Asunto: [U21] Sweden (U19/U20)

It will be a great showoff of our youngsters this evening. We are about to play a friendly match against Sweden with six U19 players and five U20 players on the field - one of the first tests of our younger players.

I will start in a bit untraditional way - by showing you the considered lineup:

1. Abdalla Østerberg GK
2. Sammy Brøndum DEF
3. Palle Skram DEF
4. Roland Alf DEF
5. Hans Christian Lynge Larsen DEF
6. Poul Lohse MID
7. Igor Westhausen MID
8. Orla Flindt MID
9. Helge Bøggild MID
10. Asmus Pausgaard ATT
11. Oliver Søsted ATT

12. Peder Ladegård GK
13. Hugo Bøgelund DEF
14. Vagn Damhus MID
15. Jokum Linnet ATT
16. David Simonsen ATT

GK: 19yo goalie Østerberg has already established himself as one of our best goalkeepers at all. Therefore it is no surprise that he will be guarding our post. The reserve Ladegård is a somewhat mystery for me - I haven't got his skills yet, but briefly looking at goalkeepers in store, I think he shouldn't be worse than those I know about.

DEF: As you can see, the defending part will be based on our two great 19yo defenders Alf and Skram. Paradoxly those two 20yo ones next to them are very weak compared to them ;-) 19yo reserve Bøgelund might be a great promise for future (even though he is falling apart behind those two)

MID: Igor Westhausen is already appearing in our matches so let's focus on those others. 20yo Bøggild and Damhus are both quite nice (and they have made it quite difficult for me to choose which one will appear tonight). Damhus is great defensive midfielder with low passing whereas Bøggild lacks the defending. Thanks to that low passing I have chosen Bøggild - one low-passing Westhausen is enough (though I should stop calling him as low-passing as he is making great progress - thanks Neller!)
Apart from these two 20yo ones we have to play two under-19yo ones - and both of them are deadly great! Flindt is pretty much awesome even in his 18yo ones, Lohse doesn't look that great but he still has his merit for a 19yo one :-) After all Lohse should get quite easily on the level of Uhrenholt - and likely he will be even better :-)

ATT: Søsted-Linnet is quite a familiar duo in the matches - these two should be our greatest attacking promise for this match. Next to them we have to use some youngsters. The problem here is the stamina of our under-19yo strikers. I've decided to use adaca's Asmus Pausgaard and substitute him by David Simonsen. Both has crappy stamina but what should I do :-)


Further information will come later. I hope you can look forward to an interesting match :-)

I am very pleased to see the fight.
Good luck
Mvh
Niels

Congratulations
Thanks for a good fight
With a nice victory over Swedes

/Neller

Thank you Neller!

Let me go through the match a bit (starting from the very end). I was surprised a lot by the average mark of our team - we have reached 50.4 which seems more like a mark of our A-team than a mark of a team with an average age of 19.3 years. However our strikers did not deserve to reach such a high rating (especially those 67 points for Søsted are kinda ridiculous ;-))

However the most important thing I have to focus on is definitely the performance of our players:

Abdalla Østerberg (19y) didn't have much to do in the match, Swedes has made one awesome pass ending by a goal but otherwise, they did not have a single dangerous shot (if I remember well).

Hugo Bøgelund (19y) got to the field at the very last minute (as I've decided to make some changes in the nomination of attackers which forced me to use another 19yo guy). But he made me very happy - even though he doesn't have such a defensive quality as Alf and Skram, he still was rather confident and furthermore he had quite a good decisions in play making.

Roland Alf (19y) and Palle Skram (19y) need not to be discussed. They are just superstars of our U19 :-)

Sammy Brøndum (20y) seemed to me as the best choice as a 20yo defender. At the beginning of the match he had quite a huge problems as a wingback, however as the time was going on, he stopped making mistakes and started to play well :-)

Igor Westhausen (20y) is one of my favourite players. He wasn't definitely lost on the field and caused the opponent a lot of problems (even though his passes were sometimes a bit odd, but it is being worked on it ;-))

Poul Lohse (19y) had his bright moments but otherwise he was more like a disappointment to me. He got tackled by the opponents quite often - which in view of his technique just should not happen. But I guess it happened just in this match (maybe thanks to his low form).

Orla Flindt (18y) was the greatest surprise for me. He played just awesome! He was cooperating with Bøggild and causing Swedish defence a lot of problems.

Helge Bøggild (20y) played a pretty decent match in my opinion. He even scored an assist and if he was a bit more lucky, more assists might have come. I might even think of him as a reasonable alternative to our current A-team midfielders (who have decent skills but sometimes play a bit under their level)

Vagn Damhus (20y) lacks the passing a lot. It was great to watch him up to the moment when he tried to make a pass. On the other hand he is a type of defensive midfielder and I've been playing Westhausen with the same level of passing recently...

Oliver Søsted (20y) has already established himself as the best Danish U21 striker and his performance was quite decent (except of that missed penalty). He even scored the only our goal from the play ;-)

Asmus Pausgaard (18y) was quite invisible on the field. He even didn't try a single shot. However it is clear that it is very difficult for a youngster in the attack.

David Simonsen (19y) is unfortunately as weak as I expected - but I needed him to resolve the stamina-problem. Luckily we have better 18yo strikers who did not play yesterday thanks to the tragical combo of stamina and form.

Jokum Linnet (20y) is a kind of player you can hate and love together. Yesterday, it was more about the hating I think ;-)

I hope I haven't forgot about somebody :-) Feel free to write your comments!