"1,828 Days Later" - La Plata: Colombia #FM21 — CoffeehouseFM

Previously on La Plata: Colombia, tragedy occurred in Greece before Hugo Ojeda won his 11th trophy.

Intro

Today’s post captures the final 6 months of La Plata: Colombia, where Hugo Ojeda’s Junior Club look to add to their 11 trophies won in Football Manager 2021.

In addition, the post will retrospectively look back on the save that has spanned 5 in-game years (1,828 days)…reviewing the seven objectives of the save introduced back in November. Did the save achieve all it was set out to do? Have I enjoyed FM Colombia? Would I recommend it to readers? Please read on to find out…

Season 2025: Clausura

Categoría Primera A

15 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats ensured we topped the traditional Closing Stage table and thus entered the Closing Stage Semi Finals…where we qualified for the Final with a game to spare. I rotated heavily against Millonarios and saw my young side squander a 2-0 lead, would it stop our momentum?

Absolutely it would. I can’t remember getting owned like this in any of the previous FM21 finals…when I have lost it’s been by the odd goal; but Independiente Medellín destroyed us in the 1st leg. I was trying to sign AMC Miguel Monsalve all Summer, but eventually opted to sign for Yeison Guzmán; but only one turned up in that 1st leg. Monsalve pulled the strings behind the other 1st leg goal scorer: a hot-shot Newgen called Didier Cuperman. Please remember the name, because you will never see it on this blog again.

2025 Copa Libertadores

It’s v.likely that you have to knock out four consecutive Brazilian clubs in order to win the Copa Libertadores in FM21 (more on this later), but we came up short against Flamengo who would go on to win their 3rd Copa Libertadores trophy. I have no quarrel with going out at this stage again, unlike last season where we pushed Santos all the way in the Semis, Flamengo were miles ahead of us in terms of speed and style of play. Their FM21 is one of the finest assembled sides on the Continent: Thiago Almada, Amad Diallo, Bruno Tabata and Talisca leading the attack behind a Leandro Paredes and Thiago Maia pivot. Tasty.

Looking back, should there be any surprises with a 6-0 aggregate defeat imposed on us by Jorge Sampaoli? He’s been a constant thorn in my side during FM21, and I’ve only won once in eleven(!) matches against him…’From Eleven, One’? 🤮

Copa Colombia

We had previously won the 2023 and 2024 edition of the Copa Colombia. Would we make it a hat-trick?

We’re obviously not up for adding to the 11th trophies we’ve acquired in FM21, so it’s perhaps now time to look back on past glorious by taking stock of where we’ve come from. Goodbye Clausura 2025, you will not be missed.

1,828 Days Later

I introduced the below checklist in my save introduction and then revisited it in 2023. Now in 2025, 1,828 in-game days later, it’s time to see how far I go to ticking various items off my FM21 checklist…

Trophies and Legacies (Aims 1-3)

After winning the Copa Libertadores in 2023, I had to wait almost two years to play in the revised Club World Cup. It was always going to be tough, there are noticeably more European sides included and you now have to progress from a Group Stage. Sadly my Junior side did not, which was the subject matter of my previous blog post.

But as mentioned in that post, we did it with youth. The legacy I have got is that in the last two years of this save…I cleared the way for Academy prospects to enter the First Team. In fact, Yeison Guzmán was the only noticeable signing in those two years (a club record €3.5m signing to bring him back to Colombia from MLS side New York Red Bulls). 13 of the 2025 First Team Squad are academy produced (total 24 players), and they represent 43% of minutes played in all competitions during the 2025 season (34,255 minutes out of a total 77,982 minutes played).

But was it enough to see 5 Academy players achieve International recognition? Sadly not. Charles Asprilla and Ricardo Caraballo are the only guys who broke into the Colombia squad during the 5 seasons. But I do get the feeling that I would have achieved this target if the save was 2-3 seasons longer. Time waits for no man, especially for an FM Blogger juggling Colombian 80 game seasons with two kids and a wife.

Tactics and Training (Aims 4 and 5)

Two years ago, I wrote about how I achieved these two aims. Tactically, my final two years saw us return to a narrow formation (I dubbed it Godzilla)…the football is a bit sexier than the Misery 4-4-2 and we’re quite imperious when the AI lets us. It’s perhaps more like Francisco Maturana’s systems again, with tricky ‘El Toque’ making sporadic appearances. But I probably have to plug that goal again, from the El Toque era of Ojeda’s Junior Club. The goal that I never grow tired of seeing, from way back in 2021 year of the save: Arezo Vs Deportes Tolima on 17 July 2021.

I’ve been disciplined this year in FM with regards to training. I have had both squads (First Team and U20s) adopt custom routines for most of the save. I wrote about the U20 programmes at length back in Season 2. It’s hard to isolate and say how much of an influence they had on the players coming through, but it’s clear from my eyes that the U20s breaking into the squad have been vastly superior in terms of technicals than what came before. You only have to look at the three Academy players I built around (Asprilla, Bonilla and Padilla) when putting together the Godzilla 4-1-3-2.

Long Term Ambitions (Aims 6 and 7)

In my opinion, Building a Nation™️ saves do not really bear fruit until at least 10 seasons in. So, producing an El Dorado…where Colombian sides (other than my own) achieve continental success was always going to be hard in just 5 years. However, for the first time ever in my save…I was joined by a non-Brazilian side in the Copa Libertadores Semi Finals. That side was a fellow Colombian team too: Independiente Medellín. Furthermore, in the Copa Sudamericana (the lesser continental trophy) Millonarios of Bogotá broke a run of four consecutive wins for Brazil by winning the 2025 trophy. Is this down to a ripple effect of how Junior Club have done in continental competitions? I don’t know. But you can be sure I am crossing this off my checklist…Colombia are back for El Dorado Part III.

In terms of domestic dominance, we’re still behind Atlético Nacional:

Atlético Nacional - 18 domestic titles

Atlético Junior - 13 domestic titles

We managed to reduce the deficit between ourselves and Nacional in this save by two titles…with Ojeda’s Junior winning four of the ten league titles on offer in FM21 (remember: two titles per season are won). Sadly, Atlético Nacional themselves won two of those other titles and remain a decent side with Juan Pablo’s son Tomás Ángel leading their attack. However, I believe overtaking Nacional is something I would eventually achieve…if I could play longer into the save.

Q&A

Did the save achieve all it was set out to do?
The above shows not all things were achieved. However, I can look back on how well we did in just five years. I certainly feel my commitments to youth, whilst also keeping the side successful during that period, is a massive achievement. I was expecting a huge dip in those final two years…but we were still able to win trophies 8-11 and continued to reach the Semi Finals of the Copa Libertadores in each year.
Have I enjoyed FM Colombia?
Immensely. I have written my thoughts about FM21 in the soon-to-be-released Issue 8 of Latte Quarterly…but FM Colombia has continued to hold my interest for almost all of the FM cycle. Well done Colombia 👏🏻
Would I recommend it to readers?
Yes. In FM Colombia, you have to accept a few things before starting out: Firstly, you need to choose your foreign players well; because you are only allowed 4 of them (and only play three at any one time in the league). Secondly, you have to prepare for huge league seasons and also really tight turnarounds between games…with successful sides playing every 2-3 days all-year-round. Perhaps lastly, and something that will apply to any South American save, Brazil dominate the Copa Libertadores. I’ve always felt it’s a bit overpowered…but maybe FM is ahead of the curve in this respect (after all, three of the four Semi Finalists this year in-real life are Brazilian sides). In my save, Brazilian clubs won three of the five Copa Libertadores trophies on offer…and had a finalist in all of them.
If you can accept the above and live with it, FM Colombia is a great destination and I hope to see others choose the country when I am elsewhere during future editions…
Will you be doing more of these really good Q&As?
I’m only filling in because my Scottish penfriend (who usually does them) is not. He’s away from keyboard right now, whilst he builds his community a wee Bunker out back in the garden. I am told it will go live in 2026 and it’s going to be really special. I’m glad you like my Q&A.
Do you want to thank anybody for their help with this save?
I do, and in no particular order: All of my blogger OGs (CoffeehouseFM and non-CoffeehouseFM), anybody that’s ever shared or interacted with the save, Leith Blade on Twitter who has been great to talk to about Caraballogol & Colombia, Diego Mendoza for literally bending over and letting my Junior side spank him 3-0 in La Copa LQ, Ondrej for his skin and his Rensie Skin, Ed Wilson for helping me with the 4-4-2, Dan Gear [paid mention], Arun and Eadie-C for their help with CreativeFM, Bazza, My Mum for telling me I was a mistake…but then rectifying that by being nice about me blogging FM during lockdown(s), to Jess/the builders/electricians/plumbers/window men and building control who constructed an FM workstation for me to stream (and win) the 2023 Copa Libertadores Final in, Samo for being in that stream but also checking in on me when I went through FM Misery before that final and Stacy Gear [paid mention]. Thank you so much.

My favourite FM21 Players

Mainly for my benefit, I want to recap on a few players that have been with me for the majority of my save. Say goodbye to the lads:

Joaquín Blázquez - Goalkeeper

I used record appearance holder and Junior Legend, Sebastián Viera, for the first 2.5 seasons of the save. He was 40-years-old when I decided not to renew his contract. Replacing him was always going to be a really hard task, but I noticed a young Argentine Goalkeeper from my second season perform well when I played Estudiantes de Río Cuarto in the Copa Libertadores Group Stage. His name was Joaquín Blázquez, an ex-Valencia youth prospect, who had been willing to drop down to the 2nd Argentine Division and play for the lesser known Estudiantes. In this time, he had won the Copa Argentina and had been exposed to Copa Libertadores football as a result. I felt his ceiling was high, so I spent €2.5m (the most at this point of the save) to make him Viera’s replacement.

Joaquín Blázquez’s story is special. He walked into the side for the 2023 Closing Stage and within the space of 3-4 months had won a treble (League, Domestic Cup and the Copa Libertadores), which also included a MOTM performance in the final itself Vs São Paulo. He is now wanted by many clubs on the Continent and he has even been called up to the Argentine National Squad, the €2.5m now looks like great value.

Appearances: 187

Clean sheets: 69 (wheeey)

Joaquín Piquerez - Wing Back/Midfielder

I wrote about how Joaquín Piquerez fitted into the squad in the then new-look 4-4-2 back in Season 2. The move to 4-1-3-2 Godzilla increased his versatility in the side too, and Piquerez has probably featured in more positions/roles than anybody else. He’s sometimes the Complete Wing-Back or the Attacking Mezzala on the left…but then equally capable as the Roaming Playmaker or Central midfielder more centrally. Whenever he plays, he puts in a shift. After all, he’s Uruguayan.

Piquerez represented a sizeable slice of my transfer funds at the time, with €1.5m being paid out to Peñarol in Season 2. But like Blázquez before him, it’s been great business…and further justification that I got my foreign player slots right this year in FM21.

Appearances: 155 starts (46 sub)

Attacking contribution: 25 goals and 52 assists

Charles Asprilla - Midfielder

But now we turn to some lovely Colombian players. Charles Asprilla is the No.1 Newgen for me in this save, without a doubt this kid is all round class. He scored on his debut at 15, played out the final 6 minutes of a Copa Libertadores Final at 17, Colombian International at 18 and was Club Captain at 19. He’s part of the Godzilla Triumvirate, alongside his fellow illas (Bonilla and Padilla), and one of the first picks on the team sheet. There is no doubt he will end up in Europe very soon…just look at him.

Appearances: 118 starts (18 subs)

Trophies: Copa Libertadores (2023), Liga Dimayor (Closing 2023 & Opening 2025), Copa Colombia (2023 & 2024), Súperliga Dimayor (2023, 2024 & 2025)

Jhon Durán / Ricardo Caraballo - Strikers

Ed Wilson has his Alfredo, FM Rensie has his Oscar Aga and FM Samo has his minor Haaland. FM21 seems the edition where a few of us get that iconic Striker…well I’ve naturally gone one better on them by assembling two: Jhon Durán & Ricardo Caraballo. Two Strikers that have spearheaded the Junior attack for around three years of the save during the Misery and Godzilla years. Inseparable Colombians that just love to set each other up and score silky goals. I wanted one of them to reach 50 goals for the calendar year, and ‘Caraballogol’ came the closest with 49 a couple of years ago. But, in all honesty, their tallies year-on-year get close to around 90 goals so I am happy anyway. They are dreamweavers who have been a major part in the successes we have had as a team. If I am honest, they probably are not elite enough to go to the very top…but they’ve found a good place in Barranquilla to carve out a successful start to their careers. 271 goals between them at Junior Club, in what has been a golden era for the club:

Appearances: 194 starts and 38 subs (Jhon Durán) + 187 starts and 30 subs (Caraballogol)

Goals: 131 goals (Jhon Durán) + 140 goals (Caraballogol)

Personal achievements: Broke the Junior record for most goals in a league match with 5 against Atletico Bucaramanga in 2022 (Jhon Durán) + Broke the Junior record for most goals in a single season with 49 goals in 2023 (Caraballogol)

CreativeFM

No CreativeFM in this post…that comes next: “Fade to Black” is out in a few days, which will see Hugo and Natasha edge closer to releasing the World’s most notorious Football Manager. Whilst you wait, here is my La Plata: Colombia movie poster in the event that Netflix call me…