Subject: [NT] News

Striker prices are dropping a lot, and you pay too way much for wessels , maybe the buyer recieved a TPA? :P

Funny thing with Wessels. The prices where much higher when I bought him 4 seasons ago. He was 25 as I remember.
Hear this - he was listed without any deals:)
Gugus listed all of his players and I had a bidwar against some Pole. I had too much money on my hands.

We won, but I almost wished we would have not. If India could have scored at least on goal, it`s would have made my day.

I wrote 10 occasions down, where we had 100% chance to score.
min 5. I think it was hawkey we hit the post
min 15. Roots very dangerous freekick, keeper barely saved it
min 31. Hawkey missed one-on-one by running into keepers lap..
min 37. Priore missed one-on-one
min 52. Someone dribbled through keeper
min 56. That reall showed it is not out day. During that one minute, we had like 3 chances to score.
min ~65 Bodgr missed on 1vs1
min 62. We finally scored...I was surprised
min 70. another classical situation..missed against the keeper

About the tactics.
I thought India might used high defense, that`s why one striker was playing little bit lower. Just in case. India played well as I hoped, they had few chances to score.
Hopefully I can show better game next week, when Morocombe is back and ready for action.

Next week in quarterfinal we will play against Costa Rica or Macedonia.
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Very frustrating match to watch. Thought there were so many missed opportunities; not surprised you thought the same.

Nevertheless, a win is a win.

My tactic wasn´t very good either. Should have really checked it last night, when I game home. Will be better prepared for next week.

I think the accuracy of kiwis U21 strikers is just the opposite of the senior team on this match. And the tactic wasn't very bad at all, maybe you like a lot to use two fastened strikers

Mini World Cup

......................Mini World Cup 1/4 final

............... New Zealand vs Costa Rica

World rank: 36..........................World ranking: 51
Rank points: 1936.44.................Rank points: 1327.68
Number of players: 31................Number of players: 37
Average form: incredible.............Average form: incredible
Average age: 26.8.....................Average age: 24.4
Average value: 19 567 612 kr.....Average value: 11 087 028 kr
Total value: 606 596 000 k........Total value: 410 220 000 kr
Last mast average mark: 67.3....Last mast average mark: 61.6

Previous match: New Zealand 7 : 1 Costa Rica 2007-09-29

Tomorrow we have a home game against Costa Rica. NZ have met them once in past, but then both teams were much weaker. This time I´ll be trying a new tactic. It doesn`t mean that I am underestimating them. I am not hoping an easy match, because they are only one step lower compared to our level. As the game against India showed, little bit luck and anything is possible.

My no. 2 choice in offense Brent Gilbert is still injured and can not play. Luckily Rob Morocombe is back and has a decent form. Hopefully he will decide the winner.
In defense it`s shame, that I can´t use Duncan Findlay, who has problems with low form. "I ate something awful in Australia while being on a vacation there, that`s why I have lost my form," said Findlay.

I actually don´t know what to expect from Costa Rica. Probably they might play quite defensive. Here are few players we should keep an eye.
Alexis Gasol - their best striker, at least triple magical.
Steven Marañón
Alberto Alfaro

As much I have noticed striking is their strongest side, defense might be the weakest link, so hopefully Morocombe will have some fun tomorrow.

Nice comfortable win. I think we should have scored few more goals, Morocombe missed too much. Shame that Kaz got a 10 day injury, which means that our no.1 and no.2 keepers are our for next week, when semis are played.

Our tactic worked well, I just don`t know why Costa Rica took the risk to use sth similar, because this is the last thing I would do against strikers like we have.

:)

Here is the full schedule for this season. We have few very strong opponents to this season to see how far behind we are from top teams. Also few easier teams to get more ranking points, which means hopefully easier opponents for World Cup qualification.

week 2 Sverige 3:2
week 3 Nigeria MWC 6:1
week 4 Slovenija MWC 5:4
week 5 Bosna i Hercegovina MWC 1:2
week 6 India 1/8 MWC 1:0
week 7 Costa RicaMWC 1/4 8:0
week 8 Bulgaria MWC 1/2
week 9 MWC FINAL?
week 10 Nippon
week 11 Crna Gora
week 12 USA
week 13 Island
week 14 Eesti
week 15 Australia
week 0 Suomi
week 1 Singapore

Semifinal against Bulgaria tomorrow. I really hope we win, because we probably would meet against Australia in the final. The perfect place to beat them.

We have to beat Bulgaria first and they have showed some really good game in this tournament. They have won Norway and Ireland in earlier rounds. Their NT coach is very good manager, tactics have been decent and difficult to say what they will be using tomorrow. I guess 5-2-1-2. This tactic with high winger is starting to become a standard tactic in this game.

I can´t use Brent Gilbert tomorrow, but haven`t made up my mind whether I should use Kaz or not. By tomorrow he should have a ~3 day injury. But our no.3 keeper is only in excellent form. At least imo it doesn´t make much difference, which one of them I use. Right now I have set Kaz in the starting eleven.

Would be a quality final if it were to eventuate ;). We've both got to get there first though.

Good luck against Bulgaria, they've been rather impressive in knocking over Norway and Ireland. I didn't expect them to get past Norway but they did, so it's not going to be an easy time. The defense is the hardest to crack from what I've observed, they've only conceded 1 goal from the past 2 matches.

What a nerve wracking match. Equal teams on the pitch, not enough scoring opportunities for both sides. Really should have made some substitutions after 90 minutes. That came in my mind yesterday, but I was sure we can decide the winner in normal time. Their defense was really good, I was quite surprised to see how many times the ball was taken away from behind from Morocombe.
Priore had a superb shot on the goal in extra time and Morocombe was on the right place and luckily scored.

Next week final against Australia.

:)

congratulations! This final will be very special for these communities!

The game was good, NZ took the ball more time on the side of his winger and strikers have done his purpose on the tactic as well (like in 12th minute).

Congratulations for the job and enjoy the final
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Oh bring it on :p. Could not imagine a better final tbh then between Australia and NZ.

Will be fun:)