Asunto: u21 friendlies

Here it is:

Cameroon is bit stronger than Egypt obviously and is probably our biggest challenge in the rest of the season, but we will still be favorites and I expect another victory. I got use to them recently :-)
They played the same tactic in their last matches so this should again give us advantage if they stick with it. And if not we will beat them anyway :-)
We'll play classic 442 wing with small changes according to the opponent's tactic. Let's see how many posts Ludick hits this time:-)

1 Fabien Lechesa
GK
2 Henry Theunissen
DEF
3 Dominic Cole
DEF
4 Jan Nagoli
DEF
5 Fabian Olivier
DEF
6 Jimmy Molefe
MID
7 Zane Matsau
MID
8 Oscar Methula
MID
9 Bonang Ludick
ATT
10 Petrus Hendricks
MID
11 Marc Niang
ATT

12 William Matshitse
GK
13 Paul Kalaka
MID
14 Thabiso Ledwaba
ATT
15 Granwald Masenia
ATT
16 Joel Felix
MID
Set pieces
Free kick: Zane Matsau
Penalty kick: Marc Niang
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 1
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 2
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 3
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 4
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 5
60' always
Thabiso Ledwaba on position 9
60' always
Paul Kalaka on position 10
60' always
Granwald Masenia on position 11
68' always
Paul Kalaka on position 6
(editado)

We are facing tough opponent in Hong Kong, they recorded 53.5 mark in their last match, they have monster GK, some great MIDs and their strikers have twice the value of ours.
It seems they play the same tactic all the time and just switch mirrors regularly, so the winger is on the other side every other match. I'm beting he would appear on the right side this time and I'll put Theunissen wide on the left defensive wing as his personal cover:-)
They play deeper defense so I have to place our strikers accordingly, it will probably not be a very pretty match, because both teams will play higher defenses.
I would be more than satisfied with a draw this time, let's hope Methula would have his day and will supply our strikers with some winger action :-) They have some holes in their corner defense so I hope we will exploit that also.
As I've mentioned before, this match is also a good bye with our U21 generation..


Squad
1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Henry Theunissen DEF
3 Dominic Cole DEF
4 Jan Nagoli DEF
5 Fabian Olivier DEF
6 Jimmy Molefe MID
7 Zane Matsau MID
8 Oscar Methula MID
9 Bonang Ludick ATT
10 Petrus Hendricks MID
11 Marc Niang ATT

12 William Matshitse GK
13 Paul Kalaka MID
14 Arthur Serola ATT
15 Granwald Masenia ATT
16 Joel Felix MID
Set pieces
Free kick: Zane Matsau
Penalty kick: Marc Niang
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 1
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 2
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 3
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 4
1' red card or no player
Jimmy Molefe on position 5
60' always
Arthur Serola on position 9
60' always
Paul Kalaka on position 10
60' always
Granwald Masenia on position 11
68' always
Paul Kalaka on position 6
(editado)

Against Honduras we will start with our new U21 generation. Of course lot of our 20 year olds were already stars in our team, but we will also introduce some new faces.
Honduras should be weaker, their manager changes a tactic a lot, so this time I won't have to set my tactic base on his :-) Which is a good think concerning my luck in tactic in last 2 matches .-)

This is how our new team will look like:

Squad
1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Shaun Sekano DEF
3 Fabian Olivier DEF
4 Dominic Cole DEF
5 Mfundo Jooste DEF
6 Paul Kalaka MID
7 Petrus Hendricks MID
8 Zane Matsau MID
9 Bonang Ludick ATT
10 Jimmy Molefe MID
11 Granwald Masenia ATT

12 William Matshitse GK
13 Mwila Champion DEF
14 Arthur Serola ATT
15 Thabiso Ledwaba ATT
16 Gerald Magalefa MID
Set pieces
Free kick: Bonang Ludick
Penalty kick: Bonang Ludick
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Bonang Ludick on position 1
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 2
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 3
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 4
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 5
1' red card or no player
Petrus Hendricks on position 8
60' always
Thabiso Ledwaba on position 9
60' always
Arthur Serola on position 11

Bolivia is ranked much higher than us, 47. in the world and have better players, especially strikers, so we will probably be slightly outsiders in this match..
I will give the first start to Sibaya, because Sekano and Champion are out of form.
Our midfield is set for the whole season and there is a gigantic gap behind Matsau, Molefe, Hendricks and Kalaka. Our 5th best MID atm is probably pure defender Magalefa ..Our strikers are deep and young and there will probably come more and more situations when I will have to use 3 ATTs out of necessity..
Agaisnt Bolivia we will start with Serola and Masenia and sub them with Ledwabe and Ludick..there will be no other substitutions because we don't have anybody to substitute with .-)

1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Mfundo Jooste DEF
3 Fabian Olivier DEF
4 Dominic Cole DEF
5 Austin Sibaya DEF
6 Jimmy Molefe MID
7 Petrus Hendricks MID
8 Zane Matsau MID
9 Arthur Serola ATT
10 Paul Kalaka MID
11 Granwald Masenia ATT

12 William Matshitse GK
13 Shaun Sekano DEF
14 Bonang Ludick ATT
15 Thabiso Ledwaba ATT
16 Gerald Magalefa MID
Set pieces
Free kick: Zane Matsau
Penalty kick: Arthur Serola
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 1
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 2
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 3
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 4
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 5

This will be tough. Good luck.

Forgot to put in the orders to sub the strikers? :)

Apparently i did forgot. I was changing the tactic at the last moment and seems like I forgot to put the sub orders..nevertheless Ledwaba was injured, so i would not put him there and Ludick would just hit the crossbar anyway..:-)
(editado)

So the WCQ match against Korea is here!
Their coach is playing the same tactic repeatadly so I hope he won't change it again as it happened to me in last couple matches. They play 5 defenders so I won't use a winger this time and we will play classic 442. It's also good to "confuse" our upcoming opponents with different tactics as I would probably use winger against some stronger teams.
With the unfortunate injury of Hendricks I will have to insert Magalefa into starting squad next to Kalaka as DEF MID and that makes our midfield significantly weaker. Molefe and Matsau will start as off MIDs. I'm actualy thinking about 3 attackers especially with 4 of our striker in high form. What do you think 442 with Magalefa or 433? I would like to use 433 but i'm afraid even with the high form our attackers are still not good enough even against weaker team to create sufficient pressure on the defense by themselves..

Korea plays high defense and when the defenders are running back to the penalty area there are lot of holes in their defense so hopefully we will exploit that. There is also lot of space in their tactic with corners and throw ins.
I'll try something different with my defense movement, they will be positioned at the penalty area and as the ball crosses our half they will move upwards..their attacker are positioned too far away from our penalty area, so with this tatic they will have no chance but to face our defense from the front..

My 442 squad looks like this, I still might change it to 3 atts tomorrow

Squad
1 Fabien Lechesa GK
2 Mfundo Jooste DEF
3 Fabian Olivier DEF
4 Dominic Cole DEF
5 Austin Sibaya DEF
6 Gerald Magalefa MID
7 Zane Matsau MID
8 Jimmy Molefe MID
9 Arthur Serola ATT
10 Paul Kalaka MID
11 Granwald Masenia ATT

12 William Matshitse GK
13 Mwila Champion DEF
14 Bonang Ludick ATT
15 Thabiso Ledwaba ATT
16 Shaun Sekano MID
Set pieces
Free kick: Zane Matsau
Penalty kick: Arthur Serola
Conditional orders
Min. Condition / Action
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 1
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 2
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 3
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 4
1' red card or no player
Paul Kalaka on position 5
70' always
Bonang Ludick on position 9
60' always
Thabiso Ledwaba on position 11

Tactic will be called Choi Hong-hi , after the "Father" of Taekwon-Do (I did that for few years:-)

I decided for compromise, 433 in the first half and change it to 442 in second

I like the idea of attacking them with 3 strikers if you think you can exploit their high defence.

It's interesting to see that their recent marks have been a fair bit lower than ours, even though their average squad value is fractionally higher. It seems that our first team is stronger but they have more depth.

I'm hopeful of a good start to the qualifying campaign, unlike the real life senior team that drew at home to Ethiopia, resulting in the coach getting sacked on Monday!

You just signed a 1 year contract with me, so I can't be sacked :-P You are stuck with me, even if I loose everything:-)
We are starting our real life EURO 2012 campaign today also against Russia, I will be surprised if we won't loose every match there :-)

3 attackers can be very tricky, I positioned them exactly according to their defense movement, but if he changes it and puts defense closer to the penalty area we will be in big trouble.
We will start with 2 19 year old strikers and Masenia, Ludick will come in 2nd half to hit some woodwork :-)

Concerning value/marks - yes our first team is very strong, but as you can see with the injury of Hendricks our substitutes are pretty bad and it forces me to change tactics because of 1 player. We don't have a very deep squad and also i have a lot of 18 year olds in nomination already (so we encourage owners to train NT players) so our overall value is bit low and misleading..

Congratz with the win of U21. The first 3 points!

I checked the game and I have a question about the tactic. Why did you play with a low defense against an opponent who has weaker attackers than our defenders?

You can see in my previous previews that I usually play high defense against weaker teams to create more pressure on their half and support the offense, but as I wrote in this preview I wanted to try something different this time, our defenders were moving toward the ball as soon as they cross our half, this way our defenders faced their strikers (who were too far from the penalty area) from the front and decreased the gap between defenders and MIDs.
High defense is still pretty risky tactic (even though I played it a lot last season) and especially with so many back passes in the new ME. That could result in some unwanted break away situations as the strikers intercept the back passes.
I will probably play high defense in some upcoming matches to mix up the tactic..
(editado)

Ok, I understand. I never used that tactic before, so maybe I'm going to try it with my team. I'm still looking what are the possibilties of the new ME. Because as I said, I statered a couple months ago again with sokker and the ME has changed.

I'm still doubting if I should play 442 or 541 against Greek, so far I've set 541, but our 5th defender Magalefa is only 9/9 in def/pace and 2nd striker despite their youth could perhaps be more usefull, also Greek coach likes to put the winger on right side, so I'm thinking if I should risk it and put just 4 defenders with the left wingback on the side to cover the winger and use 2nd attacker instead of the 5th def..
What do you guys think? Basically should I go for a draw which would still be succes for us (Greek has 739 users) or risk it and may be try for win. Greek is certainly better than us, but there is a slight chance..

9/9 def/pace doesn't sound like it would be much use against the type of striker Greece is likely to have.
If we assume that they have better skills than ours, a 9/9 isn't likely to stop them.

That said, an extra player in defence can help even if it's just to pick up any loose balls.

If you go with the second striker, do you believe that he will be of use?
Will he be able to add to our chances to score?

Tough call.