Asunto: National Team

red! :)

great result after a great game, congrats com!!

Well no-one can say that wasn't exciting. Pretty even game imo, both teams probably deserved to score 1 but 0-0 is almost as good as 1-1.

The tactic worked quite well, a couple of last minute "realizations" by cometer and myself, but it was just too late to change.

As always (and if cometer finishes typing before he reads this he will say) but any suggestion, criticisms or anything is alway welcome,and expect to see some more input from the peanut gallery in myself for the crunch games.

Didn't anticipate a scoreless draw but we'll take it. How sweet it would have been had Storey scored right at the end there. Not to be we'll take that 1 point with pride and we retain the unofficial world champion title :D.

Ha I completely forgot that unofficial world champion title, I certainly don't mind keeping it a little longer

and don't forget the crucial ranking points we will still receive too

Great result cometer! :)

Just to clarify, Beauchamp being alongside Willis was an attempt in the event they marked Willis, Beauchamp could tackle their defender and draw a 2nd defender across opening up the goal box. That was the plan, didn't really execute that as well as hoped but it's pretty difficult to judge that first time without trying a few things. Thought genuinely the tactic went well, few minor things that could have been improved but to come away with a point and keep Hrvatska scoreless is an achievement. Takes a lot of pressure off us now.
(editado)

Yup, it reminded me of game vs Nederlands...old days :))

Still, even if it didn't worked, Beauchamp was taking the def to him, while Willis was running away unmarked and getting the ball...worked about 3-4 times...

In case if someone missed it...

Generally as we can see most of the new design bugs have been deleted/repaired...maybe even all of them :))

And as a bonus, greg and damian have added some new league etc. stats:

Average individual marks this week
Most often shooters
Most fouls
Most active
Defensive
Offensive
Age
Value
Supporters
First squad average value
First squad average age

It works also with WC Quals groups :)

0-0 is a good result :o)

I'm sorry, but even if they were marking Willis it is a terrible idea, waste of a player. I think Australia is very lucky 28 minutes in so the game was 10 v 10.

Would've been much more useful in the midfield, or in case they were marking Willis, to switch the side of Willis or simply put Beauchamp on the other wing. With that red card it should've been an Australia win, but unfortunately not.

easy to say, but Australia still lacks in tech of strikers - they almost never dribble at the high level, and Hirons was struggling today even to control the ball after being passes to...:(

And Andy is only in formidable form...still should be 3x brilliant 1x magical in one or two weeks...

Dunno what strikers has to do with this, i'm talking midfield play.

I know :P but it has much to do with strikers ;] it doesn't help if you have more mids in the centre if your strikers are unable to dribble...that's where the wings come into action :P

Hirons managed a few dribbles when he had the defender on his side or back. You basically need divine tech to have much of a chance to dribble a back-line NT defender, Hirons isn't super-far from that, but he's unlikely to ever make it.

I didn't really understand the double-wing when borkos used it and I don't think it worked much better this time either. It feels like you're playing with 10 men. I admit it created probably our best chance on 90 minutes, and as borkos said 3 or 4 times they separated enough to pass to each other, but in general I thought it was a waste. I'd rather have seen 4th at the back, a wing on the other side, a 3rd striker just about any other position really. I'm sure you're already on the throw-ins on the double-wing side that went to a striker so I won't go into that.

Burns had a match-saving game for mine, amazing coverage job on his side of the field. His passing was poor as usual, but he closed down their wing over and over again and covered admirably in the middle when he was there as well.

I can't be all negative on what was a great result though. It was always going to be tough to create chances against them and we made them chase the ball for a large portion of the game. The selection of defensive mids was excellent as it ensured we could press them all over our defensive half. I'd love to see that 3-3 at the back (3 defs + 3 def mids) used more often as I think it can be quite effective. (Maybe I'm biased it does look a lot like my defense most Sundays)