Subject: [NT] Bolivia

Sokker Bolivia

Bolivia is into it’s 7th season as a Sokker nation, and has ~60 managers. This is the 5th season for it’s NT. Currently ranked 73rd out of 78 Sokker NTs. Their team is not strong, but is under-ranked somewhat at this position. They are a decent 6th seed – many 6th seeds have average player ratings in the low 30s. Bolivia’s are in the low 40s.

Bolivia NT
Perhaps the strength of the Bolivian team is their strikers. Alfredo Aramayo leads their side in caps (50) and goals (36). Adrián Redondo also appears to be serviceable up front. Aside from that, there is the odd nice player (Filemón Gumucio, for example, looks like a decent defensive mid) but no depth or consistency.

Their manager is unknown to me.

Head to Head
Canada has a clear advantage at all positions.

Previous Meetings
Slavko led Canada against Bolivia in a friendly last season. The 10-0 rout was spurred by 5 goals from Scottie Wang, and 1 goal 3 assist performance by Olaf Lavrnenko.

This Match
It will be difficult to duplicate the +10 from the friendly last season, but we will try.

Canada will miss Olaf Lavrynenko, out with injury. Bolivia also with some injury problems, as one of their better midfielders Gustavo Yacoel is a little banged up.

Aside from the actual match, it's crucial that no key players get into trouble with the referee. Perhaps the most important match in qualifying is next week, and we'd like to have everyone on-board. But I'm reticent to sit any usual starters given the importance a goal or two could make later on.

Tactic set but some tweaking may still be done. Messaging managers of participating players shortly.

Underway against Bolivia.

Bolivia has been using fairly balanced tactics. Haven’t been playing ultra defensive. Served them well the first two Q-matches, but Austria opened them up last week ... they may take a different approach this week. Their defensive placement has been fairly consistent. They have been using “blitzes” - defenders charge up high when they gain territory, and scurry back deep as they lose it. I’ve never been a fan of this - as much for aesthetic reasons as practical ones (instead of looking like an organized retreat as you back-peddle it looks like a rout - disconcerting). Pacey strikers (like Amado) are quite effective against this approach.

3-4-3 from Canada this week. Defense backs off a little to give the outside guys time to get out wide if they need to. Diamond midfield intended to give lots of support and offer a variety of passing lanes. Using an attacking midfielder at one of the striker positions - with the mid order he shouldn’t be inclined to shoot unless it’s a sitter. I’m expecting Amado will be able to shake his defender, so the AM (O’Hara-Caron) should have some good passing opportunities. Strikers are intended to be positioned cautiously - there is the strong possibility they will be able to break defenders, so trying to mitigate off-side calls.

Line-Up
Parker
Dehere, Fichaud, Abbas Musa
Bradshaw, Omar, Barrera (Verville - 70), Iginla
Amado, Wang (W. Lavrynenko - 80), O’Hara (Caron - 70)

Bench
Madden
Mayard

Wang - penalties
Iginla - freekicks
Bradshaw covers the back line in case of red card
Iginla covers Bradshaw in case of red card

Very disappointed with this performance. We can do much better.

Abysmal. Absolutely abysmal. A horrible display. Glad it was this week and not next.

I'm the first to point out weaknesses in my tactic, but I didn't really notice any today. If anyone has any feedback, let me know. For the most part I thought Canada's players were in great positions to make plays, they just didn't make them.

The back-line defended well, but was horrific with the ball. With 7 players in front of them there was always someone open and always a short outlet pass available. But time after time after time after time they panic kicked the ball out of play. Very poor.

The midfield looked like they had a combined technique of "adequate". They all had trouble handling passes, O'Hara by far the worst culprit. Decision making wasn't good, especially Iginla and O'Hara who would pass up open men to try and thread the needle. The left and right midfielders didn't see enough of the ball.

The strikers moved the ball well, but Wang thought he was a midfielder and tried alot of really stupid passes from shooting positions. And then there was Amado. Could dribble through the defense at will, but could not hit the net for all the syrup in Sudbury. 1 for 12 shooting for a striker of his caliber in his form from where he was shooting was disgusting. I haven't done the stats, but I think he only hit the net two or three times. Most of his misses were by acres.

Very discouraging performance. Again, any feedback happily accepted. I'm going to go back and tear some more paint off the dressing room walls.

It's not about tactic or it is I don't know but something went wrong in all aspects. It seems like players underestimate this match like in real life.

I wasn't expecting to duplicate the +10 of last season. That was a pretty exceptional performance. :) The side they used today was stronger (at least from an average player rating perspective). I was hoping for +7-8.

I haven't had a chance to re-watch the match yet. Perhaps the strikers should have been placed more aggressively (Wang in particular). I backed them off a little thinking they could dribble through the Bolivian defense (which the did numerous times), so it wasn't worth risking offsides. But there was more play in front of the opposition defense then I like.

The reason (IMO) for playing 3-4-3 is to score rebound goals. But this intent was entirely defeated by the original shot almost always missing the net. X-X-3 hasn't been a good formation for me with Canada. :S

Once again, I appreciate any feedback. I always try to learn from my mistakes, but it's frustrating when you don't know what the mistakes are. :)

I don't think O'Hara was a good choise up front. You could have used Caron as a starter or even A. Cochran and with the striker order not MID. Other thing is those 3 strikers were way apart, they could have been more efective if position closer.

I probably had a little tunnel vision with that attacking midfielder. We have so many nice attacking midfielders, but I find it very hard to use them. I thought this was a good opportunity to do a little minor experimenting, but it didn't pay off, mostly because O'Hara had a terrible match (second only to Amado IMO).

(O'Hara was selected ahead of Caron due to Caron's form - Caron did play well, but didn't have to face a defender for most of his time).

You are right that a true striker would have been more effective. Tho I have little use for Cochran. :) Biron is better and younger. In retrospect Wang should have been played in O'Hara's spot, and W. Lavrynenko used in Wang's spot. Had W. Lavrynenko started I would have been more inclined to "bury" the central striker until the attacking zone was established (since he can't dribble through tissue paper) which would have diminished a lot of the wasted play that occurred.

PS - part of the reason for O'Hara's bad day was Amado's bad day. Luc could easily have had 2 or 3 assists had Amado struck the ball with any kind of precision.
(edited)

Bolivia Stats

I missed one of our fouls. :) Hard to believe Iginla played the whole match in central midfield and didn't attempt a tackle, but the Def % seems to back me up. Pretty quiet day for Fichaud, at least from a tackling perspective.

I found today's match incredibly frustrating. I regret blaming the players for the poor result. I endeavor to take responsibility for poor matches, and I failed to do so today.

The strikers were positioned where I wanted them (depth-wise), but in retrospect it wasn't the best idea. I think it would have been better to take a few offsides. The conservative positioning led to strikers taking longer shots (even when they beat the defense, they were inclined to shoot from distance). Amado in particular made some poor shot decisions which I feel were at least partly induced by tactics.

The attacking midfielder didn't work out. Weekly I fight the urge to do something unconventional (I think this is common amoung NT managers). Up till now I've held that urge in check. :D I accept we would have been further ahead with a more traditional approach.

I counted 16 panic kick outs. Far too many (suggests a team stuck in its own end), and out of character for Abbas Musa and Dehere. Tho I believe they had options, I will re-evaluate. There may be some additional tweaking that will cut this down.

On the bright side, we still have GD on Austria. BiH held tough today and gave Lithuania a bit of a scare. We are in decent shape in the group (tho our inter-group GD, predictably, is not very good).

A nice win for Canada against Bolivia this week. 5-0 as a scoreline is nothing to scoff at, just look at England - they struggle against teams like Isreal and crash against teams like Croatia, the better teams often struggle for goals. It was clever the way that you mixed things up with Amado off-centre, with Iginla as a link player and with the agressive wingback positiioning.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the nt.

There have been a number of surprising results in qualifying. Argentina-Australia and Italy-Turkey caught my eye this weekend (as well as England). Group C has been really unpredictable, with Scotland's poor start and Slovenji's strong showing.

You're right - we're getting the results (aside from Lithuania) and that's what's important. Still it would have been nice to duplicate Austria's +7. Hopefully when it gets down to WC seeding we don't miss a basket by 2 goals in GD. :)

hehe Amado was certainly having an off game. If he had kept the ball down while shooting he would have potted a few more. My question is more geared at Wang. You had him set as an attacker but he kept trying to pass the ball. Yes the defense was kicking the ball out of bounds a bit but I thought they played a decent game at the back end. Caron & Verville had some nice passing together too, they almost attributed to another goal for Lavrynenko.

Your doing a great job Seca, stop being so hard you yourself! I think its good think outside the box during games like these. It can give more options down the road & it also keeps other managers thinking...

personally I love Amado's play right now...

keep it up Sean, waaay up!