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Subject: [NT] Friendlies
Some final thoughts on the Turkey match.
It was one of those games where a lot of the "micro" luck didn't go our way. There were a number of mishandled passes that normally would have been clean. Bounces not going the way they should. Amado was cleanly tackled a few times when I thought he was by ... lots of little things.
4 goals against is alarming. 2 of the goals were bad bounce goals - not much you can do about them (we actually had one of these too). 2 of them came after some shoddy defending - these are more of a concern. First goal Bradshaw then Fichaud were beaten, last goal O Lav, Dehere and Fichaud all successively missed tackles culminating in the penalty. Turkey is a much improved technical team - particularly in midfield. In the matches leading into this one I could see they were breaking a lot of tackles. But it's still a little uncharacteristic of our side to defend poorly. Some of it is form (Fichaud, O Lav). Hopefully it's just an aberration.
Pulling Caron back a bit out of his preferred pure winger role is often a little risky. I was kind of hoping he'd pick up a card ... just wasn't the colour I wanted. :D
Once I get Hilversum's player I'll have a line-up for this weekend.
It was one of those games where a lot of the "micro" luck didn't go our way. There were a number of mishandled passes that normally would have been clean. Bounces not going the way they should. Amado was cleanly tackled a few times when I thought he was by ... lots of little things.
4 goals against is alarming. 2 of the goals were bad bounce goals - not much you can do about them (we actually had one of these too). 2 of them came after some shoddy defending - these are more of a concern. First goal Bradshaw then Fichaud were beaten, last goal O Lav, Dehere and Fichaud all successively missed tackles culminating in the penalty. Turkey is a much improved technical team - particularly in midfield. In the matches leading into this one I could see they were breaking a lot of tackles. But it's still a little uncharacteristic of our side to defend poorly. Some of it is form (Fichaud, O Lav). Hopefully it's just an aberration.
Pulling Caron back a bit out of his preferred pure winger role is often a little risky. I was kind of hoping he'd pick up a card ... just wasn't the colour I wanted. :D
Once I get Hilversum's player I'll have a line-up for this weekend.
thats the one. sorry for the late reply. no internet on tunnel mountain :)
Heehee. No problem. After Thursday's form update is when I get serious about the line-up. It's all good. :)
Dressing for Peru this weekend:
Joey Biron
Myles Boissieres
Gordon Cochran
Rex Faria
Connor Foster
Bucky Laforest
Vince Lemieux
Basile Lorenzo
Arron Neil
Kip Nesta
Marko Oliveiri * - contest winner
Joe Parker
Pierre-Charles Ribeiro
Luke Singh
Satinder Touchette
Paul-Arnaud Zanardi
Joey Biron
Myles Boissieres
Gordon Cochran
Rex Faria
Connor Foster
Bucky Laforest
Vince Lemieux
Basile Lorenzo
Arron Neil
Kip Nesta
Marko Oliveiri * - contest winner
Joe Parker
Pierre-Charles Ribeiro
Luke Singh
Satinder Touchette
Paul-Arnaud Zanardi
This is the time of the season where NT managers some times run out of steam. Peru’s tactics have been very repetitious the past month - would be nice if they were once more, as I think my planned approach would work well against their 352.
We’ve got a 451 with 2 wingers. I almost never use two wingers. I figure essentially all the advantages of a winger can be gained from a 1 winger formation, so I usually prefer putting the other guy in front of the net to help head them in, or in midfield to help root up the ball. But I thought the 2 winger formation fit with the players I’d selected for the match.
Panic kick-outs will be a big concern for Canada - wingers always make that worse, and Neil (one of our defenders) is prone to it due to weak secondaries.
Trying to field a competitive team without using any players I think the new manager might want next week. Biron & Parker are in because I think their form may rule them out. Parker is the big question mark though. There is still a pretty big pace disparity between him and Madden. The new manager may well choose lousy form Parker over great form Madden. Hopefully Parker comes through unscathed.
There are some players I’ve long admired who are getting a run today. I’ve drooled over Faria for seasons, and he finally shed some long standing form-problems this season past. If not for the emergence of one Ruben Caron, Faria might well be playing first team football for Canada. Bucky Laforest hasn’t had many opportunities since his U21 days, but generally makes good use of them (Lithuania last Q season). And then there a bunch of players from our U21s two seasons back (Biron, Ribeiro, Touchette, Zanardi, Lorenzo, Nesta, G Cochran, Lemieux, Foster) - a team which I’m starting to think may be a watershed season for our youth squad.
Oliveiri & Ribeiro swap positions at 50. Biron takes spot kicks, and Faria is in charge of freebies. Nesta covers everyone but Bucky in the back-line (ran out of orders).
Line-Up
Parker
Touchette, Zanardi, Neil, Laforest
Faria, Lemieux, Nesta, Ribeiro, Oliveiri
Biron
Bench
Singh
G Cochran
Foster (60 - Lemieux)
Lorenzo (75 - Ribeiro)
Boissieres (70 - Biron)
We’ve got a 451 with 2 wingers. I almost never use two wingers. I figure essentially all the advantages of a winger can be gained from a 1 winger formation, so I usually prefer putting the other guy in front of the net to help head them in, or in midfield to help root up the ball. But I thought the 2 winger formation fit with the players I’d selected for the match.
Panic kick-outs will be a big concern for Canada - wingers always make that worse, and Neil (one of our defenders) is prone to it due to weak secondaries.
Trying to field a competitive team without using any players I think the new manager might want next week. Biron & Parker are in because I think their form may rule them out. Parker is the big question mark though. There is still a pretty big pace disparity between him and Madden. The new manager may well choose lousy form Parker over great form Madden. Hopefully Parker comes through unscathed.
There are some players I’ve long admired who are getting a run today. I’ve drooled over Faria for seasons, and he finally shed some long standing form-problems this season past. If not for the emergence of one Ruben Caron, Faria might well be playing first team football for Canada. Bucky Laforest hasn’t had many opportunities since his U21 days, but generally makes good use of them (Lithuania last Q season). And then there a bunch of players from our U21s two seasons back (Biron, Ribeiro, Touchette, Zanardi, Lorenzo, Nesta, G Cochran, Lemieux, Foster) - a team which I’m starting to think may be a watershed season for our youth squad.
Oliveiri & Ribeiro swap positions at 50. Biron takes spot kicks, and Faria is in charge of freebies. Nesta covers everyone but Bucky in the back-line (ran out of orders).
Line-Up
Parker
Touchette, Zanardi, Neil, Laforest
Faria, Lemieux, Nesta, Ribeiro, Oliveiri
Biron
Bench
Singh
G Cochran
Foster (60 - Lemieux)
Lorenzo (75 - Ribeiro)
Boissieres (70 - Biron)
Disappointing result IMO. Could easily have been a win. Thought our midfield moved the ball crisply, and that the wingers made pretty good use of their space. Quite a few of our shots were point blank. Sadly, most of the time we didn't even make the keeper stop it.
Our defense was horrible. That's the worst I can remember seeing Touchette play (I actually checked after to see if I'd missed a injury on him). Neither he nor Bucky could do anything against their winger (perhaps I asked too much tactically for them to close down - thought I was giving them a good chance). Both looked sluggish and had difficulty tackling. Neither passed very well (Bucky's 85th minute pass to 3 opposing attacking players is one of the worst choices I've seen in a while). The center backs were equally bad. There was more then one occasion where both of them abandoned their positions. Both fumbled and bumbled. Neither tackled or passed well. All 4 defenders had an urge to run with the ball, and none of them had enough technique to hold onto it when they were tackled. A thoroughly bad defensive effort.
Midfield was much better. Nesta and Lemieux were a little slow making up their mind a few times. But there was a lot of nice play, and a large number of dangerous balls into the box. Without prior knowledge I would not have been able to pick out the contest winner - Oliveiri fit right in.
Biron struggled. His technique was not in evidence at all. Not only could he not break tackles, he mishandled numerous passes. He didn't shoot particularly well either. I guess we'll chock all of that up to form. Boissieres had a few nice chances - a little disappointed he didn't find the back of the net.
Parker did a respectable job.
Tactically there were a couple of issues. There was one Peru throw-in that was poorly covered. Cost us one goal, could have been more. It seems I asked too much of the flank backs who apparently needed to be positioned wider. Our high defensive line didn't pay many dividends - we often had a laggard, which caused some problems. But I thought midfield, winger and striker placement was good.
Qualifying starts next week. :)
Our defense was horrible. That's the worst I can remember seeing Touchette play (I actually checked after to see if I'd missed a injury on him). Neither he nor Bucky could do anything against their winger (perhaps I asked too much tactically for them to close down - thought I was giving them a good chance). Both looked sluggish and had difficulty tackling. Neither passed very well (Bucky's 85th minute pass to 3 opposing attacking players is one of the worst choices I've seen in a while). The center backs were equally bad. There was more then one occasion where both of them abandoned their positions. Both fumbled and bumbled. Neither tackled or passed well. All 4 defenders had an urge to run with the ball, and none of them had enough technique to hold onto it when they were tackled. A thoroughly bad defensive effort.
Midfield was much better. Nesta and Lemieux were a little slow making up their mind a few times. But there was a lot of nice play, and a large number of dangerous balls into the box. Without prior knowledge I would not have been able to pick out the contest winner - Oliveiri fit right in.
Biron struggled. His technique was not in evidence at all. Not only could he not break tackles, he mishandled numerous passes. He didn't shoot particularly well either. I guess we'll chock all of that up to form. Boissieres had a few nice chances - a little disappointed he didn't find the back of the net.
Parker did a respectable job.
Tactically there were a couple of issues. There was one Peru throw-in that was poorly covered. Cost us one goal, could have been more. It seems I asked too much of the flank backs who apparently needed to be positioned wider. Our high defensive line didn't pay many dividends - we often had a laggard, which caused some problems. But I thought midfield, winger and striker placement was good.
Qualifying starts next week. :)
Congrats on the result against Macedonia. :) Could have been much worse - their keeper did a decent job of keeping the score down.
W-Lav with his usual good poaching against a bottom-feeder. :) Might have even had a better day - he got a ton of service.
I don't really understand the 3 central midfielders in a line. I can understand 2 (quick recovery) but I'm not sure what the 3rd one is for. Can you fill me in? :)
W-Lav with his usual good poaching against a bottom-feeder. :) Might have even had a better day - he got a ton of service.
I don't really understand the 3 central midfielders in a line. I can understand 2 (quick recovery) but I'm not sure what the 3rd one is for. Can you fill me in? :)
Just sth I wanted to try, didn't like it either when I saw it in the match. It could've worked better with a stronger oponent
Great game against Australia. I added some new players to the roster, some that should've played were left out because I didn't get a response from their managers about thier skills. Reserve goalie was a problem so I put Parker on the bench for the match orders untill I found a replacement, but it sliped my mind and fell short on time last night so he stayed on the bench......Guys any ideas for the reserve U21 keeper?? Also Harvey's and Maillet's positions got screwed up somehow so they played in a bit unusual positions, but it turned out ok. Harvey was given a lot of space, too bad he didn't do more with the ball..... With this victory Canada became an unofficial champion of the world lol. It works like passing of the belt in boxing, Australia held the title for the last 8 weeks I believe.
Yeah, your midfield won you the game in the end plus you took the chances better than we did. Could have easily been 2 - 1 the other way but taking nothing away from your performance at the end of the day you got the result. Our U21 midfield is exceptionally weak which was my main concern going into the game but I had hoped that our strikers would have made up for the difference but they didn't get enough of the ball from the midfield.
Good game WTG and what really made me happy there were 3 of my players in the squad today.
Henry Monsalve
Check this keeper 20 years old
and this one
Janny Di Tulio
They not that great but if you don't have any for U-21 they are OK.
(edited)
Check this keeper 20 years old
and this one
Janny Di Tulio
They not that great but if you don't have any for U-21 they are OK.
(edited)
Thanx Goran, I was looking at Ditulio earlier, Ibn Osman looks great........
Nice match. :) Chances both ways - down to the finishing. The second Canada goal was wonderful.