Subject: [U21] friendly season

Portugal (13.) - New Zealand (71.)

Our first U21-match of the season is against the strongest team of this season's schedule: Portugal. The team of coach banido is the current number 13 of the world and clearly the great favourite of this match. Probably they let the heaviest animals in the hutch because they have to play the U21 world championship. Nevertheless it will be a big fight not to lose that clearly.

Date: saturday, 2013-05-11
Kick-off: 5.30
Match: TV-Studio

Good luck!

Thanks Ford Kuga!


Well, the first match was not that good. The tactics was not that bad in my opinion, but we definitely have a problem with our defense. They are to slow and to weak I have to think about putting the DefMids in another way and of course the defense itself. Mason was better than expected, passes from Mitchell came without precicion and often enough to late. Hagan as central DefMid was convincing and Stephens too. Luckily we now have a better striker then Reid. The 20yo Doug Donoso seems to be stronger then Reid. Also a bit desastrous was the performance of my Corey Bodger. I expect a bit more from a divine keeper. Next friday we'll have a home match against Bosnia - also one of the top teams this season. They will play the WC, so it also will be a hard match for us.

indeed...i saw the match, every occasion was a goal unfortunately....probably you should had played with cowan as a central defender, where the strikers were positioned...he`s probably the single decent defender you have
the tactic was pretty good as you said, but the defenders were the real problem here
(edited)

Thanks for your point of view!
This week I have to check the players again with the more on information we now have. Probably we can field a stronger defense now.
Cowan is the one with the most passing. I've put him there to create passes to Mitchell and to have a strong defense on our more active side. But you're right, Cowan on the place of Dempsey would have been better.

New Zealand (74.) - Bosna i Hercegovina (26.)

In this early status of the season we face another WC-participant: Bosna i Hercegovina. The team of coach Amir finished as second of the qualification group G behind Italia.
After our expected but a bit undeserved loss against Portugal we have to show a better performance. During the last couple of days we received a lot of information about the skills of our team. So we now have the possibility to give our players the adequate positions and we also know something about their situation concerning stamina. Thanks a lot to all the managers that mailed Spin and me the skills! It was big help. Now lets hope for a better match of New Zealand U21. I'll do my best to show an adequate tactics. Have fun! :-)

Date: friday, 2013-05-17
Kick-off: 19.30
Match: TV-Studio
(edited)

great result mate, deserved... congratulations :)
perfect tactic i would say...at the beggining i was not very confident in that 3 defenders tactic, but it was the right choice afterall

Great result! very compliments!

Thanks a lot! Perfect isn't the right word but it was okay. With five new players it was some risk and of course also with only three defenders. But Bosnia played like expected, so it was okay. :-)
I'm really glad. A draw against Bosnia is great.

Colombia (37.) - New Zealand (73.)

The week the U21 world championship starts we face Colombia with our U20 squad. So it's the first test of the qualification age group. Preparing the tactics was not that easy. We have not that much defenders and keepers. But the midfield and the strikers are really competitive. So one's for sure: I can promise are a lot of goals. Hopefully on the right side. ;)

Date: friday, 2013-05-24
Kick-off: 11.29 am
Match: TV-Studio
(edited)

Sorry guys, but we were cheated by Colombia. It was fixed as a U20 match but they played with their U21-team (11 U21 players including their substitutes). Damn Colombia!



Nachricht von: bogged An: Collunder
Versendet am: 2013-05-18 07:08
Betreff: Friendly U21
;) this match U20 ;) accept my invitation
(edited)

i don`t understant these people...you should post this on international, so everybody could now this situation and avoid him in the future
the team did pretty well anyway..

The midfield was a bit to defensive. But they worked pretty well. The defense made an exellent job. If you know their skills you won't believe. ;)
U20 New Zealand against U21 Colombia was a harder test than expected, but okay. I'm still pissed.

Next week we'll have a derby against Australia. Them with U21 and us too.

New Zealand (74.) - Crna Gora (70.)

This week we play against a team of similar strength: Crna Gora - another team of the south east of Europe (we already have some good experience with this part of Europe). The star player of them is unfortunately their striker Draženko Riković so Cowan and the rest of the defense will have a lot to do. Hopefully we can avoid cards in this part of the team. This match is fixed as a U21 match, so we try and field our best to get an adequate result. Actually we have found another keeper who is now 20 years old, so he will be our keeper for the qualification next season. Luckily I was able to buy him even he was not that cheap like the transfer comparison told. And luckily 2 there was a breakdown of the sokker page while bidding for him. Otherwise he would have been much more expensive. So: Hahahaha! ;)

Date: friday, 2013-06-07
Kick-off: 7.30 pm
Match: TV-Studio

PS: I'm sorry about the loss against Australia. I still have to check this derby because at the moment I have no clue why it was that nasty for us.
(edited)

Again a nasty defeat. Crna Gora surprised with three strikers. Our defenders tried their best and I'm lucky we were not beaten nastier. I knew they have a strong attack but I tried to strengthen our midfield to create chances. That was a fault. It didn't work at all. The central midfield was weak and my hope for winger runs and finishes by Reid failed because of the weakness of our strikers. Nevertheless I learned how I should NOT play again. I have to try something really new. I hope for your patience. :-/
Have a nice weekend!

how were you suppose to know what they would play... you can only guess, but sometimes , the opponent can surprise you, like today
maybe a 4 defenders tactic would have been better, but at least you tried

i`ve seen the whole match...the difference between players is visible, they pretty much have every compartment better than us
a good thing is you played a very young generation, especially from the mids up
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