Asunto: National Team U21

Yes. It is

And there we go, through to the final of the Asian Cup, where we are most likely to play the competition favourite, Israel, who we managed to beat in the group stages.

Despite losing our #2 striker to a red card very early in the match, and having Tracevski marked by 3 defenders most of the match, we managed to win 2-0 with a pretty comprehensive win.

The first 15-20min were very scrappy from out players, kicking the ball out every time they got the ball, giving Pilipinas plenty of opportunity to score, and playing like a 3rd rate team, before they finally warmed up and started playing more like the U21 team we have come to love.

Looking forward to next weeks final, we go in to the match missing out #2 striker, our #1 DM and a starting defender, but we will definitely give it our best shot. Going in to the competition as the 5th seed, we have surpassed where we were expected to finish, so really this week and next week are a cherry on top for some awesome training efforts by everyone with an Aus player in their squad

Nice match, u have great confidence on your defense. Philipins played hard but didnt create dangerous options. Australia was better even with 1 less.

Final will be very hard!!!
Good luck

Very disappointed to be screwed over by the ME in the final match of the Asian cup. Not only did we go in to the match missing our #1 striker due to a straight red card in the Semi-Final, but early in the first half, our #1 MID gets an SI passing injury, meaning he is completely inefficient on the field for the remaining 100min. Yes, despite the SI, we managed to only go down 1-0, and that goal was scored in the 110 minute.
What made it worse was, that I had set that midfielder to move to the wing position at the '50, so my main attacking option was useless for the final 70minutes of the match.

Given Israel also had a 4 rating point advantage, it shows just how well we played tactically, and certainly deserved the Asian Cup (as shown by us beating them 2-1 in the group stage, which was 2-0 until '90, but unfortunately the best team doesn't always win, and this was very much the case today.

Our next task will be seeing what we can manage at the WCQ. I will give a run down of how our team has changed and is looking soon.

As usual, Australia was in control of the match, very balanced team focusing on dont provide advatages to the opponent. Israel was playing dirty, I mean, when they got the ball, just throw ahead and see what the forwards can do. Asutralia was lack of the last punch, because played very well

congrats for this second place

Thanks mate.
Consolation prize is we have shown just how far above our weight we can punch, and that it's time for other managers to stand up if they don't want to just ride on the strength of the nation they have been gifted
(editado)

I like when nations that are limited of players do such good matches against stronger nations.

Australia is improving a lot, chech at the yellow shadows

the first graph how many players there are for each age. On 19 and 20 yo still same quantity of 21 yo, but there is time for new pullouts, it means that the quantity of players is increasing in each generation. Still half of players that were 15 seasons ago but it is clear the improvement for this nation


The second graph shows the quality of the players, it is clear how there are very good players around 35 yo, that is the generation of hammond, nicole, both twins alagich adn so on, then we have some 26 yo good players, that is the generation of both GK and defenders. Now you see that 20 yo generartion is comming better than the 21 yo, and hope is continues improving


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Fantastic season. Of course, I can feel you regretting it didn't end with the trophy but still, I bow to you sir for what have you achieved.

Can you explain what the difference between there charts are and what we are looking at?
I did some google translate and it was only mildly helpful

looking only at the yellow shadows shows you:

first chart: total number of australian players per age

second chart: shows the number of stars per age. this was made by manus and the quantity is calculated somehow like this:
1. all players are projected to 18 form
2. it takes projected value of best 5% of 16 yo and shows number of players
3. go to 17 yo and repeats the process, if the threshold of best 5% on 17yo is higher than 16, updates the threshold, otherwise takes the last max threshold
4. goes age by age repeating the process


so... you can see that there are more players on 24yo than 23 yo (first chart) but there are more stars on 23 yo (12) than 24 yo (9) from the second chart, it means that treshold is higher at 23 yo that 24 yo, then better players
Of course this is just a way, it is used the value projected to 18 form which can be disturbed, for example if there are too many GKs at 23 yo which will increase the treshold, but it is a good way to show a big picture


Green bars and lines are players updated on my DB, but dont look at this....
(editado)

As I do every season, here is a progression of how our team has gone since I first started managing the U21 squad, and a quick look at the health of our players coming through

So where are we now?

Users: 12 --> 13 --> 17 --> 20 -->20 --> 25 --> 33
Rank: 50 --> 54 --> 52 --> 60 --> 62 --> 60 --> 53
Rank points: 1587.30 --> 1554.23 --> 1598.71 -->1344.67 --> 1196.70 --> 1271.27 --> 1578.69
Number of players: 38 --> 40 --> 40 --> 40 --> 40 --> 40 --> 40
Average form: excellent --> excellent --> very good --> excellent --> Formidable --> Outstanding --> Outstanding
Average age: 19.9 --> 19.9 --> 19.5 --> 19.5 --> 19.3 --> 19.5 --> 19.6
Average value: 518 811 AU$ --> 373 570 AU$ --> 338 350 AU$ --> 352 310 AU$ --> 352 360 AU$ --> 497 530 AU$ --> 540 830 AU$
Total value: 19 714 800 AU$ --> 14 942 800 AU$ --> 13 534 000 AU$ --> 14 092 400 AU$ --> 14 094 400 AU$ --> 19 901 200 AU$ --> 21 633 200 AU$


So that is an interesting run down above.
Firstly the number of users, unfortunately this is falsely elevated, with a bunch of new teams being made and never logged in too, often with shared IPs, so it does make me wonder about what is really going on here. If anything we have lost users or at least interest by a couple of big people in the community, hopefully this interest returns
Our ranking and rank points shows just how good a season we had. The performance last season has shown it was as strong as ever, it's just a shame we can't keep the same team going in to the WCQ, with the loss of our world class striker and world class #1 defender, as well as a few other big name defenders and mids.

However, when looking at the average value, with only the slight increase in age, we have the strongest squad I have ever started a new season with, which shows just how well everyone's training is, and the results are finally starting to show.

I look forward to seeing what we can achieve with this side. I predict we will have a few problems up front, and out back if the form demons hit, but our midfield and our GK are definitely our strong points.

***annual farewell team post***

***annual age teams post***

This weeks match is against Italy.
We don't plan on trying to win this, draw it or even limit goals, the aim of it is to get match caps on players within the squad to try and save them from getting fired or replaced if their team goes bot.

We have a very young team, and the final scoreline is a little scary, but luckily the rating points lost has diminishing returns.

There will still be a few players who I need to get a game next to their name in the squad, even after this match, which boasts 7x 20yo, 4 x 19yo, 4x 18yo, 1x 17yo (if I am remembering correctly)

I also choose to do this at the start of the season, as any losses will be hardly noticeable after the world cup, where we don't get to select who we play

WCQ this season and here are the teams

Team
1. Polska U21
2. Scotland U21
3. Norge U21
4. Australia U21
5. U.A.E. U21
6. Prathet Thai U21

It's certainly not the worst WCQ we have ever had. Based on ranking points and numbers in the countries, teams 2-6 are actually all fairly even, but when looking at the rating points, Norge field a much stronger team than the rest. If we can share the points with them over the two games, it could give us a chance to sneak in, but this will be easier said than done as they are out rating us by 9-10pts.

Should this not happen, we will be hoping a couple of upsets occur that help us out.

Either way it should be a fun WCQ.

Great match, you almost get an outstanding result....

1 small point, when you play against stronger teams (like today, 10 rating points of difference) , you could do more conservative with your defense.
I mean, once your defenders run outside the big box area, try to make smoother movements running forward, so you have better chances to stop the strikers tackling face to face.
So, run very fast to be outside the big box, but then they could run slower but always moving

I saw the wing was lost in the first half, but did it good on the second half.