Subject: [NT] Barndog

If elected as the USA NT coach, the following things will happen.

To insure we get the best players on the team I'll be scouting out each and every league in the USA, and checking out the matches of those players who are performing the best in each league. As can be seen by the voter turnout for these elections, a majority of USA users don't actively participate other than to run their team. The NT coach can't just depend on every user to notify him of players to consider for the team, he must actively seek them out. Any help you guys can give in this endeavor will be greatly appreciated.

Once we've got all the best USA players on the squad, the challenge then becomes designing a tactic that gives our squad the best chance of winning each and every week. A lot of time will be spent actively scouting out our upcoming opponents. Our tactics should not only emphasize our strong points, and exploit our opponents weaknesses, but look to shut down their strengths as well. A difficult balancing act, but one that will get my gravest attention. I insure you that a NT under my control will play in such a way that the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.

Another thing I will be trying to do is make the team a true 'National' team. That is, I'll be looking to make each one of you feel like a part of our National Team effort. After every match I'll be posting my thoughts on what I was trying to accomplish, where we fell short of those goals, and why I think that happened. I will be seeking all of your input on what was right and wrong with the approach that week. And if others would like to scout out our opponents, and notify me of anything they see, that would be greatly appreciated.

I will do everything in my power to try and make the USA National Team as strong and powerful as it can be!
(edited)

Scouting for players to add to the national team is made pretty easy if you use the dream team website. Have you seen it yet?

Yep, I love that site. The future looks pretty bright for us I would say. We've got a defender and a mid that have spent several weeks at the top of the 18yo lists.

Sometimes ratings can be deceptive, but it will definitely be one of the tools I would use to search out talented US players.

Billy, what is "dream team" link?

Check it out here, http://www.nugis.planet.ee/sokpump/index.php

Data there is, at the least, faulty and incomplete.

Josh Abshire of Lumen, whose latest rating is 51, scored 20 goals last season, but doesn't show up anywhere.

Anyone know how old these data are?

Yes, unfortunately it does not include every division. I know it includes the top 2 divisions. And it does not include Poland, so any players purchased by a Polish club will not appear on that site either.

There is no easy, difinitive way to find all the best US players. The Dream Team site is just one of the ways in which I would search out the best players for our squad.

Makes sense, as I think I had someone overlooked despite an email to the top. Anyway, good luck.

I actually like Barndog's idea of manually searching.

See, I'm the U-20 manager of the USA team in Hockey Arena, and I did exactly what Barndog says he'll do. I don't settle on what's common or volunteered knowledge. I went through every single team in Hockey Arena USA, thats 4 full tiers of teams and most of a 5th, hunting for youth for the team.

The result? After 2 straight seasons of demotion, we're in a good position to promote a level again.

Half of the players on my team were actually found by me, and not reported. I almost got carpal tunnel from all of the PMs I sent to managers.
(edited)

Aren't you glad I didn't have a chance to ban you for spam? LOL

what did islander do wrong that would be banable?

Oh, he talked about another game? that's not banable here. :)

Besides, I got approval from Tuttle to actually have a full Sokker thread on Discussion USA though. It's going to be where we discuss the HA Sokker Cup.

So its cross promotion ;-)

Anyway, sorry for the hijack Barndog. Back to your regularly scheduled NT run.

OK, back on topic.

Barndog - Mind giving us a team history here on Sokker?

On HA, if he would place the same Mail in many user mailboxes, that is considered spam.

Not here.

I just concluded my 5th season here in Sokker. In our first season of play we won our C-league and promoted up a level. Spent 3 seasons in a B league, twice finishing in second place before finally winning and promoting to A league. Last season went much better than expected as we almost recorded a perfect season, only suffering a late season 2-1 loss to the second place finisher.

And now we're on to the Major Leagues. I really have no idea how well we'll do next season, as we're going to be low man on the totem pole as far as player talent goes. The best route for my team would probably be to sell my newly appointed NT defender, or my 18yo incredible defender, and turn that cash into a talented mid or striker that my team needs. Instead I'll be keeping both players and tailoring my training program to improve the skills they need for future NT duties.

During each of the last 2 seasons we've also managed to defeat at least one Major League team during our Cup run, even though we were greatly outmanned. And that's the source of my greatest pride here in Sokker, being able to beat teams with superior talent through the use of tactics which bring out the best in my squad.