Asunto: National Team

Maybe you'd consider checking one of my tactics in a friendly game, or easy qual game? I think I'm quite good at making through passes happen...

At this stage I'd be willing to look at pretty well anything. Perhaps if I could work out exactly the difference between making them and not making them I could then work out how best to stop them as well, allowing us more flexibility in defensive setups. That's ignoring this game because our striker setup was far too short to attract through balls, I'm just saying for other games in the past.

I've always just believed it was a case of timing runs and the pace of the opposition against yours, hence why dropping back often works. Obviously it's not just that and it's something I need to work on.
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With this ME, there are 2 options. A big press or multiple DMs. We effectively played no DMs. There was no-one to "intercept" their passes. Midfielders will pass it straight to DMs. Otherwise they hit passes either side of the CBs.

We controlled portions of the game in the midfield, which probably made us more vulnerable to the through-ball on the counter.

It just didn't work for us today. It happens. We'll bounce back.

Having said that, how often does playing 1 striker result in 6 goals? They won all the headers in our box and converted all but 1 chance.

With this ME, there are 2 options. A big press or multiple DMs.

That's a very good comment. :)

The deep defense is awesome if you catch your opponent with their strikers upfield (see the last Australia vs. New Zealand encounter). But if the opposing strikers are positioned aggressively, these through balls are inevitable. The striker just shoots through the line, as the defenders are essentially standing still.

That said, the match (IMO) was far closer then the score board indicated. Rather harsh.

That being said, logically the defense should have closed up as it was expected to making the gap smaller but they didn't follow instructions too well :p.

Well with other results not being friendly to us:

Uruguay drew with France, Venezuela beat Hungary, Colombia knocked over Belarus, we're really hoping Iceland can knock over Portugal in a few weeks.

We've still got goal difference ahead of Venezuela and Belarus but we're flirting with danger of falling short (just wouldn't be a qualification campaign for nothing now would it :p).

The scenario is this, we must win our next 3 games to have any chance. We also must score at least what we did last time around, so 16-0,5-1,5-0 -> 26 goals. Consequently, no players will be rested for the rest of the campaign to maximise our chances of scoring, except maybe against Guatemala if they are in trouble of missing the Belgium match.

Hopefully Austria slip up somewhere although I'd highly doubt it. They've now got the box seat of having gotten the draw against Belgium and a superior goal difference.

Still we're not done yet, and I don't intend to give up by any stretch of the imagination. I still believe we can put 20 past Ghana, 10 past Guatemala and 5-6 past Republica Dominicana giving us 35-36 goals. The question is how close we can get to that target.

Likely scenario is we're going to need something against Belgium in the final week though unless Iceland pull off a nice win for us against Portugal again.

Anybody interested in picking up a top quality striker, who has played for our NT in U21 matches in the past, who is either willing to or currently training technique?

The owner of Stephen Wirrpanda is looking to offload to a tech trainer since Wirrpanda basically has extremely high pace and striker but is short in tech. Would probably set you back a bit but gives you a permanent class striker, who should rip up just about any league in Australia if used properly.

Let me know, so I can forward a list of potential buyers to the current owner.
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That's going to be an expensive exercise...

yeah it won't be cheap, I doubt div III sides could afford it unless they've been sitting on a pile of cash for a while. Top end of div II might have enough but I'd suspect A League would most likely have the best chance. Guess it depends also how much the owner wants, I'd have been interested had it been 7 weeks ago, since I'm actually training technique but I'm not going to be able to get him up much more before I switch across to pace so it's not really worth my investment, unless I pick him up for less than market price which is unlikely.

A 23yo with that many skills... I suspect he's going to be senior NT at some point too.
If he bumps that tech he's going to do some damage anywhere he goes... he would be a good asset in the AL.

Definately not affordable for a mid II team like mine...

Well it's not just where you are in div II but also how long you've been there. That's probably more important than actual ladder position because you build up funds. So I was saying top of II because they're the ones who have been around longest usually.

I'd be expecting 8 digits (excluding cents) quite easily for him though.

He'll come close to making the NT if he gets the technique. Very similar position as Stephenson as well, both have similar skills and both lack technique to storm into contention.

I understood what you meant... next season I wont be able to afford someone like him either even if my team will be top4 in II.

yeah it takes a bit to be able to afford these kind of players. I can usually only afford 1 every 3-4 seasons, Paredes being the last player I signed for 8 digits (now he'd have been awesome if I could get form up).

i would be training pace but unless i get another uber junior or two, and sell off some of my star trainees, i won't be able to afford him :(

yeah think the manager is after 8mill euro which equates to 12.8mill $AU.

As a random fact out of my own interest, it has come to my attention my 100th game in charge of the Australian NT was against Osterreich in the 3-1 win 2 weeks ago :O. Thought I was getting close to the century mark. Thanks for sticking by during those ups and downs and giving me the opportunity to reach this milestone.