Subject: [U21] Red3x

There is very little to say, because we played a very bad game.
Despite the fact that they lost a midfielder to injury and played with 10 for a red card, our team was never incisive and we conceded too many chances.
The forwards were always offside, the midfielders struggled with who to pass it to and our defense tried to block the many attacking attempts that would have ended the game with many more goals for our opponents.
Certainly we are not as strong as Denmark, but I certainly got many things wrong, first of all the tactics.
I will have to start doing something in the future because this is not the path I wanted to take with the new Zealand U21.
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Tomorrow another test against Japan.
A team with a very small untence like ours, but I noticed that a few years ago they finished 3 in a round of the World Cup.
So it means their team has a small potential and they showed it against India U21, losing 4-2, however, they played well.
I want to hope this time that we have made all the right considerations to start playing well and be at least competitive even against opponents stronger than us.
I give you the appointment tomorrow to watch this friendly together :)

It seems like a nightmare that never ends.
In this game I saw good play, the midfielders turned the ball over well and found our forwards free to be served many times.
The problem is that our forwards struggled to score against the goalkeeper of Japan who from his value is not even comparable to our goalkeeper.
While our goalkeeper suffered two goals from a single Japanese striker who shot from outside the box scoring without any difficulty.
Sometimes I wonder if our goalkeeper after the bad figures against Sweden and today against Japan is able to make a save like our opponent's goalkeeper made them who instead parried our every attempt.
I can only say that I am sorry and will try to work again to find a positive result.
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You had more chances to score, maybe more clear than Japan, but this is sokker....I would no get too discouraged, i am sure luck will turn around.
If you are going to play with 3 strikers, try putting 2 of them really close to each other, and make them switch places once in a while...even if one of them will get tackled, the second one might have a chance to get the ball back. At u21, strikers , especially from small batins, are pretty average, low pace and technique, small chances of dribbling and scoring, so your best option would be to advance them a bit and play at the offside limit or maybe play them closer.

Thank you for the suggestions and believe me I would plan to use the players differently, but, unfortunately, I am very limited from choosing what would be most effective to use in these games.
I'm not discouraged though, even though I lost, as I said, we had our chances and we were unlucky.
I have to work so that tactically the players I have at my disposal can be versatile and incisive in the next games.

We were supposed to play against South Africa, but its coach decided to arrange a friendly against another team, so our deal fell through.
As a replacement, we will play against China U21.
So far, China has lost all their matches and they will surely want to find a win as well to boost their morale.
I, as always, want to try to find a good tactical balance to be competitive in defense and no longer see mistakes in technique and especially that our forwards, once they get to the goal score.
So those who want to see the game and hope like me for a new improvement, I give you the appointment for tomorrow.

:D

Finally here is my first victory on the field with the New Zealand U21.
A game played very well, the midfielders were always finding each other thanks also to the spaces that our opponents left us.
They also always looked for our attackers, very often with high crosses because China also defended with midfielders and it was difficult to find filter passes.
Well done our forwards, perhaps too hasty in their shots, but with a desire to score, nice goals by Mika and Marshall who moves to the right and shoots a cannon at the first post.
Mitchell as always proves to be the liveliest of the team scoring a hat trick.
I still need to work on the defense because I didn't see it very active and focused, they even conceded a chance to score and it should not happen.
Basically, I saw a good new zealand, I need to continue on this path and we will surely play many high level games.

Good result...most of them seem to be u20, so they will be around next season as well...

Unfortunately, low form or injuries are a major problem for small nations and can affect your results big time, as you probably dont have a lot of options.
But maybe you will be lucky this season and not get a lot of those :)
Keep up the good work .

They are not very technical but hopeful U20s.
I cling to the hope that their coaches are coaching them well and I can give them the credit they have created for themselves by entering the national team.

Some of them have low form and the tactical discipline is not the best, but I hope with my tactical prowess to put right some things I saw today that I didn't like and have some good games from now on.

Thank you for the support. :D

I apologize if I didn't make the match presentation yesterday, but I was very busy.
Today we played against Scotland U21 and I am very happy with the win.
We only won 1-0, however, we won against a Scotland that was playing with a lot of u21 definitely starters, against a Scotland that was using a tactic with l'lala and also because I saw a nice responsive New Zealand.
I played with 2 different tactics, the first one being a modification of the tactic utillzata against China and the second tactic that came in at 60th of the second half.
I saw good play in some sections, the midfielders passing the ball well and created many crosses and filtering to the attackers.
This win is very helpful because it means I am finding the right direction to get these players playing well.
Something is still missing, in attack I see that there is little precision and some times in defense I see some indecision especially from the goalkeeper.
A goalkeeper of ours that with so much sincerity scares me because of how he behaves and a goalkeeper of his caliber should not do that way.
Now the next game will be against Crna Gora and then we start Asian CUP and I want to arrive ready.

Here we are for the last friendly match before the start of the Asian Cup tournament.
Before the start of the tournament we will play against Crna Gora, a national team that was just eliminated from group f of the final stages valid for the u21 world cup by finishing last with 0 points.
After being eliminated it played a friendly against Peru losing badly 5-0.
Despite this national team's bad period, it will surely try to improve its place in the overall ranking.
We are seeing very good things and I am always confident that we can improve and this can be a very good opportunity, so I will see you on Saturday for the match.

The last friendly before the start of the Asian Cup ends in a 0-0 tie that all in all leaves me happy.
The team played against an outgoing World Cup finalists and played with u21s and a 532.
We dismonstrated to be a tenacious team and had a few 1vs1s that would have given us the victory that we surely deserved.
I gladly accept this 0-0 and now head to the Asian CUP because I would love to win it and put a small trophy in my season with your New Zealand :)

Here we are ready for the start of this competition, the Asian Cup.
We are definitely one of the favorite teams along with Vietnam, Israel, Indonesia and a few other nations.
I also want to try in this competition to put my best foot forward and prove that New Zealand and I are tough to beat.
Our group, the group A includes...



These national teams are all led by Italian coaches who know me, so it will be a good challenge.



Our first match will be against Gianni70's Hayastan (Armenia).
I will give you a date tomorrow to watch it maybe together.

The first Asian Cup game went and it also went quite well with our first 1-0 win.
I did some new tactics, both in view of the competition but also to test the players with a different form by adapting some players who do not play in that role.
I have to say that we played well suffering a bit in the beginning with Hayastan (Armenia) who had some 1vs1 chances, but our goalkeeper handled it well.
We attacked well and had a few scoring opportunities but our shots were also parried and the goal came because of a cross that went into the hands of the opposing goalkeeper, this goalkeeper missed the catch and gave an easy header to Connor Heaton.
In the Second half from the 60th minute onwards we played better and had many chances to score the second goal including two 1v1s and then Tana Mika who had just come in from the bench gets a post in the 70th minute.
We take home in the end a very good win against a well organized team.

After the victory against Armenia , tomorrow we play the second game of the group for the Asian Cup against Malaysia of my conpatriot Italiao Abacaxi.
On paper it should be an easy game where we should win for sure, but Malaysia has proven to be a difficult team to overcome.
The last 4 games it has drawn them especially against India and Indonesia.
It is not a strong team, however, we should not underestimate it.
The appointment is as always for tomorrow, with the hope of winning and already moving on to the final stage of the tournament.

Another good win in this competition against Malaysia 2-0.
Malaysia defended very well and we wasted some good chances hitting a few posts and sending the ball over the stars by missing some 1v1s.
The goal came early in the game with a nice cross from Foster that found Marshall free on the right.
Mika wins a penalty kick, but the Malaysian goalkeeper saves it.
In the second half I get the first substitutions going and Ormrod just in takes only 4 minutes to be sent off the field with a red card.
The game remains at a standstill until in a breakneck action in the penalty area Marshall wins 2 contrasts and scores the second goal by hitting the post from a distance of less than a meter.
In the other match Armenia wins against India and this leaves us first in our group with almost certain qualification.