Subject: [NT] World Cup Qualifying

Finland only hung 18 on Tunisia. I was expecting closer to 30. :)

Thanx guys, well I figured Paraguay was gonna go heavy on defence, so I put all 3 strikers in to attack from all sides. Manohar wow, couple of beuties, this has to be the match of his career, Slavko correct me if I'm wrong. Still work to be done in the midfield, and those throw ins are seriously pissing me off, gotta work on that in the future. Iginla was solid as usual, O'hara did what was asked from him, Omar as well, Lemieux was ok. Defence did their job nicely, closing down all the Paraguayan strikers before they could even attempt a shot on net. All in all nice result, could've had a couple more, but I won't bitch about that now.....

Well, Finland is a weak team, stronger teams would have scored more than 18 ;D
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Heehee. Indeed. I think we've seen who the real power in Group C is. ;)

Big game tomorow. Good luck

Yup. This is where we can put a strangle-hold on 2nd place (and qualification). Good luck Laufer.

Go Canada Go!

Ooooh.
That hurts.
Loosing against Island was about the death penalty in this group :(
Nothing worked together today.
As I said last week:
A 3 striker tactic is not competitive.
I don't know if Laufer had no time for today or did not care to change/create a new tactic for today and just used the old one, but this loss and missed qualification is to be blamed on lack of enthusiasm for the NT job!
Just my point of view...
I'm not Canadian, but this stinks for me anyhow and I'm very disappointed :(
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Unfortunately you've now been properly baptized as a Team Canada manager. That is a harsh loss. :(

I thought the 433 was a pretty good decision. It was reasonable to expect strong defensive approach from Iceland. The tactic for the most part was (IMO) good. Strikers just didn't finish, and Parker played like a dog.

Amado never got involved in the match - not much service, and the service he got wasn't very good. Wang and Manohar had a number of chances they should have done better with. Very unlucky.

Couple of quick constructive points. I was really surprised to see Zanardi start ahead of Bradshaw. Bradshaw is (as far as I know) equal or superior in every way, and is in divine form. I think Bradshaw is arguably Canada's best all-round defender. Not sure why he's down the list on your depth chart.

I don't like substituting on defense. It (IMO) should only be done when you have a guy who must play, but has poor stamina. If there is an injury after that sub, you're going to have someone really out of position coming in. Since play starts before the player is on, you can get caught on a "bad change" too - tho you did this one at half-time which avoids that.

I didn't like the Lemieux substitution. He's a nice young player, but this is an important game. He's not an Omar, or an O Lav, or a Barrera - yet. If he's going to play, it should be conditional.

Further, at this level I think substitutions should be done to change the style of play. Lemieux didn't accomplish that. Bringing, for example, Barrera on there would have perhaps added a little more offense at the expense of defense. That's especially useful up front, where we could have brought on an entirely different style of striker (W Lav) to alter the mode of attack.

I know I gave a lot of criticism there. This match isn't the manager's fault - bad luck. And it certainly doesn't do Canada in - tho it may hurt seeding a little in the WC.

Of course when strikers dont finish it can be blamed on bad luck, but I have to strongly disagree here.
A 3 striker tactic with 4 defenders and no midfield is not competitive against nearly equal teams, unless you have some bombs of forwards.
Using 1:1 the same tactic as in the friendly a week ago is also no go for a WC qualification game of this impact.
You cannot blame everything on luck here. :(
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Loosing against Island was about the death penalty in this group :(

I think that is an exaggeration. A win against them the next time puts us back on even terms. We should stand a good chance against them in goal differential (tho their first Tunisia result was pretty good).

A 3 striker tactic is not competitive.

It wouldn't have been my first choice, but I don't think there was anything wrong with it. 61% of the play was in Iceland's end - that's plenty. 3 strikers draws more passes into the box, and gives more second chance opportunities.

I don't know if Laufer had no time for today or did not care to change/create a new tactic for today and just used the old one, but this loss and missed qualification is to be blamed on lack of enthusiasm for the NT job!

Was it not a new tactic? I thought it was. Think it was a 352 last week. This loss is blamed on one goal keeper playing his butt off, and the other not playing at all. I think it's unfair to lay this at the feet of the manager. And qualification hasn't been missed. Long way to go. :)

I'm not Canadian, but this stinks for me anyhow and I'm very disappointed :(

I hear you! :) But we are, sadly, familiar with this type of result. Tough day today, but don't get discouraged. Long way to go.

I went with almost the same tactic as against Paraguay, just did some minor changes. I liked the way it worked against them, but it didn't work this time. Again I figured they were gonna put 6-7 defenders, and play counter, so I put 3 strikers. Bradshaw and Giacomi should have started the game, but my gut feeling was telling me otherwise, well i'm not listening to my "gut" again..........Iceland goalkeeper played well, he's the man of the match in my opinion, which tells you all.....

Hehe, I actually feel less discouraged now :)

Sokker does strange things if it comes to shooting goals.
A nice striker needs about 6 shots from close distance to finish while one of my mids shot 4 goals in the last 4 matches with 6 shots only!
Maybe I'm disappointed because I really hate 3 striker tactics (when training strikers I had to use it ... :/).
You lose total control of the game if you field 3 strikers even against weaker opponents.

/edit
that mid has poor striker only!
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Well, as Seca said I exagerated a litte.
"We" can still qualify!
I can see how you must feel now after that stupid lost :/
So much random in shooting goals it's just frustrating sometimes.
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I was nitpicking with the Zanardi criticism. He wasn't responsible for either goal. More for future reference. :)

I'd forgotten Giacomi was healthy again. Yeah, I would have liked to see him start. Or come off the bench to change things up.

I suppose the poor Parker performance isn't completely unforeseen given his form. At some point the form difference between Parker and Madden will make up for the pace disparity.
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Maybe I'm disappointed because I really hate 3 striker tactics

As much you hate 3 striker tactics I hate the one Iceland used today. I like to go with 3 striker tactic but I wouldn't use it for today match.

Anyway tactic worked well IMO just our 3 strikers didn't do the job today.

Thx for the match Laufer.

It´s not your fault that my boys did a great job today, i have promised them free beers and lots of topless women if they could play equal to U. Now they are drinking champagne instead and the women are all naked, entertaining our boys :D

Sometimes SK isn´t fair, just as IRL, that happened today.