Asunto: NT World Cup Qualifiers

We're now at the halfway stage of the qualifying campaign so thought that i'd post a few stats.

1 Belgium 15 pts + 45gd
2 Scotland 10 pts + 33 gd
3 Peru 10 pts +30 gd
4 Japan 6 pts
5 Latvia 3 pts
6 El Salvador 0 pts
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Average team marks:
formidable België
excellent Scotland
Perú
solid Nippon
Latvija
average El Salvador
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Average individual marks:
69.0 België
65.0 Scotland
61.8 Perú
51.4 Nippon
49.1 Latvija
34.3 El Salvador
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Leading scorers:
19 Brent Leiper Same Asy
17 Giovanni Alvarez Jvpongatana
Sven Boon Reszka Kolno
12 Jef Lippens Dobry Zły i Brzydki
11 Maigonis Avenājs Fk JokeR
9 Marcelo Hayashi Estrela de Freixie...
8 Jacob Ridgers Dinamo Rebelde
6 Johan Verlinden FC Victrix
Taisuke Hiraoka Vienna Cheetahs
Martin McDermot Orzeł Przeworsk
4 Bjorn Stroobants F.c Dorobanti Buzau
3 Filomeno Yamashiro Angelitos FC
Māris Dāliņš FC Kruc
Timmy Verbauwhede Pool Guiño Guiño
2 Augusto Malbernat High Point Hitmen
Kim Syx ljilukaerds
Tatsunori Morino Hataka Ronin!
1 Jan Tambour Witnica Texans
Hideo Shiiya Hataka Ronin!
Alvis Smetanin Sandy Beach
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Most assists:
7 Filomeno Vlahos REAL Kalisz
Florent Boeckx Iskra Tarnoff
5 Sven Boon Reszka Kolno
4 Ģirts Zholtok FC Kruc
Reiichi Inoha Real Sesto
Paul Wilson Vastelwood Rangers
Segundo Grańa Montero YoCalidad
3 Adam Mason borabora`s
Peter Lappin Vastelwood Rangers
Martin Stuart Bruce City
Dale MacCaul FC Nacyna
Johan Verlinden FC Victrix
Claudio Montalván FC Ochajo
Brent Leiper Same Asy
2 frank speliers borabora`s
Anton Rozentāls FK Ipiķi
Dorus Matthijs Fight Club
Hugo Hoefkens chnos F.C.
Nathan Driessens Mvc Vlamingdam
1 Augusto Malbernat High Point Hitmen
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Players with best average mark:
92.0 Arne Bennesteker Team Niløse
Jean-Louis Cocker Soisalo Wolves
Toribio Díaz Campos Larrea FC
91.5 Neill Sherry Tartan Terrors
91.0 Alexander Scotland Ciumegii Hawks
90.5 Jonas Moerloose BVBA Isimobewerking
87.3 Ignacio Saco Vertiz FC Klimatyczna
79.0 Yoshiro Nakata WARAI OTOKO
77.0 Sven Boon Reszka Kolno
76.0 Jan Tambour Witnica Texans
74.0 Florent Boeckx Iskra Tarnoff
73.8 Brent Leiper Same Asy
73.0 Hugo Hoefkens chnos F.C.
Gilles Massaux Nysa Kłodzko (CF)
frank speliers borabora`s
Agnis Murashov Dinamo Portazza
72.3 So Sahara incavolati
Phillip Nevis Tartan Terrors
71.4 Jef Lippens Dobry Zły i Brzydki
70.0 Timmy Verbauwhede Pool Guiño Guiño

I found this interesting also,(posted by Nin in sokker International) hopefully it's not going to be needed but the back-up plan currently looks likes this..

Österreich 12 Pnts +21
Australia 11 Pnts +17
Peru 10 Pnts +30
Canada 9 Pnts +30
------------------------------
Norge 9 Pnts +28
Portugal 9 Pnts +17
Belarus 9 Pnts +12
Colombia 9 Pnts +10
Bulgaria 9 Pnts +7
Venezuela 9 Pnts +2
Ireland 9 Pnts +0
Sverige 9 Pnts -2
Cymru 9 Pnts -6
Bosnia 8 Pnts +3

That's the current standings for the 3rd place qualifiers.
The four best 3rd placed finishers will qualify for the WC.

Seems like we will have 2 disappointed nations next week facing each other :)

i was just curious about the World Cup Qualifying Stats to see who are emerging as the stars of the tourney so far, so had a quick scan through the stats for each group.

i was very plesantly surprised to see that Tanislovas Varaneckas is up there making a name for himself!

- He is the current leader in Assists with: 13

- His average rating of 78.8 makes him:

The 8th best outfield player (including Polish players), and
The Best outfield player (ignoring Polish players) in the whole qualifying tournament!!!


i hope he can keep it up (unless Lithuania come up against Scotland in the World Cup itself) ;)

A vital match this week v Peru will almost virtually guarantee WC qualification for the winner, another draw and it will be a goal race between us in the remaining matches.

Early signs aren't so good with McDermot injured and Rodgers and O'Neil on low form. Alexander Scotland is the only keeper in the squad without a red cross next to his name so hopefully he wont be used on Wednesday.

No problems so far regarding the defence or midfield so it's not all bad :)

Please let me know of any NT pops on Thursday as a final line up wont be decided untill then, Cheers

Biggest day of the season today as far as the NT is concerned and i've finally decided on a tactic and line up after making 3 different tactics this week including a 3-6-1 :)

Hopefully i've called it right .

No major surprises in the line up but 2 players appearing on the bench are there due to "circumstances" one wont appear unless injury forces him on to the park and the other will only appear if things aren't going our way after a set period.

Fingers and toes crossed for this one, we will make chances i'm sure, hopefully today we can take them.

When you hear the noise...... :)

Scotland 4 Peru 1

Much relief tbh, i knew that we were better than Peru and could/should beat them but i was a bit worried about our strikers recent goals per shots ratio and doubled with missing 4 of our best 5 strikers due to injury/form then i'll admit to being a little aprehensive about this one.

A good day for Leiper to prove me wrong though and if i knew that we were going to see a first half red and i could pick the player then Ridgers is exactly the guy that i would have picked, it didn't hinder us too much especially with Lappin playing high up in support of the strikers.

We are now looking good for WC qualification, for us to now be caught for second spot then Peru will need to outscore us in our remaining matches against the bottom 3 NT's and beat Belgium whilst hoping that we fail to pick up at least a point v Belgium. We have a 9 goal advantage over Peru which they will have to make up so overall i reckon that 2nd spot is now safe.

Apologies to Suttie for Stevie Mac's 14 day injury.
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Well done mate.

was nice game to watch. Loved the lines you set for Nevis :)

Good job. :)

Well played and deserved result.

Latvia up next in our qualifying campaign, a NT whom we beat 7-0 previously and i'd hope for a similar scoreline on Saturday despite missing two of our most influential mids, McColligan is suspended and Wilson is injured. Also out will be Steven MacInnes who was injured on NT duty last week. The strikers see Ridgers suspended and McDermot carrying a slight knock.
Fortunately, we are strong enough in defence to cover MacInnes and finally a rise of a few levels of form will bring Austin McWilliam back into the squad and provide cover to the midfield, which just leaves us one short in the striking department should McDermot not recover in time, but we do have one or two options.

Kick off will be 5.30pm local time.

Latvia 0 Scotland 7

I'll start off with a moan...7 goals from 38 attempts! :(

Still, 3 more points and with Peru only winning 2-1 over Japan it strengthens our position in second place.

2 surprises in the line up today were Duncan Henry and Phillip Payne, Henry was originally trained as a defender and is now being turned into a very decent defensive mid so with McColligan suspended today it was ideal to give him a run out, it's also an area where we are fairly short of options so nice to have a bit of competition for a game in that position.
Phillip Payne, along with Brent Buchanan, are the two most likely to step in should we ever run into winger trouble, so again it was an ideal match to test him out. Perhaps he can get longer game time next week.

I started with a moan so i'll finish with a smile.

Alexander Scotland.....95!

:)

Training him up (Henry) as a def-mid was always a good option. If he'd stayed with me I'd have done the same thing I'm sure, he was marginally more talented than Renwick and a good buy for me on the transfer market considering his owner had effectively quit the game and I kew nothing about him. But the profit potential when i sold him was just to good to turn down.

2007-12-11...Psycho Clowns..->..Orzeł Olkusz....3 659 249 £....(319 800 £)

2007-04-12...Bannockburn 1314..->..Psycho Clowns...1 245 000 £...(204 600 £)

8 months = £2.4m

(Renwick should have improved more than what is apparent to me, I can only assume he gets haphazard training.)

The only pop from Renwick i've had was a defender one in june, which is slightly surprising giving all his mid orders.

Better news on another ex of yours though, Russell MacMartin is also receiving mid training and will most likely feature in the NT very soon. Like i said regarding Henry providing competition, the same applies to Russell and whilst i think about it yet another ex of yours is coming along lovely, Brent Buchanan, he's got a transfer ad out just now if anyone fancies a peek.Brent Buchanan 5934422

This post started out as a happy at our new defensive mid situation but has actually ended up as a Gypsy King appreciation post :)

*Just remembered where our main def/mid came from :)

Buchanan's current owner list him within days of buying him for double the price he paid for him.

You can see now he wants 15m Euro. He was asking 14m from the first few days. At the end of all Buchanan's training, when he takes over a season to continue popping in any given skill, he might be worth that money. Owner wants to achieve that price without training him basically.

He was a top talent though, 3.25 if I recall.

(MacMartin was also a sub-4 week talent)
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