Asunto: National Team

Would seem to think the 2nd goal as it turned out was a little fortunate but should have been buried off the first rebound by Croxall.

The first was intentionally planned for and it got executed, although didn't happen as often as I would have liked. Don't really see where the "luck" came from considering it was one of the planned moves I tried to have happen. Sure it was fortunate but every goal involves some luck. The only real fortunate moment was hitting the pass straight back to Tarka, the rest was imo well constructed.

That's what I was alluding to. Defender smashed it straight to the only yellow shirt in the midfield, leaving his entire backline out of position. If that was your plan, your crystal ball is better than mine. :p

What I was hoping for was a bit more creativity when it was pretty obvious we'd be facing a back 5. That should give us the opportunity to dominate the midfield and dictate where our chances come from. What I saw was a fairly vacant midfield and the regular outlet through Willis.

On the flip side, that was the safe option, it worked and we got the points. And if the marks are anything to go by, the team the Dominican Republic put on the park was roughly equivalent to the team I put on the park against Cumlionibus today. Australia 65, Dominican Repub 53.

I just thought they set up very well to block our usual game plan and we went in with more-or-less our usual game plan. It was more a rap for phoenyx than having a go at you. Our game plan works, after all we got the points.
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That's what I was alluding to. Defender smashed it straight to the only yellow shirt in the midfield, leaving his entire backline out of position. If that was your plan, your crystal ball is better than mine.

Was definitely the plan for me. Was why I had Zdrilic often running to the right, drawing the players across, hoping they picked up the ball and then took the only option available to free space and then intercept the ball before it got there, fire it quickly to a rampaging Willis and away she goes. Didn't execute as often as I'd have liked but that's a timing issue and knowing it's almost impossible to execute set plays 100% of the time.

What I was hoping for was a bit more creativity when it was pretty obvious we'd be facing a back 5. That should give us the opportunity to dominate the midfield and dictate where our chances come from. What I saw was a fairly vacant midfield and the regular outlet through Willis.

Not necessarily given they take 1 striker away and you've suddenly got the same in midfield as before. In saying that, Willis is our strongest point to goal and I intend to use the strongest points to our advantage. Then if they don't use 5 defenders they cough up goals from crosses. Also it only takes 1 incident where Willis gets in behind draws a red card and we're free again unless they use conditional orders.

On the flip side, that was the safe option, it worked and we got the points. And if the marks are anything to go by, the team the Dominican Republic put on the park was roughly equivalent to the team I put on the park against Cumlionibus today. Australia 65, Dominican Repub 53.

Indeed, we got the points and that was the number 1 priority. Anything else was a bonus. Marks don't mean too much though. They get manipulated too much from certain skills. For example Mangos is our side gains a truckload of marks, whilst Cunico gets a lot less, yet they aren't that different.

Well letting everyone know we've got Ghana tonight. Should be a pretty safe game, have rested a fair few key players for next week to reduce the possibility of them being suspended or injured. Yet we've still got a few of our regular 1st XI out there just to be certain we get the points. Don't really have the time this week for the usual pre-game time filler so I apologise for that, I also won't be online tonight for the game.

Hopefully we're able to knock up around 15 goals. Guatemala scored 9 against them, Austria nailed 21. You'd think we'd be closer to the 20 mark then the 9 but with a few key players out/rested it could be somewhere around 15. Depends what Ghana try to do though, if they try to attack us it could end up worse for them then if they try to defend.

Carnage! Bit of stats padding there. Everyone got in on the action, popping shots from all over the place!

lol @ antifootball tactics from ghana though

and tarka out for 24 days... evens things up a bit between me and shmick :P
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can't really say I was expecting them to try pressing like that but it's a good thing I beefed up on mids with tech/pm/pace and some defense. 16-0 is an acceptable result without Willis/Byers/Storey/Timpano/Broxton and anyone else who'd usually play that didn't.

Wasn't surprised to have 8-9 in a line though but expected it to be a lot deeper so I was content to throw midfielders into the attack with high pm to move the ball around until space opened up. Thing is with the press we didn't have to as once we got through the line we were set for a shot.

Still 16 goals from 30+ 1 on 1's isn't the best return ;).

Tarka the only casulty which is a bit disappointing as everything else went well.

Nice to see Dreger getting some games, I thought that he won't play again for NT ;)

Given we had Byers/Storey/Richter/Hirons/Croxall/Maras (any other strikers I've missed :p) out of form/injured or being rested for next week it's not really too surprising.

Yeah, but who would've imagined that a season ago? ;)

Awww, Royce must be dispensable :(

On a lighter note, he scored his first goal for the National Team! :D

Royce was one of the few I risked playing for the ability to successfully land crosses on players heads, and since he wasn't on 2 yellows it was a fairly safe move.

Another good news for the record - they've killed Maras in last game.
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So his form should go up then :).

I hope ;)

if anyone is training pace and willing to buy u-21 NT villafane, contact me...
i have to go back to train techn, and its not the suitable training for him:(