Asunto: National Team

I also like this sound, as it will mean that Andy might get about 9 more assits in this tournament :))

What's the time now in Australia? here 15:56

Going on 2am in the east.

yep or midnight in the far west, or for those people from Queensland who like to be different 1am but yeah it's 2am here.
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@tigermaster

From what i heard it was the lighthouse, but if it was mooseheads as well, then it was an even better night. Now, i've managed to get kicked out of the place in ACT and bris that are apparently impossible to get kicked out of

And its for that reason i am assistant NT coach :)

Don't start discriminating Qld... I might get involved :)

Finally got to watch this game too. Anyway my high and low points

Low point Seeing honduras run out with Defensive wings

High point In seeing the poor shooting by the strikers, Baveas attempts to have a crack....and fails miserably never to have another shot

Low point Byers shooting into the goalie

High point THAT GOAL by byers

Low point Me hammering the desk with my head because of the poor goal/shot ratio

High point Hirons running faster then I have ever seen to get to a ball on the other side of the goal, making everyone else look like they were standing still

Low point Byers shooting into the goalie....again

High Point Willis looking at their defensive winger thinking, I don't know why you are there because you still cant stop me and then goes on to pass him twice in the space of a couple of minutes

Low point (for Deeley) Having to wake up just to kick the ball once

High point Listening to the cheering going on when Cunico came onto the pitch

I did have a chuckle at the Baveas shot. Worth a go. [:p]

i still think that willis cross to byers was the best goal :)

Damien Coveny [1737982] is going TL tomorrow
:)

Today we take on South Africa in a pretty crucial match for all teams in our group with the exception of Honduras. We can still theoretically at least miss out on the next round if we were to be well beaten and Island to crush Honduras.

The other annoying factor is Island will have the advantage of knowing what they need to do to qualify to the next stage.

In order for us to miss out we'd need to lose to South Africa by 2 or more goals and for Island to win by at least 6 goals.

I don't have any intentions of losing this week against South Africa but the at the worst I don't want to lose by 2 or more. Still in the process of how to approach the game but have an idea of how I'm going to approach it. South Africa have a few players out of action for this week but I'm still very wary of them causing us problems.


As always suggestions are welcome but if they come I would prefer them via skmail.

South Africa drew against us last season in a 2nd XI match and a small number of those players will likely play against us this game as well. From things I've been informed of their defense looks particularly impressive and our strikers will have to take their chances when they come unlike last week because South Africa could well punish us if we shoot poorly.

I think we've got the upper hand in the midfield though, as they've got a few problems there and from games I've watched they've really only got the one serious danger where as basically all our mids are capable of causing significant problems for them.

Their strikers are reasonable although I don't think they're as dangerous as other national sides we've played recently. I'm not really expecting their strikers to do too much on their own, if anything it will come from their midfield and their strikers will get their chance to finish off.

They have a tendency to use wide wingers as a means of stretching opposition sides it would appear and these wingers can move further down the field to get in behind opposition defenders. They seem to rely on that a lot and so it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they tried that approach again.

I'm expecting South Africa to try and come out with a reasonably offensive tactic as they know they need a win to give them any chance and a draw isn't going to be enough for them to make the next round. The question is how offensive they are going to be. They come out too offensively they open themselves up on the rebound, so I wouldn't expect anything significantly different from what they've played the past few weeks.

As for how we're going to play, well I'm going to keep that to myself ;).

Any last minute ideas before the 12:00 kickoff are welcome.

Would have preferred Island's game to be before us but that's the penalty of not scoring enough goals last week despite having 36 shots. Best we can do is to go out get the result we need and then sit back and wait and see who else comes through the group.

Any Maras going to play? I've heard that he was talking with Andy that he is very sad that he isn't going on NT games anymore...:P

unlikely, not quite top level material yet. He'll get games later in the season I'm sure.

Look what you've done - he is crying right now :( incredible +3 pace at the moment...I bet he would score if he played only 30mins :P

We'll see, got better players out there atm, hope they can do the job.

oh god, hirons just butchered a simple tap in there

EDIT: hirons is now officially australia's butcher

EDIT EDIT: ouch, an injury AND a goal?

EDIT EDIT EDIT: and injury to oliviera as well? now 1 man down
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