Asunto: [U21] Cyprus

I've already told you that the match with Cyprus has a special flavour for me as I was coach of Cyprus for quite a long time. But in that time I didn't know that it is quite likely that I will play against my own tactic (as I left them there) and I also didn't expect that this match might well decide if we are able to get through to the finals.

Cypriot team will be quite a tough opponent. The guy I am especially afraid is their striker:

Tenio Şevket, Age:21
club: Rafa`s father, country: Kypros
Value: 610 250 $, Wage: 6 000 $
magical Form, very good Tactical discipline
height: 178

very good stamina, hopeless keeper
magical pace, good defender
formidable technique, weak playmaker
average passing, outstanding striker

Pace is a really good weapon at the U21 level. This also influenced a bit my choice of defenders (even though I can't say I am happy with that). I guess that some of the defenders might be quite a tough challenge as eg. Nalbantoglu might well be somewhere around 2x magical. The rest of the team shouldn't be that dangerous but that doesn't mean that they won't threat us at all - they are still pretty decent and they shouldn't be way worse than our stars.

After a long time of thinking, I've decided to base this match on the last week one against Norway. Some of the players shown quite a great quality and the general concept felt quite okay. Therefore we will be using two strikers, four midfielders and four defenders (with close covering of the wings - maybe I should make it even closer?) The current lineup (which might change quite easily) looks as follows:

1. Abdalla Østerberg GK
2. Sten Stålem DEF
3. Jesus Bak DEF
4. Jonas Kohl DEF
5. Oliver Mølle DEF
6. Igor Westhausen MID
7. Bjørn Bordinggaard MID
8. Vagn Hoff MID
9. Ben Uhrenholt MID
10. Oliver Søsted ATT
11. Jokum Linnet ATT

12. Karl Emil Lindner GK
13. Roland Alf DEF
14. Joakim Michelsen MID
15. Svend Fjordbak MID
16. Teddy Villadsen ATT

Dødbolde
Frispark: ikke specificeret
Straffespark: Oliver Søsted

Betingede ordrer
1' rødt kort eller ingen spiller Bjørn Bordinggaard på position 2
1' rødt kort eller ingen spiller Bjørn Bordinggaard på position 3
1' rødt kort eller ingen spiller Bjørn Bordinggaard på position 4
1' rødt kort eller ingen spiller Bjørn Bordinggaard på position 5
60' altid Svend Fjordbak på position 8
60' altid Teddy Villadsen på position 10

From the last week match, you can see especially Østerberg, Westhausen and Søsted. I like the way Østerberg and Westhausen played last week. Unfortunately Søsted has low stamina so he will have to be replaced by yet healthy Villadsen. Villadsen is quite a weak striker but you know how the situation with strikers look like. But he has quite nice stats from the NT games so I hope he will add some goals even today :-)

The main tactical concept I've tried to leverage is a special movement of our two offensive midfielders. The central one has to pull the defenders a bit up and then pass the ball to the one closer to the side. Luckily there will be open space then and our strikers will manage to create some chances like this.

I was also trying to fix the throw-ins in such a way that our strikers will be immediately running forward. Such a sweeping might be quite dangerous for the opponent (if it just works as intended ;-))

And of course - you can check the tactic here.

Feel free to introduce your ideas, criticize etc. It is a very important match and there has to be everything done in order to win :-)

Thank you!


PS: Don't forget that we are playing in Cyprus and therefore the match starts at 18:30

Thanks for the presentations.
I look forward to see the fight.

Good luck.

Mvh. Neller

Damn, damn, damn... This seems like it will never have the end :-(

I haven't expected that our opponent will use three defenders (as I thought it was just a surprise against weak Iran) and there might have been such an amazing space for the winger.

The beginning was rather bad - I had the feeling that Cypriot players are way better than ours. And unfortunately the beast striker has shown its strength when he was laughing at our best defender (even though in a bad form).

The play has turned around then and we were better and Cypriots might well haven't created a single chance, but when we do not score it doesn't mean anything unfortunately. It's a terrific result of scoring a single goal in four matches... I still lack the recipe to make them score unfortunately (even though they weren't shooting bad today, but the biggest chances were blown away)

Feel free to write your comments, I am starting to get clueless...

Thanks!

You do not have striker and it is big problem..

without striker can not win.