2023-06-13, 11:41 PM - Word count:
I decided to do a little experiment I was curious about, what if the SSL did have an international tournament at the end of a season. For this little experiment I used the last S9 save file and the players included in that save file.
In that file there were 339 players which were to be divided between 16 teams, so let’s introduce the international teams I have made for this little tournament (in this I have mostly been looking at location+player amount, in some cases I have payed attention to goalies, but there are some teams without a goalie).
Let’s start with the “easy” teams, better called the countries which have enough players to form a national team on their own. Obviously the USA is also among these teams, with a massive 76 players, but they will be mentioned last because of reasons.
1: Team Canada, with 25 players being Canadian, Canada is its own national team consisting of 1 goalie, 7 defenders, 8 midfielders, and 9 forwards. Their average CA of the best 11 (according to FMRTE) is 152.36
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Squall Vercetti
Pierre Houde
Dorian Lexington
2: Team England. Another nation with enough players is England. England has 26 players divided between 3 goalies, 10 defenders, 7 midfielders, and 5 forwards, team England exists of only England. Their average CA of the best 11 players is 140.91
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Gerald Gerrard
Bob Divesinalot
Matt Le Tissier
3: Team Australia. With only 16 players I at first wanted to make them 1 team with the rest of Oceania, eventually I noticed it would be better to have Australia as a stand-alone nation in this competition. Australia has 2 goalies, 3 defenders, 7 midfielders, and 4 forwards to make it a total of 16 player with an average top 11 TPE of 106.45
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Berocka Aloisi
Patrick Carrigan
Liam Ryan
4: Team Germany. With 19 players Germany gets a team of their own. Their 19 players consist of 2 goalies, 6 defenders and midfielders, and 5 forwards. And an average TPE of 125.36 between their best 11 players.
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Michael Müller
Erik Hall
Abdoulaye Camavinga
These 4 teams (and the USA) are the nations with enough players to have their own teams. Next up are the more logical combination teams (so it doesn’t include most of the European combination teams because those got a bit strange).
5: Team Americas: This is a combined team of all countries in the American continent not including the USA and Canada. All these other nations combined. This team consists of 22 players, being divided between 9 defenders, 8 midfielders, and 5 forwards. For the goalie this team will have to use a grayed out goalie, these players did prove to be pretty decent in this tournament mode, as some teams even elected to use gray players over actual players, I am gonna try to fix this next time. The average TPE of this team is 140.91
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Hun Possible
Donna Rumma
Sydney Ramirez
6: Team Africa: This is a combined team of all countries in Africa, the plan at first was to do a Africa-Asia combined team, but as it became difficult to make 16 teams, I decided to make Africa and Asia 2 independent teams. Team Africa has 1 goalie, 4 defenders, 5 midfielders, and 6 forwards. Team Africa has an average TPE of 155.36
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Spack Jarrow
Mikko Rashford
Kofi Anshah
7: Team British Isles, is a team containing all nations in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland excluding England which has their own team. This team contains 22 players, containing 8 defenders, 5 midfielders, and 9 forwards. Which does indeed create the same problem with the goalies being grayed-out players. This team has an average TPE on their top 11 players of 147.45
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Ask Jeeves
Hol LeDiver
Eirlys Snooks
8: Team Scandinavia. Team Scandinavia is a team consisting of all nations in Scandinavia. This team has a total of 23 players, consisting of 2 goalies, 11 defenders, 8 midfielders, and 2 forwards. Team Scandinavia has a total of 167.72 CA.
Henrik Lind
Helena Söderberg
Alexandra Gunnarsson
9: Team Italy-Switzerland: Team Italy-Switzerland is a combination of all italian, and swiss players. That makes this team have a total of 21 players, consisting of 1 goalies, 6 defenders and midfielders, and 8 forwards. The average CA of this team is 143.73
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Roberto Scarpetta
Alessio Calvatore
Coffee Biscuit
10: Team Asia-Oceania: Team Asia-Oceania came to be after needing some reshuffles because of a player shortage in some of the teams, and thus needing some more teams. At first the plan was to have Africa-Asia be 1 team and Australia-Oceania (so basically just Oceania) as a 2nd team, but after the Africa-Asia split we got 3 teams in Africa, Australia, and Asia-Oceania. Asia-Oceania thus exists of all asian nations, and all oceanic nations outside of Australia. This makes the team have 17 players, consisting of 4 goalies, 3 defenders, 9 midfielders, and 1 forward. The team has an average CA of 138.00
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Liang Kuai
Shion Okamoto
Vui Kemoeatu
Following these teams are the stranger grouped up nations in Europe, there has been a lot of shuffling to get these 3 teams, so some combinations are indeed a bit weird.
11: Team Western-Europe. At first it was a union between Iberia, France, and the Benelux. Eventually because of the team problems explained earlier it became a France, Benelux and San Marino team. This last one was to get a goalie into this team which eventually wasn’t needed because of the grayed-out players problem. This team consists of 19 players, having 1 goalie, 6 defenders, 6 midfielders, and 6 forwards. Western Europe has an CA average in their best 11 players of 166.91
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Emilliano-Yoichi Isagi
Zinedine Gintonic
Edwin van der Sloth
12: Team Southern Europe: Yes, this is a strange team. It started as a Balkan+A few surrounding nations team, but after reshuffling it became a team of the balkan+Greece+Slovenia+Iberia. The team has a total of 18 players, having 2 goalies, 6 defenders, 3 midfielders, and 7 forwards. The average CA of the team is 143.45
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Budget Busquets
Franco Torres
Milan Horvat
13: Team Eastern Europe: This was the team that was one of the 2 big reasons to do the big reshuffle spoken about earlier, as this team had 12 players 4 of which were goalies. Now the team consists of the nations of Czechia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and Romania having a combined 17 players, consisting of 2 goalies, 3 defenders, 5 midfielders, and 7 forwards. The average CA of the squad is 126.18
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Tiki Taka
Elmis The Heretic
Jay Bryzski
Now onto the USA based teams. The reason for keeping this one until last is that instead of making it 1 team, or combining nations to make 1 team, I decided to split the USA into 3 different teams. This is just because of how gigantic the team would have otherwise been. For this split I decided on a split along in-game age in Football Manager.
14: USA (over 23): This is the main USA team which consists of all players the save file saw at 24 years old or older. This caused the team to have 23 players, with them having 3 goalies, 8 defenders, 7 midfielders, and 5 forwards. The CA of this team is 163.18
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Mike Rup
George Costanza
Powdered ToastMan
15: USA U23: This is the USA team for players with an in save file age of 22 and 23. Even only using 2 years gave this team 26 players, having 3 goalies, 9 defenders, 7 midfielders, and 7 forwards. The average CA of this team is 144.45
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Wesley Stains
Adam Knight
Matthew Mayhem
16: USA U21: This is the USA team for all players 21 and younger in the save file. This gave the team 28 players, consisting of 2 goalies, 8 defenders, 10 midfielders, and 8 forwards. The team had an CA score of 118.36
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Pork Tenderloin
Henry Andrews
Heather Bull
So now we have all 16 teams, if I ever do this again I do hope to find nicer dividers for Europe, as even the current ones have some strangities. So to quickly summarize the league will have the following teams (in order of CA):
16: Team Australia - 106.45
15: Team USA U21 - 118.36
14: Team Germany - 125.36
13: Team Eastern-Europe - 126.18
12: Team Asia-Oceania - 138.00
11: Team England - 140.91
10: Team Americas - 140.91 (Slightly higher total average CA)
9: Team Italy-Switzerland - 143.72
8: Team Southern-Europe - 143.45
7: Team USA U23 - 144.45
6: Team British Isles - 147.45
5: Team Canada - 152.36
4: Team Africa - 155.36
3: Team USA - 163.18
2: Team Western Europe - 166.91
1: Team Scandinavia - 167.72
The first noticeable things are that most of the single-country nations (not looking at you USA) do lack behind from the nation groups. Also the USA would have been the clear favorite at 174.18 had I decided to use the best USA players for dividing, or even just combined all of the USA in 1 team, instead of dividing by age.
Lastly, let's talk about the format of the tournament. It has the same format as the SSL Cup with 4 groups of 4, top 2 get through. Followed by knock-outs played over 2 legs, except for the final which will be 1 match. One problem I did notice at the end was that the groups got divided by order I input the teams, and thus by alphabetical order, instead of randomly. Did this make for example all 3 USA teams be in the same group.
That concludes this format and teams article. Next week there will be an article about either the group phase, or the cup as a whole (depends how big the eventual text ends up being).
In that file there were 339 players which were to be divided between 16 teams, so let’s introduce the international teams I have made for this little tournament (in this I have mostly been looking at location+player amount, in some cases I have payed attention to goalies, but there are some teams without a goalie).
Let’s start with the “easy” teams, better called the countries which have enough players to form a national team on their own. Obviously the USA is also among these teams, with a massive 76 players, but they will be mentioned last because of reasons.
1: Team Canada, with 25 players being Canadian, Canada is its own national team consisting of 1 goalie, 7 defenders, 8 midfielders, and 9 forwards. Their average CA of the best 11 (according to FMRTE) is 152.36
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Squall Vercetti
Pierre Houde
Dorian Lexington
2: Team England. Another nation with enough players is England. England has 26 players divided between 3 goalies, 10 defenders, 7 midfielders, and 5 forwards, team England exists of only England. Their average CA of the best 11 players is 140.91
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Gerald Gerrard
Bob Divesinalot
Matt Le Tissier
3: Team Australia. With only 16 players I at first wanted to make them 1 team with the rest of Oceania, eventually I noticed it would be better to have Australia as a stand-alone nation in this competition. Australia has 2 goalies, 3 defenders, 7 midfielders, and 4 forwards to make it a total of 16 player with an average top 11 TPE of 106.45
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Berocka Aloisi
Patrick Carrigan
Liam Ryan
4: Team Germany. With 19 players Germany gets a team of their own. Their 19 players consist of 2 goalies, 6 defenders and midfielders, and 5 forwards. And an average TPE of 125.36 between their best 11 players.
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Michael Müller
Erik Hall
Abdoulaye Camavinga
These 4 teams (and the USA) are the nations with enough players to have their own teams. Next up are the more logical combination teams (so it doesn’t include most of the European combination teams because those got a bit strange).
5: Team Americas: This is a combined team of all countries in the American continent not including the USA and Canada. All these other nations combined. This team consists of 22 players, being divided between 9 defenders, 8 midfielders, and 5 forwards. For the goalie this team will have to use a grayed out goalie, these players did prove to be pretty decent in this tournament mode, as some teams even elected to use gray players over actual players, I am gonna try to fix this next time. The average TPE of this team is 140.91
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Hun Possible
Donna Rumma
Sydney Ramirez
6: Team Africa: This is a combined team of all countries in Africa, the plan at first was to do a Africa-Asia combined team, but as it became difficult to make 16 teams, I decided to make Africa and Asia 2 independent teams. Team Africa has 1 goalie, 4 defenders, 5 midfielders, and 6 forwards. Team Africa has an average TPE of 155.36
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Spack Jarrow
Mikko Rashford
Kofi Anshah
7: Team British Isles, is a team containing all nations in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland excluding England which has their own team. This team contains 22 players, containing 8 defenders, 5 midfielders, and 9 forwards. Which does indeed create the same problem with the goalies being grayed-out players. This team has an average TPE on their top 11 players of 147.45
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Ask Jeeves
Hol LeDiver
Eirlys Snooks
8: Team Scandinavia. Team Scandinavia is a team consisting of all nations in Scandinavia. This team has a total of 23 players, consisting of 2 goalies, 11 defenders, 8 midfielders, and 2 forwards. Team Scandinavia has a total of 167.72 CA.
Henrik Lind
Helena Söderberg
Alexandra Gunnarsson
9: Team Italy-Switzerland: Team Italy-Switzerland is a combination of all italian, and swiss players. That makes this team have a total of 21 players, consisting of 1 goalies, 6 defenders and midfielders, and 8 forwards. The average CA of this team is 143.73
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Roberto Scarpetta
Alessio Calvatore
Coffee Biscuit
10: Team Asia-Oceania: Team Asia-Oceania came to be after needing some reshuffles because of a player shortage in some of the teams, and thus needing some more teams. At first the plan was to have Africa-Asia be 1 team and Australia-Oceania (so basically just Oceania) as a 2nd team, but after the Africa-Asia split we got 3 teams in Africa, Australia, and Asia-Oceania. Asia-Oceania thus exists of all asian nations, and all oceanic nations outside of Australia. This makes the team have 17 players, consisting of 4 goalies, 3 defenders, 9 midfielders, and 1 forward. The team has an average CA of 138.00
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Liang Kuai
Shion Okamoto
Vui Kemoeatu
Following these teams are the stranger grouped up nations in Europe, there has been a lot of shuffling to get these 3 teams, so some combinations are indeed a bit weird.
11: Team Western-Europe. At first it was a union between Iberia, France, and the Benelux. Eventually because of the team problems explained earlier it became a France, Benelux and San Marino team. This last one was to get a goalie into this team which eventually wasn’t needed because of the grayed-out players problem. This team consists of 19 players, having 1 goalie, 6 defenders, 6 midfielders, and 6 forwards. Western Europe has an CA average in their best 11 players of 166.91
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Emilliano-Yoichi Isagi
Zinedine Gintonic
Edwin van der Sloth
12: Team Southern Europe: Yes, this is a strange team. It started as a Balkan+A few surrounding nations team, but after reshuffling it became a team of the balkan+Greece+Slovenia+Iberia. The team has a total of 18 players, having 2 goalies, 6 defenders, 3 midfielders, and 7 forwards. The average CA of the team is 143.45
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Budget Busquets
Franco Torres
Milan Horvat
13: Team Eastern Europe: This was the team that was one of the 2 big reasons to do the big reshuffle spoken about earlier, as this team had 12 players 4 of which were goalies. Now the team consists of the nations of Czechia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and Romania having a combined 17 players, consisting of 2 goalies, 3 defenders, 5 midfielders, and 7 forwards. The average CA of the squad is 126.18
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Tiki Taka
Elmis The Heretic
Jay Bryzski
Now onto the USA based teams. The reason for keeping this one until last is that instead of making it 1 team, or combining nations to make 1 team, I decided to split the USA into 3 different teams. This is just because of how gigantic the team would have otherwise been. For this split I decided on a split along in-game age in Football Manager.
14: USA (over 23): This is the main USA team which consists of all players the save file saw at 24 years old or older. This caused the team to have 23 players, with them having 3 goalies, 8 defenders, 7 midfielders, and 5 forwards. The CA of this team is 163.18
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Mike Rup
George Costanza
Powdered ToastMan
15: USA U23: This is the USA team for players with an in save file age of 22 and 23. Even only using 2 years gave this team 26 players, having 3 goalies, 9 defenders, 7 midfielders, and 7 forwards. The average CA of this team is 144.45
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Wesley Stains
Adam Knight
Matthew Mayhem
16: USA U21: This is the USA team for all players 21 and younger in the save file. This gave the team 28 players, consisting of 2 goalies, 8 defenders, 10 midfielders, and 8 forwards. The team had an CA score of 118.36
The top 3 players (CA) are:
Pork Tenderloin
Henry Andrews
Heather Bull
So now we have all 16 teams, if I ever do this again I do hope to find nicer dividers for Europe, as even the current ones have some strangities. So to quickly summarize the league will have the following teams (in order of CA):
16: Team Australia - 106.45
15: Team USA U21 - 118.36
14: Team Germany - 125.36
13: Team Eastern-Europe - 126.18
12: Team Asia-Oceania - 138.00
11: Team England - 140.91
10: Team Americas - 140.91 (Slightly higher total average CA)
9: Team Italy-Switzerland - 143.72
8: Team Southern-Europe - 143.45
7: Team USA U23 - 144.45
6: Team British Isles - 147.45
5: Team Canada - 152.36
4: Team Africa - 155.36
3: Team USA - 163.18
2: Team Western Europe - 166.91
1: Team Scandinavia - 167.72
The first noticeable things are that most of the single-country nations (not looking at you USA) do lack behind from the nation groups. Also the USA would have been the clear favorite at 174.18 had I decided to use the best USA players for dividing, or even just combined all of the USA in 1 team, instead of dividing by age.
Lastly, let's talk about the format of the tournament. It has the same format as the SSL Cup with 4 groups of 4, top 2 get through. Followed by knock-outs played over 2 legs, except for the final which will be 1 match. One problem I did notice at the end was that the groups got divided by order I input the teams, and thus by alphabetical order, instead of randomly. Did this make for example all 3 USA teams be in the same group.
That concludes this format and teams article. Next week there will be an article about either the group phase, or the cup as a whole (depends how big the eventual text ends up being).
![[Image: 0HMDG8L.png]](https://i.imgur.com/0HMDG8L.png)
