Asunto: National Team

I thought the reason crazykicka quit was due to lack of time since he was moving onto university or something like that ;).

Those days weren't too bad, well they were for our NT, but club wise I didn't mind smashing bots every week, but in general I think I'm having more fun now then I did then, simply cause I'm playing against harder opponents and there's a lot more activity in our forums then their use to be, well except for the amount of transfer ads we use to get before we became a closed forum.

I think the two 10-0 games were before my time.

Talk of the transfer forum being closed brings back memories.... I instigated that :)

Yep they were. The 2nd of those 10-0 games occurred 3 days before you signed up by my calculations. I hadn't been around long myself but did happen to be around during those thrashings gibbage gave us :(.

still... we havent beat the poms! (or roastbeefs as we call them in France).
it was looking good until the end but it was entertaining to watch though.. very open game with a lot of flow

True, would have been great to beat them and I'm sure we will eventually. Haereiti tired at the end there and their replacement winger had the legs to run around him at will. That's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes, could go the other way next time :).

Well tactic is set and we're ready to go against Bulgaria. Last time we pretty much killed them only to end up with a fumble leading to their equalizer. Aim this time is to put away the chances we missed that week and hopefully get at least a 2 goal cushion, otherwise we might suffer a similar fate as last time.

We'll see how we go, a win is vital, anything else we're going to be in for a very difficult battle to qualify.

Why couldn't we do that last time. Absolutely hammered them again this week but were able to put away more chances. Hirons proving extremely useful with his 2nd hattrick in as many matches. Byers knocking in a few as well. Willis made a massive impact with the majority of his crosses finding one of our strikers.

I'm pleased we were able to finish off the chances this week, even if we still bombed a large amount.

Gives us something to work on next week now against Argentina, where we need at least a draw, although a win would be really handy.

Hopefully Colombia get thrashed by Mexico later tonight to give us 3rd spot again.
(editado)

I'm happy for Hirons to take some credit, but I think anyone with a bit of striking could have done the same with the quality service being given.

Loved some of the small tweaks to the tactic. The far striker running across the goal mouth towards Willis as he advanced up the wing was great. Very, very hard to defend against and with Willis' PM + passing he just waited for the right moment before firing in the cross. If anything I thought Hirons could have done better with a few of those, especially towards the end of the first half.

Defense was right on the money, all of our mids seemed to be in useful positions almost all of the time and things looked good up front as well.

Full credit to the tactic maker(s), great game all around.

What a game. Willis was exceptional today, so many accurate passes! Great teamwork with Oliveira, and Byers, who felt respect to Andy and passed to him even though he was a striker. :P

Yeah, was a modification of the tactic I used last week against England, basing it on our previous match against Bulgaria as I was pretty sure they'd play the same tactic against us as last time.

Wanted to play more offensively this time to create better scoring chances and noticing how the AM worked last week against England made me decide to try it again.

Strikers each had unique movements around the field with the idea of trying to open up a few more options and break free of the tight Bulgarian defense.

Was pretty determined to smash them this week so I really focussed on what went right and wrong over the past fortnight to make sure we would be able to come away with an easy win.

Byers passed it back to Willis saying don't pass it to me yet, I'm not even in position, here take it back and retry :p.

Willis is a freak. Going to be scary when his pace increases. Who needs strikers when you have someone who hits their heads so frequently ;).

Hehe :)

Yeah...I'm getting kinda dissapointed with him lately, I mean - ok he gets the assists...but I'm a striker coach and I want to see THEM dribbling etc...and they all score from headers sometimes ;-)

what's up with the corner kick kicked behind the goal at the 9'? Is it a bug or is it due to the skills of the player... I had one or two too...

Nice game though :)

Columbia somehow get up over Mexico again. That makes things tough for us.

Rats, Byers isn't the only goalscorer for Australia in the WC anymore =[

Not necessarily. We are now 2 points from top spot in the group. Should we manage to get a single win or even a draw against Argentina and then win our remaining games, we'll finish no worse than 2nd in the group.

Mexico's tactic was far from perfect, and yeah they kinda got jipped in the 90th there where the defender got to the ball first kicked it into the striker who somehow managed to control it and lure a penalty at the same time.

Colombia got quite lucky, although Mexico didn't really look like causing many problems.

So basically we require the following:

Win against Colombia
Win against Republica Dominicana
Win/Draw against Argentina
Win/Draw against Mexico

Potentially if one of those two crucial matches is a win, particularly if it's Mexico it might be Mexico missing out. The next fortnight will determine our fate though as we play both Argentina and Mexico. We come away with 3 or more points from those 2 games and I'd back it in will be right in with the mix in the final match day, as Mexico play Argentina in the final round.

Was always going to be a tough group to get out of, was made tougher by the draw with Bulgaria, take that out of the equation we'd be sitting top of the log with Argentina.

Whilst there is still hope, I'll keep on fighting to finish top 3.
(editado)