Subject: »[NT] Update

You could send Gjini to the hares, we'd be happy to take him :D

Yeah and maybe for you he would get played.

With his improvement in form he could now potentially help the U21s. I apologize again that I did not check his form Thursday.

I would be happy to call him up - if his form holds or improves he could even get into a match. But as it stands I will honour your wishes and not use him. Should you change your mind, let me know. :)

Charles-Antoine Holden is on the TL.

I have been very high on Holden for several seasons. He has not played much because of chronic bad form.

After some reflection, I'm a little disappointed with Holden's stats. He hasn't made any pops with his current club - which has allowed the younger class (Touchette, Zanardi, ...) to close the gap on him.

Got Cooke's stats - he's arguably our second best U21 defender (close between him and Metra). Assuming his form holds, he'll be in the line-up this weekend.

Another new name on Dream Team this week. Kasem Szoka, former Surrey Crackhead youth. Might be a useful defender.

Szoka has been called up. Has some stamina issues, but may have a few good minutes in him.

Abu Wagenaar and his 76 caps is transfer listed. A fairly significant opening bid - not sure if there is an offer in play. No need for further training given his age.

Holden landed in Valiant FC purple. The price was a little more reasonable this time (I bid on him last time too). I had thought he was getting pace training, but now I'm thinking he's probably gone without training this season. Still a nice player, but if true it hurts his NT standing.

A member of the U21 "taxi squad" is on the TL. Striker Paul Davidson. Not sure that his long term NT prospects are that strong - it's not good if you can't make the U21s at 21 (especially when deferring to 20 year olds). Can't see him rivaling the likes of Lavrynenko or Biron long term. But you never know for sure. :)

I am trying to but him to train mostly one season in pace.
I also don't think he has any hope for the NT

With the latest U21 beating we've dropped to 28th in the World Rankings.

We should expect another loss this week. Even if we win out after that it could be tough recovering enough ground to be a #2 seed (top 26). :S

Adam Ortega Santiago, NT midfielder, is transfer listed.

For a long time he was (clearly) the best passer on the NT, and as such, occupied his own little niche as a change-things-up player. But his passing is no longer distinctly better then our other options, and his secondaries are rather un-NT like. He played a little in qualifying last season and was uninspired.

At his age there is little chance of significantly improving those secondaries. He's always been one of my favourites, but his NT future is not very bright.

Fluet got a injure +9. The good thing is going to get some training (but he only played 22 minutes). How much training is with the NT game?

My numbers are here-say. From what I've been told, an NT match on it's own gives about 33% of the maximum training.

Then 33% + 25% (he played 22 minutes) he is going to have 58% training.

A little follow up to a post I made a few pages back.

Two seasons back the drawing of the qualification groups was done the Saturday of Week 0. Assuming the same time-line, Canada has two more matches before the draw is made.

Action on the weekend saw Canada jump 2 ranking positions to 26th. Last World Cup, this was the cut off for second seeds. So at present, we are where we need to be. (There were 78 NTs at the time, which worked out to 13 groups of 6).

Currently there are 82 National Teams. To maintain NT status, a nation must have 8 managers. So it looks like Jamaica (4) will lose their team. Tunisia (10), on the other hand, should be granted a team maintaining the status quo. 82 teams would likely mean 14 qualifying groups - making 28th good enough for the second basket.

But user numbers can swing in two weeks - NT elections sometimes cause blips in some countries. Hard to say where we will be. Tunisia is not a sure thing, and teams like Andorra (9), Dominican Republic (10), and the venerable South Africa (11) are dangerously close to the line.

But as it stands, 28th appears to be good enough. We will be shooting for 26th just to be sure. :)