Asunto: National Team

Barhi who ?

can you update the calendar on the NT page... what do you reckon will the k.o. time for these games?
thanks

Yeah I'll update the calendar on the NT page pretty shortly, haven't organized anything other than the MWC at the moment, but will piece things together shortly. These seasons are always hardest to get a complete fixture early because so many different competitions are run, MWC, U21 WC, WC, NCT etc.

As for kickoff times, the first two rounds of the group stage we have at home, so thats the usual 9:00 sk time, which is 7pm AEDST. The final game is away to South Africa which will be a 12:00 sk time kick-off so 10pm AEDST.

Then it depends on whether we get home games or away games. All home games are at 9:00 sk time, so the more of these I can get the better.
(editado)

When this is almost completed I'll add it to the NT page. Saves me having to retype the entire formatting again, every time I update the NT press statement, as I can just copy this one and re-paste in the NT page.

Australian Fixture List:

Week 2 (2008-02-23): New Zealand
Week 3 (2008-03-01): Island
Week 4 (2008-03-08): Honduras
Week 5 (2008-03-15): South Africa
Week 6 (2008-03-22): Shqiperia (MWC L16)
Week 7 (2008-03-29): Venezuela (MWC QF)
Week 8 (2008-04-05): TBA (MWC SF)
Week 9 (2008-04-12): TBA (MWC Final)
Week 10 (2008-04-19): Belarus
Week 11 (2008-04-26): TBA
Week 12 (2008-05-03): TBA
Week 13 (2008-05-10): India (We use U21's)
Week 14 (2008-05-17): El Salvador (We use 2nd div and under)
Week 15 (2008-05-24): Costa Rica (We use 2nd string)
Week 0 (2008-05-31): TBA
Week 1 (2008-06-07): Moldova

* Matches in green represent MWC matches.
** El Salvador have a new manager and might not play this so I'll have to get this re-confirmed by their new manager.
(editado)

thanks Cometer...

They sat two forwards on the edge of the box right in front of goals and it certainly worked for them when our defenders wandered down towards the wings.

Tactic worked reasonably well and we deserved the win on the weight of shots, but not quite as easy as we might have liked.

arghh...89th min. emilsson was so close drawing the match...

yeah, that was pretty stressful to watch. Ando saved the day though. We had at least as many frustrating 1-on-1 though I thought.

Andy Willis makes the difference. :)

We got some great finishing with our headers in what were essentially 50/50 chances. Pretty happy with Hirons goal against two defenders.

Biggest problem was when we opened up like a can of beans when they went wide. That was caused by Widera not slotting back into the hole quick enough, which I didn't foresee in the tactic editor itself. Probably might have been better to put Broxton there and play Mangos where Broxton played. Defense was a fair bit off (I'd call pretty awful), which gave myself so many tense moments which really weren't necessary. Attack on the other hand looked pretty good, we had a fair share of chances which we didn't take as many as I would have liked but I knew they were going to go defensive, so thought the only option we had to avoid a draw was to go out and attack them, which we did reasonably well. Fortunately we got over the line, although we'll lose ranking points I think but not too many.

Well I'm relieved we won in the end, but it was hard work. The last time I tried that tactic was against Colombia, who only used the 1 striker, and due to Island being pretty defensive thought it might work again. Made a few changes, most noticeably with the midfield movement but I think I over moved the defenders when they went down the wings as it opened an easy gap for them to exploit and they did so. When I saw them get that first goal, I actually thought we were going to be in trouble because that was a key position and I'd given them that route to goal which wasn't intended. That's certainly one thing to fix up in the tactic, if it ever gets used again because against stronger sides we could have been in a lot of trouble.

Still think we left 1 or 2 goals out there on the field from Willis' crosses.

Andy got used to it, my Briganti and Deroo score about 1/10 of his passes. ;)

it's so nice to have Willis in the side though, it gives us the chances when teams pack the defense. Now if only they could convert better, Willis would have so many more assists :p.

Well that's 3 points so we should be safely qualified now, as Honduras should be fairly easy to beat but will try to score as many goals against them as possible, so that could be our national team record if things go to plan.

Just checked and Willis had his game nr 20 today! :) And assist numbers nr. 15,16.

Would be nice to see Maras on the field then, with this pace and tech he should be fairly good...and maybe Willis on the position we talked about? :)

yeah well I didn't actually make my final decision on the tactic until late last night, well early this morning for most. Just noticed that cambrant usually went in with a back 4 and 2 dm's or a back 5 like what happened today, so I knew if I could get Willis right and the strikers in the right areas, we'd be able to breach that strong defensive line.

Willis for 10 assists next game? :p.