Subject: [NT] Friendlies

oh man, this has been the worst season ever for me, another loss, this time with over 60% of the play in their end and a 2-1 shot count, lovely

nice play by the Canadian U-23's though, looked better than the sr team, just no finish at all :-/

in fairness a lot of those were from outside the box and given it was our #1 keeper playing, most of those shouldn't cause too many problems. Also the play in the half was always going to be that with the defensive nature of our tactic against the aggressive setup that you went in with. Problem was the aggressive defensive press backfired a few times when we passed straight through and had relatively easy chances to put away.

With that aside, your midfield certainly outplayed our midfield and you probably can consider yourself unlucky not to have at least scored.

Thanks for the game.

I guess you missed the slight injury of Lav?
What a pity, with him injury free the match could have been a win.
No luck this season as well.

oooh, not just that, it was supposed to be u23

got fired for the first time ever on Thursday, I'm rather distracted

man, when I took the NT job my life was going great, since then I've lost my girlfriend, my rebound girlfriend and my job, a cup final too...

at least I still have my home, and Sebastian Fichaud :)

wow, sorry to hear that. lots of people are getting laid off these days, but not a lot are getting fired. I hope that sokker is not the cause of any of these problems.

Sorry to hear that mate.
Bad days for you.
Can only get better!

Nice result against Ireland. :) Canadian tactic looked good. Ireland didn't have much luck with the referee, but were able to hang in there b/c of some lucklustre Canadian striker play (thank goodness the middies felt like scoring). Strikers did wake up a little towards the end. :D

Very nice result, very good tactic. Two thumbs up for Raskal.

very nice tactic indeed. very solid and good teamplay. also very cool that leo scored :)

cheers!
G

yeah the red cards certainly helped a little. but i am a little surprised with the result. hopefully we can pull three points from peru as well.

i will start to tweak the squad a little more this upcoming week and fill-in everyone in with the changes.

as for the middies, yes seca i wanted some help from the middle of the field and selected players accordingly. glad it paid off.

also suggestions in any form or manner are more than welcomed...whether critical or not.

just a thought...shall i continue playing our top players or would people prefer to see some younger in this mini cup tourney?

I would not be sad if you use some young striker prospect instead of Lavrynenko for the moment.
I'm still training technique for around 6 weeks so he plays with MID order for me.
Because of that, playing him as ATT in the NT is only a risk that he is injuried and misses the important tech training sessions...

I have been watching the form of Vince Lemieux. I sold him a couple of seasons ago partly due to form that was always in the dumper. And his form has continued to be wretched/poor/weak until this week when for the first time it is up to formidable! This is a great midfielder with very high skill in every area. He will be a midfield force for Canada.

I'm not very happy that you used the first team stars against a weak team like Moldova.
The result (3 injuried players) speeks for it's own.

On the other side: Lavrynenko plays better when slightly injuried than injury free, at least for me :)

Canada 1 Australia 5

That was an embarassing loss today. I dont think that it was completely deserved. Madden had a bad game and their tactic seemed well designed to defeat us.

I feel a little bad I didn't offer some insight to the coaching staff. I've had an opportuntity to play against Australia quite a bit, and could have given some potentially useful advice. Most importantly I've learned the Willis is just too good to try 4 at the back - pretty much have to use 5 in the line to try and keep him quiet.

Team was a little flat early and got into a hole they just couldn't dig themselves out of. Australia's midfield placement was superb. Their outside midfielders ruined our offensive midfielders passing lanes and made things very difficult for Iginla and Caron.

Should remember too we were without our two top strikers this match (Lavrynenko injury, Biron injury and chronic form). Manohar and Sewell are both nice, but are B-squad.

hi everyone, sorry i have been quiet but things have been a little difficult irl.

i think the lost to aussie falls completely on my shoulders as i didn't attempt to do much else other than make sure we were fielding a decent squad.

now as we are out from the mini cup i'd like to start playing some younger up and comers....is everyone ok with this? please let me know.

also if you could all update any players that would be super....i am having some problems with loading the database from time to time but i will look into more shortly.

i am welcome to any thoughts or suggestion...please send me a skmail.