Academy Soccer Manager

You are the manager of a high school soccer team. You develop your players and take them from the prefectural qualifiers to the national tournament. [Trial] Your first year as manager is free. Carrying on past that needs a one-off unlock. There are no ads. ■ Training You choose a training session each week — technique, physical work, tactical understanding, set pieces, a practice match, or rest. What you pick decides which attributes come on. Players who build up fatigue get injured more easily, and players who rest too much stop improving. ■ How players develop Every player has his own growth curve (early, normal, late) and his own ceiling. In one-to-one coaching you either bring on a whole group of attributes or narrow it to a single one. Players pick up special abilities that show up in matches, and some have an ability of their own — those get a nickname that stays in the club's records long after they graduate. ■ Matches Eleven players move on the pitch by themselves, guided by your tactics and team selection. Free kicks build a wall according to the distance and the angle. You can watch from the broadcast, overhead or dynamic camera, or skip ahead and read the result. Goals, assists, shots, tackles, saves and a mark out of ten are recorded for every match, and each player's profile shows his average mark and recent form. ■ Tactics You set the shape, how high the defensive line sits, how hard the team presses, and the tempo in attack. You can also put a man-marker on a particular opponent. ■ Leagues and tournaments The 64 schools in your prefecture play across three divisions, with two regional leagues above them. You are promoted and relegated on results. The two leagues above also take the youth sides of professional clubs. The summer tournament and the winter championship are for schools only: win the prefectural qualifiers and you are through to the nationals. All 47 prefectures are at different levels. ■ The national team There are U-17, U-20, U-23 and senior tournaments. You can see the draw, the results of every match including those between other countries, the tables and the brackets. A player called up leaves your squad for a few weeks. His caps and goals are recorded at each age group. Qualifying for the world tournament runs over two rounds. ■ After they leave Graduates go on to university, to the three domestic divisions, or to leagues in 24 other countries. The alumni list follows their season-by-season record, transfers, honours, market value, caps and retirement. Some carry on at amateur clubs after university. Old boys who make it as professionals donate to the club and come back to help with training. ■ Running the club You manage the funds, the squad's morale, the facilities, your scouting and the prize money, and you decide where it all goes. Things happen in response to what the club has achieved — donations from old boys, invitations to play stronger sides. ■ Saves There are up to three save slots, so you can run a second team in another prefecture at the same time. Saves back up to iCloud automatically and carry over to a new device. The Hall of Fame keeps your record as a manager even if you delete a save. ■ Price The download is free. Your first year as manager — the league, the qualifiers, the nationals, the third years graduating and the new intake arriving — costs nothing. Going on to a second year needs the full version unlock, bought once. It is not a subscription. The other purchases are the custom player (one per in-game year, with a name, a look and a position you choose) and the second and third save slots. There are no ads. Every school, player, club and tournament in the game is fictional. Any resemblance to real people, organisations or competitions is unintended.