Rondo: Summer Football Manager

One summer. One nation. One trophy. A football manager game like no other. Take charge of your country for the tournament of the summer. 48 nations turn up. One goes home with the cup. Your job is to make sure it is yours. It is the 89th minute of a quarter final and you are drawing 1-1. Do you send on the quick winger and chase a winner, or shut up shop and trust your keeper from twelve yards? You make the call. Then you watch it play out. Every match is live. All 22 players press, pass, tackle and break, and you can pause at any moment to rip up the plan. Take an early lead and kill the game off. Go two down and throw the kitchen sink at it. A match takes minutes to play and the big ones stay with you all day. Before kick off, the tactics board is yours. Study their lineup, find the tired full back, pick the shape and the matchups that tilt the game your way. A good plan takes a small nation a very long way. The wrong one gets punished. The group stage gives you three games to get it right, and goal difference can save you or sink you on the final night. Then the knockouts, where one bad evening ends the whole summer. Win your shootout, get through extra time, and the final is waiting. The squad is yours to shape. Players arrive as numbers on shirts, so name them after legends, after your mates, after yourself. Decide who starts, who rests, and who takes the fifth penalty when the whole country is watching. Then go and lift the thing. Pick your nation. Bring home the cup.