Asunto: National Team

What is the fascination of playing top teams?

I'd rather play lower ranked teams, thump them and have our ranking points improve so we might finish with a 2nd seed position for next seasons world cup qualifiers.

Playing top teams kills any chance of this unless you're able to enforce they use severely depleted squads to the point of us being certain to win.

My aim is world Cup. So I have to face with top teams one day:) and Top teams mean more points. If i win against such teams i will get good points and if i lost ,i won't lose much. 73 reyting isnt bad, we can defeat some of them i think.

Australia NT Schedule

Week 02: Viet Nam
Week 03: Mini WC
Week 04: Mini WC
Week 05: Mini WC
Week 06: Mini WC-1/8 final or Indonesia
Week 07: Mini WC- 1/4 final or Israil
Week 08: Mini WC 1/2 final or New Zealand
Week 09: Mini WC final or Suomi
Week 10: Venezuella
Week 11: Hellas
Week 12: Bulgarian
Week 13: Belarus
Week 14: Hirvatska
Week 15: Malaysia
Week 00: Colombia
Week 01: Free

Don't forget NZ. It's tradition to play them every season. ;)
Edit: Oops, I didnt see week 8.

Good luck AkunA.
(editado)

against many of the teams that are in the schedule you have almost no chance...Australia has some nice players, but it's nearly impossible to compete with most of top NTs.

you have 60pts to place nr. 32 in rank and if you reach it, you will have a really big chance to qualify...but from pot 3 it is close to impossible...

I dont see like you, why it is impossible. I know many good nt's, they have very bad coachs.
Surely i will try to reach in top 32. but i dont see any team in my schedule impossible to defeat:) I guess you mean Suomi, Bulgarian,Hirvatska. we will see what will happen.

of course, sometimes it's possible - I've beatean Osterreich twice during one qualifications :D

but one need's luck in such games and high forms of players...

Yes, luck is very important, and opponent's coach as well :) And I havent seen the players yet. I'll see first what I have.

Actually, I quite like the idea of challenging some bigger countries.
We get to be the underdog, we get a nice points bonus if we can pull off an upset, and it's much more interesting for the manager. AkunA will also learn in these games how best to use the squad to get results against bigger teams when we hit WCQ.

There are a few easy wins in there. No harm in chucking in a few hard games in there too. Gotta make AkunA earn his paycheck. ;)

Also, if we only play weak teams, we can't pick up many points. One unlucky loss would put us back where we started. With this random ME, it's worth rolling the dice a few times. :)

Australia NT Schedule



Week 02: Australia 0-0 Viet Nam
Week 03: Australia 0-0 Mini WC
Week 04: Australia 0-0 Mini WC
Week 05: Australia 0-0 Mini WC
Week 06: Australia 0-0 Mini WC-1/8 final or Indonesia
Week 07: Australia 0-0 Mini WC- 1/4 final or Israil
Week 08: Australia 0-0 Mini WC 1/2 final or New Zealand
Week 09: Australia 0-0 Mini WC final or Suomi
Week 10: Australia 0-0 Venezuella
Week 11: Australia 0-0 Hellas
Week 12: Australia 0-0 Bulgarian
Week 13: Australia 0-0 Belarus
Week 14: Australia 0-0 Hirvatska
Week 15: Australia 0-0 Malaysia
Week 00: Australia 0-0 Colombia
Week 01: Australia 0-0 Sverige

is there a database for australian players?

I will send you ;)

when will you send me?

Also, if we only play weak teams, we can't pick up many points. One unlucky loss would put us back where we started. With this random ME, it's worth rolling the dice a few times. :)

Strategically speaking, the best bet is to find teams with ranking points above their level that we should beat. There's usually a few sides who are in that situation which makes it beneficial. (Paraguay,NZ,Wales are a few that come to mind based off the current ranking).

Playing 16 extremely weak sides is about as useful as 16 extremely tough sides. You need to play those weak enough that we will win but still gain something from. I use to look for sides around the 1000-1200 ranking point range (probably 1500-1700 now given the newer countries that are now in mass negatives) that I felt was easy enough to pick up a result from. Granted the M.E has changed, but if you still end up shotless or keeping the opponent shotless the M.E means little. A stronger side will win more times then not if the tactic is superior.

That's why you don't want to take on too many top teams. Yes the reward is great but the probability is quite small.

This changes if you can arrange a fixture with a top side such that we are favourite to win. By all means play a top side if you can arrange this, but don't play a top side at even close to their full strength.

I'd have avoided playing Sweden and Greece. They're just ahead of us in rank but they're stronger than us and are more likely to win. A loss to those will see us losing a large chunk of ranking points.

Anyway, your choice. Just seems strange if you're aiming for the WC that you're gambling a bit as to whether we make the top 32 or not. I'd rather take the boring way and get into the top 32 myself, especially with the MWC where we're likely to face some top teams anyway.
(editado)

Yeah we need to not play very weak teams, but not teams stronger than us.

Very few (if any) teams above us in rankings are actually weaker than us, or close enough to be worth playing judging by stats.

Remember the "formula" (albeit out of date a little is still pretty close), the bonus to winning a game above a higher team doesn't stack up against the points for winning.

Anyway you may prove us wrong and win a majority of those games against those top teams, but if you are going to play top teams it should be at the start of the season as if we lose points, we are then closer in points to the weaker teams and therefore gain slightly more points for winning