Asunto: National Team

our mids seem to have less tech too, as they almost always lose the ball to their mids.

either that or their mids have absurd defense

Beginning to think it's more than that and that the opposition's passing skills matter for technique and stuff as well and if their passing is worse, the ball gets over kicked and then we have a higher chance of fumbling. Could be wrong but that's what it seems like.

Our strikers sucked!

It was the second row of the strikers, hard to expect miracles from them as you see one was 22 and the second only 21...still they managed to do something, bad luck about their finishing...:(

Nice game for Willis, lots of dribbles...even 3 in one action...bad luck there was this Mr. Zamora winning almost everything in the penalty box...

:((

Well, it was an exciting game to watch. Both teams had their chances to win it, Uruguay had a bit more luck on the day.

Great campaign cometer, very entertaining, positive football even against "better" competition we've always taken our chances and given them a real fight.

NZ go through again and Aussie miss out again =/ This must be getting pretty painful.

:/

btw there is a new forum for National Team, would be nice to move the thread out there...

NZ go through again and Aussie miss out again =/ This must be getting pretty painful.

I'd like to see NZ get a tough draw for once :p. They have always had an easy run to qualify, we haven't been so lucky, especially our past 2 campaigns. To prove this we'll just give your team a bit of a pasting in a few weeks ;).

Oh might add, you'll be the ones crying harder when we knock off with the Tri Nations and the Bledisloe ;).
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btw there is a new forum for National Team, would be nice to move the thread out there...

why, this is kind of our main forum anyway. Why divert people to more forums than necessary? Think NT forums was a bit of a waste really, only advantage would be if they were private (which they're not), otherwise it's just another forum and since this forum doesn't actually get that flooded, I would have thought keeping as many things in one spot is easier.
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It was the second row of the strikers

Wasn't even that. Was more like 3rd string strikers because all the 2nd string strikers were out of form.

Storey/Croxall/Mitchell/Dreger/Augerinos to name a few. Either way that wasn't the problem. We leaked too many goals at the back and at the end of the day they were the stronger side in general. They had a solid foundation at the back which we were unable to breach (7 behind the ball I counted) and on the counter we were unable to tackle Oliva who crashed through the defense and caused us headaches for the entire game. Was strange though given Nikas isn't a bad defender by any means.

No real complaints we had our chance to win it but on the day Uruguay deserved the win they got, they were the better side. Just a shame our solid campaign came crashing down in the final 2 weeks like it did. Since the new animations have taken place I've kept only 1 clean sheet, the defense doesn't function the same as it has beforehand, I've noticed many more fumbles (and despite what anyone tells me, I seriously believe something has been changed slightly as there are more fumbles then before, I just can't be bothered to gather enough data to backup my claim) and I think I've won 3/7 games during this time and have conceded more goals.

Oh come, don't tell me Augerinos or Dreger in form would've played today :) I've seen their skills and now skills of Maras and Stephenson...

Now it's just a season to win everything with as high ranked[not good!] opponents as possible. Would be good to make a rehearsal about it, type some teams that will be easy to beat with our high wing tactic and are decently placed in the rank.

As for NT forum....hm..maybe in Aussie it's not a real problem but in nations like Poland, Belgie etc. there's a huuuge mess...

rofl, i think that the bledisloe and tri nations are safe where they are =]

Probably true to some extent, but Maras lacks a significant amount of striking, whereas Stephenson still requires technique. They'll get there but it's just those little things. However, both are better than Dreger and Augerinos anyway.

Depends, I'd be hoping we'd enter the MWC again. Believe we are more than capable of winning it. Whatever happens we have to consolidate the #2 seed spot to avoid any ridiculous draw again.
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I'd like to see NZ get a tough draw for once :p

Zing! :) I thought New Zealand's draw during the Cerb-Griever era was pretty tough.

1. Italia
2. Danmark
3. New Zealand
4. Türkiye

Italy > Brasil, Croatia > Danmark, Turkey >> Uruguay. They did very well to qualify out of that group.

New Zealand's draw this season wasn't exactly easy. Portugal has ~900 users and puts up significantly better player ratings.

That said, no one gets tough groups on a regular basis the way Australia does (some of this is bad luck, a lot of this is seeding issues caused by the addition of new teams). But it's not like New Zealand is getting a handed a punched ticket every time qualifying comes around. :)

Turkey might be now better than Uruguay, but I remember that they weren't that good at all at those times. Also Uruguay is not that weak if you look better at them.

That said, no one gets tough groups on a regular basis the way Australia does (some of this is bad luck, a lot of this is seeding issues caused by the addition of new teams). But it's not like New Zealand is getting a handed a punched ticket every time qualifying comes around. :)

Who said anything about getting free rides :p. I was only fighting fire with fire against Barhilo ;).

That said, at the time of that Denmark/Turkey saga Turkey were only just starting to find their current form and Denmark I feel are over rated, at least they were then imo. They often left gaping holes in the defense which I so often wished we had have played as it opens up for lots of goal opportunities. That said, it's still a challenging league, not a pushover, I'd probably rate Turkey then about as good as Uruguay is now.

I'd actually look at comparing #1's #2's etc. Italy > Croatia (not by a lot). Brasil >> Denmark, New Zealand = Australia (matches usually decided by the better tactic on the day), Turkey(then) = Uruguay(now).

Actually most of it is entirely down to seeding issues, especially past two campaigns. That's a problem that really should be sorted out, it's a reason Iceland qualified this season, although they beat Canada to get some credibility back for qualifying :).

Concerning your group this time, you really had 18 points off the stick, so although you had Portugal and Estonia, you really only needed a result from 4 matches and you got it. Besides which I've always thought you were a great manager, certainly up there with the best for mine and so often found ways to outplay the opposition and got the results that were fully deserved each time. Hard to think of a time where you won when you didn't deserve to.

On the other hand we really had a given 12 points off the stick, couldn't really give 6 points against Uruguay but in saying that we still really should have won and it was a major let down to be a bit strapped for time and having a bit of a under-par tactic.
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