Subject: [NT] U21 World Cup

I thought Gonzalo Verville played a great defensive game. I was a bit worried about Singh when they scored right away. I think he picked up the play with a few nice one-on-one saves ... including the penalty. Wish he could do that for me :)

Obviously I need to find some good tactics :)

Singh played great ... again. Made some terrific saves. Man of the match 3 weeks on the trot.

I tried both the flank backs with MID orders. Hoped it would mean less kick outs, more ground passes (as opposed to aerial balls) and perhaps a little more offense - maybe some long through balls and some more dribbling (I figured both Verville and Kasim had enough tech to fend off a tackle from behind). Thought it worked out well. (The main downside would have been if one of them had been hurt - he would have been replaced by a very offensive player in A Verville).

We play Argentina this weekend. From the qualifying games someone on the u21 World cup forum has produced the average team ratings...and for your reading pleasure, here it is:

Average rating

1..Polska 62,64
2..Romania 58,82
3..Nederland 58,62
4..México 58,29
5..Eesti.58,18
6..Italia 58,07
7..Espaňa 57,50
8..België.57,79
9..Brasil.56,62
10.Danmark 56,57
11.Suomi 56,46
12.France 56,14
13.Norge 55,93
14.Ceska republika 55,31
15.Magyarország 55,00
16.Argentina 54,38
17.Schweiz.54,23
18.Scotland 54,00
19.Lietuva 53,21
20.Portugal 53,00
21.Sverige 52,93
22.England 52,08
23.Slovensko 52,01
24.Türkiye 51,38
25.Peru.51,18
26.Canada 50,71
27.Israel 50,21
28.Österreich 50,15
29.Deutschland 49,67
30.Bulgaria 49,64
31.Hellas 49,00
32.Moldova 45,79

notice that Canada averaged 50, Argentina 54 and England, who Canada plays next week, 52. Brasil, who beat us last week 2-0 had an average rating of 56.
(edited)

These numbers compare to the Premier League in Canada. Here is the average ratings for this season to date:
Best average marks this season
56.9 Partizan 74 Canadian Premier League
55.9 DB Rovers Canadian Premier League
55.4 Valiant FC Canadian Premier League
54.1 Black&Oil Canadian Premier League
54.0 Jalea of Scarberia Canadian Premier League
51.7 Snowhares Canadian Premier League
51.2 Hajduk Burnaby Canadian Premier League
50.3 Surrey Crackheads League II.02

This makes Canada similar to Crackheads playing at home against, the similar ratings to Argentina, Black and Oil (or Jalea of Scarberia)

Interesting stuff. :) I'm not surprised our U21s can put up decent ratings. Most of the players on the squad are well rounded which usually shows up in the mark. Our main problem is in the primary skills. Metra, for example, put up a better mark (49) then his Brazilian counter-part Jean Fávaro (47). Think I'd rather have Fávaro. :) (No offense to Metra :D).

Argentina is not as good or as deep as Brasil. But they are still a fair bit ahead of us, and IMO hold an advantage in all areas of the field. They have a very nice striker in Fantaguzzi, and have a solid keeper in Castro. Their defense is good (only 2 shots surrendered against England last week) with no obvious holes. Midfield is close - I give them a slight edge because I think their wing options are a little more mature then ours.

Doing my best to lower expectations again. :) Realistically (IMO) a draw would be a pretty nice result. A win would require sensational striking and keeping (a la USA match :D). Most likely we will once again be striving to keep it close.

No offence but keep in mind that Metra is a MID and the other is a DEF

Very true, and that's kind of my point. Because of his nice midfield skills his rating as a defender is a little misleading (not just him - a number of our back-line are transplanted middies).

I'm not trying to dump on Metra - he's played very well. Just made for a good comparison. :)

Spoiler - Brasil - England

I watched some of Brasil's matches during the World Cup, and liked the job the Brazilian manager did with the team. Especially against Germany - the tactic was well thought out and showed really good attention to detail.

Or maybe he was just lucky. :) Because today's tactic was (IMO) really weak. Brasil managed to waste their skill advantage in an overly defensive 532. Their midfield positioning was (again, IMO) poor - especially in regard to providing service to their winger. The second England goal was soft, but even so I don't think Brasil deserved a result. Had Brasil taken this approach against Canada, I suspect we would have had a great chance of getting something from the match.

England, btw, was significantly improved over last week. No surprise really. They were in the World Cup right to the end, so didn't get a chance to do much U21 preparation. Being a high-profile nation, there is a fair bit of "discovery" that goes on after a match or two (people who assumed their player wasn't good enough see the line-up and say, "Hey, my guy is better then that." and send his skills). Next week's match now looks a little tougher then it did last week.

Underway against Argentina.

They’ve played the same tactic (a rather defensive 4411) the last two matches, but I’d be very surprised if they used it again this week. Given our tendency towards defense, I expect them to send more players forward. Best guess would still be a 442, but with more aggressive positioning. (If I was them I’d be tempted to use some kind of 343).

I waffled a lot on what to do this week. I kind of thought it might be worth gambling on no wingers from Argentina. I built a 4321 that was very strong in the middle of the park, but abandoned it. Part of the reason for playing wide defenders is to pick up spilled balls from half-tackles. That will still be necessary even if they don’t play wingers. So I’ve gone with a 5221 - somewhat similar to the tactic used against Mexico.

I’m still gambling (to an extent) on no wingers from Argentina, but it takes the form of moving Verville to an inside position as opposed to covering one of the flanks. Discovery of a little more help at the back allows Lemieux to move up the field. His position is less of a true winger then it was against Mexico - Lemieux is a more rounded player and can contribute more to the midfield battle. Any extra possession helps ease the pressure on our defense.

I’m shocked we’ve gotten this far without someone being sent off. We have been getting trounced in the technique vs. tackling battle all over the pitch. One of these weeks it is going to catch up to us - likely in spectacular fashion. :D

Line-Up
Singh
Cooke, Metra, Sutton, G. Verville, Kasim
Fluet, Foster, Dudic, Lemieux
Boissieres

Bench
Castillo Lara
Sahota
A. Verville (65 for Lemieux)
Farahani (75 for Boissieres)
Szoka (55 for Sutton)

Orders are funky. We have to make 3 subs due to stamina issues (would like to make more :D). With an XX1 formation one order has to cover the striker (Lemieux). Once the 3 subs are used 1 sub has to cover the keeper (Dudic). Only leaves 2 orders, so I’m covering the 2 flank backs with the 2 dms. The center backs are tightly positioned - if one of them gets sent off, hopefully the others can compensate. Foster takes freebies, Boissieres mans the spot.

Argentina's 0-2 is one of the greatest goals I've ever seen in Sokker

Good game Seca, Canada had its chances. Argentina played two high and wide wingers - this week I have looked back at the formations used by the Argentina manager and he has never done that before. It was effective for them:(

Really? It was an attempted pass as far as I could tell (no crowd noise when struck). I would have difficulty calling it one of the nicest goals ever when it essence it was a really bad cross.

Good thing I didn't all-out gamble on no-wings from Argentina. :) I was surprised by their approach. Had I just trotted out last weeks tactic instead of putting 2 hours of prep into this weeks, I think we would have snuffed their wing attacks - which was pretty much all they had for offense. But with this week's tactic our flank defenders were an extra square towards the middle of the park, and that made them mostly useless. Argentina's wingers had no trouble dribbling through them. With our level of tackling we have to be in the perfect spot or we're done.

I was perturbed with the first Argentina goal. 2 defenders were close to the striker, both engaged, and then both disengaged and backed off. With room he had no trouble getting the shot off.

I was also perturbed with the second goal. :) I tend to see a pass that goes into the net as extraordinary good fortune.

Singh did not play as well as he had in recent weeks. Made a few nice stops but was shaky on several others. I was really disappointed with Foster. He couldn't tackle or pass today, and too often ran with the ball in clear passing situations.

Our ball control was decent - I thought we moved it around rather well. But the final ball usually disappointed. Our strikers can't create a lot on their own, and need better service.

Thought Szoka had a decent debut. Cooke had a harder time with the right winger.

In the end, the result was correct but I'm not thrilled about how we got there. :)

Argentina played two high and wide wingers - this week I have looked back at the formations used by the Argentina manager and he has never done that before. It was effective for them:(

Agreed. Not only is it a departure from their usual style, but it plays right into the hands of what we did last week. I was surprised they did it, and also surprised that it worked that well. Our positioning could have been better, but wasn't that bad. Szoka did a pretty good job when he was in. If we'd had brilliant defenders on both sides for the full match I think they would have had a lot more trouble.

Still waiting for England to accept the challenge (as the home side they were supposed to challenge).

Their starting U21 winger Alun Warren is on the TL if you are curious.

I believe I owe some apologies.

It is the responsibility of the home team to make the friendly challenge in the U21 WC. After waiting a couple of days for England to make their challenge, I took the initiative and sent a challenge to them. When that challenge expired, I made a second challenge - which was also ignored. England's manager makes numerous daily logins - I began to wonder about their intentions (tho in all honesty I can't see why they wouldn't want to play our U21s :D).

Matches are to be arranged by 23:59 on Wednesday. With an 1 1/4 hr to the deadline I cracked and accepted another challenge. I should have waited until the deadline. I should have waited past the deadline. I probably would have if England's manager's logins suggested he was somehow temporarily occupied.

We weren't going to advance in the U21 WC, but I have denied us a potentially interesting match this weekend (tho in all honesty, it was very likely to be another convincing loss). For those who were looking forward to it, my apologies. The match arranged in it's place will not be entertaining in the least. :(

That is a shame. England's loss really.