Previously on Rio de la Plata, Ángel Bastardo replaced Óscar Tabárez and became Uruguay’s most powerful football manager.

Monday 16 December 2019.  A day etched in my Football Manager history as one to forget.  But I will probably never forget it. Not only is it the birthday of Daniel Gear (my podcasting co-host), it’s also the day I comprehensively lost to the Bolivian National Team in Football Manager 2020 during the 2020 Copa América, jointly hosted by Argentina and Colombia. 

Can you ever come back from the lowest of FM lows? To answer this, read on for the game-by-game happenings on a tournament with no International team training, dangerously low levels of tactical familiarity and an adaptability score of 1 for Ángel Bastardo.

Strap yourselves in for some classic Bastardo-ball…

The Group Stage

Group B

Uruguay (ranked 8th in the World)

Argentina (ranked 10th in the World)

Paraguay (ranked 27th in the World)

Chile (ranked 29th in the World)

Bolivia (ranked 54th in the World)

Qatar B (ranked 98th in the World)

I wrote about my grand plans to adopt my Peñarol tactics with the Uruguayan National Team last time out on the blog. But these things take time, especially in International Management where no form of training exists whatsoever. This was a topic of conversation in Episode XLIII of the GrassNGear podcast and to summarise the discussion: my Uruguayan side would have to play through the tournament and learn as we go.

The signs of a painful tournament were highlighted in our 2-1 comeback win Vs Paraguay, our winner coming from Giorgione De Arrascaeta in a mazy run with less than 10 minutes to go. There’s not much I want to say about Bolivia, probably my worst game of FM20 so far. A Cavani goal ruled out for offside that would have pulled us level at 1-1, a second half sending off for Luca Olaza and then a Bolivian penalty when Martín Cáceres decided to attack the opposition. We sunk against the 54th ranked team in World Football and it was at this point that I had serious doubts about our 2020 Copa América credentials. Bolivia 3-0 Uruguay.

Our third game saw us adopt a 4-4-2 and get back to basics. Less team instructions and Suárez and Cavani upfront together: Uruguay 2-1 Chile.

Qatar B, an invitational side to make up the numbers, were our next opponents. Argentina had just beaten these guys 10-0, but we could only manage 4-0 as I reverted back to the 4-1-4-1 Peñarol tactic. It didn’t matter, Uruguay had qualified for the knockout stages and were one game away from meeting the Football Association’s ambition of reaching the Semi Finals.

However, before we entered the knockouts, we had the small matter of Argentina first. Bastardo’s home nation and last game of the group stage. I decided to match their 4-4-2 and got with a low block. All well laid plans were out of the window though after the 2nd minute…of course I overlooked the most important factor of man-marking Lionel Messi. Lucas Torreira’s job from then on was to man mark the 33-year old out of the game, as both matched up in the centre of midfield. But that did not stop Argentina…they’d just call on one or two of their other world class players: Pablo Dybala with a hat-trick and Sergio Agüero finishing the rout. Argentina 5-2 Uruguay.

Quarter Final

Uruguay Vs Colombia (ranked 21st in the World)

Now that we were in the knockout stages of a Copa América, we could not afford to take the mentality of ‘damage limitation’ as I did with Argentina (because that went well 👀). We’d have to play to our strengths and hope that it would be enough to see us through. So, I took a glance at Colombia’s formation and one thing immediately jumped out:

No natural width. We’d once again go back to the 4-1-4-1 / 4-3-3 and take the game to Colombia. The result was a painful 1-0 win, with Edinson Cavani grabbing the only goal on 67 minutes. It’s no less than we deserved though, and I felt in this game that I finally settled on a midfield trio…an engine room to rival the glorious one I had back in FM17: Lucas Torreira (DLP-D), Rodrigo Bentancur (CM-S) & Nahitan Nández (CM-A) coping well with the inflated numbers in Colombia’s midfield.

Semi Final

Uruguay Vs Peru (ranked 19th in the World)

Next up was a surprise meeting with Peru, who had knocked out Argentina 2-1 five days earlier. Incredibly, despite being mostly gash all tournament, we had a genuine chance of surpassing the Football Association’s expectations by reaching a major International Final. I did not want to make too many changes, Nicolás De La Cruz replaced the injured Luis Suárez as our Inverted Winger on Attack. I’d also done something Unai Emery failed to do in his 18 months at real-life Arsenal…realise that Lucas Torreira is a ridiculously good Deep Lying Playmaker. I once again went with my new Uruguayan engine room, unchanged from the Colombia win…and:

Uruguay 1-0 Peru. Despite Peru battering our goal with 24 shots (11 on target) and slightly more possession, we held firm. This is probably the perfect International team for the Bastardo playstyle, players like Diego Godín & José Giménez were there to charge down every Peruvian shot, their elite mentalities shining through with beautiful ‘garra charrua’.

The Final 🏆

Uruguay Vs Brazil (ranked 1st in the World)

Brazil had scored 21 goals en route to the 2020 Copa América Final, held in River Plate’s wondrous Estadio ‘Monumental’. Ranked 1st in the World, there would be no greater test for my Uruguayan bastards. I couldn’t really see a weakness in Brazil’s starting XI, so I decided to stick with 4-1-4-1 / 4-3-3, crash and burn…Bolivia felt like a long time ago now anyway.

The game was played out on Comprehensive highlights over on Twitch, and you can re-watch it below. After taking a 2-0 lead on the 11th minute, we slowly crawled towards the darker arts of Bastardo ball: Cautious Mentality, Shorter Passing, Narrow & Frequently Wasting Time, all bound up in lovely low block.

Uruguay 2-1 Brazil. For as much as Brazil had the ball, they only mustered 6 shots on target the whole game. Goalscorers Edinson Cavani & Nahitan Nández will be elevated to hero status, but a lot could be said for the rest of the squad. Particularly 34-year old Captain Diego Godín, who won all 12 of his headers as he marked Roberto Firmino out of the game.

The game in all its glory is viewable here:

Freedom Of The Country

The freedom of Uruguay had been given to Ángel Bastardo, and he chose to use that freedom by shying away from the victory parade with La Celeste’s players & staff.

Instead he was in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Montevideo to address the greatest act of incompetence of the Bastardo-Montevideo era.  $1.3bn worth of cocaine seized by the authorities whilst Bastardo was out of the country. The man responsible for distribution in place of Bastardo, Enrique Vázquez, was to be executed at midday. His crime was not only the lost shipments, but rather his failure to inform the chain of command. Instead he had attempted to run away with his family via an international flight to Chile. Poor move.

Bastardo coolly walked up within a few feet of his trembling mark and drew his pistol. No last words would be offered to Vázquez and a single shot met him clean in the head. Bastardo’s gaze remained on the slumped & bound body for a few extra seconds, as the group of spectators watched on.

“Hugo” Bastardo said firmly for all to hear, “take Vázquez’s men and resume control of our distribution. Find our lost stock”.

18-year old Hugo Ojeda, looking every bit as intimating as the older men around him, stepped forward from the crowd of Bastardo’s inner circle and nodded, “As you wish, Don Bastardo”.

Note from the Editor - The last two posts on the site have focused on the Uruguay NT team, and I have really enjoyed ticking off two major ambitions from my FM20 checklist (read more here).

There’s a lot missing from International Football in Football Manager 2020, but I’ve got enough motivation to continue with La Celeste with the target of representing them in the 2022 World Cup. The aim is to transition from the older stars (Cavani, Godín, Suárez et al), build around the ‘Engine Room’ (Bentancur, Nández, Torreira et al) and introduce some of the promising Uruguayan youth prospects (Araújo, Arezo, Cáceres et al).

For those wondering about my club save, we’ll now be back with Peñarol going forward…as I look to compete for the Copa Libertadores title and return to the domestic fight against Nacional in the 2020 Clausura.

As always, thanks for reading/sharing/caring.

FM Grasshopper