Subject: »[NT] Update

Friendly against Australia is booked for this weekend. Cometer and I are still hammering out if there will be any line-up restrictions.

The match against Australia will be U21.

Some really good news for the roster. Boris Madden has reached divine keeper (I'm not really giving anything away here ... keeper skill is very easy to deduce from value-wage & mark), and will begin to receive pace training. By the next round of qualifying, he may well have displaced Parker as our #1.

Deepest thanks to Rhilker (same manager who gave us Parker) for providing this service to Team Canada. One pretty much has to sacrifice his own team to train keepers. The sacrifice is greatly appreciated by the Canadian community.

We saw just yesterday how important this will be. Clemens is nice, but isn't the caliber necessary for a top 25 NT. Form and injuries happen. Having a viable second option at keeper will be a great relief. :D

So the "baskets" are set for the World Cup draw, which I believe occurs Week 1 of the new season.

In the end, the misfortune against Austria and BiH dropped us from basket 3 to basket 4. It would have been nice to be in 3, but it's not that big a difference from 3 to 4.

The big difference is if you can sneak into basket 2, because then you are for sure only facing 1 top seed. (With 13 qualifying groups and 8 WC groups, over half the WC groups will have two qualifying group winners.)

Even if Canada had beaten Austria and BiH handsomely, we wouldn't have made the second basket. Our group was too difficult (or rather, some other groups were too easy).

The "baskets" follow (compiled by and stolen from Hellsangel). Luck of the draw will be very important. There are some permutations where Canada would be pretty much doomed before getting anyway near the pitch.

POT A
1. Nederland 101-5 (+96) 30
1. Eesti 100-4 (+96) 30
1. België 93-3 (+90) 30
1. France 84-6 (+78) 30
1. Suomi 76-5 (+71) 30
1. España 73-2 (+71) 30
1. Lietuva 65-7 (+58) 30
1. Česká republika 57-0 (+57) 30

POT B
1. Polska 89-2 (+87) 28
1. România 88-4 (+84) 28
1. Italia 64-10 (+54) 27
1. England 55-9 (+46) 25
1. Argentina 47-3 (+44) 25
2. Brasil 101-8 (+93) 25
2. Slovensko 73-8 (+65) 24
2. Schweiz 66-6 (+60) 24

POT C
2. Chile 69-10 (+59) 24
2. Hrvatska 53-3 (+50) 24
2. Norge 49-7 (+42) 24
2. Deutschland 42-19 (+23) 24
2. USA 63-11 (+52) 22
2. Danmark 56-19 (+37) 22
2. Magyarország 58-14 (+44) 21
2. Slovenija 27-15 (+12) 21

POT D
2. Mexico 32-8 (+24) 19
2. Canada 35-12 (+23) 18
3. Sverige 47-20 (+27) 21
3. Portugal 54-10 (+44) 19
3. New Zealand 33-18 (+15) 19
3. Uruguay 50-11 (+39) 18
3. Cymru 47-18 (+29) 18
3. Scotland 33-11 (+22) 18

Hadn't arranged anything for Week 0. We now have an agreement to play Norway, also with the youth team (they will have aged the day before, so technically this is an U22 tilt).

So friendlies through the end of this term:

Week 15 - Australia
Week 0 - Norway
Week 1 - Slovensko

Apocalypse will finally, finally, be dropping to III. To celebrate, I've called up Barry, Garvey and Moreau.

None can help the NT anymore, and they will be dropped soon after they are "released". But they are an important part of Sokker Canadiana. Some might have a sentimental interest in picking up a "horseman". :)

NT Milestones - Lithuania II

Wagenaar - 75th cap. A shame Abbas Musa was injured, as he and Wagenaar could have achieved their 75th caps together. Pretty impressive number - only Omar has more. Fichaud and Parker right behind. :)

I am sending messages to managers of NT players asking about their future plans for their players. I am interested in knowing if the players will be receiving training next season, and if any of them are heading to market.

I'm hopeful this will help the long term planning of both the NT and our Canadian clubs. :)

Re: the "census" questions of NT players...

Would it be possible to make this information public for Canadian managers? As the NT manager you have a special need for player's skills and training, there is no doubt about that special need. And, due to the lack of direct statistics it is necessary to canvas widely and often. However, since Canada has a very small group of active managers this information is valuable to all managers. I would be very interested in knowing what all of the top teams in Canada were training, what their training plans were and what their plans for individuals on their team may be. I would like to know when top Canadian players might be sold.

Maybe I can start a poll because it isnt up to the national team manager to disclose personal player information it is up to individual player managers.

The intention of the census is to provide the results to Canadian managers. I am currently writing up my "End of Season" report. I will post it after the match on Saturday. There will be a little description of each player's season, as well as their "status". Status will describe their current manager's intentions (sell, hold, uncertain or no reply).

I am optimistic this will help us all a little with our long term planning. Personally, I have a reasonable war chest that I hold back waiting for that perfect Canadian player. But with teams in the CPL rapidly improving, I'm getting tempted to spend it. :D In the past, whenever I blow my account, it seems a beautiful Canadian player appears on the TL the next day. :P

Dwayne Renda, age 23
value: 1 366 000 C$, wage: 12 680 C$
brilliant form

Just about fell off me chair. Had to look twice to make sure I wasn't seeing things. :)

Just noticed The Death Knights have gone bot.

If they lose their Q-match, I think I'll add Davide Ward and get him a few minutes to serve as his "release" cap. He's an interesting, tho flawed player.

Release cap?

Does that work?

See thread in Sokker Scotland titled "banned managers" for more details :) (thread on page 2)

It has a better chance of working here. Should the team lose it's Q-match, it would be a #1 team in our "replacement" division. History suggests it doesn't take tooo long for the team to be replaced under those circumstances.

If Death Knights wins it's Q-match, I won't add him. And it's not a big deal either way - Ward is an "interesting player", not really a prospect.

I've been thinking about starting a "Hall of Fame" thread for our NT. We've got some notable players who have retired, and a few others getting closer. For "inducted" members we could post their final NT stats, maybe a little description, and list a few NT career highlights.

If we really wanted to do it up right, we could use polls to have "ballots" - and only induct players who get a certain % of support.

Thoughts?

NT Milestones - Australia

Lemaître - 1st cap
Touchette - 10th cap

Foster - 1st NT assist

Caron had a notable improvement with the form update. No other significant moves that I noticed. Amado's continued erosion is a bit of a concern.