Asunto: National Team

Ok we're just about set for the Mexico match later this evening, going to be one massive challenge for us.

I seriously doubt they'll play the same tactic as last week and the week before so I'm not planning on attacking that and then finding I get caught out when they change tactics.

I'm expecting them to play a much different style game and at this stage it's hard to determine what they will play, but we'll see how what I've come up with plays out.

haha yeh, an NT coach wouldnt play the same tactic 3 weeks in a row...especially not coming up to elections.

Anyway good luck in the match, cant wait to see what they come up with (the matches against mexico are always interesting)

tell that to Croatia ;)

2 - 0 loss, disappointing thought we were as good as they were, they just got a few lucky breaks which ended in goals. The goals could even be considered a bit fortunate as well.

I believe the scoreline showed the result of the match. =Yeh we had our chances, and they had theirs but for the most of the match (except for a small period there) they were much better then us.

Next time we can beat them tho

Completely disagree with you Graeme. I thought we were slightly better for the most part but clearly their strikers were the class above in their technique, pace and probably striking. Our midfield were exceptional though and it just showed that Widera, Baveas and Veart are all world class.

A draw might have been a fairer result but Mexico's defenders were too strong for our strikers while it was much closer at the other end. Overall a good game IMO with a slightly disappointing result.

I'm not a fan of guys hugging the line quite so much since they changed the ME in regards to passing.

No dramas with Moon/Leijer running right to the line when they have the ball on their wing, but when they don't have it they need to come in at least 1 from the line. Reasoning is to simply to reduce the number of times missed passes go out of bounds. Even the best players we have can't reliably hit a player right on a sideline.

Yeah, I usually would have done that, but I knew the Mexican defense was going to be strong and I thought I needed every inch of space between our winger and their outside defender to try and get in behind and whip in a cross. I was hoping that they'd pass in front of the winger but that certainly didn't happen and so we lost a fair few opportunities that way.

We were never going to break through the centre either, because their defenders were much faster than our strikers and that's what lead to the wide winger.

But yeah, I doubt we'll see a winger from myself right on the sideline again.

Even the best players we have can't reliably hit a player right on a sideline.

AFAIK Willis has the best pass/pm...shame about his form though. :(

Btw - it wasn't Mexico's 100% first team...

Yeah, I'm aware they didn't play a certain someone ;).

for last match, can langdon play??? pleeeaaaaseeeee :)

What's the team tomorrow? U21, or normal?

Btw - does Australia take part in U21 World Cup this time? :)

ps. Schwarzer on TL.

yeah aware of schwarzer.

Haven't decided if Australia will take part in the U21 world cup or not, won't decide on that until elections are over.

As for tomorrow, I believed it was a first team clash since it's a rivalry game. We have a few out such as Baveas and Howarth but will use what we have :).

Any chance of Willis getting few minutes? Got a pace pop this week and he is so high in his form...:)) If you're not sure about him, please make my cup game fast forward and watch 46/47minute and 76th minute :)

Well I think the tactic is set. Wasn't really sure on what to play, Seca mixes it up so much there isn't a lot which remains untouched. The few small things I'm sure will be mixed up soon enough. I'm sure secret spies will be reading this anyway so I can't give too much away about what I intend to do but without Howarth, King, Baveas, things are made somewhat more difficult.

Only one more day to wait until this so called surprise appears. I'm hoping the surprise works in our favour. I have my suspicions of what this so called surprise is, but it's really a toss up between a few things.

Would be really nice if we could knock off New Zealand in possibly my last match as manager, although I'm hoping it's not.

Once again any late input will be accepted if people have anything they'd like to suggest.

Should be a good pre world cup match :).

Hirons has never failed to score against New Zealand... but you already knew that right? :P