Subject: [NT] Friendlies

I like to keep game discussions separate from other NT business, hence the new thread. :)

Austria this week. U21 restriction, though they are allowing us a 22 year old. Kind of slow posting the line-up – have been waiting for updates.

Here’s the starting line-up. Still subject to change.

Jake Dabner, 21, Unbelievers youth playing in Poland
Gary Edwards, 21, AC Cikini youth playing in Poland
Matt Gilbert, 21, Fiery Tigers youth playing in Belgium
Matt Hawkey, 22, 11 Wise Men youth playing in Romania
Rob Morcombe, 20, Fiery Tigers
Stuart Pereto, 20, 11 Wise Men youth playing in Brazil
Alex Richards, 21, Deathstrike youth playing in Scotland
John Root, 19, Cashmere
Robert Smith, 21, Fiery Tigers youth playing in Spain
Kaz Taylor, 19, 11 Wise Men youth playing in USA
David Watts, 21, Deathstrike youth playing for some rubbish England team

Alternates

Stuart Grove, 20, Mohammad youth playing in Brazil
Darren Herbert, 21, 11 Wise Men youth playing for Hyperintelligent Shades of Blue (70 for Root)
Greg Mcguiness, 21, Fiery Tigers youth playing in Spain
Nigel Pollock, 19, One (65 for Morcombe)
Sam Sansom, 20, Deathstrike youth playing for The Invincibles (50 for Smith)

I’m a little nervous about using Edwards. If he were to pick up a card, he wouldn’t be available for Canada. Don’t think that’s likely. May see if the Austrians will let me use De Bruin in his place.

David Watts, 21, Deathstrike youth playing for some rubbish England team

LOL.

David Watts, 21, Deathstrike youth playing for some rubbish England team

Hehehe love it :)

Too bad he wont be able to see it for a bit :(

:)

U21 matches are always interesting, as one is never quite sure what is coming. Last season the Austrian U21 side wasn’t all that strong. I played them with the Canadian U21 team (which was comparable to New Zealand’s last season), and was up 6 at half-time. But things can change a lot in a season with a U21 line-up.

Tactic is similar to last week offensively. Defensively things look a little different with 4 in the back line. Root takes freekicks, Hawkey takes penalties. Dabner covers the two full backs in case of red card.

Success will likely depend on the quality of the passing from the defense to the midfield. The winger in particular may be difficult to connect with. Hopefully the defense will often choose to funnel the ball through Richards, rather then kick the ball out trying to hit Root / Herbert directly.

A pretty even contest. Shots the same (tho I would suggest New Zealand's shots were from more dangerous shooting positions).

Defense did a good job in the first half - Austria played a number of nice through balls that were successfully scuffled. A little shaky in the second. Reindl became quite a problem (beat 3 of the 4 back line for his goal).

I was really impressed with the service from Root and Herbert. Both delivered a number of dangerous balls from the right wing.

I was a little surprised Morcombe didn't wriggle free for a shot somewhere during the match.

Was worried about Pereto heading into this one - was guessing at his stats. Thought he played pretty well - too bad he's on a bot team. I'm unlikely to use him again now that he has his "release" cap.

Tactic worked ok. Caught Austria offside numerous times. Was disappointed with how often Hawkey had to come back and retrieve the ball - will have to look again, perhaps Richards should be positioned a little more offensively.

All in all, a decent outing for the young lads. Back to qualifications next week. :)

Congratulations.

i thought Hawkey did pretty well when he was on the ball. Some very nice passes made although ol Watts was a shocker for the defense tonight, will spam gibbage's guestbook because of that at some point :D Will have to go over the match again for more observations but those were the ones that just stood out.

i'm happy with my Gilbert. Glad he finally made it to the line-up again ;)

Good game alright. good to see the younger boys win against a strong country.

You hide behind the fact he's the real Watts :P. Not some lousy fake striker :).

Pfff, your watts tried to injure the real Watts, and succeeded. The Real Watts is still recovering from that terrible gunshot wound!

The Real Watts looks injury free to me :P.

Week 8 (May 5) Serbia
Week 12 (June 2) South Africa
Week 15 (June 23) Dominican Republic
Week 0 (June 30) Ireland
Week 1 (July 7) Australia

This week's match has been set. When arranging matches at the start of the season, Serbia was very close in the rankings. Don't look that close now, but they've lost some close games to quality sides during qualifying, and are a decent team.

As far as I know, neither side has asked for any age restrictions. I would kinda like to play with the main squad for a couple of reasons. There are some less then ideal card scenarios playing out - a main squad game would give these guys another chance to clean their slate before the back-to-back Croatia Canada tandem. It would also give me an opprtunity to experiment a little with players and positions.

Good good. Looking forward to that Australia match, as always ;)

The Australia match is in a really bad spot in the schedule - the week before the next World Cup starts. But it was the only week that worked for both sides.

The Serbia friendly is now age restricted. They suggested U21, I countered with U21 + 3 overagers (would like one more chance to get a few players out of card trouble) which they accepted.

Overagers will be those key players in the most card trouble - likely Bodger, Kelly and Harris.