Asunto: National Team

Yeah less games like that would be good. Purely from the selfish perspective, it takes a long time to get all the goals for the end of season video :P

Nice to see Croxall get a run, he was a little bit slow with his decision making, but had a few decent shots on target that pulled some of the Cypriot keeper's best saves.

Yeah less games like that would be good. Purely from the selfish perspective, it takes a long time to get all the goals for the end of season video :P

Well there goes the idea of smashing the record :p. My main point is it takes a little excitement away from the NT game itself, when you know the result is already a slaughterhouse. This week we had a choice between Cameroon,China and Cyprus so there wasn't a lot of choice. I'll try to get a more competitive game next week where we don't have to win by 20 or more goals just to avoid losing ranking points.

In other news, Canada got trashed 7-0 by Estonian, so they'll drop a few ranking points, giving us some much needed space between 28th and 29th. The next fortnight doesn't get a lot easier for Canada either so it could give us a safety net if we were to win the next two weeks.

The question is what gives more profits - smashing a weak NT 16:0, or winning 3:0 with a decent one?

the latter in this case.

So we should start gaining rank points. :P

What's the situation at the moment? I'm not up to dated with it...

well on the basis of expecting 2-3 new NT's (Cuba,Iran, possibly Luxembourg) that would force it to go to an extra group, making top 2 finishers automatically qualify then the best 2 of the remaining groups (ouch that's getting tight). Top 30 therefore become a 2nd seed, we're currently 28th, probably 27th after Hungary drawing with Austria and us winning 16-0. Canada will lose about 40-50points for losing 7-0 to Estonia, so we should have about a 60-70 point lead ahead of 29th place. We're about 200 points I think above 30th which shouldn't be catchable in 4-5 weeks, so long as we win another 1-2 and don't get flogged by say China for example.

More or less we're looking safe for a top 30 finish, so if it does expand to 15 groups we've booked ourselves a 2nd seed. Now the aim turns to finishing top 28 in case the NT's don't get added and it remains a 14 group competition. That's going to require us to win another 2-3 games whilst Canada dwindles by playing in the U21 WC. Then it's about survival until the end of the season :).

Sounds ok.

And, if you could, how would be the qualifications working like? I mean, if 15 groups then how many 2nd seeded go out? I guess 1+2 = all, and best 2 of 3rd place?

That's what I'd be guessing because that's how it's worked in the past. Thing is though some of the 15 groups will have less teams then others, which could cause a problem.

As always...

What's new in the history of Australia and WCQ draws ;). We'll probably get a 2nd seed then draw something like New Zealand or Canada and end up with the best #4 seed in a 5 team group :p.

Can see it now:

Polska
Australia
New Zealand
Israel
....

What a group that would be....

Although would be great if we could sneak 2 new NT's as 3rd and 4th seeds ;). Ah the possibilities of draws.
(editado)

Well, I see you were quite optimistic with choosin Polska instead of current best NT Italy ;)

I still rank Polska top. You were beaten twice by Italy I know, but you outshot them both times. All you needed that 2nd time was to get a bit of luck and you would have won. In saying that though, for Polska to be able to lose against top teams now, it can only be a good thing for the national team competitions :).

Well I've always said that the proper thing is:

The best offense, is defense.

Not the other way. :D

And it's quite real. When I coached Poland I didn't let them have a try to score. They made one shot outside of penalty box during '90. And we won 6:0. Defence is most important...of course if you have sufficient players.

When's the WCQ draw come out?

think sometime around week 15-0. So we've got until then.

Hehe. What an amazing game I had today...muhaha :)