Asunto: National Team

Actually most of it is entirely down to seeding issues

Everything else aside, this is the key point. When it gets down to it, the vast majority of #2 seeds qualify for the WC, while a very small minority of #3s get in.

The bad news for teams like New Zealand, Australia, and Canada is that the window of opportunity is closing. The age advantage is gone. Size is now what matters. Turkey and Hungary are great recent examples of teams that have parlayed their strong numbers into NT success. Others like BiH, Greece, and a number of South American sides will follow a similar trajectory.

Canada's slid ~10 ranking positions in the past few seasons. New Zealand climbed for a while, but hit the glass ceiling and has begun slipping a little. Both could easily be in the 3rd pot for the next round of qualifying ...

Yeah, but I still think we'll be fairly competitive in the next seasons, actually think we'll get closer (we're not at the turning point just yet). The main thing is if you don't have large users is to have enough users to cover all tactical areas. Our U21 sides will continue to struggle but since we really only need 1-2 U21's making the next level each season, if you have around 20 active and knowledgeable trainers covering your 3 main areas and training by position rather than what the team needs, it's still possible to maintain a reasonable level of competitiveness but tactics then become even more important than before.

Over the coming week or two (hopefully in the coming week) I'll be sending off a fair few skmails to some players I haven't heard from in a while, just checking their progress or if they've dropped anything. Will be a fairly large list but that way I can eliminate players from the db who are now no longer any chance of making the NT, and then I can get to work on dropping some of the players from the NT squad to make room for the next bunch of U21's.

In much closer news, we've got an U21 game tomorrow against Venezuela, think it's actually a Sunday morning game for us since we've playing away.

Then the remainder of the schedule is New Zealand in the last 1st XI game of this season, followed by the competition side match against Guatemala.

Don't really know if our U21's are strong enough to take it to Venezuela (especially with Maras on the requested not to play list, if any other manager doesn't want a particular player playing to keep them in cotton wool for a qualification game on Sunday let me know, it's really about the only time I put representing the club ahead of representing the NT but I'd still prefer to use them.

Start accepting us as association members you elitists!

LoL!

there's nothing to see there anyway ..... ;).....or is there...... ;). Actually there's nothing there, besides which if I let Barhilo in, he'll squeal information over to the enemy :p.

Guess I'll let Barhilo in, just if we decide to talk anything about NZ I can kick him out :p.

If somebody remembers my double winger tactic...today I made it for Poland u23 with 3 senior players and it worked very well :)) Just have a look at it if you have time and want to...

wow, 3 goals from 7 shots, nice ratio there!

Oi, it's tactics mate, tactics...
:p

It says I'm a member of the association but won't let me access the forum?!?!

have you tried searching for the forum under the forum tab? You might need to search for Australia Association and then add it as a forum before being able to read it. There's nothing there though yet. To access the association main page, you have to click on your own username in your club home page, then click associations tab to bring up the list of associations you're part of.

·Access to association Australia Association forum for members only.

Whether I go through associations via my name or via the Australia page. I tried to add the forum and nothing gets added?

appears as if it's a "plus" issue, in that plus users are the only ones able to get access to it, when it wasn't actually intended to be that case, least not the national associations. Think this has already been reported as a bug, but I'll check again and try to get it fixed.

Thanks mate. You are one helpful m*"£$ f"£$ :)

In other news, tossing up potential lineups for the game against Venezuela in 2 hours. Got a preliminary list of players, now I've got to work out the best way to use them. Our midfield is still exceptionally under par. Certainly doesn't help for a game.

One definite withdrawal is Maras due to owner request, other than that everyone is eligible although a few players have significant form problems which has killed their chance of playing.

Hopeful of a win but I'm pretty sure on paper Venezuela will have a stronger side then us.