Asunto: National Team

Nah, you did what was fair of you - you did your best, as you did before against Osterreich. It'd be unfair if you had given me an easier game...:)

Anyway...after a good night's sleep...:p I've decided that I will try for yet another 2 seasons. We're very close to get to top32 and be seeded in 2nd basket, hopefully this time we'll make it! :)

Good to see you running again borkos.
I think on the most part you did well. A few games I would have done things differently (against the weaker teams) which may have got us through to the WC but then again, I probably wouldn't have done what you did against Austria, meaning we wouldn't have made it through, so in the end, would have ended up in the same position we are in now.

If you plan the games well, being in the 2nd basket will certainly make things much easier, and I'm sure you can make it, although looking at your past record, maybe if we were seeded in the 6th basket we'd do better as you do well against hard teams, but seem to get complacent (or unlucky) against weak teams.

Good luck in the elections, I'm interested to see if anyone of note will run against you.

Thanks, the biggest problem I think was that we lost Barnes for crucial games. Also, I have chosen a bad tactic against NZ, in my opinion if I'd used the one we played against South Africa, then we would win that one...oh well, a lesson for the future I guess.

I hope that Huxley finally gets in form, then with Barnes, him and Leijer we will have a proper striker force for the next qualifications.

butler is turning out quite nicely too imo :P

He's still a kid though! ;)

If he's good enough, who gives a ****. If not, don't play him. :)

:D

The NT 'stadium' looks a bit weird in the 3D engine

btw. lots of great changes in the ME etc. :) I can't wait to try them :D
I wonder if it will be possible to change the dimensions of the pitch on NT stadium...

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Group D
1. Australia
2. Bolivia
3. South Africa
4. Shqipëria

1st place is our goal, no idea about Bolivia's strenght, but we should win all games.

Lol...Giannakopulos looks like Hitler

:D

We're taking on Shiqperia in 5min.

They're not that bad as I thought, still 3pts is the goal for the game.
I've prepared a new tactic that theoretically should suit the new engine, but hell knows how it will work.

I've run a fast checkout of the squad - we have tons of great defenders, actually about 9 at the same level. We still suffer from relatively weak sideskills, but we have many double divine/sdivine defs both in pace and defending so I can't imagine a week where we can't use 5 defenders that are in form.

It's a different story with midfielders - while we also have a good number of those, some have form issues, which I hope will be a history when we will take part in next qualifications.

As for strikers - Barnes as always, Huxley as always...without form, young Leijer and Giannakopoulos who still improve and are not in their prime yet and Haereiti who can make a decent substitution in last minutes to ripe apart the defence.

Well we had chances to score, but even if Barnes managed to kick the ball past the gk, it just wouldn't get in, but stop before the line...

I guess the midfield was set too offensively, also their winger had a lot of free space, although in tactic Patterson was supposed to move to the side more often...

I like the way the ball goes around the midfield in new engine, but there are lots of stupid changes...the players are too slow, and the ball bumps after passes? hilarious, after most bumps the ball suddenly goes 2m in the air [considering it goes above the heads of players...]

We were the better side till Griffiths' injury and manage to get more scoring chances, but that wasn't enough today...

Yeah I think you hit the nail on the head with the midfield being too offensive. From my limited experience of the M.E I'd almost argue it's best to clog the central midfield as currently players are too slow to react to cross field passes to the wingers so by the time the ball gets there defenders have already covered the gap.

I'd almost like to propose using 2 strikers as now that defenders can cover automatically a single striker can almost always end up being marked by 2-3 defenders and makes headers and crosses more difficult to land successfully.

In terms of the match engine the only thing I haven't liked so far is the slowness of players and the overall feel to the match. Whilst it does result in realistic scorelines it would be nice if it could be sped up slightly.

The bumps of the ball don't bother me because that takes into account player skills and the pitch condition. Not being able to set pitch conditions for the NT is an issue to be solved but it's heading towards a more realistic outcome although a little exaggerated in 3d mode (2d it looks better).

far out... the strikers (Drum and Van Praet) and now the wingers... (griffiths and Ielati)
I have no attacking players anymore...

We will play the forthcoming game on Legends Stadium, owned by Krayzee Coconuts, since it's the biggest stadium in Australia - 72k. :)