Asunto: National Team U21

I’ll say. Similar shots ratio for Senegal v Belorussia but 5 goal diff’ with results.
Senegal’s shooting rating = VG maybe tipped it? Certainly impacts current GD. :(
Still, all to play for!!

Got the first of the back to back matches against Senegal.

Winning fairly easily 2:0 up and we copped a red card for one of our defenders.

I did have him covered with another defender but couldn't get my 5 man def line back which made it a lot harder.

We ended up winning 3:2 but unfortunately let in a goal in the last second to some BS circumstances which hurt our GD

Thankfully we got the 3pts against a stronger team. We just need to back this up on the return leg because our GD is terrible due to some poor RNG throughout the tournament

3pts is 3pts. Take it whatever way you can. Better than 1pt or 0pts in such a crucial match

If you have had some players kicked from the squad, don't panic, this weekend we are playing a 2nd XI team to stop our main team from getting cards.

For most players this will be their debuts but there are just a couple who have played half a dozen matches but don't play in the 1st XI due to form.

It should be fun to see some of the B-team running around the paddock

Pretty even match today, and great to see some players who really have deserved to get some National team game under their belt

1:1 draw a pretty fair result given the shot count.

On a side note, I was just looking through the number of users in each country and Australia is ranked 46 in number of users.
With our current U21 ranking around 30-34, we are punching well above our weight, not a single team ahead of us has less managers.

On the flip side, our 23 users are beating out the following countries:
England - 306 users
Nederland - 73 users
Peru - 74 users
Chile - 72 users
Viet Nam - 90 users
Portugal - 75 users

So 46 is the mean rank we should be based on numbers, awesome work all for getting us above that

Not forgetting the great work from the manager… continually punching above weight since you took the reigns.

Absolutely! A master tactician to maximise the points.

Thanks all, appreciate the kind words.

Let's see what happens this weekend, fingers crossed we can take some points from it

Big win today bringing us to 6pts in the back to back matches.

Certainly doesn't guarantee our place in the group stage but this is about the best position we could have expected to be in at this stage in the tournament.

Indonesia is still a big game given their ratings, and of course, if Senegal pull off a win against Argentina, that could hurt (although may drop Argentina to the relegation spot) but definitely over the moon taking out the stronger team on both occasions with good tactics

Great game again, achmid! Good to see my guys doing what they do best.

Really really awesome job you make !!

Congratulations. Australia is now guaranteed the World Cup. Senegal has become this strong for the first time in its history.

26 shots to nil…did they have 3 in goal !!
Hard done by.

Strikers are definitely stressing me out with their poor conversion rate this campaign, but we managed to ger the 3pts again with a 1-0 win despite a shot count in the teens.

If we can get just 1 point in the next 2 games, we are guaranteed to be qualified to the world cup group stage.

Finish with 6pts and you get a top 2 pot for the WC :).

First thing is to ensure you get at least 1pt though. You’ve had a good run this season so far aside from poor shot conversions

So some news I wanted to put forward so that it doesn't come at the end of this campaign (where we may be celebrating moving on to the World Cup Group phase), this season (if we don't qualify) or next season, will very likely be my last as U21 NT Coach.

With the coming of our first child next week and having to concentrate on the hustle required to move my career in to the next phase (which could be a 6-10yr commitment), I just won't have the time to continue on as NT coach.
I will still be active in the forums, training youths, everything that a usual club team does, but just not taking on the extra responsibilities associated with the NT coach.

I bring this to the Australian community attention just so you can consider whether you would like to take over the role. All things going well, and what is most likely, this will still be 4 months away before I hang up my hat, so it's no rush for anyone to make a decision.

I find with the use of Sokker Assistente, and until devs bring in the ridiculous only allowing plus NT coaches to see shared skills, it only takes a couple of hours per week to have 95% promising players updated, and then once a month an afternoon going through the players that don't auto update (ie those not in the NT squad and who don't have managers who use Sokker Assistente). I am also able to scout youth pulls, transfers etc. from Aus clubs in that time.

The most time consuming bit can be scouting other teams, their tactics and building tactics to counter, but will some well tested tactics, and knowing which little edit each has, if I run out of time, I can often select a previously used tactic which adequately, but not perfectly, counters the opposition.

Anyway, just keep it in the back of your mind should you wish to take over the role and I'm happy to assist and share thoughts privately, whether it be about running the NT, keeping the community involved, tactical planning, player selection or how to go about giving advice to other managers regarding their players