Asunto: National Team

yup :) I was quite bored so decided to look for some decent youngsters ;-) Dream Team Web has a nice 'unknown' thing...if you take u21 National Team, then you can make it u20, u19, u18 etc just by changing the end of adress from 1 to 2/3/4 :)

most of them I've got. There's a few I haven't though (2 or 3) from that list so I'll go and check them out.
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Going to try Leijer? He has popped in pace today as far as I know.

don't know yet. Haven't gotten so far yet, only know Oliveira is unavailable again. Will work out something tomorrow :).

Have taken a look at how Venezuela like to play. They tend to like to defend heavily and counter quickly by delivering the balls to their wide players to stretch the opposition defense and then beat them or at the worst setting themselves up for the shot outside the box as a result of the opposition defense sliding too much.

Something we need to be careful.

I'm still open for ideas, have come up with something I'm confident with but will listen to other users thoughts if you're online and happen to feel you need to say anything.

Have a strong feeling they're expecting us to play a winger. Wouldn't surprise me if they decide to cover the wings as a result but it also wouldn't surprise me if they use the similar defense structure as last week, where the last defender comes across to make the tackle. That could work for them but could also backfire depending on what I end up deciding to do which is one of my serious tactical considerations.

Part and parcel of tactics really, is to determine how best to generate chances and exploit the opposition's weakness, can always backfire on anyone if others get lucky.

I'm fairly confident of what I'm intending to do but really it won't be finalized until a little later. Doing the long haul tonight and hopefully see the result I'm after.

Also we've been really fortunate so far that we have been able to get away with almost any tactic that's reasonably sound at the back, as our depth in defense and midfield has been a lot stronger than our opponents in general and has been able to keep out most attacks.

Venezuela feel pretty confident they know what we're going to do, it's rather interesting considering I haven't finalized much yet.

Anyways still 6 hours before the match and comments and suggestions are welcome.
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I would be majorly surprised if you didn't decide to use a winger.. Still, if you only use 1 winger and they cover two wings, it is a pretty good outcome!

Indeed that's true but I'll end up going for what's best for the given situation we're in. I've got a plan, but that's staying well hidden until the match itself. Will definitely discuss things later if it goes the way I want it to.

I think we'll have enough to win, unless we get seriously stuffed over which can happen. Venezuela only managed 1 goal against Bosnia and lost to Turkiye who didn't look that crash hot against Island today but fell over the line with some nice crosses and some really good 1 on 1 keeper saves, if you call them good, I don't unless it's my side doing the saving :p.

Disappointing to have Oliveira and a few other prospects out of the side or struggling for form but that's the way the cookie crumbles and we've got the depth to cover it.
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Never had any intention to not use the winger, just didn't want to let them assume that's what I was using. Still they didn't cover the winger, left Willis 3 assists. Also exploited their gaping holes several times which was the aim as well. Tried to counter punch knowing they like to play offside so threw in two of our higher technique players in Storey and Kearton to do the job. They broke through the line so often like I had hoped and that gave us the easy win in the end. Semi finals next week against Moldova, and we are at least guaranteed to play the next two weeks in the MWC.

More ranking points to the tally, more assists for Willis, another clean sheet for Deeley, what else needs to be said. Satisfied with the result.

nice win mate

Storey and Kearton both looked fantastic I thought. In fact the whole team seemed to be working like clockwork with the noticeable exception of Byers early who seemed to have trouble trapping the ball. He warmed to the task though and looked better after his strike right on the stroke of half time.

Great game Dave. Nice job.

Almost everything went to plan. Had a strong feeling they'd use the same tactic but was made even stronger when their manager mentioned it in their forums before I'd even decided to finalize a tactic. Made a few player decisions, dropped Haereiti and Hirons for this week on the back of form largely. Storey was deliberately chosen to attack their offside trap as once he was through the gap, I don't think he was tackled cleanly.

Loved the teamwork Kearton displayed in the last few minutes to set up Byers for his hattrick, drew the keeper out by rights probably could have shot at goal but saw Byers free in the centre and passed it to Byers for the open goal.

Once again we're generating an absolute truckload of chances but still we're finding it difficult to convert more than 20%.

Ranking went up about 35 points roughly so it was a handy result.

Moldova only just scraped home the past few matches and I think we'll be able to continue our march towards being the champions this week, although stranger things have happened.

Will set up about a quick competition event in the next few days, haven't finalized a specific match for it yet though, although we've got a few free slots up our hands, waiting to see what happens after teams get knocked from the U21 wc qualification.
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Good work mate.

Bring on Moldavia..

It looks like we're going straight to the final...

Moldavia has arranged a friendly with NZ!
muppets!!!

Death to NZ ! Not even able to beat Belgium -_-
What a shame