Asunto: National Team U21

He is definitely high up there on the rankings

Yes, trying to train him as my next Collina (although down on PM when comparing)....hoping talent gets him there.

Well that was a bit of a chaotic match.

Haven't watched it but thanks to a busy work schedule, I didn't get a chance to actually sit down with my spreadsheet and work out our best XI, so just set the 6-7 players who I knew what kind of position they would fill, and guessed the rest.

I suspect our 1st XI line-up for the rest of the season will be very different.

And then on the other side of the coin, the Austrian coach thought we were playing an u20 match for some reason, so they went under 20s, which had I have known (and had the time), I would have done the same.

First game of the season jitters strikes it seems

On a bright note....

Ray Tong, age: 17
club: Melbourne Mongrels, country: Australia
value : 54 000 AU$, wage: 1 040 AU$
formidable [11] form, hopeless [1] tactical discipline
height: 181 cm, weight: 75.2 kg, BMI: 22.95

hopeless [1] stamina tragic [0] keeper
poor [3] pace good [7] defender
weak [4] technique average [5] playmaker
hopeless [1] passing tragic [0] striker

Nice start of season 17yo

*Post here later*

And the outgoing class of season 58 has arrived, and what a gun team they were.

They managed to hold our 3rd basket spot despite being a WCQ season, put up strong fights against top nations, and all this on the back of our gun striker never being in any sort of form.

As a comparison to the previous 9 seasons I have been coaching, here are some of their overall end of season ranks.

GK - nil outgoing GK this season.
DEF - #1 defender we have ever had. As well as #12 and #13.
MID - #1, #3, #4 and #10. Never have we had a stronger bunch of midfielders, they will no doubt dominate the midfield in the future, however I know there are others in that top 10 who won't be easily to overtake
ATT - #2 striker but never got to play much do to terrible form, as well as #10.

This all just goes to show that everyone here who trains Australian players, and pulls youths, have put in a massive effort to make us as strong as we are today, and continue, season on season, to churn out the goods.

In a good place for new season....MF aside. :)

Ray Tong, age: 17
height: 181 cm, weight: 75.2 kg, BMI: 22.95

hopeless [1] stamina tragic [0] keeper
weak [4] pace good [7] defender
weak [4] technique average [5] playmaker
hopeless [1] passing tragic [0] striker

....random Pace pop :)

Close loss tonight.

Decided to use the subs to blood some new players at the end of the game to protect them from potentially being fired, but it probably also cost us the game as our players stamina was dropping.

Next week should see the start of the U20 Mini World Cup.

There are many strong seeded teams, with competition getting hard very quick given the straight knockout format, but we will give it our best shot.

Whilst form and skill pops will dictate the team we actually use, I thought it would be fun to name a Squad

...

U20 Squad on tour for the Mini World Cup

1. Travis Choony - Panter
2. Anton Boyd - -kokkie-
3. Terje Parkinson - Cachan
4. Andrew Wilson - Oldenbarneveld
5. Tristin Rayner - Achmid
6. Karl Sevin - Agbell
7. Perry Houston - Carlimau
8. Morgan Santalab - Lew1
9. Loyd Turner - J.o.k.e.r
10. Michael Cameron - Arthouse
11. Scott Hart - FerniGame
12. Callum Greenwood - Cometer
13. Jay Panopoulos - Cometer
14. Eric Singeorzan - Achmid
15. Blair Yang - Delta2
16. Jamie Hayden - Oscar
17. Ron Piper - Molas90
18. Campbell Robinson - Beraruldoru
19. Adam Mirco - Tabby
20. Oscar Sekulovski - Tabby

Looks like it was an unseeded draw, and boy did we cop a rough one to start.

We will be facing Nederlands, who is a 2nd basket team, and really should be in the world cup.

This may be a one and done kind of competition for us this time, but I'm sure our u20s will give it their best effort

So...computer just fried itself today, which means I don't have access to my player database.
Not good given we are going to u20s today, so don't even have an old line up to use

Good effort against Netherlands btw. 1-1 in regulation time nothing to sneeze at. Only fell behind once in the game at the very death end of ET.

Yeah the tactic was very good against them

Between having to pick 15th choice mid, 14th choice defender, playing against a team that should be playing in the world cup, and really it all coming down to the fact our two keepers have poor (3) and hopeless (1) stamina respectively, so had no hope of lasting the time, definitely a good result.

Really that was probably the final of the MWC but in the first round

Def pop....

Rory Groom, age: 21

very good [9] stamina hopeless [1] keeper
outstanding [12] pace outstanding [12] defender
good [7] technique solid [8] playmaker
adequate [6] passing poor [3] striker