Subject: [NT] Friendlies

Should be underway in a moment or two.

Fairly standard 442 from us. Flank defenders more involved in the offense then usual. Sebrango is well suited to sneaking in - decent passing and enough pace to get back into position if things don’t work out. Lemieux-Ferranti is the key midfield position IMO. They have the main distribution decision, and potentially the most difficult pass to make (to the winger).

Line-Up
Madden
Dehere, Zanardi, Malhotra, Sebrango
Renda, G Verville, Lemieux (Ferreanti - 50), Caron
Manohar (Boissieres - 60), W Lavrynenko (Biron - 60)

Verville covers the back-line in case of red card (except Dehere - I'm one order short). Should Madden get hurt after all the subs are used, Renda will don the gloves. W-Lav takes penalties. Caron responsible for freekicks.

Still regret not getting the England game sorted out. Would have been much better entertainment.

When I coached soccer IRL we'd sometimes do a drill called "shadow soccer" where we'd line up our 11 and play against an "imaginary" opponent. Meant to help with execution, but also to build a team concept of how we wanted to play. Today's match felt a little like shadow soccer. Cyprus didn't have enough pace to close us down, and if they happened to be in the right spot we just rolled over them. For the most part we were playing against ourselves.

In that respect there were a few weird plays. Several times our wide midfielders were in clear crossing situations, and instead choose to make a tough angle shot or back pass. The players involved have very nice PM. A little strange. But there were also a few nice plays. The tic-tac-tic-tac between Lemieux and Lavrynenko comes to mind.

Some nice performances. Caron and Renda both played pretty well. W Lavrynenko also had a nice game (no surprise - he really fills the net against weaker opponents - 12 of his 17 NT goals are in just two matches - against Vietnam and Cyprus :P). Lemieux and Verville were solid, and Ferranti showed some moments of inspiration.

I wasn't impressed with the back. Particularly Sebrango and Zanardi. Both kicked the ball out too much, and Sebrango did not put any of his passing skill on display.

Think Madden actually fell asleep in the second half. Ball boy had to give him a nudge towards the end.

Macedonia next week.

We are booked with Macedonia. Have also arranged Turkey for Week 0.

W Lavrynenko also had a nice game (no surprise - he really fills the net against weaker opponents - 12 of his 17 NT goals are in just two matches - against Vietnam and Cyprus :P)

I cannot see him playing full 90 minutes though.
90% of his 17 games were only 10 minutes play time each :P
Playing against new nations gets his stats up to a fair level at least.
It's only a pity that he currently does not gain any advantage from playing the NT since I have to play him as MID for technique training.
(edited)

90% of his 17 games were only 10 minutes play time each :P

That's complete crap.

90% of 17 matches is 15.3. Are you really suggesting 15 of his 17 caps were 10 minutes or less?

His first 3 NT matches he played 90 minutes, 45 minutes, 90 minutes. I'm not going to go through all his matches, but I know he also played big minutes in two key qualifying matches last season (Austria and BiH).

Lavrynenko has been a big disappointment to this point in his NT career. He has scored 1 meaningful goal (Moldova). Last season he had the same shooting % as a midfielder who has never had striker training - a midfielder who took all of his shots from distance.

I'm hopeful he will become Canada's talisman. But to this point, he's been a bit of a dud.

Thanks for the reminder about the MID training. I shouldn't have wasted a spot on him last week. I won't waste a spot on him this week.

Yep, currently and for another ~7 weeks it's only spot wasting if you have something better than him.

Sorry that 90% stuff was not ment seriously.
Wyn felt better this way :)

I'm a math teacher. I take numbers seriously. :)

It's wasting a spot if the training bonus isn't used. The respective skill levels of the players is irrelevant.

(Don't get me wrong - I'm glad you are addressing his technique. :D).

Week 14 - Macedonia
Week 15 - Russia
Week 0 - Turkey
Week 1 - Peru

Week 2 is the start of qualifications under a new manager.

or maybe a new/old manager?

"New" as in not me. :) I've made it clear I won't be running.

Macedonia's manager wrote this morning saying he'll be using an U21 line-up. I told him I wouldn't be reciprocating (our U21s have seen lots of action this season). We'll be using mostly "prime" players in the starting line-up. I have gone with an all U21 bench.

Dressing for the match:
Derek Barrera - 24 yrs, 16 caps, HL Football
Joey Biron - 22 yrs, 16 caps, Valiant FC
Myles Boissieres - 20 yrs, 8 caps, Partizan 74
Ruben Caron - 24 yrs, 38 caps, HL Football
Karl Dehere - 24 yrs, 29 caps, Kamloops Lakers
Connor Foster - 21 yrs, 9 caps, in Finland
Vince Lemieux - 20 yrs, 11 caps, Real Hawkes
Boris Madden - 23 yrs, 7 caps, Magnificent Bastards
Malcolm Malhotra - 24 yrs, 16 caps, in Poland
Adrian Manohar - 24 yrs, 20 caps, Hajduk Burnaby
Dwayne Renda - 24 yrs, 17 caps, Surrey Crackheads
Zachary Sebrango - 22 yrs, 14 caps, in Poland
Luke Singh - 20 yrs, 4 caps, Fianna FC
Kasem Szoka - 20 yrs, 1 cap, in Belgium
Gonzalo Verville - 21 yrs, 16 caps, Snowhares
Paul-Arnaud Zanardi - 22 yrs, 6 caps, in Poland

Szoka and Singh would only play if there is an injury. Everyone else should get some playing time.

Macedonia has been fairly static with their tactics lately. Tho their formation of choice has been rather offensive - they might be inclined to switch to something more defensive. But I think the status quo is a reasonable expectation.

I had planned to change things up, bug what we used last week seems a pretty good fit against what Macedonia has been doing. So we'll be using the same 442 with a winger.

Using all the subs at 60, which leaves us vulnerable to an injury the rest of the match. Wouldn't normally do this. Expecting the game to be in hand.

Line-Up
Madden
Dehere, Zanardi, Holden, Sebrango
Renda, Verville, Barrera, Caron
Manohar, Biron

Bench
Singh
Szoka
Lemieux (60 - Renda)
Foster (60 - Barrera)
Boisierres (60 - Biron)

Holden a last minute switch for Malhotra (training reasons).

Not very interesting. Macedonia keeper was really good early on - but I don't think he made a single save the final 35 minutes. Should have done a better job getting the winger & strikers on-side. Don't think it hurt much, since ball recovery was nearly instantaneous.

Some nice performances. Verville covered a lot of territory and moved the ball well. Both Barrera & Foster did a good job feeding the winger. Caron still took a lot of shots, but made a number of nice passes too. Sebrango's passing up the flank was much better then last week. Boisierres looked sharp off the bench. Manohar started cold but finished up well.

A couple players had quiet days. Biron the only one with a really bad day. 2 for 16 (really 1 for 16 as one goal was scored without a shot) was poor. He did hit the net most of the time - made the keeper look good. His finishing hasn't been good much of the season. Perhaps due to his still mediocre form.

Russia next week. After a couple of duds it should be much more interesting.

Wow. I have never seen such a lopsided attack. Nothing went to the left wing for Canada. Everything went through Caron, on the right, who owned the wing since Macedonia ignored the wingback position.

Our match with Russia is booked. They have a decent side - the match should be more interesting then the previous two.

We are currently ranked #25, 50 points clear of 27th. That suggests we are reasonably secure in the top 26. Still, I see this match as a must win, and will be approaching it as I would a WC match - best available line-up.

I have set a line-up for this weekend, which is subject to change with tomorrow's form update.

I have written the managers of selected players who have qualification matches on Sunday. Though this weekend's match is a very important one for Canada, Q-matches are also very important. Clubs invest a lot in their players, and deserve to have their best available for such critical games.

So I've given managers the opportunity to sit their players out if they wish. It's not a problem at all if they choose to - Canada has sufficient depth to deal with any absence. If managers have any reservations about me using their players, they shouldn't hesitate to ask for the weekend off. :)