking destroyed Union. Epic matchday. I have a feeling it will only get better from here.

Felipe Mora and Jorge Canelo really improved their game and goal scoring this Apertura. Young Felipe became Alexis Sanchez's striking partner for the Chilean national team scoring 12 goals for Huracan, while Jorge Canelo scored 9. So proud of young Jorge. And he only just turned 18. Estigarribia became top assister with 12.

All of my key players are only around 20 and they're already becoming champions. Can't wait until the Brazilians arrive. This can be an AMAZING team by any standard.

Oh, Jorge, you want a wage rise and a Ferrari? Oh, a Ferrari for each member of your family?

Yes, yes you can.

 

[Juventino]

Something strange happened in my game. There's this small club in Argentina named Sportivo Belgrano, Belgrano's little brother. They are playing in the Second Division. All of a sudden I got about 20 news messages about signings they are making... All Colombians, even though there's a limit of 4 foreigners.

There are more Colombians in their Reserves, plus there are about 10 more pending transfers of Colombians that are out of contract that will join them in June. What could be the deal here? Very odd.


Anyway, Estigarribia made it into the South American team of the year. Thought that was nice.

 

[Juventino]

Can't get into FM14 at all, so I decided to pick this one up again. After three seasons at Huracan I assembled a pretty great young team with potentially world elite talents, so why not? It's the closest I am to finally winning my first ever Copa Libertadores.

After three seasons I won the 2013 Apertura title and the 13-14 Copa Argentina. My team couldn't do anything yet on the continental stage, crashing out in the '13 Copa Sudamericana and '14 Libertadores group stage. The average age of my team is around 20, it isn't very strange. I'm looking to add some real Argentinian assholes to my 2014-2015 roster to finally have some success in the Copa Sudamericana. I need to look into how qualification works again… I guess I'm not in the Copa Libertadores this season, despite finishing 1st in the Apertura and 2nd in the Clausura last season.

The first post features my progress with Huracan up until 2014-2015.

 

[yoyo913]

Are they called the Balloon Boys because they like to smuggle cocaine in their ass?


And I'll be sharing my Argentinian exploits soon! The player quality is quite good.

 

[Juventino]

The story of the Balloon Boys is in the first post, man.

Yeah, I already have some European top sides interested in some of my players. The regens are extremely good which makes the game interesting especially down the line.

 

[yoyo913]

I was just trying to be funny.

When I tried to sell some of my back-ups I noticed they were valued around 2 mil, which is quite nice. Hopefully someone buys them now.