Asunto: National Team

Keep your ear on the ground with this lad:

Denis Stathakis, age: 17

club: HFC Haarlem, country: Australia
value: 74 750 €, wage: 1 025 €
very good form, hopeless tactical discipline

weak stamina tragic keeper
average pace good defender
poor technique solid playmaker
good passing adequate striker

ps. Maras got 69 today :)

heh, dont forget this guy too :)

Wayne Durante, age 17
value: 90 000 AU$
wage: 1 600 AU$
unsatisfactory form

unsatisfactory stamina hopeless keeper
weak pace good defender
adequate technique solid playmaker
unsatisfactory passing adequate striker

will do.

we're ready to rumble :). Ando,Baveas and Willis all sitting in the stands. Interesting times and test for our next lot of midfielders and whether or not they can do the job that's required. We've got plenty of scope in who we select from. Timpano/Beauchamp/Oliveira/Zdrilic/Thompson/Tarka/Plesa all available for selection and all capable of producing what's required.

Wouldn't surprise me if Belarus went in with something similar as last week, pretty sure they'll try an offside approach and use a winger down one of the sides. That seems to be their style of choice and Japan exploited us a few times with wide striker placements. We'll see if Belarus try something similar given they've probably watched our past few games ;).

They also tend to cram the central part of the defensive half with players from what I've picked up making them difficult to break down.

Anyways, we're set and this is a week I said I'd have difficulty for but I've managed to find sufficient time in amongst some good old fashioned cramming for examinations.

Winner of this match is likely to win fairly easily next week as well which would make it the final. Would be a nice reward to get there again.

got thumped in the end. Think it was a bit of a unfair match the entire game though, we kept fumbling when we normally don't, we kept kicking the ball out when we normally don't other than Kilkelly. We fell off tackles we usually don't, we butchered chances up forward like we usually do.

End result we get beaten, can't think of 1 thing that went in our favour that game, everything went against us.

As already stated didn't have time to do a proper analysis and tactic, figured they'd use the winger though so tried to cut the winger off but didn't work. That will hurt the ranking points just a little.

we're out?

sorry, but true

I like it that borkos thinks of himself as Australian :)

:D Just spotted it ;) funny thing.

I want to go to Australia, maybe one day :) I was thinking about some travel&work...

12 shots to 9, and we lost 5-0 largely off stupid mistakes and 50-50 chances but that's the breaks :(.

Also having exams doesn't help, so it really was a bit of a rushed job this week. Had expected them to defend the wing whilst flipping their tactic but in the end it wouldn't have mattered much anyway, we got outplayed.

Howarth's experiment at central defense I think can finish after this performance ;).

Belarus Goal Breakdown

1st goal - Howarth fumble
2nd goal - Broxton fumble, Kilkelly mis-tackle
3rd goal - yeah decent goal freakish header though. Massive GK blunder (should never have come out)
4th goal - Howarth double fumbles
5th goal - can't complain, bit unlucky though 50-50 ball.

Think that spots going back to Kohler/Mangos/Burns.

Kilkelly pretty sloppy today as well. Actually lots of sloppy players out there today, Byers didn't really impress tremendously either. Guess the most impressive was Tarka who only got the last 30minutes.

That's why I was never sure about Howarth...his technique...I remember he completely destroyed one of qual. games...against Nederlands. 2 mistakes of Howarth = only 2 goals...and 1:2 the result...

well he's had a bit more tech since your days and I'd imagine would fit in other team's central defense (those less fortunate then ourselves). Certainly not as strong as it could be but it's not a lot less than our best technique defender.

Considering Broxton fumbled a few times despite outstanding tech and divine form :@. That's frustrating to see when opposition teams are almost flawless like Belarus were.
(editado)

Well, that's the engine. It's upsetting when you see a divine technician in form who can't control the ball....and when opponents excellent stirker dribbles your divine defs without a problem - this one from Polska 2:1 Mexico ;-)

Maras scored 3 today and gave mey a 3:1 win :)

Looks like more NT cuts are going to have to be made. I'll get around to finding out some latest skills from these players and then wield my axe to get it back down to the current requirements of 40, otherwise we can't play any U21 or competition games this season due to the low squad numbers. Expect a large chunk of quality to be cut, we'll need to cut 32 players just to reach the new requirement.

Believe it's too low but currently can't add players to the squad. Would have thought 60-70 would have been better but it's not to be. When I make these decisions I'll let you all know who ended up getting the cut. I will strongly emphasize though that this doesn't mean they won't make the NT, it's just to conform to these pointless regulations. Any of those who I drop will be added to the observe section so I'll still be keeping track of their form/eligibility but it makes it an uglier and less friendly solution.

In other news have booked a match with Hellas for this weekend. I'm through my busy period and should now be free for the rest of the season and more emphasis will be put into the role.