Subject: [NT] Friendlies

Friendly with Hungary starts soon.....A squads. Hungary is a very good and a dangerous team so our top players are expected to suit up for this one :)

Hungary is one of those nations trying to reel Canada in (in the rankings) with their larger user base. This match may be a nice indicator of where we are at. :)

Very entertaining match. The way Broussard hit that first one, I figured we were in for a good day. Don't think it's too often W Lav gets that collection of shots and comes away empty handed.

Week in, week out, the two players who really impress me are Dehere and Madden. Both have been playing phenomenal. Unfortunately Madden kind of went to sleep in the added time today - he was a rock in regulation.

Holden was about the best player on the pitch to send off. Not much happened down that side. I'm not even sure how he managed to see enough action to get two warnings. :)

Lav...grmblfx.
I hope he has a better finishing tomorrow for my club.
What annoys me about this matches is the fact that his striker skill can't get any better anymore.
I can work on his technique and on his pace, but not on that :(

I wasn't meaning to dump on W Lav. Next time he could have a hattrick from those same shots. Just wasn't his day. Both Broussard and Manohar also had a chance they should have done better with.

Looks like he did have a pretty good league match. :)

Congratulations on a nice result against Denmark. Way to go Bruce! :D Seems to me we've scored a large part of our goals that way in the past month. With the tactics currently being used at the NT level, tackling is changing from a "nice to have" striker skill to something that might warrant training.

Dehere and Madden were again standouts for me. Dehere ran with the ball a few times, but his tackling and ball decisions were once again excellent. Madden flawless in goal, though not tested all that hard.

What a hard fought victory this was. Our Defenders were on top of their game. Even though Denamrk had better posession and more shots on goal, I feel we deserved to win this game, as we looked more dangerous and hungrier out there :)) Seca you are so right about forwards and their defending skill, it is becoming more and more imperative for them.....every manager should consider this when they train defs.....I have to slightly disagree with you on Dehere, yes he did his job in defence masterfully, but when he decides to go on one of his (pointless) runs forwards, I start shaking in my chair, and he holds the ball forever and usually looses it in the end, leaving his side vulnerable....no reason for that with a DEF order. I thought that Renda had another good game, his speed combined with divine form causes a lot of problems for the oposition, if he only had slightly better passing and playmaking skills.....

I take it U21 vs. Sweden?

Tough match. Some nervous looking players ... especially keeper ibnOsman who was pretty shaky early. Had a terrible time getting the ball out of our end. :S

I felt the winger placement was a little too aggressive. I don't mind some offsides on strikers, but I really don't like it when wingers are offside. I think the winger positioning contributed to the trouble getting the ball out of our end - not many easy outlet options. The pass to the winger was a difficult one to complete for the DEFs and CMs.

And I question a little whether a dedicated winger suits the U21s. Neither Lightfoot nor Hamedani seemed to have enough tech to get by their defender (or DM) even when they had tremendous positioning. Didn't really get a chance to see if they can complete crosses.

Anyway, good try. One never knows what you're gonna get with U21s. :)

Yeah that was terrible. Swedish throw ins killed us. You're right about the winger, that was too aggressive and I guess I asked too much out of Lightfoot and Hamedani.

Tough match against Estonia. Parise should have had a shot for ya. Not sure what he was waiting for on his little break.

I'd like to see a little more help at the back or in midfield against a team as good as Estonia. Sacrificing one of the strikers or the winger is probably worth the added assistance in our end.

I still think the winger is a bit of a detriment. ibn-Osman repeated tried to pass the winger the ball (almost all of these went out of play, all were turnovers). Not getting enough benefit to outweigh the costs.

On the plus side, what there was of our midfield looked quite strong. Watching Gjini thread those passes by four or five Estonians to find Parise, several times, was thrilling to watch, and Gusberti is nice too. On the minus side, well, there's Parise. And the hole to Gusberti's right, which was in exactly the right place for Tilk to keep coming up the side and serving crosses up to Estonia's strikers.

If our next U21 opponents watched this match, they're certain to post a winger along that side as well, and unless that hole is filled, the result will be the same or worse.

Our winger might as well have not been there at all, the amount of good he did. And the striker on that side (Leopold/Caraiman) saw even less action. It was like playing with 9 men, and that was before Bellavance got sent off...

I'm still new to this, so I don't know if I'm making any sense. But that was just painful to watch. Sure they had us outgunned, but we ought to have done better.

If our next U21 opponents watched this match ... the result will be the same or worse.

Hmmm. I just noticed the name of the tactic, and noticed that it appears identical to last week's tactic against Sweden. I'd be willing to bet that Estonia's manager based his strategy this week from watching that match...

I think these past two matches have been part of the unofficial U21 tournament. So it's likely the opposition is putting some effort into their tactics.

There is only so much one can do with the U21s. Defense is usually a problem for us, and it looks like it is again. We often end up with midfielders back there (Bellevance's training may have changed directions, but I thought he was being groomed for midfield).

More exhaustive preparations might have helped a little for this match, but certainly wouldn't have changed the outcome. Still, I'm guessing Laufer has some more defensive tactics already on the chalk board that could be used against a tough side like this one.

Sorry friends, my internet connection was down on friday night and could set the proper tactic for this game. This was not the tactic I intended to play against Estonia...... :(((

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(edited)

Not sure why you deleted that Mazo ... was a good question. Thought Sutton had a good match.

Good try against Romania. The new ME test caught me with my pants down with New Zealand - played a tactic that I don't think is all that conducive with the tweaks. Canada's tactic fit the changes alright. A -2 is a pretty good result against a team like Romania.

Congrats to Cairiman on his first NT goal. :) Parise is still looking for his. :P

Didn't really notice a lot of the changes in Canada's play. They were much more obvious for Romania.